Worlds of Fun 7-18-03

It was the summer and time to plan a big coaster trip. I had made it to Cedar Point to ride my 100th coaster Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. Now what shall I do after hitting 100? Work on 200 coasters, of course! I decided to cut a path through the Midwest and the Ozarks. It was time to go these parks:

7/11 Adventureland
7/12 & 7/13 Six Flags Great America
7/14 Michigan’s Adventure
7/15 Six Flags St. Louis
7/16 Silver Dollar City & Celebration City
7/17 Silver Dollar City
7/18 Worlds of Fun

That was the plan, anyway. Things have a tendency to change.

Today was Worlds of Fun day. I started out in Kansas City, MO and headed through Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri in search of coaster thrills. This was the last thrill of this trip. I wouldn’t be able to spend the entire day at Worlds of Fun because I had a 5:00 flight out. I would have to leave the park at around 3:30.

I left the Motel 6 at around 7:30 am and hit the road. After breakfast and traveling, I arrived at the park at 9:30. Already it was getting to be a hot day! Maybe I should have went to Oceans of Fun today, but I needed my coaster credits. I paid my $8 to park and headed to the park. As I walked to the entrance, the heat was starting to get to me. I heard on the news that it would be over 100 degrees today. It already felt like 90! I’m from Florida – I should be used to the heat! I missed Florida, since it was much cooler than Missouri today!

I bought my admissions ticket, which ended up being $30. I printed out an $8 coupon from the Worlds of Fun website. Instead of giving me a real ticket, I ended up with a receipt that said “Internet ticket.” So a ticket with a color photo of a ride costs $8? I don’t even think I got to keep the ticket (I never do at any Cedar Fair park). Oh well…they can have this tiny receipt for their records.

The park opened right at 9:00. There was no flag raising ceremony or cloggers like Silver Dollar City. One of the front gate attendants got the phone call on the special phone and opened the gates.

I headed first to Orient Express. The wait was about 5 minutes. I was expecting all sorts of head banging on this ride, but it wasn’t too bad. I got banged around a few times, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Most of my anti-head banging techniques worked. The two interlocking loops were pretty neat.

I headed to the Timber Wolf, but it wasn’t open yet. I headed back to Mamba. My first wait was around 15 minutes because the ride broke down. Mamba is an awesome hyper coaster! The seats are so roomy because the trains are so wide. My favorite part was the last few small hills. They gave a lot of good airtime! I liked Mamba a lot better than Steel Force. For some reason, Steel Force at Dorney Park didn’t give me much airtime, no matter how hard it tried. I rode Mamba two more times with a few minute wait for each ride. During my third ride, a guy behind me was yelling, “I’m going to throw up! I can feel peanut butter up my throat!” Good thing he was sitting behind me!

It was around 10:30 now and the heat was just overwhelming. I could feel my neck sizzling! The park had very little shade. The line for the Lost River of the Nile raft ride seemed a mile long! Next up was the Boomerang, which was, um, a Vekoma Bommerang. Yeah…more head banging! I waited about 5 minutes for a ride. This Boomerang wasn’t too bad of a ride, but I’ve been on too many of these off the shelf rides to know what it’s like.

I headed over to the Timber Wolf again. It looked like it was open. I didn’t know what to expect with the Timber Wolf. I waited about 10 minutes for my ride on this coaster with a two-train operation. The queue had an interesting sign. It said something like, “You will experience jostling on this ride. The park is not responsible for what happens on this normal occurrence.” Normal, my butt! The park operators need to have a talk with GCI and ride Ozark Wildcat and Lighting Racer to see if jostling is “normal.” That means head banging on Ninja is a “normal occurrence” too!

When the park was warning about jostling, they weren’t kidding! The Timber Wolf was very rough! I had trouble keeping my hands up because it was so bad. The Timber Wolf made the Orient Express look tame! I decided to ride it only once and never again!

I longed for the smoothness of the Mamba, but I was getting hungry. I ate at Coasters next door to the Mamba. Does nearly every Cedar Fair park have to have a Coasters? It’s a good thing that this one did because I had a hankering for some onion petals. I also had a Bacon Cheeseburger. The food line was the longest line all day – I waited about 25 minutes!

After digesting my lunch, it was time for Mamba again. I had three good rides on it with a few minutes wait. During one of my rides, a guy behind me was screaming like a girl all throughout the ride. Was this the same guy who was going to hurl? Probably!

I was too tall for the Wacky Worm (credit denied!), so I wandered over to the Staxx show, primarily to enjoy the air conditioning. The Staxx show was full of 1950’s hits. It was pretty good. A brunette singer was pretty cute! I took a ride in the train next. The announcer on the train was a lot better than the one at Six Flags St. Louis. She knew her lines and wasn’t reading the script. I took one last ride on the Orient Express with no wait before leaving the park at around 3:30.

Worlds of Fun didn’t seem like a whole day park for me. I’m sure a family could do all the rides in a day, but even if I did the flats, I don’t think I could manage a whole day unless I rode some rides over and over again. I think that if I visit next time, I’d buy an after 4 pm ticket for around $16 and ride everything that I wanted to. That way, I could ride for about 5 hours and then catch the end laser light show. The park became less and less crowded as the afternoon went on.

I headed back to the Kansas City Airport. I returned my Dodge Neon with about 2,000 miles on it. The rental car employees didn’t even blink an eye at the mileage and didn’t charge me any extra. I left for my flight home at around 6:30. The flight was delayed due to a security breach.

Let’s see…the final tally is seven parks and 38 coasters. My coaster count is up to 138. What’s next? It’s time to plan for next year’s trip. I hope to make Hersheypark’s new rocket coaster my 200th coaster next season. It’s only a matter of time…