Holliwood Nights

[cassie_KY]

Day One

As part of our five day trip, Nathan and I headed to Holiday World for Holliwood Nights. Since we had never been to the park before, we opted to take in both days with the optional Friday day ticket.

First off, the theming in this place rocks! There are sections for the following holidays: Christmas, Halloween, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. Songs appropriate for each holiday are played in that section. All the shops, restaurants, rides and games are themed to those holidays. I was in heaven!

After walking around and taking some pictures, we headed to Voyage. Wow- just wow. Fast, so many elements crammed into one ride, I felt like I didn't know which way was up! When we rolled iback into the station, I had to catch my breath. It felt like I had ran the track beside the train.

Turkey whirl is possibly the cutest Tilt-a-Whirl I have ever seen. Each on is shaped like a Turkey. I just had to ride. Those things can really spin. My favorite is #5. There was a group of kids in the car in front of us and I heard one of them yell, "Faster Turkey, faster!" That became a catch phrase each time we rode it from then of.

Next was Gobbler Getaway which is a shoot-em-up dark ride. The object is to hit targets and find runaway turkeys. There is a cute preshow that explains the object of the game. Each car has two rows and we had the misfortune to be in the backrow of ours. Long story short, the folks in the front got all the targets, I got 120 and Nathan had 30.

We walked over to the Fourth of July section and rode Revoltion. This is a famous spin and puke kinda ride. I love them while Nathan tends to turn green. You know we had to ride it, right? My tummy flip flopped the entire long ride cycle as we were raised and lowered. When the ride stopped, I staggered coming out of my spot. It took a little time to get my "land legs" back. However, watching everyone else walk down the stairs, I realized I wasn't the only one.

After that, we wandered around the park for awhile and rode the Freedom Train. It is the only ride still operating when Christmas World (the original name for the park) opened in 1946. The train is tiny and they have enclosed cars as well as open air cars. You ride a circle around the top of the hill passing statues of nursery rhymes. The ride op says each nursery rhyme as you pass by it.

We then wandered over into Holidog's Fun Town to check out what the little kids had to play with. There was a really neat foundtain that we watched for a time. Jungle Gyms swings and slides were also plentiful. Tucked in the back was the kiddie coaster Howler. Here was my opportunity to embarass Nathan for the trip! This is like Roller Skater at SFKK but Holidog's face smiles and waves from the front car and his tail wags on the back car. We each got a car and off we went. We cruised around twice as the ride op grinned to see two adults hamming it up on the kid's coaster. The song "Who Let the Dogs Out" playing over the speakers was priceless.

We had lunch at The Alamo which serves Mexican food. Nathan had an order of hard shell tacos and I had the nachos. It was more food than we could eat. Not only was it inexpensive, but it tasted really good! Can I also take this chance here to say that the Pepsi Oasis is one of the best ideas for a theme Park? All the pop, Gatorade, and lemonade a person can drink. Brilliant concept!

The Dive Show was getting ready to start and we hurried over to watch it. For people visiting the park, this is a must see. Combining fun and acrobatics is a winning recipe and had me laughing and clapping the entire time.

When we arrived that morning, Raven and Legend weren't open. As we were watching the Dive Show, we noticed that Raven was running. After the divers took their bows, we hurried up to get in line. Here is a simple concept for theme parks- make the que line narrow and that cuts down on linejumping! This ride is a blast. We rode it in the back seat. Fast, cool turn over Lake Rudolph and the neat sound of hearing the upstop wheels spinning when we screeched to a stop at the end. Most fun!

We walked over to the Scrambler and took a spin on it then decided to do a little shopping. We went up to the glassblowing shop. There is a lady there making glass ornaments and barometers. You can walk up to her and nothing separates you but a plate of glass. She explained what she was doing and that she was making an old fashioned barometer shaped like a swan. Basically, when it rains, colored water goes up into the neck of the swan. We decided we wanted to have them make a decoration with our names on it. The saleslady was wonderful and helped us pick out the right colors and ornament to decorate it. Best of all, we stood and watched it made right in front of us. The whole process took an hour (allowing enough time for the paint to dry). We took the chance to eat a piece of fudge and browse through the toy museum there.

Something to note here is that there is a mailbox in the glassblowing shop. Make sure to buy a postcard, write a note, and drop it in. All the letters collected in the box will be mailed on December 15th. We wrote a cheesy postcard to ourselves. By the time Christmas rolls around, we will have forgotten about it and it will be a nice surprise.

After driopping off our treasure in the car, we headed over to ride the spider. While not as awesome as the one at Camden Park, it was alot of fun. We took another lap on Voyage and the Turkey Whirl as well. Since it was getting close to the evening program to start, we walked over to Pilgrim's Plunge and snapped some pictures before heading over to the picnic grove.

We were welcomed by Paula, Mrs. Koch and Will Koch. They thanked each of us for coming out and gave us a rundown on the event ahead of us. With a smile, Will told us that Legend, which had been down all day, had been fixed thanks to a hardworking crew and it was making some test runs. We broke into a round of applause. He then began to explain what was going on with Pilgrim's Plunge as it had been down as well. A machine that had to do with the lift elevators had malfunctioned. The part had to be sent to Switzerland to be fixed and was on it's way back via UPS. He laughed and said he had been checking the UPS site all day and that it had made it's way to a UPS stop in Indiana, but when he called, the man on the phone said it wasn't there yet. However, he promised that when the truck rolled in at five in the morning, he would go out and check the shipments. If the part was there, Will would jump in the car and go get it so the part could be installed and the ride ready to roll when the ride opened in the morning.

At that point, the park had been cleared and we were given the go ahead and begin the evening session of ERT. Naturally, we headed over to Legend and give it a whirl before it got dark. Fun ride. Rougher than Raven, but the twisting through the woods was great and the sound effects provided some good atmosphere.

With tummies rumbling, we headed up to Kringle's Cafe for supper. We were treated to some yummy pizza, veggie with dip, chips, and fudge. Before I knew it, my loaded plate was empty and we were ready to ride again. Since it was close, we headed back over and took another three rides on Raven. We hopped over and took another spin on Legend as well.

We then headed over for a night ride on Voyage. I love me some nighttime coaster rides and Voyage did not dissapoint. We stayed up near the front and did three rides on it. It was getting a little late, and we made our way back towards the front of the park. We grabbed another ride on Legend and ended the evening with five rides on Raven (and we didn't have to give up our seat once).

That is the end of day one. I will type up day two in the morning and post pictures as well as a YouTube Link for Pilgrim's Plunge that we took. Thanks for reading!!

[Hoeter]

I enjoyed reading Day 1....Holiday World sounds like a park worth checking out and Holliwood Nights sounds like fun as well. I'll have to head down that way and check it out. I'm looking forward for Day 2!

[Beast79]

I don't think anyone could ever say anything bad about Holiday World!

[gigacoaster2k]

I'm glad you had so much fun. I wasn't able to make it up there Friday night, but I sure as heck enjoyed myself Saturday.

I absolutely fell head over heels for Voyage's ride experience.. Legend was a sweet ride too. I'm not sure I enjoyed Raven as much, I thought it was too short. Pilgrims Plunge was pretty awesome. And the theming throughout the park is so well done.. it's colorful and eye catching too. I really have nothing bad to say about Holiday World.

[cassie_KY]

Day Two

We had to get up early to get to Holiday World at our designated time. For those who are thinking of staying at the Comfort In in Ferdinand, the hotel is in the Eastern Time Zone while the park is on Central Time even though they are seven miles away from each other. Out poor cell phones kept switching back and forth as we traveled between the two zones.

We arrived at the park ready for breakfast and some water fun. Mrs. Kock personally walked us back to Spashin' Safari. We were greeted with tables of breakfast goodness that included muffins, fresh fruit, juice, milk, and coffee. I'm not a fan of heavy breakfast food, so this was perfect. We ate and people watched then headed over to claim some chairs at the wave pool.

We headed up to one of the sunscreen stations and then wandered over to the lazy river. Will had said the water temperature was 81 degrees. Fibber! Great talent that I am, I managed to get in my tube without getting anything but my feet wet. We took a few laps around (I could have stayed there all day, but Nathan wanted to hit up some of the other attractions). We headed back over to the wavepool. I stretched out to catch some rays while Nathan tested the water. His verdict- lots of fun and the waves aren't so violent they will knock you down.

I failed to mention that when we drove in that morning, there were trucks parked around Pilgrim's Plunge. Goobers that we are, we cheered in the car because the part had arrived (thanks to Will's incredible journey to fetch it). As I was sunning myself, I heard some screams and looked up to see Pilgrim's Plunge drop. Naturally, we had to head that way.

The walk over to Pilgrim's Plunge, you realize that thing is TALL. I felt like I was being herded due to the insanely high concrete walls. When we made it to the station, there was about a 20 minute wait for the ride. I noticed that ride lockers at Holiday World are free. After dropping off my sunglasses, we got in line. There is a ride op there helping assign seats to balance the ride. Watch your footing because the boat doesn't stop unleass needed; You catch it on the fly. We hopped in and pulled down our lap bars. The ride out to the lift is really fast. You pull up to the elevator and the boat is guided onto the lift. There is a dual elevator. While one is going up, the other comes down. That explains why the supports on the ride bend out (to allow enough room for the elevators to pass each other). We rode up the lift and before we knew it, we were ready. The drop is alot of fun, however, the water was COLD! Our group yelled more from the shock of the cold water hitting us than being scared. Overall, fun water ride best saved for those hot days.

At that point, we had about an hour and a half until the photo walk backs. We changed clothes and carried out stuff out to the car. Then, it was time for lunch. We had been teased by the smells coming from Plymouth rock for a day and a half so we headed there. Who can turn down Thanksgiving dinner and your choice of all the trimmings? Nathan got a turkey leg while I had the turkey. He asked for an ear of corn as a side and instread of a cobbette like we were expected, he got a whole ear that tasted like it had just come from the garden. All in all, it was filling, tasty, and less than $20.

At that point, we headed over to the entrance of Splashin' Safari for our first Photo Walkback of Raven and Legend. That was a definite high point. We were allowed ample time to snap all the picture we want. It was really interesting to see the ride from angles most other park guest don't. While we stayed on the path, we were still able to get really close as the trains roared by.

From there, we walked over to Plymouth Rock and got ready for our Photo Walkback of Voyage. Even more opportunities to snap some really good pictures. I was walking next to this really tall skinny guy. I was half listening to his conversation and he was talking with another person about how Voyage was designed and some of the different elements. It turns out, he was Korey from the Gravity Group who had designed the ride. We ended up in the middle of a cluster of people gathered around Korey. Paula walked over and wanted to know what the bottleneck was all about. When she saw Korey, she laughed and called him a troublemaker. We all headed back out, snapping our last photos along the way.

There was about two hours left before the evening activities cimmenced. I challenged Nathan to another round at Gobbler Getaway. I made sure we got a front row seat that time. Final score- 1200 for me and 320 for Nathan! We then grabbed another ride on Voyage and hopped back on the Turkey Whirl.

We wandered around and snapped a few more photos and bought some postcards to take home. We dropped those off at the car and picked up a sweater for me and a rain slicker for Nathan because the sky was looking a little ominous. Another ride on Raven and Legend followed.

We headed over to the picnic grove and checked out the items in the silent auction. The smell of supper proved all powerful so we headed up to see what dinner had in store. More veggies, hamburgers, fried chicken, baked beans, mac and cheese, BBQ sandwiches, cookies and brownies were the order of the day. I usually don't eat fried chicken, but Holiday World's rivaled my granny's "tickled chicken!"

At that point, it was dark and started to rain. Paula came on the microphone and told us that Will was standing on the bridge being a weather spotter and said it looked like it would blow over us. Guess what- rain, hail, thunder, and lightning soon surrounded us. Not just rain, a downpour. We all hung out in the building and waited for it to blow over. To take our minds off it, we had a life auction. The first was half an hour each with two of the guys from Gravity Group.They are so good natured and seemed to be having a ball even though this event was technically a work outing for them. Two Holiday World director's chairs were auctioned off. Then, they auctioned off a Holiday World Flag from the 2008 season. The capstone of the event was an original rendering of Legend. This was when the big money came to play as there are only two in existence (and Korey has the other). Bids increased by $50, then $100 and topped off at $500. I didn't mention this earlier, but all proceeds from the auctions went to the Christmas World Museum.

After the auction, the weather had died down. People had their phones out checking the radar. I had my fingers crossed that they wouldn't cancel the ERT. At 10PM, a gentleman in the room stood up and said Paula had just tweeted that they were test running the coasters. You couldn't hear for the cheers! Everyone stood up getting ready to head out.

When we were given the ok to go, Nathan and I took off for Voyage. We got on the second car of the day. As people have read, that was a ride experience to top all others. The coaster felt alive as it raced through the woods. Instead of slowing down, it felt like it kept going faster. As it kept getting darker, the ride became more intense.

We had been watching the sky for some time. Lightning could be seen in the distance. It was slowly coming closer, but the ride-ops didn't stop the ride so we just kept riding. As we crested the first lift hill, lightning streaked across the sky just as we dropped. Amazing. We kept riding. We were treated to a light show like none other. The absolute best moment was back in the woods diving through the tunnels. A blast of lightning flashed as we dove into the first tunnel. We came up and just as we started into the next tunnel, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. It was breathtaking. Best ride experience EVER.

We stopped our marathon of Voyage at ten rides. We took another lap on Legend and finished out our night with four rides on Voyage.

Holiwood Nights was an awesome experience. Great park, great people, and great coasters. I can't fault anything. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Thanks for reading these huge posts everyone. Now, time for some pictures!

Holiday World Slideshow

[kittenpooh]

you TR makes me want to take a trip to HW right now!! LOL I just cant believe that splash isn't bigger than what it is on pilgrims plunge!

[The Interpreter]

YAY...our beloved kittenpooh got her name back!