Associated parks:
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After the three hour drive from Altoona IA we made our way into Worlds of Fun. From outside the park we could see Orient Express and Mamba and little else as the frontage of the park is heavily wooded. Really I did not know much about WOF before visiting. I make it a point not to know much about a park before going on purpose so I can make my own opinion. This dose not mean I do not read TR's ect. just that I don't want sombody elses opinion to cloud my judgment before I even do it.
Anyhow we go down this long hillside next to some administration buildings??? and down past orient express before reaching the entrance. Seems this entrance is well hidden from the lots. LOL.
We enter the park and I quickly remember I am out of film! We enter a shop across from the log flume and I pick a roll of plain old 200speed 35mm film from the rack with no price tag. What the hell???? I fully expected to pay $8-$9 bucks inside a park for a roll of film but $14.50 was just plain rediculous! My first inpressions were not to great at this point as I also had to ask a cashier to come and ring me out cause he was paying us no mind.
OK, Enough of that. We see the flume sitting on this hillside across from the store and decide to take a ride. Nice flume, Boats are shaped like canoes.
We then take a walk down the left side of the park. Cross under some RR tracks and come up on the Boomerang. We take a ride on Boomerang and find it enjoyable even though we have ridden many of theses. it has the full Vekoma train on it and they seem to be much more comfortable than ARROWS on a Corkscrew.
Next we went up the hill toward Mamba. We decided to take a ride. The outbound trip on Mamba was good. The second hill offered mass airtime and even airtime on the entrance to the helix. I also like the helix as it provided great possitive G's and also some good headchopers on the right side. They should have ended it there cause after the helix they basically killed the ride with brakes. We rode Mamba probably 8 times. Comming back later we rode again and was a little surprised the bunnies on the return were giving air which they hadnt earlier in the day.
Next stop was the Detonator. While I will stick with Scream SFNE as my personal favorite of this type of ride due to it running both programs (Thrust up then thrust down) Detenator provide the most and longest airtime at the top! Great ride!
Timberwolf, Ok, Im going to say I liked Timberwolf alot. It is a free form twister with some terrain usage and some other unconventional track design. There is a brake on the first drop but you more hear it than feel it. In the front it was giving pops of air all over the place including the two ending humps. If there was only one down spot it would be the turn around/helix combo. it starts intense and is basically to give it the elivation for the second half of the ride, At the top though you are hardly moving. I'll just chalk it up as a resting point because Timberwolf was a coaster that was fun.
We exit TW and see the new for 2002 thunderhawk. WOW a topspin under a fountain. This looked like so much fun as it runs the fantastic 5 flip program and also drops a wave of water on them by surprise. Me and Rob were concerened we couldn't ride it as we had fit on LC's topspin and Tomb Raider, We could not ride SFWOA's version. We came back later and tried to ride. more on that later.
Next up was Orient Express. A cool tunnel leads to the lift and then drop simular but not as big as Loch ness Monster into a interlocking loop section. I believe this was the first interlocking loops, Correct me if I am wrong. Anyhow, Following the two loops it dose a butterfly type loop simular to PKI's vortex and this weird up and down helix. I liked the ride but my comment to Rob was I think Ron Toomer is trying to kill me! LOL
We went out to the car for drinks and lunch and mainly to dump our cameras off for some water ride action. IT WAS HOT!
Back into the park and another ride on the flume, Some souviniers and then over to the Raft ride nicely themed to egyption ruins. I liked the Raft ride, Well done with no real drenchers but this was the first one I had ever seen where boats actually got stuck in the pools. There was one stuck just sitting there bobbing around when we aproached so we played pirate and rammed em! LOL
More rides on Mamba and its running better but I don't know. It's a good ride but I still think SF is better, maybe even Magnum. The return trip is just kinda uneventful but was giving little pops of air later in the day.
We then went on a Timberwolf Marathon and rode probably 15 times. Just a fun coaster and I liked it. We then stumble upon this '50's Du Wop show and were completely blown away at live singing and dancing, Many parks have just plain gone to recorded music and singing and just do dancing. Live shows rock even though they may be less than perfect. It was also nice for them to man the exits after the show was over.
OK, Is this kid full of Fun or what? A employee kept going around the park giving everyone high fives! We ran into him no less than three times this day and were pleased to see enthusiasm from the workers! AKA, Holiday Worlds Woohoo!
We stumbled upon a building that we figured out had a ride in it. It's over by camp snoopy and the name escapes me right now but the ride experience didn't. It's basically a Trabant indoors. Much the same as Joker at SFNE but this one was great. I love Trabants in insane mode and ones that do both the front and back program. The lighting, Lightning and Thunder and cows flying through the air effects made this ride very fun. I give it a A+
We next rode the train. A 85 year old 4-4-0 American Locomotive that has been converted to Propane. None the less, Great long ride and it takes you back into a town in the back of the park. On the return trip I seen what apeared to be the remains of 2 rides. what were those?
Next up was Thunderhawk. Me and Rob got in, Sat back and the restraints locked first time. COOL! I got to say this ride was just plain fun. Imagine flipping backwards 4 times and on the fifth this wall of water comes crashing down on you! I was soaked from head to ankles but somehow my feet stayed dry. COOL again!
Several more rides on Timberwolf and we left about 8pm bound for St. Louis.
All in all I really liked WOF. Could they use a couple more coasters? Yes, The park is PKI/CP sized but only has 5 including the whacky worm. Other than that the park is wonderfully themed and very well done.
We both left WOF saying I can't believe Busch didn't buy this park when it was up forsale as it reminded us so much of a cross between BGW and BGT. The whole park is themed to Around the world in 80 days.
Chuck, Next TR is SFSTL and THE BOSS!
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Charles Nungester
Lesourdsville Lake, The great American amusement park opens the season June 6th Thurs-Sun every week. Park phone is (513)539-2193
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-Sean Newman
84 coasters in Track Record!! Hypersonic XLC # 100 in July. Waiting for the 305 foot drop tower in 2003. Thank you PKD.
Next up was Orient Express. A cool tunnel leads to the lift and then drop simular but not as big as Loch ness Monster into a interlocking loop section. I believe this was the first interlocking loops, Correct me if I am wrong.
Actually LochNess was the 1st w/interlocking loops. The Orient Express was Arrow's 1st boomerrang, known then as a Kamikazi Kurve.
I enjoyed reading your Midwest reports!
Thanks Dave, We hit IB on friday and didn't see ya.
2 More to come.
Chuck, who just thinks cornball is so much better when Dave is running it :)
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Charles Nungester
Lesourdsville Lake, The great American amusement park opens the season June 6th Thurs-Sun every week. Park phone is (513)539-2193
Great report Chuck.
This is Dustijn from Themeparkonline.org Glad you enjoyed our "homepark." I will make a few comments on your report. The Viking Voyager (flume) has viking ships not canoes, easy to see how you could confuse that though, they used to have dragon heads on the front of them.
The wipeout (or trabant) indoors is called Cyclone Sam's Cloudpoofer 2000.
The remains you say were the Python Plunge (a wet/dry raft slide) and Zambezi Zinger (Schwarzkopf Jumbo Jet).
Glad you enjoyed your day, come back and visit us again sometime soon.
-Dustijn
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SWOOSH
http://www.themeparksonline.org
(In cyberspace no one can hear you scream)
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SWOOSH
http://www.themeparksonline.org
(In cyberspace no one can hear you scream)
Swoosh said:
The remains you say were the Python Plunge (a wet/dry raft slide) and Zambezi Zinger (Schwarzkopf Jumbo Jet).
What remains are still there of Zambezi Zinger other than the station near Boomerang?
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I didn't notice this time, but in the past, the Zinger's tunnel has remained and I think there are several footers left behind....such a sad sight. The park just isn't the same without the Zinger.
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-Matt in Iowa
Just 15 miles from 2 CCI's.
193 coasters ridden -- #1 Shivering Timbers
I noticed a Yo-Yo for sale in about every shop that said Cedar Point Souvinier!
Chuck, who thanks all who replied to my TR's :)
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Charles Nungester
Lesourdsville Lake, The great American amusement park opens the season June 6th Thurs-Sun every week. Park phone is (513)539-2193
Hey Chuck, good stuff, man. Enjoyed reading all portions of your trip and found some great information! Take care,
Woody
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There's nothing like a woodie...
That is kind of a surprise that a Cedar Fair park would usually run minimal operations like WOF does. I would expect that kind of deal from some certain Six Flags parks (to remain unnamed), but for WOF??
Sounds like Orient has become a rough ride as well. I expect that from many arrow loopers these days. ShockWave up by me (Chi-town) has just gone way beyond nasty. It is not even too re-rideable anymore.
Hopefully I will get to visit this park in a little less than a month.
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Off to CP in August, first to IB in July though!! YEA!!!! :-D It will be a good summer!
Questions:
smles@ilstu.edu
FYI the uniforms all became one standard, long before CF:LP came into the picture.
The remains of Zinger that are still there are just footers. The tunnel was taken out when Boomerang was put in.
The remains of Plunge that are left are the footers and run outs, as well as queue lineage.
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SWOOSH
http://www.themeparksonline.org
(In cyberspace no one can hear you scream)
Speak for yourselves but I can and would ride Shockwave all day! Me and my brother just flat out loved it!
Chuck, who can understand it could be rough if you didn't brace yourself but I found it just plain intense and loved Shockwave. :)
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Charles Nungester
Lesourdsville Lake, The great American amusement park opens the season June 6th Thurs-Sun every week. Park phone is (513)539-2193
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