New Coaster coming to WOF

[mister816]

No one wants to go there plain and simple.  it's not keeping up with other cities.  Personally I love to ride coasters and I am willing to travel the country to ride one, but I haven't made a trip to WOF in 2 years  for a few key reasons... there is a lot of space that cedar fair own in the area and when the chose to build a new ride they have to tear one down... I don't care how much it cost to keep the Orient going, don't tear it down...  fix it and keep it moving.  you don't see cedar point tearing down history to build it's 19 coasters, they build upon what they have and I feel that we should have done the same here... when I heard that we are getting a new coaster it scared the shit out of me because I was wondering which one are they going to tear down now in order to build this...  by doing that they have alienated a lot of their long time fans.

When are we going to get out of this attitude that mediocre is okay because we are only Kansas City?  Are we ever going to have a fastest, tallest, or anything with an "est" at the end of it?  People are sick of spending $40 to go to a mediocre park.  Someone said that at this pace they will be closed in 10 years... and I know we really need an amusement park in the city but I can't say that I honestly would care unless they do something drastic... soon.

[mean]

I'd almost rather fly to Bogota to ride the renamed Zambezi Zinger than go to WoF.

[GRID]

Six Flags in StL is not any better.  They "might" have recently passed us with their recent coaster boom, but that park is not any better if you ask me.  I still go though, I enjoy it too.  Guess I don't have to go to cedar point to have a good time.

Neither is Six Flags in Denver.  Valleyfair in Minneapolis etc.

Houston does not even have a park anymore, neither does Phoenix.

There are tons of very overated parks like Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Seattle's park sucks.  Portland doesn't really have one.

I can go on and on.

I guess I thought WOF was a pretty good park.  I'm not sure why people try to compare it to Cedar Point, that doesn't even make sense.  Cedar Point is the Disney World of extreme coasters.

That park in OKC is a total joke and six flags is HQd there I think.

BTW, anybody that would pay full ticket price to any amusement park is a moron.

[mister816]

people compare it to cedar park because cedar fair owns it...

[KansasCityChiefs]

I'm not saying we should all boycott Worlds of Fun....

It's cool they're adding another roller coaster- it will be fun to ride on.

I just expected/hoped for something closer to "The Boss" at Six Flags St Louis.

[GRID]

My problem with WOF if the fact that they rarely run the coasters with more than one train.

You can go on a Tuesday night and still have to wait 30-40 minutes for the big rides because they take so long to move the lines.  Running two trains is not only twice as fast, it's like 3 times as fast because you don't have to wait to load and unload trains.

You can go to Six Flags and ride those rides over and over again because no matter what, they seem to run the rides at a much higher capacity.

The best part of the Timber wolf is the bunny hops on the end, the rest of that ride is painful.  I still like it.  I think a "low" wooden coaster in the woods would be a pretty good ride.

Anyway, Cedar fair has added some pretty good rides to WOF.  The Patriot is one of the best inverts I have ridden and the Mamba is one of the better steel coasters.  I have not ridden the boss yet, but StL don't have a super fast coaster either.


Yet, I don't think it has changed the attendance much at all.

So, I honestly think we are lucky Cedar Fair is still investing in WOF.

But I do agree with the fact that WOF rips out too many rides.  The Orient was a great ride, so was the zambi.  Keep them, they add a lot to the park.

[mean]

WoF needs at least a linear induction coaster if it wants to continue to be a desirable destination.

[pstokely]

I don't think Cedair Fair wants any competition for its flagship park. The rest of its parks will remain crappy. Aren't all parks in mid-sized markets crappy. People expect WOF to be have Cedair Point quality rides. If the land that WOF sits on was worth more than the park itself, it would be gone. Happened with Astroworld, might happen with Magic Mountain. Doubt it will happen with WOF or Six Flags STL. I think people are just nostalgic for the days when the Hunts owned the park, if they still owned it today, King Carl would have probably ruined it. Are any amusement parks worth the price of admission?

[mister816]

Are any amusement parks worth the price of admission?

Hellz Yea! CEDAR POINT, Universal studios islands of adventures, Six Flags Over Texas, Busch Gardens in VA and so on...  WOF could compete if they would just play it smart.  Everyone is talking about what other cities have and dont have.  I dont care i just want KC to have something that makes it stand out, be it Schlitterbahn or Disney (probably not gonna happen)... What can we get to draw people here in stead of flying to cali, texas, florida, or Sandusky OH?

[pstokely]

Hellz Yea! CEDAR POINT, Universal studios islands of adventures, Six Flags Over Texas, Busch Gardens in VA and so on...  WOF could compete if they would just play it smart.  Everyone is talking about what other cities have and dont have.  I dont care i just want KC to have something that makes it stand out, be it Schlitterbahn or Disney (probably not gonna happen)... What can we get to draw people here in stead of flying to cali, texas, florida, or Sandusky OH?

Did WOF ever stand out? I don't think it ever will.

[kcdcchef]

Did WOF ever stand out? I don't think it ever will.

yes, it did. for a long while, under hunt midwest, the park was considered the standard for other themeparks in regards to cleanliness, rides, safety, landscaping, and general theming. that has since changed a lot. has little to actually do with cedar fair, and more to do with peoples expectations. people used to adore eating at the paddle wheel cafe atop the cotton blossom, or riding the ski heis over the park gently going along at 15mph. the le taxi tour was the coolest thing in the world, anyone could drive at the age of 11, people adored the EXT and thought it the coolest ever. hell, the timbwerwolf was the number one wooden roller coaster in the world as voted by ace for 2 years. orient express was considered one of the top steel coasters in the world for a spell.

yes, worlds of fun was once considered the premier attraction in the midwest. those days are gone, and will never return.

[im2kull]

Did WOF ever stand out? I don't think it ever will.

You would be surprised,

WOF was listed annually as one of the Nations BEST parks, with some of the most unique and thrilling rides of ANY park untill its decline under the ownership of Cedar Fair.  At one point WOF was the coaster worlds best innovater (Under Lamar Hunt management).  You probably never realized this, but WOF had the worlds FIRST standup, and first Corkscrew rollercoaster.  Of course that was the early 80's, and the rides were promptly torn down as soon as they became a true crowd attraction.  I bet you didn't even realize that WOFs name and the park itself were based on something quite novel.  There is now nothing left of the orignal parks theme, and that is quite tragic. 

If you go back in time 20 years you would find WOF to be a much brighter spot than it is now.  The park used to stand for something, for a dream that Lamar Hunt brought alive for our city.  We should expect more from Cedar Fair, but we must realize that we will likely never have a park better than the current WOF.  Cedar Fair bought out most the countrys unbranded theme parks in the late 80's and throughout the 90's, and now uses them as feeder parks (Cash wise) for its flagship park.  They (Cedar Fair) are first and foremost, a company, were profits and dividends rule.  They run a clean balance sheet, and Cedar Point (Their flagship theme park) aside, will not invest in ANY innovative or risky rides at any of their parks beside Cedar Point because they simply don't have to.

What Worlds of Fun needs is an ownership change.  If you can't see that you need to take off the drunken goggles and start looking at how Cedar Fair has torn down various parks around the nation and turned them posterchilds of mediocrity.

[pstokely]

Is Six Flags any better with their non-flagship parks?

[GRID]

Is Six Flags any better with their non-flagship parks?

no

[pstokely]

I guess the only amusement parks worth their admission price are in California, Florida, and Ohio. All other parks get the leftovers from those parks.

[GRID]

You can go to WOF for 20-30 bucks with coupons etc.  It's also half price after 4 or 5.  It's an easy park to get in and out of so it's easy, and much cheaper, to ditch the park and go eat someplace on Front St or something and come back.

I fail to see how this is a bad price.

You can take a family to WOF for 100 bucks and make a very good day out of it.

We go to places like Seaworld, Disney World, Universal Studios and it cost $50-75 minimal just to get in.  The Disney parks are close to $100.  I'm not saying they are not worth it, but WOF is a pretty good bargain if you are smart about it.

I still think WOF is an ok park.  It could be better, but it's not the horrible place everybody makes it out to be.

[pstokely]

People just want the old rides back.

[GRID]

Well, go ride the ninja is st louis, it's about the same as the orient.

People tend to remember a ride from 10-20 years ago as being amazing, but if you were to ride the same ride today, you would consider it rather lame.

I would take the mamba, patriot and even boomerang over the zambi, orient etc.

It would have been nice to keep them, but if we still had all those rides instead of the rides we have today, the same people would be bitching that WOF is nothing more than a carnival.

Call me crazy, but I think this woody that hugs the ground will be pretty sweet and I hope we get a major extreme ride in the next few years to compliment the mamba and patriot.

But so long as people bitch because we don't have the zambi (which was broke down 2/3 of the time), the orient (which was a guaranteed whiplash ride) or the extreme standup (which was one of the shortest and worst rides, not to mention unsafe, I have ever ridden), we won't see a lot of investment in the park.

WOF needs to draw 1.5 million a year again before CF is going to put a lot of money into the park.

The problem with WOF is not the new owners or the rides.

The problem with WOF is KC is no longer the regional destination that it was in the 70's and 80's.

The Royals suck, Denver has a team now, Minneapolis has really taken many fans from us in the past decade.  Other amusement parks have gotten larger like Valley Fair in Minnesota.  Silver Dollar City has moved into more of a ride park than it was, our downtown (and city in general) developed a horrible reputation as a crime ridden, ghetto of nothing and it will take some time to recover from that.

I think we are on the verge of becoming a destination city again.  The WWI memorial is probably one of our top regional draws.  People will want to see the new stadiums, the sprint center is drawing in people for concerts, downtown is not an embarrassment, schlitterbaun and the rest of the area around the speedway will continue to pull people in.

WOF took a major hit when KC quit becoming the top "weekend trip" for 12 million people that live within a few hours drive.

When KC is back, WOF should come back with it.

[shinatoo]

Wolds of Fun is a waste. It's only open half the year, sits in the middle of a parking lagoon and the only development it has spurned is a Taco Bell, a super eight and a bunch of industrial buildings. There is absolutely nothing to do up there after a day at the park. No bar scene at all.

They need to turn it back to a corn field and move it downtown, maybe by 18th and Vine.

It and the airport.

[pstokely]

Haven't things like Wii/Xbox/Playstation and the internet hurt amusement park attendance everywhere?