let’s try ! theme parks

“Themeparks

appeal toeveryone…and

many of us nowtake holidaysbased around

them”

With everything from high-octane thrill rides to family-friendly attractions, we are a nationhooked on theme parks, as Peter Ellegard reports

Walt Disney is often credited withinventing the theme park, when heopened Disneyland in California backin July 1955 and followed it with WaltDisney World in Florida in 1971.However, the world’s oldest amuse-

ment park dates back over 400 years; Danish parkDyrehavsbakken opened north of Copenhagen in 1583and is still operating today. There is conjecture aboutwhen the world’s first themed amusement park, ortheme park, first opened – but the UK’s oldest themepark, Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight, has beengoing strong since 1843. Wikipedia even claims it to bethe world’s oldest.

Whatever the history, theme parks appeal to every-one, young and old, and many of us now take holidaysbased around them.

New rides and attractions are continually being addedto entice visitors back and parks try and outdo eachother with the scariest, highest or fastest rides. Manyalso have hotels alongside so that visitors can enjoy

longer stays instead of cramming everything into aday trip. Here’s where you can go for those thrills:

usa

Walt Disney World alone attracts nearly 50 million visi-tors a year to its four Florida parks, with Orlandoknown as the theme park capital of the world for itsprofusion of parks and attractions – attracting morethan one million UK visitors a year. A holiday hereneeds serious planning to maximise both your time andbudget, as it is expensive for families who want a weekor two of theme-park hopping.

Disney’s original Magic Kingdom park remains a bigfavourite, with its iconic Cinderella Castle and characterparades along Main Street. Major expansion in 2012will almost double the size of Fantasyland, adding a newcoaster.

The sprawling Walt Disney World Resort alsocomprises sister theme parks Epcot, with is futuristicpavilions, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which has a newPixar Pals parade, and Animal Kingdom, where the new

Ticket to ride

Spring 2011 tlm ! the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk 21

! TH13TEEN, theworld’s first freefall drop coasterat Alton TowersResortAlton Towers

Wild Africa Trek soft adventure experiences includes avehicle safari and a guided “bushwalk”. There are alsotwo water parks, nightlife at Disney Downtown includ-ing a Cirque du Soleil show and four golf courses.

Universal Orlando opened its new Wizarding Worldof Harry Potter last year in the Islands of Adventurepark. It features a giant Hogwarts Castle, through whichvisitors take a tour, as well as three rides including Flightof the Hippogrif. Among rides at Islands are the Incredi-ble Hulk and Spiderman, while the Universal Studiospark has recent openings The Simpsons Ride and theHollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster as well as oldfavourites Jaws and ET Adventure. Nearby Wet ‘n Wildis a sister water park.

The SeaWorld family of parks includes SeaWorldOrlando, where Shamu the orca (killer whale) stars in ashow and where the new Manta coaster adds aquaticthrills. Alongside it are Discovery Cove, where visitorscan swim with dolphins and will be able to explore newunderwater attraction The Grand Reef from June, plusthe new Aquatica theme park, offering wave pools, waterrides and flume tubes through a dolphin pool. BuschGardens Tampa, another member of the SeaWorldfamily, opens the Cheetah Hunt high-speed, twistingcoaster ride this spring to add to its collection of thrillrides and animal attractions.

Also in Florida is the Kennedy Space Centre, dedi-cated to America’s space programme and including theShuttle Launch Experience, IMAX movies and thechance to meet an astronaut. LEGOLAND Florida isdue to open in October on the old Cypress Gardens sitein Central Florida.

California also offers a world of fun in its manytheme and amusement parks.

Mickey Mouse and friends have been welcomingvisitors to Disneyland in Anaheim for 55 years. Disney-land Resort augmented the original Disneyland Park,which has eight themed lands and the famous SleepingBeauty Castle, with Disney’s California Adventure park,in 2001. The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adven-ture is a new attraction opening there this summer.

Former fruit farm Knott’s Berry Farm opened its firstattraction – Ghost Town – in 1940, to entertain queuingdiners at its adjacent chicken restaurant. It became thefirst of six themed areas, making it what it claims isAmerica’s oldest theme park. Camp Snoopy is the homeof the Peanuts characters.

Universal Studios Hollywood offers a mix of studiobacklot tours with shows and rides based on movie andTV blockbusters. It opened King Kong 360 3D last yearto replace the original destroyed in a fire in 2008.

Animal magnetism is a major draw at SeaWorld SanDiego, which has shows including one starring its ownShamu plus rides such as Journey to Atlantis and WildArctic.

LEGOLAND California Resort is geared for under-12s and features 50 family rides, attractions and shows.But for hard-core adrenalin-seekers, Six Flags MagicMountain features 100 rides and attractions including 16roller coasters, the fastest of which – Superman: TheEscape – was the world’s first ride to reach 100mph.

22 tlm ! the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk Spring 2011

let’s try ! theme parks

did you know?" More than twice as many people visit Disneyland Paris each year as the Eiffel

Tower." The world’s tallest roller coaster is Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in

Jackson, New Jersey. It stands 456 feet (139m) high." Europe’s highest coaster is Silver Star, at Europa-Park in Germany. It is 239

feet (73m) high." Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, has 17 roller coasters, more than any other

park." The Ultimate coaster at Lightwater Valley in Ripon, Yorkshire, is the world’s

second longest steel roller coaster, at more than 1.4 miles long." Since it opened in 1955, Disneyland Resort in California has welcomed an

estimated 600 million guests.

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! Mickey and Minnieat Disneyland Paris

! The PerilousPlunge at

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! Spaceman encounterat Kennedy Space Centre

! Manatee atSeaWorld, Orlando

There are other great amusement parks across theUSA, although away from the warmth of Florida andCalifornia they are generally seasonal.

Canada does have a year-round theme park. Alberta’sWest Edmonton Mall is not only North America’s largestshopping mall, it also contains the world’s second-largest amusement park as well as the world’s largestwater park and an indoor salt-water lake with a replicaof Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria ship.

europe

Europe also has a plethora of theme parks; oldfavourites LEGOLAND in Denmark, Efteling inHolland and Germany’s Europa-Park have been joinedmore recently by Futuroscope and Disneyland Paris inFrance, mainland Spain’s PortAventura and Siam Parkon Tenerife.

Disneyland Paris is Europe’s leading tourist destina-tion and has had over 200 million visitors since itopened in 1992. It has two parks, with Walt DisneyStudios opening in 2002, plus seven themed hotels. Lastyear saw the opening of Toy Story Playland, featuringthemed rides and attractions inspired by the Pixar films.

Also near Paris is Parc Asterix, based on the cartoonhero, Asterix the Gaul. A Gallic village is at the heartof the park, which also has areas themed around theRoman Empire, ancient Greece and theVikings.

Still in France, Futuroscope is a futur-istic educational theme park nearPoitiers. A new “ride” called 8thContinent is based on the vast massof plastic waste found floating in thePacific in 1997, in which riders sit onscooters and use laser pistols to eradicatewaste polluting the sea. Another new attrac-tion, Sea Monsters, is a 3D experience that

Spring 2011 tlm ! the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk 23

brings you face to face with gigantic creatures from theage of the dinosaurs.

History forms the basis for the Puy du Fou themepark near Nantes, while volcanoes are the theme behindVulcania, set amid dormant cones in the Auvergne.

But if it’s fantasy you want, it is dished up in spadesat Holland’s enchanting Efteling park, while Copen-hagen’s Tivoli Park has been an institution since 1843for its gardens and theatre. Denmark is also home to theoriginal LEGOLAND theme park, at Billund.

Fantasy is also the theme this year at Europa-Park,Germany’s biggest theme park and second only inpopularity in Europe behind Disneyland Paris with fourmillion visitors a year. An enchanted forest, nestlingbetween the England and Austria areas and new for2011, is all about fairy tales. The park, located near theborder with France and Switzerland and featuring 100-plus attractions and shows in 13 European-themedareas, also sees the addition of the interactive Volo daVinci ride, in which riders hover above the Italian areain a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine.The resort has four themed hotels.

Spain has several parks which you can combinewith a holiday by the beach. Close to Benidorm on theCosta Blanca, Terra Mitica has Mediterranean-themedareas filled with thrill rides including Magnus Colossus– the longest wooden roller coaster in Europe.

PortAventura, near Salou on the Costa Dorada, isSpain’s largest theme park and was its first, opening in1995. A sixth themed zoned, Sesamo Aventura, opensin April based on children’s TV series Sesame Street.The existing zones encompass 30 attractions, includingthe Hurakan Condor freefall ride in its Mexico area andeight-loop Dragon Khan coaster in China, 75 restau-rants and over 100 live shows a day. It also offers theadjacent PortAventura Aquatic Park, four themed hotelsand two Greg Norman-designed golf courses.

Europe’s biggest water park, Siam Park, opened in

let’s try ! theme parks

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! The Nemesis Infernoat Thorpe Park

! Hurakan Condorat PortAventura

! Wizarding Worldof Harry Potter

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Tenerife in 2008 with 25 Thai-themed buildings, thrillrides including a flume tube through an alligator pooland a Wave Palace with artificial surfing waves.

uk

Spurred on by the growing interest in family parks andwhite-knuckle rides, the British theme parks scene hasseen heavy investment. Making its debut on April 9,Peppa Pig World is a new park for young ones based onthe popular children’s TV show at Paultons FamilyTheme Park in Hampshire.

Alton Towers Resort, the UK’s leading theme park,opened TH13TEEN – the world’s first vertical freefalldrop roller coaster – last year. Other major attractionsinclude the Nemesis inverted coaster, the Oblivion verti-cal drop coaster and the high-speed Rita coaster. TheStaffordshire park also offers two hotels and theCaribbean-themed Alton Towers Waterpark.

Surrey’s Thorpe Park has added a new attraction in2011, in the shape of the Storm Surge spiralling wild-water raft ride. Extreme thrills are offered by rides suchas the inverted, corkscrewing Nemesis Inferno rollercoaster, the multi-looping Colossus coaster, SAW: TheRide, and Stealth, a launched coaster which reaches80mph in just 1.7 seconds.

Drayton Manor opens its new Ben 10 – UltimateMission coaster, based on the Ben 10 cartoon series,on April 23. Its other rides include Shockwave, Apoca-lypse and G-Force. The on-site Drayton Manor Hotelopens in July.

New for 2011 at Chessington World of Adventuresare the Azteca ruins at its Sea Life centre. It also featuresthrill rides including Kobra, Vampire, Dragon’s Fury andRameses Revenge and it has a safari-themed hotel.

LEGOLAND Windsor celebrates its 15th birthdaythis year with a new £8 million LEGO-themed underwa-ter attraction, the Atlantis Submarine Voyage, withsubmarines taking 14 people through an ocean tank fullof sharks, rays and fish.

middle east/far east/australia

Abu Dhabi took the crown for the world’s largest indoortheme park with the opening last October of FerrariWorld, featuring 20 Ferrari-inspired rides and attrac-tions and the world’s fastest roller coaster – Formula

24 tlm ! the travel & leisure magazine www.tlm-magazine.co.uk Spring 2011

let’s try ! theme parks

theme park facts

Rossa, which reaches 150mph in under five seconds.In the Far East, parks worth making a detour for

include Hong Kong’s impressive Ocean Park and HongKong Disneyland, while Down Under you should tryAustralian-themed Dreamworld, on the Gold Coast.

" WIN a family theme park break to Europa-Park inGermany. See page 59.

usa parksWalt Disney World Resort: http://disneyworld.disney.go.comUniversal Florida: www.universalorlando.comSeaWorld Theme Parks: www.seaworld.comKennedy Space Centre: www.ksc.nasa.govDisneyland Resort: http://disneyworld.disney.go.comUniversal Studios Hollywood: www.universalstudioshollywood.comKnott’s Berry Farm: www.knotts.comSix Flags Magic Mountain: www.sixflags.comLEGOLAND California: http://california.legoland.comWest Edmonton Mall: www.wem.ca

european parksDisneyland Paris:www.disneylandparis.co.ukParc Asterix: www.parcasterix.frFuturoscope:http://uk.futuroscope.comEfteling: www.efteling.comLEGOLAND: www.legoland.dkEuropa-Park: www.europapark.dePortAventura: www.portaventura.co.ukTerra Mitica: www.terramiticapark.comSiam Park: www.siampark.net

uk parksAlton Towers: www.altontowers.comThorpe Park: www.thorpepark.comDrayton Manor: www.draytonmanor.co.ukLEGOLAND Windsor: www.legoland.co.ukPaultons Family Park: www.paultonspark.co.ukChessington World of Adventures: www.chessington.com

middle eastFerrari World:www.ferrariworldabudhabi.com

tour operators & ticketsNAR (UK):www.orlandoattractions.comVirgin Holidays: www.virginholidays.co.ukAttractions Tickets Direct: www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.ukOrlando Flex Ticket: www.orlandoflexticket.co.ukCosmos: www.cosmos-holidays.co.ukTravel City Direct: www.travelcitydirect.comFirst Choice: www.firstchoice.co.ukSuperbreak: www.superbreak.comLeger Holidays: http://tothemagic.co.ukDFDS Seaways: www.dfdsseaways.co.uk

! The original LEGOLAND

! Blackgang Chine

! The 8thContinent atFuturoscope

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! Meeting Euromaus