UK Attractions

Chessington have announced plans to build a new land themed around the Amazon Rainforest. The land will feature a launch rollercoaster as well as two children’s rides! Online consultation has started regarding the land with the new rollercoaster being described: Guests will be propelled on a car through banks and turns before coming to a dead end on the track adjacent to a themed structure on the southern part of the site. The car will then be propelled along the same route back to the station located on the north east part of the site. A hard standing ride maintenance area is to be provided adjacent to the ride station. The exact details of t…

This topic is for anyone with a Question or Questions regarding Alton Towers. Also, this topic can also be for Alton Towers discussion is general.

Discuss the fun, fast and zany ghost train that is....Duel! What I find funny about this ride is that it is definetly one of my favoriots in Alton, just beating RITA and AIR! And that zombie just before the tunnel scares the pants off me every time!

Well Alton Towers is hosting an adrenaline week this week, which I will be attending on Saturday and Sunday! According the website, Alton will also be opening its gates for February Half Term, but without the full line up. Details on the "We love Winter" page on the Alton Website.Discuss Alton Towers News here!

Well I am quite surpised this hasn't been brought up on the Generel Theme Parks board. So I have decided to create this topic about Chessington. Discuss anything relating to Chessington here.

Well it has been announced that Puy du Fou wish to create a "themed" park near Bicester, not another factory outlet but a park, emulating their established park in France. An investment figure of about £600 million, but a conservative forecast of 2.7 million annual visitors (optimistic I think). It's a different operation to those theme parks we are familiar with in the U.K., creating "period" villages, but no mention of nutty rides. Apparently the French park is the "third most visited in France". Though I think it carries more weight than the Kent wetland prroject did, I cannot see it working, and I'd stick with Beamish.

Hi guys. In recent years, I think it’s fair to say that Alton Towers have had a bit of a nostalgia push, for lack of a better term. In 2023, the park revamped Duel into The Curse at Alton Manor, which harked back to the ride’s roots and brought back something more akin to the Haunted House from 1992 (while Curse is not the Haunted House, it’s a haunted house with enough shared DNA that I think the two could be conflated with one another by a casual visitor). In 2024, the park retracked Nemesis. And in 2025, the park have opened Toxicator, which brings back a ride akin to the late Ripsaw from 1997 (while Toxicator is not the Ripsaw, it’s a Top Spin with enough shared DNA t…

Does Legoland Windsor brick or treat during the weekday during school term or is brick or treat only during weekends during school term time even though parents do take their children on holiday on weekdays during school term time.

Considering I haven’t really gone out of my way to research it, I’ve read & watched a few things this week that has made me realise how much trouble Merlin seem to actually be in. With a large restructure going on across the business in the coming months, redundancies in Merlin Magic Making which is confirmed to be shutting down soon, the closure of Bear Grills, new projects shelved, 2 brand new Legoland parks having devastating low attendances, the operational cuts we have seen in the UK this season, and multiple midway attractions closing their doors around the world, Merlin seems to have found itself in some trouble. Clearly I am absolutely …

Big news from Chessie then. https://www.cwoa-consultation.com/ TL;DR Wild Asia to be rethemed with a new coaster. Kobra survives. The Glamping binned off too as seemingly only on temp permission anyway. Mexican (but not Rattlesnake) killed off for a land akin to CBeebies. Other stuff like Lodges (when did that happen) and Water Park are on-going.

Hi guys. In recent days, Hyperia, the UK’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, has opened at Thorpe Park. It’s only been open for a few days thus far, but a lot of people who’ve ridden it (although admittedly not everybody) are already declaring it their top UK coaster. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; is Hyperia your top UK coaster, if you’ve ridden? Has it finally knocked Nemesis off its top spot? Or if Nemesis wasn’t your top UK coaster before, has Hyperia usurped whatever you previously had on top? Or did it not quite reach the mark for you? I haven’t personally ridden Hyperia yet, so I’m voting undecided at the moment, but I’m interested to s…

Hi guys. In recent weeks, the construction of Hyperia at Thorpe Park has been turning a fair few heads. In particular, the first drop for the ride seems to have garnered a lot of attention, with its sharp vertical profiling and twisting gaining plaudits. That drop certainly looks unique, and I've heard some say that they think it could be one of their favourite first drops in the world! This got me thinking about some of my favourite coaster drops in the UK, so today I ask; what is your current favourite coaster drop in the UK? Personally, I'd have to go for either the first drop of Oblivion at Alton Towers or the first drop of Megafobia at Oakwood. I love the drop …

It looks like there is potential for a UK Universal attraction. Taken from Attraction Source: Universal have registered the domain names “universalstudiosgreatbritain.com” & “universalgreatbritain.com” using the same registrar as their other park website domains around the world In September. Comcast, the owner of Universal, recently acquired a construction and development company on 31st August called Cloud Wing UK Limited. Cloud Wing UK was itself already the parent company of two UK subsidiaries, Kempston Hardwick Developments Ltd and SC Collection Ltd, meaning Comcast indirectly acquired these companies and their assets. F…

Hey guys, I was on a nostalgic binge earlier today and decided to listen to the OST from Futurama The Game. However, after listening to the OST titled "New New York" then I could distinctly hear a section from Air's old soundtrack at 0:42 [Now Galactica] This has made me think if any other music from Alton Towers has been sampled in different media. Does anybody know other examples where music from Alton Towers has been sampled elsewhere? I.e. The black hole's audio being used to promote space mountain

Hi guys. The UK has a surprising amount of parks for a relatively small country in terms of landmass, and this naturally means that the UK has quite a number of coaster lineups. These vary in quantity and variety, but there are a surprising amount of coasters in the UK nonetheless. After a furious debate in the Blackpool Pleasure Beach topic yesterday regarding its coaster lineup vs Alton Towers' (amongst other things), it got me thinking about my favourite UK coaster lineups. As such, my question to you today is; which coaster lineup in the UK is your favourite? Personally, I would vote for the coaster lineup of Alton Towers as a gut instinct answer. Their to…

Flambards in Cornwall is going to have a bumper 2023 season. I have many happy memories from multiple visits to Flambards as a Kid. If you have memories from this attraction please share them. Moreover if you have any ideas on how Flambards could be improved speak up. I think Flambards could do with a major refurbishment and the introduction of Themed Lands. Flambards opened as a Theme Park over 30 years ago. In these 3 decades the place has seen minimal changes. The fact Flambards has hardly evolved gives it a unique charm and reason to return. It looks like major changes are the plan for Flambards going forward. In 2014 Flambards was bought by a Na…

Puy du Fou UK - Timeout.com link

Hi does anyone know what’s happened to Cliffhanger now it’s departed Blackgang Chine? I hope it has been bought by my local Theme Park Camel Creek in Cornwall. Camel Creek’s signature Rollercoaster has been incredibly unreliable and will likely be scrapped. Cliffhanger would be a great replacement. I wouldn’t be surprised if the replacement for Cliffhanger is Enterprise from Alton Towers,Spinball Wizzer from Alton Towers,Rocky Express from Thorpe Park,Apocalypse from Drayton Manor or Floom Of Doom from Funland Hayling Island. Please can you all share your opinions and hopes for the future of Cliffhanger and it’s replacement? I hope the replacement is …

Hi I know Chessington purchased The Black Buckaneer and Monkey Swingger second hand. Does anyone know where these rides were previously,and how old they were when Purchased by Chessington? If there’s any other second hand rides at Chessington can you please let me know which ones and where they were before.

Hi guys. As many of you may know, rapids rides have grown to be a rather contentious topic within the UK industry in recent years. Following the incident on Splash Canyon at Drayton Manor in 2017, the safety of these attractions was brought into question by the HSE and the parks operating them. As such, most water effects were removed, the prevalence of staff around the rides increased, and safeguards such as doors and higher backs were added onto the boats. This was not where the matter ended, however. The HSE released the results of their inquest into the Drayton Manor incident in 2021, and this inquest contained a number of safety measures for parks to impl…

Seeing as though the Thorpe Park thread went down nicely, thought it might be fun to do one about Alton Towers too. Again, I’ll go first: The original Haunted House wasn’t that great, and people only hold it in such a positive way purely because of nostalgia and if it were to be recreated 1:1 today would be a flop.

Is it true that this closed season Chessington is receiving the most refurbishments ever. By this I mean the biggest overhaul refurbishment undertaken during closed season.I’ve heard they’ll be no rides open in February due to the major refurbishments. I wonder if any Rides will receive rethemes or be removed. I wouldn’t be surprised if Scorpion Express is removed. This ageing Chessington classic was becoming more unreliable each season. I seriously worry that the fire the ride had in July was the end of the line. My logic says Chessington wouldn’t invest in an unreliable ride that is gaining more faults. Furthermore in 2019 I was told that Scorpion Express would…

Hi guys. I have very exciting news for you all this afternoon! According to Attraction Source, Chessington is holding a public exhibition showing off a “new attraction” on Wednesday 16th November: https://www.facebook.com/213894828494/posts/pfbid0298cGVxYnMfoovWQpQqqzfcgNkxuW9Scqmez8dJMMRmGj1QR8X29epFeWzG3AXCdjl/ Little else is known other than that, but details will apparently be revealed on the 16th, and there will be a public consultation period running until the 30th. Isn’t this exciting? I wonder what it could be; I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting another major investment at Chessington so soon after Jumanji, but I guess it would make sense…

The Howl is a fairly new event- debuting in 2015 in Leighton Buzzard, it has slowly became more and more known amongst the community. It is the sister park to Shocktoberfest, so it shares a lot of DNA with its brother. I first visited in 2015 on opening night- I found it to be very fun and had an AMAZING street team, though with its mazes it very much was very similar to Shocktoberfest, which meant that if you had been to Shocktober, you generally knew what to expect. 7 years on, and the event has grown and evolved into its own thing. This year it felt like a total different place to how it was in 2015, it was amazing to see the growth and its unique quirks th…

Hi guys. Scare season has well and truly begun here in the UK; theme parks have embraced the Halloween spirit, scare parks have opened, and YouTube and social media are filled with nothing but scare event vlogs and reports. Two popular UK events, based at two of the UK’s most popular theme parks, are Alton Towers Scarefest and Thorpe Park Fright Nights. These events are similar in some ways and different in others, but they are often compared due to them both being based at Merlin theme parks. So I’d be keen to know; which event do you prefer? Are you an Alton Towers Scarefest person, or are you more of a Thorpe Park Fright Nights fan? I’m not a scare fan at a…