originally posted on 2/7/2020
Photo: Chapman Taylor. View full-sized image.
A major new amusement park is set to open in Moscow. Dream Island (Ostrov Mechty) will be the largest indoor amusement park in the world, at least according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. At 3,229,173 square feet, the facility, which is also the largest theme park — indoors or outdoors — in all of Europe, has been built on an islet near the Moscow city center. Made to look like a town hall, the park starts with a central alley, ending with a merry-go-round leading to four promenades, each with a custom theme re-creating a street from four famed cities using their distinctive outdoor design and architecture: Barcelona, Beverly Hills, London and Rome.
A glass roof will provide light and a favorable climate year round.
Photo: Chapman Taylor. View full-sized image.
With a glass roof over much of it, Dream Island will boast eight thematic zones with 27 rides. Those zones will represent different worlds and feature globally famous heroes and settings with their attractions, such as Smurf’s Village, Mowgli in the Land of Dinosaurs, a Temple of Fire inspired by the ruined cities of the Incas, Hello Kitty, Hotel Transylvania, Dream Race, Snow Queen Castle, the Magic Village (with a puppet theater and horror house), a virtual reality zone, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As for the Ninja Turtles, they will provide the theming for one of the park’s two coasters. Tunnel Flight will be an Intamin, 78-foot-tall steel launch coaster. Joining it in the park’s arsenal will be Race of the Future, a Fabbri-created wild mouse-style layout, offering spinning cars and virtual reality.
Photo: Chapman Taylor. View full-sized image.
Construction on Dream Park began in March 2016. It was halted in early 2017 for financial reasons but was refinanced and restarted by late 2017. The volume of investments now totals $1.5 billion. A redevelopment of the Soviet-era Nagatino Park in central Moscow, Dream Island is designed as the first-ever large-scale leisure destination in Russia, expected to be visited by 50 million people annually. In addition to a large indoor amusement park, the riverfront complex provides a regional shopping center, outdoor leisure facilities, a four-star hotel, a concert hall, a cinema, a children's sailing school, restaurants and shops.
Photo: Themeparx. View full-sized image.
The Russian facility is now scheduled to open February 29, 2020, along with its two “Russian Mountains,” the original term used in many languages for roller coasters that referred to the wood-supported ice slides that were popular in Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ironically, once actual coasters began appearing in Russia, often as imitators of American rides, they were known as Amerikanskie gorki (or "American mountains”). The country is currently home to 195 coasters (all steel, no wood), seeing nine new rides in 2019 and slated to see five more in 2020.
— Randy Geisler
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