Bitesize Orlando December 2023 – Issue 30

We have reached the end of another year already and 2024 is looking to be a bumper year for Orlando and further afield if you have been following Universal Studios owner Comcast’s sudden announcement much closer to these shores. More on that a little further down so let’s dive into this month’s brief Bitesize Orlando December 2023 news so you can enjoy the New Year celebrations.

Work on updating my planning guide has been paused for the past few weeks as work commitments bleed into the time I dedicate to updating website content. I have started updating my crowd calendars with 2024 details as they have been consistently some of the more popular pages on the website throughout the past year.

Already live are crowd calendars for Legoland Florida, Seaworld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa. I will be getting Disney and Universal Parks pages updated throughout January before turning my attention once again to updating my planning guide.

At Disney World’s busiest time of the year, it’s perhaps no surprise that Genie+ has set another record for daily pricing just ahead of Christmas, with a new peak of $39 per person. The previous high, set a couple of months ago, was $35.

As is usual for January in Disney and other parks in Orlando, some water-based attractions are taken out of service for their annual maintenance and 2024 is no different.

Starting from the 8th of January Kali River Rapids will be closed for refurbishment. There is currently no reopening date set but 2023’s refurbishment went on until late February.

Also closing (briefly) for a refurbishment is Frozen Ever After in EPCOT which will be down for one day on the 24th of January. Although it’s expected to reopen on the 25th make sure you plan around these dates if you are set on riding one of EPCOT’s most popular attractions.

Since Disney World reopened from its enforced COVID closure in July 2020 there has been a steady stream of attractions, experiences and restaurants being brought back online and over the past year we have seen Disney World return somewhat back to the norm that we remember before COVID rolled through. That is aside from 2 stubborn closures that have refused to go away.

Now, we know the fate of the long-shuttered Animation Courtyard Theatre in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Work has been going on feverishly behind the scenes to bring this much-loved classic stage show back to life in new and more imaginative ways that will engage another generation of visitors.

‘Voyage Of The Little Mermaid’ opened at what was then Disney MGM Studios way back in 1992 running until the enforced months-long COVID closure in mid-March 2020. The show featured live actors, physical sets and puppets with cutting-edge early 1990s technology (lasers).

Details on the reimagined show are scarce but ‘The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure‘ will bring “stunning new set pieces with cutting edge technology and a bold new design that captures Ariel’s imagination and emotions through her unique view of the world around her”

The new show is set to open in the Animation Courtyard Theatre in the autumn of 2024.

The biggest and most surprising news coming out of Universal this month is the fact they are actively looking at the feasibility of building a full-size Universal Studios in the UK.

Alicia Stella of the Orlando Park Stop blog broke the story with an article claiming that Universal owner Comcast had purchased land near Bedford and was looking at building a UK Universal Studios.

A story like this would usually get filed under rumours and speculation, but Comcast made a public statement backing up Alicia’s claim and has since written to residents and launched a website where people can get more information.

In August 2023 Comcast acquired a UK development and construction company called Cloud Wing UK. Alicia dug into their SEC financial filings and found Comcast had spent $271 million “associated with the acquisition of land for potential theme park expansion opportunities”.

At the time it wasn’t noted what that money was spent on but now Comcast has confirmed that their acquisition of Cloud Wing UK has also given them a 240-acre tract of land, a former brickworks site known as the Kempston Hardwick New Settlement in recent years and through various planning proposals to develop the former brickwork site. Comcast has since officially announced that they have purchased 480 acres of land in total, more than enough for a theme park and associated facilities such as hotels and an entertainment district.

Bedford may seem an odd choice for a theme park but the site has good transport infrastructure, good access to Luton airport for international visitors and around half the population of the UK live within a 2-hour drive. The site was also earmarked by another prominent development that has been beset with issues and delays, the ill-fated London Resort had eyed up the potential of this site before settling on what is now a protected parcel of land in Swanscombe on the River Thames. That project is currently undergoing review after withdrawing original plans and running up debts reported to be in hundreds of millions of pounds before entering into a form of insolvency agreement with creditors.

Completely unrelated to Universal Studios, a separate application is underway for a 1.5 million square feet production studio space known as Home Of Production Bedfordshire (HOP Studios), which will include soundstages, a backlot area, offices and on-site accommodation. There could be more synergy for Universal than Comcast knew before they set their plan in motion.

You can keep up to date with all news regarding Comcast’s plan for a UK Universal Studios on the official website, https://universalukproject.co.uk/. The website has all the official information released by Universal Destinations & Experiences as they look into the feasibility of bringing Universal Studios to Europe.

“We recently acquired land in Bedford and are at the early stages of exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort at this site. It will be many months before we are ready to make a decision to proceed and we look forward to engaging with all relevant stakeholders and the local community.”

A Comcast spokesperson on the growing interest around the company’s purchase of nearly 500 acres of land in Bedfordshire

Before we go getting all giddy with excitement and start thinking about what a UK Universal Studios would include (although there are plenty of rumours circulating; it may resemble more Universal Studios Beijing than Orlando), please remember, just as they say on the website, this is currently only in the feasibility stage. Absolutely nothing is guaranteed and IF they decide to go ahead with this project a full planning application will need to be drawn up and granted before construction can even begin which is years away. They also have their budget tied up constructing their largest park to date, Epic Universe in Orlando which is scheduled to open in the Summer of 2025.

Moving on from our shores and back to Orlando, there is a rumour circulating that the popular Universal Legacy Store could close soon to be converted into a preview centre for Universal’s brand new Orlando theme park, Epic Universe.

The Legacy store has been popular since it opened in 2021 due to its use of props from Universal movies and now defunct Universal Studios attractions such as Jaws. The ornate displays make the shop appear more like a museum than a merchandise location.

Lending credence to the rumour is the fact that recently most of the showpieces that made this store special have been removed giving the Legacy store much more of a generic look and will no doubt reduce the amount of people going through the doors. The store also sits on a prime site at the front and centre of Universal’s Citywalk, right in the middle of Universal Studios and Islands Of Adventure. Pretty much everyone heading to the parks walks by the Legacy store at some point in the day.

Only time will tell if this rumour comes true but the removal of setpiece displays that made this store a delight to wander around is certainly an amusing choice if they don’t have further plans for this prime bit of Citywalk real estate.

Not content with adding yet another roller coaster to its roster of attractions in the main Seaworld Orlando Adventure Park, Seaworld announced a new addition to its water park, Aquatica, earlier this month. Plus, they are looking towards the future with another announcement set to open in 2025 and beyond.

Seaworld has announced that Aquatica will be opening Florida’s most immersive waterslide in Spring 2024 with the opening of Tassie’s Underwater Twist, a 129-foot-long slide with a fully enclosed Super Bowl finale.

Manufactured by WhiteWater West, one of the leading water park manufacturers in the world, Tassie’s Underwater Twist will take riders through a recreation of Australia’s Shark Bay seagrass meadows.

Once riders enter the bowl (in 2-person double inner tubes), they will be surrounded by colourful schools of fish and seagrass meadows thanks to synchronised video projections and a musical score.

Riders under 48 inches high will be required to wear a lifejacket to ride Tassie’s Unde Water Twist. The maximum depth of the water you will exit the bowl into will be just over 1 meter at 3 feet 6 inches (1.07m).

After years of rumours coupled with financial ups and downs, Seaworld is currently riding a crest of financial freedom celebrating one of its best operating quarters in history at Seaworld Orlando.

Looking to capitalise on that and hopefully get visitors to stay in Seaworld and Aquatica for longer Seaworld has filed plans with the Orange County Development Review Committee for a brand new 15-storey 504-bed hotel on a 20-acre almost square plot of under-utilised land behind Seaworld’s main thrill coasters, Mako and Kraken and the very back of the park.

Codenamed Project Starboard, the hotel will use up around 14-acres leaving another 6 for future expansion of the accommodation. Whether this could be the hotel that new Seaworld CEO Mark Swanson alluded to on an investors call earlier this year remains to be seen. The area is currently used for back-of-house parking as well as a few support buildings that would need to be relocated elsewhere on the property before construction could begin. Should the project get approval, looking at the plans above hotel guests would be able to enter and exit Seaworld via a new path next to the Nautilus Theatre.

Due to the infrastructure work that would be needed, not to mention the amount of time it would take to complete the groundwork and construction of this ambitious project, we could actually see another project open before Project Starboard! Theme park news website Behind The Thrills has also dug up a proposal for what could become a second far smaller onsite hotel that could have the potential to open by 2025 under the codename Project Canopy. This hotel would sit on a 1-acre plot of undeveloped land next door to Discovery Cove. There have been no official plans submitted as yet for this site.

Up until now Seaworld has partnered with some local hotel providers but has stayed clear of owning their accommodation. As they look to capitalise on visitor spend and truly turn Seaworld Orlando Resort into a multi-day offering competing with Universal and Disney they are certainly making the right steps by opening up their range of accommodations.

That’s it for this brief but news-packed Bitesize Orlando update. Thank you for staying with me throughout 2023 and onwards into 2024 and beyond as I build out the UK’s biggest online resource for Orlando holiday planning.

I hope you all have a fantastic new year and look forward to seeing you in 2024.