Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread

[monotone]

16 hours ago, KBrylczyk said:

I said "top cities for disposable income."  KC is a large city, yes, but it's also quite impoverished and blue collar.

And Cleveland is basically Dubai on steroids, thus CP gets all the attention.

This is an ignorant comment.

[jazma]

I think it's all in the eye of the beholder.  I thought the city proper has less than 200 K, and the overall area is less than 2.5 million.  I understand they draw some people from Nebraska, Oklahoma and surrounding states but to me less than three million is small, and explains why the park only draws less than 1 million annually.  I think it's a great park, it just can't draw like larger areas like in California, Florida, etc., unless something changes to make the area a big growth area (like what happened in Charlotte), OR more of a tourism market.

[KBrylczyk]

1 hour ago, monotone said:

And Cleveland is basically Dubai on steroids, thus CP gets all the attention.

This is an ignorant comment.

CP has been groomed for decades to be a destination park, not a regional park.  People travel from all over the world to visit that place.  When was the last time some yahoo from Burma came to Kansas City to visit Worlds Of Fun?

[monotone]

I get all that. But disparaging KC as impoverished or whatever is laughably ignorant.

SDC is a destination park 3 hours away, they seem to do OK. There are a lot of people in this region that drive for vacations and do it with families.

KC is getting a freaking World Cup game. I know that's not the end all-be all but it's not a backwater like, idk, Des Moines.

[KBrylczyk]

2 minutes ago, monotone said:

SDC is a destination park 3 hours away, they seem to do OK. There are a lot of people in this region that drive for vacations and do it with families.

KC is getting a freaking World Cup game. I know that's not the end all-be all but it's not a backwater like, idk, Des Moines.

Branson is a massive vacation destination.  Ask anyone who lives there or Gatlinburg, though, and you'll know that most of the town's local population goes on unemployment from January to March annually because the tourism goes kaput for those months.  Extremely blue collar.  Have you ever walked around KC?  There's nice areas, yeah, like every city, but there's a very large amount of impoverished people, homeless people, drug problems, etc.  Granted, you could say that about nearly every city but KC is more noticeable than most.

Des Moines is small but not backwater.  We've got like half of the country's insurance company headquarters here.  The metro population is less than a half million.  There's only one area of town that's considered shady (southeast side of the river).  Stop talking out of your ass.

[monotone]

10 minutes ago, KBrylczyk said:

Branson is a massive vacation destination.  Ask anyone who lives there or Gatlinburg, though, and you'll know that most of the town's local population goes on unemployment from January to March annually because the tourism goes kaput for those months.  Extremely blue collar.  Have you ever walked around KC?  There's nice areas, yeah, like every city, but there's a very large amount of impoverished people, homeless people, drug problems, etc.  Granted, you could say that about nearly every city but KC is more noticeable than most.

Des Moines is small but not backwater.  We've got like half of the country's insurance company headquarters here.  The metro population is less than a half million.  There's only one area of town that's considered shady (southeast side of the river).  Stop talking out of your ass.

Dude, I live in KC.  I walk around the city every day. Congrats on your one area that is shitty.

[WOF_Fan]

39 minutes ago, KBrylczyk said:

Have you ever walked around KC?  There's nice areas, yeah, like every city, but there's a very large amount of impoverished people, homeless people, drug problems, etc.  Granted, you could say that about nearly every city but KC is more noticeable than most.

Des Moines is small but not backwater.  We've got like half of the country's insurance company headquarters here.  The metro population is less than a half million.  There's only one area of town that's considered shady (southeast side of the river).  Stop talking out of your ass.

The poverty rate in Des Moines is higher than the poverty rate in Kansas City, according to the US Census Bureau. If you compare the entire metro areas, the poverty rate in Des Moines metro (16.8%) is nearly twice as high as the poverty rate of the KC metro area (9.6%). 

[monotone]

23 minutes ago, WOF_Fan said:

The poverty rate in Des Moines is higher than the poverty rate in Kansas City, according to the US Census Bureau. If you compare the entire metro areas, the poverty rate in Des Moines metro (16.8%) is nearly twice as high as the poverty rate of the KC metro area (9.6%). 

Yeah but have you ever walked around Des Moines?

[KBrylczyk]

Touche guys, touche.  The fact remains that Adventureland and Worlds Of Fun aren't particularly noteworthy parks.  They're nice for their local areas but don't expect them to get national or global recognition (or budget increases).

[ytterbiumanalyst]

On 8/21/2022 at 4:20 PM, prozach626 said:

^Bruh. I was wondering where you were.

I just hope they don't cut down every piece of vegetation in the immediate area around the tracks. If I remember correctly, ZZ was surrounded by trees, right? That was about 30 years ago, so it's hard to say.

Thanks! Been very busy; pandemic led me to rethinking some priorities. Yeah, you remember correctly though, ZZ was in and among the trees. I was a kid last time I rode it (think I was 11 or so when they removed it) but it was soooo good. Anything that evokes that same feeling is gonna be a hit with WoF's audience.

[CP_RULES]

This thread makes me LOL harder than the Prowler Junior announcement.

[prozach626]

As long as we can all agree that our opinions are better than others, it will have true value. The thought of people feeling differently than I do about this attraction hilarious. People other than myself are idiots and fools.

 

Consider it 2022 politics. You're grouped in either flavor, even if you're close to the middle and lean ever so slightly one way:

I submit myself to WoF, as this is the greatest attraction in the world. Anyone who doesn't worship the park for this addition hates the park, is entitled, and knows nothing.

 

I'm not renewing my season pass to WoF, and I'll never go again. Maybe WoF didn't deserve a giga, but at least give us an Orion. I hate you WoF and I hope you catch on fire.

[CP_RULES]

I’ll be there next weekend for my husband’s summer picnic for Garmin where they rent out the park. Can’t wait to see if “trimless” Mamba lives up to the hype! Might get some Prowler Junior pics while I’m at it.

[SixFlagsTexas]

I was at Worlds of Fun two weeks ago for the very first time, and the 'trimless' Mamba completely took me by surprise. The final hills were incredible, and the ride exceeded my expectations. By far the biggest surprise I've ever had. The operations were also fantastic as well.

All of the heavy-hitter rides were down the first hour after park opening, but after that, I had an enjoyable experience at the park. Looking forward to Zambezi Zinger!

[prozach626]

From what I've been reading, Mamba has less uncomfortable airtime hills than Magnum? I can't remember much about the ride, other than not caring about much past of the helix.

[CP_RULES]

8 hours ago, SixFlagsTexas said:

I was at Worlds of Fun two weeks ago for the very first time, and the 'trimless' Mamba completely took me by surprise. The final hills were incredible, and the ride exceeded my expectations. By far the biggest surprise I've ever had. The operations were also fantastic as well.

All of the heavy-hitter rides were down the first hour after park opening, but after that, I had an enjoyable experience at the park. Looking forward to Prowler Junior!

I’m going to read this as “Mamba was terrible” so I can be sure to keep my hopes down.

6 hours ago, prozach626 said:

From what I've been reading, Mamba has less uncomfortable airtime hills than Magnum? I can't remember much about the ride, other than not caring about much past of the helix.

They are much more round, but they used to be taken with no speed whatsoever. It basically used to be like “We’re going up… now down… up… hmm look at that over there… geez I’m kinda hungry… BRAKES.” Without the MCBR tugging so hard I picture an actual finale of sorts.

[OrientExpressForever]

I had a great visit last Sunday! Crowds were light, coasters had no wait or 2-3 train wait at the most, (not counting Spinning Dragons which had a 30 minute wait, painfully slow loading).

Mamba provided the best rides I have ever had on it! Back seat floating air all the way down the 2nd hill, midcourse brakes were off or not noticeable, bunny hills had nice pops of air. Unfortunately, the helix is showing its age with some bumpy roughness, but still relatively smooth as compared with the next door neighbor, Timber Wolf. They are still ironing out some issues with 2 train operations, there was stacking more often than not and it went down at least once for a half hour or so, but it seems most of the station delays revolved around riders being slow to put their loose items in the bins.

Prowler was running great and the few spots of track work provided noticeable improvement from last season. It was, however, down for 15 minutes at rope drop and about an hour in the afternoon.

Patriot was in good shape with 2 train ops. Boomerang was not terrible, but Timber Wolf is really struggling to be rideable. With all the track work they've done, you'd think you could feel a difference, at least in the most recently worked sections, but alas. Not sure what can be done to make it a worthwhile ride again, I doubt RMC or GCI would even attempt a re-imagining because it doesn't seem much of the existing structure would even be useable. It may be time to pay our last respects.

Not much to see at the Zambezi Zinger site, but some clearing. With all the lovely trees, that I hope they preserve as many as possible, it will be hard to see anything until vertical construction begins. My eyes may not be trustworthy, but I thought I saw a ground level tunnel entrance east of the Boomerang exit ramp. Super stoked for this new addition!

[prozach626]

RMC and GCI will reimagine whatever they get paid to reimagine.

[Jaykethekid]

You did see a tunnel entrance by Boomerang. Though, it isn't being incorporated into the new Zambezi Zinger. That's the old tunnel from the original Zambezi Zinger. The entrance of the tunnel was buried when Boomerang was built. The exit portion was completely removed as it would've been roughly where Boomerang's unused photo booth is now. The park has shared a couple photos on social media of them starting work on removing the last bits of the tunnel. In typical Cedar Fair fashion, the park proposed the idea of selling chunks of the old tunnel over on their Twitter.

[coasterbill]

We visited for the first time this past weekend. I was surprised at how nice the park is compared to Valleyfair and Dorney.

Mamba was probably our favorite ride there, but I don’t want to overhype it too much. It was a lot better than Steel Force and a bit better than Wild Thing but I prefer every other Morgan hyper that I’ve been on. 

[Philrad71]

On 8/23/2022 at 8:35 PM, ytterbiumanalyst said:

Thanks! Been very busy; pandemic led me to rethinking some priorities. Yeah, you remember correctly though, ZZ was in and among the trees. I was a kid last time I rode it (think I was 11 or so when they removed it) but it was soooo good. Anything that evokes that same feeling is gonna be a hit with WoF's audience.

Hey guys...good to see you here. I am back after a hiatus as well. Just trying to reassemble my life is all. lol

Excited to hear about the new coaster - looks like it should be a lot of fun!

[prozach626]

Welcome back. Seems like there are several active members who took a break, but are thankfully now returning.

[CP_RULES]

Went to the park on Sunday for “Garmin day” when the company rents out the park (my husband works there and Garmin is headquartered in KC). I don’t think I could have asked for better weather if I had a weather machine! An absolutely perfect day for a company event. High of 75 F and clear skies with a pleasant breeze.

Operations were not always great and Mamba and Boomerang broke down multiple times, but it wasn’t a big deal for our overall experience.

I got my first ever ride on Prowler where I got off thinking “that was okay.” I am considering that a huge win and I think I have learned how to ride defensively on it. I wedged my arms between the restraint and seat and never raised my arms. I got several moments of super respectable airtime and only a few jackhammer-y moments. 6/10.

I still think Prowler was worse than Timber Wolf, which was running like an absolute stud. Ten out of ten, would ride TW again.

Mamba’s MCBR is indeed only softly kissing the trains, but suddenly I notice how janky the return run is. Here for the jank, though. 20/10, will ride again.

Nothing much to note on Prowler Junior construction.

 

 

You can barely see some vague clearing going on from the path to Prowler opposite where these photos were taken, but it’s nothing I could capture on camera nor was it anything vertical.

[prozach626]

Was that part of the original entrance?

[coasterbill]

^^ Yeah, I expected Timberwolf to be awful but it was running really well. We instinctively rode in the front and leaned forward because it’s a Dinn and it always worked for Mean Streak but I have no clue if it was even necessary. 
 

The ride wasn’t amazing or anything but I 100% enjoyed myself and I didn’t expect to.