Photo TR: Western Midwest

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Hello TPR! Despite going on more trips than I can count lately, I always give good thought to posting a PTR, then never find time to get around to it. However, I decided that I’ve been selfishly reading everyone else’s trip reports long enough and that it’s time to contribute some content to the forum. If you’ve been doing the same thing as me, I’d love to see your photos!

 

For the long weekend of 8/18 through 8/21, I finally hit that “I-35 Corridor” in the middle of the western bit of the Midwest that I’ve never visited, seeing Adventureland Iowa, Valleyfair, Nick Universe, Worlds of Fun, and Silver Dollar City in the process.

 

I’m not the sort of person who wants to write lengthy paragraphs comparing Tornado at Adventureland to some other random classic-ish woodie, nor do I have much of a rating system unless the Mitch Hawker poll is going on. That said, go ahead, revive that thread and ask when it’s coming back.

 

 

Day One: Lack of sleep, an entertaining TSA agent, flying from MCO to MCI, driving 4 hours to Adventureland, Adventureland. Full disclosure: I didn’t take that many pictures due to the aforementioned lack of sleep.

"You can choose any Compact vehicle in the aisle and go! ...as long as it's a red Hyundai Accent!"

Some berries I got from a grocery store because I like to eat healthy like that. The container was also conveniently sized perfectly for a compartment in my red Hyundai Accent.

This has probably been said before, but the Adventureland entrance is pretty much a Magic Kingdom entrance knock-off. That being said, it's actually a really pleasant way to enter the park. It even has the "underpasses" to walk through on either side.

Their new Gerstlauer Infinity coaster. These are really good rides. The lapbars, which look and feel kind of like hydraulic-locking versions of B&M's clamshells, make the inversions (especially the extended-hanging ones) really scary.

Tornado, a Bill Cobb woodie. Kind of like the other Bill Cobb woodies, it's kind of a random mix of fun airtime moments, some fun spinal re-adjustments, some fast out-of-control bits, some slow parts to enjoy the surrounding scenery, and some hills that make your brain stem go an inch or two farther into, well...your brain.

Outlaw was up next. It was halfway decent but not all that memorable. The only memory I remember having of it was "I wish these trains were Millennium Flyers"

There are some very pretty park areas in Adventureland and the park as a whole was definitely in the upper 40th percentile of parks in the US in terms of charm, maintenance, and landscaping. I wish some parks or chains cared about these things. It goes to show that Adventureland's owners and/or management really care about the place and want to give the best presentation possible.

Oh, this one. I remember getting a little nervous heading into the lift, then the drop pleasantly surprised me, followed by these two Schwarzkopf-esque loops (in terms of G force going through them). Then, the coaster takes a small right turn, during which I imagine I first felt what it would be like to get T-boned in a car at a high rate of speed. Ouch.

You have a dirty mind. Again, the clamshell-like restraints make you feel like you're naked, bent-over, and exposed going into that killer drop. Pretty much everyone seemed to be holding on for dear life.

Cool elements from the great minds at Gerstlauer putting a lot of thought into cool elements for hang-time and directional changes. After riding Karacho at Tripsdrill earlier this year too, I really hope these Infinity coasters catch on and spread everywhere like the Eurofighters have.

Really cool pre-show to The Underground. Yes it's kind of small-park cheesy, but added to the experience for sure. If I was a little kid, it definitely would have built up the anticipation for the dark ride/coaster.

At this point I had driven from Adventureland to Bloomington, Minnesota, still on about an hour and a half of sleep. I nearly fell asleep on the table after a single Stella Artois.

Edited September 4, 2016 by xVicesAndVirtues

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Day Two: A Morning at Valleyfair and an evening at Mall of America.

 

One thing I just want to say about Valleyfair is that I really liked the park quite a lot. People seem to trash talk it, and it’s not Cedar Point in terms of coasters or Dollywood in terms of quality, but it’s a decent mid-sized park with some above-average attractions, plus Renegade, which I thought was excellent. I was also really surprised by how far back it goes when you take the path to Renegade and Excalibur. It seems they really could do a lot with that back half space.

Good morning, Valleyfair! I thought the Wild Thing parking lot interaction was a really great way to enter the park.

The very 90s/2000s Cedar Fair entrance. I was really surprised by how small the entrance and turnstile area was, but I guess this park might not need it.

Good news! The RCT lawn mower guy got a nice pay increase to come mow his straight lines at Valleyfair!

The front end corner with Steel Venom, an always-good Intamin Impulse coaster with holding brake.

If you're fond of Cedar Point, there are some nice parallels between that park and Valleyfair. They have exactly the same (I think) loop and corkscrew coaster. This one has been maintained pretty well, I rode in the back row with no headbanging whatsoever.

For you lift hill people, the stairway to Wild Thing heaven. I found that Wild Thing kind of fits in with the rest of the standard Morgan hypers. They're kind of all the same in terms of ride experience. They're okay, but really not all that memorable. The only thing I found to be a good surprise on Wild Thing was the small second hill, which it flew over pretty quickly.

High Roller entrance. It almost rolls back on it's second hill. It reminds me of the hilariously slow turn-around on Grizzly at CGA.

Valleyfair won a Trabant on Wheel of Fortune. And here everyone else gets kitchen sets, the world's most boring convertible, or a trip to a cruise company-owned island where Americans can hang out with each other.

Another Cedar Point parallel, or so I thought. I kept forgetting that Excalibur exists, so I was slightly surprised to see it back there. "Neat, half of Gemini", I thought. It had some cool Gemini-like drops, but the rest was pure Arrow Coat Hanger: The Ride.

Hi, Renegade! You're hard to get pictures of from inside the park.

Let's talk about Renegade. I went into this trip thinking "Yes, I finally will ride Prowler!", but my biggest take-away from this trip is that Renegade is one of the most under-rated GCI coasters out there. The S-drop was nuts in the back seat, tons of leapy downward turns, and a ride that didn't let up until the end. Standing since 2007, I have no idea if this has been re-tracked but I was shocked by how smooth it was for the types of elements it had. Really, really awesome. Maybe the best GCI I've been on, I have to re-ride Thunderhead to decide.

You thought you weren't going to have to look at another picture of Wild Thing doing it's big parking lot turn?

Wild Thing is a hypercoaster. So it does one of these 200 foot drops.

Neat-looking train tunnel that the path crosses close to. Valleyfair also has some nicely landscaped and lightly-themed areas such as this.

One last look at Valleyfair's S&S Corner with their Screamin Swing and tower complex. I don't understand why some Cedar Fair parks have a free large-scale Screamin Swing and why others have an upcharge small-scale model.

Nick Universe and Mall of America itself are both cool places. I expected to have to enter through a hallway somewhere to a separate building holding the park, but it's literally just in the center of the mall, open to everything.

The way everything is put together here to fill the space is awesome. There are also multiple restaurants and spaces to just hang out and view the park.

If you forgot what park you were looking at photos of.

When you crest this lift, you feel as though you're about to crack your head on the roof of the mall. Rock Bottom Plunge is the smoothest OTSR-included Eurofighter I've done.

As I've gotten into my later 20s, I've had a decrease in tolerance for "spin and puke" type of rides. I was concerned going into this one, but it was actually awesome. I wish I had taken a picture of the ride itself, but you all know what it looks like. You get some serious spin and sideways airtime on these Intamin half-pipes.

As I frantically opened my camera app to get the splash photo, I had a momentary lapse of memory on how to hold a camera still. This was one of the best log flumes I've been on and you don't really get wet at all. People were taking expensive shopping bags on, so the lack of wetness seemed to be general knowledge. The dark ride parts of this log flume really made it, plus a surprise drop or two and really great views of the park from the higher parts. This flume was way longer than I expected it to be.

I never visited this park before it's Nick Universe days, but as you can see, the detail level and theming of this park was great. The Nickelodeon characters and themes were integrated into the rides, signage, and colors so well that it seems as if it's never been anything but Nick Universe.

I didn't visit SeaLife but they do a Nick Universe/SeaLife combo ticket that was a good deal.

"Where did you get your clothes?" "Oh, I found them in the garage"

"It's not the food court...it's Culinary...on North"

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Nice trip report so far! Seems really fast paced, but that's a great collection of parks. Looking foward to seeing your take on the Missouri parks.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Day Three: Worlds of Fun

 

I was at this park on a Saturday and it was pretty darn busy, but luckily the Fast Lane system was both affordable at $50 per person for an all day, unlimited wristband, and easy to use, as you just walk up, show your wristband, and enter through the Fast Lane entrance. I used to think QBots were my favorite system of skipping lines in all their technological glory, but I think I like this system best, since it's so simple. No waiting, no reserving, just show up and ride.

 

I was slightly underwhelmed by Worlds of Fun. Not disappointed, I just thought that the park would be bigger for some reason and I went away thinking that they need a stand-out attraction. I also went into it way too excited for Prowler, and while it was a really good coaster, there are several spots on the ride that need re-tracking quite badly. But the ending hills are about as good as GCI gets in the airtime department. As a whole though, I prefer Renegade.

Oh say, can you see

Artsy Patriot shot is about at artsy as I get. A good coaster that any park lacking a B&M Invert would be lucky to have, but Patriot is in the Silver Bullet/Great Bear camp of tier-two inverts. Don't expect that punch that you get from Raptor, Dragons, or Montu here.

Patriot was the last "custom" B&M Inverted coaster I had left in North America to ride. Now I'm just missing two BTR clones to complete the collection. That's a milestone, right?

Again, some nice Cedar Fair landscaping adding a little charm to the park

Timber Wolf is as forgettable as they come, but it has a really nice long layout. If this ever gets looked at for RMCification, they'll have a lot of coaster to work with.

Something's off about these towers. The ride itself only goes up to about 75% of the tower itself, then above it is hollow structure. But why? I'm pretty sure this is the only instance where S&S has done this.

Mamba. Almost identical to Steel Force, see my aforementioned comments about Morgan hypers. Maybe I got it on a good day, but it seemed slightly smoother than the rest.

Fast Lane is as simple as this. The best way to get two laps around Worlds of Fun in under 3 hours on a busy Saturday.

I love the rotating platform river rapids rides. I had a nostalgia moment back to being a kid at The Great Escape, standing on the moving platform and looking down, psyching myself out as to whether the platform was moving or if the center was moving.

No, Worlds of Fun does not feature a simulated effects experience narrated by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. They've got the real deal.

A boomerang. This was one of the smoother ones. I always ride in the back of the front car, put my hands out and push myself into my seat to force my center of gravity into my lap. Headbanging eliminated.

D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R a Dino Store!

Wooden coasters themed to cats get a big thumbs-up in my book. Really great coaster, just needs some TLC in the re-tracking department. Some of those turns are nearing Gwazi brutal.

On my second lap, I noticed what I didn't notice on my first, this nice log flume going through the wooded area near the front of the park.

Worlds of Fun also features the same standard Gerstlauer spinning coaster found at Nick Universe and the Big Spin coasters in the Six Flags chain. These are decent fun and the small airtime hill near the end can really get you if you're facing backward or sideways.

Some nice landscaping and Patriot's nicely-designed station. I wish Six Flags parks could spend just a little less on the superhero names once in a while and take a page out of Cedar Fair's landscaping book. Even though the "theme" is always bland, they really do a nice presentation.

Patriot corkscrew you.

Some people flying off the Windseeker

Caribou Coffee is all the rage in this area of the Midwest. At the parks, in plazas, at the airport, it was everywhere. Yet I failed to try it.

After leaving Worlds of Fun, I was headed down to Branson for the night when this happened. I'll admit that I have a lead foot, so I usually use my cruise control on longer drives to avoid speeding. However, my red Hyundai Accent tragically lacked cruise control, and going down one of the huge hills getting into the Ozarks, a nice Missouri State Trooper couldn't help but notice I was doing 83 in a 65. Sorry 'bout it.

[Condor]

Nice, insightful TR. Looking forward to the rest. I've always been curious about Valleyfair, but I'll continue waiting for one more major coaster before I take a trip to it. Is there any airtime on Wild Thing's second hill? I agree with pretty much everything you said about Worlds of Fun. I did the whole park in about four hours back in 2013. I was really looking forward to Prowler as well, but after riding I put it in my lower tier of GCIs. I rode American Thunder two days later and found it smoother with stronger airtime.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

^Valleyfair is actually totally worth it, I liked the park way more than I thought I ever would...and honestly they probably won't be getting a major new coaster any time soon.

 

As far as airtime on Wild Thing's second hill, it's kind of like the smaller of Millennium Force's speed hills, where you don't get much airtime but you just fly over it quickly and it's a cool effect.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Day Four: Silver Dollar City

 

What you've heard is true. This is easily one of the best theme parks in the US. This is one of those parks I had wanted to visit for a very long time and it did not disappoint at all. The *only* thing I could complain a little about was the fact that the park was running just one train on all coasters that day, a Sunday. Crowds were mild, but some of the coasters got 15-20 minute waits that would have minimal or no waits with 2 trains running.

 

The western/southern theme is very immersive. It's location in the wooded, mountainous Ozarks gives it a natural landscape that other parks wish they had. Branson is geographically located not far from Arkansas, so the southern accents aren't theatre. This place is as legit as it gets.

 

The only mistake I made here was doing this park in one day. You could easily spend two or three days here between re-riding the excellent coasters, eating incredible food, watching live craftsmen work their uh...craft, shows, or just admiring the scenery. Oh yeah, and they have a natural cave that's the reason for the location existing at all.

 

I could write a 100-page book here complimenting the place, so here are the photos. I need to break this up into three posts because I just couldn't do it justice with one.

Silver Dollar City has a really nice, beautifully landscaped entrance area. Given the namesake, see that gold dollar behind the axe? That's the sil...oh wait nvm.

You actually can get a little confused by where the entrance gates are in the pre-entrance plaza, since it's so large and so beautiful. Luckily, this sign tells you where to go.

Good to know. More on this later.

More beautiful theming for the log flume.

I was totally surprised to see this Hulk-style fixture in Wildfire's station.

Wildfire, painted in camouflage and hidden among the trees.

Lift hill shot. The drop really took me by surprise with it's kick in the back row. The only straight B&M drop I've ever experienced that with. As soon as that happened, I knew this was going to be a good coaster.

B&M sitdown with Cobra Roll. Check.

Look at the scenery here. Wildfire is against a very steep-grade hill and the view from the top of the lift is breathtaking. Right before that drop takes your breath away again.

Really good coaster here with an atypical layout in comparison from the usual B&Ms. Not quite as good as Kumba or Hulk because it's significantly shorter, but it packs the punch that both offer. Just in about 2/3 the track length.

This plant slightly obscuring the sign for Powder Keg, Blast in the Wilderness!

Where the blasting takes place.

Well-themed Powder Keg station. Make sure you keep your stuff as far away as possible from that box of TNT. That crap might blow any second!

When Powder keg rolls back, you go back onto this hill, fly off the end....

...and land here. "16 people died in an accident on Powder Keg" - RCT

A little blurry, but one of the multiple craftsmen shops here at SDC.

Volunteers Needed at Fire in the Hole.

More beauty of this park. Here the path goes under SDC's railroad.

Wilson Farms Giant Barn Swing. I really love the barn theme SDC and Dollywood both have for their S&S Screamin' Swings

"Your stagecoach heads west in 15 minutes"

Don't keep the stage waiting!

Me wetting myself with excitement as the train returns to the station. This was about to be my first wooden RMC.

The lift hill, followed by the madness. It's hard to get good pictures of Outlaw Run, since it's mostly outside the existing park boundaries. Outlaw Run is an insanely good coaster. It's my number two woodie overall after El Toro, and I was surprised by how much it "rides" like the Intamin woodies. The airtime is insane, great speed, and it never lets up until the end. It's developed a few "bumps" kind of like the Intamin woodies have, especially after the first drop, going into the stall turn, and right after it. Even so, it's still very re-rideable and just excellent overall.

Neat little DIY rides for families next to the Giant Barn Swing.

Scenic view of their river rapids ride walking along the path to/from Giant Barn Swing and Outlaw Run. More to come!

[DoinItForTheFame]

So glad you enjoyed SDC!! Awesome photos too!! Can't wait to see more.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Next part of SDC photos.

After leaving the Outlaw Run area of the park, I couldn't help but notice a sign saying "Fried Oreos on a Stick", so here you have it, fried Oreos on a stick. They also top it with confectioner sugar and your choice of glaze, which I chose a maple glaze that was similar to doughnut glaze. I have a small stomach so I could only finish about half of this.

I took some pictures to remind myself of the food options when deciding for dinner. This was one of the restaurants with great selections.

Heading toward the other side of the park, you find this pretty lake to walk halfway around. Again, the scenery here is just great.

Next up was the really cool themed area more oriented to kids, but brilliantly themed to firefighting. Who needs Looney Tunes or Snoopy when you can have a simple concept and do so much with it?

The area incorporated a small S&S double-shot tower that included some crazy intense airtime. The ride ops were themed to firefighters.

Stagecoach-themed flavored popcorn stand.

More nice buildings and atmosphere

Another thing I appreciated was how some (maybe all, I might have missed some) of SDC's areas include a micro-section map sign, which makes finding individual attractions easier to find than trying to scan a huge map of an entire park.

The Grand Exposition Coaster, a small Zamperla coaster for the kids.

I don't know how new these rides are, but the paint and maintenance made them all look brand new.

Basic half-pipe model Disk'o

The centerpiece to The Grand Exposition was "flying carousel" wave swinger ride.

You can slowly spin this giant, heavy marble.

One of the many skillet locations everyone raves about when they discuss SDC. Sorry for the lack of food porn here, again I was taking sign pictures for myself later.

ThuNderaTion, one of the better Arrow Mine Train coasters.

Bit of mine scenery inside TNT's queue.

One of the only pictures you can get of Thunderation, since it goes out into the woods.

Christmas in August! Kind of like Islands of Adventure, they have a year-round Christmas shop for those who can't get enough of it.

The Hospitality House, where cave things happen, or at least where they begin.

I was 99% sure that this was exaggerated for liability purposes. Nope! There are many spots in Marvel Cave where you need to do interesting acrobatics to avoid hitting your head on very real earth rock. Not the fake plaster kind you see at other parks. +1 SDC. Next up, Marvel Cave.

[jynx242]

I agree with you about SDC. One of my favorite places!!

[ytterbiumanalyst]

So glad you got to go on the cave tour! I've pretty much made it my mission on this forum to encourage everyone who's coming this way to take the cave tour.

 

One train ops are pretty standard this time of year, except on Saturdays. Our schools start early in this area (my kids started August 11th this year). They really pull back at that time and are more willing to accept short waits of about 15 minutes with one train ops. It's different from the peak summer season, where capacity is maximized. Even with only one train, though, it's an all-out hustle to dispatch that train as fast as possible. Cedar Point's the only other park I've been to with ride dispatches as good as SDC's.

[SFOG1991]

^I was there on the first Sunday of August and with one train ops, most coasters had over an hour wait. It was very disappointing. Other than that, the park was absolutely amazing in every way!

[xVicesAndVirtues]

Alright, now finally time for the final part, Marvel Cave!

 

Not only was the Marvel Cave tour a totally unique one for any other theme park, but the guide really added a lot to the experience. He was familiar with the animals that live in the cave, specific statistics of heights/widths/depths of the individual rooms, and sprinkled the group with little facts in some rooms and even give a great Branson history recap in another.

 

Onto the photos.

Nearly there now

The guide explained to us that the entrance we took, the exit hole, and this opening are the only known openings of Marvel Cave. This is taken from just inside the top bit of the descent stairs.

The initial descent stairs bring you to the bottom of the "Cathedral Room". This is the view up of the same opening from the bottom of the Cathedral Room. Photos just can't do it justice.

One of the many dramatically beautiful passageways that you squeeze your way through.

Marvel Cave will randomly leak it's cave goo down onto you when it feels the need to

This is taken from the ascent back up at the end of the tour. The guide asked us to kindly look over the ledge to see how far up we've just climbed. We were at the bottom of the depths of this photo, about 500 feet down.

Luckily there are these somewhat awkward hill-climbing trains to get us back up to the park. Reminded me a lot of a similar railway at Six Flags Magic Mountain

Passing the other rail car going down the mountain to take our place

The park closed a little early that Sunday, at 6PM. Got the last ride of the day on Outlaw Run, front row! What an outstanding coaster.

Driving back up to Kansas City from Branson, you get nice views of mountains, clear skies, and nice clear air. Living in Orlando, you miss this kind of stuff.

The highway through the Ozarks has a lot of exposed rock like this, just stunning!

Back up in Kansas City the following day, the final stop was Arthur Bryant's Barbecue. This place has been voted "Best Barbecue In the World" and has been visited by several US Presidents

A little bit of the Arthur Bryant's menu from inside the restaurant.

Food porn alert. This is the Pulled Pork Sandwich with Fries. Kind of neat how they take a hunk of pulled pork, slap it down, throw a huge handful of fries on top, fold it over, then put your bread on the next sheet of wax paper. You have to do the sandwiching part yourself.

Final view of downtown Kansas City before heading to the airport to fly back to Orlando. Thanks for reading, I appreciate all the comments!

After a very detailed "you've been warned" inside the Hospitality House, you head out the back door and begin the descent.

[SixFlagsAstroworld]

Nice report! I'm glad you enjoyed WOF and SDC

[ytterbiumanalyst]

This is now officially the best trip report ever.

 

The exposed rocks are the result of blasting through the hills. Just about every highway around here requires at least some blasting to ensure the grades aren't too steep.

 

 

Glad you enjoyed Missouri. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

[xVicesAndVirtues]

^Thanks, man! I'll definitely be back in Missouri, hopefully next year. The exposed rocks, steep hills, and mountain views really made the drive down and back between Springfield and Branson gorgeous. I took quite a few pictures on my phone of all the scenery.