At the weekend, Miss A and I were invited to Alton Towers for our first trip of 2017 to celebrate the relaunch of CBeebies Land. CBeebies Land opened to great applause in 2014 as an area dedicated to preschoolers and little folk, with a host of branded rides and attractions. CBeebies Land has grown this year with the addition of two new attractions – The Furchester Hotel Live and the Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride. On top of this the whole area has been given a massive tidy, clean and retouch by the incredible Towers TLC team.
The relaunch started with a party on Friday night in the Alton Towers Hotel ‘Stateroom’. It took the form of a ‘VIP Ubercorn Disco’. There were a bevy of CBeebies stars in attendance including Ubercorn, Grandmaster Glitch. Elmo and Phoebe from Furchester made an appearance too! It was a lovely evening, although because of the young audience, everyone was a little ‘tired and emotional’ come 8.30pm. We retired to our ‘Arctic Explorer’ room (Full review soon!) to get ready for an early start.
Saturday saw us entering Alton Towers at 8.30am (yawn!) to witness a parade with lots of CBeebies stars to officially re-open CBeebies Land! It was fronted by Cat Sandion and Ben Cajee with Chris Jarvis, Pui Fan Lee and ‘Melody’ (aka Angharad Rhodes), followed by some ‘animated’ stars of CBeebies. The gathered families followed them to the heart of CBeebies Land to witness the official opening. I’ve captured the whole thing in this video blog – it’s a 360 degree video, so you can see every angle of the celebrations.
Lets take a look at the new additions –
Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride
“The Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride – where your very own Vroomster awaits, where you will be at the controls, for your special mission to help Kyan, Xuli, Lars and Foz on a Go Jetters global adventure.”
This is a great addition to CBeebies Land – manufactured by Garmendale, the ‘Quadstar Aerial Roundabout‘ has ten Vroomsters for up to four passengers. The ‘driver’ can control the flight of the Vroomster. Meaning those wanting a gentle spin can leave it at ground level, and those wanting a more thrilling experience can send it skyward. It’s very similar in concept to the ‘Flying Jumbo’ ride at Chessington, which is very popular with younger families. The theming and finishing on the ride was top notch, and it was drawing crowds all day. It’s a perfect ride for younger children to get their first fix of something a little more daring than a carousel.
The Furchester Hotel Live
I really like the Furchester Hotel show on CBeebies – it’s fun and vibrant and enjoyable to watch, even as a grown-up.
“Enter the extraordinary Furchester Hotel where you will be welcomed with furry arms for a fun-packed, interactive live show with the Furchester monsters! You will help them as they prepare for the arrival of superstar Chick Swagger – so get those dance moves ready!”
The Furchester Hotel Live show mixes live action, puppetry and video and music to create a fun and interactive show. The live host ensures all the children are right at the front so they get a good view of the action. I really like a bit of ‘theatre’ to attractions within Theme Parks, and it’s been lacking in recent years. However, the quality of the host and the live puppetry is fantastic – it’s a slick show that was enjoyed by all the audience. I can’t wait to take J into this later in the year – he’s going to love it. It got a massive round of applause after the performance and we left smiling. If they can make sure the quality of performance is kept up in every show – Alton Towers will have a hit on their hands. The time and effort put into it really does show, all the elements have been fused together seamlessly.
It’s lovely to see such additions to CBeebies Land in 2017 – along with the opening of the CBeebies Land Hotel in July, this year seems to be the ‘Year of the Family’ at Alton Towers Resort!
