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Besides costing twice as much as The Voyage Thunderbird also expands Holiday World quite a bit as it almost doubles the Thanksgiving section of the park.



As it is a little hike to get all the way back to Thunderbird Holiday World added a store, a new restaurant, restrooms and of course one of their world famous Pepsi Oasis' free soft drink stands so you can take care of the thirst created by the long walk back there from the gates.



If you were not aware Holiday World is the worlds oldest theme park predating Disneyland by nine years when it opened up in 1946.



While the parks theming has never been the most amazing because the family owned park has had to be budget conscious with all of their additions.   Holiday World is now big enough that the days of theming coming from the local Pier One Imports; as in the case of The Voyage, are long gone as they really went all out with Thunderbird's theming.



The queue, station, launch and entire area is themed to look like a small family farm but my favorite part of the theming is the "Will Power Steam Engine Company" on Thunderbird's flywheel building.  If you don't Know Will Koch was the third generation of Kochs to run Holiday World and Splashin' Safari.  He was the driving force that turned Santa Claus Land; which was a small roadside attraction, into the huge water and theme park that you see today.  He added The Raven to the park in 1995 which turned the coaster world on its head making wooden coasters suddenly cool again.  He followed that up with The Legend in 2000 and The Voyage six years later with which he was so involved with the design of the ride he is listed as a co-designer.

With all that he created with Holiday World & Splashin' Safari I know he would say that his greatest creation was his three children Lauren. Leigh and William who I used to see follow him around the park instead of spending their summers off.  Like their father they now run Holiday World as the fourth generation of Kochs and this little bit of theming is a nice nod to their father and all of his accomplishments.  Having spent numerous hours over all of my years living down the block from Holiday World in Santa Claus chatting coasters with Will I know he's totally geeking out about this.



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Paul B. Drabek