The new £37 million, 60-acre, Gulliver’s Valley theme park in South-Yorkshire, made its debut last weekend. The project had been 6 years in the making, with 2 years spent building the theme park itself. As COVID-19 struck, the opening date for the park was pushed back, until last weekend when the park opened for the first time with safety measures in place.
Managing Director, Julie Dalton, experienced several challenges when preparing the latest Gulliver’s theme park to open. “We’ve had to change almost everything to get open. There’s nothing we haven’t had to rethink to make this work, from the way staff interact with visitors to how we operate and clean rides. Everything has had to be reviewed and reworked.”
Staff within the park must be decked-out in full facial PPE, with one-way systems in place to ensure there isn’t a backlog of guests in any one area at one time. Guests are also required to where facial PPE when on rides. There is also a traffic light system in place, rating how risky rides could be in terms of contracting the virus.
Julie has outlined that the park is as safe as possible and complies with all government safety guidelines. “It’s still perfectly safe otherwise we wouldn’t run them,” she says. “But it might mean an operator has to come closer to you than a metre or there are higher speeds. It’s just letting people know there’s a very minor risk. It’s like if you drive down a busy motorway, it’s not quite as safe as driving down an empty one. We’re giving that information so people can make an informed choice.”
The first day of the theme park opening was limited to 500 pre-booked customers, although, the number will eventually be pushed up to 1,000 people a day. The park’s capacity is 4,000, and it may be some way off before that number is reached, with social distancing measures in place.
Among the park’s highlights are animatronic dinosaurs, a smugglers themed area and a wild west town. Guests can enjoy a log flume and pirate ship ride, and for those that wish to stay over, there are 24 cabins and a mini eight-room hotel.
