World's First Gruffalo Themed Dark Ride Coming to Chessington World of Adventures

© Chessington World of Adventures

An all-new family dark ride will open at the U.K.'s Chessington World of Adventures, themed to the famous children's book The Gruffalo, the park has announced.  The new for 2017 ride will be called The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, and take visitors on a trip into the world of the book, which features a mouse who takes a dangerous trip through the woods, outsmarting creatures he encounters and comes across a Gruffalo (part grizzly bear and part buffalo).

Passengers will sit in individual cars that float down the river through the woods as the story is told around them via 3-D sets.  Chessington World of Adventures will be partnering with Magic Light Pictures, the studio behind the Gruffalo feature film, to open the ride.

© Chessington World of Adventures

This concept art, released by the park, gives an idea of how the finished ride will look.  Riders will encounter several characters from the story, including the mouse main character, fox, owl, snake - and of course the Gruffalo.  Along with the new ride will be themed food and beverage, retail, a character meet and greet and several new Gruffalo themed rooms at the park's adjacent hotel.

The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure will be replacing the park's Bubbleworks dark ride, which opened in 1990.

Chessington World of Adventures 2010: Wild Asia

Chessington World of Adventures, Surrey, England, plans to open a new themed area in the park in 2010, named Wild Asia.

The new section will contain heavily themed landscapes and adventures, such as the Kobra, pictured here, which looked like a Wave Swinger flat ride.

A bird aviary and jungle bus tour will also entertain visitors when the area opens next year. For more details, see this article from Guardian.uk.

The park also has a teaser video up for the expansion on their official webpage, located here.

Aerial Antics: UK Park + Ride Aerials

Friday is a good day for Live Local aerial obsessing. Today the site took me to jolly old England and I found some treasures, like:

Thorpe Park. Home of the 10 Inversion Colossus, B&M Inverted Nemesis Inferno, the Intamin launched Stealth, and a new for 2009 Gerstlauer Euro Fighter.

The Vampire, at Chessington World of Adventures. This Arrow Dynamics suspended coaster opened in 1990, and received some great new trains from Vekoma in 2002.

G-Force at Drayton Manor park. What a funky little ride! It opened in 2005 and was designed by Mauher Sohne. Oh, and it's not a launched ride, that weird loopish track on the right side is the lift!

Blackpool Pleasure Beach - with the Pepsi Max towering over everything. You also have to love how crammed in everything is at the park.