Project Sunshine Development

Plans & Concepts

In December 2024, Alton Towers announced their intention to build a new coaster in CBeebies Land ready for the 2026 season. The full planning documents state that:

The proposal is for the removal of an existing attraction and to replace it with a new attraction and ancillary buildings (station and maintenance buildings) within the CBeebies Land area of Alton Towers.

Shortly afterwards, documents related to ‘Project Sunshine‘ were uploaded to the Staffordshire Moorlands Planning Portal, and have since been significantly updated in April 2025. The planning documents confirm that the new coaster is set to be built on the site currently occupied by Postman Pat’s Parcel Post.

The new coaster looks to be a reasonably tame layout, suggesting it will be a junior coaster aimed at a younger age group than Octonaut’s Rollercoaster Adventure, the other coaster in CBeebies Land. Its high point will sit slightly above the height of the station building, before the coaster turns around a short loop of track back into the station.

To accommodate the new coaster, the park will completely remove the existing Postman Pat ride along with all the current buildings on the site and the new coaster’s track will mainly occupy the end of the site where the current ride’s station and queue line are located. The end of the site nearest to the entrance to CBeebies Land, including the current Corner Coffee terrace, will be used for queue lines and associated theming.

Get Set Go Treetop Adventure also passes through the site of Postman Pat’s Parcel Post and the plans show that the aerial railway would clash with the new development. Get Set Go’s track does not feature on the plans, but it understood that the ride will be shortened to make space for the new coaster.

Postman Pat’s Parcel Post was one of the headline attractions of CBeebies Land when it first opened in 2014, and was a new ride system reusing the path of the former Old Macdonald’s Tractor Ride.  The ride system is therefore still relatively young, sparking speculation that it may end up in storage pending a retheme and relocation somewhere either within Alton Towers or one of the other Merlin theme parks.

Whilst Postman Pat is arguably one of the more famous faces on CBeebies, due to his familiarity with multiple generation, the current iteration of the popular IP, Postman Pat’s Parcel Post, is no longer shown on the CBeebies TV channel and the final episode was made in 2017. The character is therefore prime for removal to bring fresh IPs into CBeebies Land.

Since the announcement there has therefore been much speculation that the new coaster could be themed to a more current IP such a Bluey, currently one of the most popular shows on CBeebies. Bluey arrived in CBeebies Land at the start of the 2024 season, but so far the park have yet to make much use of the IP, other than a small-scale show in Big Fun Showtime and accompanying Meet and Greet.

Original Plans

The plans for Project Sunshine were resubmitted on April 11th 2025 in a scaled back form. Whilst the ride itself appears to be identical to the original intention, the major change comes in the removal of the proposed maintenance structure, which would have linked into the backstage area between CBeebies Land and Towers Street.

The original plans, including maintenance shed:

As a result of the change in building configuration, the coaster has been relocated closer to the centre of the site, resulting in reconfiguration of the various queue lines and exit paths, simplifying the overall plan. The relocation also allows for more of the existing greenery to be retained, with fewer trees removed along the back of the site.

The loss of the maintenance structure is accompanied by a significant reduction of the size of the station itself and a reconfiguration of the layout. Notably, a large pair of windows have replaced the original location of the ride's exit path, which now crosses back over the track and out through the other side of the building. The overall height of the building is also lower, though it is still tall enough to contain three floors, including a new maintenance bay underneath the station.

A view of the original station with maintenance building:

Compared with the new, smaller station building:

The other significant change seems to result in less theming opportunities for the ride. The original plans had 11 Theming Areas, most of which are still clearly present in the updated plans. However, several of the queue line theming areas have been lost, with the theming in the queue now focused in three areas, one of which seems to have had a significant redesign, as it does not correspond with any of the theming areas of the original plans.

Overall, it would seem that the changes were in part at the request of the local planning authority, but also include clear cost efficiency savings for the park as well.

Construction

Postman Pat Parcel post closed on June 2nd 2025, and construction immediately got underway for Project Sunshine. On the first day after closure all figures, signage and other IP related to Postman Pat were removed from site ahead of demolition beginning. By the end of the week the site was then surrounded by a construction wall, which was built as the soundtrack to Postman Pat Parcel Post still echoed from the speakers around the site.

The work on Get Set Go Treetop Adventure could also swiftly get underway, as the foundations for the new supports had been poured over Winter and covered in wood chippings until needed. It therefore only took a single day for the now unnecessary track to be removed from Get Set Go, along with several supports. And by the end of the week, much of the new course had already been installed, using a mixture of original track pieces, connected by new fabrication. 

The work on Get Set Go is due to be completed within a month and ride will reopen in early July. During that time, the main entrance to CBeebies Land will also be closed for at least some time, whilst work is being carried out overhead. This also means CBeebies Land Photo Studio is closed and the entrance to Something Special Sensory Garden is through the exit.

Whilst this work is being carried out, access to the CBeebies Land is through the tree next door, a little closer to Spinball Whizzer with guests entering the main part of the rest of CBeebies Land through Big Fun Showtime.