Worlds of Fun delays opening of Zambezi Zinger with one day’s notice. What went wrong?

Thrill seekers waiting for the return of the Zambezi Zinger at Worlds of Fun will have to keep waiting.

With only one day’s notice, the amusement park announced that the grand opening of the re-imagined roller coaster will be delayed until further notice and will not be open for Memorial Day weekend.

“Zambezi Zinger is almost ready to go, we just need some more time to get everything ready,” Worlds of Fun said in a Twitter post. “Our teams are working through final testing on the new steel-wood hybrid coaster.”

Brian McGannon, a spokesperson with Worlds of Fun, said that before the park opens any roller coaster, staff must put it through a rigorous testing phase that can sometimes cause unforeseen delays.

But the Zambezi Zinger isn’t delayed just because of ongoing testing.

McGannon said park officials made the decision Tuesday night to delay the ride’s opening because of “supply chain issues” and a missing “critical ride component.”

“We need to make sure this ride is 100%, we’re not going to open something that’s 99.9%,” he told The Star.

Park staff have been continuously testing the coaster without people on it for the past few weeks, and the ride will be ready to open after the missing component is installed, McGannon said.

When asked, he said he couldn’t elaborate further on what the missing component is but that the delay is not because of a mechanical or safety issue.

The ride was scheduled to open Thursday for winners of the Big Slick KC First Rider Expedition fundraiser, Friday for season pass holders and Saturday for the public.

Worlds of Fun said it will announce a new opening date and a rescheduled time for season pass holders to ride the new roller coaster.

When the ride opens, visitors can expect a new hybrid structure of galvanized steel and wood. It’s a nod to the original Zambezi Zinger, which was one of the park’s three coasters from opening day in 1973. It was torn down in 1997 and sent to Parque Nacional del Café in Montenegro, Quindio, Colombia, where it still operates under the name La Broca.

One thing that’s not coming back from the original: the bobsled-style seating. The new roller coaster will feature side-by-side seating and stands 74 feet high at its tallest point. That’s nearly 20 feet taller than the original coaster.

Worlds of Fun brought the ride back to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary.