Holiday World, Santa Clause, IN

Christmas in August? Yes please! This park celebrates the holidays all summer long, and we are all about leaving the Christmas lights up (and on) all year, so we can get behind this park.

Rating:

3 beers - half a six-pack. It would have been more if the lines weren't such a time killer and they weren't so narrow and so poorly managed.

Holiday World & Splashin' Safari is a wonderfully Midwest theme park in Santa Claus, Indiana, but what happened there could not have been foreseen. This is the first park where Barbra Jean Jo Barbara and Randy Randerson went on the same rides at the same time and had very different opinions afterword. We were as confused as an Amish electrician.

The park is divided into four sections: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. The rides, live entertainment, games, and attractions all match the theme for each. This park is clean, super friendly, and has made it easy to find your way around. When you add in the free parking, the free sunscreen, and free beverages, Holiday World quickly becomes a family favorite. Make no mistake, the secret is out and this place gets crowded.

We went there on a weekend in high season, so it was no wonder that we were there for 8 hours and rode a total of 3 rides, spending the majority of the day in lines. We still had a great day.

If you are in your RV, there is free parking right up front by the gate, however they do not offer overnight stays and there are no services for your rig. They do have come-and-go access with your ticket, so your group can meet at the RV for lunch or let someone that has been swimming change into something dry.

Holiday World is known for its three wooden roller coasters: The Raven, The Legend, and The Voyage, so these had our focus and are what we rode. Barbra Jean Jo Barbara and Randy Randerson are brave (except around spiders and june-bugs) and love the thrill rides. We usually leave a ride having enjoyed subtly different things, but have the overall same opinion of the ride. These wooden coasters however, left us with very different opinions about the rides, a strange phenomenon that we hadn’t experienced. It was like seeing a mime and NOT wanting to punch him.. like that has ever happened.

Wikipedia goes into the details of the rides, so we will just point out the differences in our experiences.

The Raven:

This is a smaller and older coaster that has had a few face-lifts over the years. The total length of the track is about a half mile and climbs 85 feet, so the ride is only 1 minute 30 seconds. The wait in line is outside under the trees and seemed to match the wait time on the signs at intervals in the line. While in line, you are entertained by a high dive act just off to the side of the line. The ride itself starts with the traditional chain "click click click" as it takes you up the hill. It is fairly smooth but has a couple of rough spots. Barbra Jean Jo Barbara and Randy Randerson agreed that they both liked the ride okay, but it was very short for the time spent in line. Something else to note is that the lines are narrow on all of the rides. This is odd considering its location in the midwest – “no, I’m on a diet” said no one.

No real disagreement yet, but the storm clouds are a-brewing.

The Legend:

This coaster is about 5 years younger than the Raven, is still a traditional wooden coaster, but feels much faster and has an aggressive track that takes the rider through some tight turns and drops. The ride is also short as it only lasts 2 and a half minutes.

The line for this one took forever and it is out in the open inside one of the turns of the track. The people-watching in this line was FANTASTIC as we switched back and forth in the queue, that is at least for the first hour. Then you were just seeing the same faces over and over again, each time, with less expression of excitement and more of "my God, we are still stuck in thisline and I have to pee".

Randy Randerson loved this ride because you drop more than 100 feet at more than 60 mph. Lots of banks and turns and a few more drops before returning to the station.

Barbra Jean Jo Barbara didn't like the ride because it was very rough and in a very small car.

The Voyage: On this ride, our two intrepid adventurers completely disagreed.

The line for this ride is all underground and we spent 2 full hours in it. Barbra Jean Jo Barbara loved this because she was out of the sun and they had fans blowing. Randy Randerson, still having a functioning sense of smell, did not. He insisted on playing a game (loudly) of "Guess that odor". 400 people have been outside in the hot sun, in water park pool water, and then back in the hot sun milling about in a room in cramped lines... Fabreeze should sponsor this ride ----It stank so bad it'd knock a buzzard off a gut wagon.

Once on the ride we found that they were far more strict about the loose articles like hats, necklaces, teeth, etc. We soon found out why.

This is arguably the world's best wooden roller coaster (Randy Randerson's opinion), and arguably the world's worst wooden roller coaster (Barbra Jean Jo Barbara's opinion). We both agreed that this was the longest, fastest, and most dynamic (turns, angles, g-force) that either of us had been on. In fact there were several points on the ride where we expected to round the corner and be back at the station only to find that we still had a long way to go. We both agreed that we felt that we were out of control, the brakes were broken, and that we were going to die. We both agreed that this was a very rough coaster and we knew that were were injured from the ride... but Randy Randerson LOVED IT! Barbra Jean Jo Barbara HATED IT!

There was one point when the coaster banks into a turn at a full 90 degrees. Do you know the physics behind how much acceleration you need to get a wooden coaster to do that, the g-force load on both structure and people? Pardon the tech speak, but it's a lot! It was at that point Randy Randerson fully believed that he was going to see the riders in front of him have their heads lopped off just before his was as well. It was at this same point that Barbra Jean Jo Barbara believed that the "bargains" she had made with the powers that be were being cashed in and she was on the train to Hell. You ride it and tell us what you think...

The water park: Splashin' Safari

Holiday World has one of the nicest water parks in the midwest.

The park has two of the longest water coasters in the world. Numerous family raft rides and water slides, two wave pools, a lazy river, two family "tipping bucket" water-play attractions, plus dedicated children's slides and play areas.

We didn’t try the water-park, but will be back. Randy Randerson only had his speedo that day (oddly he has that close at hand most days) and that would cause too many divorces if he wore that out there.

Free parking, free sunscreen, free inner tubes, free water park, and best of all FREE DRINKS! This park has great rides for the whole family! There are quite a few rides that we weren't able to do that day with the limited time, but we will be back and update this post when we do. The Voyage and Thunderbird are supposed to be great for thrill seekers and a lot smoother than the wooden coasters.

Overall, this is a great park and the amusement side and water park side are both big enough that you could make a day of each. We had a great time.

TIP:

RV Parking is limited, so if you get there early enough, try to get an outside lane. They also use this space for tour buses and they can pin you in.

Price:

$49.99 for General Admission and $39.99 for kids under 54″