Finally, after years of delays and cancellations, the Moomin Valley park IS OPENING! The date has been set as March 16th 2019. The initial date of opening was supposed to be three years ago, but they kept pushing it back.
There was a fear they would push it back again until Cafe Puisto opened in June 2018 as a precursor and promise of Moomin Valley opening within the near future. Then, in Autumn of last year, when they opened Metsa Village, the “free” part of Moomin Valley, we knew that this time things were looking good for a spring 2019 opening.
And they have confirmed the date for the spring 2019 opening as March 16th. Tickets are already on sale for entry to the park for after that date, but you can only buy tickets on the day for the March 16th opening.
Attractions
Attractions in the park are few. They include a tree house play area “Hemulen’s playground”, live stage area and shopping / eating area. When you see it you’ll wonder why on earth it took them so long to complete it. Like Metsa, the part that opened in Autumn, it is more about the theme than the attractions within the park. This is no Disney or Universal Studios. Nor is it an amusement park. It is just a Moomin theme park with relaxation as its selling point – with an emphasis on “selling“!
It is also been confirmed that a Panza Funmock will open on the grounds in the summer of 2019. Panza Funmock is a treetop athletic playground for both children and adults. The funmock is to be located opposite in the Metsa Village, close to the entrance to Moominvalley park.
The original and free Moomin Valley is at Akebono Children’s Forest. But over the last few years they’ve gone to great lengths to change that nickname to Tove Jansson’s Moomin Valley. I presume because they don’t want people mixing it up with Moomin Valley Park.
The two are quite a distance from each other on foot, but you can drive between them in about ten minutes. THe original Moomin Valley aka Akebono Children’s Forest will remain free, but Moomin Valley Park has a cover charge:
Moomin Valley Park Cost
2019 prices. The entry ticket is 1000 yen for children from four years old and up. Children three years old and under can enter for free. The entry ticket for Moomin Valley park for adults costs 1,500 yen. There are four main attractions that cost money. They range from 700 yen to 1,500 yen per attraction.
The parking is the main expense at 100 yen for 10 minutes on a weekday. They introduced an upper cap, possibly due to all the complaints online about how expensive the parking is. The upper cap for a weekday is 1,800 yen. On the weekend it costs 500 yen for 30 minutes with an upper cap of 3,000 yen.
Articles mentioned in this post:
The free Moomin Valley
The initial post about Moomin Valley opening
Cafe Puisto
Originally written as “Metsa Moomin theme park coming to Saitama” on July 11th 2015. Rewritten and republished as an event “The Opening of Moominvalley”. Republished as a post on the original event post date (March 2nd 2019) in January 2021.