Adventure Land In Altoona (Des Moines) Iowa

How many of you have been here? Tell me. I want to hear about your experinces here.
I have been there and its a nice park. They have two good woodies. The Outlaw made by CCI was worked on by Mike Boodley who now works for GCI so its a good combination of airtime and turns. Also the Tornado is a fantastic out and back with tons of airtime and they just retracked some of it last year. Also both of there woodies run with buzz bars. The Dragon is an OD Hopkins double looper which is short and intense. Also they have the Underground which was made by CCI and is more of a gravity powered dark ride. It has some decent effects but no thrills. Also the park has a space shot and tons of flat rides. Also they have a new water ride this year thats suppose to be the first in the midwest. Its a decent sized park with some nice theming for a smaller park. I would give it a try.

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Mike
Favorite Wood: Viper at SFGAM,Shivering Timbers
Favorie Steel: Magnum and Raging Bull

My trip was in August of 2000.

The theming was all right. Certain places like County Fair, Outlaw Gulch, and Main Street were fine, but the "A" for Adventureland enterence, spelled in flowers" seemed pretty dull and the rides on the midway in front of the railroad tracks seem empty just sitting on the grass.

The coasters there are decent. The Outlaw is easily the best there. The laterals are great. The front seat is a must for visuals plus towards the back it gets a little rough.

The Tornado was the worst coaster I have ever ridden. I felt beaten and raped as the train entered the brakes. Then again I rode in the back and now that I read reviews, all the good ones come from the front seat. Not to mention it's been retracked since then.

The Underground was an ok dark ride. No hills, just a long incline.

The Dragon was a pretty good front seater as well. If you sit in the back, you get some nice floater air on the drop, but get knocked around during the helixes.

A big plus for all of these rides is the extreme lackage of a queue. Even w/ one train operation, waits were 5-15 minutes max. 15 was for the Underground, which takes significantly longer to complete the circuit. As I said, front seat all the way on anything here.

The water rides looked like fun (flume and a rapids ride) but an hour for a water ride was a little too long compared with the 5 minute Outlaw waits. :)

The paths tend to wind all over, so as long as you have a map, you can usually get from pt A to pt B in a strait line, excluding Outlaw gulch, which is quite a ways out of the way.

Overall, though, it is a fun experience, as long as you don't expect too much from the park.

I recommend it only if you are:

1) With a family, or children
2) A die hard CCI fan, who must ride every CCI you have a chance to.
3) If you have time and money to waste, since there's nothing else to do in Des Moines.

The Outlaw is great, the Space Shot is OK. For an adult or teenager who likes "thrill" rides, this park sucks,
except for the Outlaw, and that alone isn't worth the $24 admission. For a Family with children, the park should be a lot of fun and a good value.

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Current favorite coasters:
Wooden: 1) Beast 2) Raven 3) Son of Beast 4) The Boss 5) Timber Wolf
Steel: 1) Raging Bull 2) Millennium Force 3) V2 4) Wild Thing 5) Mr. Freeze
Visit: http://www.dynamicgroove.com

*** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/20/2002. ***

I must disagree with you Joe. The park has a great pace to it, and the atmosphere is solid. If you're going for coasters alone go to Valleyfair, but Dragon is fun, Tornado is a blast, and they have solid water rides.

Sometimes parks are worth more then the number of coasters they have in the park.

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Flume & Hydroblaster Crew for 2002!

I quote myself "For an adult or teenager who likes "thrill" rides, this park sucks".

I go to parks for the thrill rides. Sure, it's a "nice" park. It's cheap too, But for thrill rides, it sucks. If I want grass and trees, there are plenty of "regular" parks I can go to for free (like city, state...you know, tennis courts, baseball diamonds type of parks). If I want theaming, I'll go to Disney, or Universal. If I want thrill rides, Adventureland is not the first thing that comes to mind. That's all I am saying.

I don't see where we are disagreeing ?

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Current favorite coasters:
Wooden: 1) Beast 2) Raven 3) Son of Beast 4) The Boss 5) Timber Wolf
Steel: 1) Raging Bull 2) Millennium Force 3) V2 4) Wild Thing 5) Mr. Freeze
Visit: http://www.dynamicgroove.com

*** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/21/2002. ***

I consider the Tornado and the Outlaw to be "thrill" rides.
Nothing else to do in Des Moines? Oh please.
Also, I disagree about the "front seat all the way" statement. I prefer the back seat on Outlaw as I do on the majority of the coasters I've ridden. And I like the back and front on the Tornado. The back produces some great airtime over the first hill and the front produces some nice floaterr air on some hills once the ride has picked up speed at the end of the day.
You don't have to be a die-hard CCI fan to justify visiting the park. The Outlaw and the Tornado are great woodies, and I don't think there's a clear winner between the two. Depending on how they're running, I prefer one or the other.
Adventureland is a great traditional park. Give it a visit.
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-Matt in Iowa
193 coasters ridden -- #1 Shivering Timbers

We are visiting Adventure land a couple days after Timbersfest. I have heard nothing but good about this park :)

Im on a quest to ride every woodie in the US. If they keep building them, I will never finish!

Chuck, who is looking forward to Outlaw and Tornado!

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Charles Nungester
Americana (Now called The great americana amusement park at Lesourdsville Lake) is opening in 2002. Indivdual visits are very improtant to the parks survival.


Krazy said:

The Tornado was the worst coaster I have ever ridden. I felt beaten and raped as the train entered the brakes.



Interesting...

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"Getting on Iron Wolf is kind of like going in a blender and pressing PUREE"

*** This post was edited by du8die on 5/21/2002. ***

Tornado sounds like my kinda coaster, If it is as fun as the other Cobb I have ridden, Yahoo!

Chuck

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Charles Nungester
Americana (Now called The great americana amusement park at Lesourdsville Lake) is opening in 2002. Indivdual visits are very improtant to the parks survival.

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