[2026] CBeebies Land Junior Coaster

[Leigh]

My money would be on a Zierer Force, as well since Merlin have installed a fair few of them recently (minifig + paw patrol the big ones).

They are available with blocks and multiple trains too for capacity.

 

[Maelstrom]

Could also be from ART engineering as they are providing both the new indoor LEGO coasters opening in 2026 in Florida and California.

 

[Hid]

Does anyone know why they have gone for this coaster in Cbeebies Land when there is plenty of other open plots available round the park this could easily fit into

 

[s_g_k]

Does anyone know why they have gone for this coaster in Cbeebies Land when there is plenty of other open plots available round the park this could easily fit into

A lot of people on here, me now included, believe this could have been intended to be installed at another Merlin park but for some reason it didn’t happen/fell through, so another park had to take it due to it being too far gone in the order process.

I still don’t believe it should replace the Postman Pat hardware though. Let’s hope it gets installed elsewhere in the park over closed season, but I can’t see it happening. It would be a shame to lose an attraction that has no height restriction. Surely it would fit well in one of the abandoned buildings in TWoDW as a second dark ride? Or in Katanga Canyon somewhere as a Jeep Safari Explorer attraction?

 

[AltonLover123]

I would also imagine the BBC have a hand in how the area looks and feels. They may have something in the contract that means they needed something new to keep the relationship.

 

[djtruefitt]

we’ve also not had anything new in CBeebies since 2022 (and they were all rethemes): Charlie and Lola and Mr Blooms

 

[Squiggs]

I still don’t believe it should replace the Postman Pat hardware though. Let’s hope it gets installed elsewhere in the park over closed season, but I can’t see it happening. It would be a shame to lose an attraction that has no height restriction. Surely it would fit well in one of the abandoned buildings in TWoDW as a second dark ride? Or in Katanga Canyon somewhere as a Jeep Safari Explorer attraction?

I was thinking about this over the weekend, as I think the general consensus is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to lose the vans, even if they do have to remove Postman Pat. Vintage car style rides are always a popular ride-type for the relevant demographic, and it is a ride that all kids are able to enjoy, no matter their height.

But the issue with relocating a vintage car ride is that it's not a ride type you can just pop in any old corner, as they take up quite a large footprint to do well. When relocation has come up before, previously I had speculated that really only Dark Forest currently has enough empty space (and maybe the bottom of X-Sector at a push, though I think it would be a wild move to pop a kids' van ride in the conceptual nightmare that is X-Sector).

That got me thinking about the park's old Vintage Car Ride. Now hear me out, but what if:



The Driving School took over the site of the park's former Vintage Car ride, so it has more than enough space to relocate a ride the size of Postman Pat (obviously following a suitable retheme).

My thought is that Merlin wouldn't be too worried about losing the Driving School, and it seems like it's been on borrowed time for a while now. There's been a few tell-tale signs over the last few years that Merlin don't consider it as 'a keeper', not least the current trend of running it on reduced capacity.

However, if the park did also want to keep the Driving School, there's potential for them to relocate the reduced capacity of the ride to Adventure Land, just here:

The plaza in Adventure Land is flat and relatively spacious, which is perfect for a Driving School attraction, and would offer a much-needed support attraction for Spinball, aimed at a similar demographic.

 

[QTXAdsy]

I was thinking about this over the weekend, as I think the general consensus is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to lose the vans, even if they do have to remove Postman Pat. Vintage car style rides are always a popular ride-type for the relevant demographic, and it is a ride that all kids are able to enjoy, no matter their height.

But the issue with relocating a vintage car ride is that it's not a ride type you can just pop in any old corner, as they take up quite a large footprint to do well. When relocation has come up before, previously I had speculated that really only Dark Forest currently has enough empty space (and maybe the bottom of X-Sector at a push, though I think it would be a wild move to pop a kids' van ride in the conceptual nightmare that is X-Sector).

That got me thinking about the park's old Vintage Car Ride. Now hear me out, but what if:



The Driving School took over the site of the park's former Vintage Car ride, so it has more than enough space to relocate a ride the size of Postman Pat (obviously following a suitable retheme).

My thought is that Merlin wouldn't be too worried about losing the Driving School, and it seems like it's been on borrowed time for a while now. There's been a few tell-tale signs over the last few years that Merlin don't consider it as 'a keeper', not least the current trend of running it on reduced capacity.

However, if the park did also want to keep the Driving School, there's potential for them to relocate the reduced capacity of the ride to Adventure Land, just here:

The plaza in Adventure Land is flat and relatively spacious, which is perfect for a Driving School attraction, and would offer a much-needed support attraction for Spinball, aimed at a similar demographic.

Not a bad idea, however upon watching TPWW's recent video on Postman Pat, he did come up with the idea that given the ride system's age, it could be relocated to Katanga Canyon and theme it round safari jeeps which honestly isn't a bad shout plus that area is long overdue for a new attraction of some kind and there is a rather ugly looking unthemed area towards east of RMT which IIRC is a staff area but from RMT it does look rather ugly and anything in there to tidy the place up would be welcomed so having that ride system moved there would be straight forward all things considered.

 

[Poisson]

If you're on about the access near RMT no it can't be removed considering it is vehicle access to that part of the park

 

[Hid]

Could this coaster be one step in a bigger project for Cbeebies Land to add more rides. I am thinking you could make the Get Set Go Treetop Adventure tunnel into a station of some sort.

They are kinda land locked for adding new rides easily

 

[Matt N]

Could this coaster be one step in a bigger project for Cbeebies Land to add more rides. I am thinking you could make the Get Set Go Treetop Adventure tunnel into a station of some sort.

They are kinda land locked for adding new rides easily

Perhaps, but there’s a slightly more obvious solution to expand CBeebies Land, in my view.

They could remove Spinball Whizzer (as has previously been mooted in the past, in documents such as the LTDP for 2010-2019), envelop the remainder of Adventure Land into CBeebies Land and make that whole corner of the park become CBeebies-themed.

I don’t see Alton going down the Blackpool route of trying to cram rides on top of each other in CBeebies Land.

 

[Hid]

Perhaps, but there’s a slightly more obvious solution to expand CBeebies Land, in my view.

They could remove Spinball Whizzer (as has previously been mooted in the past, in documents such as the LTDP for 2010-2019), envelop the remainder of Adventure Land into CBeebies Land and make that whole corner of the park become CBeebies-themed.

I don’t see Alton going down the Blackpool route of trying to cram rides on top of each other in CBeebies Land.

It's one thing large parks are really bad at compared to small parks is maximising space for rides trying to cram in as much as possible

 

[Matt N]

It's one thing large parks are really bad at compared to small parks is maximising space for rides trying to cram in as much as possible

I’d argue that arises more from necessity.

A small park like Blackpool needs to maximise space in order to retain a substantial attraction offering, whereas a huge park like Alton doesn’t.

On a more on-topic note, watching the recent TPW video of Shawn riding Get Set Go and Postman Pat for the last time made me realise just how short Get Set Go is likely to be after the closure… the impending work will probably halve the ride duration!

 

[AT86]

Given there has not been any new capacity created in CBeebies Land since 2019 it perhaps signals the park are happy with the demand and supply ratio they have when it comes to guests vs number of rides?

More rides = more operating costs which is only worth it if it pulls in more guests to cover the costs.

It seems they are going with an approach to either retheme existing rides (as they did in 2022) or replace attractions (as they are doing in 2026).

I don’t think there is any major prospect of Spinball making way for an expansion given the recent investment in a new control system.

 

[Hid]

Given there has not been any new capacity created in CBeebies Land since 2019 it perhaps signals the park are happy with the demand and supply ratio they have when it comes to guests vs number of rides?

More rides = more operating costs which is only worth it if it pulls in more guests to cover the costs.

It seems they are going with an approach to either retheme existing rides (as they did in 2022) or replace attractions (as they are doing in 2026).

I don’t think there is any major prospect of Spinball making way for an expansion given the recent investment in a new control system.

I think other areas of the park need more ride than Cbeebies Land, they have the most out of any David Walliams World area has way more room for new rides. They need an area that can bridge the gap between kids to old for Cbeebies and kid yo young for the large scale rides

 

[Bert2theSpark]

Given there has not been any new capacity created in CBeebies Land since 2019 it perhaps signals the park are happy with the demand and supply ratio they have when it comes to guests vs number of rides?

More rides = more operating costs which is only worth it if it pulls in more guests to cover the costs.

It seems they are going with an approach to either retheme existing rides (as they did in 2022) or replace attractions (as they are doing in 2026).

I don’t think there is any major prospect of Spinball making way for an expansion given the recent investment in a new control system.

CBeebies Land has a mini-Chessington problem, in the sense of every attraction has relatively low throughput. Most guests just spend most (if not all of their day) inside the land. It has its own e-ticket attractions (Go Jetters, Octonauts, In the Night Garden) which regularly attract 30+ minute queues, a nightmare for a children’s ride.

The area needs a capacity sponge, in my honest opinion. A decent throughput ‘dark’ ride would go a long way in fixing it. As well as increasing the throughput for Get Set Go once again, as it’s the main transportation ride in the area.

 

[Hid]

I really am struggling with this coaster because I not the target audience I am sure it will be good for the youngsters but it's the nostalgia attached to those rides which it is replacing.

I don't think any of us want to judge a book by its cover

 

[Joel3]

Perhaps, but there’s a slightly more obvious solution to expand CBeebies Land, in my view.

They could remove Spinball Whizzer (as has previously been mooted in the past, in documents such as the LTDP for 2010-2019), envelop the remainder of Adventure Land into CBeebies Land and make that whole corner of the park become CBeebies-themed.

I don’t see Alton going down the Blackpool route of trying to cram rides on top of each other in CBeebies Land.

I'd really they rather not remove Spinball, especially in recent years we've seen 1.2m attractions for younger guests who are too old for Cbeebies removed, e.g. Enterprise, The Blade, Twirling Toadstall etc.

If Spinball were to be removed in future, we need some flat rides & other attractions back first before they can even think about removing Spinball IMO!

 

[DistortAMG]

I'd really they rather not remove Spinball, especially in recent years we've seen 1.2m attractions for younger guests who are too old for Cbeebies removed, e.g. Enterprise, The Blade, Twirling Toadstall etc.

If Spinball were to be removed in future, we need some flat rides & other attractions back first before they can even think about removing Spinball IMO!

They best get a move on then, as that ride is two thirds of the way through its expected life. What you mention will take a good few years to come to fruition.

Unfortunately, it is not like Towers to make many long term plans.

 

[Hid]

They best get a move on then, as that ride is two thirds of the way through its expected life. What you mention will take a good few years to come to fruition.

Unfortunately, it is not like Towers to make many long term plans.

They will have a long term plan maybe not visible to the Public