TR: Holiday World 5-29-07

[Gordon Bombay]

Ok, so I first heard about Holiday World while reading this site back in 2004 when someone mentioned how much better The Raven and Legend were than any of KI's wooden coasters. At first I thought that it must be just a bunch of over-hype from some local HW enthusiast but as I started trekking various coaster sites I found that Legend and Raven were alaways mentioned as the best the country had to offer in wood coasters and how Holiday World had a reputation for being one of if not the number one friendliest and cleanest park in the nation. I wasn't able to fathom how any woodie could be better than The Beast or the classic Racer at KI (I was able to imagine however how any coaster could be better than old Sonny). As I became friends with Boddah, Dane, RZ, and Zoso from this site I started going to KI a lot more in 2005 and especially in 2006 and hit up CP and GL for the first time in 2006 but still considered The Beast to be better than any wooden coaster either of those parks had to offer. Finnaly this year a friend from school and I decided to hit up Holiday World. So, as a graduation present to ourselves we planned a one day trip to visit Holiday World and its 3 highly acclaimed coasters.

The day before Jon and I went to Kings Island with our Maxx passes to hit up Beast, Firehawk and some of our favorite rides so we could compare them to what Holiday World offered the next day. While riding The Beast I met KIC user FanOfBeast and his wife, it was very nice meeting you guys, hope to see you at the park again soon!

The next day we met up around 7am and got on the road, after light traffic we got through Cincinnati and eventually to Louisville. We stopped at a Mcdonald's for some breakfast burritos and orange drink. We gained an hour going into Indiana and reaching Holiday World so we got to the park about half an hour before they dropped the ropes. First thing we went for was Voyage of course:

It was running two trains so the waits to ride were'nt too bad at all. I had heard how good this coaster was but calling this thing "Awesome" or "Great" is truly, truly an understatement. The Voyage just does not let up at any time, much like Millenium Force except longer. The airtime is incredible, we first rode in the back seat, well let me re-phrase that: Our first ride was in the back of the train, you'r rear is hardly in the seat at any time. The mid course break is not enough time to catch your breath, immediately afterwards you hit that triple down and go flying back to Thanksgiving land. Such an amazing ride just how a wood coaster should be: Airtime, forces, fun, and not overly rough. After our first ride we went to a Pepsi oasis to grab some water, sit down, and try to fathom what we just experienced. The Voyage is hands down the best coaster I've ever experienced, and from what I hear El Toro at SFGADV is even better, I can't imagine how amazing that must be if it in fact is better than Voyage. We grabbed a front seat ride next, which was good but not as good as the back, and then headed to try out The Legend.

As we got to Legend we noticed the wait was considerably longer than the Voyage and the line started at the bottom of the stairs. No worries, since neither of us had ridden it we didn't mind waiting. However, this is where I got my first annoyance by Holliday World, the day ended up being something like "5th grade appreciation day" and the morning crowds were considerably large. Legend and raven ran one coaster all day even when queues were filled, the Legend queue line is absolutely awful. They ran one train so the wait took about half an hour for the back which isnt too bad but everyone in the station is right on top of eachother and sweating. The raisl are very small for the lines and the fans hardly work, it was the most miserable experience I've ever had at an amusement park, luckily though the intense lateral forces of that amazing coaster made up for it. Legend was a blast, definently one of the better woodies out there. Each turn throws you to the side and the airtime is very good, it's like riding a scrambler. It's Double Helix is far better than The Beast's or Son of Beast's just for the fact that you feel the g-force, where as on Beast and SOB you just get roughed up.

-After the annoying and hot queue at Legend we took a ride on the park's log flume to cool off. This was a pretty neat ride, you didn't get too soaked but I hated the beginning where you go through the tunnels in complete darkness, water at night scares the hell out of me for some reason and you get a very un-easy feeling in these tunnels. Having worked at amusement park's in the past before starting my new job I've always respected employees at parks and had heard about how awesome Holiday World's staff was. I didn't think they were that great. When our log came back on the flume the boats ahead of us were backed up and we bumped into the boat in front of us which caused our baot to lift up on the back of their boat. The ride stopped, the employee looked at us, frowned, said nothing, then went and got on the phone. Our boat was half in the water, half on the conveyor and she didn't tell us if we could move or not so after about 5 minutes of just sitting we just stood up, stepped on the platform and walked to get our stuff and headed to Raven.

-This smaller coaster doesn't look to intimidating but it sure packs a punch. We waited about 10 minutes for the last seat, it too was running one train and beginning to fill up its queues behind us as we waited. While in line for the back the girl who had been operating the log flume came and relieved the gentleman working the Raven controls and when she saw us said to us: "Next time you need to listen to operator instructions before you just get up off the ride, what you did was very unsafe, you two need to make sure you abide by all park rules, do you understand?" When I tried explaining to her how I though we were in the station and received no instruction from her she walked away to go check height and we were loaded on with no response from her. Raven sure packs a punch, not so good in the front seat, but in the back its a very good ride. I loved the helix out over the lake and that last airtime hill, a short but very sweet ride.

Jon over heard one of the teachers say to one of the various school groups at the park "Remember we meet at 1:30 and leave at 2" So we figured it owuld be a good time to check out the waterpark and do the rest of the park later when the crowds died down. The waterpark is very, very nice and locker prices are reasonable. I loved how they had two wavepools and two lazy rivers, this really kept crowds down, the lazy river was just about the best thing there, we just kept going around and around relaxing on their new lazy river. I dont particuarly like water parks because I dont usually feel like taking a bath with hundreds of other people but I gotta give Holiday World credit, their pools and water are VERY clean. However, besides relaxing in the lazy river the rest of the waterpark is pretty boring. Zinga, the worlds longest enclosed water slide, had about a half hour wait. We waited and got to the top, up here everytime a raft would reach the top of the conveyor an alarm would sound to notify the life guard, the alarm was similar to the siren of a fire truck and was very aggrivating and loud. Zinga was the biggest let down of the water slides, its very boring and sluggish. The racing slides were pretty fun but hurt certain male anatomy coming down the bumps in the hills.

-The waterpark offers some great views of coasters like Legend and how it intertwines through the structures of Zinga and OttoRonGo which creates some cool head chopping illusions. However while photographing legend from the park...

...I was standing with a pool to my back when an employee sweeping trash tapped me on the back. The employee informed me that a woman had complained I was photographing children in the pool. I had done no such thing, but I did have a pretty large DSLR camera out with a full zoom lense on and was just photographing the Legend. I offered to show the employee my memory card to show her all I had were pictures of Legend and my little sisters birthday party, she said: "Theres no need for you to do that, im sure your not doing anything wrong, but I do need you to return your camera to your locker or exit Splashin Safari." I was pretty ticked, there was no rule against cameras in the water park, mine is just big and a more professional camera, I pointed out to her that she hadn't asked any other guests to put their cameras away and that they even sell waterproof cameras in the gift shop. She told me I should probably just leave the water park and I just said I would give up this spot but would go else where in the waterpark to shoot my pictures and she left me alone. None of the other slides we did were very thrilling so we changed and dropped off our wet clothes in the car and re-entered the park to ride some more rides. We did Gobbler Get-away which has a very nice queue line with hardwood floors and very powerful air conditioning. Despite a few animatronic charecters on the ride, its not much better than SDATHC. It uses many of the same blacklight effects and flat wooden cut out charecters. Overall its fun but what really sets it apart from SDATHC is that the lazer guns work and just like a classic dark ride you burst through doors and take some sharp turns that really whip you around. Overall its very fun.

We did a few more classic rides like their flying scooters which you can not snap no matter how hard you try. Once I was able to kind of get it snap a little bit but they are very slow and very un-eventful, I would kill to have KI's back or to go ride Stricker's set. Next was the Revolution, thier centrifuge ride. I liked how the ride operator after checking restraints comes into the middle of the ride to tell eveyrone the rules to keep their rope restraints in place and not to move or hang on to the wires. That ride is a blast and still makes me somewhat sick. During the ride I lifted up one of my legs and placed it against the the cage of the ride since i was leaning so much it was getting to be a little bit painful of a ride. Once the ride came down we heard one again: "You two, over here, right now!" The ride op pulled us aside to tell us:"During the ride I saw one of you two lift up both your legs, that is a major safety violation and will not be tolerated, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" One of the things I've learned from working for places like Best Buy and having to deal with catching people stealing is that even when someone is being rude to you or in the wrong you can usually make the situation possitive with good body language and keeping your voice calm, she was waving her arms around and yelling. I explained to her that I didn't mean to disrespect the rules and was just trying to re-position myself on the ride, I mentioned that I had worked for Paramount's Kings Island in the past and would not come to another park to disrespect their employees or rules and when I said that she rolled her eyes and looked away and started to tell me the policy for them to remove us from the park should we break another rule again. At that point I had had it with the employees in this park and told her there was no need to explain it to us and that we'd find out at Guest Relations. Not once during the day did we have an employee ask us how or day or ride was or if they could help us find something. Even at Guest Relations, they didn't seem to care about our problem and just told us to make sure we werent rude first. The only employee to approach us and offer us help to find something and ask us about our day was the owner Will Koch who was walking around sweeping trash. That guy is a class act and totally made up for the lack of respect the other employees seemed to have for guests, he spoke highly of Kings Island and asked about Cincinnati, he was a really cool guy.

After talking with him we hit up the Raven and Legend, which now had 1 train wait evening lines, and we even got to stay on a few times in the evening. Both are very good coasters.

-The Legend is yet another coaster that doesn't let up in intesity untill its over.

-While walking back to The Voyage in the evening we noticed a show going on. I dont want ever hear anyone give KI hell for having a Karaoke show in the past cause Holiday World did the same thing too. This photo reminds me of the ending scene of the film Spinal Tap.

-The two main highlights of Holiday World: The amazing Voyage and VERY clean waterpark.

We rode the wonderful Voyage (which was brought down to 1 train operation, much to our annoyance) a few more times before leaving. I still cant get over just how fun that ride is and I think it may definently be my favorite rollercoaster. It's going to be hard for Gravity Group and HW to top this bad boy, although some claim SFGADV has with El Toro, but now thanks to gas prices I wont be heading the way anymore sadly.

We ended the day by getting some Sweet Tea at a Pepsi oasis and saying goodbye to Holiday World. The three rollercoasters are all excellent and the waterpark is clean (but pretty boring), but other than those things theres not much else to do in the park and no really good quiet areas to just sit back and relax besides smoking sections, which neither of us need to use. Will Koch made up for the bad experience we had wtih those employees and the park was very clean. However, with gas prices, I dont think I'll be going back this summer despiate how good the rollercoasters are, theres just not much else to do. The drive home was pretty bad, on the way there it felt like it was quick because we were so excited, but now all we had to look forward to was work the next day so the drive home seemed to last forever but overall it was a great trip and a great way to start off the summer. We pulled over after we left and I snapped this picture from the road:

[Delirium_Guy]

Excellent report! I would mostly agree with everything you have said, except about Splashin' Safari. Not sure if you rode all the slides or not, but they do have some good ones. Zoombabwe is the huge enclosed slide, which I think you may have confused with Zinga (the Tornado slide). Zoombabwe is a blast with four people in the raft, as we found out during Holiwood Nights. Its fast, the raft really slips up the side of the trough.....not ot menton the fact that its a nice long ride. Bakuli was a blast too, a little different experience from the bowl slide at Great Wolf due to the different rafts. Ottorongo is also an absolute BLAST despite looking very small and not that exciting.

In general, I would agree about the employees. Back in the day, Holiday World WAS a class act. Don't get me wrong, I still love the Park and feel that they are among the best of the best. The employees are of a different caliber now, they certainly aren't as friendly or personable as they used to be when Raven was the pride and joy of the park. The capacity issue has always annoyed me, not so much on Raven, but on Legend. Its such a long ride and most of hte time they do run only one train. I dont' get it. Voyage should never run with anything less than two, as far as I'm concerned.

Glad you got some great rides though, Voyage is amazing. It was running insanely fast during Holiwood Nights, as were Raven and Legend. All of those rides take on different personalities at night. It definitely makes you look at Beast in a different light once you ride them.

As for El Toro, I'm torn on the issue. I battle over which I prefer, it or Voyage. Voyage gets the nod for length. El Toro is short, but does it ever deliver. Its the most explosive air time on ANY coaster I have EVER ridden. Its absolutely amazing.

- Todd

[BoddaH1994]

I agree with Ronny... there's isn't much to Holiday World. They've got 3 coasters with the Voyage being my personal favorite coaster of all time, the Legend being pretty good, and the Raven being nothing more than okay in my book. Other than that, what's there to do? Liberty Launch? The waterpark is different from Boomerang Bay, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's that much better. I do like how it's all close together rather than everything being a mile and a half apart like CDBB.

I've been to about a dozen parks now and I really think KI has some of the best employees I've seen. I've heard wonderful things about Holiday World and Cedar Point employees, but I have yet to see it. Holiday World is so overzealous with safety now that it almost detracts from the experience, and Cedar Point employees are apathetic at best.

When I went to Holiwood Nights last year, they ran one train on both coasters and two on thew new legend, until later in the evening when they added a 2nd to Legend and the 3rd to Voyage which I may add took several cycles before it warmed up and they let people on it. I don't know why they do that. Maybe they're saving wear and tear on the vehicles..?

[Delirium_Guy]

I agree with Ronny... there's isn't much to Holiday World. They've got 3 coasters with the Voyage being my personal favorite coaster of all time, the Legend being pretty good, and the Raven being nothing more than okay in my book. Other than that, what's there to do? Liberty Launch? The waterpark is different from Boomerang Bay, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's that much better. I do like how it's all close together rather than everything being a mile and a half apart like CDBB.

I've been to about a dozen parks now and I really think KI has some of the best employees I've seen. I've heard wonderful things about Holiday World and Cedar Point employees, but I have yet to see it. Holiday World is so overzealous with safety now that it almost detracts from the experience, and Cedar Point employees are apathetic at best.

When I went to Holiwood Nights last year, they ran one train on both coasters and two on thew new legend, until later in the evening when they added a 2nd to Legend and the 3rd to Voyage which I may add took several cycles before it warmed up and they let people on it. I don't know why they do that. Maybe they're saving wear and tear on the vehicles..?

With Raven running the way that it was last year, I certainly understand why you thought it was merely OK. I would love for ya to go back and give it a second chance cause it really is a great ride. I'd disagree though with the KI comments, I actually wouldn't put them in a top tier either these days. Funny thing is, I think more people would tend to agree with that. Allow me to share a story from CP on Tuesday.....

We were queued up for Maverick that night. There was a lady in line with her son. We all just randomly started to chat while in line, we told her we were from Cincinnati. She then asked us about how KI was this year and if it had changed any from CP. Of course we told her that not many changes had taken place, other than we finally got a great ride. She commented on how she felt they needed to do something with the employees. That in general they just seemed like they didn't want to be there and were slow and unexciting. Keep in mind, this was just a GP person......she certainly wasn't an ACEer. I gotta agree with her. The Point isn't quite what it used to be, but I gotta give props for most of the crews trying to pump up people to ride. With that said, allow me to also give props to Beast crew at KI.....every year they always are tops. I'd give a nod to Firehawk as well, they really seemed to try to get people excited on both my rides.

The thing with Holiday World is that a lot of enthusiasts have just discovered it within the past few years. The park has gone through an unbelievable growth. Considering when I visited the first time back in 1998, the Park didn't even draw 500,000 a year and has now gone OVER the million mark. I think the Park itself is a well rounded park and they have done nothing but make GREAT additions over the past few years.....adding value to both the dry park and water park. I'll disagree with Ryan that Splashin' Safari is on a different level than Boomerang Bay in terms of attractions and offers a much better arsenal of slides....perhaps its just they have a much NEWER collection and Boomerang Bay still has the old school slides that are pretty dated. For a change I'd like to see consistent additions to BB, I think its still lacking.

I fear what has happened though, is they are almost over protective when it comes to the safety factor. I understand this and respect it greatly, however when it detracts from the overall experience then it becomes an issue for me. The Park is not the same park I first visited almost 10 years ago. Thats been both good and bad. the bad being that its lost some of the charm and personality that truly made it unique.

- Todd

[The Interpreter]

I have been going to Holiday World since BEFORE Raven was built. I adore the coasters. I want badly to defend that park. I really do.

But.

I find I don't go there much anymore.

You see, I find way too much in Ronny's trip report to remind me of why I don't go there much any more. I really don't need to be yelled at, ignored and suffer poor service. That, sadly, has been uniformly my experience at Holiday World the last several years. EVERY visit. Sometimes, it's not me, but others that I see being berated, yelled at and/or ignored. Usually, the guest has done NOTHING wrong.

As Six Flags learned the hard way, excellent rides alone will not bring the customers back. At Six Flags, they are greatly improving their operations, customer service and friendliness.

Holiday World, I fear, is going the opposite direction. Perhaps they now see themselves as too big to care about individual customers. Perhaps they think that free parking, free Pepsi and free suntan lotion trumps uncaring, even rude employees. And the place DOES have a fascination with bothering photographers lately. This is, remarkably, the third such story I have been told this week alone.

As I said, the ride operator treatment Ronny cited is something I have seen myself all too many times at Holiday World in recent years.

And now, when it comes time to find a park to while away my time and escape my worldly cares, Santa Claus, Indiana no longer even enters my mind. Not an option. No matter how wonderful Raven, Legend and Voyage may be.

You know what's even sadder? Instead of remedying the situations laid out here by various posters, I suspect the park will be more interested in finding out who wrote these words, and offering excuses or defenses.

Attendance figures in the future will tell a more accurate story.

[UncleHenry]

I too have recently had an issue with Holiday World. I used to consider it my favorite park, but after receiving an e-mail response from a certain HW employee, I am starting to wonder if they want my money. I was planning a trip up there in two weeks, but now it's looking like a CP trip.

[jzarley]

Combat--it would be very interesting for you to post this TR over on Coasterbuzz... (If you can tolerate the flames...they're more cult-like about HW than even CF ) But, Paula (can't remember her last name...the PR/Communications person for HW) regularly reads and responds on the board. It would be very benenficial for her to hear about your lousy customer service experience.

I've been thinking about a trip down there for a long time, but after reading your post (and others' follow-up comments), it no longer sounds that appealing to me. I don't have to travel all the way to Santa Claus, IN to get bad customer service...I can find that right here in Columbus

[The Interpreter]

You would mean Paula Werne. The one who wrote this:

http://www.inparkmagazine.com/images/5opinion.pdf

They know what to do there. It's just lately, far too many of the employees seem to do otherwise. At least it seems to me.

[elitescr3]

I love Holiday World. I agree that the queues are too small, but the park is rather small, and that saves space. Splashin' Safari is by far the best waterpark I have been to. There is so much to do and it is very compact. The Voyage is by far the best wooden coaster I have ever ridden, and as you said, it is the Millennium Force of wooden coasters.

[PKIDelirium]

I wouldn't call it the MF of wood coasters, I'd call it the SFNE SROS of wood coasters.

[ohhs02highlander]

You would mean Paula Werne. The one who wrote this:

http://www.inparkmagazine.com/images/5opinion.pdf

They know what to do there. It's just lately, far too many of the employees seem to do otherwise. At least it seems to me.

it doesn't matter how much you tell associates not all of them are going to listen...and not all of them are going to be perfect associates...especially with Kings Island where most of your line staff are high school aged kids

[The Interpreter]

Many of the associates at Holiday World are 14.

Unless something has changed this year.

Ride operators do have to be older...

[ohhs02highlander]

Many of the associates at Holiday World are 14.

Unless something has changed this year.

Ride operators do have to be older...

thus my point even more clear...14 to me is wayyyyyyyyy to young to be working at an amusement park where prices are growing and thus guest satisfaction is expected to be at such a high quality...not to say that all youngen's are bad because some of the best employees can be 15 year olds at KI...and I'm not saying that we expect less out of our associates because they're high schoolers with the exception to a few...but we expect the best out of everyone and I assure you do our best to offer a quality experience all the time...cuz like the HW PR lady said bad impressions last longer and farther than good impressions unfortunately

[Guest kwindshawne]

Dang....Uncle Henry, after seeing your videos on you tube, I was considering a trip over there, but not if the employees are as bad as all of you are reporting. What a shame........

I have never been there, and don't think I will go now.

[thejoker8388]

I'll chime in and say I actually enjoyed Holiday World and don't think people should all of a sudden decide not to go. Now I wouldn't say it was my favorite park but I certainly enjoyed myself although it can all be done in about half a day.

I agree with the fact that I don't find why everyone raves about the employees. I didn't have a problem with them, but I also didn't find them to be any better than employees at KI or CP. I'll also say that I find Raven to be one of the more over rated roller coasters that I've ridden; it's a fun ride but really short and I don't really see why it gets all the attention. I found Legend to be a very good ride and would place it as one of the better coasters I've ridden. As I said before, I'll also agree with what was said that there really isn't all that much to do.

With that being said Voyage is the most extreme coaster I've ever ridden and it's my favorite wooden coaster by far. I also think that the water park is very good; I found it to be quite a bit better than Boomerang Bay and that was without the cool looking slide that was added this year. In contrast to Combat, whos opinion I respect very much, I thought Zoombabwee was/is the best water slide I've ever been on and found all the other slides to be fun as well.

To sum it up for people that haven't been and are now thinking of not going, IMHO, Holiday World is a fun little park with an amazing water park and three coasters; one of which is amazing, one of which is great, and one of which is fun. I don't think HW is as great as many make it out to be and I enjoy KI and CP more, but I feel that Voyage is worth the trip alone and everything else is just a really nice bonus.

[UncleHenry]

Dang....Uncle Henry, after seeing your videos on you tube, I was considering a trip over there, but not if the employees are as bad as all of you are reporting. What a shame........

I have never been there, and don't think I will go now.

Don't get me wrong, the point of the videos is not to showcase how "awful" the park may be. We went to showcase our day at the park. We made it a mini-documentary. We showed our day at the park, good and bad. Now on the video, there is much more good than bad. Sure, we happened to get 2-3 incidents on tape that would be considered "bad", but look at all of the other fun things we experienced that day. I went into editing that video with one goal: showcase our day. I had no agenda to make it look awesome, or make it look bad.

I am just upset that the park would get so upset at the video. I had no agenda to make the park look bad, just show what happened to us and what we saw that day. If it wasn't for this recent incident, I would still gladly call Holiday World my fav park.

[ohhs02highlander]

Dang....Uncle Henry, after seeing your videos on you tube, I was considering a trip over there, but not if the employees are as bad as all of you are reporting. What a shame........

I have never been there, and don't think I will go now.

Don't get me wrong, the point of the videos is not to showcase how "awful" the park may be. We went to showcase our day at the park. We made it a mini-documentary. We showed our day at the park, good and bad. Now on the video, there is much more good than bad. Sure, we happened to get 2-3 incidents on tape that would be considered "bad", but look at all of the other fun things we experienced that day. I went into editing that video with one goal: showcase our day. I had no agenda to make it look awesome, or make it look bad.

I am just upset that the park would get so upset at the video. I had no agenda to make the park look bad, just show what happened to us and what we saw that day. If it wasn't for this recent incident, I would still gladly call Holiday World my fav park.

where is this video at...is there a link???

[Gordon Bombay]

I agree with what Joker is saying, just cause a few of us had bad experiences doesnt mean anyone should be wary of going there, i think the good the park has to offer out weighs the bad. I definently do not feel I wasted my day at all, it was good trip and money well spent, not all the employees were bad, just no one went out of their way to really try and make our day like is so commonly seen at Disney. With a park that has won the golden ticket award for friendliness and the golden applause award and even on their brochure claimes to be ranked in park friendliness among the likes of Disney and Universal cant have one employee besides their owner say "hows your day going?", thats when I felt it did'nt get the praise it deserves. Overall, its a good family park and the Voyage cant be beat and I'd reccomend anyone try the park and visit atleast once. I wont be back this summer due to gas, work, and other obligations but I'll definently be back to see if anything changes in the future.

[UncleHenry]

It's a five part video, each part is linked to the next one below the video player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2HPgQWFx4c

That's part one. Again, to get to the next part, click the "video response" link below the video player.

And remember, this was not biased either for the park or against it, but to show our experiences that day.

Finally, I have been debating posting the e-mail sent to me from the park employee, but for the mean time, I am not. I still do enjoy the park, even if they treat people with disrespect because we "dare" to show some unpleasant things. It was a part of our experience at the park, not a "look how bad this park is!" deal.

[The Interpreter]

And thus my comment that the park seems more concerned with defending itself or offering excuses than in fixing what are obviously some cracks in what used to be a well deserved reputation for being the friendliest, cleanest, nicest family park in the nation.

[ohhs02highlander]

It's a five part video, each part is linked to the next one below the video player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2HPgQWFx4c

That's part one. Again, to get to the next part, click the "video response" link below the video player.

And remember, this was not biased either for the park or against it, but to show our experiences that day.

Finally, I have been debating posting the e-mail sent to me from the park employee, but for the mean time, I am not. I still do enjoy the park, even if they treat people with disrespect because we "dare" to show some unpleasant things. It was a part of our experience at the park, not a "look how bad this park is!" deal.

thanks for the link and i looked at the videos...I must admit I thought that they were great video's SHOWCASING the park...I don't get how anyone could think it's biased against it that's for sure. I think it showed all the good things about the park and as for the 2 bad ones...well roller coasters always get stuck it's going to happen...although starting it while the associate was on the walk is a huge mistake...and the spitting scene...well it almost looked like he was getting sick, and unfortunately if you record associates at other parks including ki and cp you will see that happen as well. Anyways who was this park employee that sent you an e-mail and did they really bash you for saying it was defaming them or something??? sounds kinda interesting and well I think it shows a lot of respect for them not showing that e-mail to us although i'm sure everyone is interested in reading it now...lol...anyways good video documentary

[UncleHenry]

We could tell he wasn't sick, because he was doing it on top of the bridge over the railroad tracks in their kids area. He was aiming for the tracks. You don't aim when you are sick. Plus, the portion of the spitting we had wasn't the only bit he did. He started spitting, but we didn't have our camera out when he started. By the time we got it out and ready to go, he stopped because some other guests walked past him on the bridge. He watched those people go by, and waited for them to be a distance away from him. He then when right back to spitting, and that is when we started filming. So to wrap this up...

1) He knew he shouldn't have been doing this in public, why else stop when guests walked by?

2) Even if he was sick, wouldn't you do something like that in a behind the scenes area? He was not at a ride or anything, he was in the middle of a regular path. He could have easily walked to a behind the scenes area, and did his business.

3) It wasn't just a regular spit, like you need to get some junk out of your throat. It's hard to tell from the video (due to the compression for youtube), but he was making it LONG strands of spit. You don't do that when you just need to get it out of your mouth, it was almost like he was playing with it.

I was informed by the employee that e-mailed me that they were able to identify the employee from the video, and he no longer works at the park.

And again, we weren't going there thinking, "Boy, what if a ride breaks down, we can film it, and make the park look bad!" In the video when the Legend breaks down, we started off making jokes about it, because we knew it was nothing serious. "Maybe the Legend's second lift hill is just lagging." is a joke referring to Beast's second lift hill, and how the train will stop at the top of the first one if the train ahead of it has not gone over the second lift hill. Also, this trip was shortly after the Son of Beast incident from last year. The media was going crazy over-dramatizing it. They made such a HUGE deal about it being stopped on the lift hill. We mocked the media a bit in the video. "We should call the news, because obviously, this is a bad sign, because as you can see, the train is stopped on the incline position." Completely a joke about local media making such a huge deal about a train being on the lift hill. We were not planning on getting the ride starting with the employee on the lift hill, but again, it happened by chance. We saw the employee put his thumb in the air, and knew something was coming, so we got our camera out and filmed. No intention of making the park look bad, but it happened, and we as guests saw it, thought it was an interesting event, and put it in.

Some people have asked me to post the e-mail conversation I had. I will refrain from posting that. As I already stated, I still consider the park a great park, just maybe not my favorite anymore. I still recommend going if you have never gone before. I just may not be going as much as I have been.

[ohhs02highlander]

well its unfortunate that he knew what he was really doing and i guess good all at the same time that you got in on tape and then found out that this person is no longer working for the park as he shouldn't be after that disgusting outburst. And I do agree it is a nice little park I went I think 3 years ago with a few fellow management members of the games department and we enjoyed the park...Although I do remember the queues being very tight and only 1 train running on raven and legend which got kinda frustrating. Holiday world is not my favorite park in the world but i plan on going back this summer to catch a ride on voyage as i've yet to ride it...and I think the only reason they really get such good publicity about guest service is the fact that they offer free drinks and parking as well there employee's aren't much better than any other parks...but as i said before most amusement parks with the exception of the orlando's have teenagers as employees and therefore will have more problems...but again i'm not saying they're all bad as I was a 15 year old employee at one time and have now been there 8 years and I would like to consider myself as good of a line associate at 15 as I am now as a manager, just have more experience and what not...

[Kawana]

Thanks for the info, Combat. It looks like I may have to plan a trip out there. I'm not loving the rude employees though. I will not tolerate what you had to endure, I'll say that much right now.

[Guest kwindshawne]

Dang....Uncle Henry, after seeing your videos on you tube, I was considering a trip over there, but not if the employees are as bad as all of you are reporting. What a shame........

I have never been there, and don't think I will go now.

Don't get me wrong, the point of the videos is not to showcase how "awful" the park may be. We went to showcase our day at the park. We made it a mini-documentary. We showed our day at the park, good and bad. Now on the video, there is much more good than bad. Sure, we happened to get 2-3 incidents on tape that would be considered "bad", but look at all of the other fun things we experienced that day. I went into editing that video with one goal: showcase our day. I had no agenda to make it look awesome, or make it look bad.

I am just upset that the park would get so upset at the video. I had no agenda to make the park look bad, just show what happened to us and what we saw that day. If it wasn't for this recent incident, I would still gladly call Holiday World my fav park.

I thought the videos put the park in a positive light. You'll have the occasional "spitter" or whatever, that is to be expected. I do still want to try voyage, although if it is that big of a hassle with the employees, I just don't know.

I don't see the issue with taking pics at the park, and definitely think the manner employees went to enforcing the rules was excessive. Maybe they need to have some public relations inservices for the employees. I do admit the free soda is a big hit-I bet if KI did something like that, the high food prices would be offset by that, and people would be more willing to eat inside the park.

Do you mean to tell me the email was to get on you for filming at the park and posting on the net? Geesh, they need to lighten up.......

[Guest kwindshawne]

The spitter reminded me of the one Beavis and Butthead clip....good lord

I for one found it humorous, even if it was in bad taste on the employees part. He shouldn't have done it, but a lot worse could happen.

[Gordon Bombay]

Thanks for the info, Combat. It looks like I may have to plan a trip out there. I'm not loving the rude employees though. I will not tolerate what you had to endure, I'll say that much right now.

Its definently worth one trip to check it out, especially if you like coasters and waterparks, i could ride around that lazy river for hours. The employee thing kind of made me upset but I just took it with a grain of salt thinking thats just a few out of the many employees and they all cant be like that and I know how stressful of a job that can ben but after reading the email UncleHenry received (and I hope he posts it, i read it because Henry and I are friends) I'm beginning to wonder if the attitude I experienced is whats being taught to those employees with how rude and unprofessional this PR lady was to Henry about his video. Maybe I'm just too used to the professionalism I've experiencd from people like Maureen Kaiser, Craig Ross, Jeff Seibert, Keith Chapalty, Greg Scheid, and Tony Clark while meeting them at various KI events when shooting photos with KICentral. Many of the guests we spoke to when finding out we were from Cincinnati said: "You drove all the way here, when you can go to Kings Island!?". I will give Holiday World a nod though, free soft drinks were great and I was able to enjoy a full and tasty meal for prices that are far more reasonable than SFKK, KI, and CP. However Holiday World needs to stop defending themselves and listen to negative feedback and learn from it as well as their possitive. SFKK is on the upswing (as is all of Six Flags) for that matter, and they aren't too far away from HW.

[UncleHenry]

The Holiblog just linked to this...

http://blawblawblog.com/2007/05/holiday-wo...ndorsement.html

Holiday World just dropped some more notches in my book. Like I said, they will raise themselves up, no matter who says differently.

[UncleHenry]

After Paula's recent post on the Holiblog, I feel that it is now time to post my e-mail. Yes, the employee I had a conversation with was Paula, writer of the Holiblog. First, my original e-mail to her.

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Bradley Ruwe [mailto:ruwebj@email.uc.edu]

> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:58 AM

> To: fun@holidayworld.com

> Subject: Video Trip Report

>

> Hello, I saw your post about a video trip report on your blog, I too

have made a

> youtube video about my trip to Holiday World last year. It's a bit on

the lengthy side

> though. My video is 40 minutes long. We had to split it up between 5

youtube

> pages since they only allow 10 minute videos. You can see part one

here:

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2HPgQWFx4c

>

> Each part has a link to the next one below the video.

>

> Now we are always pretty honest about our experiences. We have been to

many

> amusement parks across the country, so we don't play favorites. If we

found

> something that we didn't enjoy, it went on the video. Of course, if we

really enjoyed

> something, we of course put it in. Now I doubt this will go on the

blog because we

> do have some footage I doubt you would want to promote (including an

employee

> spitting long strands of spit onto the track for the railroad in the

kids area). Just

> thought you would like to view our video, even if it won't be put on

your website.

>

> Oh, and for the record, I LOVE your park, and even with it's few

flaws, is still my

> favorite park I've been to. Of the 64 coasters I've ridden, you have 2

of my top 5. I

> am currently planning another trip up there this summer, and we will

be making

> another video of our trip. I will send that one to you as well.

> -Brad Ruwe

> www.ruwedesign.com

And her response:

Hi Brad--

Oh, yes ... I saw your video a while back.

People around here were pretty upset about the spitting -- and that you

broke that portion out to make it its own video. There's no excusing

that fellow (and he no longer works here), but would you like to have

been "caught" on video ... maybe scratching where you itch ... and then

have it posted?

Do you really love our park? Maybe it would have been nice of you to

report that employee to us that day if he was spitting ... it's hard to

tell from your video what exactly was going on, was he sick? Wouldn't

reporting it to management have been the decent thing to do? If he was

ill, he needed help; if he was being crude, he needed a talking to...

Of course we're not perfect; of course we have flaws. Why not give us

the opportunity to fix something -- to make it right?

Thanks for your email, but I think we'll pass on posting a link to your

video.

Paula

Paula Werne, Director of Public Relations

Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

fun@holidayworld.com; 812-937-5209

New for '07: Bakuli family water ride & Turkey Whirl

HoliBlog: A Walk in the Park

1) We could tell he was not sick, for reasons I already posted.

2) It is not our job to report things like the spitting guests to the park. Honestly, if we saw the guests nametag from the distance we were at, we might have reported him, but we could not see his name.

My Holiday World trip has effectively been canceled.

EDIT: For clarification, I was not planning on posting this. But when Paula decided it was a bad thing for me to criticize HW one tiny bit, but OK for her to post a trip report bashing Kings Island in her blog for the park, that was what changed my mind.

[King Maple The Tree King]

Wait, Henry, was this an email to the PR director of HW or another forum user from another site? I wouldn't believe someone representing the park would something so nasty in reply to your email. For someone involved in marketing like that even if you had written her a nasty email she could've ingored it or tried to be nice about it but you didn't even say anything rude or mean, you even praised the park! My confidence in Holiday World's Golden Ticket for friendliness has thouroughly been shaken, you never saw Maureen or Tony Clark act like this in an email or on the CP blog! What a joke!