Europe’s Biggest Indoor Theme Park Ever Is Now Open
The cold doesn't bother them anyway.
by Meryl Medel | March 04, 2020
Last Saturday, February 29, 2020, Moscow’s Dream Island (Остров Мечты or Ostrov Mechty) officially opened to the public. Considered to be Russia’s answer to United States’ Disneyland, this thirty-hectare theme park will be the biggest indoor theme park in Europe yet.
Out of nine zones, Dream Island has created five of their own Russian-themed stories, characters, and attractions, while the remaining four zones are licensed attractions. This includes Sony Pictures’ Hotel Transylvania, IMPS’ Smurfs, Viacom’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sanrio’s Hello Kitty.
Visitors can join the meet and greet with Hello Kitty and her friends after watching a 25-minute performance onstage. This area will also include a beauty salon, a macaroon-specialty cafe, and the Sweet Dance ride, a rotating disk with spinning colorful cakes as rides.
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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles zone features some of the most extreme attractions in the park: a drop tower ride; the Flight in the Tunnel ride, a high-speed rollercoaster speeding through the underground tunnels of New York City; and the Hammer of Doom, a huge landing disk swinging around to turn the riders upside down.
The remaining five zones are Fairy Tale Village, Lost World of Dinosaurs, Abandoned House, Dream Race, and the theme park’s centerpiece, Snow Queen’s Castle.
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One of the more diverse areas in Dream Island, the Lost World of Dinosaurs, also known as Mowgli in the Land of Dinosaurs, features about eight attractions. Some of these are the family-friendly rides Dinosafari, a rollercoaster going through a jungle to meet its inhabitants; City of the Apes, a twelve-cart carousel that can easily house parents and their kids; and the Cobra, a large spinning disk for those looking for more thrill.
Beyond the themed zones, the theme park features facades of famous landmarks all over the world from Barcelona and Rome to California and London.
While the park just opened, plans for expansion are already well underway. In the future, the park will feature a concert hall, a cinema with 17 screens, a landscaped park adjacent to the Moskva River, as well as a modern hotel, a children’s yacht school, and a banquet and concert hall.
In the meantime, if you’re planning to visit, a family of four can enjoy a day in Dream Island for 11,000 rubles (approximately USD 163).
Want to explore Moscow beyond Dream Island? Check out these free things to do in this city.
