Adventureland 9 July

On our way home from a family trip to Idaho, we stopped by Adventureland for a couple of hours to give us a break from being in the car. My two year old starting going nuts when we pulled into the parking lot and he saw the rides. He does the same thing everytime we go to King's Island.

At any rate we got there ten minutes before the park was about to open and we got front row parking! Once the park opened I went straight for Tornado. I thought this was a great ride and gave some airtime. I bet later in the day when it heats up it gives some excellent rides.

After my son road the boats (Infant Ocean) I got on The Dragon. I love how the ride started out with a little bunny hop. I found the two loops on this coaster to be quite powerful and then it sped into some quick turns. It was short but a good ride.

I then took my little boy on a ride called the Light House. I have never seen a ride like this before. You can all chime in if you know more about it. Anyway it gives some good g's and as I was riding I had second thoughts about taking my son on it, but as always the next thing I he did was to start waving at his mom and smiling like he was back on the Flying Eagles at King's Island.

My wife then took our son on Puff the Dragon and Chuck Wagon while I went to ride The Outlaw. I believe this is the second coaster CCI built and I loved it. For its size it gives some good air in the back off the first drop and I thought it was pretty smooth. For the size of Adventureland I was really impressed with the roller coasters they had and I was glad we stopped to try them out.

Just a small note: we did ride the Underground and I thought it would have at least one decent drop and so I walked away disappointed. However, my two year old wouldn't let go of the lap bar when we got back into the station because he wanted to keep riding.

One more note: We drove by S&S on our way home and it looks like they have two other smaller rides out on there property that they are working on. I couldn't get a really good look because it was getting dark. The screaming squirrel is still sitting on the property.

Thanks for reading!

Should be going to the POINT for the first time sometime next week so I let you all know what I think!

Nice TR. I love Adventureland, and it is a very overlooked park. The coasters are very nice there, and I go about twice every year, because I live in Iowa. Glad to see you liked it. Also, the Underground is supposed to be more of a dark ride, though it's very strange.

Iowa's parks are both overlooked gems in my opinion. Adventureland definitely merits a full day visit...tons of flats and water rides too. :)

Great TR SA&Sfan. I'm jsut about to make my first trek of the year to Adfventureland ,you definitely got me pumped up for the trip.

I believe the Lighthouse you are talking about is built by Darton, I believe its model name is Hurricane, or Downdraft, something like that. They have one that shows up at some of the fairs in Iowa each year.

Anyway,have a question for you, how was the crowds on Friday, you didn't mention any wait times, but was curious how the wait for the Outlaw and Tornado was, the couple hours you were there.

Hope you come back, again to ADVL, this park has an excellent large variety of rides and you can spend a whole day in this park without running out of things to do. *** Edited 7/11/2004 5:19:56 AM UTC by Dan D McD***

Dan,

Well we arrived 10 minutes before the park opened and got front row parking which I couldn't believe. We only stayed at the park for a little over two hours because we had to get back on the road. During those two hours I walked onto almost every ride including Outlaw and Tornado. Plus all the ride ops were very kind and would let you stay on and reride or pick another seat when the train returned to the station since the park was basically empty.

The two rides we had to wait for was the raft waterslide ride (forgot the name) in the back of the park right next to Outlaw. It was probably a 3 minute wait. One of the last rides we went on was the Underground and we probably waited around ten minutes for this ride.

I think the park was pretty empty because on the drive in from Omaha that morning it was storming and very overcast. We all know how the storms can keep a lot of the general public away. I was actually comtemplating about skipping the park myself because the storms were pretty bad, but about ten miles from the park the storms cleared up and it was actually really nice for the couple hours we were there.

I recommend getting there when the park opens and if all you want to do is ride Tornado and Outlaw in the morning, I could easily see you spending an hour on each and getting reride after reride. As we walked out around 12:30, I did notice the park was starting to fill up towards the front, but it still wasn't anything bad compared to my home park of King"s Island. Have fun...I wish I could have spent more time there also!

Thanks to my season pass, I've logged four visits to the park so far this season. My longest visit so far has been about 3 hours. I love going to the park just for a few hours now and then, espcedially in the evening when the crowds thin out and the woodies are running faster, although not as fast as in the past it seems this year. Last summer, Tornado was giving some serious airtime, but this year it seems to be back to its old self of nothing too extreme, but still plain fiun. The same seems true for Outlaw if not even more so/ The seond half seems really dead this year. Of course, I haven't had a 10 pm ride yet this season, so I'll hold out on judgement until all the facts are in. Us Iowans need to have a get-together sometime this summer.

I thought Tornado was great this year, but I was granted the sacred Front Seat, when there was a line for it, and it was amazing- air on every hill. I thought it was better than last year, though. But I agree that Outlaw's second half is pretty boring now.

I think I keep catching Tornado at he beginning of its train rotation, it's not up to speed as the train is "cold" from sitting in the shed for a couple of weeks." But I'm glad someone else thinks Outlaw is a little dead in the second half this year. After the double dip, there just doesn't seem to be any speed.

Since I made a 3 day trip to Adventureland this week, I'll do a mini TR just to give my opinions...

I disagree about Outlaw being a little slow, in the 24 times I rode it this week (all walk-ons lol), that coaster was giving some great airtime. Back seat was of course the place to be, and out of the 24 times, I think I only got 1 or 2 dissapointing rides, the rest I was getting ejector air time from the first drop all the way to the last hop onto the brake-run. It was a helluva good ride, and I thought the stories would be true of it not running as well, but I thought it was great! One cool moment was I got to take my 3 year nephew on his first ride on Outlaw, and he loved it to death. Got a new coaster fan in the family!

Tornado was running a little slow, and the first ride on it did nothing for me, but the 2nd time we managed to get a burst of speed, and flew over the hills and got great airtime. Not sure why sometimes it can barely make it up the 2nd hill and seemily screeches to a halt, and the next time it just flies through that like it is brand new again.

I know a couple park em ployees read this site, and wanted to let them know how great of a trip it was. The campground was super nice and clean, the park was looknig real nice, all rides were up and running minus G-Force.(any regulars hear why G-Force was down al lweek? I assume it needs some sort of part or something?). Also the employees were incredibly nice, when they walk by you they say hi, in the station and queue lines they ask you how your day is going, they ask how you liked your ride, talk about the weather, whatever. It is great to find employees willing to talk to you like you are a person, and not just another # like some Six Flags parks do. They make you want to enjoy the experience as much as possible, and it is why I go back to Adventureland year after year. I got a letter being written to the park, as a thank you, our entire family was so thrilled to be there, and Iwant all the employees to know that!