Oceans of Fun turns 40!

Worlds of Fun management, including Lamar Hunt, Jack Steadman and Lee Derrough in Hawaiian shirts at Oceans of Fun's grand opening. 

 With it being the 40th Anniversary of Oceans of Fun it seems almost obligatory to write an Oceans of Fun blog. Today, most guests just write Oceans of Fun off as a “typical water park” but I find that statement to neither be true today nor 40 years ago when Oceans of Fun opened. 40 years ago the idea of opening a water park in the midwest, an area with snow and ice in the winter seemed crazy, yet today it isn’t even just the only water park in the Kansas City area. I have also found Oceans to not be your typical water park today either. Most water parks whether added on to an amusement park or not, feel like gigantic concrete jungles, with little to no grass, little to no shade, and attractions seemingly piled on top of each other. Oceans of Fun due to its plan and also its maturity seems to never suffer from any of that, there is not only grass, but large mature trees, and some attractions can almost be described as a hike from each other. And I like it that way.

The Oceans of Fun Gate in 1987

Landscaping between Caribbean Cooler and Diamond Head. Photo from "At-the-Park" Magazine from 1993.

And it was intended to be that way too: in an article just before Oceans of Fun’s opening Tom Steadman, manager of Research and Development was quoted “ We have a beautiful setting with the trees and the terrain… this is very secluded and serene. We designed I that way intentionally” (Smith, 1982, p. C1)

Between the gate and Trader Nick's in 1999. 

If that seems familiar it should, as it “rhymes” right along with the story of Worlds of Fun itself. The idea of Worlds of Fun was conceived when Jack Steadman first visited Disneyland in 1957, whereas the idea of Oceans of Fun was born after a visit by Lee Derrough to Wet ’n Wild in Orlando 20 years later in 1977. 

Surf City Wave Pool under construction.

Surf City Wave Pool 1982.

On May 22, 1982, Oceans of Fun opened to Kansas Citians on a very chilly wet day. Enclosed in its gates were attractions many of us would be familiar with today. The highlight was and still is Surf City Wave Pool built by WaveTek. Surf City was one of only a dozen or so wave pools of its kind at the time, it  reached over two-thirds the size of a football field, contained over a million gallons of water, and originally reached a maximum depth of 9 feet (today it has been reduced to about 6 feet). One of my favorite memories of Surf City, besides all the candy merchants… was the music. You could always tell when the waves were going to start as the The Safaris  “Wipeout” would come over the loudspeakers just prior. According to a May 18th Kansas City Star article, the theme from Jaws was planned to come over the speakers when the waves ended. Everyone OUT OF THE WATER.

Castaway Cove under construction

Not far from Surf City Wave Pool is Oceans of Fun’s only remaining, mostly unmodified original attraction, Castaway Cove and Belly Up Bar. For guests 21 years and over, Castaway Cove offers even today a 2,500 square foot swimming pool, and probably the most popular attraction is its half in the water/half dry land “belly up” bar.  

Kayak's at Bucaneer's Bay in 1993. (From At-the-Park magazine)

Ski Show at Bucaneer's Bay in 1982. 

Everything else at Oceans of Fun has changed over the years and mostly in good ways. The original five-acre Buccaneer Bay was briefly home to a ski show and for many years kayaking and boating until it was closed off in 2019. A little known fact is that the water from Buccaneer Bay is connected to the Fury of the Nile and can be pumped in either direction. (In and out of Nile). This is why Nile water sometimes looks (and smells) like lake water. Buccaneer Bay’s original neighbor the 1.5 acres Neptune’s Lagoon has been long gone, replaced in 1992 by Coconut Cove. Neptune’s Lagoon offered a “natural” lake play area and was composed of a rock base covered by 12-18 inches of “tropical” sand, imported from the “exotic” Kaw River. It offered a maximum advertised depth of 5.5 feet. I remember Neptune’s Lagoon well and loved its sand bottom and sand beaches, and the play areas that were later added in 1983. I suppose I can appreciate it being replaced though as Neptune’s Lagoon was far from sanitary I am sure, and probably would appear gross to many modern water park goers today. 

Belly Hai/Knee Hai play area in 1982.

As far as areas specifically for kids Oceans of Fun had that too, before the expansion of Crocodile Isle (1991) and Captain Kidds (1995) a smaller kids area known as Belly Hai and Knee Hai came complete with mini slides, water cannons, and small wading pool.  

Diamond Head with it's original slide signs.  Photo from At-the-Park. 

And then there is Diamond Head. Diamond Head which is easy to forget was Oceans of Fun’s first and only slide complex when the park opened in 1982. Originally there were plans for more, but probably with a growing budget (the park was originally planned for $6 million, but the final cost was $7.25 million), the slides planned were pared down to the three 400-foot long slides on Diamond Head. And who can forget their names? Waikiki Wipeout, Honolulu Lulu, and Maui Wowee. Supposedly they were lined up from least thrilling to most, but I am not sure there is any credit to that story, that’s just what I was told as a kid.

The photo is taken from Typhoon which wasn't added until 1983, but is the only photo that I have showing Neptune's Lagoon. 

Same photo a closer look at Neptune's Lagoon. 

According to stories and reviews when the park first opened most guests weren’t impressed with Diamond Head, but looking back on my personal experience I thought they were some of the most thrilling slides in the park, I always felt like I was about to be flung out!

Oceans of Fun Gate in 1999.

Diamond Head slides again in 1999.  

Diamond Head’s slides were refinished back in 2008 but were finally removed following the 2019 season, having lasted nearly 40 years, and replaced by Riptide Racers in 2021.

In the beginning… 40 years ago that was Oceans of Fun.

The bright green astroturf used to cover the surfaces around attractions. This photo was taken in 1987 when Caribbean Cooler opened. 

 A multitude of attractions would be added over the years, today the park has grown from only three water slides to over a dozen from Typhoon to Predator’s Plunge to Aruba Tuba and then some. Neptune’s Lagoon is long gone, and Surf City Wave Pool has drastically changed over the years too. Oceans of Fun fills some of my earliest memories, I miss the bathing houses being named “Wahine” and “Kanaka” (woman and man in Hawaiian) I spied that on the Honolulu Airport bathrooms this last January and it took me back. I miss the aqua-colored plastic storage tubes, the green astroturf, and the tropical ambassador shirts, a lot has changed over the years. Still, at the heart of it, Oceans of Fun hasn’t changed all that much, it’s still just as beautiful a park today as it was all those years ago and it’s still just as popular. Here is to another decade of good times.  

Original Oceans of Fun Ambassador costume.

First of two Oceans of Fun Ambassador costume tops we have in our collection.

Smith, G.B. (1982). Any Park Expansion will keep regional customers in mind. Kansas City Times, C1.

Burnes, B. (1982). Fit to be tide: The surf’s up in Missouri! Kansas City Star,  B1

Rassenfoss. J. (1982). Surf’s up - but goosebumps are too. Kansas City Star, 23A

Hobart, K. (1982). A Change of place for landlubbers. Independence Examiner, p. 4