[2026] Bluey Coaster in CBeebies Land

[DistortAMG]

I think the frustrating thing is once upon a time the UK were pioneers of the theme park industry, a time some of us lived through. It was very exciting. What's coming next!!

Those are now distant memories and even our best parks are very much second or third tier on the global scene. We're left to get excited about a pair of childrens coasters that will likely be no different to rides that existed in the parks 40 years ago, simply with IP tacked on rather than a creative use of it. Otherwise it's Minecraft at Chessington, Paulton's developments and Universal. The remaining 3 Merlin parks have nothing we know of on the horizon. There's a general air of underwhelming investment in UK parks.

The most exciting thing in the past 10 years was the UK getting another hypercoaster, almost 30 years after the last one, of which there are many better elsewhere. A good coaster but didn't deliver on expectations imo. The UK arguably hasn't had a landmark statement ride since Thirteen in 2010. And we don't need to but it's a shame there's so little to be excited about, it's more often than not one (needed) patch job after another.

I would argue that we pioneered innovative ride hardware more than we pioneered the 'theme park', which was in essence just copying what the USA had done 3 decades earlier, but adapted for the UK market. The ride hardware that we helped pioneer in partnership with Europe, was not specific to the theme park concept or industry, as it was just ride hardware. This is however, a debate for another time.