Jonathan Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 It could. I took far too many pictures to include all of them here, so this is just a sampling. To view all 259 pictures that I have from the event with high-res versions, go HERE. On Thursday, Alan, John, Phil, and myself set off from Raleigh for Santa Claus, Indiana. We got off on the wrong foot by going in the completely wrong direction, but quickly fixed things by taking a bunch of back roads through Virginia. We even got to see the spot where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant to end the Civil War. Oh the excitement. This was the sight that greeted us as we approached Lexington, Kentucky. We had hoped to make it there to a restaurant to ride out the storm, but that didn't happen. Eventually we did in fact make it through the storm, and after a long day of travel, we arrived in the small town of Santa Claus. Our home for the next three nights was Santa's Lodge. We arrived at the park for opening on Friday as we had decided to go ahead and pay the $19 extra to go all day Friday. Alan and myself had both been to the park before, but John and Phil were first-timers. First up was The Legend. It was running very well, although not quite up to its potential. Next came The Raven, which was running simply awesome. After having such disappointing rides on it when I visited last year, I was thrilled to see it in top form. John and Phil were surprised at how much punch the ride packed into its short circuit. But, now on to what we had all been waiting for. I had been waiting a year for this thing, and everything that has already been said about the ride is true, and then some. This thing is basically the ultimate coaster. It took my number one spot about halfway through the ride. I honestly don't know if we will ever see another coaster like this built. It is so intense and so aggressive that I couldn't see myself re-riding it many times in a row. Naturally, we had to ride again. In this picture you can see Phil, John, and Alan in the last car. Every seat on the ride is awesome. Oh yeah, there's another new ride at Holiday World this year: Gobbler Getaway. It was really fun, although they kept stacking cars and having to stop the ride on the course while we were riding. I'm sure they will get all of the bugs ironed out eventually, and I can see why Mrs. Koch is so proud of her ride. Oh yeah then we rode The Voyage a bunch more times. We ventured into the rest of the park. The rapids ride here is a pretty good one... The flyers, however, while fun, are quite tame. No visit to Holiday World would be complete without an invasion of Holidog's Fun Town. This is the best section of the park. Cha ching. John and Phil got their ride on The Howler. I knew we would be having fudge Friday night, but I just couldn't help but get an early start. We had a lot of fun on the bumper cars, as they have spring boards around the outside of the building. If you line up and run straight into the wall the result can be quite insane. Later on we found Catrina and Ted. Paula was glad to see Phil (I think). He was being indecisive about going on the trip, so I asked her to email him and tell him to go. He had no idea what was going on when he got an email from her. The masses gathered for ERT. I wonder where everyone will go first? The Voyage, of course. Not to worry; this was taken while everyone was filtering into the queue. The lines were very reasonable for The Voyage on both Friday and Saturday, while Raven and Legend were walk-ons both nights. I don't think The Voyage went quite as fast as this guy prepared for it to. Ted and Catrina's reaction to The Voyage after their first ride, like most people, was "What the ****?" The Raven was screaming both nights. I ended up getting the last ride of the night on it both Friday and Saturday. Back over at The Voyage, Will was pleased to see everyone having a good time. Or maybe he had just taken his first night ride? Time to open the switchbacks. Wes's first ride on The Voyage was in the dark. He had this look permanently fixed on his face the rest of the night. Only at Holiday World would the park be kind enough to let everyone know that a coaster at a competing park was open. The Rumbler was struck by lightning during Thursday's huge storms. Well, here we are again, back at Holiday World. Part of Splashin' Safari was open Saturday morning for us. Zinga and Jungle Racers are both awesome slides. Zoombabwe is awesome as well. It wasn't as insane as the 2002 SRM overweighted raft rides, but still fast. The biggest surprise for me was Bahari, which is one of the coolest wave pools I've seen. Another day at Holiday World, another day of riding The Voyage. Here I am in front of The Voyage. I'm sure the ride on Voyage was extra terrifying with hundreds of nerds with cameras standing all around the coaster. Yep, it was time for the photo walkback. I'm not going to post all of the pictures from the walkback here, so just go to the full gallery to see them. Here I am, though, being a camera whore again in front of The Voyage. While everyone was at the walkback, The Voyage was a walk-on. Alan, Phil, and John took this opportunity to get more rides. I took this opportunity to take a picture of them getting rides. There they go again. Here's a few of us in front of The Voyage. And here's some of the gang on The Legend. The charity that got the proceeds from this was excited because they knew enthusiasts will pay top dollar for worthless scrap metal. I shelled out the mad $$$. For $2 I got a Raven wheel bearing and a bearing from Legend's old Gerstlauer train. Whootah! Food. Alan tried to cut in front of some ACEer at the buffet and they did this to him. Another night of great riding was had, this time with more darkness. After that, we went back to Santa's Lodge bruised up and exhausted, and knowing that we still had to endure the Looping Star at Beech Bend the next day. It was an awesome two days, and a big thanks to everyone at the park for bringing this wonderful event back. If you haven't been on The Voyage yet, get out there and ride this thing. It is absolutely insane. Remember, go HERE to see all of the photos from Holiday World. Next up: Beech Bend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamminJ Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 AWESOME TR man.. I'm definitely going with you guys next year. -J (Hitting the Voyage in August.. bleh) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DancingDays Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Great Trip Report, man...I cannot get enough of the Voyage pics...can't wait to get to Holiday World to ride it. And that picture of the huge thundercloud rolling in just became my desktop background, thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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