HoliWood Nights '07 and a KI quickie

Holiwood Nights: May 18th-19th

I hadn’t been to HW since the ‘02 GOCC Fall Freak Out. Remembering how awesome a time I had back then I was really excited and had my hubby having high expectations, none of which were not met.

Mother Nature was rocking for us both days! Beautifully cloud free days and temps in the high 70’s :)
Splashing Safari looks way cool-that wasn’t there the last time I was there!! We didn’t do the Saturday morning ERT at SS, I don’t do bathing suits.

Our Friday night ERT began with a greeting by Paula followed by a prayer from Mrs. Koch. Such a wonderful, wonderful person, a wonderful family and such dedication to the park and the enthusiasts.

OMG VOYAGE!!! :)
I lost count how many times we managed to ride this marvel but the 1st ride was nothing short of breathtaking!! We thought the Beast was flying a couple weeks ago?? HA!!
Words like wow and awesome do not to this coaster justice!! It FLIES from beginning to absolute end. The turns are beyond words, you really do think you‘re going to go flying off the tracks! We rode it a few times Friday during the day and during the PM ERT, and 10x during Saturday night ERT. The front car ended up being our favorite seats. I could not believe how dark it was back in the woods and how much faster this coaster was running by night’s end. The queue is great and nautically themed. At one part of the ride the train passes one part of the queue behind glass. Outstanding, you could really appreciate the speed of it as it went flying past you.

Now THIS is what a woodie is all about!! :)
The best line heard all day came out of my hubby, after our 1st ride, as we were walking down the ramp he said “well, you know it is just a tad better than Mean Streak” People who heard him cracked up!! Classic! :)

Our Voyage walk back was so fun, no rush at all. Everyone was allowed to take as many pictures as they wanted, needed. Nice to have a real walk back (previous Beast walk backs) less a huge fence surrounding the coaster (any future Beast walk backs, if any) During the walk back you could see exactly how insane this coaster is, especially during it’s turn around.

I can’t remember Legend kicking that much butt , but did remember the last tad of airtime around the final turn and the abrupt stop shortly before the station. And who could forget “don’t look back?” Still one of my favorite woodies, hubby loved it too.

Raven on the other hand was running better than I could ever remember. Out of our 2 day visit, the best time we had were the 5 or so ERT re-rides Saturday night. Holy cow it was just booking and smooth as glass. Too short a ride, we kept getting back to the station too fast for the poor crew to keep up with us! I could have easily stayed on Raven all night :)

The best line this night had to be mine. We were waiting on the front car and a full Raven train came back into the station, I screamed out “welcome back Raven riders, how was your ride??” everyone cheered.

The ride op said “you guys have way too much fun!!!” :)

I had told my hubby he didn’t know ERT till he had HW ERT, now he understands!!!

Our dinners on both days were great, as well as the overdose of Pepsi products. I had stopped drinking Pepsi 3 months ago, but I sure made up for it this past weekend! The park was absolutely spotless, and the friendliness of EVERYONE is amazing. You can so tell the employees really do have fun and really do enjoy themselves and their job. Even after tolerating us hour after hour during ERT they were still all smiles. I know that is a direct reflection of the Kochs.

As I remembered from back in ‘02, the food and gift prices were great. Voyage shirt for $13.00! Instead of being forced to purchase dinky key chains for my kids they both got HW shirts. On Saturday my hubby got a combo hot dog meal for $3.99--can you imagine??

We noticed on more than 1 occasion an employee (tactfully) requesting a guest cover up exposed body parts. During Raven ERT a guy had a nasty shirt on which included two 4 letter words, when we came back from our ride that same guy had his shirt on inside out. Sure wish CP would do that kind of enforcing.

Walking around the park you can see people and families just having a ball. You are spared the overdose of gangsta wannabes or the brat kind of kids/teenagers you just hate being forced to be around.

Did Holiday World live up to my hubby’s expectations?? You bet it did, not only did it but it is now his favorite park and Voyage his favorite woody. We will definitely have to visit it again before this season over.

Guaranteed we will be at any future coaster event they decide to have! Wish it wasn’t so far away!!!

We thanked Mrs. Koch and Paula when we saw them, our thanks were very sincere. We loved it! :)

The only bad parts to our whole trip was the Denny’s from Hell (in Dale) we stopped out for breakfast. Besides being dirty looking the service was awful. We were there almost an hour. Guess you should be cautious of any restaurant that paints their ceilings black. Blech! :(
There were some enthusiasts I know coming in as we were leaving and I told them not to bother. It really was THAT bad. We’ve eaten at a lot of Denny’s over the years and this one was by far the worst ever.

Despite the crap breakfast, we seemed to be making good time thru Indiana into Kentucky but then there was a huge traffic jam on I-71N that we crawled in for almost an hour. The delay? How about they had 2 lanes closed for NO reason?

When we saw the “Kings Island” sign in Mason, we both looked at each other and despite being totally wiped out, decided to make a quick stop. Its free for us, why not? Again my parking pass didn’t work and the woman was insisting that I didn’t have KI parking on it. I showed her the “OP” and she asked her TL and she said it was fine. My pass worked at the gate, my husband’s didn’t yet again, didn’t the 1st time we went to the park either. Park seemed kind of crowded but I know I have seen it far worse.

We just didn’t have the patience or desire to wait an hour to ride FOF or the Beast. After riding Voyage, Raven and Legend for some reason that just did nothing for us!!! We ended up just walking around the park and being on the look out for any other CF changes.

X-Flight--uh FireHawk looks great, sure hope it does better on its maiden run that Maverick did.

All in all a fun wonderful weekend, our thanks again to HW for everything. Your park is great and could teach a lot of the other parks a few things (like what kind of coaster to build for one!! ;))

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 1168 :)

I think we all got caught in that traffic jam, Jo. It absolutely sucked.

Thanks again to Paula, Will, Mrs. Koch, and every other HW employee who made the weekend amazing for Jamie and I! We loved every minute of our time there, and I can't wait to go back!

I was there too and dont know if we met or not...cant tell from your pic but I am glad you both had a great time and I can only say I second everything you said.

It was good seeing you two there! I love the events there. I feel like I am always treated very good when I am at the park. Even if it's not an event. They treat everyone like family.

At the auction, I told myself I wouldn't buy anything since there were no coaster parts! :) But that didn't work out so well! I still have no idea what I will do with THE banner.

Use it as a Slip-n-Slide?

I didn't think anyone was going to buy that thing till they brought in that ringer auctioneer. What a salesman.

^^^I want to know how you got it home.

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we seemed to be making good time thru Indiana into Kentucky but then there was a huge traffic jam on I-71N that we crawled in for almost an hour. The delay? How about they had 2 lanes closed for NO reason?

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Wow, I'm glad by brother and I got through that early. I think that cost us only about 5 minutes, but we were on the road by 8am (9am Eastern). We saw the lane reduction, but traffic was still moving through it. We were up past Cincinatti by lunchtime.

Sounds like you're the lucky one, Greg. We were stuck there for almost an hour. The backup was probably 3-5 miles.

The banner is vinyl. So adding water would make it fun!

It seemed like a crazy thing to get. But, it is a hell of a souveneir!

They had it folded up for me at guest relations when I left. It is pretty heavy. Threw it in the back seat of car. Once home, I put it in the back of hearse for time being. Once I find a place to move, then I will figure out what to do with it.

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Jeff Young said:
I think we all got caught in that traffic jam, Jo. It absolutely sucked.

Thanks again to Paula, Will, Mrs. Koch, and every other HW employee who made the weekend amazing for Jamie and I! We loved every minute of our time there, and I can't wait to go back!

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Not me, We left HW at 7am and got to PKI about 10:30. Heard about the backup after we got thru as we were pulling into the park.

Glad you guys had fun. FOF had a 40 minute line all day yesterday but beast was only about 10 minutes. The park was dead in all actuallity.

Wish I would have met ya. It was the best event ever IMHO and I've been to 5 at HW.

Chuck

I did meet you, Chuck.

On the shuttle back to Lake Rudolph.

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CoffinBoy said:

At the auction, I told myself I wouldn't buy anything since there were no coaster parts! But that didn't work out so well! I still have no idea what I will do with THE banner.

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Yea right Jerry, thats the same as me saying I am only going to ride Raptor 1x ;)
I managed to keep all the goodies I bought for $100.00 which in normal terms for me is low!! ;)
I avoided the auction stuff like the plague.

Glad you got home ok! (Actually glad looks like everyone got home ok)
Nice try trying to scare me btw! :)

It was awesome seeing you-I am sure we will see ya again here soon at CP, KI or GL! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 1168 :)

Were all the coasters open besides SOB at KI?

Except for FireHawk obviously, yup they were all up and running when we were there! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 1168 :)

Jo, KILLER TR! That's pretty much how my weekend went as well. I am surprised we didn't run into each other. Maybe we did. :) I think we met before but I was so distracted that weekend and I am horrible with names anyway. :)

I am JUST coming down from that natural high I had all weekend. That was by far the BEST, most ROCKING event I have ever attended. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Voyage was just BEYOND surreal. I had my shades on (to protect my contacts) but it really added to the ride experience. I felt like I was in a funny horror movie during the nightime ERT. :) I felt like Freddy Krueger was going to jump out of the woods and hang onto the side of the trains. I got that feeling with Raven and Legend as well. :) I was hanging on for dear life during the Voyage turnaround and LOVING every minute of it! That second DROP was just HEAVEN! It's even more orgasmic when it's pitch black and you can't see where you are going. AWESOME!

ALL three coasters were running top-notch that weekend. PERFECT! Legend was FLYING! HOLY CRAP!

I was with Chuck and a couple of other friends at King's Island as well. Again,a PERFECT day! I LOVE Avatar! It's like a cross between a Rockin' Tug and a Disk-O, at least in my mind. :)

It was the most perfect weekend EVER! The parks, the coasters, the food, the weather, the great friends, the funniest road trip ever with one of my best friends......I couldn't imagine a better high than what I experienced that weekend.

-Tina

<----who will write a proper TR sometime. ;)

*** Edited 5/30/2007 7:07:14 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

Voyage displaced Magnum as my favorite coaster. I thought Raven also made into my top five woodie. Legend was the most disappointing woodie I have ever been on. I really wanted to like the ride. I just could not. I loved the free parking and drinks as well although other than coasters, there really were not too many things my kids could have done being a smaller park. I would definitely return for Voyage though.