Holiday World. Voyage gasms part deux.

Trip there was uneventful and we pulled into the lot about 9:30 HW time. The ticket booth lines were long but moved efficiently, Got my coaster crew discount to 23.00 and they gave rob a 4.00 discount even tho he didn't have a coupon or anything Smile The lady at the ticket booth and I even had a small convo over loosing weight of which Im down 25pds in 5 weeks since Memorial Day weekend. I told her plain and simple, Subway diet, Turkey and chicken breast, lots of lettuce, no cheese, no mayo and you can eat almost as much as you want and still lose Smile

Well we were gonna wait at the top of the hill in Holloween like everybody else but I thought going through the fourth would be faster, Well they had the upper part of the fourth section already opened Smile Low and behold as soon as we got to the alamo they opened the rest of the park and it was off to Voyage!

Voyage! Rob and I got the backseat of about the fifth train of passengers.

Those who've visited and thought it was running great before haven't ridden the voyage yet! OMG! The first four hills were standing airtime which I feel the coaster wasn't broken in for HWN and never delivered anything like they were yesterday. The rest of the coaster at 10am was running as insane as the final rides at HWN at midnight that weekend.

OMG! THE PERFECT WOODEN COASTER HAS BEEN MADE! IM going to quit OMGing now but its just so awesome and not a dead spot on it. I honestly thought that I was going to be airborne over the entire midcourse the one ride we had in the second seat!

After first Voyage ride, Me and Rob sortta know how HW works, When we got off Voyage the line was about a hour and a half but we knew it would be small later on so we went up and took Revolution, Flyer, Double shot rides, Took a spin on Legend that I honestly thought sucked it was shuffling so bad and then Raven in the backseat which was running awesome. Me and Rob kinda said I really don't wanna ride Legend again running like that but agreed Raven was kickin but and taking names!

Bout noon now and we ate at the Alamo, Both got two soft tacos and spit a taco salad that was absolutely stuffed with beans, meat and lettuce, We were both full for about 6 dollars each.

We went around and did a few other things, and back to the Voyage at about 3pm to find only a ten minute wait for any seat but the front, We we got two back to back second seat rides which I thinks the best seat on the coaster, Rob still craves the backseat but agrees 1-2 is great and then we got in line for another backseat ride which consited of a couple extra people in front of us than it would have been to ride anywhere else.

Next to get on and it goes down, Tech difficulties. They cycle the riders o it off of it and then we wait about 20 minute while mechanics, directors and even Will Koch stop by. a couple test runs and they tell us its going to be at least a hour or two.

Well me and rob went up and did a few other things, Flyers, Raven, see a couple test trains and head back down, Well Voyage is still down so we try a Gobbler Getaway ride and it goes down, Me and Rob look at each other and both thought that YOU KNOW WHO? Musta been there because THANKSGIVING IS BROKEN! The restaurant isn't even open yet.

We go over the Voyage Gift shop and talk with some very nice employees for a while while their business is slow, We then see Will Koch and chat with him a while and hes all apologetic over Voyage being down. I looked at him and said don't apologize to me. THANK YOU FOR BUILDING IT! We got three rides and those three rides were TOTAL BLISS! then he was all humble ect and just plain nice guy Will Koch, I mean where else will the owner of a park take several minutes and just chat with you about things, Even when things aren't going right with gobbler and voyage down! What great people the Koch's are! It's not just the awesome rides that have me calling this park 170 miles from home my homepark.

Well Gobbler got going and we rode twice, Still can't get over how good the grandma works and how realistic her story telling is. Rob won both rides. Its about 6pm after our second Gobbler ride and the rides growing on me.

Well they are running test trains and even stick employees on trains to see how the chain is acting with a load, This happend at least three times over the next hour and a half but finally about 730 they said theres no way it would open by 9 so we were just B.Sing with others waiting around for that time but then after that nice notification went to do other things.

Legend, Second ride about 830 HW time. OK, I honestly thought it almost sucked earlier but this time we were on the other train, It was cooler and WOW it was kicking butt!

A final Raven ride which was also awesome and we were off for the homestead.

3hrs later Im in the shower and then in bed dreaming of the three awesome wooden coasters that all easily make my top ten and the one that just blows the rest away!

Charles Nungester

Footnote, I actually had problems durring HWN riding voyage and expecially consecutive rides without a break, I couldn't even keep my arms up for the whole coaster, But I have lost a lot of weight (More to go) and been walking a lot and I didn't have one problem riding the whole things arms up and free as a bird and able to imediately re-ride if possible.

Sitting here the next morning writing this, Oliver Twist came on the TV. The song Food glorious food which they play in Thanksgiving makes me wanna get back to Thanksgiving at HW.

Thanks for reading,
Chuck
_________________
Charles A. Nungester
Wanna go tip tracters? tracters can be so funny!
Tow-Mater of Pixars Cars movie! *** Edited 7/4/2006 3:23:43 PM UTC by Charles Nungester***

Anyways, thanks again for another fun read. Can you tell you love Voyage? :):):)

It sucks that you live closer to the park than I do. ;) I am so happy to hear that you are losing weight. You will feel so much better in no time!

-Tina

Yeah, I love all three of HW's coasters and to me, to say that theres only a few in the same ball park that I've ridden. Well lets just say they are all in my top ten and yes it's only a three hour drive :)

Chuck, who might just get back there twice more and wishes they didn't close so early durring the week in august. They shut weekday ops down a full two weeks before labor day :(