diggerg56

Nice report and pics. I live 90 minutes away and haven't been to ride The monster yet. I haven't been to Adventureland in several years as I prefer the bigger coasters elsewhere but it is a nice park. I've heard that Tornado and Outlaw are really getting rough and your report confirms that. I won't go near Dragon. I'd rather ride Mean Streak at Cedar Point, it's smoother than dragon. Good call on Zombie Burger. Some burgers are indeed better than others. They're adding one here in Iowa City where I live too. As far as Downtown Des Moines goes, most of the action is in the Court Avenue district but when there aren't events at Wells Fargo Arena, vets Auditorium, or the Civic Center Auditoriumnthere isn't a lot going on. All of the shopping is in the malls in West Des Moines. Glad you enjoyed your visit!

The following was just posted on the Adventureland Facebook page: Unfortunately, due to some unexpected maintenance, The Monster will be closed on Tuesday, July 12 and Wednesday, July 13. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update everyone here and on our website just as soon as possible.

I've only used the Marina Gate when staying on property and I specifically used it to get to Valravn. I took an early shuttle from Breakers to that gate rather than use the Resort or Beach gate. I'm pretty sure the lot is signed for Marina visitors/use but I can't say for sure.

I'd believe it. I sound like a grumpy old man but operations at SFGAm just ain't what they used to be. Don't forget to budget a solid hour to stand in line for your slice of pizza as you battle all the dining pass holders as well! I don't like to start "this park vs. that park" threads but after spending 2 1/2 days at Cedar Point (including Coastermania) I can safely say that ride operations at SFGAm just plain suck this year. They've always been somewhat better at CP but it's just a night and day difference now. Not even close. They don't compromise on safety at CP but the ride ops do hurry, they're efficient and friendly and they seem to be fully staffed which helps also. End of rant from a "somewhat" grumpy old man.

I don't know if it's truly variable but on my second ride of the day Friday morning I experienced the same thing. I've ridden TTD probably 50 times over the years and that's the fastest I've even gone over the top hat. Oddly it was a weird run all around. We rolled out into the "parked for launch position" and then the sound effects, etc. shut off and they rolled us back into the station, announced to the crew to re check the train/restraints and then we rolled back out into launch position and had that crazy ride. It was about about a 3/4 full train.

I really have to shake my head at operations sometimes......Today they dropped the chain on the Raging Bull line about 10:35, everyone went through the line, up the stairs, into the station and started forming lines at the boarding rows. Three trains testing. After a few minutes, some ride op came up the exit ramp grabbed the microphone and told everyone to clear out of the station, back down the steps and to wait by the Flash Pass entrance. The rest of the ride ops looked confused. Two minutes later they waved everyone back up and started loading trains. The ride op that was making the fuss was no where to be found. The first two trains out were over 2 minute 30 second dispatch times. Total confusion amongst the ride ops. I was on the third train out and when the ride was over there were still two trains stacked in the station. I know it's early in the season but they should be figuring things out by now.

It's tempting, but probably not this year. Maybe if there was a shiny new 300 foot giga coaster to ride I'd think more about it.

Sometimes I think they like to do things the hard way. ...And for the second year in a row, my parking said "expired" even though my Gold Membership is valid. Another trip to guest services to get that solved when I was back last Sunday. Got a voucher for free season sports bottle for the hassle. Didn't even ask for anything.

A couple friends have reported fresh paint on parts of American Eagle this week. The park isn't open again until tomorrow. Curious if they're messing with me or whether they're actually finally painting it.

Skillet by a waterfall? I know right where you're at. They've added a couple more skillet choices throughout the park the past couple seasons. They are ridiculously good. I only get to SDC a couple times a season since it's 6 hours away but I always get a skillet sometime during my visit, even if I stuff myself on the breakfast buffet.

I'm not sure why I continue to subject myself to opening day. With all the one-train ride-ops and slow dispatches it just gets frustrating. I used the Discover Card Entry rather than the Gold Pass entry as the line was much shorter. The pass scanner was having issues with the sunlight which slowed down the process though. I had to go to the Pass Activation Center to get the special offer (mine was for $29.99) Season Dining Pass added to my member card. Glad I went early, just a 20 minute wait. Would have been even shorter but the employee kept trying to sell me a Shopping Pass, Go-Kart Pass or an upgrade to a Gold Dining Pass. Nope, just wanted what I paid for already. When I left the park, the line for the pass processing center was wrapped around by Grand Music Hall, past Whizzer and all the way back to the railroad overpass where you enter Hometown Square. Those people were in for some serious wait time, probably between two and three hours. I really wish they could just automatically add things like Season Dining when you order online. They already have your Pass/Member Card number as part of the order, why can't it just automatically be added? People were still pouring in when I left about about 2pm and the overflow lot had a fair number of cars. It's been awhile since I've seen that many peeps there on opening day.

I always love reading trip reports from Cedar Point virgins because it brings back good memories of my first visit about a dozen years ago. I live 8 hours away (Iowa) so I don't visit more than once or twice a year. I was absolutely blown away with the renovations to Breakers on my trip a couple weeks ago. It's hard to not want to be at the hotel and in the park at the same time. Hope you get many more visits to Cedar Point!

If this were facebook, I would hit "Like." I despise almost everything Vekoma, Boomerangs, especially.

I blame whatever financial entity allowed Premier to borrow that much. I realize banks and such were begging people and companies to borrow money but even so there must have been some serious "smoke and mirrors" action going on by Premier. The level of incompetence in that company was staggering. Right now they need to start focusing on appearance and customer service again. All the shiny new rides and coasters are great but not when you take the time to look around and notice everything else going to hell around them. There are exceptions to that but as a rule it's the same at almost all the SF parks.

Yup, it may not have the steepest drop but the height coupled with the view and the water to the left does leave an impression.

Agreed on sitting over an axle on Son of Beast. Man that was brutal.Definitely the worst I can remember. It took three chiropractor visits to get back into shape after the last ride I took on that one before it was demo'd. I've had some really bad rides on The Boss at SFStL and also on Mean Streak at Cedar Point.

The station is fine on SFGAm's American Eagle but it has a ridiculously long path around the kids rides and Dare Devil Dive just to get to the station. I'd agree on Beast, Dragster, Outlaw Run being somewhat confusing. Without supervision they turn into a real mess.

Not much to tell besides what's on the page. It's similar to what Discover has done a couple times this year. They pick a couple rides to stay open after park closing. Anyone with a wristband can ride those rides. Print out the voucher and exchange it for a wristband at the indicated time. The only mystery is what rides will stay open.

I'm 6'2" and haven't had any issues with the restraints on Outlaw Run or Goliath. The original restraints on OR were a bit harder on the shins. no issues with the new ones for me.

This past Sunday it was about 9:15ish. I was at the Washington Street Entrance. Looks like the main entrance opened at the same time by the cars entering the lot.

Great report. I live about 90 minutes away from Adventureland but only go once every couple years or so. I really do enjoy Tornado but I'm more of a thrill seeker when it comes to other things so I tend to visit bigger parks. Adventureland does have a certain charm to it even though as mentioned it is kind of stuck in the 80's in some ways. Sorry, can't do a lot about the boring drive. It certainly can be boring. Like any state, there is some nice scenery if you know where to look.

From reading elsewhere, it doesn't sound like there truly is one. I know there was nothing signed for it when I was there and reports have varied since then. There were some reports that once you got to the point in the queue where the Flashpass gate is they were sending single riders up the stairs from there but you still have to wait in the full queue. Seems like more urban legend than fact that such a line even exists. And then today I find out they WERE handing out Single Rider passes, but they weren't being consistent about how they were handling them. One time through they send you up the Flashpass line. The next time you have to wait through the whole queue and then give your card to the grouper at the top of the stairs. I wish they would figure out what they want to do.

From reading elsewhere, it doesn't sound like there truly is one. I know there was nothing signed for it when I was there and reports have varied since then. There were some reports that once you got to the point in the queue where the Flashpass gate is they were sending single riders up the stairs from there but you still have to wait in the full queue. Seems like more urban legend than fact that such a line even exists.

Wouldn't that be a lot more interesting? I'm really surprised there were no restrictions put on the Extreme Waterparks show as far as showing the test where the raft flew off the ride. I'm also a bit surprised that the engineers couldn't see that was going to happen. Yikes, that wasn't good.