Worlds of Fun is the largest theme park in Kansas City.
This park’s coaster lineup has been stagnant for over a decade and it’s routinely called
one of the worst Cedar Fair parks, but is it still worth visiting?
Find out in this park review.
Worlds of Fun opened back in 1973.
In its first decade of operation, Worlds of Fun had one of the premier coaster lineups
in the country.
You had the rare Schwarzkopf speed racer in Zambezi Zinger, the first roller coaster in
the world to feature a batwing in Orient Express, and the first stand-up roller coaster in the
country in Screamroller.
Oceans of Fun opened in 1982 as the largest water park in the world.
Both the dry and water parks continued to receive investment over the next decade.
The biggest change occurred in 1995 when Cedar Fair purchased this park for $40 million and
they have owned the park ever since.
Cedar Fair added the park’s three biggest roller coasters in their first 1.5 decades
owning the park, but they haven’t added one since Prowler in 2009.
The park has still gotten modest investments over the past decade, but to say this park
is long overdue for a roller coaster is an understatement.
Worlds of Fun definitely has the land for it.
The park has nearly 300 acres of land available and not all of it is developed, particularly
behind Patriot.
The Kansas City metro area has also seen steady growth over the past decade, but Worlds of
Fun has been on the lower end of the Cedar Fair investment spectrum.
There are rumors the park will finally get a new coaster in 2023 and the park really
could use it.
They currently have 7 different roller coasters.
The lineup is fairly well-rounded.
It has a few decent to good coasters, but no true standouts in my opinion.
The largest coaster is Mamba.
This Morgan hyper coaster dominates the skyline and makes quite the impression as you approach
the park.
The first half is good.
The first drop and giant camelback offer great floater airtime.
Then the far helix has decent force.
But the mid-course brake run saps the train of most of its speed, neutering the return
run, as I mentioned in my review.
Those final bunny hills should deliver good airtime, but you’re not going fast enough
to come out of your seat.
The newest and best coaster is Prowler.
This Great Coasters International wood coaster has a secluded setting, which is why it has
a reputation as one of the best night rides.
Very little of this coaster can be seen from inside the park.
This coaster has mostly an out-and-back layout with some decent airtime.
I found the airtime weaker than most other GCIs, but the ride holds its speed well.
And in my most recent visit, the ride wasn’t too bumpy.
The older wood coaster is Timber Wolf.
This Dinn creation once placed in the top 10 of both the Mitch Hawker and Amusement
Today Golden Ticket awards, but not over the past 2.5 decades.
This ride gained a reputation as a super rough coaster over the years, but the park has done
trackwork in recent years to make the experience more bearable.
While the ride is slowed by trims, there are still a few solid pops of airtime peppered
throughout the layout.
Patriot is the park’s best looping coaster.
This may be the weakest B&M invert out there, but as I mentioned in my review, it’s still
a fun and smooth attraction.
The inversions just don’t have the same punch and power as the older inverts.
The ride does have a great zero-G roll, some forceful valleys and turns, plus a few airtime
hills.
The other looping coaster is a standard Vekoma Boomerang.
It has a forceful series of inversions going forwards and backwards.
This one isn’t too shaky, but this one seems to have a lot of downtime, so if you see it
running and you want the credit, hop in line as soon as possible.
Spinning Dragons is the park’s best family coaster.
This was one of the earliest Gerstlauer spinning coasters.
The layout has some decent helixes and zippy drops, and that spinning makes it appealing
to all.
Lastly you have Cosmic Coaster, a slow wacky worm.
A lot of Cedar Fair parks ban adults from riding the kiddie coasters unless they’re
accompanying a child, but I had no trouble riding Cosmic Coaster by myself.
This coaster is part of an expansive Planet Snoopy area, which is the best spot in the
park for kids.
There are nearly 2 dozen rides for kids, so younger guests could spend hours here.
The area is bright and colorful, but it doesn’t have too much shade, so pack your sunscreen.
Worlds of Fun doesn’t have any traditional dark rides, but their best flat ride is enclosed.
And that would be Cyclone Sam’s.
This indoor Chance wipeout is super disorienting with the compact building and lighting effects.
And the ride is pretty forceful too with the small pops of airtime and crushing laterals
towards the end.
Just note that you must have a partner to ride.
The rest of the flats are an interesting mix.
Most rides don’t have the best cycles, but you have a lot of rare spinning rides.
Then there are two modern ones worth hitting.
For the best aerial view of the park, you have SteelHawk, a Mondial windseeker.
However, this a notoriously unreliable ride, so it can be tricky to ride.
Detonator was the first S&S space shot installed in the US and it’s one of the more powerful
ones.
This one gives a violent burst of airtime after the initial launch and then you ascend
the tower a second time for a faint pop.
Most of the water rides are towards the front of the park.
None stand out in my opinion, but they’re refreshing on a hot day.
Viking Voyager is a classic log flume with a scenic setting and an ok final plunge.
Fury of the Nile is a relatively short Intamin rapids ride.
There aren’t too many rapids, but it is isolated and well-landscaped.
Monsoon is a drenching shoot-the-chutes ride and it’s the water ride that routinely has
the shortest wait on a hot summer day.
You also have the option to visit Oceans of Fun.
Until 2013, these two parks were separately gated.
But for the past decade, you can visit both parks on the same ticket.
I have never visited Oceans of Fun, but it’s a sizable water park that appears to have
a good mix of body slides and tube slides for all ages.
Both the dry side and water park have their own separate entrances and parking lots.
So I recommend parking at wherever you plan to start.
If you intend to do Oceans of Fun, I recommend starting there since that side seems to get
the longer waits.
If you start with Worlds of Fun, you want to be one of the first riders on Spinning
Dragons.
That family coaster does not have the best capacity and it almost always has the longest
line in the park.
Knocking out Viking Voyager and Fury of the Nile early are smart as well on hot days.
I’ve only visited this park in summer, including holiday weekends, and I haven’t had to wait
for than 5-10 minutes for anything else.
It’s possible to ride all the major rides on the dry side in a half day.
I have heard Haunt can get lengthy lines though, which is standard for a lot of theme parks.
If lines are an issue, you can purchase a Fast Lane.
You can purchase one for just the dry park, just for the water park, or a combination
of the two.
It costs roughly $50 per day, which doesn’t cost as much as other Cedar Fair parks, so
that reflects the crowd levels this park often sees.
Operations on the dry side are solid.
The four main coasters run multiple trains and have decent dispatches, which keeps the
lines moving.
Now let’s talk about the park’s general appearance.
The park is lightly themed to Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
Outside of Planet Snoopy, the remaining 5 areas are themed to a different country or
continent.
There isn’t too much theming, but most rides have a creative name to tie into their land.
Most of the rides do look fresh and there are some heavily shaded sections of the park,
including the African section where you also will find these animal topiary figures.
I can’t personally speak to the seasonal events, but Halloween Haunt would be the best
time of year for night rides.
And Cedar Fair haunts are usually a cut above the Six Flags ones.
Just know lines could be long.
The park also used to offer WinterFest, but it hasn’t been offered the past few years.
The park offered a reduced ride lineup, but it was still a nice option for locals, especially
if they wanted some bonus laps on Prowler.
Lastly, I can’t speak to this park’s food.
The offerings seemed to be on par with some of the other Cedar Fair parks though.
So do I recommend Worlds of Fun?
I think it is towards the bottom of the Cedar Fair rankings, but it’s worth a visit if
you’ve never been there.
None of the coasters are great or elite, but you have a few good ones plus some interesting
flats.
And it’s nice being able to visit a park of this scale where you typically don’t
encounter long lines.
I do prefer the other two major parks in Missouri, but coaster enthusiasts can form a triangle
and hit this park along with Six Flags St. Louis and Silver Dollar City in the same road-trip.
So those are my thoughts on Worlds of Fun.
What are your thoughts on this Cedar Fair park?
Do you agree it’s one of the weaker parks in the chain?
Let me know what you think about this park down in the comments.
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