New details are emerging about the rumored new third gate theme park at Universal Orlando Resort and it's looking to be quite different from other Universal parks. Some leaked documents have revealed more about the upcoming park including its name, Fantastic Worlds, and its physical layout, which will apparently look more like a Disney park than anything Universal has designed before, utilizing the classic hub and spoke design.
According to multiple leaked images obtained by Orlando Park Stop, the new Fantastic Worlds park will use a hub and spoke design similar to Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom, where a central plaza area will lead off into different themed worlds in multiple directions. Most of Universal's more recent theme parks use a circular design that simply has the guests walk through each themed area one after the other while circling back to the park entrance.
While Disney doesn't use the hub and spoke design in all its parks, it's the layout that is most associated with the Disney experience. Standing at the hub of Disneyland you can go off in any direction and find an entirely different world. It seems Universal will borrow this method for what is apparently going to be one of the biggest theme parks the company has ever built.
As far as what those different themed lands will be. Several of them have been previously rumored. Nintendo and Universal entered into an agreement several years ago to bring Nintendo's great properties like Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda, into the parks, and while the initial announcement led us to expect that a new land would be added to the existing Universal Orlando, it now appears that the land will be a major part of this new park.
New areas dedicated to Harry Potter (or possibly Fantastic Beasts) and Jurassic Park are also expected. However, one trademark note on the leaked images also seems to indicate that Universal's classic monsters, the ones that were meant to launch the Dark Universe film franchise, might also begetting their own land. Perhaps the Dark Universe will have more success in the theme parks.
The other major change that Fantastic Worlds will apparently have in store is a level of theming that we rarely see from Universal. Everything from the attractions to the restaurants to the bathrooms will reinforce each area's theme. It seems the lessons Universal learned with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter are being carried over to this entire park.
It appears that as part of the hub and spoke design, each land in the park will have it's own special entrance that will block the land from view while in the hub, only allowing it to be seen once you enter. In the case of the Nintendo themed world, that entrance will apparently be a Super Mario Bros. green warp pipe.
Everything we hear about this new park makes it sound all the more exciting. The only down side is that since it has yet to be officially announced, we're still years away from the new park.
