Love this amusement park, so many rides and things to do. The adventure bay have variety of…read moreswimming pool and slides. Highly recommend

I work at Valleyfair and am a bit of a coaster enthusiast. This summer I decided to try a park I'd…read morenever been to before. I made the three hour drive down to arrive close to opening, spent the day, then made the three hour drive back up to Minneapolis. All in all, it was an enjoyable day! The price for admission and parking was okay. Not great but not bad. They were really pushing their deal to visit two days in a row, but the park isn't really big enough to justify needing a return trip. Though the fact that they have an attached campground is a cool feature. I'd purposefully chosen a Monday to go so that I wouldn't have to fight any large crowds or lines to ride rides. I managed to ride almost everything there during my eight hour visit; the things that I missed don't really warrant a return trip. I might've been able to ride everything except for the fact that lines were artificially long due to only having one train running on all the coasters, lots of broken units (I shit you not, Outlaw had FIVE rows that were blocked off, which is almost half the train... like wtf?? Do they not have maintenance staff?), employee shortages (Flying Viking had the control booth operator leaving the booth while the ride was in motion to do turnstile... which is a pretty major safety violation by iROC standards just to not have to staff one additional employee at the ride area; concerning), and a policy that does not allow single riders to use the fast lane (I was forced to wait and watch dispatch after dispatch go by with multiple empty seats I totally could have just ridden in because the employees were too lazy to group people to fill those empty seats). In terms of rides, they do have a few solid ones that stack up with larger parks, such as Monster, Dragon Slayer, and Storm Chaser. My two personal favorites that made the trip worth it were the Underground (excellent theming and a unique coaster ride all underground, thus the name) and Junior Jockeys (the staff were kind enough to offer me a ride despite it being in the kid's playground area). I also appreciated the Carousel (sadly fiberglass horses, not wood carved) and the A-Train. I was definitely disappointed that Parachutes was closed, but at least I got to ride Tornado. As much as I like thrilling new rides, I also have a deep appreciation for old-school original rides. I also briefly enjoyed the waterpark for about an hour. There seemed to be a requirement to rent a tube, so I was not able to do the majority of the available water slides. This was definitely frustrating to find out there was an additional charge I hadn't counted on. So I simply floated the lazy river (which was quite long and enjoyable) and did the kiddie slides in the center section, then left. I wanted to keep my costs down, so I did not eat much while there; I only purchased a bag of kettle corn for $6. It was yummy and good for munching while I wandered around. I liked that this place had various specials depending on what day it was. Mondays are $5 ice cream cones, and while I was tempted on a hot sunny day, you can easily get a half gallon for that price at the grocery, so I resisted. Their boardwalk imitation with all the stores up the center was cute. Definitely not the same as a real boardwalk, nor does it compare to say Disney's main street, but they tried and honestly I think that's cool. They could've not bothered and used that space some other way. I had fun looking through the shops (though again, didn't purchase anything) and arcade, which had comfortable A/C blowing. I kinda wanted to play one of the games to win a cute fox plushie on display, but the employees said they couldn't give me any of the display pieces and they were otherwise out of the plush I wanted. So that was lame as heck. The bathrooms were decent and were spaced out okay across the park, along with water bottle refill stations (which I extremely appreciated since I had my Hydroflask along with me). The parking lot was actually pretty easy to navigate. I was given a paper park map upon entry, which I appreciated considering a lot of parks are trying to force people to download their dumb apps on their phone instead. I also liked the historical billboards and giant pig. Lotta pros, lotta cons. But I'm glad to have crossed another park off my to-visit list!

Overall, I was disappointed with my experience at K1 Speed due to repeated instances of karts…read moreslowing down or coming to a complete stop during active racing. This created a safety concern, as it was alarming to come quickly around a corner and encounter a stopped kart on the track--not because of an accident or reckless driving, but due to the kart's power being remotely controlled by staff. Our group was not being rowdy or causing issues, so it was unclear why these interventions were necessary during our race. While we did enjoy the customer service and food, the racing portion of the experience left our entire group dissatisfied. Not having full control of the karts made it difficult to enjoy the race and, at times, felt unsafe. Abruptly slowing down or stopping mid-race left drivers feeling vulnerable and at risk of being hit by others who had no warning. Additionally, these interruptions negatively impacted race results. Several drivers who were leading or in the top three were dropped to much lower positions after their kart slowed or stopped unexpectedly. Because of these issues, we are unlikely to return, despite the otherwise positive aspects of our visit.

From the owner: Looking for central Iowa's number one go-kart track? Welcome to K1 Speed! Located in Grimes and…read moreproudly serving the greater Des Moines area, we offer the ultimate indoor go-kart racing experience. Feel the rush of our high-performance electric go-karts on a professionally designed track. Then, keep the adrenaline pumping in our interactive arcade, and recharge at the Paddock Lounge. Enjoy delicious food, and celebrate track victories with a cold beer or glass of wine (available strictly after finishing racing for the day!). Whether you are hosting an unforgettable birthday party, a corporate event, or a fun family outing, we deliver non-stop excitement. Book your racing experience today!

This park better survive! Spent a full Friday here from open to close and rode walk-on rides and…read morecoasters until I lost count. For such a young park, the Disney/Universal-level theming, friendly staff, great food, and unbeatable value are incredible. It deserves WAY more crowds, like WTF!! Just, ridiculously massive potential here. It's really worth the trip.

We had a great time visiting Lost Island!…read more Tickets were cheaper at the hotel we were staying at, so definitely something to look into. It wasn't busy at all (being a newer park) and it felt as though we almost had the place to ourselves. I assume that will change as more people find out about this gem, but we definitely enjoyed it. It was amazing to not have to wait in long lines. In most cases, there was no wait al all and sometimes our party were the only people on the ride. I thought staff was friendly and I appreciated the commitment to theme at the park. My favorite part oddly enough was how CLEAN the park was. I couldn't believe it! No trash, no random sticky messes, etc. The dining facilities we went in were air conditioned, clean, and spacious. Our food was decent. Typical park pricing I'd say. The only drawback for us was that the kid rides were frequently going down so we needed to come back to a handful a couple of times so our toddler could try them. I imagine they need to continue to work out some kinks. I was very pleased with this park and I'd like to return next year. Definitely a must stop!

My daughter and I took the four-hour drive to Waterloo to go to this park and it was worth it!…read more You don't have to pay for parking, which is amazing. And we bought our tickets ahead of time so getting in was a breeze. Even though there were a lot of people there, as it was a Sunday, our longest wait was on the water rollercoaster and it was about 25 minutes. All of the other rides had a 5-10 minute wait a the peak of the day. The food was decently priced for it being an amusement park. They are building a theme park across the road from the water park, which is supposed to open next year, which will be awesome! My daughter had an absolute blast and we are definitely going to go back next year.

This waterpark was a lot of fun to travel to! There were so many things to do depending on age and…read moreactivity level. We traveled to Waterloo from Omaha meeting family from Milwaukee and Des Moines. Everyone thought it was a reasonable amount of travel time. Tickets for the park are moderately priced but we found that it was cheaper to buy them at the hotel we were staying at. You do need to pay for parking as well, which I didn't love, but understand. Overall, a great way to cool off on a hot day while making some fun memories with family!