Theme Park Discussion / FredD goes to America

Worlds of fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't knew much about WoF before visiting the park, I knew about The Patriot and Prowler but that's about it. I expected a little park but I was wrong. Our group got an exclusive early entrance with a nice and pretty female employee. That way, we could do a few coasters before opening. We went to the spinning coaster, Spinning Dragons, but it wasn't ready to ride yet. No problemo, we moved on to the next one and that was one of the two WoF coasters I knew and was looking forward to ride!

 

The Patriot is a very nice B&M invert with a perfect zero-g-roll. I liked it very much, it doesn't have such power as Raptor has but this coaster doesn't need to. We followed our attendant to WoF's Vekoma Boomerang. Yeah have plenty of those in Europe but us rollercoaster friends don't discriminate so why wouldn't we ride it? We even got a second ride on this, why not?! At least it wasn't a bumpy ride and that's always a WIN WIN for a Vekoma coaster.

 

Just like the other CedarFair park we visited before, Worlds of Fun has a hypercoaster from Morgan. Since Wild Thing @ Valleyfair really surprised me in a good way, I was curious if Mamba would confirm my positivism about Morgan (hypercoasters). And it did. Just like his green brother it rode really smooth and offered a nice dose of airtime. Though I rate Wild Thing just a bit higher than Mamba, it was really clear it's a damn shame there aren't more hypercoasters of Morgan. And none in Europe, if I would want a hypercoaster for a good price... call to Morgan!

 

Than we went to the other coaster I knew, Prowler. I read so much positive reviews about it I was very excited to ride it. You know, I love wooden rollercoasters and they don't have many of those in Europe so this trip was just a big success thanks of all the wooden rollercoasters we did. And it was crazy! Prowler became my nr 2 favorite wooden coaster (my nr 1 you'll get to know later on), wow! What an absolutely wild experience! It seems like it doesn't lose any of his speed and it rages over it's track trough the many corners and little height differences! What a great ride! I don't understand why it ranks so low these days in the Mitch Hawkers wooden coaster poll... 17th place last year and Troy ends up higher?! Big mistake if you ask me.

 

We had to say goodbye to our pretty attendant and went to the Spinning Dragons. The park was open for the other visitors atm, and while we were glad to see the coaster was open, we weren't glad when we saw the queue... We waited about 30-45 minutes which was about the longest waiting time we would experience that day. Spinning coasters and capacity, not a good marriage. Not wanting to complain about queuing, because that's part of visiting a theme park. But the almost the whole queue lays in the open sun and it was very hot that day. And the coaster wasn't that good, fun but not one to remember. I was told it's the same model as the one we did in Nickelodeon Universe, but we didn't get as much spinning as we got in Minneapolis.

 

America knows how to honor their classics. Most parks have a woodie, and a park with multiple woodies isn't an exception. Worlds of Fun also has a second woodie: Timber Wolf. Opened in 1989, you can't call this old. But it felt like it was. By far the worst coaster of the park, way too shaky! But still got a memorable ride on it. My friend who sat next to me tried to be smart by throwing some water to our friends before us. But yeah... because of the speed it ended up in our own faces. We also did the little kiddie coaster, a wacky worm coaster (yeah we are a bit of freak aren't we) so we got our rollercoaster bingo.

 

Like I said, it was really hot so we wanted to cool down. The log flume was hopefully pretty wet. What a weird station system they have over here, the log flumes in Europe mostly go on a band in the station or we use a turntable. Here the log just stays floating in the water and the front gets secured by a plate that moves up from the bottom so the back is laying on the floor. Clearly by not knowing this system, we made the mistake to get in a log with 4 men who are quite big (in height and/or in width). Our log teared up against the bottom and we had to push ourselves forward sometimes. And when we got back to the station... roll back! Ride OP had to try 3 times before it got secured and it was safe for us to get out. Lmao.

 

We did the rapid river after that. We spend the full afternoon at Oceans of Fun, their water park. It was really fucking hot that day so the choice to do the water park was made pretty easy. We stayed at Oceans of Fun until closing time. Most of the group went back to the hotel, but since Worlds of Fun was still open for a few more hours, me a and some others decided to stay until closing time. We got to ride Mamba, Patriot and Prowler in the dark. And that last coaster, was even more crazier in the dark! 

 

It was the best day of the trip so far! Worlds of Fun impressed me so much, I really hope I'll ever have the opportunity to go back some day. It was much bigger than expected and they have a nice collection of coasters with 3 absolutely top rollercoasters if you ask me (Prowler, Patriot, Mamba. In that order). In addition to that, the park was decorated very well, the best we have seen so far on the trip, and it has so much atmosphere. I consider Worlds of Fun as one the best theme parks I've ever visited.

 

 

 

Score for Worlds of Fun: 9/10

Nice photos! Sounds like you had a fun time as well. 

Thanks man, I had the time of my life. Damn all those good coasters, pretty girls, the extreme friendliness, the food,... I want to go back!

Friendliness? Good food? Roller coasters? I want to move to that part of America

Except for the staff of one park, all the people we met were super friendly! We ate mostly fast food yes, but it was good fast food. Over here, our hamburgers aren't made of real meat. But your hamburgers... damn those were great! The Jack Daniel Burger @ TGI's <3 the Clubhouse Grille sandwich @ Applebee's <3  And the portions were twice as big as in Europe!

 

Yeah that you guys have not only more, but also bigger and more spectacular roller coasters shouldn't be discussed. That's just a fact!

I guess Americans are spoiled then, because while Applebees and TGI Friday's are pretty good, they're sort of old hat. I guess I'm just used to them even though I rarely eat in restaurants. 

 

And I wish I lived closer to these roller coasters

Silver Dollar City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally SDC wasn't planned. But since Bluegrass Boardwalk wasn't going to open its doors in 2013 we got an extra day on our trip. The original plan was to visit the city of Saint Louis. But then someone came with the idea to use that day to visit Silver Dollar City. The organizers didn't like that idea because the park is too far from the route. It would mean we had to spent 7 or 8 hours in the car, but since our group of 26 Belgian rollercoaster friends used rental cars they left the choice free to us. So we ended up riding to Branson, Missouri with 11 people (including me of course).It meant we had to had to get up at 6AM but you are a friend of the rollercoaster or not!

 

The parking lot of SDC was huge! We chose not to use the free parking, fearing it would be too far from the entrance. We bought our tickets the night before in the hotel, including our fast passes because we wanted to do as much as possible. It's not like we can go back next year... SDC is undoubtedly the best thematized and decorated park we have visited on our trip. The atmosphere it has was just amazing! To me, it can be compared with Disneyland and Terra Mitica. Also two parks who are also holding thematisation and atmosphere in high regard. I said before that the Americans we met were super friendly? Well the staff of SDC was the most friendliest staff I have ever seen in a theme park! They really made our day much better! I think every park should send their staff to SDC to see how it must be done.

 

The first atttraction we did was the B&M of the park: Wildfire. It is really weird but also neat how this big coaster is only visible if you stand in front of it. Laying on the flank of the hill, they couldn't chose a better location to build a coaster on. The view was very amazing! The coaster is... also weird to say... nothing special really. If you do such a trip, even a big B&M becomes usual. Not that I want to say it is a bad coaster, no it was fun. Place this in Europe and it would be regarded as a top coaster. But since America has so much big coasters, this doesn't stand out anymore.

 

After that, we ate something and went on to the next coaster. That was supposed to be Powder Keg, but there they told us there was a storm coming and they are closed until the storm would have passed. It started to rain indeed, so we went searching for something indoor. Not far from Powder Keg we found Fire in the hole, an indoor woodie. Our fast pass came in handy because we weren't the only ones wanting to do something indoor. It looked like it was more darkride than a coaster but at the end it gained some speed and ended up with a wet surprise. We didn't saw that coming!

 

The rain got worse, so we visited a show in a classical saloon. In the waiting line I got kissed on the cheek by an actress, out of nothing. I said they were super friendly over here   The show was good, normally I don't do shows in theme parks but I would do this show again if I ever visited SDC again. After the show we went back to Powder Keg, but it was still raining and the cute ride OPS told us the storm had to be gone in a radius of 10 mile before the rides could reopen. We spend the time chatting with them until it stopped raining. We then wanted to go to Outlaw Run since the ride OPS from Powder Keg thought that coaster could reopen sooner than Powder Keg. But the other half of our group wanted to stay chatting, so half our group to Outlaw Run.

 

We could use our fast pass 8 times, 8 different rides or 8 times the same ride. But we only could use it once on Outlaw Run. The queue wasn't big, like expected thanks to the storm. So we waited... it stopped raining but we had to wait quite a big time since the storm had to be out of the 10 mile radius... We saw how they placed a second train on this wooden monster. After 15 minutes, the line after us got pretty long. The rest of our group who stayed chatting with the ride OPS from Powder Keg had no other choice than using their fast pass for Outlaw Run right away. 

 

But the waiting got rewarded! When it was finally OK to reopen, we only had to wait 5 minutes or so until we got to ride it. The waiting time was immediately forgotten when he rushed of his first drop. I can't find the words to describe Outlaw Run other than WOW WOOOW WOOOOOW WOOOOOOOOOW! The steepest drop on a woodie, a semi zero-g-roll, great cornering, airtime hills, overbanked turns and 2 barrel rolls to finish... WOOOOOW! And while riding all those great elements, constant ejector airtime! Not Silverstar airtime, not even Colossos (Heidepark) airtime... I have NEVER experienced so much and heavy airtime on a coaster than on Outlaw Run! Even in the overbanked turns there was amazing airtime!

 

And if that wasn't enough already, it rode fucking smoother than a B&M! Unbelievable... Do I even need to explain why Outlaw Run became my new number nr 1 coaster (and it still is, even after hitting up Cedar Point)?! Even one of my mates who rode more than 600 coasters placed Outlaw Run as his new number 1. Outlaw Run has everything what you want from a coaster: (extreme) smoothness but still an out-of-control feeling, (much) ejector airtime, amazing first drop, lapbars, wild, crazy cornering, a constant speed,... you name it, it has it! Just riding this coaster was fucking worth the extra hours in the car!

 

Of course we used our fast pass for Outlaw Run immediately after our first ride. I can't remember the last time I had such a strong feeling of wanting to ride a coaster again so bad... I could spend all day on that monster. Damn, I want to go back thinking of Outlaw Run... 

 

 

Riding on Outlaw Run we saw Powder Keg was riding again. So we went back to Powder Keg for the third time, and this time we were lucky. We used our fast pass and the friendly and cute ride OPS were happy to see us back. It was a fun coaster, with a unique way to 'ride' to the launch. I think this coaster would be top if they build a splash zone in or somehting. It felt like it missed something. But still fun coaster though.

 

We went for our coaster bingo and the next ride was Thunderation, a minetrain from Arrow. The other minetrain coasters were nothing special. Especially if you compare them with the versions from Vekoma. But Thunderation came as a nice surprise! It wasn't bumpy and it was actually a fun coaster to ride! Surely the best minetrain coaster from Arrow! Also unique: the lifthill was on the end of the ride.

 

And if we wanted our bingo we also had to do the kiddiecoaster of SDC: Grand exposition coaster. We got some weird looks from parents, but SDC had no rule adults can't ride it without a kid so why shouldn't we. It took some effort to close my bar but with the help from one of my mates it closed. After a painful ride I could yell bingo. Everything for the coaster bingo huhuh (I know we are freaks...).

 

We went exploring the park, which was really beautiful. We did the park train, with again super friendly staff. Unlike other park trains, this trains rides out of the park into the forest where they provided some nice entertainment. That was the best park train I've ever seen... This park is just amazing. After the ride, the ride OPS offered us to make a photo with them. Man, why isn't European staff in themeparks so friendly?! Their friendliness really made our day twice as better as it would be without. SDC proved super friendly staff can make a difference for the experience of the customer! After that we did a darkride which was a bit outdated but still fun to do.

 

It was almost 7PM, closing time. I & Kristof really wanted to do Outlaw Run again. The others went for another ride on Powder Keg and Wildfire. Unfortunately, we couldn't use our fast pass for Outlaw Run. We only used it three times... Lucky the queue wasn't that long anymore. We waited for about 10 minutes and even could do it again after that. That way, we got to ride Outlaw Run 4 times today. Sadly it was closing time and we got back in the car heading to St Louis. It was almost 1AM when we arrived at our hotel, but it was totally worth it. 

 

Score for Silver Dollar City: 10/10

Six Flags Saint-Louis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Worlds of Fun and Silver Dollar City, we had a third park to visit in Missouri: Six Flags St Louis, the self claimed coaster capital of Missouri... First ride of the day: Batman, the ride. Forwards this time. They have a really strange policy over here, we were told at the entrance of the queue we couldn't take our bags with us. So we had to take a locker... Ok, weird but still understandable. Did the queue, coming into the station I saw people in Batman leaving and coming back without shoes. And because my shoes are a bit loose I thought, might as well take them off because Batman is quite intense. Placed my shoes near the exit and went into the car, closed the bar and staff checked the bars. Than, one of the OP's came with my shoes, asking from who they were. Mine, so they pushed them into my arms and when I've just put my first shoe on they dispatched the train! I managed to put the other one on on the lifthill right in time before it descended. But what an example of poor customer friendliness is this?! It doesn't take that long to put my shoes on, is it too much asked to wait to dispatch the train?! My friend got a little camera in his pocket because he wanted to make some photos in the queue. Same story, he placed it near the exit in the station so he wouldn't lose it on the ride. But when arriving back in the station it was gone. It wasn't stolen, apparently the OP's took it with them because it's forbidden to leave it behind on the station... Come on... station is big enough to leave stuff behind and there is not a seperate exit station, so they don't really have an excuse to forbid it.

 

Next up was Ninja, contstruction started by Arrow but completed by Vekoma. Need I to say more? It wasn't a comfortable ride but still not as bad as Goudurix. This one was good to ride once. We wanted to do the Boomerang afterwards but it had technical issues and remained almost the whole day closed. So River king mine train first, Lifthill the ride should be a better name for this Arrow mine train.

 

Finally it was time to ride the first of three woodies of the park: Screamin' Eagle. I really like woodies, so I was enthusiast about riding it. It was a little bit rough, but a woodie can be rough and still be fun. It was a fun ride, but nothing special compared with other woodies I've done. But since it's pretty old (from 1976) that's understandable. We were hungry afterwards and decided to stop for a quick lunch at the Character Cafe. I ordered a simple hotdog... I had to wait more than 10 minutes! The lady in line after me also ordered a hotdog, she got one right away?! Of course I had to pay for it right away when I ordered it, the cashier didn't say a word against me, she didn't even look. Lucky for me, someone noticed it from the kitchen and came to me asking what I've ordered. Explained it and got my hotdog right away! Was it that hard?! Hurray for the kitchen employee, boo for the cashier who even had the guts to say sorry when I got my hotdog. I wouldn't have got it if it was up to her... Some of my friends ordered a salad, a fucking salad, and they also waited as long as me. That cashier was the worst employee I've ever seen in a themepark! She was lucky we didn't filed a complaint against her, she would have deserved that! She pissed me off.

 

The next woodie was the next ride, The Boss. No sign of Rick Ross whatsoever, disappointing! The ride itself was also disappointing, it rattled way too much and since the coaster was really long it was a painful ride! I was glad I could exit... Lucky we did Pandemonium afterwards which was a fun and good ride.

 

It was really hot that day, maybe the hottest day on the trip?! Some coolness would be welcome, so we did the full queue of the rapid river which was really nice. We got big waves over us and were soaked when we came out of it. One of the better rapid rivers I've done, and with that temperatures we were glad to be soaked. There was one SF St Louis coaster we were excited about and knew before visiting the park: Mr Freeze Reverse Blast! It had some technical issues, but it worked when we passed by. It's a unique shuttle coaster with a double station, which is pretty handy. Here we saw another example of SF St Louis customer friendliness: when it was almost our time to get in, the station on the other side broke down, and all those people waiting over there were told to join the other queue. It was pretty crowded that day, so I would be mad if I queued there and then they would say that against me... Lucky we chose the right queue so we could do it without any problems. It was a very good ride! The backwards launch is amazing, a special experience I didn't experience before. The backward part was also the better part of the coaster. This one is a very special coaster, and the big (and only) reason you should consider hitting SF St Louis up when you're in the neighborhood. 

 

Since we were still wet from the rapids, we decided to do the log flume as well which was fun. And next to the log flume, there was American Thunder. The third woodie of the park, a GCI monster. It confirmed GCI's reputation as a creator of great and smooth wooden rollercoasters. Though it may be not the best coaster from GCI, it was a great ride. Definitely the best woodie of the park. And what I've mentioned about the customer friendliness in SF St Louis, the OP over here was cheering people up and talking to them, so she deserves a shout out! Best employee of the park.

 

We did the Sooby Doo shooter which had a really big queue. We wanted to do the Boomerang but it was still closed so we decided to eat first in the Panda Express. Afterwards we just waited at the closed queue of the Boomerang so if it opened, we could ride it. And we were lucky, 30 minutes before closing time it finally opened and we were the first ones to ride it! Not that we haven't done a Vekoma Boomerang, but we want to have our coaster bingo (yeah we are such freaks...). We were extra lucky, because on the lifthill we saw a storm coming to the park with lightning and heavy rain. And ten minutes after we got out, the storm reached the park. We took shelter but the rain didn't degrade so we had to run trough the whole park to our car on the parking. Soaked again. 

 

 

Rollercoaster capital of Missouri? Don't think so, they have way better coasters in Worlds of Fun and Silver Dollar City. Also the customer friendliness was really bad, one of the worst I've ever experienced. It was day and night difference compared to the friendliness we experienced the day before in Silver Dollar City. I wouldn't visit SF St Louis anymore if I'm ever in the neighborhood again. Unless they opened a great new coaster... 

 

Score for Six Flags Saint-Louis: 5/10