Worlds of Fun - Mon-Tues, August 4-5, 2014

Another park I've visited once before, I spent Monday and Tuesday evenings at Worlds of Fun. Pretty light crowds both nights. I got into Kansas City around 8 PM on Monday, checked into hotel and went to the park for a bit. Headed to Patriot and virtually walked on, two rides. "What goes up, must come down, but not before we send you around, bye bye Patriot!" A solid invert, more graceful as the elements are farther apart. One ride in the front row made for some great visuals. Nearby was WindSe....errr, I mean SteelHawk! "Sit back with your head upright, SteelHawk is taking flight!" At night, you can see the lights of the surrounding suburbs for miles.

I then made my way back to Africa for some night rides on Prowler. "Open your eyes and watch your back, you're about to become Prowler's snack, rawwrrrr!" This ferocious feline is one excellent ride. Loved it just as much as my last visit, one of my favorite woodies. Outbound you get lateral forces from quick transitions, both left and right, through the wooden terrain. At night it's virtually pitch black -- and the camera is right before a dip so you're totally blind for a second or two. Coming back, it's some more quick transitions and a bunch of pops of air in rapid succession, never letting up speed. The finale -- twisting upward with a couple more small airtime hills -- is great. Very smooth with its Millennium Flyer trains. Needless to say I stayed here until close.

More barbeque: Ate at Gates B-B-Q on Tuesday evening. Considering the huge lunch I ate, I only got the burnt end sandwich -- which was still so huge I only ate half. Gates does their burnt ends chopped vs. most other places are chunked. Quite good, not as tender as OK Joe's but the meat crust had a bit more flavor. Gates' sauce is thinner and more vinegar based -- I like Carolina-style BBQ but didn't care much for their sauces anyhow.

Heading back to the park on Tuesday around 6:30 PM and walking around some, I realized how refreshing this place feels vs. a typical Cedar Fair park. There are trees everywhere, and different areas of the park actually have area-specific music, signage, etc. Panda Express is actually in the Orient section! I was wondering why SteelHawk got a different name....maybe because (gasp) it fits better with the Americana section? I'm sure today pales in comparison to the original "Around The World In Eighty Days" idea but compared to other CF properties, Worlds of Fun really stands out.

Having walked off dinner, I went to Timber Wolf. "Howwwllll!" It was alright....as long as you sit near the front. No one was filling in the back rows (although there weren't many people in the station). The water sprays aren't there anymore, for me that was the only stupidly redeeming feature of this ride, ha. Next was Cyclone Sam, an enclosed Wipeout ride. Cool lighting inside, with a couple periods of total darkness, no music though. The second half of a Wipeout cycle is nuts.

Went to the back of the park for a few rides on Mamba. "Sit back and hold on tight, the Mamba is about to strike, *thump thump* hissssssss." (complete with fang gesture) Haven't ridden a Morgan in a while. Very good ride here. The first drop is quite different in the back car (whipped over) vs. front (nearly come to a dead stop). The second drop has sustained floater air, 2+ solid seconds in the back! The series of headchoppers on the helix is crazy. Even after the camelback hills there's still one last swoop over the midway before the brake run. Took another spin on SteelHawk and a ride on Viking Voyager (log flume with nicely decorated boats) before some more night rides on Prowler, didn't quite stay until close this time. So good.

Hotel mini-review: Best Western Country Inn North, about 10 minutes from WoF and 20 minutes from Schlitterbahn KC. Recently renovated rooms with new beds, free wi-fi, minifridge. Right off I-35 north of Kansas City. There is a convenient 7-Eleven next door.

Talon (and because they're clones, Patriot) was always my favorite invert, and I'll even go so far as to say my favorite B+M.

Right up until I rode Banshee this summer. I said in an earlier thread that I'd need to ride Talon again before I could make a definite decision, but I'm glad you liked it too.

My one visit to WoF was a few years ago and only lasted 3 hours. I took the bus from my hotel downtown, walked a quick loop, hitting each of the coasters and a few extras, before leaving again. It was more of a "preview" than anything else, because I didn't have much time and didn't want to stay out too late. I think I spent more time on the buses than at the park.

I already talked about BBQ in your Schlit TR, but I was not a fan of Gates. Went there only once, with 2 other co-workers, and none of us cared for it much. It was the sauce. Not a big fan, but hey, sauce is subjective, and they are all different, that's what makes eating BBQ so awesome!

Tommytheduck said:

in your Schlit TR,

Hey, Tommy, it wasn't that bad of a TR!

(and yes, I know I'm not supposed to quote the post above, but I needed to extract the nugget!)