Coaster Community

Last weekend was opening weekend at Worlds of Fun, and unfortunately I had to delayed making my first 2008 visit until this weekend due to a nasty sinus infection I had. However, this weekend was definitely the better weekend to go as last weekend was in the 40's and snowing, while this weekend was in the 70's mostly sunny and dry. I wanted to get to the park by 11:00am but I woke up a little late, and I dilly-dallied around as I was getting ready. I think we got to the park around 11:30 or so and our first stop was of course to ride Patriot. The new wheels and the maintenance that was done in the off-season helped keep the speed up. The air time and the moments of zero-G were some of the best I've ever had on Patriot. It's still in my top 3 favorite coasters and I look forward to a long season of riding.

 

Once we got off Patriot I checked my in-ride photo, and I decided to go ahead and get it. For ten bucks I got it and a shot glass so it wasn't too bad of a deal. After that we headed over to the Timber Wolf. In the off-season the replaced most of the track on the first drop, hill and curve. After riding it I think they most have done work on top of that because it was the smoothest ride I have ever had on the Timber Wolf. A lot of folks dismiss it as a back breaker because there was a period of time that the upkeep on it wasn't as good as it is now. I guarantee any of the naysayers out there who take a ride on it in the next couple of weeks will agree it is a great woodie. It was also nice because I got to meet Matt Meyers who is also a member of Coaster Community like myself. He was working at the Timber Wolf today and we had some time to chat while I was waiting in line.

 

Next we headed over to take a ride on the Worlds of Fun Railroad. I hadn't been on this ride since I was a kid and rode it with my parents. It's not a particularly thrilling ride, but it is enjoyable. I also had another reason for riding. Recently a bunch of survey flags and markers have shown up in the park, and most of them can only be seen from the train. The area for the flags is rather large. Initially most of us over at Coaster Community thought it was going to be a new coaster. However, the size of the land the has been surveyed and marked leads me to believe that it might be an entirely new section of the park. If you would like to see this image you can see it here.

 

After the train ride my wife was hungry so we got a pretzel and headed towards Mamba. We got about halfway there and I realized that I didn't have my Patriot picture I had bought earlier. I did some backtracking in my head and realized that I must have left it on the shelf for personal belongings. We decided that since we had to go back there anyway that we might as well wait in line and ride it again. While we were waiting I looked at the shelf and thought I saw my folder with the picture in it, but after the Timber Wolf train pulled back in I saw someone grab it and realized it wasn't mine. There were a few more sets of riders before it was going to be mine turn again, and during that time I was just overall disappointed. I was disappointed at myself for being so careless, disappointed that I had spent $10 and had nothing to show for it, and I was disappointed that I didn't have a really cool picture of me riding Patriot that I had planned on hanging in my cube. Once it was our turn to be the next set of people to board one of the ride ops came over and asked if I had left a picture behind. I said yes, and she responded that she was holding it at the control booth and I could pick it up after we had gotten done with our ride. Well, that made me feel a lot better. I think having struck up a conversation with earlier helped them recognize me from the picture. We rode Timber Wolf and it turns out it was a good thing I had to go back. It rode just a smooth, but for some reason it was faster this time around. After getting my photo back and having that great ride I was in pretty high spirits.

 

This time we actually made it to the Mamba, and we found what ended up being a decent wait as well. As it was we were waiting a little longer because my wife and I also ride in the front car, except at Disney Parks where is the luck of the draw where you get to sit. So we were looking at a wait of at least half an hour. Unfortunately, while we were in line they had some "technical difficulties." From what I was able to observe status numbers weren't adding up correctly so they call in maintenance. Maintenance did an empty run, then did one with a few employees. Everything checked out and they announced they would starting letting people on again. I was listen/watching the ride ops and I think it was a simple calculation error on the part of the operator. Even though the error was his and not the ride's, I was kind of glad I saw this occur. It meant that they took issues seriously, even when it was caused by a miscalculation. Once we finally got to ride Mamba I ended up being a little disappointed. There was plenty of air time as usually, but it seemed a little slower than usual. Hopefully this was just my perception and it will be better next time.

 

We decided we would skip Bommerang and instead ride Spinning Dragons and Patriot one more time before leaving the park for the day. On our way to Spinning Dragons we stopped at the refurbished shooting gallery. It looked nice even if it was out of place. It had an Old West theme and was located in the Africa section of the park. To be fair, this came from the now defunct Geauga Lake so the refurb didn't cost that much, the old Big Game Hunt's fake stuffed creatures were well past their prime.

 

Our ride on Spinning Dragons was one of the tamest I've had. For some reason my wife and I didn't get spinning very well, but since we had only waited ten minutes it didn't bother us that much. We headed over to Patriot to ride what we thought would be one more time, which turned into two times and was a mistake. We we got to the queue gates we got in line for the front car. While we were standing there we noticed we could get on the next train if we sat in the back. We decided we would ride in the rear and come back to ride in the front. Jennifer Lovesee-Mast creator of WorldsOfFun.org was working the back section of Patriot and we chatted for a little bit. Once we rode we realizedl the back seemed to be throwing a few more G's than we expected without having the benefit of cool air blowing on our faces like in the front. I also can get motion sickness, but I am usually okay as long as I can see where I'm going. However, in the back car on an inverted coaster all you really see are the people sitting in front of you. After than ride neither my wife or I felt all that great, but I had already told myself I was going to finish the day riding in front and I convinced my wife to come with me. We waiting in line for about five minutes and we were both starting to feel better. The second time through was a lot better with the wind on my face, but I still didn't feel great and still have the headache from that ride. My wife had to sit down for a little bit and felt bad enough to have me find out where a restroom was, but ended up being okay.

 

Even though we left the park feeling a little sick I still had a good time. I think a large part of it was I wasn't drinking enough water or doing any snacking. I won't make that mistake again. It was a great day outside and I can't think of any other place I would have rather been at than a theme park. Next weekend I'll be going to St. Louis for a wedding and I plan on going to Six Flags while I'm there. I will post a similar report when I get back. If you would like to see more pictures from my trip you can view them on Facebook or in my Gallery