Worlds of Fun Review Kansas City, Missouri - The ALMOST Great Cedar Fair Park
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2023
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Worlds of Fun is a Cedar Fair park in Kansas City, Missouri. It has plenty of noteworthy roller coasters and other rides. But what holds this park back? How is the new Zambezi Zinger? Could it become one of the best Cedar Fair parks in the future? Let's find out based on my visit in July 2023.
All footage is mine, but feel free to use it in your video. I would prefer if you gave me credit, but I will not strike you if you don't give credit.
worlds of fun roller coasters (rides)
mamba
zambezi zinger 2023
prowler
timber wolf
patriot
boomerang
spinning dragons
cosmic coaster - บันเทิง
The original theme was centered towards Around The World in 80 Days. I visited in mid June for opening week of Zambezi Zinger and compared to my visit last summer, I was noticing a number of slight improvements that have been made. I had a good time despite it being crazy hot but I appreciate how many Coke Refill areas they have.
I figured that was the theme. Thanks for the info!
I scheduled a trip for the original opening week of zinger,but it got postponed
Also,I have been stuck on mamba,spinning dragons kind of)and zambezi zinger(kind of aswell)
I have a video on the theme and other history elements on my channel if your curious
@@VWdabuggetting stuck on the Mamba sounds scary!
This is my home park. It was at its best in the 80's. The long gone The Orient Express was the best roller coaster they have ever had. Excellent video.
Thanks! I would have loved to experience parks in the 80s and 90s.
@@ThemeParkAvenue The Orient Express was something else.
We got the zinger back maybe we'll get the orient back to
Orient was king. Also the spinning one that had the floor drop on you was awesome
The Windseeker actually is from Knott's Berry Farm! It apparently had two incidents and IIRC, California OSHA had issues with how the ride would be evacuated if it got stuck, and Cedar Fair's solution was to...just move it to Worlds of Fun instead.
as a life long Kansas City resident, I can tell you Zinger was a crowd favorite all the way up until it closed due to parts shortages. So when it returned, new and improved it will have a long line for a long time. I spent many a hot summer day at that park when I was a kid. Parents would drop us off with a few bucks, a pre packed lunch and come pick us up a closing. Zinger was one of the rides we did more than once a day. Operations has not always been so bad. It was great back in the day, but poor management for years before its current owners, drove the quality of workers away. Hopefully they can get that back and maybe some of the crowds. When I was a kid the park was so busy they had multiple entrances, with lines, and trams to take you to them because it was so busy. Now no trams and just one entrance but I have to say the upkeep of the park has come a long way in the last few years. I do miss the skyline to jump from one side of the park to the other and get off your feet for a few minutes. I miss the dolphin show, as non PC as that is. But overall still love the park and most of its rides and attractions.
I would ride cyclone Sam usually when I was hot and tired, but kids still wanted to get on rides. A/C inside building nice place to go when 105⁰ out.
I don’t know if it’s been said yet, but the water sprinkler “effect” you found on Mamba has a completely practical purpose. Maintenance added this to help cool down the track and wheels in certain blocks of the ride. On very hot days, such as the one when you visited, Mamba can go through multiple wheels (sometimes 4-6 in one day). The polyurethane portion of the wheel melts or splits, throwing huge chunks off. This is usually isolated to the left side of the train due to the pressure those wheels experience while traveling through the helix.
We could tell when Mamba had a “bad wheel” because she would make a “roaring” sound when going down the first two drops. We’d have to call Maintenance to come replace the wheels before resuming operations.
Sometimes Mamba would go through so many wheels that the park would have to ask Valleyfair to send them some intended for Wild Thing!
Maintenance told me that the bad wheels would be sent back to the manufacturer to be refurbished, since the only thing wrong with them was the worn down polyurethane.
This hadn’t been mentioned yet, and it makes sense as I’ve seen it on some launched coasters. I had never seen it on a hyper before so that hadn’t occurred to me.
I was confused at first and I thought Simone had spit in me so I asked the worker why it was and that was the answer
6:58 Worlds of Fun mainly got this one because it was relocated from Knott's Berry Farm after the state declined to let the park reopen their Windseeker after an incident. It probably would be called Windseeker at Worlds of Fun instead of Steelhawk if one was built there from the start in 2011 or 2012.
Used to work there, was a lead in the food department. They’re not clean at all when it comes to food, we had roaches in the coffee machine and they wouldn’t replace it!
my old job gave us tickets to WOF once a year and would cater lunch; that pavilion felt naaasty. Always felt like the drink areas were huge bug magnets.
I grew up in Kansas City, and so I used to go to WoF all the time as a kid. A lot of these shots are trips down memory lane. However, I'm not in KC anymore, and haven't been back sense the Zambezi Zinger opened back up.
"Opened back up?" Yes, actually. When I was a kid (nearly 30 years ago) the park had a couple of coasters that got taken down. I don't remember the names of them, but I am all but certain the Zambezi Zinger was one of them. However, I'm not sure if the new one is a reopening of the old one, a mix of the two, or something different.
One of the old coasters was a really rough wooden rollercoaster. My entire family hated it, except my sister who enjoyed making us all go on it just to torture us. I think it got taken down because of it's bad reputation for giving people migraines.
The other was a really unique ride that I've not seen anything like sense. It was a green rollercoaster, which climbed up a circular hill. Then when it dropped, it took you into a pitch-black tunnel. The idea of this ride was that it represented being sucked up into a tornado. You go round and round as you slowly go up, before it spits you out where you fall towards the ground and ... lights out. They also played tornado sirens, and the car itself made a screeching sound as it began its descent. Really, a cool ride, and I was sad when it got taken down.
P.S. After doing some research, the two rides I was thinking about were the old Zambezi Zinger and the Oriental Express. The Zinger was the tornado one, and the Express was the migraine one (although not wooden like I remembered).
the orient express was rough, i remember my head bouncing off both sides of the restraint like a pinball
For reference Africa includes Egypt they arent seperate areas. Africa is just split into 3 sections due to the immense size of it. Being Egypt, Morroco, and Serengeti
That makes sense, thanks.
The “splash” from the sprinklers is to cool the track from consent use in the Midwestern summer heat 😅
It's brilliant too. Valleyfair doesn't have that hot heat..yet.
It's sister coaster wild thing is fun but it is not mamba...lol I loved this morgan coaster.
Great video! I was thinking when you were talking about the Egypt and Africa sections being separate that it would be funny if the Egypt and Africa sections were on the complete opposite sides of the park even though Egypt is in Africa lol. Sounds like a good park! Keep up the great work!
It’s all encompassed in the Africa section. There isn’t a separate Egypt area.
@@bdheinen he said there was in the video though
Haven't been in a couple of years, but I used to run rides at WoF. Was in the Spinning Dragons/Bamboozler/Grand Carousel team. Dragons has always had a slow queue, although back then, there was a point in the track where we could start a second car after the one on the track passed that point. So, essentially there was 1 car running on each half of the track at a time. As far as the operations go, I can tell you that when I was there, management was garbage. I don't know if any of the higher ups have changed, but back then (4 or 5 years ago) it was really bad. Promotions were friends promoting friends, management didn't seem to care... It was bad. I stayed because I enjoyed my crew, and having been working at a school at the time, I had the summer and weekends free, so it was extra money and free admission. :) Things came to a head for me when during WinterFest (their first), the ride I had operated ALL SUMMER, and I knew its quirks started to operate irregularly due to the cold. I informed my supervisor and maintenance, and was simply told that it was fine and it needed to keep going. Since that showed me that they didn't take guest safety seriously, that was the last time I was there. Hopefully things have changed, but I don't have high hopes.
I was there last year on July 14. Got the fast pass, after 3.5 hrs we have gone on all the major rides and was done for the day. Timberwolf is my lease favorite of the coaster. So you didn't miss out on much. That ride was always the start of a migraine. The mamba and patriot would always be my favorites. I agree with you on the Zambezi zinger, I did not like it too much. It was the reason why we got the fast pass, so we waited for maybe 10mins.
Glad to know the relaxed trim break on Mamba wasn't just a one year thing.
Yes indeed.
5:25 i go to wof every day over summer and we call the sprinkler diddy juice
This is basically my home park, and your assessment is very fair. I love hearing Prowler getting some more love, as I feel it is so underrated in so many ways. Patriot is also so underrated, and Mamba doesn't get the attention it deserves, because before 2022, the mid-course hit very hard, making the 2nd half dull, but now, it's an awesome hyper. The waterpark is a good one too.
I was at the park the day after your visit to get my first rides on Zambezi Zinger, and I totally agree; it's not that great. Too bad you didn't get on Timber Wolf, because that it is a solid # 4 in the park, miles ahead of Zambezi Zinger, which may not even be the # 5 coaster. Timber Wolf is not rough at all in a wheel seat. Breakdowns have been too much of an issue at this park, especially recently.
The announcement of Zambezi Zinger brought about a ridiculous amount of season pass sales to the KC area, which caused attendance to explode last fall and into this year. Last summer and before, you rarely saw much in the way of lines, aside from Halloween Haunt. I would be here on holiday Saturdays, including a 4th of July weekend, and lines would be short. Not anymore. Before these larger crowds caused these issues, it was a much better park, one that I argued as a #6 Cedar Fair park, in contention for # 5. But I think that # 8 is where it truly belongs right now. And as a side note, all 3 visits I've had at Michigan's Adventure have been totally awesome, with super short lines, fast operations on most rides, and I had the greatest time. I have it ahead of Dorney Park and very close to Valleyfair.
#8 is where I have it as well.
Great review. I was an operator of Cyclone Sam’s back in 2019. The specific model is a Chance Rides Wipeout. I will tell you that out of every ride I’ve ever operated, it has one of the most convoluted loading process and honestly bad procedures I’ve ever had to do. It’s a great ride, but if they would just remove the seatbelts, it would be soooo much better
That's good to know, thanks for the information and comment.
I rode Mamba for the first time this summer and the trim was off and Mamba was amazing
Completely agree on the operations. You didn't just get a bad day. Operations at that park have been very bad for a few years now. Constant breakdowns. Extremely slow loading and dispatching on pretty much all rides, even flat rides, it's just terrible. Makes it doubly worse when the major coasters only have one train running too. They've made a lot of improvement in the look of the park, but until they fix the operations disaster I will gladly drive the extra 2 hours and go to Silver Dollar City instead
Good to know. I hope those improvements are made in the near future.
as a former ride op for this park Id love to talk with you on how I believe ride ops at this part could and should do better. My years on 2017-18 ran the fastest ops in my opinion. I operated the patriot, T-wolf, ripcord, Europa section and cyclone sams. This park is my home park and id love to discuss improvements.
Mamba just isn’t better than Great Pumpkin Coaster tbh
True
Detonator is a first generation S&S Space Shot. The first generation models have a lot more airtime. There are 2 first generations models in the US, Detonator and the one on top of the Stratosphere in Vegas.
Zinger is the moodiest ride. It’s usual lame and rough in the morning. Usually insane and the best ride in the park at night. But sometimes it has a bad day. It’s annoying how unpredictable it is.
You’re right, operations are a nightmare after they implemented iROC standards. They’re procedures the operators are forced to do for safety theater that ruins the park experience. It’s weird how intense those standards are enforced at WoF, but not at say Kings Island.
After the accident at the shortly lived Schlitterbahn KC, the parks have been overly obsessed with safety. It is what it is. It's hard to come back from what happened at that park. It had absolutely nothing to do with the accident, but they suffered as well.
Sounds like your experience was pretty similar to mine. I was there in the middle of June during the week following Zambezi's opening. So crowds were pretty decent, though there was a noticeable increase when the water park closed. My experience with the operations was about the same, even down to Prowler going down the first time we tried to ride it. Spinning Dragons was closed for me, but I got to ride Timber Wolf...probably the roughest woody I've ridden since getting back into coasters and theme parks the past couple years. I guess I enjoyed Zambezi more than you, though I'd still put Prowler, Mamba and Patriot ahead of it. Overall I agree the park has great potential, hopefully Cedar Fair continues to invest into it.
Really, granted, I've experienced timberwolf before the retracking and have done a few rough woodies, I didn't find timberwolf bad at all. But I did avoid a wheel seat. You need to be in the first row of any of the two row cars as the back ones are right over wheels. And the restraints aren't the most comfortable. It also has what I think is the strongest ejector pop on the airtime hill right before the lift after going out and doing the high bank turn around.
@@jsho574 I don't remember if I was on a wheel seat or not. I'll admit I probably haven't been on a truly bad woodie the past couple years. I did just go to Kentucky Kingdom and King's Island this past week and I'd take any of their woodies over timberwolf, though thunder run is only barely better imo.
@@meglass71320 really, I found thunderrun bad. But to each their own. Would definitely agree for KI though
@@meglass71320 I put Timber Wolf ahead of Thunder Run, but they're close. They are both wood coasters from Dinn that have been maintained fairly well by the parks. However, as already noted, both will run quite rough in wheel seats. I highly recommend only riding in odd-numbered rows on both of those. I put Kentucky Flyer behind a non-wheel-seat ride on both. The woodies at Kings Island are better.
@@OklahomaCoasterFan Yeah, I should also clarify I only got one ride on each. It's entirely possible I got a wheel seat on Timber Wolf and a non-wheel seat on thunder run, though I rode towards the back on both. If I did multiple rides on each in various seats my opinion of them could possibly flip.
Worlds of Fun is just missing a new version of Orient Express but with a launch and top hat replacing the lift hill.
The lake in the center of the spinning dragons is a lost remnant of a dolphin show that was right there with that size lake there were normally 3 dolphins
Also they before Covid used to run 3-4 cars now they are a bit under staffed which you can really see at the children’s areas at oceans
I'm from KC, but moved to the east coast and have not been to WoF in many years. I may go this summer. If you get the fast pass, do you think that will improve a visit there? I hate standing in lines at amusement parks.
Totally agree with your video. If that park added a one or two more coasters and improved ops, it would be a great park. It's at least better than the Six Flags near me here in DC.
Fast passes skip the line. I got annoyed today seeing people walk in before me but if you want to spend the extra money go ahead
I grew up going here every summer and fall during the 2000’s. Good times.
The specific theme is set to the book “Around the World in 80 Days.”
After my first ride on Zambezi I had a similar take. It was okay - less than I had hoped. I am a diehard Prowler fan. But the more I’ve ridden Zambezi, the more it competes with Prowler for my top coaster.
Like Prowler, a night ride takes it to the next level.
Love that book, and I could sort of see the theme.
Worlds of fun in oceans are fun. Is my main park that we go to
I've haven't been here yet, but I think I could like this park then my home park, Valleyfair. This place has a much better waterpark, it still has their log ride which Valleyfair took out in 2009, and they have coasters In wish we had like Patriot and Prowler.
I had so much fun here..In fact I prefer WOF over knotts any day..
I think I'd recommend visiting in October, when they Halloween-ify it and dye the Nile ride red. XD Lines are still hecc as ever though, but think you were on to something when all the kids go home at night XD
Halloweekends is a fun time to visit Cedar Fair parks.
@@ThemeParkAvenuecedar points halloweekends are literally the best!!!
New Rule - Any Park with an Africa-themed area must play Toto's "Africa" at least once every couple of hours.
Good rule.
Spinning dragons the way the station was set up slows the speed at which they can load and unload. It's a tiny area. Always a slow line. After opening weekend Zambezi Zingers line is short 20 ish minutes.
We got one of those tall swing rides at adventureland in des moines iowa aka altoona iowa. Park is smaller than world's of fun
I love the shot of Mamba at 5:42
Mamba is a grand and beautiful roller coaster.
the worst part of this place is drinks being 25 dollars for a large
The Zambeze Zinger literally JUS opened thats why the line was so long
Operations played a role too.
That is a chance Wipeout that is Cyclone Sam’s. It’s supposed to go in both directions like the one at Knotts
I live in KC. Very much hoping CF finds a way to pump some more $ into this place before the World Cup Event being held here. Not sure if they will. Love the new mamba with no brakes, but at the moment would rather go to Silver Dollar City
Great review! I'm glad someone else agrees with my hot take on Zambezi Zinger. (Not that impressive even for a family coaster & surprisingly rough)
Thanks! I’m also glad to not be alone on that take.
I don't see it as a hot take either. Zambezi Zinger isn't very good. The wood section is quite rough. I can handle rough woodies if the layout is good, but I didn't think it was a good layout.
I live right by Worlds of Fun and I love this park now I do very much agree that the wait lines for some rides are brutal especially cyclone Sam. But I love this park and just so you know you should be glad that Timberwolf was closed because it’s really bumpy and will hurt your back and neck
I love worlds of fun!
I, going to both today!
Have fun!
My 2 cents on this park. Mamba and Timber Wolf are my top 2 at this park both are extremely underrated imo. Its well-landscaped and has a solid collection of more classic flat rides, Prowler is my favorite GCI and Zinger is my least favorite GCI. This park's biggest detriment is without a doubt the ops, and the lack of shade within the queues. I think Zinger was a good investment for the park in terms of profit, but I do not believe this park has the operations to handle the higher amount of guests visiting. I guess its worth visiting occasionally for me but I'm in no rush to return to this park despite only living 3 hours away.
All interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing.
Patriot always has terrible operations. One time I waited almost 10 minutes on the brakes for them to load the train.smh
Good to know.
I’ve only heard once they ALMOST rolled trains when mamba can do that daily
Oh the Africa section actually has three subsections: Egypt (Mamba), Moroccan Market (Boomerang and Zambezi Zinger), and Serengeti (Prowler).
Interesting
Zulu is my old favorite that is hard to find.
Prowler is awesome
Mostly I happen to live in Kansas City that I had gone to Worlds of Fun a few times that mostly the roller coasters that I like the best are Zambezi Zinger, the prowler and the mamba.
Very fair.
Been there like 4 times cuz I live near it and it’s pretty fun. I would rate it like 8.2/10
Worlds of Fun could be a premier destination amusement park. With it's central location, its drivable, for a lot of the midwest, and just a short flight for the rest. The only thing stopping it from greatness, is it's roller coaster lineup. First is quantity. It only has 7 coasters that adults can ride, without an accompanying child. That's simply not enough to entice amusement park and coaster enthusiasts, who have many other destinations, with more rides to choose from. Secondly, is variety. Out of the 7 adult coasters, 3 of them are wooden. That's way too high of a ratio, for a medium size park.
What should they do to improve the park? For starters, I would bulldoze Timberwolf. It's way too old and rough to justify it's maintenance cost and prime park location. I would then build 3 new diverse coasters. There are a lot of possibilities they could go with here. Floorless, wing, dive, launch, etc. That would give the park 10 adult coasters, with much more diversity.
Of course, that would all take a lot of money and dedication from corporate, and now that CF and SF have merged there's a lot more parks for WoF to compete with, so I don't see it happening.
i go like every other week, mid tear cedar fair park tbh
It’s a bit lower for me.
Calling the Zambezi Zinger "new" makes me age 50 years.
I've been there
Man it disappoints me that detonator has poor operations now. My 2021 crew was really good. Me and like 3 other ops ran it so fast
Six flags st louis got a new coaster because of the new wooden coaster so they tried to get a kiddie ride in st louis but at this point they are taking more rides than they are adding so i would go to worlds of fun and silver dollar city and not waste your money and time at six flags st louis. 😂
I don’t know if anyone else has talked about this but the Zambezi zinger operation was so bad becouse people were so desperate to get on they were pretending to have a fast lane and the workers had to check every fast lane rider befor they could get on the fast lane being a long line in itself
And with the prowler there is almost never a line becouse if the two cars running and it is a reward for the staff to be assigned to this ride becouse of the air conditioning and that causes them to work harder plus the shorter line adds to that point becouse people are often kinder when there is basically no line
Timberwolf needs to be RMC’d into Werewolf
Fun idea.
i go to worlds of fun a lot
patriot the best, then mamba
Worlds of fun has the absolute worst operations. It has so much potential but I didn't get a season pass this year because of the constant downtime and poor operations. As a local this park gets boring quick
I’ve experienced worse operations for sure, but yeah this park has some bad ones.
@@ThemeParkAvenue it's sad because it has so much potential. But the operations have lead to a decline in attendance despite the new coaster, because it's a 50 50 if rides are open and they won't invest anymore if something doesn't change. This park is a B&M hyper or rmc away from being great.
Cyclone Sam is a chance Wipeout
Thank you for the information.
I love Cyclone Sam! It feels like a "Kansas" ride with the tornado theme 😂
Timberwolf is better than Zambezi Zinger. That whole ride feels like a swing and a miss....and in a couple years its gonna be really rough
It’s already pretty rough.
@@ThemeParkAvenue thats my point.
Its rough now. Imagine a few years of aging on it.
The worst park in the US of the major companies. It has two good coasters but overall is an old (not in a charming way) dump. The design is awful and so is park maintenance. They should raze the entirety of the acreage and start over. We gave it 3 chances. 1x as a child. 2x as adults in the last few years. It’s an easy pass.
Worst? I’m curious about what other parks you’ve seen so far. Have you gone to the Great Escape or Michigan’s Adventure?
I feel like worst and dump are both a little harsh. The park doesn't have great ops and could use more frequent investment, but the park is honestly nicer and better taken care of than, say, most Six Flags parks. There aren't any rides that I would say are elite, but unless Zinger is a lot worse than I'm expecting it to be, it also doesn't really have any *terrible* rides. It also has the best Haunt event in the Midwest by miles and looks like Cedar Point compared to Michigan's Adventure! The park isn't great, but you honestly could do a lot worse for a chain park!
Listen. I understand where you're coming from, but as an ambassador and guest to this park, I have to defend it. Yes the line to zambezi is long, because its "new"/back in the park, I guarantee you that itd be the same way at ANY OTHER cedar-fair park around the world with new rides that come in. ESPECIALLY roller coasters. Spinning dragons is a popular ride, zambezi is a popular ride, even more so than the mamba now surprisingly. Operations are hard to manage cuz of the heat, and the fact that employees dont want to stay most of the time because of guests who are rude, or mainly because this isn't the job for them. You're over looking everything and you're not the only person who matters when it comes to opinions my guy, I'm not one to hate, but rn this is something that should be said. But if you were in my shoes or any of the ambassadors here then you'd have a completely different view of the park, just saying
Local opinion: Worlds of Fun is great, Oceans of Fun sucks.
I didn’t go to Oceans of Fun but it didn’t look great.
Six flags st louis is probably on its way out too
One of the worst theme parks in America. Rides are constantly breaking down and it is NOT a family friendly theme park. Do not recommend