Amusement Park News

The Glendale, Arizona location of the much-anticipated Mattel Adventure Park is now scheduled to open in late 2025, according to Epic Resort Destinations and Mattel Adventure Park president Mark Cornell.

Along with the Glendale location, a second such resort is also already under way for Kansas City, Kansas, and Epic has a goal of launching six such properties, all over the course of the next ten years.

Mattel Adventure Parks will feature Hot Wheels-themed coasters, a Barbie Beach House, and Thomas & Friends attractions. Cornell attests that Epic Resort Destinations wants to offer “branded thrill rides using the biggest brands in the world” as well as immersive experiences that include hospitality, retail, and food and beverage based around these brands.

While Epic now has a licensing deal with Mattel to use all the company's major toy brands, each theme park will feature the same or similar attraction areas such as Thomas & Friends: World of Sodor, which will have seven different attractions within it, all targeting the youngest park guests and using a mix of digital and analog approaches unique to the theme park industry.



The park will also feature an immersive He-Man vs. Skeletor Laser Tag experience and mini-golf experiences with nine holes, each of which will be inspired by Mattel brands like Magic 8 Ball and Pictionary. The park will also include a large-scale climbing structure with an Uno game theme. The Hot Wheels brand will also occupy a big part of the theme park with Hot Wheels go karts and two coasters. There will also be the first Barbie Beach House attraction ever.

The Glendale Park, which will be the company's first, will feature 25 attractions, including the two impressive Hot Wheels themed coasters. The Hot Wheels Bone Shaker: The Ultimate Ride towers 84-feet in height and is set to be a family coaster with a hot rod skull design. Hot Wheels Twin Mill Racer will be a wilder ride with four inversions, and a corkscrew through a double loop in the mix. The colors of the latter will be vivid, Hot Wheels-iconic shades: a bright blue track and a glowing orange double loop.

The Kansas City site will be larger than the Arizona location, and along with the attractions, which will cross pollinate from Glendale, in Kansas, Epic will be in charge of all the food and beverage and hospitality concepts. This location will feature four coasters in all, and food venues that include the Hot Wheels Legends bar and grill, which will have an exterior that resembles the look of Hot Wheels cars themselves.

The Barbie Beach House attraction in both locations is set to include hologram technology and a flying theater, allowing guests to journey with Barbie everywhere from underwater to outer space. There will also be a themed rooftop Barbie Beach Club restaurant, one that will be inclusive of all age groups, as Barbie fans fill a wide demographic. There will be signature pink mocktails for all ages to enjoy and innovative cocktails for adult Barbie lovers.



Also appealing to all ages: an innovative retail experience, one that allows guests to select and customize Barbie skin and hair color and dress their selected doll as part of a “Dream Closet” experience. Barbie will also appear as life-like hologram inside the Dream Closet, featuring two Barbies from the Netflix Barbie show: Brooklyn and Malibu, who will help advise guests on their selections and create a projection mapped build-a-Barbie type of experience.

While the Glendale Mattel Adventure Park location was originally slated to open this year, the delay to next year should indeed be worth waiting for. Construction issues caused the delay. While Mattel Adventure Park itself is close to completion, VAI Resort is handling the hospitality at the Arizona location, including hotel, dining, concert, and other entertainment choices on the site. The VAI resort is still under construction – which impacts the ability of the theme park itself to open as originally planned.

The reason for VAI's continued construction is that the resort has considerably expanded their experience. VAI's phase one opening will be in late 2025, the time frame in which Mattel Adventure Park will also open. VAI will add additional resort elements for a total of three phases through 2026.

Promisingly, VAI recently announced that Glendale's planning and zoning commission has recommended approval for their new development zoning, and for the resort's general plan amendment for the $1 billion project as well.

The new zoning proposal replaced a previously planned area development called Centerpoint that was approved back in 2020. At that time, the project was first proposed as the Crystal Lagoons Island Resort and was originally scheduled for a 2023 opening. Today the VAI resort incorporates additional land not included as a part of the original development agreement.

The Glendale property is now expected to include approximately 660,000 square feet of building space for 1,100 hotel rooms in four separate towers, an 11,000-seat amphitheater, convention center, and of course Mattel Adventure Park. A parking garage is one new aspect currently under construction to handle concert and other events that could be taking place concurrently at the resort.

VAI is also proudly touting the resort property as the location of Bar Mar—the first Jose Andrees Group restaurant in Arizona, featuring elevated fine dining with seafood and a unique and vibrant design. Andres is a world-renowned, Michelin-starred chef and humanitarian.  

With all of this in mind, Epic asks for patience while the exact opening day for the adventure park is still in flux for next year. As of press time, VAI's hotel and amphitheater are scheduled to open along with Mattel Adventure Park in late 2025.