Mount Olympus is a polarizing amusement and water park in the Wisconsin Dells.
What this park offers on paper is pretty impressive. You have four wooden roller coasters,
multiple go kart tracks, indoor and outdoor water parks, and multiple hotels. However,
this park has received criticism over the years for poor operations and safety.
In this review, I’ll help you determine if Mount Olympus is worth visiting.
This park was founded by the Laskaris family. The family opened a hot dog stand named Big Chief in
the touristy Wisconsin Dells area in 1970 and it initially was a failure. Shortly thereafter,
Laskaris found success building go kart tracks and overnight accommodations.
In 1990, Big Chief Go-Kart World was opened. The place built some of the most ambitious go kart
tracks out there. The Laskaris family built the world’s first multi-level go kart tracks
and these building techniques have since been used at other facilities like Fun Spot.
In the mid-1990s, the park added a trio of wood coasters from Custom Coasters International.
The park was renamed Big Chief Karts and Coasters,
but it still felt like a FEC with a few roller coasters.
In 2004, the Laskaris family acquired the Treasure Island resort next door. This gave the park an
outdoor water park, an indoor water park, and a hotel. It was a bold move, but it transformed
this park into Mount Olympus Water and Theme Park, which it still goes by to this day.
While the park hasn’t added a new roller coaster since the mid-2000s, they have continued to expand
their water parks and acquire nearby hotels. The resort now sports over 1600 rooms. I have
never stayed at one of their hotels, but they have mixed reviews on third party hotel sites.
Rooms are extremely cheap on weekdays, but they jump significantly on weekends. All
guests receive unlimited admission to the water and theme park for the duration of their stay.
Non-resort guests can get deals for the amusement park that seem too good to be true.
The gate admission is $35, which is a more-than-fair price for what the park offers,
but always buy your tickets in advance online. I’ve never paid more than $5. Yes
you heard that right. That is a steal. Non-resort guests will honestly have to
pay more to park. That cost $25 as of 2021. The initial impression of the park is pretty
positive. It’s impossible to miss Hades 360 as you drive into the parking lot.
You see that coaster’s massive drop on one side of the lot and the turnaround section on
the other. Then you also see the park’s iconic Trojan Horse go-kart track in the distance.
On the surface, most of the park looks good. The wood coasters all look imposing
with their placements and/or dense support structures. And the newer rides and water
slides all feature colorful paint schemes. The arrival experience is a bit weird.
Mt. Olympus has a decent looking ticket booth, but the main entrance is just a tent.
You enter the park atop a hill. You then navigate a super narrow path that routes you
through a gift shop. It’s not a very grand entry experience. To reach the rides and water park,
you need to head down the hill. The rides are towards the front half
while the water park is towards the back, but the entire park is one big area.
This park has developed a lax reputation for safety.
One thing that immediately stands out is the lack of fencing and how close the coasters
get to the pathways. There are fences, but they only go up to the chest of most guests.
It’s entirely possible for a guest to reach out and touch the coaster track.
That’s something you can’t really do at any other park.
Among other things, the park also features a wave pool with
9 foot tall waves that knock people over. I’ve also seen guests routinely whip phones out on
rides and even get out and run along the go kart tracks with no repercussions from park staff.
I’ve never felt unsafe here, but I can see how someone could get hurt if they’re not careless.
There are also fair questions about this park’s maintenance. Their wood coasters have all gotten
brutally rough over the years. The park retracked Zeus in late 2018 and Cyclops in early 2021,
but Hades 360 is a downright violent experience and Pegasus is bizarrely engineered. Then there
have been a few serious accidents such as the rider falling out of the former Opa spinning
wild mouse coaster and a bungee cord on the Catapult slingshot ride snapping.
I have also heard criticism about this park’s staff over the years.
The only negative experience I had was in 2021. I asked if Cyclops was open prior
to my visit and the employee over the phone quickly said everything was open.
When I showed up, Cyclops was very clearly being retracked and not close to reopening.
The employees working the rest of the park are ok. They aren’t outgoing, but they aren’t mean either.
Most just quietly perform their job and seem to minimize unnecessary interactions with guests.
I heard dispatches were horrific at this park. The biggest issue is that every single coaster
only has one train. The dispatch speeds are a little slower than average, but passable.
Lines at this park can be an issue. Because of how cheap tickets are combined with all the resort
guests, this park can get pretty busy. Lines for most of the roller coasters are manageable.
A few of them have wait time boards, but they usually just state open or closed rather than the
wait. 4 of them are usually no more than 15-20 minutes. Hades 360 can be a problem since it’s
the park’s largest and most popular coaster. It usually has a half-filled queue during my
visits, which takes roughly 45 minutes. But if you try visiting on a quiet day,
you’ll have another issue. Hades 360 has a minimum rider requirement. When the coaster was renovated
into Hades 360 in 2013, it was retrofit with lighter Timberliner trains. These trains lost
their momentum faster and struggled to compete the course. There were two specific valley points,
a giant camelback leaving the second tunnel and the entry into the final brake run
which was super high off the ground. Antirollbacks were added, but the park went further and
lowered the camelback before the 2017 season. As recently as 2019, Hades required a full train.
In the past few years, this has been relaxed to needing most of the train filled.
If you go on a quiet day outside of peak season or a day with inclement weather,
you may not have enough riders. I’ve seen people have to wait on the station for 15-20 minutes
waiting for enough people. Worse, I’ve seen a few reports where Hades has been closed entirely.
The go karts and water slides can also get sizable queues since they have lower throughputs.
If they are important to you, I would prioritize these attractions before the roller coasters.
How much time you need depends on your interests. I think Mt. Olympus is a half
day park if you only care about just the amusement rides or water slides,
but it’s a full-day park if you care about both. Moving onto the ride lineup, Mt. Olympus features
5 roller coasters. The most notable of the bunch is Hades 360. This was the first coaster ever
built by Gravity Group and it features one of the best layouts ever devised with several steep
drops, two lengthy underground tunnels below the parking lot, and a corkscrew inversion.
This ride is insane. Unfortunately, it’s also horrifically rough. The Timberliners try their
best to absorb the blows, but the valleys and turns on this coaster jackhammer profusely.
My back was in agony after a few of my rides. This is still my favorite coaster there because of the
incredible elements, but it’s not one I want too and can marathon given it’s condition. I mention
this in my review, but this is the coaster out there I would most like to see fully retracked.
Zeus is running smoothly thanks to recent trackwork and it’s a traditional out-and-back
coaster. The bunny hills on this CCI wood coaster offer some fun floater airtime
and the minimally banked turns offer good laterals for variety. This ride also has a few
surprise elevation changes along the way since it’s quietly a terrain coaster. I also have a
separate review for this coaster, but I’m glad Mt. Olympus restored this ride to its former glory.
Cyclops has one of the strangest layouts out there. This CCI features three of the strongest
drops on any wood coaster. The first two plus that signature final plunge offer shocking ejector
airtime. I can’t believe this coaster once ran with buzz bars! The ride is pretty short,
but if you ride in the back, the ride’s three main elements will take your breath away.
Pegasus is the fourth wood coaster and it’s a bizarre one. This ride looks like a family coaster
with its modest height and speed, but this ride features super tight turns that deliver powerful
lateral jolts. And this includes the ride’s infamous finale that seems like an engineering
mistake. The ride honestly reminds me more of a wild mouse than a traditional wood coaster. It’s
a flawed ride as I cover in a review, but if you enjoy laterals, you may enjoy this ride like me.
Lastly, you have Little Titans. This is a fun looking Miler kiddie coaster, but it’s among
the most restrictive coasters out there since you must be between 40 and 56 inches to ride.
No exceptions. Beyond this coaster,
you also have two clusters of kiddie rides. One in the outdoor section
and one in the indoor section. I’m glad these were added to give younger guests more to do.
The other option available to them is to ride as a passenger on the Go Kart tracks.
While I like the layouts of the courses, particularly how the Trojan Horse uses
the giant statue and the Underworld goes underground, the go karts move quite slowly
so they’re a bit duller for older guests. The park is extremely limited on adult flat rides.
The only one included with admission is Manticore, a 14 story tall Zamperla star flyer that offers
the best views of the park. Then there’s also the Apollo’s Swing S&S screamin’ swing,
but this is an upcharge. It’s a fast ride and the visuals are cool swinging over the midway,
but it has a short cycle and less power than the other installations out there.
Mt. Olympus has no dark rides. If a thunderstorm rolls in, you do at least have both the indoor
water park and theme park, although both are far inferior to the outdoor options in my opinion.
Mt. Olympus doesn’t have any traditional water rides, but that’s fine because you have the
sizable water park. The most notable attraction is Poseidon’s Rage. I usually skip wave pools, but
not this one. I think this is the world’s wildest wave pool since it produces a terrifying 9 foot
tall wave ever two minutes. It’s intimidating to see and it will knock everyone in its path over.
There are some tamer pools available both indoors and outdoors if you want something more relaxing.
For water slides, you have a few options. The stronger ones are currently located outdoors.
Triton’s Fury is a family raft slide that features a fun triple down that gives a pinch of airtime.
Then the Lost City of Atlantis is a hybrid water play structure and water slide tower
with some above average tube slides such as a boomerang wall and a bowl slide.
There is another section to the outdoor water park that’s still standing with a dozen or so slides,
but it hasn’t been open in many years. At this point, I’m skeptical if it ever will.
This attraction from WhiteWater West looks mesmerizing with the rotating structure and I
can’t wait to try one since the on-ride experience looks bizarre how you rock forwards and backwards
throughout the experience. Once this opens, I’d advise making it your first ride if possible
since it will likely have awful capacity and its uniqueness will attract crowds.
This is the first ride in the indoor section that will be a standout in my opinion.
For food, I would recommend the gyros. The park owners are Greek
and I’m glad to say this Greek dish is done well at Mt. Olympus.
So do I recommend Mt. Olympus? This park has its flaws, but I would recommend it. This park
is a must for coaster enthusiasts because of its wood coaster collection. Then you have one of the
deepest go-kart lineups in the country plus a sizable water park with both indoor and outdoor
sections. There really is something for everyone. There are some things that are off about this park
from an operational and set-up perspective, but you have to look at how much you’re paying.
It’s hard to argue with the value. Some boardwalk parks charge $10 for just a single coaster. For
that price, you get unlimited rides on coasters, go-karts, and water slides.
I do think there are better water parks in the Wisconsin Dells, but if you’re
craving amusement parks or a good value, Mt. Olympus is probably the best option in town
So those are my thoughts on Mt. Olympus, the primary amusement park in Wisconsin Dells.
What are your thoughts on this place, whether it be the rides, the park, or the hotels? Do you
enjoy Mt. Olympus? If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like
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coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!