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This was my first trip to Indiana Beach and it was tied to a Cedar Point trip.  It made for a good stopping point and broke up the drive a bit.  After spending the night in Champaign, IL we got up early Saturday and headed for Monticello.  The plan was to get the $5 early entry wristband and hit the coasters before the crowds got there.  Being fans of sleeping we got the park a little later than we had hoped.  At 10:20 the parking lots were still empty so we went ahead with the original plan.  Before 11 we were able to hit all of the coasters and Skyride.  This gave us a chance to slow down for another hour or so and check out the park.  We squeezed in a quick round of mini-golf, scored some tasty tacos and then rode Den of Lost Thieves, which wound up being our only wait of the day (probably 15 minutes or so).  We were on the road to Cedar Point by 12:30.

Steel Hawg was a surprise.  The maneuvers look painful but instead of cringing through the ride I giggled.  The hang time was fun.

Cornball Express was probably my favorite ride in the park.  There’s some nice ejector air scattered throughout the course.

Hoosier Hurricane was fun.  A couple of pops of air mixed in with an awesome surrounding.

Galaxi was just like every other Galaxi but thrown in the middle of a waterslide complex.

Tig'rr Coaster was my first Jet Star and it was also a surprise.  It whips through the course.

Skyride was about as good as any sky ride out there.

Den of Lost Thieves was fun.  It felt like the perfect combination of old school dark ride and new age shooter.

Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain - We rode it.  That’s all I need to say.

With more time I probably would have ridden Steel Hawg and Cornball Express a few more times.  But was we were leaving all of Indiana was arriving. 

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Wooden roller coasters have come along way from the classic out-and-back style we use to see. Now we are seeing 90 degree turns, twisting curves, spiraling drops, and stuff we usually only see on steel coasters. There is a coaster that is brand new this year that proves my point. Worlds of Fun's newest coaster, Prowler is more than just an out and back coaster. It's a phenomenal ride from start to finish.

Prowler opened earlier this year in 2009 with a great layout and so much more. The layout can only be called "wild". It's an out of control layout with a spiraling drop right off the bat. This is just one of the many exciting, and thrilling elements that Prowler provides it's riders. There is airtime where you would least expect it in this ride too, which of course can make any ride even better and it just makes Prowler that much more exciting!

Another element on Prowler is the high speed, and banked S-Turn. It is taken at a very high speed and that's what makes it so thrilling. Most of the elements on Prowler are taken at pretty high speeds but the S-Turn is very fast and extremely smooth. You would think it would be a little rough with as fast as the train goes through it. Prowler maintains it’s speed throughout the entire. Even on the return run the ride still has so much speed, it's pretty amazing how this ride never let’s up.

One more element I'd like to take the time to mention is the triple down. Of course that means plenty of airtime depending on where you sit. The first part of the triple down is a very fun airtime hill that does provide good airtime. The next two hills provide great airtime as well and like the other elements on the ride, the speed is maintained through this element.

Prowler really is a phenomenal ride. In my opinion I believe this ride is sure to become and instant classic. Worlds of Fun and GCI have put together a top ranking wooden coaster. I loved every second of Prowler. The best part of Prowler without a doubt is the first drop. It's even better in the front row as your just sitting there looking down the spiraling drop waiting for the rest of the train to catch up. Finally it does catch up and off you go! That in my opinion is the best part of the ride but the sudden unexpected airtime follows quickly behind the first drop is great too. Another unique thing to Prowler is the fact that there isn’t a bad seat. Some rides have a special seat that gives a better ride than other seats, but Prowler is good in every single seat. It's just an amazing ride and is a great addition to Worlds of Fun.

The wife threw me a curve ball and suggested an early season visit to Oceans of Fun. We usually put off our visits until late June or July. This wound up being a great idea. The park was about as empty as we have ever seen it and the lines for the slides were almost nonexistent.

We got to the park about 1pm and found a spot to park our stuff near the Caribbean Cooler. Finding a couple of lounge chairs at 1pm on a Saturday or even later in the summer is close to impossible. After tossing our stuff in a chair we headed over to the Diamond Head slide complex. There were only a couple of people in line so the wait was only a minute or two. We started with the middle slide, Waikiki Wipeout. The water was pretty cold so lying down wasn’t something my body wanted to allow. Because of this my trip down was pretty slow. Hitting the catch pool wasn’t much fun.

Next was a trip down each side of Aruba Tuba. The wait was less than 5 minutes for each side. We both preferred the larger tube shoot. The enclosed one is plenty fun but we didn’t pick up as much speed. We also noticed that the water was a little bit warmer.

We crossed back over the park and hopped in line for Hurricane Falls. This is usually the longest wait in the park so we were stoked to find a 10 minute wait. We usually only score 1 ride because of the line but today we got 3 rides in. Later in the afternoon we probably waited closer to 15 minutes, which is still far from the normal wait time. Each time we rode we were paired with some youngsters. The extra weight probably led to more speed. We flew down the slide and climbed the walls with each turn. The ending is like a low speed car accident. When the raft hits the water everyone gets jumbled up.