Let's Revisit "HOLIDAYFEST" at The Beach

[marlfox_21]

Well, on the 15th of December I graduated from the University of Florida!!!!! And following graduation I made my way on the fun 16 hour drive to Wilmington Ohio. On the 16th, I celebrated my second degree with some friends, and on the 3rd day, ( the 17th ) I made my way to "HOLIDAYFEST" at The Beach Waterpark. And as always, the simplicity of this place was all that I needed to get me into a good holiday Christmas Cheery Mood. Me, and my fiance, and my mom all purchased the 20 dollar pass which included one chance to do everything. So first, to avoid a line, we rode the paddle boats, which was very pleasant, and relaxing. Following this, we went up to observe the Nativity Scene, which I am very pleased to see The Beach present. Following watching the swans for about a minute, I had an uncomfy approach from an ex-girlfriend, but managed to overcome it. Following this we went Ice Skating, and I realized that YES... I really am that bad at ice skating. ( I'm much better at snow skiing. ) Despite my overwhelmingly laughable form of skating, I quite enjoyed the attempt. After nearly breaking my ankle on several attempts, I was once again in the safety of shoes and a solid non slick ground. Which I used to reach the petting zoo. But not before stopping to purchase some buy one get one free Dippin Dots Ice Cream cups. I purchased some feed for the animals, and petted almost everything, then we walked around and simply enjoyed all of the beautiful decorations. Icluding the model train sets. Then we decided that the only thing better than ice cream is Hot Chocolate. And with the whip cream, The Beach truly does provide the best. My mother got nachos, but had not eaten any ice cream. Then we went to ride the horse drawn carriage, which I have always enjoyed, but this year to be honest, I thought that the actors portraying the west at Christmas were actually more annoying than entertaining. And during their show, the 1st actor to talk to the group ( and the one to ride all of the way through ) was extremely not necessary. And in his part, he mentions how " the stars out west sure are pretty, not like those stars in the east" And with that I was thinking sure we are MID WEST, but

mostly kind of well...East. Anyways, the point that I am coming to is that I really liked the carriage ride better without the annoying storyline. Like in previous years. But I will happily take this as opposed to nothing at all.....UH HUM HUM HUM....cough...WINTERFEST....cough. After this we rode the Tobagan Slide, and then we went home. All in all, this was a very pleasant and very fullfilling trip. I give The Beach Waterparks "HOLIDAYFEST" 5 out of 5 stars.

[The Interpreter]

Congratulations on the degree and the impending marriage!

And thanks for a great trip report on Holidayfest!

[kjkjkj]

sounds like you guys had lot of fun. I just wish winterfest was still open.

[CoastersRZ]

Well, I made my innaugural visit to HolidayFest last night. Also in my company were Ryan (Boddah1994), Bill (ZosoBeast), and Ronny (CombatStupendous89). Bill, Ronny and myself lucked out when some nice gentleman gave us his three unneeded tickets for Holiday Fest in the parking lot, so we didnt have to pay the $12 admission fee. That is the thing that hurt WinterFest last year. Admission to The Beach`s HolidayFest is $12 at the gate, but they offer some pretty steep discounts if you order in advance online, or you have a group of 10 or more. A group of ten or more could get admission for $8 a person.

The toboggan slide was fun, and a little faster than I expected. They did have a lot of lights on the handrails of the steps up to many of their slides. They also had a lot of live animals scattered throughout, which is something that could have benefited WinterFest. We then rode the Berry Go Round, and got it spinning insanely fast. We checked out the ice rink, but didn`t skate as the rink was very crowded. Here is another example of them doing things right. A rink pass to skate on the rink was included with admission. If you didn`t have any skates, you could rent them for $6.

The last thing we did before leaving was rode the pedal boats in their lazy river. The line was a little long for it, but it was a unique attraction. The pedal boats are NOT the ones from Coney like I thought they were. All of Coney`s boats are blue in color (not white like half of the boats the Beach had) and are in better shape/newer than the ones the Beach had. Once in the boats it took a while, becuase the boat in the front of the pack was steered by two people that couldn`t quite get a handle on how to steer the thing, and kept turning it perpendicular to the trough (which having worked the pedal boats at Coney, it is not uncommon for people to have some difficulities steering the boats).

Overall, I had a fun time at Holiday Fest. However, there just didn`t seem to be as much activities as there was at WinterFest. Especially in the live entertainment department. No parade, or main stage musical production. But on the flipside, The Beach seemed to have more lights throughout the park compared to Kings Island last year. While it was fun, between WinterFest and Holidayfest, I would select Winterfest, hands down, had they not cancelled it because it didn`t make money.

[Gordon Bombay]

Marlfox, congratulations on your engagement and best wishes to you and your fiance!

Like RZ said, last night we went to the Beach's Holidayfest and I am very glad I didn't have to pay much. When I pulled up the sign said parking was 5.50, luckily I'm a AAA member and for me I got half off of parking (i had forgotten I was even in AAA untill I saw the sign). While we waited for the rest of our group a very nice gentleman handed us extra tickets that he didn't need so we got in for free. I think the Beach does a nice job but holiday events just really arent my thing. I didn't care for winterfest, I cant stand festival of lights at the zoo, and Holidayfest didn't do much for me either. The Tobogan ride was fun yet horribly frightening at the same time. The park had lights everywhere which made it look great. The beach does a great job of transforming pools and slides, into petting zoos, nativity scenes, and activities.

The lazy river paddle boat ride had the longest line so we just had to wait in it...after about a good 15-20 minutes we we're ready to board our paddle boat. Myself and Ryan (Boddah1994) were in front of Bill (zosobeast) and Robbie (CoastersRZ) during the (mis)adventure. We were able to get the idea of driving a paddle boat down pretty fast and found it pretty easy to do so, however the three groups of pre-teens in front of us found this really challenging and kept getting their boats stuck forcing beach employees to come out and help them. One thing that surprised me was how much room there is in the trough for the boats, we were able to race boats and pass eachother as well as unintentionally (yeah right) ram into robbie and bills boat.

Overall it's a great event for families and young kids but it just didn't do much for me however the beach did a great job and I admire the employees on the paddle boat ride for their pateince with working the paddle boats and how eventhough in the cold and having to deal with isiots who couldn't drive the boats, they were not rude to guests at all. Kudos to the beach.

-Regards,

Ronny

"I bet every employee who works here is hot because they're all lifeguards in the summer"

[TOPGUN1993]

Those paddle boats were a peice of crap. Our boat was spraying water at us threw the Cup Holders! And our stearing thing didn't work.

[Avatar]

Sorry as to such a late reply to this subject but I will still chime in.

My family went to the holiday fest the Friday before Christmas. We enjoyed it but I think we were expecting more so we were a little disappointed. Miss Rae was really excited about going Ice Skating as it was her first time and she could have just done that all night. I would haft to agree that the employees did a good job trying to keep in the spirits of the holiday especially on the evening that we went as it had been raining for days and just let up. I must say that I was a little horrified as we went by the pony ride section and seen all the hay and pony poop in the Premium Members sand section. My wife and I both at the same time looked at each other and said “Miss Rae plays in the sand there!!!!â€Â.

Now for our most favorite event that evening was the Carriage Ride. As explained in a pervious post above It was a little cheesy and you could tell that the 4 in their 20’s on the same ride as ours really didn’t like it as they kept referring to how cheesy it was. But I must say it was nice to take a wagon ride, pulled by horses through the decorated trees and watching the characters talk about the Holidays was a real treat for us since it was so close to Christmas. When we returned we were invited to go up and pet the horses. Also a nice touch for us about that ride Shivers the Penguin sat with us during the whole ride.

I took 2 cameras and I can only get the pictures from one camera at this time and will post what I have.