Weird Amusement Parks

June 6, 2007 10:55 PM

Very Weird Amusement Parks. And More Very Weird Amusement Parks.
posted by amyms (26 comments total)

Related, from the same site: Bizarre Theme Park and Carnival Ride Accidents.
posted by amyms at 10:57 PM on June 6, 2007

You beat me! I was actually compiling a post on this. One great theme park is missing though. At Eco Alberto Park in Mexico, visitors can pretend to be an illegal migrants!

Andele!
posted by miss lynnster at 12:19 AM on June 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

That certainly fits the "very weird" criteria, miss lynnster.
posted by amyms at 12:23 AM on June 7, 2007

Correction: "be illegal migrants" or "be an illegal migrant." Pick one.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:26 AM on June 7, 2007

It's been mentioned on the blue in passing, before, but I'd want to include the nearby Site of Reversible Destiny on one of those lists.
posted by dreamsign at 12:34 AM on June 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

333 Illuminati Model Theme Park for the New World Order Photo Gallery.
posted by hortense at 2:06 AM on June 7, 2007

Suoi Tien is about thirty minutes from my house, I've been there four or five times. They left out the best part: You can actually fish for the crocodiles with a big hunk of pork. Here's me doing that.
posted by borkingchikapa at 3:05 AM on June 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

What no Plopsaland?
posted by Mocata at 3:22 AM on June 7, 2007

Yeah, well....some of these aren't even real.
posted by GavinR at 4:58 AM on June 7, 2007

Speaking of ¡Andele!, there's the venerable South of The Border, which is indeed south of a border -- the NC/SC one, right off of I-95 near Dillon.
posted by pax digita at 5:00 AM on June 7, 2007

That giant sombrero man at the south of the border always frightened me as a kid.
posted by fallenposters at 5:02 AM on June 7, 2007

Also Forbidden Gardens, a recreation of third century BCE China including one third scale terra cotta warriors and model Forbidden City (with full scale feral "catzillas" wandering between the tiny buildings).
posted by Standeck at 6:03 AM on June 7, 2007

Diggerland. I may have my next birthday party there. Nice post.
posted by winks007 at 6:16 AM on June 7, 2007

Related somehow: The world's worst theme park.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:13 AM on June 7, 2007

From the South of the Border website:
"BUENS DIAS, AMIGO! pedro VER' GLAD YOU COME!! pedro got 112 meelion amigos, who stay weeth heem, opp teel now all satisfy come back, send frans...thees make pedro ver' HAPPEE...like for frans come back all time...pedro hope YOU make 112 meelion and wan happee amigos! you come back soon, too, yes?"

This place is in North Carolina? I... I... am speechless.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:31 AM on June 7, 2007

I think the worst theme park I ever went to myself was Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. Growing up 45 minutes from Disneyland, the rides at Tivoli Gardens put me into a total giggle fit. At the time they seemed cheesier than the temporary rides at the fair.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:35 AM on June 7, 2007

There's a sad old theme park in northern Indiana that's rumored to be run by neo-Nazis.

There is a row of three roller-coasters there. The first is the called "The Round-up," the second is called "the Zyclon" (as in Zycon-B, the gas used in Nazi death-chambers), and the third is called "the Afterburner."
posted by bookish at 8:16 AM on June 7, 2007

Thanks, Amyms -- First time I've been FPP'd. (I compiled the third post on ride accidents.)
posted by nitsuj at 8:42 AM on June 7, 2007

Ocean Dome, the world's largest indoor beach. Only 1000 feet from actual beach.

Weird.
posted by quin at 9:56 AM on June 7, 2007

South of the Border is the kind of place that makes you long for the classy, upscale feel of your local Wal-Mart.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 10:27 AM on June 7, 2007

I wonder how Japan's Tivoli Park compares, miss lynnster.

Japan is lousy with dubious theme parks, and it seems that all the "good" themes were quickly taken, leaving other would-be operators to pick less-likely ones. "I know, let's have a Danish-themed park." "A Dutch one." "A Spanish one." (and those are just some of the comparatively successful ones). The failed, questionably-themed park is prominent enough in Japan's collective consciousness that a failed Canadian-themed park was the backdrop for a movie I saw there once.
posted by adamrice at 10:28 AM on June 7, 2007

SOUTH Carolina, miss lynnster. South Carolina. Heh. Actually I love South of the Border. It's the place where all things tacky come to be born or die or live again. Something like that, anyway: it's completely bizarre. I saw a tea towel there one time - a tea towel, mind you, the kind of thing you'd hang in a kitchen or guest bathroom - that had a drawing on it of a fisherman with a big smile on his face. Traditional fisherman, traditional caricature, hat, pole, suspenders. That was the part above the wavy line signifying the water. Below the waterline his waders were down arounbd his duck boots and he was getting a blowjob from a large mouth bass. The caption, in script, said The Happy Fisherman. It was excellent and I've always regretted not buying it but somehow, surrounded as I was by hordes of children, I didn't dare.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:58 PM on June 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Coming Soon... FLETCH LIVES!
posted by bidrattler at 4:04 PM on June 7, 2007

I'm speechless again, mygothlaundry.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:37 PM on June 7, 2007

It was excellent

Apparently we have differing interpretations of the word "excellent."
posted by five fresh fish at 4:57 PM on June 7, 2007

Well, duh. No wonder you're outraged. That large mouth bass could be your sister.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:42 PM on June 7, 2007