Rhymes with "perky"

Do you reserve a certain tone of voice for select words?

Like perky?

Can't help but add a rather sarcastic punch to the first syllable and a higher-than-normal pitch.

I find I do that same thing with quirky. Do you?

SmarterTravel.com says we're quirky.

Are we?

I just don't know.

Quirky rhymes with turkey, too.

One of the definitions is strikingly unconventional. Guess we can't argue with that.

SmarterTravel.com also says we're an "alternative to major theme park."

Got that right.

Here's the article.

Father and son

With the majority of our State (not to mention Louisville and Cincinnati) on "fast time" and our portion of Indiana on "slow time," there are a number of people who arrive at the park, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, a little on the early side.

I pulled into my parking space a little before 8:00 am CDT. The sprinkling of cars in the Raven Lot were surely families who lived on Eastern Daylight Time.

Sometimes people grumble, "Stupid Hoosiers...can't get their time straight." We smile sympathetically and nod.

A few claim it says EDT on our website. No one has managed to show us exactly where, though...

This morning, a father and son wandered their way up to the admissions area. The son looked to be seven or eight years old. He and dad were ready for a big day together. They might have 90 minutes to wait for the gates to open, but they weren't going to waste that time sitting in their car.

Still in my car, I saw them both suddenly freeze. Neither one moved. They were standing with their backs to me, so I couldn't tell what was going on.

And then I heard it: Click, click, click...

The coaster maintenance crew was finishing up with the morning's check of The Raven. They always send it around the track empty as part of their work.

Father and son's heads rose in harmony as they watched the red train ascend the lifthill.

Spellbound.

As the train crested the hill and charged down that first drop and into the woods, the guys turned to each other, huge grins on their faces.

Dad held out his hand and Junior leaped into the air to complete the high-five.

Welcome to Holiday World, guys.

Why wood?

This question came up in a recent article in The Cincinnati Enquirer.

It was a dandy business profile about The Gravity Group, and somehow the topic of The Voyage bobbed to the surface.



Here's Will's explanation of why Holiday World added a third wooden coaster this season:

"We believe that wooden roller coasters, in general, appeal to a wider (family) demographic than steel coasters do," Koch said. "They have that traditional look and feel. Wooden coasters shake. They vibrate. You know you're on a ride."

Please look here for the full article.

One middle schooler's opinion

Actually, Stuart visited us at the end of the school year, so maybe he wouldn't appreciate me still referring to him as a middle schooler. He's a freshman now. (Do they still use the nickname "frosh" when you're in your first year of high school or is that so-last-century?)

Stuart's dad passed along the link to this article the budding journalist wrote for Terre Haute's Wabash Valley Journal of Business.

Bob is back

Bob the Rock, that is.



Remember Bob?

Apparently a lot of people do. Occasionally someone recognizes me (or, rather, my name on my name tag) out in the park and asks about Bob.

(It usually takes me a bit to figure out what they're talking about.)

Click here to refresh your memory.

Bob has a rich and storied history here at Holiday World.

The Games crew gathered after the park closed one recent evening to compete mightily in their annual Skeeball challenge.

It's a little-known fact that stretching is part of the warm-up routine for the best Skeeball play.



After an evening of rock and roll, the team with the curious name of "General Cletus' Soldiers" was triumphant.

The winners posed proudly with their trophy.

His name is Bob.



Bob the Rock.

Q&A w/ TGG

Wow.

When I offered to get this reporter in touch with the guys who designed The Voyage, I never dreamed she'd write an entire article about them!

This is my favorite quote from Korey: One of the problems with engineers is that the cool stuff is the geeky stuff.

(Tee-hee! Can't wait till his next visit to the park.)

Kimiko also wrote this cover story about Midwestern parks for last week's INtake Weekly, published by the Indianapolis Star.

On the bright side...

...helping to "sweep" park Guests into shelters during a heavy rainstorm results in cleaner-than-clean white sneakers.

But there's no hope for Chris:



He was smart enough to slip on an old pair of tennies before doing a bit of spray painting.

Will was so impressed with the mess, he had to take a few photos.



Mrs. Koch made a comment a few weeks ago during our weekly Directors Meeting, "I've noticed everyone's shoes look really good so far this season."

Couldn't help but wonder how often that comment is made in other conference rooms around the world.

Around this "World," it's high praise.

If you ever want to really compliment a Host or Hostess while at the park, here's the inside scoop... "Wow...those shoes sure are clean and white!"

An apology...

...to the 20-something woman who looked terrified moments ago when, out in the raging thunderstorm, I urged her to take cover in the Holiday Theater:

Sorry.

I just looked in the mirror.

Mascara down to the jawline is not a good look.

If we lose the World's Friendliest Park status this year, we'll all know why.

Southerners look to the North

We hosted the travel editor of the Birmingham News a few weeks back. It was great to see (and hear) Garland and his wife, Lynn, again. Love that Southern accent.

A coaster enthusiast named Lee quickly emailed us the link to Garland's story in Sunday's paper.

Along with the link, Lee sent the following comment:

All day yesterday and today I have fielded questions from friends, family, and co-workers who know of my obsession and recent trip... They never cease to be amazed at the unlimited free soft drinks or that you're actually closer to us than Disney World. My only response: "I've been telling y'all about this place for YEARS!"

"Wanna see my ring?"

It's happened again.

Another HoliCouple.

Joe and Kayla, sittin' in a ...

...coaster.

They met here eight years ago, working in rides.

So when Joe gathered up his courage to pop the question (although his friends feared he'd faint), he wanted to do it somewhere special.

At The Raven.



Kayla happily said yes and off they went on The Raven. Surely no one thought to mention that, as a married couple, they would experience life's ups and downs.

Will is half of a HoliCouple, too.



We all wish Kayla and Joe nothing but happiness ... Evermore!

Extra special smiles

It's already been a month since our annual Play Day, but these photos are too cute not to post:



This little fellow had a blast riding the "fishies" and high-fiving the ride operator.



Play Day has the added bonus that the discounted admission proceeds go directly to the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center in Evansville. They use the money to underwrite therapy sessions and to purchase needed equipment to benefit children with disabilities.



We hear such nice feedback after Play Day. And Santa always grumbles (with a great big grin on his face) that his ribs hurt from all the hugs.

Building the Biggest -- at last!

We've been waiting for months for an air date for Building the Biggest: Coaster on The Discovery Channel.

At last! An air date!

But wait...

Scrutinize the page a bit more closely.

See that URL? Hmmmm...

Discoverychannelasia.com

Asia?

I hear tell it has aired in Australia as well. And New Zealand.

Where does a Yank have to go to see this show?

I know, I know ...

Asia.

His Irish eyes were smilin'

Usually nice emails like this get posted on our What Our Guests Are Saying feedback page.

But this lad specifically noted he was auditioning for the HoliBlog.

Considering what he went through to get here, it seems the least we could do.

Everyone knows that coaster enthusiasts are quite insane, yes?

Two of us were traveling through theme parks this week on a broad routing from Minnesota to Alabama, and unfortunately it just wasn't realistic to make a return visit to Holiday World, even for The Voyage. However, when we managed to finish a park early in Kansas City, Missouri, we were left with an extra day to play with, so guess what?

Kansas City, Missouri, to Holiday World to Beech Bend (sacrilege, I know, but they've a new wooden coaster, too) to Branson, Missouri, made for a round trip of more than a thousand miles.

Cost? Er, I'll take the fifth on that.

Four rides on The Voyage before an inconvenient thunderstorm?

Priceless.

Hopefully we'll get back to Santa Claus in the next decade, but if not, at least we've ridden The Voyage :)

Richard B.
Dublin, Ireland

Who's the "fool" now?

Blast!

Missed meeting The Fool!

Rick emailed me he was planning a visit; somehow time flew by and even through I was here, I missed the chance to say hello.

Happily, Rick had a nice chat with Will.

And even though we're not a publicly traded company, we still got a lovely write-up on Fool.com. Gotta love it: Happiest park guests in the industry.

Now I have to wait till next time to ask Rick if he was humming a certain Beatles song while cresting the lifthill of The Voyage as evening set in...

South Magazine

No, not the South ... but Indy's Southside.

The online version of this article just shows one photo; the other photos from the seven-page spread are in a gallery here and here.

I love this quote from Will:

My grandfather was not a person of small vision, but I don't think even he could have imagined that his park would grow into what it has.

Notes from the writers

Sometimes it takes a year or more to see results from hosting a travel writer.

It always pays to be patient.

We had a webmaster from Germany here for a tour this afternoon; we'll post the link to his article and photos when it goes online.

Jochen's comment when he got off The Voyage was priceless (be sure to use a German accent when you read this):

"I believe my insides have been rearranged."

Meanwhile, if you live in the Nashville, Tennessee, area...you might want to watch Tennessee Mornings on Monday, as Mrs. Koch will be on for a segment about our park's history and our new pictorial history book.

And finally, I received a lovely thank-you note from a writer who visited recently with her family. She lives in Metropolis, Illinois (yes, she works at The Planet), and mentioned she'd been busy covering her town's big festival:

Our Superman Celebration officially kicked off Thursday and the town is running over with men in red tights.

Suddenly my job seems a little more normal.

Lost in translation

Idiote moi!

A "Yank" member of the European Coaster Club was still in the park today.

She stopped me with a smile to let me know she'd spent considerable time explaining the concept of the Thanksgiving holiday to the club members from across the pond.

Good grief. It hadn't even occurred to us.

She burst out laughing remembering the look on some of the Europeans' faces when they heard some of the music in the Thanksgiving section.

Gravy?

A song about gravy?

"Sure!" she replied, happy to mentor the coaster-loving visitors. "Thanksgiving is all about gravy. It's everywhere!"

Accent on coasters

We've just waved a fond farewell to the European Coaster Club, whose members stopped by for a few days of riding.

Can you imagine? An 18-day tour of the eastern U.S., with visits to 21 parks.

We were toward the end of the itinerary (they have to get back home to spend the next month wrapped up in all things World Cup).

Justin, their fearless leader, takes many photos. No one escapes.

How clever of me to take a photo of him taking a photo of the group:



Here's the lineup of the nations represented in the trip: Germany, England, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, Wales, Sweden and Holland.

Oh, and two "Yanks."

It was nice to hear "brilliant" and "lovely" used to describe The Voyage again.

We were also tickled that they voted our picnic buffet the best meal they'd had all trip.

I do think, though, that the highlight of their trip may have been this morning's walk-over.

Their journey involves two motorcoaches. And drivers, of course, need their rest. There are all sorts of laws about how much time they must spend away from the steering wheel.

So when the club returned this morning, it was on foot. Justin had arranged for the Santa Claus Town Marshal to assist in walking the group of 80-plus enthusiasts across Highway 162 and over to the park.

What a shame the sleigh wasn't available.

One gulp at a time

A reporter from a huge newspaper interviewed Will yesterday.

Here is one tidbit of information that I hadn't heard before:

In 2005, we served about 420,000 gallons of Pepsi soft drinks to our guests. That would be enough to fill up our first wave pool, The Wave, with enough left over to fill up our Otorongo and Monsoon Lagoon pools.

If you haven't visited us yet this season and you happen to choose a day like today (hot and very humid) you'll no doubt be pleased to see the addition of orange Gatorade to the Pepsi Oasis lineup.

Summer re-runs

If you missed "SuperCoasters" on the National Geographic Channel last week, you have several more opportunities to catch it again.

Click here for the details.

Memories of Thanksgivings past

Long ago when the earth was young and I was a TV reporter, we were sent out to do the obligatory pre-Thanksgiving "food prices" story.

I'll never forget one particular year, as a young fellow in the grocery store was determined to be part of our story. He was 10 or 12, and wandered into every single shot.

There he was, examining the frozen turkeys. Next he read the cooking instructions on the bag of fresh cranberries. He held up different types of apples, scrutinizing which would make the best pie. He even found his way over to the yams and sweet potatoes. And there he was again--in the bakery this time, looking over the pecan tarts.

Good thing we had a tripod (we called them "sticks"), otherwise the camera work would have been shaky. We were laughing that hard.

This young man brought those memories back last month.



He was so proud of winning such a huge prize, he made sure I took a photo. I knew better than to resist.

As long as we're staring Stewie's huge diaper in the face, it seems appropriate to remind everyone that diaper-wearing Guests need to use swim diapers while in the water at Splashin' Safari or in Magic Waters at Holidog's FunTown.

Does he or doesn't he?

A very nice dad emailed the other day asking for specifics about our Pepsi discount.

A few days later he emailed again, with a question on behalf of his seven-year-old daughter. She had seen James on the HoliBlog and wondered if he had ridden The Voyage yet and, if so, if he liked it.

This is one of those times that a picture is worth a thousand of my words.



That's James with our good friends from Indy, Matt and Erin.

Poor Matt sighs that he hasn't had the opportunity to experience Voyage Hair. Erin and James had a pretty good case of it, though.

James has a friend in Louisville (actually, he hasn't met Donnie yet) whom he emails. Donnie's grandma is a travel writer who will be visiting us as part of a press trip this month. Since he and James are close in age, we're going to get them together during their park visit.

Here's a recent email:



I love the "bigger is better" approach some kids take in their emails.

You may want to grab your sunglasses (or eye drops) before scrolling down and reading this email that arrived today, sent by a young fellow named Adam...



Actually, the above is the abridged version. Adam's enthusiastic email included several hundred additional exclamation points.

Back to the aforementioned dad and daughter; yes, James is thrilled with The Voyage. He recommends it to all who'll listen (or read).



The grin on that little face says it all.