Adventureland continued to work on the park between the first few opening weekends, and before the park went to daily operation starting the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
The Chicken Shack new has new metal rails for folks to go through to pick up food and end up at the register.
Chicken Shack’s new railings, 2017.
Petunia Pig received a new lane sign noting it’s new bacon popcorn and 1/4 pound bacon on a stick.
Petunia Pig, with it’s new menu sign and new menu in 2017.
The following weekend, a second tall sign for the bacon on a stick appeared.
Petunia Pig’s Bacon-on-a-Stick is a quarter point of bacon, and almost as large as this sign.
In Outlaw Gulch, the food location that opened last year (moving next door from the old Saloon location) finally has a menu sign in the lane which lists an official name: Gulch Food. Fish sandwiches were added this year, too.
Gulch Foods has a new sign, and thus, an official name.
Flowers have appeared around the small pond in Iowa Farm near Petunia Pig, with more added the next weekend.
Fresh landscaping in Iowa Farm.
The area in front of the Giant Sky Wheel that had trees last year (cut down just before Oktoberfest) now has a beautiful flower bed and flag poles. The flags start with the United States of America flag, then various military flags. For Memorial Day Weekend, the park held a group photo of Adventureland employees with current or former military service. The Giant Sky Wheel also displayed a patriotic red, white and blue light pattern.
New flower bed and flag poles across from the Giant Sky Wheel.
More more to come… Check back for updates and photos.
Updated 5/28/2017 with more photos (some taken after this article was originally posted, showing things added since then).
Adventureland was scheduled to open the weekend of April 28-29, 2017, but heavy rainfall and cold temperatures caused them to postpone. The park opened to great weather on the weekend of May 5-6.
Here is a quick look at some of the “new for 2017” changes we noticed…
Paint and Signage
The staff has been busy, with many areas of the park showing new paint, new signs, and other general improvements. Even the parking lot has areas of new painted stripes and curbs. Professor Bellows‘ sign looks like it is brand new, but a worker there says it was just cleaned up.
Professor Bellows’ new (or just cleaned up) sign for 2017.
Saw Mill Splash has a freshly painted sign, and SideWinder‘s “you must be this tall” sign is new as well.
Saw Mill Splash’s new sign for 2017.
The walkway sign promoting the Ben Ulin Magic Show is different from last year (and quite colorful).
Sign for Ben Ulin’s 2017 magic show.
Overall, many menu signs have been swapped out to feature new items (and prices) for this year. During 2016, a few items were added to Rally Round, for instance, and those items now have a permanent place on the menu board rather than just a sign in the window.
LCD Monitors
LCD monitors started appearing last year acting as menu boards at various food locations. The trend continues this season.
Outside monitors have been added to the Main Street Theater and the various picnic areas. They replace all the old paper signs that would be put up when the locations were rented for special events. They look very nice.
Palace Theater digital signs, 2017.New monitors outside of the picnic areas.
The Bier Garten gained two new LCD screens inside, too, with one showing the menu and the other playing sports video.
New monitors in the Bier Garten.
Adult Beverages
Over at the Iowa Beer and Wine Shop, the seating area is now under a new barn-shaped permanent tent, similar to the cover at the Bier Garten. A member of our Facebook group considers this to be a nice “spit shelter” since the area sits under the tall Storm Chaser ride.
New tent (with elevated stage and new sound system inside) at Iowa Beer & Wine.
The River City Abita Bar (added in 2015) is now the Corona Cantina. It offers a much larger selection of drinks, including a larger range of frozen drinks that start out non-alcoholic with shots added. This now allows kids to get the frozen virgin drinks at this location. Pina Colada and a few other flavors are now available that were previously only obtainable down at the Sand Bar in the water park. The Louisiana beers seem to be no more.
Corona Cantina replaces Anita Bar for 2017.
Over at ICEE Mix-It-Up, down from Sheriff Sam’s Saloon, they now offer alcohol shots for the ICEE drinks. This was offered during Oktoberfest, and will likely be even more popular during hot summer months at the park.
ICEE Mix It Up now offers spiked drinks.
Food
The park has added at least three new chefs, and it shows. Iowa Cafe continues to serve house made mashed potatoes and great fried chicken, but the baked beans got a total overhaul. Some report having them loaded with bacon, and others say it was more like brisket meat chunks. Perhaps they are still experimenting with the recipes, but all report that the beans are fantastic.
New “Dr Pepper BBQ Beans” at Iowa Cafe.
The Gyro shop received a huge update and expansion and now has an order window and a pick up window. New menu items include fancier gyros, baklava (honey pastry – try if you like honey), Greek salads and more.
Gyro’s new menu, featuring baklava, Greek salads and falafel.
Around the corner, new signage at Subland is in use, with numbered sandwich choices rather than the “fill out what you want” sheets.
Subland’s new menu.
Taco Villa has a new burrito bowl, and I am told the tacos are also fancier.
Taco Villa’s new burrito bowl combo, which comes with a churro and drink.
River City Smoke Shack has now been repainted and is a Spectators Sports Bar and Grill location, matching the logo and name of the restaurant at the Adventureland Inn. The location still serves funnel cakes from the left side, and barbecue from the right side, but the meat is now cooked at the restaurant and brought over. They have added new meats, and the BBQ sauce is the house-made sauce from Spectators – something you won’t find at any other theme park. The funnel cakes also feature a “funnel cake of the week (? month ?)”.
Spectators Sports Bar and Grill sets up shop inside the park.
Dippin’ Dots now has “sundaes.”
Dot Sundaes at a few of the Dippin’ Dot stands.
There are likely many other food changes within the park yet to be discovered and reported, so if you see something new, let us know.
This is just a quick look at some of the changes notice last Sunday, but it is clear that the staff is focusing on improving the park in all areas — not just multi-million dollar roller coasters like the Monster last year.
More to come…
Check out some photos from 2017, incuding photos of many of these new items, here:
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.
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.
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.
Today I found out that a YouTube channel I have been subscribed to for years was a fake account that had nothing to do with Adventureland. They use the address, phone number, website and logo, as well as photos from the resort which sure made them look legit.
But, a recent video contained clips of rides that were not at Adventureland, and some scenes of a hotel that was clearly not the Adventureland Inn. I thought maybe some intern had been assigned to make a new video and had simply searched for “Adventureland” to find images. Maybe those that were found belonged to the Adventureland in New York.
Turns out, it’s just some fake account. No clue why. Maybe they do this to tons of businesses, hoping to hijack visitors so they can get enough views to earn revenue for showing ads?
With that said, I am going to confirm and post the official social media accounts that the resort actually owns. These will end up on the Wiki, but for now, here is what I know:
Adventureland started offering season passes in 2002. Back then, they were $55. In the first year (maybe more?), they did not include parking. Parking was only $3 or so back then, though, so it still made for cheap visits to the park.
Over the years, the price has steadily increased. When the 2017 season passes were made available at the end of 2016, they were at the special “before Christmas” price of $110. On January 1st, they increased by $15 to $125. After May 31, the price will go up again. Last year, the regular price was $135, and we don’t know yet what the 2017 price will be.
With full price adult admission being $42 this year, if you visit three times during 2017 ($126), getting a season pass at the current discount is cheaper.
Thus, three visits to the park is the current break-even for a season pass. After May 31, when the price increases, it will take four visits.
However, since the season pass also includes parking ($10 in 2016), if you are driving and parking, that means the break even would still be three visits ($156 to buy a ticket and pay parking three times).
It’s really a great value.
Add in the 15% food and drink discount at Iowa Cafe, plus various other merchandise and game discounts, and it’s a great way to save some money if you think you might go more than three times in a season.
The 2016 2nd annual Adventureland Oktoberfest “Music and Food Festival” has concluded. It may take me awhile to compose my thoughts and post a proper write up about this day, but I wanted to get a quick summary out first.
The first event last year was an amazing first event. The park had nice matching banner signs on all the food booths and added a number of speciality drink tents to the park. They had done light decorations (pumpkins) around the Main Street, Bavari and Boulevard sections of the park they used for the event. There were free games to play in the lawns and lanes, and a number of speciality pay-to-play games added (keg bowling, Hamm’s speed ball toss, etc.). All the music last year was inside the Bier Garten tent. And while the day started out very sparse, by the evening it was wall-to-wall packed in that tent, and long lines at drink and food stands. I did not stay until closing, but it seemed the event had reached capacity limits for various locations that were open.
For 2016, the park took what they learned and expanded to pretty much the entire park (except Dragon Island and Outlaw Gulch). They even made use of the River Rapids “island” as a smoker’s section with it’s own beer stand (in the gift shop building). The Dragon Island bridge contained a cheap beer stand at the very end, with a $4 “whatever they had” drink and a chance to feed the fishes one last time this year.
There were tons of extra drink stands — most double sided so they could serve twice as many — and additional taps added to the Iowa Beer & Wine Shop. They turned many things in to bars — the Storm Chaser gift shop, for example. They even made Sheriff Sam’s Saloon a whiskey bar! The ICEE Mix-It-Up now sold you alcohol to spike your ICEE. The Main Street ice cream shop was doing spiked malts. Iowa Cafe’s chicken got moved to a food tend, and the two food lines in the building were turned in to a Mimosa Bar and a Bloody Mary Bar. There was free samples (a shot!) of SWELL Vodka (made in Cumming, Iowa) there too.
And the list goes on, and on, and on… Many games in County Fair were open, including “Inappropriate Age and Weight Guessing.” He guessed me at 51. Hmph.
And music… plenty of music…
There is far too much to describe in this short (already too long) summary, so check back late this week when I have time to do a full writeup with photos.
Why, yes, there is an index of all the restrooms at Advetureland, including a sortable table so you can find the ones with the most stalls (shortest wait?) or the ones with changing stations. Because Internet.
A few updates sent in by Katie…
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. 
