Holiday World (HW) Discussion Thread

[BeemerBoy]

^^ I like that tilt shift pic. Cool stuff.

 

FOOD

I thought I had a great time at Holliwood Nights '10, but now I'm finding out that I missed loaded baked potato pizza!? WTF!? Was that available during the Friday night meal??

Yep. I passed on it though, so I can't comment on it.

 

CABINS AT LAKE RUDOLPHCockroaches and cold water. Other than that they were nice (Trying to stay positive).

Ouch. That's not good.

[AndCamSS]

^Although there was no lightning, the lightning bugs/fireflies that were everywhere made for a cool effect. It kind of reminded me of Space Mountain!

 

Legend was running great, faster than it has in at least a few years and it wasn't bad in the wheel seats either!

 

Wildebeest was awesome, I also noticed more air on my first ride (with the least amount of weight in the raft) than the last 2 rides. The front was good for me because I had sunglasses on to shield the water spraying in my face!

[saginawhxc]

I'm looking straight at you in that first picture, because I remember watching you take it and cursing myself for putting my camera away. I was thinking that I didn't want to lug my camera around during night time ERT, and the second night I at least carried around my point and shoot, but I wish I had just carried it around because there were lots of shots I missed because of it.

 

Hooray for the pic of me on the Wildebeest walk back.

 

I have an insane amount of pictures to sort out from the last few days when I get home.

[JEAPUgrad]

^STALKER!!!!

[kumba830]

During the Wildebeest walk back I decided to grab a little bit of footage.

Here is what I ended up with.

[if anyone knows how I fix the border problem(It's recorded in 720p and I used iMovie HD to edit) please give me your input!]

[itsasamccormick]

(This may have already been said, but with all the Holiwood Night talk i don't want to look back)

 

Timberliners could be coming this weekend!

 

From May 31-

 

Voyage train update: 1. We’ll provide public rides only after *both* trains are tested and pass State inspection (we hope by June 12; 2. The first train is scheduled for State inspection this Thursday morning; 3. If the first train passes, it will run after-hours during the private event HoliWood Nights, w/ the 2 olde...r trains running during the days until both new trains are ready to go.

 

Granted, they said they would have 1 train on during Holiwood Nights if it passed inspection.- yet they didn't, meaning it may have not passed inspection.

 

I hope the Timberliners are in action this weekend! We're holding off our trip until they are on!

[saginawhxc]

I don't know about anybody else but if I had to choose between two PTC trains or a single Timberliner for this event I would choose PTC every time.

[robbalvey]

I don't know about anybody else but if I had to choose between two PTC trains or a single Timberliner for this event I would choose PTC every time.

Agreed. After seeing some of the pics from the event, I can only imagine the line that one Timberliner train would have created.

 

I hope the Timberliners are in action this weekend! We're holding off our trip until they are on!

This makes absoultely no sense to me, unless you're a local. Why put off a trip to visit the world's #1 coaster just because of a train swap out? I mean, let's be honest here, I'm sure the new Timberliners will be great and all, but the coaster is already #1! How much more #1 do you want???

 

It's not like we're talking about putting new trains on The Beast or something, which would allow all the trims to be removed and the ride would thus be changed significantly because of the alteration. THEN it would be worth holding off a trip. Or if The Voyage has suddently dropped 20 spots and the new trains were needed to get it back to it's former self.

 

I read reports from this weekend saying The Voyage was giving some of the best rides people ever had on it. Why wait to go?

Edited June 8, 2010 by robbalvey

[spaceace12]

Don't wait to go, It was running great this weekend. I would not expect the Timberliners for at least a couple weeks. The second train is not on site as of this past weekend (from what I could tell) and they will not run the TL until both new trains are ready.

[saginawhxc]

If anything you should be racing there to ride it with the classic PTC trains before they are gone. The Timberliners are gonna be on for many years to come (hopefully), and you will have plenty of time to ride them.

 

I'm not going back till the Timberliners are on, but I've already spent 6 days in the park this year.

[itsasamccormick]

I get what your saying Robb. I guess I want to wait and go because i have ridden the current voyage countless times and just wanted to experience the new trains before next season (I usually only got once a year) . But, it is just a coaster train and i might as well enjoy the coaster anyway

 

I'm going sometime in June regardless of the trains.

[RedB]

Am I the only one who dislikes Voyage with the PTC's? I thought it was running worse this year than the last time I went. Same with the other coasters, even Raven.

[spaceace12]

I got a question, what do you like Voyage with? Voyage has only ran with PTC's and frankly, I believe the Voyage is running as good as it ever had. I used to get this feeling in my chest in the middle section and would get back to the station and have to rest. I haven't gotten that at all this season. I know everyone has a different opinion of the Voyage and I respect that.

[SharkTums]

^Actually I've heard a lot of reports that Voyage is getting rougher and rougher and the fact that HW has decided to get new trains for the ride kind of reinforces those reports.

[ahecht]

As I said before, Voyage was brutally rough from the spaghetti bowl in the woods until the station with both PTC trains. Much rougher than the Beast, which I rode this past Sunday less than 12 hours after my last ride on the Voyage. I liked the ride on the Voyage, and really really wanted to love it, but it is just too rough to be enjoyable for me in its current state (and this is coming from someone that found the untrimmed i305 re-ridable). I hadn't ridden it before this weekend, and it seemed like the layout has so much potential, but there was simply too much pain for it to be #1 in my book.

 

Will Koch did mention that they found several places where the track has been deformed by the current trains, so I imagine most of the roughness has appeared as the ride has aged. Hopefully the new trains will be easier on the track and allow the park to gradually re-track the rough spots (not to mention the suspension in the seats smoothing out the jolts).

Edited June 9, 2010 by ahecht

[RedB]

I got a question, what do you like Voyage with? Voyage has only ran with PTC's and frankly, I believe the Voyage is running as good as it ever had. I used to get this feeling in my chest in the middle section and would get back to the station and have to rest. I haven't gotten that at all this season. I know everyone has a different opinion of the Voyage and I respect that.

 

I have never liked the second half of Voyage. I specifically said PTC's because, for reasons I can't explain, I have hope the Timberliners can help. I want to like this coaster, I really do. The second half is just too rough.

 

As I said before, Voyage was brutally rough from the spaghetti bowl in the woods until the station with both PTC trains. Much rougher than the Beast, which I rode this past Sunday less than 12 hours after my last ride on the Voyage. I liked the ride on the Voyage, and really really wanted to love it, but it is just too rough to be enjoyable for me in its current state. I hadn't ridden it before this weekend, and it seemed like the layout has so much potential, but there was simply too much pain for it to be #1 in my book.

 

Will Koch did mention that they found several places where the track has been deformed by the current trains, so I imagine most of the roughness has appeared as the ride has aged. Hopefully the new trains will be easier on the track and allow the park to gradually re-track the rough spots (not to mention the suspension in the seats smoothing out the jolts).

 

Exactly how I feel.

[monsterfan99]

^My thoughts were the same as yours (my first rides were last weekend.) Also, watching the trains (red one being the worse of the two) just slam down at the bottom of the second drop during the walkback was painful. To me, the ride was a weird mix of amazing and Mean Streak rough.

[BeemerBoy]

I'll paraphrase the Gravity Group rep during a brief Q&A. In response to the question from the crowd, "If Voyage is currently a '10' on the scales for intensity and speed, what do you expect it to be with Timberliners?" His answer, "The same, just more re-ridable."

 

Personally, I made the trip this year without caring whether the TLs were on or not. After Friday night, I was secretly hoping baby Jesus in the manger would provide an overnight miracle, and put those new trains on the track. In my opinion, it needs *something*. I'm cautiously optimistic that the TLs are the answer.

[spaceace12]

I'll paraphrase the Gravity Group rep during a brief Q&A. In response to the question from the crowd, "If Voyage is currently a '10' on the scales for intensity and speed, what do you expect it to be with Timberliners?" His answer, "The same, just more re-ridable."

 

Personally, I made the trip this year without caring whether the TLs were on or not. After Friday night, I was secretly hoping baby Jesus in the manger would provide an overnight miracle, and put those new trains on the track. In my opinion, it needs *something*. I'm cautiously optimistic that the TLs are the answer.

 

 

It was nice to meet you and Rick there, hopefully I will see you again next year?

[Wolf]

I don't know about anybody else but if I had to choose between two PTC trains or a single Timberliner for this event I would choose PTC every time.

Agreed. After seeing some of the pics from the event, I can only imagine the line that one Timberliner train would have created.

 

The waits weren't actually that bad. The front car was slammed, but other than the back-back, it was maybe a 1-cycle wait most of the time. There were a lot of people sitting out.

 

Now, there were a lot of people milling around the example cars and taking photos, so perhaps with them running, we would have seen more riders.

 

I hope the Timberliners are in action this weekend! We're holding off our trip until they are on!

This makes absoultely no sense to me, unless you're a local.

I read reports from this weekend saying The Voyage was giving some of the best rides people ever had on it. Why wait to go?

 

Or unless you've ridden it before. I didn't notice it running any especially better than it did in 2008. The Raven train was interesting, though. Still, I would have crawled over my dead mother to have ridden the Timberliners. Some of us have been waiting awhile for wooden train technology to realize the 1930s are over.

[Wolf]

^Although there was no lightning, the lightning bugs/fireflies that were everywhere made for a cool effect. It kind of reminded me of Space Mountain!

 

Legend was running great, faster than it has in at least a few years and it wasn't bad in the wheel seats either!

 

Wildebeest was awesome, I also noticed more air on my first ride (with the least amount of weight in the raft) than the last 2 rides. The front was good for me because I had sunglasses on to shield the water spraying in my face!

 

I actually found the front drier than the back. And yes, the lighter rafts go faster. I saw a couple of empty rafts get thrown over the tops of hills.

[BeemerBoy]

^ I, too, found the front significantly drier than the back.

 

It was nice to meet you and Rick there, hopefully I will see you again next year?

Nice meeting you as well. Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, much less next year.

 

^Actually I've heard a lot of reports that Voyage is getting rougher and rougher and the fact that HW has decided to get new trains for the ride kind of reinforces those reports.

Yep. The writing's pretty much on the wall, in my opinion. While everyone's tastes are different, and some folks actually don't mind a beating, the consensus seemed to be that the ride is getting rougher. And the amount of people sitting out seemed to back that theory up.

 

I'm sure Timberliners aren't cheap, and I doubt the park is splashing around cash just to be the first kids on the block with the "hot new sports car." It would appear that they clearly understand how their huge investment is aging, and are prepared to protect it's reputation as the "world's #1 coaster."

 

I don't know if it'll solve things, but it's an admirable attempt.

[DBru]

^Actually I've heard a lot of reports that Voyage is getting rougher and rougher and the fact that HW has decided to get new trains for the ride kind of reinforces those reports.

 

Yep.

 

As someone who was on the Voyage's first public train, and has ridden it at least twice a month (during the operating season) ever since the coaster debuted in 2006, I definitely feel that it is getting progressively rougher. In fact, the spaghetti bowl turnaround is so rough now that, as a fairly athletic 16-year-old, I can't take more than two rides in a row without stopping to catch a break.

 

It's still an amazing coaster...but something needs to be done to make it smoother. And I agree with BeemerBoy; I'm optimistic the Timberliner trains will help solve this problem.

[haux]

I asked Mike Graham if they had the idea for the Timberliners before Voyage or if they came up with them for Voyage. He said it was the latter.

[thrillrider]

I love holiday world.

 

I think that the "big" parks should study how holiday world operates, and take some notes.