Set sail for Animal Treasure Island
Gardaland welcomes a menagerie of pirates for its 50th, and Chessington goes to the dogs
Coming on the heels of Universal’s big announcement about its UK park, let’s stay in Europe and explore two parks with new attractions on the way. Gardaland in Italy is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025 and is welcoming an ambitious dark ride along with other new features. Meanwhile, Chessington World of Adventures in London will unleash a Paw Patrol land next year.
Treasure awaits at Gardaland
Animal Treasure Island, which represents a €10 million investment by parent company, Merlin Entertainments, is the featured attraction that the Italian theme park is rolling out for its big birthday bash. What is it? The boat-based dark ride appears to take inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean, but instead of human buccaneers, it’ll be a battle between good and evil cats, owls, hippos, and other assorted animals. Merlin Magic Making, the company’s creative team, developed original IP and is designing the attraction. Animal Treasure Island will include 20 animatronics-filled scenes that will be accompanied by an original score delivered over a 360-degree binaural sound system.
In addition to the dark ride, Gardaland will be debuting “Prezzemolo and the Mystery of Hidden Worlds,” a new film in its 4D theater. It will tell the backstory of Prezzemolo, a hybrid dog-dinosaur who serves as the park’s mascot. The popular character has his own animated television series that is broadcast in Italy.
The park is also refreshing one of its lands and renaming it Dragon Empire. It will celebrate the Chinese New Year every day with colorful adornments and festive music. As part of the makeover, Dragon Empire will welcome Rocket Factory, an interactive experience in which guests will be able to create their own pyrotechnics (virtually, I’d have to imagine) and blast them into the night sky. The land includes the existing Dragon Rush Wild Mouse-like spinning coaster as well.
Gardaland will be presenting two new shows for its anniversary. “Bim Bum Bam Live” will star Uan, a puppet familiar to Italians who watched his exploits on TV in the 1980s and 1990s. Artificial intelligence will be the topic of “A.I. – The Future Is Here,” a futuristic multimedia show filled with special effects (and, apparently, warnings about the threat the technology represents). Last year, the park opened Wolf Legend, a themed “Drop & Twist Tower” ride.
Get your paws on Chessington’s new land
In partnership with Paramount, Merlin Entertainments will be welcoming Paw Patrol to Chessington World of Adventures, another park in its portfolio, in 2026. Based on the characters that are adored by pre-schoolers, the new 1.4-acre land will include four themed rides, including a roller coaster (that will presumably be a kiddie ride a la Daddy Pig’s Roller Coaster at Peppa Pig Theme Park). Based on the concept art (above), it appears a Paw Patrol slide and water ride will also be part of the mix.
“Chessington World of Adventures and Nickelodeon have a deep commitment to creating entertainment that families can enjoy together,” says Marie Marks, SVP Global Experiences at Paramount, “and we are delighted that this new themed land will immerse young visitors in their very own Paw Patrol adventure.”
Have you been to Gardaland? How about Chessington?