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American Adventure Park
- Thread starter BigT
- Start date
Matt N
TS Member
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- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
I know everyone always says that Chessington was Britain’s first truly themed park, but I’d actually say that Camelot and American Adventure were properly themed parks before Chessington was! It’s a shame that neither park was ever expanded upon more; I think they could potentially have been major players in Britain today with more expansion! I wonder what went so wrong for them that caused them to lose their early momentum?
They were sold dirt cheap by Granada, and in American Adventure's case the buyer realised that he could make more money bleeding the place dry than he could by investing (Trevor Hemmings if you want to look him up, other previous interests include arcade chain Crown Leisure, half the visitor attractions in Blackpool and Pontins).
In Camelot's case an accountant started looking at alternative uses for the land, and suddenly the game changed. Knightmare is an interesting anomaly but it's understood the ride was almost a freebie, Camelot paid to install it but it remained the property of Interlink who continued to market it.
Ian
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Dizz, Bobby’s Yarn Land
Ultimately American Adventure became an experiment to see how long you could keep a park running for with zero investment. From the mid 90s new attractions became few and far between, and what was installed was far from the quality of the earlier investments.
There were some big ideas floated around during the Broome era, including the Adventure World rebrand, a potential holiday village, and a massive woodie but very little ever materialised due to the lack of money available, which I believe was ultimately the reason for his departure (unable to do anything he wanted).
Without money the park literally began to crumble and rot, and it was noticeable to any visitors (see the original shuttered entrance and decaying Nightmare Niagara)
By the time anyone was prepared to actually try and do anything with the park and spend some cash (early 2000s really) it was too little too late. Much of the themeing and hardware was past the point of no return, and the public perception of the park had slumped.
The attempted solution was to try and refocus the park on the family market, which saw a lot of the park’s larger thrill and former headline attractions being removed (Missile, Nightmare Niagara, etc.). Cut the loses, remove the financial sinkholes and start afresh.
Unfortunately, the money that was available didn’t stretch much beyond purchasing a few stock Zamperla kids rides and plonking them down. This is how you ended up with out of place rides which had no relation to the American theme.
The name was also certainly held in low regards where it had been overtaken by the likes of Towers and Drayton Manor. It would have taken a lot of money to shake the reputation, which quite simply wasn’t available.
Even so, the family market is very well established in the local area. Gulliver's Kingdom is 20-30 minutes away and I always remember being held in high regards by locals when I was growing up (we used to visit at least once a year when me and my sister were small, before moving onto Drayton Manor), and just a few years later Drayton would launch Thomas Land. Competition would have been stiff, and I doubt they’d have lasted much longer really without a complete in-and-out relaunch.
There were some big ideas floated around during the Broome era, including the Adventure World rebrand, a potential holiday village, and a massive woodie but very little ever materialised due to the lack of money available, which I believe was ultimately the reason for his departure (unable to do anything he wanted).
Without money the park literally began to crumble and rot, and it was noticeable to any visitors (see the original shuttered entrance and decaying Nightmare Niagara)
By the time anyone was prepared to actually try and do anything with the park and spend some cash (early 2000s really) it was too little too late. Much of the themeing and hardware was past the point of no return, and the public perception of the park had slumped.
The attempted solution was to try and refocus the park on the family market, which saw a lot of the park’s larger thrill and former headline attractions being removed (Missile, Nightmare Niagara, etc.). Cut the loses, remove the financial sinkholes and start afresh.
Unfortunately, the money that was available didn’t stretch much beyond purchasing a few stock Zamperla kids rides and plonking them down. This is how you ended up with out of place rides which had no relation to the American theme.
The name was also certainly held in low regards where it had been overtaken by the likes of Towers and Drayton Manor. It would have taken a lot of money to shake the reputation, which quite simply wasn’t available.
Even so, the family market is very well established in the local area. Gulliver's Kingdom is 20-30 minutes away and I always remember being held in high regards by locals when I was growing up (we used to visit at least once a year when me and my sister were small, before moving onto Drayton Manor), and just a few years later Drayton would launch Thomas Land. Competition would have been stiff, and I doubt they’d have lasted much longer really without a complete in-and-out relaunch.
Skycoaster (pay extra)
Flying Island (removed after 2 seasons, operated sporadically)
3D Cinema (a projector and screen in reality, since the rest of the theatre was from the Sooty show)
Aquakarts (pay extra, moved to Alton Towers after 2 seasons)
JCB World (pay extra, to begin with)
Those were the Ventureworld 'investments' 1997-2004.
And bear in mind also that the Granada years were largely downhill. The last major 'investment' was Iron Wolf, the year after Nemesis, Shockwave & Big One had changed the game. Arguably that's the point at which American Adventure slipped out of the big league.
Flying Island (removed after 2 seasons, operated sporadically)
3D Cinema (a projector and screen in reality, since the rest of the theatre was from the Sooty show)
Aquakarts (pay extra, moved to Alton Towers after 2 seasons)
JCB World (pay extra, to begin with)
Those were the Ventureworld 'investments' 1997-2004.
And bear in mind also that the Granada years were largely downhill. The last major 'investment' was Iron Wolf, the year after Nemesis, Shockwave & Big One had changed the game. Arguably that's the point at which American Adventure slipped out of the big league.
Ian
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Dizz, Bobby’s Yarn Land
Yep the park missed the boat in 1994. What was a turning point for Towers, Drayton and Pleasure Beach would ultimately accelerate the downhill decent of American Adventure.
Consider that when they opened Missile it was much bigger than anything found in many other UK parks. However, as technology and the industry advanced, it really couldn’t hold a candle to the 1994 coasters. Either you keep up or you get left in the dust.
Consider that when they opened Missile it was much bigger than anything found in many other UK parks. However, as technology and the industry advanced, it really couldn’t hold a candle to the 1994 coasters. Either you keep up or you get left in the dust.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
Only because Tussauds had just bought Alton Towers and now ruled the roost in the UK theme park world, so it was easy for them to thread the idea that their park was the first "real" theme park in the country. Chessington was a great park, themed really well for its time but it only built on the theme parks that had come before it in the UK. Quite cool that American Adventure was themed just as much as Chessington when it opened only a month earlier, similarly sized parks too
Of course, it wasn't necessarily too late. The park was still in the same league as Thorpe Park (at the time) and a change in ownership for them at the same time gave them the boost they needed.
I've heard plenty of times that Six Flags tried to get in on the act when they became aware of the price Ventureworld had paid and Grevin et Cie (who went on to buy Pleasurewood) were also interested in the early 00s. What might have been...
History is written by the victors
There's a number of parks with some claim to the 'first theme park' trophy, one way or another.
Sazzle
TS Administrator
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
OOOhhhhhh now I never thought I'd see the day that an American Adventure thread would be revitalised, past the 300 pages on TowersTimes from years gone by!
Couple of things I wanted to pick up on from the last few pages:
I just went looking on one of the old TowersTimes threads (there were two, that expanded well over 300 pages of really informative, detailed discussion!) and found this from 2004 - hilarious:
Oh I can't wait to go over some of these posts
Edit - found some gold
My very young self wrote a letter to the park director in 2004, which I actually received a response to. Check this out!!
Vekoma are still manufacturing to date, Marks & Spencers managed a huge high street revamp & austerity definitely doesn't do as well as investment...!! Too funny!
Couple of things I wanted to pick up on from the last few pages:
I did indeed! I secured a huge lot of concept art (including pieces from the proposed change to Adventure World), map and guide book print proofs, professional marketing prints, advertising artwork and others from the auction. I have sold a few things on eBay in the past, notably in 2010, but haven't looked at this for a number of years now. Attending the auction was the weirdest thing in the world for me... wandering around the outside of Pioneer Playland looking at old pieces of the park strewn across the tarmac. Very sad.
Opened by Boyzone to much fanfare and fireworks! Highlight of my year that, hearing that they'd flown in by helicopter (I had a massive crush on Stephen Gately - RIP). I recall Flying Island as a wonderful piece of machinery... that was often stuck at a 45 degree angle for a number of hours making horrific grinding and screeching noises. Closed more often than open, but did give absolutely spectacular views of the surrounding area.
I'll never forget being told that the owner cared more about putting the money into horse racing than he did back into the park. A very dark time for theme parks arrives when greed is the top priority of the person with the purse strings.
I just went looking on one of the old TowersTimes threads (there were two, that expanded well over 300 pages of really informative, detailed discussion!) and found this from 2004 - hilarious:
Oh I can't wait to go over some of these posts
Edit - found some gold
My very young self wrote a letter to the park director in 2004, which I actually received a response to. Check this out!!
Vekoma are still manufacturing to date, Marks & Spencers managed a huge high street revamp & austerity definitely doesn't do as well as investment...!! Too funny!
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Oh jeez...Oh I can't wait to go over some of these posts
Sazzle
TS Administrator
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Sorry to double post, but there's a great write-up from an interview with Roger Lloyd (park director) in 2006 just as the park shifted from thrill to family (and shortly before it closed). Interview by TTSP forum user "arch!ved.org.uk):
I couldn't find any images from that user, but there are a few that still exist that I took! I have the newspaper cutting from 2006 with half The Missile removed...
Following the post I quoted above from April 2006 re: interview with Roger Lloyd, check this post out by colin_p (I miss him!) from December 2006 when he managed to catch the park on it's penultimate day of operation.
The park was confirmed as closed in January 2007.
Arch!ved.org.uk Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:51 pm
Okay,
That report totally did my head in. I've temporarily given up, so here's the main points of the interview:
- Roger seems to be very well suited to his job. He has 8½ years experience working at The American Adventure and several more before that at Alton Towers.
- The Maddison Square entrance was not closed due to subsidance, as I and many others have been led to believe for many years. John Broome decided that he wanted the park to be all on one level, (where this left New Orleans Mall and Aztec Kingdom, I dont know) and with the problems the park regularly faced with car parking, it made sense to keep the top entrance as a coach park/group entrance, and have a new one at the bottom where there was plenty of car parking space. The site was at first temporary, but it seems funds never where (nor will they be in the near future) allocated for a more permanent set up. Roger himself said that he'd like to set up a whole street with retail units and everything, but added that his budget is better spent on rides than entrance fixtures. I tend to disagree, but there you go.
- Roger was quick to stand up for JCB World. Although he agreed with me that it was not right as a 'pay extra' attraction, he said it had gone from strength to strength under the park's new found focus. Roger told me he's a firm believer in having most attractions free upon entry to the park. SkyCoaster was quick to be noted as an exception as every SkyCoaster installation, whether in park or as a stand alone attraction has been a pay-for attraction.
- One thing Roger was very keen to get across in the interview was that in no way where Nightmare Niagara, The Missile or any other ride on park ever considered unsafe. When I asked him how much work would have to have been put in to get the rides through the annual safety tests, he told me that this was a consideration when they decided to shift the target audience, but implied that ig was within their means. He told me there where indeed many factors involved in the decision to take down the ride, but safety was not one of them. He commented that some of the stories he'd seen on here made him chuckle.
- There where apparently set backs with Yankee Clipper that led to the ride not being ready in time for the summer, and so they decided to have the ride put back up for 2006. Roger told me the ride recieved an 'extensive overhaul'.
- Roger seemed very pleased with the feedback from the closed season openings. He also assured me that there had been many alterations upon request of guests, for instance the restaurant up there sells healthy toasties and salads (I think?) alongside the regular fried food. He told me it's definately a scheme he'll be continuing.
It's worth saying here that the Mothers and Toddlers scheme is continuing throughout the season, so entry to Aztec Kingdom only is available for £3.99 per person. Entry via the Reception.
- Mini Mine Rush is indeed second hand (although not very old at all, apparently), and the ride was purchased from Zamperla directly.
- SkyCoaster is staying on park until the end of this season at least. Beyond that, all he said was that every ride on park was under 'constant review'.
- Roger assured me that we can expect something major, comparable to Buffalo in scale. Take from that what you will.
- In response to Colin's questions, existing theming is to be maintained, and new attractions will be themed, but to a degree. Roger said he only invests in theming when he feels it genuinely adds to a ride. He also implied that each ride will be individually themed, and wont neccessarily bare any relevance to its surrounding area. A pitty.
- Spaceport USA is to be considered for redevelopment.
- Opening up the themed section of Nightmare Niagara again is on the cards, there is actually a viewing platform that ran around the ride, but this was closed in the mid 90's as kids used to throw stones from it onto the logs below. Sounds promising. I did later notice this platform. It starts near the balloons (black entrance, marked 'No Theivin'), and comes out the far side of panning for gold.
- The land formerly dominated by Nightmare Niagara's third drop is to be landscaped further, and picnic tables are to be added. Roger told this was a major job, as it involved getting rid of the large water basins that where there before to feed the Log Flume, and also commented that the weather had held them back, as they where unable to seed it.
- And finally, the Helter Skelter is up for sale. A pitty, but nevermind. It is not in any way rotting or anything like that. The moral of the story? Don't believe what people tell you, even if they do have an American Adventure badge on
Roger did say that he monitors this thread occasionally, so perhaps if we mention that Nightmare Niagara was the best ride ever alot, he'll rebuild it. Then again, monkeys might fly out of my arse.
The Missile is coming down slowly but surely.
Pictures to follow.
I couldn't find any images from that user, but there are a few that still exist that I took! I have the newspaper cutting from 2006 with half The Missile removed...
Following the post I quoted above from April 2006 re: interview with Roger Lloyd, check this post out by colin_p (I miss him!) from December 2006 when he managed to catch the park on it's penultimate day of operation.
The park was confirmed as closed in January 2007.
We had some fun squabbles didn't we ;-)
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Pleasure Beach Valhalla
TS Member
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- Nemesis
Sazzle
TS Administrator
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BUT. It was named Iron Wolf after the ITV show “Gladiators” star, Wolf. They had some great guest appearances by the cast of Gladiators (got me a nice signed photo of Saracen - framed in my bedroom for years!) which was a good crowd puller. I HATED the tacky yellow repaint when it changed to Twin Looper in “JCB Land”!
Ian
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Dizz, Bobby’s Yarn Land
Well I never knew that!
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
I must admit, one thing that makes me sad about the UK industry of the past is that it seems to be full of parks that had so much promise initially, but never reached their full potential. I don’t know why, the UK just seems to have far more of these types of parks to its name than other countries. Is it down to the British market not being as accustomed to theme parks on the whole as other cultures in places like mainland Europe and the USA?
Taking American Adventure, for example; if the momentum of the 1980s had continued, we could have had a pretty major player on our hands. But sadly, the park wasn’t successful and is now closed.
The independent scene in Britain does thankfully seem to be having a bit of a resurgence now, with the likes of Paultons investing heavily and honing their product into something truly wonderful, Blackpool building Icon and Flamingo Land building a pretty substantial coaster in the form of their Intamin 10 looper, so the future does look promising for Britain’s independent theme parks!
Taking American Adventure, for example; if the momentum of the 1980s had continued, we could have had a pretty major player on our hands. But sadly, the park wasn’t successful and is now closed.
The independent scene in Britain does thankfully seem to be having a bit of a resurgence now, with the likes of Paultons investing heavily and honing their product into something truly wonderful, Blackpool building Icon and Flamingo Land building a pretty substantial coaster in the form of their Intamin 10 looper, so the future does look promising for Britain’s independent theme parks!
Pleasure Beach Valhalla
TS Member
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- Nemesis
Especially 1994 when Shockwave and Nemesis opened. Even when Alton's Golden Years had disappeared in years like 2004-7 the American Adventure couldn't cope.