Holiday World (7/29/06) -- a saturday WITHOUT enthusiasts
Associated parks:
None
> After my Holliwood nights trip w/ a bunch of coaster buddies, I couldn't go the entire summer without another taste of my favorite new wood coaster in the dark, so I decided to plan another trip w/ some other friends of mine; and also try camping, which I havn't done since I was a kid. It has been a LOOOONG time since I have taken a trip to a park w/ a group of non coaster freaks, and even then the only parks were in the WNY area and didn't require a drive. I wanted to experience the park w/ out all the geekiness [ok, we are all pretty sane / non-geeky / funny people] and also get on the rides I probably wouldn't normally ride with my "normal" group.
THE PLAN
> We planned on driving 10 hours on friday, camp overnight, enjoy the park all day saturday, camp overnight, and then drive home sunday. Unfortunately we ran into an issue w/ Lake Rudolph needing sombody in the group over 21 (we are all 20) so we opted to stay at Lincoln State Park. Little did we realize just how darn close this place was to the park, and off the same road! The price was considerably less expensive and we had a nice site :)
THE DRIVE
> The worst part of the trip was the drive/heat. I offered to drive since I have a nice big trunk for all the gear, and also because I recently had my air conditioning fixed. Well, little did I know it would completly stop working 2 hours into the drive, so we lacked AC the entire trip. Eeeeek. Though un-tollerable and miserable at times, we eventually made it to the campsite. Unfortunatly one the group members got extrememly sick the night we arrived and even waking up the next morning she didn't feel too good, but luckly by the time we drove out to the park everything was OK. *phew*
TO THE PARK
> We left the campsite around 10:30 or so, as we planned to hit the waterpark for opening at 11:00; I figured this would be the best time t go for the shortest lines, and it turned out my hypothesis was correct... well, for the most part. As soon as we drove up to santa claus we noticed a HUUUGEEEE lineup of cars and we were backed up for about 20 minutes at a stand-still/crawling pace. At first I thought there must have been an accident since I saw police cars and such, but it turns out they were just directing traffic into the park. yikes. Turns out the main lot was already full, and the legend lot was being filled up to the brim. Glancing in it looked practically full and I thought some overflow was going to be used (it probably was?) -- I thought for sure the lines would be huge and our time could turn out disasterous.
INSIDE THE PARK
> One of our friends asked if they should bring in any sort of drinks, or leave them in the car for after the waterpark when we change, etc. -- he was quite surprised when I mentioned there were free drinks. "no, i mean like pepsi and soda" -- "yeah, that's what I mean!" -- "really? for real? how do they do that?" :)
We printed out tickets online so after a short minute wait to get in [the area was FLOODED with people, but they were cranking people through quickly], we made our way to the waterpark. Glancing around the park, the scrambler line was through all the queues and spilling onto the midway, the hallowswings had all queues full, and the Raven had a pretty large line. This kind of made me uneasy.
SPLASHIN' SAFARI
> When we got to Splahin' Safari, the lines were pretty big for the major rides as expected, but were not too bad (they slowly grew as time progressed). We headed for Zinga first since nobody else has been on a funnel slide. We ended up waiting about 45 min, but the ride was enjoyable. I wouldn't normally wait that long for a funnel ride (yes, it's a fun ride, but for having one of the longest waits and being one of the shortest rides, there are better "fun" ratios out there). After that we headed for racing slide (i can't remember the name); the line for this was 5-10 minutes at most. This is one of my favorite because the line is always short, it's an awesome ride [i always come completely off the slide for the last hill], and you get bragging rights when you win. The whole line I kept ensuring everybody I would be the guaranteed winner, and tried to make as many bets as I could, but alas nobody would plunk down a dollar towards my cause ;).
3..2..1... GO! The trick is to crouch down rather than lay down to start, and just take a leap of faith to start, making sure to lift the front end UP and not push down with it.
smoked 'em. first place. (as expected ;P) -- Unlike during Holliwood Nights, the scoreboard was working correctly this time around; I love it.
We also opted to ride Watertubee (fun!! -- I like it much better than... err... the purple enclosed one; 4 adults = flying up the walls thinking you're going to fall out; though it took a while to drag our "big-arses" out of the loading area, lol), we went in the new wave pool for a bit, the theming is great; though it was a bit crowded. We also rode the new Bahari river, which was OK, but nothing to really write home about. I think something should go in the middle of Bahari river for sure... just seems so open and barron (a giant slab of white concrete), begging for something; but alas, there is only so much room. I was thinking something along the lines of a jungle jets play area just sitting there, but who knows, maybe they could throw something else in there?
I never really noticed the queue lines being made of PVC pipe rather than steaming hot metal. The little things!
THE "MAIN" PARK
> After the waterpark we headed back to the car to prepare for our time in the main park. I'm not going to go into a play-by-play of everything we did, but I will make some notes.
The huge lines we noticed at the front of the park as we walked in all dwindled down as they spread out [and went to the waterpark], and we were able to get on everything we wanted on a super-crowded saturday (that includes the log flume and the river/adventure ride which normally have gigantic waits and I never get to ride at parks) -- the log flume had a full queue, but didn't take more than 30 minutes. Towards evening we did the river, in which the entire path down to the ride was full, and 1 full queue rail was full, but again, the wait was under 1/2 hour. I was quite impressed.
We WALKED ON the raven... yes... on a super-crowded saturday, we hopped near the backseat immediatly (though most people had 1-2 train waits). A great ride like always, and I saw nothing wrong in temrs of un-necessary roughness, but the 3 others though it was a bit mind-numbing being it a wood-coaster. Uh oh :/.
Before planning the trip I originally asked if anybody would have any problems with any sort of rides / getting sick / etc. As we walked by the scrambler I got the "I don't like spinny rides" spiel from 2 in the group, and the other didn't want to ride since she was still a little sick from the night before. At this point I was kind of "urked" because I thought I would be able to ride everything in the park w/ the group, and now that seemed it wasn't the case.
So after riding the raven and frightful falls, we opted for the legend. Good ride, but running a little slow (it was the morning, afterall). The others didn't seem to enjoy it too much, which was very unfortunate. Again, I think they are just so accustomed to steel rides that any little bit of jarring or shaking just seems to rattle them too much. They did mention their necks as well. I still find it very odd because at no point did I have any discomfort whatsoever, or been jarred in any strage way. At this point I was only saying to myself great, i came to ride the voyage, and they won't even want to ride it...
Me and Andrea rode the Hallowswings (the others don't want to spin), and we JUST made the cutoff point for the first ride in line so we lucked out getting on without a wait.
We all rode the bumper boats (which had a full queue and was our ONE super slow-moving line of the day -- 9 folks at a time, eek.) and then the drop tower [after convincing them it wasn't THAT bad]. While in line for the liberty launch [about 15 min], one of us in the group was asked to turn our shirts inside-out by a supervisor. We were all a bit confused, but it turns out the f-word was listed several times on the ozzfest shirt my friend was wearing == turns out he didn't even have a clue of it himself when he bought it. None of us noticed the entire day. It was blended in with all the locations of the tour [ie: buffalo f-ing, NY -- etc.] and all of it is in pretty small print. The fact it took until 6:30 PM for anybody to say anything kind of legitimizes it in that respect. I don't blame the park one bit, but he had a "what's the big deal" sort of attitude. To an extent I agree, i mean, people wear religious shirts to the park which might offend me, etc. Others wear shirts with beer logos etc. but it is a park policy and it specifically says that in the guide, so they did the right thing. Anyways, the ride itself was fun, and the second time up we did get a nice pop of air [didn't they used to run it so your first time up got a nice huge pop?]
It was finally time for the Voyage. I was a bit confused when we walked over there and the entrance was chained up... they added a few queue rails outside the wood entryway so the entrance was now 50 feet away from where I remember. From what I remember at Holliwood nights, a full queue with 3 trains running was about 45 mintutes. As we walked downstairs it turns out there were several sections of railings that weren't being used so I figured it would be about 30 min or so. At one point we were stand-still for about 20 minutes. I noticed some people walking down the stairs and getting out of line. Then i noticed about 6 or 7 empty trains run. Not sure what the problem was, but we waited it out and ended up waiting about an hour. We opted for the back, and figured we would make our night ride in the VERY front seat. The ride was very fast and fun, and the one "pothole" / complaint area that I had for the ride I didn't even notice anymore. The voyage proved to be "too much" for the others... shocked by the length and sheer thrill of it all. I wanted to get a night ride in [that's why we went on saturday :)] but now it almost seemed like it wouldn't happen. It was 7:30 at this point and it seemed like everyone was bummed out and was done with all the coasters. I told them we should try to get back at around 8:30. They finally agreed, as long as it was there last big ride... in a way I felt sort of bad... they said it was "fun" but really intense -- I could tell it just wasn't their cup of tea.
We went on Gobbler Getaway which surprisingly had about a 15 min wait. There was one point in the queue line (the back wall) which smelled absolutly awful, like a dirty diaper or something, I hope sombody said something or they have it checked out. Everybody who walked by that one point had grotesque faces, and kept looking at the people walking by in the other direction to see who it could be, lol. -- It was a great place to be for such a hot day, and all 4 of us enjoyed it. I still don't like that you can't "rapid fire" the (callers) and that it only registers 1 shot ever 3 seconds or so, but it was enjoyable, and KB really liked the whole theme, and the animatronic grandma, and the artwork put into it, etc.
My friend Andrea was finally excited to ride the Revolution (she was feeling a lot better over previously in the day and was ready to take it on -- I was just as excited as I have never been on it before; we both LOVE the U.F.O @ darien lake) while the other two would sit out, but then we spotted the river raft ride and optted to do that instead (since all 4 of us would be going). Nobody really wanted to get soaked, but we went anyways.
*** SPOILER ***
It seemed like 1/2 the people were coming off absolutly soaked, and 1/2 were just getting a few drops. Didn't make any sense to me... well, until we rode, anyways. The first time I've ever seen a "trick" waterfall like that... stays on as you approach... then turns off a little before the boat would go under [i thought for sure it would be staying off]... and then turns back on for 1/2 the boat!? LOL! -- i got a good laugh out of it, but unfortunately I was on the side that got pumbled... like always. EVERY TIME i go on these rides, the water is always attracted to me. lol :)
*** /END SPOILER ***
THE NIGHT TIME VOYAGE
> It was finally around 8:30 so we couldn't make the Revolution in time for our planned "night voyage". We all waited for the absolute front seat. The first thing I noticed were all the lights on the lift hill [not pointing up from the ground like the rendering, but just spotlights aiming downwards]... and wondered to myself if they had added lights to the entire ride or not. [and later found out, they did not :)] After waiting about 50 min for a full queue to get in the front seat [the line was constantly moving this time w/ no breakdowns], KB and I would take the plunge first. We plummeted down the first drop and I knew it would be amazing. KB kept her hands up the entire ride (she grabbed onto my arm a few times though in terror -- i dont blame her ;)) >> we wanted to get a good/funny picture, but EVERY SINGLE TIME i end up missing / thinking I know where it is, etc. but it is always so sudden and it's at such a fast-paced part of the ride I can never concentrate and get it right.
The ride was awesome, and I'll still call it my #1 (though it didn't seem pitch black this time around, maybe since the front seat you can see so much more). Wish I could have gotton a ride in the back [where the REAL craziness is at night] but the great thing about the ride is you can sit anywhere and you're going to get an amazing ride. KB actually enjoyed the ride this time around. The same was said by the other two after they rode, and both enjoyed it 10x better than the first time through (since they knew more of what to expect). Glad we could finish off the day like that... and they actually walked off with smiles.
ONE LAST RIDE?
> It turns out it was only 9:30 so as we were walking towards the exit, I noticed the Raven was still open. Being the nice girl that andrea is, and knowing i really wanted to take a ride even though she didn't really want to, she offered to go on with me and the others were willing to be nice and sit out. What nice friends :) -- A great ride. Short, but sweet.
FINAL THOUGHTS...
> In a sense I guess I was a bit dissapointed I didn't get to ride the coasters a LITTLE bit more [i expected to not ride them as much as I would on a "normal" trip, but having only ridden coaster once and everyone seeming bummed out already, I suppose I expected at least two or 3 for each ride.] but overall it was a good trip. In the end I got 2 rides on Raven, 2 on the Voyage, and only 1 on the legend [i really wanted to give this ride another chance, but we'll save that for next year] -- Other than one slowdown at the voyage, the lines were COOKIN' THROUGH and I was very impressed. I got to ride everything I wanted (except for revolution and paul revere's midnight ride) so I can't complain too much. The employee's were all very nice, the food @ kringles was good and affordable [pizza was MUCH better than the holliwood nights pieces i got] and the salad Andrea got was VERY fresh with huge vegetables and was very tasty.
The other big part of the trip was the camping, and was kind of the other half of the "main draw" of having the whole trip, and that worked out well for everyone, for the most part. I would probably hesitate on taking such a far-away trip to a "non-destination", small, "family park" w/o my coaster buds again, but it was nice to get a change of pace and have fun in a park with my other friends for once, something I have never been able to do before. Having those who arn't very experienced with coasters, I guess I took them to a little too high of an intensity level for the coasters at HW, but at least they enjoyed everything else about the park.
A class act, as always.
TOTAL DRINKS CONSUMED BY GROUP: 31
SIX FLAGS SAVINGS: $93.00
;)
// Alan J
*** Edited 7/31/2006 8:30:39 PM UTC by SFDL_Dude***
TOTAL DRINKS CONSUMED BY GROUP: 31
SIX FLAGS SAVINGS: $93.00
Heh, that's classic! :)
DWeaver said:
Calories consumed : 6,000But hey, It's one day, and my group and I did the same. ;)
He said drinks, didn't specify whether they were cola products or water. :)
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