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World’s largest indoor theme park set to open in Dubai

DUBAI, UAE— IMG Worlds of Adventure, considered the world’s biggest indoor theme park, is finishing up preparations for its grand launch in Dubai on August 15.

A gondola modelled on Thor’s hammer, a parade of the Powerpuff girls and ghouls and madmen in costume are some of the features of the $1 billion theme park.

More than 20 rides and attractions at IMG Worlds of Adventure are in the final stages of testing and commissioning, with acrobats and dancers preparing for live performances since February, reports from The National said.

Some of the main rides are centered around popular on-screen characters, such as a 3D-ride based on The Hulk, a spinning roller coaster called Spider-Man Doc Ock’s Revenge and a Thor Thunder Spin ride.

The indoor arena, the size of 26 football pitches, has a capacity for over 30,000 people at a time, and park designers say they anticipate 4.5million guests during their first year in operation.

“As we want to keep an element of surprise, to keep the magic alive I will only share one attraction: the Haunted Hotel. This was the most brilliantly terrifying experience of my life,” Lennard Otto, chief executive of IMG Worlds of Adventure, told The National.

Sixty-nine life-size dinosaurs are also set to lurk in the jungles of the Lost Valley, the dinosaur adventure zone. The plant-eating Barosaurus is the park’s biggest model at a towering 15.5 metres. It took the Japanese animatronic specialist company Kokoro five years to create the figure, which could look over a five-storey building if stood on hind legs.

Not for the faint-hearted, the Velociraptor ride begins in the park’s forest before propelling visitors outdoors for 2.5 seconds at 100 kph. Named after the quick, bird-like predator, the ride hinges on near-vertical drops and sheer speed.

In the Cartoon Network Zone, daily live performances will take place at the LazyTown theatre, with musical performances based on the children’s show.

IMG said it received an overwhelming response of interest from the UAE and GCC as well as North Africa, Russia, China, Iran, India, Germany and the UK. It declined to disclose ticket sales but said it has estimated it will receive 4.5 million visitors in its first year.

Tickets are available for the August 15 launch at www.IMGworlds.com. They cost Dh300 for adults and Dh250 for children for a day. Children under 3 years old and 0.9m in height can enter for free.

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