| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
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| Holiday World has been developing this area since 1993 and after two decades Splashin Safari has become the best water park in the country. We say that having been to The Dells, where Noahs Ark claims the number one spot and the whole western half of town is basically one sprawling water park. We've also been to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and other water parks. Sorry. This one's better. Your one admission to HW also gets you into Splashin Safari. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, your best strategy is a swim suit, sandals (NOT shower thongs or Crocs), and a spare shirt. That allows you to keep moving back and forth from wetside to dryside. Without a dry shirt and solid footware, you won't be allowed back to the dryside. At the base of the hill are changing rooms and lockers, but the lockers are small, so don't expect to stash a large pack or bag. One of HW's little perks, in addition to free soft drinks, is free sun tan lotion. Don't forget to use it. Bring a large towel, sunglasses with strong strap, and ziplock bag for lunch and snack money. |  |
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Bumper Boats. # 1. Holiday World removed this ride in 2009 but we think it was a huge mistake.These were the best bumper boats we’ve seen. The boats were quick and responsive, the pool ample, and HW gave a long ride cycle. It was also a beautiful facility. You could get pretty good speed out of these, and a head on collision was lots of fun, with the boats bouncing apart. It was especially entertaining when two boats sandwiched a third between them, shown here. The ride opened in 1977. These were the size of truck inner tubes with seats and Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engines. The Kochs need to bring this one back, maybe where Pilgrim Plunge used to be in Splashin Safari. |
| Rafting River. Interesting. Built on the hillside from the main park down to the water park, so it has a greater natural gradient than any other rafting ride except Kennywood. The only rafting ride with a tunnel (see photo above right) and a geyser basin (a pool of geysers through which the rafts meander while spectators from observation decks above put quarters in to activate the water jets). Moves through a lush green landscape with a minimum of the fake rocks most of its rivals favor. This is the second best rafting ride out there, behind only Kennywood. Right at the water park entrance, so can be ridden in swimsuits. At the bottom of the course, before you begin climbing back to the umloading dock, you pass through an old Western town, complete with a gunslinger atop the saloon firing a water cannon at your raft. This was the first major project Bill Koch's son Will undertook when he returned to the park in 1989 after graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in engineering. Very efficient loading dock, which is often a problem with these rides. |  |
| Whitewater Falls is Holiday World's 1984 log flume. It is no longer competitive with the flumes of other major parks, but works very well as an advanced kiddie ride. It is the only log flume in the country with a full scale tunnel, fairly long and dark, but it's a concrete block affair. They could at least give the tunnel some theming. Rather than an elevated course high in the trees, the channel is sunk into the ground for most of its route before rising to the final drop shown here. |  |
Neither the height nor the steepness of this drop are a match for its rivals. The single drop is weak.The better ones have at least two. These "logs" also need updating. There are no footbraces, and the handholds cannot be gripped well, so there is no way to brace yourself. This is important because at several points there are abrupt drops or foaming turns. It's time for a new, state of the art log flume, winding further under and through Legend bracings and including at least two full sized drops.Why not bring the flume alongside the coaster track? |
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As you enter Splashin Safari at the base of the hill, several features represent a sort of water beginners park. Congo River, left, winds under toadstools, fountains, and bridges. It's short but relaxing. The Wave, right, is the original wave pool. It's equal to the average wave pool elsewhere. There are also a standard swimming pool and Bamboo Chutes, a set of introductory water slides that are still pretty exciting. If all this appears too tame, just head on up the valley. |  |
| Bahari River opened in 2006 in the upper section of the water park. Whether this is the nation's top lazy river or a close second to the one at Disney World's Typhoon Lagoon depends on your preference. Disney's is longer (it encircles the entire park) and has some neat downhill stretches where you get to shoot some rapids. But Bahari is wider, which allows three or even four friends to hold on to each other's tubes and float along together. It has Crocodile Island, splitting the river and giving you a choice of routes. Bahari passes under three bridges. And you get great views of the water slides coming down off the hillside. You can just stay on your inner tube and keep going for as many laps as you want. There is, however, no shade, so on a clear sunny day you're going to feel like a French Fry. |  |
Wautubee # 1, below left, is a four person rafting ride through the treetops. Although Zoombabwe, Zinga and Bahari get all the publicity, Wautubee may be the underappreciated treasure of the water park. You're moving pretty fast, but the unroofed chute is very smooth, and the views out over the park are impressive. Coming around bends your raft will bank up on the sides, and there are several short drops for variety, but mostly this is just a relaxing cruise for a break from the park's more thrilling rides. The weight distribution can be tricky, however. if one person in the raft is significantly heavier than the others, as in a mother and three kids, the raft will swing around and that person will go through the entire ride backwards. With a more equal weight distribution, the rafts will rotate equally at each bend. Grandma and the kindergartners can both ride this but the high school hot doggers also get a kick out of it because they weigh enough to speed things up and climb high on the banks. Every park has one of these but this is the best--by far. |
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Otorongo is actually a set of three black tube slides exiting into the same pool. Each ride is different As you stand on the loading platform, the one to the left is the gentlest, the one to the right somewhat faster, and the center tube the rocket. Since all three begin and end at the same place, the trick is how many meanders slow the descent. The one to the left winds all over the place. The center drops straight down. The right curls around some. You ride these in two person ("figure eight") rafts. The black tubes are enclosed. |
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| Racing Slide. # 1. Eight lanes side by side, ridden on a seven foot raft curling up in front with two solid handrails. Riders face forward on their bellies. Racing timeclock shows winners. A high, fast, undulating course. The best and fastest model of this ride anywhere. If you weigh 100-120 and grab the wave surge just right, you can achieve brief gaps of air on the second or third drops. The lanes closest to Zinga are often the fastest, but weight, distribution and starting smoothly have a big impact. |  |
We have found that the people who do best on this ride are the ones with plenty of Winter sled riding experience. You ride both on your stomach, steering with your hands on the front, using body lean to help control the vehicle, and need a tolerance for high speed only inches above the surface with drops, plateaus and a long runout at the bottom. An alternate way to compete is not to see who gets down first but who travels the furthest along the runout. Try to keep your feet out of the water. They will act as a drag on your speed. |
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Zoombabwe. # 1. A water roller coaster ridden on a raft. The world's largest enclosed waterslide. Grade schoolers should be accompanied by parents, but teenagers will glory in this ride. They can scream and yell all the way down the purple tube, which lets in some but not much light. The enclosed tube makes this perfectly safe, but you will be surprised at how fast the rafts plummet. Lines are often long; 30 minutes is not unusual. To beat them, ride Zoombabwe as soon as you enter the park in the morning. |  |
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Zinga. # 1. HW’s name for the Proslide Tornado. This is the best incarnation of that great ride out there, and was voted the second best water ride in the world by Amusement Today readers. Ridden by four people in a cloverleaf raft, their feet together in the middle, their backs leaning against an outside pad. Tube comes roaring down a steep hill at tremendous speeds. Much of the course is hidden inside the tube, but when we used the radar gun at the few open sections we measured 65 mph. At the bottom, a huge funnel lays on its side. The rafts are shot out into this funnel from the side, so they climb up and around, circling several times as it narrows, until they shoot out the bottom into the pool. |
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We have a hard core coaster crew, perfectly at home on Beast, Mean Streak, Legend, Phantom, and Voyage, and several of them won’t ride this. Yet we've watched grandfathers take their grandkids on several times in a row. An observation deck has been built at the mouth of the funnel, which allows for the taking of photographs and watching the facial expressions of those shooting out into the pink and blue cone and up around the sides. (Also see photo on Holiday World intro page). |
| Bakuli. # 1. This is the best version of this ride at any park. In a four person raft you shoot down the enclosed seven story tube and rocket out the hole (at right, just above the raft, which has already made its first circle) into the giant bowl. It takes about three circles of the bowl to lose enough speed to drop down into the navel, partially seen at bottom right. You then squirt into the exit pool. A set of stairs goes up to an observation deck for picture taking or pointing and laughing. Local teens call this The Big Toilet Bowl and try to avoid Getting Flushed on second circles. These cloverleaf rafts descend the tube with amazing speed in total darkness, climbing partway up the sides as they round the sharp turns. You'll find yourself gripping the handles. |  |
| Bahari. This is a superb wave pool, certainly more scenic than most with its forested hillside pressing in. The one at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon is larger, with bigger waves. But Bahari is better themed, with rockwork and carved tikki fountains, and is the largest in the Midwest. The waits between wave series here are less than other places, and the waves are good sized. |  |
Little kids are probably better off down at The Wave, the smaller version by the entrance, but just to the left, out of this photo, is Sprayground, with water jets shooting up out of the ground and 160 different devices doing something with water. So you could let the kiddies play over there for a while, then keep them at the shallow end of Bahari. |
| In 2010 Wildebeest made its debut and instantly became the #1 water coaster in the world. This is really an amazing experience. In four person rafts, you rocket through tunnels and up and down half pipes. The ride uses linear magnetic induction (LMI) to propel the rafts up several lift hills. Basically the rafts contain a series of charged metal plates and as they pass over a section of powerful magnets the raft is pulled ahead until it reaches a speed of 36 feet per second. LIM technology ("Hydromagnetic" is what Proslide [the company which has built most of Holiday World's water rides including this one] calls it) can push the rafts faster than the Master Blaster water jet devices and conveyor belts used in water coasters up to this point. So you shoot up the hills just as fast as you slide down them, with the constant stream of water reducing any resistance and making sure riders never have a chance to catch their breath. As a matter of fact, you actually catch puffs of airtime cresting each hill. Wildebeest has accomplished an amazing feat : its lines are just as long and sometimes longer than the lines for Raven, Legend and Voyage. The Proslide creation is 1710 feet long and cost $5.5 million. The first drop is 64 feet and seven more lift hills and drops follow. Decide what seat you want ahead of time. If you sit in the front you dangle your feet and legs over the front (the person in this photo is doing it wrong). In the back there's no backrest. Some could care less, but others may find one or the other of these seats uncomfortable. |  |
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