Adventureland has announced a new spinning coaster called Phoenix. It is from Maurer Rides in Germany, and will reside in the location formerly home to The Inverter. They are targeting a June 2019 opening.
Category: Adventureland (Iowa)
Power outage at Adventureland.
On Sunday, August 5, 2018, there was a power outage at the park. Here’s some of the media coverage:
https://www.kcci.com/article/car-accident-knocks-out-power-at-adventureland-park/22647622
American Puppet Theater asks for your vote…
The American Puppet Theater has asked for your vote in a poll conducted by Des Moines Parent website. (I have contributed content for them in the past, relating to local Halloween haunted house activities.) They would love it if you’d vote for them in the category of “Best Children’s Theater” or “Best Outdoor Entertainment”:
Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CZ5G955
Some categories you might consider:
18. Favorite Local Place for Children’s Outdoor Entertainment
66. Favorite Local Children’s Theater
American Puppet Theater at Advenutureland would fit in either spot, I think.
I’m sure the Little Adventurers would thank you for the support!
Airbrush Worx and The Gift Gallery open
in the last week, two new shops have opened on Main Street. Airbrush Worx replaces the former Airbrush Avenue, and next door, The Gift Gallery replaces Pine Valley Signs. I haven’t been to the park to check them out, and no details have been shared by Adventureland yet, so I don’t have much more to add.
The AdventureWiki has been updated with placeholder pages for these new retail locations:
http://adventureland.parkhopping.com/wiki/index.php/Airbrush_Worx
More to come…
Happy Anniversary, 2018 edition.
Using my Adventureland Timeline, I decided to compile a list of notable anniversaries happening in the park this year.
As always, information here may be inaccurate. Any corrections or additions would be appreciated.
5th Anniversary (opened in 2013)
- Nothing known.
10th Anniversary (opened in 2008)
- Kokomo Kove
15th Anniversary (opened in 2003)
- Nothing known.
20th Anniversary (opened in 1998)
- Mini Donuts
25th Anniversary (opened in 1993)
- Outlaw Gulch
- Outlaw
- Chuck Wagon
30th Anniversary (opened in 1988)
- Festival Picnic Area
35th Anniversary (opened in 1983)
- Raging River
40th Anniversary (opened in 1978)
- Tornado
- Red Baron
I will update this article with any corrections I receive.
Adventureland’s early morning rope drop.
Adventureland opens at 10 a.m. If you’ve never shown up early, you may not realize they open the parking lot and ticket booths a bit earlier. This allows folks to purchase tickets so they are ready to enter when the park opens.
The park then begins letting folks in to wait in the area in front of the train station. The two train tunnels in to the park have garage doors that remain closed until the park opens. At 10 a.m., the tunnel doors open and guests make a mad dash down Main Street to the rides.
If you have never seen this, here is what it looked like the day The Monster opened in 2016:
Some Disney parks do something similar, but they go a bit further and allow guests to hang out on their Main Street before the rest of the park opens At Disneyland in California, for example, they often open an hour early so guests can shop and/or get breakfast on Main Street. Disney’s Main Street is one long path with the only access to the rest of the park at the end where the “hub” is in front of the castle. (This would basically be where the bridge is at the end of Adventureland’s Main Street.)
Disney will have a rope across the end of Main Street and hold guests there until official opening. A few minutes before that time, an announcement and music plays, welcoming guests to the park. The rope is dropped* and the dash to attractions begins.
Thus, the term rope drop.
*Actually, pulled to the side, but maybe it was just dropped in early years before lawyers and careless visitors took over the world. I guess “rope being pulled to one side” doesn’t have the same ring to it…
Sometime this season, Adventureland started opening their Main Street early on certain weekend mornings. A few shops would be open as well as the arcade, giving visitors a much nicer place to wait than in front of garage doors.
While the Iowa Cafe does not open until 11 a.m., a food cart is brought out with with snacks and drinks (including some breakfasty items you normally won’t find in the park).
Here is how it looked on Saturday, July 1, 2017.
Upon arrival around 9:30, they were parking folks in the back corner Lot 2:
On busy days, they seem to load the far away lots first so don’t expect to always get a closer spot if you show up early 😉
The ticket booth line can normally be quite packed on a busy day, but this morning there were no lines there at all.
Once inside the park, they had a yellow plastic chain blocking off access to the left walkway near the Giant Sky Wheel.
In the middle of Main Street there was a food cart set up. It offered bottled drinks drinks (including milk, chocolate milk, and Sunny D) and some food items (such as breakfast cereal). It also had various sundries for sale such as sun screen.
At the end of Main Street was another chain.
The Main Street Arcade was open to give folks something to do while they waited. Normally, the G-Force ride would also be operating, but it was down for repairs this morning.
Since the arcade also has access to the Bavaria/Alpine Village side, they had the garage doors closed. This was the first time I’d ever seen these closed, since they are always open during normal park hours.
To entertain crowds, world record holder (and juggler) Brad Weston made an early appearance on his stilts. Normally he appears between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., but on these early entry days, he sometimes comes out sooner.
As it got closer to 10 a.m., the crowd levels increased. I didn’t go back to check on the Giant Sky Wheel side, but the end of Main Street crowds filled up a good portion of the end of the street.
At 10 a.m., the chains were removed and folks rushed to the rides.
This is a great thing for the park. It was a much more pleasant experience waiting Main Street with the carousel music playing and some treats available. It is unfortunate that there is no real breakfast, but perhaps in the future the park can cultivate an “early opening” crowd and offer something. It certainly seems like a great way to make guests happy, and make an extra buck from a captive audience.
In the meantime, you can always get coffee and donuts over in River City…
As far as I know, the park has not made any announcement about these early openings on their website or Facebook page, but somehow folks seem to know about it. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance.
The ghost of Royal Hanneford Circus, revisited.
In a previous article, I asked if anyone knew where you could still find a reference to the Royal Hanneford Circus inside the park:
This was from a sign you pass on Dragon Island going to Outlaw Gulch:
Since the first article was posted, the reference has since been removed:
So today’s question is … where else can you find remnants of Royal Hanneford Circus? There are still a few out there . . . but maybe not where/what you think 😉
Answer (or guesses) in the comments.
Tornado and G-Force updates…
On Saturday, July 1, 2017, the Tornado was closed:
At first, I thought this was because it was too windy. I have been told they close the ride on windy days because too much wind can keep the coaster from making it one of the hills. Later I found out that the coaster had been down for awhile.
Also during the day, G-Force was still being worked on:
Later in the day, folks posted in the Facebook Group that both of these rides have returned to operation. Huzzah!
The Underground also was down for awhile during the day, but I was told this was because Bad Bob had finally blown up the mine shaft. The ride would be resuming as soon as they got the rubble out of the way 😉
If you are planning a visit to the park for a specific ride, be sure to contact them first before driving out. Otherwise, you can check on the sign at the front entrance – it clearly lists any ride not operating that day:
Get well soon, rides!
G-Force update.
In the Facebook group, Joey Hayes reports that work is being done on the G-Force ride today. He submitted this photo:
According to a member of park management, it sounds like this is just routine maintenance that needs to be done every eight years or so.
G-Force was added to the park in 1997. It was originally located outside where the Scrambler currently sits. After the side of Main Street burnt down in 2010, the park rebuilt it and moved the G-Force indoors. You can read more about it on the Adventurelandians Wiki:
John Krantz: Adventureland President, and Jazz musician.
Adventureland is owned and operated by the Krantz family. You can regularly find the Krantz siblings, Mike (CEO), Matt, Molly (Director of Advertising) and John (President), roaming the park.
Resort president John Krantz can also be found behind a piano at various locations around Des Moines. He performs jazz music. We recently had the pleasure to listen to him perform with Bryan Schumacker and special guest Brooke Peters at Louie’s Wine Dive.
If you have an interest in live jazz, check out his website and make an effort to go hear him perform: http://www.johnkrantzmusic.com/