A visit to Holiday World has been a tradition in our family since I was a little girl and it was Santa Claus Land. We have recently begun making our annual visit on Labor Day and it has always been great. The crowd seems smaller, wait times are less, etc. 
 
We recently took a vacation to Washington DC. While we were there we took our kids age’s 10 and 14 to Six Flags America. We visited there mid-week so the crowd size was small as was the wait time. It had both a theme park and a water park like Holiday World does. The theme park did offer a different experience with giant steel coasters, which our son had never experienced. However we noticed that the park was not nearly as clean and the staff was not nearly as professional and friendly. 
 
In the afternoon, we ventured to the water park. This is where we were all in agreement that there is no place like Splashin' Safari! There were not nearly as many waterslides, especially the larger slides we could do as a family. It was very difficult to navigate through due to all of the game and merchandise booths. They had one wave pool and I think that the kids waited at least 20 minutes for 5 minutes of waves. The lazy river was simply a moving waterway...none of the attractive water features and fountains like you have at Splashin' Safari. The bathrooms and changing rooms were not clean and had a horrible odor. What really got us was the large booth as you enter which rented inner tubes. It was very misleading...they did provide tubes...they just tried to get you think you needed to rent one.
 
In relationship to other costs, here are a few other ways that Holiday World tops other parks. The tickets for this park were $50 per person. No free sun screen.  The drinks were far from free. We were able to buy a reusable cup in which we could get free refills in for the day...for 13 dollars. However it was a chore to get someone to refill the cup. At 3 of the larger coasters, you had to rent a one time use locker for a dollar to store your belongings while you rode the coaster. The all day locker rental was $11 for a small locker and $15 for a family locker, with no deposit refunded.
 
Thank you so much for providing such a clean and family-friendly park that is so affordable and close to home.

We can't wait to visit this year on Labor Day!
 
Kim L.
Fort Branch, Indiana
 

Posted on Holiblog :: 28 July 2009 - 8:16am