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HoliWood Nocturne


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HoliWood Nocturne

A night song

Hello everyone it has been about a month since I have last written a report of my amusement/theme park adventures. Due to weather and May’s always busy celebration activities regretfully I have missed a couple opportunities to visit my home park Kings Island but we do plan on a visit next week and hopefully a repeat of Kings Islands Train Tour.

Since I my last report I have had the privilege to attend a couple coaster club events as a guest of two clubs ACE (American Coaster Club) and GOCC (Greater Ohio Coaster Club). Both events took place at Holiday World amusement park. The first event was called Holiday Hustle and offered 1 day completely filled with activates and morning/evening ERT (Exclusive Ride Times), coaster walk back tours. It has been about 8 years since my last visit so I was anxious to see all the changes I have been hearing about, plus when I visited last time I was unable to ride and coasters as I spent the day with my then 2 year old daughter.

On Saturday May 15th I arrived at Holiday World with Brad Purdue and other fellow KICentral members to a Ace event called Holiday Hustle. We started our long day of activities and as promised the staffs of both ACE and Holiday World were there to greet us and to keep us well informed of the scheduled activities.

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After a before park hours activity we headed out to ride the ever more and more popular 3 wood coaster that Holiday World now runs. My first ride on Voyage was as a total shocker as I truly was not anticipating such a awesome ride experience, even though everyone I know has been Raven about it for years. During that day we toured the coasters from behind the scenes and checked out all the fun entertainment, shops and food selection Holiday World offered.

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I am still shocked at how Holiday World can offer a family so many choices at an exceptional price. I often brag about the way Disney always goes the extra step to ensure guests go away feeling they were treated to more than what would be reasonably expected. I feel Holiday World offers many entertainment activities that if they were not there most guests would not have noticed it or expected such offerings. Seeing those offerings first hand in my opinion shows me and explains to me how the park is so wonderfully run, they leave the guest leaving feeling that they have gotten their monies worth and that they received more than they expected. We ended our trip with 5 straight rides on each coaster without the need to get out of our occupied seats between rides. Most coaster enthusiast will understand the punishment one’s body receives from marathon riding coasters like that but also understand that is about the only way a true enthusiast can ever walk away from a park completely Coastered Out!!!

After Coming home several of us felt we had such a great time that the only way to top such a wonderful trip like Holiday Hustle would to be to go to another scheduled coaster club event again scheduled at Holiday World, but this time it was for 2 days worth of activities. I was not sure with work and family if I could attend but in truth I longed for the opportunity to visit with my fellow KICentral friends on such a rare opportunity of 2 days jammed packed full of activities. Holiday Hustle put a spring in my step and the roar of the coasters as they sped through the dark woods with the occasion flicker of a fire bug. To be honest that scenario kept playing out in my head over and over almost as if it was my nocturne (nocturne = a piece of music appropriate to the night or evening).

So on June 4th and 5th I attended Holiday Worlds coaster club event called HoliWood Nights with about 30 other KICentral members and hundreds of other coaster club attendees. Just like the first event I attended in May Holiday World rolled out the red carpet and treated us all like royalty and leaving nothing left for anyone to desire in a coaster event, including 3 meals, live band entertainment. 6 hours+ of private coaster rides on all three and 4 unscheduled ERT’s flat rides . See they went above and beyond when no one expected it. When we arrived they even handed each attendee a free ticket to come back another day of our choosing. So the only way I can share with you my Holiday Nocturne that rings around my head for these past two weeks is to try and share it with you through a short video.

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I like to thank Holiday World and everyone who participated in making such a fun memorable trip possible. I believe Holiday World is absolutely a must do park for everyone from the enthusiasts to the families who visit only on occasions. I know I will be taking my family back as a family and know that visit will be just as fun as it was with fellow enthusiasts.

Jesse

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Jesse - thanks for sharing.

I couldn't agree with you more about the way we were treated by Holiday World. It was a truly fantastic event and I greatly enjoyed hanging out with you and others from the KIC family! While a lot longer drive for me than KI, I'm sure I'll be visiting again and taking the wife/kids to enjoy it!

Also, since it's your trip report, I hope you'll let me share the story about your conversation with Will Koch

- Jesse: "I've figured out the secret to the success of your park"

- Will: "Oh, what's that"

- Jesse: "It's got to be because you have four Pat's running around here"

- Will: Confused look

- Jesse: "Well, the way she seems to be everywhere all the time, you must of figured out cloning"

And I'm sure others will agree, Pat Koch is a caring and friendly person who does seem to be everywhere (I can't even count how many times I saw her this weekend), is always interacting with guests (quick hi - how was the ride or longer conversations), and shows a true love for her park (her speech after dinner on Saturday was touching). She sets a great example that seems to be followed by the entire organization at Holiday World.

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Paula is EVERYWHERE! Whether that be in the kitchen at Kringle's, at the Timberliner car, in the Voyage station, or EVEN sweeping up trash outside the entrance (yes, I really saw her doing that). Thanks to the fantastic workers at HW for an unforgettable event.

Nice meeting and seeing ALL of you: Jesse, Keith, Adam, Ryan, Angie, Jackson, Nick, it goes on and on.

EDIT: I meant Pat. I get those names mixed up so often!

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I too thought Pat's speech was very touching. This event gets better every year and I really don't think we could have been treated better if we were several hundred members of the Kochs family. By the way, did anyone happen to get a total of the number of people that attended this year and how this compares to previous years? It seemed like there was a pretty significant increase to me.

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By the way, did anyone happen to get a total of the number of people that attended this year and how this compares to previous years?

No idea how it compares, but HW Facebook had the following quote in a recent post:

"Saturday night, the Beachcombers entertained about 650 coaster enthusiasts from all over the country"

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And for others of us, we didn`t get any legendary or forceful rides in during this past weekend. As I was running two classic rides that were built in the 1940s all weekend. "Modern Families: Old Fashioned Fun. 124 years of Amusement: Coney Has It!"

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By the way, did anyone happen to get a total of the number of people that attended this year and how this compares to previous years?

No idea how it compares, but HW Facebook had the following quote in a recent post:

"Saturday night, the Beachcombers entertained about 650 coaster enthusiasts from all over the country"

Thanks. I had not seen that quote. I have no idea what the turn out normally is, but I don't remember the food line being that long, nor people having to overflow to the second shelter to eat the past two years.

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I am still amazed that such a little park in the middle of nowhere has become so popular with so many, but once you visit your know why. Holiday World is truly doing it right. Doesn't hurt either when a short drive away is some of the best BBQ around. Moonlight anyone? Thanks for sharing as always Jesse

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Nice TR! It was really nice meeting you on Friday. The night rides at this event were oh so nice and it was cool to be able to meet you and a bunch of other KICers. We couldn't stop talking about how great the park is on the way home and it seems as though many others feel the same. Thanks for posting!

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KIfan1980 – Thanks for adding the conversation with Will we had. It explains a lot especially how many guests feel when seeing Pat work like she does.

RailRider – You know I was thinking about it and I would have suggested we go there but HW provided 3 meals so there was no place to fit it in when we would be hungry. BTW can we please count on you to at least make one meet-up this year it would be nice to have you around, if only it was just one day at that.

Kevin – gad198 it was good to meet both you guys and to finally but a name with a face. You guys seem to be some great enthusiasts and I look forward to your guys input around here.

Standbyme – what can I say I really was hoping you could have made this trip, so much so I was ready to come up there drag you into the car myself. Thanks for the comments on the report; I am sure you have figured out the song by now. I almost listed it but in truth I wanted to keep it mysterious and to see if anyone noticed it or made mention to it and if anyone was going to it would be you. It is called Hollywood Nocturne by Brian Setzer Orchestra, Brian is better known for his work with “the Stray Cats”.

Interpreter and standbyme – Thank you both for mentioning the video part of this report, my whole focus was on this video as I wanted it to show how much fun and all the varieties of entertainment that Holiday World provides. I was very tired from the 2 days of activities and then putting the video together that I think the report suffered a bit from the fatigue. From the start I wanted to video to be the main focus, I did not want to do a huge glowing written report about Holiday World (although they certainly deserve it) but rather a fun interesting but entertaining video. I am happy with the video as it does show a lot more than meets the eye but of course there are a few areas/pictures I would like to swap around. I enjoy sharing my adventures either by writing about them or by video as I save them for reference and memories to enjoy later. If only one person saw it and enjoyed it then it is worth the time to do.

BTW I will be providing a link shortly to the album with all the pictures and videos but some are at the water park and I want to make sure everyone is comfortable with me sharing that link.

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RailRider – You know I was thinking about it and I would have suggested we go there but HW provided 3 meals so there was no place to fit it in when we would be hungry. BTW can we please count on you to at least make one meet-up this year it would be nice to have you around, if only it was just one day at that.

You know I keep saying to myself I need to make it to an event, unfortunately every time it just doesn't fit the schedule. I have been so busy lately my time from this site is even lacking and living further away from KI doesn't help the cause. Also we are in the planning stagest for our next trip to Disney. I have the bug what can I say. Anyways I am hoping to get one trip in hopefully in July or September, but I am not sure when. Once it is planned you will be the first to know. That I can promise. Trust me I still owe you a Bombay and I haven't forgotten that...

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