News Worlds of Fun Sold to EPR & Enchanted Parks

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Zachary

Zachary

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Sep 23, 2009
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Pulling the Worlds of Fun-focused discussion from the St. Louis thread over here.

Coaster_Merrick said:
I do feel like the decision to drop WoF comes down to the underperformance of Zambezi Zinger. Cedar Fair dumped tons of money into the construction and marketing of the ride, only for it to completely drop the ball in terms of results, given that it was admittedly a strange choice to build yet another GCI and a problematic one at that.
If I were a board member, I would view the impact of Zinger (or lack thereof) to be pretty strong evidence that corporate funds are better spent elsewhere and might have contributed to the sale of the park.
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On first pass, it feels too simplistic to say that Zambezi doomed WoF's future in the post-merger Six Flags chain, but I honestly believe it has to have played at least some role in the decision making process. Six Flags expressly said some smaller parks would see Cap-Ex experiments in the years ahead to determine their future worth. Unfortunately, I think it's highly likely that Dorney's very recent 50th anniversary year + debut of Zambezi may have been treated as that experimentation retroactively.

If this theory is true, it really is just absolutely tragic and, frankly, feels wildly unjust. It's a little hard to know whether to blame local Worlds of Fun leadership or Cedar Fair corporate leadership for the attraction selection in 2023, but whoever made that choice, in my opinion, screwed up royally. Worlds of Fun hadn't seen a new coaster since 2009 and, when they finally got their chance, they decided to build a prototype, inferior, uncomfortable, issue-prone, unaccommodating GCI right next to their existing, stellar, reliable GCI. Dumb on paper, yes, but the execution was even worse—we can blame Skyline/GCI for that.

Worlds of Fun is a great park in a strong market that is seeing very notable growth, but when finally given their first chance for significant Cap-Ex since 2009, Cedar Fair and Skyline/GCI worked together to absolutely fuck the park with what I honestly feel was just straight, pure, distilled incompetence. Zambezi was a total disaster and I sincerely believe it probably played a notable role in dooming this excellent property in the chain. Because some executives somewhere made a really dumb Cap-Ex decision, Worlds of Fun is likely to be cursed with many, many years of uncertainty and instability looking forward. Worlds of Fun deserved far better. If WoF had just been given their version of Iron Menace, I think things may have gone very differently.

I desperately hope this park has a bright future with its new owners, but I do worry that its future would have been brighter with Six Flags. WoF is the only park that was sold off in this recent batch that I feel this way about.
 
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Looking at the lineup I can't help but notice the massive lack of a launch coaster in the park. Imagine if this park had gotten a "Big Bear Mountain" type family launch coaster. I feel like that could have been massive for this property if they had gotten that over Zambezi Zinger.
 
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On top of the points @Zachary made, there’s also the removal of Falcon’s Flight (HUSS Condor) and Monsoon (Shoot the Chutes ride) in 2022, a year before the new coaster. 2022 was also my visit to the park when Mamba was closed for chain/gearbox issues.

And then during 2025, Timber Wolf sat SBNO for most of the season (opening late September for a few final weekends of operations). That says to me that they weren’t interested in expanding or growing the park, looking to keep costs down. Timber Wolf narrowly missing the sweeping cuts SF made across their chain in the 24-25 off season death wave.

I really think some of these parks are coming up on a massive wave of rides that are reaching the end of their service life. Some are better than others, but it will cost millions to replace rides and try to avoid taking a hit to public perception over value for money. WOF seems a bit better positioned than others in this new chain (especially compared to Six Flags St Louis), but if they want to grow the attendance at the park, that’s going to take smart investment.
 
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I went to Worlds of Fun for my first, and so far only, time in 2023, and was really impressed. Almost the entire park had been repainted for that season, with appropriate color schemes and themed murals. Each land had themed music, themed trash cans, and various props. I was shocked that even the games booths had different signage, depending on the land that you were in. There was also a museum dedicated to the park's history with some very cool items, such as Randall Duell's drafting table and the lead car from Orient Express. It was clear to me that a significant amount of money, effort, and passion had been poured into the park that year. I remember being very jealous that Kings Island did not get a similar treatment for its 50th anniversary. Yes, Kings Island had a better entertainment lineup, but there was no effort made to refurbish and distinguish the park's lands and theming for the season, and no museum, either. The permanent/semi-permanent changes to Worlds of Fun were, I felt, far more impactful than Kings Island's summer-long celebration.

And yet...they marketed virtually none of it. With all the emphasis on Zambezi Zinger, I don't recall seeing nearly anything else about all the other work that went into the park that year, work that really made the park feel special and unique. I'm not sure why they would invest so much, in a meaningful way, just to not publicize any of it. They should have done a better job of advertising a complete reboot back to its core identity.

@Zachary , agree with all your points on Zinger. I have no idea who would think that bringing back a steel coaster as a wooden coaster was a good idea...or why Zambezi Zinger would go in the Orient/East Asia section (originally, the ride was going to be placed in the excess land from Orient Express. And yes, it still would have been called Zambezi Zinger).

I have heard that the park severely underperformed in 2023. It's a shame that a single season of poor marketing and a poor ride choice seemingly doomed the park in the eyes of Cedar Fair/Six Flags. It's a really pretty park with a solid lineup and a lot of potential.
 
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Hmm, here we go with the rumors:
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I do think they'll de-theme these rides. WOF has a Wacky Worm for the main kiddie coaster, so there's an opportunity there for replacing it with something modern, at least?
 
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Feels like massive bullshit to me. Most of these rides literally just need some sticker changes to remove their Peanuts IP. Can't imagine why Enchanted/EPR would agree to a deal where Six Flags gets to collect up a bunch of kids rides and take them with them in 2027. Have we ever seen anything like that after one of these sales?
 
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Zachary said:
Feels like massive bullshit to me. Most of these rides literally just need some sticker changes to remove their Peanuts IP. Can't imagine why Enchanted/EPR would agree to a deal where Six Flags gets to collect up a bunch of kids rides and take them with them in 2027. Have we ever seen anything like that after one of these sales?
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Yeah I agree, this will probably just be the rumor all this year until the deal is done. I can't imagine selling a park full of rides and then picking things to take out, unless that was a part of the deal in the first place (may only apply to decor and merch with Peanuts characters that can be moved to other parks, if EP is not keeping the license... things that otherwise would be removed, resold, or destroyed as the terms of the contract with WildBrain).
 
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@Zachary Since they waited so long to add a new coaster (ZZ), why did they only go with something not even medium size that would be easier to market and get better results of testing the park as you mentioned...
 
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