Holiday World

I think its fair to say that along with Cedar Point, Holiday World was the most looked forwarded to park on this trip. It's a family run park with a great selection of wooden coasters. We had included this park on the trip for it's new coaster The Voyage, which had opened a few weeks prior to us flying out. Holiday World was America's first "themed" park, beating Disney by about a decade apparently.

For our stay in Indiana we were put up in Santa's Lodge, a Christmas themed hotel that celebrates Christmas day every day of the year. Whilst we didn't get presents we did get some of the most welcoming hospitality of the trip. Take note Cedar Point Breaker's people.

The park wasn't too far away and after being welcomed by one of the Koch family who own the park we made our way in. Some headed straight for the new coaster but I, and a few others thought it would make sense to ride the coasters in the order they were built as we knew there was a danger that The Voyage would blow the other two out of the water, so we wanted to get positive first impressions of those before we rode the big one.

But before doing the wooden coasters we ran over and got the Steel coaster out of the way. It's called The Howler and its only a kiddy coaster at best. We took the ride to its literal translation and spent the duration of the ride howling like dogs on heat. I'm not sure what the operator thought of us!

First up, The Raven, which opened in 1995 to much acclaim, jumping to the top of most enthusiasts lists at the time. A great little coaster with punchy airtime and some very powerful turns. People say it's similar to Megafobia in Wales and I guess it is, both having given me "whoa" moments during their runs. One thing I noticed however is that when I first saw this coaster on a documentary years ago there was mention of the Edgar Allen Poe poem in the theming. It wasn't there anymore, I wonder if they removed it for a reason?

There was a bit of a delay caused by them only running one train. Having seen how efficient these rides can be when run properly this caused some disconselation amongst some of the group who's stance was that if the second train isn't running, it should be being worked on til it is. However the park staff did explain that people are so relaxed down here that waiting for some time is the norm and no reason to kick up a stink. Indiana ideologies clashing with our's perhaps. Having said that the operations were great with staff happy to take your bag whilst you got into the train. I'd only ever seen this in Japan before.

Next up was The Legend, themed loosely around The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the premise being that when you approach the top of the lift hill you're chased by werewolves until you out run them and return back to the station. What it actually means is a solitary "awhoooooooooo!" noise playing at the top of the hill and you being dropped into an insane ride with strong laterals, good airtime and some strong helixes. It's a fun ride but more physical than The Raven.

With Raven and Legend out of the way and us buzzing from having done them it was time to ride The Voyage, the park's new coaster and magnet to enthusiasts the world over.

Standing 163ft high and with three hills over 100ft in height, 24 seconds of airtime, 5 tunnels, the steepest drop (at the time it opened), the third longest track and 3 90 degree banked turns thrown in for good measure, we were promised a superb looking ride that should have had enough to please everyone. To be honest I didn't like it the first time I rode it basically because I didn't know the layout. There was one bit that caught me totally off guard where you're banked to turn left but the turn goes to the right and I kept getting a strong lateral force into the side of the car because I wasn't positioned correctly. Once I got used to that element however I was very impressed with the ride. Unrelenting is definitely the word that springs to mind for this ride.

It certainly seemed very popular with everyone riding it. The thing just seemed to have so much pace to it. Usually when cars are returning to the station all the energy is used up but this had so much they extended the track beyond the station into more turns and drops and even with that it still comes into the brakes hard.

As well as having great coaster the park also has what is perceived to be the best water park in the U.S. It was here that I eventually rode the funnel slide and what a bizarre ride it is too. Having got into the raft and down the first drop the slide is absolutely massive, and whilst going up the side I experienced some suction that started to pull my shorts down. So whilst fighting with that we also spent quite a lot of time rocking to and fro inside the funnel before making our way out through its exit. A great ride that I enjoyed a lot.

There were also plenty of smaller water parks for the kids. This was definitely a "family park"

It was during our end of day ERS that we started to get problems with the ride. As our train approached the top of the lift hill it stopped and after waiting for a very tired ride op to climb the lift hill and check our restraints we were eventually sent on our way. During the day The Voyage is great, but at night it is something else. On the return leg the train hits a triple drop element that had the whole train cheering immensely when we emerged out the bottom of it. This is definitely my number 1 wooden coaster and the hype it has been getting is justified. Unfortunately the next train also stopped so the park had no choice but to close the ride, they did however re-open both The Raven and The Legend for some night time riding.

The Raven was just as great a ride at night as during the day but not seeing where you were going made it something special.

The Legend seemed to have more of a kick to it so late in the evening but still very enjoyable. Not getting the full night time ERS was a shame but every cloud has a silver lining and I ended up getting night time rides on all 3 of their world class coasters!

The next morning we had to give the coach drivers a rest so we made our way to the park on foot, with the assistance of a police escort! I don't think any of the drivers would have missed Dave in that shirt anyway.

Interesting Sign #21
"Santa's Medical Center and Vein Center"
So this is what Father Christmas gets up to the rest of the year, he sorts out old dear's varicose veins! Actually "Santa Claus" is the town we were staying in.

The morning started with the opportunity to walk the maintenance tracks beneath Raven and Legend before being given a morning ERS on The Voyage. I think you can tell from this picture how hot it was today because people were fighting to stay in the shade.

Although the rides were being tested and had no passengers, it was nice of the park to give us this opportunity. In the Red Corner is the Raven flying past the lake.

and in the Blue Corner it's bigger brother, The Legend.

The morning ERS started exactly as the previous night's had finished with the train stopping at the top of the lift hill each time. The park had been trying all night to fix the problem and it only appeared to be happening with a fully loaded train, empty ones went over every time.

I did manage to get this nice shot of one train making its way back as another headed out. It all looks like it is running smoothly but it wasn't and the park were getting frustrated by it. At least those that didn't get to ride last night were given the opportunity to do so today.

A great ride!!

After the morning ERS we were going to be given a guided tour to the back end of The Voyage ride but with the ERS being cancelled, we headed out earlier than planned.

Some of the banking that the train undergoes is quite insane. When you go through the 90 degree turns, they're incredibly smooth. I'm wondering if we'll be seeing a ride that goes beyond 90 anytime soon?

When you're riding the coaster it's easy to think that the terrain is flat, but when you come to walk it you realise that it isn't. It's like one big illusion made possible by the majority of out-and-back coasters being built on flat land. The triple down drop in the tunnel on the left is a big drop but you don't appreciate that when you're riding it.

Alas there were no passengers to photograph because the park were still trying to figure out what was going on.

Also new for this year was another shooting dark ride. In this one you weren't shooting anything though, you were "calling" turkeys out from hiding with your laser guided turkey callers. During Thanksgiving families eat turkey so I initially thought this was a bit morbid for a kids ride. This was actually a really fun ride and had a twist ending that calmed any fears of it being too gross. The guns worked and the scenery was great with lots of moving bits. Compared to Hershey park's variation this was premier league and completely blew that one away. Well done Holiday World! Actually I did get a ridiculously high score on this but only because we had a temporary breakdown and the targets kept reappearing!

It was upon leaving the turkey game that I saw Justin waving us onto The Voyage. Apparently he had helped the park identify the cause of the problems they'd been having (a loose chain causing the train to slip back at the top of the hill) and the park were looking for club members to act as test dummies to see if the fix had worked. What this meant was I got 3 consecutive goes in the front seat, something that would probably take the best part of a day to achieve normally. Bonus! and how fortunate was I for being in the right place at the right time. We let out the biggest cheer when we went straight over the lift hill first time, and every time they sent us back out we would cheer again. This did mean that there was quite a gathering of public a little bit miffed at watching us riding repeatedly, but at least they would get their go! Being fastened into the front seat meant I couldn't get any pics to document this happening but here's one of Jeppe too scared to hit the control panel buttons whilst we were waiting for the final OK to board the train.

With the ride up and running again the park breathed a big sigh of relief and let the public in. Justin and Yvonne have a brief chat with park owner Jeff Koch following the re-opening.

Holiday World was a great great park and had so much personality and character throughout it. The Indiana people were also the most friendliest of the trip inquiring about the club and where we were from etc.. Most were curious about seeing so many people in the same T-Shirts, something that we like to do on the big trips at what we will think will be the best park. We definitely got it right on this occasion. The only bad thing I could find about this park is that it's so far away from home, how great would it be to have something similar in the UK. Maybe Oakwood is the nearest to it.

South-east to Beech Bend.