It is an interesting fact: Worlds of Fun is an amusement park, with rides. I and my family have been there every day so far they have been open, and none of us have ridden a ride yet. Even so, we are getting a lot of “amusement” out of the park.
The no rides thing is all us, and nothing to do with Worlds of Fun. You see, we are a very line-averse family. Getting there at opening and riding a couple three rides before the lines develop is about all the riding we tend to do, unless we get a coupon for a free fast lane.
And yet the park can be a very nice place to walk and enjoy the scenery, which is what we do most of the time, catching a ride when we see a line short enough to suit our tolerance.
The all-season dining plan brings us to the park each day, and then we get our daily exercise. So our daily visits apparently give us a certain visibility, along with several other season pass holders that visit regularly.
But today’s post was to be about the park ambiance, which starts with the new permanent security scans and then passes through the entire new entry plaza and entry gates.
For me, the ambiance includes security guards who recognize me as we pass through the scanners, and even ask how we like the new plaza. This was followed today by seeing one of our favorite front gate employees, Thomas, as we checked our passes to go in. While all the employees are generally friendly and efficient, for each of us there tends to be certain employees that we get an extra sense of welcome upon seeing each time. For the front gate, Thomas is one of those for me.
In past years, we have generally enjoyed the park’s ambiance, our one modest complaint being that of overlapping sound zones. For instance, waiting to ride the Steel Hawk and hearing its sci-fi movie soundtrack inspired music, while being blasted with the music from “Fun TV” at the same time can be very annoying.
But this year, in the few days walking the park, we have noticed a general change to the park’s ambiance. The front gate is very obvious, but through and within the park there are several other small, yet effective things, that give the park a cleaner feel. By clean I do not mean in contrast to dirty — the park has always taken cleanliness seriously.
What I do mean is that the sense of line and view of what you can see is cleaner, and less cluttered. There are a lot of places where small bits of things that caused walking traffic clutter, or visual cacophony, have been reduced or eliminated. The net effect is a better feel while walking the park. It is something most people would probably feel without realizing what they are feeling.
I did notice one place by the Game Barn arcade next to Detonator Games and across from the Bull Pen where there is a sudden step up in the concrete walkway that appeared to be a tripping hazard — needs something painted yellow to make people aware of it, or have the grade redone to eliminate it. But what was about the only thing I notice in the first three days.
So it looks like the start of another good season at Worlds of Fun.
At The Rainbow 