Adventure Land (Des Moines, IA) June 21

Adventure Land (Des Moines, IA) June 21

Every year my family and some relatives make the trip up to Des Moines, IA for a sort of "family get-together" type thing, as most of my relatives live in Iowa. This year was espically fun because all my relatives in Wisconsin didn't come because my aunt won't let anyone of them come down because she's been turned against the rest of the family. Oh well. Let's get on with the trip report.

We arrived at the Adventure Land Inn at about 10:00AM and had to go get out wristbands (new this year) to ride the trolly to and from the park at our hotel, and to swim in their swimming pools.

We got at the park at about 10:15 and bought our rather cheap tickets ($26 Age 10+, $22 4-9) and headed into the park. We stopped for a picture from one of the two people that take pictures that you can buy. (Which came out very nice). I'll talk about the coasters first.

Tornado 8.5/10 Last Car, Middle Seat

Very fun, with some ejector air, and some floater air (gotta love it with buzz-bars), but the tornado wasn't running up to it's usual "buttnevertouchtheseatohmygodthisisscary" standards. Maybe it was because it was early in the day (11:00). We'd try again later. Wait was 15 min. Designed by William Cobb (1978)

Outlaw 8.5/10 Front Seat

Great Outlaw ride. Tons of floater and some ejector airtime. The ride was also very smooth. Again, gotta love the buzz bars (but this one has seat belts- darn it!), and a great ride for CCI's second coaster, and first major one, but this is more like a GCI, because someone from GCI still worked on CCI's design team. Road at 2:00. 20 Min wait. (1993)

Dragon 4/10 Second to last car, front seat

Ow. Ow. Ow. I still have bruises from this ride. First of all it was built by O.D. Hopkins, a water ride designer. Second, they was to remove a car at one time. Third, the seats are dinky, even to a 5'4 ninety pound person like me. Fourth, the harnesses are too small and flimsy, and even on me they were right at my stomach, and it was about 2-3 CM away when I left the station, and when I got back I thought my stomach got compressed 3-4 inches, and on the brakes I could barely brethe. The final helixes and turns are barely banked, and caused severe headbanging, but I found a solution. Just put your head through the harness and the end, and you'll be fine- little headbanging. Get the picture that this ride is BAD! LOL ;). (About 9:20)- Walk On (thankfully) This was the first time I didn't get a headache on it, so it got a point added on to its score. (1991)

Outlaw 9/10 Back Seat

Woah! Best ride on outlaw yet. The twisting drop in the back seat is some of the best ejector air ever, and theres a lot of great air everywhere. The ride op let us stay on if we wanted (and my dad and I got to stay in the back three times) after the second ride, no one was in the station, so the ride op said "Anyone want to get off?" Everybody yelled "Nooooo" so he let us coast through the station and let us ride again. So after that, I had 30 min till' closing and went on a flat then went to

The Tornado 9/10 3rd car, last seat

Great night rides, but it stunk that I didn't get to get in the very front or back where the great air was, but there was still plenty. The tornado was running hyper-active tonight, even the ride-op said it was coming in early and very fast. So I got to ride 4 times in a row without getting off, and inculding the last ride of the day. A great ending to a great day. If only the seat dividers would be removed so the coaster could become a Ace coaster classic, because it fits all the other catagorys. But I see why they're needed- a very high banked turn, and a flat turn that you take at great speed, and bump into your side or neighbor. A great ending to a great day- I love this ride.

Flats

Ferris Wheel- 6/10- Fun 10 Min Wait (car 13 LOL)

Galleon- 9/10- A hyper-active swinging ship with a flywheel instead of anything else, that goes almost vertical with a long ride program. 10 Min Wait

Sky Way- 8/10- Very relaxing- you've got to love how the tall trees are cut right around you. 5 Min Wait

Log Ride- 9/10- Fun, with lifts that don't rattle your teeth out. Even has rapids! Beware- some logs get you more wet that others. 25 Min Wait

Fourth Of July/ Unnammed spinner like richochet a SFGAm- 8/10 Airtime, and lots of spinning with no restraint. A very small circle also. <5 Min wait

Tilt-A-Whirl-10/10- Wins the prize for best flat of the day- very spinny, and smooth, and long- just what you should look for in a tilt-a-whirl. (The most spinning is the car my grandparents and I were in- the lady in the green outfit rasing her arms on the back of the car) Tip: Put the person that weighs the least in the middle for most spinning, yet still make everyone right next and close to each other. 10 Min Wait

Adventure Land Inn's 2 swimming pools- 8/10 Choose the older one- it has two new slides, and a huge sunroof that opens up so you can get your tan inside.

Falling Star- 10/10 second best flat of the day. A Chance falling star like Banshee at Holiday world. Great airtime, with a long ride program, and intense ride program.

Sawmill splash- 8.5/10 me and my cousins got put with two other girls, hitting the max # of people, 6, and we spun a lot, and actually got very wet. Not just drips, but soaked. The ride ops said we were the wettest they had ever seen. They let us go again because there was no one in line, but we didn't even get wet the second time (Sawmill splash is just like Penguin's Blizzard River @ SFA)

Oh- my cousins got stuck on the Mixer, face down. It was halarious. Can't find the ride like this on the net, but it's kind of like a Chance inverter, but moves all directions and spins slowly around also, with two vehicals opposite each other.

G-Force- 9/10 A huss breakdance IV with the flag designs, and my cousin and I were trying to choose a car to ride in by talking about the flags we said things like "Lets ride in the car with Great Britin flags on it" when two stupid kids say "We want the Afganastian/Iraq car because they're cool" then my cousin says "I'll send you over if you like it so much" so, unfortunatly we got a car next to them and they kept flicking us off, so we tried to enjoy the ride, while making up a plan. We were going to give them the evil sstare. It worked. They said they were going to tell their parents. LOL :).

I hoped you enjoyed my TR, even though it was belated.

Pros. Nice Employees, most old/retired- working cause' its fun, great rides.

Cons. Evil two kids

Overall: 10/10 great fun. We all enjoyed it. A nice small park feel with new & great rides.

Tips: Go early in the morning then at 3-6 go to the Adventure Land Inn or Campground and swim then eat dinner, then go back to the park- you avoid all the bad crowds then. This is a family park, so most people leave at 6:00. Have fun and stay cool. Dehydration is bad here in Iowa. 90's hot & Muggy. Eat lunch at the park. Good food, cheap prices. Soda & Sounds even has a show with music. Adventure Land is the park that is forgotten. Please come here and see what a great place it is. (Even though the rest of Iowa is boring)

Again, thanks for reading.
*** This post was edited by coasterwiz 7/7/2003 3:52:04 PM ***

I don't know what you mean when you say the outlaw is smooth, it is one of the roughest rides I have ever been on. It's even worse than the dragon which you are right about that one being bumpy.

Well, I expect a wood coaster to be at least a little-medium rough, and I don't mind roughness on a wooden coaster. But I do mind headbanging on a steel coaster- It's the worst.
*** This post was edited by coasterwiz 7/7/2003 3:57:18 PM ***

Yay!! Somebody else notices this great park. KristinMarie and I hit the park on the way back from Colorado last year and absolutely loved this park. The prices for admission, games, and food were right and the rides were definately worth it. I'm glad you had a great time at Adventureland.

Having the older folks working the rides really made the park feel more laid-back and less corporate. I'd describe the park as "old school" Cedar Point, even though I'm not exactly "old school." ;)

~Rob Willi
*** This post was edited by HeyIsntThatRob? 7/7/2003 5:10:02 PM ***

I thought adventurland was a great park, The coasters were not great.

Outlaw isn't CCI's first major coaster, Sky princes seemes to have more forces than outlaw and may be longer, it is taller. I consider Outlaw to be a GCI as Boodley built it and designed it. The only other work he did for CCI is fixing Sky Princess which had major problems with the lifthill areas. After Outlaw Boodley and others formed GCI which to me all the other GCI's are just bigger versions of outlaw and not necessaraly better (EXCLUDING Lightning Racer which is a great coaster)

I agreed with most of your TR, Good park, lots of rides, A great Skyride and a unique darkride.

Just do it!

---------------
Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

Oh yeah, I forgot about their dark ride that's a coaster by CCI. I'd give is 8/10. It's really fun and moves pretty fast, and it's also pretty long. Beware, you may get wet, and Billy Bob might get ya! LOL :)

I think Adventureland needs a really good steel roller coaster to make the park complete.