Holiday World & Splashin' Safari - Friday, August 8, 2014

Yay! Holiday World! My third visit despite living nowhere near Santa Claus -- OK, I guess not many live "near" Santa Claus, but yeah. A morning rainstorm made for light crowds and a pleasant waterpark day (eventually), the sun fully showed itself by early afternoon.

Arriving around 10:30, I headed to Splashin' Safari to put my waterpark stuff in a locker. Saving Halloween for later in the day, I headed back to Thanksgiving, and Voyage. Riding a couple of times in various parts of the train, something just felt....off. Couldn't quite figure it out. Recalling a similar experience with another high-profile woodie last year, decided to return later. I walked back to the Hyena Falls area to look at some of the Thunderbird stuff. Quite a bit of track on site by now. Not sure if they'll continue a path back from the existing Hyena area to the new station, or do something else. Will be intriguing to see how things fill in over the years.

Time to ride some actual water coasters! I was excited to ride Mammoth since I hadn't yet, but it opens a bit later in the day so went for Wildebeest. As a single I usually ended up in the back, but even my one ride in the front, you get quite a few pops of air on this thing. There's a couple larger drops throughout the long course that are pretty sweet in that regard. Hit up the Bahari wave pool and the lazy river, also did some of the big tube slides I'd never done before. Zoombabwe was my favorite 'cause it's dark with a bunch of cool tiki head lights and stuff inside. After all this, Mammoth was open! The seating arrangement is cool, circular six-person rafts with everyone facing each other. Quite a bit faster and wetter than Wildebeest, plus you generally get to face both forwards and backwards during a single ride. There's a large backwards splash about midway through that oftentimes I was the victim of. I slightly prefer Wildebeest, but both are awesome rides. Both have a singles line so I was able to do each multiple times.

Sufficiently splashed, I changed and went to Halloween for some action on Raven and Legend. Both are running pretty solid but I still prefer Raven between the two, hugging the woods and lake, and the first drop into the tunnel is nice. Better towards the back. Legend is better on the left side, unless one wants to get well acquanited with the seat divider through that double helix. Whatever you do -- don't look back. After a spin on the HalloSwings, I strolled through the rest of the dry park. I realized I've never walked back to Holidog's Fun Town. I further realized there were no restrictions preventing me from experiencing Holiday World's signature steel coaster....Howler.

Now it was time to return to the pilgrim's ride. Took my seat in the first row of the back car....ahhhh, now THIS is the relentless freakshow of a coaster that I remember. For those that read my other TR's, I mention airtime a lot, and Voyage delivers in spades. Almost blissful on the outbound run into the woods, then the spaghetti bowl yanks you through turn after turn, those two 90 degree'rs are wicked. Just a bit rougher than my last visit (2012) through this section but nothing unpleasant. Barely catching your breath before the glorious tunnel triple dip, by the time you race past the station you've just about had it but we're not quite done yet....that very last upward turn into the brake run could use a bit of work, your back jostles somewhat if unprepared. Whew. The Voyage will bully you, take your lunch money, and you'll come back for more. Still my #1. Observation: only six car trains, the seventh back car wasn't present on either PTC train. Only one in use this day.

After three laps on Voyage I'd had enough, and was quite hungry. I looked at the new Wildebeestro menu earlier -- they had a buffalo chicken sandwich that was tempting -- but I couldn't break away from my usual dinner at Plymouth Rock Cafe. They were out of prime rib, but the roast chicken was juicy and flavorful. Yummy meal (gotta get the pecan pie!) except for the cornbread which was meh. This restaurant now has a large indoor seating area, the Pepsi machines that used to be on the outside are now in the middle of the building. Grabbed the stuff from my locker and headed out. My original plan was to leave early afternoon and detour to Beech Bend for some Kentucky Rumbler, but they were closed this day and the day before. So I had to spend more time at Holiday World instead. Life is hard. :-)

Ok, I gotta say. Is that pic of Holidog bizarre or what? There he is with his legs crossed, gesturing to the spray ground, looking for all the world like he's gotta pee. Or something. What a strange choice.

I ventured back there the first year it was redone, rode the coaster, and I've never been back. It looks like a cute area, I'll have to pay a visit again next time.

And VTFanatic330, you sure been everywhere, man. What a great trip, and thank you for the awesome reports complete with pics. You done yet?

Thanks, RCMAC. I'm done now -- got back home late last night. Closed out my trip with KI/BeastBuzz....and Stricker's Grove.

RCMAC said:

Ok, I gotta say. Is that pic of Holidog bizarre or what? There he is with his legs crossed, gesturing to the spray ground, looking for all the world like he's gotta pee. Or something. What a strange choice.

He's doing that thing where you 'tuck' and look like a girl.

...

...

Just me? Seriously!?

Damn, minutes too late. While reading RCMAC's post, the first image that came to mind was the very one gator posted.

When I was a teenager, we called the "tuck so you look like a girl" thing "The Bi-Pod." We said it with a British accent, and it involved a long, dramatic monologue and a trench coat. I've already said too much.

It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!

In all seriousness, great trip report! I remain cautiously curious about Voyage and would really like to ride it in the next season or two. I'd probably stick to the front just to make sure I was ok with the intensity level first, but it really looks ridiculously fun. I wanna fly through the triple-down so bad!

Gonch talking about tucking is priceless.

There's something surreal about seeing B&M track lying on the ground next to a corn field. I grew up in Indiana my whole life but had to go out-of-state to find a big steel coaster. This is the first one to come to Hoosier state, so on top of everything else there's a sense of pride that comes with it.

There's more than corrrrrrn in Indiana...at Indy...Oh wait...Wrong park...

It's funny how our first major steel coaster to hit this state is one of the most unique from B&M. It looks to be well worth the wait.

Not much more.

Unless you want to count the coasters in Kentuckiana, then there's been several.

:-)