| Adventure Island | |
|---|---|
| Location | Southend-on-Sea, England |
| Website | www.adventureisland.co.uk |
| Owner | Stockvale Ltd |
| Previous names | Peter Pan's Playground, Peter Pan's Adventure Island |
| Operating season | Open all year round |
| Rides | 33 total
|
Adventure Island is a free-admission amusement park in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK which has 33 different rides and attractions as well as a gift shop and catering outlets. The current site of the amusement park flanks the north end of Southend Pier and has been an amusement park since 1976 when the land now forming the west side of the park was purchased by the Miller family. The park was previously known as Peter Pan's Playground and latterly Peter Pan's Adventure Island before becoming simply Adventure Island. The site is currently owned and managed by Stockvale Limited.
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In 1976 the land to the west of the pier was purchased by the Miller family and they developed their amusement park on the site from the rudimentary original. The site was redeveloped extensively and in 1995 the park was vastly expanded when the land to the east of the pier was purchased to form part of the park. Some past rides include:
Mr Smee's Boat Ride, American Freeway, Barracuda, Space Chase, Fantasy Dome, Pirate Galleon, Beelzee Bob's Trail, Raging River
Adventure Island currently has five roller coasters in the park.
The Green Scream is a Zierer custom design and was constructed in the late 90s. It was once described as their signature ride but this title has now been taken by Rage. The Green Scream does not have any inversions and the drops are quite tame however it is an all round family ride. The Green Screams train is green with a red interior apart from the first car which is red and has a fibreglass crocodile to represent Snappy, a park mascot. The back of the rear car has the tail of the crocodile. The train is quite long, comprising 20 cars seating two people each.
The second roller coaster at the park is the Barnstormer, which opened in 2000. It is the same design of coaster, a custom Zierer, and looks quite tame although it has what has been called one of the best helix curves on a mini coaster. The train is half the length of that of the Green Scream and has a fiberglass pilot at the front, a dog at the back, with propellers mounted at each end.
The third roller coaster is named the Mighty Mini Mega, a Pinfari MM29, which opened in 2003. This coaster has six cars each with two rows of two, seating 24 riders in total. The ride itself is quite short however it is quite intense in some places with a helix towards the end and quite a sharp brake run. It is suited on top of the Mega City prize arcade.
There is an article on the fourth roller coaster below. It has been named Rage after a competition in southend echo to decide a name for the ride. The slogan is "For Superheroes only!" which is said before the first drop of the rollercoaster.
The Fifth roller coaster is called Kiddi Koasta, a Zamperla Speedy Coaster which opened to the public on April 30th 2011. This rollercoaster is basically a starter coaster for young children and people who are not used to more larger and faster rollercoasters, due to its gentle drops, twist and turns.
Rage is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter 320+. It opened in February 2007. It is one of the biggest investments the park has ever made. The ride cost in the region of £3million and is located on the former Raging River Log Flume site, Sky Drop and Vortex were relocated to new positions in the park to make way.
The ride is about 75 ft in height and has a 97 degree drop, a vertical lift hill, a vertical loop and a Zero G Roll, as well as a host of other elements and tight turns that make it a short but extreme ride.
In 2011 a crow built its nest at the top of the loop gathering attention from tabloid newspapers.
The park does a lot for local and national charities.
Two such events are the Green Scream Marathon and Rage Relay. The Green Scream Marathon was held on 18 June 2005. Three people took part and rode the Green Scream coaster for 12 hours solid, raising over £700 for Make Poverty History.
On 28 April 2007, a group of five coaster enthusiasts took part in the Rage Relay event, where they each rode ride Rage in total of 4 hours each doing hourly shifts on the ride in pairs, they raised over £500 for the local charity StrokeBusters.
On 8 August 2010, 102 people rode the Green Scream rollercoaster to break a new world record of the most naked people (nude/o naturall) on a rollercoaster. The sponsorship money from this event was given to Southend Hospital.
Most recently two Adventure Island staff members spent 24 hours on the Big Wheel in November 2010 and raised over £800 for StrokeBusters.
A new ride has been confirmed for 2012, which was originally going to open in 2011 but was delayed to 2012, which is going to be an in-house ride (built inside the park) which is named 'The Time Machine'. It is currently unknown to the public to what the ride will do, but it will go upside-down. The Dragon is being moved next to Kiddi Koasta to make way for the Time Machine.