SUMMARY
- Roller Coasters: Thunderbird (6x), The Voyage (1x), The Howler (1x)
- Flat Rides: Liberty Launch (2x)
- Water Rides: Raging Rapids (1x)
- Shows/Events: Out of Hand Comedy Juggling Show
- Food: Soft Pretzels (2x)
REVIEW
Lilliana and I made our second ever visit to Holiday World and out first trip for the year. When we went last season, she was still under 52″ tall and so while we got to ride the wooden coasters last year, we both were looking forward to getting the chance to ride Thunderbird now that she was tall enough. I wanted to continue to build on the momentum from our trip to King’s Island and with how much she enjoyed Banshee, this coaster seemed like it would be a great next one to try ahead of our upcoming trip to Cedar Point.
I took a half day off of work for this trip and so we had limited time for rides, but the park being on central time helped. We arrived and went straight back to Thunderbird. The lines were short and we only had to wait a few train cycles. Our first ride of the day was on the left side. First impressions of this ride – it has a phenomenal launch, great pacing and some really cool near miss elements. We moved over to the right side and I was surprised to find just how different the ride experience is on the other side of this coaster. The entire ride on the right side just felt… better. I’ve never rode anything quite like it where the ride offers a completely different experience from the left and ride side. We ended up riding 4x on the right and 2x on the left side for the day, doing both the front and back seats. This ride alone made the trip worthwhile! For me, it’s not as complete of a ride as Banshee is, but it still quickly became one of my new favorites and I’m now really excited to see how it stacks up to Gatekeeper in a couple of weeks.
We grabbed a couple of soft pretzels and cheese and walked over to the dive show. Unfortunately, the show was not running for the day, but we found a juggling show to take in while we had our lunch. The show was a lot of fun and great break from the heat. After it was over we headed to Liberty Launch. We had two rides on this one for the day and it’s a great deal of fun. It doesn’t look like a very tall ride, but when you reach the top the airtime on this thing is just insane. What a cool flat ride.
We walked through the kids section while we were in the Fourth of July area, and took a ride on Howler. The layout of Holiday World’s kids area is one of the most unique that I’ve seen – there are fountains in the middle, a playground surrounding it, and then rides all around the perimeter. I can’t wait to bring Audrey here next year – I think she will love it.
Next we went on the River Rapid’s ride. We rode this one last year and it’s still my favorite rapids ride that I’ve rode. Lilliana and I were the only two on the ride and we got absolutely soaked – way more than I remember last year. It was now time for the Voyage. We only rode this one once and we did the front seat. This ride feels like it goes on and on forever. There’s really no experience quite like it in the roller coaster world. I asked Lilliana her thoughts and she simply said “what a wild ride.” I can’t think of a better way to sum it up than her take on it.
We skipped Legend and Raven this trip, which wasn’t intentional and I definitely want to get back to ride them again as we only did them one time a piece last year. We finished the day with a couple more rides on Thunderbird before heading home.
Holiday World is one of the most charming parks that I’ve been to. The park is clean, staff is friendly, and Thunderbird gives this park exactly what it needs – a steel coaster with a lot of re-rideability.