u/Legitimate-Net2062

After a fun Saturday at Six Flags St. Louis, we made the drive across I-70 to Kansas City for Worlds of Fun. As I have more time waiting in the airport to orchestrate my thoughts, I’ll go a bit more in depth on these rides.

I do have to begin my mentioning a rather frustrating opening hour. The first restroom between the parking lot and front gate was one of the gnarliest I’ve ever seen. It was dive bar-esque, with a thick layer of grime across the entire floor, and a little “Wet Floor” sign. We then got into the park as gates opened at 11, and immediately went to Spinning Dragons. As a low capacity spinning coaster at the front of the park, we wanted to get it out of the way early. And… it was closed, and not even testing yet. Well no worries, we can hit Patriot, it’s right around the bend! And… it’s closed, the ride ambassadors don’t know when it’ll be open. Aw crap, well at least we can scoot over to Cosmic Coaster and get that out of the way before kids swarm it and I feel shame riding a wacky worm. It’s also closed for the day. Mamba was also still testing, and Prowler was down as well. By this point it’s 11:30, and the only coasters open are Zambezi Zinger and Boomerang. There were also several concession and merch stands that either opened at 12 or 2. Ouch. I understand that things happen, but it felt like the park was under the impression that gates opened at noon, but they accidentally let people in an hour early.

With all that said, we scooted over to Zambezi Zinger for our first ride of the day, and followed it up with Boomerang.

Zambezi Zinger (3x): I really enjoyed this ride, even though our first two rides in the back rows were pretty shaky. I will absolutely trade a lil’ shake for airtime, and this did deliver! The tributes to the OG speed racer are cute, and this really amps up with the quickly paced 2nd half so low to the ground. The last ride up front solidified was fun for the laterals, though the air didn’t really happen. It’s an absolute quality attraction, just with a much, much better neighbor that I’d rather ride more.

Boomerang (1x): It’s a Vekoma Boomerang. One gripe I had was that they were not loading the front row when I was in line, yet they did not notify anyone or block the row, so people waiting there just… couldn’t ride. I‘ll give St. Louis the edge here for that annoyance.

By the time we got off Boomerang, we finally saw Mamba with people on it, so we went there next.

Mamba (2x): Our first ride in the second-to-last car was rather underwhelming, but I can’t be that disappointed because I had seen the trims are back on, and boy do they hit. That first ride they did absolutely nothing, but I will shout out the turnaround helix on any seat, as the headchopper with the supports is awesome. We managed to get front row for the last ride of the night, and it certainly improved our ratings. Going 70+ mph in the front row is always a blast, and the initial camelbacks really brought some air! Unfortunately even a full day of warming up was not enough to get airtime on the bunny hills, but they tried their best haha. In my opinion Mamba ends up 3rd in the park in this current iteration, but if they could turn those trims down (or off!) it would pretty easily be 1 or 2.

After Mamba we went back near the front gate to get on Prowler before looping back to Patriot, but we then found out that Prowler was having some severe technical issues and had not opened yet. We hung out with a fellow enthusiast (sorry I’m horrible and never got names) for about a half-hour before bailing out to ride Patriot, as my partner very much loves B&M inverts.

Patriot (6x): Our most ridden ride on this mini trip, Patriot does not have the intensity of Batman or any of the older inverts, but it’s still a B&M invert: it’s smooth and fun. The elements are a bit too spread out for my taste, but I have to give it credit where it’s due. There are two notable moments of airtime, the hill after the Immelmann + a small pop just before the break run, especially in the back row. My catalog of inverts is not big, but it was certainly a new sensation for me on this ride model, and I appreciate B&M trying something unique, even if it didn’t excel.

After passing the massive line for Spinning Dragons and a chaotic adventure to find coffee, we headed back to Prowler to wait out an opening. With some other enthusiasts joining us, we had some great conversation while waiting! apparently Worlds of Fun ordered a new train for Prowler this year while train 1 is under a year-long maintenance, but new train 3 has had severe issues starting out. Train 3 finally cooperated around 4:30, and our patience paid off.

Prowler (3x): I wish I got to lap this more, because it’s a truly amazing ride. This world-class woodie packs a huge punch in both laterals and airtime on any seat in the ride, though I think I slightly preferred the front. It’s relentless for most of the experience, though the new titan track does appear to slow it hard just before the final brakes. It’s like a scrunched up Mystic Timbers, but I can’t truly compare the two because I got the first few rides of the day on Prowler, while my night ride on MT was frantic and insane. Regardless, any fan of wood coasters should add this to their bucket list, it’s that good. Unfortunately, it seemed to run into issues again, and did not reopen after 6:30.

After our 3rd ride in Prowler we faced a tough decision: keep looping it, or go to Arthur Bryant’s before it closed at 7. We chose the barbecue, and while we got re-routed to Gates’ due to Arthur Bryant’s being out of ribs, it was awesome to experience a KC staple. We then made our way back to Worlds of Fun for the last hour of operation for rerides, but not before…

Spinning Dragons (1x): 2 Gerstlauer spinners in 2 days, and like I said in the previous post, I really like these guys! I wish the operations were improved, but I could say that about most rides at the park. If these cycled better I’d do them more. We had 2 empty seats across from us, so the lackluster ops made it a better ride.

Overall: We did really enjoy our time here, but the poor start to the day did leave a bad first impression. Hopefully as the summer approaches and schools let out staffing can be increased, and the added time can let maintenance finish up Timber Wolf, Cyclone Sam’s, and Fury of the Nile to make the park feel complete. The themed areas do look good. It’s easy to tell what belongs to each area (except Boomerang), and each have their own styling to make them distinct. I only wish they leaned into this more! There’s also some TLC required, such as buildings and signs needing a new coat of paint, and good lord the bathrooms here were all a mess. Regardless, this park has great bones, and a great opportunity paired with Mid-America to become a great theme park to its thrill park, we‘ll just have to see how Enchanted approaches it in the years to come. I hope they give us a reason to come back soon, as the potential is here, and I’d love to lap Prowler more!

We also decided to bypass Silver Dollar City so as to not miss our flight. It’s unfortunate, but now we can give that park the full day it deserves someday soon. That’s a wrap on this trip, but we always have more coastin‘ on the calendar! I hear Indiana is nice the last weekend in May?

Flew into STL today and picked up our rental car for our trip across the great state of Missouri. It’s my partner and I’s first time in the Show Me State, but for this trip we’re just here to coaster. And maybe a bit of barbecue.

I’m limiting myself to 2 sentences on each coaster for brevity, but I absolutely encourage discussion below in the comments. This park really does have a charm to it, and we had a rather great day!

- Pandemonium (1x): Our car‘s weight was really uneven and it led to a great cycle with lots of spin in the second half. I’d rate these Gerstlauer spinners as better than the Maurer ones, and on the same level as the top tier Reverchon mice.

- Rookie Racer (1x): New-age Vekoma is very quality and makes great rides for the entire family to enjoy. Two laps is great for this smaller layout!

- American Thunder (1x): While a fun ride with nice laterals, there’s not much airtime to be had here. Only a tad shaky in the back row, but we were rather underwhelmed here compared to other GCIs like Thunderhead and Mystic Timbers.

- Mr. Freeze (2x): Was a great time in the front with excellent hang on the top hat on the return trip, but the back row reaching up to the top of the spike is excellent, full of force. The free fall from the spike is the best moment of airtime(?) in the park.

- The Boss (2x): I think I could write an essay about this ride and how it does have actual forces, but it’s so wacky, so rough, and yet I couldn’t stop laughing on both rides. The front was maybe a smidge less painful, but that’s like comparing a 3 car accident with a 5 car pile up.

- Boomerang (1x): It’s a Vekoma Boomerang? I did appreciate that the ride op wants to call it “Carrot Coaster”, Enchanoted Parks pls fix.

- Screamin’ Eagle (2x): After a lackluster but intriguing first ride in the front I convinced my partner to try the back row to see if it had any airtime. It did not on either of my rides in the Blue train, but I now have a new roughest ride ever, ouch.

- River King Mine Train (1x): Pretty inoffensive Arrow Mine Train, but it pairs nicely with Rookie Racer for a good family 1-2 punch. I hope Enchanted enhances the theme a bit more if they intend to keep this long term.

- Ninja (1x): Going into today I thought this would complete with Flight Deck and Wilde Beast for the bottom of the barrel, but it was actually solid save for the sidewinder taking a chunk out of my neck. However, the chain lift headchopper is one of the crazier things I’ve seen on a ride.

- Batman the Ride (2x): My partner loves B&M inverts so we had to do front and back row. These are excellent and forceful, I do not care that every SF legacy park has it because they’re so high quality.

Overall, the staff was extremely friendly throughout food and operations, even with a sizable weather delay and hijinks with the purple train needed to have weight bags loaded onto it during the middle of the day. It was also great to see the extensive SIZE of staffing, and this lead to solid operations on almost every attraction save Batman, which is down to one train now. Their flume was cute and I forgot how much I enjoyed the Hall of Justice ride as well. One critique my partner said that I cannot help but agree with is how bizarre the queues are here. Mr. Freeze and the Boss are exceptionally long, and the staff didn’t have switchbacks roped off, leading to us getting lost multiple times. Also Batman the Ride’s fans were broken, so the indoor queue portion was torture. I genuinely hope they get a new ride soon so we have an excuse to return, hopefully some sort of steel airtime ride, maybe Mega Lyte sized or a B&M hyper if Enchanted really tries to spurge. Tomorrow we’ll be at Worlds of Fun, so stay tuned!

EDIT: I reposted this with a different title and added my photos because my goofy self forgot that “Mizzou” only refers to the university. whoops!

Also, we have a potential opportunity to cram in Silver Dollar City Monday morning before our return flight from St Louis. It would be about 7 hours in the car for only 4~5 hours of park time, though I already have a Dollywood pass. Should we squeeze it in, or wait for another time to get a full day?