Holiday World First Visit! July 24. 2009

After years of waiting, we finally made it to Holiday World. Yes, I know...begin the scorn. My husband and I run an art studio on top of our 'day jobs' and that usually sucks up all of our vacation time. This year however was a wee bit different thanks to my work schedule being all sorts of messed up. So thanks to a last minute trip to Evansville, along with my hubby's birthday lining right up with the trip, we decided....well, what the heck. HW bound!

We joked the entire morning before getting ready to head out that I was more excited than a certain fish from a certain movie was on his "FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!" The whole ride we were bouncing in our seats,and when we finally made it to Santa Claus (lovely drive too, I dohave to say. Very pretty.) we parked, got on the tram, and made ourway in. =)

Now, some of you here on Buzz were kind enough to give us some suggestions, some of which we took to heart before hitting the park. We had a limited amount of time that we could hang out unfortunately, but we made the most of what we had and really had a blast. Here's a run down; won't bore you withEVERY part of our day.

RIDES:

Raven: Raven was the first thing we hit in the park, duh, as it's right up front. Fun ride! Packs a little punch and is just a nice fun all around coaster. Enjoyable elements, just a wee bit too short for my liking. But it's a nice piece of work! We sat near the middle just because the back and front had a bit more of a wait, and we were eager to get around to check out the rest of the park. Even though ever since I've been annoying my husband with the whole"Da-da-da-DAAAAA! Safety! Jingle!"

Legend: Now, here's where we made a critical error thanks to just happening to be down by Voyage after lunch. We rode Legend last. I'm kind of upset with myself for this one to a degree. Legend is an awesome ride. It's fast paced, full of good air time, beautifully laid out, and just a wonderful ride. My only complaint? My stupid butt rode Voyage first, and now no other wooden coaster will ever compare.

which leads me to...

VOYAGE!!!!!! : Oh. My. GOD. Why? Why did it take me this long to get to this glorious little piece of land and ride this AWESOME RIDE?! We hit this right after lunch (which I will actually gush about here shortly) because the line looked reasonable and well,we were there. PP was down, so we stepped into line at Voyage. I'm a dork and didn't even notice the ride-by glass under the stairs,so it about scared the bejesus out of me the first time. After thunking myself on the head, we continued along and decided that we just had to get back car for what we knew to be an air time machine. Not a bad wait, 30-40 minutes and we were on the car. I actually shouted a 'woohoo!' on the way out of the station and enjoyed EVERY minute up. Then we got whipped over that top hill faster than I knew what was coming and...GUH. Just guh! I was screaming like a fool the entire time, trying to take it all in.The chopper elements that make it look so darn tight that you'll loose anything if you stick an arm up, the insane amounts of airtime, the crazy turns, and oh god the triple down hill in the tunnel. BEST element in a coaster EVER. It kicked my @ss! I found myself asking half way through 'good god does it end?!' I didn't want it to! When we pulled into the station, there was clapping and I found myself wanting to turn around and get right back on. We almost did, but we had such a limited time to roam the park that we just excitedly babbled like idiots for an hour and went tothe water park.

don't worry; we came back for another ride inthe front later the same day. ;) I needed another fix.

PP was down till about 4:30 from what Paula said in my other thread, which is literally right after we left. I was sort of bummed because the height on that thing is really, truly impressive and we did want to give it a shot. We did take in some of the flats (awesome theming all the way around) and spent some time in Splashin' Safari as well, a shocker since neither me nor my husband ever really do water parks.But Bakuli had us wanting to give it a shot. We were able toget some awesome rides in, float around a lazy river, and cool theheck off before heading back into the park.

Food: Whoever made the recipes for the Plymouth Rock Cafe is amazing, and needs to adopt me into the family so that I can learn these recipes, especially for the sweet potato casserole.I have never had such a huge, awesome meal at an amusement park outside of a Disney venue. My hubby had the chicken and dumplings and I had my weakness; turkey leg. I was shocked at how much food you get for what you pay,and the quality of the food was amazing. Better than certain roasted chicken chains (I'm looking at you Boston Market). We were so stuffed we couldn't even finish our food! Good value, awesome price. And hands down the best food in the park.

Most Impressive: The cleanliness of the park was a big factor for me when I walked in. Everything is so well maintained. Fresh paint all around, clean walkways...heck, we even saw people painting fences that same day when we were walking around. It was nice to see. Earlier this year we were at Cedar Point, and the place was trashed. And it wasn't even the peak season yet! The lagoons at CP were run with muck and trash, but not at HW. Everything was fresh looking and comfortable, and clean. Kudos to the staff for that.

The other thing that stood out was how kind and polite the staff was all the way around. One of the girls working at Plymouth Rock Cafe struck up a conversation with us as we paid and was so sweet, and Shelby, one of the ride ops on Voyage, was cracking me up the whole time we waited for our train. We had a bit longer of a wait as I believe there was some kind of spill (re; i think someone yarked) and they were running that car empty for a while after cleaning it just outside of the station. She was so nice, and it's nice to see a park that doesn't discourage their employees and ride ops from chatting with people and ENJOYING their jobs. Some parks I swear they hire zombies to work things. It's nice to see folks who care about their jobs, and the park.

Bummers: PP and Gobbler Getaway were both down, though PP as I mentioned was back up and running after 4:30. Sadly we had to take off to get to Louisville and our hotel so that we could hit the road early today and make it back home, as I work weird hours. I wish we'd had the time to spend a bit more of our day at the park, but we had to get going.

Overall day: 5 out of 5. I can't remember the last time we had such a fun time at a park just the two of us. It's been a good ten years or so, truth be told. It was laid back, fun, relaxing, and just an awesome day.We give big kudos to the HW staff for running such an awesome operation, and we will most assuredly be going back.

Next time maybe my camera will be working. I do have some video that I'll slap up on YouTube later of the park in general. =)

edit: i hate open office...

"Some parks I swear they hire zombies..."

Awesome analogy. I'm going to start using that, if you don't mind. :) Nice TR.

I am so ashamed that I haven't been to HW yet, even though I moved about 4 hours away from there a few years ago. It's my next park after I visit BG and KD in a few weeks. Can't wait to see the video.

Well, my sister's moving to Indy for a job. That should gimme an excuse to get down to HW. Heck, I might as well hit KI on the way home. DB sounds like a wicked ride.

So glad you had a great day at HW.

LostKause said:
"Some parks I swear they hire zombies..."

Awesome analogy. I'm going to start using that, if you don't mind. :) Nice TR.

I am so ashamed that I haven't been to HW yet, even though I moved about 4 hours away from there a few years ago. It's my next park after I visit BG and KD in a few weeks. Can't wait to see the video.

You've got red on you, mate. ;)

Yeah the trip was an absolute blast. I'd love to try and get there again this year but I highly doubt that will happen =( Boo day job.

At least you'll have something new waiting for you, next year!

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit to Holiday World. It really is a great park...

Kenmei said:

You've got red on you, mate. ;)

Sorry, nothing park-related, but had to give props for the Shaun of the Dead reference :)

^ I love me some Simon Pegg ;)

I had thought about trying to get out for Fall Affair this year but due to some unseen potential surgery I think I might just have enough time to get a trip in to Michigan's Adventure and that'll likely be the end of my season. =(