Worlds of Fun Trip Report - October 14-16, 2016

Earlier this month, I made a trip down to Kansas City to visit Worlds of Fun for the first time. After years of saying I'd be going here and having those plans derailed, I finally made the trip. I though it was definitely the most well-themed and well-landscaped Cedar Fair park I've been to so far (haven't visited Knott's yet). Of course, it wasn't amazing theming but it made most of the park pleasant to look at. They have a fairly good lineup of roller coasters and thrill rides for a park of this size. Friday night crowds were manageable with 15-20 minute waits for most rides, but Saturday crowds might just be the most I've seen in a park that isn't in Florida or California (mostly full queues with a few lines spilling onto the midway). Operations were mostly average; except for Mamba, all the coasters would consistently stack the second train, but they got the job done. Not really a Haunt guy, so I'm not the best person to ask, but they put on a great event for sure. Walked through a few scare zones to get to rides faster and particularly liked all of the fog usage. Scare actors were definitely succeeding at scaring everyone. Overall it's a fun park that I'm glad I got to visit. I don't feel the need to go back until they add another major thrill ride or coaster, but I'd visit if I was in the area again.

My thoughts on the coasters...
-Prowler was by far the best ride in the park. It's full of fantastic laterals, strong pops of air, fairly aggressive forces, and it doesn't let up at all until the brakes. My new favorite GCI and a top five woodie for sure. 8.5/10
-Mamba was a pretty good Morgan hyper. Overall it felt very similar to Wild Thing, but I'd give Mamba the slight edge for a more forceful helix and more sustained airtime in the return run. 8/10
-Patriot is the least intense invert I've ridden but I still had a lot of fun on it. The zero-G roll is excellent and the helix near end pulls some decent forces. 7/10
-Boomerang was actually, dare I say, a fairly smooth ride. Nothing too amazing, but the loop in reverse does have some nice intensity. 6.5/10
-Timber Wolf had a nice first first drop and good pops of air throughout, though a few rough/rattly sections that haven't been retracked yet brought it down a bit. Once GCI finishes with their refurb it should be much better as a whole. Pretty slow operations though, they were taking a good three-and-a-half minutes to dispatch the train. 6/10
-Spinning Dragons: Kinda hard to get excited about it when I have the exact same ride at one of my home parks, but still fun for what it is. 6/10

Other rides I went on...
-Detonator, the parks S&S Space Shot tower, was fun, had a good pop of ejector air at the top.
-Steelhawk, the park's Mondial Windseeker, was nothing too thrilling but it provided some nice views of the area.
-Zulu is the park's Huss Enterprise. Took a ride on it relive some memories from Valleyfair's now-defunct version of the ride.

This was my view for much of the drive to WOF.

Nice view from my hotel room.

Nothing like visiting a new park for the first time.

Patriot and Steelhawk... Cedar Fair certainly likes bird-themed rides.

Worlds of Fun's front entrance. Glad that they're getting a new one for next year, this one is a little undersized for this park.

Heading in...

The entrance plaza.

Nice landscaping.

First ride of the trip.

Semi-forceless but I liked it.

Much better than the Power Towers at VF and CP.

Mamba riding off into the sunset.

Such a great ride.

Prowler's line due to one-train operation (they put the second train on later).

Timber Wolf in the dark.

3.5 minute dispatch times, probably the slowest crew I've seen at a Cedar Fair park.

Boomerang was surprisingly decent.

Wow, they moved my favorite coaster to Worlds o... Oh, wait.

Timber Wolf and Mamba.

Interesting thing I noticed was that Mamba's ride ops have to manually release lap bars with the foot pedals every time. When I worked Wild Thing, the lap bars popped up automatically once the train parked.

Airtime!

Most rides had full or overflowing queues for much of Saturday night. Thank goodness I had Fast Lane.

Heading out...

Thanks for reading!

Nice trip report! Prowler really is one of the better GCIs. Not surprised about the operations being shite. They were some of the worst I've seen on a crowded day, and it didn't help that the employees were lazy and rude. I also didn't really find a rough spot on Timber Wolf. I actually found Prowler to be significantly rougher.

[Turbo]

I want to get out to WOF one day

Posted photos are making this park look so great!