Theme park is an outdoor entertainment center that offers rides, games, exhibitions, and shows based on one or more special ideas, or themes. The use of themes is the main difference between a theme park and a traditional amusement park. An amusement park offers many kinds of recreation, such as roller coasters, Ferris wheels, carrousels (also called merry-go-rounds), and games, including shooting galleries. A theme park offers recreation with themes, such as wildlife, space travel, the movie industry, a specific location, or a historical period. In an amusement park, customers must pay for each game, ride, or other entertainment separately. In a theme park, customers usually make a single payment to enter, and then they can enjoy all the rides without further charge.
Attractions at theme parks.
Theme parks, which are generally owned by private companies, offer a wide range of entertainment to visitors. All theme parks provide rides, including bumper cars, carrousels, roller coasters, and water rides. The most exciting and scary rides are known as thrill rides or white-knuckle rides. Many rides reflect the themes of the parks.
Parks based on historical themes often have museumlike exhibitions. For example, Flambards, at Helston in Cornwall, England, has an authentic life-size Victorian village with real shops, a World War II city street with all the atmosphere of an air raid, and an airpark with helicopters and airplanes on display. At Bendigo and Ballarat, both in the Australian state of Victoria, visitors can wander through the streets of gold rush towns of the 1850’s and take an underground trip through a gold mine.
Parks with a fantasy theme may have live shows. For example, the Magical Kingdom of Camelot theme park, near Chorley in Lancashire, England, is a park based on the medieval world of King Arthur’s court. Its attractions include Merlin’s Magic Show, falconry displays, and recitals of medieval music. Some theme parks also have animal attractions. Marine theme parks—such as Sea World at Southport in Queensland, Australia; and the SeaWorld parks in the United States in Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego—have among their many attractions shows featuring dolphins and sea lions.
History.
The first theme parks opened in the United States. Disneyland, the oldest theme park in the world, opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California. It was divided into several different “lands” based on scenes from well-known movies produced by the Walt Disney movie company (see Walt Disney Company ). In 1971, the company opened Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida. This resort includes four theme parks—the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It opened in 1982. In 1983, the Walt Disney organization opened Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney theme park outside the United States. Disneyland Paris Theme Park (now Disneyland Resort Paris), the first Disney park in Europe, opened in 1992 in the Paris suburb of Marne-la-Vallee.
Theme parks gradually spread to other countries in the late 1900’s. During the 1980’s, many theme parks opened in the United Kingdom and in Australia. There are now hundreds of theme parks all over the world.
