Fireworks sweepstakes

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Congratulations to our winner: Gena D. from Shelbyville, Indiana! Gena receives four one-day tickets to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari plus two nights in a King RV at Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort. Thanks to all who entered!
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Today is the first day of summer, and with summer comes the 4th of July and fireworks!

And so we celebrate with a Fireworks Sweepstakes – one lucky winner will receive four one-day tickets to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari plus overnights at Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort.

Fireworks are quite plentiful at Holiday World:

Friday Night Fireworks | Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

Please read through these instructions and rules:

  • You must be at least 18 years old to enter and you must not have won tickets from Holiday World in the past six months.
  • Employees of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort, Sun Communities, and Sun RV Resorts (and their immediate family members) are not eligible to enter.
  • By entering, you agree to be added to our e-newsletter list (you may unsubscribe at any time by following the directions in your email).
  • Use the widget, below, to enter daily. There are lots of options, so you can earn extra entries by posting here on our HoliBlog, tweeting about this sweepstakes, and visiting us on our Facebook pages. If you win, please note you must be at least 21 to phone in your King RV reservation at Lake Rudolph; also, the dates the RV may be reserved for are between now and August 11, 2016. Our winner will be chosen at random.
  • For the “post a comment on the blog” entry option, simply tell us your favorite fireworks memory. (Our comments are moderated, so as long as the content is HoliFriendly, it will appear soon.)
  • Did you know you can subscribe to our HoliBlog so that you receive all of our posts (including contests) by email? If you’re using a desktop computer or tablet, look for the “Subscribe to Blog” sidebar at the top-right corner of this page. On a smartphone? Just scroll down a tiny bit more to find it.

Ready to enter? Of course you are: Simply enter our sweepstakes here from a mobile device; or if you’re using an immobile device, enter by using the widget, below. And not just today – enter daily through Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 2:30pm CDT.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to all!

Podcast: Holidog’s transformation

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In today’s podcast episode, there are a lot of graphics. Knowing that our listeners would be wondering what we’re talking about, I kept promising to post the photos.

First, here’s the podcast:

And here are the illustrations (I hope I caught them all – I’m sure you’ll let me know if I didn’t). We hope you enjoy listening as you scroll through this rather jumbled mix of photos and tweets:

"Go Holiday World"

“Come on, Goose! Go Holiday World!”

Here’s where to learn more about HoliWood Nights, plus our HoliWood Night Facebook Group.

We talked about the European Coaster Club’s visit:

Friday Night Fireworks begin tonight:

We have a new contest! Here’s how to enter:

  • You must be at least 18 years old to enter this giveaway.
  • Employees of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari (and our immediate family members) are not eligible to enter.
  • During this podcast episode (#010), you will hear each member of the PodSquad talk about one of our four Cornerstones. What you need to do is keep track of which person talks about which Cornerstone (four total: Eric, Matt, Leah and Lauren). Email that list – and who said each one – to us here: contest@holidayworld.com by 2:30pm on June 29, 2016 and we’ll announce the winner during our next podcast episode. One entry per email address, please. The winner will be chosen at random from all the correct entries and will receive two one-day tickets to the park.
  • By entering our contest, you agree to be added to our e-newsletter list. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the directions in your email.
  • Did you know you can subscribe to our HoliBlog so that you receive all of our posts (including contests) by email? If you’re using a desktop computer or tablet, look for the “Subscribe to Blog” sidebar at the top-right corner of this page. On a smartphone? Just scroll down a tiny bit more to find it.

Kudos to our super-safe Splashin’ Safari team!

June 21 is the First Day of Summer! Here’s how we plan to celebrate: Assortment of Frozen Bananas in line

And what you really wanted to see – our original Holidog (remember, it was the ’80s!): The First Holidog

Here’s the story about our Hostess digging (literally) to find a child’s lost tooth.

And here’s Lauren and Leah’s mom, Lori, performing at Holiday World (or was it Santa Claus Land?) back in the 1980s: Lori Koch performing at Holiday World
As we move on to #HoWoPo feedback, here’s a look at the rocket slide from long ago:

Rocket Slide at Santa Claus Land
Coolest birthday present ever!

1995 aerial photo

Here’s Jon Green’s “puddle picture”:

Collector pins are available on our online HoliShop and here at the park. @CoasterCrew won “The Foot”:

A sign to commemorate a memorable ride:

And a meet-and-greet with @IBWIPCOM, whom we pressured to ride the grown-up coasters:

And little Kevin makes us all go “awwwww!” again:

Here’s the link to the separated-at-birth photos of the WKRP GM and Abigail’s head.

Don’t forget to keep track of our Cornerstones throughout the episode and enter our contest!

The Legend lives on

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This morning, while adding a new Legend video to our YouTube channel, I happened upon this wonderful piece of our history from 1999.

It’s the day we announced we were building The Legend:

Many thanks to David Ellis for posting this video of the late Will Koch announcing The Legend. We know Will would be thrilled with all the work we did to smooth out and enhance our y2k coaster (that was our code name for it when we gathered enthusiasts’ wish lists over the winter of 1999).

Meanwhile, “Whatever you do, don’t look back!” is the warning given to Icabod Crane as he dashes through the woods to escape the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In this new video, we give you a look back at The Legend’s track (much of it new this season), with a GoPro attached to the back seat of the last car in the train.

Please remember that cell phones and cameras are not allowed on our roller coasters or nearly all of our rides. Our footage is shot under special conditions, very often with no riders.

We hope you enjoy these videos. What else would you like to see?

Show Me the launch

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The irony was not lost on us … the reporter from Show Me St. Louis rode Thunderbird with her eyes closed!

Dana was a good sport and even (kind of ) believed Matt when he told her she screamed the entire ride.

Matt and Dana at Thunderbird

Thunderbird remains the nation’s only launched wing coaster. Whether you ride with eyes wide open or tightly shut, don’t you think it’s launch time?

Podcast: Enthusiast Invasion

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Congratulations to Jean P. from Indianapolis, who wins two tickets to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. Want to try again? Listen to Podcast Episode 010 for another chance to win a pair of tickets!
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We recorded the latest podcast episode a day early, in anticipation of being super busy tomorrow greeting several hundred roller-coaster enthusiasts who are making their annual trek here for HoliWood Nights.

If we’ve piqued your interest, please note we have a page on our website that gives all sort of details.

And so, we swapped stories about the enthusiasts, including this guy:

Santa statue & Mick Foley

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley loves roller coasters and Santa parks, so he’s been an extra special friend for years.

We also came up with a super-easy contest to enter, just by listening to our latest episode:


Here’s how to enter:

  • You must be at least 18 years old to enter this giveaway.
  • Employees of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari (and our immediate family members) are not eligible to enter.
  • During the above podcast episode, you will hear each member of the PodSquad talk about one of our “freebies” – you know, like free parking and free soft drinks. What you need to do is keep track of which person talks about which freebie (four total: Eric, Matt, Leah and Lauren). Email that list – and who said each one – to us here: contest@holidayworld.com by 2:30pm on June 15, 2016 and we’ll announce the winner during our next podcast episode. One entry per email address, please. The winner will be chosen at random from all the correct entries and will receive two one-day tickets to the park.
  • By entering our contest, you agree to be added to our e-newsletter list. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the directions in your email.
  • Did you know you can subscribe to our HoliBlog so that you receive all of our posts (including contests) by email? If you’re using a desktop computer or tablet, look for the “Subscribe to Blog” sidebar at the top-right corner of this page. On a smartphone? Just scroll down a tiny bit more to find it.

Oh, and here are those two tweets with cute little Kevin we laughed about:

Thanks for listening – and good luck to all!