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Parque Warner Madrid

San Martín de la Vega, Spain

“Movie-themed park with outstanding roller coaster lineup”

Welcome to Parque Warner Madrid, a park with elaborately themed lands and a skyline full of world-class coasters. The park was designed for tens of thousand of visitors per day and it was meant to become one of Europe’s ultimate roller coaster destinations. Unfortunately, Parque Warner has had some rough years right after its inauguration in 2002. Locals didn’t seem too fond of Warner Bros and attendance levels were extremely low. But times have changed and two decades later, Parque Warner is finally able to compete with Europe’s largest theme parks. The park managed to attract two million visitors in 2023, which is similar to the numbers we see at Phantasialand and Liseberg. That’s quite impressive.

ROLLER COASTERS

Parque Warner’s epicentre of coaster thrills is DC Super Heroes World. This area contains two impressive B&M roller coasters, including Superman – la Atracción de Acero. Just like you’d expect from a B&M coaster, the ride has a great layout with seven inversions and some powerful curves. It’s also incredibly smooth, so it should be ranked among Europe’s best roller coasters. Yet, the ride doesn’t get the love it deserves. The paint has faded and the station could use a thorough cleaning. Another downside is the ride’s location: Superman has been placed completely outside the park and it’s almost impossible to see the ride from the pathways. There used to be a viewpoint to admire the coaster from up close, but it has been closed down. What a shame.

Superman’s neighbour is Shadows of Arkham, a Batman-themed inverted coaster manufactured by B&M. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Parque Warner opted for a layout that’s described as the Batman model by the Roller Coaster Database. The ride is identical to Batman The Ride, which can be found at multiple Six Flags parks across the United States. And honestly, those are great rides. Batman may be a standard coaster, but I think it’s brilliant. It has a strong layout with good g-forces and the smoothness is remarkable. Parque Warner also created a magnificent queue, which makes Shadows of Arkham’s atmosphere considerably better than Superman’s.

Parque Warner made its debut in 2002. Since then, quite a few new attractions have been added to the children’s area, but other areas of the park remained relatively untouched. This finally changed in 2023 with the addition of Batman Gotham City Escape, though. This is the long-awaited replacement for Batman Knight Flight, a simulator-type ride that was retired in 2014. Intamin was hired to install an LSM Launch Coaster right in the middle of Parque Warner. Thanks to this central location, Gotham City Escape has drastically – and positively – impacted the dynamics of the park. The coaster is a visual masterpiece and its tophat is a stunning eye-catcher when viewed from the park’s Main Street.

There are already several LSM Launch Coasters in Europe and they are all fantastic. And I’m pleased to announche that Gotham City Escape performs at the same high level as Taiga, Taron and Toutatis. The most notable elements of this ride are its three accelerations, four inversions and a 147-feet (45-metre) tall top hat. But one thing that really sets Gotham City Escape apart from the competition is the unique variation between fast and slow sections. Two inversions are traversed so slowly that riders get to experience great hangtime, whereas other parts of the ride are lightning-fast. Gotham City Escape feels like a refreshing experience thanks to these variable speeds and its unconventional layout. By the way… Parque Warner improved the ride experience even further with the addition of an onboard-soundtrack and great theming in the queue and station. Gotham City Escape is the uncontested eye-catcher of Parque Warner Madrid.

Coaster Express is the highlight at Parque Warner’s Old West Territory. This wooden coasters draws the attention with its excellent looks, but I remembered it to be extremely rough. However, Coaster Express actually managed to pleasantly surprise me during my most recent ride in 2025. The attraction has undergone some serious re-tracking and it shows. It still isn’t the smoothest wooden coaster in the universe, but it’s not as painful as it used to be. Still… despite its improved comfort, Coaster Express remains a mediocre ride. Some parts of the ride are rather slow and you shouldn’t expect any airtime.

Cartoon Village is the park’s colourful children’s area. And it’s huge! Kids are able to enjoy lots of carousels and other rides at Cartoon Village, but I’m mostly here for my coaster bingo. The area offers two family coasters: Tom y Jerry (Zierer Tivoli Large with an original picnic theme) and Correcaminos Bip Bip. This Mack YoungStar Coaster was opened in 2009 and it’s nearly identical to Pegasus at Europa-Park (this Spanish version features an extra helix, though). Correcaminos Bip Bip is just as smooth, powerful and fun as its German counterpart. Unfortunately, theming is very limited. The ride was decorated with cheap rocks and plastic cactuses, so it’s easy to notice that the theming was created on a budget. Too bad… my childhood heroes Roadrunner and Coyote deserve better than this.

And last but not least, there’s Stunt Fall. Vekoma Boomerangs usually don’t get much attention, but Giant Inverted Boomerangs are adored by the coaster community. Luckily, Parque Warner opted for the latter. This ride is 177 feet (60 metres) tall, it features six inversions and the train reaches a top speed of over 60 mph (100 km/h). The best parts are undoubtedly the vertical drops, but I also enjoyed the stretched-out inversions. Besides, Stunt Fall certainly isn’t as nauseating as a regular Vekoma Boomerang. There’s much to love about Stunt Fall, but it’s a shame that Parque Warner hasn’t done any effort to add theming. In its current form, Stunt Fall actually looks like a Six Flags ride.

WATER RIDES

Madrid is probably one of Europe’s hottest cities, so water rides are more than welcome. The park offers a rather ugly splash battle, a hilariously themed rafting adventure called Rápidos ACME, a classic shoot-the-chute ride and Rio Bravo. This flume ride was integrated in a huge mountain range and it looks amazing at first glance. However, theming levels drop dramatically (pun intended) during the ride. If I had to clarify the meaning of ‘faded glory’ with an attraction, Rio Bravo would be the perfect example. The boats look old, paint has faded and special effects don’t seem to work properly. This is a huge difference compared to the similar Wild West Falls Adventure Ride at Warner Bros Movie World in Australia. Everything that makes the Down Under version so awesome has completely disappeared here in Madrid. Very sad.

OTHER EXPERIENCES

Flat ride lovers will find what they’re looking for in Super Heroes World. The area is home to a top spin, a wave swinger and a triple S&S tower with a height of 310 feet (95 metres). Mad house enthusiasts should put Hotel Embrujado on their to do lists. This attraction seems to combine the themes of Tower of Terror and Phantom Manor, as the story line includes a dusty hotel and a creepy-looking bride. That’s a great idea, but the execution isn’t exactly mind-blowing. The pre-show offers little action and the main show features minimal decoration. The park’s other dark ride (La Aventura de Scooby-Doo) doesn’t perform much better. This is an interactive shooter dark ride, but the decoration seems a bit too simple and 2-dimensional.

WORTH A VISIT?

I’ve had some underwhelming experiences at Parque Warner in the past. Despite its incredible attraction lineup, the park was clearly suffering from bad management. Paint was fading, the park was in desperate need of a new headliner and operations were poor. Our 2025 visit showed a totally different side of the park, though. We were greeted by lots of friendly crew members and the overall capacity of many rides seemed to be greatly improved. This resulted in a pleasant day without lengthy queues, despite the fact that we visited on a beautiful weekend day. Gotham City Escape made our experience even better, as we considered this new LSM Launch Coaster as one of the finest thrill rides in Europe. The only thing missing remains a great dark ride, so I really hope that this will be the next big addition to the park. Still, Parque Warner Madrid made an excellent impression and nowadays I actually prefer this park over its largest competitor in sunny Salou.

What’s your favourite roller coaster at Parque Warner? Does the world need more Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerangs? And was your experience just as positive as ours? Share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

This article reflects my personal experience at Parque Warner Madrid during a visit in April 2025.