After being pleasantly surprised by Beech Bend, I had high hopes for Holiday World. This park is at the top of every enthusiast’s list. You always hear about the great coasters, the staff, and pricing. The general atmosphere of the park is so engrossing for many, that it’s hard to not want to make a trip out to Santa Claus, Indiana.

We arrived at the park just after opening and found a surprisingly large parking lot. You always hear about these small parks, and I always assumed that they had small parking lots as well. Holiday World’s lots are huge and unpaved. There are two things that catch your eye when you pull into the lot. The first is the Raven, with a large sign on it saying “#1 Wooden Coaster on the Planet” and the second thing you notice is the water town at the foot of the lot saying “Holiday World” in the cool text that they use.

After entering we headed straight for the Raven. This is the coaster that put Holiday World on the map. It is totally enclosed in the woods, only allowing you to see a small piece of what actually makes up the coaster. You can see from the gallery, there isn’t much to photograph from the coaster. Very cool to ride, but annoying when you are trying to grow a quality gallery. Anyway, the coaster is fast paced, and intense. Not as intense as the other coasters, but it means business. The trees and the location overall just add a great deal to take a coaster that is fun to a coaster that is great.

We then went to the next big coaster, the Legend. This coaster was Holiday World’s second world class wooden coaster, and it really made the park a destination for coaster geeks. It is a much more substantial ride then the Raven. There is also a lot more to photograph, which made me a happy camper. This ride is bigger, more intense, and in my opinion, more fun. One interesting note, someone took off their seatbelt on the lift and they shut down the ride on the lift and had maintenance and security go up the lift and take the offender off. Cool to see that they care that much, not cool when you are waiting for the coaster.

We then went for the big boy of the park, Voyage. Before I say anything, this is the single most intense ride that I have ever been on. It’s not rough, just intense. You can hear the trains trying to rip though the track on the 90 degree turns. This ride gets better throughout the day, and is an absolute beast at night. I absolutely loved this ride, and it’s my favorite at the park. They didn’t have it trimmed when we were on it and the airtime is incredible.

Right as we were ready to get back in line for the Voyage, a massive thunderstorm rolled into the area and they shut everything down. Holiday World doesn’t even keep its flats or shows open, everything is shut down. This could have been because the storm was right on top of the park, but in any case, it was different. While the rain and storm were passing, we walked up to the Howler, the park’s kiddie coaster. Not much to say about it other then the trains are themed after the park’s mascot, Holidog.

We then went around and did a lot of flat rides and had a late lunch. The food prices are very reasonable, and they also have that free soft drink thing that is a huge bonus. We went to check out the famous diving show, and it was pretty awesome. The park employees are amazing. They take your things in the stations and place them on the side for you. They all seemed to be enjoying their jobs and loading and unloaded happened pretty quick. Overall I loved Holiday World and can’t wait to make another trip back there.

Check out our Holiday World gallery here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.