The One Park You Should Attend This Year

2024. A new year, a new start. To many coaster enthusiasts, a new year means a time to start planning their park visits for the year. Some 2024 trips are obvious--Cedar Point for Top Thrill 2, Dorney Park for Iron Menace. But what if I told you that the number one park you should not miss this year is a place you probably have never even heard of?

Lost Island Theme Park is located in Waterloo, Iowa. This brand-new park--it opened in 2022--is full of immersive storytelling, unique rides, friendly employees, and offers a great value. It is not to be missed!

Lost Island is the brainchild of the Bertch family. Since 2001, they have owned and operated the Lost Island Waterpark in Waterloo. The natural evolution after the sucess of the waterpark was to build an amusement park. Construction began in 2019, the park opened in 2022, and their star roller coaster, Matugani, opened in 2023. It's not often that a ground-up theme park is built in the United States. The big boom of America's regional theme parks is largely seen as beginning in 1961 with the opening of Six Flags Over Texas and ending with the opening of Canada's Wonderland in 1981 (not American, but designed and owned by Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting. Close enough!). There have been a few outliers since then, such as the opening of Fiesta Texas in San Antonio in 1992 and the opening of the now-defunct Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach in 2008. To see a new regional theme park open here is a once in a generation moment, and it deserves to be experienced and celebrated.

Beyond just the newness factor, what makes Lost Island unique? One of the aspects of it is found in the name itself. This is Lost Island Theme Park. And theme park it is. In a world of either unthemed rides or IP-heavy attractions, Lost Island went a different direction and created a whole world and storyline to base the park around. When you enter, you will find yourself in one of five realms. Four of the realms are based off of the elements: Mura (fire), Awa (water), Udara (air), and Yuta (earth). The fifth realm is the children's area, Tamariki, named after the park's mischievous mascots, the Tamariki. This creative idea translates to every element of the park. The level of detail at Lost Island is incredibly impressive. For instance, each realm's hardscape is different depending on which one you are in. When you are in the Mura realm, the fiery theme is reflected in red and gold sequins that are embedded in the ground, making it sparkle like lava in the summer sun. 

In the Udara realm, gears and wires are embedded in the concrete, representing the desire of the Lost Island residents to reach for the sky. 

Coordinated color schemes, hand-carved signage, and other carefully-located props extend the theme to every nook and cranny of the park. The level of care put into the park is incredibly high, and it contributes to a very immersive atmosphere. 

When I visited in August of 2023, I was also impressed by their ride lineup. For only being a two-year old park at my time of visit, I thought they had a very well-rounded attraction lineup. The star coaster is Matugani, an Intamin hydraulic launched coaster relocated from Liseberg in Sweden. Matugani is intense, snappy, and has two great inversions. I was surprised by how much of a punch that it packed for how small of a coaster that it is.

Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol is an impressive dark ride. While the last third of the ride is disappointingly video screen-based, the first two-thirds have great sets and some wonderful animatronics and physical effects. It is far above dark rides located at other regional parks, such as Boo Blasters at the Cedar Fair parks. 

There are several unique flat rides, like the Mura's Fury inverting pendulum ride and Amara Aviators, which is a Gerstlauer Sky Fly. There is also a large variety of family-friendly rides such as the Alzuna's Eye Ferris wheel and rides for younger children, which are featured in teh Tamariki realm. Each realm features an interactive play area for younger children. This is a park that has something for everybody in the family. 

Lost Island also offers a tremendous value. Prices for food and merchandise were very cheap for a theme park. The employees were all extremely nice, and engaged my friends and I in conversation throughout the day. Several of their rides have extensive, air-conditioned queues. It's clear that management deeply cares about guests and the guest experience. 

However, part of the value is also a problem: low crowds. The day that I attended was a weekday in early August. There was only a handful of people in the entire park, all day--in fact, there were more employees that I saw that day than fellow guests. Looking over trip reports from 2023 and 2022, this is not uncommon. It's great for the guests, who never have to wait in lines all day! But for the park, that level of crowds cannot be sustainable. Waterloo, Iowa, and Lost Island is a place that you want to go to. It's not somewhere that you're just passing through. Hopefully, as the years go on, Lost Island can establish their market and continue to build out. It's important to visit and spend money on admission, food, and merchandise. The money that you spend at the park goes to ensuring a prosperous future for years to come, and it's important that this new park "feels the love" and gets the support that they need from the coaster enthusiast world, as well as the surrounding community. 

Lost Island is a great new theme park. Get on out to Iowa and explore the four realms, ride some roller coasters, and hug the walkaround Tamariki. It will be a trip you won't regret!