World's of Fun

Saturday; April 24, 2004; 11 AM till 10 PM; Raining for the first few hours.

Let me begin by saying that Word’s of Fun is a great park for airtime lovers. I just had a great time.

Spinning Dragons: This is a fun little ride. They were only running 3 cars, but capacity did not seem too bad. There was a lot more squealing than on Timberland Twister, but the ride was about the same. I did get great air on the bunny hop during the rain which is something that won’t happen at Camp Snoopy.

Mamba: I rode this 3 times in the front and it was riding great. The trims were closed, but the train was blasting thru them coming out with tons of speed, and I got air on every hill on every trip. The second hill of Mamba has got to be the best second hill of any hyper I have been on. This is a great steel coaster for lots of floating air.

Thunderhawk: This is by far my favorite flat anywhere. If you have been bored on a topspin at another park (like me) you need to give this one a shot. The flipping action is INSANE. It was going great and on part of the ride that normally gives you about 2-3 consecutive flips was doing 4-5. These were FAST flips and the enthusiasts were loving it and the GP was getting sick. It was soooo cool. Thunderhawk > your homepark’s topspin.

Cyclone: My first time on this one. Very interesting ride. If you try it, don’t try it after lunch.

Timber Wolf: TIMBER WOLF ROCKS HARD!! I can’t believe I was comparing this ride to Phoenix and Cornball, but like I said, TIMBER WOLF ROCKS HARD!! I have no doubt that if this ride got the TLC it needs to give a decent ride in every seat with no trims on the first drop or any shaved speed till the end, this would be a top 5 woodie for me. Last year when I rode it, I was getting air in 3-4 parts. In the rain it was 8. Not just little pops. 6 were awesome and the rest was still better than average. The ride was flying and wild. On some trips, the air in parts was about as good as I have experienced anywhere. This ride was rocking hard. (BTW, airtime described is in 1.1; other seats are good too but will not have nearly as much air.) At night, the track was dry and I was back to 3-4 great airtime moments, but I was still having tons of fun. The laterals are hard, the speed is aggressive, and the airtime comes in quality and quantity on this ride. However, it does shake hard. If you sit in some seats, you will need your Tylenol.

I was talking to some people about this ride so you can take this for what it is worth. A ride op said that last year TW was running about 50 mph and was slamming into the breaks so hard it kept shutting down the ride, so this year it was slowed to 45. It seemed faster to me than last year, especially during the rain, but that is what he said. Also, an enthusiast I met there said that the week before TW was running even better and that he would compare it to any woodie out there. If it was running better than what I got, there are few coasters I would not compare it too.

I highly recommend this park and I am sure I will be back this year.

Great Trip Report, I'm glad that you found my home town park as great as I do.

Yes, another appreciator of the mighty Timeber Wolf. I love riding the Wolf in the rain. It still gives a great ride even with the trim and other additions/changes (head rests, individual restraints, individual lap belts...), but I sure miss the days of jumping the seat divider on that fist hop through the lift structure, except for when I landed wrong. ;) The Timber Wolf taught me what air-time and laterals were.

I don't believe the talk about it shutting down from hitting the brakes too hard and being slowed down to 45mph. That might actually be slow enough to cause a roll-back in the helix. It ran at a top speed of 53mph+ for several years without any problems (before the accident, before the trim brake was added, before the Empire). In fact the first year, it plowed into the brakes and the train was brought to a very forceful stop. One time, the seat I was in (1.2 if memory serves), slid about an inch forward off of the bench). The next season, it was more gradual and often didn't fully stop until partially into the turnaround.

It's funny how often you hear enthusiasts praise the Wolf like it's an underated, rare gem now. Back before all the CCI and GCI masterpieces came to be, the Timber Wolf was "THE" woodie. It was the Shivering Timbers/Raven/Thunderhead of the time just like Magnum was thought to be "God" by everyone before all the other hypers came along.

How does the new lighting look? I think Swoosh said something about WOF installing a dramatic, new lighting system for the Wolf. Also, are the handrails still painted gray? What's up with that anyway? If you're gonna paint them, at least make them something cool like red. Did you hear any chatter from people being shocked that Orient Express was gone?
-Matt in Iowa (devoted Timber Wolf fan since 1989)

Question...

Does anyone like the new World's Of Fun website?

It seems that they have a fair amount of stats on the rollercoasters!

Neil

It is funny you should ask about the lights. I did not notice they were new, but there were various floodlights through out the track along with strings of lights on some hills. I asked a ride op if they ever turn them out (hoping for a dark ride) but he said they were on a timer and they go on by themselves and stay on all night even after they close.

I did hear some chatter about OE. Some kids missed it and asked a ride op why it was gone. He said that they use the turnstyles to count guests and OE was down so much that it did not have enough riders last year so they took it out. I don't know if that is true or not.

I really wish I could have ridden TW when it was new. That one and Beast bug me that I never did. It kinda makes me want to make a good effort to get to Dollywood before time takes its toll on Thunderhead.

I don't know about the handrails; did not think to take note about them.

Flying over the divider sounds like so much fun. Was it just one seatbelt per bench back then? :) *** Edited 4/26/2004 3:51:24 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

The restraints were very minimal before the girl fell out. She was appearently standing up, and with the new restraints, standing isn't possible. That was a sad story when that girl fell out. She went to high school with my brother.

Was this when the trims were added, or were they already there before the accident?

I did not know anyone fell out of TW. That is a sad story. When I was a kid, I went on Rebel Yell at PKD (then just KD) when it only had a buzzbar. They sat a teen next to me and he scared the heck out of me when he stood up all the way down the first hill. I guess some people need to be stapled to ride safely.