The Cuckoo Cars Driving School (originally opened as Peugeot 207 Driving School) is a ride at Alton Towers for young children. It is styled as a mock driving institution where young children learn how to drive small cars. Riders are allowed to drive around a miniature course, where they are overseen by marshals. The track is mainly built and themed around the area, Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is decorated with colourful statues and quirky scenery. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The attraction was opened in July 2006 as the Peugeot 207 Driving School, with riders driving around in vehicles modelled after the Peugeot 207, however this was renamed simply to the Peugeot Driving School in 2010. Later, in 2012, the ride's sponsorship deal with Peugeot came to an end, with the attraction being given a new name of simply the Alton Towers Driving School. At this time, all Peugeot branding was removed from the ride, however the cars remained modelled vaguely after the Peugeot 207. Finally, in 2017, after a one year renovation period from the 2016 season, the ride received a minor refurbishment and reopened as the Cuckoo Cars Driving School, with cars receiving an updated, patterned shell.
When opened in 2006, the Peugeot 207 Driving School was immensely popular with children. The appeal of allowing them to drive openly was a first at Alton Towers. A marketing ploy was that the children received a faux driver's license after completing their 5-minute turn.
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, exhibits such as tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories have been the subject of rides under the original definition.
Alton Towers Resort is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments Group and incorporates a theme park, water park, spa, mini golf and hotel complex.
Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England, around 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Central London. The complex opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931, with the theme park being developed alongside the zoo by The Tussauds Group and opening on 7 July 1987, as one of the first themed amusement parks in Britain. The theme park, which features over 40 rides, is now owned by Merlin Entertainments, following its merger with The Tussauds Group in 2007. Under Merlin, Chessington has been increasingly developed into a resort tourist destination, including two on-site hotels, a high ropes course and camp site.
Dreamworld is a theme park and zoo situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is Australia's biggest theme park with over 40 rides and attractions.
Legoland Windsor Resort, styled and also known as Legoland Windsor, is a theme park and resort in Windsor, Berkshire in England, themed around the Lego brand. The park opened on 17 March 1996 and is currently operated by Merlin Entertainments. The park's attractions consist of a mixture of Lego-themed rides, models, and building workshops targeted at children between three and twelve.
Rita, formerly known as Rita: Queen of Speed, is a launched roller coaster located in the Dark Forest section of Alton Towers amusement park in Staffordshire Moorlands, England. Designed by Intamin, the Accelerator Coaster model opened to the public on 1 April 2005. It features an acceleration from 0 to 98.3 km/h (61.1 mph) in 2.5 seconds. The ride is loosely-themed to a drag racing concept, which partly changed when the section of the park transformed from "Ug Land" into the "Dark Forest" in 2010, when the ride TH13TEEN was added into that section. It is now themed as an abandoned drag racer that is used as the escape cart to escape the Dark Forest.
Nemesis is an inverted roller coaster located at the Alton Towers theme park in England. It opened to the public on March 19, 1994. The ride was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard and designed by Werner Stengel, in collaboration with attraction developer John Wardley. It is located in the Forbidden Valley area of the park, adjacent to Galactica and The Blade attractions.
"A Bug's Land" was an area of Disney California Adventure themed after the 1998 Disney·Pixar film A Bug's Life. The land consisted of Flik's Fun Fair, which opened on October 7, 2002, and was set in a representation of the film's fictional universe with four rides targeted towards young children; Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies, and Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. The area also included a water play area targeted towards young children. An outside area contained the It's Tough to Be a Bug! theater, which was an original area of the park when it opened on February 8, 2001.
Oblivion is a steel roller coaster located at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. The prototype Dive Coaster model from Bolliger & Mabillard opened to the public on 14 March 1998 and was marketed as the "World's first vertical drop roller coaster". With a maximum speed of 68 mph (109 km/h), it is the third fastest roller coaster in the UK, behind Stealth at Thorpe Park and the Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
Galactica is a flying roller coaster located in the Forbidden Valley area of Alton Towers amusement park in Staffordshire, England and is the first flying coaster manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard. Guests ride in a prone position and experience the feeling of flight by "flying" close to the ground, under footpaths, and narrowly past trees and rocks.
Legoland Billund Resort, the original Legoland park, opened on 7 June 1968 in Billund, Denmark. The park is located next to the original Lego factory and Billund Airport, Denmark's second-busiest airport. Over 1.9 million guests visited the park in 2011, and since the opening more than 50 million guests have visited the park. This makes Legoland the largest tourist attraction in Denmark outside Copenhagen. The Legoland parks that have since been built are modelled upon Legoland Billund, most noticeably the Miniland area, which is made up of millions of plastic Lego bricks.
Legoland Deutschland Resort is a Legoland park located in Günzburg in southern Germany, roughly halfway from Munich to Stuttgart, which opened in 2002. It is 43.5 hectares in area, and it is one of the four most popular theme parks in Germany. The Miniland contains Lego reproductions of various German cities and rural landscapes.
The Dive Coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers. The experience is enhanced by unique trains that seat up to ten riders per row, spanning only two or three rows total. Unlike traditional train design, this distinguishing aspect gives all passengers virtually the same experience throughout the course of the ride. Another defining characteristic of Dive Coasters is the holding brake at the top of the lift hill that holds the train momentarily right as it enters the first drop, suspending some passengers with a view looking straight down and releasing suddenly moments later.
Kids' WB Fun Zone is a themed attraction in Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia based on the Looney Tunes cartoons. The attraction was originally named Looney Tunes Village and was renamed in late 2007 when two new rides were added. At the same time, the Australian Kids' WB TV show began filming at the theme park.
Around the World in 80 Days was an attraction in the Talbot Street area of Alton Towers theme park, Staffordshire, England. The attraction opened in 1982, two years after the park first opened. It was the first dark ride at Alton Towers, one of the largest in the UK at the time, and was produced by Keith Sparks for the park's owner John Broome.
Nickelodeon: Outta Control was a former attraction in conjunction with Nickelodeon in the Cred Street area of Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England. The attraction opened in 1997 consisting of several rooms, each with its own theme. Groups of around 20 would be allowed into the fun house, which featured a variety of interactive options, including slides, rope bridges, and a room filled with sound effect buttons. Upon leaving, you were played back a recording of your journey around the attraction. It closed in 1998.
Duel – The Haunted House Strikes Back! is a theatrical attraction at the Alton Towers theme park near the village of Alton in Staffordshire. It opened in 1992 as The Haunted House and was the largest ghost-train ride in Europe. There is a minimum height restriction of 1.1 metres for younger riders unless accompanied by an adult.
Nemesis Sub-Terra was a drop tower dark ride located at Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, United Kingdom. The ride opened to the public on 24 March 2012 and ceased operation in August 2015. Its theme focused on the discovery of a nest of eggs in a network of caves, which was loosely adapted from the concept of the park's 1994 inverted roller coaster, Nemesis.
The Smiler is a steel roller coaster located at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, United Kingdom. Manufactured by Gerstlauer, it opened in 2013 as the world's first Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster. It is located in the X-Sector area of the park. With 14 inversions, The Smiler holds the world record for most inversions on a roller coaster.
The Flume was a Log Flume at Alton Towers in Staffordshire. It opened in 1981 and was rethemed in 2004 coinciding with its sponsorship by Imperial Leather. The ride was a bath time themed log flume with three drops. It was the longest log flume attraction in the world at the time of opening. The attraction closed in 2015 and was replaced by the Wicker Man rollercoaster.