Fun Spot America Theme Parks

Fun Spot America Theme Parks

Location	Orlando, Florida Kissimmee, Florida United States
Coordinates	Orlando 28°27′55″N 81°27′21″W / 28.4653543°N 81.4556994°W / 28.4653543; -81.4556994Coordinates: 28°27′55″N 81°27′21″W / 28.4653543°N 81.4556994°W / 28.4653543; -81.4556994 Celebration28°19′49″N 81°30′53″W / 28.3302485°N 81.5146852°W / 28.3302485; -81.5146852
Theme	Americana
Opened	1979 (1979) (first park - now closed) December 24, 1997 (1997-12-24) (Orlando) 2007 (2007) (Kissimmee)
Previous names	Fun N Wheels Fun Spot Action Park (Orlando) Fun Spot USA (Kissimmee)
Operating season	Year round
Visitors per annum	500,000 est 2013 (Orlando) 700,000 est 2013 (Kissimmee) [1]
Area	14 acres (5.7 ha) (Orlando) 9 acres (3.6 ha) (Kissimmee)
Rides
Total	27 (Orlando) 22 (Kissimmee)
Roller coasters	3 (Orlando) 3 (Kissimmee)
Website	fun-spot.com
Status	Operating

Fun Spot America Theme Parks is a group of amusement parks located in Orlando, Florida, and Kissimmee, Florida. Since 1979, the group has owned and operated a number of small amusement parks over the years and currently has two locations, Fun Spot America - Orlando and Fun Spot America - Kissimmee.

History

Early parks

Fun Spot America Theme Parks began in 1979 under the name Fun N Wheels near the I-Drive tourist corridor in Orlando, Florida. This 3 acre park near Wet 'n Wild Orlando, with no frontage on the main roads, had an arcade, three go-kart tracks, a miniature golf course, bumper cars and boats, Raging Riptide (a 40 foot high water slide) and a 55-foot Ferris wheel. This park became the world’s first themed action park with premering new types of rides such as the riptide slide manufactured by New Wave Rides. In 1988 a second Fun N Wheels location was opened in Kissimmee next to the regional mall. Both locations were sold in 1988 to Pleasurama USA, who also owned Hard Rock Café at the time, with the expectation of expanding the concept to malls region wide. This however did not occur.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

In 1990 Fun Spot Amusement Park was opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Two years later a second park was opened in Virginia Beach, Virginia. These parks were operated until 1998.^[1][3][6]

1997–present

The Original Area of what was Fun Spot Action Park, as seen in 2016

Fun Spot moved back to Orlando in 1997 and opened as Fun Spot Action Park (later named Fun Spot America – Orlando) near the original Fun N Wheels location on I-Drive. The $4 million, 4.7-acre (1.9 ha) park opened on December 24 featuring their signature, patented design of multi-level go-kart tracks, featuring three levels. The park also included a 102-foot-tall (31 m) Ferris wheel and a two-story video arcade among other attractions.^[1][3][6]

In 2004, Fun Spot purchased the site of the world’s tallest Skycoaster located in Kissimmee, adjacent to the Old Town entertainment and shopping complex. The site was purchased from Bill Kitchen, the inventor of the skycoster and owner of Skyventure. The site also included a recently opened G-Force dragster ride. Fun Spot developed the 9 acres around the skycoaster into another amusement park call Fun Spot USA in 2007 (now Fun Spot America - Kissimmee). They added 2 multi-level go-kart tracks, family/thrill rides and an arcade. Summer of 2011 saw the arrival of Fun Spot's first major roller coaster, the Power Trip Coaster at the Kissimmee park (now Rockstar Coaster). The Wild Mouse roller coaster, manufactured by Zamperla, was relocated from Cypress Gardens, where it was known as Galaxy Spin, when Cypress Gardens closed and became Legoland Florida.^{[1][3][7][8][9][10]}

The 10 acre expansion to the renamed Fun Spot America Orlando park

In 2010 Fun Spot purchased an additional 10 acres of vacant land next to their Orlando location. 2011 was spent researching nearly 30 parks and 50 rollercoaster across the country planning a major expansion of the park. Late in 2011, they meet with three professional roller-coaster salesmen. Ground was broken in 2012 for the expansion that tripled the size of Fun Spot Action Park, turning it into Fun Spot America - Orlando. $25 million was spent on two new roller coasters, the world's second tallest Skycoaster (second only to their Kissimmee location), and numerous other attractions. The brand new two coasters are the wooden out and back roller coaster White Lightning, and the steel Suspended Family Coaster Freedom Flyer. The skycoaster came from MGM Grand Adventures in Las Vegas, where it had been disassembled in storage for 8 years. It is now the centerpiece of the park. Additional improvements include three new thrill rides, new multi-level go-kart track new food court, new ticket booth, additional parking and rest rooms. A grand re-opening was held on June 8, 2013, celebrating the tripling of size of the park, and the park's 15th anniversary.^[3][11][12]

Gator Spot Entrance at Fun Spot America Orlando

Fun Spot, in collaboration with Gatorland, opened Gator Spot at the Orlando park on May 11, 2015. The $1 million attraction allows Gatorland to extend their brand to the I-Drive tourist area, with visitors able to hold, take photos with, and feed alligators. The star of the attraction is a leucistic alligator named Bouya, a white gator with blue eyes.^[13]

Attractions

Orlando location

Fun Spot America - Orlando is an amusement park in Orlando, Florida, near Universal Orlando and I-Drive. It has 4 different go-kart tracks and three roller coasters. The Sea Serpent which is an E&F Miler Industries family roller coaster. They have a GCI wooden roller coaster named White Lightning. They have a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster named Freedom Flyer.

Kissimmee location

Fun Spot America - Kissimmee is located in Kissimmee, Florida, adjacent to the Old Town entertainment and shopping complex. The park is designed as a circular walkway around the lagoon featuring the world's tallest skycoaster, the entrance of which is on the west side of the lagoon. The south end of loop features the signature multi-level go-kart tracks, the east side the flat slick tracks. In the north east side of the loop is the Arcade and Kiddie Area and the Rockstar Coaster is at the north end of the loop.

Awards

Fun Spot was awarded the 2012 Brass Ring for "Top Family Entertainment Center (FEC) - North America" by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).^[19][20]

References

External links

• Official website
• Orlando - Fun Spot America Theme Parks at the Roller Coaster DataBase
• Kissimmee - Fun Spot America Theme Parks at the Roller Coaster DataBase