Personally? Just seems needlessly complicated. Plus I think there’s no reason you can’t go from land to land and still have the same walled-off effect
Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread
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I’m really divided on this one. On one hand, I really love the way Diagon Alley and SNW were handled, and I really want to see what that could be like in a full scale park. On the other hand, it could cause major crowding issues if the entrances/exits aren’t done correctly or the lands are super popular (see SWGE).
But I don’t think that this is what TPU meant by a layout unlike any other theme park in the world. It seems too obvious. Plus, it’s sort of been done before in USF.
But I don’t think that this is what TPU meant by a layout unlike any other theme park in the world. It seems too obvious. Plus, it’s sort of been done before in USF.
- Jul 27, 2015
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Narratively, I think it works. Moreso, it's it's the structure things are transitioning to. Diagon, SNW, Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge, even Pandora (to a lesser extent) all have "one" entrance. There's no loop through them. It's in and out.
The Magic Kingdom had less connections between lands when it first opened, forcing you to go back to hub depending on where you wanted to go next. Over the following decades more connections were made (and recently the hub dramatically expanded,) so they found it needed more traffic flow options over time... But then again, this is the most popular park in the world that features a parade and nighttime show in the center, so maybe it could work for a different park I guess.
There were some connections, but they’ve added twice as many more since opening to help solve bottlenecks (something they’re still working on fixing at Disneyland).
I would kill to see what Universal could do with a Wonka land.
Thinking about it in regards to logistics, completely isolated lands (with reasonable expansions pads) combined with the hotel idea in each land essentially would help mitigate some issues with the hub crowding if they did it that way. Because you would now have 5 park entrances and exits, with every section if there is only 5 lands having two ways to get in and out. Additionally, you now have multiple hotels with park view rooms that you can sell at a premium, park access, have the park and the hotel surrounded by Universal Citywalk 2.0 so everything is literally a bubble with the park in the middle. However, there are issues would have to be fixed.
The issue of parade and night time show. If these all occur in the hub, again it would still have to be able to hold the largest amount of people compared to the other areas if they planned to make this huge events like Disney.
Starting with night time firework/water/lagoon shows, if they did not want people just crowding the hub, they could do smaller scale night time shows/parades in each land, or a completely isolated yet limited venue like DHS has for Fantasmic. Another possibility if they did have small ones within the land, they could also have the big night time spectacular with multiple variations different days of the weeks and specially made ones for holidays outside the park after within Citywalk 2.0 area. It gets people to stop at Citywalk 2.o on their way out, gets hotel guests to Ctywalk 2.0 to see a night time show, it could bring people from the outside into Citywalk 2.0 for the night. Add in proximity to the convention center, they could make Citywalk 2.0 the place to be compared to I-drive with having some sort of large scale "free" entertainment (people have to pay to park so still kinda not free). It also helps reduce the crowding in the evening as the guests would still have the 5 exits that all lead to City Walk 2.0 from hotels and the main entrance. Another issue with not having it the room for large scale night time events within the hub of the park, it limits them the ability to do things like Mardi Gras.
Parades would be another issue. Parades are horrible news for parks with isolated lands with limited entrances/exits to get to other areas as it effects the logistics and the hub would still have to find a way to support a large number of people.I can't tell you how many times I've been at Disneyland trying to get around during the parade and a good amount of the routes I wanted to take are cut off. This is something Universal would really have to consider. Of course there are ways around it, such as possibly using underground corridors or above ground bridges solely for guest movement, creating a paths solely just for parade watching that allow guests to move around easily, or even changing the parade from being ground based to water/air. (essentially creating a large scale fenced moat around the hub which is used for a water parade and a night time parade using drones and floats in the water was well). As long as land pathways remain clear people would get around going through the middle of the hub.
The issue of parade and night time show. If these all occur in the hub, again it would still have to be able to hold the largest amount of people compared to the other areas if they planned to make this huge events like Disney.
Starting with night time firework/water/lagoon shows, if they did not want people just crowding the hub, they could do smaller scale night time shows/parades in each land, or a completely isolated yet limited venue like DHS has for Fantasmic. Another possibility if they did have small ones within the land, they could also have the big night time spectacular with multiple variations different days of the weeks and specially made ones for holidays outside the park after within Citywalk 2.0 area. It gets people to stop at Citywalk 2.o on their way out, gets hotel guests to Ctywalk 2.0 to see a night time show, it could bring people from the outside into Citywalk 2.0 for the night. Add in proximity to the convention center, they could make Citywalk 2.0 the place to be compared to I-drive with having some sort of large scale "free" entertainment (people have to pay to park so still kinda not free). It also helps reduce the crowding in the evening as the guests would still have the 5 exits that all lead to City Walk 2.0 from hotels and the main entrance. Another issue with not having it the room for large scale night time events within the hub of the park, it limits them the ability to do things like Mardi Gras.
Parades would be another issue. Parades are horrible news for parks with isolated lands with limited entrances/exits to get to other areas as it effects the logistics and the hub would still have to find a way to support a large number of people.I can't tell you how many times I've been at Disneyland trying to get around during the parade and a good amount of the routes I wanted to take are cut off. This is something Universal would really have to consider. Of course there are ways around it, such as possibly using underground corridors or above ground bridges solely for guest movement, creating a paths solely just for parade watching that allow guests to move around easily, or even changing the parade from being ground based to water/air. (essentially creating a large scale fenced moat around the hub which is used for a water parade and a night time parade using drones and floats in the water was well). As long as land pathways remain clear people would get around going through the middle of the hub.
Toothsome's came from a Wonka pitch from about 8 years ago. So I don't think we'll see Wonka.
- Jun 7, 2016
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Thanks for mentioning this. I had figured this was the case for a while but never seen anybody “confirm” it.
Although now I’m sad we will never get the Wonka boat ride
- Mar 1, 2017
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My dream at the moment is for universal to just tell us how many parks they are planning to build, because it completely changes the calculus of what they can do given the limits of the land they own. If they are just doing one large dry park then the idea from @Disneyhead of an entrance hotel and 4 themed hotels could be great. If they instead want 2 dry parks, then the parks probably have to be smaller and narrower, and the hotel situation might be limited to a citywalk hotel and 1-2 themed hotels for each park. I find it so so hard to even conceptualize ideas of how they could do things when the question of how many parks they are fitting in totally changes things.
Also FWIW, I think it is good to have connections between lands without forcing everyone into the hub. That being said, they should certainly put a lot more effort into creating facades and natural cover for those places so that immersion between lands is preserved as much as possible. There is no reason they couldn't have Diagon style entrances to a land coming from other lands as well as the hub.
Also FWIW, I think it is good to have connections between lands without forcing everyone into the hub. That being said, they should certainly put a lot more effort into creating facades and natural cover for those places so that immersion between lands is preserved as much as possible. There is no reason they couldn't have Diagon style entrances to a land coming from other lands as well as the hub.
They are planning 2 dry parks. But the 2nd one is years away from starting construction.
- Mar 1, 2017
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Can we then assume that they will be leaving around 100 or more acres of land adjacent to the citywalk available for that future park and hotels?
- Jul 27, 2015
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Here's how I see a "Petal" park layout working. Like I mentioned, it's a modified hub and spoke. Difference is the traditional hub and spoke features "straight" layouts from the hub (weenie in the back with little deviation, the petal allows constant "forward" movement without much need to backtrack.
The center of each area (including the hub) can stores, rides, restaurants, landscaping, whatever.
The center of each area (including the hub) can stores, rides, restaurants, landscaping, whatever.
- Mar 6, 2018
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How many billion is this park gonna be budgeted for? Looks like 3 bill to me
- Aug 8, 2018
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