My girlfriend and I went to Holiday World on Friday night 7/20, all day Saturday, and Beech Bend on Sunday 724. Here are some thoughts: I was at the park last August and wow, the Thanksgiving section looks so much better. Last year the café wasn’t open yet, Turkey Whirl wasn’t there, the area just sort of stopped and it looked incomplete and empty. Now they’ve got the café open, a new ride and a new game and the whole area looks much fuller and complete. I’d say it’s the best looking holiday section in the park now. Last year Legend didn’t impress me, nor did Raven for that matter. This year was a completely different story. I was blown away by how awesome and better they were than I remembered. Of course some of that may have come from the fact that this year I got my first night rides on all 3 coasters. I really loved the Dive show. It really is worth the time to stop and check it out. The water park is top notch as well, the best I’ve been too. You can actually get some sweet air on a few of the waterslides. I saw Will walking around and pointed him out to my girlfriend. She didn’t believe me that he is the director so I said hi to him and he said good morning. Then she thought I was a dork because I recognized him. Later on that day we saw him again so I tried to give him some advice and said build more roller coasters. He laughed. What a great guy. I think I saw Pat Koch too. My girlfriend is not an enthusiast and had never even heard of Holiday World before so I thought it was neat when she made some interesting comments: “this place is really clean” not knowing that its been voted cleanest park for many years. She thought it was nice of them to have free sunscreen and that most all of the queue lines were inside or in the shade. She was really surprised at how intense the Raven was for such a small ride. I finally got to ride all of the coasters at night. Wow. Now I understand what all of the hype is about. The Voyage in the dark is out of this world. Insane. Best ride on a coaster ever. Total we did 4 rides on Voyage and Raven and 3 on Legend and I’d rank them in that order. My only complaints about the park: please spread out the lockers in Splashin’ Safari. It is a zoo and a pain in the butt trying to get to your locker if you are stuck in the back middle and at the very bottom. I’ve heard somewhere that they try and price their food comparable to fast food. I have to disagree. It was almost six dollars for three little chicken fingers and some fries. I realize that also covers the drinks but it wasn’t what I was expecting as I can buy way more food at a McDonald’s or Wendy’s for the same amount. Also, it would be nice if they built some stairs leading from Raven’s exit right down the hill next to the entrance so you don’t have to walk all the way around to re-ride. The park itself needs a few more rides to keep people busy for a full day otherwise you end up like us and ride the same rides over and over. We went to Beech Bend on Sunday 22nd shortly after the park opened, after a two hour drive from Indiana. The park looks exactly how everyone describes it: carnival/fair with a wooden roller coaster. The Rumbler is a good ride but doesn’t compare to anything at HW. Nice pops of air but lacks the intensity of Raven or Voyage. The Looping Star’s loop makes up for that intensity, too bad it’s also the most painful steel coaster I’ve been on. I was hoping the haunted house would be similar to the excellent one at Knoebels but it turned out to be pretty lame. The Wild Mouse was my 108th coaster and first spinning one. Thankfully I didn’t get too dizzy. Beech Bend just made me appreciate HW even more. There isn’t a whole lot of shade there and no free drinks. In two hours I was pretty burnt out by the sun and dehydrated. In a day and a half at HW I never felt that way because of all the shade and the free drinks. Overall, I’d say it was a great weekend. How great? Sofa king great! Pictures and video coming soon.
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