Collin on Coasters: Family Visit to Holiday World

Here it is. The moment you have been waiting for. This is a long overdue blog post regarding one of the best little amusement parks in the country. Trust me if you were to visit this place you would see what I am talking about. The park is Holiday World located in a small town called Santa Claus in the state of Indiana. The park it pretty much in the middle of nowhere with lots of cornfields and farmland. I always get a kick out of it when I tell someone about Holiday World and they ask, "where is that?" I then proceed to tell them, "Santa Claus, Indiana." Then I usually get this look of surprise from them like they are thinking surely that isn't a real place. Oh, I can assure you it is very real. All the the roads are named to Christmas themes too like Tinsel Circle, Snow Ball Drive, Holly Drive, Comet Lane, Dancer Lane, and Mistletoe Drive. A unique place for a unique amusement park.

Look! It's Santa Claus!

My family and I had the privilege of attending Holiday World this past Labor day on Monday, September 1st. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the low to mid-80's with clouds but no rain. The park opened at 9:30 am and we got there around 9:45 am. Ticket prices for the park are very reasonable. Adult tickets are $44.95 and $36.95 for guests under 54 inches. If you book tickets online you can save more on tickets. Luckily my coaster club membership saved us $19 total bucks off of the tickets. A few things of note about Holiday World regarding admission to the park. They have free parking, free sunscreen, free WIFI, and free soft drinks. They also have very fun shows/attractions as well as great prices on food and souvenirs. Did I mention they have free soft drinks?!

Free Soda! Pepsi too = Mnt Dew!

Front Entrance with Raven looking on

After being greeted nicely by the admissions person my family was inside Holiday World. It was a good feeling entering the Christmas section of the park with the big Christmas tree and decorations. We got lucky and shortly after we got into the park the mascot Holidog came out and took a picture with Bri (below). She was excited and it put a smile on my face as well as hers.

Holidog says Hello

Christmas in September

It was now time to ride some rides. We went over to the kids section in the Christmas themed area of the park. Bri rode a couple of rides there including the drop ride which to my surprise she loved. It was fun to watch her while she rode with Ashley. She was laughing and having a good time. From there we went and grabbed some free soda's which was nice. There's nothing like sugar-laced drinks to keep you going throughout the day.

Time to have fun

Having more fun

Next up we went to Splashin' Safari the parks waterpark. I will say that this part of the park is one of the reasons Holiday World is so successful. It is a remarkable waterpark with a TON of attractions. I have been to many waterparks on my coaster trips and this is the best one I have ever been to by far. It usually ranks behind only Schlitterbahn in Texas as the best waterpark in the USA.

Watercoasters Mammoth & Wildebeest

Safari Sams great kids area

We all had a blast at the waterpark. There is just so much to do that you could spend the whole day just inside the waterpark. Bri loved the big tree house-like play structure where the bucket drops water on you. Holiday World has two of these (yes awesome) and we spent time at both. I love how it is an attraction that you and your kids can enjoy together. I also really like the fact there are a lot of small body slides you can go down with little to no wait.

Ashley and Bri in the wave pool

Landyn and I chillin

It was lunch time so we decided to check out the new Wildebeestro restaurant. They serve a more healthy variety of food with wraps, salads, and fruit. The food was great! We both had the chicken bacon ranch wrap ($8.49) and Ashley ordered a side of fruit. I also subbed the apple that the wrap came with for the mozzarella sticks. I mean I couldn't go all healthy. They also had other items on the menu that looked good like the chicken salad on croissant ($6.99) as well as the buffalo chicken sandwich with fries ($8.99). This is another reason Holiday World is awesome because they really don't gauge you with food prices. It makes buying food inside the park much more enjoyable.

Some food prices

Chicken BLT wrap with mozzarella sticks

After lunch we went and rode the Jungle Racers a series of speed slides that race alongside each other. I was surprised at how she had no fear on these things. They had a 42 inch height requirement which she just made so I didn't know if she would want to ride some of the big slides just yet. I was wrong and she had a blast riding them four straight times in a row with Ashley and then me. From there we went to the other water play structure Kima Bay towards the backside of the park. Bri had a blast and I enjoyed following her around and going down all of the water slides it had to offer. I also enjoyed letting the big bucket o water splash over me.

Jungle Racers - Bri and Ashley on far right slides

Kima Bay

Next up was Hyena Falls a four slide complex with some nice tube slides and a unique drop/uphill slide (picture below). Bri wanted to ride the three tube slides but she was too small to fit inside the tube so we rode the other more thrilling slide instead. Go figure. For some reason the tubes they used for this slide were more conducive for a 42 inch four year old. I have to say this was a pretty intense slide and the look on Bri's face illustrated that point as we dropped down the 20-25 foot drop into the upward hill propelling the tube upward and then back down again. I don't think I will ever forget the look on her face. I fully expected her to be upset and never want to ride another slide again but it was totally the opposite. She not only loved it but wanted to go again. She rode it again with Ashley and loved it again.

Hyena Falls

It was at this point we made our way back to the middle of the waterpark to ride Wildebeest one of the parks watercoasters. Bri said she wanted to ride and again I was a bit nervous for her. I mean this is a pretty intense ride with tons of hills, drops and tunnels. It is pretty much like a roller coaster with a raft on water. It even offers great moments of airtime! And again my nervousness turned into happiness as Bri said she loved it after we got off and wanted to ride again. I can't help but feel so proud of her. She rode two of the parks more intense water rides without crying or getting upset at all. I guess she is going to take after me after all.

The best water ride I've ever ridden.

By this time it was around 4 pm and we figured we had better go to the dry side of the park and ride some more rides there before the park closed. We made our way to the Thanksgiving section of the park. There are a lot of great attractions in this section from The Voyage (best wooden roller coasters on the planet), to the Turkey Whirl (tilt-o-whirl), Gobbler Getaway (indoor dark shooting game), and the new Mayflower (swinging ship). You also have Plymouth Cafe home to some of the best amusement park food I've ever eaten and no I am not kidding. You can literally have a Thanksgiving dinner with your family here for $10.99 a plate or $12.99 if you want a THIRD side! Kids plates are $5.99. They also offer a Prime Rib steak dinner for $14.99! Yeah this place rules.

Thanksgiving section with The Voyage, Plymouth Rock Cafe, & Turkey Whirl

It's a ship that swings!

I split up from Ashley and the kids because I just had to ride The Voyage. I was a little sad because they were only running one train which made the wait a little longer. I could have ridden it a couple more times if they had two trains going. Oh well I feel grateful Ashley let me ride it once. I won't go into detail here but The Voyage and my experiences on it could make for an entire blog post so maybe I will bring that to you someday in the future. For now just know that it is a super intense wooden coaster that is relentless from beginning to end. It is usually rated as the #1 wooden coaster in the world among critics and enthusiasts as well.

Beautiful

The Voyage Station and lift hill

Ninety degrees!

We were really wanting some funnel cakes at this point so we went up into the 4th of July section of the park to get them. The funnel cake price at Holiday World is only $3.99! Yes please I will take two (picture below). At Six Flags it costs $7.99 for the same funnel cake. Again, Holiday World wins. They also had deep fried Reese's peanut butter cups which unfortunately we didn't try. I think if I had attempted to eat these my day at the park would have been over.

Not one but two!

No caption needed

After gorging ourselves in funnel cakes we went to Holidogs Funtown where some more of the kids rides are. Bri and I rode the Howler (kids roller coaster) three times in a row without stopping (thanks ride operator guy...NOT). This is one area I think Holiday World could improve. They need a better kids roller coaster. This one isn't very good but Bri liked it so I am glad she enjoyed it. We also rode the tea cup spinning ride which was fun. Then we left the Funtown section to ride the 60 foot swing ride Sparkler. Of course Bri wanted to ride it and she loved it riding the ride once with me and once with Ashley.

Ashley believes she can fly

At this point it was around 6:15 pm and the park was going to close at 6:30 pm. I really wanted to get on one more roller coaster before I left so with Ashley permission I dropped them off at the front of the park by the kids rides. I then made a beeline dash to the Raven and just made it inside the line queue right as the Holiday World employee was closing the gates. I thought he might tell me that the ride was closed but nope he just smiled and said, "enjoy the last ride." Another positive from Holiday World is their employees friendliness. They are very nice and always seem to be happy.

The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe is impressed

That concluded our wonderful day at Holiday World. My family had a blast. We really only got to do around half of what the park had to offer us too. I was not able to ride The Legend wooden coaster (pictured below) but still had a blast. We were also not able to ride countless other rides because we just didn't have the time. If you want to take your family to a family friendly well-priced Amusement park I suggest Holiday World. Along with all of the free things you get while there you also get treated well by the staff. The park is also clean and voted cleanest park by Amusement Today magazine. Whenever someone asks me where they should take their family on a vacation getaway I usually always suggest Holiday World. I have visited Holiday World the last three seasons and hope to continue to visit. If you choose to visit someday I promise you that you will not be disappointed.