Well folks we have come to the end; episode five of our look at the evolution of Worlds of Fun’s children’s areas. We started in Scandinavia with Half Pint’s Peak and Humpty’s Haven and forty-five years later have gone into outer space with the world-famous beagle, Snoopy.
On August 10th 2010 Worlds of Fun announced the new expansion of Planet Snoopy of Snoopy's Birthday!
Snoopy even got a special dog-boned shaped birthday cake for the occasion!
Brandon Stanley, Director of Public Relations at the time posing with the concept art for the new Planet Snoopy.
In 2010 Cedar Fair decided it was time to update Worlds of Fun’s Camp Snoopy and expand it once again, this time rebranding it to Planet Snoopy! It’s hard to forget that day in August 2010 when Worlds of Fun announced the new expansion on Snoopy’s birthday! There was a gigantic gift box, balloons, and a dog-bone-shaped cake!
The 1997 Bear County Museum is transformed into Peanut's Showplace, with the removal of much of the Berenstain Bear Country theming removed.
Planet Snoopy still very much under construction even on opening day.
The Grand Opening of Planet Snoopy occurred on May 28, 2011. Frank Wilburn, park General Manager at the time cuts the ceremonial ribbon.
When the park opened on April 16, 2011, nearly nothing was ready in the new Planet Snoopy except for Wacky Worm, Pony Promenade, Woodstock’s Express, and Scrambler. Slowly, seemingly every week another ride came online until by summer Planet Snoopy was up and fully operational. Planet Snoopy was the largest kid’s area expansion in park history, with the addition of seven new rides all manufactured by the Italian firm, Zamperla. The new rides included Woodstock Whirlybirds (Mini Tea Cup), Lucy’s Tugboat (Rockin’ Tug), Sally’s Swing Set (Happy Swing), Peanut’s Road Rally (Convoy), Flying Ace Balloon Race (Samba Balloon Tower), Peanut’s 500 (Speedway), and Snoopy’s Rocket Express (Aerial tram). Worlds of Fun’s Planet Snoopy expansion saw the removal of two kids' rides: Road Rally (Micro Moto Bahn added in 1977) and Head over Wheels (Viking Vheel added in 1982).
Woodstock Whirlybirds by Zamperla.
Peanut's 500
Lucy's Rockin' Tug.
In addition to new rides, the entire area also received some well-needed cosmetic updates. The concrete paths were replaced by paving stones. Outbuildings such as the old “Bear County School” (Sally’s Dance Studio), and “Boys Club/No Girls Allowed” (Woodstock’s Nature Center) were removed. The Spooky Old Tree(Kite Eating Tree) slide was entirely removed to make way for the Rocket Express loading platform. Woodstock’s Airmail would take on the Kite Eating Tree name after moving across the midway to accommodate the arrival of the Peanut’s 500 ride. The “old” Bear County Museum (Beagle Bay Outfitters and Snoopy Campground Theatre) would also receive exterior updates to remove additional remnants of Bear County theming while the nearby Launchpad Gifts (Great Waldo’s Prop Shop) was converted into a Family Care Center. Taken individually no one change was massive, but taken as a whole it was the update the area deserved and made the entire area feel fresh and new.
The Snoopy in a canoe is replacing by a tubing Snoopy.
A great before and after, Campground Theater and Beagle Bay Outfitters in Camp Snoopy (previously the Bear Country Museum).
And after the transition to Planet Snoopy.
In 2012 Worlds of Fun relocated and rethemed its oldest steel coaster, Wacky Worm In an ironic twist, the park’s first kiddie coaster, Funicular/Silly Serpent was also moved and re-themed, so Wacky Worm was just following tradition. In Wacky Worm’s case, it was only moved up a hill and was re-themed to Cosmic Coaster. The worm-themed train became a rocket, (with feet!), and the apple transformed into a planet. More ride removals came in 2012 with the retirement of Peanut’s Ponies (Pony Promenade added in 1982) and Woodstock Express (Too Too Train added in 1987).. In 2015, Worlds of Fun decommissioned the park-orginal Krazy Kars (Crashem Bashem), the last remaining kiddie ride outside of Planet Snoopy.
Wacky Worm when the area was known as Pandamonium.
A near identical view in 2016 once Wacky Worm was moved up the hill and several rides were added.
Wacky Worm was moved and became Cosmic Coaster in 2012.
Big changes were right around the bend in 2016, when Cedar Fair expanded Planet Snoopy again, with five new rides from Zamperla! These rides were truly additions rather than replacements; no rides were removed from Planet Snoopy to accommodate the new arrivals in 2016. Beagle Brigade Airfield (Flying Tigers) would replace the aging restaurant building that was originally Lucky Lyndy’s Lunch counter (better known as the employee cafeteria in the late 90s and more recently Magical House on Boo Hill), Snoopy’s Space Buggies (Jump Around), Linus Launcher (Kite Flyer) and Snoopy Junction (Rio Grande Train) would be added down the hill from Cosmic Coaster, where Wacky Worm used to sit.
Magical House on Boo Hill was the last incarnation of the original Lucky Lindy's Lunch Counter.
Beagle Brigade Airfield replaced Magical House on Boo Hill.
Snoopy Junction
In the center of Planet Snoopy, the park added a popular Larson Flying Scooter, known at the park as Woodstock GlidersWoodstock Gliders seems an unpresumptuous little ride, but it has quite a history as both a ride and for where it stands at Worlds of Fun. First from a ride standpoint, though it's new at Worlds of Fun, the ride, at least in concept is very old. Bisch-Rocco first manufactured a nearly identical ride in the 1930s and 1940s known as the Flying Scooter. There are a few of the original variety of these rides left, including one at Cedar Fair’s Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. Larson Rides, best known for its Ring of Fire ride, revived the concept and re-introduced the Flying Scooters ride in the 2000s. The new version is nearly identical to the old version though some enthusiasts disagree on various aspects of the ride experience itself.
A few more before and afters. So first we have Barnstormer in 1978.
Tailspinner (Octopus) would replace Barnstormer in 1984, it would last until 1996.
And the current ride in the SAME PLACE is Woodstock Gilders.
Woodstock Gliders moved into a rather historic piece of Worlds of Fun real estate, first home to Barnstormer (1978-1983) and then Octopus/Tailspinner (1984-1996). Octopus was removed from the park in 1997 to accommodate the installation of the Berenstain Bear Family Treehouse (Octopus would be reinstalled in Scandinavia in 1998). It wasn’t long before the Berenstain Bears were evicted, and the Snoopy Bounce inflatable was installed on the site. Woodstock Gliders was the first ride to be located at the site in twenty years! One could easily miss that the small building built as a pump house for Barnstormer is still standing. It was rethemed to Papa’s workshop in Berenstain Bear Country and the PEANUTS school house in Camp Snoopy. The rethemed building is once again fulfilling its purpose as a ride’s electrical building.
Peanut's Playhouse became a petting zoo in 2019.
Probably one of my favorite "expansions" was the introduction of Woodstock!
And the introduction of Schroder and Franklin.
Planet Snoopy hasn’t changed much in the last few years. Peanut’s Playhouse became an animal petting zoo in 2019, (and was a mask-free rest area in 2020 during COVID) A few new walk-around characters have been added to the Peanut’s mascot lineup including Woodstock and Franklin. As much as things have changed over the last forty-five years so much has also stayed the same. Red Baron is still where it was parked in 1978 with the addition of Aerodrome, the Aerodrome “hangar-themed” bathrooms still look exactly as they did forty-four years ago too. The basic structure of the original Flying Circus Theater, which became Panda Pavilion in the 1980s still exists as part of Peanut’s Showplace (look for the metal poles and spot the different ceiling types). Even the incredibly popular play-music pad from the Bear County Expansion still exists. And though many older rides have been removed many still operate including the 1974 Red Baron, (originally Scandinavia), the 1978 Tot’s Yachts (also Scandinavia), the 1979 Beetle Bumps (originally in the Orient), and the 1987 Turntyke and Swing-a-Ling (from Pandamonium) still take their second and possibly third generations for a ride.
The original Aerodrome bathrooms still look like airplane hangers.
The original Barnstormer pump house today is used for electrical housing for Woodstock Gliders.
At the separation between Peanut's Showplace and Snoopy Boutique you can still see the original structure of Flying Circus Theater.
That s at the heart of it all, families having fun together, kids experiencing the same fun rides their parents, and even grandparents enjoyed. I’m 45 and have fond memories of both Humpty’s Haven in Scandinavia and Pandamonium growing up. Many people my age have children, and some even grandchildren that are experiencing the same rides I and their mothers, fathers, and grandparents rode as kids. Those years, the experiences may be in the past, but the memories never are, they just continue to grow with the years. Here’s to many more years of fun times for kids of all ages at Worlds of Fun.
Having more fun with before and after this view is from 1978, but as you will soon see its a view that hasn't changed much in 45 years.
Same ride, same location in the 1990's, PandAm Airlines.
And today, it's Red Baron again. Same place, same ride still.
Special thanks to Todd Swetnam for proofreading this blog!
Kansas City Star article from November 5, 1972. An ironic detail is in the lower right hand corner, advising readers that the NEW Kansas City Airport would be opening on November 11th.
A clearer view of the same photo from the article. Worlds of Fun is starting to take on an appearance that is recognizable. Notice how Der Fender Bender (Autobahn) only has half a roof so far!
There is an old saying that a photo is worth a thousand words.50 years ago the following Kansas City Star article was printed and circulated celebrating the park reaching 50 percent completion along with accompanying aerial photo.Now I could simply post the article and photo but it’s me and I love to delve into the details.
Vittle Griddle from the same time period.
Moulin Rouge from about the same time period.
The details are at the heart of it all, and that is my major takeaway from this article. Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman knew then that if the rides got people through the gate it was the attention to detail that kept them coming back. So they didn’t design a cookie-cutter park.
Kopter from 1976, located in Scandinavia.
To highlight this point are my two main takeaways from this article. This first pertains to the plan for children's rides in the park. Manager of Public Relations David Holt is quoted stating “Our feeling is to make it a real family experience by having something along the way for the children”. Instead of specific and separate children’s areas like most parks had, they intermingled the children’s rides with the adult rides. The three original children’s rides were Kopter in Scandinavia, Crashem Bashem in Americana and Funicular in Europa. This concept was apparent through the 1980s and into the 1990s too when you could find Micro Moto Bahn in Scandinavia, Beetle Bumps in the Orient, and Pony Promenade in Americana just to name a few. Starting in the late 1970’s Hunt did start adding more concentrated areas for children such as Half Pint’s Peak or Pandamonium but the “sprinkled through the park concept” lasted until Cedar Fair went ahead and centralized all the rides in around 1998.
This is actually one of my favorite construction photos, but was shot far earlier than November 1972. However, it illustrates the unique aspect of the old bridges at the park. These are the pylons before they became bridges.
And one of the train bridges.
The other major takeaway is about the train trestles, “We tried to be authentic and tried to keep in a lot of details” Holt would be quoted saying. Today the trestles are nearly the same traditional-style structures as they were in 1973, with the exception of the Fury of the Nile trestle which is a very large set of pre-cast water culverts. I’ve always loved the unique detail of the bridges, but beyond the fact of them being train bridges is the concept of going beyond the bare minimum necessary to create something truly unique. It was that attention to detail that always set Worlds of Fun apart, after all, Jack Steadman stated in August 1971 that they planned to have the most beautiful and exciting park ever built. To do so the devil had to be in the details.
The back of the 1973 brochure, and there were two different versions that I stumbled on accidentally! One was printed in 1972 and shows a spring opening, the second is printed in 1973 and shows a May 26, 1973 opening date.
I’d always like to think that Jack got precisely what he wanted and for many of us that grew up with it it WAS the most beautiful park in the country. Worlds of Fun’s opening wasn’t without a few challenges, the upcoming winter of 1972/73 highlighted that absolute demand for excellence, it was one of the most brutal winters on record for Kansas City and saw not only a record ice storm in January but then also necessitated jackhammers to break through frozen ground to plant the trees that we still see today. It was the same cold winter that would delay Worlds of Fun’s opening day. At this point, 50 years ago, opening day was still slated for Spring 1973, but thanks to that wonderful Missouri weather became late May by the time everything was said and done.
After all the hullabaloo with the new Zambezi Zinger died down I began to think about a blog and realized I had never written a blog on the original Zambezi Zinger. It’s been featured in a couple of blogs, but no single blog about it. Now is the time.
Zinger queue house in the 1990s.
For 25 years Zinger's queue house has been without the signage for Zinger on it. This last week it returned! Photo by Kim Slater.
Probably one of the most discussed details of the new Zinger is that the park elected to keep the original name, Zambezi Zinger. What many don’t realize is that just the simple fact of re-introducing the name adds a whole great story back to the park. Back before Worlds of Fun first opened, all those 60 brand new and exciting things to do needed names. The story I am going to tell is one I have heard from multiple sources, and the details vary a bit, but the basic facts are always the same. There was a gathering held to name the rides, and numerous adult beverages were present. That makes some of those crazy names make more sense right? Anyway, at the end of it all, they tabulated the number of drinks that were required to name each ride, and Zambezi Zinger came out on top with the most.
The original Zinger under construction.
Another detail about the original ride names that I love, is that so many of them were alliterations. An alliteration is a two-word phrase where both words start with the same letter. Viking Voyager, Congo Clearing, Rickshaw Richards, Oriental Octopus, and… Zambezi Zinger. All alliterations. Most of them are gone, but one of them is now back.
Big Bend at Six Flags over Texas, the original Speedracer.
Before there was a name though there was the idea. The original Zambezi Zinger was designed by Werner Stengel and built by Anton Schwarzkopf and was part of Schwarzkopf’s Jet Star line. The Jet Star line was introduced in 1968 and included the Jet Star I and 2 models, the Jumbo Jet model, and Speedracers (sometimes referred to as the Extended Jumbo Jet). You can read more about the evolution of the entire line of coasters in my blog from last year here. In my opinion, Zinger is the best of the Jet Star family, and one of the finest coasters ever built by Anton Schwarzkopf (Though admittedly I never rode Big Bend). What has always fascinated me is that Lamar Hunt went with a German-built steel coaster as his headliner coaster when most parks opened with an Arrow mine train coaster or a wooden coaster or both. The likely inspiration for Zinger was its direct predecessor, Big Bend which opened at Six Flags over Texas in 1971. Both Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman were from Texas too, so it's likely they saw it while planning for the park. Zinger would become the second Speedracer, with the two Whizzers at the two Great America parks being three and four.
The spiral lift shot from the midway by Zulu. The spiral lift of the new Zinger will be roughly in the same place.
Zinging through the woods!
What made Zinger so memorable, and what made it also probably so difficult to recreate, is its abundance of unique features. The ride started with the spiral lift, which was a feature shared by nearly all the Jet Star coasters but nearly no other coaster ever before or afterward. Unlike traditional lifts, Zinger’s lift was neither straight nor powered by a chain. Instead, it spiraled up, powered by an electric power rail at the center of the track. Inside each car was an electric motor, and when the two came in contact, it propelled the train up the lift and created the signature hum of the lift too. Wee…. Hummmmm…..
The first drop on Zinger.
AND the first drop on Zinger (that's going to get confusing!)
Of course, this unique design had its faults, which is why it was abandoned after the Jet Star line was discontinued, and Schwarzkopf himself went back to traditional chain lift hills for his future coasters. Many past guests and ambassadors recall Zinger trains stalling out on the lift. When this happened it necessitated multiple park ambassadors to climb up the lift and release each car’s clutch which allowed for the train to roll back down the lift. So let’s not be too hard on the park if it has issues with the new spiral lift. It’s pretty dang heroic of them to attempt that craziness a second time.
Another angle, original Zinger.
New Zinger.
Besides the lift, Zinger had some very unique ride vehicles. Unlike nearly every modern coaster, the original Zinger cars were ridden bobsled-style, similar to Voyager boats. It was one of Zinger’s most memorable features, allowing guests to ride in the laps of their loved ones or friends, or perfect strangers, with not a single restraint, not even a seatbelt. That lack of restraints and open car design is pretty much why that would never fly today. Not so much because it's technologically difficult but because insurance companies would never allow it.
The spiral lift and high speed turn on the original Zinger.
And similar element on the new Zinger.
The ride itself was described best as almost all Schwarzkopf coasters are, it was fun. Zinger was zippy, had just a touch of airtime, and sped through the trees like abandon. Once it got warmed up that is. Zinger was a little sluggish getting going in the morning and still is for that matter. It didn’t take riders upside down but was built as its name implied (Speedracer) for speed. Probably my favorite element was its high-speed turn, which the new Zinger partially attempts to replicate. After dropping off the lift, and taking the initial drop, Zinger would head out towards Nile, turn and then head back towards the lift. It would then duck under the first drop and do a quick turn around the spiral lift. After traversing around the lift it would then drop, curving into the hillside. It offered just a little thrill to an otherwise mild, family-style coaster.
Entering the tunnel of the original Zinger. Photo from ACE News.
Exiting the tunnel.
Of course, no discussion of Zinger would be complete without talking about its tunnel. Zinger’s tunnel was so integral to the ride experience and iconic that Parque del Cafe in Colombia where Zinger is today built a nearly identical underground concrete tunnel just for the relocated ride. And there are still NO SNAKES falling on riders. The new Zinger plan states that it will also have a tunnel, and honestly it is one detail I can’t imagine any tribute to the original Zinger NOT having.
The tunnel from 1998, looked so forlorn...
The removal of Zinger left scars...
Same viewpoint as above but from 1973 when Zinger was there...
Zinger would only be with us for 24 years, making its final ride in 1997. There was no announcement of its removal, only an empty lot on opening day 1998. One question is why Zinger was removed, and there are multiple answers. Probably having a major impact was that Anton Schwarzkopf declared a final bankruptcy and went out of business in 1995, thereby making replacement parts harder and more expensive to obtain. So it makes sense that in 1997 when the park looked at a necessary structural refurbishment of Zinger, it was decided once the price tag went above two million it wasn’t worth the expenditure. That’s one question that I am positive would have had a different answer if the impact had been realized at the time.
From a 1982-83 off season photo of the park, I have outlined the layout of the Zinger as its hard to tell from just the photo.
A similar viewpoint of the new Zinger.
Zinger was beloved by many, then and now, and hasn’t been forgotten. Though for many years I believe that was Cedar Fair’s desire. And here is the major takeaway. 25 years ago, when Zinger was removed Cedar Fair’s focus was on remaking the park in their image, that of Cedar Point. Mamba, Boomerang, Detonator, Ripcord, and Thunderhawk were in, while the old guard Orient Express, Zambezi Zinger, and Omegatron were out. A key detail is that the park never announced the removal of either the Zinger or Express. There was no last ride. Like they had never even existed. Except it didn’t work quite the way Cedar Fair expected. People didn’t forget. Time passed and Cedar Fair began to change its way of managing Worlds of Fun. Finnish Fling DID get a retirement party, defunct attractions were no longer on the “black list” and their names were mentioned, and celebrated again. Details that were once overlooked were appreciated, and theming returned. A new, different focus. Is it perfect? No. Is the new Zinger perfect? No. Was the original Zinger perfect? No. But the very fact that Cedar Fair made the realization that Zinger was important to the park’s culture and was worth the effort to at least pay homage to makes a point that this isn’t your Cedar Fair’s Worlds of Fun of twenty-five years ago. It’s a more honest Worlds of Fun than it was. No longer denying the past but trying to recreate it as best as today’s technology will allow. And for that, I give them all the credit in the world.
Special thanks to Brad Green for reading over this for me, and to Tara Shryock for providing the sub-title!
