John's World: Holiday World

Showing posts with label Holiday World. Show all posts

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Holiday World's New Thunderbird Coaster Takes Off This Saturday

Ah spring! There are a lot of things to love about spring...the flowers, the warmer air, spring cleaning, and...roller coasters! Yes, it's been a long, cold winter and it seems like months since I last brought up the subject of coasters on this blog, but this Saturday, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana will be debuting its newest thrill ride, Thunderbird, and if that doesn't get this roller coaster enthusiast's juices flowing, nothing will...

I first visited Holiday World, a long awaited visit at that, last year and though the park overall was a bit smaller than I had expected, I loved its stable of coasters, especially the fantabulous The Legend in the Thanksgiving section of the park. At the time, the three coasters at Holiday World were all of the wooden variety, so when the park announced Thunderbird back in July, I was excited to see it was of the steel variety. In fact, not only is the new coaster an out and out steel ride, but it's a record breaking monster.

Thunderbird is the world's first launched wing coaster. For those of you new to coasters, a winged coaster is one in which riders are seated on the sides of the track, giving them a feeling of flying. There are several winged coasters out there, including Wild Eagle at Dollywood, X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, Gatekeeper at Cedar Point and others. None of those coasters, though, use magnetic launch technology as this one does.

Here are the stats for the new Thunderbird, as posted on the Holiday World website:

Description: Thunderbird is the nation’s first launched wing coaster. It is Holiday World’s first major steel roller coaster, with a 0-60mph launch in 3.5 seconds, followed by multiple inversions – including a 14-story Immelmann loop, Zero-g roll, barrel roll, and loop. Continuing Holiday World’s tradition of sending roller coasters through thickly wooded and hilly terrain, Thunderbird at first soars and loops high in the air and then hugs the ground, surprising riders with rapid-fire “near misses” such as keyholes, themed elements, other rides, trees, and even the ground.

Track length: 3,035 feet

Height: 140 feet at Immelman loop's peak

Speed: 60 mph

Ride Time: 1 minute, 18 seconds

Designer: Bolliger & Mabiliard

Legend: In 1620, as the Mayflower neared the end of its 66 days at sea, a mighty storm nearly capsized the ship, taking it hundreds of miles off course. As passengers and crew feared all was lost, an immense bird appeared in the sky. The thunderbird, whose wings created the thunder and eyes flashed the lightning of the powerful storm, rescued the ship by launching it to the New World.

Well, I won't be riding Thunderbird this summer, at least I don't anticipate it, but judging from the video below, I think maybe I'd like to make another visit to Santa Claus, Indiana sometime in the near future...

Friday, July 25, 2014

Holiday World is Getting a New Coaster

It always seems that whenever my attention turns towards something, other things concerning that thing invariably pop up. Case in point: our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014. Both before and ever since that trip, I've been coming across a lot of things that have to do with Kentucky, Nashville and the parks we visited. Now, just a few short days after I review the wooden roller coasters at Holiday World, the park makes a huge announcement.

coaster.net

On Thursday evening, Holiday World held a press conference to announce a brand new roller coaster set to open in the spring of 2015. Thunderbird will be the park's first steel coaster and will more than double the amount of money they've ever spent on a ride, with a price tag coming in at around $22 million. It's very cool that they'll be adding a steel ride to their slow, but steady growing arsenal.

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Thunderbird will be the world's first launched wing-design coaster and it will be located in the park's Thanksgiving section, crossing through The Voyage not once, but twice. The ride will go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds as it immediately goes into the first of its four inversions. Thunderbird features 3,035 feet of track and includes a 140 foot Immelmann loop, a 125 foot standard loop, a Horseshoe, an elevated spiral, a zero-G roll, and other cool features. Wing coasters are great, and with this announcement, I may just have to visit this park sometime again in the near future to give Thunderbird a whirl. Check out an animation of the new ride below...

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: The Coasters of Holiday World

As I mentioned in my last post, I think that the roller coasters located in Holiday World are worth a whole separate post, and so here we go...

The Legend

Holiday World, in Santa Claus, Indiana, is home to three roller coasters, all well renowned, and all made of wood. The first coaster we tried to hit was Raven, which sits right at the entrance of the park, in Halloween, but it was in service when we arrived so we opted for Legend nearby, another Halloween coaster inspired by Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Legend is the park's second roller coaster, opening in 2000, five years after The Raven. The line was long at this one, as Raven's closure might warrant, and we got a little taste of what was to come as the trains flew right past where the line was situated. After about 45 minutes on line in the hot sun, we finally got to ride, and it was a big disappointment. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but many of these woodies today are a little too rough on my body, and this one was rough! Rich and Eddie didn't like it either and needless to say this was our one and only ride.

Take a ride here...it's not as rough and it's also pretty cool!

holidayworld

The Raven

Not soon after our disappointing ride on Legend, we were finally able to try out Raven, which had opened in the interim. It must have just opened when we reached it, because there was no one on line. This woodie met with mixed reviews from the three of us. I didn't think it was nearly as rough as the first coaster, and I enjoyed it much more, too. Eddie was non-committal about it and Rich was decidedly a no on this one, as well.

Check out the POV below and see what you think. This one's got a first drop of 85 feet and speeds of up to 48 mph. Not bad! I thought it was good enough to ride a second time, especially with no line, which we did!

The Voyage

Finally we come to Holiday World's showpiece coaster, and my personal favorite of their rides, The Voyage. This one is the park's newest roller coaster, opening in 2006, and it is a doozie! Located in the Thanksgiving section of the park, the 163 foot lift hill is quite an imposing structure. It almost looks like a hypercoaster, that's how tall it is.

The Voyage is themed after the Mayflower trip that the Pilgrims took across the pond, but I'm sure a trip on that boat was a lot tamer than this wild ride. In just a few little words, I loved this one!!! With a great first drop of 66 degrees from 154 feet, speeds of up to 68 mph, several tunnels and lots of twists, turns and airtime, this one definitely made Holiday World worth the trip and now stands as one of my favorite woodies ever! Check it out...

So if you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Santa Claus, Indiana, and you love amusement parks, definitely check out Holiday World, if not for The Voyage alone. Stay tuned for more on our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014 and in the meantime, check out a few more photos of Holiday World...

Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Holiday World

One of the places I was looking forward to visiting the most was Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. I'd first heard of this place from an old roller coaster VHS I'd bought about 20 years ago and I've wanted to visit it ever since. The place is a holiday-themed amusement center that is still family owned and operated, a rarity in this day and age. It first opened in 1946 as Santa Claus Land and changed to its current name in 1984. There are four sections to the park, each themed after a major holiday...Christmas (of course!), Halloween, 4th of July and Thanksgiving.

Holiday World Splashin' Safari was the first destination on our roller coaster road trip. (The "Safari' refers to a water park that is situated within the confines of the place.) We visited the park on Monday, July 7th. I'd mentioned in a post the next day that this was my first time ever in Indiana and so being the music nerd I am, the three of us listened to John Mellencamp, a famous Indiana native, along the way just to get us in an Indiana state of mind.

The Park

All in all, Holiday World was a wee bit of a disappointment, probably because it was much smaller than I expected it to be, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a good time. Though it was bigger than some of the smaller parks I know like Playland in Rye, NY or Adventureland in Farmingdale, NY, it didn't quite have that big, amusement park field like a Six Flags or a Disney. That was cool, though, because I had anticipated a shorter visit than say, Kings Island, and we wanted to check out Louisville at night anyway.

The park is picturesque, and the holiday theme is a really unique one that can be found throughout. There's Dasher's Seahorses (a merry-go-round), Rudolph's Roundup and Mrs. Claus's Sweet Shoppe in Christmas, Gobbler Getaway, Turkey Whirl and Mayflower in Thanksgiving, the Lewis and Clark Trail and Liberty Lunch in 4th of July, and Frightful Falls and Scarecrow Scrambler in Halloween, and much more. You get the idea.

One thing that struck me the most in Holiday World was that is was so much different than anything we see here on the East Coast, where capitalism runs supreme. Where parks like Six Flags in New Jersey, Busch Gardens in Virginia and Hersheypark in Pennsylvania all charge an arm and a leg for practically everything, Holiday World was not like that at all. Case in point, the park gives free soft drinks with every admission...all day, every day! Unheard of in these parts!

Santa Claus

What would a place like Holiday World be without Santa Claus? Upon visiting Mrs. Claus' Sweet Shoppe, which served the savoriest of sweet indulgences, including chocolate covered bacon, Rich had noticed an area towards the back of the store which was decorated with presents and wrappings and candy canes and so on. Lo and behold, behind all of that was Santa, sitting in a chair, jolly as all heck, and just itching for some company.

Rich found this all so amusing and became giddy as soon as Santa noticed him. The next thing you know, Santa was asking him what he wanted for Christmas and when Rich said that he wanted money, Santa offered to oblige, but the dough had to go to a charity of Rich's choice. Once their little conversation was over, Rich asked if he could get a picture and before you knew it, Santa's assistant was snapping away as we all did some pretty cheesy poses. Awesome!

The Coasters

Of course, my main reason for visiting Holiday World was its coasters. The park has three of them, all renowned around the world of the coaster enthusiast. Raven, Legend and Voyage are all coasters worthy of more talk, so I will be posting on Holiday World's roller coasters real soon. Stay tuned!

Friday, April 11, 2014

A-Z Blogging - Adventure Parks - H is for Holiday World

Some of you may not have heard of Holiday World, located in, believe it or not, a town called Santa Claus, Indiana. Well, through my own interest in roller coasters, I've been hearing about this place for years now. It's collection of coasters is not immense, but the ones it has are world-class, and I'm pretty excited because I'll be visiting there for the first time this July.

Roller Coaster Road Trips

Every so often, my friend Rich and I take these short little trips to ride coasters. We've done the Busch Gardens/King's Dominion Virginia trip, the Dorney/Hershey Pennsylvania trip, and about four years ago, we went with another friend, Eddie to Ohio and western Pennsylvania to visit Cedar Point, King's Island and Kennywood. All of the trips were memorable and we rode a lot of coasters, and this year the three of us, plus another friend, Gary, will be heading on over to Kentucky and Tennessee for some more roller coaster riding, and one of our stops will be Holiday World.

H is for Holiday World

On August 3rd, 1946, Santa Claus Land opened its gates for the first time to the public, and the place attracted families from near and far, flourishing for nearly 40 years before expanding and changing its name to Holiday World. The park is still one of the only family-owned and operated theme parks in the nation and its theme is unique and fun. with areas of the park dedicated to Christmas, of course, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.

The Coasters

Holiday World doesn't have a wide array of scream machines like many of its contemporaries, but the three woodies that it does possess all seem to be a scream...

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The Raven

Located in the Halloween section of the park, The Raven opened in 1995 and was immediately a fan favorite among coaster enthusiasts everywhere. Take a ride...

holidayworld

The Legend

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This one came along five years after The Raven and is based on Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Another classic wooden coaster, this one seems a bit wilder than its predecessor, and I can't wait to give it a try...

The Voyage

behindthethrills

Finally, we have The Voyage, Holiday World's most recent addition to its roller coaster roster. Opening in 2006, this one set a record for most airtime out of any wooden roller coaster anywhere at 24.2 seconds. That gets a wow! Check it out...

So, well worth the trip, huh? Be sure to look out for a review of the place sometime in late July. In the meantime, keep on riding!

"H" Coaster of the Day - Hades 360 -

Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park -
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

Oh, here's one I've been drooling about for a long, long time. I tell ya, I never thought I'd ever really want to visit Wisconsin Dells, but this park and this ride make me wanna go so badly. This ride first opened in 2005 as simply Hades, but the 360 was added just a year ago, when the park added a 360-degree roll to the structure, a rarity to say the least. Add a steep, 65-degree drop of 140 feet, plenty of banked turns, speeds of up to 60 mph, and a wicked-looking tunnel that goes beneath the parking lot a lengthy 800 feet and you've got one hell of a ride. Take a ride yourself after the pics below...