Cedar Point is a 364-acre (147 ha) amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point, which is owned and operated by Cedar Fair, is the flagship of the company's amusement park chain. Known as "America's Roller Coast", the park features 16 roller coasters, which ranks third among amusement parks in North America behind Six Flags Magic Mountain (20) and Canada's Wonderland (18). Cedar Point's normal operating season runs from early May until Labor Day in September, which is followed by weekend-only operation through Halloween during an annual event known as HalloWeekends. Other amenities and attractions featured within the park include a one-mile-long (1.6 km) beach, an outdoor water park named Cedar Point Shores, an indoor water park named Castaway Bay, two marinas, and an outdoor sports complex called Cedar Point Sports Center.
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, mini golf and hotel complex. In 2021, it ranked first for attendance among amusement parks in the UK, with an estimated 1.8 million visitors.
Legoland is a chain of family theme parks focusing on the Lego building toy brand. They are owned and operated by the British theme park company Merlin Entertainments, which shares a common owner with The Lego Group.
Thorpe Park, formerly also known as Thorpe Park Resort, is a theme park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertainments and includes rides, themed cabins, live events and Hyperia, the United Kingdom's tallest and fastest rollercoaster. In 2019, Thorpe Park was the UK's third most visited theme park, behind Alton Towers and Legoland Windsor. However, in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the park only had a 125-day operation season, along with limited capacity, leading to massively reduced visitor numbers.
Heide Park Resort, commonly known as Heide Park, is a theme park in Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany. With an overall area of over 850,000 m2, it is the largest amusement park in Northern Germany and among the largest in the country. It is part of the British-based Merlin Entertainments, which operates 123 attractions in 24 countries.
Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a 128 acres theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England, around 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Central London. The complex originally opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931; the theme park aspect was developed by The Tussauds Group, debuting on 7 July 1987 as one of the first combined animal-amusement parks in the UK. 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 and tourist destination, including two on-site hotels, swimming pools, a campground, spa and fitness facilities.
Raptor is a steel inverted roller coaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The coaster, which broke many records upon its opening in 1994, differs from previous inverted coasters. Instead of having a short layout designed to fit into a compact area like Batman: The Ride, Raptor was designed with a larger, 3,790-foot (1,160 m) layout, making it the tallest, fastest and longest inverted roller coaster in the world when it opened. It features six inversions, including a cobra roll, a first for inverted roller coasters. The ride is themed as a bird of prey.
John Richard Wardley is a British developer for theme parks in the UK and Europe: an innovator of special effects, dark rides and roller coasters in the themed attraction industry.
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 50 million guests have visited the park since it opened. 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.
Blue Tornado is a steel inverted roller coaster at Gardaland, Castelnuovo del Garda, outside Verona, Italy. It is an extended standard model, with additional helix, of the Suspended Looping Coaster manufactured by Vekoma. The ride's highest force is at 4.5G's during the sidewinder inversion. A model Panavia Tornado fighter jet is seen on top of the station for decorative purposes.
Shaman is a steel roller coaster located at Gardaland, Castelnuovo del Garda near Verona, Italy. Manufactured by Vekoma, the roller coaster originally opened as Magic Mountain, featuring Arrow Dynamics trains, which were replaced with newer Vekoma trains in 2008. A VR experience and additional new theming was added to the ride in 2017, and it was renamed Shaman. The VR was removed the following year. In November 2020, Gardaland began removing parts of the track. It was replaced with new track pieces, similar to what was done on Python at Efteling, to improve the smoothness of the ride experience. The supports & other theming items were also repainted to improve the theming of the area.
Legoland California Resort is a theme park, miniature park, and aquarium located in Carlsbad, California, based on the Lego toy brand. Opening on March 20, 1999, it was the first Legoland park to open outside of Europe. The park is currently owned by Merlin Entertainments, which took a controlling interest in 2005. The second park in the United States was in Florida, which opened in 2011. A third park, Legoland New York, opened in May 2021.
Legoland Florida Resort is a vacation destination in Winter Haven, Florida. The resort features the Legoland Florida theme park itself, the Legoland Water Park, three on-site accommodations and a separately-ticketed on-site park based on the British children's animated series Peppa Pig that opened on February 24, 2022.
Legoland Malaysia Resort is a theme park in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia. It opened on 15 September 2012 with over 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions. It is the first Legoland theme park in Asia and sixth in the world upon its establishment. Legoland Malaysia was officially opened by Ibrahim Ismail, Sultan of Johor on 22 September.
Raptor is a steel roller coaster at the Gardaland amusement park in Lake Garda, Italy. The ride is a prototype Wing Coaster design by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard. Raptor opened to the public on April 1, 2011. The ride begins from an underground station and features two water splash elements. The layout features several roll overs. The trains hang over both sides of the track like X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain but the seats do not spin.
Wing Coaster is engineering firm Bolliger & Mabillard’s designation for its winged roller coaster designs. Winged roller coasters are a type of steel roller coaster where pairs of riders sit on either side of a roller coaster track in which nothing is above or below the riders. B&M began development on the first Wing Coaster between 2007 and 2008 leading to the opening of Raptor at Gardaland on 1 April 2011. There were sixteen B&M-designed Wing Coasters either under construction or operating worldwide as of December 2020.
Lego Technic Test Track, Technic Coaster, Project X - Test Strecke and X-treme Racers are the names of five identical steel wild mouse roller coasters manufactured by Mack Rides at Legoland theme parks around the world.
Oblivion: The Black Hole is a roller coaster at Gardaland, close to Lake of Garda. The ride is one of many Dive Coaster models to be manufactured by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard. Upon its opening, it became the first vertical drop roller coaster in Italy. The ride is considered the 'sister' to the Oblivion roller coaster at the also Merlin owned Alton Towers. The ride also shares part of its name with The Black Hole, a Jet star 2 rollercoaster that operated in the X sector section of Alton towers on the current site of The Smiler.
Mandrill Mayhem is a launched, steel shuttle wing coaster located at Chessington World of Adventures in Chessington, United Kingdom. The ride was designed by Swiss rollercoaster manufacturers Bolliger & Mabillard, and is located in the World of Jumanji section of the park, themed to the Jumanji film and book franchise. A consultation for the ride took place in May 2021, and the coaster opened two years later on the 15th May 2023. The last row faces backwards.
