For years I have been wanting to visit Missouri so I could make stops at Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, and Six Flags St. Louis (SFSL). I have mapped out this trip a few times, but for one reason or another, I’d always push off to “next year.” Well, in 2025 I finally made it happen. Sam and I plotted out a trip that saw us visit all those places and so many more. Mountain coasters and other smaller parks were also tossed into the mix. And not only did we visit parks in Missouri, we also drove into Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky for some others. This trip was jam-packed with places to go and rides to enjoy. And starting it all of was Worlds of Fun.
Off the Plane, After a Burger
Once our plane landed Sam and I decided to grab some Chicken McNuggets at a McDonald’s drive through so we could get right to the park without losing ride time. The park opened right as we landed, so we wanted to maximize our time. We weren’t sure how crowded the park gets or what kind of operations we should expect.
Those McNugget plans were soon nixed, however, when I saw a Whataburger sign. I didn’t know they were in the Kansas City area and I hadn’t eaten at one since my Texas trip with James prior to We Were Inverted’s creation. Sam had never been to one, so sorry McDonalds, course changed!
Mamba
Both of us were eager to ride Mamba. We both enjoy Steel Force at Dorney Park and heard that this wasn’t as good, but then also heard it was better now because it ran without its trims on the return trip. We didn’t know what to expect or which ride we’d have.
Spoiler: No trims.
My god, this ride slams your ass into the seat on that return ride so hard. The first part of the ride felt very close to Steel Force, but that second half gave me Phantom’s Revenge vibes. I’m not lying when I say that my booty hurt after we rode it a couple of times in a row. It was crazy. I hope Dorney Park takes note because this ride slaps, as El Toro Ryan would say. It just slaps your ass and then send you on your way.
Zambezi Zinger
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this ride. I had yet to ride any coaster with GCI’s Titan Track and I was looking forward to this for that reason. In addition to the Titan Track, this coaster just looks so odd that it intrigued me. The spiral lift its low to the ground elements had me wanting to ride this a few times.
The first thing I’d like to say is Titan Track is so smooth. What kind of sucks though is going from one track style to another. I get patching older coasters with Titan Track, but if you’re building a new ride, maybe just do the whole thing in Titan? I’m not saying the wooden portions of Zambezi Zinger are rough or the transitions are jarring, I just don’t understand using them both for a new ride. I do expect the wood parts to slowly get worse over time though. And when that happens, are they fixing that with Titan Track, or wood?
I did ultimately love those low to the ground elements and had some fun riding this coaster. The only thing I didn’t care for was the lift hill. Since it’s installation the park had to put a cover over the spiral lift. I understand that it had to be done due to rain causing issues, but that tunnel looks horrible. It also makes for an uncomfortably loud experience going up.
And to the guy who pulled out his phone on the lift, getting us stopped in there for a few extra minutes, stop being dumb! Put your damn phone away like the countless signs tell you to getting onto the ride and every other one inside the park.
Prowler
To be honest, I went in without much thought or knowledge of Prowler. I expected it to be an average woodie. What I didn’t expect was lots of great airtime, especially in the first half, followed by some traversal through the woods. I only wish we would have been able to experience this ride at night. Wow! Talk about my surprise hit of the trip so far.
We got three rides on Prowler and hoped to score a couple more on our way out of the park. Sadly it went down as we approached so we decided to go ahead and head out for the day since we didn’t know how long it would be down. We had some driving to do and wanted to get down to Branson at a halfway decent time.
Final Ride Counts
Boomerang (1)
Cosmic Coaster (1)
Mamba (4)
Patriot (3)
Prowler (3)
Spinning Dragons (1)
Zambezi Zinger (2)
Worlds of Fun Railway (1)
A Surprising Kick Off to Our 9-Day Trip
When I tell you that Worlds of Fun was a surprising start to this trip, I mean it. I had heard so many things about how boring this park is, how all the rides are average, and all that noise. Well, both Sam and I had a blast and would love to go back. I didn’t even talk about how much we loved Patriot. Sure, it wasn’t Alpengeist or Banshee levels of B&M Invert. Hell, it might even be my least favorite of them. But that’s still good. I find B&M Inverts to be like RMC’s. Even the lesser ones are still fantastic rides.
We also didn’t get to ride Timber Wolf due to extended downtime, which we knew about prior to our trip. I also want to try out their log flume, which was testing, but not yet open for the season. And we skipped the rapids ride due to it being a little chilly and having a long drive ahead of us. Missing out on that did bum me out a little since I love Egyptian history, art, and architecture. So you best bet, if we’re back in this region, we’re going back to Worlds of Fun.
Worlds of Fun Photo Gallery - May 29, 2025
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): Boomerang, Cosmic Coaster, Mamba, Patriot, Prowler, Spinning Dragons, Zambezi Zinger
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): Boomerang, Cosmic Coaster, Mamba, Patriot, Prowler, Spinning Dragons, Zambezi Zinger