Coaster Community

Over the years the wife and I have been known as late arrivers on Saturday nights.  With the park being open until midnight it was easy to show up at 9pm or so and get a great deal of night riding done.  We were like salmon walking through the crowds of people leaving as we approached the front gate.  All of the day walkers didn’t know what they were missing.  This year Worlds of Fun put in place a new summer festival, Celebrate America.  This festival includes staying open until 11pm on Friday along with 10pm fireworks.  We’ve been to the park the last 3 Friday nights in a row.  It’s basically night ERT on just about every ride in the park.  Front row rides are a 2-3 train wait but we’re not really the front row types. 

On to the actual evening. 

We got to the park around 8pm and made a decision that we’ve been making without even thinking about for over two years now.  We turned right.  Our first stop was Patriot.  This was going to be our first ride and act as a meeting place.  We’ll we waited for the rest of our party we took a quick back row ride.  No wait and plenty of awesomeness.  When we got off Robby (aka Worlds of Fun super fan) and Jennifer (aka Theme Parks Magazine Editor and park historian) were standing by.  We gathered them up and then immediately returned to the back row of Patriot.  Before moving on everyone agreed to a 2^nd row ride.  I like the idea of mixing it up a little and the front rows provide a totally different ride.  It’s really weird getting air time on an invert.  We also had to fight Janessa for an outside seat. 

Next up was Timber Wolf and we got lucky enough to score a ride while Matt (aka Timber Wolf Matt) was driving.  It was a 1 train wait for the front.  No roughness what so ever and 3 great pops of air.  The improvements to Timber Wolf are certainly noticeable this year and it’s a ride a hit every time I go to the park now.

We headed to Mamba and with 2 trains running it was only a 1 train wait for the 2^nd and 3^rd row.  Jennifer insists that the 3^rd row is the best spot and the air time up front is silly as you go over the 2^nd hill.  You also float through the bunny hills.  Robby and I however took a 2^nd ride and went for the very back.  The air in the font is great and all but getting pulled over the top of the 1^st drop beats it in my opinion.  The length of the train seems to cause the dropping sensation to start long before you crest.

Zulu was next and like always it was a blast.  It’s terrifying.  I’m certain that my car is going to swing itself off and I’m going to go flying into the woods.  I was happy to hear that I’m not the only one that thinks this way.  The entire group apparently has similar fears.  And you know a ride is going to be good when there’s pixy dust spread out at handful of cars.  I always debate with myself in these reports and this time I’m debating whether or not this is my favorite flat at the park.  As of today I’ll go with it being the top dog. 

We had a couple of minutes to burn so we took a quick ride on Viking Voyager.  It’s great in the dark but still not high on my list of log flumes. 

The fireworks were just a few minutes out so we grabbed some snacks and headed to Grand Prix to watch.  Janessa went with her long time favorite the funnel cake while Robby and I grabbed caramel pecan rolls from Cinnabon.  If you dig cinnamon rolls this snack will rank high on your list of food items you can score at any park.  The roll made it hard to pay attention to the fireworks.  Most of my time was spent with my head down and my mouth full.  From what I saw it was a decent fireworks show. 

It was getting late and the wife was getting tired we decided to take one last back row ride on Patriot.  The fireworks had drawn a crowd so this was out longest wait of the night, it was almost 5 minutes. 

Trips to Worlds of Fun usually don’t get any better than this.