![]() The park endured until 2006 and was a popular destination for urban explorers until it was demolished a decade or so later.Īll that remains are American-style chain restaurants like Coco’s and Il Bene Italian Buffet that once served theme park visitors and two sports stadiums that were built in the 1980s to complement Dreamland. Dreamland did quite well until Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, when attendance began to plunge. It even had Disneyesque attractions like Sleeping Beauty Castle, Tomorrowland, and Adventure Jungle Cruise. Located on the northern outskirts of the historic Japanese city, the park opened in 1961 as a knockoff of California’s Disneyland. Never mess with the mouse is the lesson learned from the defunct Nara Dreamland. Japan’s abandoned Nara Dreamland theme park.(Media Drum World/Alamy Stock Photo via CNN) Nara Dreamland (Japan) In March of this year, the city of New Orleans announced a deal with private developers to revamp the site into a movie studio, sports complex, and family entertainment center. More than two dozen decaying rides can still be seen including former star attractions like the Ozark Splash log flume and Zydeco Scream roller coaster. Prior to the storm, the park was divided into six themes, including areas devoted to DC Comics superheroes and Looney Tunes cartoon characters. (AP Photo/The Times Picayune, Chris Granger) Six Flags New Orleans (Louisiana)Īn enduring victim of Hurricane Katrina, this Louisiana theme park was open for just five years (2000-2005) before the grounds were flooded by six feet of water that took more than a month to evaporate or drain away. Once heralded as a tourist attraction and catalyst for economic development, it has sat sat untended for four years. The site has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina flooded it on Aug. The Six Flags of New Orleans site is seen in an Augphoto. Once upon a time, the park featured knights jousting on horseback, Merlin’s Magic Show, Dragon Flyer and Knightmare roller coasters and other medieval-themed rides and shows.Īfter its demise, the grounds served as a drive-thru zombie attraction before its current reincarnation as Scare City, a walk-thru horror experience through the creepy ruins of Camelot. Set in the leafy Lancashire countryside near Manchester and Liverpool, the Magic Kingdom of Camelot resurrected tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table on the site of a former lake that features with the medieval legend. (Peter Thomasson/Alamy Stock Photo via CNN) Camelot Theme Park (England) Camelot Theme Park which has now been turned into a zombie scare zone. Thirty years later, the park’s life-sized dinosaurs and megafauna, bumper cars and other attractions have been eerily engulfed by the jungle. The government forced the closure of Mimaland after a damaging mudslide and other safety issues. Considered the first theme park in Southeast Asia, it featured an artificial lake, a huge swimming pool with giant water slides and a Prehistoric Animal Kingdom. Located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia In Miniature Land (Mimaland) was active from 1975 to 1994. ![]() (Ady Abd Ropha/Pacific Press/ via CNN) Mimaland (Malaysia) ![]() The city government has announced plans to preserve and “artistically reinterpret” some of the old attractions, especially the iconic Ferris wheel. The grounds are now a large public park with walking paths that lead to many of the disused rides or the possibility of paddling past on guided canoe trips offered by Backstagetourism. Named for the nearby River Spree, the park was operational from 1969 to 2001. “For the people who seek them out, there’s this sense of discovery, finding the remnants of the park and trying to reconstruct what was there in your mind.” “But an abandoned amusement park is the exact polar opposite. “We think of amusement parks as vibrant, colorful, noisy, cheerful places,” says Jim Futrell of the National Amusement Park Historical Association. ![]() There’s also something compellingly post-apocalyptic about places that have been overtaken by decay, a chilling yet intriguing glimpse at what the entire Earth might be like if humans ever disappeared. They were abandoned by owners and operators for a variety of reasons - falling attendance, natural disasters, financial difficulties or merely because they were no longer relevant to modern parkgoers.īut they retain their fascination, ghostly places that attract urban explorers, social media divas and people seeking to relive memories of once visiting with families or friends. Although hundreds of theme parks are active around the globe, hundreds more have been relegated to the scrapheap of amusement history. ![]()
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