Marriott's American Adventure (Returns) (Again)

[ALT2870]

Hey everyone, guess I'm late to the party. (Also there was a strange glitch on sign-up so I have a ALT2870 account I can't access so have this account with an O for now.) So late enough hadn't checked SGW in a while and was unaware of the shut down which was a bummer.

For what has been 10 years now (which I can't even believe) I have been working on a timeline park. It originally started in RCT3 then migrated over to PC in 2017. Needless to say it has been a long road and while sometimes updates don't happen often, my goal is to finish out the timeline eventually. (We may get it to PC2 at this rate. ) I've had some luck in recovering forum post with at least the text from TPR (working on trying to get pictures back) and Wayback Machine covering the PC section from SGW complete with pictures.

Table of Contents:

1960 Park Opens

1960 Closing Report

1961 New Additions

1961 Trip Report

1962 Opening Report
 

Edited October 7, 2023 by ALT2870

[Kablary]

41 minutes ago, ALT287O said:

is anyone interested in re-post of the previous updates?

YES! Please post your park; we love to see everything the community has to showcase!

Welcome aboard!

[wolfpaw]

We would love to see what you've worked on, the park so far looks great too! Also, if you encounter any bugs or glitches let me know and I can look into them for you! I can remove your other account and update your username as well too if you'd like. Want to make sure the site is running as best as it can be for everyone! Welcome to ParkCrafters!

[ALT2870]

Thanks guys, looking forward to continuing. Wolf if you could do that, that would be great.                        

Edited September 20, 2023 by ALT287O

[ALT2870]

Alrighty folks, somehow I got into my long abandoned account on Photobucket and was able to nab the pictures from oh so long ago. I'll try to do around a post every other day until we are caught up and then new content will be inbound.

Here's a little more background now that I can look back after 10 years. The original idea was to have a story within a story. Basically a high school student's class project was a research project on his local park. The time frame is 1998 so internet is coming around and as part of it he blogs the parks progression through the years. The info and pictures would come from this "source" who had the parks historical records of sorts. Needless to say my writing was cringy so forgive me in advanced. Eventually it became over bearing and decided just to slim it down to a single perspective. I'm not sure how I want to go forward once I catch up but that is the basic background.

As previously mentioned this park started in RCT3 and as such the first handful of post will be from that era. I just want to keep it in the same thread for continuity purposes so pardon the wrong game.

 

Hello everybody, my name is Connor Schamm. I've lived in Omaha almost all my life and now in my last year of high school as the class of 1998. One of the things we must do is a research project of our choosing. With so many possibilities I choose a amusement park that I used to go to all the time when I was younger. But even more exciting as you can see is that for the actual research portion of this project, we need to post what we find online on what is called a blog. It's very exciting and I am already having fun! Continuing on with my topic, I was lucky enough to be able to get in contact with the former owner which pointed me to a vast collection of reports from previous years. So I now intend to publish these reports here for everyone to enjoy. (Permission was given of course.) The report your about to see, and all future ones will be slightly edited. Here we go to a great year.

 

Post #1: August 18th, 1998

In 1958 just after their first hotel, Marriott announced they planned to open an amusement park just outside of Omaha, Nebraska. The park was planned to open in 1960 but early issues pertaining to permits delayed construction. None the less Marriott pushed the 1960 date and opened up that year, despite being only half done.

 

Hello, my name is Mike Schmit, the public relations director here at Marriott's American Adventure. After two years we are proud to open our doors to guest. Part of my job is to record park history for future generations and where better to start then day one? Before we opened, I took the following pictures.

 

Here is the view after ticketing, the Ferris Wheel is one of the biggest in the world.

 

All is quiet, for now.

 

And here come the people!

 

Our entrance is filling up.

 

This is our guest services building, you can get information, maps, and more here.

 

Already on opening day it starts to rain.

 

But the skies clear up.

 

Our Ferris Wheel has a fairly large cover for the queue.

 

Behind guest services we have a typical rotor ride.

 

Coming off the entrance you are greeted by The Whip. Don't be fooled though, it is pretty tame.

 

I decided to take a quick whirl.

 

Across the path is the topically themed Pacific Crawler.

It is your standard Octopus ride that provides a good step up ride before higher thrills.

 

Coming back across though is our signature attraction, the Hurricane.

 

The themeing is also tropical here.

 

The coaster was designed by John Allen and built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.

 

Despite the nearly 700 people in the park, it failed to attract early in the day.

 

Next to Hurricane's queue is Lasso, it is a roundup ride with western flare.

 

Beneath the trees is perhaps our most thrilling non coaster ride, Loop-O-Plane.

 

And finally at the end of the main pathway is Road Ralleye.

 

I decided to hop on a take a few shots, you can some great views of Hurricane as well.

 

Right now the park only has one restaurant, the aptly named Creekside Grille.

 

The views can't be beat!

 

Inside everything is made fresh to order.

 

Opening day did not go off without a hitch, parking was a huge issue. Our lot was not prepared for this many people as we had hoped more people would take the dedicated bus service. Overall comments are flooding in and I'll be back with the mid-Summer updated soon enough. (Sorry for the picture overload, there will be a lot less next time.)

Edited September 20, 2023 by ALT287O

[wolfpaw]

So cool seeing a park start out in RCT3 and then making its way over to PlanCo, don't think I've seen that before. This is like one big giant time capsule and love the narration you've added! I've also removed the other account and updated your username! 

[ALT2870]

The best part is you don't have to wait years, just about a week or so.

[Kablary]

It's amazing that a then-fledgling hotel chain managed to secure the funds to build a mostly-fleshed out amusement park...complete with theming for some attractions, no less! 

Honestly I think the transition from RCT3 to PlanCo suits the time-tracking modernization of the park. Will be fun to follow this along!

Edited September 20, 2023 by Kablary

[ALT2870]

I like that deep thinking for realism, that's what drives me sometimes. Luckily prior to getting into the hotel business he had a very successful restaurant business so with some investors this wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility though like you mentioned unlikely. Money will be playing a part sooner rather then later though...

[ALT2870]

Post #1: August 18th, 1998

 

The first year of Marriott's American Adventure was an interesting one. Due to the parks hasty construction many problems arose. The park did its best to solve what it could but some will have to wait for the off season. Here I present the closing report for 1960! (Slightly edited of course.)

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to the closing report for Marriott's American Adventure. My name is Mel T. as Mr. Schmit already has been promoted so expect a cross type report. We have also got a much better camera. Despite our issues, the first season went off very well.

 

Great view of the park and layout of the Hurricane from atop American Wheel.

 

Throughout the season we were constantly out in the park asking guest what they though of the park, and what we could do to improve. The biggest thing as mentioned on opening day was parking. Our short term solution put to effect is/was a dirt parking lot just on the other side of the creek. This land is actually bought land for future overflow parking as we plan to greatly expand the lot here during the off season.

Next was the lack of signage in the park. Although the park was small, most guest thought it was still needed to have signs at the entrance of each ride. Also noting that ride requirements were actually at the ride, meaning some people waited in line only to find out that they couldn't ride resulting in much frustration. This went to the top of the priority list and was rectified within the first month.

 

The sign found at most rides, also we have added height requirement signs as well.

 

The restaurant got this nifty sign.

 

With one restroom in the park, over crowding was an issue. Midway through the Summer season we were able to add another smaller facility at the far side of the park near Road Ralleye.

 

The restroom has been themed a bit to fit in.

 

Our final biggest concern is family rides, or lack therefore of. Many have complained that the park lacks rides smaller guest can ride and enjoy. Many found the American Wheel as the only one fitting the bill though some have spoken up of Pacific Crawler. (Almost everyone still finds The Whip still a tad extreme.) This is another victim of a quick build. For 1961 we plan on adding at least two if not more family rides.

Taken onboard Pacific Crawler.

 

We are still sifting through tons of guest comments and surveys as we speak and hope 1961 is even a better year. We hope to see everyone next Spring, but for now enjoy some more pictures.

 

A view looking at the Pacific Crawler area.

 

The park looks great at night from the wheel, if we only had better camera. (Though this new one is much better.)

 

Final look near The Whip, here comes 1961.

[Wowman]

Hey - I love seeing people still playing the good old games, but shouldn't this park be moved to the RCT3 sections?

[Kablary]

The 4:3 aspect ratio and grainy overlay you have on those RCT3 pictures really does lend itself well to the vintage nature of the photos! It's so fun seeing a well-documented park from the game in 2023.

1 hour ago, Wowman said:

Hey - I love seeing people still playing the good old games, but shouldn't this park be moved to the RCT3 sections?

See the following from OP:

On 9/20/2023 at 4:17 PM, ALT2870 said:

As previously mentioned this park started in RCT3 and as such the first handful of post will be from that era. I just want to keep it in the same thread for continuity purposes so pardon the wrong game.

As much as I can't wait to see how it's developed into PlanCo, I really hope we get several more RCT3 updates 

[ALT2870]

Post #3: August 26th, 1998

 

I'm glad the only deadline we have is a finish date, not weekly due dates otherwise I would flunk by now. Following a less then stellar opening season, American Adventure know what they needed to do to get back up. As a side note, I was contacted by Marriott concerning the pictures. I have to re-apply the watermark to the pictures that disappeared. Long story short it was hard work looking it back up, re-creating, and then applying. Also, expect a surprise for the 1961 season.

 

Good day folks, Mr. T here and back for 1961. This Winter just cruised by as we were busy wherever we could work. Impressively we were able to install four rides this Winter three being family friendly. The hope is that this attracts more people this season and already in the first week of opening an average of one thousand people has been reached, three hundred more then last year. First we start off in the parking lot that was built to handle more crowds. This is the new lot while the original lot was expanded.

 

Here it is in fresh paved glory. You can also see much more foliage has been added, more on that here soon.

 

The expansion is noticeable right as you come in, a new ride!

 

It's a paratrooper ride aptly name Paratrooper. This version is one of the bigger ones on the market.

 

People have fallen head over heals for this ride.

 

It is also one of the first of its kind to raise up and down, dramatically reducing loading times. Paratrooper is a great family ride that is not too intense even for its motion.

 

View in motion from the American Wheel.

 

Up behind the Rotor and next to Hurricane is the other part of our ride expansion. Here you can find three new rides. The first ride or more on the attraction side is Hill Slide. Following John Allen's lead, we have incorporated the slide into the hill rather then using a support structure. Rather then put the slide in a lonely place, we decided to place the rest of the expansion here.

 

Here is the view from the top of the slide, not too bad.

 

Coming up the hill is Scrambler. Somewhat intense, you are still going to have a fun time. You cannot miss that paint through the trees.

 

What a great setting for a ride.

 

And finally at the top of the hill is our Merry-Go-Round. Again, nothing fancy, but a great ride for our younger guest.

 

It still looks like we need to target families as the line has been next to nothing for this ride.

 

American Adventure took on another project this Spring, general ground improvements. Many more trees and flowers have been planted in the off season. You saw the park entrance, but where else? Lets take a look.

 

Here's the view of Creekside Grille. The area went from bare to packed with flora.

 

The area in front of American Wheel has been spruced up, much better then the concrete that used to be there.

 

Wrapping things up, lets take a look at Hurricane, the parks main attraction.

 

Coming off the lift hill you have a great view of the park. This was actually taken when the coaster was down briefly during the day and I couldn't pass an opportunity.

 

Finally an on-ride picture. This one was taken from the second hill.

[wolfpaw]

Your Hurricane coaster reminds me of an old wooden coaster we used to have here in Florida that actually had the same name I believe... I had never gone on it but it was in a park called Boomers in Boca Raton, it was torn down before I was old enough to ride it but I remember seeing it a few times. You're nailing that old look with all these RCT3 photos, it's going to be night and day once we hit the PlanCo era!

[ALT2870]

I think custom supporting that thing took a month? It was a long time but worth it.

Spoiler

Thought about doing it in PC but that was before CS and even now I don't think I could muster through it.

 

[ALT2870]

Back from an unexpected trip, things are about to get spicy...

Post #4: September 13th, 1998

 

Two weeks already? Wow time is going by. (Why I'm posting this in the middle of the night is anyone's guess.) I mentioned at the start of this season there would be a surprise and that is a report from a guest! I have been and still am trying to get a hold of people that took trips back to the park over 30 years ago. This one was my first one. (Who even let me scan his photos.) So enjoy this post, interview style.

 

Connor: I'm here with Mike Johnson who visited the park the year after it opened back in 1961. So I see you have some photos of the park actually which is great. How about this one?

 

M. Johnson: Well this was actually taken outside the park coming in. We decided to take the bus rather then drive after hearing about the parking problems. Not a big deal for us, but for other it was. The place this was taken is on the bridge crossing the creek. I believe you have a picture of it in your very first post.

Connor: Indeed I do, and it is a very tall bridge. How about you walk us through the rest of the day.

M. Johnson: Sure. You may have saw a pretty empty bus because we arrived mid to late afternoon hoping to avoid the crowds. In this one you can see the entrance area with the Ferris Wheel behind it. It's a pretty impressive site, or at least it was.

 

M. Johnson: Though it does dominate, the first ride we encounter was the Paratrooper ride.

Connor: Now you said we, who else were you with?

M. Johnson: Believe it or not I was a kid at one time and I was 13 on this trip. I was with my mom and pop and my little sister who was 10. Of course me and my dad were the thrill seekers. However we were all able to come to agreement that we all rode.

 

Connor: At the time that used to be a state of the art ride because it automatically came down after the ride was done. Many others at that time would stay in the up position. So you saved a lot of time here.

M. Johnson: I don't think any of us really cared at the time because all we wanted to do was ride. But yes, good fact there. Speaking of family rides, what brought us here was that new expansion. Being the people we were, we didn't bother getting a map and decided to take the Ferris Wheel to find it.

 

Connor: Sure enough you can see it right there next to Hurricane.

M. Johnson: Exactly, and the views were amazing. But being 13 I didn't really care. It actually took another spin for us to find the entrance.

Connor: It was small back then, that is for sure.

M. Johnson: You bet. Well luckily we were able to keep focused and actually got there. The first thing you see or at least the line for is the Hill Slide. I wanted the camera to take a picture at the top but mom said no. So all I got was this at the bottom.

 

M. Johnson: You can see that it is densely covered which helps during the heat.

Connor: We all know how hot and humid it can get out here.

M. Johnson: Actually I forgot, it did rain a bit when we arrived. It is in that picture of the Paratrooper, some dark skies for sure.

Connor: Did you do the Scrambler?

M. Johnson: Actually no, not even my dad or me for that matter wanted to get sick. We also took a pass on the Rotor at the bottom as well. We did decide to hike it out to the top again for my sister so she could to the merry-go-round. I actually was able to get the camera on this one.

 

Connor: It was funny to see Marriott would go on to install a double decker version of these.

M. Johnson: Especially when this one was so small! Our next adventure was this ride called the Whip. Intense as the name may sound, it really isn't bad at all. My mom was able to coax my sister into it as well.

 

M. Johnson: We could not convince her on the Pacific Crawler though. Mom and dad took turns waiting with her while we rode.

 

M. Johnson: The themeing was nice with the palm trees and fountains. It is a great ride for those looking to step up in the thrill world.

Connor: Well at least you didn't get sick.

M. Johnson: Thank goodness we didn't because there were bigger thing to come.

Connor: Things that are blue?

M. Johnson: You bet, that mean roller coaster in the back, the Hurricane.

 

Connor: I must say that is a great shot even if it is black and white. The park did one similar but I think you have them beat.

M. Johnson: Thank you very much. You can already guess who sit this one out I'm sure. I was able to get one more picture before riding while waiting in the station.

 

M. Johnson: Although new, it still had shake to it and I'm pretty sure I would have lost it. The ride being as short as it is packs a heck of a punch. My favorite part is when you feel like you are going to fly out of your seat. I think you kids today are calling it air time? Either way, what a great ride. The guy that designed it, John Allen, went on to much success I believe.

Connor: Yes he did. This ride might not be his greatest, but it felt right for the park and still delivered. So you had to be hungry be then?

M. Johnson: Well we ate right before coming as to avoid eating at the park. Here you can see the Creekside Grille. There were rumors already floating around that the building might be replaced as this one was built in a rush.

 

M. Johnson: We were allowed to buy some ice cream though from a vendor outside the exit of Loop-O-Plane. (Another vomit inducing ride.)

Connor: Sounded like you were having a good time.

M. Johnson: Absolutely, and sadly it was starting to get dark out. We decided to ride some of the other rides again that were deemed favorites. The one we almost missed out on though was Road Ralleye. It was way at the backside of the park and we only noticed it on our third ride on Hurricane.

 

M. Johnson: This is a fun ride because the kids can drive thanks to the guides. I choose to be a passenger though so I could take pictures but I could only get one that looked any good.

 

Connor: Wow, it really is dark, even with headlights.

M. Johnson: Sure was and it was time for us to get going. I took one more as we were leaving. We can see there were still many people there. The park was still open for another hour after we left.

 

Connor: Well thanks so much for this interview. Is there anything about the park you would like to add?

M. Johnson: The park was lacking rides, that was for sure. But it really wasn't to bad for the space they were in. If that expansion they built didn't exist we would have not come back. The themeing was not extreme like Disneyland but still a nice touch. I must say though foliage was to the maximum! It was really amazing and I have to give them credit.

Connor: I'm sure we'll here more from you in later seasons. Thanks you again for the interview and pictures, it will really help.

A: Not a problem, hope to see you again soon.

[wolfpaw]

Love the old photos, that was a really nice touch to your narrative! It's cool to see how you're going through the history of the park, it's like one big DnD session 

[ALT2870]

Flashback to the Winter of 2014/2015, I decided the time had come and I couldn't keep doing the idea of having a blogger doing the story overlay. I ended up ditching that and going to more typical story style posting. The color filters are also going to be less pronounced for a while if not gone. Once I start posting the new updates I will bring them back in.

 

Mr. T back here back for another season at Marriot's American Adventure. I decided to forgo a end of season report because with such a small park, you can only take so many pictures. Attendance had kept pretty steady at an average of 1,000 per day. Now lets move on to 1962!

 

The road coming in provides a great view of the park. But nothing new has appeared on the horizon, why would that be?

 

 

On cannot simply visit without a trip on the Wheel? The views are great and you can even see the Missouri River from here. Back behind Hurricane you can see a nice clearing, but no new rides...

 

 

Well, it turns out there will be no new rides for the 1962 season. Of course I quickly headed to headquarters for the park, which are nearly an hour away in downtown. Long story short they said that it isn't necessary that new rides are added every season before quickly ushering me out. It's hard to believe what happened, after all I am the line to the public.

 

Remember how I said the grille was supposed to be re-modeled? Well you can see that didn't happen. What did happen was the balcony was removed, which is a shame. At least the view didn't get boarded up.

 

In fact nothing at all happened besides that. You think they would of scratched up something to keep people coming back. Opening day was great but if something doesn't happen, this park could die young. Looks like I have some digging to do...

[JB]

Haha. They could always change the name to "NothingBurger Park". That would also keep the guests expectations from getting too high.   I sense big changes coming soon!

[ALT2870]

Well Mr. T is here at it again. The 1962 season has been pretty slow as you can imagine. For those who don't know part of my work also takes place at park headquarters, a good 45 minute drive from the park. (Whose genius idea was that?) Anyway, just today I was heading down there but when I got there the whole place was swarming with police officers and the FBI. Crime scene tape is all over the place. I went back home, who knows what is going on...

[Kablary]

15 hours ago, ALT2870 said:

Well Mr. T is here at it again. The 1962 season has been pretty slow as you can imagine. For those who don't know part of my work also takes place at park headquarters, a good 45 minute drive from the park. (Whose genius idea was that?) Anyway, just today I was heading down there but when I got there the whole place was swarming with police officers and the FBI. Crime scene tape is all over the place. I went back home, who knows what is going on...

i. 

smell.

DRAMA!

[ALT2870]

Spoiler

Sorry for the long delay folks, work has been crazy all month but we are finally back into calmness, please enjoy more cringy posting.

 

What has happened?

 

Our house in the suburbs.

 

After heading home I broke my wife the news. We tuned the radio to the local news station and listened for an hour to no avail. Finally I said, "Dear, I'm going to the park to see if everything is alright up there." However she did not want me to go. "Fine, I'll at least call." So I dialed up on the telephone the guest services number. "Hello, it's Mel, how are things going up there?" "Slow as usual." the voice replied. "Nothing unusual going on?" "Not unless you consider Billy burger fedish unusual. Why? Is something going on?" "No, just checking in." I said. "Okay then, see you Friday." "See?" my wife said, "Nothing to worry about." But I knew deep down something troublesome had happened.

The wife is never happy about my job it seems.

 

It all started when asking about new attractions for the coming year. Maybe it was the fact I had to ask. I'm very high on the corporate ladder so you would think they would tell you things of importance, guess not. Well of course their brief response was a sign too. I should clarify for you who they is. Marriott's American Adventure is under the cooperate umbrella of Marriott. We have our own CEO, COO, you name it. In that particular instant I had run into John Waters and William Hampstead, the CEO and vice-president respectively. These guys were cream of the crop and stopped at nothing to get to the top. If anyone reads these papers chronologically you'll remember that the park opened way smaller the planned. This was blamed on a slow construction crew. The next year the park added three new rides to start completing the park.

 

This year as you know however not a single thing was added, no ground improvements, no nothing. I've begun to think something much larger has happened. I have my ideas but only time will tell. So back to today me and the wife decided to go out and stroll among a shopping center close by. My how times have changed, we live in a suburb outside of Omaha, urban extension they call it. After a few hours out we came back home. No sooner then when I hanged up my coat the phone rang. "This is the Teller residence." "Yes this is Susan from headquarters. I need you to report to the grand ballroom at the Marriott downtown." "Okay, what is this about?" "That does not matter, just be there at 6 o' clock sharp, otherwise you will be in big trouble." "Alright then, 6 at the Marriott downtown." Shortly therefore after I got in my car and headed towards downtown.

[Kablary]

Absolutely love how this is playing out like an ABC family drama 

[wolfpaw]

Hahaha, love it! "The wife is never happy about my job"