Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Stalls upside downhangtime atop almost every element

Adventureland Iowa, Altoona, Iowa

Monster

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“It is as smooth as can be.”

lift hill133ft128ftdrop101°beyond vertical5xupside down
POV
Ride it: back row POV
Back row
What riders love
  • feels like you're being held upside down for 5 seconds each inversion
  • I don't generally like trims (especially on gigas and hypers) but this coaster is a master class on how to use them for max hangtime
  • This is the first coaster that gave me serious hang time.
  • Because of the lap bars, this drop gives serious ejector.
  • It's first drop hits perfectly every single time.
  • The beyond-vertical first drop is great, and the inversions are fun, especially the slower ones near the end that give good hangtime.
  • An extremely fun ride that starts with an incredible first drop at 101 degrees the multitude of inversions and whippy elements that follow including the unique Finnish loop, an intense Immelmann, and a hangtime filled dive loop stall thing make it a must ride for me.
  • I couldn’t stop laughing as I was flailing around in every direction and even bashed heads with the rider next to me several times.
  • Not very fast but it makes up for that with the loops!
Monster Watch Performance Should I ride it? Specifications Reviews Planning History

Watch POVs and more

2024 The Monster Roller Coaster On Ride Front Seat 4K POV Adventureland Park

youtube.com › Theme Park POV

Monster - Adventureland (Iowa) - Back Row (4K HD POV) - August 2025

youtube.com › ThemeParkMark

Monster POV 5K BEST Gerstlauer In USA? Adventureland Altoona, IA

youtube.com › East Coasters

The Monster off-ride HD @60fps Adventureland Iowa

youtube.com › CoasterForce

The Monster at Adventureland NEW Roller Coaster Review!

youtube.com › In The Loop

Monster Review | Adventureland Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster

youtube.com › Coaster Bros

The wait is over: Adventureland's 'Monster' officially opens

youtube.com › KCCI

The Monster Rides (Adventureland Park)

youtube.com › ChimeTart

Riding The Monster at Adventureland

youtube.com › Seniomsed Jimmy

Monster at Adventureland Beyond Vertical Drop

youtube.com › Andrew

Performance

Vs. other coasters at Adventureland Iowa

An ejector-filled first drop is followed with one of the best inversion collections in the world.

Benjamin Andrews

Because of the lap bars, this drop gives serious ejector.

CoasterKing

You start off with crazy ejector airtime on that first drop.

Canobie Coaster

The only gripe is you expect pops of airtime over the little hills on the Monster but you get nothing.

Glass Cannonn

The airtime hills deliver very little airtime, though, which disappointed me.

Coaster Nut

First of all, it’s glass smooth and has lap bars, which already puts it over like 2/3 of the Gerstlauers in the country.

CoasterKing

Monster rides well, is intense yet smooth, and is the kind of rollercoaster you might expect to find in a much larger theme park: Adventureland is definitely punching above its weight with Monster.

Theme Park James

Not a lot of big intense coasters but fun and comfortable ones which is always nice.

Glass Cannonn

It is as smooth as can be.

Jared Savka

Ride is very jerky as you’re going through it that you’ll feel like you’re being tossed around.

Zach Kudrna

What I got was crushing laterals that sent me in every which direction as I was folded like a pancake off the train on nearly every element.

Carter Eckhart

I wouldn’t expect a park like the modest Adventureland to have such a wicked thrill machine on their hands, yet it surpassed my expectations…..and then some!

Coaster Critic

Still, it’s an intense ride packed into a small footprint.

Coaster Nut

Having rode it, and then watching this video, it seems like the car goes faster than what the video shows.

Not very fast but it makes up for that with the loops!

Monsoon

There are some dead spots like the airtime hill that doesn’t give any air time but the drop has good ejector air time.

@CLresortrobloxia

After the first ride, we saw that there was nobody else in line and went back around a few more times.

Luxx

The only negative is low capacity but the operators were doing well when I was there.

David

Wait times are unbearably long that you’ll only want to ride it once per day.

Zach Kudrna
Height fear

The vertical lift hill is pretty scary.

Jared Savka

That lift hill is terrifying though, which enhances the ride.

@CoasterBoy325

Should I ride it?

Organize by

Specifications

133 ftHeight
133 Monster 112 DragonSlayer 93 Tornado 67 Outlaw 51 Phoenix
128 ftFirst drop
128 Monster 76 Tornado
65 mphTop speed
Monster65 Tornado58 Outlaw48 Phoenix37 Dragon Slayer34 065 mph
101°Drop angle
5Inversions

What riders say

Praised for

Rider favouriteHangtimeGreat inversionsHuge first dropComfy restraints

Criticised for

Long waits

I wouldn’t expect a park like the modest Adventureland to have such a wicked thrill machine on their hands, yet it surpassed my expectations…..and then some!

Coaster Critic, published review

Lap restraint system is terrible at best - not intended for rides with inversions.

Zach Kudrna, Captain Coaster review

This ride is epic and quite frankly carries the entire park, by far the best coaster and overall ride in the park.

coaster land, Captain Coaster review

Inversion #3 is another dive loop - though I found it to be more of a ‘cutback’ - and an airtime hump leading into a gloriously twisted Immelman.

Coaster Critic, published review

What I got was crushing laterals that sent me in every which direction as I was folded like a pancake off the train on nearly every element.

Carter Eckhart, Captain Coaster review

Yo I love Adventureland and the monster might be my favorite ride

Lemoneight, review

Photos

Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Monster at Adventureland Iowa
Wacky Windjammer, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Monster as seen from its line area. The roller coaster is a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa
TheCatalyst31, CC BY-SA 4.0

10 photographs. Swipe or drag sideways.

Planning your ride

History

June 4, 2016Opened

Built by Gerstlauer.

$9 millionTo build

Sources

Restraint types: Captain Coaster. History, incidents and awards: Wikipedia. Specifications and status: Coasterpedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Also read: Captain Coaster (converted to feet and mph). Rider sentiment and performance scores: rider reviews on Captain Coaster, youtube.com, themeparkjames.co.uk, coastercritic.com, read and scored by AirtimeFever.

Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Wacky Windjammer (CC BY-SA 4.0), TheCatalyst31 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Video thumbnails remain the property of their channels and link back to them.

Live wait times: Powered by Queue-Times.com.

Quote at the top of the page: Jared Savka, Captain Coaster review.

What riders love, by theme (themes in the order riders pick them most on Captain Coaster): CoasterKing, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Almost every inversion or element stalls out at the…”; Jamie Óchi, rider review on Captain Coaster: “feels like you're being held upside down for 5…”; Alexander Sims, rider review on Captain Coaster: “I don't generally like trims (especially on gigas and…”; Cooper Weeks, rider review on Captain Coaster: “This is the first coaster that gave me serious…”; Jared Savka, rider review on Captain Coaster: “The vertical lift hill is pretty scary. Once you…”; CoasterKing, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Because of the lap bars, this drop gives serious…”; Luxx, rider review on Captain Coaster: “It's first drop hits perfectly every single time.”; Coaster Nut, rider review on Captain Coaster: “The beyond-vertical first drop is great, and the inversions…”; Benjamin Andrews, rider review on Captain Coaster: “An ejector-filled first drop is followed with one of…”; James J., rider review on Captain Coaster: “An extremely fun ride that starts with an incredible…”; Carter Eckhart, rider review on Captain Coaster: “I couldn’t stop laughing as I was flailing around…”; Monsoon, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Not very fast but it makes up for that…”.

The photo slider at the top and the fading stills: ThemeParkMark's back row POV, Monster - Adventureland (Iowa) - Back Row (4K HD POV) - August 2025 (YouTube), and the page's Wikimedia Commons photographs.