Coasters
| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
|
Coasters |
|
| Raven. This is the coaster that put Holiday World on the national radar. Ranked Coaster of the Year the season it debuted, it is a terrain coaster of sorts, racing down through the woods, out over the lake, and back up the hill to the station. Not an especially long ride, it masterfully blends a dozen century old tricks, the most common of which is reversing the banking at key points so riders cannot maintain their same lean or bracing.. It offers frequent pops of airtime immediately followed by quick, steep drops. The tunnel at the bottom of the first drop flavors the early part of the ride. There had been a trackage flaw right there, creating a jarring rough spot that slowed the climb up the second hill. Work in the 2005 offseason retracked that valley and smoothed out the flaw, so the trains crest the second hill at higher speed. According to the radar gun, it adds about 5 mph to the cresting rate, but whatever it is, the added air is noticeable. This is a great woodie, still in the top 10, and alone worth the trip to Indiana. It's getting a little rougher as it ages, but not enough to matter. |  |
 |
Legend. Rarely does a park debut a Coaster of the Year, then follow it with an even greater coaster only a few years later. Raven is firmly entrenched in the top 15, but The Legend of Sleepy Hollow quickly claimed a Top 10 spot and should remain there for some time. It is a fearful coaster, throwing everything at the rider over a long course across the woods, the waterpark, over and under the log flume, around an intense helix and through a series of “covered bridges.” The first drop is a heartstopper. The Beast, Mean Streak and a few others are higher but Legend is much steeper. It adds a second device with a twisting sharp left turn, similar to the one on Kentucky Kingdom's Thunder Run. And it adds a third by diving into a pitch black tunnel so riders can’t orient themselves to whatever is coming next. That would be a high, steeply banked turn, setting up a breathtaking plunge right through the higher tubes and loading decks of the water park. From the entrance to the first tunnel for the next 300 feet, the serial headchopper effect is amazing. A few years ago, HW retracked the stretch rising from this plunge up to the helix. They added 22 inches. At such speed, that leveling out removes a loss of momentum. So the trains now roar into the helix much more intensely, which ratchets up the lateral Gs. |
| This is a much more intense helix than the full ones on Beast and Cornball or the partials on Thunderhead or Thunder Run. Given the length of this ride, it is really amazing that Legend can maintain the intensity it does. Beast, remember, has a second lift hill. Legend, meanwhile, brings you screaming into the final turn, then brakes hard coming into the station. Some would point out that Beast is a 4:00 ride. But some of that time goes into a near stop on the far turn, and the long climb up the second lift. Don’t expect any such let up on Legend. You really are in a reckless, desperate race through the dark woods. Legend is fastest between about 3:00 and 5:00 on a hot, humid summer afternoon. HW closes at 8 pm, but if you come out in the Spring or Fall, you can catch Legend after dark, when it may be the ultimate coaster experience. People who have ridden it on a moonless night swear there really is a headless horseman chasing them through the woods. Getting a little rougher with age, but still a great ride. |  |
Voyage. # 1. This work of art was intentionally designed to take over the spot as the world's number one roller coaster. It did the day it opened in 2005, and it is going to be very difficult for any other coaster to replace it in the foreseeable future. To build a monster like this a park has to have unlimited space, which Holiday World did and its rivals do not. Coaster fans from Europe and Asia have come to Indiana just to ride it. Voyage has raised the bar to a whole new level for the 21st Century. Marathoning, a favorite activity of coaster fans in which they ride the same coaster over and over as many as a dozen times, is not possible here because one time leaves even hard core riders out of breath and exhausted. You also cannot ride this one with your eyes closed because you have to see what's coming to shift your grip and lean. Voyage unleashed a whole bag of tricks but the biggest one is that in direct contradiction to coaster tradition, the further into the five minute ride you go, the faster and wilder the ride becomes. Every time you think you can now relax and catch your breath, the intensity picks up another notch. The beginning of Voyage looks like a traditional out and back elevated to a whole new level, as the lift hill is higher than anything you've seen and is followed by two others which in their own right are higher than anything any other ride offers. So you are descending the longest and steepest drops you've ever experienced and immediately climbing straight back up. The air time coming over those hills is impressive. Completing this triple thrill you feel like the ride was well worth your trip. Only then do you realize that was only the warmup. The train screams into an insane turn tilting the cars to 90 degree angles and delivering powerful lateral Gs. You find yourself hanging on rather desperately. Coming out of the turn, facing back toward the station, the train picks up speed. Voyage will now throw tunnels, headchoppers, two more 90 degree turns, airtime hills, and reversals at you. The tradition of riding coasters with your hands held overhead ends with this ride. You'll be using both hands to hang on and wishing you had a few more. Will Koch majored in engineering at Notre Dame and has a lifetime love of roller coasters. When he returned to the family park after graduation, adding coasters was a top priority. Raven was impressive and Legend was a masterpiece. But Voyage is beyond words. All 21st Century coasters will derive from this one achievement. |
 |
|
|||
|