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Holiday World: General Discussion

Sam

Sam

TS Member
Screamscape brings us news that HW have decided to throw up the white flag with the Timberliners...

Screamscape said:
Park News - (8/21/13) Unfortunate news from Holiday World came out Friday afternoon. According to the park’s official Holibog, they have decided to not use the Timberliner trains on Voyage. I’ll copy the official statement below.
“For four years, we have worked in partnership with Gravitykraft Corp. to test a new style of roller coaster train for The Voyage, our award-winning wooden roller coaster.
We very much appreciate Gravitykraft’s efforts in this process, however ultimately we have decided to continue running the existing trains on our three wooden coasters.”
As for my own personal speculation, my gut feeling is that this really may have very little to do with the Timberliners, but perhaps after four years the park has realized that the issues with The Voyage are not going to be solved by a new train, but instead they should focus their efforts on fixing the track. While I’m not suggesting an I-Box style conversion, I think the last four years has provided enough evidence to back up the benefits of Topper Track. Outlaw Run’s amazing popularity this summer, built from the ground up with the Topper Track system may be something they can’t ignore. A Topper Track retrofit of The Voyage may do a world of good for it, and allow them to keep the PTC trains.
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Very embarrassing for the Gravity Group, and surely very expensive for both parties!
 
I hate the idea of topper track being used on The Voyage. I think it's a great innovation and I've got nothing against new coasters being built with the system. However, if this retrofitting gets out of hand, there won't be many wooden US coasters worth riding that still have track built in the traditional way.

I've never ridden the Voyage and I'm disappointed that the Timberliners are being pulled but I'd much rather that it remained a traditional woodie. I get the impression that it's a coaster that benefits from being a bit brutal. It's not supposed to be a smooth crowd pleaser, it's an epic! I would hate for its character to be sapped by giving it the hybrid treatment.

If Holiday World are considering topper track, I don't see why they can't re-track it normally and try the Timberliners again as they're supposed to be much kinder on the track work than PTCs.
 
Screamscape said:
2014 - New Attraction - (9/3/13) It’s been a fairly quiet rumor season for Holiday World so far this year… but my gut says we may see some kind of new addition to the Halloween land of the park in 2014. In fact, the latest update to the park’s HoliBlog on August 31st does seem to back this concept up by saying, “So what is new for next year? We'll let you know next month.
Can't tell you the exact date we're spilling the news, though, because that in and of itself would be a very strong hint.”
So what would you like to see added to the Halloween side of the park? If you ask me… I think it’s about time that Halloween had a Haunted House… even if just a walk through experience. I don’t think we’ll see it happen, but we’ll know more in about 10 days I suppose.
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Hopefully something decent amid all the family feuding. :)
 
Screamscape said:
2014 - New Attraction - (9/5/13) A couple of readers have pointed out that instead of Friday the 13th… Holiday World may make their 2014 announcement on September 16th… also known as Mayflower Day, the day the pilgrims departed for the “new world” aboard the Mayflower. This seems more than possible, as the Thanksgiving area of the park in now in need of a new attraction, ever since they renamed the Pigrims Plunge as Giraffica and virtually moved it to the waterpark, leaving Thanksgiving with only the Gobbler Getaway, Turkey Whirl and The Voyage. Adding a new ride or two into Thanksgiving would help fill it out a bit more. (I still think Halloween is in desperate need of a Haunted Mansion style ride, but that’s just me…)
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I love all these historical references they've got going on!
 
We seem to have missed this: Pilgrims Plunge - only recently renamed to Giraffica - is set to be removed.

Why?
Because apparently this Intamin's fairly unique lift system has been plagued with problems.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwHnpQxRrXQ#ws


The attraction opened in 2009, and until 2013, Pilgrims Plunge was the tallest water ride in the world - towering over the park at 135 feet. Holiday World posted this update on April 17th:

from Holiday World's website: said:
Sir Isaac Newton said it first: “What goes up must come down.”

Centuries later, Blood, Sweat & Tears set the phrase to music.

Whether you prefer physics or ’60s pop-culture references, it’s time for us to let you know that Giraffica, the ride formerly known as Pilgrims Plunge, is no more. The tower is being removed this week.

If you’re one of our super-fans, you’re probably not surprised. You’ve noticed the ride has not been open as often as we all would have liked. We sincerely apologize for the disappointment.

In researching the story of the Mayflower, we learned that there was originally a second ship filled with Pilgrims. It was called the Speedwell. In 1620, the two ships set sail for the New World but they were forced to turn back. It seems Speedwell was simply not up to the voyage that was to come.

And so the Pilgrims from both ships set sail that September on board the Mayflower, heading toward freedom. They took along what they could from Speedwell, but were forced to leave behind that which could no longer serve them well.

Sir Isaac also said, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This action we just took? It isn’t the end of our Thanksgiving feast.

We hope you’ll join us this season as the Mayflower sails merrily in our Thanksgiving section. And like the good sailors on board the original ship, be sure to keep a steady watch on the horizon.
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The park has since removed the ride from the attraction from it's website's attraction list.



What's also significant regarding this giant Intamin Shoot-the-Chutes is that Mirabilandia in Italy opened Divertical in 2013, and Air Timers are reporting that that ride is also experiencing a lot of down time, again, due to the lift system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHxqNFut2d8#ws

Oh Intamin! -__-
 
It's odd that Mack could get the same concept to work on a wild mouse with no prolems, and they did it first. I guess it just adds to the ever more apropriate saying, "anything Intamin can do, Mack can do better".
 
DiogoJ42 said:
It's odd that Mack could get the same concept to work on a wild mouse with no prolems, and they did it first. I guess it just adds to the ever more apropriate saying, "anything Intamin can do, Mack can do better".
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And I now have a song from 'Annie Get Your Gun' in my head. Thanks, Diogo. :p
 
I was gonna say, what about Divertical at Mirabilandia but you have included it Al so I'll let you off Haha! I do praise Intamin for being adventurous with their ideas but yeah, sometimes it just doesn't work well when they do it. :p
 
Intamin are such a shoddy company. Why does anybody buy off them? The chances that you will get something world-class and Mitch Hawker-troubling are not worth the substantial risk that something like this will happen.
 
Holiday World are teasing what is possibly a new woodie. :)

13993228657_11fc9df873_z.jpg


I know they need to stop being lazy and fix The Voyage, but imagine a park with four modern woodies. Christ.
 
A new blog post, with a few more clues in it:

http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2014/07/18/promises-kept/

Announcement Thursday, but a promised unique first of it's kind? Some loose rumours around B&M wing launch, and B&M looking footers etc - either way, the parks Director of Communications frequents forums and actually actively contributes on Coaster Buzz sending people astray or confirming their suspicions without them knowing either way.

Paula Werne, the park’s director of communications and the author of the 66 Days at Sea blog, regularly reads forum posts to see just how accurate the speculation might be. She evens contributes to the conversation from time to time as Raven Maven, her pseudonym derived from the park’s popular wooden roller coaster...

...The forums are an important factor, she said, in the next day’s clues. When she sees a group of posters heading down the right path, sometimes she reinforces their suspicions with a clue just for them. Other times, she leads them astray to keep the game afoot. While she said the last six days of the campaign are already written, every other entry is written the night before it’s posted online.
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Full article here: https://duboiscountyherald.com/b/speculation-builds-for-holiday-worlds-secret

Anyway as they say, something large will arrive on Friday which will give it up, and the builders don't even know what they are making yet they've just been given plans it seems to start putting footers in etc according to that article at least.

They're making a big deal out of this, I haven't paid a great deal of attention to this park, but this has got me intrigued.
 
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Got at admit this is the first time I've properly looked into what Holiday World are doing next year and it does actually seem really interesting. I love how they're leading up to the annoucement, especially hearing that the director of communications is interacting with fans and writing blog posts the night before relating to what has been speculated. A really refreshing approach!

I look forward to seeing what this does turn out to be. We know B&M seem to be doing a lot of coasters next year and there is some track at the factory that currently has an unknown destination. Maybe it will be for Holiday World?

:)
 
I can still see holiday getting a B&M, personally I don't see a launched wing rider but maybe more of a floor less launch.

Over on TRP there was talk of a flyer launch but the launch would be on your back and flip after. There is an unknown flyer/invert track at the factory.
 
Sorry for double post.

The holiday world announcement is tonight and we should find out a lot more.

You can watch the announcement here at 20:30CDT (02:30GMT)
http://holidayworld2015.com/

I still think the teal B&M track is for this project.
 
"Is this a dream? We dare not breathe as our ship flies over the sea at speeds unknown. The only sound we hear is the thundering of wings and the beating of our hearts. Somehow, this creature will carry us back to land. To the New World. To our home."

Launched Flyer. Has to be after that clue surely.

If it is, be honest, who saw that one coming?
 
I really can't imagine a launched flyer working at all. For starters those crafts are very heavy. Also, if you think about the prone position, any form of launch would no doubt prove very painful on the neck, and your head wouldn't be being pushed back against any form of headrest.

The mention of wings does seem to hint at a Wing Rider, though what they could be doing with one I'm unsure. Me and @Sammy were discussing this earlier. A launch would require an awful lot of power, as like the Flyer system the trains are pretty heavy so getting them launched up to any great speed would be pretty hard work. Also, as Intamin proved with Baco, the faster you go with wings the more they rattle. A fair few people already report vibrations and shakes on The Swarm, and B&M are in no way immune from the effects of physics.

I guess we'll find out in a couple of hours...
 
This has been a long time in development and very secretive. It's the parks first steel coaster apparently and something they've wanted to install for many years. These aren't those original plans, but they did want to do something spectacular and it's a totally unique ride. That cannot be a B&M wing launch and be true. Well, technically it can, but they'd look silly really and that's not their style.

Holiday World from what I have read listen to enthusiasts and like to take their ideas and use them where possible and interact with them a lot. They seem to have a great reputation for this.

The launch thing seems to have stemmed from B&M hints, the track no one seems to know where it's for, and footers on park, and the something unique discussions from the parks owner I believe himself. He is the son of the original owner I believe, who begged his dad for a steel coaster after becoming hooked on them. His dad eventually agreed, but those plans never got built.

This is that moment. A poignant moment for Holiday World. I don't think it will be something outrageously big, fast, or obnoxious, but I do think it will be a surprise to everyone and unique. At least I hope so, they seem a really great little park!
 
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