Adventureland + Zamperla Open New Rides + Underground Renovation in 2024

© Adventureland Resort

Zamperla and Adventureland Theme Park teamed up in 2023 to create a pair of attractions at the park that are both intertwined and themed as one cohesive expansion.  The addition consisted of a new log flume attraction that has a family roller coaster wrapping over and through it.  The integrated rides are very similar to the same pair that opened at Luna Park at Coney Island (which was delayed a bit due to the pandemic).

 

The rides have a light Viking theme to them and are said to be the park's largest ever single expansion project.

© Adventureland Resort

The new family roller coaster is named the Flying Viking and comes with a super family-friendly 36 inch height requirement.  The coaster climbs to a height of around 50 feet but moves at a maximum speed of 26 miles per hour - perfect for kids just getting used to bigger roller coasters.  The 1,312 feet of track does not feature and large drops, instead it features swooping turns that navigate the combined space of the coaster and the flume.

© Adventureland Resort

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know that traditional log flumes are a favorite of ours, and with some starting to disappear it's wonderful to see some modern versions popping up.  That's exactly what we got with the other addition at Adventureland this year, Draken Falls.  The flume features boats with side-by-side seating (maximum 6 guests per boat) and two drops (a double-down and a regular plunge).  Featuring a maximum height of 39 feet, Draken Falls soaks riders twice before returning to the station.

© Adventureland Resort

Adventureland has also announced that changes are coming to The Underground for the park's 2024 season.  The ride did not operate in 2023 and is a unique 'underground' wooden roller coaster - built by Custom Coasters back in 1996.  When it reopens next year the park is promising that it will incorporate "new technology and effects, guests will find themselves in a story-driven experience like never before. As they venture deeper into the abandoned mine, riders will face new challenges, unexpected twists and opportunities to uncover hidden secrets along the way. "

While modern and improved theming sounds like it is on tap for the ride, it is unclear if the wooden coaster track will be updated or modified in anyway.  We'll find out more later on this renovation!

Adventureland Announces New Family Coaster + Flume Combo for 2023

© Adventureland

Adventureland theme park, now a part of Palace Entertainment, has made a major announcement about some exciting additions for the park's 2023 season.  Joining the park's lineup of rides and attractions will be the Flying Viking family roller coaster and the Draken Falls log flume attractions, which are intertwined with each other.

© Adventureland

© Adventureland

The attractions will be located in the center of the theme park and feature a Viking theme throughout.  It is pretty neat that the park is building both attractions at the same time to create a fully themed and very cool looking new area for visitors to explore.

© Adventureland

The Flying Viking family roller coaster will take riders up and around the area from a maximum height of 50 feet.  The ride travels 1,312 feet of coaster track at a top speed of 26 miles per hour - again this is designed to be a family coaster so no huge top speeds or drops here.  The Flying Viking only requires a 36 height requirement with an adult, or 42 inches to ride alone.

© Adventureland

Under and surrounding the roller coaster is Draken Falls, a new log flume that features 1,214 feet of meandering adventure.  The flume features a 40 foot drop and a maximum speed of 34 miles per hour.  There are two separate drops that the six passenger boats will encounter over the six minute journey.  Hooray for more log flumes being built!  Both the coaster and log flume are being supplied for the park by Zamperla.

Both the Flying Viking coaster and Draken Falls log flume are planned to open at Adventureland in summer 2023.  And if you thought this combination looks a bit familiar, yes, it is very very similar to what is almost ready to open at Luna Park in Coney Island.

Adventureland Resort Iowa Purchased by Palace Entertainment

© Adventureland Resort

Iowa's Adventureland Resort has been purchased by Palace Entertainment, a subsidiary of Parques Reunidos, the company has announced.  Adventureland has been a family run business since the park opened in 1974, expanding greatly over the decades.  In recent years, especially, with the addition of several new roller coasters and attractions.

 

The park recently announced that they will be adding a slew of new family rides for the 2022 season, and it sounds like Place Entertainment will continue that momentum into 2023.

© Adventureland Resort

“We are excited about adding Adventureland into our portfolio,” said John Reilly, Chief Operating Officer of Palace Entertainment. “We specialize in parks and venues that create experiences to be enjoyed over a lifetime, from childhood to young adulthood to parenting and grandparenting. We are investing in Adventureland to expand its current lineup to include eight new family rides in 2022, plus two all-new attractions for the 2023 season.” 

 

Obviously there is no word yet on what the park plans for 2023 with its two new rides, but it is nice to see expansion continuing.  Palace Entertainment already owns and operates some exciting parks across the country including Kennywood, Lake Compounce, Idlewild, Dutch Wonderland and many water parks and family entertainment centers across the country. 

 

No purchase price was revealed for the transaction at this time.

Adventureland Adding 10 New Rides and Attractions in 2022

© Adventureland

Iowa's Adventureland is expanding in 2022 with a new ride package that will see the addition of ten new rides and attractions at the theme park.  The additions are aimed at attracting more families to the park, with the new rides catering to the family and kid market.

© Adventureland

In order to add the new rides and attractions the park will be removing three of their existing rides.  Seen above, the park will be removing the Falling Star, Lighthouse and Lady Luck rides.  All are flat rides that have been at the park for many seasons.

The new attraction that the park will offer will be a relocated area for the Des Moines Renaissance Fair, which will move to open space just to the Southeast of the amusement park.  The fair will take play May 7th and 8th and May 14th and 15th, 2022.

© Adventureland

New rides shown in the park's announcement video include:

The Warhawks - looks like a Zamperla Flying Tigers attraction.

Bernie's Swing - a Super Happy Swing also from Zamperla.

The Lighthouse - a new ride from Zamperla called the Pump & Jumpz

The Revolution - a ship themed version of Zamperla's Rockin' Tug

Leap Frogs - a Zamperla Jump Around kiddie ride 

Circus Balloons - one of Zamperla's popular Samba Balloon rides 

The Clipper - a kiddie version of a swinging ship ride

Speedway Racers - a racecar themed kiddie whip ride

Rockin' Rainbow - a larger sized family swing ride

Adventureland hopes to have all the new rides up and running for the park's debut in 2022.  It has been on somewhat of an expansion spree in recent years, adding the large Monster coaster in 2016, the family spinning coaster Phoenix in 2019, and just this year Dragon Slayer - an S&S 4-D Free Spin coaster.

Adventureland has Completed Dragon Slayer's Layout

© Adventureland

Adventureland Theme Park in Iowa has completed the main track and supports for Dragon Slayer, their new S&S 4-D Free Spin roller coaster.  With the ride completed, we're able to see that this appears to be a slightly smaller model than what we've seen installed at various Six Flags parks (and a few other locations).  It looks like one hill was removed from the highest layer, and a dip or so was removed from the middle layer.

 

That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, as it is possible that S&S has streamlined the ride's layout to get the most bang for the buck, and as we know with these rides the amount of overall intensity and flipping is up to the park.

© Adventureland

You can get a good side-view of the completed ride in this post on Reddit, it allows for a nice comparison to the larger rides.  The ride's trains have also already arrived, seen above in the photo from the park.  Dragon Slayer replaces the park's Dragon coaster, a Hopkins ride that opened in 1990.  As of now it appears as the park will be leaving the Dragon's famous double loops standing.

Adventureland Iowa Makes 2021's Dragon Slayer Official

© Adventureland

Welp, this wasn't much in the way of a grand announcement, but Iowa's Adventureland theme park has made the addition of Dragon Slayer, an S&S 4-D Free Spin roller coaster, official.  The ride will open in 2021 per the video that Adventureland released on Facebook:

There's not too much information in it however, basically there are shots of an existing 4-D Free Spin, Batman the Ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, with some unique editing as well.  The ride had previously been discovered to be coming since track pieces, easily identifiable as Free Spin track, have been arriving at the park for a while now.

The park is removing their Dragon roller coaster in order to add the Dragon Slayer.  The ride will feature bright red track and silver supports.  We're assuming the coaster will be the same layout as the ones at the Six Flags parks, which means it will stand 120 feet tall.

It's impressive for the park to be moving forward with a new coaster considering the pandemic, it is a hopeful sign of the future for the park!

Adventureland's New Coaster to be a S&S 4-D Freespin

© Adventureland

I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to this story, as shortly after Adventureland in Iowa started to tease their 2021 new coaster (like the above image) some photos of it surfaced that made the addition crystal clear.

Here is an example of recent photos of the new ride's pieces sitting at the park from MidwestinfoGuide - the park is building a new S&S Freespin roller coaster.  The track, which is a brilliant red color, and the supports are a perfect match for S&S' other 4-D Freespin roller coasters, many of which can be found at your local Six Flags park.

Adventureland is removing their Dragon roller coaster in order to build the new ride - rumored to be named Dragon Slayer.  While we can be pretty darn sure that the ride will be a 4-D Freespin, there is still a chance that it won't have the exact layout as the existing Freespins.  Originally S&S sold the rides in different sizes, though we've mostly seen exact clones go up in the U.S. so far.

Adventureland is on quite the expansion kick lately, as their 2021 coaster will be their 3rd in just six seasons.  Maybe that is not a lot when compared to the almost gratuitous amount of coasters that went up at parks in the U.S. in the 1990s/early 2000s, but for recent times it is quite a lot of capital to spend in a relatively short amount of time.

Looks Like Adventureland's Dragon Coaster has been Vanquished by 2021 New Ride

© Adventureland

Adventureland has started to tease a new attraction coming to the park for 2021, and it looks to be at the cost of one of the park's current roller coasters.  The park posted the above image on Facebook with no further clues other than text stating "Coming in 2021..."

The image is of a knight slaying a dragon, and Adventureland is home to a steel looping roller coaster named The Dragon, probably not a coincidence there.

Much more importantly, there are photos floating around the internet of the coaster being taken apart.  There is one on Reddit, if you zoom in you can just see that track pieces are piled on the ground.  So with that happening and the above image, it is pretty clear that the park is replacing The Dragon with some sort of new attraction in 2021.

© Google Maps

The Dragon opened at Adventureland in 1990, manufactured by Hopkins.  Hopkins didn't make too many coasters in the U.S., and they're not really known for having aged well.  The ride featured a 90 foot lift and a drop into a pair of vertical loops, followed by several helices.  The ride's station (as seen above) is located on an island with two parts of the ride traveling over water.

With no real lead on what could be replacing the Dragon, we do know that there is a lot of real estate available for the park to play with, encouraging for sure.  Stay tuned!

From The Vault: Adventureland 1996 Map + Brochure

© Adventureland

Hopefully you guys like when we share some older stuff here, because it is looking like there will be plenty more time for me to be digging through the archives...  Today we take a look at Adventureland (Iowa) in 1996, with the park's general brochure and park map.

It's nice to see some smaller and independent parks featured here as well, since they're really (probably really, really) going to need their fans to support them this summer whenever they can open.  The big companies will have an easier time staying afloat during these extended closures.  Just something to keep in mind.

© Adventureland

Anywho, in 1996 Adventureland debuted The Underground, a wildly unique wooden roller coaster that's more of a slow moving dark ride than a coaster.  It was built by Custom Coasters International and lets riders enter the dark former hangout of some western themed bad guys.  Not a very scary ride, as there are really no drops or anything of that sort, but a fun attraction for the kiddos.  If you're looking for thrills, as this brochure suggests, the park's Dragon, Tornado and Outlaw coasters are where the real fun is at!

© Adventureland

The park's map didn't change much through the years.  In fact, it still looks similar (though with an awful lot of additions) in 2020!  Since the park's big new ride of the year took place indoors it was pretty hard to draw it on the map - so I guess in that sense a big black spot worked to help draw attention.  These days it looks like some rocks, grass trees and a cave opening.  Arguably better, but not as attractive as the Monster, a large Gerstlauer Infinity coaster added in 2016!

Adventureland Opens New Phoenix Spinning Roller Coaster

© Adventureland Resort

The new Phoenix roller coaster has opened at Adventureland Resort in Iowa.  The ride is one of Maurer Rides' SC2000 models, with the SC standing for spinning coaster.  The ride's individual 4-seater cars spin freely on the ride's track, giving passengers (seated back to back) a thrilling but disorienting experience.

The Phoenix stands around 51 feet tall and has a track length of 1,410 feet.  It has a twisted layout that fits in a relatively small area, but still has a "big coaster" appeal.

© KCCI 8

The Phoenix is painted all black at Adventureland, both supports and track.  The cars hit a top speed of around 37 miles per hour, and there are no inversions during the ride.  The project cost the park around $6 million to complete and the Phoenix is now the park's 6th roller coaster.

Adventureland hasn't shared many photos of the ride yet, so here's a news clip about the ride opening from a local news station, KCCI:

Adventureland Iowa Announces New Spinning Roller Coaster for 2019

© Adventureland

Iowa's Adventureland theme park has announced a surprise roller coaster for the 2019 season, named Phoenix.  The coaster will be a spinning ride designed by Maurer Rides, standing about 50 feet tall and reaching speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.

The Phoenix will replace the Inverter, a flat ride was removed at the end of the 2017 season, according to this news story.  The ride will cost Adventureland $6 million and construction will start in February, 2019, with the ride scheduled for a June opening.

© Maurer Rides

From the given manufacturer, height, speed and the fact that Undertow at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is shown in the park's Facebook announcement, it looks like Phoenix will be one of Maurer's SC2000 rides.

There are already a handful of these spinning coasters in North America, and they are well received by park guests.  Adventureland is marketing the new coaster as a family attraction, considerably less intense than the Monster, the park's large Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster built in 2016.

Time to Face The Monster at Adventureland

© Adventureland

The Monster, a brand new custom-designed Gerstlauer "infinity coaster" has opened at Adventureland, located in Altoona, Iowa.  Complete with a scary looking front car design, the Monster has already started terrorizing visitors to the park - but in a good way, of course.

Standing 133 feet tall with bright green track and silver supports, the coaster utilizes a vertical lift hill and a first drop that goes beyond straight down at 101 degrees.  As noted in earlier construction posts about the ride, Adventureland has their sky ride going straight through he middle of the coaster, with it looping around it.

And speaking of looping, the Monster inverts riders 5 times through its 2,500 foot long course, including dive loops, an immelmann and corkscrew.  There's also a vertical loop that has the track where the train is totally upside down stretched out a bit, giving maximum hang-time to passengers.

Ride Entertainment just uploaded this montage of footage of the Monster in operation:

Make sure that you watch all the way to the end where it shows the stunning light package that the park has placed on the new coaster.  Not only is it capable of an assortment of colors but it does an amazing effect where the lights chase the movement of the car, turning the track a bright red/orange as it moves then cooling to blue on the completed sections.  Definitely a night ride coaster!

Adventureland Park's New Monster Coaster Completed

© Adventureland Park

It hasn't been very long at all since we saw that The Monster at Adventureland Park, located in Altoona, Iowa, had started vertical construction - and now the ride is complete!  The park's construction crews made quick work of assembling the 2,500 feet of the Gerstlauer steel coaster.

The park ichoses proudly sharing photos of the new thrill ride, like the one above of the ride vehicle's front car.  They're taking the Monster theme all the way, having the manufacturer create this clawed creature for the vehicles.  Looks great!

© Adventureland Park

On the ground (and taken before the ride was 100% complete), we see the ride's beyond vertical (at 101 degrees) first drop.  The vertical lift that is just outside the frame of this photo will take the individual cars up to 133 feet before the drop.

Adventureland also chose to keep their Skyride despite the Monster setting up shop under its path.  This view shows how the ride goes both under and over the Skyride - going to make for some really neat interactions!

© Adventureland Park

Although the Monster's layout was revealed when the coaster was first announced, its twisted layout made following the ride path a bit difficult.  This lovely aerial photo - taken before the track was complete, though - allows you to follow much of the ride.  The Monster's twisted green track will feature a total of 5 inversions including dive loops, an immelmann and a corkscrew.

The new coaster is still scheduled to open at Adventureland sometime in June.

The Monster is Rising at Adventureland

Most of the new for 2016 roller coaster are wrapping up construction, or nearly ready to open, but such is not the case with The Monster at Iowa's Adventureland amusement park.  Heavy construction is still underway, but good things come to those who wait, as this new Gerstlauer "Infinity" coaster is looking great so far.

© Adventureland

Adventureland has shared some recent construction photos of The Monster, revealing that plenty of bright green track and gray supports are already in place.  The custom designed ride replaces the park's aging log flume and contains 2,500 feet of track in a small space.  This recent news story has some additional photos, along with information on the design process of the $9 million coaster.

© Adventureland

The Monster starts with a 135 foot tall vertical lift hill, quickly followed by a 101 degree beyond-vertical first plunge.  The ride has a total of 5 inversions and will cross over or under the park's Sky Ride path 8 times during the layout.  You can imagine that there will be some pretty neat photo opportunities for those on the Sky Ride in 2016.

The Monster is the first new roller coaster to open at Adventureland in 20 years, as the Underground premiered back in 1996.

A Monster-Sized New Roller Coaster Coming to Adventureland in 2016

Iowa's Adventureland Amusement Park made a surprise announcement today on their Facebook site, revealing that a new roller coaster named The Monster will open at the park in 2016.

The new coaster will be designed by Gerstlauer and be situated on the land previously home to the Log Ride, the park's classic flume.  Adventureland has announced that Labor Day weekend will be the final one for the log flume, which has reached the end of its time at the park.

Soon to be the home of The Monster

While it is always sad to see a log flume bite the dust, fans of the park won't have to wait to experience new thrills at the park.  The Monster will start with a 133 foot vertical lift that the individual cars climb, followed by a beyond vertical drop at 101 degrees.

The Monster's layout will include five twisted inversions and stretch 2,500 feet in length.  Among the ride's features will be 10 moments of airtime, track crossing the Sky Ride 8 times and the "first negative-G stall loop in the western hemisphere."  The park has released this video that makes The Monster's layout quite clear:

No word yet on whether the colors shown in the animation are the final for the ride or not.  You can also see how the ride will be positioned in the park by looking at the log flume's layout seen under the coaster and comparing to the aerial view above.

The announcement post mentioned that much like we've seen with Knoebels a new generation has taken over the family park's operations, and this seems like their big debut.  We saw how well that worked for Knoebels, so here's hoping to similar success for Adventureland.

Adventureland's Storm Chaser From Above

© Adventureland

This photo from Adventureland (Des Moines, Iowa) is of the park's 2014 addition, Storm Chaser.  It was released much earlier in the summer, but I just happened across it now and wanted to share it.  The ride looks pretty darn impressive from this angle, even considering that this ride is slightly smaller than the WindSeeker rides at the Cedar Fair parks.  Storm Chaser is still well over 200 feet tall, though.

The tower's bright yellow color doesn't hurt, either!  It really makes the ride stand out among the nice green trees of Adventureland.  Storm Chaser was created by Mondial, and is one of their Wind Seeker rides - this one has a smaller amount of seats that ones we've seen at bigger parks as well.

Cedar Fair has had a slew of problems with their rides over the past few seasons, but I haven't heard of any troubles with the Adventureland model.  Perhaps there was some re-engineering done before it was fabricated?  Either way it is a darn pretty photo!

Storm Chaser Nearing Completion at Adventureland

© Adventureland

Adventureland has completed vertical construction of Storm Chaser, a new swing ride by Mondial that will open this year.  Similar in most aspects to the version that has opened at several Cedar Fair parks, Storm Chaser is however a bit shorter at 250 feet tall.  The tower is a bright yellow color, ensuring that the ride will be visible from far outside the park's gates.

© Adventureland

This photo, just recently posted by the park, shows the instillation of the ride carriage.  It also shows that this version of the ride will seat around half as many people as the Cedar Fair models.  The WindSeeker rides have 32 cars, each seating two passengers for a total of 64.  While not all the arms are installed in the above photo, my totally unofficial count landed at 16 seats for a total of 32 riders.

Which makes sense, really, since Adventureland is a much smaller park than the bigger Cedar Fair properties that installed WindSeekers. 

Adventureland is hoping to have Storm Chaser up and running sometime in June.

Storm Chaser Going Up at Adventureland

© Adventureland

Iowa's Adventureland theme park is adding a towering new thrill ride for the 2014 season, named Storm Chaser.  Costing the park around $3 million to construct, Storm Chaser is being built by Mondial Rides of the Netherlands.  The attraction will take guests up a 250 foot tower in chair-swing seats, legs dangling freely.  At the top, the arms will swing riders at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour.  For those familiar with the set of WindSeeker rides at Cedar Fair parks, Storm Chaser will be a similar ride.

© Adventureland

Just this past week Adventurland set the base piece of Storm Chaser into place.  The park picked a bold yellow color for the whole tower, making it stand out among the park's other rides.  Storm Chaser will have a brilliant light system, making watching the ride at night an attraction of its own.

With vertical construction now well under way, Adventureland is planning a June opening for Storm Chaser.

Adventureland Announces New Swing Ride for 2014

© Adventureland

After the troubles that Cedar Fair has had with their Windseeker rides, I figured we wouldn't see anymore of Mondial's contraptions built any time soon - but surprise - we are!

Adventureland in Iowa posted the above picture on their Facebook announcing Storm Chaser, a new Windseeker style ride for their 2014 season.  Absolutely no additional details were given, so we have no idea if this is the 300 foot version that the Cedar Fair parks built, or perhaps a smaller one.  I believe that Mondial was showing off a 200 foot tall version at one point.

Adventureland has been focusing on their water park for several years now, expanding it greatly into a full days worth of fun.  Now it is time for the ride park to receive a new addition, and it certainly looks to be a tall one!  Hopefully more details will be released by the park soon.

From The Vault: Adventureland 1999 Brochure + Map

Let's take a look at the 1999 brochure and map for Iowa's Adventureland amusement park, shall we?

The amusement park saw steady expansion during the 1990s with rides and attractions like the Giant Sky Wheel, the wooden coaster The Outlaw inside a new themed area, and flat rides like the Mixer and G-Force.

1999 saw the addition of another towering thrill ride, the Space Shot.

I admit I cheated and moved these two sections side by side, but obviously if you follow the panels left to right they are made to sit atop one another.  Launching riders up "like a rocket" the Space Shot stands over 200 feet tall, according to the park.  Popular additions during the era, the S&S ride blasted the carriage up in two sections and provided a g-force of 4.5.  Plus there's that nice pop of air time at the top!

The park went pretty simple with showing off their other attractions in the brochure.  You can see the Mixer in the top photo, a flat ride that had a couple years of popularity at many parks, then they slowly started to disappear.  The park also featured the Royal Hanneford Circus in 1999, which was a huge hit with park guests.

You also can't forget the park's other coasters, such as the Dragon - a Hopkins looping ride - and the Tornado, a classic wooden ride designed by William Cobb, both pictured here.

The park's map included some information on "The Daily Adventure," a fun newspaper style handout.  Here you can read more about the new Space Shot and the return of the Royal Hanneford Circus.  The park also boasts both an Inn and Campground, which make it easy to spend a couple days at the park on a short vacation.

Here is the park map that was sent out in 1999.  You can click for a larger version where you can take a look around the property.  If you notice a similarity in the park's entrance area to that of Disneyland, well, yes that's certainly spot on!  I haven't been to the park - which in recent years has added quite a big water park - but hope I can get there some day.