2017 Season Pass / Adventure Card notes

A few updates sent in by Katie…

  1. The current season pass price is $125 through May 31, 2017. You can go to the park this week (April 24-28, 2017 from 3:30pm-7pm) to buy one and get your pass made. After May 31, the price will increase. But now, and save money, plus get an extra visit in May to make the cost-per-visit even less.
  2. Adventureland Season Passes can be loaded with money to use in the park “almost” anywhere they accept credit cards. (The brochure says it works anywhere, but we found a number of locations last year that couldn’t handle the season pass via their credit card machine.) If you don’t have a Season Pass, you can get the Adventure Card and do the same thing. If you load the pass at the ticket booth, for each $50 you put on they add a free $5 bonus. It’s a great way to get 10% back. Also, last year, we found that the Pass/Adventure Card also earned 2% cash back. Every time you spend money using it, you get a 2% cash credit. Thus, if you just loaded $50, you’d be getting basically a “12% discount” ($50 + $5 bonus + $1 cash back).
    NOTE: You only get the $5 bonus if you load at the ticket booths, and the bonus is only available through June 11. After that, you just get the cash back (if it’s like 2016) and you can load it online any time you want. 

The Season Pass is a great value if you can make a few visits to the park during the year. There are food and merchandise discounts.  and, apparently, even a discount at Spectators at the Adventureland Inn. When we visited, we were told is was a 10% discount there.

I know some folks that go to Spectators regularly and run up quite the tab on a meal and some drinks. I bet they could save money with a season pass just for that discount over the course of the season 😉

5/18 Update: Spectators has informed us that there will be no Season Pass discount there this year.

If you have any tips to share, please post them in my Facebook group or e-mail me. I’ll have a contact form added soon.

Happy Anniversary, 2017 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 2012)

  • Adventureland Museum display added in the School House on Main Street.
  • New Chicken Shack building.

10th Anniversary (opened in 2007)

  • Season Pass processing moved to outside building.

15th Anniversary (opened in 2002)

  • Saw Mill Splash
  • Adventureland Inn expansion.

20th Anniversary (opened in 1997)

  • G-Force opened (though it has been relocated since then).
  • Royal Hanneford Circus at Adventureland.

25th Anniversary (opened in 1992)

  • Nothing known.

30th Anniversary (opened in 1987)

  • Balloon Race

35th Anniversary (opened in 1982)

  • I have no information on 1982. Can you help?

40th Anniversary (opened in 1977)

  • Nothing known.

I will update this article with any corrections I receive.

 

 

 

2017 season approaches!

Adventureland Park opens this year on April 29, 2017. Members of my Adventureland Iowa Fans (Unofficial) Facebook group have been sharing photos of things being tested at the park lately, such as the Storm Chaser and work being done on the Tornado. If you have anything to share, and you do the whole Facebook thing, please drop by.

After the 2016 season ended, I moved on to other Fall/Winter projects so I have not done (m)any updates to this site. There is often something new posted to the Facebook group, however.

I expect to start sharing new information as I hear it, so subscribe to updates here and check back as opening day approaches.

I have not seen anything details on how well the park did last year with the opening of the new Monster roller coaster, but it is usually a trend that a major addition creates a nice attendance bump over subsequent years as more and more folks hear about it and return to the park to try it out. The Monster opened in June last year, so the “gotta go see it” crowd was moved to the last 2/3rds of the season. This year, the new attraction will be there opening day so it could provide a stronger opening May.

The park continues to impress me with how well it has scaled to handle the crowds during peak events such as The Monster opening, July 4th, and Oktoberfest. (Especially Oktoberfest, when they’d lost many of their seasonal RV campsite workers when the park closes and they moved on to their next stop.)

I don’t have a pass for this year (yet) but I expect to make it out to see what all is new.

Stay tuned…