mike541x

Might as well update. Big Bad Wolf-Busch Gardens Williamsburg Wild Maus-Busch Gardens Williamsburg Cyclone-Six Flags New England High Speed Thrill Coaster-Knoebels Gwazi-Busch Gardens Tampa Two Face: The Flip Side (relocated)-Six Flags America Shockwave-Kings Dominion Hades-Mt Olympus (If that really counts)

Agreed with this. Souvenirs are much cheaper here than any other park I've been to. Thunderbird Souvenir cup was only $5.99 (not to mention free refills), which is a much better deal than other parks, where you're paying $10+ more for the cup and 99 cent refills.

Rock N' Roller Coaster at the then MGM Studios, 1999. I was about 6 or 7, the ride was brand new and had no idea what it did besides the fact it "went upside down". I still have the on ride picture to this day.

"7 Words"-Deftones

Seriously, best seat in the house!

I'm also curious about the rude employees because when I went a few weeks ago, I never came across one bad employee. Every single one I encountered was very friendly and generous. I'll agree about Legend being the roughest of the three woodies, but it's still a fun ride. Great layout too.

Wildcat wasn't as rough as I was expecting it to be. I thought it had a really cool layout as well.

Agreed. Kumba is my favorite B&M and having something very similar at BGW would've been great.

"You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it"

Intamin-Hyper/Giga B&M-Invert Premier-Spahgetti Bowl Arrow-Loopers Vekoma-SLCs or Boomerangs Schwarzkopf-Loopers

Still have yet to discover this mythical rattle you speak of. I've ridden I305 every year since opening season and I've yet to experience any kind of rattle whatsoever.

I remember reading somewhere that a few parks, including Knoebels, were interested in buying Drachen Fire after it was put up for sale. Not sure if it was true but it would've been interesting to see if the ride was saved. I always thought that if it DF was designed later when Alan Schilke was working for Arrow, it would probably be an awesome ride. While I've yet to go on Tennessee Tornado, I hear it's best out of all of the Arrow loopers. Just looking at the rides Schilke is making these days, it doesn't really surprise me.

Voyage at Holiday World was a pleasant surprise. I've heard before that it was a very rough ride, but I found it tolerable and a lot of fun. It was a bit on rough but nothing as bad as Gwazi or KD's Hurler.

Wait they're running one train on Volcano during the summer season? Holy crap we all need to start a Plinko / Fastlane savings account.

^^Awesome photos. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I don't care what people said about Drachen Fire, I still wish I could've ridden it.

"Minus Blindfold"-Deftones

I thought the exact same thing until I rode it this year and realized it got worse. I just want it to be slightly smoother and I'll be happy. Same here. I was okay with Hurler until this season, but now I personally wanna burn the ride to the ground.

Great report. I also agree Great Bear is very underrated. In fact it's probably my favorite in the park along with Skyrush and Storm Runner.

The last drop on the Raven at Holiday World. Great airtime in the backseat!

^Sick dude! FNM is an amazing band, one of my favorites. I can't describe how talented Mike Patton is. As a matter of fact, they're playing in my state tomorrow, but unfortunately my budget is low due to a recent concert I went to so I'm gonna have to pass up on it. Last night I saw Deftones at the Fillmore in Silver Spring MD. A combination of a sold out show, energetic crowd and 2 hour setlist made it one amazing, unforgettable show! I'm till exhausted from being in the pit. These guys still rock as hard as they did in the 90's even without Chi Cheng (R.I.P). Currently they're on tour with Incubus (who I've already seen this year), and they're playing at larger venues, so seeing Deftones alone in a smaller more energetic venue just made this one of the best shows for them on tour no doubt. A picture from last night's show from the band's IG.

Voyage at Holiday World Even better at night.

^I honestly thought Victoria Gardens was pretty good this year. I do agree that they should focus on some of the food at the park. I wasn't too impressed with Juke Box last month.

The Raven at Holiday World.

No problem. Holiday World is a very special park, easily one of my top 5 favorite parks now. It may have been an long 10 hour trip back and forth but it was well worth it.

Well now that I'm home an settled in, I can finally get to doing a TR. Holiday World was a park that's been on my bucket list for a while now. The first time I found out about the park was from a Discovery Channel special from the 90's called Wild Rides which featured The Raven. Even though we've passed through Indiana before with my parents, it didn't once cross my mind stopping by. This year I finally had the chance, and with the addition to Thunderbird, it was a must! I went to the park on Monday, arriving at around 9:30 and by this time, the place was already getting filled with guests. The crowds weren't too bad for the most part, especially when Splashin' Safari opened up. After getting into the park, I took the time to check out the gift shops in the Christmas section of the park. Major props to HW for having nice cool A/C in their stores and other buildings where as other parks have their stores and restaurants open, letting the A/C out. The lady at counter (Cami was her name I believe) was very nice and welcoming. We were talking and were having conversations about the east coast since she was from there as well. The hospitality of this park was great! 10 O'clock hits and rest of the park is open. First thing I head for...you guessed it, Thunderbird. And everyone else had the exact plan, as a majority of them headed towards the Thanksgiving area. I have never ever seen so many people run towards a roller coaster before! Finally I get to the line as it was actually starting outside of the queue and a ride attendant was letting people. Walking through the queue, I was extremely impressed with the themeing they did. The flickering lamps when the train launched was a very neat effect. Finally I get to another ride attendant at the end o the queue before it splits and he directs me to the left side of the train. Finally I get to the last ride attendant who directed me to the last row, which was the seat I was hoping to get, so I lucked out. Another prop for HW, outstanding operations! It was great seeing how quickly these ride ops got the trains in and out of the stations, especially after dealing with my home park's (Kings Dominion) horrible operations this year. As for the ride itself, amazing! The launch itself took me by a huge surprise as it was much forceful than I anticipated. The loop and Zero-G roll had some great G-forces to them. It wasn't old school B&M forceful, but still strong enough to notice. The inline twist was one of my favorite parts of the ride. I was able to get 7 rides through out the day once again, thanks to the great operations. Front and back seats on both sides. Holiday World also did a fantastic job with the plaza as well, nicely themed, and it was honestly my favorite part of the park. Thunderbird really paid off as it's very popular with everyone, and I mean everyone. Every time we hit the brakes, I heard nothing but "wows" and other compliments from everyone on the train. And for the record this ride is definitely one of my favorite B&M's. After getting a ride on Tbird, I hit up the next ride, Voyage. I've heard mixed reviews about this ride, some say it's great, and others say it's rough and not worth re-riding, but a new credit is still a new credit to me. The queue was full (not including the downstairs), but just like Thunderbird's crew, these guys were on point and got trains out as fast as they could, probably waited less than 30 minutes. Just like every other wood coaster I sat in the last car front row. Honestly, I found this ride a lot of fun, IMO. It is a bit rough if you're on a wheel seat, but other than that I thought it was tolerable. Definitely not as rough than Hurler and Gwazi, so it was ok in my book. The ride is a lot better at night as well, especially if Thunderbird is dispatched at the right time as the lights on the train give it a nice effect. The triple down in the pitch black was also great and felt so out of control! Great ride overall. After getting visiting the Thanksgiving area, I headed towards the Halloween section. It wasn't until this moment I actually took the time and observed the park itself. I couldn't help but notice how clean the park was and how the employees were very interactive and friendly they were to guests. One things for sure, all of them seemed to love their jobs. A nice change from, once again, Kings Dominion. I'm not trying to sound harsh towards my home park, but when you visit two parks and notice a better overall vibe, it's pretty hard not to point out. This year, KD's employees just work slow and look like they don't want to be there. Anyways I made my way over towards the Legend. I found this the roughest out of the three woodies there, but still a lot of fun! The layout was great and I loved how the ride interacted with the surrounding waterslides. I also loved how the bell on top of the station rang every time a train was dispatched. Small, but very cool effect. Next up was my second most anticipated ride in the park, the Raven. Just as I thought, it was easily my second favorite ride in the park, after Thunderbird of course. It was also the smoothest out of all of the woodies there. I can easily see why this was voted best wooded coaster at one point. The ride made great use of the surrounding terrain, and it hauls ass! The last drop was a huge surprise, as it provided great airtime in the last row. Great ride! After getting credits, I decided to check out some other rides. Since it was hot I took a spin on Raging Rapids and Frightful Falls. Decent water rides, nothing to special but it cooled me off so I was satisfied. I also took some rides on Revolution and HollowSwings, two flat rides I hadn't ridden in years, so it was great getting on these rides. I pretty much spent the entire day their, 9:30-8:30 and was able to get multiple rides on the coasters till I left. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit Splashin' Safari, which I'm kind of regretting right now, since their water park looked fantastic! Some final thoughts before I get to the pictures: -The park layout was nice, I thought. After having to use the map a few times, I quickly adapted to the layout and everything was easy to get to and find. -I did find this strange as I've never seen this at any other park. In the morning both Raven and Legend were running two trains, but some point during the day, they switched to one train operations, making the lines a bit longer. But once again, fantastic operations made the wait more bearable. I'm going to guess it was maintenance related as I saw Legend's train being worked on. Raven's was just parked in the maintenance shed. -Great value compared to other parks. $42 for admission, $5.99 for a Souvenir cup as opposed to chain parks where you're spending close to $10 or more. Cheaper food options as well! -Free parking, sunscreen, sodas, and wi-fi (not that I really needed it). Enough said! Ride count: Thunderbird-7 (4 on the right side and 3 on the left) Voyage-4 Legend-3 Raven-3 To sum up, Holiday World is a fantastic park that I believe everyone has to visit at some point. They have everything you could possibly want in an amusement park. Value, hospitality and rides. Most of these are Thunderbird pictures since it was the highlight for me, and it was the easiest coaster to photograph. Enjoy Raven, as seen from the front entrance. Main plaza/Christmas area. The main reason I'm here! As you can tell, this ride is a huge hit for the park. Thunderbird's Station. Nicely done I must say. Such a great addition to the park. Voyage! Legend doing its thing I'm sure HW will have something awesome planned for the old Pilgrim's Plunge sometime in the future. I see you! Nevermore! Nevermore! Short but gets the job done on a hot day. What? More Tbird pictures you say? I love this shot! This ride was very photogenic. "Thunderbird clear for launch" Zero-G! Over look of the Thunderbird plaza. It may have been small, but it was my favorite place to hang out at. Great views of the ride as well. Amusement parks after sunset are always great. I wish I had gotten a night ride on Raven and Legend as well. Thank you HW for an amazing time. I will definitely have to stop by again.