welchce

24-April 07 I was looking at www.screamscape.com for updates on Firehawk and found out that the pictures were coming from here. So I started reading this for a while and eventually got a user name.

There are other Inverigos out there, so that shouldn't be too bad. Crypt is a lot shorter and quicker to say than Tomb Raider:The Ride. I think the hardest to get used to is saying Flight Deck instead of Top Gun, at least for me. It always used to be the first ride I would go on with it's closeness to the front of the park.

Sinking? I remember reading here last year that Vortex is floating away.

Haha yeah, I've seen that before. I love it in the middle when he just goes through a flurry of random expletives. SoB is inhumanely rough. It would probably get my vote if I wasn't so young and my body can still take it's wraith. I actually consider it kind of fun; just getting the _ _ _ _ beat out of me. I would have to agree that CCMR is one of the most lame coasters ever. Also, I didn't have that exciting of a ride on Mean Streak (it seemed to be going kind of slow and I didn't experience any roughness). And then with Raven, it's an okay ride just really really really short. Definitely not as good as some people think (doesn't deserve #7 in the world / doesn't deserve to be in front of The Beast IMO). In conclusion, worst = CCMR (since I haven't been on Manhattan Express)

Let's see... last year I started with AE and Racer. So I'll probably go Racer to warm up then maybe FoF/Firehawk and then over to The Beast. The newer coasters (FoF/Firehawk) would be good to hit to avoid lines later in the day but you can't miss with The Racer and The Beast.

I have Cincinnati Bell so I wasn't expecting this to work because usually they're no fun with free/cool text stuff. Like for some reason recently they stopped supporting forwarding messages from AIM. So anyway, I did get the confirmation message sent to me but the number it was sent from was 000-000-0000. Obviously my phone cannot send a text back to that number. Does anyone have any suggestions?

It feels good to be back. Hopefully no one missed me too much. Does anyone know how processing is at KI on the times they have before the park opens? I was going to try that this year because last year when I went on the second weekend, I waited longer for my pass than any ride. But back to the main subject of the thread, when does anyone think they'll release the specifics about the Gold Pass Perks? I thought last year right when they announced the Perks they also included like the meal discount for each month and the early ride times for each day.

I see. I don't remember hearing about these incidents but it makes sense. Do you bang your head that much on the OTSR on KK?

I don't know if the information is out there, but why does Kingda Ka use the OTSR when TTD (which came before it) uses the more liberating lap bar?

Well ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter isn't in any boneyard since Stitch uses the exact same theater and show effects. It would be awesome to buy the rights for the ride and rebuild it in X-Base.

Interesting. So which do you prefer?

Which is why we need a ride from anywhere in the country!

I wouldn't mind filling out a survey. I'm sure everyone that went to the KIC event this year would've been glad to fill out a survey for the park. I've said in basically all my trip reports this year that I left for food. I hope KI sees what SFOT is doing and follows suit.

That would be pretty awesome to be a cerimonius rider like that... especially because of the free goodies Mass props to CF. I wonder how many riders Kingda Ka had this year...

If I can remember correctly, there was a random topic over the summer on these forums about this very thing. It was someone speculating and giving their two cents about an idea they had. So yes, I agree with this being taken with a grain of salt. I could possibly see Congo being removed because it's getting old and because of the entire Water Ride Dispersion Property according to westcoaster.

I just saw something interesting on Great America's (CA) website in the Drop Zone section... and this from Carowinds...

And if the lines for Wild Thornberry's, Congo, and White Water Canyon are too long there's never a wait for the International Street fountain

Considering they're possibly moving Dominator and Steel Venom and they are building a brand new coaster at Wonderland, I'd definitely have to agree with you.

This is very exciting. I love watching the Discovery Channel shows about coaster construction.

Yeah, I can remember a conversation between two guys behind us in the final brake on the Legend where by the subject (hunting or trucks or something like that) and by their accents that they were rednecks. However, I think we only saw one mullet But back to talking about the shows... When we were watching the Retro show my brother talked about the country show he saw and he said that it was standing room only and the applause was much louder and more people were singing along. It is definitely a much different clientèle than Kings Island. When and where were they installed? I don't remember any.

Are you talking smack about Tilt-A-Whirl's? That's good old-fashion family-fun right there. And if you go by history (Raven opened in 95 and Legend in 2000 both by CCI) then Holiday World will add another Gravity Group Coaster in 2011 (since Voyage was opened in 2006).

My brother and I both have Maxx Passes.

I realize that it's over 3 weeks from when we went, but it just took that long for my brother to put the pictures on the internet and I didn't want to create my report without them. That being said, on with the show... Many of you out there have at least heard of and have probably been to Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN. I was very excited that after most of the summer had past that I finally got to go to Holiday World. We, for future reference, is referring to my brother (Thane of Price Hill), my girlfriend, and myself. And at first, we had some troubles. About an hour into the 3 hour drive to Santa Claus, we stopped for needed gas. As my brother was filling up the car, he noticed a troubling sight; there was a nail of considerable size in the front drivers side tire. Not wanting to risk a blown tire in the next 5 hours of possible driving to and from Holiday World we made our way back toward our house. Luckily my mother was home and loves us because she was willing to meet us with her van around the airport which saved us about an hour. So we were back on our way to Holiday World and in true nerd fashion we (my brother and I) listened to a couple podcasts from www.coasterradio.com while my girlfriend slept after a long night of work. Some where in between the 'Nati and L'Ville we stopped at a rest stop to eat our packed lunch and picked up some brochures for Holiday World. This was our first taste of HW before we cruised through Louisville and saw a billboard for HW. Finally we took exit 63 for IN-162 toward Santa Claus and I could barely sit still. We drove our way into Holiday World's parking lot across the street which was mostly gravel but it was FREE. Right next to the parking lot was... After we took the tunnel underneath the street we came upon Holiday World's first roller coaster right in front of us... With our Pepsi cans in hand we got our $2 discount for a final entrance fee of $35. If you couldn't tell from the sign on the Raven, Holiday World is very proud of their awards. Right after the entrance in the Christmas area is a fountain with two hands together signifying an Applause Award they were bestowed. We wanted to make sure we got rides on all the coasters so we first went to Halloween. We were about to ride the Raven right away but I saw a Pepsi Oasis in the corner of my eye so we headed right for it. This was amazing. For those of you not familiar with Holiday World, they give out FREE Pepsi products. Not only did they have Pepsi, Diet, Dr. Pepper?, and Dew but they also had Gatorade. I dabbled in between the caffeine of Mountain Dew and the electrolytes of Gatorade. The Oasis was right by the Legend so we decided to go there first. Back to Holiday World being proud about their awards, you can see where it says that the Legend was the #1 wooden coaster in the world. And now comes probably the worst part of the day for me. Being a Saturday I was expecting some lines but I was not expecting how narrow the queue is at the Legend. I tried to measure how skinny it was and it was about 3 park map wide (which is about 3 feet). On top of that it was about 1pm so it was really hot and my contacts were bothering me. So I was feeling claustrophobic, hot, and could barely see but by goodness I was going to ride that coaster. The only good part about the queue was that the coaster wrapped right around it. So after about a 30-40 minute wait we finally got to the station. We weren't really sure where we were going to put my brother's camera but remember this is Holiday World and not KI. There were FREE lockers in the station. So we just put it in the locker, removed the key, and took our seats in the back half of the train. So after around a close to 4 hour trip to Santa Claus with the car troubles we finally got to our first ride. Even though my vision was still impaired from my contacts bothering me, I still had a good time. There were nice hills with air time and a good double helix right before heading for the station. I can see why it was rated the #1 wooden coaster. After I fixed my contacts we decided to hit up some flat rides since their lines were shorter. Next up was... Just my girlfriend and I rode and we had a fairly good time. We walked over to the next adjoining land for some more rides. Of course I had to ride Eagle's Flight. I usually got going pretty well and then went sideways... So since one of the main reasons we were there was to ride the Voyage we decided to head off toward it. If you are not sure what voyage this is referring to you are quickly told by the themeing it is the voyage of the Mayflower. Right below the station they built a huge queue which I was very surprise was empty. We were stopped right outside that extra queue and to make us even more excited to ride they added an interesting element. Yes, an underground tunnel which doubles as a fly by the line... great idea. Once we entered the station we once again placed the camera in the FREE locker and sat in the 2nd and 3rd last rows respectively. Right before the hill theres a dip, kinda like you're splashing into the ocean. Then comes the hill. The hill has a 66 degree drop. What that meant for us in the back was that we didn't touch our seats till the bottom of the hill Then were two more great out-of-your-seat hills. Then you drop into multiple tunnels and make awesome twists and turns around the Indiana woods. Not only are there 24.2 seconds of airtime (the most of any wooden coaster) but there are also three 90 degree turns. Here is the video from www.ThemeParkReview.com I find the song very appropriate. c2xfVb-yf58 My thoughts on the Voyage... The best ride I'd ever been on. Great air, great turns, great use of tunnels, and great speed. It is everything I thought a wooden coaster should be. Easily better than any of the other coasters at Holiday World and The Beast, IMO. Now the Voyage wasn't the only thing they added to the Thanksgiving area. They added two rides, a place to eat, a Pepsi Oasis/Bathroom, and a smoking area. The rides were Turkey Whirl (a themed tilt-a-whirl) and Gobbler Getaway (a shooter ride that was closed when we were there). The food area had a Thanksgiving style spread which wasn't what we were looking for for dinner but still a good option for others. So we rode the Voyage a second time since the wait was still only like 10 minutes and then rode the Turkey Whirl. I wish we would've rode the Voyage more right then but more on that later... So we walked back to the rest of Holiday World and hit up the vintage cars since some place doesn't have them anymore. When we got off a car that was four in front of us stalled Remembering that we have still yet to ride the Raven we went to it. Here is the Raven in a nutshell: Lift hill, 1st drop, tunnel, back up, drop and turn by lake, some air through woods, turn, a little more air, end brakes. There is some nice air and every thing but it's so short it feels like you should be allowed to go twice. So we did hope back in the 5 minute line and go again. #1 wooden coaster in the world? Uh, it's a stretch but I guess. It's fun but I just wish there was more to it. We, my girlfriend and I, wanted to go to the water park since we heard how good it was but decided to wait till the late afternoon/evening because it seemed really crowded whenever we walked past it. We really didn't do that much there since it was still kind of crowded and because my brother was just sitting around. So all we did was hop in the wave pool, laid in Congo River, did the Oto and Ron tube slides of Otorongo (which were pretty fun), checked the line of the Jungle Racers and Bakuli and then hoped back into the wave pool and left. They do have a really really nice line up of tube slides and other water attractions but I don't remember seeing any body slides which I love doing. O yeah, and there's also the FREE sunscreen at the water park. After an hour at the water park we decided it was about time for dinner. We went to Kringle's Cafe in the Christmas area. So my brother and I got bacon cheeseburgers which were at least 6 bucks, fries which cost over 3, and a drink which also cost over 3 so we each spent at least 12 bucks for dinner... Wait a minute, we're at Holiday World not KI. We got the Bacon Cheeseburger combo which was a 1/4 bacon cheeseburger with a large curly fry and a cookie (and of course FREE drinks) for under $5. That's under half of what we would've spent at KI... Delicious. After dinner we decided to check out one of the shows in the park. My brother saw a bit of an earlier one when my girlfriend and I were on some flat ride and apparently it's just the same three guys and three girls doing the singing for several of their shows. They're not bad but it's no KI. So after walking around a little we got back in line to do the Legend again and then were planning to just ride the Voyage for the rest of the day till we left. However, when we got in line for the Legend the guy behind us said something about the Voyage being shut down. I was completely devastated. I wanted to drop kick someone in the face. I did calm down a little after a great ride on the Legend (this time I could actually see) but I still wanted to walk back to Thanksgiving to see what was going on. We walked back to the Voyage and there was, we were told, a maintenance problem and the ride most likely wouldn't open again that day. Being as mad as I was, I almost didn't by a Voyage shirt like I said I was going to after our only two rides. But this might be one of my only trips down to Holiday World for the next several years because of co-op so I decided to anyway. So it was past 7 then and because of the time change it would be technically a four hour drive back. With nothing else that we really wanted to do, we just left back for Cincinnati after having a great time. And something Holiday World's parking lot has that KI's doesn't (beside no charge)... So in recap of the day/review of Holiday World's awards... Friendliest staff in the world: Sure, I didn't have any problems with any of them. Cleanest park in the world: I didn't see any trash on the ground or any other sort of unclean sight. #1 Woodie in the World, Voyage: Yes, most definitely. Raven ranked higher than Beast: Not in my opinion. Legend ranked lower than Beast/Raven: Uh, not so fast. I feel the Legend is better than the Raven and possibly better than The Beast, but that's probably just me. #2 Water park in the world: I like the themeing at Blizzard Beach more than Splashin Safari but SS has a better selection of rides so I guess I give the edge to SS even though we didn't spend that much time there. I have yet to go to Schlitterbahn so I really can't compare it to that. So, in conclusion, this is a great park and if you have yet to go to Holiday World you should go. Everything is reasonably priced: entrance, food, shirts, and the FREE drinks / sunscreen / parking / entrance to the #2 water park in the world / inter tube rentals (how can FREE not be reasonable?). They do have nice congruent themeing unlike another park I know of in Mason, OH. Even the Dip-N-Dots stands went with the different areas. If I am in town next summer, I'll ponder getting a season pass to Holiday World because I'll definitely want to go back more than once. Maybe even KIC can make their way down there

If you look at Busch Garden's map you can see in the Congo area where it says "Future Attraction." It sounds pretty sweet.

Gosh, I wish I knew when and where I was co-oping because I really want to get a Platinum pass but I don't want to waste my money.