Adventureland (Iowa) Discussion Thread

[wingsofmelody]

also, i've been saying that the next ride to go will be the falling star, but it's unfortunate that i was proven wrong. there's no way they can reopen the rr after all of this (especially if what racc has claimed holds up)

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Wow, what a rambling series of disconnected thoughts. Paragraph upon paragraph describing Google Earth images. This is not "research." There is nothing firsthand in the entire article. The author read some articles and used some mapping programs and wrote about an Internet search. Nowhere in this entire piece is there any original reporting or any actual journalism. It's sensationalism. Moving on.

[RaccHudson]

1 hour ago, ytterbiumanalyst said:

Wow, what a rambling series of disconnected thoughts. Paragraph upon paragraph describing Google Earth images. This is not "research." There is nothing firsthand in the entire article. The author read some articles and used some mapping programs and wrote about an Internet search. Nowhere in this entire piece is there any original reporting or any actual journalism. It's sensationalism. Moving on.

Am I wrong about the water level being too high tho

[disownedpear]

10 hours ago, ytterbiumanalyst said:

Wow, what a rambling series of disconnected thoughts. Paragraph upon paragraph describing Google Earth images. This is not "research." There is nothing firsthand in the entire article. The author read some articles and used some mapping programs and wrote about an Internet search. Nowhere in this entire piece is there any original reporting or any actual journalism. It's sensationalism. Moving on.

Can't you at least be a little constructive with your criticism? He clearly put a lot of work into that, and it's obviously okay if you think it's crap but that's a bit harsh no? 

[Kstr737]

On 7/23/2021 at 1:52 AM, RaccHudson said:

Am I wrong about the water level being too high tho

Probably.  I don't see how that statement is verified based on your facts.   Just because there is water visible in an area in drain condition in an aerial doesn't mean it could not be 3" of standing water and the drain is functioning.  This is kind of dangerous extrapolation without the facts or expertise (or ability to accurately verify that information) before putting it out there and drawing strong conclusions. Written very artfully and dramatically without any legs.  Extra points for sneaking in a political bias based on irrelevant donor information. 

[WolfBobs]

On 7/23/2021 at 1:52 AM, RaccHudson said:

Am I wrong about the water level being too high tho

This is nothing but opinion based on my own experience.  I worked Grizzly Run at GL for 4 seasons.  We had rafts flip a few times, never with guests (while I worked there).  They would only flip when water levels were too low.  Causing the raft to hit the bottom or something and flip.  
 

Again, not stating that what occurred on one ride 20 years ago is the same cause that occurred on this ride. Just my first had experience from being an operator of a raft ride. 

[prozach626]

  

On 7/22/2021 at 7:03 PM, wingsofmelody said:

there's no way they can reopen the rr after all of this

Oh, really?

[CP_RULES]

On 7/22/2021 at 8:03 PM, wingsofmelody said:

also, i've been saying that the next ride to go will be the falling star, but it's unfortunate that i was proven wrong. there's no way they can reopen the rr after all of this (especially if what racc has claimed holds up)

Some grammar would help here, then this post might be taken a bit more seriously... At the end of the day, whether or not a ride is economically feasible to operate will be the deciding factor on if it is closed or not; barring a legal reason.

[grsupercity]

This park continues its impressive improvements 

 

https://fb.watch/7Tesax7TAS/

[KBrylczyk]

^ They removed three large, adult-friendly flat rides to replace them with multiple kiddie flats.  Hardly an improvement, IMO. 

Also, they just killed a kid. I'm not exactly hyped about a visit to this place.  Give them some more time and we'll have a new Mount Olympus.

[Jaykethekid]

While I'm not completely a fan of removing 3 thrill rides in favor of mostly children's rides, considering how much open land they have within the park, I can't say that it's completely a bad move. They really didn't have a ton of children's rides. And the few they do have seem to be down for maintenance more than actually running. I'm mostly sad to lose Falling Star as that was a surprisingly fun ride and one of the last remaining. Though, I'm quite a fan of the placement of the new Rockin' Rainbow ride. Having a wave swinger right at the end of their main street area will look incredible. It's no giant castle or anything, but it's certainly better than the giant plot of nothingness that sits there now. 

[LegendLover]

This is a great addition! I know this seems kinda sucky at first, but looking through the Facebook comments, the feedback amongst the general public is overwhelmingly positive! Frankly, the park didn't have a whole lot of just kiddie rides. Before this expansion, they only had 10 rides for the little ones. Now they'll have 17! Though I will say, the mini pirate ship to put next to the regular-sized one is a bit redundant. It does suck that three adult rides are being removed for 7 kiddie rides and one adult flat ride, but they were three rides that were getting too costly and near impossible to maintain. Overall, this is a great addition for the park and it is incredibly impressive that in the past ten years, the park has added essentially an entire waterpark, three new coasters, one major new thrill ride, one family-thrill ride, and then 9 new kiddie rides, two of which being included in a new family area. Adventureland really is kicking it into high gear with Lost Island opening up a couple hours away. 

[DILinator]

On 9/7/2021 at 2:23 PM, KBrylczyk said:

Give them some more time and we'll have a new Mount Olympus.

You say that like it's a bad thing!  

My kids and I hit up both parks last year for our first time at each park, and we loved (yes, you read that word right), both of them! We can't  wait to return to both parks in the future!

[grsupercity]

20 hours ago, DILinator said:

You say that like it's a bad thing!  

My kids and I hit up both parks last year for our first time at each park, and we loved (yes, you read that word right), both of them! We can't  wait to return to both parks in the future!

We also visited both for the first time last year and loved both!

[grsupercity]

Sorry for posting q Facebook post but Adventureland got bought out 

 

https://www.facebook.com/102775329805861/posts/4619270034823012

[Shavethewhales2]

Ugh, that sucks. Adventureland is such a charming park with a great, unique family atmosphere that is directly caused by the family-run operations. Palace does some good work here and there, but obviously they are hit and miss, and in any case being part of a larger chain doesn't usually bode well for smaller parks. I just hope they don't tear out the Underground. 

I'm assuming this is partly due to the fallout from the rapids disaster. They probably are hurting from the lawsuits and penalties, not to mention insurance issues. Plus they simply needed better operations and that incident revealed a lot of troubling practices going on behind the scenes. I'm not sure Palace has all around better operations necessarily, but a bigger company is probably better and controlling the important things at least. 

Here's a news article about it: https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-altoona-adventureland-purchased-by-palace-entertainment/38583433#

[coasterbill]

This is great news because now I’m going to save a lot of money by not going there ever.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Ugh, sorry to hear that. We loved this park when we were there a few years ago. Probably their best option, all things considered, but still...

[swfan1988]

Wait...I thought Palace (or at least Kennywood) was being sold to Six Flags......what are they doing buying a place in Iowa?

I know Palace gets a bad rap around here, but we should give them at least some credit as they are putting some money into there parks now...for their park's 125 anniversaries...soooo...we only have to wait 78 more years for a large investment at Adventureland...RIP Iowa Coaster Wars...

In all seriousness, I agree that it could be really good or really bad. Palace seems to be hit or miss on just about everything. In the article they mention that they are adding 8 new rides for 2022 and 2 new "attractions" for 2023, is that what was planned before the sale?

Also kinda surprised Herschend didn't get it, seeing as they seem to be interested in buying parks lately...

[Nrthwnd]

 I vaguely remember being there in <gulp> ... 1976? After I had visited Valleyfair.

And David was teaching me to drive, in Ames, Iowa! We were together for 4 years, at that time.

Both really new parks at the time. But I remember a good time at both, and

...a critical future planning thing - the Returning Hand Stamp. Long story short,

I needed the Valleyfair bathroom, and I had no stamp. I pleaded, they let me back in with security accompanying me!

Theme Park Lesson Learned!

[coasterbill]

1 hour ago, swfan1988 said:

In all seriousness, I agree that it could be really good or really bad. Palace seems to be hit or miss on just about everything. In the article they mention that they are adding 8 new rides for 2022 and 2 new "attractions" for 2023, is that what was planned before the sale?

Yes. They’re removing 3 adult flats for swings and 7 kiddy rides.

Also, “Hit or miss” is a generous way to put it with Palace.  

[abovethesink]

Yikes, I somehow missed this news until getting caught up on threads here. You gotta figure the negligent seeming accident and ongoing litigation caused this sale. I still will get out there one day, but I can't imagine it will keep growing as well as it had been under this unfortunate new ownership situation. 

[KBrylczyk]

Palace better put some serious money in the park, otherwise Lost Island is going to steal all of the thunder.  I know Waterloo is ~2 hours away but still.

[KBrylczyk]

Quote

Palace better put some serious money in the park, otherwise Lost Island is going to steal all of the thunder.  I know Waterloo is ~2 hours away but still.

...I'll take "Wild Predictions That Never Happened" for $500, Alex! 

Anyway, now that I've planted my foot firmly in my mouth, here's a TR from this past weekend.  I finally got to Adventureland after living in the cornfields for nearly a year!  Funnily enough, it's probably the last time I'll be at Adventureland because we're gonna be moving away in a few months again.  I think this time will be the last move for a while, though, so hooray for that.  Working in live entertainment has it's own set of problems, kids, one of the big ones being a fluid state of residence.

We went this past Sunday and it ended up being a very empty day at the park.  We arrived shortly after opening and meandered our way around.  There were maybe 25 cars in the parking lot so we weren't on a mission to get any rides before the massive central Iowa crowds showed up. Their Space Shot was a cute little guy.  I saw it was 200 feet but I'm willing to doubt those claims.  The launch up the tower was fun but there was zero airtime at the top so it's more a fast-paced observation tower.  With how flat Iowa is, though, I'm fairly certain I was able to see the geodesic Desert Dome at the Omaha Zoo in the distance (and I'm waiting on new, better lenses for my glasses).

Monster is a very fun coaster with a few genuine "omg I'm gonna die" moments.  Gerstlauer is pretty well-versed in those moments, though. Karnan is my #1 and it won't be dethroned anytime soon, but there were times on Monster that I felt the same fear of god overtake my brain.  The first drop is KILLER, every inversion has sustained hangtime, every twist and hill has airtime, and there's an absolutely wild sharp kick to the right towards the end of the ride that attempts to buck every passenger out of the vehicle and throw them into the pink candystriper building across the midway.  This ride alone is worth the trip to the park.  Maximum one-train wait, I lost count how many times I got on.

Tornado is the classic woodie and it's a fun, if basic, one.  I rode in the back and it had the classic wood rumble, nothing too rough but it lets you know who's in charge.  A few nice pops of airtime, too!  It was great to see old school PTC buzz bar trains again!

Dragon Slayer is an S&S 4D Free Fly and this is either on-par with Fiesta Texas or even crazier.  I only rode it twice (single-car operation) and both were on the "Wilder" side and holy hell it lived up to that claim.  I was flipping like a madman the entire time, scored a complete face-down moment on the first raven turn(?), got a quadruple-flip from the magnets right before the second raven turn(?), and then got flipped back the other direction at least twice for the final raven turn.  I love these rides, they're mental.

Outlaw was crap.  Short, rough as hell, zero airtime, hardly any laterals, but it uses buzz bar trains, too, so at least there's that!

Phoenix is a standard cookie-cutter spinning coaster and I'm curious if it was originally planned as an indoor coaster.  The entire ride is 100% black except for the vehicles.  Cute enough but hardly any spinning.

The Underground is officially my son's first ever coaster!  He's not even 17 months old (that'll be in two days) and he's ridden a wooden coaster! Granted it's maybe a maximum of 5mph and has a drop of about six feet but still!  It felt like a lower-budget answer to Fire In The Hole but it still made all of us smile throughout because it's such a goofy little ride.

A handful of the flats were already out of commission for the season like the pirate ship, tea cups, paratrooper, etc, but it wasn't anything to ruin the day.  All told, we spent about 4-5 hours at the park at a VERY leisurely pace and managed to get on everything we wanted to with practically zero waits all day.

Oh, also, the train needs some serious oil or something, especially in the tunnel.  The squeaking in there was ridiculous.  Judging by the people behind us, though, I may be overreacting.

[AdventureJack]

 

Haven't been on here for a while but wanted to send a quick update from KCCI. When they said Flying Viking would be the park's seventh coaster I had to double check...  I remember growing up in Iowa when this place only had four! A lot has happened to Adventureland since I moved but it will be a good day when I'm finally able to visit again. Hoping for a successful opening day and 2023 season!