Below are our opening day reviews from 1999-2002 and 2005. When I wrote them and published them on dot org I never thought of saving them for historical posterity, they were more ramblings on current happenings at the park. Looking back... I have found they are not 100% accurate, some of my opinions have changed, and some have not (that Boomerang tent is still hideous). However, they give a great snapshot of what happened, when, and what my thoughts and opinions were of those happenings at that point. Reading them, is almost like going back and reading old diary entries. You the reader may find them boring, but if I already find them interesting from a historical vantage today, I feel that they are more than worth being saved. Please be aware that at the time my grammar skills were literally none existent. That does go to prove though that anyone, even someone who still doesn't understand the use of a semicolon, can improve.
1999 (April 18, 1999)
Well, as we were all hoping, it did end up warming up for the second day of the 1999 season. So unlike the day before, Mamba and the Orient Express where completely operational. Sometimes it seemed that the Mamba spent more time sitting than it did running. Unlike we had hoped, the Orient Express still has the roughest ride in the world. It is very noticable that Worlds of Fun did quite a bit of work over the winter.
First off, the good comments. Worlds of Fun did end up giving the entire Baltic Bazaar area (the Scandinavian shops) a face lift. Not only did they re-paint them white and cream but they also did a minor re-haul to the interiors that it desperatly needed. Unbelivably, the Omegatron seemed to have no problems working, it worked the entire time I was visiting the park from 11 AM to 4 PM. Some major brownie points for Worlds of Fun in that arena.
The Coaster Grill is still unfinished. It looks as though they are heading for an opening in May sometime, probably around Memorial Day. However, it does look dreadfully tacky against its African bathroom across the way. Overall, the whole area does give a quite nice view of Fury of the Nile and Mamba. Fury of the Nile also ran all day. However, the major geysers and waterfalls were completly turned off as expected. Due to the low turnout, the lines were short for every ride.
While speaking of the Africa/Americana desert between Mamba and the Forum . . . the Forum is no longer. In obviously keeping with the 50's theme of the Coaster Grill (It looks like a cross between a Winsteads and a Waids) the Forum was re-named to the "Heart of America Theater." Now KC has a Heart of America bridge and a Heart of America Theater (in fact two if I'm correct). Onto Americana . . . The Grand Prix is fairly nice, if it wasn't for the used Cedar Point race cars and the chopped up Henrietta.
The famous "bad luck" Oriental Archway is no more. The red arch that divided Americana from the Orient is now gone, a victim of de-theming. Its very sad. Other notes . . . the Flying Dutchman has been painted Fushia. The Scandinavian gate was painted a dark blue and the Worlds of Fun Railroad has been painted Red. For those who didn't know, the Finnish Fling was painted a Teal and Cream color at the end of the 1998 season. On the cleanliness side, it seems Worlds of Fun is off to a fairly good start but on the theme park side, it needs more help then ever before.
2000 (April 12, 2000)
Worlds of Fun opened its gates once more for its 28th season on a very cold April 8th. Probably not one of the better opening days on record it seemed as if nothing ran and everything went wrong. The day started on as the gates opened at 9:30 that morning. The temperature was sitting barely above freezing but that didn't keep people from the park. It did however keep most of the rides from running. At the time of opening only a few rides outside of europa where open, these included ELI and the Scrambler in Americana and the Viking Voyager in Scandinavia.
First on the list of news has to be the new ride for 2000, The Boomerang. The lines for Boomerang began forming soon after the gates opened at 9:30 yet the Boomerang didn't give its first public ride until about Noon. The reasoning given by the operators was that they had to wait for the temperature to reach 45 degrees, then it was 48 degrees and finally it was 50 degrees. One thing that we did notice that was different from the other Boomerangs that we have ridden was that the brakes coming out of the loop were not used the entire weekend.
The Boomerang station is as many have commented just positively awful. It's yellow steel station with a violet and yellow-stripped canopy. Basically, it looks straight out of a carnival. Worlds of Fun has obviously been getting a slow start on landscaping since the land around the boomerang as well as most of the flower gardens are still packed dirt. The Q-House, which happens to be one of the few good features of the Boomerang is the original Q-House for the Zambezi Zinger. It has been repainted a dusty red color, with green and violet trim. On a positive note, I was happy to see that they had replaced the African themed fencing around the majority of the Boomerang area. Also, reaction of exiting riders does seem to be positive. Since few Kansas Citians are hard core coaster riders most have never rode a roller coaster that goes both forwards and backwards, and many seem to enjoy the Boomerang a great deal.
Approximately 30 minutes after the Boomerang opened the Mamba opened. The Orient Express opened around mid-afternoon, with the Timberwolf being the last to open at about 3pm. The Orient Express is on of the few overall positives we have to give to Cedar Fair this year. It looks absolutely wonderful, and almost new. However, answering many people's question it appears that the Orient Express is running as rough as it did when it opened in 1980. However, one Orient Express enthusiast did believe that in the front car the Orient Express appeared to be running faster then it had previously.
As an answer to the running rumors on the Plunge (Python Plunge) it appears our questions and our prayers have finally been answered. As many enthusiasts have previously noted the Plunge had not been added to the official Worlds of Fun site. It was found on opening day that the Plunge had been also totally removed from the park map as well as its sign removed from the train trestle just in front of its entrance. After talking to a few park employees it has become obvious that the plunge is history and will probably be removed during the course of this year. The Plunge was added as the Python Plunge in 1988.
Another ride that was out of decommission was the Zulu added in 1979. After again conversing with Worlds of Fun employees it was discovered Worlds of Fun was incorrectly shipped the wrong parts and is still waiting for the shipment of the correct parts. With that the Zulu cars are lined up in front of the past Plunge entrance. No word as to when the Zulu will open to the public.As to the overall park it appears in much the same way as it did at the beginning of last season. A few rides and Q-Houses where repainted, most obvious being the Viking Voyager repainting to its new aquamarine with blue and fuschia highlights. (It's not as bad as it sounds). The water had yet to be dyed to its distinctive yet weird blue and green colors, thus revealing their shallow concrete basins. We where happy to see that few trees lost their life this year (except around the Orient Express), but a few of the numerous trees cut down last year where replaced by rock trees (great big boulders). However, we did take notice of this years major non-attraction removal. This year it seems that Worlds of Fun decided to remove the Steadman Plaza from Scandinavia. For those of you who don't know, Jack Steadman was probably one of the biggest reasons Worlds of Fun was ever designed or built and we owe him a great debt for bringing the idea of Worlds of Fun Kansas City.
We where told from a Worlds of Fun employee that Worlds of Fun has plans to rebuild Steadman Plaza, only time will tell if this holds true or not. Overall, it seems Worlds of Fun has started yet another season on a bad foot, Here is hoping that the next following weekends Worlds of Fun gets everything working and back in one single piece.
2001 (April 7, 2001)
The air was warm and humid this Saturday as Worlds of Fun opened its gates for its 29th season. It seems Worlds of Fun may be off to its best start since Cedar Fair has owned the park since we noticed several minor additions. We first noticed as we entered the park Snoopy was there to greet and take pictures with guests of all ages. Snoopy was also available along with his other favorite Peanut characters to greet visitors at the entrance to Camp Snoopy. Along with other overall changes they have as reported changed soft drink vendors from Coke to Pepsi Cola, as well as some basic landscaping work which included new red mulch all over the park.
Since the day was warm all the roller coasters where running as well as all rides, excluding the Octopus in Scandinavia which unfortunately was still sitting completely disassembled. New for the 2001 season was the fifth version of Camp Snoopy, which was handled to our pleasure a lot better then we expected. Along with the two new children’s rides and Snoopy bounce attraction. While a few remnants of Bear Country remain including the Museum, Spooky Old Tree (re- themed as the Kite Eating Tree) as well as the Club House (Woodstock’s Nature Point), and School House (Sally’s Dance Studio). The defining features of Campy Snoopy including the wooden red railings where present replacing the Q-lines, as well as adding benches and other small touches which make it seem like they actually tried for a chance to do a half way decent job. Jennifer was also happy to note that this year instead of ripping out trees they are actually ADDING several pine trees to the Camp Snoopy area. The only bad note to report as far as Camp Snoopy goes is that Worlds of Fun in its traditional mode did decide to remove Either Oar, a small children’s kayak ride this year.
Also it seems the news about the re-themed Front Street was partially true, a few of the shops have been re-named, several have been re-painted and only one, the old Collectible Corner has been re-themed to carry plush toys. Included in some of the re-names are: Sharon’s Sweet Shop has now become Sally’s Sweets and Just Dandy Candy has been re-named Peppermint Patty’s.
Moving into Europa, we at first where dismayed since it seems the old eye sore Grand Prix track is still there, and still looking as tacky as ever, however the positives (for once) outweigh the negatives. Worlds of Fun has moved ahead in its original plan to remodel all of Worlds of Fun’s neglected bathrooms. They have completely remodeled the Europa bathroom with automatic flush toilets and new tiles. Also, far more exciting, they have replaced approximately 10 bumper car vehicles for the AutoBahn and approximately 5-7 for Krazy Kars junior bumper cars with new cars this year. This is good news for the Autobahn, which was in desperate need of some attention.
Moving onto Africa, we first noticed that the Python Plunge is... still STANDING. Believe it or not it seems Worlds of Fun might be planning to just wait for it to fall down. Aside from that we noticed a few Fury of the Nile geyser piping sitting abandoned along the Worlds of Fun Railroad track. We where unable to ascertain whether they have been replaced or not currently. If they where replaced this would be good news since the geysers where also in need of some work. Also in the news, the Big Game Hunt is still standing with all props, however at the time it was currently closed, also the Monsoon has been painted and appears a very nice bright blue even though it was closed through the duration of opening day.
Saving what possibly could be the best news of the year for last we are happy to note that Worlds of Fun might have finally paid attention to our constant remarks about the removal of Steadman Plaza in Scandinavia. This year we are very happy to report that The Rock is now back in Scandinavia. Steadman Plaza’s signature pink granite rock along with plaque has finally been rightfully re-added to Worlds of Fun.
As we stated earlier we where fairly happy with opening day this year and believe it to be possibly one of the best opening days in the past years. Of course, this could be because they haven’t really added anything major this year, but still Worlds of Fun does deserve a small amount of credit for starting out on the right foot for a change.
2002 (April 6, 2002)
On April 6th, 2002 Worlds of Fun opened its gates for its 30th Season, with the new thrilling ride ThunderHawk. Opening earlier then it had in several years, the day was mild and the crowds, while light, where heavier then average for opening day. All of Worlds of Fun’s roller coasters where operating when the park opened, with the exception of a few opening day glitches, including a few points of downtime for both the Orient Express and Boomerang. The star of this show however, was the ThunderHawk and revitalized Bicentennial Square. Worlds of Fun could have handled adding ThunderHawk the way they had added rides in the past, they could have thrown a new ride in there, with the standard station and not done anything with the area around it. The whole area was completely opened up, they re-landscaped the entire area around the ThunderHawk, the color scheme of the ride was well done in a patriotic red, white and blue. I was also happy to see that the color scheme for the adjoining Bicentennial Square (games) was bright and colorful and didn’t leave you wondering if the painters where color blind. Also of note, the ThunderHawk introduced a new ride element to the basic Top Spin ride. It became the first aquatic Top Spin that literally left many of its riders soaked, and also added a definite crowd pleasing atmosphere to the ride. Worlds of Fun took a basic flat ride and made it into a good experience for all, and also followed tradition by adding to its growing lists of firsts.
As noted earlier, Worlds of Fun seems to have paid a little more attention to landscaping this year. There where several instances where they had finally pulled out the aged Railroad ties and replaced them with concrete bricks. They have also added new appropriately themed fencing in many areas that desperately needed it, and finally removed some serious eyesores from the park that really detracted from its appearance. Of course, as many remember, Kansas City was delivered a powerful blow by a terrible ice storm in late January, Evidence of this in repaired rides, cut off limbs, and trees that have been completely removed are evident around the park. However, overall the parks overall appearance has improved, even if it is not at the rate we where hoping for.
Many other minor changes had been made in the Americana section, The sad Cyclone Sadies Arcade has finally been put out of its misery, especially since it was the worst arcade in the park. This area was remodeled, and Kaman’s Antique Photos has moved into this larger space. The original space occupied by Antique Photos was remodeled and replaced with a new specially designed area for Airbrush Artists. Also, on a minor note, The Timberwolf trains acquired a new logo on the front of the train. Unfortunately, this ride deserves more then a face-lift, it desperately needs to be retracked. Camp Snoopy is still keeping up the same quality they started the season out with last year. A special side note, Beagle Bay Outfitters is still an outstanding gift shop, it includes much more then just the standard t-shirts and key chains. Only two negatives to note, on several t-shirts Worlds of Fun appeared as “World’s of Fun”, never will World ever have ownership of, of Fun. Also it was sad to see that The Scrambler was still sitting there in pieces, it looks like it will be a long time before this traditional thriller will be up and running. Again, come on how hard is it?
Moving onto the Orient Section. As many now know The Aquatic Arena has both been moved off the map and it seems is in the process of removal. All that remains are the blue steel supports and the original concrete diving tank, the bleachers have all been removed and a wooden fence has been erected around the area. Also, though The Orient Express did have a little mechanical trouble on Saturday morning, it did run well the entire day, however only with one train.
Onto the world of Scandinavia, it does seem like The Viking Voyager took a hit in the ice storm, the trough was replaced in one major area near The Bamboozler, it looks like a tree fell on it. Also, it is positive to note that The Octopus, which was has not been open for opening day for three years now, was open this year. Last, the decaying fence behind this ride and the Finnish Fling was replaced, as well as the flower beds in front of these two thrillers was replaced with concrete landscaping bricks.
The last remaining world, Europa. Ever since they opened The Forum road this area has always been deserted. Of course, none of the rides in the area have changed since 1977. There are a few remarkable areas to note however. Worlds of Fun has added a few fences, and has removed the Grand Prix overhang area, which was deteriorating and a complete eyesore to the area. They have however left the raceway area, which one hopes they will remove at some point in the future.
Overall, the appearance of the park was good, the parks new ride showed ingenuity and a little creative thinking, that to us is always a plus. Work and improvement has definitely been shown, and it seems this new management is off to a better start. As always there is work to be done, areas that there needs to be considerable improvement on, but not so much as in years past. We hope everybody can visit the park this season at least once, and we wish Worlds of Fun and all of its employees a wonderful 30th Anniversary.
2005 (Opening Day)
Welcome to the 7th annual Worlds of Fun opening day review, in every year that the park has opened I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly at the park, over the past few years the negatives have gotten less and the positives have gotten better. In 2005, while it's true that there is no major new ride, I will have to say it is the first season I will happily not have to spend as much time gripping about things that the park refuses to acknowledge. This is due to the fact that for 2005 the park has gratefully, continued the uphill improvements that started to show only a few seasons ago. So without further introduction, it’s time to head through the gates.
Several minor alterations at the park actually begin outside the park proper, as you walk into the park. For instance, those little red flags I saw a few weeks ago near the flag poles? Probably for the nice green evergreen bushes that have been added. As Jeff puts so eloquently walking into the park you are greeted by the smell of flowers, almost like Legoland. The rows of banners that line the walkway into the park have been replaced, and about half now have the Mamba logo emblazoned on them, the Ranger Station now has a brand new sign, after the removal of the dog kennel two years back. It also looks like it has been painted. All in all the entrance looks pretty much like it has in years past, except a little cleaner.
We actually arrived at the park about 11AM on Saturday morning, and thankfully for the park it was a beautiful day, I believe the temperature was around the upper 70’s, which is quite warm for April. unfortunately, probably due to lack of advertising, the park wasn’t to crowded, with the lots only reaching the midpoint of Lot D, and the rest of the park filled with Choir groups for the park’s annual Choir Festival. Honestly this is still pretty slow, but better then years past, at least they actually got to Lot D.
So we got our park map, which we really did like as it was much more detailed, and headed into the park. Much to our surprise annuals had already been planted in the Scandinavian section, and it’s the Scandinavian section that has received a lot of infrastructure maintenance during the off season so I will start there. The Scandinavian entrance shops, received a fresh new paint job, which looks great, and the lights have been completely fixed so that at night the whole entrance looks wonderful. Plus, Scandinavia was the lucky recipient of all new light fixtures which fills the entire section, which was a MUCH needed improvement. Just a word of advice, now that this section is properly lighted the park has no more need for the Halogen lights, which should be turned off. These where only put up for the wash down of the park and are not needed during regular operating hours.
Viking Voyager received a small amount of treatment as it appears the loading trough was repainted, and the splash down area near All Stars was cleaned up, as it is not near as much a mess as it has been the past. Basically no weeds, overgrown bushes or trees, and the area appears quite a bit better. The only point that we need to make is the gravel that was added between the station and the first turn on the ride. frankly Jennifer doesn't mind (now IM talking in 3rd person!), but Jeff thinks landscaping or even mulch would have looked a lot better.
On to a new topic, Norseman’s Niceties received a brand new hanging sign on the Tivoli side, which while knocked down on late Saturday evening (probably from teenagers), it looks a million times better. Only point we want to make here is that the sign would not have broke off if it had been properly chained down, the chains are still there in the bottom of the hanging box. All in all though with the replaced lights, the whole area is much brighter and much cleaner looking.
Also while we are on the topic of Scandinavia, the Festhaus is home to Joe Cool’s Backyard Bar-B-Q which we have finally found out more about. The Festhaus is the larger blue and white tent area that I believe holds about 1,000-2,000 people, in other words it’s big. Every Saturday and Sunday from 3 - 4:30PM guests can either purchase a meal ticket for $12.90 or purchase a meal and single day admission ticket for $28.95 (which must be purchased 48 hours in advance), and get unlimited food. It's basic, fried chicken, hot dogs, and potato salad, that type of thing, but it’s a pretty good deal if you think about other food establishment prices, and the food is unlimited. I also can’t get over the $28.95 price, that’s admission AND food. So if you plan 48 hours out, you can get into the park for $8 less the general admission and get a free lunch to boot. For those who would like to purchase tickets to the park through the Joe Cool's Backyard BBQ offer simply call 816-303- 5135 M-F 9AM-5PM.
So onwards we go and this time we go to the Orient. Not much has changed here, except Pagoda Soda now serves Nathan Hot Dogs, for $4.50 a pop, ok they are really good hot dogs, I mean REALLY good hot dogs, but that seems steep even for Worlds of Fun. Bamboozler still looks really good at night, amazing to think it’s a 28 year old ride, it’s as old as me... YIKES. It also seems by the map that Tibetan Treats is around for good, the kettle corn it offers is good and cheap $3 a bag isn’t too bad. Also we did get a ride in on Spinning Dragons, same as last year, but the park needs to work on capacity the lines was not to long but it was a long wait, again opening day, I’ll give the kids some slack.
Moving into Americana some good news is that unlike last year Worlds of Fun has removed the Freak Street sign and replaced it with the Beat Street sign, not a real big thing, but its better then the trash bag over the sign last year. Another point Jeff and I wanted to make is that the park did not necessarly have to REMOVE the Freak Street sign. They could have kept the sign and added a teaser line, something along the lines about what is to come starting September 24th.
Also the sunken fountain seems to have received a little treatment too as now 7 of it’s 8 lights work, reflecting multiple colors on the water, which seemed to have a little directional problem (*grin*), but it does look a ton better then it has since I can remember.
Also, marching with tradition more landscaping blocks have shown up! This time they have found themselves (I’m sure with the help of several landscapers) in Americana surrounding the grassy area between Front Street and the Air Brush Artists, that’s where the cow is for those who remember the cow. It’s now filled with red mulch, and bushes, and looks VERY nice. Also backtracking, Worlds of Fun also added some very nice landscaping bricks around the back and side of Festhaus, along with some nice conifer trees.
Okay so I’m sure many of you are waiting on pins and needles to hear about Timber Wolf, so here we go. It is better, Timber Wolf probably had more work done on it this off season then it has TOTAL since 1995. The bottom of the 1st drop and partially up the 2nd hill has been completely re-done, as well as some minor tracking in other parts of the ride. I mention the bottom of the 1st drop as it had a serious “pot hole” there, which er... hurt and now it doesn’t. Good work there. Not as much as we wished, but if its better then last year, then it’s still better. Still I will stress as has been stressed in the past Timber Wolf could be a top tier ride if it was COMPLETELY re- tracked, it HAS been a top tier ride, and I hope to see future improvements on it.
And right out front of Timber Wolf what do my eyes see? A Toyota Tundra parked right on the old supports for a previous car company sponsorship so it literally looks like its floating on water. There are three Toyota’s found parked through the park, all thanks to Toyota’s new sponsorship.
One of the new attractions for 2005 is the Peanut’s Playhouse. Most of you know that I am never thrilled when a new attraction is not open on opening day. I will play nice, as I wasn’t to put bluntly a happy camper in 2004. It does look to be very nicely done though. They have removed the gazebo, and about half of the circular courtyard, all the playground equipment has been removed as well, though it doesn’t appear that the Peanuts Playhouse will cover the whole playground area. When we where there, they had several steel pylons up, and that’s about all. Tune in later for more information.
Another attraction that was missing for opening day was the Worlds of Fun Railroad, though who can blame the park on this one, as ELI is quietly sitting being rehabbed in it’s rectangular round house, hopefully will see it out soon enough. The rest of the train remains sitting at the station, which brings me to my lights discussion once again. From what it seems, and what I’ve heard lights will become a bigger issue as the season goes on, but the lights on the train station, do look pretty dismal, along with the peeling paint. Yeah that’s nice. Hopefully the park has the train station on its list to fix this year.
Detonator is another ride whose lights haven’t changed much since last year, but its sounding like that might change for the better soon, which makes me very happy. When we where at the park they had set the lights in a blinking/chasing program which seemed to hide the fact that several light bulbs where burnt out. The major reason in bringing up Detonator
is what is directly to the left, and that is a new railing/fence that runs from the Detonator Queue-line to the Forum Fence. It took a day for us to figure out the reasoning, which probably has something to do with the fact that people used to run up and down the hill to get to the Scrambler. So good idea, and I’m sure the landscapers are happy about it too!
Last thing about Americana and that is one of my “favorite” topics... Forum Road. For those who have read my previous rants on it this will be no different. Closing Forum Road is not about looks, aesthetics, ride safety, or fun, in fact on that last part it’s the exact opposite. However, on the business and financial end it makes no sense whatsoever to keep it open.
Sometime in the past the gate was removed, which makes closing Forum Road more difficult. But if you think about it, Europa offers more rides, a shop, and two food outlets, including one that is quite good, that’s three ways for the park to make money, and Forum Road offers none. So wouldn’t it make more sense to route guests through a section where the park can make money, then it is to let them detour right past it all?
Good news about Europa is fairly plentiful. Bounce- A-Roo’s received a brand new sign, Moulin Rouge looks like it recieved a new covering, but my favorite change belongs to Bonici Brothers. Last year the park renovated the previous Pizza Patio into Bonici Brother’s offering better food options and a really cool painted fresco near where you order. The outside paint was in really bad condition. In 2005, Bonici Brother’s received a brand new exterior paint job and it looks very nice, with a new white, olive green and brick red paint job. Plus the park replaced the old wood fence at the rear of the restaurant, which honestly last year looked like it was about to fall down. We also have eaten there twice, once last year and once on Saturday and the food is very good, including Jeff’s favorite Meatball Sub.
While we are on the topic of Europa I wanted to make one note about Stax of Wax. As many of you know Stax of Wax debuted in 1985, making it 20 years old this year. This show is getting OLD, even to those who appreciate park live entertainment. In personal opinion I wouldn't mind if Stax of Wax and Stax of Trax vanished and never came back, making it one attraction that belongs on the history page at this point in time.
So now we move onto Africa. I have been chomping on the bit so to speak throughout this entire review to discuss Mamba. Last year I mentioned Mamba needed to let up on the brakes. I personally think I had nothing to do with it, but on Saturday afternoon and even more so on Saturday night, Mamba still had it’s mid-course brakes on, but it wasn’t so bad as in the past. Ther was actually airtime on the return run! Jeff wanted to ride Mamba more the once! Both major positive changes. As many of you know I was terrified of coasters until last year, so I have never rode Mamba completely brakeless, I don’t think I ever will. But, if a ride on Mamba every day was like it was on Saturday I would be one very happy guest, or let me put it another way... Mamba would be on my top ten steel roller coasters list.
Overshadowed by the ride on Mamba itself are the lights. Last year I also mentioned the lights going up the lift hill and that they should be fixed. Well in 2005 they weren’t just fixed they where replaced, and they all now work. It does look great.
Only one negative about Mamba, and that has to do with capacity. As I mentioned earlier as this is the beginning of the season I will give the park some slack on this issue. However, its plain common sense that if you have two trains ready to be run on Mamba, and the ride has a line, that you run BOTH trains and not just one.
While we are on the topic of lighting, the entire
African section, specifically the older parts near Zulu are much brighter at night due to what seems like a large influx of overhead, atmospheric lighting. Yes, they are Halogen lights, much like the one’s we detest in Europa and Scandinavia, but Africa is a case in point where they are used well. The lights in Africa are put high up above in the poles scattered around the section so that you have to look high above your head to see the light source, and by the time the light filters down through the trees it offers a much brighter (hence safer) atmosphere, which is a vast improvement.
One part of Africa that has been overlooked for years is the Same Day Gateway, located right past the Monsoon. That area has received special attention this season as it will serve as the Ride & Slide entrance to Worlds of Fun, as well as the entrance to Worlds of Fun for those staying at Worlds of Fun Village. So far the park has added a new banner giving directions to the Ride & Slide booth as well as adding a sidewalk from the Oceans of Fun parking lot to the Same Day Gateway. As Worlds of Fun Village isn’t scheduled to open until May 27th, the park still has plenty of time.
Back to roller coasters once more, there was one small change to Boomerang, and it has to do with the train. As the nose of the train has always stuck out of the station it has faded over the past years giving Boomerang a very faded peach-nosed train. That changed this season, as I believe they must have painted the entire train, which is noticeable. The park might also want to think about re-painting the whole ride too.
Are you getting tired of reading about Africa? I have two more important points to make, and the first one is about my once favorite Worlds of Fun ride, Fury of the Nile. As many have commented already Fury of the Nile is a little better this year, when I rode it on Sunday they actually had the Wave Maker on, and I did get actually pretty wet, mostly from the now- existent waterfall at the end (it used to be three trickles). Plus I do enjoy how the water is dyed blue, it gives a much better appearance then the brown it has been in the past.
The only negative I have about the Nile and it is a large one is the Halogen Lights that are now sitting on the ground near Tower 2. These lights will be going up to lighten the area, and from what I have heard will be kept on during the normal ride operation. Not a bad idea to have so that employees can see the boats, not a good idea for guests trying to enjoy a great ride on the Nile. Is it possible to only have lights in the two lake areas? As in Lake 1 and Lake 2? Does the park have to light both rapids areas as well? Part of the excitement of the ride was roaring through the woods at night, now that whole excitement factor will be gone. You know the park could always just paint the numbers on the boats in white, or some other reflective color and then we wouldn’t have that problem.
If that’s as negative as I’m going to get this season isn’t off to a bad start if I say so myself, and my favorite little point is not what IS in Africa, but what is NOT in Africa, and that is the Hi-Stricker game. Of course I could be just jinxing myself, but in a perfect world this could possibly lead to the re- addition of the floral clock. So maybe I should start a Bring Back the Floral Clock movement, after all we aren’t expecting the park to add the landscaped date, that would be in all honesty way too much work, but bringing back a beautiful landscaped clock? I would be shocked beyond all belief... In a really good way. After all I hate having to tell kids what things where like when I was their age, I would much rather say this is what things where like.
Going back into Scandinavia, brings us almost to the end of this review, (notice how they get longer each year?) and I have one more important aspect to point out, and that’s Sunset Strips, the previously named Chicken Patio, previously named Nordic Nook. I didn’t get to try it yet, but the menu sounds pretty good, with chicken sandwiches, wraps and salads, but besides the point Sunset Strips/Nordic Nook also received a nice paint job too. Along with the brilliantly lighted Octopus the lower Scandinavian section looks pretty nice, along with the rest of the park.
One last point I would like to make. Over the past year I have read on numerous sites how people extolled how good Cedar Fair’s customer service is, and how clean its parks are. Until lately I always felt those titles belonged to Cedar Point, and maybe Dorney Park, never Worlds of Fun. That is until the past two years, and don’t get me wrong Worlds of Fun still is not Holiday World or Cedar Point. Until I see an employee washing gum of the concrete that is (I saw that at Cedar Point). However, compared to five years ago, the park is MUCH cleaner, and the employees are much more willing to help, either by wishing you a good day, by consoling an scared child on Timber Wolf, or just in their willingness to help other guests, that shows improvement, and over almost anything else that is the type of improvement I value the most. After all in most cases five years from know most guests will forget about the Orient Express, or the Octopus, or how good or bad the pizza was, but they will remember how an ambassador treated them, and I feel that that memories created lately will be more positive then it has been in the past.
So ends another opening day review, and I do have to say that I was greatly impressed, yes there where some negatives, such as ride capacity, lights etc, but I think and I believe that a lot of these issues, won’t be much of a issue come this October, at least I hope so, and I’m staking my optimism on it. I hope that Mamba will continue to run much as it did this last weekend, and I hope that employees will keep their optimism and positive attitude throughout the year. I also hope we can keep one good PR director for more then one year too, but that like everything else is completely out of my hands.
