On Friday 6/29/22 Emily and I traveled the short distance from my house to the New $100 million Lost Island Theme Park! If you say amusement park around some you will be corrected, as this park has a theme not just amusements. I have only been to one other theme park, Adventureland also here in Iowa, though it has been a while.
We picked an awesome day to be outside! Temperatures were in the low 80s and the humidity was down. The park currently is not crowded, they haven’t begun aggressively advertising yet due to some delays related to covid and supply chain issues. They also had a fire burn down one of their buildings that was part of one of the rides. I know there a few rides that are not operational yet as well. As for the rides that are up and running the lines mostly consisted of just waiting for the ride to finish and then we were able to get on.
The “Lost Island” theme is whimsical and light, a little beach like with a “Raider’s of the Lost Ark” vibe to it maybe a little cartoonish. I think they could have gone a bit darker and more lost but this is a place for families. The park did also just open this year so it will be a while for all of the landscaping to mature, hopefully bigger trees and fuller patches of greenery will increase the lost factor. More shade along the paths would also be nice. Speaking of the paths, they were stamped with fish and plant fossils. There is no cutting through from one part of the park to the other, there is no path for that so if you just want to ride certain rides you may have to walk a ways.
The park itself isn’t overwhelmingly big when it comes to walking, overall the rides are fairly close together. There are plenty of bathrooms and places to get something to drink. There are a few places to get food. We ate at the Whalebone Grill. I didn’t see anything that was grilled, they had BBQ pork sandwiches, fried fish and chicken, rice bowls and salads. The Totara Market had burgers, we looked through the windows when we went past and I read a sign inside.
The food was a bit expensive but not really more than I expected for a theme park. They don’t allow outside food or drink but they do stamp your hand on the way out if you want to return, so you could picnic in the parking lot like they do at the water park. The food wasn’t bad, the only real complaint I heard was the rice bowl was mushy. The food was cafeteria style where you took what you wanted and then paid the cashier before going to a table.
We were given a map that had some details on it about the park. I would have liked it to be a little more descriptive especially about the food and drink. There is an app for the park we could have used but I didn’t want another app just to remove it later that may have had more information. Knowing where we could get certain types of food may have encouraged us to make the trip to another option. The app is also supposed to give more information about the characters / creatures in the park you may notice. I may have to go again sometime and try it out for the advertised “immersive experience”.
We spent right about 4 hours in the theme park, counting eating. The staff were friendly. We did have a few issues with either getting off rides when they were done and on. Everything seems to have safety locks and they are temperamental if not locked in at certain points and will not allow the ride to start. Extended time on a ride waiting to get off did not cost extra.
The least favorite ride was the Awaati Water Battle, boats with water guns you could shoot at other boats or people. They should add targets along the route for those that don’t have a boat to aim for, depending where you were on the course and side of the boat you didn’t have anything to aim for. Also they need better water guns with more range!
We didn’t ride the “children’s” rides or the bumper cars which I think they called Kukui Station on the map. Again small description would be nice. The area for the bumper cars looked small and so we all opted out. Some of the people we went with would have been dangerous to do bumper cars with if they had room to get ramming speed. We rode everything else we could, we would have enjoyed a few more rides if they had been available but overall we didn’t feel that we missed out. The value was there for what we did get to do. I’m not big on having to pay to park at a place that is going to charge me to enter as well. I know it’s a thing at other theme parks but it’s something I don’t agree with.
We also did some carnival type games, Emily won herself a prize, she beat me at the whack a mole and water gun clown shoot. $3 to play is a bit expensive but someone always won a prize.
We got the park hopper add on to our entry to the theme park. After we finished at the theme park Emily and I ran to my house to change into swim wear and leave everything we didn’t need with us before heading to the water park.
The water park has the same name and theme but actually came before the theme park. Personally I felt the theme was less noticeable at the water park, and from the outside it looks more Gilligan’s Island. We had a good time at the water park but it was an excellent day for the theme park and a bit cool for the water park.
We did get to do most of the slides, there were a couple including the roller coaster slide that we skipped due to the line. There were a few that did not seem to be popular and they were easy to do.
I think that I would prefer a big pool over a bunch of waiting in line for a quick ride in the water slide. Emily and I did the lazy river but for me the tubes are too small so they aren’t very comfortable to relax in, on the rides they feel very unstable. I think the water park was worth adding to the theme park pass but not sure I would go just to the water park.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying their summer. I’m hoping Emily and I can squeeze a few more things in before she has to get back to teaching!
Traveling with Emily! 