Adventure Island is a water park located northeast of Tampa, Florida, across from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The park features 30 acres (12 ha) of water rides, dining, and other attractions. The park opened on June 7, 1980, and is part of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
Rides
- Aruba Tuba
- Calypso Coaster
- Caribbean Corkscrew
- Colossal Curl
- Rapids Racer — ProSlide dueling racer with the world’s first dueling saucer section.
- Riptide (4 individual slides)
- Solar Vortex A1 Bed Bug Exterminator Tampa
- Vanish Point (3 individual slides: 2 drop slides and one non-drop slide)
- Wahoo Remix, formerly Wahoo Run. The previous ProSlide Mammoth River with dark enclosed tunnels will now be lit with multi-color LED lights and augmented with sound.
- Water Moccasin (3 enclosed tube slides)
Pools
- Endless Surf
- Fabian’s Fun Port
- Paradise Lagoon
- Rambling Bayou
- Splash Attack
Defunct Rides
- Tampa Typhoon: A water slide that closed in 2005. The slide opened in the late 1980s and shared a tower with Gulf Scream, a now-defunct water slide. Standing nearly 70 feet (21 m), or seven stories tall, the ride allowed patrons to see for miles, including a view of the nearby MOSI museum.
- Gulf Scream: Built in 1980, it was the second ride constructed in the park. It shared its tower with (now defunct) Tampa Typhoon until 2005. It was demolished in 2014 to make way for the Park’s newest ride, Colossal Curl, a tube slide that opened in 2015.
- Barratuba: Built in the mid-1980s. This ride was a similar experience to Calypso Coaster (using a tube to ride on) but instead was built in-ground and followed the land’s natural terrain down a hill. The ride finished with a short drop through a large cylinder before ending in a splash pool located immediately adjacent to the splash pool of the defunct Runaway Rapids, approximately where the park’s most eastern snack and concession stand is now located. Guests can still observe the remnants of this ride now disguised as flower bed decorations lining the exit path of the Wahoo remix. The exact details of this ride’s fate are unclear, but many Tampa, FL natives who are old enough to remember Barratuba and the lore behind it believe it was closed after a lawsuit was filed after a patron broke a bone while riding. As stated above, the ride was built in-ground, creating a haphazard, unpredictable experience that often created enough force to eject riders from their tubes. The slide’s surface was as hard as concrete and not very forgiving.
Restaurants
- Surfside Cafe
- Mango Joes’
- Surfside Ice Cream
- Colossal Snacks
- Bayou Beach Club
- Island Taco Truck
- Snack Attack
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