Legoland and Alton Towers are ‘old and tired’ with unreliable rides – and need to ‘vastly improve’ to compete with Universal and new £600M French park

Britain will soon rival Germany and France as Europe’s theme park capital when two brand new parks – Universal and a £600million French-owned attraction known as Puy du Fou – open on UK shores.

While Universal serves up nerve-jangling state-of-the-art cinematic rides, Puy du Fou gives a spellbinding history lesson via Hollywood-standard live shows and painstakingly recreated period villages.

Universal is bound for Bedfordshire, and is expected to attract 8.5million visitors when it opens its doors in 2031. Puy du Fou will arrive in four years’ time in Oxfordshire. 

News of the arrival of such slick overseas brands is likely to have left bosses behind Britain’s current clutch of popular theme parks – often dubbed ‘tired’, ‘dirty’ and ‘overpriced’ in visitor reviews – feeling more than a little jittery.  

Merlin Entertainments currently enjoys a monopoly on the nation’s most popular attractions, with Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park, Legoland Windsor and Alton Towers sitting pretty in the company’s big thrill portfolio.

The brand also owns the London Eye, Sea Life and Madame Tussauds – and enjoys the attention of more than 60 million guests every year. 

However, with two shiny new pennies dramatically changing the UK’s theme park landscape in the next decade, will Britain’s current go-to parks, which took a painful hit during the pandemic, be able to keep visitors figures buoyant? 

Merlin has big plans of its own in the pipeline: Chessington will open a Paw Patrol themed area in 2026 and a Minecraft-themed area in 2027; Alton Towers announced the arrival of the world’s first Bluey rollercoaster this week – set to invite young fans to ride next spring. 

Coasters and shows draw in visitors but negative experiences when it comes to costs, queues, dining and toilets are arguably where repeat visitors are won and lost.  

Since Universal’s debut in California in the early 1960s, the park has seen its standards constantly elevated thanks to ongoing rivalry with the world’s most famous theme park brand, Disney.

In the UK, you don’t have to wander too far on social media to find theme park goers with major complaints about Merlin’s big four.  

According to reviews on TripAdvisor, Legoland Windsor and Chessington World of Adventures fare the worst when it comes to customer satisfaction.  

Legoland has some 25,000 reviews, and while there are plenty of positive verdicts on fun-filled days out, the toddler-friendly park only has an overall three out of five rating, with criticisms directed at everything from cleanliness to cost and organisation. 

A Spanish family visiting this month didn’t hold back, describing the park as ‘simply terrible’ and saying it was ‘completely outdated in both time and technology’. 

They also scathed: ‘The park is dirty everywhere (even right after opening)’.    

Other recent posts see another family criticising long queue times, saying: ‘My child only used four attractions throughout the day because the wait for each was over 65 minutes.’ 

Some 25 miles south east, it’s a case of same story, different Merlin park, for Chessington World of Adventures also has highly mixed reviews.

The Surrey theme park, which has an aquarium and zoo alongside high energy rides including Dragon’s Fury, Jumanji-themed Mandrill Mayhem and plunge ride Croc Drop, is widely praised for offering exhilarating rides for younger-aged children. 

One happy customer wrote: ‘Brilliant day at Chessington with my seven-year-old’, adding that getting in was seamless, there was an ‘excellent range of rides for young children’ and toilet and cafe facilities were good. 

Others though have suggested the park is ‘old’ in parts. One rider on Tiger Rock, the park’s log flume ride, which originally opened as Dragon Falls in 1987, posted footage recently entitled ‘The one ride that’s slowly dying’. 

The clip showed rust on the ride’s flume and a small chunk missing from the boat protective foam.  

One person commented: ‘This ride is so old I’m surprised it’s still moving. It’s an outdated area now, needs lots of work and I think it’ll go once Minecraft area is open.’ 

Value for money comes into play too – particularly during the school holidays when the park is busy. 

A family visiting the Surrey attraction in August rated the park a lowly one out of five, writing: ‘Spent £81 on tickets, plus £12 to park. Terrible experience. Ridiculously long queues – up to 110 minutes for most rides.’ 

Alton Towers fares a little better on the leading review site, scoring a four-out-of-five rating.  

While some of the most recent reviews are glowing, with riders experiencing low queue times in recent weeks and praising ‘amazing and very helpful’ staff, others have endured different experiences. 

One seasoned theme park visitor who says they go to the attraction, which first opened 45 years ago in 1980, ‘most weeks’ also said their last visit, in September, was a great day out. 

However, they allude to less enjoyable previous trips, describing it as a ‘hit-and-miss’ theme park, suggesting it’s plagued by ‘constant breakdowns, which lets them down’. 

Last year saw the launch of Hyperia, the UK’s tallest rollercoaster, at Thorpe Park. 

The high energy ride was unveiled to great fanfare and has wowed those who’ve ridden it… but it suffered a stuttered first summer after opening in May. 

‘Unforeseen circumstances’ closed it frequently, once for more than two weeks, with those who’d travelled to the park especially to try the ride, which stands 72 metres tall and has a top speed of 81 miles per hour, left frustrated and furious. 

A spokesperson for Merlin told the Daily Mail: ‘Merlin operates some of the world’s most exciting and iconic branded entertainment destinations, partnering with the biggest and most loved names in family entertainment, from LEGO, the world’s leading toy brand, to pre-school favourites like Bluey and PAW Patrol, and Minecraft as the number one gaming brand.

‘More and more visitors every year are choosing Merlin attractions. 

Last year we welcomed a record 63 million visitors worldwide and achieved our highest ever guest satisfaction scores. 

Here in the UK, we have seen a further uplift in guest satisfaction scores for our theme parks this year, including Alton Towers. Isolated online complaints do not reflect the overwhelmingly positive feedback we collect directly from our guests, which continues on a strong upward trend.

‘But we are not standing still. We are investing heavily in our UK resorts and continuing to respond to consumer feedback, expectations and market trends.’

Universal and Puy du Fou though have clearly spotted a major opportunity to expand their reach in the UK market.   

Universal is now a goliath on the global theme park scene, with outposts of its film-led fun in California, Florida, Osaka in Japan, Singapore and Beijing. 

While it’s certainly not cheap to visit – a day pass to Universal Orlando for example costs around $149 (£110), more than three times the price of a visit to a Merlin park, those who stump up when the park opens in the UK are still likely to have their heads turned by the Hollywood sheen.

Fan favourite James Bond, Lord of the Rings and Paddington are set to feature among the attractions alongside rides inspired by Jurassic Park, Minions as well as Back to the Future. 

Universal in Bedfordshire will be one of the largest and most advanced theme parks in Europe, with a 500-room hotel and a retail and entertainment complex planned along with the theme park.

The attraction will create around 28,000 jobs – 20,000 in the construction period and 8,000 working on the site when it opens. 

Universal plans to bring in unique attractions that can’t be found anywhere else, with details like Back to the Future’s Hill Valley clock hidden from a recently released map of the theme park’s possible future appearance.

And how to avoid closing rides because of the great British weather? Universal is likely to swerve the problem. 

Early designs suggest that most of the attractions will be indoors including Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions rides.

And Puy du Fou is likely to be just as enticing thanks to its unique brand of immersive, history-themed attractions.

The boss of the firm behind the park has exclusively told the Daily Mail the UK version has already been tirelessly developed in secret for the past two years.

Forget high-thrill rides and classic coasters, the attraction will allow visitors to step back in time and witness centuries of history brought to life, including gladiator tournaments and Viking invasions.

Already a hit in France and Spain, Puy du Fou parks draw millions of visitors each year with its spectacular live shows, recreated period villages and jaw-dropping special effects.

The company submitted an outline planning application to Cherwell District Council on 1 September, with hopes to open the UK location in stages starting from 2029.

Guests will be able to explore four fully recreated period villages – each designed around a different era in British history.

There will be 13 live shows each day, ranging from theatrical performances to musketeer battles. The park also plans to build three themed hotels, each styled to reflect a different historical period, along with a large conference centre.

To blend in with the surrounding natural landscape, the park will feature 40 acres of wildflower meadows, lakes and more than 20,000 planted trees.

The UK site is expected to generate around 2,000 direct jobs, plus another 6,000 through local hospitality and services – which is set to boost the local economy by up to £500 million.