Delirium_Guy Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Our original intentions were to leave Six Flags St. Louis and drive about halfway to Des Moines, IA to hit up Adventureland. This is one small park that has eluded me for years and I'm determined to make it there!! Unfortunately, I partied a bit to hard the night before we left, got little sleep, flew out of Orlando at 7AM, drove 3 hours to St. Louis, spent 12 hours of marathoning on Boss and Knievel, so I was spent. We only made it about 80 miles out of St. Louis and found a motel in Hannibal, MO. The plan was to get up around 6AM and make the trek to Adventureland. We wanted to have a few hours there before we drove to WoF. We wanted to have at least 5 or 6 hours at WoF to soak in Prowler. Sadly, that 6AM wake up call just wasn't enough to get us out of bed so we ended up sleeping until 10AM. Not wanting to compromise any Prowler time, we decided to scrap Adventureland this trip and head on to Kansas City. What a mistake this would turn out to be. I've been to Worlds of Fun several times now. I've always enjoyed the Park. Its small, but it never screamed Cedar Fair as it had a lot of charm left to it. Lots of trees and shady areas. Just a nice little Park. The coaster collection is pretty mediocre, I hadn't ridden Patriot before this visit. I always use to enjoy Orient Express and was sad to see it removed. We arrived to the park around 230PM and decided that since we didn't spend the extra money to drive up and hit Adventureland we'd rent a cottage at Worlds of Fun Village. $119 for the cottage, which was actually quite nice. I think I'd prefer this set up at Cedar Point's Lighthouse Point, which offers some beautiful views and scenary. There is no such view or scenary at WoF. Highway to the front and a few trees to the back. All we got was the obnoxiously loud sounds of Mamba's lift hill and overkill block brake! Waited till 4PM to take advantage of the $21.95 Twilight Ticket. As we were walking to the back entrance at Oceans of Fun, I couldn't help but notice the lack of Mamba trains we'd see run. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, ONE train. Already off to a bad start, as we could see the line snaking out of the station, stairs and out of the queue line. Ugh. We made it in the Park and started to explore, skipping Mamba for obvious reasons yet trying to figure out the justification for ONE freakin' train on a 3 minute ride with a queue full of people. We headed over to Timberwolf, only to find it closed. I saw some guys out on the track, not sure what the issue was, but it would be down the remainder of the day. I'm hearing its seen better days, so not sure we missed out on much. I used to love it though! Next up: Patriot -- What a visually stunning ride this is. Its placement on top of the hill really makes it stand out on the Parks skyline and it has a killer lighting package on the lift hill at night. Unfortunately, thats about where it stops. The layout is unique, but its just another B&M as of lately.....fun but nothing exciting. Its pretty forceless, actually, with no real intensity to be found anywhere on the ride. Kinda has a peppy ending with the large drop into the flatspin, but other than that Patriot was a snoozer. Shockingly enough, ONE train as well. ONE train would be the theme of Worlds of Fun as we'd soon find out EVERY coaster was a one train operation. We skipped Spinning Dragons, as I had ridden before and the fact that they were running TWO out of I believe SEVEN cars that they have. Such a far contrast from the prior day where the same ride at Six Flags was at MAX capacity. So we moved on and took at spin on Boomerang since it was a walk on. Finally..... Prowler - Well, when they announced Prowler I became very fascinated with this ride. The layout looked promising, especially given some of the winners GCI has cranked out in the last few years, and the thought of the use of terrain certainly caught my attention. Making our way to Prowler, we were both already incredibly frustrated in the Park Operations so our mood was pretty sour. It got worse when we waited an HOUR for Prowler due to, say it with me, ONE TRAIN OPERATION. Brand new marquee attraction, single train operation. You're the best, CF! Ok, ok, enough ranting, the ride. WOW. I don't think I liked it as well as Evil Knievel, but its an awesome ride! The first drop is just so so, but where Prowler shines is from the second drop on. From there it becomes just an insane mess of quick jogs to the left and right, very abrupt bunny hops and drops that keep the train screamin' along the outbound run. The turnaround was pretty intense with laterals before sending the train heading back toward the station. The last third of the ride is really a blur, the train just jumps up and down in very quick successions before making a serious agressive upward turn to the right to bring the train into a final S-Curve back into the brakes. We wanted a re-ride but didn't want to wait again given the operation of the ride. Well, at this point, we had been in the Park just under 2 hours and were done. Had no desire to do anything else. We knew we wanted a night ride on Prowler, but the thought of staying in the Park for 3 more hours was a nightmare for us. So we left the Park and found a grocery store since we decided to grill out at the cottage that evening. Around 730, we decided to head back into the Park. Brandon wanted to ride Mamba. The line wasn't as bad, but we still waited 25 minutes for it. The out bound run is decent and the helix is actually pretty fun, unfortunately by the time you make it to the block brake they practically bring the train to a crawl. The result is an uneventful run home that does absolutely nothing. Oh well, I warned Brandon as thats how it rode my last time, but at least he got his credit :-) We made our way over to Prowler where thankfully the line was just down the station stairs. Still a 20 minute wait, but it was getting dark. We were able to ride 3 more times, including one front seat ride. The front is where the ride shines. Its not really so much about the airtime, but just the crazy lateral kicks that the ride delivers. Night rides are fantastic, on par with Voyage in that there are absolutely NO lights ANYWHERE on the course. Its just a fantastic ride all around and really delivers, props to GCI for another great ride! Our visit to WoF was incredibly frustrating. In addition to one train operations on every coaster, employees were lethargic and truly didn't seem to care. Only the Prowler crew was having fun doing what they were doing. I felt sorry for the guy operating Prowler as he was getting *****ed out practically every train that dispatched by regular guests wondering what the deal with one train was. I was so frustrated, I decided to go to Guest Relations. I wasn't wanting anything in return, just to document what a terribly bad time we had at the Park due to crappy operations. I know sometimes we tend to be more critical of Parks than others, but we heard a lot of GP making similiar comments. They aren't stupid, they know when things are bad or out of the ordinary. We were then escorted back through the Park with security, since we were staying at WoF Village and had to exit through the Oceans of Fun gate. WoF is a nice park, it really is, unfortunately they are plagued with bad operations.....some of which are their fault and some are policies that are CF. My visit to KI back in May yielded some similiar experiences. Sad to see. While I understand the need to save on expenses, staffing, etc, there comes a point where you have to stop cutting. When the guest experience begins to be compromised, its time to stop and I feel that so far on my two experiences at CF parks this year its at that point. KI was much better than WoF, don't take me the wrong way, but seeing one train operation on Beast and Vortex both was very hard for me to wrap my head around. Six Flags learned the hard way, I think its going to take the same for CF. Hopefully not. We left the Park had our cookout and headed to bed. We were bound for Branson the next morning for some Silver Dollar City! - Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Mamba. One train. AND mid course brake? Does not compute. My head hurts. Did not used to be that way. Park. Coasters. One train. Does not compute. My head hurts. Did not used to be that way. Cedar Fair. Many parks. One of two known to be for sale. Is that why? If so, so sad. So very, very sad. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedarPointer Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Timber Wolf got some very extensive track work done this year (think Beast), I've heard it's quite smooth again. I got to marathon it late last season, when the first half of the ride was retracked. Loved it! Mamba has always run one train when I've been at the park. Even of Fourth of July 2008. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I really, really want to love Worlds of Fun. Heaven knows I have tried. Timberwolf was awesome in its early days, before a rider tried unsuccessfully to change seats while the ride was in motion, and met an untimely death. The ride was substantially tamed thereafter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedarPointer Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 They did remove the trims last year. And, by remove, I literally mean remove. They weren't physically present. Now, I don't know if that's changed this year, but I'm hoping it hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondback FOF Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I'm sorry you had what sounds like a lousy time. Why were you escorted back through the Park with security? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Because, as he said in his post: ...since we were staying at WoF Village and had to exit through the Oceans of Fun gate.... Anyone who stays at Worlds of Fun village and doesn't have a Platinum Pass or a two park season pass or ticket gets the same treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedarPointer Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Or, if OoF is closed for the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gad198 Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Good TR. I'm thinking about heading to those same parks later this summer, so thank you for shedding some light on each park. I like your short, simple reviews of the coasters. Thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delirium_Guy Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 Or, if OoF is closed for the night. Yes, this was after Park close and the Park had already been cleared by security for the night. I'm VERY happy to hear Timberwolf got some TLC. As I said, I used to absolutely love the thing! I do actually enjoy the Park, its a nice little Park. Unfortunately, just plagued by crappy operations as I stated. Yes, Terpy, one train Mamba and heavy mid course blocking. Ironically enough, through the second half I felt like I was on Diamondback ;-) - Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIfan1980 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 We left the Park had our cookout and headed to bed. We were bound for Branson the next morning for some Silver Dollar City! - Todd Where is the Day 3 trip report? I enjoyed reading day 1 and 2, but since I took a trip to Silver Dollar City earlier this year, was looking forward to your take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browns4life Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 One train op on everything reminds me of the SFWoA days!!! I remember going on a Saturday in July and Batman, Villain, and X-Flight all only had one train, yet Double Loop was running two, go figure... I also remember last year at KI it was in the middle of summer and it had just stormed, after it cleared every ride went down to one train! No one really left the park either. SOB runs slow with two trains! Yet it ran with one, talk about having time to kill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delirium_Guy Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 Where is the Day 3 trip report? I enjoyed reading day 1 and 2, but since I took a trip to Silver Dollar City earlier this year, was looking forward to your take. Got a little busy, hopefully can get it posted soon. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to SDC though! -Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corn4ahead Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 wow, i know exactly how you feel. This one train stuff is for the birdsl. I was there the friday before memorial day weekend and one train on everything except Prowler which was nice. We got 2 or 3 walk on rides on it but everything else was rediculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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