Jaykethekid

I honestly did not feel a difference in the airtime between the first 3 rows on Mamba. The only noticeable difference is that you can feel every little pump and kink in the track much more than you'd like in the 3rd row. Ill personally wait for the front row if given the chance because of that. Also i don't have to worry about getting spat on during the ride if i ride in the front. For some reason i always get spit on right in the face when i ride mamba. It seems KC folk don't know how to shut their slobbery mouths during the ride . But jokes aside i always get spit on when i ride Mamba, its ridiculous. That or the constant mist of sweat from the riders in front of you during the summer really make my germaphobic self a little uneasy

I rode in the back seat of both trains on Mamba and found it far inferior to the rides we took in the front. I’ve always preferred the front car on Mamba. The airtime feels much stronger and more sustained in the front. Also the front car is the only place I felt strong sustained floater on the return trip. It’s really one of the few hypers I prefer the front rows.

Worlds of Fun, 2018 - The Year of Aesthetics So i got the opportunity to come in town for Pass holder Preview Night and opening day. Weather wasn't the best, but it could've been a whole, whole, whole lot worse. I could sum up this opening weekend in one statement. It felt like a whole different park. Aside from the obvious change, Nordic Chaser, there were other huge changes around the park, mainly in infrastructure. One of the most surprising changes was the insane upgrade in quality of food. Every restaurant or food stall was open in the park and featured new menus with very high quality food. It's hard to describe the improvement in food, but it is way above average now. Probably some of the best theme park food I've had in a while. The food offerings at WOF was one of my biggest gripes, but now its just incredible how they've turned it around. I can't explain it, just try it when you're in the park, you wont regret it! I had the chicken tenders meal from the chicken shack. It's not your typical cedar fair chicken tenders meal. The chicken was steaming hot, hand battered with an in-house recipe according to a supervisor we talked with, and it came with a very good biscuit and a ton of sidewinder fries. It was absolutely delicious. It's just a weird experience going from ride to ride and non stop smelling absolutely delicious food. That's not supposed to happen at WOF! Im used to that only happening at like SDC, Dollywood, or BGW. So that's major upgrade #1 The next thing that the park has done for this season is created more subsections in the areas in the park. They may have been there before, but they're much more obvious now. The two biggest changes were in Africa and Americana. Africa has been divided into Africa, the area around zulu, Prowler, and Egypt, the area around Mamba, Fury of the Nile, and Boomerang. Americana was split into two. The section by patriot, steelhawk, and front street is staying Americana, and it looks to be a more generic Cedar Fair style of area with the Front Street upgrades. Then there is the Old West. Pretty self explanatory there. So that's kinda neat. The biggest change for this season is the crazy amount of infrastructure and aesthetic upgrades around the park. The largest being Front Street. Some people are upset that they torn down more trees, but honestly, it doesn't make a difference to me. It looks fantastic. Its fancy, modern, crisp, and clean with a large illuminated granite fountain as a centerpiece. Africa saw some improvements as well. New landscaping and fencing around Fury of the Nile (still has the disgusting water its always had though), Games by boomerang were updated, roof lines around Zulu had thatch added to them. Of course we can't forget about the beautiful floral clock they added too! Orient got a lot of updates as well. There was a lot of new brickwork, landscaping, and awesome fish lanterns reusing the bulbs from the winterfest lanterns over the koi pond. Yes, they've left up a lot of Winterfest decorations, but they totally work and look amazing! They have also added really cool flickering lanterns around the Americana section. It's weird seeing them care about theming for once. But there were so many little details around the park, and we know those make a big difference. You'll just have to see for yourself! Operations were... average. The dispatches weren't bad, usually less than 2 to minutes. Patriot was the only one that had bad operations for most of the day with 5+ minute dispatches. But as soon as the evening crowds hit, at least one operator cared about efficiency. He was running to check the restraints as quick as he could, but his coworker was too busy talking to girls and slowly moving seat to seat throwing his entire body weight into the restraint to ensure maximum stapling. But hey, at least all the coasters were running two trains. But props to the kid who actually cared about his job and props to the Mamba crew for having some hustle. I do see operations improving this season though. At Mamba and prowler, we both saw a supervisor come up to the crew and told them to "speed things up". She came back to those rides later in the day and was chewing the crews out for not going fast enough. The new employees were showing some effort, but the ones that have been here for a while weren't. We walked by a group of supervisors and over heard them saying angrily that they were going to replace the ones who don't care about their jobs with ones who do. Its a start, that's for sure. I haven't seen supervisors this strict in a *very* long time. It makes me hopeful for the future. Rides that were open were running great. Timberwolf was closed and steelhawk was fighting the weather both of the days we were there. But Mamba was running fantastic. The midcourse was practically not even enabled as we just glided through it. The return run was insane, especially in train 1 which was absolutely flying. When mamba is running like it was this weekend, it truly is one of the best hypers i've ridden. The airtime is insane! Patriot was smooth, but running kinda sluggish. Prowler... I used to love this ride. I honestly never thought it was that rough. But that changed this season. It was really rough for a GCI. It vibrated like mad, shuffled like crazy around the turns, and even jack hammered a bit on some airtime hills. They didn't even replace the top two layers anywhere on the ride during the offseason. Hopefully now that Timberwolf is finishing its rehab, prowler will get some love. Falcon's Flight finally got its lights working. Also, the new paint job on ELI looks stellar. One thing i want to mention is some issues with the restraints on Detonator. Ive lost a ton of weight and have a ton of slack in the seatbelt for that ride. But there is so much play in the shoulder harnesses that the sensors wouldn't properly read the restraint position. They had to push down on my restraint very hard to get the sensor on, but after that, i could lift the harness up a good 3" off of me. They really just need to refurbish the mechanical parts of those restraints. But overall, nearly all rides were open at some point during the day which is surprising for an opening day. The new hotness for the park this season is Nordic Chaser. The ride wasn't received the best when it was announced because it was just another used spinny kiddy ride that will probably have a lame ride cycle. I was seriously impressed with what they've done with the ride. It's in my opinion the best themed flat ride in the park. It has a lengthy, but very fast ride cycle. Its well themed for Worlds of Fun standards. The themed audio and very loud viking music it plays when the ride is running is a great touch. I'm glad they realized they had to do more than just plop it down in the park and call it good. Its a very worthy replacement for Finnish Fling if you ask me. I can almost guarantee you that i forgot to mention something major, but oh well. I highly suggest you see these changes for yourself. It's not the drab, run down, poorly operated Worlds of Fun like it used to be. It truly feels like a new park. The management changes that have occurred recently have been nothing but a positive for the park. Here's to a fantastic 2018 season! Steelhawk Testing behind Front Street Fountain Granite and LEDs Good Eats Floral Clock Falcons Flight Lights

I still have not heard or seen anything regarding the rest of the ride being retracked. When the helix was deconstructed, everything between the airtime hill before the helix, and the crest of the airtime hill after the helix was left completely intact. I'm assuming that this new turn is likely all we will be getting this season in regards to Timberwolf. I personally hope Prowler got some retracking this off season as well. Prowler, all though running crazy fast, was not that comfortable last season. It felt the dreaded death rattle it has got stronger with every visit last season. All they really have to do to ease that rattle is just replace the top few layers of the track because the spots they touched up during the season felt just fine.

Outlaw Run in rows 1 or 11. Don't ride the very back row, go one forward from it for best hangtime in the barrel rolls. Wildfire back row right side for the best rip through the corkscrew. Powder Keg front or back, they're different but both great. My general advice for SDC is to go to Powder Keg at rope drop....or Outlaw run...both at the back of the park. PK has the slowest operations/capacity and can get backed up even on slower days. Time Traveler kind of messes up that strategy if ya want to steal a quick ride on that first. PowderKeg - is a good ride on all cars - airtime is more forceful in the back as you get pushed and pulled over the first hill - the front is an amazing view and extremely fun to get push over that first hill. Wildfire - imo - very underrated B&M with a great first drop. Seats are mostly the same. capacity is high and usually is a short wait even with a line as long as 2 trains are going. Outlaw Run - Back car is INTENSE - but the whole train just flies through the course. A short and fast rush of adrenaline of a ride. Thunderation - pick a non-wheel seat - it's not very rough but does help a bit with smoothness. Usually is a walk on but is getting more riders this year with TT next door. TT - Remember this is a family ride....the forces are not designed to be intense....wait till you see how slow it goes through the large loop. Super fun ride full of unique sights and feelings due to the slow spin. Don't pass on the SDC homemade classics Fire in the Hole and Flooded Mine - they don't make rides like them anymore. Find the Mill right behind the downtown area and grab a Cinnamon Bread!!! Thanks! I was planning on trying front and back (2nd to back on Outlaw Run) anyway. I was wondering if the merge points for Trailblazer are before where I can pick seats. I'm not as interested in the Trailblazer if it funnels me to the middle rows like some parks. I plan to hit anything unique at the park- Marvel Cave, Flooded Mine, skillets, etc in addition to the coasters. I will be skipping the Cinnamon Bread though. Not a fan of sugar. Outlaw Run, Time Traveler, and Fire in The Hole's trailblazer line merges into the station, so you can choose where to sit. Even if they are doing assigned seating, they will accommodate your request most of the time. Thunderation and Powder Keg will either get you straight onto the train or merge into the station, it just depends on the standby line or the amount of trailblzers.

Got to visit the park this weekend and I just have to say how wonderful the park is already. I’ll have a trip report with pics and such up soon but there was one thing I wanted to mention that I haven’t seen talked about yet. It appears that Fire In The Hole got a lot of work over the offseason. The biggest changes was in lighting. I don’t know if the lanterns were like it last season, but now it looks like it has a real flame inside. The atmospheric lighting was updated too, lot more vibrant colors. They may have even added more lighting and theming because there were many things I’ve never noticed on the ride. But I wish I could say the same about Flooded Mine. I, in my opinion had the worst ride on it yet. There were a ton of major effects and scenes broken, targets not working, many guns not responsive. The runaway saw blade scene was broke. The most disappointing thing was the loss of the tnt geyser scene. There is no explosion audio anymore, the geyser never worked, and the big water dump only happened on one of my rides. I *really* hope this ride gets some love in the future. It’s really sad the condition it is in.

I’m with you about the theming on the ride. The load station looks insane, second level looks great, but the first floor is just a huge cattle pen with little to no theming. But I’m sure that first floor is more of an extension queue than anything else. I do feel they should’ve done a little more with the stop on the launch or not do it at all. The least they could’ve done was add some themed audio instead of just “ready for launch”. But hey, that’s just nit picky and stuff and most people won’t care about that. I have been reading stuff about the ride across social media and there seems to be something that keeps getting brought up. Lots of people have been saying the restraints are *extremely* restrictive / unfriendly for large riders. I have not experienced them yet, but they sound worse than Outlaw Run’s lap bar. I always thought this style of Mack lap bars was large rider friendly. I’d understand them being about the same as Outlaw Run’s lap bar but if they are as worse as people are making them out to be, that’s one really restrictive lap bar. There are quite a few people who argue the opposite about the lap bar as well, saying that they’re more accommodating than Outlaw Run (I keep bringing Outlaw Run up just because it’s one of the only rides at SDC that isn’t really large rider friendly). Some people also have mentioned that the test seat is a lot more “forgiving” than the actual seats on the ride. But maybe the fact that the lap bars supposedly can’t be pushed down while locked is contributing to the issue. Either way, I’ll be checking it out tomorrow. Hopefully the 40 lbs I’ve lost since I was last at SDC will at least get me close to riding.

The theming may be the most exciting part of the ride! The coaster itself looks like plain and simple fun. But I do wonder how the fit is for larger riders. I’ve seen a few posts saying it was tight. Could it possible be more “unfriendly” to large riders than Outlaw Run? At least just the lap bar?

Sorry to interrupt the hype of Coaster Mania, but i have a question i feel has been asked a few times, but looking back quite a few pages (well a lot of pages), there hasn't been any information on it. Let me just say, I'm a big guy, but I'm using a trip to cedar point in June as motivation to drop the pounds. I've already lost 30 lbs since the middle of January, and i am only 30 lbs away from the 225 lbs guideline that Cedar Point's website lists. My trip is quite some time away, so getting well under that weight is totally doable. Still, i carry a decent bit of my weight in my legs, so that leads me to my question. I've heard the Intamins are very difficult to fit on. More specifically, the seat belts. With my build, no matter how much weight i lose, it sounds like i wont be able to ride Wicked Twister so that's already out of the question. So id like to focus more specifically on Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force. I've heard a whole lot of different things regarding these belts from them being about the same restrictiveness as the belts on RMC trains, to being less restrictive as RMC belts, to being more restrictive. Some people make it out that if you have any weight to you, its impossible to fit in the belts, to just needing some assistance fastening the seat belts. People also say the seat belt lengths vary drastically seat to seat. With all those varying answers, i don't know who to believe So my question is to anyone who has been to CP recently, how do those seat belts truly compare to those id find on say, Outlaw Run? What should i expect? Are they as short as some people make them out to be? I know everyone carries their weight differently, but a general consensus would help me out a lot! Also, are there any rides other than the ones i mentioned that can be tough to fit in?

That indoor waterpark looks like a very interesting addition to the branson area. If the waterslides shown in the concept art are actually built, it looks like it will be a very unique addition for this region. Speaking of another addition to the branson area, America's Fun Park or whatever they're calling themselves have announced their roller coaster for this year on Facebook. Man, Time Traveler is certainly going to have some hard competition for the best new Branson coaster of 2019 .Here is The Groovy Train, an interpark super cyclone it looks like. Odd name thats for sure. I wonder if its new or used? Either way, these 2 car train versions are actually quite fun in the back row on the drops. They also have shown off their sign for the strip. Looks a lot more permanent than this park will be. https://www.facebook.com/americasfunpark/

I’m really interested to see how the theming turns out in the whole queue. From what we’ve seen, it looks quite nice! I love all the little details!

Glad to see construction started! Is this supposed to open with the park or early season? Maybe they will find a way to construct this literally as slow as possible so they could have the usual memorial day opening? Jokes aside, im really interested to see how this ride turns out.

I feel the spinning will be quite tolerable even with a loaded train as the vehicles practically are not spinning at all when unweighted. But i'm sure every ride is going to be different. I'm still interested to see how the launches will effect the spin. On another note, i'm wondering if Time Traveler is going to have its own soundtrack. The announcement and testing teasers have all had the same music score that i feel is not just a royalty free orchestral audio clip you download off the internet for adverts and such. To me, the music sounds very "IMAscore" like. Could the audio used in these video be the ride soundtrack if it has one? Personally, i would love it if Time Traveler had its own soundtrack to play in the queue and ride plaza especially if its a soundtrack from IMAscore. I think the music in the adverts would fit the theme of the ride a whole lot better than the random bluegrass, banjo-pickin' music that the rest of the park plays.

I dont imagine this expansion could lead up to the removal of Flooded Mine. Personally, i would be extremely sad to see the flooded mine removed. Even though it seems more effects break every year(most significantly the runaway saw blade scene that was broke for my last 3 visits), its still a fun and downright hilarious dark ride. Its one of those rides i think of when i hear "Silver Dollar City". Its just downright fun and unique. I guess you could add me to the "refurbish the heck out of it" group. Honestly, even if the refurbishment came with a new storyline or added screens, id just as excited for it as i would a new coaster.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out as they struggle greatly with staffing even during the summer.Though, I believe they're going in the direction of what Winterfest is at the cedar fair parks as in they will only operate select rides and attractions. Though i think they will do great with decorating as the little advertisement on park looked fantastic and ive heard some park officials are taking visits to Silver Dollar City for inspiration. I really hope this does well for the park!

For Sure: Week at Cedar Point Multiple visits to: WOF Frontier City SDC Maybe: Six Flags Over Texas Magic Springs Adventureland Pretty simple summer plans for me. I like it that way.

If you look on their website their concept art for this coaster model shows it themed with a bunch of gears and such. It could accompany Time Traveler with that theme

It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the area around Time Traveler. As long as it helps crowds flow better but isn’t 100% open space. I really hope the Thunderation plaza gets some work as it’s nearly impossible to get to the entrance of the ride from the main path as it seems the small paths to get to the ride are just the *perfect* place to park strollers and motor chairs. But I do hope that the steampunk theme to the ride will expand to the entrance plaza instead of just the queue line. I imagine that the entrance sign for the ride will be decked out in all sorts of animate theming. But time will tell as we can’t just time travel to the opening of this ride

I bet what they will do is use the trim that is currently on the flat turn inside the first 180* turn after the drop (I don’t really know how to describe that location ). It hasn’t been used in a few season, but with the extra speed, I see it likely being used as that turn already had insanely forceful lateral gs.

My take on the length argument, its better to have a short ride that packs in non stop action from start to end than a long ride that just meanders and crawls into the next element. Also, its not like they're taking out half of the ride here. Its literally just the helix.

That was before Cedar Fair came in and screwed it up If I remember right, it used to have buzzbars and no headrests. Just imagine buzzbars and the ejector air it used to have. That’s probably why it was so high ranked, even #1 when it opened. I’m not sure wether the new lap bars, headrests, seatbelts, and the trim brakes were added before of after cedar Fair buying the park or the accident where the girl released her lap bar.

Yeah new trains would’ve been a good idea. Like you said, these PTCs are just gonna tear up the new work within a few years. You can already feel little bumps and jolts albeit small on the first section of retracking. Although maybe GCI has something up their sleeves to prevent major issues. I’m the same here. I absolutely adore Timberwolf as it was my favorite ride in the park before the refurbishment simply due to the insane experience it used to give before the neutering. I still remember the last year it ran before the start of the refurb and they had the trims off the whole season. The airtime was unreal. Helix was deathly rough though. This ride has a special place in my heart as it started my coaster obsession, so I’m glad to see it refurbed. Anyways, back to what you said lol. I do hope they fix the restraint issues it’s been having recently and speed up the horrendous dispatches. Getting it to run more than one train would require a change and improvement and operations parkwide and heck, we know that ain’t happening

I'm super happy to see the helix get destroyed. It was nothing but rough and it really killed the pacing as it barely made it through the end of it. I'm super excited to see this turn as it seems like it will make this intense ride even more so than it was before. Its going to be interesting to see how the rest of the ride will be effected by this.

I would be extremely supportive of an on property resort for SDC. The cabins and campgrounds are cool and all, but the distance from the park and the community bathrooms completely turn me off. I just think the idea of a highly themed on site resort would be a win win situation.

Was Fire in The Hole open during your visit? I was there Saturday and my phone showed it was a brisk 25 degrees yet they managed to open FITH with a 2 train service despite its 32 degree temperature limit. Do they normally open it below operating temperature? Either that or they measure the temperature inside the building. MY experience was much like yours on Saturday. There was literally no one there. We were told that there were 400 people in the park by an employee as we walked in to the the Dickens Christmas Carol. *amazing show by the way* Every attraction (3 rides and 2 shows) was a walk on, even the cave and the train. We had a group of 20 people join us on the cave which was a great way to warm up thanks to the constant 60 degree temps. We ended up doing the cave twice because of the warmth. Rightfully earned myself some cinnamon bread I must add