A Second Starway?

[techmaniac16]

I'm putting this topic under the general section because it applies to both levels of the park.

I predict that somewhere before Potter opens, USH will consider building a starway to connect Despicable Me to the main starway. Let's face it, it's getting tiring having to walk through Special Effects and Springfield just to get to the Lower Lot or Despicable Me . It would also relieve the congestion that the park experiences. What do you guys think? 

 

[Red Carpet]

If they were to have it open before Potter, I would think that construction would have already started on it.

 

[William]

That could potentially become a crowd flow nightmare, and as mentioned above, we would've seen work being done by now had that been their plan. They've purposely set Springfield up so that you have to walk through it in order to gain access to the Studio Tour and Lower Lot.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Exactly, this is not a project that would randomly pop up last minute. I think having one Starway is good enough, the park isn't that massive or takes that much effort to walk from Despicable Me to the star way entrance, it takes like....3 minutes. And plus, Universal wants you to walk past all the enticing restaurants and shops.

 

[KevyB]

I suggested this exact thing last year! Actually, it could improve flow. Early in the day they could ONLY allow access to the Lower Lot via the Despicable Me StarWay and access up could be limited to the Springfield StarWay. This creates more of a circular flow to the park. As crowds die down, both can revert to doing double duty.

 

[Allen The Actor]

It would be terribly impractical and a waste of money. They WANT people to walk through the main artery of the park, which will be the crosswalk between Studio Tour, Despicable Me, Lower Lot, and Potter.

 

[techmaniac16]

Yeah I get they want people to walk through Springfield, but with the Potter crowds coming, it would be logical to build a second starway to alleviate crowds. For me to go from DM to Transformers would be longer than it has to be. 

It's like with Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. They want people to walk through Main Street, but all the other lands are connected. People don't need to head back down to Main Street to go from Fantasyland to Tommrowland. Universal Plaza is like Main Street; you have to pass it to get to the other "lands."

 

[Allen The Actor]

Disneyland and Magic Kingdom are massive and packed, and guests walk everywhere. I'm sorry, but if you think walking from Despicable Me to the Lower Lot Starway entrance (which is literally a 2 minute walk) is a hassle and hard, that's unfortunate....


Even crowded, it's still not hard to get to it....another starway would be a massive and expensive undertaking with little pay off. Not necessary.

 

[Miss Betty Juice]

I'm actually in favour of another Starway. I hate going all the way through the plazas to get there through the crowds.

I politely agree to disagree.

 

[William]

Unless I'm mistaken, they could potentially place it where the lookout spot near SSFL is. I'm not sure how the logistics of that would work, however.

The main problem is that they want guests to have to pass Hogsmeade and Springfield in order to access the rest of the park. Those two new lands are going to play a pivotal role in the park's future.

 

[KevyB]

Unless I'm mistaken, they could potentially place it where the lookout spot near SSFL is. I'm not sure how the logistics of that would work, however.

The main problem is that they want guests to have to pass Hogsmeade and Springfield in order to access the rest of the park. Those two new lands are going to play a pivotal role in the park's future.

They can pass through everything if the SSFL StarWay is Down-Only and the Springfield StarWay is Up-Only. In fact, two StarWays in this fashion ensure people pass by all THREE new lands, including SSFL. With one StarWay, people could never head over to the Despicable Me area or to the Paris area, both of which have lots of shopping. Why focus on just Hogsmeade and Springfield??

But the MAIN reason I would like a StarWay here is I'd actually like to see the other one disappear. There's a lot of concrete between Springfield proper and that first escalator. They could continue that pad over to The Simpsons Ride and fill in the little bit from here to the Special Effects Stage and they'd have enough room for a decent-sized ride building! The Stage is on the Evolution Plan as a "Future Attraction" so this area could be one huge Simpsons ride or two medium-sized ones! This land NEEDS more than one ride!!!

 

[techmaniac16]

Here is what i think the starway would look like connecting the lookout area of SSFL to the main starway.

 

[USHInsider]

^Problem with that. It's a saftey Hazard. The path you're recomending is too long and too shallow to reasonably place an escalator plus in order to make it ffeasable you would have to re route the road leading into the backlot. and the road where Fire and Safety is located. 

 

[Tyler Crouch]

What I'm concerned about is when they start to increase the size of the Lower Lot. If they put Diagon or Nintnedo down there, imagine the line for the poor handicapped folks. A second StarWay may have to happen eventually. It won't be anytime soon though.

 

[deadbydawn]

It would be terribly impractical and a waste of money. They WANT people to walk through the main artery of the park, which will be the crosswalk between Studio Tour, Despicable Me, Lower Lot, and Potter.

I disagree. It would be the opposite of impractical. Universal could greatly benefit from a second Starway. Any way to disperse crowds as much as possible is a good thing. The park is about to become incredibly crowded, and as more offerings are added it's only going to get worse. Let's keep the size of the park in perspective and remember that it hit capacity when Fast & Furious opened last year.

We know that work is being done on the Lower Lot. Anything added down there is obviously going to increase crowding. I don't think that one entry point is going to be efficient enough to handle the amount of people. 

 

[Alexshow.]

From IU, they have just gotten reports that the Starway will be expanding.


http://insideuniversal.net/2016/10/universal-to-expand-the-starway-with-a-fourth-escalator-mummy-treats-to-close/

 

[raffman]

I just got news of the star way expansion today they are adding two rows to the right of the existing structure according to my source