May 15, 2014: Holiday World Free Day PTR (with presumed 2015 clues)

[jcgoble3]

The ACE Spring Coaster Con is in the region this weekend, and Paula Werne, the PR director at Holiday World found out that quite a few coaster enthusiasts would be in their area around the end of this week. So Holiday World said, hey, how about y'all join us on Thursday for free? Well, maybe not those words, but free admission is what they indeed offered to anyone who presented a valid membership card for an approved partner club yesterday. They also threw in a free meal and a Voyage tour. Oh, and they also stressed—repeatedly—that you did NOT want to miss the Voyage tour. When word got out on opening weekend that some trees had been cleared near Voyage's second and third drops, the speculation began that those on the tour would get the first up-close look at construction for a major project for 2015.

But more on that later, because this day began at 5:00 AM EDT, a time when I'm normally starting to drift off to sleep. Instead, this is when my alarm went off. Well, two alarms, to be specific, as I had also set my cell phone's alarm as a backup in case I slept through my alarm clock, which I have been known to do. Fortunately, a noise outside woke me up at 4:53, so I was already awake when my alarm went off. I was dressed, had my stuff gathered together, and was out the door by 5:30 EDT for the four-hour drive to Holiday World.

I drove straight through without stopping, encountering some mild construction traffic on I-71 and some rush-hour traffic in Louisville that added a combined 10 to 15 minutes to my drive time. I pulled into the Raven parking lot at Holiday World at 8:40 AM CDT, four hours and ten minutes after leaving my driveway. A trip to the bathroom and a stop at Guest Services later, I was checked in and had my free ticket, as well as a slip of paper telling me when and where to meet for the Voyage tour.

Entering the park, I first went to the In-Park Services window, where I put $50 off my credit card onto a HoliCash wristband so I wouldn't have to fumble around with my credit card the rest of the day. I then hit Kringle's Kafe for breakfast: a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit sandwich, a generous serving of hash browns (essentially star-shaped tater tots), and of course all the free soft drinks I could drink (not much at that point). Total cost for the entire meal: $4.48, including tax. Now, at what other amusement or theme park can you get a complete meal for under five bucks? None that I know of, except maybe Stricker's Grove. The meal was charged to my wristband, which worked perfectly without any problem (remember that).

After sufficiently filling my stomach, I headed to the Raven, as it was now after 9:00 and the rides were open. Walking right into the station, I waited two trains for the back seat. This would in fact be my longest wait of the entire day, even though all three coasters were operating with only a single train all day. Raven was running really well for a coaster of its age, and especially so for that early in the morning on a cold day. I wish I could honestly say it was one of my better rides on it, but I've been spoiled by way too many awesome night rides at HoliWood Nights. Even so, it was still a great ride.

At this point, I had to walk back up to the Christmas section to use the bathroom, and also walked back up to the gate to grab a park map (I collect park maps for each park I go to each year I go to them). While at the gate, I decided to go out to my car and retrieve my camera, since I know I have a tendency to lose track of time in an amusement park and didn't want to be rushed in trying to run out, grab the camera, and get back to Voyage in time for the tour.

Once back inside, I started riding more rides. I don't recall what order I rode them in, but throughout the day, I had two laps on Raven (including the one I described two paragraphs above), one on Legend (front seat walk-on), several on Voyage (more on that in a moment), Scarecrow Scrambler, HallowSwings, Revolution, Gobbler Getaway, and Turkey Whirl. Also making my ride list was the Lewis and Clark Trail (their antique cars), which normally does not permit single riders, but due to the literal complete lack of any line at all, they let me ride solo. That was my first time driving one of their cars, and my leg was tired from holding down the pedal. That pedal takes a surprising amount of strength to push it down and hold it down, and by the end of the course I was straining to keep going. Except for my first Raven ride, literally every single ride the rest of the day was a walk-on. Based on the large proportion of enthusiasts I saw and the total number of people who attended the free day event (about 150), I would estimate their total attendance for the entire day at around 500 to 700. I would be thoroughly surprised if total attendance reached four figures.

Following one of my Voyage rides in the morning, I stopped in the Voyage gift shop to look around, and decided to buy a waterproof case for my phone. The cashier tried to scan my wristband, but it wouldn't register in the system at first, so she called her supervisor over. The supervisor tried it, and it worked the first time for her. I chalked it up as a new employee still learning things that probably was hitting the wrong button, since the wristband worked fine at breakfast. I tried out the case right there in the gift shop, but it was a pain in the *** to use; it was nearly impossible to hit my power button (the first step of unlocking my phone), and then the clear plastic part of the case that covers the screen refused to lay flat on the screen, making it impossible to draw my unlock pattern because my finger would hit a bump/air bubble in the plastic and lose contact with the screen, breaking the pattern. I ended up putting it back in the box and returning it for a refund, on which my wristband worked perfectly the first time.

I also grabbed three rides on Mayflower, the new swinging ship ride. Mayflower is smaller than Viking Fury here at KI, but also more intense. Riders in the back row on either side actually get a short, but surprising, pop of airtime when their side hits the top. Another unique thing about Mayflower is that they actually have and enforce a rule that you MUST keep your hands on the lap bar at all times during the ride. On my first ride, the operator actually issued a reminder of this rule over the P.A. system when another person on the ride raised their hands into the air. I personally didn't mind, since it's not a type of ride that I normally raise my hands on anyway, but I wonder what the reason for it is.

On each of my Voyage rides, I was looking off to the side of the track at the new clearings near the second and third drops. It was pretty obvious that there had been quite a bit of trees cleared, but it was difficult to see details while speeding along at upwards of 60 mph. A close look would have to wait until the tour.

Just before noon, it started to rain again (it had been sprinkling when I arrived, but stopped around 10:00). I briefly took cover in the Liberty Shoppe to check radar on my phone, and then decided to buy a $3.99 poncho. The cashier scanned my wristband, and once again it would not register in the system. She tried several different things, even inputting it manually, but could not get it to work. She called her supervisor, who also tried it and failed. I showed them my receipts to prove that there was money on it, and they kept trying and eventually got it to work and got the transaction to go through.

The supervisor suggested that I go back up to the front of the park and get the wristband replaced, which I was already planning on doing as soon as I realized that we were having trouble with it again. I went up to In-Park Services, and the lady there happily transferred my remaining funds to a new wristband. I then hit Kringle's again for lunch, where I got a slice of sausage pizza, two breadsticks, and a cup of garlic butter dipping sauce for a total of $8.01 after tax. Again, very reasonable food prices. The new wristband worked without a problem.

After lunch, I watched the diving show. I found it to be surprising that they would run the diving show on a weekday in May, especially one that cold; I had thought it would be weekends-only right now. Paula later told me that only a couple of the performers in the show are local and that the rest are from quite a ways away, so once they're in town, they might as well just keep it going. The show was basically the same as in previous years, including the same script for the comedy routine, but it was one of the better performances I've seen of it.

Following the show, it was 1:00, and I had one hour to kill before the tour. I snagged a few more rides, including another Mayflower ride and another Voyage ride, before meeting up with everyone else at Plymouth Rock Cafe. Yes, it's now picture time!

Getting ready for the tour, from left to right: Matt, Leah, Lori, and Paula at the right edge of the frame. Lori seems to be wearing an extra layer between her coat and uniform; maybe she wouldn't need that extra layer if she had on long pants instead of shorts?

Paula gathered the group, talked for a few minutes, then had two of their Coaster Cats (the maintenance team for the coasters) lead us backstage.

Train coming down the first drop:

I spy, with my little eye, a train:

Here's the first clearing, at the bottom of the second drop:

First two drops, with a train coming down the first drop:

Same train as in the previous photo, this time on the second drop:

Clearing at the bottom of the third drop (entrance to the first tunnel):

If you look at this photo really, really closely (you'll need a computer, not a phone or iPod), you can just barely make out the top of a half-buried box in almost the dead center of this photo. You may have to click the photo to view it larger on Flickr, and possibly even click the menu button, choose download/all sizes, and select the original file (which is sideways), in order to see it clearly. That box will be important shortly.

Another look at this clearing, with the third drop in the picture for location context (the box is again just barely able to be made out to the left-center):

Train at the base of the second drop:

Same train exiting the first tunnel:

Entering the turnaround area:

Another angle, first over...

...and then under:

At this point, I saw a big crowd gathered at the second clearing, so I rushed up there to see what was going on. A boy had spotted the box, and they were leading him out there to dig it up:

They finally got it out of the ground...

...and looked inside, without showing us what was inside:

There was clearly a bunch of paper inside. One of them commented that they would need to take it away for study, and they walked away with the box. As they did, they dropped some of the paper on the ground, and I immediately picked one up:

I showed it to people around me, and another KICer, violakat03, tried the website on her phone, but got a page not found error on the Holiday World website. I walked the rest of the way back without taking any more photos, thinking about it. By the time we got out of the backstage area, it was 3:00 and the park was closed to the public; they had used the Voyage tour to sequester us from the general public so they could clear the public out of the park.

But the tour, to my surprise, wasn't over yet! To be continued in the next post...

[jcgoble3]

Instead of being led back to the Thanksgiving midway, we took a left, walked past Hyena Falls, and out into the field where the hay rides to the corn maze were set up last October. Turning to the right, they led us out onto the former site of Pilgrim's Plunge/Giraffica!

This is the approach channel to, and footers for, the lift tower:

What's left of the main footer for the drop chute:

Pump house:

Surprisingly, the pool surrounding the splash chute was still filled:

I assume these are more pumps:

This was one of the more interesting finds. Posted on a fence on the Giraffica site was this building permit:

It is for a waterpark expansion project, and was issued in October 2012, so it would be the permit used for building Hyena Falls. However, it is still posted now, over a year after Hyena Falls was completed, and shows an estimated completion date of April 2017. Very interesting. (It's also worth noting that this permit predates the Koch family troubles, and as such, lists Dan Koch as owner and president.)

Finally, they led us back to the Voyage entrance, at which point I assumed that it was time for ERT. Nope! With the Coaster Cats leading the tour, we were taken about 25 at a time on a tour of the Voyage station.

First stop, the control room under the station:

The white cabinets on the left hold the PLCs. They have two redundant PLCs, and the data from each must match the other one or the ride will not run. So if PLC #1 counts 6 cars and PLC #2 counts 7 cars, the ride will stop because of the disagreement.

There is a computer in the control room that does everything the control panel upstairs can do. Usually they will use the regular control panel, but sometimes it is useful to them to be able to monitor things without clogging up the station with maintenance personnel, in which case they will use the computer. There is a sticky note on the monitor:

Really secure. Of course, to even get to the computer in the first place, you have to pass through a locked door or two, so don't make plans to haunt Voyage just yet.

Next to the computer are all of the audio controls for Voyage:

After the tour of the control room, we were led through the loading station, across the front exit, and into the storage area. On the way, I snapped this pic:

Train sitting patiently, waiting for ERT;

Random brake at the back of the storage house:

Wheel assembly, showing how the trains sit up off of their wheels (and fresh grease):

Finally, we were actually allowed to go down the stairs and walk UNDERNEATH the train! Here's the underside of the first car:

Seen here (and also visible in the previous photo) are the anti-rollbacks on the first car:

Close-up of the anti-rollbacks and chain dog on the second car (Holiday World does not run chain dogs on the first car of the train):

Peeking at the front of the train from below:

On our way out, I had to take another photo from this angle:

At last, it was time for ERT. We got 30 minutes of ride time on Voyage, after they put the second train on the tracks. Even with two trains, there were just slightly too many people to stay on for consecutive laps, so I took my time. I got two rides at the start of the session, then relaxed on the midway for a little bit before grabbing a third ride at the end. On the third ride, one of the Coaster Cats jumped into the backseat with me when nobody else took it, so I got to ride with him. He was whooping and hollering the whole time and really enjoying the ride, which made it more fun for me too.

After ERT, we headed into the Plymouth Rock Cafe for a free dinner. While waiting for food to be ready, I spotted something familiar:

Could we get more clues during dinner? They set up the serving area as a self-serve buffet, with choice of green beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, gravy, chicken and dumplings, pulled ham, pulled turkey, chicken, salad, brownies, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. I filled my plate with chicken and dumplings, ham, green beans, and pumpkin pie.

As we were eating, they decided to open the box:

Lots and lots of paper:

With the help of the same kid as before, they pulled this out of the box:

Close-up:

It appears to be a very old, worn, and locked journal of some kind.

That was it. People started to trickle out, so I left. By this time it was nearing 6:00 CDT, and I had expected to be on the road by 5:00, so I was beginning to get tired. I stopped at Guest Services to get the remaining value of my HoliCash wristband refunded, then left. However, on my way out of the gate, I was handed this magnet:

May 19, 2014. That's this coming Monday. I will remember that.

I drove to the gas station down the street to fill up my tank, then hit the road at exactly 6:00 CDT. I finally pulled into my driveway at 10:50 EDT, and crashed into bed almost immediately.

Thanks for reading!

[BoddaH1994]

That web site now redirects to the Holiblog. She goes on way too long about secrets (including personal anecdotes) then implies that it's a coaster in '15.

Cool PTR!

[Diamondback96]

That web site now redirects to the Holiblog. She goes on way too long about secrets (including personal anecdotes) then implies that it's a coaster in '15.

Cool PTR!

For the record, "she" is Leah Koch, not Paula (whom "she" would usually refer to on the Holiblog).

I'm thinking a steel coaster. They already seem to have a good variety of wooden coasters in my opinion; they can't really go much bigger besides going with INTAMIN or RMC. The latter would probably work best for wooden coasters since they're doing new things, although I think a steel coaster would be much more marketable for HW.

[coasterfanatic83]

I need to get back there this summer. I miss that place!

[Oldiesmann]

Those photos of Voyage make me even more determined to make it to Holiday World this summer. Maybe in August or September...

[Colonel_SoB_fan]

Those photos of Voyage make me even more determined to make it to Holiday World this summer. Maybe in August or September...

They tell me to wait a year.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 Active using Tapatalk

[TombRaiderFTW]

1. Awesome PTR! It's nice to see some (great!) pictures attached to these reports we've been reading about Holiday World.

2. Am I the only one that is somewhat irrationally disappointed that the park has apparently given up on Voyage's seventh car? I personally feel like a back seat ride on the ride is this much more intense when there are seven cars instead of six.

[jcgoble3]

2. Am I the only one that is somewhat irrationally disappointed that the park has apparently given up on Voyage's seventh car? I personally feel like a back seat ride on the ride is this much more intense when there are seven cars instead of six.

I meant to ask about that during the station tour, but didn't get the chance. One of the maintenance guys did say that it only took 20 minutes to set things up when the 7th car was removed, because the station is already equipped with sensors for both 6- and 7-car trains. The 7-car sensors are still there, so there is still hope that we could get the 7th car back.

Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain

[BoddaH1994]

I imagine that they removed the 7th car to make a lighter train, kind of like how they did that with SOB many years ago.

[Dieseltech20]

That was a very in depth tour. Wish they did that at KI.

[Aaron88stang]

I imagine that they removed the 7th car to make a lighter train, kind of like how they did that with SOB many years ago.

I am assuming this would be to lessen wear on the track? I really like when they have the seventh car. It is my favorite seat

[zombieninja]

Very awesome trip report. It was a great read during my break at work today and made me wish I was there. I love your photos. Especially the up-close shots of the train.

[MantisMan]

Great report!!

[thedevariouseffect]

What do I need to do to get the clappy hands on my PTRs

[BoddaH1994]

I imagine that they removed the 7th car to make a lighter train, kind of like how they did that with SOB many years ago.

I am assuming this would be to lessen wear on the track? I really like when they have the seventh car. It is my favorite seat

Yep. And a less turbulent experience theoretically.

[Banshee Back VII]

I want a launched Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter to be announced on Monday.

[jcgoble3]

I strongly, strongly doubt that we'll get an announcement Monday. More likely, I think the announcement will be 66 days from Monday.

[Banshee Back VII]

I strongly, strongly doubt that we'll get an announcement Monday. More likely, I think the announcement will be 66 days from Monday.

Yeah, I know, but I'm just being optimistic.

[FOFreak]

Very good PTR. Descriptive, in-depth, and full of wonderful pictures. As a mechanical engineering major, I found the Voyage train pictures very intriging. Thank you. I wish I would have went.

As for the 66daysatsea site, I personally loved the post by Leah. Great to hear from Will's kids. I have a feeling that its safe to say a formal announcement will be 66 days from Monday. And until then, we will be tickled with 66 days of speculation and subtle (or not so subtle..) hints. Paula always seems to have a knack for finding ways to keep us enthusiasts on edge for weeks at a time when promoting a new addition.

[thoe124]

I thought The Voyage got Timberliner trains!

EDIT: Nevermind. Just read that Holiday World decided not to use them.