Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread

[Jaykethekid]

I visited yesterday and man was that an interesting visit. Instead of writing a huge block of text, I'll just put some bullet points of how the day went and some stuff that happened.

 

- Prowler is still closed, but after riding the train and talking with a ride operator, it's closed for some very extensive track work. In the first half of the ride and the drop, the top few layer have been replaced in many high Force sections. In the last half of the ride, by the looks of it, that last few airtime hills have been completely replaced. Looking forward to riding once it reopens and hopefully it won't have that awful death rattle that it's had the last few seasons.

 

- Zulu was closed and rightfully so. It's been completely disassembled. All that's left standing is part of the arm that raises the ride. Could this mean it may be leaving?

 

- Lots of new planters and greenery around the park. Really helps cover up some of the bare spots that the new additions have left around the park.

 

-Mamba was running fantastic. It just blew right through the mid course. No exaggeration, the last few bunny hops produced some pretty nice ejector airtime. Really surprised me! Though, it was a one train operation with 5+ minute dispatches. This made the station fill up and the line stretch way out the station. Also, why does every coaster wait for all riders to leave the station before letting the next group on? That adds some seriously unnecessary time on to their dispatches.

 

-Timberwolf. Actually running pretty good! The trim was very light and made the ride way more exciting than it has been. Still having issues with the restraints, but they seem to be learning how to handle those better. I also have to give it to the Timberwolf crew for having the best operations that day. In the evening they were dispatching at about 1:30. Still one train. Also, heard from many people that Timberwolf is closing in august to finish the last part of the retracking.

 

-Patriot was pretty usual. Kinda getting a vibration. I don't know if anyone noticed the new restraints yet, but they're nice and shiny!

 

-Spinning Dragons - god awful operations. They would wait for the first car to get back to the station and re align before sending the next car. Overheard some ride ops leaving the ride complaining that they got in trouble for going to slow and how "no one can tell me to go faster". This is the mindset that kills the operations here,

 

-Falcons Flight was quite fun. I rode it a couple times while I was there. It only broke down once. The ride has no working lights though. Overall, the ride looks very nice and is quite fun and relaxing. Just wish it didn't take 10+ minutes to load it.

 

-Water Rides: Viking Voyager was really nice. Clean, clear, chlorinated water and got a lot more wet than I normally do. Fury of the Nile was disgusting. Green water and smelled like death. Monsoon was good. Clean water and got riders soaked!

 

-Food Service: Garbage. Got to try the new LCs operated chicken shack. I really loved their food when I had it from their food truck last season. But this season, it's more expensive, less food, my burger was burnt and it took 40+ minutes to get our food.

 

- Overall Ride operations: slow and no desire to do anything about it.

 

- I do just want to mention while ride operations are slow, the ride operators are very nice and friendly this season. They would ask how your day was going and what your favorite ride is etc. quite a change from the usual groaning and moaning.

 

I do see that Worlds of Fun has a huge potential to be something great, but problems like terrible food service and slow operations really dampen the experience. I just hope someone, someday, will get the hint to try and improve these.

-Water rides : Viking Voyager was quite nice, clear, clean water and got

[n1ch0las]

Nice report. If the retracking on Prowler is true that's either really poor planning or perhaps the park noticed a safety concern after opening for the season. Either way its a good call, since the coaster was getting pretty bad in a few spots.

[ToNC]

^^

 

Zulu is still on the park website. My guess is its just down for some refurbishment with the VF enterprise pieces that are left over.

[TrashcanMan]

Just to add and concur with Jaykethekid's great trip report - Fury of the Nile was definitely awful smelling - I noticed that too. I did have a few good rides on it though - one of the gysers occasionally was being shot by the waterfall area and we had at least one really wet ride.

 

Monsoon was empty, no water there, which was disappointing.

 

One thing I noticied on Mamba, towards the back of the (one) train, I heard a lot of rattling, almost like a chain or something? It was very noticeable on the return trip through the bunny hops. I don't remember ever hearing it before.

 

I am glad WOF adopted the all-season drink pass where you can just get cups. (Sorry environment) I basically paid more just to not have to carry around the damn cup.

 

Strange about the Prowler news - that would explain why its been down. Seems like a bad time to do maintenance, but maybe it was a surprise issue and not just a scheduled refurbishment.

 

Mustang Runner is really fun btw - a solid flat ride addition. Falcon's Flight just didn't do much for me. Unfortunately both rides need more than one person staffing them...FF especially takes forever to load.

[Jaykethekid]

Just to add and concur with Jaykethekid's great trip report - Fury of the Nile was definitely awful smelling - I noticed that too. I did have a few good rides on it though - one of the gysers occasionally was being shot by the waterfall area and we had at least one really wet ride.

 

Monsoon was empty, no water there, which was disappointing.

 

One thing I noticied on Mamba, towards the back of the (one) train, I heard a lot of rattling, almost like a chain or something? It was very noticeable on the return trip through the bunny hops. I don't remember ever hearing it before.

 

I am glad WOF adopted the all-season drink pass where you can just get cups. (Sorry environment) I basically paid more just to not have to carry around the damn cup.

 

Strange about the Prowler news - that would explain why its been down. Seems like a bad time to do maintenance, but maybe it was a surprise issue and not just a scheduled refurbishment.

 

Mustang Runner is really fun btw - a solid flat ride addition. Falcon's Flight just didn't do much for me. Unfortunately both rides need more than one person staffing them...FF especially takes forever to load.

The rattling you hear on Mamba is the safety chains that connect the cars together flying around because of the airtime. The chains don't actually connect the individual cars together, but they're there in case something happens to the actual connection.

 

And yes, mustang runner is great. Runs much faster than most troikas I've ridden. I also agree that there needs to be more than one op at falcons flight. In fact, no joke with this little story, a kid ran up behind me while I was waiting for FF and he looks around the ride and and then says "one person, only one person? This is nonsense! No sense at all. Why does every ride here only have one person? It takes forever!". This kid was also like 6. So if even 6 year old can notice the crappy operations, you know there's a problem. They had two for the most part of my visit, but they would follow one another around the ride, so pretty much just one person was actually operating it.

[edgeboy]

This is so disappointing to me to hear. I've been to Worlds of Fun before, and while it's collection of coasters isn't necessarily outstanding, it was a pleasant park.

 

I have an opportunity to be in the area in early July, and I'm struggling if I actually want to stop by or not. I do already have a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass and Drink pass, so it wouldn't really be a cost to me except for a 3 hour drive to get there. And I've already been on all the major coasters, so it'd be a purely repeat visit. So I'm really trying to figure out of that's worth it or not. I do enjoy Condor, and there aren't that many of them out there (and same with Troikas, which are more common in the mid-west, but not so much on the west coast). But these horrible operations stories are really causing me to doubt myself.

[n1ch0las]

Small update from a trip I took on Saturday night:

 

Prowler was running both trains. I only took night rides (which were fast and awesome) so I couldn't tell if there was any track work done over the week.

 

With the exception of Prowler's crew (which weren't stacking at all despite only two on platform) all Operations were pretty horrid. Detonator had two staff who must have been on their first day alone. Despite having season Fastlane (honestly the only way to visit the park with how bad ops have become) and getting walking onto the first car, it took at least 10 minutes to load and launch the two towers. One staff member was visibly upset (as was a staff member on Timberwolf as well) and I felt bad for her, as she was obviously overwhelmed. Have to imagine the standby line was at least an hour or more.

 

Patriot was pretty similar, my two train waits were typically about 10-15 minutes long. A couple of times they hadn't even opened the airgates before the other train was stacked. To be fair its not entirely the parks fault, guests seemed to have brought the entire kitchen sink with them into the station and took a long time to get/drop off their items into the bins.

 

Mamba was having issues all night, went down three times on the same spot in the lift hill in the four hours I was at the park. Timberwolf was running really well, once it completes its track work it might be the second best ride in the park.

[OmnipotentSeal]

These reports of bad operations are why I like visiting parks in the fall. In the fall, all the ride ops have at least a few months of experience and are generally better with operations.

[WOFanatic]

These reports of bad operations are why I like visiting parks in the fall. In the fall, all the ride ops have at least a few months of experience and are generally better with operations.

Also, it gives you the opportunity to see Worlds of Fun's outstanding HAUNT event. Seriously, it's near-Knott's level.

[prozach626]

I do already have a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass and Drink pass, so it wouldn't really be a cost to me except for a 3 hour drive to get there.

I personally wouldn't invest a three hour drive for WoF. Unless they get something exciting, we may not go back until we have a kid. Especially when considering parks like Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Silver Dollar City, and Six Flags Great America are all within relatively the same driving distance of four to five hours for us. If WoF eventually gets an exciting roller coaster to go with Prowler, I will probably at least reconsider.

 

I remember operations being horrible when I went to the park six or seven years ago, and almost as equally horrible when we went during Spring, last year. What is it with this park?? I will hand it to World's of Fun that it had a really pleasant atmosphere during our last visit. I'm sure it's gotten even better with the new entrance area this year. The area by Patriot looks absolutely fantastic, but Patriot itself does very little for me, outside of being nice to look at. Reminds me of a smaller version of Silver Bullet, which is not a good thing. Mamba is also an attractive coaster to look at, but the ride might as well be over after the helix, for me. Prowler is really fun, but not being a big wooden coaster fan, it's not worth the drive for us. Every time I visit this park I leave wanting so much more that this park doesn't offer. It has the charm reminiscent of Carowinds, without offering nearly as thrilling roller coasters.

 

I know this is all subjective and opinions will vary. We really like Kansas City and actually have a few family members there who I really like (which are few and far between). That being the case, I still regularly cross my fingers for a new coaster. As for now, it's not worth driving another three hours past Six Flags St. Louis, which doesn't say much.

[hammerstark]

Some reports are saying they've fired the Director of Maintenance. Speculation is that the poor state of rides and operations is owed to that.

 

Counter arguments seem to be that Cedar Fair's contribution to the park are minimal because they "don't care about it." So the budgets the park has to work with are severely restrictive and have led to the multiple issues with Rides Operations and ride dependability - i.e. Mamba's issues, Prowler's tracking problems, and Boomerang's near constant state of break down, along with the lack of progress on Timberwolf's retracking.

[edgeboy]

I do already have a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass and Drink pass, so it wouldn't really be a cost to me except for a 3 hour drive to get there.

I personally wouldn't invest a three hour drive for WoF. Unless they get something exciting, we may not go back until we have a kid. Especially when considering parks like Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Silver Dollar City, and Six Flags Great America are all within relatively the same driving distance of four to five hours for us. If WoF eventually gets an exciting roller coaster to go with Prowler, I will probably at least reconsider.

 

I'm driving in from Omaha, Nebraska (I have a work trip there), so no, none of those other parks are within a reasonable driving distance for me. The only other "major" park that is is Adventureland in Des Moines, which is fun, but I've already been there twice, been on Monster, and as much as I liked it, the second visit felt like more than enough for me. While WoF is also relatively non-descript, it's relative proximity and cost (free with my pass) make it more attractive, despite the flaws. I'll just go in with very low expectations.

 

And yes, I know SDC is only a few more hours, but that extra drive time (which really adds up because I only have one free day and I have to return to Omaha), plus the extra costs, plus the fact that they don't have anything new since I've been there last, means it's not practical. At least WoF has the Condor and Troika as new.

 

I'm just really hoping the operations improve by the time I get there.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

^ Given all those constraints, go to Worlds of Fun. It's hard to have a bad time there really. Do Spinning Dragons immediately at opening, then have at it. Even when lines are long, they're not bad. They do have Fast Lane if it turns out to be an unusually busy day.

[WOFanatic]

Had a terrible experience while at Prowler Thursday night, and I'd thought I'd share it here because I feel it was very anti-consumer and disrespectful to park guests.

 

Late Thursday night, they decided to close the ride early. That's fine by me, if you have a good reason to be doing so. If the ride is having maintenance problems, that's understandable. But they had no good reason. The reason was so that they could start on their nightly maintenance routine early. And this didn't just mean closing off the entrance. It meant telling the 30 or so people still in line to leave. This happened at about 9:57, leaving the guests that have been waiting in line no other option but to just leave the park pissed off.

 

Maybe I'm overexaggerating, but I found this to be a pretty big "FU" to the customer. In the 15 years I've been going to amusement parks, I've never seen a park say to it's patrons "Last train of the night guys. Sorry if you didn't get to ride, but the maintenance team wants to go home early tonight, so don't let the door hit ya on the way out!"

 

And for those who will ask "Are you sure the ride wasn't having maintenance problems?" Yes, I'm sure. Not only did the maintenance team show up and talk to the team before the final train was dispatched, but I also spoke to two of the employees in the station, who assured me that nothing was wrong with the ride. They just told me maintenance wanted a head start that night, and that they asked to shut down the ride early.

 

This was also the first time I have ever complained to Guest Relations. I do have to say that they handled the situation perfectly. They were very calm, kind, and understanding. They took my season pass to collect my info, filled out the report, and gave us exit passes to skip the Prowler line without an expiration date. They also assured us that the ride was not scheduled for an early closure, and that they had no reports of maintenance problems.

 

I hope that the report is looked into and that this never happens again. Especially with the status that the park has now of being slow and mismanaged.

 

If you have any info on why the ride may have closed early, let me know. I know I'm being a little hyperbolic, but I feel it puts a bad taste in the customer's mouth when you turn them away for no good reason while they watch their friends ahead of them getting to ride.

[edgeboy]

^I had a similar, though lesser in importance, experience at Carrowinds. Park closed at 10pm that night, and got in line for Ricochet (their wild mouse coaster) at about 9:50, which still had number of people in line. To be honest, I wasn't dying to ride it, it was more about getting an extra easy credit. But when we were 2nd next to ride, the ops said, "It's 10 o'clock. Ride's closed." And we didn't get to go on. Just shut it down right in front of us after waiting fairly in line. I thought that was sorta douchy.

 

If a ride wants to actually be closed at a certain time, then they should close off the line earlier. And if they don't, and you're in line, then you should get to ride. I felt it was a bit unfair, although admittedly not on the same scale as you had after an hour wait on Prowler. That's worse. But same premise.

[MidwestThemeParks]

^ That's one of my favorite things about Cedar Point. As far as I know, they always keep the rides open until everyone in line rides. On most rides they'll even allow people to get in line past closing, like last year when we got in line for Rougarou after 10:00 pm and the ride was still open even though it was a walk-on for front row. We also got in line for Dragster around 9:50 and rode at about 10:15. That time the ride even had a small breakdown and they still got it reopened at 10:00 (closing time) and let everyone ride.

 

I feel that all parks should either do what Cedar Point does, or like was said, just close the lines a little early, but then people would still be mad because the park would seem to be closed before closing time.

[WOFanatic]

^ That's one of my favorite things about Cedar Point. As far as I know, they always keep the rides open until everyone in line rides. On most rides they'll even allow people to get in line past closing, like last year when we got in line for Rougarou after 10:00 pm and the ride was still open even though it was a walk-on for front row. We also got in line for Dragster around 9:50 and rode at about 10:15. That time the ride even had a small breakdown and they still got it reopened at 10:00 (closing time) and let everyone ride.

 

I feel that all parks should either do what Cedar Point does, or like was said, just close the lines a little early, but then people would still be mad because the park would seem to be closed before closing time.

The coolest thing about Cedar Point is that the rides stay open 8 minutes after the park closes. This is to assure you that you can get the last ride of the night on the ride of your choice. Worked for me like a charm for one last beautiful ride on Maverick in May.

 

The park is supposed to close the ride when the line is finished. I'm not saying this from a moral perspective. That's literally Cedar Fair's policy. This is what I was told at Guest Relations. They were as angry as I was. I was a screamster at WOF's HAUNT event last year, and they made us not only stay in the park until every guest was gone, but also stay in character that entire time (which is no problem, because I love that job). There were some nights that we'd wait a while for Patriot to be closed due to the long lines that night. Pretty much, if the park closed at midnight, expect to leave at about 1 or 1:30.

[edgeboy]

Thought I'd follow up with my visit. I'm from Los Angeles, and this was my 3rd visit to the park. While I enjoyed it on my first and 2nd visit, I didn't find the coasters there to be particularly remarkable--with the exception of Prowler, which was amazing on my first visit when it was still new, lesser so due to roughness on my second.

 

After reading all on this thread about poor operations, I went in with super low expectations. And I must say, I was overall surprised. Granted, the employees were generally not very enthusiastic. However, they were doing their jobs with minimal time wasting. Perhaps the fact I went on a day when the weather was 98 and humid maybe meant they were too tired to socialize with each other. Exception: the operator booth at Prowler always had multiple employees inside talking. Ironic that there's a giant sign that says "Do not disturb operator" when they're totally distracting each other.

 

All flat rides that I went on had at least two employees, if not more, so ops were adequate. Coasters were only running one train, but the weather was so hot and attendance so low, many of those trains often still had empty seats, so I didn't blame them. Even Spinning Dragons was a walk on mid-day.

 

I did enjoy the new park entrance. Gives a much more open feel, though it also does feel a bit "corporate" and impersonal. But it also seems more efficient, so it's a trade off.

 

The Condor and Troika look amazing, very well renovated. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like the Condor was running a bit slow, and it did seem to have a some techincal trouble later on in the day. Plus I wasn't crazy about it's location... being on the bottom of a small hill (the train station) means you don't feel as high up as you are. Steelhawk was fun, got on two rides in the early part of the day before it closed for the rest of the day due to wind. Zulu/Enterprise was assembled, but not yet running. The Fjord Fling wasn't "flinging", just spinning. What's up with that? That was a waste of my time. Aside from that, I really enjoyed the flat ride selection. Being that Magic Mountain is one of my home parks, I was fairly jealous in that respect (we have, like, 5 flat rides total). Not many Rotors left, so happy they have theirs!

 

I must say, Timber Wolf, aside from the long helix in mid-ride, is actually pretty good in the front row! Better than I remember and I feel it gets credit for. Prowler is a great layout and speed, but it's pretty rough on the turns and bottom of first drop. It gets a pass for the speed and airtime, but it's not as rerideable as it could be. Despite the roughness, it's amazing at night. And Mamba is also pretty decent in the 2nd back.

 

After my earlier visits, I felt the park was nice, but unremarkable. After this visit, while I don't feel it's the strongest park, I do have to give it credit for having a very nice balance of coasters, flat rides, kiddie rides, and atmosphere. I think I would return again.

[WOFanatic]

Worlds of Fun’s WinterFest ride lineup has been announced. Here’s the list of available attractions:

Prowler

Spinning Dragons

Cosmic Coaster

Mustang Runner

Falcon’s Flight

Autobahn

Scrambler

Cyclone Sam’s

Worlds of Fun Railroad

Le Texi Tour

Grand Carrousel

Bamboozler

Flying Dutchman

Fjord Fjarlane

Lucy’s Tugboat

Peanuts 500

Beagles Brigade Airfield

Camp Bus

Charlie Brown’s Windup

Peanuts Road Rally

Snoopy vs. Red Baron

Snoopy’s Junction

Snoopy’s Space Buggies

Woodstock Gliders

Woodstock Whirlybirds

 

Sounds like a decent lineup! Prowler is definitely a suprise, and having the new rides open is a plus! Plus the new front gate should look incredible with a gigantic Christmas tree at the center of it. It almost looks like it’s built for the event. Overall, very excited and impressed!

[DorneyKid14]

Some reports are saying they've fired the Director of Maintenance. Speculation is that the poor state of rides and operations is owed to that.

 

Counter arguments seem to be that Cedar Fair's contribution to the park are minimal because they "don't care about it." So the budgets the park has to work with are severely restrictive and have led to the multiple issues with Rides Operations and ride dependability - i.e. Mamba's issues, Prowler's tracking problems, and Boomerang's near constant state of break down, along with the lack of progress on Timberwolf's retracking.

 

I would imagine the budget had a lot to do with some of the issues. I know Dorney usually has the same problem, small budget and a lot of down time.

[chickenbowl]

I'll be visiting this park for the first time over Labor Day weekend. How crazy do you guys expect crowds to be? Does this park get really busy? What coasters have the worst waits? Thanks for your help

[WOF_Fan]

I'll be visiting this park for the first time over Labor Day weekend. How crazy do you guys expect crowds to be? Does this park get really busy? What coasters have the worst waits? Thanks for your help

 

The busiest time for this park is on Saturdays during Haunt and it is crazy busy. Spinning Dragons will have the longest and slowest moving line, mainly because of the capacity of the coaster. If you arrive early, definitely hit it up first and get out of the way.

 

None of the rest of the coasters should have too bad of lines. Mamba will be longest, but they have the best operations.

[chickenbowl]

I'll be visiting this park for the first time over Labor Day weekend. How crazy do you guys expect crowds to be? Does this park get really busy? What coasters have the worst waits? Thanks for your help

 

The busiest time for this park is on Saturdays during Haunt and it is crazy busy. Spinning Dragons will have the longest and slowest moving line, mainly because of the capacity of the coaster. If you arrive early, definitely hit it up first and get out of the way.

 

None of the rest of the coasters should have too bad of lines. Mamba will be longest, but they have the best operations.

 

Thanks for the info!

[bluestreak]

Hello all,

I am posting this in multiple threads so I apologize if you read this more than once.

Anyways, August 5th-15th we are doing our yearly coaster trip. This year will include visits to SFSL, WoF, SDC, SFSL again (gotta love season passes), Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, and Kings Island.

We will be at WoF on Sunday the 6th in the evening, all day Monday, and most of the day Tuesday.

We are curious about the crowds we will encounter those days and any tips you have about plan of attack or about the park in general.

Thank you so much in advance

[WOF_Fan]

Hello all,

I am posting this in multiple threads so I apologize if you read this more than once.

Anyways, August 5th-15th we are doing our yearly coaster trip. This year will include visits to SFSL, WoF, SDC, SFSL again (gotta love season passes), Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, and Kings Island.

We will be at WoF on Sunday the 6th in the evening, all day Monday, and most of the day Tuesday.

We are curious about the crowds we will encounter those days and any tips you have about plan of attack or about the park in general.

Thank you so much in advance

 

Worlds of Fun will not be busy on that Monday or Tuesday. Everything will be nearly walk on with little or no lines.