Opening Day Review April 7, 2001

The air was warm and humid this Saturday as Worlds of Fun opened its gates for its 29th season. It seems Worlds of Fun may be off to its best start since Cedar Fair has owned the park since we noticed several minor additions. We first noticed as we entered the park Snoopy was there to greet and take pictures with guests of all ages. Snoopy was also available along with his other favorite Peanut characters to greet visitors at the entrance to Camp Snoopy. Along with other overall changes they have as reported changed soft drink vendors from Coke to Pepsi Cola, as well as some basic landscaping work which included new red mulch all over the park.

Since the day was warm all the roller coasters where running as well as all rides, excluding the Octopus in Scandinavia which unfortunately was still sitting completely disassembled. New for the 2001 season was the fifth version of Camp Snoopy, which was handled to our pleasure a lot better then we expected. Along with the two new children’s rides and Snoopy bounce attraction. While a few remnants of Bear Country remain including the Museum, Spooky Old Tree (re- themed as the Kite Eating Tree) as well as the Club House (Woodstock’s Nature Point), and School House (Sally’s Dance Studio). The defining features of Campy Snoopy including the wooden red railings where present replacing the Q-lines, as well as adding benches and other small touches which make it seem like they actually tried for a chance to do a half way decent job. Jennifer was also happy to note that this year instead of ripping out trees they are actually ADDING several pine trees to the Camp Snoopy area. The only bad note to report as far as Camp Snoopy goes is that Worlds of Fun in its traditional mode did decide to remove Either Oar, a small children’s kayak ride this year.

Also it seems the news about the re-themed Front Street was partially true, a few of the shops have been re-named, several have been re-painted and only one, the old Collectible Corner has been re-themed to carry plush toys. Included in some of the re-names are: Sharon’s Sweet Shop has now become Sally’s Sweets and Just Dandy Candy has been re-named Peppermint Patty’s.

Moving into Europa, we at first where dismayed since it seems the old eye sore Grand Prix track is still there, and still looking as tacky as ever, however the positives (for once) outweigh the negatives. Worlds of Fun has moved ahead in its original plan to remodel all of Worlds of Fun’s neglected bathrooms. They have completely remodeled the Europa bathroom with automatic flush toilets and new tiles. Also, far more exciting, they have replaced approximately 10 bumper car vehicles for the AutoBahn and approximately 5-7 for Krazy Kars junior bumper cars with new cars this year. This is good news for the Autobahn, which was in desperate need of some attention.

Moving onto Africa, we first noticed that the Python Plunge is... still STANDING. Believe it or not it seems Worlds of Fun might be planning to just wait for it to fall down. Aside from that we noticed a few Fury of the Nile geyser piping sitting abandoned along the Worlds of Fun Railroad track. We where unable to ascertain whether they have been replaced or not currently. If they where replaced this would be good news since the geysers where also in need of some work. Also in the news, the Big Game Hunt is still standing with all props, however at the time it was currently closed, also the Monsoon has been painted and appears a very nice bright blue even though it was closed through the duration of opening day.

Saving what possibly could be the best news of the year for last we are happy to note that Worlds of Fun might have finally paid attention to our constant remarks about the removal of Steadman Plaza in Scandinavia. This year we are very happy to report that The Rock is now back in Scandinavia. Steadman Plaza’s signature pink granite rock along with plaque has finally been rightfully re-added to Worlds of Fun.

As we stated earlier we where fairly happy with opening day this year and believe it to be possibly one of the best opening days in the past years. Of course, this could be because they haven’t really added anything major this year, but still Worlds of Fun does deserve a small amount of credit for starting out on the right foot for a change.