Theme park fans might want to circle a trip to Mexico next fall. A new resort featuring a major theme park will be opening then just north of Puerto Vallarta.
We told you last year about the park, BON Luxury Theme Park. Now, the VidantaWorld Nuevo Vallarta resort has announced its opening timeline.
Phase one of VidantaWorld Nuevo Vallarta's opening starts December 1, with the debut of its BON Hotel. The hotel will offer one- and two-bedroom suites, with some overlooking the theme park. Then on December 16, the "Cirque du Soleil LUDO" show will debut at VidantaWorld Nuevo Vallarta. Staged in a $200-million, 696-seat theater with a 360-degree aquatic stage and wrap-around aquarium, this will be Cirque's first aquatic production since "O" at Las Vegas' Bellagio.
Finally, in fall of 2026, the BON Luxury Theme Park opens. Standing for "Beauty of Nature," the park will offer 23 attractions and 25 restaurants in themed lands including including BON Plaza, Fantasy Gardens, Empire of Light, Land of Legends and the Cirque du Soleil Zone.
We detailed the attractions in this park last year, in our post, New 'Luxury Theme Park' set for 2026 debut in Mexico. The park's five roller coasters will be led by Tecuani Beast, a Vekoma double-launch coaster.
While the new park is set to debut next fall, it will not be open to everyone then. For its first year of operation, VidantaWorld Nuevo Vallarta is restricting access to BON Luxury Theme Park to guests of the BON Hotel and other on-site hotels at the resort. (That's about 3,000 rooms and suites in total.)
"Capacity is intentionally limited to keep waits short and service attentive," the resort said in a press release. "After the first year exclusively serving resort guests, the BON Luxury Theme Park will welcome the general public."
Grupo Vidanta also operates VidantaWorld Riviera Maya on Mexico's east coast. Its Jungala Hotel also will open December 1.
"More than 50 years ago, this company was started with a dream of showcasing Mexico's beauty and hospitality to the world," VidantaWorld COO Michel Beuffe said. "VidantaWorld is the culmination of that dream — a destination so extraordinary that it stands alongside the world's most iconic entertainment destinations as one of the must-visit experiences on Earth. We're not trying to copy what others have done. We're establishing something entirely new: the first brand to combine world-class theme park excellence with true luxury hospitality, permanent Cirque du Soleil residencies, championship golf, and breathtaking natural settings. That's why we say VidantaWorld is 'the best of all possible worlds.'"
To keep up to date with more travel and theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
i was just wondering about this park the other day since i hadn't heard anything in quite a while. nice to see an update and that it didn't get american heartlanded :)
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
"$200-million, 696-seat theater with a 360-degree aquatic stage and wrap-around aquarium"
That is a MASSIVE gamble, and given that cost, I don't know how you recoup that kind of investment on a single Cirque show, even if it ran for a decade or longer at full capacity charging $200/seat - with those assumptions the theater could generate @$50 million/year if it ran 365 performance. So I guess you could generate $200 million in revenue in 4 years, but that doesn't account for the costs to operate the production or the likelihood that every performance won't sell out and they might not be able to stage that many performance in a year.
I wish these guys luck, and they certainly seem to be going about it the right way by slowly ramping up this park by leveraging the on-site resorts, but if the theme park makes the same financial assumptions that they've made for the Cirque theater, they're going to need a massive line of credit and patience from investors before this place is profitable.