Holiday World (HW) Discussion Thread

[mmkaycomputer]

Hi, HW frequenters. So the current plan is to hit KK on Friday, then do both HW and SS on Saturday, mostly because we have to travel from Kings Island on Friday, and we don't plan on visiting KK for too long given the small coaster count. However, I'm assuming Saturday will be crowded at both HW and SS. My question: How much more so than Friday? Should we reconsider which day we're hitting each park? We're first-time visitors to both parks, we're staying in Louisville, and this takes place at the end of July. Thanks for any help you can provide!

[kyleparks77]

Pretty cool photo from HW's Twitter:

HW Twitter

[bluestreak]

That is why I love HW

[Koasterking48]

How is the capacity on Thunderbird? With only 20 riders per train, is it still on-par with most other B&Ms?

It's pretty good. Nothing like Fury or something, but far better than stand ups. Thanks to good operations, and a short ride cycle, it's pretty good at eating through a line. On average, the second train will stack on the brakes for 10 seconds or so, before the train in front is dispatched.

Many times the wait is due to either guests or the ride being on rain mode. It is very difficult to not stack a train on the transfer in rain mode.

[tykunkel1031]

How is the capacity on Thunderbird? With only 20 riders per train, is it still on-par with most other B&Ms?

It's pretty good. Nothing like Fury or something, but far better than stand ups. Thanks to good operations, and a short ride cycle, it's pretty good at eating through a line. On average, the second train will stack on the brakes for 10 seconds or so, before the train in front is dispatched.

Many times the wait is due to either guests or the ride being on rain mode. It is very difficult to not stack a train on the transfer in rain mode.

This may sound ignorant, but what is rain mode?

[tykunkel1031]

Hi, HW frequenters. So the current plan is to hit KK on Friday, then do both HW and SS on Saturday, mostly because we have to travel from Kings Island on Friday, and we don't plan on visiting KK for too long given the small coaster count. However, I'm assuming Saturday will be crowded at both HW and SS. My question: How much more so than Friday? Should we reconsider which day we're hitting each park? We're first-time visitors to both parks, we're staying in Louisville, and this takes place at the end of July. Thanks for any help you can provide!

It'll be pretty rough. Saturday is crazy compared to Friday. I don't know enough about KK crowds to give you a for sure answer there but I do know for a fact that Holiday World should be jam packed on a Saturday in July. Water coasters will get 1-2 hour waits, Thunderbird about 45 minutes, all the other coasters, not horrible if you ride around 2-3 PM. It depends what you want to get done at each park (how many flats, slides, etc) to make a decision on where to go and when.

[mmkaycomputer]

Hi, HW frequenters. So the current plan is to hit KK on Friday, then do both HW and SS on Saturday, mostly because we have to travel from Kings Island on Friday, and we don't plan on visiting KK for too long given the small coaster count. However, I'm assuming Saturday will be crowded at both HW and SS. My question: How much more so than Friday? Should we reconsider which day we're hitting each park? We're first-time visitors to both parks, we're staying in Louisville, and this takes place at the end of July. Thanks for any help you can provide!

It'll be pretty rough. Saturday is crazy compared to Friday. I don't know enough about KK crowds to give you a for sure answer there but I do know for a fact that Holiday World should be jam packed on a Saturday in July. Water coasters will get 1-2 hour waits, Thunderbird about 45 minutes, all the other coasters, not horrible if you ride around 2-3 PM. It depends what you want to get done at each park (how many flats, slides, etc) to make a decision on where to go and when.

 

Thanks for this. We were initially planning to get there before opening, ride only the coasters in the first hour of operation, then go knock out as many water coasters and tube slides (minus the toilet-bowl one) as we can, and then return to coasters after SS closed. We're not really interested in body slides, flat rides, or shows.

[Koasterking48]

This may sound ignorant, but what is rain mode?

Rain mode is where the train positions itself into the launch room and station much slower than usual. The reason why is so that the train doesnt over shoot its position in the launch room as well as the station. It takes 10-15 extra seconds to clear the station block to allow the second train to enter the station, making it more difficult for the Thunderbird crew to avoid stacking on a ride that lasts 48 seconds.

 

So if you've ever wondered why sometimes the launch room effects don't start until the train is nearly in the launch room altogether, you're riding on rain mode.

[tykunkel1031]

Hi, HW frequenters. So the current plan is to hit KK on Friday, then do both HW and SS on Saturday, mostly because we have to travel from Kings Island on Friday, and we don't plan on visiting KK for too long given the small coaster count. However, I'm assuming Saturday will be crowded at both HW and SS. My question: How much more so than Friday? Should we reconsider which day we're hitting each park? We're first-time visitors to both parks, we're staying in Louisville, and this takes place at the end of July. Thanks for any help you can provide!

It'll be pretty rough. Saturday is crazy compared to Friday. I don't know enough about KK crowds to give you a for sure answer there but I do know for a fact that Holiday World should be jam packed on a Saturday in July. Water coasters will get 1-2 hour waits, Thunderbird about 45 minutes, all the other coasters, not horrible if you ride around 2-3 PM. It depends what you want to get done at each park (how many flats, slides, etc) to make a decision on where to go and when.

 

Thanks for this. We were initially planning to get there before opening, ride only the coasters in the first hour of operation, then go knock out as many water coasters and tube slides (minus the toilet-bowl one) as we can, and then return to coasters after SS closed. We're not really interested in body slides, flat rides, or shows.

IMO the best would be to get there at opening and run right to Voyage and Thunderbird. Raven and legend get crazy lines in the morning but then end up walk on (or close to it) in the afternoon. If you would be ok with it, I recommend leaving the waterpark (maybe just leave swimsuits on and put on shirt since it's so close) around 3:00. Then ride legend and Raven real quick, as that's the shortest they'll get. Then you could return to the waterpark. Again, just depends on which things you want to FOR SURE get done, and which you're willing to risk not being able to get to.

[prozach626]

Whatever you do, I would make sure to get your ride times and planning down to such a science where you don't even have a chance to relax enjoy your trip.

[Password121]

Whatever you do, I would make sure to get your ride times and planning down to such a science where you don't even have a chance to relax enjoy your trip.

I just want to emphasize this. We should all re-read this every now and again.

 

[tykunkel1031]

Whatever you do, I would make sure to get your ride times and planning down to such a science where you don't even have a chance to relax enjoy your trip.

I'm just trying to give suggestions. I want someone's visit to be a pleasant one and if it ends up just waiting in lines all day, that's just about as bad as having things planned. It's still important to be very flexible but all of these suggestions are just in general. It's just what I would do personally.

[Midgetman82]

^This isn't going against what you're saying since they are good tips.

 

But, on a first-time visit to a park on one of the most crowded days of the entire year, no one should go in with the assumption that they'll be able to hit everything. Go around opening time, hit the coasters, hit some slides, and make time to relax. Especially if you've been mostly waiting in line all day. Unlike most larger parks, HW's lineup doesn't feel too overwhelming with things you feel like you need to hit back-to-back until the day's over. You won't be penalized for taking breaks to rest now and then.

 

Whatever you do, I would make sure to get your ride times and planning down to such a science where you don't even have a chance to relax enjoy your trip.

There's so many other parks the meaning of this could apply to...

[mmkaycomputer]

Thanks, everyone. Considering all this -- and also considering changing trip so we hit HW/SS on Friday and KK on Saturday (since we have less we wanna do there) instead. Either way, I'm really excited to be riding these parks' coasters in less than two weeks.

[kyleparks77]

I'm at the park right now. In line for Thunderbird but it's shutdown because of "wildlife in the area"

[ZeroGravity55]

I'd believe it. I'd found this on a Youtube video. I won't post the the link since the video was illegally taped, but there's a deer hanging outside the fence.

[tykunkel1031]

I'm at the park right now. In line for Thunderbird but it's shutdown because of "wildlife in the area"

Welcome to Indiana, where animals run just as wild as the meth addicts. Really though, I've been on voyage once, and there was a deer just taking a little peek over the edge on top of one of the tunnels. That made me a bit nervous

[kyleparks77]

Update: got in line to ride Raven before park closing. We were two rides back and they had to shutdown because of "wildlife near the tracks". Two in one night for me? What're the odds?!

 

Short TR:

Went with a friend a his wife. It was her first visit to any amusement park EVER, and she seemed to have a great time, but didn't want to do any other coasters after the Voyage as her first ride.

 

What we did (in order):

Voyage

Gobbler Getaway

Thunderbird (x2)

Bakuli

Wildebeest

Mammoth

Jungle Racers (a lot)

Ottorongo

Lazy River (ahhhhh)

Hyena Falls

Thunderbird

Voyage

Carousel

Lewis & Clark

Legend

Raven

Hallow Swings

 

Observations:

The Legend Reborn is fantastic. I love the retracked/reprofiled areas.

The Voyage...disclaimer: I've loved this ride since it opened and ride it many times on each visit, and I don't mind rough rides at all. But with that being said...seriously needs some major track work. It was very rough, and we rode front car both times. Again, I normally enjoy the "rough and wild" wooden coasters.

Crowds were decent. Waterpark got a little heavy mid-afternoon, as expected. Zoombabwe being down all day didn't help with crowd dispersion, either. After about 6, all major rides were a station wait.

My friend rode Thunderbird for the first time and was absolutely blown away. He even said "That's probably my favorite coaster now. It's perfect in every way." He desperately tried to convince his wife to go on it, and tried to explain its a completely different ride than The Voyage, but to no avail.

It was a good fun day overall.

Oh and Plymouth Rock was absolutely delicious, of course.

[prozach626]

The Voyage was her first ride ever? Oh man, what a terrible idea. haha. You would have been a lot safer with Raven or Thunderbird. She'll never go on another roller coaster again, now.

[kyleparks77]

The Voyage was her first ride ever? Oh man, what a terrible idea. haha. You would have been a lot safer with Raven or Thunderbird. She'll never go on another roller coaster again, now.

Yeah, we let her pick her first coaster and she wanted the "biggest, tallest, fastest" one (which I guess we could have convinced her was Thunderbird). It wasn't that she was afraid of going on other coasters afterwards, I think she was just in pain.

[LiftThrill]

I'll be honest, Thunderbird was way more painful for me than Voyage. Voyage was honestly one of the smoothest woodies I've been on and T-bird has the hip crushing vest restraints. Seriously, those things hurt. T-bird wasn't nearly as bad about it than Wild Eagle, though. (probably because HW's operations are infinitely faster than those at Dollywood so I could get out before the pain started getting worse)

[kyleparks77]

^that's a new one. I haven't experienced any kind of discomfort at all with the Thunderbird restraints

[LiftThrill]

^that's a new one. I haven't experienced any kind of discomfort at all with the Thunderbird restraints

I have really bony hips so that affects it a ton. The B&M vest restraints in general kind of suck because they get tighter during the ride and end up crushing your chest and hips if you had any room before. Definitely not designed with really skinny people like me in mind.

[grsupercity]

^that's a new one. I haven't experienced any kind of discomfort at all with the Thunderbird restraints

 

Really? I have had trouble with Gatekeeper, Wild Eagle and Thunderbird. It ruined what could of been a great coaster in Thunderbird. Im skinny and its brutal

[LiftThrill]

^that's a new one. I haven't experienced any kind of discomfort at all with the Thunderbird restraints

 

Really? I have had trouble with Gatekeeper, Wild Eagle and Thunderbird. It ruined what could of been a great coaster in Thunderbird. Im skinny and its brutal

 

I found Wild Eagle the worst as all of the other coasters with the vest restraints were at parks with amazing operations, while Dollywood's ops were really slow the day I was there, so I ended up sitting on the brake fun with the restraint locked for at least a full minute whereas T-bird, Banshee, Gatekeeper, and Valravn the ops had an awesome rhythm going and I only sat on the brake run for 10 seconds or less any given time.