Photo TR: HoliWood Nights and more

Unless you live in a cave, you are probably aware of some tiny event that went down this weekend out in Santa Claus, Indiana to ride some new little coaster called Voyage as well as the parks other assortment of high class wood coasters.

The event went off without much problems. The lines most of us were fearing were non-existant thanks to the skilled staff, multiple trains, and expert enthusiasts. Voyage rarely got more than a 30 minute wait ever during the ERTs, and only occasionally used portions of the "overflow" queue. Raven and Legend were pretty much 1-2 train waits the entire time.

On the first night of ERT I managed to get 1 ride on Gobbler Getaway, 3 rides on Voyage, 2 on Legend, and about 7 on Raven, all within 3.5 hours. Voyage, as good as a coaster as it is during the day really goes into overdrive come nightfall. Which is why on Saturday night I pretty much stayed at Voyage for the entire ERT session (after letting the line die down a little by heading over to Raven and Legend for a ride each), where I got another 7 rides in on Voyage.

I'm sure there will be plenty of more detailed reports, and lots more photos, but here's what I managed to take of HoliWood Nights. I really didn't want to bother with putting my stuff in a locker, so I only took pictures during the day. Plus I figured there'd be a bazillion more photos being loaded on the other 100+ PTRs that will come about from this weekend.

In short, Voyage rocks, hard! I have NO clue why Holiday World would build something like that, nor do I have any clue how any other park can possibly top that. I have a feeling if anyone does top it though, it'll most likely be Holiday World. The event was great, the staff hospitality, as well as the pleasantness of the Koch family and Raven Maven, is as strong as ever. But the event is more than just coasters, its also about seeing lots of friends, some of whom I haven't seen since the last event at HW or even before! It was great to see lots of people again, and to meet some people face to face finally. Oh, and FPD!

After ERT ends, its time for a beer thread meeting at Santa's Lodge!

Eventually ACErs remember the real reason they go to events, food!

mmmm, peanut butter fudge!

"What? I don't need a plate for my veggie dip!"

Soon they're ready for the ACErs, but they must all be getting their jollies on down at the coasters

Bret wants fudge, bad!

As the ERT starts, we make a mad dash for the food. "First ones here!"

We must be VIPs or something because we never paid for drinks the entire weekend!

And look, even Bret himself came out for the event!

The new section even has a stupid Bret dark ride!

And sometimes it duels!

Its like tall and stuff

So this is the reason I flew out to Indiana this weekend, The Voyage. Or as they say in Mexico, El Voyage

The one that started it all, an exclusive shot

Have you heard about this little park with 3 awesome wood coasters?

If I'm going to Holiwood, I'm going in style!

Nice pictures Derk! Good thing waits weren't too bad, I hate long fudge lines!

Oh, I guess there was some coaster there too huh...? Well, how would you rate it on a fudge scale from Orange mint to Penut butter? Somewhere around Caramel Pistachio? That's kinda what I was thinking...

-Don

Apparently on Thursday night a series of storms went thru the Indiana and Kentucky areas. Lightning ended up striking the Kentucky Rumbler, thus closing it down for Friday. I thought this would ruin my plans of getting on that ride on Saturday, but Beech Bend had people repairing the ride all day Friday and by 9pm it was operating. Even Holiday World was nice enough to tell us all during ERT that it was going to be reopened the next day if we were planning on heading down there. So Saturday morning Greg "Glutenfree" Legowski, myself, and Heath, Kim and friends decided to head down to Beech Bend to ride the Rumbler. We got there right at opening (Greg and I a little sooner, thanks to the Mustang) and headed right for Kentucky Rumbler. Managed to get on the 2nd train of the day, back row. Good solid coaster, lots of fun, nice pops of air, good laterals, lots of swoopy turns. I love the station flyby, the first drop, and the airtime hill by the station. Definitely a solid A level coaster.

Unfortunately, as we were heading back around for a front row ride, all the power in the park went off. 30-40 minutes later things were reopening, but when they brought Rumbler back up, everything went down again. We decided to try and come back later, after getting on the other coasters first. Things reopened in another 20 minutes or so, but this time they wouldn't load people yet. The Looping Star guy said "it doesn't have enough inertia to get thru the loop with people yet." At least he used a big word to try to confuse people.

As we were walking around just looking at the park trying to find something to ride, the kiddie coaster opened, so we ran to that. I think the op was a little frightened to see 6 grown people running to the kiddie coaster without any children. After that credit achieved, we managed to get on the Looping Star finally. (I guess the lack of power was now no longer affecting gravity) This ride was BRUTAL. So brutal in fact that I don't think I love vertical loops anymore. The headbanging was so bad that both Jay and Greg lost their glasses, something that's never happened to them before. Jay had a strap though luckily, and I snagged Greg's with my feet. We then hit the Wild Mouse, which had a little line, and would send cars out with only 1 person if that was the total number in the group.

By the end of all of this, it was really hot and humid. We took a ride on the Haunted House, then did the drop tower before going back over to check out Rumbler. Still no sign of it opening. We decided after a stop at the bathroom that we'd head out. Just then, it tested, so we got in line. 5 minutes later we were on the ride, this time front seat. I actually liked it better towards the front, more popping air. We went around again, this time in the middle, and as we got to the end of the ride, BRAKEDOWN! So after another 5 minutes sitting out on the brakes in the baking sun, we rolled into the station. Heath and crew were still waiting for their ride, but I was too hot and hungry to wait, so we bailed. They weren't too far behind, though the coaster did reopen shortly after they left.

The park seemed like it was doing really well, and the Rumbler is a great addition to the place. Too bad the power outages and hot humid conditions wouldn't allow us to get more rides in. I feel really sorry for the mechanic, who was running around frantically the entire day restarting all the rides, fixing Rumbler, etc. The Rumbler crew was especially pleasant, very proud of their ride. I hope all goes well for them tonight.

69!

Must...obey...McDonald's Tray

Subliminal messaging....go ride Voyage now

I'm happy, they have honey (unlike my stupid local McDonalds who claims it was discontinued! How can you discontinue honey, did the bees all go on strike or something!?)

Time for an Elissa approved stop for food

Too...hot...must...leave...park...soon

Hooray! Its running again

This time its actually working. Guess pictures don't really prove that, do they? Well, then pretend these people were stuck here for 19 hours straight, forced to listen to Celine Dion

Heath looks disappointed because he thought he'd get beer with his haunted pretzel

A very old skool pretzel type darkride

Yey, an Anti-Elissa Spinny Rodent ride, now with cool lap bars!

...and stopping it too!

Practicing for the World's Strongest Man competition includes starting the ride...

In a world...desperate for riding, people will even line up for a Looping Star of pain and torture

Um, yey vertical loop!?

Hooray! Finally we can ride again

and neither does this!

"At least this concrete rock formation doesn't require power!"

Sadly Rumbler sat like this for most of my time there

"Hello, I'm a powerless Power Surge. Won't you spare a 9V?"

"Hi, I'm a drop tower stuck halfway up"

When the power goes out, this is what happens to said flume

This is what a portable log flume looks like with power

The park has a lot of newer rides, like this evil spinny ride

But the ACErs who came early enjoyed their ride

Not too many people for the first ride of the day

The reason we came to Kentucky

This PTR is in honor of the great Glutenfree Earnhardt, who died the night before when he drank one of my Weizens

With the raceway nearby, I should have taken this rental for a real drive!

Today I was going to stop off at Kentucky Kingdom on the way to the airport, but I didn't feel like paying for parking, and I had a better idea!

So, 2 hours early for my flight, and look what is conveniently next to my gate!

Don't worry, it sounds gross but its just like a fried mozzarella ball

And don't forget the cheese curds!

mmm, butterburger!

Thanks to Adam, I found out there's now a Culver's near Louisville, right off I-64 in Indiana at exit 105.

Hahaha... that 69 sign is made even better by the fact that it's "Beaver Dam"!

Wow, I haven't had a butter burger at beaver dam in a while. Time to jump on ol' 69...

I bet Beaver dams are real problem when you get 69.

Great photos Derek, the woodies out there look sweet!

Dude I love Culvers. Cheese Curds own your soul.

haha...Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought a sign with 69 and Beaver Dam was funny. I got a picture of it, as well.

Good seeing you again, Derek. It'd been like, 6 years!

-Steve

Great photos Derek! Brian would like your rental and yes, you should have taken it to the track!

^If I would have seen him more than once or twice I would have offered him a ride. Greg enjoyed the car, except when he wanted to read the paper while I was driving with the top down.

Just wait until I head back to SoCal. Can you say 350Z?

Hahaha best moment of the trip was when you pulled into the station of Legend and I yelled "OMG ITS DEREK!!!!!" and you looked at me like I was crazy and said "Ummm....Hi...." haha good times, atleast we got a voyage ride in.

Colin"Also bought a sassy blue raven flag!"C

Derek - I saw you also at Holiwood Nights also but instead of screaming like a schoolgirl and treating you like a movie story I respected your privacy.

Instead I just turned to another TPRer and said "Boy, he looks bigger on the website"

^You did the same thing to me! I guess Im a Derek fanboy or something...

Colin"I had 12 Mt. Dew's that night, maybe thats why I was all hyper!"C

Hahahahah, Derek has more fanboys than I do!

^Yes, but combined we probably have a number of fanboys approaching that of famous couples like Tommy and James, or even Robb and Elissa (if we can increase the boob grabbing PTRs!). You're a part of this, like it or not

^Oh, I like it. And you.

I don't know if I can take all this public forum flirting!! As long as the wedding is in full view of vekoma sideboob all will be well.

-James Dillaman

Derek is a star. I think it's the 3rd nip.. or the cartoon, I'm not sure.

Mustangs suck. Only big ol' rednecks drive those.