Funtown Splashtown USA
Funtown Splashtown USA (commonly referred to as just "Funtown") is a family-owned amusement park located in Saco, Maine, in the United States.
 Funtown as viewed from above US Route 1 | |
| Slogan | "Where the Great American Family Comes to Play"; "Create memories that will last a lifetime!" |
|---|---|
| Location | Saco, Maine, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 43.52725°N 70.42764°W |
| Opened | 1960 |
| Previous names | Funtown USA, Cascade Water & Amusements |
| Attractions | |
| Total | 25 amusement park rides |
| Roller coasters | 2 |
| Water rides | 20 water slides and 2 pools |
| Website | http://www.funtownsplashtownusa.com |
History
In 1960, Ken (October 8, 1932 - January 8, 2013) and Violet Cormier opened Marvel Drive-In, a drive-in restaurant. Ken’s brother-in-law, Andre Dellaire opened a mini-golf course that previous year next to Marvel Drive-In. In 1963, Andre opened a go-kart track behind his mini golf course, and in 1964 Ken added batting cages and an archery range in 1967 behind Marvel Drive In. Over the course of the next few years, Cormier and Dellaire added several kiddie and carnival-style rides including SkySlides and Swinging Gyms. A gift shop was also opened.
In 1967, Cormier and Dellaire formed a partnership and Funtown U.S.A. was born. Over the next few years, Funtown added a Zipper, outdoor bumper cars, and a Bayern Kurve named “Luv Machine”.
In 1996, Cormier bought out the remaining Dellaire interest at the park and renamed it to Funtown Splashtown U.S.A. with the addition of the waterpark.
Featured attractions
The park features Northern New England’s only wooden roller coaster, Excalibur, as well as New England's longest and tallest log flume, Thunder Falls. It also has a 220-foot-tall (67 m) Drop Tower called Dragon's Descent.
One of the park's most popular rides is the Astrosphere, which is an indoor Scrambler which features a state-of-the-art laser and light show while playing ELO's Fire on High.[1]
The Splashtown segment features Pirate's Paradise, a large interactive waterpark playground which dumps hundreds of gallons of water onto its guests every few minutes. For the 2007 season, an expansion was built that doubled the size of the waterpark and added two new thrill slides, Tornado and Mammoth. An additional expansion in 2012 added another 6 thrill slides to Splashtown.
Current attractions
Funtown USA Rides
| Photo | Ride Name | Ride Type | Year Opened | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antique Cars | Antique Taxi Cars | 1982 | Rail-tracked vintage Tin Lizzys chug along a center-railed paved track. | |
| Astrosphere | Scrambler (Eli Bridge) | 1976 | The Astrosphere is an indoor dark Scrambler ride (inside a dome) with a choreographed music and lights show; theme song is Fire On High (The Astrosphere Mix) by ELO. [2] | |
| Balloon Race | 8-arm single axle family Ferris Wheel | 1994 | A small-fry family sized Ferris wheel with 8 balloon seats gently go around up-and-down. | |
| Barney Oldfield Roadsters | Rail-tracked vintage Sportscars | 1993 | Vintage roadsters ride along on a railed paved track through the section. | |
| Adult Bumper Boats | Adult size bumper boats | 1993 | Families rock and bump along on full sized bumper ring boats in a pool inside a pavilion. | |
| Casino | Trabant (Chance Morgan) | 1987 | This Trabant ride looks like a roulette wheel, taking its riders on a wild spinning, rising, and dipping journey. | |
| Cactus Canyon Canoes | Junior canoe water tracked ride | 1982 | Cactus Canyon takes riders in mini canoes along a water-filled trough track, and through a teepee. | |
| Dragon's Descent | Turbo Drop tower ride (S&S) | 2001 | The tallest thrill ride currently in Maine, this fast rusher lets its riders take a brief bird's-eye view of southern Maine and the White Mountains region of neighboring New Hampshire—before plummeting down several times very fast! | |
| Excalibur Roller Coaster | CCI wooden track roller coaster | 1998 | The Excalibur is Maine's first wooden roller coaster since 1948. named for King Arthur's sword. | |
| Flying Trapeze | Yo-Yo flying swings ride | 1988 | The Flying Trapeze takes riders up high and around. | |
| Frog Hopper | Junior Tower Drop (S&S) | 2001 | This junior sized Tower Drop ride gently goes up a few feet, then slides slowly back down again. | |
| Grand Prix Racers | Individually driven go-karts (Johnson) | 1993 | The Grand Prix Racers are gas-powered go-karts that race along a winding paved track. An enforced limit of 2 trips per rider on this attraction is in place. | |
| Helicopters | Junior flying helicopter roundabout | 1972 | These mini copters go up-and-down by controlling the handlebars. | |
| Kiddie Boats | Junior sized motorboat roundabout | 1976 | This ride takes junior riders in small motorboats slowly around within a water-filled ring trough, with a mini lighthouse as its centerpiece. | |
| Kiddie Bumper Boats | Junior sized bumper ring boats | 1993 | A junior sized bumper boats ride for younger junior riders. | |
| Kiddie Cars | Auto Umbrella junior roundabout (Hampton) | 1972 | A kiddy ride consisting of mini cars, trucks, buses and bikes. | |
| Kiddie Swings | Junior flying swings ride | 1972 | A small fry swings ride. | |
| Kiddie Train | Junior tracked mini train ride | 1987 | This junior train ride goes through a mini town. | |
| Merry-Go-Round | Fairground model carousel | 1967 | The original Merry-Go-Round had its place near the Auto Umbrella and Sock-It-To-'Em bumper cars for many years, and was enjoyed by its many fans, who were sad to see it leave after the 2012 season (as part of the Mount Olympus Water Slides expansion); the Auto Umbrella was then moved closer to the Kiddie Swings and Kiddie Copters. | |
| Red Baron Planes | Junior biplane roundabout | 1976 | These biplanes look like mini replicas of warplanes, and go up-and-down by controlling the handlebars. | |
| Sea Dragon | Pendulum swinging pirate ship (Chance Morgan) | 1987 | The Sea Dragon pirate ship ride swings its riders fore and aft. | |
| Sock-It-To-'Em Bumper Cars | Traditional style bumper cars | 1975 | This is the ride that replaced the original outdoors Hydrobumpers ride (see below—Former Attractions). Familiar bumper cars inside a steel floored building with a central bumper median strip often bump-and-sock into each other. | |
| Tempest In The Tea Cups | Spinning tea cups platform ride (Zamperla) | 1987 | Large tea cup cars (3 on each bull plate roundel) spin riders around inside a gazebo tea house. | |
| Thunderbolt | Flying Bobs (Chance Morgan) | 1988 | This ride has swinging shuttle podkarts that race forwards—then backwards while pop music is playing. | |
| Thunder Falls | Log Flume water tracked ride (Hopkins) | 1984 | Thunder Falls is Maine's first log flume ride—race through Snake Canyon and Hopkins Rapids on the longest and tallest log flume ride in Maine. | |
| Tilt-A-Whirl | Tilt-A-Whirl waltzer platform ride (Sellner Manufacturing) | 1976 | A ride where its riders are inside domed tipkarts that are spinning very fast, while the platform races along an invisible inner track. | |
| Wild Mouse Roller Coaster | Wild Mouse steel compact family roller coaster (Maurer Söhne) | 2009 | The Wild Mouse is a steel compact coaster that winds its riders up-and-down through hairpin turns and fast drops. (Replaced the Galaxi Coaster which is now in Ecuador according to some staff at the park.) | |
Splashtown USA Water Slides and Pools
| Attraction Name | Attraction Type | Year Opened | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poseidon's Plunge | AquaDrop (WhiteWater West) | 2012 | Part of the Mount Olympus Water Slides |
| Triton's Twist | FlatLine Loop (WhiteWater West) | 2012 | Part of the Mount Olympus Water Slides; only installation in the Western Hemisphere |
| Amphitrite's Challenge | Whizzard (WhiteWater West) | 2012 | Part of the Mount Olympus Water Slides |
| Mammoth | Dark Mammoth (ProSlide) | 2007 | |
| Tornado | Tornado 45 (ProSlide) | 2007 | First and only Tornado slide in Northern New England |
| Pirate's Paradise | Rain Fortress | 2003 | Branded "Portland Pirate's Paradise" from 2007-2013 through a partnership with the Portland Pirates, the local AHL affiliate |
| Splish tube slide (Green) | Inner Tube (WhiteWater West) | 1999 | Replaced the Thunderbolt Water Slides |
| Splash tube slide (Black) | Inner Tube (WhiteWater West) | 1999 | Replaced the Thunderbolt Water Slides |
| Liquid Lightning tube slide | Inner Tube (WhiteWater West) | 1999 | |
| Fun Lagoon | Lagoon-style pool | 1999 | |
| Swimming Pool | Wading pool | 1982 | Expanded in 2012 |
| Corkscrew | Mat slide | 1982 |
Former Attractions
A car from the park's Galaxi Roller Coaster returning from the unload platform to be reloaded
| Photo | Ride Name | Ride Type | Year Opened | Year Closed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balloon Flight | Flying balloons roundabout | 1984 | 1986 | The Balloon Flight took its riders flying up-and-down for 3 years. Removed after the 1986 season to make room for the Casino Wheel (Trabant). | |
| Captain Isaiah Cutler's Haunted House | Indoor walk-through haunted fun house with mechanical props and tricks | 1967 | 1995 | This famous haunted fun house was a long-time fixture at the old MainePlay Amusements area (now the SplashTown water park section) for its first 30 years. It featured various mechanical props (ghosts, witches, and monsters) and mechanical tricks (moving shuffle bridge, spinning dizzy tunnel, amongst others) in a mainly darkened house building. This house was closed—and removed—after the 1995 season due to high operational costs. | |
| Ferris Wheel | #8 Ferris Wheel (Big Eli) | 1975 | 2000 | This 8-seater classic Ferris wheel was removed after the 2002 season in favor of the Frog Hopper. | |
| Galaxi Roller Coaster | Family compact steel figure-8 roller coaster (S.D.C.) | 1978 | 2008 | The Galaxi was Maine's first-ever roller coaster in an amusement park. It had 7 autocar style coaster cars that went through an undulating figure-8 steel compact track. This mainstay ride lasted for 31 years, and was removed after the 2008 season to make room for the Wild Mouse. | |
| Giant Slide | Fiberglass grooved amusement slide ride | 1972 | 1986 | Riders walked up the long stairway to the top station of the Giant Slide, then—slid down in burlap bags. Another mainstay during FunTown's earlier years. | |
| Hydrobumpers | Flying saucer bumper ring cars | 1967 | 1974 | This was the original outdoors hydro bumper ring cars ride with the headlight post at its center, and pennant streamers emanating from it. It was at FunTown U.S.A. for 8 seasons, after which the Hydrobumpers—along with the Zipper—were removed. The area is now occupied by the building which houses the Sock-It-To-'Em traditional bumper cars. | |
| Hydrofighter | Water gun fight tower ride | 1988 | 2000 | Riders climbed aboard bibbed seats, and rose high, then—squirted each other with on-board water guns. It got removed after the 2000 season to make room for Dragon's Descent. | |
| Kartland Go-Karts | Individually driven gas-powered go-karts (Johnson) | 1967 | 2000 | Kartland was MainePlay's original go-kart track that served FunTown U.S.A. for 36 years. During the earlier years, this attraction was a pay-per-ride owned by MainePlay; in 1993—after the merger with FunTown U.S.A. proper—the ticket booth closed down, and operated on a 2-trips-per-rider policy. The Kartland Track was enjoyed by its fans for so long, until it retired at the close of the 2002 season. The area then became a picnic area for 9 years. It's now the home for the new Apollo's Water Slides Area, which opened in 2012. | |
| Noah Zark | Ark themed junior play area | 1982 | 2000 | Noah Zark (a corruption of Noah's Ark) was a kiddy play area that looked like an ark boat. | |
| Paratrooper | Rise-and-fall seated roundabout | 1982 | 1987 | Another classic spinning ride that was enjoyed by fans for 6 seasons; got removed at the close of the 1987 season. | |
| The Luv Machine | Bayern Kurve | 1975 | 1981 | The Luv Machine was a groovy psychedelic themed Bayern Kurve bobsled tracked platform ride that speeded its riders up-and-down along its grooved inner track; got removed after the 1981 season to make room for the Antique Cars. | |
| UFO | Rise-and-fall spinning platform ride | 1972 | 1981 | The UFO Ride was a one-of-a-kind spinning platform ride; part Round-Up, and part Enterprise! UFO was removed from FunTown U.S.A. after the 1981 season to make room for eventual expansions. | |
| Water Bugs Bumper Boats | Family sized bumper ring boats | 1984 | 1992 | This was a bumper boats attraction housed in a pavilion behind the Sock-It-To-'Em bumper cars. After 1995, the boats were removed, the water was drained, and the pool was filled in with white gravel. It's now part of a picnic area. | |
| Zipper | Zipper | 1967 | 1974 | The classic Zipper ride was at FunTown U.S.A. for only the first 8 seasons, and was—afterwards—removed. It stood where the Cash Cube game does now. | |
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See also
- List of amusement parks in New England
- Amusement ride
- Palace Playland
External links
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