Catching a lift

More signs of how close we are to opening.

A huge station...

...needs a huge sign.



Out in our paint shop, Rick puts the finishing touches on the station sign.

A river runs near it

Ain't technology grand?

I'm posting this from my parents' agonizingly slow dial-up account in lovely Madison, Connecticut. Little James and I are here for a visit during spring break.

You can take the red-haired boy away from the roller coaster, but...

"Click, click, click..."

James was making a clicking sound as we rode up the escalator in the Louisville airport yesterday.

Are you okay, honey?

"We're going up the lifthill, Mom."

Of course. Silly me.

Here's a photo Rachel took last Friday down at the Bahari River site.



And here's another view, showing how close Bahari River riders will be to The Voyage.

Why do I get the feeling some folks will bring their cameras with them on the new river, just to catch a few more interesting angles of The Voyage?



Well, it's time to take James to the beach. No matter what the temperature, he's planning to stick his toes in the ocean and dig in the sand.

TLC for The Legend

The Voyage isn't the only coaster getting ready for the new season.

Our maintenance crew gives plenty of attention to The Legend and The Raven, too.



Preparations for opening, you might say, are right on track.

The turkey house

Gobbler Getaway's home is under roof and the walls are closing in quickly.

Rachel took this photo to help show exactly where this interactive dark ride will be located:



The entire park is bustling with activity as we head into the final weeks of preparation.

Forty days (and forty nights) left till opening!

Spaghetti "Ohs!"

We're not through talking about the turnaround of The Voyage.

Not hardly.

You can't see that "spaghetti bowl" from the road.

You can't see it from the webcam.

You can't even see the entire turnaround through your camera lens.

Here's the approach to the turnaround. Heading into it, we'll ride on the track to the left. The right track in on the way back, which includes a triple-down in the tunnel, but we'll save that for another day...



Remember, the turnaround includes the first and second sections of 90-degree banked track. Now don't go back and examine the original design, because Will and the engineers at The Gravity Group have done some tweaking.

"I honestly don't believe there's a single bit of track I'd change if I could," Will told the enthusiasts. (I held my breath in anticipation of just one enthusiast piping up with a suggestion, as there tends to be one in every crowd. Had it been warm enough for crickets, we could have heard them chirp!)



Are you one of those people who can look at a design and picture the ride in your head?

Not me.

I've got those big hills figured out okay, but get lost in the turnaround.

Sunday morning, over coffee, my Cousin Jeff was kind enough to sketch it out for my feeble brain:



By George, I think I've got it!

Anyone else in the mood for pasta?

A hole other view

Jack from Anderson came on last weekend's construction tour, too.

A group of us laughed about how last summer a lot of Guests would peek at The Future Home of The Voyage through the knotholes in the fence just past Raging Rapids.

So Jack snapped off an example of the view:



Knot bad!

ACE takes a stroll

Last Saturday, a group of American Coaster Enthusiasts joined us for a look at The Voyage.

Will was in his element.

"I'm not very humble when I talk about this coaster," he admitted. (That's him on the left.)



Matt from Indianapolis was kind enough to send me his photos from the tour.

He lists this one as his favorite:



No offense to Matt, but photos don't do the turnaround justice. Even calling it a simple "turnaround" is not right.

It's a spaghetti bowl.

I don't remember who called it that, but that nails it.

And it was incredibly fun to stand up on the ridge and listen as the enthusiasts arrived, one by one. As they caught their first glimpse of the turnaround, there were lots of gasps and a bunch of loud howls.

Remember, the turnaround has the first two 90-degree banked curves.

Matt took this from the lowest part of the turnaround:



As we were heading back into the 4th of July section (along the side of Raging Rapids without all the water), Matt snapped one more:



He sent a bunch; we'll post more tomorrow.

More memories of our feathered friends

It's amazing the memories that are stirred whenever we talk about the Educated Animals.

Here's an email from last week:

I really appreciated the picture of the educated animals. I tried to tell my wife about them but could not do it justice. One of my greatest memories is of my mother putting money in the chicken who played baseball stand. Mom hates birds (don't ask me) she is scared to death of them? The bird immediately went out to second base, did his/her daily constitutional and went right back to its change. The look on my mom's face was priceless. Thanks for the memories. See ya this summer.

Keith B.
Vienna, Illinois

I couldn't find a photo of the baseball-playing chicken, sorry to say.

Will Desmond the Drumming Duck do?

Did all that rain make the turnaround grow?

Could be...



Let's step back into the double-wide tunnel for another look.




This turnaround, of course, is where we will find the first two 90-degree banked curves.





Chris, who's our Director of Security and Entertainment (he knows, he knows!), couldn't resist getting a closer look.



And at this point, the camera is placed directly on the track for a pure point-of-view photo:



Many thanks to our hardworking crews.



Have a lovely weekend and the rest of Saint Patrick's Day (my husband said the florist greeted him with, "Thank goodness you came in! You're the only one in town to give flowers on Saint Patrick's Day and I've already made up your bouquet." Not too many of Irish decent around here...)

We'll spring some more photos on you next week.

And so it begins

Spring may not officially kick in until Monday, but the first birds of spring have already made their appearance.

Turkey time

We get tremendous traffic to our webcam.

There's another webcam that will probably interest you nearly as much.

I've kept an eye on it for months, but missed the first turkey feathers.

(Thanks to Kevin who emailed to let me know.)

Holidog's Voyage continues

He's on the road again, our Holidog.

You may remember he arrived in the mail just prior to Christmas and then whisked off to Florida for the colder months.

Now he's heading west.

And apparently he's driving.



A dog's got to eat, right? So our little tourist made a point of chowing down at the very first KFC. He wanted me to be sure to let everyone know he buried the bones out back.



With a full belly and his blue suede hat, the hound dog was off to Graceland.



Holidog isn't the only staff member who gets to travel during the off season.

A number of us have business travel, too.

Will just got back from D.C., several directors have been to Florida.

I went to Chicago and Allentown, Pennsylvania, to speak at coaster enthusiast conferences. (Note to self: Try to convince the enthusiasts to meet in warm-weather states next February.)

Tonya-Marie and Wayne spent a week in Utah last fall, as part of a food-services workshop.

Although the soft drinks were not free, unlimited, or Pepsi, Tonya-Marie still helped out.



And Wayne reported back that the food and surroundings were truly magnificent.



But no one travels as much as Holidog.

Last fall, he spent time exploring Seattle and sniffing out the best coffee shops.



Next the little sew-and-sew visited the famous Space Needle.



Silly pup always keeps us in stitches.

"Best of Amusement Parks 2006"

The Travel Channel's website has the dates and times posted for this new show.

Click here for the details.

If you're not in the mood to click: the show will air at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm Central Time next Friday, March 24.

It will air again on Sunday, March 26 at 12:00 noon CST.

"Best of Amusement Parks 2006" is based on the latest Golden Ticket Awards, which are determined by the highly qualified readers of Amusement Today magazine.

Word of mouth

Rarely will you find a marketer who will argue about the value of word-of-mouth advertising. In a nutshell, make your customers happy and they'll spread the word for you.

What better example of word-of-mouth than an email we just received from a park regular asking us to send our brochure to his dentist.

We'll be filling that request today.

No fooling

Sorry that it's been a few days since the last post.

We have an update from Holidog, but for some reason, this blogging system suddenly won't allow photos to be uploaded. We're working on it, and will post some text-only communiques in the meantime.

Our friend The Motley Fool is at it again. Even though Holiday World is not a publicly owned business, Rick manages to sneak in a mention now and then.

Today's advice to a big park chain does just that.

Paging through the opportunities

Hardly a week goes by that we don't get approached by someone writing a book.

History books, text books, children's story books, books about parks, books about coasters.

Even one about the outrageous ways some people decorate for Christmas. (We froze ourselves half to death taking photos then she flew back to Boston and I never heard another word!)

Once in a while, though, one of those books actually gets published.

One is called "Boomtown USA, the 7 1/2 keys to Big Success in Small Towns." And the fellow who wrote it is also a speaker, so occasionally we hear back that he is sharing our story at economic development seminars around the Midwest.

Here's an article from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

According to this fellow, the town of Santa Claus is an "agburb."

I'm not sure I could say that word without quickly pardoning myself. I have a feeling it's a word we'll hear a lot this summer from folks satisfied with their meal at the Plymouth Rock Cafe.

Remembering the Rabbit

This email just arrived from Matt in Indianapolis:

I just checked out the blog and saw the Fire Chief Rabbit picture. You've finally provided an image of my earliest Santa Claus Land memory!

I can't wait to show my wife so she'll stop bothering me about why I keep bringing Fire Chief Rabbit up all the time to everyone from Holiday World.

For what it's worth: Fire Chief Rabbit is cool... but I'd rather have more Voyage pictures! Don't make me Photoshop new Voyage pics with Fire Chief Rabbit on the coaster!

Signs of spring

Good grief, we had quite the "in like a lion" spring storm this afternoon.

A local radio station was counting down the end of a Tornado Warning with, "Two more minutes until the tornado gets here."

Is that really necessary?

Happily, a bit of wind and a lot of rain were all we received.

When the rain was pounding on the rooftops, across the park's two-way radios came Craig's voice, "Would someone let us know when it's about to start raining so we can come inside and not get wet?"

And I always thought Goofy worked for some other park...

Meanwhile, Rick is creating literally hundreds of new signs.

This one is particularly pretty:



It was like Christmas in my office today -- the "proof galleys" for our pictorial history book arrived.

Any "old timers" out there remember the Educated Animals?



Our book has a series of photos and stories about the educated animals. And when you see Will in the park this summer, ask him about them. Just don't ask him to bring them back...

Still no air date...but we've got a trailer!

Let's try not to crash their site, but here's the trailer for the Discovery Channel's new "Building the Biggest" series, which will include an hour-long segment on three wooden roller coasters being built for the 2006 season, including The Voyage.

Please be aware that this site is the Discovery Channel's UK website, so information regarding dates and times won't apply to those of us in the colonies.

Thanks to Liz for the brilliant news.

"Best of..."

Just heard from our contact with the Travel Channel that Friday, March 24, is a date to circle on your calendar.

That's when they will premiere "Best of Amusement Parks 2006."

As you may recall, this show will feature the winners of the Golden Ticket Awards, an annual survey conducted by the good folks at Amusement Today.

Sorry, we don't have the times yet; not to worry, we'll remind you as we get closer to the big day.

Blue skying

This month's wallpaper is too pretty for words, don't you agree?

In just two months, Voyage riders will get to view this for themselves.

I have a feeling they won't remain speechless for long.

Two months to go

Ha! I got to be the first one to say it!

Of course, I cheated by saying it a day early, but I guess that's my prerogative.

Tori took these photos for us late last week.

First, we see the Pepsi Oasis building in our new Thanksgiving section.



And this smaller building next to the coaster station is the Voyage Photos & Gifts shop.

You can see the lifthill of The Voyage off in the distance.



The footprint for Gobbler Getaway is huge!

We'll watch for some vertical growth very soon.



Work on The Voyage station continues.



Thursday morning, the following notice came from Will via email: ...the last bent for the Voyage was set within the past hour. At this point, all bents have been erected.

We'd do a company-wide dance of joy if we weren't all so busy getting ready for the season.

And, lest we forget...

Here's a look at Splashin' Safari new Bahari River:



The water in Bahari River won't be any deeper than at the Congo River. That means we'll be in a deep canyon for this part of the ride.

Meanwhile, I wanted to pass along that even though our Job Fairs are over, we're still accepting applications for this season. Just head over to our Jobs page for more information.

'way up north

The northern end of The Voyage is springing to life.



We'll get up there next week for some close-ups of those two additional stretches of 90-degree banked track.

Meanwhile, did anyone else see Holidog on the Dr. Phil show this week?

March Madness

It isn't just for basketball anymore.