Splash Adventure (Alabama Adventure) Discussion Thread

Is the selling of the dry rides to make room for newer better ones?

No.

Sadly, the best case scenario at this point looks to be the park staying as a water park. Worst case, I wouldn't expect to see a park at all.

The rides are 100% confirmed not opening this year, it's only going to be a water park from now on.

The rides are 100% confirmed not opening this year, it's only going to be a water park from now on.

Well that's just stupid. I probably want be back unless they expand the water park out into the dry section. It would just be too crowded and probably nasty.

They may want to update there website.

http://www.alabamaadventure.com/index.html

If I was planning a trip there this summer, I would have no idea that there are no longer any rides.

^Not only that, but anytime someone brings it up on their Facebook page they delete it. Can't say I'm all that surprised though.

They are suppose to announce the closer of the ride side soon and the new name of the water park. But the decision to do this had gone back and forth many times so I am not holding my breath. Something to be noted though is that the Giant Wheel at the park is already down and packed up. As to if it has been sold I am not sure but it no longer stands at the park.

Sad news. I was really hoping to make a visit in the next year or two.

I was just told that the Giant Wheel is going to a park in England. You can actually already see that it has been removed on the Alabama Adventure webcam. The Bumper Cars and Kiddie Motorbikes have also already been sold/removed. It is a shame that you didn't get to visit because Rampage was definitely one of those coasters you needed to ride.

It is a shame that you didn't get to visit because Rampage was definitely one of those coasters you needed to ride.

I'm very happy I was able to get some rides on Rampage a few summers ago, even though it was early in my coaster-loving existence. It was a great ride!

^I'm in this video for a split second standing in the grass inside the layout. What a fun day that was, and also the day I signed up at TPR. My life has been full of bizarreness ever since.

Best coaster news in a while! Visionland, you wont be missed, you POS

Where's that guy that once proclaimed Visionland would be the next WDW? It's still one of my favorite TPR moments ever.

So apparently this Monday they are suppose to announce the changes that are coming to the park. From what I have heard this includes a name change, closing the ride side, cheaper admission (by $10) and a few other small things. We'll see if this actually happens since they have already pushed the announcement back.

I remember the last time the park announced a name change.....along with a petting zoo, sports park, hotel with indoor waterpark, an RV park, an "Alabama outdoors" section, etc.

Soooo.. basically they are cheapening the park, its just going to be a big public swimming pool for the projects next door from now on, that's perfect! I wonder if the tickets for their special gang riots they love to host are going to be discounted? Get there early to have a beach chair to toss at somebody! I think I'll just go to six flags, what a shame.

Sad news. I was really hoping to make a visit in the next year or two.

The park was going to be on my summer trip to the Deep South this year. Rampage was really the only reason I put it on the schedule, but I'm not too bummed out that I'm going to be missing it, or the rest of the park from what I've heard.

^Missing Rampage would be a bummer as it really was a fun ride. The rest of the park, meh.

Now I'm kind of sad that I never went there.

^That's how I feel about it... I'm sad I missed out on Rampage. But I seem to remember being told Megafobia is a lot like it, so at least I have ridden that.

Local news is reporting they are finally announcing the ride closure tomorrow.

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/17338208/big-changes-coming-to-alabama-adventure

BESSEMER, AL (WBRC) -

If you prefer the amusement park at Alabama Adventure over the water park side, you may not like what FOX6 has learned tonight.

The park's new owners may be focusing solely on one side of the business instead of two.

A spokesperson for the theme park said there would be an expansion at the park soon, but wouldn't say more than that. Park fans will know for sure tomorrow when officials plan to discuss what they're calling the "future focus" of the park.

Shirley Smith takes her children every summer.

"They're very family-oriented people, have movies for kids," Smith said.

There's a big announcement coming Thursday morning but one theme park industry website, Screamscape, may have leaked the news.

A posting on the site mentions that the owner of the park will announce a new name for the attraction that will play up the water park aspect and implies that the dry rides of Alabama Adventure may be closed down for good.

If it's true, the Alabama Adventure fans FOX6 News spoke with really don't like the idea.

"I go to the theme park more than I do the waterpark," Christie Royal said. "The water park will be good for summer but still people like the rides too. So might turn some people away."

"The amusement park is the best thing about it," Terry Wallace said.

There are even more clues pointing to the rides going away. Screamscape links to another website where a lot of theme park rides are for sale. Shirley Smith and her children thought some looked like rides at Alabama Adventure.

"The kids roller coaster yeah, the carousel...that one go around with music," Smith said.

While Smith said she wouldn't miss those rides if they were gone, others say they'll find somewhere else to get their thrills.

"Probably wouldn't go back, go to Six Flags," Terry Wallace said.

Copyright 2012 WBRC. All rights reserved.

^I love the way they've handled this!

And that really may be one of the worst written "news" articles I've read. :facepalm:

SAVE TEH RAMPAGEEEE!!!!

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2012/04/new_splash_adventure_to_expand.html

The new owner of Alabama Adventure plans to re-open the facility as Splash Adventure, expanding the water park portion of the venue and selling off the rides that made up the amusement park.

 

General Attractions bought the park in January and is investing $1.5 million to add four new attractions and spruce up the park in time for a May 12 opening under the new name and aquatic focus, the new owners will announce today. AmusementAquatic Management Group is operating the park. Kent Lemasters, chief executive of General Attractions and AmusementAquatic, is familiar with the property. His former company, Southland Entertainment Group, bought the original VisionLand in a bankruptcy transaction for $5.25 million and invested $5 million more the first year to create Alabama Adventure in 2003. Southland sold the company in 2008.

 

The park will keep its Main Street row of shops, eats and amusements, and the water park will expand with additions that extend its reach toward the Main Street area.

 

The new attractions will be:

 

• Aqua Course, a first-of-its-kind water-filled obstacle course -- think a less painful version of the television show "Wipeout" -- with a range of adventurous thrills to safe-but-fun activities. It will have foot-activated water features, water cannons, splash buckets and other interactive features, and it also can be used as a dry attraction when the weather turns cooler.
  
• A water maze similar to labyrinths at other amusement parks but with the added element of water walls, sprinklers and dumping buckets of water.
  
• The Friday night "Dive-In Movies" program will show movies on a big screen while viewers recline on inner tubes in the wave pool (turned off during movie time) or on a towel or beach chair on the wave pool's "beach."
  
• A zip line is being installed on the back side of the water park between the water slide and the Upsurge attraction.

Meanwhile, the amusement park rides -- including the landmark Rampage wooden roller coaster -- will be sold off to other park owners and that property used for special events and future growth, Lemasters said in an interview Wednesday.

 

"After two years here, I realized that most of the people were going to the water park," he said. At one point, he said he sat at a table on Main Street with two hand-held counters and tallied those who came through the gates and turned right into the water park or continued straight into the amusement park. Between 70 and 80 percent turned right.

 

An internal poll of visitors found a similar result and when guests were asked what they would like to see more of, water attractions were the most common responses. Moreover, since 60 percent of the costs of operating Alabama Adventure were devoted to the amusement park side because of maintenance and other factors, it made business sense to put future emphasis on the water park, he said.

 

Lemasters said with the decision to go all-water, a name change was also in order. He said the company considered names such as Splash Island or Splash Landing to play off the Splash Beach name the water park had as part of Alabama Adventure. But when it was noted that the new attractions were more active than passive, those names seemed less appropriate.

 

"We chose Splash Adventure because it's a more accurate name for the park and it allows us to keep part of the name from Splash Beach and part of the name from Alabama Adventure," Lemasters said. "It just worked."

 

Along with the new attractions will be old favorites, such as the 27,000-square-foot Wave Action Pool, the quarter-mile Lazy River, the interactive water play structure, Free Fall, Space Bowl, Up Surge Boomerango, children's activity pool, and a variety of water tubing slides and flumes.

 

Splash Adventure will have food and beverage outlets, restaurants, l ockers, rental cabanas, games, more than 700 guest lounge chairs and parking for more than 2,000 cars. There will be a private area for corporate and group events as well as birthday parties. Mercedes-Benz has already rented the entire park out for its employees on May 20, Lemasters said.

 

Lemasters' company owns 259 acres off Interstate 20/59 in Bessemer, and while the current parks have a footprint of around 89 acres, they actually use around 50 acres.

 

The water park and Main Street have a 20-acre footprint, leaving lots of room for growth. Lemasters still has plans to build a hotel with an indoor water park on 157 acres he had retained ownership of through park ownership changes.

 

Splash Adventure plans to announce a line-up of special events for the 2012 season, pricing and the operating schedule. Season passes will go on sale April 15 and are being discounted 25 percent from last year.

 

Lemasters said those who have had season passes in the past will get an exclusive offer to purchase season passes for $39.99 -- an attractive price when one considers a single day pass will sell for $25.99. A pre-season sale of season passes to the general public is expected to cost $49.99, he said.

 

Lemasters, who repurchased the park in January, said four new attractions were all he had time to get in place this year. But, he said, the company is looking down the road at what can be added. "We have plenty of room to grow and expand here and plenty of ideas of what we would like to see added," he said.

[*]The Friday night "Dive-In Movies" program will show movies on a big screen while viewers recline on inner tubes in the wave pool (turned off during movie time) or on a towel or beach chair on the wave pool's "beach."

Hopefully they have all the Tyler Perry movies they can get their hands on.

"After two years here, I realized that most of the people were going to the water park," he said. At one point, he said he sat at a table on Main Street with two hand-held counters and tallied those who came through the gates and turned right into the water park or continued straight into the amusement park. Between 70 and 80 percent turned right.

Yeah, because nothing was ever done to the rides side to warrant excitement. And there's no shade over there. Of course people are going to go to the waterpark when it's 95 degrees out, but there are TONS of parks in the south that do just fine with amusements. And regardless, his "stats" are based on 2007 and 2008, not recent times.

Lemasters still has plans to build a hotel with an indoor water park on 157 acres he had retained ownership of through park ownership changes.

Will flying pigs be a part of this hotel?