If I'm correct, this was taken on the side of Voyage opposite Splashin' Safari. I'm still holding out for a rocket slide, but it could be a Thanksgiving expansion I suppose. I think its way too soon for another themed area. *** Edited 6/18/2008 8:45:16 PM UTC by RushStreetFlyer***
Unless they played silly tricks with the picture like making it into a mirror image, this would have to be taken from the field on the Thanksgiving side. The lift hill is going up left to right, and the angle of the picture looks like you are looking back to the left a bit more, so I'd say your a good 100-200 yards beyond the resturant, and way out in that field towards the highway.
If it's a flat ride, they would need to extend the pathing out a bit. If it's marking off footer locations for a coaster... well.... :)
^ Your location is correct. There's a smoking area just past Plymouth Rock Cafe which is currently the border for the Thanksgiving Section. This looks to be in the field behind the trees just beyond the smoking sections. Looks like a nice expansion for Thanksgiving for 2009. It is possible that it could be for Splashin' Safari, but it would be a pretty long walk to there from the next closest attraction (Kima Bay). But you would get to walk underneath the Voyage in the process if that were the case.
I'm not even going to speculate, but I'm hoping for some high-end flats. A ferris wheel would be awesome too. The stakes appear to form a circular border, but it could just be the angle of the photo.
I'm actually going to the park tomorrow, so I'll see if I can see anything else.
I wanted to point out also the statement the park made a few years ago regarding to the Splashin' Safari expansion. I believe it was 2005 when they built the Bahari wave pool that they said they were going to expand the waterpark every year until it was double its size in 2004. I dont know how far along they are at this point to achieving that, but I'm guessing they aren't quite at that point, so something is probably in the works for the waterpark anyway, assuming this is for the dry park.
True, Rush Street, but I believe we've also heard comments from Will suggesting that once the whole park was built out Thanksgiving would be in the middle of it, so I'd guess this is an expansion for the dry side. -B
If it is for a park expansion and not for a service building, it must be something rather large. I would think if it were a flat or something of that nature, all of the work could be done off season. Starting prep work this early in the season would lead me to think something that would require alot of on site construction. Does anyone remember at what point in the '05 season we started seeing prep work for the Voyage?
^^Not much, but I DO remember Will saying not to count out a steel coaster just yet, or something of that nature, I dont remember the exact quote. They might have been refering to what guests have been suggesting that they build next.
If it was a steel, I could see something bigger than the Firecracker but obviously not any bigger than Raven. I dont have any idea what kind would suit the park though. I have seen A LOT of people tell them on the website that they want a "loopy" coaster though.
Its starting really early. My only question, how awesome would it be if the best wooden coaster and best steel coaster crossed tracks? Maybe I am thinking a little big, but what if? I mean Pat questioned the possibility of a steel coaster on youtube. As if she does not know what is happening in the financial department. This is a very smart company. I would not be surprised at all if this is the showcase for the future middle of the park. Also building it now would be a lot easier and less costly than shoehorning it in later.
I know when I tell people here in Nashville about Holiday World, they seem excited until they ask if there's any looping coasters. When I say all 3 are wooden ("The Old Fashioned Kind" to them) their enthusiasm dampens visibly. I'm just sayin'.
Obviously, that was during construction of the Thanksgiving area, but you can see that the lift hill goes up at an angle to the employee parking lot. So, unfortunetly, we can't completely rule out an expansion to the parking lot, or maintenance building/warehouse on the edge of the parking lot, because if it was built on the northern edge, it'd be awfully close to the picture paula posted.
Now, of course this picture is even older, and they did not build like this - they obviously decided that putting the dark ride next to the parking lot allowed them to build a 2 story building with workshops below - more bang for their buck. However, it does show the idea of Thanksgiving being expanded ..
