What is coming to the UK in 2020

As we are getting ever closer to the start of the 2020 theme park season, let’s take a look at all the major developments happening around the UK this year as it is set up to be an exciting year for the UK theme park industry. We are extremely excited to see all of these attractions, areas and rollercoasters open this year and we cannot wait to check them out ourselves.

Merlin Entertainments Parks

Alton Towers

The Wonderful World of David Walliams

Spring 2020

Coinciding with the park's 40th anniversary, the park is set to unveil the largest family offering since the opening of CBeebies Land in 2014. However, this development is set to offer more for the younger guests at the park that may be too old for CBeebies Land.

The area will be located near ‘The Alton Towers Dungeons’, in the space that used to be Cloud Cuckoo Land and Cred Street and will be based around the David Walliams books that have grown in popularity since the first book was released in 2011, ‘Gangsta Granny’, which fittingly, will be the theme of the main attraction in the area.

‘Gangsta Granny: The Ride’, will be located in the building previously home to ‘Wobble World’, an inflatable play area which has been closed to the public since late 2015 (Apart from some of the area being transformed into scare maze ‘House of Monsters’ from 2016 - 2018). 

The ride, a moving vehicle with capabilities to rotate (spin), pitch (tilt up and down) and roll (tilt from side to side) will be a multisensory experience featuring 360° effects based on scenes from the book. Guests will join Granny and Ben, the main characters of the book, who are on a mission to complete the greatest heist in history, stealing the crown jewels!

As well as ‘Gangsta Granny: The Ride’, the area will feature additional attractions rethemed from their previous incarnation: ‘Gallopers Carousel’, a small carousel ride, will now be called ‘Royal Carousel’, where guests can race on a regal thoroughbred and Frog Hoppers, a child drop tower, will now be called ‘Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp’ and we are also told there will be ‘other surprises and twists along the way’.

Chessington World of Adventures

Rainforest Land & Elmer’s Flying Jumbo’s

March 2020

Something wild is coming to Chessington World of Adventures this year, with the arrival of new themed land, ‘Rainforest’.

The new area of the park, which is aimed at families with children searching for their first adventure is inspired by their support of international conservation charity, World Land Trust (WLT), which protects the world’s most biologically important and threatened habitats acre-by- acre.

Within the area, guests can explore the rainforest via three methods, Road, River and up high in the treetop canopies:

Jump in your land cruiser and take to the trails, at ‘Jungle Rangers’, you can explore the life of the rainforest on the forest floor and spot various wildlife along the way as you drive your vehicle through the rainforest. The ride is a retheme of Toadie's Crazy Cars, which has been at the park since 1987 and it is expected that the ride will be taking a slightly altered route to make it the central focal point of the area, although as a consequence of this it also means the ride experience will also be slightly shorter.

Make a splash on a mini-log flume, River Rafts – watch out though for the cheeky chimps that live along the waterway! River Rafts is a new attraction for the resort and has been relocated from Weymouth Sea Life Center. The attraction is aimed towards a younger audience than what the park's pre-existing log flume is as the ride is expected to have a maximum height restriction of four meters, much as it did at Weymouth.

Climb above the treetop canopy, bouncing up high on Treetop Hoppers, but be careful, what goes up... This ride has been at the park since 2001 and is a mini drop tower, this is not expected to move from its current location but is now being integrated within the rather fitting Rainforest Land as it's current theme will fit nicely within the new themed land.

As well as the new Rainforest area, Chessington World of Adventures are also retheming the Flying Jumbos, an attraction that has been at the theme park since 1987. The ride will be transformed into Elmers Flying Jumbo’s, based around the ‘Elmer The Patchwork Elephant’ collection of books.

Legoland Windsor

DUPLO Dino Coaster

Spring 2020

Archaeological findings have discovered a new prehistoric adventure within DUPLO Valley at Legoland Windsor. The DUPLO Dino Coaster will be the world’s first DUPLO themed rollercoaster. 

Ride on the DUPLO Dinosaur and hold on tight as you soar around the valley. The ride is expected to be a great addition for the park and described as the ‘...perfect first rollercoaster experience for little explorers and even grown-ups too!’

Not much is known about this new rollercoaster coming to the park this year, apart from it is expected to be a clone of the ‘B-A-A Express’ at Europa Park in Germany which means it won’t be the most extensive layout but it will be interesting to see the final outcome.

Thorpe Park Resort

???

What is coming to Thorpe Park in 2020, Nobody knows! However, the park has been teasing that SOMETHING could be coming!

The first tease came at the end of 2019, where a closing season video was interrupted at the end by a variant of the iconic Thorpe Park logo. We will have to wait and see what comes to Thorpe Park this year!

Other parks across the UK

Paultons Park

Tornado Springs

19th May

A brand new vacation destination is coming to Paultons Park this year with the introduction of Tornado Springs. The new area is set to be heavily themed with a rather in-depth story behind it...

“Located in the mid-west, Tornado Springs has remained a hidden jewel since settlement was established in the early 1800’s by adventurers in search of their fortune. Tornado Springs is located on the famous Route 83 allowing the town to thrive by offering fuel, accommodation and home grown food to weary travellers passing through.

After several large and destructive storms struck the town it will soon once again be fully open for tourist visits.”

The area’s main attraction will be ‘Storm Chaser’, a Mack spinning coaster similar to Time Traveller at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri in the U.S.A. Sign up to join the storm chasers in their attempt to see a perfect storm. 

As well as ‘Storm Chaser’, the area will also include: 

• Buffalo Falls, a water raft ride


• Cyclonator, a Gyro Swing


• AI’s Auto Academy Driving School


• Windmill Towers Drop Towers


• Trekking Tractor Ride


• Rio Grande Train Ride

The area is set to be highly detailed and well themed, especially if they complete this ambitious project to the same or higher standard as Lost Kingdom, the prehistoric themed area.

Flamingo Land Resort

10 Inversion Rollercoaster

2020

For those unaware, Flamingo Land is a theme park and zoo located in North Yorkshire. The park keeps to itself somewhat, with its last major investment being in 2013 with the addition of the Dino Stone Park themed area which featured a family rollercoaster, the same year, the park also installed Hero, a Zamperla flying coaster. 

The park now has made a significant investment, that being a 10 Inversion rollercoaster that will be a clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park however it is believed that the ride will feature lap bars rather than over the head restraints. The ride currently have no designated name but rumors suggest it will simply be called ‘Inversion’.

The ride has no specific opening date or even a generic month or season but from looking at updates the ride is almost complete so testing should be commencing soon.

Fantasy Island

Turbulence & more…

Throughout 2020

A few years ago, Fantasy Island removed a few thrill rides that were fan favorites and since then, thrill-seekers have been craving for a high-intensity thrill ride to return to the amusement park.

Fans were thrilled when the park announced that Turbulence, a ‘Star Shape’ flat ride built by Zierer in 2004 and it has had a rather interesting life. It started at Blackpool Pleasure Beach until 2011 when a few years later it was sold to a German park and renamed to ‘Sky Jet’. The ride remained there until recently where it was purchased by Mellors and brought to Fantasy Island and we expect to potentially see it appear at some traveling fairs too.

Further to this, it was announced that on the 23rd January that Frisbee, the parks Frisbee ride (if you hadn’t guessed already) would be leaving the park with another exciting announcement coming soon, presumably as a replacement so it will be exciting to see what is announced and coming to the park as well as the already announced Turbulence.