Etchings on the Attic Wall

Now here is an unusual amusement park.  The Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari is both an amusement park and water park all in one.  The park is located in Santa Claus, Indiana and, as you would expect, they celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July.  They have tons of roller coasters, water rides, and wave pools.  They also try to make the trip easy on your pockets by offering free amenities including parking, sunscreen, inner tubes, and unlimited Pepsi soft drinks. The park also just recently set an attendance record – more than 1 million visitors for the fourth year in a row!  Here is an interesting piece of trivia – this was the first themed amusement park in the United States.  It existed even before DisneyLand!  They are currently set to undergo an expansion in 2010 to include a new water ride called the “Wildebeest”.  This is going to be the longest water coaster in the world at 1/3 of a mile!  There will be plenty of hills, drops, and turns with a top speed of 24.5 mph.  There are even some hills which propel you upward!

The park is divided into four sections covering the holidays mentioned earlier.  Each of these sections celebrates the respective holiday with games, attractions, themed-rides, and live entertainment.  For example, the Christmas section has Santa’s Storytime Theater and a ride called “Reindeer Games” (among others).  The water park area is called “Splashin’ Safari” and is the largest such park in Indiana.  In addition, there is another section of the park called “Holidog’s FunTown”.  This is a children’s play area featuring a three-story treehouse with slides, climbing nets, rock-climbing walls, and more.  This area also has a children’s car ride, a train ride, a small roller coaster, and a spray park.

Now, for a little about the rides.  They are known for their wooden roller coasters.  “The Raven” (themed after Edger Allan Poe’s poem of the same name) opened in 1995 and has been rated repeatedly as one of the top wooden roller coasters in the world.  Another popular wooden ride is “The Legend” and is also ranked very highly (themed after the Legend of Sleepy Hollow).  “ZOOMbabwe”, located in the water park, is the world’s largest enclosed water slide.  “The Voyage”, located in the Thanksgiving section, was rated in Amusement Today as the #1 wooden roller coaster on the planet in 2007, 2008, and 2009.  It it 1.2 miles long with five underground tunnels!  The entire amusement park has so many rides across all themed sections, that I couldn’t possibly list them all here.  But, they have rides covering the major categories including roller coasters, family rides, children/toddler rides, and water rides.

The park also conducts several entertainment shows.  They have the “HoliDazzles” which takes place in the Holiday Theater (songs, dancing), “Dive, Dive” (a tribute to the Olympics), “It’s Country Y’All” (country music and dancing), “Fusion” (pop music with costumes and dancing), “Sing Praise” (Gospel music show), “Santa’s Storytime Theater” (Santa reads stories and sings), and “Holidog’s Dance Party” (dance with the kids).

If you are a roller coaster or amusement park enthusiast, you have got to check this place out.  It has been around for over 60 years and is not going anywhere.  Come celebrate the holidays like you never have before!