Jeremy and I took our 7 year old son, James, to Holiday World this last Saturday. It was our first time going there. It is located in Santa Claus, IN. The park is a bit smaller than the commercial amusement parks as it is locally owned by the family who started it 60 years ago. It has three wooden roller coasters and a water park called Splashing Safari. They offer free drinks while you are there and have drink stations situated in convenient places all through the park. At the water park, there is a station to get free sunscreen. They have a recycle discount program. If you bring in a Pepsi can, you can get a discount off of the price of your ticket, up to five people per can.

We happened to go on what they say is the busiest weekend of the year for them. We had to stop and get gas beforehand which made us a bit later than we were planning on getting there. As a result, we ended up in a line three miles long waiting to get into the parking lot. It wasn’t as bad as I thought when we first saw that line. We moved at a steady speed of around 25 miles an hour, with a slow down here or there and got there fairly quicker than I expected. They had police on the road directing traffic and people in the parking lots showing where to park. No driving up and down to find a spot. Next, we caught a tram heading to the park entrance so we didn’t have to walk the whole way down there. The entrance lines were quick and efficient.  We had brought a Pepsi can along which gave $6 discounts off of each of our tickets on this day.

As this was our son’s special day, we let him pick the rides. We didn’t have the time to go on all the rides, but the ones we did go on were fun. The log flume, named Frightening Falls, was not quite as mild as most. It enters a tunnel at the beginning and has a swift turn which splashes water into the log. It was his first time on anything falling down a hill like that. It was a bit scary, but he loved it. We rode on two of the coasters, the Raven and the Legend. The seat restraints were the best I’ve ever seen on a coaster. They made me feel much safer than usual. The Raven is around the same length as most of the other coasters I’ve ridden, but I enjoyed it so much more. I didn’t feel as if my head was being jarred off though it still had the shakiness that is common in coasters, especially wooden ones. The Legend was longer than any other coaster I’ve been on. The third coaster, which we didn’t ride, is called the Voyage and it’s even longer. James decided when he took a look at the first lift hill (173 feet high with a 66 degree drop) that he just wasn’t ready for something that high. The bumper boats are free here and James enjoyed bumping other people and getting splashed. His favorite ride was Raging Rapids. We all got soaked in that ride. The only place on my shirt that I could find to wipe the drips off of my glasses was where the belt was around my waist.

We headed to the water park after a little while and only had time for the wave pool and Congo River (lazy river.) They have two wave pools and two lazy rivers, so these weren’t as crowded as most. Before leaving, we rode on a new ride there called Gobbler Getaway. The ride has laser guns which you point at targets in the ride. It was quite fun. James got more targets than I did, though Jeremy got more than both of us put together. As we were leaving the park, I commented that I really liked the free drinks. I’m usually slightly dehydrated at the end of a day at an amusement park because we can’t afford to get enough drinks, but here, we each had drank about six drinks throughout the day and felt fine at the end, though a bit leg sore from so much walking. The food was decently priced as well. If we came into contact with any employees, we always got a smile. They are all very friendly. I saw many helping visitors, including one who had just got off her shift at a ride actually taking a family to another ride instead of just directing them. Because of the atmosphere which the employees had, it seemed to rub off on the visitors. I didn’t hear as much grumbling or fussing as I did the last time we went to the big amusement park near St. Louis. All in all, this is one park I want to go back to. Jeremy and I are hoping to somehow work it into our 10 yr anniversary getaway later this summer.

You can read the review that 7 yr old James gave me word for word here.