I'd propose three options for SEAS in Williamsburg if they want to do this:
1 - As
@Jonesta6 said, build it WCUSA and shuttle people over. The downside I see here is it makes it harder to do ERT or LRT for resort guests at BGW. Running shuttles that far all day is rather expensive. Additionally the routes are either 190 -> 60 or 190 -> 64; so if they wanted to avoid any traffic it would take building their own restricted access road. The reason why WDW/UO's shuttle systems work so well is they aren't regular public roads they are on. (And before people bring up Epic Universe, Universal is looking at making a private road and train system to take people back and forth). This would likely end up the most expensive option.
2 - Build in the Scotland overflow lot. Now with this plan you can do something really nice because you got a ton of land space. You down't have to make a taller building. Now I know everyone gives push back at the expense, but keep in mind the alternatives here, but they could turn Bavaria lot into a 3 story parking garage (and my dream with this would be covering the top with solar panels). But anyways, with this pan you can put a hotel, a restaurant to two, give some entertainment options, resort exclusive pool/lazy river/tube complex. Think something like UO's Cabana Bay resort. A cool option they could do here is a foot bridge over 60, to the England lot, to the space by COS; this is less than a 1/2 mile, and it could be a resort exclusive entrance/exit.
3 - Use the space between the England and France parking lots for a tower style hotel. There would be limited extras to put with this hotel (maybe a restaurant in the bottom floor, small pool) but building high tends to be expensive. This would also likely be the smallest hotel of the 3 options. Here, you make the England lot the hotel parking, turn France into the VIP lot, push busses to overflow OR build an extra lot at WCUSA to park busses in water they drop guests off.
Now, in options 2-3 you would still need to shuttle people to and from WCUSA, but there's a few reasons it's not as expensive:
- You could do much less frequent trips; going every 1/2 hour in the first and last two hours, hourly in between.
- They could encourage resort guests to drive themselves for freedom of coming and going, making certain sports exclusive to them (close to the gate)
- Keep the reservation system in place and have people schedule what days they want to do what so you can have shuttles scheduled on demand.
Now --
My reasons I would pick option #2:
~Being in the overflow lots it feels like a little separation from the park. It is one thing I like with WDW over UO is the feeling like when you are at your resort you are away from the park.
~Somewhat gives them the most space to do a true entertainment space so people that want a day off from the park can have it. It also gives something to do at night for families with younger kids that don't want to stay in the park that late. It's also an opportunity to do something on arrival day and departure day if you don't want to go to a park.
~Yes, we've had the parking garage argument a bunch, but with this plan you aren't taking away any at park parking, and don't need a huge infrastructure investment to shuttle people over or shuffling parking around. If you do a skywalk like UO has from the parking to CityWalk you could cut on how many shuttles are needed. Heck at that rate you could do a duel purpose automated tram or walk way.
~This last one might be one of the most important. By not building at the park, but keeping it closer to BGW than WCUSA, you can still do SPW with minimal impact. If you build at the park, using the England lot for the hotel, and you take France for SPW the only parking at the park is Ireland and Germany; and this would cause major ADA issues for BGW. If they build in overflow, and build SPW in France, you can shift all ADA capable spaces to England, charge a higher VIP England rate, use Germany for highest level memberships, Ireland as regular parking, and the new overflow garage as a budget option.
