Several months ago I made a comment that with 8 months off the park had no excuse not to have everything running for opening day. You might expect some harsh words after opening day to that extent too. But I have none to give. May 29th was simply… REFRESHING. Because let’s all be honest… 2020 was horrible. And for those of us that visited the park during that “season” it was plain surreal, one friend of mine even called it “Worlds of Fun Lite”.
I have learned through 2020 though that you can only truly appreciate normal, until things have been decidedly abnormal for a while. And if that means the best new attraction for 2021 is “normal”, even with all the speed bumps, I think I can handle that. I don’t think I am alone.
Of course, I know I am not alone.
Thousands upon thousands of others obviously agreed with me. They were there too. I really should have known. There was pent up demand for over a year of huddling in their houses with nothing open, and the weather was beautiful. It was what I often call a “perfect storm”. I had an inkling of this when we were sitting in Waffle House that morning and cars were backing up both directions on Parvin Road and onto 435.
So, we arrived around Noon on Saturday May 29th. To give you an idea of how crazy traffic was It took us about 30 minutes to get from Waffle House to the parking lot. I have to commend the park though, they had security out there directing traffic, and they did something I was floored by. They opened up and used the auxiliary toll plaza for the first time I’ve seen in decades. The auxiliary toll plaza is typically one of the parking lot exits, but also has a small roadway connecting it to the entrance to the park, allowing it to be used as both an exit and a secondary toll plaza. There used to be a tiny booth out there too that was removed years ago. I’m not even entirely sure they were aware that that particular roadway had that use, but regardless of whether they knew or not they used all options available.
We parked in H lot, and had a little bit of a line to get into the park but it wasn’t too bad. At this point lines weren’t extremely long but unlike most we don’t always go to ride a bunch of rides. We are much more atmosphere people and that’s pretty much true with almost all parks. Though we do ride SOME rides. For those that didn’t go in 2020, there have been a few updates to the International Plaza area, first the old Silver Maples were replaced last spring entirely by new more mature trees. They seemed to have really filled out compared to last year when they were still brand new. Also, sadly Chickie and Pete’s has been completed boarded up. Chickie and Pete’s is an original restaurant and opened in 1973 as Smorbord. From what I have heard the inside is still used for offices or storage but it does seem rather a waste of prime space and location. I always loved the view it had overlooking Voyager’s last drop!
Unlike opening weekend Voyager was pretty much operational from the get go, and had a decent line the whole weekend. The trees that were replaced in 2016 right outside the queue line have grown in very nicely and are providing good shade now which is nice to see!
Moving onto the Orient, the whole park looks beautiful, lots of new topiaries! Last year the park made some cosmetic changes to the Orient too, including decreasing the size of the concrete pad for Bamboozler (it was still using the same pad as Octopus), which allowed for some expanded landscaping. The park added the topiary “Orient” last year and it looks good again this year. Also a minor change but the exit for Bamboozler was moved last year too, so when you exit you actually exit out the opposite side of the station as opposed to past years.
Spinning Dragons and Panda Express were both open, and by this time had lines just barely outside of their queue.
Skyliner, the Ferris wheel, was closed when we walked by (from what I heard it opened soon afterwards), but Patriot was in operation and ran two trains all weekend. A quick word on capacity: this is something we saw at every coaster and drove us absolutely nuts. Before I continue this isn’t an attack on the Ambassadors themselves but on how I am certain they are trained. On nearly every train we saw loaded and unloaded the loading gates were held until the exiting guests had disembarked from the station. This might not seem like such a big thing. However, that 30 seconds of hold time can greatly add to the time between dispatches, and also leads to stacked trains. (trains that sit in the holding brakes while the train ahead of it is still being loaded). This as a whole leads to markedly lower capacity, or the number of riders per hour. What does this mean for me and you? Longer lines and longer waits. All by simply pausing to open the gates. Another advantage of opening the gates sooner rather than later? Loading guests will in some ways “push” the exiting guests out of the cars faster. End vent.
Patriot as a whole looks great with its new paint job, I STILL over a year later can’t get over the detail involved in repainting that white stripe! SteelHawk next door was testing when we arrived at the park around Noon, and from what I heard did open to guests later Saturday and was open all day Sunday. As it was one of those rides that didn’t open at ALL last year, that was a pleasure to see!
History moment: For those that don’t know, SteelHawk is located exactly where the original Americana gate was. The two wooden bridges are nearly identical to those 48 years ago that guests crossed to enter the park and cross Henrietta. As far as the Henrietta herself goes, the original concrete hull is still there!
On Sunday we did eat at Cotton Blossom BBQ, and had a great experience there. We both had the chicken strips which were excellent (they tasted slightly different than last year and I think it’s an improvement!). I have to commend food service for having both sides of the food lines staffed and ready to serve, there was no line what so ever on Sunday around 11:30 and we were impressed!
Front Street Plaza looks great, the trees are growing in and I think will be providing good shade in just another year or so! One moment of commentary. Usually, I discuss concerns about the park but for once I am going to discuss GUEST conduct. Please, please, please don’t let your kids tear up the park flowers! I get picking one or two blooms, we all did that as a kid, its not a big deal. But seriously when your kids are destroying dozens of flowers and tearing them apart and dumping them in the fountain for fun?! How is that even acceptable? And if you are offended by that I am not sorry. You are the parent, control your kids.
Anyway.
If you need a nice drink after that commentary Front Street can now provide. The Front Street Tavern has now opened in the spot most recently occupied by Guest Services, and was many moons ago known as Brims and Bonnets. I know many feel that the last thing a park needs is more alcohol, but the park survived with Blue Bronco bar for years, and with now even Disneyland not being dry, I can’t complain. I have to say overall the conduct of guests on both days, even with the crowds, was commendable, I didn’t see or hear of any fights or scuffles, and most people just appeared happy to be there, even with the lines.
The fence for Bicentennial Square is still up so that the exit for Timber Wolf is still over by Planet Snoopy. This seems to be confusing a LOT of people, with many thinking that the exit is also the entrance. I’m not sure what the park can really do that would really assist with that, but well there it is. Of course two good things in this neck of the woods though. Cyclone Sam’s is back open! YEAH! It was one of several rides that never opened in 2020. Second, Timber Wolf was open Saturday and Sunday, and it’s running well. Funny thing with Timber Wolf is that we were standing over near the exit for completely unrelated reasons (and I can’t really even remember why? Old person brain I guess). Around 12:30 or so and I heard the employee in the station yell to call down to entrance to tell them to drop the chain. Well I already knew the situation with lines that day and I also knew the best time to avoid a line is to get it line right when it re-opens or opens for the day. I ran like crazy over to the entrance, and I was on the third train out. Later that day I saw them using not only the whole normal Timber Wolf queue but the overflow queue too (which is between Timber Wolf and Sam’s).
Ok so opinion on Timber Wolf. Overall it is far smoother than it has ever been since I have ridden Timber Wolf (the first time I rode it was 2004). It is fun, no question, it makes Timber Wolf in my opinion a better overall ride experience for the general public than it has been in a very long time. But it’s fun in the same way Screamin’ Eagle at Six Flags is. In that it’s fun but not the holy terror that it was in it’s first few years. That is not a bad thing, it just makes for a different ride. At this point in my life, I would personally like to see coasters that are enjoyed by the guests of the park, and have fewer people complain about how rough the Timber Wolf is, and as that seems to be the general consensus, I am glad. If this gives Timber Wolf an extended longevity, that makes me even happier. Timber Wolf is already the longest operated coaster in park history now at 32 years old.
There were a couple of other minor changes to Timber Wolf I noticed. First, new faux wood paint lights have been added to the queue line and surrounding area. Second, is the addition of retractable seatbelts, this seems to be the case on Prowler as well. If I was going to guess I would think that this might be a carry over from the old Paramount Parks (Kings Island, Kings Dominion etc.) who operated their coasters with retractable seatbelts as well. Overall I like them, it makes it easier to find the end of the seatbelt for sure! Interesting side note Jeff and I will be touring PTC (Philadelphia Toboggan Company) who manufactured the trains for Timber Wolf if anyone would like to see photo coverage let me know!
Up from Timber Wolf is Planet Snoopy, and while we briefly walked though, there did not appear to be any changes. Cosmic Coaster (Wacky Worm) was not operational the entire weekend, though the park was definitely actively working on it all weekend long. Cosmic Coaster is Worlds of Fun’s oldest steel coaster, as it opened in 1994 it turns 27 years old this year! The only other ride we didn’t see in operation was Peanut’s Yacht Club but that was it. Back in 2019 the old Peanut’s Playhouse was transitioned into a petting zoo (Pigpen’s Petting Farm), but it’s still sitting empty. It was used as a relax zone in 2020 and still has benches in it if you are looking for a somewhat quiet place to relax in Planet Snoopy!
For those looking for character meet and greets, which are usually in the Peanut’s Showplace Theater, they are not there. However, the park is still hosting a few “socially distant” totally awesome meet and greets, or photo opportunities with various Peanut’s Characters. This is a direct carry over from 2020 too, so if you visited in 2020 it’s pretty much exactly the same. For those that didn’t there are photo opportunities both in Scandinavia at both the Tivoli Music Hall and nearby stage, and also in Americana in front of the old Arcade near Timber Wolf’s main entrance. You can also sometimes catch Snoopy roaming around on his appropriately decorated Snoopymobile (I have no idea if that’s its real name, but it’s adorably cute). The characters themselves rotate, The main ones are Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Sally and Lucy. I believe I saw Franklin in there too. As far as other live entertainment, right now there are no other options, However! Muttallica, the dog sport and comedy show at Country Junction theater has posted on their Facebook page that they are returning on June 11th! So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully soon there will be a train there too amiright?
History moment: The Peanut’s Showplace theater has quite the history, as the original structure of the theater (not counting the attached shop) dates ALL the way back to 1978. For those that remember that far back might remember a theater there called Flying Circus Theater that opened with the Aerodrome. That theater DOES still exist as part of the Peanut’s Showplace. If you stand inside the shop at the perimeter between the shop and theater and look up you can still see the polygon shape and structure of the original Flying Circus. Flying Circus might have gone through a variety of facelifts from Pandamonium to Bear Country to Camp Snoopy but the base structure has remained unchanged.
From Planet Snoopy we bypassed Europa via Forum Road. The pass through from Europa to Forum road is closed. As many remember it opened up partway through 2019 and was open in 2020. I am going to take this as a good sign about the train coming back. The coaches were also sitting in the station but that doesn’t appear to be as much of a change.
Nearby is Prospector's Burrito's (I still call it Blue Bronco) and it has received some minor changes including the addition of new shutters, as well as replaced decking and wood trim, it looks nice!
When we arrived in Africa, Boomerang was trying to get started, it seemed to be up and down the entire weekend. I guess Boomerang is still trying to get over that extended vacation time as it did not operate at all during the 2020 season. One minor change to Boomerang is the addition of seatbelts to the ride, it buckles at the bottom of the shoulder harness to the train itself. I guess knowing Cedar Fair I shouldn’t really be surprised as it seems to be happening at all Cedar Fair parks.
Onto my favorite topic, Landscaping! Landscaping looks AMAZING. Tons of new topiaries, I saw several new bunny topiaries over in Planet Snoopy, new elephant and giraffe topiaries in Africa, the flowers look great, the trees look great, and of course the Floral Clock looks great too. A few minor changes in Africa. First I noticed the old trellis between Moroccan Merchant and the old Dino’s Alive building has had the wood replaced. The base structure is steel, but it has wood caps on the end that I had noted didn’t look especially brilliant last year. Looks great this time around, it’s missing some hanging baskets, but I am assuming those are coming soon. Another minor change I noticed was the addition, or re-addition of thatching to the entire poles on the Africa bridge. There is a little history with the thatching, as originally the poles were completely thatched, I remember this back in the ’90’s. By 1999 or so what was left was falling off in big sheets. By 2008 it was entirely gone and with Prowler’s addition they added the new masks and a little bit of thatching at the top. So now we are back to the way it originally was, and I love it!
SO at this point it was around 2 pm, the temperature via weather.com was around 63 so we decided to head over to Oceans of Fun. Now we had heard prior to entering the park that we might have to exit Worlds of Fun and drive over to Oceans of Fun to get into the park. I had made reservations for Oceans of Fun opening day the moment reservations were available to book, so I knew I was going. Hell or high water. When the weather reports were coming out during the last week, and people were cancelling their reservations to go a different week… I didn’t have that luxury. So I bought a wet suit on Amazon and figured I would tough it out. Icicles or not I was going in!
So to get into Oceans of Fun, they do check to make sure you have a reservation. You may enter Oceans from either the normal Oceans gate, OR there is a check point in Worlds set up on the walkway to Oceans of Fun between Mamba and Nile.
Oceans didn’t open at all in 2020, which means next year, 2022, Oceans will both be 40 years old and be celebrating 40 seasons, during the same year. There have been several small changes. First, all attractions we noticed APPEARED to be open, there has been some commentary online that some children’s play areas were not open, and that may be the case, but all areas had water flowing and life guards staffing them. As noted on the 2020 map Buccaneer’s Bay appears to have finally been retired, this is the lake that in the past has had kayaks and paddle boats. The dock has been fenced off and all signage removed. It was never a major attraction but I always saw it as the one link left to the old Neptune’s Lagoon, sand lake and for me it was a little bit of a loss, but I get it. It offers some land for expansion too which is nice.
Coconut Cove had a few small groups of families swimming, and I believe one of the small water slides have been removed. If I didn’t know it was there I wouldn’t have missed it though. Aruba Tuba was open from what I could tell.
Unlike Worlds of Fun, Subway IS open on the Oceans of Fun side, and the old Coco Palms Pavilion, most recently Chickie & Pete’s has re-opened as Surf’s Up BBQ. For those of us that remember Asylum Island’s back area its a little odd to see the kitchen being used as a kitchen! You can also see on the ground around the pavilion where the old “yard” (fog, strobe lights, bars maze) was located. We did end up eating here, and found the food good, we both had the BBQ chicken sandwich, but they also had a pulled pork and burnt ends sandwiches as well.
Next we headed over to the new Riptide Racers slides. Riptide replaced the old Diamond Head slides, that had been original to the park but were really showing their age. Typhoon was running next door, and while I didn’t see it, Jeff took photos of a rider on it so he can verify it was in operation. Typhoon opened in 1983 and with Diamond Head’s removal is now the oldest water slide in operation in the park. SO onto Riptide.
I rode it twice, once in the yellow slide and once in the orange slide. From commentary from other guests and the lifeguard at the top the only difference between the four slides is that the yellow slide is the brightest (meaning you can see where you are going), while the purple slide is nearly completely pitch black. (in that you can’t see where you are going). Other than that the four slides are identical. Since it is a mat slide I wasn’t really sure how wet you get. You don’t get really all that wet except for the big splash that slows you down at the end. Personally, I loved it! It’s definitely an experience I can see returning to, and it was a lot of fun! Since it was chilly the day I rode it I did not experience any line whatsoever. I imagine that will NOT be the case going forward with warmer weather coming up!
There are two separate lines, one for Fast Lane and one for stand-by waiting. You get your mat near the entrance and have to carry it up to the slide complex. That part kind of reminded me of Python Plunge a bit. The hillside and walk up to the tower is nearly identical to Diamond Head, so yes there is still a nice hill walk there. Many of the old trees that surrounded Diamond Head are still there, which I can appreciate, and I like the extra effort to preserve the natural site.
So after Riptide we headed around the rest of the park to check things out. Caribbean Cooler was also open, it looked cold! There were still a fair amount of guests in the attraction though! I also noticed several cute fish topiaries around Caribbean Cooler too!
We next made it up to Surf City Wave Pool. There have some big changes here. As many remember a child drowned in Surf City Pool back in 2019 so I think it’s total expected to see some changes. The biggest change is that the maximum depth of the wave pool has been changed from 8-feet to 6-feet. I believe this has had a major impact on the size of the waves as the pool is simply not as deep as it was. The other big change is the addition of fencing to the entrance to the wave pool. You now have to go through a small queue area, and have kids checked for height (those under a certain height are required to wear a life jacket). There is also your typically attraction warnings sign that all rides and attractions have, but now its front and center.
One last commentary on the Wave Pool. When did the park discontinue playing “Wipe Out” at the start of the waves? Now it just beeps. I know its been doing that for a few years, but I guess I don’t get why they couldn’t play the music? Is there something I am missing?
The only attraction that I was for certain wasn’t in operation was right next door, the Predator’s Plunge slides. So just to clarify, the Shark’s Revenge, non-drop slides were open but Predator’s Plunge drop slides were closed. Considering how concerned I was regarding staffing issues, I didn’t notice any major issues at Oceans of Fun, even with the frigid temperatures. I might also add that Six Flags St. Louis Hurricane Harbor was closed the same day because of temperature. I don’t know if that makes Worlds of Fun staff more crazy, or just more… watch this weather we don’t care we are opening up anyway! Maybe both. I like it.
Jeff wasn’t feeling well so we headed out around 4:30 with plans to return to Worlds of Fun the next day. I did check out Plaza Gifts on the way out (because I am a girl and shopping is in my DNA), I loved the new shirts, especially the ones for Voyager and Nile. I also loved the price $19.99. I went back and bought the Voyager shirt the next day and I am wearing it right now as I am writing this!
On the way out we checked out the parking lots and found the park had parked every single back lot including K. K wasn’t obviously full (it’s a very large lot), but it had about 20 rows worth of cars. From what I have heard some lines reached 3 hours long, so the day that I knew going in would probably be a little busy, turned out to be just a bit more than that. Good for the park. :)
Sunday, with it being the middle day of a holiday weekend made me cautious hoping it wouldn’t be Saturday the sequel. It turned out to be almost as busy. We arrived around Noon again, and headed towards the Orient. Jeff loves to time capacity of rides, and also loves to study loading and unloading procedures, so we spent some time around Spinning Dragons. Dragons has the added problem of being a naturally low capacity ride anyway, which makes even a short line a long wait, and the line was already out of the queue by Noon.
Unlike the prior morning, SteelHawk was in operation when we arrived. We ate at Cotton Blossom BBQ as I mentioned earlier and then continued our stroll around the park. Boomerang also was in operation when we headed over to Africa, but as I previously mentioned it was up and down seemingly the entire weekend.
One section we hadn’t visited at all the prior day was Europa, and one ride that was on my short list of riding this trip was Flying Dutchman. I always try to get a ride on it, at least fairly frequently because it’s a favorite of mine and it and me have quite a history. As a park historian I love the fact that it is quite literally old dependable. In 48 years, it’s never moved, never been re-named and ALWAYS seems to be open. From the stand point as a fan of the park it’s even more important. After my debacle with the Riverside, Mo. kiddie coaster as a 4-year-old and with Octopus in 1987 as a 9-year-old I really had been terrified of trying anything new for years. Flying Dutchman I think in 1993 was the first ride I was nervous about trying, that I liked. And when I worked at the park in 1994 and went back into the park while waiting for my mom to pick me off after work, Flying Dutchman was always one of those rides I almost always rode. Of course that was back when it had no seatbelts, and there was no separate control panel. But really other than that, Dutchman has changed very very little.
While I was on Dutchman Jeff was out monitoring Taxis. Taxi’s seems to be running a combination of the original Arrow Taxi Cars along with a smattering of other park “hand me downs”. At this point it was only running five cars. At its peak Taxi’s could run 20 cars at a time, officially. I have to wonder if this is an issue with number of cars that are even functional, because if you realize Taxis is almost 50 years old, meaning the cars themselves are just as old, and Arrow, their manufacturer hasn’t existed for a number of years. This really limits options. The Le Taxi Tour course, with its hills and tight turns also limits the type of cars that can run on it. One option that’s available to the park, is from the neighboring Six Flags St. Louis which just recently permanently closed its Moon Cars attraction, which not surprisingly ran near identical Arrow cars. That seems a prime opportunity to either expand the Worlds off Fun fleet or at the very least… obtain parts for the original cars that are left.
On the flip side was Autobahn, which seems to be doing better than usual, at least usual in recent years running 13 cars on the course. It also seems that there have recently been some roof repairs too which I am sure were desperately needed.
On the other side of Europa is Falcon’s Flight which was one of the few rides that never even moved all weekend, along with Mustang Runner in Americana. Both were additions in 2017 and both were used Huss rides, which makes me wonder if the two issues are related. Maybe. After all Huss is as it has always been based in Germany and that is where all the ride parts come from.
We spent some time with friends at the restaurant that has more name changes that I could fit in a short paragraph… Today it’s known as Let Them Eat Cake. Afterwards it was getting later in the afternoon and we decided what we wanted to do. I really wanted to ride Mamba, but the app was showing a 90 minute wait. I couldn’t believe that, so I talked Jeff into waiting with me. The queue unlike the prior day was back in the regular queues, but for anyone familiar with Mamba’s queue, all three sections were full. One staffing issue we had noticed is that there was no one typically monitoring the Fast Lane entrances. We saw several guests at several rides entering Fast Lane that did not have the wristband. Which is one of many reasons I refuse to support it. With that being said I have to commend one specific Ambassador at Mamba. The Ambassador in charge of the loading side actually leaned over on multiple occasions and attempted (fairly successfully) to enforce the FastLane entrance. It wasn’t even his job, I doubt he was even told to do it, and for that, I was impressed. The line really was pretty close to about 90 minutes long, even with Mamba running two trains. By the time we got off it was after 7 PM and the park was closed.
We walked by Norma’s Funnel Cakes and it again had a line WAY out the door. I have to think maybe something should be done to correct the shortage of funnel cake places in the park especially with Grandma’s Funnel Cakes gone for a few years now. Could even All Stars (or Chickie and Pete’s or WHATEVER), be modified and re-opened just for that purpose and have it be two separate serving lines kind of like Cotton Blossom BBQ? Anyway just my thoughts.
Personally though I may critique Worlds of Fun and its decisions, I always hate to leave. Some may argue it’s not the Worlds of Fun they grew up with. I have never felt that way, for me regardless of what may or may not be open, or if weeds are growing in the gutters (years ago), or rides may still be in pieces (again years ago), or whether its Worlds of Fun lite or not (last year.) There has always been something special about the place. I can’t stay angry there, and often times when I am upset it never ceases to make me smile. One final story. This year is Patriot’s 15th anniversary. It opened on April 8th 2006. One night, 15 years ago, probably at least a few weeks before Patriot opened, I was upset about something. I can’t even remember about what. This was back when we still lived in Independence, MO. And for some reason I decided to go take the 20 minute drive to Worlds of Fun, obviously not to go into the park, because it wasn’t open, but just to see it, because as I mentioned it always made me happy. As I made my way down 291 I saw a sight I hadn’t seen before, red-colored chaser lights. At this point we didn’t expect any great lighting on Patriot, so I didn’t know. This was my first time ever seeing the chaser lights on Patriot, they were on, and it was dusk, and for just a brief moment I felt the contented unworried happiness it seems we only ever feel as children. Worlds of Fun has always been more than just a place on the map, or just another theme park, or micro park as a friend of mine calls it. It’s home. And I for one am glad to be back home once again.
Special Thanks to John Hunter for proofreading this blog!
