Adventure Island is a water park located northeast of Tampa, Florida, across the street from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The park features 30 acres of water rides, dining, and other attractions. The park opened on June 7, 1980 and is part of United Parks & Resorts.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the channel. For this video I'm taking you on a guided
00:04walking tour of Adventure Island Waterpark located in Tampa Florida.
01:00Well once again I just wanted to thank you for joining me on today's walking
01:09tour. This is the very first time I've ever been to Adventure Island Waterpark.
01:13I recently purchased a annual pass to Bush Gardens and SeaWorld and this year
01:20is the very first time I've ever been to Adventure Island and Aquatica. Now my
01:24first impressions of this park are kind of so-so. It just seems kind of average. I
01:30mean when you walk into the entrance of Aquatica, which is the park I was at last
01:35week, it really kind of blows you away with the theming and like the the
01:39tropical landscaping and everything. And this this park just seems a little more
01:45generic and doesn't... I know they're trying to establish like some sort of
01:50island theme but it just I don't think it really works particularly well. And
01:55right away this is kind of my first negative experience. You see on the
01:58ground where this blue area is, this is... these are I guess what you would call
02:03like foot puddles. In the water parks built in like I guess the 70s and 80s
02:08they used to have these like channels of water to soak your feet to keep your
02:15your feet you know cool on the pavement because you know let's face it the
02:18pavement here gets really hot in the summertime. And I remember Six Packs
02:23Atlantis used to be my home water park and they had these things running all
02:28the time and you know it was great to you know soak your feet and prevent them
02:32from getting burned on the pavement. Now I don't know if they shut these things
02:36down and drained them for cost-cutting reasons or whether it was because of the
02:41sanitary thing. I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of people their feet
02:44are just nasty and you know they pass around like athlete's foot and all kinds
02:49of fungus and you know yellow toenails and all kinds of nasty stuff. So I get
02:55why these water features aren't really being used anymore but having that as
03:00one of the very first impressions when you walk into a water park of this dead
03:04water feature isn't it's just not a great way to welcome people to your
03:09water park. At the beginning of this video on my right hand side I passed to
03:13the Rapids Racer which is one of the newest slides that they added to this
03:16park. That is a great little inner tube ride. It has two water slides a left and
03:23a right side and they're both really fun rides. One of the one of my favorite
03:28water slides in the entire park. Now another thing that I noticed about this
03:33park is even though the website claims it's 30 acres it feels a lot smaller
03:38than that. You'll notice that I completely walk the entire perimeter of
03:44the park in only about 12 minutes. So by Florida water park standards it feels
03:49pretty small. I do feel like all the Disney water parks and aquatic are just
03:57significantly larger and as somebody who's visited pretty much every water
04:02park in Florida I think this is probably the least impressive one. You know if you
04:08have a travel decision where you have to decide on whether you're going to
04:11Aquatica or Typhoon Lagoon or Volcano Bay or Blizzard Beach I'd probably
04:19recommend going to those parks instead. Adventure Island to me is what I would
04:23call kind of like a supplemental park. It's not worth a drive by itself but if
04:30you're already coming here to Busch Gardens then it's not bad to tack it on
04:34as like an afterthought on the trip. I could definitely see Volcano Bay or
04:40Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach being a primary draw to the Orlando area and you
04:47know Aquatica is a very special water park as well because of some of those
04:51body slides where you actually you know go through aquariums and you know
04:55dolphins are racing you know next to you and you know there are things that
05:00make all of those water parks in Orlando special and Adventure Island just
05:05doesn't have anything that's like unique or compelling in my opinion. Another
05:09thing I'll point out about Adventure Island is it's not a great experience
05:13for single riders. So today I happen to you know come by myself and there's a
05:18lot of rides here that require a minimum of two if not three or more to ride
05:23especially like the spinning rides that are in the giant tubes that you can't
05:29experience a lot of the rides whereas you know when you go to a traditional
05:32theme park single riders can pretty much get on everything but I guess that's the
05:38nature of the water parks but Aquatica and Adventure Island do seem to have
05:42more rides that require two or three than the other water parks like Volcano
05:48Bay and the Disney Park so I will say that and that's probably a knock. You're
05:54not gonna have probably a great experience if you come here as a single
05:57rider. Now coming up on my left hand side is Colossal Curl now that looks like a
06:01pretty epic spinning family rapids ride but I wouldn't know since I was a single
06:07rider and they don't allow single riders. When I started doing the narration for
06:12this video I didn't think it would be so negative but I do seem to be dwelling on
06:15a lot of negatives but on the website they don't mention how many riders are
06:20required for each water slide and you know when I was looking at the park in
06:25advance I was like wow I can get on about 25-30 of these rides this seems
06:30like a lot of water slides and then the reality is when you get here as a single
06:33rider you can only get on maybe 10 I think. Once you make the rounds on like
06:38Calypso Coaster, Aruba Tuba and Rapids Racer you're almost done for the day
06:42when it comes to single riders. So right now I'm walking around that Solar Vortex
06:47family slide that looks like a hell of a lot of fun but again I wouldn't know
06:53because I was a single rider and they don't allow single riders. Now one of the
06:57things I should point out now too is there's a lag between when I film these
07:01videos and when I actually post them on YouTube. As I have passed Solar Vortex
07:06you're gonna notice that there are now signs saying coming soon Castaway Falls
07:10well that area has opened since I filmed this and now there's a big splash pad
07:17water playground for kids at the park so they do keep adding attractions here
07:23at the park. I guess Adventure Island is getting better with time I just think
07:29they've got a long way to go before they'll be one of the best water parks
07:32in Florida. So on my right hand side right now I'm walking beside the Riptide
07:36which is their mat slide it's it's a lot of fun you know there's almost like
07:43competitive nature to it you actually kind of race the other lanes going down
07:46on Riptide. I do think the sister park which is Aquatica has the superior
07:51version of this ride though. At Aquatica they actually have stopwatches for each
07:56lane so it will actually time you going down the hill and let you know what you
08:03know how fast you are able to get down. Now on my left hand side is the Caribbean
08:07corkscrew. I'm kind of indifferent on that water slide it's okay but I'm not a
08:12real big fan of the of the enclosed rides they're completely dark. I much
08:17prefer the water slides that have like either like lights and like a
08:21presentation or theme or are just open flumes where you can actually see where
08:26you're going but the enclosed water slides that are just a completely dark I
08:31never was a fan of those. So coming up on my left hand side is both Aruba Tuba as
08:37well as Calypso Coaster. Now one of the things that I noticed about that one is
08:41there seem to be a lot more tubes for single riders so if you're a single
08:47rider you'll probably get to the front of the line faster than the people
08:50waiting on the the double tubes. I found that both of those water slides were
08:57pretty much walk-ons for single riders and it was a real busy day that I was
09:00here and the people waiting for the double tubes for both of those rides
09:04were you know waiting around forever probably about a 30 to 45 minute wait
09:09but the single riders you know we we got our tubes almost instantly however
09:14obviously you still have to walk up the slide tower and there's still a bit of a
09:17line for that but at the end of the day this was one of the few places where
09:21being a single rider actually pays off at Adventure Island so I figured I at
09:24least mention it. Once again I apologize if I'm being very negative it's never my
09:28intention to set out to be like this but I figured I should talk about some of
09:34the staffing issues that I experienced here at Adventure Island too. It took me
09:38about an hour between the time where I placed my food order and actually
09:42receiving the food. I don't know why the food lines move so slowly but I think
09:46it's a staffing issue and not only that but the Rambling Bayou Lazy River is
09:52probably one of the worst Lazy River experiences that I've ever had in my
09:56life. That particular Lazy River was so overwhelmed with people. The water was
10:01just nasty there was like dirt and mulch like floating on the top of the water it
10:07was just greasy and nasty and just it just wasn't a pleasant experience. Like I
10:11said this is the first time I've ever been to this park and across the board
10:14you know I didn't have the highest of expectations but unfortunately this
10:19particular park came in lower than my expectations and again I apologize if
10:24this is a very negative video it wasn't my intent when I started making it. One
10:28of the positive things that I will say about Adventure Island is that this park
10:32is very very level. There aren't really a lot of hills and valleys and you know
10:37I do remember walking up quite a few inclines at Aquatica so if you aren't a
10:43great walker then Aquatica is gonna be a challenge for anybody with any type of
10:48mobility issues or having trouble and the other thing is Aquatica does seem to
10:52be a much larger park so it can be quite a heck of a walk to get to some of the
10:58attractions all the way towards the back of the park. Another positive thing that
11:01I'll mention too is Bush Gardens and SeaWorld do treat their pass holders
11:07very very well. They're always giving you perks and bonuses and little gifts when
11:13you come in through the the gates you know whether it's like collectible pins
11:17or you know a discount on food. Almost every month they offer you know ten
11:24dollars worth of bush bucks to Bush Gardens or ten dollars and island
11:28dollars to Adventure Island or ten dollars and beach bucks towards Aquatica
11:33so you're always getting perks and spiffs as a pass holder. I've been a
11:39Universal and Disney pass holder in the past as well but Bush and SeaWorld
11:46definitely treat their pass holders the best out of any of the major Florida
11:50theme parks bar none. So as you can see on my right hand side is a Surfside
11:54Cafe that is the major restaurant in the park and I would recommend probably
12:00going to that one to eat because I went to like one of the smaller food stands
12:05and like I said it took me almost an hour to get my food. I think the Surfside
12:09Cafe can probably take a lot more customers and probably faster turnaround
12:15time and you know if you get your food at Surfside you probably won't have to
12:19wait an hour like I did. Now if you're planning to come to Adventure Island on
12:23a weekend you might consider investing in a Quick Queue. They start around $50
12:28and work their way up to the the $70 mark for the Unlimited version. It will
12:33save you quite a bit of time because they do put you basically right at the
12:37front of the line when you have one of those things. This is probably a good
12:40opportunity to talk about the Cabanas too. Cabanas are pretty expensive here
12:45like just a basic lounge chair Cabanas are like a hundred bucks and then if you
12:50get one of the big ones with a gazebo you're looking for anywhere from $2.79
12:56for the day to $500 for the premium one so I think their Cabanas are overpriced
13:01compared to some of the other theme parks out there but you know again if
13:04you've got your family with you you know you may think it's worth it. I just think
13:09they're overpriced personally. Well that pretty much wraps up my walking tour of
13:12Adventure Island Waterpark. I hope this video assisted you in your travel
13:17planning and it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect if
13:21you plan to visit the park. Thanks for watching another episode of Mike Invades
13:24the World. If you enjoyed this video don't forget to click on that follow
13:27button above. See everyone next week on Dailymotion.