Screamland: Space Academy – Visiting Dominican Republic’s Newest Park

Apollo 11 first put mankind on the moon in 1969. A permanent roller coaster was first brought to Santiago in 2025.

Santiago de los Caballeros is the second largest city in the Dominican Republic and their largest metro inland. To me the city is memorable only for its chaotic urban sprawl and insane congestion, making driving incredibly tedious and stressful, although on the other hand the city’s size has necessitated the development of further amenities. Numerous infrastructure projects are underway as of this writing, including a monorail, but it’s the introduction of a new mall and indoor amusement park that may pique the interest of coaster enthusiasts abroad.

Ágora Center Santiago first opened in April 2025, located a stone’s throw away from two major cross-country bus stations (Metro and Caribe Tours both offer direct service between Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata). The giant LED screen was still under construction when I visited the park earlier in December; below is a photo I snapped just after it was put into service!

Ágora Center is undoubtedly quite nice, featuring a variety of stores not typically associated with this part of the world. Visitors can immediately find multiple Korean merchandise stores as well as the first Starbucks location on the DR’s north coast. The mall is structured as a series of cascading levels, with the food court and its headlining attraction located on the top fourth floor.

Located outside of the park is a small Carousel, costing just RD$100 for excitable children to ride. It operates separately from Screamland and to my eye attracted much attention during the busy lunchtime hours. A nice photo op has also been created here, bearing love from Santiago.

Screamland: Space Academy typically opens during the afternoons. As of this writing, amusement rides are not scheduled to operate on weekends or holidays; visitors from abroad should plan accordingly.

The original Screamland opened in 2013 at Ágora Mall in Santo Domingo and is an eye-popping enclave of textures, colours, and children’s rides (yes there is a credit!). I was fortunate enough to visit in December 2023 while exploring the capital city; you can briefly recap my experiences here.

Screamland: Space Academy is effectively the sequel, trading the mishmash of colours for a cohesive intergalactic theme. The design feels more refined this time around, now featuring more thrilling attractions for teenagers and a less claustrophobic space anchored by the bumper cars in the middle. Granted the park still takes maybe fifteen seconds to explore, but it feels effectively put together.

Tokens were being sold at a minimum package of R$600 for 16 tokens, which affords you two rides (most if not all were six each) and an arcade game or two. In addition, there’s a separate R$350 fee to activate your rechargeable play card, amounting to a total expenditure of around $15 USD. It’s considerably pricy for a country where you can buy three meals of street chicken at half the price, although given that the clientele are deep-pocketed city folk with children I doubt they’re pressed for sales.

The star attraction here is Galaxy Coaster, a single-helix SBF Visa design that uses spaceship-themed trains and cleverly routes around a soft playground built within its footprint. It runs like a new B&M but otherwise delivers as a cool little mall credit.

There’s two other design quirks that I feel obligated to highlight. First off, seatbelts are attached but “not necessary” for use as stressed by the ride ops. Second, the track is complimented by strips of multi-colored light bulbs that flash in different sequences, even if it’s operated on a loop independently from the coaster itself (visually to its detriment sometimes).

My other ride of choice was Zero Gravity, a plexiglass Rotor that uses centrifugal force to glue riders to the walls. This attraction model is a hot commodity right now and they’re as fun as you make them; in true SBF Visa fashion I look forwards to when they are located everywhere.

The rest of the ride lineup is typical of what you’d find at any well-equipped family entertainment center, although the cadets of this Space Academy can challenge themselves to spin, bounce, invert, and experience G-forces. Presentation is aided not only by the lighting packages, but also the background windows peering out into a celestial landscape.

As previously mentioned much of the remaining available space is packed with arcade machines. You’ll find everything from simulators to claw machines and common redemption-based games. Like any good arcade Screamland offers a prize selection for players to cash in their points.

Overall, Screamland: Space Academy was a nice stop to round out my year. Is it going to put the Dominican Republic on the theme park map? Almost certainly not, but there’s certain pleasures in visiting such a well done little park in a less conventional part of the world. It’s also representative of how outstanding implementation can elevate even the smallest of venues. To cap things off with the paraphrased words of Captain Picard, visiting Screamland meant to boldly go where no one had gone before.

Have you ever visited the Dominican Republic? Let us know in the comments below!