Holiday World teases coaster changes for 2016

Could the Twitter pic and the quote that goes with it actually be exactly what it means, that there is "nothing to see here". I'm just wondering if this is one of Paula's tricks to throw us off the trail, while some sort of magical work is being done on Raven or Voyage???

^ Well I hope they are smoothing out Legend. It needs a little TLC.

Aw, jeez.

"Nothing to see here. Move along." is Rick_UK's personal CoasterBuzz quote, it shows up every time he posts anything, and has nothing to do with Holiday World's tweet. How can you not recognize that? You even have a quote yourself. If you click on his provided link you'll see HW's actual caption was "Change is in the air". Rick was very kindly showing us a copied and enlarged version of just the pic.

See, this is why I get irritated with wild speculation in these threads. But maybe that's just me....

Rip out the helix and it could be my favorite.

When we first started going to HW, long before Voyage, Raven was by far my favorite. We would ride that over and over and over without getting off all night during SRM. At the time, Legend had those awful Gerstlauer trains and my small frame got beat to hell. Needless to say, it wasn't high on my list. Then they did some work on it and got the PTC trains and all of sudden, I saw the love that it got. My time was then split between the two, but quite honestly, I would've preferred to ride Legend more. Voyage came along and sorry folks, my body can only take so much. Two, maybe three rides on it and I'm done, back to Legend and Raven for me. Voyage goes on too long for me. That's probably why I love Ravine Flyer so much. It's aggressive with great air but ends at the right time, where Voyage just keeps going and going and going. We haven't been to HW since 2011, other things have become more important, so I don't know how the rides have held up. I hope to be able to get back in a couple years to see for myself the changes that have and will continue to happen in the park.

I would say banking the helix even a tiny bit would make Legend more tolerable. I know the purists out there may not see it that way, but there isn't much fun riding something that makes you feel like you have to brace your body to keep yourself comfortable during the ride.

I got to do the CBuzz HW event last August and made some observations about Voyage and the park is continuously reworking Voyage and making changes in order keep the ride in good working order. I'm sure guest comfort has something to do with that. I'm wondering if adding Thunderbird to the mix will have guests look at the wood coasters as being much rougher than perceived.

I think it was 2011 was my last Holiwood Nights event and of the three Raven was running the best and Voyage was just plain awful. Comparing Voyage to my last visit last August, there was a much greater improvement to the ride, but it still rough in the areas that haven't been rebuilt. We shall see what the future holds.

~Rob

I have only been lucky enough to visit Holiday World once, in August of 2011, and while Voyage was an incredible ride, it definitely beat me up and I could feel the potential was partly missing since it was running a little rough. Whatever they can do to make these rides last and provide a good, comfortable ride is fine by me.

Yes, 2011 was a particularly bad year for Voyage, but Raven and Legend were amazing. In fact, I'll just link to this old post of mine. I've gone to HWN every year since then, and Voyage has been mostly OK. I hate to admit that coming to a full stop on the midcourse last year made some parts of the return trip more bearable and reridable (mind you I hope that's not their permanent solution). But I've never had quite the experience on Legend since then as I did in 2011. I just sit in the front left and go with it.

Lori, I've always felt RF2 was a little short for the same reason you like it that way. :) But Waldameer does an unbelievable job of keeping that coaster smooth. I go once a summer and I'm always amazed how well it runs, especially after dark. And it's hard to beat those sunsets on the lake from the top of the lift.

RF2 is still amazing and I agree, the park does a great job keeping that coaster smooth, despite being aggressive in some parts.

~Rob

Neuski said:

Rip out the helix and it could be my favorite.

You know, I've always wondered about the helix. Was it created as a nod to the Beast? It even has 2 tunnels similar to the Beast, which seems more than a coincidence. It's really not a "bad" double helix (Son of Beast had 2 bad ones). It does go on for a long time though. A single helix might have served the same purpose better.

It was included because enthusiasts love laterals, apparently.

In the world of helixes, The Beast was a very "happy accident." These type of accidents happen often in the world of art which haphazardly lead an artist into something profound.

I can't help but think that this happened to Charles Dinn and crew when designing and building The Beast.

The second lift's drop picks up speed slowly, gradually banking into the turn before it hits -- providing riders plenty of opportunity to brace. And once it comes out of the tunnel, it slows down enough for a brief respite before a more tamed re-run above the first pass.

The Beasts double helix is certainly legendary, but I think it's successfulness was entirely an accident, and one that cannot be duplicated as such.

*Insert Bob Ross meme here.*

Anyway, when it debuted The Beast had very little banking. The first turn and the double helix were practically flat and the laterals were quite a bit stronger than they are now. The track had to be altered after it opened to lessen the forces on the track, the original four bench trains, and the riders. I rode the ride the first weekend and if you think the ride is a track-buster now, well, holy crap. It was really something then.
So.... I guess there's your "accident".

As far as Legend goes, I always thought the helix was maybe the least successful portion of the ride, but not enough to ruin the experience.

Jeff said:

It was included because enthusiasts love laterals, apparently.

CCI is probably still my all-time favorite designer, but they regularly went overboard with under-banking, for sure. The back half of Legend is one of the worst offenders. I know re-profiling established wooden coasters is always controversial but I wouldn't mind seeing the helix at least getting reworked.

Which is weird because Raven next door is, to my mind, as perfect as any coaster ever built and much of that is due to the effective combination of laterals followed by airtime moments and vice versa. Boulder Dash is another excellent example. I wonder how much of Legend's underbanking was due to Will's influence vs. a CCI choice.

Well, the guys who did the rides for CCI are the guys who are now TGG, and I think mostly they build what the customer is asking for in this case. During the development of The Voyage, Will was very hands on and solicited a lot of feedback from a panel of enthusiasts (myself included). He was definitely OK pushing the limits.

Wooden "plussed" helices (min. 540*), in order of preference:

Beast

KG's Twister

Legend

American Eagle

(Old) Rattler

Son of Beast

Hurricane: Cat 5

Please note, my opinions are official. If yours vary from mine, then you're plain wrong. (*winky*)

They just posted from their website not too long ago asking fans to give their opinions of what they think Santa brought them for Christmas.

Maybe Legend is getting topper track. :)

This might actually be a complete Ghostrider style retracking, although unlike Ghostrider I'm not sure that Legend really needs it. The video says Santa brought 138,561 board feet of lumber. Just doing some quick math it seems like the lumber shipment could be enough to cover all of Legend's track: 4,042 ft (track length) x 8 (layers of wood) x 2 (track rails) = 64,672 ft. Of course this doesn't account for the tunnel or any work on the wood structure.

^I had to double-check. Just to be clear, it didn't say "board feet" - only "feet."

Given that, the math changes quite a bit...still a lot of wood.

Not hearing anything about a train change, though...