Journey to Atlantis - Review

Journey to Atlantis is a Water Coaster that starts out as a boat ride and turns into a roller coaster. Riders sit in boats consisting of 4 rows of 2 seats. The majority of the ride is enclosed inside a themed building, and parts of the ride are quite dark.

The ride begins inside the building with the boat slowly traveling along a flume of water whilst passing by several scenes depicting the lost city of Atlantis. The boat then climbs a lifthill, which leads to a drop of about 60 feet into a pool of water below. About halfway down the drop the building ends and riders are outside.

The boat then makes a leisurely turnaround back towards the building, but not without being exposed to several coin operated water cannons. The boat then climbs a very small lifthill which is followed by a tiny drop that results in the front of the boat being totally submerged with water.

Next, the boat climbs up the final lifthill which leads back into the building. Shortly after this the boat moves onto a track and begins the coaster segment of the ride; this consists of a turn and a drop into water located on the other side of the building. The boat the takes a right-hand turnaround back into the station.

Journey to Atlantis is far from the best water ride or roller coaster on the planet, but its combination of the two makes it an enjoyable and fun ride. The exterior architecture of the building is quite impressive, but I found the interior theming rather disappointing. There are very few effects, and the scenes are too dimly lit to provide any clarity as to what they are. There is supposed to be some kind of storytelling, but I'm not quite sure what it is. You are supposed to follow some kind of light through various scenes, and close to the end of the ride Medusa swears revenge, then all of a sudden you a plunged down the final drop!

While the theming is far from spectacular, the drops on the ride are actually good. The first drop is quite steep but aside from a bit of spray I didn't get very wet. The second drop is so small you'd hardly notice it, but it absolutely drenches riders in the front of the boat as a wall of water spills over the front. The final drop is the coaster drop and this comes as quite a surprise, it features some good laterals and seems quite fast, and produces a little splash.

Overall, Atlantis is a fun ride, but could have been more exciting with better theming.