American Adventure Park

[Mattie boy]

I am a little confused, the recent map photo posted on here shows the missile yet its not listed on the attractions list ?

I only ask as I see the missile each day as it now is as wipeout

 

[Ian]

I think the assumption is the 2005 guide cover which featured Missile was an initial draft that didn’t actually make it into production. The final design for that season’s guide can be seen in this image, with the cover page middle-right (above the road map).

You can see in some of Saz’s photos the printers signing the proofs off in Feb 2005. As others have said, both signs there would potentially point to a last minute decision to pull Missile from the lineup and reposition the park with the “family fun” angle.

The following year’s cover was then updated to show the family in a rapids boat (presumably to promote the reopening of them).

 

[Mattie boy]

Yes that makes more sense. How long was the missile SBNO then before it headed over to the Suffolk coast ?

 

[Ian]

If memory serves me correctly it sat for 2005 and then started coming down early 2006 during closed season.

 

[WillPS]

Edit - my first visit was 99 and after reading WillPS post its lucky I went there at all

Parks returning a loss isn't itself unusual - BPB has made a profit only once in recent years. It's likely not a complete picture either - I suspect the arcade operations on park were run by Crown Leisure and didn't feature in those numbers, for example. (I also doubt they were making millions from the on-park arcades!)

Yes that makes more sense. How long was the missile SBNO then before it headed over to the Suffolk coast ?

SBNO in 2005, appeared for sale on the Interlink website later that year. Sold early 2006 and was being dismantled that Spring, gone by Summer.

An interesting tidbit is the first parts shipped to Pleasurewood Hills were for the train, but in the end Pleasurewood Hills never ran the original train and instead bought a second hand train I think from one of the Walibi parks. I also heard that the train was part of the problem which caused it to close in 2005.

 

[Mattie boy]

Yes I've a photo somewhere of the train PWH never used in its American branding ( i think ) was sat on pallets gathering weather and dust

The second hand one doesn't auto release the restraints either...

 

[WillPS]

Yes I've a photo somewhere of the train PWH never used in its American branding ( i think ) was sat on pallets gathering weather and dust

The second hand one doesn't auto release the restraints either...

The original one didn't. Lever release thing, typical of 80s Vekomas. I'm pretty sure Corkscrew was the same (with both sets of trains it had).

 

[Mattie boy]

The original one didn't. Lever release thing, typical of 80s Vekomas. I'm pretty sure Corkscrew was the same (with both sets of trains it had).

Oh I didnt know that... thanks for that info. Yes manual release it is

 

[JSG093]

Does anyone remember Black Hole? Originally it was a Huss Swirl ride in the dark I think, but when I went on it was an indoor dodgems where all the cars had a button that did...something. There was also a static figure of an alien in one corner. The operator explained something at the start but no one could hear because of the mic reverb.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

I never went in there but I think it was dodgems with laser guns.

 

[djtruefitt]

Does anyone remember Black Hole? Originally it was a Huss Swirl ride in the dark I think, but when I went on it was an indoor dodgems where all the cars had a button that did...something. There was also a static figure of an alien in one corner. The operator explained something at the start but no one could hear because of the mic reverb.

Yes I think I remember doing both rides in there, don’t really remember much about either ride though, it was located near to the slides I think.

 

[Ian]

Yeah it was dogems with lasers mounted on them that fired at other cars when you hit the button. Very strange.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Up to the mid 90’s the American Adventure was the place to go as it that so much to do and was priced well for families.
Like it was really the 1st midlands theme park as really to Drayton Manor started to install Pirate adventure, Splash Canyon and Shockwave it was just a Zoo with an Amusement park. Even Alton Towers to they installed the Haunted House, Runaway train and Nemesis didn’t really have many themed rides.
The biggest problem with American Adventure after the success of the 1st 5 years they never really improved the park and returning visitors stopped returning. The last major ride they installed was the flying island and didn’t that not last more than 2 years.

 

[WillPS]

Yeah it was dogems with lasers mounted on them that fired at other cars when you hit the button. Very strange.

There was supposed to be a laser quest style scoring, but it either it didn't work or it was very hard to trigger.

It was even stranger when they moved it in to the hospitality tent next to Buffalo in 2006.

Up to the mid 90’s the American Adventure was the place to go as it that so much to do and was priced well for families.
Like it was really the 1st midlands theme park as really to Drayton Manor started to install Pirate adventure, Splash Canyon and Shockwave it was just a Zoo with an Amusement park. Even Alton Towers to they installed the Haunted House, Runaway train and Nemesis didn’t really have many themed rides.
The biggest problem with American Adventure after the success of the 1st 5 years they never really improved the park and returning visitors stopped returning. The last major ride they installed was the flying island and didn’t that not last more than 2 years.

Flying Island was installed in '98 and removed after the '99 season.

It's a shame as it was a truly spectacular observation ride; both gentle and also kind of terrifying in the way it moved around. I wonder if it was on loan or just cost a bomb to run, outside of peak times they only ran it at certain times I think - I think they described these as 'scheduled flights'.

The park never stuck to a coherent strategy for more than 3 or 4 years - you had 2 years of very good quality themed attractions under John Rigby, then it went downhill a bit under Granada.

Then bizarrely Granada tried to turn it in to a thrill park leveraging their ITV IPs, which didn't fit the original stuff at all.

Then you had Ventureworld binning all that and promising something entirely different with Adventure World, which started and finished with Flying Island.

Then 5 years of basically nothing except some pretty low quality generic additions, during which there was a plan to turn it in to a holiday resort which again went nowhere.

Then the 'family' thing which never really scanned other than to say they no longer had the rides they were best known for.

 

[Spark]

So what was in the building in space port that eventually became the dodgems?

 

[Enter Valhalla]

So what was in the building in space port that eventually became the dodgems?

I think it had a number of uses over the years, I think at one point it had a Cine-180 type attraction in there.
Also does anyone remember, there was a second dome in Spaceport, much closer to the train tracks with a sign on the door saying “closed for refurbishment” from about 1998 until the year the park closed. I’ve no idea what that building was ever used for.

 

[Ian]

Looking through old maps it seems like the building first appears in 1990, though without a label (it’s tucked half in frame to the left of The Missile). I can’t seem to find an 89 map, so can’t say if it appears on that one, but I wouldn’t expect it to appear any earlier as that area of the park hadn’t been developed then, had it?

There’s also this map apparently from 1990 as well, which includes a list of attractions in the area. The only ones I can’t really put anything to are G-Force or Outer Limits. No idea what those are and if they maybe have anything to do with the building? Interesting side-note, notice how this map includes Buffalo but it’s missing from the previous image. Assuming this is some kind of error, as there shouldn’t be any case where The Missile is featured and Buffalo isn’t, as far as I’m aware.

Interestingly the building doesn’t appear to be present on this map in 1993.

In 95 it reappears again, tucked off the side but again seems quite unassuming and doesn’t look to have an attraction number overlaid on it.

The front cover of this year’s map also says 2 new rides, those being Iron Wolf/Twin Looper and Alien, so although the building comes back onto the map it doesn’t appear to have any real significance (not as a ride at any rate).

On the 1997 map it’s labelled as Black Hole and has a “NEW” marker over it. I’ve always wondered what it was but I’ve never known what was inside.

On the 1999 map it’s referred to as Cyber Storm. Was this the name it had when it became the laser dodgems?

What with it appearing, disappearing, and seeming to go unmarked up until 1997, I wonder if the building was just some sort of facilities/storage location, or maybe a shop/F&B outlet for the first half of its life. Then it became Black Hole (whatever that may have been) for a few years, before then changing to the dodgems in 1999 for the remainder of its life.

Also does anyone remember, there was a second dome in Spaceport, much closer to the train tracks with a sign on the door saying “closed for refurbishment” from about 1998 until the year the park closed.

I think that dome was the cinema style attraction you’re referring to? It’s listed on one of the above maps as Screen 2001.

 

[Spark]

Thats right the cine was the beige dome

 

[Squiggs]

The only ones I can’t really put anything to are G-Force or Outer Limits. No idea what those are and if they maybe have anything to do with the building?

G-Force was the attraction in the second dome. No idea what it was, but it opened in 1989. It was described by the park as "Another thrilling new ride, this time to the darkest reaches of the Solar System and beyond. You can scream - but in space, nobody can hear you."

Outer Limits was the area's shop. It was in the long rectangular building, along with the Lunch Pad and Galaxy Games.

 

[Ian]

Cheers Squiggs. A quick Google threw this up:

G-Force (American Adventure) - Coasterpedia - The Roller Coaster and Flat Ride Wiki

coasterpedia.net

Closing in 1991/2 could then explain the absence from the 1993 map. Coasterpedia also lists Cyber Storm as opening in 1997, so I’d assume that means Black Hole and Cyber Storm were both the same dodgems. Maybe the lasers were added later in life which could explain the change of name? That or Alton took offence to their indoor ride’s name being used just down the road

There’s also a record on their site for a waltzer on loan to the park from around 1991/2 until 1997, though that’s a new one to me… Given the closing date of G Force and the opening of Black Hole is it possible this sat inside the same building between the two? It’d be the right sort of footprint for the building I’d think?

Just another example of American Adventure being ahead of the curve, renting in waltzers yeeeears before Towers got the idea.