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.
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