Universal reveals the lands for its new Kids Resort

This looks to be a much bigger park than I originally anticipated. I had expected something along the lines of Peppa Pig with maybe a handful of flat rides and maybe 1 or 2 "major" attractions, but this looks to be double that with an attraction and IP lineup that would rival what you find at most Legoland parks. This has me pretty intrigued, though I think they could probably use at least 2 or 3 indoor attractions - you'd think they would learn from the issues that Epic continues to face.

I think this park has been in development for longer than EU has been open, but I agree with Russell. The name of the Minions Rapids is pretty bad. Other than that, it does seem generic and I wonder if it's good enough to fill a whole hotel of guests.

I feel much less confident in this expansion than in Kabletown's other efforts in Orlando, Great Britain and Las Vegas. Folks going to Universal Parks have come to expect a premium experience and I don't think a standard family amusement park of play areas and lightly themed off the shelf rides is going to meet those expectations. Whether or not we see another UKR may come down to perceived value of admission and hotel pricing.

If I could be 8 years old again, I'd be begging to go here! This is considerably more than I imagined it would be. A lot of kids are going to create amazing memories.

Looks fun.

I was hoping this would be Universal's answer to a Legoland style park, but the concept art makes it look a bit more like their version of Sesame Place. It looks to be primarily stock model attractions dressed up with family friendly IP from Universal's catalog rather than the collection of unique, smaller scale interactive experiences I was hoping the park would host. I'm sure the park will still be popular for families with elementary age children, but I'm not sure this is enough to warrant a hotel for a multi-day experience.

I went by it in July. The hotel was pretty well topped out and it has a massive parking lot. It’s hard to judge from the side road how much room the actual park takes up. You could see a few show buildings but everything looked recessed to the back part of their land.

Since I’ll be going with nieces, I’m hoping the park has churros. I would almost buy a season pass for that. Ha!

So I looked back at the original concept art, and there seems to be a huge show building by Bikini Bottom and Puss in Boots. If there won't be any indoor rides, what's going there?

Looks cute albeit small and for kids. If they do a Halloween event, we'd take kids.

This looks to be a great model for staycations. Lots of splash pads and playgrounds. I know every resort does it, but I think it would benefit from a slide tower, lazy river, and mini golf. If they nail the family vibe with good meet and greets and greets, that might move the needle for most families. It’s like the Nickelodeon hotel on steroids.

I agree that an indoor theatre ride would be massive for this. Especially with rotating shows. This place is such a good fit for Shrek 4d and all the iterations of the minions/jimmy neutron/hannah barbera ride.

The adult version of this would be horrors unleashed. But imagine if they expanded that into a resort and you could stay in different manors. They could have cruise style game shows, escape rooms, karaoke, different acts, and bars. The main attraction would be a meow wolf style instillation, but make it universal IP.

A hogwarts version of this would print money.

The location will help and hinder it:

First, the heat. The Dallas area is much worse than Orlando with extremely oppressive heat for many days in the summer. The concrete and asphalt everywhere, humidity, and lack of shade is downright dangerous. If someone not familiar to this location arrives in the summer, it is like being in an oven.

Second, and on the other hand, there are tons of people with families in this area that love to go to things like this. I would say that they will eat this up. Just a nice walking trail in this area is full up with people. The Texas State fair is wall to wall people, almost like nothing you can imagine, and with prices through the roof. Further, the locals used to flock to Six Flags, but due to the neglect of the park, it has fallen way back with families.

I predict this park will print money and be more successful than anticipated, but the heat will be an issue.

And they're opening this in which Walmart parking lot?

FWIW, I have been reading some stories about this park and the details that have been released this week. I've seen a couple of trustworthy sources report that the scope of this park is being strictly dictated by local officials, and that when Universal signed the development deal to build this park, they would specifically NOT target teens/adults (target audience was specifically identified as ages 3-9), NOT have fireworks, NO tall buildings (with a single hotel limited to 4-5 stories), NO tall coasters (capped at 40-50'), NO late night hours, and NO dark rides. It seems really crazy that Universal would agree to these terms, but perhaps their thinking is that if this park is successful, local officials will eventually change their tune and allow for further expansion. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that local officials would specifically and deliberately limit the potential of a park like this if they're choosing to do business with a global brand like Universal. However, it sounds like that the folks that signed off on this want this park to be their own personal playground, and specifically NOT a tourist destination.

I think a lot of the demands make some sense- the local officials want Universal Kids Resort to be a destination, but not too much of a destination or noise issue. However, the restriction on dark rides makes no sense at all.

What is funny is there is a pretty pricey neighborhood directly south of the park. Development in Frisco is gradually growing north on the tollway that passes by the park. The land the park is on was the northernmost area that hasn’t been developed yet. I definitely can understand the agreements based on noise and fireworks. It will be interesting to see how the suburban growth develops around the park going forward.

There is a reason Jerry Jones had to build his colossus in Arlington…

"the local officials want Universal Kids Resort to be a destination, but not too much of a destination or noise issue."

See, that's the thing, because everything I've read seems to indicate that local officials DO NOT want this to be a destination park at all. They want it to be a "locals only" park, which would explain the rationale for not wanting dark rides and the emphasis on playgrounds in the design. While I disagree with AJ and feel that what Universal has released thus far makes this look and feel more on the scale of a Legoland park (though I do kind of see the comparison to Sesame Place), it sounds like the local decision makers were expecting this park to be more like a glorified family fun/rec center and not an actual theme park.

I thought this blind NIMBY-ism was reserved for just a handful of small, privileged communities around the country (we have quite a few in my neck of the woods around Washington, DC), but it just seems strange to me to court a major brand like Universal and then shackle them simply for the sake of benefitting your local community instead of opening the doors of your neighborhood to the world.

That is weird, I will admit. Unless Universal is planning on opening many more of these if this one becomes successful.

Remember DisneyQuest? And Disney's America? Failed attempts at bringing smaller-scale Disney across the nation? How do we know if this (and Horror Unleashed) is going to be more successful than those?

Frisco was nothing more than fields a few years back, and is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. They wanted things like this not so long ago. One of the largest kid’s sports complexes, the Cowboy’s training facility, major league soccer. The void, or whatever it was called, that Disney had a part in was in Frisco. I guess now they are wanting to pull back a bit? Seems like Universal didn’t let some counselors wet their beaks a little to quote the Godfather Part Two.