New theme park: Universal Studios… Bedford!

Diddums said:
It's going to be a massive boost to the economy, I'm all for it :cool:
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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.
 
jpaul said:
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.
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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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Flibster said:
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.
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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.
 
Rifte said:
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.
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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.).
 
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Nitefly said:
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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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 :)
 
Nitefly said:
@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 :)
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Cheers I will take a note of these......we can look at these for 2027 (our year off from the US).
 
Planning application documents are now available. There's a lot in there. A lot of it is very dull.

www.gov.uk

Request for planning permission: Entertainment Resort Complex, Bedford

Documents relating to the request for planning permission for an Entertainment Resort Complex and associated development in Bedford.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk


Couple of interesting bits from a quick flick through:

Eurostar looks to be getting a direct to Bedford service. :eek:

Expansion to Wixams railway station and a shuttle bus from the train station to the park.

Maximum height of structures, such as a rollercoaster is 115m above ground level. Ooooh.. tall coaster? :D

Minimum of 500 hotel rooms. 100 coach parking spaces, 7106 car parking spaces.

Dining and entertainment venues for ticketed and non ticketed visitors. So something like Disney Springs then?

Estimated visitors: Quiet day - ~10k. Average day - ~23k. Busy day - ~40k. Peak - ~55k people

Opening hours. 9am - 9pm on normal days. Will go later on seasonal events, such as Halloween Horror Nights, Christmas, New Years Eve, Chinese New Year, 5th November, Diwali and other special events including private events.

No regular fireworks displays as part of day to day operation. No more than 10 per year. At least 5 will be around Chinese New Year, 5th November, Diwali and New Years Eve. Does suggest drone swarm displays though.
 
SDK^ said:
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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Check out Port Aventura in Salou. Great theme park.
 
Flibster said:
Planning application documents are now available. There's a lot in there. A lot of it is very dull.

www.gov.uk

Request for planning permission: Entertainment Resort Complex, Bedford

Documents relating to the request for planning permission for an Entertainment Resort Complex and associated development in Bedford.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk


Couple of interesting bits from a quick flick through:

Eurostar looks to be getting a direct to Bedford service. :eek:
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How will this work given the problems Eurostar trains have going to London? Just slow down from ashford (is it?) all the way to bedford I assume, ie no high speed service?
Flibster said:
Expansion to Wixams railway station and a shuttle bus from the train station to the park.

Maximum height of structures, such as a rollercoaster is 115m above ground level. Ooooh.. tall coaster? :D

Minimum of 500 hotel rooms. 100 coach parking spaces, 7106 car parking spaces.

Dining and entertainment venues for ticketed and non ticketed visitors. So something like Disney Springs then?

Estimated visitors: Quiet day - ~10k. Average day - ~23k. Busy day - ~40k. Peak - ~55k people

Opening hours. 9am - 9pm on normal days. Will go later on seasonal events, such as Halloween Horror Nights, Christmas, New Years Eve, Chinese New Year, 5th November, Diwali and other special events including private events.
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Overall I'm supportive of the park and it'll be great for the economy of both the local area and wider country. But these sound like it will be an utter nightmare for the locals. 9PM finish on normal days? AT shuts at what is it 6PM normally? I know a lot of locals were supportive of the application but I doubt they were aware of half of these things before proper the planning application was done.
 
Hedge said:
Check out Port Aventura in Salou. Great theme park.
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Excellent park, better than anything over here.

I've just got back from Europa-Park and it's phenomenal (Voltron is probably the best coaster I've been on), far better than Disneyland Paris in my view and Porta Ventura. Next up I need to do Efteling and Phantasialand.
 
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