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| Status: |
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Operating since 8/3/1946 |
| Also Known As: |
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Santa Claus Land (1946-1983) |
| Phone: |
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812-937-4401 |
| Toll Free: |
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877-463-2645 |
| Web: |
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Holiday World's site |
| Address: |
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Routes 162 and 245
Santa Claus, IN 47579
USA
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| Visits: |
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250 |
| Rating: |
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| Reviews |
Sir Willow
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 3550
View Park/Ride Count
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The place- Holiday World for Stark Raven Mad
May 31st and June 1st, 2002
Crowds: according to Paula of HW there were over 800 people this year
Weather: once again partly cloudy with lots of humidity. Thank God for
the free drinks at the Oasis stands and the free sunscreen in the water
park.
Scoring- 10 (the best) to -1 for scrap the
piece of junk... please!
We arrived at our rented RV at the campground next door shortly before
SRM started. Cell Phones, I found, are very hard to use as reception pops in and out due
to the hills (as well as the hot air, some of which probably was coming
from the enthusiasts in close proximity). All 6 of us checked in (me, Nate, Jeremy, Brian, Josh, and Jon) made a dash over to the
park, where we registered ($35 for admission for 2 days, 2 nights of
ERT, morning ert on Zoombabwe, and 2 big meals) then headed into the park.
We waiting around a bit by the entry plaza while the nearby Holiday
Theater was overflowing with people participating in an auction of
things to support an organization similar to the Children's Miracle
Network, and well over $1000 was
raised for them.
Finally the public finished clearing out and one of the park employees
escorted us down to the Halloween area, and the place for the evening
ERT time. Things will get a little fuzzy in here due to all the running
around we did, but I'll try to keep it as straight as possible.
We started off on the Raven (I think) and I got my first taste of what
incredible coasters this park has. Raven has a great mix of air, turns
(I love the wide one over the water) and some lats. And at night it
just opens up and runs like it's popping out of a canon. The whole
train just screams "Get outta there!" to it's passengers as it
constantly tries to eject them out on the course. Raven very quickly
vaulted to one of the top coasters on my list. Raven scored an easy 10.
Their other coaster is the Legend, running this year with 2 new PTC
trains instead of Gerstlaurs. As great as this coaster is, I can only
imagine how painful it must have been last year with the G-trains. But
with the PTC's, it's awesome. A lot more lats than Raven, more of an
out of control feeling, and less air. But it has the single greatest
spot of air I've seen on a coater to date (Phoenix has much longer shot
of air, but even it's not as violent). At one point on Legend it shoots
so hard in the air that the whole front of the train is being held by
the upstops and I watched the guys in front of me literally sit on the
back of their seats. Without seatbelts, there is no doubt that they
would have been gone. (needless to say, I was tightening my own belt
just a bit after that) But the Legend also scored itself an easy 10.
Which one's better? Hard to say. Legend was my easy favorite the first
night, but Raven picked up even more steam the second. Right now I'd
call it even.
Somewhere in all that, Jon and I found time to get in a ride on their
log flume (Frightful Falls) which was the first log flume I've seen
where all the troughs are concrete, not fiberglass, with the sole
exception being the hill and drop. It was a great ride and felt
wonderful to have that water with the high humidity. We then starteed
to make it up to Kringle's Kafe, where the others joined us, and where I
enjoyed the best pizza I've ever had at a park (sorry Knoebel's, it's
not even close), with 2 HUGE slices, some chips, a piece of fantastic
M&M chocolate fudge, and all the pop I could handle. Then it was off
for more rides on both coasters.
Somewhere around 8:30 I also hopped onto a ride on the Banshee, their
falling star, which they were running with a long pause at the top if
you wanted to try to take pictures. This was also my first encounter
with the employee who in a lot of ways became the star of the show-
Bethany, aka the "dancing WooHoo girl". Both nights, all night, shes
dancing around to music that only she can hear, in this case in perfect
sync with the Banshees swings. Teamed up with Melissa on Legend after
the Banshee closed, and with the 2 of them over on Raven the next night,
they were absolutely hilarious to watch and made the riding a blast and
a half. We couldn't ask for better ops, and Bethany at one point
Saturday night even had Mrs. Koch, the park owner, bouncing around with
her. Big huge pops for these 2 ops as well as the rest of the staff who
worked their hardest to spoil us, and had fun doing it.
At 9:00 that night is when we got everyone on the list that was
attending (that we knew of) together for a sort of unofficial takeover
of the Legend. Adam Sandy, Jeremy (the Hostyl One), Briguy, and a few
others to (including Bryan Wood, one of the mods over at Thrillnetwork).
I had a blast and a half with all the guys, cutting up with Jeremy (I
think I found a brotha in spirit) and having a great time spending some
time with Adam on Saturday to (more on that one later- I think)
We continued to ride
throughout the night on the Legend, sneaking in a ride on Raven here and
there, before we all retreated back to the RV with Adam and had a great
time kicking it there for a bit, between their having a beer, me having
a pop, talking coasters and arguing over how long it takes to pop micro
pop corn (I lost, mark it down on the calendar! :-)
The next morning, Saturday, was my morning "downtime", to relax a little bit by myself and
help to make sure I wasn't a burden on the other guys while I explored
and relaxed at my own pace. I decided since I was up to walk over and
catch the ERT time on Zoombabwe, their new giant enclosed water slide.
I had breakfast at the park (choice of muffins), changed and hopped into line.
It's been a while since I've been to a water park and I'd forgotten how
much fun they are. I got in a couple of rides with some people I met in
line, then hooked up with Paula Werne's son John for a few more rides.
Zoombabwe is fast and wet, especially when you've got a full boat. At
one point we had 4 full grown adults in the boat plus John (who's around
10-12 years old), which is one more than you're supposed to have. He
went flying, and at one point we thought we lost him overboard. The
darkness is great, with occaisional faces cut into the slide walls to
startle you a bit. HW has a hit of a slide on their hand. If I scored
it like coasters, it'd get an 8.
I then hit several of the other slides with John as they opened the
water park to the public, having a great time. John then took me around
some of the rest of the park where we rode their flyers (slow, heavy,
and they stop the cylce before you can come close to snapping) and
bumper cars (themed like big steer) before he caught up with his Mom
again.
Througout the rest of the day I ate lunch at the Alamo with Adam Sandy
(I probably scared him with how much I ate there) and we took a ride on
the monster, which is always fun. I also caught up with Jon Zerkel (not
Zucker) for a ride on their wonderfully themed and very wet rapids ride
as well as just having a good time exploring the nooks and crannies of
this well run family park. I also caught 3 of the shows- the diving
show, the musical Ovations, and their Discovery Institute. While the
first two were enjoyable, sadly scripting was not a strong point, and
the Ovations was almost over choreographed (seemed like they had an over
fascination with their red felt cowboy hats). And Discovery Institute,
a show meant to make science look fun for the kids, was just not well
done. It was cheesy, but not the funny kind of cheesy that they were
striving for.
As closing time for the park approached people began to gather at the
picnic grove where we were served a huge meal of burgers, hot dogs, BBQ
beef sandwiches, and a lot more. I had no problem getting plenty of
food crammed on my plate, and had a great time eating with almost the
entire RCT group. The only downside to dinner was when they were doing
the congratulations for Mrs. Koch on her grad degree and doing some
other announcements. I couldn't believe how many people would not shut
up, stop talking and listen just out of politeness. Here's our hosts
talking and they couldn't even be kind enough to listen. Even with
Josh's attempt at yelling at them to shut up. It was enough that being
pretty close to the speakers we still couldn't hear. Tacky people, real
tacky.
But they introduced Mick Foley, auctioned off some Raven and Legend wood
to be signed by him, and had a nice little ceremony thanking Mrs. Koch.
I got in a nice short conversation with Mick about a common, well I
hate to say friend since neither one of us thought of the guy highly, so
I'll say contact, and I wished him well hoping that people wouldn't bug
him through the night. I also met and had a great conversation with
Eric Griswold, start out World of Coasters and is the
originator of using the -3 to +5 scale for scoring coasters. Overall,
this was easily the friendliest gathering that I've been to of
enthusiasts thus far.
After that it was a couple more rides on Legend, which seemed to be
going even faster and harder than the night before (almost to hard for
my tastes, though it was still great), and then closing out the night on
Raven with Bethany WooHoo'ing and dancing around all the way.
Overall, SRM was easily the best even I've been to so far. Everyone was
having a great time. We only got RAAPPTTOORR'd a couple of times, the
handslapping on the way in and out of the stations was a kick and a
half, and I just had a blast and a half being there. I really hope that
somehow I can make it out to another one of these in the future. It was an awesome time.
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| 1-21-04 12:24:21 |
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spcleddy
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 21
View Park/Ride Count
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I must admit before I make my controversial statement, that I have never been to Stark Raven Mad. I know many swear by it as a top annual event. I just have not been able to do it yet. So here is my take on Holiday World: perhaps the single most over rated park with the most over rated coasters in the nation. There I said it. However, if you haven't been there yet, don't give up on Holiday World on my account. It is a fine park with fine, friendly people. I just feel that enthusiasts have been too generous when rating it and its rides in the past.
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| 3-26-04 1:47:11 |
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jonny228
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 71
View Park/Ride Count
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This park is more about the feeling you get while you are there. Its amazing how kind the staff is. You WILL NOT find this atmosphere at any other park. The rides may be overrated but its the staff and the operation that makes the ride so much better than it actually is, thats the reason for such high ratings.
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| 4-29-04 17:15:44 |
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ThunderDan
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 592
View Park/Ride Count
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I really expected to have a great time. When we pulled up to the park, it looked like Great Escape which had me uneasy because it was my least favorite park. It turns out that I have a new least favorite park.
The Raven and The Legend were slow and painful in spots. I rode them at different times of the day and in different seats. While they felt more out of control at night complete with drops into nothingness, I never grew fond of these two. I almost throught that I would rather ride Hercules, but they weren't that bad. I am glad to see that enthusiasts do not rank coasters souly on airtime as these two had none.
I am a big fan of family parks. Knoebels and Kennywood are my favorites. I also like hybrid parks like Mt. Olympus and Dorney Park. Everything in this park is so far apart. I liked their selection of flat rides but they run them WAY too slow. I also did not get any air on their S&S tower. The Halloswings was my favorite ride in the park!
The water park was too hot to go barefoot. The cement is not sealed like the Hurricane Harbor parks. I had to buy flip flops to walk which gave me blisters. The pools were heated. This was a good thought on a day when the temperatures reached 98. We sat in the wave pool for over 20 minutes without a single wave until we realized it was broken. Bahari was great. Zoombabwe looked like allot of fun as I am a fan of family raft rides. It was not a family raft ride. My party had three and they only allowed two riders at a time. So I slowly thumped-thumped-thumped the way down the slow speed slide.
So I figured 'What can free soda (I don't drink soda) and free sun tan lotion (I brought my own) get a park?' Allot of over-rated publicity. I was told that the reason why this park is so highly rated is because of the coaster events they put on. I was told they "put on a show" which can be killer. Next time I go to Indiana, I am going to Indiana Beach only.
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| 7-10-05 12:58:21 |
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cannonballer
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1420
View Park/Ride Count
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Great rides, overrated park!
nothing wrong with the rides just the people!
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| 6-27-06 2:28:47 |
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SheikraTTD
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1027
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This place is amazing. The employees! The cleanlinest! THe Woodies! The Waterpark! What other park is there that when you are the gates waiting to get in, The owner is there talking to people like there her friends! The Voyage is my #1 coaster!
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| 8-3-06 15:30:42 |
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I love DW
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2311
View Park/Ride Count
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I liked Holiday World. The free sodas where great. It really is a great idea that every park should do. I loved the Voyage but it was a little to rough. The raven was rough but was also good. However the Legend was the worst wooden coaster I have ever road. I hated the legend because it was way to rough of a coaster. Also Splashin Sagari was a great waterpark I really enjoyed it. I went on a weekday in August and it was great because neither of the parks were crowded at all. Over all though I really enjoyed my visit to Holiday World and Splashin Safari.
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| 8-17-06 14:20:34 |
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shaggyolsen
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 29
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I love that park i was there back in 82 have been back $$ that day. A lot of thing are not there now. o will may 1 day i will go back.
shaggy
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| 8-21-06 16:04:48 |
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Freddie
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 176
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| 8-20-07 12:24:10 |
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colts1888
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 17
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I have been here a couple of times and every time I went, it was a really good value. I went after they built the Voyage and the voyage is the best woodie I have been on. The legend is ok with some rough points, but it is still a good coaster. The raven is too short for its speed but it was a walk-on. I did the coaster part and waterpark in one day and the park was hardly ever crowded. I went on the voyage at least three times and the longest I've had to wait was about 10 minutes. This park is a seriously good park that I would suggest to anyone. I would give this park a 10 out of 10
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| 8-12-08 22:18:25 |
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