Holiday World 8/8/08

This was my second trip to Holiday World in my lifetime, the first being in 2005, the year before the Voyage was built. In fact, they actually announced The Voyage while I was in town, I remember it being in the papers. We got our tickets for 33 dollars from our hotel in Jasper. Anyways, we arrived just after opening, and I knew it was going to be crowded, and it was, but waits for the coasters were never more than 30 minutes. The waterpark on the other hand was another story, but we'll get to that later...

My plan was to hit all 3 coasters once, then head over to the waterpark. Raven was a 15 minute wait, and better than I remembered. When I first rode this in 2005, I had trouble seeing how this was a number 1 coaster. But after this visit, it has gained more respect. That first hill is awsome from the back, and everything after the lake turnaround is pure bliss, especially that one sudden drop into the woods. I now totally understand the hype...this ride is awsome. Not sure what was different about it this time around, but I felt something was. Legend was also a 15 minute wait, and another great ride. On my last visit I prefered Legend to Raven, but that has gone the opposite way now. Legend seemed rougher than I remember it, not that thats not necessairly a bad thing though...I think I just prefer airtime to laterals, but not by a whole lot. That bunny hop near the waterpark though, awsome...

We made our way over to Voyage, and shortly after getting in line a guy and his kids come walking out of the line, the guy was spewing off about a 4 hour line that goes down, winds around, and comes back up, blah blah blah...now I have obviously never rode Voyage, but all I could do was laugh because I knew the line wasnt bad, and it wasnt, maybe a 25 minute wait. What goes through people's minds I have no idea. This ride is just the complete package though, but you gotta ride it in the back. The airtime throughout is just insane...the first 3 hills are amazing. Probably my favorite part of the ride though, is right before the turnaround, I think its the 4th hill, you come up from a tunnel and you get this awsome brief view of the entire turnaround, and its just goregous. This is easily the best wooden coaster I have ever ridden, bar none.

Afterwards, we went over to the waterpark. It was crowded. Im not a huge waterpark fan to begin with, but I do remember enjoying Holiday World's on my last visit. Its a great waterpark, dont get me wrong but it just couldnt handle the crowds. We had to wait to get in the Lazy River...I did manage to get on both Lazy Rivers, Zoombabwae, and Jungle Racer, but that was about it, after that I was just about done dealing with the crowds, and my brother agreed. We got changed and went back into the park.

As for the flats, we got on Gobbler Getaway, Revolution, and Liberty Launch. Gobbler Getaway was...different. Im just not a huge fan of shoot em up dark rides. As ive said before, I much prefer the old fashoned ones. I also felt like there werent enough targets. I found myself often having time to hit targets twice. It was just mediocre. Im dissapointed I wasnt able to get to Kennywood this year, first year in a long time, because their new shoot em up dark ride Ghostwood Estate looks like an improvement...I mean at least all of the stunts arent lame cardboard cutouts, and at least it looks somewhat scary. Revolution was awsome, you dont see these types of rides much anymore...I love them. Liberty Launch was OK. Thats the thing about Holiday World, their coasters are amazing, but their selection of flat rides is not very good.

After getting re-rides on Raven and Legend, we headed to Kringles Cafe, which was good and cheap like all the food in Holiday World. Our plan for the rest of the evening was to marathon ride Voyage. My brother and I got a total of 4 more rides in probably a hour and a half, bringing my total up to 6 for the day. I wouldve enjoyed a few more rides in the dark, bummer Holiday World closes so early. Although for our last ride it was pretty dark back there in the woods...awsome stuff. Overall Holiday World totally lives up to what it provides, it is one of the cleanest and probably the friendliest park ever.

Nice TR!

Yes, I agree with all of your opinions. Great coasters, mediocre flat selection, and VERY crowded (yet fun) waterpark.

How many trains were running on the Voyage, do you remember? I've never seen the 3rd train run, and I've ridden the Voyage 55 times now...

Glad you had fun!

-Daniel

*** Edited 8/15/2008 1:03:57 AM UTC by DantheCoasterman***

Yea, it was just 2 train operaton on voyage. The line moved really well though. And its not their fault that waterpark was that crowded...waterparks in general just dont have the capacity of coasters and that sort of thing.