New theme park: Universal Studios… Bedford!

It's going to be a massive boost to the economy, I'm all for it :cool:

What we need to boost the economy is a steelworks theme park and a couple of coal mine theme parks. Then some manufacturing theme parks.

And a room in the tower (with viewing hours) for such as Ed Miliband and others pushing energy costs so high as to make them unaffordable and make UK uncooperative.
 
Universal need to break-out what the additional foreign tourist income will represent to economy, or conversely Brits who will reduce foreign expenditure,
otherwise the economic benefit is just re-distribution of wealth within UK.

With todays update on obesity stats - using wealth to finance leisure centres would be preferred.
 
Universal need to break-out what the additional foreign tourist income will represent to economy, or conversely Brits who will reduce foreign expenditure,
otherwise the economic benefit is just re-distribution of wealth within UK.

With todays update on obesity stats - using wealth to finance leisure centres would be preferred.
Theses things take a full day's walking to get around.
Good for the body
 
My son can't wait for this to open - He's been following the developments for a year or so.

We have done all of the theme parks in Florida a few times. We had a Merlin pass last year so hit those parks 4-5x each, Blackpool was pretty good as is Flamingo Land too.
We are also doing a Europe theme park road trip in August to visit Plopsaland, Phantasialand, Europa-Park and Parc Asterix.

Yep - he's theme park obsessed !
 
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Yeah, we're doing disney world next month and we are fully expecting to do a minimum of 20'000 steps per day. For 2 weeks.
We go to Orlando for 6 to 7 weeks every couple of years.(2026 is our next planned trip).

We hit all the theme parks up multiple times.

My galaxy watch and my wife's apple watch calculate that we walk approximately 12 to 14km on every day we hit a park up.

Great exercise in the heat.
 
We go to Orlando for 6 to 7 weeks every couple of years.(2026 is our next planned trip).

We hit all the theme parks up multiple times.

My galaxy watch and my wife's apple watch calculate that we walk approximately 12 to 14km on every day we hit a park up.

Great exercise in the heat.

Wow 6-7 weeks! That is… a lot!

If you fancy mixing it up and hitting more coasters, have a look at a Ohio / Pennsylvania trip / Easy Coast trip (Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kennywood, Hersheypark, Six Flags Great Adventure etc.).
 
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Wow 6-7 weeks! That is… a lot!

If you fancy mixing it up and hitting more coasters, have a look at a Ohio / Pennsylvania trip / Easy Coast trip (Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kennywood, Hersheypark, Six Flags Great Adventure etc.).

My wife would love to mix it up a bit, however with Epic Universe opening later this year , zero chance of that next year.....we will exhaust that park during our time there.

We normally go to Orlando because:

a)We usually do a RC caribbean cruise from either Miami or Canaveral for 7 days before we start the vacation. We are booked for Star of the Seas next April.
b)We know the area very well, so we explore a lot outside of the usual theme parks
c)The kids love having pool days in the Airbnb we rent when we are there.

We are huge theme park nuts, and we were Merlin annual pass holders when we lived back home. However out in India (where my business is based at the moment) the only reputable theme parks around here are either in Dubai, Singapore, or Hong Kong. The Universal in Singapore is lackluster compared to the Orlando offering......however, Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is good.

Merlin is going to have to up their game. I was back home last year for a couple of weeks and Alton Towers felt dated and dirty.

We were there for the opening of Hyperia at Thorpe Park, however, it broke down before we could get a chance on it.

Maybe next time.
 
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@Rifte if you haven’t been yet I’d very much recommend going to Europa-Park and Phantasialand. Those are probably the best of the European resorts and if you stay in the hotels you can have a really nice time of it.

I’d recommend the Charles Lindbergh hotel for Phantasialand and Bell Rock for Europa :)
 
@Rifte if you haven’t been yet I’d very much recommend going to Europa-Park and Phantasialand. Those are probably the best of the European resorts and if you stay in the hotels you can have a really nice time of it.

I’d recommend the Charles Lindbergh hotel for Phantasialand and Bell Rock for Europa :)
Cheers I will take a note of these......we can look at these for 2027 (our year off from the US).
 
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