Alabama Adventure

Alabama Adventure is an Alabama amusement park, located off Interstate 20/59 in Bessemer, west of Birmingham near UAB Medical West. It is owned by Adrenaline Family Entertainment which also operates the Clementon Amusement Park in New Jersey.

It is home to Magic City USA Theme Park and Splash Beach Water Park. It includes a children's area called Marvel City and a shopping/dining area known as Celebration Street.

Alabama Adventure is the host of the First Financial Bank Concert Series, which has included such acts like Jesse McCartney, Aly & AJ, Vanessa Hudgens, Drake Bell, and Raven Symone.

In 2005, the Alabama theme park was visited by approximately 345,000 people, making the park Alabama's second-most popular tourist destination according to the Bureau of Tourism and Travel and trailing only the Birmingham Zoo. In 2006, the number of visitors to Alabama Adventure rose to more than 388,000. It was the winner of Alabama's "2007 Attraction of the Year."http://www.800alabama.com/about-alabama/news/press/story.cfm?ID=413

Located nearby is WaterMark Place, a 200,000-square-foot outdoor manufacturers' outlet shopping mall.

History

Alabama Adventure was previously known as VisionLand. It was built largely as a result of efforts by Fairfield mayor Larry Langford who later became the mayor of Birmingham. Eleven cities came together to form the West Jefferson Amusement and Public Park Authority. With help from the Alabama Legislature, the group borrowed $65 million to build the park. Construction began in March 1997, and the park opened for business on May 23, 1998. The park opened with four major areas, including Celebration City Theme Park, Steel Waters Water Park, a children's area called Marvel City, and a shopping/dining area known as Main Street.

  • 1999 - The park expanded, adding Wild Rover Gorge, a river rapids attraction, but was closed shortly after an accident involving park employees. Dino Domain, a walk through exhibit featuring animatronic dinosaurs is built in the woods behind Main Street but closes after the season
  • 2001 - Wild River Gorge reopened with minor adjustments along with Stratosfear Screamer, an S&S Power twin tower attraction.
  • 2002 - The park filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy, and only operated Steel Waters. It was purchased for $6 million, a loss of $59 million in public funds. It was purchased and operated by Southland Entertainment Group.
  • 2003 - Visionland (uncapitalizing the "L") reopens with Magic Adventure Theme Park, Splash Beach Water Park, Marvel City, and Celebration Street. Magic Adventure received a scrambler attraction called Wild Scrambler and Splash Beach received a wave pool named Kahuna Waves and a nine-story-tall free fall slide called Acapulco Drop. Starting this season park guests had the option to buy tickets to either the amusement park or the water park or a combo ticket to both parks.
  • 2004 - Splash Beach received a new water attraction called Splashdown!, a toilet bowl-style ride.
  • 2005 - Magic Adventure opened the first new roller coaster since the park's opening named Zoomerang, a Vekoma Boomerang roller coaster relocated from Sydney, Australia. The park also re-opened one of the former attractions named Cahaba Falls, a log flume attraction. The park held naming contests for both attractions on its website.
  • 2006 - Southland announced the rebranding of the park under the Alabama Adventure name, along with major expansion plans, including a hotel including an indoor water park, an RV park, and other amenities. Magic Adventure was renamed Magic City USA to reflect the new theming strategy. The park also announced plans for a summer concert series, featuring popular musical acts and artists.
  • 2007 - The park added two new attractions, including Vertigo, one of the original attractions of VisionLand, which had been removed in 2003, and Salamander Bay, a re-themed children's play area at Splash Beach formerly known as Quarry Bay. The summer concert series returned to the park and became an annual event.
  • 2009 - The park announced the first major expansion since 2005, and the first to Splash Beach since 2004. The expansion is to include a new attraction from Vancouver's WhiteWater West called "UpSurge!", a 216 foot flume slide with a vertical half pipe ending in a 25,000-gallon splash pool."Huge Waterpark Expansion Planned For Alabama Adventure". Alabama Adventure. 2008-05-15 The park also combined both parks into one ticket price.
  • 2010 - The park began promoting a casting call for new "indoor theatrical entertainment." The park is in communication with Intamin about purchasing a cancelled Vertical Lift flume ride (similar to Perilous Plunge at Knott's Berry Farm) for a special discount price, and would be in place for the 2011 operating season. "New Water Ride". Screamscape. 2010-04-06 The park also relaunched its website, branding the park as Alabama Adventure Water and Theme Park.

Magic City USA Attractions

  • Roller Coasters
Roller Coaster Year Opened Description
Rampage 1998 A Custom Coasters International wooden coaster. This coaster opened when the park opened.
Marvel Mania 1998 A Miler Coasters steel family roller coaster. Located in Marvel City.
Zoomerang 2005 A Vekoma Boomerang roller coaster relocated from the defunct Wonderland in Sydney, Australia.
  • Flat/Spinning Attractions
Attraction Year Opened Description
Hurricane 1998 Bertazzon Musik Express
Scrambler 2003 Eli Bridge Scrambler
Vertigo (formerly Voyager) 1998; 2007 Huss Enterprise
Mind Spinner (formerly MindSpinder) 1998 Fabarii Crazy Dance
Fender Bender 1998 Bertazzon Bumper Cars
Tidal Wave 1998 Zierer Wave Swinger
Pirate Ship (formerly The Pirate) 1998 Huss Pirate Ship
Midway Carousel 1998 Chance Carousel
  • Other Major Attractions
Attraction Year Opened Description
Cahaba Falls 1998; 2005 Arrow Dynamics log Flume
Wild River Gorge 1999; 2001 FAB River Rapids
Giant Wheel (formerly Sky Wheel) 1998 Mondial Ferris wheel
Space Shot (formerly StratosFear Screamer) 2001; 2003 S&S Power Space Shot
  • Marvel City Children's Attractions
Attraction Year Opened Description
Marvel City Speedway 1998 Zamperla Speedway
Adventure Express (formerly Visionland Express) 1998 Zamperla Rio Grande Train
Ballon Wheel (formerly Sky Wheel II) 1998 Zamperla Midi Whee
Motorcross 1998 Hampton Motocycle Jump
Convoy 1998 Convoy Trucks
Bump-A-Round 1998 Bertazzon Kiddie Bumper Cars
Barnstormer 1998 Zamperla Mini Jet

Splash Beach Attractions

Attraction Year Opened Description
UpSurge! 2009 A 216 foot flume that takes riders up and down a vertical half pipe and end in a 25,000-gallon pool of water.
Acapulco Drop 2003 Nine story tall free fall drop slide.
Castaway Island (formerly Tower Works) 1998 A multi-level water play area for children with slides, geysers, and other water features.
Kahuna Waves 2003 An 800,000 gallon wave pool with 4 ft (1.2 m) waves. Also has a real sand beach.
Neptune's Plunge (formerly Mineshaft) 1998 Four enclosed tube slides.
Salamander Bay (formerly Quarry Bay) 1998; 2007 A water play area for smaller children. Re-themed, including new slides and other features, in 2007.
Splashdown 2004 A toilet bowl style slide.
Warrior River 1998 A relaxing "lazy river" style ride.

Former Attractions

Attraction Years Operated Description
Typhoon 1998 A polyp style ride. Replaced by two upcharge attractions in 1999. The Scrambler opened in this location in 2003.
StratosFear Screamer 2001 StratosFear Screamer was a twin tower ride from S&S Power. It featured Launch (what is now Space Shot) and Re-Entry (A Turbo Drop). When Southland purchased Visionland they kept the Space Shot side, which still operates at Alabama Adventure today, and S&S regained ownership of the Turbo Drop. It is now at Lake Compounce where it operates as Down Time.
Loc-O-Motion 1998-2003 A children's hand truck style ride. The Convoy was relocated to this spot in 2005.
Patriot 2003-2006 A Round Up style ride. Replaced the Voyager. For the 2007 season Patriot was removed and the Voyager was re-installed and re-named the Vertigo.
Rockwall/Venturer 1999-2000 Two upcharge attractions. Rockwall was a portable rockwall guests could climb and Venturer was a small motion simulator. Replaced Typhoon. The Scrambler opened in this location in 2003.

References

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