Holiwood Nights - June 3-4, 2011

Holiday World pulls it off again! Always *my* Underdogs of the industry...

Voyage has gotten a little more rough, but is killer exciting out of control goodness. I can't get over every time I ride, at the end I'm always left speechless. It's like what just happened isn't real. And it's fun too! Laughing my arse off on every ride - it's 12 coasters in one.

Legend is still my favorite ride at the park. Running fast as heck, but the school bell was broken.

It was so great to finally meet some fellow CoasterBuzzer's - and see some familiar faces! I'm not gonna name peeps, cuz I always briefly forget some - due to my brain being scrambled on 3 kick bootie coasters.

Pat Koch has a bobblehead now! How cool, funny and charming ( :) ) is that!? They were auctioning off a prototype, complete with certificate of authenticity, and a 'coffin' box. Pat autographed it as well. The food was great - the pizza very soggy and tasty as ever - and those heavily frosted mega cup cakes the staff kept putting out!

My friend Beth went along - this was her first trip to HW. She is a budding coaster geek, and the bug has bit her. She loved it and was very impressed with the HW operations and staff (we had visited a Six Flags park the previous week.)

Thanks HW!

(edit - I had to mention that my friend Beth easily rode Voyage more than me. That takes a special kind of coaster lover.)

Sounds like you had a blast, man. I need to get to HW someday soon. Never been. :(

I think you got your days wrong in the title. June 6th is tomorrow. I'm going to laugh with you, not at you. :D

^Thank you Travis, fixed it.

I'll mention one name in specific...mine - Great to finally meet you Billy (and Beth)! :)

signed, FL president of the Anton Lovers Ass'n... ;)

That event was definitely one for the record books! I can't even begin to describe how much fun I had. My only complaint is it went by WAY too fast. All three woodies were running great but Legend was freakin' FLYING!!!!!! WOW! I just wish my head, neck, and back issues didn't act up so easily. I would of rode Voyage a lot more than once. The waterpark was a blast as always, especially Wildebeast! Can that ride get anymore crazy fun?

The highlight of the whole weekend was definitely seeing old friends and meeting new ones, especially at the Legendary cabins where a lot of us were staying. I hope to stay at one of those from now on! Staying up all night long catching up and partying with people who you only physically see once or twice a year makes all the soreness, lack of sleep, sunburn, and exhaustion worth it and then some! The coasters, waterpark, food, free soda, and general overall vibe around the park and campground was icing the cake. :)

Moosh was definitely on everyone's mind over the weekend, but I know he was with us or at least smiling down on us. Now I can't wait for Phunfest, which is my other "must do" event every year. :)

It was great seeing you again, Billy! It was also nice meeting Beth! These events are always a whirlwind when it comes to catching up with people. I always wish I could spend more time with everyone. :)

A HUGE thank you to Paula, the Koch family, and all the employees at Holiday World and Lake Rudolph for another rocking event!

-Tina

I'm in total agreement with you about the Legend. I havewn't enjoyed it that much in years. This is the closest it's ever come to unseating the Raven as my favorite. Don't know what changed, but I like it.

Always nice to see so many friendly, fun people. Already looking forward to next year.

I'll echo everyone's sentiment about Legend, which is one I've *never* enjoyed and only rode one (1) time last year at HWN. While I rather disliked the last row, the front was KICKIN' IT. I know I've ridden the front before, but this was like an entirely different ride. That one little double pop of air got me every time (and is something the back row didn't do).

But what really blew me away this year was Raven. While I never outright 'disliked' Raven, this time around it was so good I'm pretty sure I took more laps on it than Legend and Voyage combined. The back row was amazing -- and I typically avoid axle seats!

Now, I'd heard (friend of a friend of a friend of Someone Who Knows) that the park had given more attention to R and L this year, so Voyage is still waiting its turn. And it showed. It didn't take long Friday night for word to spread that the front row was the only really bearable seat. It was kind of sad that Voyage was experiencing jackhammageddon, but the other woodies were running so incredibly well it made up for it. Keep in mind that I'm more of a Millennium Force/Diamondback kinda guy, so the fact that I spent so much time on Legend really says something!

^^ Tina, the other nice thing about the Legendary cabins is being able to stumble (or roll) down to your room after a night of drinking around the campfire. ;) And I agree this and PPP are a "must do" for me now. I had to turn down a number of theatre gigs to keep that weekend open, and I'm so glad I did; I can go to Holiday World or Knoebels any other time, but it's the camaraderie (and nighttime ERT!) that makes it special and creates long-lasting memories.

Nice to meet you, Billy, and thanks for the Raven ride! Sounds like we might be seeing Beth at more events in the future? :)

This weekend was my first experience on Voyage. With my first ride ever I knew it was rough, I somehow magically found a smooth point on my second ride (not in the front) where I was able to keep my hands up the entire ride and felt it's aggressive nature, but minimal roughness. Now, when I tried to remember where that seat was for my third ride, I was wrong. Painfully wrong. I did get two in a row in the front Sat afternoon, with Gator's help, and that was a blast.

Throw me in the "WTF, Legend is better than Raven" camp. I was shocked how great Legend was this weekend; definitely going up the rankings. And as others have said, the camaraderie is the real reason these events are so great; I go more to see my friends more than for the rides. It was a great time!

On Friday night, my group went right for Voyage, seductive temptress that she is. After a sufficient beating, we went back for the other woodies, and while we enjoyed them (see earlier comment re: running well), we were already pretty tired.

Contrast that with Saturday night, when we started with Raven for an hour, Legend for not quite an hour, then sauntered over to Voyage. This was a much better plan (kudos to roadkill for suggesting this), as we worked our way up. For our last spin on Voyage I took a seat right in the middle (7th row, I believe) just to see how bad it was, and yeah... it was pretty bad. But I survived.

Considering last year's HWN and my love-hate relationship with this park's wood coasters, I was pretty proud of myself that I managed the entire evening without taking Excedrin. :) The only pain I had was in my shins from walking the hills so much!

Oh, and I also got my first "slideback" on Wildabeest... not quite as exciting as a rollback on Dragster, I imagine.

Great to meet (and see again!) all you guys too! Legend always is my favorite. It's never really sluggish, I just can't see... Maybe it's just other's prefer more intense rides to me, after all, I-305 does have it's fans (I'm still WTF on that one).

@Voyage - It seems the park is waiting with impending relief on those Timberliner trains. It's just too much as it is, but somehow just enough or not enough for many peeps, so everyone wins!

Robo, you will definitely see Beth at more events. The geek vampire coaster bug bit her sometime in the past 2 weeks, and the coaster zombie serum hit her brain sometime Friday night at HWN. She has passed the line of 'good friend' to 'coaster buddie', just when I needed one too.

I never understood why people didn't like Legend more than they do. I thought it was fantastic every time I rode it. Wish I could have made it out there this year, since I keep hearing about how much better it was.

^I'm a little confused too, Tek! But I figure, more rides for me! Legend has the most variety of the trio - it's also the least intense. I like the helix, the varying style tunnels, the dives over and under stuff. It also has a great view from the lift; love the speakers that howl and "dont look back." So much charm ;)

edit - Legend also has 2 great logo's!

Robo told me where to find you Billy, so hold him responsible... ;)

Legend - for me personally, I've always found the layout to be somewhat heavy on the laterals for MY tastes. Doesn't mean it wasn't running in INSANE mode during the event...I actually think I rode it more than Raven or Voyage during the weekend, and as of right now is probably the one I'd ride if they were sitting in my driveway. It was awesome to have the *slam* back on the initial run back towards the station...which led to several back-seat rides.

Since they've chimed in, also want to send shout-outs to Robo (another CPGer still posting), CoasterQueen, and Bird...and to echo Tina's sentiment that even if there were no coasters, the people MAKE the annual trek worthwhile.

Had the best time I've ever had with you guys over the weekend. The coasters were an after-thought for me. I've never enjoyed a family reunion so much. And I've never partied so hard! LOL

Great to finally meet you, Billy, as well as Andy Hoffman and Kat Jones!

Legend and Raven were running like brand new except totally broke in. I couldn't believe how well they were tracking. The Voyage was very crunchy even for me. Had it not been for riding with my friends, I honestly would have only ridden it about five times the whole weekend. Raven and Legend deserved the attention this time.

All I want to know is how in the hell I didn't get to meet Billy? You seem to know or met everyone I know. Then again I'm not a stalker like Gator, LOL. Love ya Gates!

Legend and Raven were awesome and it showed how much better they were than Voyage. There were more people riding them this year than in years past. There wasn't much of sitting and not having to move, especially on Saturday night. There was usually someone waiting for your seat. Now, I did have a magical ride on Voyage with Nasai in the front seat, but other than that, it was chunky.

I'm so glad we changed our plans this year and went. Not because of the rides or park or the food (although all of those were great), but because of the friends. Seeing those special people that you only get to see a couple times a year or sometimes even years apart. It doesn't matter how long it's been seen I saw them last, it's always great spending time family again.

Just "paying it forward", Lori. Will and Moosh came up frequently during the weekend, and their considerable positive influence was palpable. Back at the campfire, Moosh was most definitely there in spirit. While I'm sorry I missed the end of the tribute to Matthew started by Eric, I was happy to be the designated driver bringing more friends to the Honeycomb Hideout. Pretty sure it's what he would have done...

As AV has noted, this somehow needs to happen more than twice a year...

AV Matt, it was nice to meet you too... as well as all the others. And it was good to see some old friends too. Ahhh memories...

^Check your PMs...and tell Kat to do the same... :)

To all who attended, thank you for being there when I finally showed up again. It's been far too long. There were many we still missed, and a few that we honored (and sadly, we'll never see again), but as those before me have said, HWN is about the people.

I love each of you, and am so glad to have seen most of you that posted here. It was also a fun little moment to meet Andy in line for the Perilous Plunge... too bad it was "a bit late" in the day. It was cool and I'm sorry that we didn't get to chat more. :)

Lori, thank you for being there with me on that magical ride in the front seat of Voyage. It seemed faster with you there. Crazy, but true.

One final thing.... we have some new friends who've made their way to this event. Now, we have to get them to the next ones, and make this an annual thing, instead of a 4 year thing (at least for me).

Much love to all.

^I thought I recognized you nasai, and lori too! My head was in outer space for most of the time, I didn't get much sleep before we came to the park b/c I was too excited. The rides, heat and lack of sleep really hit me hard, but it was still a GREAT time.

This visit reminds me how special HW is, the people that work there, and YOU guys!

So many parks are run strictly as a business it seems, and I feel if you have the love to do something, do it well, the money will come. It's secondary - that is very clear at HW.