At 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 22, Lagoon Amusement Park will open its gates to the public to kick off the 2025 season — a season that promises to be filled with shiny new attractions, triumphant returns and its own share of goodbyes.

Lagoon spokesperson Adam Leishman told the Standard-Examiner preparations to make this a successful season began months ago at the end of the 2024 season.

“The minute we close, a lot of the work begins,” he said. “We dismantle and maintain all of our rides throughout the park. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to keep so many older rides. We’re seasonal, so we can actually take them down, refurbish them and get them back up again.”

The District

The park is set to gain a handful of new rides this year as part of a major addition to the park’s Pioneer Village section.

“We are preparing a new area in Pioneer Village,” Leishman said. “It’s one of the last areas of the park that has not been developed. The District will open this spring.”

He said the new area replaces a ride that had aged out of the park.

“We removed the log flume a couple of years ago,” he said. “It had lived its life to its fullest and we needed to make some changes. That area where the log flume was, and a little bit more, we decided to turn into an area we call The District. It’s steampunk themed with family rides.”

Leishman said the rides in The District are going to be geared toward families.

“Family rides are something we’ve been doing for several years now where it’s rides children can ride with their parents, unlike some of the rides in Kiddie Land like Baby Boats or Sky Fighter or some of the old classic children’s rides,” he said. “These family rides have been very popular with families because kids of all ages as well as adults can ride them together.”

He said these rides include a gondola ride called Steamworx, a thrill ride named Time Tinker and Rivets & Rotors — a re-theme of the park’s existing helicopter rider.

Leishman said The District will open somewhat later in the spring.

“We’re super close,” he said. “As we speak, rides are being installed in that area. Many of our rides tend to come from Europe. Sometimes there are shipping issues and things like that, but we plan to open very soon. It will be in the springtime.”

Returning and leaving

Another old favorite is set to rise from literal ashes in 2025.

In 2021, a winter fire destroyed the Carousel Candy store alongside the Scamper children’s bumper car ride. This season, Carousel Candy is set to return.

“This is kind of the full-circle end of that, so we’ll be opening that this spring as well,” Leishman said.

Other additions include a new gelato shop called Peacock Parlour, Snakebite Saloon in Pioneer Village and infrastructure updates throughout the park. Leishman said there will also be new live shows this year along with new food items.

However, the curtain will be falling on a major element of one notable attraction in 2025.

Earlier this month, park officials announced the zoo element will be removed from the Wild Kingdom Train.

“Lagoon is in Farmington City — we’ve been here for almost 140 years — and the way the lay of the land is, we are landlocked,” Leishman said earlier this week. “We are always trying to enhance and bring new attractions to the park, and the decision was to close down the exhibits so we can develop that for future attractions and experiences for our guests.”

The attraction, which had been the target of several protests over the years, will be phased out as the year goes along. Several big cats were rehomed last year and the remaining animals will be rehomed in the coming months. The train will remain and the space that had housed animals will be redeveloped at a later time.

With a plethora of attractions coming to and returning to the park for the 2025 season,  Leishman said they are excited to throw open the gates.

“It’s been a long winter, and we are ready,” he said.

For more information, visit lagoonpark.com.