Chessington World of Adventures Resort has released the first images of its upcoming £50 million Minecraft hotel, part of the new Minecraft World area set to open next year. Officials from Merlin Entertainments and Mojang Studios shared mock-up images and details during a recent virtual event, including plans for a themed hotel and a new rollercoaster.
Hotel features and themed rooms
The Minecraft World Hotel will feature 69 themed rooms across four floors, including 20 premium and 49 standard rooms. Guests will check in amid Overworld-themed scenery before taking Nether Portal-inspired lifts and mine-tunnel corridors to their rooms.
Mock-up sketches show two adult rooms, one with muted theming and another featuring wallpaper with the game's characters Steve and Alex above the bed. The rooms include a desk and crate resembling items from the game, a TNT block pillow, a TNT block footstool, and a Creeper cushion. A child's room with a bunk bed is designed to look like a treehouse, with wallpaper replicating tree leaves and wooden blocks.
Corridor sketches show materials found across the Minecraft world, including gold and diamond blocks, and an appearance from the skeleton character. The hotel will also house an underwater-themed restaurant inspired by Minecraft's ocean biomes and a potions bar themed after the Woodland Mansion.
New rollercoaster announced
At the live event, bosses unveiled plans for a new rollercoaster called Escape the Nether, launching as part of the Minecraft World area. The high-speed coaster features both indoor and outdoor action, with riders plunging into dark underground mines before blasting through a glowing Nether portal into the outdoors.
The Minecraft World website describes the ride: 'You'll join Steve and Alex to battle your way through the Nether, coming face to face with hostile mobs before launching back to the Overworld. Will you escape? And yes, there's lava. Lots of lava.'
The park is calling it the 'ultimate Minecraft adventure and like nothing you've experienced before.'
Reaction and opening details
Fans have called the park — the first of its kind in the world — a 'dream come true', with one saying 'I'd genuinely do anything to go.' Minecraft is one of the most popular video games, attracting 300,000 new players every day.
Daisy Mercedes, creative producer at Merlin Entertainments, said: 'Every room, corridor and detail has been crafted with immense love for this game, the stories made within it and its community.'
'Seeing the Minecraft World Hotel take shape alongside the attractions we are building at Chessington World of Adventures theme park is a Minecraft fan's biggest dream.'
Details on exactly when the park will open are yet to be announced, with officials saying it will be sometime next year.
