Alabama Adventure originally opened on May 23, 1998 as VisionLand. In 2002, the amusement/adventure theme park changed its name to Visionland. When the park opened again in 2006, it was under the name of Alabama Adventure. Owned by Adrenaline Family Entertainment, the theme park hosts over 350,000 visitors per year in its May to October season.
The Alabama Adventure Park consists of three separate parks - Magic City, a theme park with a wide variety of family and thrill rides; Splash Beach, a water park with several water play areas aimed at children and adults as well as several wild water rides, including water slides, water tubes, wave pools and a river raft ride; and Celebration Street, a dining and shopping area.
The theme park that opened in 1998 was the result of years of work on the part of Fairfield Mayor, Larry Langford, who helped pull together a coalition of eleven cities to create the West Jefferson Amusement and Public Park Authority. The Authority enlisted the help of the state to raise $65 million to build VisionLand, which included four main attraction and activity areas - Celebration City Theme Park, Main Street, Steel Waters Water Park and Marvel City, a children's play area.
Unfortunately, the park operated at a loss and the group filed for bankruptcy in 2002. VisionLand was purchased by the Southland Entertainment Group for $6 million. Southland added new rides, renamed VisionLand to Visionland, as well as renaming the water park and theme parks to Magic Adventure Theme Park, Splash Beach Water Park, Marvel City and Celebration Street. The park was renamed and re branded once again in 2006, and sold to Adrenaline Family Entertainment, who planned to add a hotel, an RV park and other amenities to turn the amusement and theme park into a full-featured family attraction.
Among the most popular attractions at Splash Beach are the water slides. The newest water attraction, added in 2009, is a 216 foot water slide named UpSurge! UpSurge! takes riders up and down a half pipe before depositing them in a 25,000 gallon pool. Acapulco Drop is a free fall slide that drops sliders down nine stories, and Neptune's Plunge, one of the original water attractions, is a series of four enclosed tube slides. Younger children can relax in Salamander Bay or Castaway Island, while the bigger kids enjoy the Kahuna Wave Pool.
Magic City features three thrilling roller coaster rides, including a custom-built wooden coaster named Rampage, which was one of the original attractions at VisionLand. A second coaster is a steel coaster that is actually located in Marvel City. The Marvel Mania is a family-friendly coaster that's reasonable for younger children. The Zoomerang was relocated from its original home in Sydney Australia in 2003. Other major attractions include a Carousel, monorail Ferris wheel and 25 other rides that vary in intensity from kid-friendly locomotives to wild spinners.
The park is open from 10:30 AM to 8:00 PM, with Splash Beach open until 7:00 PM daily. General admission is $34.99, with reduced rates for seniors and children. There are also special prices for second day admission to the park. For information about group sales, call Alabama Adventure at 205-481-4750.
