My first trip to the Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, Iowa (opened in 2022) occurred on Monday, July 24, 2023. I had only decided to go to it the week before after seeing the attraction line-up. The park is about 4 hours from where I currently live, so it does require some planning. The date I chose was basically the last open date I had for the remainder of the park’s operating season (which goes until late August) due to the fact that I had upcoming vacation time followed by Vacation Bible School at my church. The theme park’s hours on my day were 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The waterpark, which carries the same name and actually preceded the park, also had the same hours that day. Of planning note, there is a 1-Day Island Pass that allows one admission into both the theme park and the water park. The water park is located down and across the street from the theme park, so it’s not a simple park hopping (although probably not too different from Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios). I was about the 8th car in the parking lot at 10:15 a.m. on my day. I took a quick picture of the entrance sign and was the first one to walk up to the front gates. There were 4 cast members there who were chatting a bit. None of the ticket kiosks were open as their system doesn’t come online until the park opens. Having done my planning, I had purchased my ticket online. When the clock hit 10:30 a.m. right on my phone, the cast member scanned my ticket. I went in and had my picture taken with the costumed Tamariki–a black human-like creature with beady eyes. Lost Island is divided into 5 lands called “realms.” Rather than using the official names of the realms, I will keep it simple by using their English equivalents (with associated color in parenthesis): Fire (red), Water (blue), Earth (green), Air (purple), and Spirit (multi-colored). There are 3 main attractions in the park: Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol shooting ride in Fire, Matugani launch coaster in Earth (opened in 2023), and Nopuku Air Coaster in Air. I rode each of those rides 4, 5, and 4 times, respectively. My first ride was Volkanu as I figured I would want to do it a lot during the day. Volkanu is a shooting dark ride from Sally Dark Rides. It cost $5 million to design and construct the ride, so you would not expect to see such a ride in a theme park in Iowa! Although I was the first regular guest into the park, there were some others ahead of me in-line. The cast member told me it was a group of special guests from a company that had helped to market the park. On my first time, I was ushered into the well-themed pre-show ride, which told me that I was needed to break some idols (why do they have to involve those?) as part of helping to save the inhabitants from those who want to do some evil. The queue was rather darkened but had some special props. After grabbing some 4-D glasses (although I managed to forget on my 4th ride), I got in-line at the loading station. Two of the times I rode by myself and the other two times I rode with others (it’s a little easier to score higher by yourself). The ride uses a combination of screens and Audio Animatronics to tell the story. The theme of the ride is rather dark, and it feels like I was facing pure evil when I encountered the lava monster. Not to spoil it, but he gets defeated each time. The scores for shooting targets allowed for good re-rideability as well as a break from the summer heat. Matugani (the launch coaster) was still undergoing testing when I came out of Volkanu, so I rode some flat rides (“flat rides” basically refers to rides that are outdoors, off-the-shelf style rides that are not roller coasters). They have a good variety around the park, including some that are not so common at other amusement parks. Surprisingly the drop tower has a pre-show. I was able to walk right on Matugani without a wait, as I did the other 5 times throughout the day. Matugani was delayed in shipment from Europe so it did not open with most of the rest of the park in its initial year. But it is arguably the best ride in the park! It’s a super smooth coaster that launches out of a snake’s head. One fan, in particular, likes it so much that he has ridden it over 1000 times in its first season. It took me a while to get over to the Nopuku air coaster as I was prioritizing some of the other rides in some of the other realms. In an air coaster, riders are suspended from the train so that their feet dangle. Although the coaster went through some testing for smoothness before opening to the public, there are some rough patches where the train feels like it lunges forward. To go on it four times was enough of a challenge for me. The other attraction that is worth describing is Yuta Falls, which is the other ride that opened in 2023. It is a chute-the-chute style ride (similar to the Wave at Minnesota’s ValleyFair). It is the only water ride in the park, so it is an important one on a hot day (I rode it 3 times). Unlike most chute-the-chutes, this one has two drops–first a small one and then the main one. It gives the ride a really neat aesthetic. One of the times, I rode with some other people, including a teenage girl (probably an orphan) who was distraught the whole time due to her chaperone not being able to ride it with her. I felt really sorry for the girl. The food was fine. For lunch, I had coconut shrimp and French Fries (one of the cast members brought the latter to me as they were out when I was paying). I also had a pineapple twist ice cream (essentially a Dole whip). I had previously described the opportunity to pray in a theme park. To cool off in the afternoon, I found some shade and did 30 minutes of prayer. It was a good way to rehydrate and recharge for the last few hours of my time in the park. As you can see in my pictures, attendance was rather light the day I was at the park. I think they have struggled with attendance into their second year. They have definitely invested a lot in the park, including things like costumed characters, a children’s book based on the park, and workers that they have brought in from around the world. I hope the park makes it through the next few years, because once people know about it, I could see families from the upper midwest making it part of their regular summer plans.
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