It’s a place where literary classics come to life. If you are a fan of famed author Charles Dickens… and you love water rides then consider adding London to your list of summer vacation hotspots.
Next month, a new $125-million theme park inspired by the works of the acclaimed author opens in a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Chatham, 35 miles southeast of London.
If you have voracious young readers in your family who can’t get enough of titles such as “The Pickwick Papers,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” and “Oliver” you may want to forgo Disney World and head straight for Dickens World. It’s there where you will be magically transported back to the vibrant landscape of 19th century England.
According to media representatives who recently got a sneak peek of the massive theme park, the attractions are “inarguably authentic.” The indoor park (which charges an admission price of $25 for adults and $15 for children) includes a central square of cobbled streets and crooked buildings, where staff dressed as pickpockets mingle with the crowds. It also gives visitors the chance to see the Ghost of Christmas Past in Ebeneezer Scrooge’s haunted house and be taunted by a schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall – the dismal school from “Nicholas Nickleby.” The park also caters to very young Dickens fans– Fagin’s Den is an area built especially for preschoolers. The park also includes a cafeteria where you can indulge in some culinary classics of the era. And, when you are done filling up on English pub grub you can head over to catch the “4D animatronic theater show” about Dickens’ life and work.
Okay, it may not be as peppy as a parade down Disney’s Main Street or as thrilling as a 328-foot heart-stopping drop from the “Tower of Terror,” but managers of the new London theme park are hoping it will draw record crowds. They say their goal is to have Dickens be thought of as fun.
Would you consider making the trip?
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