Note: I hand wrote this on the night after we visited Parque del Cafe. I have typed it out exactly how I wrote it with no changes. This means it will be a little disjointed as all my original un-edited writings are. It’s literally me writing what I think as I think it. But in this case, I think it needs to be exactly that way.
I’m sitting here in our lodging writing this still in Montenegro, Colombia. I have to get these thoughts down or I will forget I’m sure. Two weeks ago, or so, I first wrote down my thoughts about coming here, riding Zinger, overcoming regrets, fears, etc. it’s right here: https://jeffreyjennifer.blogspot.com/2019/05/pre-colombia-trip-thoughts.html?m=1
All I can say, it was worth it a million times over. It’s more amazing then I could have ever imagined. Everything.
For 20 plus years I had heard and read it all. The electric lift hum, soaring through the trees, sitting on the lap of your boyfriend, father, significant other, the tunnel, jumping off and sprinting right back in line to ride again.
For years I tried everything to experience what I had never experienced. Riding Whizzer, Shockwave at Six Flags over Georgia, every single Schwartzkopf I could ride. Every article I could read. I thought I understood. All that was left was to actually ride it.
There was so much more.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I understand finally. Worlds of Fun doesn’t have the one coaster that everyone loves, that everyone can’t wait to ride again and again and again. To not only tell stories about but to also share with their family and friends.
Colombia does. And they know they do. We spoke with the head of ride operations, every two to three months they are repairing the train bearings and motor. They know its intensive, it's probably been that way for 20 years. But guests love it. They stated to us it was the guest's favorite ride, and you know what? I think they love it too. The expressions when I showed and gave them the photos of Zinger, of Jeff sharing his stories, you can’t fake that. They love it, their guests love it, and because of that, it's worth operating a maintenance nightmare.
Yes, Zinger was a maintenance nightmare, no one is discounting that. But sometimes… it's worth it.
I am a dialysis nurse and have been for five years. That is without a question a nightmare for some, but it gives life so patients do it for as long as they can.
Zinger was the heart of the park, it gave the park life. Cedar Fair obviously wasn’t aware of this when they removed it, or they would have never chosen to do so.
So many memories I hope I never forget.
The flight cancellation and rebooking was a headache. The four-hour layover in Panama, the 11 o’clock pm arrival at Pereira, hoping our luggage made it, then having to struggle through translation with customs.
The roller coaster-like drive through the dark, washed out roads, that took about an hour but felt like an eternity. (my stomach won’t let me forget). Arriving at our lodging at midnight and feeling that deep rushing, sinking stomach when no one spoke any English and all I had was my faltering Spanish and google translate (thank god!). I remember thinking, not for the first time, what have I done?! Terrified that I had made a horrible mistake.
We got through it though.
On six hours of sleep, we woke up the next morning at 6:30 (only because I realized I told the employee/cook 7:00 for breakfast). And it was a beautiful, sunny, morning. Birds chirped by the dozens if not hundreds. Oh, and there was no hot water. I found out later that it took about 10 minutes to get hot water.
Breakfast was amazing, and we walked around the grounds admiring the plants, the view, and the birds. Beautiful, the perfect day. One time, years ago, at ACE Coaster Con a member had created a video set to “Perfect Day” and I felt I was living that at that moment.
The fears I had, will Zinger be operating? Will it storm and shut it down? No longer seemed to be as powerful.
The driver came and picked us up a little before 9:00, we were only about 2-3 miles from the park and we arrived around 9:00 for a 10:00 opening.
Since we had an organized trip, our wrist bands were already purchased and from 9:00 to 9:45 time almost seemed to stop. At around 9:45 they opened the walkway down to the turnstiles. I’m trying to remember how I felt at this point, Jeff seems to think I was anxious, pumped. I do remember intently waiting for forward movement.
Now that I am writing this I remember thinking and speaking about how it felt like Christmas morning. The presents are under the tree, and you’re waiting to find out what's inside those shiny packages.
Then the turnstiles open and all you want to do is run as if somehow if you don’t get there fast enough the coaster will go away.
Our plan of attack had already been planned. Zinger was at the bottom of the park, the easiest way to get there was to ride the Von Roll Sky Ride down.
It’s like someone had planned it that way.
Of course, my best memory of Worlds of Fun and earliest is the Sky Hi (a Von Roll Sky Ride as well). So it seemed so perfect. An old favorite introducing me to a new favorite. It was an awesome ride down, from the clunk-clunk out of the station, the Von Roll plaque on the car, like I said you couldn’t have written this any better.
Several hundred feet down, we landed in the back station (which I noticed had the old counterweight, just like Americana would have had). After exiting, I was about as tunnel vision as you could get. I did, however, notice the old firetruck, but it was a quick glance and then moving on.
Did I notice we had made it to the bottom in record time, or that we were the only ones headed towards Montana Rusa? No.
It wasn’t my idea for Facebook live, it was actually Jeff’s but I agreed to it. My gosh, all those times dreaming about how I would feel, what my reaction would be… Well its there forever in vivid living color and I’m glad I recorded it. It seemed like the walk took forever, everything in the park is very spread out. Bridges, walkways, turns, and finally… the blue spiral lift of Zinger.
For a split second my heart stopped. We had seen it run from the Skyride, but there was not a peep from it now. Oh God please let it be running today.
The line was open, we were the first ones there, it was quiet, not a sound at all. Enter that horrible sinking feeling…
But thankfully it didn’t last long. A small group was behind us and once they showed up an employee popped his head out of the small hut centered in the middle of the lift hill and said 10 minutes! In retrospect, I now understand Zinger was and still is not a morning coaster. If you can imagine when you get up to your alarm clock after a night with not enough sleep thinking “do I have to….” That seems pretty much the story. The employees were waiting for a full train of riders to show up to run it.
Still, even then there were water jugs in the 2nd and 3rd seats. As first arrivals, I was front seat all the way, and only made sense to ride with Jeff for the first go.
The ride itself was surreal. It’s a good thing I would ride it multiple more times! I recall thinking how long the lift hill was, of course, my only point of reference was Whizzer and Jet Stars which are at least one spiral shorter. I recall being surprised by the three airtime moments, and how dark and amazing the final tunnel was. I was a little surprised as to how pokey the overall ride was, there was more than one time I wasn’t entirely sure if we would make it over the next hill.
Of course, now I know why. Remember the water jugs and waiting for a full train?
We rode it twice more in the morning, once immediately after and again an hour later. Jeff and I spent time going around the ride, he videoing it to death, I spent time re-creating old photos I had brought with me.
For our third ride, it was just Matt and I (this was the ride the 360 was recorded on). Jeff wanted to go ride Krater but we snuck off to ride. By this time Zinger had picked up some kick and was running full trains (the water bottles had been removed). And that high-speed turn was very much in pure Schwartzkopf fun, speedy and just a little thrilling fashion.
One moment I vividly recall was after we stopped in the brakes the riders behind us began yelling ‘otro veis” which in English translates to “again, again!” I heard that over and over again throughout the day.
Worth mentioning also is that this ride was also the only one with a significant line, we waited for about three trains to ride. Doesn’t seem to much but compared to all the other rides in the park that were walk-ons it was definitely popular.
While waiting I spoke (or attempted to speak) with one of the ride operators as we had decided to wait for the front again. I mentioned that the coaster actually came from where we were from and gave him one of the photos I had brought with me. (since they were actually Walmart prints of the originals). When we came back around after riding I saw the same ride operator down at the ride exit showing the photo to a ride mechanic which made me smile. But I didn’t think much of beyond that point.
Afterward with Jeff biting at the bit to ride the new thrill coaster Krater and Yipee both Gerstlauers (funny enough all the parks coasters were built in the same factory). The landscaping around both was amazing, the rides were a lot of fun and Yippee had an amazing view as it was perched up on a mountainside.
Afterward, Jeff, Matt and I stopped at a snack stand and tried a Perro Caliente (Hot Dog), which was topped with a type of french fried topping. It was awesome and of course, because of the conversion was dirt cheap.
At this point, we decided to head back to Zinger. I believe this is when I tried Zinger in the backseat, which I ended up enjoying more than almost anywhere else. It had definitely picked up some additional speed and had broken in well for the day. We ended up riding twice this time (5 times for those keeping track) and after our second ride, we were stopped on exiting by a ride operator. Though there was a language barrier (entirely my fault), I figured things out when he handed me the phone.
That little photo earlier, had made its way around. At this point, I believe they thought the photo I had given them was one of a similar coaster. We had been invited to the park operations office. It took us a little bit to find it, along with the fact of our poor Spanish. But find it we did and it was a fascinating experience. Maria, who had originally called me (because she spoke English well), She brought out the head of ride operations who also spoke English well. We were able to explain that their Montana Rusa was exactly the same coaster. I e-mailed them a copy of the vertical profile blueprints we had and gave them a copy of the Great Times article about the old fire truck. The operations manager mentioned how they continued to have problems with the drive motors (Zinger/Rusa have electric motors in each car which propels it up the lift hill). Overall, they seemed appreciative and were extremely polite. We ended up with some extra souvenirs from the experience as well as an interesting story!
After departing we headed to the train which, though it was a diesel, of course, Jeff wanted to ride. The train departed on a schedule and since it was a warm day this offered a nice place in the shade to relax. We actually met a couple there, the husband was originally from San Jose Ca. And had lived in Colombia off and on for several years. We had a great conversation (always that look and smile when we tell people why we came…). The train ride itself was fun, it actually had two stations. The most memorable was, no surprise, passing Zinger which was eerily similar to the train ride at Worlds of Fun. So much so that I started up the train spiel that originally was for Zinger, that I had modified for Prowler when I was a conductor in 2009.
I forgot to mention between the office meeting and train we finally got our good look at the fire truck that was near the train depot. Obviously, there is no way to know definitely if its WOF’s old fire truck, but I can’t imagine two 1923 LaFrance Brockway Torpedos out there… at the same park that also happens to have Zinger.
So back to the train. It was about 4:00 when we got back around and I was itching to head back to Zinger and sit on the ride for about the last hour. But Jeff, being Jeff wanted to check out a section of the park we hadn’t visited yet but saw on the train that happened to have an unusual Huss enterprise with double cabs. I’ve never seen one like that and considering all the parks I’ve been to that's saying something. About 4:30 we headed back to Zinger and got there around 4:45. They make you go back around with each ride, we got about three rides in before 5:00 giving us a total of 8 rides for the day. I have to say, though I knew we had to leave, it was depressing looking at the ride, possibly for the last time. That it had taken me pretty much my whole 41 years to finally ride. I wanted to go back and ride it again and again and realized I never might have that opportunity. I finally understood. Riding it was great, fun, amazing… losing it really knocked it all home.
But it’s not just the ride, not just the high-speed turn, or lift, its more than that. Its the sound when the hum of the lift kicks on, the Schwartzkopf chug, chug, chug, sitting in a loved ones lap and in reality I'm not sure that can be duplicated in any way. Maybe.
One thing is true, there is nothing like it at Worlds of Fun since 1997. We headed to the Von Roll station and rode the Skyway back up, the same way we came. I remember thinking and mentioned how it reminded me of a story I heard where guests would use the trams as “one last ride” to get their kids out of the park. In the same way, the Von Roll was my last ride out of the park. It softened the blow.
Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the park. It compares highly to some of the nicest parts in the country (US). The park was beautiful, well-maintained, clean, employees were helpful and friendly and the rides we experienced had minimal waits and were fun. And then it had the Zinger too...
