[RCT3] Marriott's American Adventure - 1963 Recap

Look who's back. As previously mentioned I'm taking a quick break from the Elitch Gardens project. During this break I found a blog about a park that was in Omaha. I figured that I may share this parks history with you. Enjoy!

Note you may want to skip right to the report but I posted the background as well.

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.

Here is the ribbon cutting.

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.)

Very pretty park. I definitely got a dose of nostalgia from these pictures.

Great park so far! However, I would recommend putting captions at the bottom of the screenshots, not the top. For some reason it made it a little more challenging to read. Maybe it's just a habit of mine to read captions at the bottom.

At JonnyRCT3: Thanks, I spent quite a bit of time researching and experimenting what a colored picture would look like back then. I'm not 100% satisfied, but it is pretty close. Next time it might be different though. The one thing you may have not noticed but a personal touch is I've added scan lines to the pic since this blog is before digital cameras.

At thrillseeker4552: That's funny, I like to put my captions at the top because it makes it easier to read (in my opinion), especially when the pic is big and you have to scroll up to read the caption. It's all down to personal preference I guess.

At thrillseeker4552: That's funny, I like to put my captions at the top because it makes it easier to read (in my opinion), especially when the pic is big and you have to scroll up to read the caption. It's all down to personal preference I guess.

I guess so. I've probably just grown so accustomed to it because 99% of the trip reports/updates on TPR have the caption at the bottom. Like you said, it's personal preference.

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.

Signs that hang to lamp post also were added.

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 Ralley.

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.

Wow, it appears I made some errors when transferring some of blog over, now fixed. Enjoy!

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.

Not one to usually comment, but two updates and no comments, just want to check in and see if there is interest here or should I go back to Elitch Gardens for a bit?

Love the park and concept, I would like to make the suggestion at I think there should be another coaster for kids and maybe more attractions. It's a beautiful park, keep going with it!

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.

C: 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: 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.

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

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

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

M: 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.

C: 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: 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.

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

M: 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.

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

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

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

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

C: Did you do the Scrambler?

M: 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.

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

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

M: 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.

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

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

C: Things that are blue?

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

C: 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: 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: 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.

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

C: Sounded like you were having a good time.

M: 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: 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.

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

M: 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.

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

M: 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 max! It was really amazing and I have to give them credit.

C: 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.

It has been a few month hasn't it? I got of the RCT3 kick then and really hadn't got back into it until a couple weeks ago. The one thing that started bothering me (or a couple of things) was the way I set it up. This park had three timelines going, one being our in the current year from which I posted, the year in which the blogger was posting, and of course the year in which the park is in. With the blogger I have felt it is restricting me to what I can do. It was a nifty idea but I now plan to scratch that.

This thread will continue in the style of post parks around here with some flare of course. Part of that is I want you guys involved as if it was back then, not as it is now. If you can't that's alright but it makes things interesting. There are some other things I have in mind so we'll see as we go.

The other thing was pictures, I felt all the filters were affecting it as well. With the blogger out of the way though this pretty much solves itself. I do plan to keep the color fades in though unless you guys would rather see it in the raw. I will be posting an update tonight so stay tuned!

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...

Due to the pic's when updating rule, I couldn't give you this post and teaser, the rest is new.

First off let me say that I never intended updates to be so few and far between. Seems life just gets in the way. Anyway, update is coming soon but for now enjoy this teaser:

 

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...

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.

Although I had some idea of what had happened the truth was I had so many ideas it was all just a blur. As downtown approached my throat ran dry and my hands started to shake, kinda of like the feeling before hoping on a roller coaster. I guess I shouldn't have been too worried, after all the park was open. Maybe is was just a tiny issue. Then again why would the FBI be involved? All this raced through my head as I arrived. After I found a parking spot, I realized it was something very big. Parking was next to none around the hotel. As I went through the lobby and into the ballroom, perhaps my worst fear came true.

The ballroom was packed full, granted a few people had the day off, but this looked like everybody. At the entry Susan was crossing off names as people entered. "What's going on?" I said. "I guess someone stole some money or something. The FBI ram-sacked the place this afternoon, it was awful. Now they are looking to who did it." she responded. Just then two FBI agents approached us so we quickly separated. About 15 minutes later a man entered on a makeshift stage above the floor. He introduced himself as Robert Hackshire, the office director in Chicago.

"Folks, I'm sure some of you are wondering what this is all about. At 8AM this morning, the FBI paid a surprise visit to your companies headquarters. This was a year long event as it falls back much deeper. It would appear that Mr. Waters and Mr. Hampstead have been taking money from the park. We first learned about the possibility of this last year. Unfortunately there was not much evidence to make any arrest. Yesterday afternoon a new development came through as to where this arrest became possible. Mr. Hampstead was arrested this morning at headquarters. However, Mr. Waters has escaped."

"Mr. Waters has believed to flown out of the state into Chicago, and then down south. By the time we figured this out it was to late. In the process he was able to transfer nearly twenty million dollars to an out of country bank account. Sadly that bank refuses to transfer the money back here to the states. Although we know Mr. Waters final destination country, it is almost down right impossible to track him there. Rest assured we will try everything possible to find him."

"Mr. Hampstead has thus far refused to give any details on what their plans were. All we know right now is that he was booked to leave this afternoon. Financial secretary Ms. Withers has also refused to state any details. Because of this we are not sure who else could be involved. Due to that notion, all employees at all levels will be monitored very closely. If you leave the state, the FBI will put a warrant out for your arrest. We hope to go through all employees by the end of the month. The park will remained close indefinitely until the investigation there is closed. We thank you all for your time. If you have any questions or tips, please see me before you leave." With that the room started clearing out. I personally asked Mr. Hackshire how someone in my position might fall under the scale of guiltiness. "Lets just say I wouldn't leave the city even. Though everyone will go under a through investigation, employees such as yourself are under a strict watch." With that, he left. By myself I wondered what this could mean for the future of the park. Below is a picture the Ferris Wheel operator took after the park cleared out:

Another long pause eh? Well almost a year later we are back in action.

Need a recap?

1960: Park opens abet smaller then originally planned.

1961: Park adds worlds first pivotal paratrooper ride.

1962: Mid-season it is discovered that the CEO and COO are embezzling money, park is shut down, no new rides.

1963: ......

Well everybody, welcome back to the 1963 season of Marriott's American Adventure from Mr. T. From last Autumn to this Springs has been a whirlwind. Mr. Marriott fired just about everybody in the management team even though everybody not charged in the initial raid was not found guilty. I was one of the last ones he talked to and after several hours I saved my job. My job has changed a little bit, I now am an advisor to Mr. Marriott to the park. Basically him and his team run it now. But enough of this, lets get on to what's going on.

The view coming in hasn't changed much.

Here is the former bus drop off. The bus service was removed as it was found to be a money pit, even more so with limited riders. Currently it can be used to drop off people.

This view is subject to changed in the next few years, hopefully for the better.

Here is a view you don't see to often. It really shows how much foliage is in the park. But like before, some things are going to be changing here soon enough.

So what changed this year you ask? Well a few things. This is our new maintenance bay. This was a huge trouble spot behind the scenes. Prior to the building of this bay, the only other spot was the Hurricane maintenance bay which was already to capacity and too small. Not only does this bay service Road Ralleye, but can handle other ride repairs as well. As the park expands though, plans are to build an even bigger service area.

Well not a new ride per say Road Ralleye got a major face lift.

This was deemed to be the best path forward for this year. Arrow Development came in and re-profiled the whole track making it much longer. In addition more cars were added for an increased capacity. This year also starts a new trend in foliage. Rather then spend ludicrous cost in mature trees, saplings are now planted. It will take a few years but is cost effective.

A look at the Hurricane infield. Hurricane is one of the few wooden coasters built in the last decade. Roller coasters and amusement parks in general have been suffering lately which may explain the low attendance rates here.

This year Hurricane got a new train, a five car three bench Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters train. The objective is to reduce operating cost with one train while keeping a modest capacity.

Skip forward towards the end of the season the grass is starting to grow around Road Ralleye.

But the bigger news is what is behind that fence?

Yes folks, we have started on our brand new attraction for 1964. What is it? I guess you will have to find out next year. As you can see, we have already moved land behind Paratrooper. Construction is expected to continue into the new year with the opening of the ride on opening day of the park. Below we have already cleared a path from the parking lot.

Thank you guys for checking in. I'm sure everyone will be excited with what is coming in 1964. This is a huge investment and could make or break the park. We hope to see you there!