Trip Report - Adventureland Iowa - Theme Park Discussion - Parkz Forums

December 4, 20196 yr

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My sister lives in Illinois, about 7 hours from Minneapolis.

But it was only about 40 miles longer to go via Des Moines, Iowa and check out Adventureland.

https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Altoona/Adventureland_Park/

Start the gallery here to see all 200 pics:

https://www.parkz.com.au/photo/20956-Adventureland_Park/gallery/sort/newest/location/park-289-Adventureland_Park/offset/0

I ended up doing an evening at a park on the same day I went to Valleyfair, and then a few hours the following morning because it worked out best for my schedule (Though not so great for my wallet because their 2 day pass isn’t that great a deal and no options in terms of after 3pm entry)

The main street is a middle America knock off of Main Street USA at Disneyland. Condition of the park was mixed / okay, not as good as Cedar Fair, but nice garden

The signage was ample fodder for Graphics Design is my Passion.

The park itself is quite pleasantly landscaped when you move further in, albeit with some interesting design choices.

The newest ride is Phoenix, a standard model Maurer spinning coaster, the 4^th time ive done one.

I think the station was themed like a chinese takeaway.

Heading around I saw that Underground had no queue. This thing is stretching the definition of a roller coaster, but at a couple of points it has drops equivalent to what you’d find on a wacky worm.

The ride is like Blazing Fury at Dollywood, or Black Diamond at Knoebels with mannequins in mining related scenes. Pretty bleh, and once was enough.

The highlight of the park is Monster, a huge Gerstualer Infinity coaster. As I have come discover, this coaster type comes into its own once you get past the 40m mark. The eurofighters etc around the 30m mark lack pacing, and feel a bit wild mouse-ish or skateboard-ish, but the big ones really get some momentum going, and the Gerstlauer layouts are full of dramatic elevation changes, with multiple steep dives. There's a good mix of inversion and non inverting style elements, plus an okay airtime hill. The most interesting element is the Finnish Loop, which is like a loop that flattens off at the top, so you get extended hangtime.

There is a skyride which runs right through the middle of the loops. Of course i did a couple of laps on the skyride for pics.

At the other end of the spectrum is Dragon, which is now holds the title of the worst coaster i have ever ridden. Rock hard harnesses, with padding made out of car dashboard material, and it heavily bangs through the course. The layout has a few small RMC style bumps before the lift hill, before a shallow drop, a couple of loops, and two helices you just want to end.

The park also has two wooden coasters.

Tornado is the older one, basic out and back style one, like as if its one half of Racer at Kings Island or something. Does the job,

The more interesting one is Outlaw, a CCI wooden coaster that is sort of done in the twister style of the GCIs, just a bit less flowing and twisty.

Low to the ground means it's fast paced.

Down this end of the park is Saw mill Splash, a spinning raft water slide you can ride in your street gear. Foams pads placed off center snag on the underside of the raft, making it spin very fast.

Down this end is also a water park that I stuck my head into when it was empty. All proslide stuff we have ridden before, brightly coloured. The place did feel like a bit of a frying pan with the amount of concrete, but hey, if you live through an Iowa winter, maybe they want all the sun they can get?

The park also had a regular river rapids, which were marred a bit this system they have installed with handrail gate things that spin around and lower at the station, except they move at a snails pace, so the capacity of the ride is quite low, and there is a bank up permanently at the bottom conveyor.

Ended up wating over an hour for it!

The park had heaps of flat rides too.

I took a ride on Storm Chaster, which is a slightly smaller version of a Windseeker.

Overall, a fairly middle of the road park, had a bit of a home cooked feel like Holiday World, but perhaps lacking some consistency in the amount of polish. As always, if you're in the area, have a look!