Holiwood Nights, Rumblefest, SFKK

[BoddaH1994]

This has been quite an adventure over the past few days...

SOB_Tom and myself met up with Dane, Zosobeast, TRTRGuy, and DeliriumDreamer down in KY, several miles south of where I live.

Zip forward several hours. We arrived at the front gates of Holiday World and I finally got to meet Pat Koch, who was a very nice lady. After entering, we rode the Haloswings which were... well, the Zephyr... then we rode Raven and Legend. I have to disagree with most of you in saying that the Legend was much better than the Raven. I found the Raven to be short and boring, while the Legend offered a ton of fun lateral Gs as well as pops of airtime. By this time, the park was closing to the GP and it was time to meet under the picnic grove for the ERTs.

There were over 1,000 people there for this event, filling three picnic shelters. Will Koch took the podium and went over some very important, but obvious, safety rules. He turned the mic over to Pat Koch who said a prayer with everyone and reminded us not to forget that the last time she prayed in front of this type of crowd, it wasn’t' such a happy occasion. I think it's really cool that they operate this way and integrate their type of family values into the park. The prayer thing is relatively unique and is something I totally support.

The ERTs kicked off and we headed directly for the Voyage. It wasn't too long of a wait and we were off riding the most eagerly anticipated coaster of the trip. Let me tell you, the ride is AWESOME. You rarely spend any time in your seat due to the constant airtime. The dark tunnels are great, and the ride does NOT let up. From the time you crest the hill to the time when you hit the final break run, it's nothing but an out of control, wild ride waiting to happen. Then we rode it at night... oh my god... after the first hill, you see NOTHING. You are thrown around and have no idea what's going to happen next. It's honestly what I thought a descent into hell would be like. All you can see are the stars. Best ride experience... ever.

We rode Gobbler's Getaway, which left a lot to be desired. Imagine if Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle were done just REALLY badly. This was clearly Scooby with half of the budgets and you're shooting at cardboard cutouts with the same kind of targets as the ride mentioned above. Of course you're not SHOOTING at them, you're using a turkey caller to call them out, which actually looks a lot like a Telexon Gun, for those of you who have worked retail. Ariel even dubbed it "Cracker Barrel: The Ride".

Anyway, after several ERT rides on their major coasters, we headed back to our campsite at Lake Rudolf where we tipped a few glasses (to say the least) and crashed out for our morning ERT in Spashin' Safari.

The ERT was pretty fun. They have a nice little waterpark that anyone can enjoy. The only disappointing part was the new Action River. It's like our Lazy Miami, except less eventful. The best part of the ERT was seeing this guy who was doing the water attractions wearing a full body wet suit... hilarious.

Tom, Dane, and I headed back to the campsite only to find Bill completely passed out in his tent. We poked him with some sticks to mess with him for a while then we went out to find the closest Wal-Mart. This ended up being a three-hour fiasco since the next Wal Mart was well over 40 miles away. We went to Wally World and picked up several things that we needed for camping and headed back only to find Bill still passed out in his tent. I went into mine to change my clothes only to overhear a now-awakened Bill yell out "Hey, does she have a Monkey?!?"

::Warning: Sexually Explicit Content::

I got out of my tent quickly to find that a couple that had been walking down the path did in fact have a pet monkey. It really was the cutest thing ever. We took turns petting it, and when it was my turn, it ran up my arm and gave me a big kiss on the lips! Dane of course took a photo of the monkey with its paws on my face with his phone. The monkey then took Dane phone and started to chew on it! The owner had to pry the phone out of the monkey's hand and rewarded its surrender of Dane's phone with a Starburst.

We then set out towards Holiday World again. This time we were early enough to hit a few more rides before the ERTs. I particularly like the Liberty Launch and their flume, which we rode twice. We also did the Revolution ride, which was fun as well. After those rides, a few more on the Raven and Legend, and a now-famous night ride on the Voyage, we set off back towards the campsite.

The next morning, we kissed Holiday World goodbye and headed out on a two-hour trek towards Beech Bend in Bowling Green, KY.

Beech Bend is hard to describe. It's almost like a Zamperla showroom. Almost all of their rides are mobile Zamperla carnival attractions, which puts the whole NU looking like a carnival theory to shame. Seriously, give me a big rig and I can have that park GONE in an hour.

One of the first things that we rode was the Kentucky Rumbler. The footprint of the ride is extremely small, but the ride is surprisingly lengthy with all things considered. It has an incredible amount of crossovers and even a station flyby. It uses the new Millennium Flyer trains, which are the most comfortable trains ever. Seriously, it's like sitting on a couch. The ride packs a lot of pops of airtime and is a heck of a little coaster.

We headed to our hotel for check in, which is where I typed the preliminary post. We all managed to get showers in and headed back to the park.

Once we got to the park, we rode their kiddy coaster, which is similar to Boa Squeeze. The train would barely make it around the track and it seemed like it wanted to roll back constantly. The ride op was clearly experience in what he does and strategically placed people in the train, mainly with heavier people towards the front. Next was their old classic dark ride, which was exactly what you think of with old dark rides.. 2-3 man cars that slam through double doors to find random haunted scenes. This one banked more on you jumping as a result of random loud buzzers that would go off... Dane especially like this attraction.

Heading farther down the midway we reached a ride called Scat 2 (no, I did NOT make that up). It's a g-force driven ride with two spinning cages which rotate on opposing arms. We climbed aboard that ride and had a fun little painful experience only to have the ride stop half way through the cycle. The ride op was hitting random buttons trying to restart the ride with little to no success. Finally, we asked if we could get out of our pods (this has HW's 'Revolution' style seating arrangements) and we all sat on the floor waiting for the mechanic. Finally, they managed to get the ride in motion slightly.. enough to get my pod semi-close to the platform. We all jumped off of it and helped physically push the ride in its circular motion so Dane, Bill, and Bobby could get off. All in all, it was a 20 minute ordeal, but the ride op and his sup (who were a man and a woman in their golden years) were very nice about it, apologized for the ride breaking down, and were very appreciative that we helped push the ride.

We rode the Looping Star next, and this ride is a work.. I mean a piece... let's say a piece that needs work. Imagine a Galaxy coaster with a loop. Oh yeah, imagine that this Galaxy coaster has some sort of vendetta against you and decided to grab you and beat the living heck out of you... that's the Looping Star. We got on and I tried to hand the ride op my cup of ice.. I really did. He refused to take it when he checked my lap bar so it went off with me. I was able to hold onto it down the first hill, but as soon as we went up the return hill... let's just say I remember seeing pieces of ice floating in the air before they landed in random spots all over the train.

Next we rode Moby Dick which is kind of like a Huss Rainbow, except it only has one row and seats upwards of 30 people horizontally. We had a little fun on it yelling 'WEEEEEEEE!!" as it spun clockwise and "WHOOOAAA!!" as it spun counter clockwise. We got the whole ride doing it, and even the ride up got into it and started setting the ride at the top and picking a random a random direction for the ride vehicle to spin in an attempt to foil our plan.. it didn't work.

Next we rode their spinning wild mouse, which is always a fun and painful experience. The cars sat 4, but we only packed in SOB_Tom, Dane, and myself. The offset weight of the car caused it to spin uncontrollably for a very long time. Dane got a kick out of the redneck ride op that said something along the lines of, "Boy, you guys got that mofo spinnin'!!"

We headed over to the picnic grove where they had a catered dinner that was outstanding. There they also had several door prizes for Rumber gear, but no one in my immediate group won.

After that, we headed over for another painful ride on Looping Star and got one final ride on Kentucky Rumber, this time at night, and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we tipped a few more glasses and then had a lot of loud fun... mainly wrestling with Dane in the room. I'm shocked we weren't evicted.

The next day we set off for our last leg of the trip: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. For those of you who have been around for a while, you may remember my last trip report from this place, which was negative and lengthy. With Shapiro taking over the chain, I came expecting improvement but of course was disappointed for the most part.

Upon entering the park, we saw several walk around characters -- good thing! Then we saw these characters walk in groups right past all sorts of guests, both young an old. The characters were out there for good PR, not to improve the guest experience -- bad thing.

We rode all of their major rides, Chang, the oh so wonderful T2 which I always swear I'll never ride again, Twisted Twins, and of course Thunder Run. Thunder Run was great, it's a low capacity, one train coaster that is constantly being delayed because the ride op kept stopping to joke around with her friends. This delayed each train up to about 5 minutes since her friends kept on running around the exit and getting into empty seats. If I were her boss, I would have fired her on the spot, but clearly Six Flags, at least KY Kingdom, doesn't have that type of commitment to quality or safe ride ops. They dispatched and it sent me to the most turbulent ride I had ever been on. If SOB at its worst was your grandma spanking you, this ride is your 300lb father beating you as a toddler.

After having one terrible experience after another, Tom and I decided to call it quits and head out. Upon leaving, I went to get my bottle refilled and the Coke machine was out of the syrup. The lady named Jean who worked the booth was very apologetic and changed it out. Her sup, AJ, noticed we were standing at the window for a long time and asked what the problem was. We told him and also told him about how well Jean handled the situation and he told her to change the syrup, and offer us any food item we wanted. THAT is good service. It wasn't even a long wait, and we were far from frustrated with the extra 5 minutes. This shows that Shapiro may actually have made a tiny mark on the park, but the park is so used to being the trailer park of Six Flags that it's hard to set in.

Tom dropped my off at my house in the cornfields of Edgewood, KY and we called it a trip.

Thanks for reading my rambling!

Regards,

Ryan

[Dane]

I'm so tired I can't even comment.

But I am "tippin glasses" still.

[TheKlockster]

Sounds like a good trip. I have to agree with you about Legend being better than Raven. Glad you guys had fun.

[SOB_TOM]

Ive gatta say that this was one very VERY interesting trip. When I was asked to go (something about Ryan killing others at HW didnt sit well with me) I really didnt think that the group would be this interesting. The only thing that I didnt like was KK.

Just for those who want some sort of reference, imagion going to PKI and have the ride ops (all except for Beast) decided to boycott the park by working as slow as they can. THEN put on top of that they were too busy asking each other over the microphones in the station while deep throating them "Will you stay later?" It was worse than that. I have been to KK just a couple of times BUT there had to have been better service than this. It was awful.

Now onto the things I liked:

The Beast, as much as it hurts me to say this, has been beaten on my list. I like The Beast, but I love the Voyage. Im planning at least one more trip there just to ride that ride, probabily another weekend.

Beech Bend was fun, but I didnt like the fact that two of their coasters could barely make it around the track kinda concerned me. I liked KY Rumbler but I guess since I was used to the Voyage it kinda brought the experience down. I would have to rank it as #4 on my list.

Well, I will stop talking cause Ryan really nailed the trip. Well done my friend.

Thomas Michael Patrick "Jayson" Wilson Jr.

[BoddaH1994]

That monkey was SO cute. I want one in the worst way now.

[ZosoBeast]

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a very very long time. Voyage is the best wooden coaster I have ever been on.

Highlights:

Voyage

Getting stuck on Scat 2

Rumbler

Greased Lightning (not sure why, but I can ride that all day!!!)

The Monkey

Friday night

Lowlights:

The rest of Holiday World (a tad bit over rated)

Taking the LONG way to get home

SFKK

Friday night

To the guys, thanks for inviting me along on your trip. I really REALLY needed it!

William Wilbur Ware Jr

[TRTR Guy]

The rest of Holiday World (a tad bit over rated)

Taking the LONG way to get home

Quit your wining.

[Jasper]

Sound slike Six Flags Kentuck Kingdom has made a big turnaround because when iwas up ther ethey were arrogant buttholes. But they had absolutely nothign to be arrogant about.

[ZosoBeast]

The rest of Holiday World (a tad bit over rated)

Taking the LONG way to get home

Quit your wining.

Quit my wining? Dude, you took a simple 5 min drive down Colerain Ave into an extra 20min trek? We were all tired and just wanted to get home. Dane and I had another hour drive to go and your lolly gagging around I-74!? I simply think you forgot your exit and didnt want to look stupid in front of the OTHER people in the car. Namely the other one in the front seat. But whatever....

I guess if that was the only real big time negative thing to happen on the trip, then I had a pretty good time.

But next time, screw all that, I am driving!

/rant

[TRTR Guy]

Dude thats the way I always go, so i don't have to deal with the traffic on Colerain.

Anywys, as far as Kentucky KIngdom is concerned, they've improved, but still have a far way to go. Chang looks nice with the new paint job, all rides with 2 trains had both trains running, both sidesw of twisted twins was running.

Things they still need to improve on: Associate attitudes, on Thunder Run the one worker was screaming to her friends accross the station. On Greezed Lightning, they ran some cycles with people standing right next to the track on the unload side of the station. Also T2 is rougher then ever now, its even rough going up the lift.

[TheKlockster]

Two questions for TRTR Guy.

Were any associates talking on their cell phones during ride cycles?

Did you get a money shot?

[DeliriumDreamer]

Okay, now for my two cents worth:

Bobby and I had a bit of a different experience during this trip, considering we went to nearly ALL of the events and ERTs involved in the trip, and not out in boofoo trying to find cervecas. I did get some nice pics of Voyage from the walkback tour, and I thoroughly enjoyed the late night rides on Voyage in the dark. (...And to think I've never heard a grown man scream like a little girl!) The Voyage has to be THE number one wooden coaster on my list. It out-does every wood coaster I've ever ridden!

Considering it was extremely hot outside, myself, some personal friends of mine, and Bobby all rode Gobbler Getaway quite a few times- as it is the only air-conditioned ride in the park. I didn't mind the ride too much after I rode it a few times. The only thing that got me was the semi-realistic animatronic grandmother in the que. People who know me considerably well should know why I had such a problem with this the first few times riding. BTW- I believe Dane dubbed it "Cracker Barrel: The Ride".

I got a pretty big holi-burn from staying out at splashin safari too long- as I spent a good deal of my time either treading water at Bahari (so sue me, I'm small), or trying to convince one of my friends to actually go someplace that is more than waist-deep. My only qualm here was that the Bahari Action River was nothing more than a lazy river, and it wasn't that much fun. Everything else in the waterpark rocked!

There is only so much I can comment on as to what we all did at night... Let's just say we did a lot of celebrating and toasting to Runaway Reptar (and Beast).

This trip was my very first time camping. I had quite a bit of fun, and it probably would have been better had the bathrooms not been about a quarter of a mile away from our tent site, and not so many bugs. I honestly didn't mind sharing a tent with Bill and Dane, and I really liked making s'mores and tipping our glasses around a campfire. It was very relaxing, but not as comfortable (and sanitary) as a hotel. Lake Rudolph is definitely a good place to go camping if you like camping, and they have separate sections for RV's, trailers, tent sites, and cabins.

At the end of the last night of Holiwood nights, Bobby, a few friends, and myself marathonned the Raven- 6 rides in a row without getting off! There were some points in the ride where I felt those laterals were going to kill me - which explains why I was screaming like a little girl.

Beech Bend, as said before, is quite different than the other parks we've been to. Their log flume has BLUE water. You have to make a two dollar deposit to play miniature golf (you get your two dollars back when you return the ball). Looping Star- wow. I can sum up this coaster in one word- ouch. I rode next to Ryan on our first ride. The ride operator didn't really bother to notice that my OTSR was several inches above my body. It wasn't close to touching me. I did pull it down a little further, but overall, everyone had problems with this ride. It's painful. Nuff said. Getting stuck on Scat 2 had to be one of the highlights of our trip to this park. It's an okay park if you want to bring a family for some inexpensive fun, but don't bother going there for some high-quality thrills. Yes, it does have a Gravitron and Kentucky Rumbler, and their (spinning) Wild Mouse, but those are probably the only good rides in the park.

Kentucky Kingdom was a half day trip. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't worth the full day. We rode everything we possibly could, and got out of there. My highlights from there were: most of the operators, especially the ones on their skycoaster and the ones in the gift shop I went into were really friendly, RollerSkater, and buying a really cool rollercoaster building set for 19 dollars. Chang was painful yet colorful, T2 was REALLY painful, the operators (especially the driver) on Thunder run were disrespectful and need to learn to use a mic properly, the driver on T2 had no idea what he was doing, and, as usual, the park was dirty.

As far as the ACE events go- everything they scheduled was really good. One person in our group and myself found the prayer before the ERT to be a little disrespectful towards other religions, but her speech was still good. It emphasized the importance of not wearing fanny packs on coasters. I love that. The walkback was great, the ERT's on Raven, Legend, Voyage, and Gobbler Getaway were well worth our time and HW's fudge is heavenly.

~Ariel L. Stein~

(aka: SkycoasterDreamer or Deliriumdreamer or whatever you want to call me now...)

[SOB_TOM]

So I screamed like a little girl. Whats wrong with that?

I believe the way Ryan summed it up was "He was screaming and laughing, so it wasnt too bad."

[BoddaH1994]

One person in our group and myself found the prayer before the ERT to be a little disrespectful towards other religions, but her speech was still good. It emphasized the importance of not wearing fanny packs on coasters. I love that. The walkback was great, the ERT's on Raven, Legend, Voyage, and Gobbler Getaway were well worth our time and HW's fudge is heavenly.

I don't see how you found it disrespectful. Although you could clearly tell that she was Christian, her prayer was almost entirely universal. Personally, I wouldn't care if she prayed to Mohammed or Budda for our safety, it doesn't mean that it's disresptful to anyone. I would encourage you to concentrate less on feeling offended by good intentions and be more thankful for the fact that this family is so concerned with our safety that they would do what a lot would consider going out on a limb of political correctness in today's world in order to "seal the deal" with whatever god you believe in. I would understand being offended if there was some mention of names or devine figures but there wasn't. I stand by my statement before. The fact that there was a prayer was neat and in wonderful taste.

Don't worry, you're still my favorite Sky Coaster Captain!

[The Interpreter]

And the park went on with the second day of the event, even though they had just had a death in the park.

Holiday World is a class act. A family. And they care.

As far as I am concerned, Pat Koch, Will and anyone else who runs a park can pray to whomever they choose. Especially for safety. For us all.

[TheKlockster]

That is like saying Winterfest is disrespectful to religions.

I think it was a good idea. I mean if you're not into that thing - you can always just brush it off. They're not forcing anything on you. One of the things that makes Holiday World so great is the fact its family owned and operated - and run with good values.

I personally am not religious - but I am not offended by other peoples displays of religion.

[SOB_TOM]

Lets not bring religion into the forums. Lets just say that two in the group did not feel comfortable with the prayer, and leave it at that.

Just as long as you remember the quote:

"You got that Mother ****** spinnin`!"

[TheKlockster]

So you could say at the trip - you were "ridin spinnaz"?

[ZosoBeast]

Dane....tell them about the full moon!!

[SOB_TOM]

Bill, the only full moon I remember was you going to HW.

[BoddaH1994]

Just be glad we couldent get the camera out fast enough...