TombRaiderFTW

I can absolutely respect that, and I apologize to anyone who could have very easily taken my last post as the "THOU SHALT NOT SPEAKETH POORLY OF HOLIDAY WORLD" type. That's not at all what I meant by it; I just know that, for me, Holiday World does it all right. Part of the perfect park experience for me is seeing other people have fun, too, irregardless of if they're in my group. And besides markr's points (as well as my intense love for riding [and reriding and reriding...] all three coasters) Holiday World fills this PERFECTLY for me. I can't tell you how many times I've ridden one of their coasters with at least one person in the train who's never been on it before (or even been on a coaster before). This usually happens on Raven with younger (7-11 year old) kids, and nine times out of ten they get off the ride smiling and/or racing back to the entrance for another go. This is quite honestly something I don't see much of at Kings Island, Cedar Point, or any other park I've been to; the gap from "young kids' rides" to "big coasters" has no truly comfortable middle ground. Sure, from our enthusiast perspectives, we can point out that BLSC, Racer, or AE is kid-friendly-- and that's not to say that they aren't-- but what rides are there out there that's equally loved by the ride warrior and family communities alike? At Holiday World, Raven and arguably Legend seem to have the best of both worlds: appeal to the "experienced" and beginners alike. And it's for this reason I dearly love the park so: you can easily see whole families ride these together, sometimes for the first time, and have the time of their lives. And that's just the start: with Howler and Voyage, the park also caters to the earliest beginners and the most "experienced," respectively. Indiana Beach says "there's more than corn in Indiana," but I say "there's more than Voyage at Holiday World." -TombRaiderFTW, who has reasons for wanting to design coasters professionally...

Quoted for truth. With all due respect to Terp, Raven can be a very tame and (personally) uninteresting ride in just about any row but the last two, though the front car does get some good laterals at times. The back is FILLED with random, delicious ejector air. In fact, Raven's first drop in the back car is bar-none my favorite first drop on any coaster- the unnerving feeling of falling straight into a tunnel just can't be beat for me. I wouldn't count Raven out just yet. After all, even Diamondback has its less-than-stellar rows...

It's Screamscape. Does Lance ever have a legitimately "credible" source except when it's on the local news or on a coaster fansite? I realize that sounds overly critical, but I don't mean for it to be. But it's just that Lance always has his "anonymous readers" and "couple sources".

I as well am not "judging," but I must ask: what are you basing this off of?

I've only ridden Diamondback (soon to be fixed at Canada's Wonderland)... but based off of looks, I honestly think it's between Apollo's Chariot and La Ronde's Goliath. I might also toss in a trim-free Six Flags Great America Raging Bull... but I don't think that ever happens, unless someone's keeping an excited PTR a good secret. While these might not be rated as B&M's best rides, it seems like they're the hypers with real personality (read: that aren't a copied-and-pasted set of camelbacks, helixes, and *maybe* one unique element).

The High Five is HANDS DOWN one of the coolest ideas I've ever heard for a dueling setup. Way to go, Gravity Group!

I don't have much to add, save for this: If Holiday World is a vulture, I'm happy to be its roadkill. What a tool.

Every time I see one of those, my brain screams "RIDE IT!" while my stomach screams "IT'S A TRAP!" ...My stomach always wins. Always. Regardless, it could make for a really cool Coney Mall addition. The ride has a physical appeal to it- when properly washed, etc., unlike at my local county fair- that would fit into Coney Mall's atmosphere pretty nicely, IMO.

Speaking from quite the unique experience today, I can confirm this. Most of the west-southwest corner of the park (namely Action Zone, though also including Oktoberfest and International Street) was off and on most of this afternoon, with the International Street shops, the Festhaus, and select Action Zone rides (Flight Deck, Drop Tower, Congo Falls, Delirium) generally remaining shut down for the duration of one very busy, humid, and warm Fourth of July afternoon. It was incredibly odd to walk (momentarily) into an almost completely dark Festhaus, the lights from Panda Express being the only electrical source of illumination... Of course, when I realized the A/C was out, too, it didn't take much thought to walk right out the same entrance. (I actually had a mildly hilarious conversation with an Emporium employee about it, on a side note. When we asked him about the power problems, he responded with, "Think of the creepiest scene you can think of from a movie. Now dim the lights on it. A lot. And crank up the creepiness factor by like ten thousand. That's what the warehouse is like right now." ) I have quite a bit of sympathy for Guest Relations folk tonight... I'm sure they got quite the earful (or five, ten, fifteen...) As I understand it, the park has not been offering refunds for today. Viking Fury and even the Eiffel Tower (as well as the aforementioned AZ rides) were off and on all day on a major national holiday, and there was no really great escape from the heat since at least half of International Street, Action Zone, and Oktoberfest had ZERO power in the hottest part of the day. This lead to full queues for at least Diamondback, Vortex, and The Crypt, the last of which leads me to believe that Flight of Fear most likely had a high demand since it's also indoors and therefore also (assumed to be, anyway) air conditioned. Yes, I don't think you could pay me enough to be a poor GR soul today... EDIT: Now that I think about it, wasn't it just a season or two ago that the park was experiencing similar power issues around June/July? I clearly recall the odd situation where the power issues had Blue Racer down but weren't affecting Red Racer.

Are ya ready, kids?

I am ridiculously pleased this is happening at KI. I'm happy with just about any* coaster they choose for this, and it's a safe bet that I'll be there. *Vekoma Invertigos and wooden hypercoasters excepted.

Personally? I was rather mixed. On one hand, I found something interestingly quirky about it... but on the other, it didn't really cause any of the "surprise" forces I was expecting. It seemed more... well, like you said: like an accident made during tracking. The suddenness of the first lean was a *little* exciting... the first time. On following rides, though, it just became something to brace yourself for. But then again, it was so unique to me that I still ended up lightly appreciating it. I can definitely understand others not caring for the trick track. And I just realized that I have completely and rudely ignored the original poster's PTR, so I will say that I really enjoyed reading it. We seem to have had similar experiences at Michigan's Adventure, though I honestly didn't care too much for Thunderhawk, my first Vekoma SLC. Perhaps I will appreciate it more once I've been on Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland later this summer. Regardless, I also really enjoyed the SUPER padded seats on Wolverine Wildcat- and the double-down airtime was INSANE for me as well in the last row. It was even more surprising, in my opinion, than Stricker's Grove's Tornado, whose "cliff" was a little more obvious than the upstop wheel-SMACKing drop on WW.

^ When was it removed? It was there when I visited earlier this month.

^^ I want to say I remember reading one of Shaggy's posts about a roll-back during a commercial shoot in the ride's inaugural season, but I can't seem to find it...

Welcome back! I've got nothing on Racer or FoF, but as far as the Togo standup issue, King Cobra was not removed because of a lack of parts. It was constructed of inferior steel that was severely flawed, unlike its cousins at Canada's Wonderland (SkyRider) and Kings Dominion (Shockwave), that most likely would have been far too costly to replace. Therefore, it was in the park's best financial interest to remove King Cobra. Trim brakes are used in order to lessen the speed of the train in order to therefore lessen the force exerted on the track. By doing so, there is less wear and tear on the ride, therefore reducing maintenance costs. Hope this helps!

I will vouch for this as well. When I first saw it, I wasn't too hot on the price. ($21.99 for an icky history book? Ew. ) I bought it anyway, though, and I'm so glad I did. It's got a ton of pictures in there from literally every stage of the park's life (including construction pictures of all 3 coasters) as well as a pretty neat background of the Koch family themselves. It's worth every last penny.

According to this Evansville Courier & Press article, Lauren is the oldest at 22, Leah is next at 19, and William is the youngest at 16. So yes, it seems Lauren would be the first up for CEO once she finishes college, followed by Leah. (Will, of course, is still in high school.)

Closed? It's much more than closed.... Well yeah I know that, they're not gonna even have the ride anymore. They're relocating it to Knott's Berry Farm. I knew that... Actually, Demon Drop- though rumored to make its way to KBF (and later Michigan's Adventure)- was sent to Dorney Park, where it is currently awaiting completion of testing.

If this were Facebook, I'd click "like". SO glad to read the Koch family will still run the park. Even more glad to read that Dan intends to keep everything on track (if you pardon the pun). Just one thing... Anyone else thinking it sounds like Dan's a placeholder until Will's children have the opportunity to take his place?

Great PTR, Jackson. I'm glad to hear you had fun. It's so enjoyable to read about your new coaster experiences. Just one thing as far as Voyage goes, though... Did you not try the back seat? I'm not a Holiday World expert by any means, but it seems to me like the closer you get to the front car (without being in it) the rougher the ride. The back seat is where it's at for me- I've had many rougher any-seat Beast rides, and the out-of-control feeling is... absolutely indescribable back there. I've honestly never tried 1-1, but my money's on you (or anyone else, for that matter) liking Voyage at least a little better when given a 6- or 7-1 experience like I've had multiple times.

...Wow. My heart is broken. I sincerely do not know how to put it in any other words but that. I had that same exact experience. I saw Will at the park several times on Memorial Day, and no matter what, he was always, always, always smiling and striking up the friendliest conversations with anyone. He was the essence of the park's friendliness. I had honestly intended to try to meet him on my next visit... It would have been incredible, as a Mechanical Engineering major, to have been able to speak casually with the Voyage designer who had helped perfect such an incredible ride from the park's viewpoint. We never met each other, but even at that I feel like I've lost a friend. My sincerely deepest sympathies go out to the Holiday World family, especially the Kochs.

My personal favorites: Magnum: 1-3. Preferably with the trims off. <3 Millennium Force: 2-1. IMO, I think this is the only row with airtime on the first two camelbacks. That's just me. Beast: 6-3, especially at night. Racer: 1-3 at night. Flight Deck: 1-1 or 1-2. Shivering Timbers: 6-2. Voyage: preferably 7-2, but since that doesn't quite seem to be an option right now, 6-2. Legend/Raven: 6-2.