Lake Compounce is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in America, with it celebrating its 176th season this year in 2022. This Bristol Connecticut amusement park has been a staple of the northeast and New England for well over one and a half centuries.
But how does this amusement park hold up today? Has it kept up with the times to offer a compelling experience in the 21st century?
Lake Compounce is divided into two different parks, the main amusement park, and the Crocodile Cove water park.
To start with the dry amusement park, this is the main section of the park, and it features a majority of the park's attractions. Featuring five roller coasters, and numerous other attractions, this park has a mix of rides for guests of all ages.
For small children, there is a children's land featuring everything from a kiddie coaster, to a small carousel, and miniature versions of various amusement park classic attractions, from drop towers to swings. All of these are lightly themed and found in well-landscaped surroundings.
For thrill-seekers, the park has the other four roller coasters in the park, which are of incredibly different quality.
The park's most significant ride is Boulder Dash, their flagship wooden roller coaster found tucked into the mountain that borders their entire park. This roller coaster is largely hidden from view and designed to travel along the mountainside as a terrain coaster. It is an intense airtime-filled experience that is by far the best attraction in the parks, and for roller coaster enthusiasts riding this alone may be worth a visit to Lake Compounce.
Wildcat is the park's other unique wooden roller coaster, and it is located at the center of the park and serves as the park's visual centerpiece. It is a far rougher and less enjoyable ride than its much newer cousin Boulder Dash,
Beyond the two wooden coasters, the park has two steel thrill coasters.
Zoomerang is the older of the two and it is a Boomerang style coaster similar to many other identical attractions at amusement parks around the world. It is a moderately rough experience that travels upside down multiple times forwards and backward.
The park's newest coaster, Phobia Phear Coaster, is also a stellar ride, featuring multiple launches forwards and backward on a layout that involves flipping you upside down high in the air. The ride has incredibly light restraints that make the ride feel incredibly intense.
Other significant thrill rides include the Down Time drop tower and a pirate ship attraction.
The park also has a significant number of family rides. Significant rides include a Ghost Hunt shooting dark ride, a mountainside log flume, and an intense rapids ride.
The food in the park is far better than your typical amusement park fare, and it has among the best food options you will find at an amusement park of this size. Lake Compounce has also taken efforts to improve its food offerings over the last few years, opening an incredible new burger restaurant, Timberjack Chowhouse. This is on top of longstanding quality restaurants in the park, including the Potato Patch and Croc Pot.
One negative relating to food at the park is many restaurants have little to no seating, and even the biggest restaurant is typically overrun on many days, making it difficult to find a place to eat.
The theming of the park has also significantly improved in the last year. To celebrate the park's 175th anniversary, the park received a complete refresh, including repainting and retheming nearly every part of the park to give it a classic amusement park, and mountainside feel. This also involved a new logo and park entrance that significantly improved the park's overall appearance.
Switching over to the water park, while this is section of the park is small relatively speaking it manages to fit in several significant slides and water attractions.
Some of the best attractions in this water park include its major water slide Mammoth Falls, its lazy river, and the newest waterslide, Venus Vortex, a massive venus flytrap-themed ride.
Beyond these the water park has all of the major standards, from a wave pool, to other single-person slides for both children and adults.
One unique feature this water park has is its beach alongside the park's signature Lake Compounce, and the accompanying swimming area. This is a nice beach-style experience within the park that is not found at most similar amusement parks.
The park also offers several seasonal events throughout the year. In the summer the Bites and Pints festival offers a collection of local foods and drinks to enjoy in the park alongside live music. For Halloween, the park offers a family-friendly Happy Hauntings event that is full of charm, although it does not live up to their old Halloween horror event. For the holiday season, Holiday Lights is a fun family event full of decorations and live entertainment that returned better than ever in 2021.
Lake Compounce is a moderately sized amusement park that has taken major and successful steps to reestablish itself as a modern, yet classic themed amusement park.
Now is it worth the price?
A single-day ticket costs $60, which is quite steep for what Lake Compounce has to offer. What is worth the price is the park's reasonably priced for its size season pass options, which begin at $90 for the cheapest level of pass. The park also typically offers many price deals on both passes and day tickets throughout the year which can make it easy to avoid paying full price.
Some benefits of visiting Lake Compounce or holding a season pass have disappeared over the years. Gone are the classic unlimited free soda machines throughout the park. Also gone is the incredible deal the park used to offer on a season-long dining plan, replaced with a much less worthwhile single-day dining deal.
Even still, Lake Compounce is still an incredibly enjoyable park that has continued to add new rides nearly every year.
Overall Lake Compounce is an amusement park that has largely improved over the last few years, and the improvements only look to continue over the next few years. With reasonably priced season passes, and common ticket discount deals, it can be great to visit for a day, or all year long.
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