ZeroGravity55

Well that's the only thing they really can do if they go with a similar coaster to Lightning Run by Chance. It has to be better. You can't build an attraction that is the same as the one 3 hours away. You have to build something that will make those people want to drive three hours to your park and ride it. I'm not saying that they need to answer Kentucky Kingdom. As long as Holiday World has the Waterpark, they're going to draw over a million people a season. There really is no reason to compete. The park maintains their own roller coasters. I'm pretty sure any working relationship with the Gravity Group is now over after the Timberliner fiasco. The Voyage will never switch to steel for two reasons IMO. One, they just did a lot of major track work this season where they replaced a lot of wood. They seem committed to doing this every season now. Two, the layout will never allow it to happen. If they go steel, more than likely, they will have to use polyurethane wheels. They use less friction and given the length of the Voyage, the train will never make back to the station. I actually wouldn't be surprised if this is what replaced the ride. They already have a splash down area and station built. They would just have to find a company that could work with what they already have built. Something like a Mack Super Splash where they could do little bit of theming would be a nice replacement.

^ They could go with Chance. They do have a working relationship with the company, seeing that they just purchased their swinging ship off off of Chance. It could be one of those things where they outdo Kentucky Kingdom and build a bigger and better ride. Here's my guess for their next steel coaster. It's going to have several launches, it's going to have a ton of air time,it will go upside down, and it will set some type of record. With that in mind, it'll probably be a Mack. This is just how Holiday World rolls when they add a major attraction. It's always something that sets a world record and allows them to get great publicity from it.

^Intamin was supposed to be investigating ways to improve the reliability of the ride. My guess is that they couldn't offer any solutions to the problem and much like the Timberliners, they decided to pull the plug due to an inability to deliver a reliable product.

You can see that The Mayflower is almost complete. You can also see that the drop and the top of Giraffica's tower has been removed as well.

Well my speculations have now been confirmed. Not really going to miss the ride. I do have to wonder if there was some type of stipulation in the contract with Intamin or their ride insurance that allows them to collect the money lost on a ride that can no longer operate due to mechanical issues? I don't think would have just thrown away a 6 million dollar investment without getting some of their money back. The ride only lasted four seasons. I don't think they'll leave the huge concrete pad. I'm willing to bet that they'll bust it all up. Some good news, The Voyage has received a ton of new wood this off-season. From what I can tell, I think they've put new wood in the valley between the 2nd and 3rd hills, portions of the Spaghetti bowl, and from the third 90 degree turn up to the very last tunnel. The new restaurant and gift shop look great right now. I really like the theming involved in it both projects, plus Mrs. Claus's Kitchen. I hope this something they carry over to future ride projects as well. I'm looking forward to my first trip to the park this year!

http://www.holidayworld.com/rides/giraffica/ If you look at the ride on the website, there is this thing that says find it on the map and shows the empty station in the picture.

Can anybody look at the webcams? You should be able to see the ride clearly from the water park cam. I would do it myself, but they won't pull up on my computer. The only way I can see them not saying anything is if it has something to do with next years announcement.

It doesn't help that they ask people to ride in the back to balance the weight of the train out either. I mean I understand why they ask their guests to ride in the back, but it's definitely not my preference. I couldn't see the picture of the map on my phone earlier, but I find it interesting that the station for Giraffica is still there. HW seems to pretty quiet about the ride. Somebody on Facebook asked if they were removing the ride a few days ago and there was no response which is weird because HW usually responds to most questions. If you've watched any of their videos on the construction of The Mayflower, it seems anytime the camera is in the direction of Giraffica, the camera is angled to where you can't see the ride or even if a ride is there . I've also been trying to view the webcams, but they will not pull up. The ride is still listed on the website, but something seems very odd here.

^ They closed it down before the cedar point accident so Intamin could figure out a way to improve the rides horrible down time due to maintenance issues. If memory serves me correct, they've had major issues with the splash down area. When the ride was announced, it was supposed to create a 30 ft high and 90 ft wide wave. The boats aren't heavy enough to create the wave that was promised. This made them angle the track so boat has to practically to take a nose dive into the splashdown. This causes the boat to have a major slam down in the back of the boat when hits the splashdown, which leads to a uncomfortable experience in those hard seats. You also don't even get wet in the of the back the boat. They're having some type of issue with the track and or the boats. I don't think there is an Intamin cable to blame this time.

The 3rd 90 degree turn on the Voyage looks a little bit taller than it is in real life. Also, the part that comes out of the 3rd 90 degree turn under the lift is also lower to the ground. That portion of the coaster is bridged in real life and seems really close to the sidewalk when you walk under it. That's just nitpicking at this point. Absolutely love all the work you've put into this project! Keep up the good work!

^ That last shot is spot on! Keep up the good work!

I'm starting to think the lift will be up by the 31st with track work being completed by end of April. They still have to go through and pump the grout in all the track once they get it up. Testing should begin the 1st week of May or so IMO.

The Gravity Group can only make suggestions how to fix the track, it'll be up to the crew they hire to come in and fix it. TGG didn't do too bad of a job at all on their suggestions to make The Voyage better in 2012. Fixed everything up until the turnaround with their suggestions. The turn-around held up well for a couple seasons. Not bad for the Voyage. I believe there is a crew that is lead by one of the former CCI track guys that goes around and gets contracted out by parks to do major re-tracks or anything a park can't handle on their own. They'll probably be the ones that get the job. They've done a lot of work with the Koch's in the past. I am with you though. I hope they go with RMC or GCI. It looks like they're sticking with the PTC's. Dan said on twitter that they're going to send them off to Philly to get re-built or they need to be sent off. One or the other, but it's probably going to happen either way. I do! Got my hopes really high too! I don't think they're working with that kind of money right now. If the park grows like they expect it to, then something like Cheetah Hunt could happen. That's way down the line though. I think it's important to remember that it's taken HW 21 years to get where they are at. I say 21 years because because that's when the waterpark was added. Without the waterpark, the park can't grow, so I expect them to invest heavily in the Splash Adventure through 2018. I wouldn't expect a water coaster either. Those cost around 8-13 million dollars. While the demographics are similar to Southern Indiana, you have to remember that the Koch's were well known around Southern Indiana when they started expanding their park. People in Alabama have no idea who the Koch's are. There is no familiarity between the customers and the owners. I do hope Dan Koch succeeds! He is very enthusiastic about this industry.

The lift will go up a lot faster than you guys think. They basically can pre-fab the whole thing and have it split into 3 or 4 big sections with the track already on it. If they get good weather, I bet they will have it done in two or three days. They don't need great weather to test in either. Outlaw Run was testing in February last year and ran all the way through December at Silver Dollar City.

^ No the Timberliners made the inversion possible. They had to use a thinner layers of wood to twist the wooden track to make the inversion happen. Since they had to use thinner layers of wood, and they were going upside down, they decided to go with the thicker steel to ensure everything was very strong and safe. It was more of a precaution than a necessity.

I don't think the park will ever make the full conversion to steel or alter the design of The Voyage. This ride was Will Koch's baby and one of the main reasons the family got into this whole legal dispute was differing opinions in the parks future. Dan's side obviously wanted to go with the more of the corporate Herschend feel and expand the number of parks they owned. Lori's side wanted to keep Will's vision going and pass it on to one of his children as he wished. They're not going to change anything that meant so much to him and something that he had so much input on. I do feel as though that they should explore every option available to make the Voyage as great as they can for as long as possible. It would be a great way to honor his legacy

The bloodline has not technically left Holiday World. Will's two oldest children are already in management positions and I believe they're involved in decisions on the future of the park. They looked poised to take over whenever they're ready. Also, Dan still owns 40% of Holiday World, so technically he hasn't left, even though it looks like he has no say in what's going on at HW. Dan recently said he had no interest in selling his share of the park and even said he was ready to work whenever they needed him. Am I the only one who finds it weird that Dan Koch didn't want to pay the extra 5 million to get full controlling interest of Holiday World, but he was willing to pay his lawyer fee's to appeal a case he had no shot at winning 3 different times? Then he turns around and buys a waterpark? Pat Koch going to a different park just doesn't seem right. She was Holiday World for a very long time.

Actually said it was The Gravity Group. Said something about restoring the ride, adding a tunnel, and a set of Timberliners if I read correctly.

All of the Intamin coasters have polyurethane wheels. So does a GCI coaster over in Germany. So there isn't really a wheel argument to be made IMO. Outlaw Run will probably be a bit more out of control feeling, but I think this coaster is going to move through the track so fast that you'll never notice the difference. No wheels on any wooden roller coaster ever touch the wood. All traditional wooden tracked coasters run on a thin steel rail attached to a wooden running board, but the wheels never come into contact with the wood.

Time heals all wounds. Both parties still own the business together, so they're going to have to overcome their issues for the betterment of the park. The park is still heading in the right direction. Honestly, other than Pat Koch being gone, you wouldn't have noticed anything that different with the park this past season. They added bag checks at the entrance, but I think that was a direct result of the Boston Marathon bombings last year. The only good thing about this being over is it should take this family issue out of the public light and end any negative attention the park may have been receiving.

Love the design! This seems like a way to speed up construction, unless they've planed this from the beginning. I also think they may have realized that they were going to have trouble building the huge bents for the lift in that small space. This is probably why they've held off from starting to construct the lift. RMC and the made genius Alan Schilke were probably working on this solution the whole time. This is a wooden roller coaster. I don't understand why some people have a hard time comprehending this. Why can steel coasters evolve and take advantage of all the technology available, but not wooden roller coasters? If it improves the quality of the ride to where the coaster never gets rough, we should all be for it. That is just the track portion of the ride. This new support design is going to allow them to do some crazy things on their future roller coasters. In my mind, high-g loops are a great possibility now.

Looks like they've put together a very solid lineup! It appears that there has been some closure on the owner situation. The Indiana Supreme Court refused to hear Dan Koch's appeal. This reaffirmed the lower courts decision to side with Lori Koch and Dan can no longer appeal his case in the state of Indiana. http://www.courierpress.com/news/2014/feb/17/indiana-supreme-court-declines-take-holiday-world/

We're also talking about one of the longest and tallest traditional wooden tracked coasters out there. Most traditional tracked woodies don't carry the kind of forces the Voyage does. I my opinion, The Voyage's main problem is the PTC's. They have the traditional style of bouncing through turns, and they carry a lot of weight. For the Voyage run the way we all would want it to run, RMC is literally the only solution. It's going to take a complete topper track re-haul with RMC trains for the Voyage to be perfect.

^ I like your rule a lot better than the one being proposed, but the coaches who run the offense will have a problem with it as well. They won't have the ability to audible if they don't like the defense they're seeing.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10446740/new-ncaa-football-rule-allow-early-subs-defense Anybody see this new proposed rule that won't allow offenses to snap the ball until there is 29 seconds on the clock? This will allow the defense to substitute players as they wish. If the offense snaps the ball before 29 seconds, they get a 5 yard delay of game penalty. They seem to be hiding behind the player safety factor on this one to get the rule pushed through. This rule is strongly backed by Nick Saban, who can't seem to stop any no-huddle, hurry-up offense on defense. First off, give me some evidence that supports this theory that no-huddle, hurry-up offenses increases injury risks for defensive players who can't get off the field fast enough. Secondly, I love how the majority of the complaints are coming from coaches who are too stubborn to change some of their philosophies to adapt to the style of today's college football. Get over it. Coaches figured out how to beat you, so maybe you should figure out how to beat them.