Lost Island Themepark — Local services in Waterloo

I visited Lost Island theme park for the first time this weekend and absolutely loved it! As a theme park/coaster enthusiast, this place was awesome to check out because of the incredible attention to detail and theming, along with being able to grab a few new coaster credits! The coaster lineup isn’t spectacular, with only 2 major coasters in the park, but the overall ambience, atmosphere, friendliness, and variety of other rides really make it a fantastic place to visit. The level of detail and immersion that the park attempts to reach is admirable and impressive - you truly don’t find a park like Lost Island outside of Disney/Universal that has such in depth story telling and lore. The park had such amazing theming unique to each of the elements & special touches like gemstones in the ground, markings on the pathways, and large set pieces (giant volcano, huge tree, clouds around the Udara section). It’s absolutely beautiful to walk around and just take in - the layout of the park is fantastic too and you’re never far from something fun or interesting to look at, while still being able to get to almost anywhere in the park within a short 5 minute walk. Every single park employee was so friendly and welcoming and nice to talk to! They were knowledgeable about the park and rides, seemed genuinely happy to be there, were incredible friendly to the guests, and really made our day even better! LThey also followed all safety regulations to a T & had some of the best and friendliest ride ops I’ve ever come across. The park characters were amazing and really added to the overall experience. Each was so fun to interact with and see around the park throughout the day. They were also so friendly & fun and really kicked our day off to a fantastic start. We would get so happy seeing the characters out again and coming across them throughout our day & being able to talk to them more! 10/10 for the characters, they are fantastic. I loved learning all about the story of Lost Island, watching the characters from each realm do the opening ceremony and getting more information, interacting with the characters, and then heading out on my own adventure for the day to see what Lost Island is about and help in the cause! It was actually quite fun interacting with their app throughout the day and earning new badges and avatars as well. At the end of the day - I was top 3 on the app leaderboard for achievements and points in the park that day! It’s really cool to have the little over the top additional details & theming features that really make this park feel special and unique. The park was pretty empty when we went, so we didn’t have to wait in a line for anything We rode Matugani 9 times, Volkanu 5 times, shaman’s curse 5 times, and almost every other ride in the park once or twice. Lost island also has really cool themed merch and souvenirs for some of the characters, rides, and lore in the park so I definitely left with an awesome new lost island hoodie, a Tamariki plush, and some other awesome souvenirs from the park! I really hope this park does continue to grow and find success! It was fun being so empty with no lines, but would be even cooler to see the park getting some recognition and becoming a top theme park destination as it continues to grow! If the coaster and ride line up expands & the park is able to get some more visitors - this could truly be one of the best theme parks in America, if not the world. A few more coasters and it would already be almost there! We did see a sign that said something “Hot” is coming to the fire section next year by a pretty expansive plot of open land, so fingers crossed it’s something awesome to make the park even better than it already is! I had such a great time at Lost Island and will be back. I would highly recommend for any theme park fans that appreciate attention to detail, a pristine park, and a high level of immersion and theming to check this place out! Prices were super reasonable across the board. Overall - Lost Island was fantastic. If I could rate over 5...

We travel to amusement and theme parks to ride coasters/thrill/dark rides & theme rides. This was our first stop traveling from Eastern Ohio and we were really extremely disappointed to see these 3 rides were “Closed for Filming”- I cannot understand why they would choose to close rides to do this on one of the busiest park days- Sunday Memorial Day Weekend. I am glad they posted the sign before folks bought their tickets, but it would have been helpful if this was posted on their website or even on social media - at least the day before so folks can make plans to visit on a different day if those were the rides they were only visiting to ride. We had an itinerary to visit numerous parks with this one first- had we known, we would have planned the trip around this scheduled filming. It still baffles me as to why the park chose this busy weekend to film- I work in marketing and event planning so I absolutely understand the importance of filming and advertising but when you have people traveling from all over and you are targeting folks from all over with your ads, it is problematic to close down all but 1 ride in the same ride category. That day, I sent the photo via Facebook Messenger and got an immediate response saying that they don’t know why their sign says closed for filming bc they are closed for maintenance- either way, they must have known this in advance to create the sign. I completely understand that rides go down without notice allll the time in the parks and reopen an hour or so later without notice HOWEVER, this isn’t that type of shut down. This was a scheduled closure which would have been helpful to the folks traveling to ride. We opted to still visit to ride the big purple suspended coaster and the dark ride. Which is a lot of $$ to just ride 2 rides, but it was either visit that day or not at all because we had more stops on this trip already booked. We were disappointed but still excited to ride the dark ride that we had heard so much about. Naturally, we went to that ride first. No attendant was there but the line was open. So we went in, followed by a bunch of other guests. We walked through until we reached a chain and waited and waited. Someone came over to tell us we needed to watch the pre-show (apparently “a guide” was supposed to be at the very front taking guests in a room for the preshow which then bypasses the place we all were originally waiting at). Soooo, we all went back to the room and the show only made it about halfway through, when another attendant came in to say the ride is closed and ushered us outside. Now, I was really really disappointed. We then rode the purple coaster- we heard from reviews that this coaster bashed your head and was brutally rough. Even the ride attendants warned us- maybe bc we are older than the typical coaster rider? We were prepared for a rough ride, BUT pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t bad at all- a couple spots seemed like it “jumped” the track but overall it didn’t even make the list of our top 10 brutal head bashing coaster rides. Next, we rode the drop tower. We were ushered into a room to watch the preshow. The ride attendant informed us that the audio was not working and offered to read the subtitles for us- we didn’t make him do that and he was beyond relieved. So we stood in silence in this little tiny room watching the preshow. The ride was smooth and very good for kids- it looks like a regular drop tower, but the drop is dampened, making it excellent for kids.The park is very clean! The rides have excellent themes & are brand new. Like others have said, there is limited shade. We finally got to ride the dark ride and it was great- one of the best outside of Disney & Universal Studios. The park is small, but very nice. We didn’t stay long though bc there weren’t many rides for us open. So we didn’t eat or drink anything...

WOW! Lost Island Theme Park has wonderful attractions, beautiful gardens, impressive theming, great food & drinks, clean facilities, and friendly staff. It's obvious that the same team who brought us Lost Island Water Park (#2 water park in the country!) has now expanded their entertainment dynasty with just as much care, attention to detail, and love of story telling!  As a self-proclaimed Disney Parks nerd (and former Disney cast member), I can say that I tend to be a bit judgmental on other parks (alright, some might just say high standards!)... and I can say that I was blown away by this park!

There's a great variety of attractions-- meaning there are some very intense thrill rides (i.e. roller coasters, space shot drop, etc.), some interactive rides (i.e.  a 4D shooting gallery ride, bummer cars that spin when hit, a water cannon shooting ride, etc.), some traditional rides (i.e. log ride, a Ferris wheel, etc.), and some rides just geared towards younger kids. Whether you're traveling just with adults or just with young kids, there will be plenty to do here for most any age group or interest level in thrill rides. You do NOT need to worry about whether there's something for everyone -- there is. You do NOT need to worry if there's "enough" here to keep you busy for the day or to justify the price -- there is.

There's also shockingly amazing food and drink options! While some folks have expressed concern about a lack of shade at the park, it's important to note that there are two restaurants with indoor seating (and thus air conditioning!). Whether you want traditional park food like burgers and hot dogs or whether you're looking for something a bit different like BBQ pork nachos (with fajita veggies and Mexican street corn), lo mein ramen, vodka mango lemonade, pineapple soft serve ice cream, or artistic cupcakes exclusive to Lost Island, you're not going to go hungry or thirsty! The food and drink prices were slightly lower than I would have expected for theme park pricing, which was a great surprise (but that meant that we bought more snacks than we otherwise would have, ha!).

The park is incredibly well themed, with a lot of details that I have a feeling will continue to be discovered on later trips to the park. The themed lands ("realms") each focus on a different element - air, water, earth, and fire. Even the street performers are themed to those realms! Each realm has at least one ride with a pre-show that further evolves the plot and point of the ride, with details and props that are pretty impressive. Furthermore, from details like "fossils" stamped into the walkway, a red, orange and yellow jeweled "lava" flowing from the volcano to the water, to even a clever list of what vehicles you can't rent at the stroller rental stand, you can tell that Lost Island is going to keep giving us "hidden gems" for years to come!

The team at Lost Island showed us amazing, friendly customer service. You can tell they are proud to work at such an amazing place and were excited to share with us their favorite spot to sit on a certain ride, their favorite food in the park, and so on. We visited on Friday where park staff told us that attendance was typical for a weekend; however, we still waited for 5 minutes at the most for any ride. For this reason, you need to book your ticket NOW and don't delay because I can only see the park getting busier.

The day we visited the park was open until 9:30pm. Instead of being able to see the well manicured gardens as we did during the day, we saw so many different details at night with its "mood" lighting at night. It was absolutely dazzling!

We are looking forward to our next...