PAULTONS PARK
UK
 2025 - Ghostly Manor / New Dark Ride - (5/18/2025) Lots of updates about Paultons Park came out over the weekend, along with the opening of the park’s new Ghostly Manor, a custom haunted house themed dark ride that uses Mack Rides’ new Gameplay Theater concept. Riders are tasked with trying to shoot/capture the evil spirits that you encount on a mix of rooms with interactive screens as well as rooms featuring practical sets mixed with some screens and projection style effects and animatronics to create the haunted experience. I’ve embedded a couple of videos of the new experience below, with the first one showing off an animated video explaining the story behind the attraction.
While it is hard to get a full grasp of what a dark ride experience is really like based solely on watching a video, I will say that the final experience here at Paultons looks to offer a far superior experience to the prototype ride that was set up by Mack Rides at Europa Park this Season as Ed & Edda’s Grand Prix Edventure. To be fair, the prototype at Europa-Park opened two months ago and was still suffering from some very obvious software bugs in an experience that was almost entirely based on screen-style gameplay. So it is nice to see a better video showing off what is possible with the new attraction system here at Paultons.
That isn’t all from Paultons however, they had announcements to make about what new attractions are in the works for the next few years as well, so scroll down.
(2/24/2025) Paulton’s Park has posted a video showing off the testing of the park’s new Ghostly Manor dark ride. Look for the new attraction to open on May 17, 2025.
(9/29/2024) Lagotronics has partnered with Mack Rides, Leisure Expert group and Themeics to create the “world’s first Gameplay Theater” that will open at Paultons Park in 2025 as ‘Ghostly Manor”.
The new attraction will be created inside the park’s former 4D Theater space with a new themed exterior when it opens in May 2025. The new ‘Gameplay Theater’ concept will be an interactive dark ride experience that will take guests through various scenes that will feature extensive scenery and projection effects to create a unique story-driven experience about the exploits of “famed ghost hunter Dr. Kinley”. While visiting Dr. Kinley’s manor, a number of ghosts he had captured escape and the guests are tasked with helping recapture the wayward spirits through the use of a Phantom Phaser.
(6/5/2024) Ghostly Manor is coming to Paulton’s Park… more details are to come, but I like the look of the teaser art!
(2/11/2024) Paultons Park appears to be building a new dark ride with a ghost hunting / paranormal theme. Banners are up along the construction walls in the park offering a warnings such as “Paranormal Activity Dectected” and “Spectre Apprehension in Operation”. You can follow a link to watch a video discussion about the new teasers up in the park over at Chall Chats, who mentions that the new attraction is replacing the park’s former 4D Theater attraction.
The timing would be great for a self-made IP with a faux Ghostbusters theme this year since the new Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire film will begin hitting theaters late next month.
2026 - Valgard - Realm of the Vikings& Drakon - (5/18/2025) Paultons Park has announced a new Viking themed land is coming to the park named, “Valgard - Realm of the Vikings”. The land will be home to new attractions starting with Drakon, a new Gerstlauer Euro Fighter style inverting roller coaster, which they say will be interwoven with “Raven - another legendary coaster reborn.” Based on the artwork, the future “Raven” coaster appears to be the current Cobra bobsled coaster from Gerstlauter which will be repainted green and get some new theming. The website also mentioned that the land will feature the “UK’s first epic ‘Vild Swing’ ride” (a Wild Swing ride from ART Engineering), as well as a Viking themed playground and a new Nordik themed dining hall.
But wait…there is more coming in 2027 (see below)
2027 - Possible Water Ride - (5/18/2025) Paultons Park had one more teaser to release about their plans for the 2027 season. This quick video teaser shows an icy ocean wave wash over the park’s Viking inspired logo, revealing a giant “2027” on a rocky shore.
So… while this could be anything it does give off vibes for something either wet or themed to water. However, it probably isn’t a traditional flume ride, simply because the park just added the Splash Lagoon family flume ride in 2024. The park is a little light on the water-ride side in general though and is lacking a large scale flume, a big splash style ride, or even a rapids ride. Though perhaps something more modern like a Mack Rides style water coaster might be a good fit, or perhaps something more unique like the Amazonia flume that opened at Bellewaerde park in 2024, with a surprise freefall element at the end.
Still lots of time to speculate between now and 2027…
???? - Holiday Village - In Development - (3/21/2025) Blooloop reports that Paultons Park is now planning on creating an on-site “holiday village” that will be able to accommodate up to 700 guests. The proposed resort could take several years to get built, but would feature 85 to 95 units, with a restaurant, a small shop for various items and groceries, and would be built on a site located next to the existing theme park.
The article described it as a “Scandinavian-style resort” which I believe means that it will feature a simple and minimalist design style using more natural materials in the construction, but still with a focus on only including what is essential, while offering a more nature oriented experience.
I’m not sure if this is a thing here in the US, so I’m sort of imagining the vibe here as if IKEA were to build a campground style resort featuring a bunch of small cabins. Someone please tell me if I’m way off base, but it does sound like a kind of relaxing get-away from it all kind of thing.
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