ChanceWMitchell
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Holiwood NightsThursday evening we pulled into Santa’s Lodge in Santa Claus, IN after a fun day at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, KY. We got a solid night of sleep in preparation for what we knew would be 2 exhausting days.
Friday morning we drove over to Holiday World at 8:30 and got in line at the Guest Services window to pick up our preregistration packets for Holiwood Nights. We were the first in line to get the packets, but a small line had already formed for general admission so I got a wee bit antsy. At 9 am they opened up the main gate and guest services, so I grabbed my Friday admission ticket out of the manila envelope and proceeded into the park. They don’t let everyone all the way into the park until 9:30, so I got as close to The Voyage as I could at the time, in preparation for the running of the bulls.
At 9:30, they played the National Anthem and then lowered the rope. We ran down the twisty hilly path to the valley where The Voyage’s station is located. Even though I got slightly lost in the queue I was the first person in and got my traditional front seat on the first ride of the day.
The Voyage is hands down the most intense roller coaster ever built. It begins its climb up the hybrid lift hill (steel support structure, wooden track). As we reach the top more of the track becomes visible as we look at the hills peaking over the top of the trees. The 160 foot drop is followed by a pair of incredible hills that produce more airtime than one knows what to do with. The third hill dives into a tunnel before travelling uphill towards the turn around. The track goes through a bunny hop, another tunnel, a third air hill, and yet another tunnel.
Out of this third tunnel the track curves to the left and switches direction over the crest of another hill. This marks the beginning of the twisted bowl of track known as the turnaround. Following that hill, the track begins downhill and goes through another bunny hop before entering a high-G left turn that includes two unique hops which are difficult to explain without having experienced them. The first of these is perfect. The second, however, is a bit rough. Following the second hop the train enters the first 90 degree turn of the ride. It then proceeds into a valley then uphill to the second 90 degree turn. A small hop and a slight left hand turn are followed by another uphill tunnel into the mid course, marking the end of the turnaround.
The train gently coasts through the midcourse, apparently having lost all of its momentum. In the tunnel following the midcourse lies the triple down, my favorite part of the ride. 3 consecutive drops without any uphill portions give the train back all of the speed it had lost. By the bottom of the third drop it is flying and soars over an air hill right out of the tunnel. The remainder of the track is a twisted and intense series of S-turns that cross back and forth under the beginning air hills of the ride. In these turns a third 90 degree bend can be found that has incredible positive G forces. After a few more air hills and high G turns the train hits the brake run and is usually met with applause by the riders.
The Voyage is ranked as the #1 wooden coaster on the planet, and is my #1 overall between both steel and wood. Holiday world has 2 other amazing wooden coasters in The Raven and The Legend. I like to refer to these 3 woodies as “The Trinity.”
Throughout the regular operating day I managed to get 2 rides on The Raven, 0 on The Legend (it was broken down), and 27 on The Voyage.
As the general public was leaving the park, anyone attending Holiwood Nights gathered in the pavilion while awaiting the evenings Exclusive Ride Time (ERT). After listening to the Will and Pat Koch, the owners of Holiday World, give some amusing speeches they informed us that they had gotten The Legend up and running, which was met with thunderous applause. After the park had been cleared they let us go out and ride. From 7-10:30 the park was ours, and only ours. During those amazing 3.5 hours I managed to get 2 rides on The Legend, 5 on The Raven, and an incredible 25 on The Voyage, bring my daily total for The Voyage to 52. It was a good day.
Well after an exhausting day at Holiday World I slept like a rock... only to wake up at about 7 to prepare for a 16 hour day at Holiwood Nights! We arrived at the park a few minutes before 8 am to get in line for our 8:15 admission. As the gates open a herd of enthusiasts wanders down into the water park, led by Pat Koch (Holiday World's owner) and Paula Werne (their PR rep) who are awesome and hilarious!
Anyways... we had early ERT on several water slides, the wave pool, and Pilgrims Plunge, their new water ride... the world's tallest! But they also offered a free breakfast, which is where I spent my time during this morning as water slides do almost nothing for me. I had a bit to eat before trying out Pilgrims Plunge around 9:20 am. it was all right, but nothing worth making the trek to Southern Indiana for. After I rode the water ride the park itself was open so I meandered over to The Voyage, which was all of maybe 100 yards away.
Thus, Saturday's coaster marathon began. With the exception of a couple short jaunts to The Raven, The Legend, and a couple walkbacks, anyone could find me on The Voyage all day.
At 3 pm we attended a walkback of The Raven and The Legend. A walkback basically means walking along the ground, beside the track of the coaster and taking plenty of pictures every time a train rolls by. Pictures are posted on my profile.
At 4 pm we did the same thing for The Voyage. Near the turnaround I spent about 20 minutes talking to Korey of The Gravity Group, the company that designed The Voyage. It was a rather enlightening experience, to say the least!
As we were walking back down hill to the park I began to get a bit antsy to begin riding again, and proceeded to do so as soon as I was able.
The riding was awesome until around 7:45 when it began to down pour on all of us and lightning became visible in the distance. Much to my surprise, they never closed the ride until the park itself closed at 8:30! Which led to a lot of painful, yet amazing rides in the rain where the only source of light came from the flashes of lightning above our head. It was epic.
But alas, they had to shut it down as they cleared out the park. In the mean time the enthusiasts took shelter in one of the picnic pavilions where we were given a huge buffet of burgers, fried chicken, mac n cheese, brownies, cookies, and other servings of deliciousness. I stuffed myself here while Will and Pat Koch ran an auction of assorted souvenirs. I won a set of flags from The Raven that were signed by Will, Pat, and all of the Gravity Group guys. I was pleased with this, as well as the acquisition of a wheel from The Voyage and a block of wood from The Raven. Eventually they announced that ride testing would begin for the evening's ERT and that was my cue to go get in line down at The Voyage.
I was on the first train after the storm in the back left seat (my favorite spot). After the rain had cooled down the tracks it ran better than any other coaster I had ever ridden.... and I've ridden quite a few in my day. The hardened track had become smooth as glass and fast as hell. The train flew through the course faster than I had ever thought possible, making the ride even better. Words cannot describe how incredible it was.
I had planned on getting over to Raven and Legend too this evening, but with the way Voyage was running I didn't have the willpower to leave it. The whole night it ran amazingly well. After 2 hours of ERT I had accumulated a total of 57 rides on it throughout the day, bringing the total for the 2 days to 109.
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