Holiday World & Splashin'
Safari
Santa Claus, Indiana
HoliWood Nights Coaster Enthusiast Event
May 29 & 30, 2015
Page One
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Gee, look who is a more than little excited to be back at his old
playground, and I do mean playground as when Bond was one to seven we lived
literally down the street from Holiday World. If the wind was going
the right way we could hear the screams from The Raven we were that close.
Needless to say we were always at the park and we even used to call Kringle's
Kafe and order out pizza for dinner.
When we moved away in 2007 things were starting to change at Holiday World
as it was having growing pains going from a small park into a regional attraction.
Honestly during all of our visits up until this year things didn't feel
right but it was hard to put our fingers on what exactly it was. You
had the passing of Holiday World's visionary leader Will Koch and then the
struggle to fill his void and to keep the small family park magic while
growing in leaps and bounds while filling the demand for Holiday World's
secret recipe of aggressive rides, an amazing water park, free soft drinks
and family friendly operations.
I do have to say that I am not happy seeing a security checkpoint in order
to enter Holiday World. I'm not mad at Holiday World as it is needed,
I'm just mad at the world for requiring one. When you need to go through
security in Santa Claus, Indiana we have gone wrong as a society.
Our visits in 2009, 2010 and 2011 were fun but something was missing.
This year you could say that Santa came and gave us a nice early Christmas
present when we visited in April for the
Thunderbird Media Preview. Yes it was awesome to get a world's
first wing coaster from the masters at B&M at Holiday World of all places
but to both of us Holiday World felt like home again and before our car
wheeled onto I-64 we were both needing to go back.
Thankfully our wait wasn't that long as we had five weeks and a day before
we walked back through the gates into the park we like to call home.
What made it even better was we were visiting for the annual HoliWood Nights
coaster enthusiast event which meant we had a ton of friends to enjoy being
home with. With The Raven just a few steps from the entrance it would
be wrong to not make a visit to the coaster that got me hooked on Holiday
World.
One thing that I really have to applaud Holiday World and the amusement
park industry is that rides are becoming more accessible for those in need.
This chair on The Raven, Legend and Voyage were designed to help someone
who needs a wheelchair into and out of the trains so they can ride.