With 2026 being the Semiquincentennial or 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and founding of the United States of America, it seems more than appropriate that we are also celebrating Patriot’s 20th anniversary this year. Patriot opened to the public 20 years ago today, on April 8, 2006. Tagged the “American Scream,” Patriot was announced in September 2005, and was, at the time, the largest capital expenditure on a single attraction in Worlds of Fun's history at a cost of $14 million, a title it still claims today.
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| KC Star September 5, 2005 |
Jeff Mast, my husband, was interviewed by the Kansas City Star for the announcement of Patriot in September 2005. He tells the story that he received no advance notice that he was going to get the call, but it woke him up one morning, and, groggy and tired, he gave the quote the paper used… “It’s a biggie”. It was amusing to see that the next morning! Back in 2005, when Patriot was announced, Orient Express had been removed two years earlier, Spinning Dragons was incorrectly identified as its replacement, and everyone still wanted a coaster from the then golden child of the amusement industry, the Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). B&M was the hot fan ticket, which maybe a Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) or Vekoma would be today. Back then, Vekoma was practically a dirty word; RMC hadn’t even built its first coaster yet. Everyone remembered how rough and painful Orient Express was, and a smooth-as-silk, B&M seemed just the ticket to replace it.
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| Track arrives at Worlds of Fun early September 2005 |
I, and many others who were alive and old enough to remember, can vividly recall the photos of B&M track showing up with the labels “WOF” at the Ohio steel fabrication plant that B&M used for its domestic coasters in June 2005. It was our first clear sign that the next B&M was headed to Worlds of Fun. The track itself would show up at the park in September 2005, just in time for the announcement.
Like so much of Cedar Fair’s operating years at Worlds of Fun, the announcement of Patriot can be described as more than what we expected, not as much as we hoped. I remember seeing the layout the night before it was announced. I still remember feeling… underwhelmed. I had hoped that something of Orient Express would live on in this new coaster, a boomerang element or hope of hopes, interlocking loops. I had to remind myself that it was still the big new coaster we said we wanted, it was still a B&M. We were still excited.
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| Billboard from March 2006 |
Patriot followed the Cedar Fair coaster blueprint… figure out what you do best and repeat, repeat, repeat. It worked extremely well for Mamba, which is quite similar to its slightly younger sister, Steel Force at Dorney Park. Following that trend, Patriot is also very similar to the Dorney Park coaster Talon, at least in regards to layout.
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| This photo of the lift (taken in 2025) shows the elevation change between the base of the lift and first drop |
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| Fly over the station offers some rare airtime on an inverted coaster. Photo from 2025 |
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| The Immelmann element, taken 2022 |
As many will mention, there are some differences, though. Patriot has a lift height of 149 feet and a first drop of 123 feet. Due to the elevation changes, Talon is considerably different, and Patriot is actually only 1 foot shorter in lift height than Montu, one of B&M’s best inverted coasters (Busch Gardens Tampa). The inversion lineup with Talon is virtually identical: tall vertical loop, Zero-G roll, Immelmann, and Corkscrew. Having ridden both, I can definitely attest to a different ride experience. Patriot’s Zero-G roll is probably the only truly weightless Zero-G roll I’ve been on, and Patriot is also one of the only inverted coasters I can recall experiencing airtime on (in the inclined curve over the station). Patriot is definitely a good coaster for what it is, no doubt.
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| Here you see the old road that separates Patriot from the old footprint of Orient Express (taken 2024) |
A common question asked about Patriot is where it stands, land-wise, compared to Orient Express. Simple statement, but Spinning Dragons, Patriot, and Orient Express could have physically ALL co-existed; none of them are built on any of the other ride footprints. Patriot actually stands on the opposite side of the roadway that serviced the park trams when Americana was the main gate, while Orient Express stood on the other side of the same roadway. If you look while riding, you can still see the roadway in question very easily from the lift hill.
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| Park marketing director Chris Ozemick at media day April 6, 2006. |
Patriot would host its media day on Thursday, April 6, 2006, and while the rides would start off a bit sleepy, it would warm up well throughout the day. Jeff was there super early (if I recall, around 4 a.m.) to provide media coverage for early-morning media deadlines. I slept in, but did end up riding it several times that day. Patriot would open to the public on April 8, 2006, and its opening was as glorious as we all hoped it would be, rather reminiscent of the openings of other top-tier Worlds of Fun coasters over the years. As fans, 20+ of us gathered at Falcon’s Diner at Ameristar for breakfast, which was paid for by Cedar Fair COO Jack Falfas and CEO Dick Kinzel (it wasn’t planned that way!). Those of us who were there still talk about it! The opening at the park included a ribbon cutting featuring park GM Phillip Bender, the previously mentioned Cedar Fair CEO and COO, Park marketing director Chris Ozemick, and park PR director Nick Guevel.
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| Cutting the ribbon with CEO Dick Kinzel, Park GM Phil Bender and park PR manager Nick Guevel |
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| From left to right, CEO Dick Kinzel, GM Phil Bender, VP of planning and design Robert Decker and COO Jack Falfas. |
20 years later, what is the legacy of Patriot? I think the answer is at least somewhat similar to Mamba's. A whole new ADULT generation can’t remember a Worlds of Fun without Patriot. Many of us who grew up with the Orient Express always being on that skyline when we arrived at the park are seeing a generation that has always seen Patriot instead. Without trying, Father Time has seen that Patriot has become an accepted member of the Worlds of Fun coaster pantheon. Guests often comment on how it has become its own rite of passage, conquering their coaster fears, and of the nonstop screaming throughout the entire ride. I can personally recall the endless stream of broken cell phones and other oddities (I found a half-barbie doll and a yarmulke once) that covered the ground around the ride.
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| One of my favorite photos I took this in October of 2019. |
There is a quote from Benjamin Franklin that states that the golden age is never the present age. Meaning it takes years and time for an experience or a ride to truly be appreciated. Enough time passes, and that new, state-of-the-art scream machine becomes just another family member or a good friend. I think the stories that we all have had with Patriot will be in the end JUST as poignant as those with Omegatron or Orient Express, or even Zambezi Zinger, but like those rides 30-40 years ago, it takes time to develop that relationship, and as such, I thought I would share a few of my personal stories with Patriot.
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| This was my lead, Ariel (like the Little Mermaid), Taken Nov 2, 2008. Hyped up on sugar. |
I would work on the Patriot crew in 2008, for the full season, starting with the early spring lift walk, and culminating in Haunt when I made cut-out cardboard tombstones for the station of all the defunct coasters at the park at the time (it’s worth noting that no new defunct coasters have been added to the list since then). The best memory that year is odd… Patriot almost didn’t open on opening day, or even the first few months of the season, due to a broken part that had to be manufactured and shipped from Switzerland. The Sprag Bearing. Many of us on the Patriot crew that year were cross-trained, with me being trained on Timber Wolf (it was the only time I’ve ever driven Timber Wolf), but the part came at the 11th hour, was installed, and the park started cycling it the day before opening day. Opening day was cold, and flurries flew through the air, but Patriot ran because it was all warmed up from running through the night before. I remember standing by the entrance to the ride, talking with guests, bringing up the old Cotton Blossom, which had been removed only about 10 years earlier.
My second-best memory of Patriot was watching the online video of the ride being repainted in November 2019. I even dug that same video up from seven years ago! It was a true testament to Worlds of Fun not taking the cheap, easy route of repainting a ride. The white stripe, which had been so much of the ride's identity, wasn’t just painted over, but was HAND re-painted for the entire length of the track.
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| GM Phil Bender with B&M engineer Walter Bolliger (The Bolliger in B&M). |
The stripe wasn’t even originally the only patriotic element Patriot was designed with, when we interviewed Robert Decker, former Senior VP of Planning and Design at Cedar Fair many years ago, right after Patriot’s opening, he shared with us that Patriot was originally designed to also have white stars running up the blue support columns, they were cut, not due to budget, but they felt it might have been overkill. Looking back at the detail in repainting the stripe, I have to wonder if the stars had indeed made it, if they would have survived the re-painting as well.
Twenty years ago, I wrote an editorial entitled “How far we have come”, a short look at the introduction of Patriot and how it reflected on the prior eight years that preceded it in park history. Patriot was a breath of fresh air then. After the removal of so many rides and attractions, it was a bright new technological terror being added, brand new and shining, for a change. Today, Patriot is just as integral a part of Worlds of Fun’s skyline as Orient Express was or Mamba is even today. It’s worth remembering that, at 20 years old, Orient Express had only a few short years left in operation. I think Patriot will be around for a lot longer than that, because, as the old 2006 commercial line says, Patriot rocks.
