Holiday World 5/2/09 VTR

violakat03 · #1 05-06-2009, 12:13 AM

As usual, the videos in this TR have a lot of usernames tossed around in them - they're all KICentral usernames. This was the first 'unofficial" KIC road trip, where four of us made the 3 hour trek from Cincy to the lovely Holiday World in Santa Claus Indiana. Gator is also known as Gary, and Beast Man (the tall guy that reminds me of Agent Smith from the Matrix) is Shawn.

Day one of the road trip was at Kings Island. We had a lot of fun with our random group, which grew and shrunk throughout the day. We ended up getting 4 rides on Diamondback, as well as 3 on the Beast, two of which were in the rain which made for a great ride. I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, so I ended up awake for 32 straight hours by the time I went to bed Friday night.

Day two of the unofficial road trip, for me, began at 4:45 a.m. Don't ask me why, but at that time, I woke up. I looked at my phone, questioned why I was awake when my alarm was not due to go off for another hour, and laid back down. At 5:20, I realized there was no hope of me falling back asleep. I was too excited.

I left my house at 6:10 a.m. to head to the Tri-County Mall. After passing, no kidding, 15+ cops shooting radar on 675 and 75 (I don't speed, so I wasn't concerned, but still... 9 of them were all sitting within a mile of the Wilmington Pike exit on 675!), I got to the parking lot of Tri-County to discover I was, by some miracle, the first one there! I didn't see Gary's car, and didn't know what Shawn's car looked like, but there were no other occupied cars in the area we planned to meet. I parked myself out in the middle of no where so that I'd be noticeable, had a chat with the security guard that stopped by to see if I was alright (it is rather unusual to find a random occupied car in the middle of the parking lot at 7 a.m. on a Saturday), and waited.

Shawn showed up about 15 minutes after I got there, and I called Gary to find that he was about 5 minutes away. We decided we'd all go in Gary's car to save on gas money, and decided that maybe leaving our cars at the mall wasn't the best idea. There were no Wal-Marts in the vicinity that were going south rather than back north, so we plopped our cars in the Lowe's lot across the street (that night, I would discover I left my headlights on) and piled into Gary's roomy Impala. Hitting up McDonald's on the way out of Cincinnati for breakfast, we were soon on our way!

I had gotten a call from my husband late last night to say that it was clear to deposit his paycheck (trucker paychecks are kind of backwards - they're pre-filled with the information, but I can't deposit it until I get an authorization from the boss-man), so I asked that we stop at a branch of my bank in Louisville, since we'd be hitting the area around 9:30 and most of the branches should be open by then. Using my GPS, I rerouted us the wrong way (the first branch didn't open until 11, so I had to find another one), and then finally we were on our way to Indiana!

A few miles over the Indiana line, we met up with Corey at a gas station, where Gary and I stocked up on 5-hour energy shots, carbonated beverages and munchies. I swear I was planning to sleep the entire ride there, because I'd only had about 4 1/2 hours of sleep the night before, but that never happened. There was too much fun conversation and excitement.

When we turned off the highway to head towards Holiday World, it was a struggle for me to not dance in my seat. I don't normally get this excited about parks, but .. this is Holiday World we're talking about!! It didn't help that we started seeing signs 20 miles earlier, and another one greeted us at the exit.

I started snapping pictures as we were getting closer to the park. All the reports I've ever heard say that you pop over a hill and suddenly there are roller coasters in the middle of nowhere. It's definitely true .. over a hill we came and ... tada, roller coasters!

You get a great view of Pilgrim's Plunge with a backdrop of The Voyage behind it as you come down the road.

They also have several water towers painted with HW's logo.

The best surprise was waiting for us as we approached the parking lot .... it was empty!! We arrived very shortly after opening and there were maybe 30 cars and one bus in the lot. This boded very well for our hopes for multiple Voyage rides. As we came up to the front gate, we were greeted by Pat and had a nice chat with her. She really is as friendly as she comes across on the internet! We got our tickets, entered the park (the front gate employees were very chipper, unlike KI's employees who are usually rather blah) and were pleased to not be attacked by people wielding cameras demanding pictures. We did ask another patron to grab a shot of the four of us with Santa inside the entrance.

Left to right: Shawn, Corey, Santa, Gary, Kat

After our obligatory Santa picture, we looked at each other and said "what now?" Since we were standing next to the entrance for Halloween (home of the Raven and the Legend), we decided that was our first stop.

The Raven ended up being our longest wait of the day. They were only running one train, and the kids from the bus (who were LOUD and a bit obnoxious) had also made it their first stop, so we had to wait 3 cycles. Corey and I took backseat, Gary and Shawn took the second to rear.

We continued our journey down the Halloween trail, enjoying the atmosphere.

Our next stop was Scarecrow Scrambler. Gary and I got one car and Corey and Shawn got another. Somehow they got stuck and couldn't open the door to their car, so while we waited for them to get free, we joked about getting a reaction video for the Scrambler. Of course, I had to do it.

After the Scrambler, we discovered our first Pepsi Oasis!

It happened to be across from the entrance to the Legend, which we made our next stop. I love the minimalist theming on this ride. The ride is themed after the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and the station house is designed to look like an old one-room schoolhouse. As the train leaves the station, they ring the schoolhouse bell. As you crest the first hill, a long wolf howl sounds before you take the first drop. It was very well done, gave the whole ride an eerie feeling from the very start.

From Halloween, we wandered to Thanksgiving, drawn inexplicably toward the beauty that is The Voyage. They didn't have the lower queue or exit blocked off so we kind of wandered around in the queue to figure out where we going. Finally we found the stairs ("aha! You go up!") and walked into ... an EMPTY STATION. By empty, I mean, the gates were hanging open, and Shawn and I dove into the very front seat. Corey and Gary got in behind us. Halfway through this amazing ride, I hear Corey start screaming "my cell phone! I lost my cell phone!" Turns out she'd put it in a zipper pocket - and forgot to zip it. Right after she yelled this, I felt something bump my heel - it was her phone! I did my best to hold it against the front of the car through the rest of the ride and panic was averted as Shawn handed Corey her phone back when we got off. Gary's sunglasses did disappear for good however.

At this point, Voyage had only been running for about 2 hours. We later learned it most definitely had not warmed up yet. We got 2 more rides on The Voyage (as Corey put it, she wanted a ride where she wasn't worried about her phone for the last half), so we tried the middle and rear of the train. I decided the rear was awesome, but I liked the front better. We went from Voyage to Turkey Whirl. Gary and I discovered that car 1 is broken. It doesn't spin. So we wanted a real ride and tried again. Car 7 was a good spinner and Corey and I got it going crazy fast. Then we went to Gobbler Getaway, where I wiped the floor with everyone else's scores. Gary's gun was broken and he ended with a score of 0, but I got 600, which was about 400 more than Shawn's score.

violakat03 · #2 05-06-2009, 12:14 AM

We meandered through the parks and discovered that not only is their food good, it's dirt cheap! When the $2.49 funnel cakes were discovered, we each had one. Of course, we joked about the KIC tradition of taking a picture of your food, so I took a picture of my mostly demolished funnel cake.

These are at the entrance of 4th of July from Thanksgiving. In 4th of July, we rode Revolution (a round-up), the Eagles Flight (which cannot be snapped because of their designed - though Gary and I both tried anyway!), Liberty Launch (S&S Power launch ride, shorter version of the Power Tower up side), and decided we didn't want to wait in line for bumper cars. Going back through Christmas, we got our first real Santa sighting. We heard jingle bells behind us and as we turned to look, two little girls screamed "Santa!" and went running across the path to give him a hug. It was absolutely adorable.

We made another lap around the park, bypassing The Raven as it looked like it was still running a multiple train wait, and went back to The Legend. After a 1 train wait, we had another enjoyable ride, though I learned I do not like the hollow seat dividers - it bit my hip pretty badly. Then we went back around for another Voyage ride, and grabbed dinner at the Plymouth Rock Cafe. They have traditional Thanksgiving foods, of course, along with other good 'down home' choices. I got the kids portion and still couldn't even finish it. For $5, it was a ton of food. Good food, I might add!

Before hitting 4th of July, I had to stop to shoot a video of The Voyage where it goes under and then over the pathway.

We caught the flat rides we'd missed on our first trip through 4th of July. The bumper cars are insanely violent. You could get hurt on them if you tried hard enough. I loved it. Then the spider ride (Paul Revere's Midnight Ride) was much, much spinny-er than KI's Monster. Corey and I had ours really flying around. We stumbled dizzily over to the antique car ride, where Shawn chauffeured us on our first ride and I chauffeured us on our second ride. After a quick run through the gift shop, where everyone but Gary bought ponchos, we decided it was water ride time.

violakat03 · #3 05-06-2009, 12:19 AM

Our first stop was Frightful Falls in Halloween. It was a fun little log flume and actually got us pretty wet. I managed to keep my shoes and socks dry, but my pants got wet even under the poncho. We took a quick spin on the HalloSwings to dry off and then it was time for the big one.

At Pilgrim's Plunge, we stopped and took our socks off, because nothing is worse than wet socks. Then when we got to the station, we got wonderful news - you can ride barefoot! After all of us took off our shoes and stuffed our socks into them, we crossed the foot bridge and climbed in. I tucked my poncho in everywhere I could to prevent my capris from getting wet again (I hate having wet pants on) and away we went! The elevator ride was a little unnerving, because where it bends to allow the elevator cars to pass, the car tips. That was a little frightening. We didn't have to wait at the top for the splash pool to clear, so without delay, it was down we go! It felt a lot like a roller coaster drop, but with a splash at the end. It was kind of odd, the splash is almost a delayed reaction. Right about the time I started thinking "where's the water?" in it came! Most of it just went over the side of the boat, so my bare feet got soaked, but the top half of me didn't get too much. That water was really friggin cold though. My biggest dislike on this ride is that ... there is nothing beyond the drop. You take a very, very, very slow ride back into the station. No water cannons. No bridge to splash down under and walk across after. No theming. No rapids. Nothing. Just a very very very slow progression that feels like it takes forever.

We finished the day off by drying ourselves off on The Voyage. We never had to leave the station. If there was no one waiting for the seat, we rerode. If there was someone waiting for the seat, we found a new seat and rerode. Four rides later, we were in the last train of the day and ended a great day at Holiday World with a great ride on The Voyage.

For our evening rides, The Voyage had warmed up and was at it's true potential. These rides pushed The Voyage over the Beast for my number 1 wooden coaster. It absolutely flies through the corners, air hills, 90° banking and tunnels. You cannot brace and try to lean with the corners, you have to let yourself go limp and let the coaster take you where it wants to. You will get to know your neighbor because it will throw you into them. This is the only ride I've ever felt like I was going to fall out of without the restraints because it is just non-stop air and corners. There is even air IN the corners! The way I described it to a friend was "you know how the last helix of the Beast feels out of control and crazy? Imagine the entire ride being like that." That's exactly how it was. I was beyond impressed. My feelings were confirmed when I rode Beast again the next day, it felt a lot tamer when compared to Voyage.

After our eighth and final ride on The Voyage for the day, Holiday World was closed. The fudge store was still open, so we took Terpy's advice and all bought fudge. I got peanut butter fudge and a caramel apple. The apple was wonderful, the fudge is divine. Then it was time to head home from a great day at a great park.

As we left the park for the night, we shot one last video. The longest of the day.

Then we split with Corey. Gary, Shawn and myself piled in for the trip home. We stopped at a gas station a few exits from Holiday World and when I wandered out of the restroom, I found Gary playing with .... puppets?

When we finally got back to our cars in Cincinnati, I couldn't figure out why my door wasn't unlocking with the key fob - until I noticed that the headlight switch was still in the "on" position. It was dark when I left my house but light when I got to Cincy so I completely forgot that I'd even had them on to start with. So our adventure didn't end where we thought it would! Shawn and Gary both waited patiently with me for the AAA guy to come jump start my car and we finally were on our ways home.

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