Coaster Community

May 5, 2006 Opening Day

Our first visit to Celebration City was in 2004 and we were pleasantly surprised with how much we liked it at that time. This visit was no exception. The park is still extremely well-kempt, from the tree-lined streets and sidewalks to the manicured Great Lawn it feels like the American Dream come to life. And did I mention they have roller coasters?

Balmy springtime weather beckoned us to spend the evening at the park for opening day 2006.  After our three hour plus trek from Kansas City, we arrived at the park finding the parking lot only half full around 6 pm. The staff was very courteous and accommodating as we made our way through the entrance gates and into the park.   The staff here is well-trained, always helpful and they even appear to be having a good time. The restrooms and eateries were spotless and well stocked all night.

After a few pictures to fulfill our reporting duties, we headed straight to Wildcat at the back of the park. This wooden roller coaster specializes in quick turns and hops with no major drops to speak of. But that doesn’t take away from the thrill factor for us. We love this coaster from start to finish. Our favorite element is the double hops towards the end of the ride, where you’ll feel a couple pops of airtime. Add on the speed of this coaster and you’ve got one fun little woody. The layout is very tight with the track twisting and turning into itself repeatedly. There’s also a great view of the park to your left as you ascend the lift hill and behind you is a nice view of the bustling burg of Branson.

Jackrabbit and Thunderbolt are just a short distance away from Wildcat, but they are worlds away in ride quality. It’s great that this park can boast three coasters, but don’t expect any major thrills on Jackrabbit or Thunderbolt. You might get a little anxious on these, if only because they look like they might fold up under the pressure of six adults in a car! Don’t get us wrong, these are nice little family coasters that will provide thrills for the wee ones or those with CAS (Coaster Anxiety Syndrome, trust me it’s a disease). Both coasters have quick turns and fast drops, you might even smile in spite of yourself.

After a couple turns on Wildcat, we headed to the other side of the park to ride Fire Ball. This spinning pendulum is our favorite flat ride at the park. Riders face each other in a circle at the bottom of the pendulum arm which spins as it hoists you up to the sky. The ride operators always seem to have a good time with this one, creating a screaming competition among the riders.

You might run into Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato of Veggie Tales fame in this area of the park. The park is showing two new Veggie Tales animated movies in the Celebration Theatre throughout the summer. We saw the giant vegetables greeting their wee fans outside the Celebration Theatre.

We then retraced our footsteps to take a spin on the Tilt-a-Whirl, which had a lot of tilt but not much whirl. Then it was on to Kicks 66 Barbecue for dinner. For about seven bucks you can get a large BBQ sandwich and two sides. This was plenty of food to set us for the rest of the night and it wasn’t too bad on the pocket book either.

After yet another ride on Wildcat we leisurely strolled back through the park to get some nighttime photographs (check them out in the gallery). This park is lit beautifully at night and it adds an extra thrill to the rides. We tried our luck in the midway, but it was an off night for us so we left empty handed. The noise from Accelerator drew us over and we decided to hop on for a quick ride. This is a single tower space shot that’s much smaller than Detonator at Worlds of Fun, but it’s a surprisingly good ride. As you ascend the tower, an extra burst of air pushes you up to the top slamming you up out of your seat. Anything that adds to airtime experiences is a good time in our book. Plus you get a split second bird’s eye view of the park, which is best at night.

It was almost 9:30 so we headed to the Great Lawn for their Ignite the Night Spectacular. We weren’t sure what to expect, not everyone can agree on what is “Spectacular”. So we settled into the grass with an open mind. We were very impressed with the combination of music, video, lasers, waterworks and fireworks. It’s a multi-media presentation in the true sense of the word. It’s a very family oriented show that focuses on great moments in American political, sports, and pop culture history.  A definite can’t miss for all park visitors.

After the show we had 10 minutes to hoof it back over to Wildcat to squeeze one last ride in. We lucked out and got in two more rides before closing time. Unfortunately it wasn’t lit that night so we couldn’t get any night photos. In talking to one of the maintenance staff, we found that they are in the process of adding ground lights to the ride. He also mentioned they have trouble keeping the track lights working as they are all electronic. He thought they would be running soon, they just didn’t have time to get them going for opening day.

All in all it was a great day at Celebration City.