The Valley Fair Amusement Park is located in the heart of the Music Valley Drive area, just down the street from the Opryland Hotel and Opry Mills Mall.
This park is defiantly not a replacement for Opryland Theme park, which closed on Dec. 31, 1997 and no one expects this new park to replace the $2 billion a year tourism loss that Nashville suffered when Opryland USA theme park closed it's doors.
Yet, the Valley Fair Amusement Park does offer it a day of fun for the entire family.
We were lucky enough to attend the Grand Opening which consisted of traditional games of chance (throwing darts at a balloon and such), live music, which included a great performance from Ronnie Stoneman, and a surprise appearance of Shot-Gun Red.
And of course, there were also plenty of unlimited rides for all ages to enjoy for the day.
The Valley Fair Amusement Park offers several eating area's that include the normal fair edibles such as Funnel Cakes, cotton candy, lemonade, and hotdogs, all offered for a reasonable price.
It's also a very family orientated place to go, on our visit, the employees were very concerned with every customer's enjoyment and were very nice and helpful to everyone. The owner, Johnny Hobbs has done a great job in hiring and training his employees on every aspect of customer service.
The management of the amusement park fills many of the parks positions with local teens that are in need of summer employment.
Several weeks after the grand opening we made another subsequent visit to the park with a carload full of Kid's (ages 4-14) to get a kid's viewpoint and opinion on the park. We found the same high level of customer service and care given to all who patronized the park.
Since that time, we have made several subsequent visits on a regular basis and have found the amusement park to maintain the same high level of service and fun.
Valley Fair Amusement Park
2440 Music Valley Drive
Nashville, Tn. 37214
Phone#: 615-885-2330
Website: Closed
Hours:
Gates open daily at 11 am, all rides and attractions will begin operating at noon till closing at 10pm, except on Sundays when the hours are Noon-8pm.
Cost:
Entry to the Park is $2, if you are under 12 or over 60, it's free.
All day ride passes cost $14.95 and or you can buy ride tokens at $1 each. The cost of each ride runs from $1-$3. It has 15 rides, including a Roller Coaster; a Carousel and a Ferris Wheel. 9 of these are suitable for the younger kids (4yrs old and up). The bigger kids 12 and up, really like the roller coaster, The King and the Super Sizzler (a circular spinning ride).
We found that buying the all day pass was your best deal.
Best Time To Go:
The park sits on a blacktop it gets hot during the day (although they do have covered tables along with several shaded area's), We found that going the early morning or late afternoon hours was the best time to go.
The kids especially loved going after dark, the night air and the lighted rides really raised their excitement level.
More on the web
Editor Rating:
The Valley Fair Amusement Park reminds me of somewhat of the smaller amusement parks located in the Pigeon Forge Tennessee area, but with a better selection of rides and service.
I would rate it at 3 1/2 stars (out of 4), considering that it's one of Nashville's only amusement parks, a possible 4 stars if the all day pass was reduced to around $12.00 and a "gotta have" if they ever offered season passes at a reasonable rate.
Update- Sadly this park ceased to operate in the late May of 2005.
