Adventure World is an interesting topic when regarding it as a theme park or not. I’m not denying that adventure could improve it’s theming however some arguments against it being one doesn’t have a straight yes or no answer. Such as the critic of lack of themed lands. Adventure World has included elements multiple times over the past few years to incorporate themed lands.
The first of which being Dragon’s Kingdom which brought cohesive theming to the area and transformed the colour scheme from bright and off putting colours to ones more natural allowing it to bend better into the garden strengthening it’s theme. And this is while most (but not all) parks in the country haven’t updated their children’s area at all, or attempted to blend the barrier between the theming of the rides and the land they are kept in.
Adventure World has also gone to the trouble of renaming multiple rides over the years as the stepping stone of full land integration. The area known as Nautica (Kraken, Sea Serpents, Tidal Wave, Wahoo Speed Slides and Buccaneer Battle) after the introduction of the Kraken have had it’s ride’s renamed, had consistent themed elements spread throughout the land (barrels, row boats and signage) in an attempt to homogenise the theming of the land. This being said money can be spent to further improve the theming in this Area which is something I believe AW would be interested in the future however their priority would likely being funding of the MI series of attractions. There is also Water Mountain which was entirely re-themed to the Wild West and of course Thrill. Yes there is some arguments against AW’s Thrill Area.
Yes the paving doesn’t match (Goliath’s different paving was introduced to be a cooler surface since many people are bare footed at AW since it also contains water rides) however there is similar darker ride colour schemes, almost identical sounding ride announcements and ‘scarier’ theming contrasted with the rest of the park. This is aided by the ‘woods’ like trees in the backdrop and on the lead up to inferno to help build a more dreary atmosphere.
Yes Adventure World is far from spending 100 million on theming like Disney parks however the continued improvements is what is important, when was the last time other theme parks in Australia attempted to homogenise older lands to have more consistent theming (only referring to revisiting not entirely new lands) most other parks as time progress lose the consistent theming within the land whilst adventure world has improved it. In my opinion that makes it a theme park.
