Beech Bend and Holiday world Extensive detailed Trip Reports

cannonballer · #1 06-30-2006, 10:17 PM

I was on a camping retreat for 8 days, below are the two parks I visited during my trip. I have excluded everything else from this T.R. but will add the other stuff if anyone is interested in hearing about mammoth cave, cave city attractions, Santa Claus Indiana etc. as a matter of fact here’s a list of things we did with ratings next to each, if you want the detailed review of any of these things just ask and I will gladly write you one.

(KENTUCKY)
Mammoth Cave National Park 10/10
Mammoth Cave National Park campgrounds 3/10
Mammoth Cave Historical Tour 10/10
Beech Bend 9/10 (review is below)
Green River Canoeing by Mammoth Cave Canoe and Kayak 10/10
Kentucky Down Under 8/10
Hidden River Cave and Museum 6/10
Little Johns Restaurant 8/10
Joes Diner 9/10 both visits

(INDIANA)
Lincoln National Boyhood Memorial 9/10
Lincoln National Boyhood Memorial Pioneer Farm 10/10
Lincoln State Park 8/10
Lincoln State Park Campgrounds 4/10
Buffalo Run 3/10
Santa’s Lodge, Restaurant first visit 8/10 second visit 0/10
Brick Oven Pizza first visit 10/10 second visit 10/10
Holiday World 5/10 (see review below)

(DISCLAIMER) I am sure before I even start this T.R. people will disagree with me but pleas, as you read this, understand I am being very honest and objective about BOTH parks.

I enjoy the FULL park experience, so when I visit an amusement or theme park I don’t just ride the coasters and leave, I try to do everything or at least a lot of things. I realize a lot of enthusiasts do this wham bam thank you ma’m approach but for me there is more to fun in a park than JUST coasters. With all this said here goes nothing….

BEECH BEND
6/18/06

My girlfriend and I was going to visit beech bend for a couple of hours and then visit some area caves. After all many enthusiasts who have already visited Beech bend said its only a two hour park. Well, we ended up staying all day, partly our choice and partly mother natures.

cannonballer · #2 06-30-2006, 10:19 PM

When we arrived I recognized the driveway from photos and thought the views of the countryside were amazing. Then we saw it in the distance, KENTUCKY RUMLBER. It looked like a beast from so far back. As soon as we entered the parking lot I knew we were about to experience something very new as far as parks go. The parking lot is strange, we found ourselves driving back and forth just to get to the front section. There were about 40 cars in the lot, a good sign as far as crowds go.

AS soon as we approached the ticket booth we were greeted with smiles, very nice and friendly people. As a matter of fact EVERYONE was nice the entire day, the ride operators, the employees, the guests. Some of the nicest people I have ever met, TRUE southern hospitality that I am used to wither you consider Kentucky the south or not (remember this for the holiday world review).

KENTUCKY RUMBLER-
We headed straight for Rumbler of course and rode twice with NO LINE! The ride op informed me the ride only increases in speed later in the day by a fraction of a second (something to remember, no matter the time of day it rides the same!). Of course he also said the back had more airtime, we found way more air in the front seats AND a more enjoyable ride.

Later in the day we had came back to ride a load more. The last ride I had caught a bug in my mouth and after the ride I showed the ride op and said I had the best souvenir ever. He laughed and told me to keep it. We loved it, don’t get me wrong it was no thunderhead but it was a great ride. Overall 8.5/10

LOOPING STAR
After our first couple rides on Rumbler we ran to looping star. I wasn’t about to let what everyone has said stop me. I have heard its rough, I have heard its uncomfortable and I have heard it beats you up. ALL THIS IS TRUE! WORSE EVEN!

The most uncomfortable part was the little nub in the seat that stuck up my behind. It didn’t bother my girlfriend as much but hey I am a guy, I don’t like inanimate objects going there!

The Loop itself was cool and pretty intense BUT 99 percent of the rest of the ride was just a head banging, ball busting, but crunching, rib breaking pain! Needless to say We both needed something less brutal and more tame after that one, so we headed to the dragon coaster. Overall 4/10

DRAGON
We had no problems with the ride op letting us ride this one. Usually the kiddy coasters are hard to ride because ride ops don’t like adults riding them so you have to beg. The ride op here was so cool and even said “only for the coaster count right?” how cool is that?

cannonballer · #3 06-30-2006, 10:20 PM

Well our desire for tame did not come on this ride. The thing went up the lift almost sideways. Dragon was very uncomfortable and almost, but not quite as painful as looping star. After this ride we decided to ride other things before any more coasters, so our body parts could adjust. Overall 2/10 (that’s even taken in account it’s a kiddy coaster and comparing it as such)

SHOCK DROP
I am not a fan of drop rides, in fact they terrorize me. My girlfriend and I both feel that way BUT something about the Shock drop lured us in. I guess the fact it is not very tall we didn’t feel threatened. After riding this I think my girlfriend and I can go larger and larger until we have conquered our fears of drop rides. This one was very fun but as the name applies very shocking. 7/10

FLYING BOBS
Not as fast as lake winnies but just as fun and they go backwards unlike lake winnies. We both enjoyed our two rides on this one! 8/10

SIZZLER
OM MY GOD! We thought we were getting on a scrambler. This thing was so insane and we got so dizzy we decided NOT to ride any more spinning rides other than Wild mouse that day! Another example of how friendly the ride ops were… After a while I was feeling sick on this thing and yelled “STOP THE RIDE” he actually did! That’s unheard of at most parks! 3/10 TOO FAST AND MAKES YOU VERY SICK!

WHITE WATER EXPRESS
Ok I know its just a trailer version and I know its not huge but I love it! Both drops are amazing and its really a fun ride. My girlfriend and I both loved it. Better than a lot of the stationary log flumes around! 9/10

TILT A WHIRL
Not much different than all the others I have ridden but they are always fun and good for some laughs 5/10

TIN LIZZIE ANTIQUE CARS
The best antique cars ever, there’s a cop car and everything. They get pretty good speed for old clunkers! 8/10

BUMPER CARS
This was actually the most disappointing ride at the park. There was rain coming down for about an hour or so we tried to find things to do until the rain passed. This is one of the rides we rode during the rain. They were slow and several of the cars were broken. If I were to give a wish list to beech bend one of the first things on the list would be newer faster and better bumper cars. 3/10

cannonballer · #4 06-30-2006, 10:22 PM

HAUNTED HOUSE
For its age this is a really cool ride. Blows Castle at lake Winnie out of the water! The props were cool. MY girlfriend completely disagrees with me and says its cheesy but I felt her hand shaking as she held on to me for dear life! 7/10

ROCKIN TUG

Yet another example of great friendliness with ride ops was encountered here. We had told the ride operator that we had never ridden one of these before and as he loaded us up he kept on about how he hopes we like it. When we were through he asked us if we enjoyed it and when we said yes a glow and a big smile crossed his face. 7/10

PETTING ZOO
Animals, we love’em, we petted them. 10/10 cause we love goats!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST IN THE REGULAR PARK SECTION WE RODE

WILD MOUSE
We ended up riding this one several times. I couldn’t believe how fun this mouse coaster was. I had never ridden a mouse coaster of any kind that was fully enjoyable. The ride ops asked us if we like to spin and then he shared a little secret with us. If you have two people riding, both should sit to the far left, the heaviest person on the end. We spun crazy like and the drops were great for a mouse coaster. Once again when we got off the ride, both ride ops asked us if we enjoyed it. We both loved it, best mouse coaster EVER period!. 9/10 (compared to other mousers, NOT all other coasters)

THE WATER PARK
So the water park is very small, who cares, that’s the charm behind it. Its really nice being able to ride waterslides without standing in hour waits! I rode all three slides, my girlfriend only rode one but we both swam in the nice pool and she sunbathed while I walked around the park taking pictures. We love this section and met some very nice park guests who love talking as much as we do.

THE BODY SLIDE
Fully enclosed – hot but the splashdown is a great cool off. 8/10

RAFT SLIDE OPEN TOP
Cool slide – feels like your going to fall out at times even though you know your safe its very thrilling 9/10

RAFT SLIDE HALF ENCLOSED
Another fun slide not as thrilling as the other two though 7/10

POOL
Very clean and refreshing. I wish all parks had just a plain relaxing swimming pool like this. 10/10 for a great clean refreshing pool!!!!

cannonballer · #5 06-30-2006, 10:24 PM

BEECH BEND OVERALL RATING
Beech Bend gets 9/10 because even though the rides were not all 10’s the staff was, the park was very clean and we just had a blast! The prices on gifts and food were not outrageous and the funnel cakes rocked!

And now for something completely different…

HOLIDAY WORLD
6/22/06

When we arrived we knew we were in trouble, the parking lot was filling up quick. I looked at the tips I had printed from the internet to make sure I had read something wrong, no, I was right, it had said to avoid crowds come on a weekday in June, it was a Thursday and the statement from the website would soon prove even more wrong than anticipated.

I grabbed the online tickets we bought months earlier and we started to walk, and we walked and we walked, we walked under the highway and finally after all the walking we were at the gates. “At least it will be a friendly place like Beech bend.” I whispered to my girlfriend. It wasn’t 20 seconds later the lady took our tickets, she didn’t greet us tell us have a good day or anything just took the tickets and pointed for us to enter, NOT EVEN A SMILE. At Beech bend we talked to the lady at the ticket window as if she were family and here not even a smile? Isn’t this suppose to be the friendliest park in the world? Well I thought maybe it was just her and after all I cannot judge a whole park on one person.

Once inside we got in line for frightful falls. This “smallest crowds of the season” saying was pounding in my head as we waited to ride the flume for 45 minutes!!!

FRIGHTFUL FALLS
Not a unique flume but pretty fun. My Girlfriend like it more than I did. 6/10

Once we were done waiting in line and riding the Frightful Falls we decided it may be less crowded at the water park section of the park. I was wrong!

We went to get a locker, The line was about 10 minutes to rent one so when we got up to the desk the girl said they do not accept credit cards SO I walked over to the ATM and got back in line for another 10 minutes and got our key. The lady said the lockers were by the showers then asked the person behind me to come forward which they did practally pushing me aside. I asked the lady where the showers were and SHE IGNORED ME I asked 3 times and finally after saying “excuse me ma’am” 10 times she rolled her eyes and sighed at me!!! “OVER THERE!” I just smiled and said thank you.

cannonballer · #6 06-30-2006, 10:28 PM

The lockers were almost too small for our compact backpack! It was half empty too!! The crowds at the lockers were huge and pushed there way to their lockers, at one point a teenager actually jumped in-between us and our locker to get to his, without an excuse me or sorry or anything! They have TWO woman’s shower rooms next to each other, which confused me as I thought I was walking into the men’s shower room, aren’t these things suppose to be next to each other and only one per sex? So I walked out embarrassed and went to the men’s that was located on down. The place was a wreck inside. OK the park is very clean I will give them that however, the shower/changing rooms ARE NOT! There was baby poop on the floor and people stepping all in it without knowing BAREFOOTED!! I wanted just to get this part done and get some water rides in!!! after all this fiasco lasted about 45minutes!!!!

It was water slide riding time YAY! Or at least I thought. It was so hot and the lines were all the way to each slides entrance!!! So we decided to go to the NEW wave pool Bahari and the NEW lazy river!! We asked directions and one of the lifeguards of all people sent us to the wave and the OLD river!!! So, we asked someone else and was told “there is only one wave pool and only one lazy river!” at this point I was getting aggravated and I replied “then why do they advertise the new ones if they don’t exist?” You know what answer I got from the THIRD employee we asked? “if you looked at your map you’d find it” well I guess that’s right be here we were standing in our SWIMWEAR going to get wet!!! Why would we be carrying PAPER maps!

We ended up finding the Bahari stuff on our own…

BAHARI WAVE POOL
This, as a wave pool was completely AWSOME! THE best wave pool I had ever been in and we were in about 30 minutes or more. What would have made it even better would had been NOT getting elbowed in the ribs and my girlfriend (just recovering from an ankle sprang weeks earlier) NOT getting kicked several times by the same girl!!! The pool itself 10/10 the guest in the pool? -1000/10

We decided we were tired of getting beat up so we left and checked the lines on the slides once again. Same deal, WAY TOO LONG! So we went to the new lazy river now knowing where it was!

BAHARI RIVER
Fun river I guess but not the best at all! Its was kind of empty feeling, no real splashes, and pretty shallow and slow, you have to use an inner tube or you will get yelled at, very loudly, by a lifeguard and feel 3 inches tall!! I don’t think I ever been on a lazy river that required the tube! We went around a few times. While on this I noticed something that I had noticed basically all day we were there! Voyage WAS NOT RUNNING! Bahari River gets 2/10 nothing special AT ALL!

It was on this river that something amazing happened! An announcement over loudspeakers!! An announcement saying that all rides are to shut down temporarily due to a thunderstorm! YES! I thought. This could mean shorter crowds later!!!

cannonballer · #7 06-30-2006, 10:29 PM

My girlfriend and I went to the smoking station located behind the liberty launch. An uncovered smoking section, most are there. Its funny how most, not all but most, of the sitting areas that are non-smoking are covered but we couldn’t find ONE smoking station that was covered. After what happened next I hope they change this!

So we were sitting in this smoking section waiting on a storm to come, sitting on some old school theatre benches when the wind picked up! Out of nowhere BAM! A HUGE tree limb fell unto my leg!! This is BEFORE it started raining mind you. The limb was about 7 inches in diameter and twice as long as I am! Fortunately it was rotten and broke across my leg, if it hadn’t been rotten I could’ve ended up with a broken leg instead of the big bruise I received, for sure.

SMOKING SECTIONS
Not at all appropriate in size, need to be covered and cleaned as often as the rest of the park, they weren’t disgusting for BUT they were not as clean as the non-smoking areas. 1/10

We ran to some restrooms where we found shelter, next to a Mexican place, if I remember correctly. The shelter in front of the restrooms was about enough to hold 20 but there were at least 30 people shoved together to keep dry. As the rain poured down we watched employees scrambling back and forth like the three stooges. I could only shake my head in amazement. As the rain became softer we noticed lots of people head toward the parks exit. Could this mean fewer crowds? I was hoping so.

When the rain let up we headed straight to the water park again but the lines were STILL LONG! So we didn’t even bother with that area the rest of the day. It was already 4pm!!! We had to start riding something or else our whole day would have been wasted!

We figured we are already wet so might as well ride the river raft ride since we are already wet and the long looks little, yes I said it a short line YAY! It was about a 10 minute wait mostly waiting on testing after the storm!

RAGING RAPIDS IN BOULDER CANYON
The ride was great! This took DollyWoods river ride out of first place! This was my favorite River ride I had ever ridden! COMPLETELY LOVED IT! The themeing was superb and the thing got us SOAKED, WORSE THAN THE RAIN DID! Overall 10/10
The ride ops were actually smiling now, INCREDIBLE!

We thought maybe we could hurry to the coaster now and maybe just maybe get to ride without waiting an hour, we were right after a 15 minute wait we were on Legend and a 10 minute wait we were on raven YAY!

LEGEND
This coaster was great! After riding this I was afraid of riding Raven because I knew Raven Couldn’t be better then this thing. Best of all the Ride ops were smiling and taking peoples bags for them and were really nice. Did the storm wash away all their

cannonballer · #8 06-30-2006, 10:30 PM

meanness or something? We even got a second ride later in the day before closing and only waited 5 minutes!!! I couldn’t believe it! Overall 9/10

RAVEN
After our first ride on Legend we ran to raven and AGAIN the ride ops were having fun, what happened to all the employees? They went from mean as hell to as friendly as beech bend (still not as friendly as Dollywood though). We rode this one again TWICE at the end of the night with a walk-on each time! The ride was GREAT! People have said it was overrated and not as good as legend but I liked it just as much, had way more airtime than legend but was a little short. The boaters on the lake waved at us as we rode by them! AWSOME! 9/10

After the ride I was talking to the VERY NICE ride op and said, I wished Voyage was running. He whispered “I cant say why,” he winked “ but if I were you I would go check it out”. We headed over toward Voyage and passed a couple with their two kids boy about 6 and girl about 10. they walked right next to their parents CUSSING AT PEOPLE and calling them names! EVEN US! The parents didn’t even care. So the employees were improving a bit toward the end of the day but the locals need to learn about both southern hospitality AND controlling your children. There were lots of bad seeds in that park and even more just in the area our whole trip.

VOYAGE
So the ride op helped us out! He was the best person in the whole park for sure. The line was short, they must’ve just started running it and move VERY FAST! We got on and let me tell you! Apollo’s Chariot aint got nothing on this bad boy! My girlfriend shook her fists with joy the entire ride! THE BEST COASTER EVER!!! Overall 10+/10

We couldn’t ride it again though because right after we got off the line grew enormously! We went to the smoking section near Voyage and were asked twice by two different underage kids for cigarettes! We said no of course but couldn’t believe the people in that area. Kids back home would be too scared you would preach at them to do such a thing! Not saying they don’t here but not that much, and they defiantly don’t get pissed off when you say no like one of the boys did!

GOBBLER GETAWAY
After that we rode Gobbler Getaway – the line was HUGE, the kids in line were RUDE and the ride really wasn’t as good as others of its kind such as the Scooby doo versions! My girlfriends gun didn’t work either Over all 4/10

We didn’t get to ride anything else due to half of our day was wasted at the water park.
We headed back to our campsite and wondered why this park won the friendliest park when Dollywood and Beech bend are much friendlier. the free parking and the free Pepsi felt to us like a consolation prize. Free stuff doesn’t make you friendly, friendly people do!

cannonballer · #9 06-30-2006, 10:31 PM

We also wondered why the water park was voted 2nd best in the country when Whitewater in Atlanta and Water Country USA in Williamsburg really surpass holiday worlds splashing safari on ALL LEVELS!

This is a park with great rides but a pretenous operation. Only SOME of the employees are friendly, those who are go beyond the call of duty but those who don’t, and there are way more of those who don’t, are very unfriendly and plain out rude.

The park is clean but the showers and restrooms are disgusting!

The rides are all that make this park a destination for me.

OVERALL SPLASHIN SAFARI – 2/10

OVERALL HOLIDAY WORLD 5/10 (half good half bad, very bad)

SUGGESTION FOR THE PARK, please take this NOT as a bashing but a way to let you know what’s going on when your NOT there to supervise. Also maybe you can find improvement suggestions within this. Hopefully this will help you as well as visitors.

I would really suggest visiting some parks here in the south or just visiting the city of Chattanooga (where I am from) to see how the attitudes of people in general are different between the two. I think you would be very surprised. I have been to parks up north that had demonstrated southern hospitality before, its not uncommon!

I really loved the rides but this park really isn’t what is portrayed to be. I have tried to be honest and fair about this as best I can and hope those who love the park understand.

coastercory06 · #10 07-01-2006, 12:17 AM

Good TR, but it looks like to me you caught HW on a bad day. I went on a Monday in June, and even though the lot was full, I was able to ride everything I wanted with very short waits (excluding the waterpark though). And I understand being let down by their famed friendliness, I wasn't blown away as I expected to be either. There were a few exceptions, as a few said hello and talked to me when I bought stuff, and Will Koch even said hi as he walked by. For the most part, the employees were okay by me and they were all efficient, but weren't as amazing as hyped up to be. Personally, I fell in love with the place, but hey, to each his own. But, good TR, and I mostly agree with your assessments of the rides.

**Brian F** · #11 07-01-2006, 12:38 AM

Well, what you have to understand is that Cannonballer is from Tennessee. I'm from Indiana, but my family is from Tennessee- we visit there every year, and we're considering moving there.

One of the things that never cease to amaze me about Tenn. is how truly friendly the people are. What in Indiana would be described as "Fairly friendly" or "decent" is downright rude by Tenn. standards.

That said, Cannonballer, from my own personal experiences with HW, I'm still going to say that either you caught them on a bad day, I caught them on good days, or maybe a little of both.

cannonballer · #12 07-21-2006, 02:23 AM

^ That is very possible, however we were in the area for four days doing other things and the only place in teh area where we met nice people working and visiting was at the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial.

We loved our experience there.

Lincoln State park was FILLED with downright mean people! The rangers were nice but thats about it. And noone would be quite after quiet hours and during the day kids wouldnt stop playing and walking through our campsite!!!

Bratman · #13 07-21-2006, 10:12 AM

You must have been at HW on a bad day. I was there on the Tuesday of the week before you were there. I experienced friendly staff and minimal waits for all rides. I did not do the waterpark, although I walked through it and I saw that it was busy.

Waits for coasters were 5-10 minutes at most, with many walk ons at the end of the day.

I see that you went to Mammoth Cave National Park. Now that there is enough reason to go to Bowling Green! Awesome place!

Joseph · #14 07-21-2006, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian F

Well, what you have to understand is that Cannonballer is from Tennessee...One of the things that never cease to amaze me about Tenn. is how truly friendly the people are.

Well, I think being near Dollywood corrupts the mind as far as what to expect from a so-called friendly staff

Everyone keeps saying "oh, you hit it on a bad day"... perhaps yall need to remember that not everyone will think its a great place. I'm sure that Holiday World has a GR office and that it gets use! Fact is the park won't be unanimously loved, nothing is. All of the awards the park has won creates premature expectations that, when it doesn't live up, lead to disappointment.

For the record, I agree with what canonballer says about Holiday World. I thought the staff was "above average" but nothing more than that.

... but I thought Beech Bend was a dump!

coasterfreakk · #15 07-24-2006, 06:50 PM

Sounds like a bad day at HW. I went on 6-30 and had a great time . The staff was good 8 out of 10 the crowd was small and rude but its not the south and people come from all over not just locals. The voyage was great..