2004 End of Season Review

Why does it always seem that Worlds of Fun only gets creative at the END of the season? All of us agree (Jeff, myself and Matt) that if Worlds of Fun could show the creativity, ingenuity, and work ethic that they show during Halloweekends, the park could easily be top tier. Of course, I don't expect this to happen, but oh well; let's enjoy it while we have it. While most of this editorial will be taking a look at Halloweekends, I also will be sure to point out a few of the drastic measures that need to be taken by the park, as well as pointing out a few of the major improvements over the past season.

First off, one of the most obvious improvements in my mind over the past season has been all over the park, and even outside of the park proper. It's the absolute influx of plants. It seems my pat on the back last year might have done some good. I was very impressed. Flowers overflowing the main park entrance island, potted trees, potted urns (that looked a little evil), hanging plants, bushes, and to top it off rotating in full effect. What rotation means is that they rotate out the plants in various areas throughout the year. I know this must take a lot of work, and from what I°¶ve heard the landscapers are about ready to pick up and quit. DON'T, you're doing a great job, and it's one of the few things I will absolutely commend the park on this year. Keep up the good work.

Next, up in overall review, light bulbs. Everyone who has read my editorials before is allowed one groan now. Light is important in a park, making the lights work is important, it's called safety. It's also called I don't want to walk through a section that is pitch black, nor one lighted by a safety halogen bulb (europa). Those are put there for emergencies not to lighten up the place during normal operating hours. I have gripped, complained, moaned and whined about this for years. Here's an idea, REPLACE THEM. Some of the lights, or should I say almost all of the light poles are original, making them thirty plus years old. When it rains they burn out/short circuit because almost every single light pole leaks. Humans live 75 years on average, lights do not. This is not that big of a deal, doesn't cost that much, and will probably give the electricians more time to work on more important stuff (like rides), and is overall a good idea.

Next up, is building lights. Last year they were looking okay, this year they are suffering. Maybe it's because the electricians are running around trying to fix the light poles, maybe it's because they can't get someone for $7 an hour who will care to fix the light bulbs and not flirt with the girls. I, MYSELF, JEFF, US will come out, on MINIMUM WAGE and fix the park's light bulbs. Here is my reasoning on why these lights should be fixed. One, you already know, it creates atmosphere and it°¶s good for advertising. Sorry, Worlds of Fun you handed this to me on a silver platter. Right on your website's front page, or at the very least in your photo gallery you have a time elapsed photo of the Bamboozler, at night, with its lights working. Obviously you realize this makes the park look better, but you are unwilling to do anything, or should I say very little, about it. Did I mention we will all fix them for you for minimum wage? Reason number 2, it lights the park up. Going back to that safety thing again. Light at night is good.

Since just saying that in the past has made no measurable results I guess I am going to have to give examples, assuming that the people in the park actually visit the park from time to time at night. (*laugh* it scares me to think they might not!) I'll start with the Viking Voyager area, there are few light poles around the queue-house, and due to the fact that I believe maybe half of them work, if there were absolutely no building lights it would be pitch black, well almost. Thanks to the fact that about half of the Christmas lights on the buildings now work, the atmosphere is dusky at best. Think how bright and eye-catching it would be if they all worked. Another example, the old Bicentennial Square area, (think Snoopy Arcade), again in 2002 when all the lights worked this area was brilliant, now with about again half burnt out, it is still fairly bright, but could use some help. Also the Autobahn, Flying Dutchman and Le Carousel Area, previously pitch black at night, now fairly decently lighted, and all it took was a string of lights. Wow terribly difficult there, those lights must have cost a fortune (sarcasm). I don°¶t know about you but if I am your average guest and I have a choice between walking through a very dark or dimly lit park at night, or one that is alive with light and atmosphere (think Silver Dollar City anyone?) which am I going to choose? This is why Lakeside is still with us these days, it's an amusement park in Denver, Colorado which is a great park by itself, but it is magnificent at night. Do you think Lakeside can count on its budget spreadsheet how much money keeping the neon working makes them? Probably not. But does it make a difference? I'll guarantee it. Atmosphere, and good lighting at night work, it°¶s worth a little investing in it.

So while I firmly believe lights should be found on every major building, think Front Street Shops, Arcade Buildings, Restaurants etc. It also adds a lot of drama on the rides. Going back to the time elapsed photo of the Bamboozler, anyone would be flat out lying if they didn°¶t think that ride looked pretty cool. And to think it's a twenty-seven year old standard Super Round Up. Besides adding light to the park, lights can make even an old ride new again, attractive again, even those that have been around for years. The park has done a good job on a few rides, Bamboozler, The Zulu, The Flying Dutchman Le Carousel and now the Timber Wolf. By the way I might add all the rides mentioned are at least seventeen years old. So good job on the lights that do work, the park needs some serious improvement on the lights that don't work (the majority of them)

Last negative thing and then I will move onto the good stuff. This has to do with roller coasters. First let's look at what we already have; our two main roller coasters are Mamba, and Timber Wolf. Both are in pretty sorry shape, both due to controllable aspects of the ride.

First Mamba, some might ask why I complain about this. Jeff has been asking me to include this in the review for awhile and since I had never rode Mamba, I didn't quite feel right, writing about something I had never experienced myself. But now that I have, I will say my part. (evil grin) The first half of Mamba is great; I love the airtime and speed. The second half of Mamba, after the block brakes, is awful, dreadful, pathetic, makes me sick. Of the five weekends I have rode it, the breaks have been on either all the way, or almost all the way, making the bunny hops dreadfully boring (read: snore). Now, you realize that airtime is what Mamba is all about right? I might be able to understand having the breaks on a little harder in the summer, when it's hot because I know Mamba has a problem with eating wheels when it°¶s hot. BUT, when its 50-60 degrees THIS is not an issue. I should not be able to fall asleep on the return run, this is completely unacceptable. For as good as the first run out section is the second half might as well be a kiddy coaster, or better yet I've ridden kiddy coasters with more airtime then the return run on Mamba! Anyone up for a ride on the High Speed Thrill Ride at Knoebel's? Here is how to fix it, don't take the train to a virtual dead stop in the block break. Yes, to be completely honest I know the park will never completely turn the brake off, but easing up a bit, is that to much to ask?

Next, Timber Wolf, my god my god why has the park abandoned its fans? I'm sure some of us don't even have deck wood as old as some of the wood on Timber Wolf. This coaster has so much to give, airtime, speed, and a classic ride, but you could never notice that because of how rough it is!

It's become a more hang on for your life rides these days, yet even with the roughness it still hangs onto threads of what once made it a #1 roller coaster in the world. Yes, #1, this is not Hercules or Mean Streak (Squeak?) or even Ghostrider, it's Timber Wolf and while it might be laughed off as a Curtis Summers, almost anyone who rode it back in its glory days of the 90's believe it was the best Curtis Summers ride ever built. I might even go so far to believe that some might say it was one of the better roller coasters ever built. Treat it like it. I have heard rumors about a possible re-tracking, do it. Next year will be the 15th anniversary of Timber Wolf's ranking as #1 in the World (1990), bring it back with a splash or in this case a wolf's howl. The park can advertise this, bring back the old commercials, say that you're unleashing the beast for the second time, and ride it again for the first time. I can bet that a good re-tracking job will bring people back, and raise its coaster ranking, and that is something the park can advertise.

The second most important issue, if you are going to take out a roller coaster at least replace it with a ride of the same quality. Many people realize that today the park has five roller coasters, Mamba, Boomerang, Timber Wolf, Wacky Worm and Spinning Dragons, but the same could be said for twenty years ago, 1984. That means that in twenty years the park's net coaster count has risen by ZERO. So while Six Flags Great America can keep the Whizzer, the parks enumerated can keep their Arrow multi-loopers, (Busch Garden's Williamsburg, CEDAR POINT, Valleyfair, Six Flags Magic Mountain, etc) Worlds of Fun is incapable of doing so, or just doesn't flat out care. After all who cares if Silver Dollar City in 2006 will have five coasters, the same amount as Worlds of Fun, and I dare say of better quality? Who cares if Six Flags St. Louis has seven, and our sister park up north, ValleyFair has seven too! It's time to add a new roller coaster, or roller coasters and don't EVEN think about taking another one out. That would be in no special terms, amusement park suicide. Heck not adding the coaster in 2006 would be amusement park suicide.

I keep hoping for the day when I will see Worlds of Fun with six, maybe even seven coasters. (Isn't it sad to beg for the same number of roller coasters ValleyFair has?) That's a dream in a World when Cedar Point has more the double that, it's not too much to ask. And that my friends is why attendance is slipping or at least part of the reason.

2004 is over; there is nothing we can do about how bad the numbers are. I would hope that if anyone with any sway is reading this will heed my next words. Forget 2004, heck forget, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, and 1999. The more you keep remembering the failures the more you'll keep grasping for straws and the farther you will slip. Make 2005 a rebuilding year, I think that's what the park is looking at anyway. Take what you have and make it better, for example Timber Wolf and Mamba. Make the park fun again, loss some of the bureaucratic mentality, if you know what I mean.

For example, on the last day, October 31st and the previous Saturday October 30th we visited the park and rode Spinning Dragons. The crew there was pathetic; there were three employees in the station but only one working. Obviously, the person who was just promoted four weeks ago to Lead (Worlds of Fun°¶s equivalent to manager) shouldn't have been promoted because they were laughing, joking and doing absolutely nothing and one time there was a thirty minute line, I know I stood in it! Only one person was really working and they were handling turnstiles and loading and unloading. This is unacceptable. Don't promote people who can°¶t handle it, for goodness sake read the Peter Principle. If you really want I send you a copy for a Christmas present. Don't hang onto an employee because you like them, if they can°¶t do their job. Don't promote someone just to get them out of their hair, and if you 't like your job, for goodness sake you're working at an amusement park! Then GET OUT. If you can°¶t enjoy your job, then you won't do a very good job at all and you are not benefiting yourself or the company.

Third, add something next year, anything, even a USED ride. After all most people who visit the park are from Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri and won't know it's a used ride. Most won't care. There is nothing wrong with a used ride, and they are cheap. If you are set against a used ride then at least add an inexpensive flat ride, something, because people don't come for the games, or the food they come for the rides and if there is nothing new they have no reason to come.

Last, advertise it and advertise it well. This has been Worlds of Fun°¶s drastic failure over the past few years. Part of getting people through the gates is building something, the other half is letting them know its there and selling it to them. You are not going to grab the attention of someone with a stupid commercial of a guy's desk spinning, or snoopy prancing through the park. You know that doesn't work, you've seen it not work for the past five years. However, Halloweekends was a great commercial, it caught your attention, it was creepy, and it enticed you to come and see more. In other words it sold people on Halloweekends. So why did it not work? Why even with the lousy commercials did not as many people come as could have? The second part of the advertisement equation is airing the commercials. I personally am not glued to the television, but I do watch TV, and I do listen to the radio, I have seen, or heard possibly two commercials the whole season. When I see them they are aired at 11:00PM. Jeff and I think Worlds of Fun bought a whole year of advertising space on channel 62 at 11PM. I don°¶t need to go into specifics on this. 11PM does not work. Plus I've heard that the folks in Omaha, and Springfield haven't seen a single Worlds of Fun commercial, these are the park's biggest markets, what's up with that? Remember you have to spend money to make money.

To end this section off, I am not a business major, nor am I an economist, but these things do not take a lot of brain power. If you don°¶t think these ideas have any merit, this scares me, please find another job, and let someone better take over.

Anyway, onto some good things. Jeff, Matt and I had the chance to visit Halloween Horror Nights at Universal this year. While I didn't do that much, I was honestly expecting it to be much better. There needed to be more fog, and the crowds were just out of this world bad, the longest line I saw with my own eyes was 2.5 hours long! The reason I am bring this up in a Worlds of Fun editorial is really to express just how good we have it. While I would never say Worlds of Fun's is better, it certainly holds its own in the fright world. For those who have visited Halloweekends at Worlds of Fun over the past few years I don't have to tell you how big of an improvement this year has been, its like comparing night and day.

Overall the big attractions were all spread out, but it's also the smaller details that count. Before we get into the reviews of the big attractions, I wanted to comment on those small details. First off the marketing, the commercial I have seen is great, in fact as Jeff and said numerous times the Halloweekends commercial is one of the best we have seen in YEARS. Maybe this has something to do with a new head of Marketing, it's very possible. The only thing I might want to mention though is the lack of advertising as a whole. For the first time Worlds of Fun can compete with the big haunted houses, The Beast and The Edge of Hell as a place to go to get scared in more ways then one. For example a weekend pass to both haunted houses costs $36, Worlds of Fun without any discounts at all was $36.95 this year. Plus if you went on Friday or Saturday after 4PM you could get in for $16.95, or there was always price chopper which sold passes for $23.95. Anyway you look at this it's a good deal. Because not only did Worlds of Fun have 3 haunted houses, one fright zone, and several other smaller attractions, but it also has rides! Why didn°¶t Worlds of Fun capitalize on this? I personally believe there should have been a lot more advertising; I should be inundated with it, on the radio, on television, in the newspaper and billboards! I saw Edge of Hell and The Beast billboards all over the place, but not a single one for Worlds of Fun. I personally believe that if the people of Kansas City and beyond knew about Halloweekends, there would have been a rush at the gate!

Next thing is theming. I love it; it takes an ordinary experience and makes it great. For example at Horror Nights, while the fright zones were cool, and from what I°¶ve heard (I did only one) the haunted houses were great; there was very little attention to things outside of those attractions. One thing we were expecting was tons of fog. Worlds of Fun had this in abundance. Fog, fog and more fog. From what I've heard there were 26 fog machines at Worlds of Fun, and depending on the timing, you couldn't see more then foot ahead of yourself, and this was true say in the whole entire African section of the park. It was creepy, and that's the idea, it worked very well, extremely well. In fact, it worked so well I've heard from sources that people were actually calling up the local fire departments exclaiming that the park was on fire! That's classic!

So what does the average park visitor what? Attractions! Worlds of Fun went out of their way this year to fill the park with attractions for every age group. The big ones are of course the Haunted Houses so I'm going to look at those first. There were two new ones for 2004, Lore of the Vampire and Camp Gonna Gitcha. Plus there were two returning ones, Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns and The Magical House on Boo Hill. The Magical House on Boo Hill is located up in Camp Snoopy, and is more geared towards the younger visitors, since it really isn't scary, just crazy and unique. I reviewed this last year but there are a few minor additions to add so I'll go ahead and look at those. First off, the attraction was only open until 6PM, I know it's for kids, but hey I could always ask for it to be open later right? Anyway for those who did not get to experience Boo Hill the easiest way to describe it is as a haunted mansion type of walk-through experience.

Unlike last year, Boo Hill was actually a guided experience, with a host of hostess leading you through each room and telling the story about each, plus pointing out interesting tidbits of information. For example, we didn't realize it until this year, but The House on Boo Hill was home to the Mill Family, it's referring to Hugh Mills head of security at Worlds of Fun. That's a great inside joke.

One important aspect I haven't mentioned as of yet, and this is one of my favorites. All the attractions, haunted houses and such were included with admission, that's right they were free of charge! That's a might better then the Six Flags down the road°K.

The only disappointment I had this year was with the returning Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns on the old Beat Street. It was fun don't get me wrong, but last year they had the clowns hiding and jumping out at you from behind the mirrors in the hall of mirrors, that was great, and a little scary and I missed that.

Right next to Carnival was Worlds of Fun's first new haunted house for 2004, Lore of the Vampire. We°¶ve had this discussion but, while I would rather have the Orient Express, Lore really wasn't too bad. We had a chance to experience Lore twice this season, and the first time was kind of a let down, the second time, ironically the last day of the season was much better. For those who don't know Lore is located in the old Orient Express station house, and is well themed with overflowing fog, and a cemetery up on the hill. It was very eerie. It really wasn't TOO scary, but it did make me jump a few times. Lore is composed of a series of rooms that you walk through, that are presided over by some well hidden and well made up Vampires. Worlds of Fun seemed to have to learn as time went along the fine art of haunted houses, as the point to them is misdirection. You direct the guest's attention somewhere else, and then you scare them to pieces. For example the first room you walk into had a bungie guy in it, you could see the bungie guy right as you walked it, it was that obvious. If you had hid the bungie guy behind the guests (instead of in front of them) so they couldn't see him as they walked in, it would be much more effective.

As far as improving over time, on part of Lore I noticed the second time around was the infamous ""spoon"" room, where basically a spoon was laid on the ground, and then the vampire sitting their demands in no uncertain terms that you pick it up. If you were stupid enough like your lovely writer here, the master's ""dog"" (actually an actor) jumps out at you barking like crazy. Talk about completely mastering that idea of misdirection.

The Lore takes visitors outdoors through the old queue house entrance and then the grand finale, through the old Orient Express tunnel. If it's just dark enough this can be pretty scary as there are moments you have no idea what's in front of you, other times its just completely underwhelming, If Lore of the Vampire returns next year definitely experience it at night for this reason. The Tunnel then takes you into the old basement of the station which is also divided into rooms, including the famous ""skeleton room"" which was kind of neat, not really scary though. For those who never experienced Lore of the Vampire the best way I can describe it, is think of one of the old neon rooms found in old Tracy Dark rides (think Wacky Shack at Joyland) and add skeletons. Overall I think Lore was a good experience, after the closing day experience I rank it on par with Camp Gonna Gitcha, Jeff still likes the camp better though. Still if the park was going to take out the Orient Express, it was a good use of the station at least.

The other large haunted house attraction was Camp Gonna Gitcha, located in the back of the Africa section, were the old Plunge ride was located. Since it was located way in the back of the fright zone, (which I'll get to in a minute) I don't know if everyone caught on to it being there the first week, but they certainly did after that. At one point the line to Camp went all the way from the train trestle to Big Game Hunt and the wrapped its way all the way across the bridge to Congo Clearing. I imagine that line was about an hour and a half long. The Camp was great though, you walked through a large covered outdoor setting, set up like a seemingly innocent camp ground, and you guessed it, something terrible has gone wrong! The campers have all been slaughtered in various gruesome ways and their guts left to hang out and be viewed by the passerby's (you). To make it worse the monsters that created the monstrosities are still lurking around waiting to scare their next victim into submission. Camp is very well done, very well themed, I especially like the school bus located in front of the entrance proper, with voice over intonations that get a little annoying after 20 minutes, but are great the first few dozen times, if you were to pay attention especially the line about the featured movies of the night being the Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz and Psycho. Sing it with me, ""one of these things just doesn't belong"". The whole thing was creepy, fog filled and one definitely to do when there is no moon, and it's dark all around.

The only few comments I would make about Camp is one that showed its ugly head at the end of the season, the chain saw. It's been proven that the chain saw noise is one of the scariest noises to any human being. I know this from experience, its scares me to death! We had heard that the one chain saw from last year, was put in a place that it wouldn't get lost, and of course it got lost. They obviously found it as it reared its ugly head on October 30th in the Camp Gonna Gitcha line. So they had fog, smashing trash cans, snarling beasts, and a chain saw! Yeah it was great, and a little scary. Now get a few more chainsaws and put them in the Camp Gonna Gitcha attraction itself. Input evil laugh here.

Okay Fright Zone, there was one fright zone this year running from the Scandi/Africa entrance, to the Boomerang entrance. Depending on the day and weather conditions the fog was either just a little extremely heavy in a few zones, and literally non-existant in others, or if there was no wind the fog was full blow out can't see one foot in front of you scary. It seemed the Fright Zone wasn't all ready to go on Halloweekends opening, as there were no or very little signage to keep the little kids away, and there were no pulsating lights. The next week there were. The lights are the important aspect of a Fright or Scare zone, again it's the whole idea of misdirection. You blind your victims... Er guests, then you scare them to death. They seemed to waiver between figuring this out to complete oblivion on the matter. From what I heard managers with good intentions would go and change things which they were not supposed to touch. It's the thought the matters I guess. Still I really liked the guys that dragged the shovels around, and the baby carriage with the THING that popped out of it. I really loved that guy with the trash can or cans, they fit the bill of creating a loud enough noise to startle almost anyone, I just probably think that maybe Worlds of Fun will be needing to BUY more trash cans for next year.

The last attraction I wanted to mention was just as great as the haunted houses, and didn't require standing in line for 45 minutes, and that was Meat Cleaver High. Several people have expressed to Jeff and I how good this show was, and how it was easily the best show in the Moulin Rouge for several years. I won't get into a shouting match with the tried and true Stax of Wax lovers out there, but Cleaver High was very good, it was for once a show I didn't mind seeing a few times over. The talent was excellent, the makeup was good and the show was up beat and fun. I really have to hand it the one guy who did the entire singing monologue (Rocky Horror and Thriller) I was incredibly impressed. He was always way into the show, played the part very well, and laid off an excellent Vincent Price monologue from ""Thriller"" and from ""Let's Do the Time Warp Again"" from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not to down play any of the others, since all six were excellent, I can't say enough good things about the show except that I hope to see more of this in the future years.

After years of complaining about Halloweekends, it has finally improved to what I believe could be one of the best Halloween park events in the country, I enjoyed it better then Universal's Fright Nights and a lot of people have said that Halloweekends at Worlds of Fun is better then even Cedar Point's, including I dare say Kinzel himself! So how does this bode for Worlds of Fun in general? I believe that over the next few years they could make Halloweekends into something very big in Kansas City. Because if you think about it up until now there was The Beast and The Edge of Hell, both geared for adults only, and Worlds of Fun is very well rounded with attractions for all age groups, and so I have to give Worlds of Fun a pat on the back for this one. A great job, and I look forward to more fun in the coming years.

Speaking of good things, there is one last aspect I would like to commend the park on, and that's one that has sadly gotten a bad rap this year, Spinning Dragons. Spinning Dragons was loaded down with the unfortunate place in history of being added the year after the Orient Express was removed. So it was looked upon, incorrectly, as the replacement for the express, when it was never meant to be so. Taken for what it is, Spinning Dragons is a great coaster. Dragons is meant as a family coaster, it was very obviously meant to co-exist with the Orient Express (it does not overlay the lot in anyway), and while it has more thrills then it appears to have, it is not an adrenaline pumping machine, even though I know of one instance it did produce a protein spill. I have ridden myself 102 roller coasters, including some of the best, Mamba, Tremors at Silverwood, Top Gun at Carowinds, and The Hulk at Islands of Adventure, and to me Spinning Dragons is still something I'm willing to wait in line for. Because the ride is always different, sometimes it spins a lot, sometimes not so much, and just a few times the little dip at the beginning has unsettled my stomach for just a second (if you hit it backwards spinning). It's a ride that can be enjoyed by anyone, and it has a lower height requirement so kids who can't ride Mamba, and Timber Wolf can ride Spinning Dragons. Let's also not forget also that even though it has a clone up north called Timberline Terror it is still a very unique coaster, its one of only two Gerstlaur Spinning Coasters in the world, it's one of only a handful of spinning coasters period. That says something. So it took seven years to get a family coaster again, okay that wasn't so great, but still it is what it is, and if you take Dragons for what it is, it's the best.

The park has had many highs and lows this season, highs would be Spinning Dragons and Halloweekends, lows being the Timber Wolf, neutered Mamba, and the think inside the box mentality that permeates the park. The worst of all has to be the attendance. I've left This to the very end, for one reason and one reason only, it was an add on pure and simple. From what was announced a week ago attendance wasn't really TOO bad (it's sad to think 900,000 isn't TOO bad). However, after the announcement of the Brass Ring Awards at IAAPA this year I am incredibly dismayed. I'm first dismayed because Worlds of Fun's advertising campaign won first place (what were they thinking!). I'm secondly and more importantly dismayed by the category. Brass Ring categories are divided by attendance at the park; Worlds of Fun was placed in the 500,000-750,000 category. This means either IAAPA is wrong, or Cedar Fair lied. After dealing with Cedar Fair and IAAPA over the past few years I am honestly not happy with either, but 750,000? I would believe it, I really would. What's worse is that Holiday World was not only in the bracket ABOVE Worlds of Fun but its attendance figures this year put it at 890,000, pretty good for a park in the middle of nowhere. Pretty bad for a park in a major metropolitan city. Even if Holiday World DOES including a water park, it is still in Santa Claus, Indiana folks. If the numbers are right that means Holiday World beat Worlds of Fun by over 200,000 people!

I'm not going to get into something that most people already know about. I don°¶t think I should have to tell some people how we got to this point. However, I will tell whoever is listening that every year they have planned on adding a major ride, For example 2001 when the wooden coaster was cut, you were playing Russia Roulette with the park's attendance. In plain English it was stupid to cut. Sure hindsight is 20/20 but there is also a saying that you should learn from your mistakes! If the park does not add a major roller coaster in the near future (2006) you might as well just cut the park's throat, for the good you'll do it. I can not stress enough the importance of putting capital back in the park. It looks like that's the idea, but don't let a bad 2005 make an even worse 2006. Yes, my crystal ball says it is going to be a VERY bad 2005. Also, remember your adding something that is going to bring people back to Worlds of Fun, these are the same people that are going to Six Flags and Silver Dollar City, don't just add another B&M clone like Batman. Meanings if you're going to build a B&M build a GREAT B&M. When Hunt added a ride they went around and rode roller coasters all over the country and told the designers what they wanted. That's why Orient Express had interlocking loops (Loch Ness Monster), that°¶s why Timber Wolf includes that long helix (think The Beast). Whatever you do don°¶t just plump any old roller coaster into a piece of land and expect it to kill attendance or it really will kill attendance the bad way. That's all I'm going to say on this matter.

Lucky for the park most of their investors think the park's attendance stayed flat, However, while there are a lot of improvements the park needs to make, it has already made several strides forward this year, and overall Jeff and I would give this season a B grade if we were handing out report cards. See you next season.