France: New Flying Carousel “Le Ptéranodon” at Babyland-Amiland Now Open

Babyland-Amiland, a family amusement park located near Paris in Saint-Pierre-du-Perray (Île-de-France region), recently opened a new attraction to its visitors, the highest in the park, dedicated to the world of dinosaurs. In the new flying carousel “Le Ptéranodon”, guests soar through the air at a height of over 30 meters like a pterosaur, enjoying the view. To ride, guests must be at least 1.05 meters tall.

Preshow area of Le Ptéranodon Visitors enter the new area via a 15-meter bridge that passes waterfalls, brick archways and rock works. The path leads guests to a small building at the foot of the flight attraction, where a preshow immerses visitors in the story. According to it, they are in the laboratory of a scientist who has invented a flying machine. Afterwards, the visitors go back outside to take a seat in one of the twelve passenger gondolas with double seats (i.e. 24 riders in total). The gondolas on the arms begin to rotate around the central mast, ascending as they go. Once at the top, the Dino Flying Carousel reveals a spectacular view as it spins.

The new ride is a Swing Tower model. The attraction, which was originally scheduled for the 2021 season but was postponed due to the pandemic, is a Swing Tower from Italy’s SBF-Visa Group. A similar attraction opened in 2018 under the name “Flyrosaurus” at Fantasiana Erlebnispark in Austria (see EAP 5/2018). The theming work around the attraction was carried out by Petro Art Production in collaboration with Themics Philippines. The appropriate soundtrack, for the queuing area and the ride itself (on-ride sound), was created by IMAscore. The Lapère family invested a total of 1.2 million euros in the new attraction, which is the first themed ride in the park. In the coming years, more new themed attractions are planned to follow, as spokesperson Steve Varinou told EAP. The French amusement park attracts around 200.000 visitors per year. (eap)