Holiday World (HW) Discussion Thread

[prozach626]

damn!

[OneOfTheWills]

*dusts off old account*
 

Check…1..2.. This thing still on?

 

Loving the new posts from HW about the new, as they confirmed, roller coaster. Made me miss the old days with Paula. 
 

Lots of alliteration on the new (fake) website! 

[HolidayWorldFTW]

Came here with memories of the “66 days” they did with Thunderbird. Can’t believe I was still able to log in! Paula was always such a blast!  Anyone else think that maybe this new coaster is custom and has a water element? I even thought about a transportation ride too. Just s small transport from boulder canyon to the old pilgrims plunge location would significantly reduce the hike from that area of the park where splashing safari meets holiday world down to the heart of Thanksgiving which is kind of that Pilgrim's plunge location, and also near another entrance to Splashin Safari. This would tie in the Boulder Canyon/ Raging Rapids replacement.  Excited for tomorrow! 

[HolidayWorldFTW]

Also curious if anyone noticed that the story on the website of the gravy company tells the continuation of the story from gobblers getaway. Same family. Pizza instead of Turkey on Thanksgiving. I think we might have a gobblers getaway tie in…. Or a clue of maybe a new dark ride element on this new coaster?

[spidermonkey317]

Good Gravy

 

https://www.owensborotimes.com/features/2023/08/holiday-world-announces-10m-gravy-themed-coaster/

[thepoint4life23]

The Theming is amazing 

[mikeykaise]

a little corny or in this case a little gravy about the theming but it's good to see them finally doing something with the Pilgrim's Plunge area.

[HWLover]

This is an incredible addition! I’m so happy for Holiday World, finally adding their sixth coaster (ninth if you count the massive and very expensive water coasters). It fills a glaring gap in their lineup and will definitely be a hit with kids. The theming is over the top in the best way and I know kids and their parents will love it! The renderings look gorgeous as well. 
 

On another note, in those renderings everything appears true to the park except for one thing. There is no Crow’s Nest swing next to Thunderbird in any of the renderings. This is probably not meant to mean anything, but I wondered if maybe it meant the end for that ride? Surely not, but I guess we never know. 

[HWLover]

I have uploaded the renderings which can be found here: https://www.holidayworld.com/rides/good-gravy-family-coaster/

1,500 ft. Long ride, 1:05 minutes, 37 mph, 77 ft. Tall spike, 38 inch height requirement, one train, ten cars, two riders per car. First vekoma family boomerang in America. 

[KristenLeigh]

Hey y'all! My name is Kristen M and I'm a college student at Columbus State in Columbus, Ohio. I am getting ready to work on my final project for my Folklore class and I will be doing History of Holiday World. Besides asking employees/former employees, I plan on having a survey for passholders and guests to fill out for their own stories to share. 

I'm not sure where or how to post this but was wondering if anybody here would be interested in filling out a survey in 2 weeks?! Full credit is always given along with a short biography of the person I get a survey/interview from. 

[DoinItForTheFame]

On 2/12/2024 at 4:28 PM, KristenLeigh said:

Hey y'all! My name is Kristen M and I'm a college student at Columbus State in Columbus, Ohio. I am getting ready to work on my final project for my Folklore class and I will be doing History of Holiday World. Besides asking employees/former employees, I plan on having a survey for passholders and guests to fill out for their own stories to share. 

I'm not sure where or how to post this but was wondering if anybody here would be interested in filling out a survey in 2 weeks?! Full credit is always given along with a short biography of the person I get a survey/interview from. 

If you are still needing help I would be glad to help!

[teacherkim]

So, we decided on a bit of a whim to spend the day at the park yesterday. About a 3 hr 15 min drive for us each way, so we just did a day trip. We did not go to the water park this time since it had just opened and I suspected they wouldn't have everything going yet (that turned out to be accurate) and I also assumed the water would be fairly cold especially after the storms and  hail of the night before (not sure if that was correct but based on the frigid temps of the log flume, probably) Although from observations there did look to be plenty of people that gave it a go. 

Good Gravy is a very basic layout, as expected with a Vekoma family boomerang, but the theming and the queue are absolutely fabulous. Grandma's house is still decorated in all of it 60's mid century kitsch, including dark brown cabinets and orange countertops in the kitchen. If you're old enough you know what I'm talking about, lol. Even if you don't want to ride it, go through the queue.

Ops were still brushing the rust off. Really slow at Voyage but we saw a whole group being trained so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they just need to get a little more practice in. Although the Legend crew was rocking it.

All major rides going, no downtimes that I am aware of. In fact the only rides I saw not open were some of the slides in the water park as mentioned. Crowds were manageable. It was a good day.

Already had a couple shows running, the high dive show and a magic show that seemed to be geared toward kids.

Thanks to HW for having the EV chargers! Nice to get some free juice along with the parking, drinks, and sunscreen.

[Woodie Warrior]

Not sure if anyone else from here made it out, but Holiwood Nights was a great time this year! Rainy weather almost all day Saturday helped keep the day crowds away, and ERT for every ride was walk-on except Voyage which had about a 20 minute wait all night. Only got one Voyage night ride, but the countless Thunderbird and Legend rides made up for it. Good Gravy is super cute, especially the queue! Glad it was a part of ERT as I wouldn't want to wait more than 15 minutes for it, but glad there's a solid family coaster in the lineup now.

[thepoint4life23]

Finally time for me to visit Holiday world and I have a few questions.  I am going to go sometime in July but how long do the line for the roller coaster get on a weekend vs say a Friday? I will be knocking out Kentucky kingdoms and Holiday world in the same weekend so trying to figure out what order to do the parks. 

Looks like they have no Liner skipper system so just trying to wait as little as I can.  I will do some of the water park but most likely will not be doing  any of the well known water slides due to have kids and not having a way to leave them alone. 

 

Besides the coasters and The Turkey dark ride any hidden  gems I need to hit. 

With that does Holiday world have a Parent swap system. 

 

Robb and Elissa what's the name of the German restaurant you stopped at on your way to the park from Ohio? 

[mikeykaise]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:56 PM, thepoint4life23 said:

Finally time for me to visit Holiday world and I have a few questions.  I am going to go sometime in July but how long do the line for the roller coaster get on a weekend vs say a Friday? I will be knocking out Kentucky kingdoms and Holiday world in the same weekend so trying to figure out what order to do the parks. 

Looks like they have no Liner skipper system so just trying to wait as little as I can.  I will do some of the water park but most likely will not be doing  any of the well known water slides due to have kids and not having a way to leave them alone. 

 

Besides the coasters and The Turkey dark ride any hidden  gems I need to hit. 

With that does Holiday world have a Parent swap system. 

 

Robb and Elissa what's the name of the German restaurant you stopped at on your way to the park from Ohio? 

Weekends might start out very busy until the waterpark opens but once the waterpark opens that's where the main crowd flocks and the dry side crowd dwindles rapidly so the first or two hours after park opening will be crowded but if you're skipping the waterpark you'll be good on the coasters and I'm not sure about the parent swap system but the staff are very friendly and when my two sons were younger the staff would keep an eye on either or both of my sons standing on the exit ramp waiting for me. I'd send them into the exit que while I went into the entrance que and never had any worries about them.

[teacherkim]

On 6/11/2024 at 11:56 AM, thepoint4life23 said:

Finally time for me to visit Holiday world and I have a few questions.  I am going to go sometime in July but how long do the line for the roller coaster get on a weekend vs say a Friday? I will be knocking out Kentucky kingdoms and Holiday world in the same weekend so trying to figure out what order to do the parks. 

Looks like they have no Liner skipper system so just trying to wait as little as I can.  I will do some of the water park but most likely will not be doing  any of the well known water slides due to have kids and not having a way to leave them alone. 

 

Besides the coasters and The Turkey dark ride any hidden  gems I need to hit. 

With that does Holiday world have a Parent swap system. 

 

Robb and Elissa what's the name of the German restaurant you stopped at on your way to the park from Ohio? 

No line skip program but like Mikey said lines will be manageable once the water park opens. Even if your kids can't do the bigger slides, the water park is very good and the bigger slides have a single rider queue so if your kids are old enough to wait for you at the exit it will be fairly quick. 

I would suggest doing KK first and just staying in Louisville and making HW a day trip from in there. KK is eastern time zone and HW is central time zone and about an hours drive. So you will basically arrive at the same time that you leave and then it's not so bad just driving back to crash in a hotel in or near Louisville. There is truly nothing else to do around HW unless you want to rent one of the cabins and look at the small lake. I mean there really aren't even any restaurants. A subway and maybe a pizza place. There is a very good restaurant about halfway between Louisville and HW called the The Overlook Restaurant (theoverlook.com) with good food and fabulous views of the OH river. If the timing works out its a great place to stop. Fyi, it is eastern time so it will be an hour later than the park.

[thepoint4life23]

That is what i am trying to figure out if i should drive to Louisville stay the night drive to Holiday world. Then next morning do KK and head back home the 3 hours after half a day at KK. 

 

Good to know about signal ridder for the big slides. 

 

 

[prozach626]

Schnitzelbank authentic German restaurant.

^^ I can't imagine going to HW World and not visiting this place. It's always a highlight of our trip.

 

Jasper, IN has a lot of decent restaurants, but you CAN NOT miss Schnitzelbank. It's about 20'ish minute away. I'll ask Robb nicely to ban you if you don't go.

 

Be aware, Jasper is in a different time zone. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn last time, which was a very nice hotel, but expensive. Fairfield seems to be making a run as a middle-upper class option. We found it comparable to most Hyatts and Hiltons.

 

I suggest taking two days at Holiday World. Go one day for the dry park and one day for the water park. I understand this is not always possible, but it's ideal in my opinion. Go to the German joint after the water park to avoid shirtless bloat the following day, lol.

[thepoint4life23]

After years of talking about it finally made it out to Holiday World.  First thing I notice that I must of missed some place along the line is how hilly this place is. Not that big of an issue for me as I'm pretty fit but pushing a stroller up the hills just makes for a little more work.

Good Gravy is a great family coaster with great theme in the line. Felt this was a pretty big jump for my daughter but she loved it .  Legend is still a top  level  wood Coaster. Voyage is a pretty amazing roller coaster. Wish i could of got more rides on it but with really slow dispatch and trying to split time with my family and coaster it was one ride on the big coasters for me. 

I know I made a mistake and went on a Saturday in July  but that's really the only way it worked out for me this time.   The water park is a pretty wild place. I just don't know if I could wait 1 and a half to two hours for a water slide. The food lines are pretty out of control in the water park also. 

The little kids pool with all the slides was to the point that it was almost unsafe. Saw so many kids running up slides or cant really swim  with parents not even around. Good Job to those Lifeguards,

After my ride on Voyage I get why so many people want to go to the special night event they have, the woody's would be pretty epic in the dark.  If and when I go back again if its not a week day in may or June i will probably just pay for a VIP tour. Doesn't seem like to bad a a price for what all you get. 

For a park that gives out free drinks I was impressed with how many stands they had for them. . it was nice to grab a water at  pretty much everyone I saw as I passed.  

The kids rides are pretty spread out or hidden if you don't know where your going. 

I see my self going back but it will be a few years till everyone is tall enough to ride the bigger rides per a request from my daughter.

Here is the one thing that worry's me and I could be the only one who thinks this way, but if they get one more top tier Coaster or grows more popular they might get to big for there own good. The park was busy but still manageable I just felt like you add a 1000 or so more people it would just be to a point that they could almost not handle it. 

 

[prozach626]

My wife, daughter (4 yo), and I went to the park this weekend. Saturday, we spent time in the dry park. We went to the water park on Sunday. 

Our daughter hit 42" with shoes on, barely. She leveled up. She was eligible for at least one new ride, the bumper cars (accompanied by an adult, which she really liked. Although, she gave me strict instructions not to bump her and mom too hard... I behaved. She's a princess.

She was afraid to ride Howler again after last year. Good Gravy was a hard pass. We hit Gobbler Getaway for the first time this year and she liked it. For some reason I misread the 36" + adult height requirement last year. The front of the park had unaccompanied kid's rides, with most everything else being 36+ adult. There are a ton of options.

The Log Flume was a hard crying pass when we tried to get her to ride. I followed it up with sitting her in an unpopulated area until her tantrum stopped. She's aware that shit doesn't fly with our family, and it's a rare occurrence.

The park has a lot to offer for kids, but the hills are brutal. At least this was our first year without a stroller. Characters are out frequently in the front of the park and in Holidog Town (name?), trying not to die in the summer sun. Poor bastards. They also had dudes on stilts at opening in the front of the park, allowing parents to wait 20+ minutes to get balloon art.

We went with her shorter cousin and bro/sister in law. My much shorter niece fearlessly rode almost everything she could but Good Gravy, despite ours being younger, but much taller. It's kind of a buzz kill watching that. Ours was even afraid to ride the slides at the water park. This has been cruel irony for me. We've tried everything. Everything. Pushing her hard makes it worse, so that was very short lived. I think Howler ruined it for her last year, followed by The Grand Exposition (name?) at SDC. I was able to coax her on Rookie Racer. Like a fool, I chose to ride in the front. Since then, she's shut down. In due time, maybe.

I didn't ride any roller coasters. Thunderbird broke down as soon as I went that way.

The park looked great. It was as clean as usual. The dining hall had a couple almost healthy options. Like... kind of... AKA some no dressing grilled chicken Caesar, side, or cobb salads. They had some preservative soaked fruit cups and carrots. Some fake healthy options were grilled chicken sandwiches and impossible burgers. I guess I could have tried the Thanksgiving meal place, but from what I recall, there was almost nothing for us. Until our four-year-old starts walking faster, packed lunches are a no-go. It was too hot to eat like shit. We saved that for a few paced beers and food at night.

If you're in the area and don't visit Schnizelbank, you're doing yourself an injustice worse than not going to Roosters near Kings Island. It's a worthwhile 30 minute drive from the park I recommend staying in this incredibly clean community. The Fairfield is newer, and part of Marriots run at rebranding Fairfield's to higher quality option. It's worth the extra cost, and this one was of similar quality to a Hyatt. The time zone is an hour ahead, which is great for sleeping in until 6am... and hitting the decent small gym they have.

On a random side note, Good Gravy is the dumbest name I've ever heard, almost to the point of annoying cringe. It's even worse than the dumb superhero names.

Hills were mostly OK on my constantly abused injured knee from morning discouraged impact runs before the park. It's the best I can do with smaller gyms and no hockey nights. Pops be damned. Send it.

The water park has multiple kids areas. Cheetah Hunt was down. I'm more of a pass out by the pool guy than a water slide guy, so I didn't care to ride any water rides. If you're ever looking for a short line, ride the racing slide. I used to always ride it at least once, and it hauls to the point of unease. 

We won't be back for a few years, despite being a cool 3 hour weekend trip from home. The girl needs to "find her brave." We don't hide this from her. I don't want to be too hard on her, and the more she's ridden, the more afraid she gets. Outside of a trip to SFSTL, she'll take a summer off, at least. If she's still afraid in her teens, there's a chance the carousel there will be open.

This TR was too much about me, which is my pet peeve.  Sorry about very brief proofreading and terrible flow. Sorry. 

Cheers

[michaellynn4]

Glad you had a good time. I've been trying to keep your experiences with your daughter in mind as we've navigated new ride experiences for my daughter. She, too, is tall for her age but still young (won't be 3 until mid-November but is already almost 3.5ft tall). Fortunately, she's very brave and likes to try new rides, but has stopped short of coasters. We went to Storybook Land here in NJ last week which had a ton of rides she could do, all of which she rode enthusiastically except for Bubbles the Coaster, to which she said to us "I think I need to be just a little bit bigger first". She keeps asking about coasters, though, and asks to watch videos of coasters every now and then, so I figure it's just a matter of time so long as I don't force it.

[jonskinny12]

16 minutes ago, prozach626 said:

We went with her shorter cousin and bro/sister in law. My much shorter niece fearlessly rode almost everything she could but Good Gravy, despite ours being younger, but much taller. It's kind of a buzz kill watching that. Ours was even afraid to ride the slides at the water park. This has been cruel irony for me. We've tried everything. Everything. Pushing her hard makes it worse, so that was very short lived. I think Howler ruined it for her last year, followed by The Grand Exposition (name?) at SDC. I was able to coax her on Rookie Racer. Like a fool, I chose to ride in the front. Since then, she's shut down. In due time, maybe.

My daughter (11 yo) has been really back and on forth on roller coasters through most of her life. Lagoon is our home park and over the last 8 years we've visited Hersheypark a few times, Disneyland/Disneyworld, and Legoland (CA and FL). She would try something new and I thought she was going to try bigger rides, then suddenly she'd get afraid again. But last summer, something suddenly switched. She was riding Colossus at Lagoon and loving it, just like her old man, then at HP last summer she decided to try Candymonium and rode it 9 times in a row. This year we were back at HP, she started at Skyrush and rode everything else with no issues. She was probably most nervous for Stormrunner but it ended up being her favorite.

Just sharing my experience because I wasn't sure which way it was going to go until last year when something switched, and it all seemed random. She's the youngest and I have two older boys. The older is very afraid of heights, the younger gets sick on rides. And now my daughter can't get enough of roller coasters, and I'm looking forward to taking her to a lot more parks.

[prozach626]

It's unreal experiencing parks with your children, isn't it? Going on bullshit rides and reliving their first rides it worth it. Places like Holiday World geared toward families make it all the more satisfying. The few times we've gone to parks without her, we realize just how much we'd rather skip the big rides and have her there. It's still worth a solo trip or two a year, but it's not the same.

Michael, you're daughter sounds exactly like ours. She's very interested, but not even close to being ready for roller coasters. She wants to watch videos and she'll pretend she's on roller coasters all the time whenever she's on anything that rolls. When she asks me to drive fast... which I more or less make it feel like I'm driving fast with a few slow down/speed up moments within the speed limit, braking, and wheel jerks, she puts her hands up. She even goes as far as to put her hands up when running down playground ramps, pretending to be on roller coasters. 

I imagine I'll have to wait about as long as Jon has. I was the same way and terrified until my dad didn't give me a choice and made me ride Ninja at SFSTL. That poor bastard had to ride it seven times that day after that. We've made her aware that there will be trips we'll take without her until she starts riding bigger things. We're not mean about it, but we hope that adds to the incentive.

[thepoint4life23]

22 hours ago, prozach626 said:

It's unreal experiencing parks with your children, isn't it? Going on bullshit rides and reliving their first rides it worth it. Places like Holiday World geared toward families make it all the more satisfying. The few times we've gone to parks without her, we realize just how much we'd rather skip the big rides and have her there. It's still worth a solo trip or two a year, but it's not the same.

 

This was how i felt on my trip to Holiday World. I was on Voyage and as much as i enjoyed the ride I just wish the rest of my family could of rode with me. I just got off as quickly as i could to meet back up with them in the kids place so i could watch my daughter ride the Canoes over and over