In July and early August, I visited Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. It was my first ever time at this family owned regional amusement park. One of the most notable things about Holiday World & Splashin' Safari is that they give out free soft drinks and sunscreen! There are sunscreen stations around the park, as well as Pepsi Oasis. Opening in 1946, Holiday World is home to 6 roller coasters. Their most notable roller coaster is a wooden coaster called The Voyage, opening in 2006, this is the coaster that really put Holiday World on the map. It is one of the longest wooden coasters in the world, and one of the tallest. Holiday World is also home to the world's first launched wing coaster, Thunderbird opened in 2015 featuring an LSM launch that reaches speeds of 60 MPH. Holiday World is also home to The Legend, a CCI wooden roller coaster that opened in 2000, and The Raven, a CCI wooden roller coaster that opened in 1995.
Their newest roller coaster is Good Gravy! A Vekoma Family Boomerang that opened in 2024 themed to Thanksgiving dinner in Grandma's house. Holiday World did an amazing job with the theme of this roller coaster, as the plaza features a playground, multiple giant cooking utensils, and more! The track for Good Gravy! even goes through a can of cranberry sauce!
Holiday World is known for being one of if not the cleanest regional amusement park in the U.S. and in my experience, that was definitely true! Holiday World was a very clean park with very little areas that needed redone.
As you enter Holiday World, you immediately start in their Christmas section, with a beautiful ornament fountain, and their main restaurant being Santa's Merry Marketplace, featuring delicious pizza, and amazing Christmas themed sweets such as cookies. Christmas doesn't have rides for coaster enthusiasts, as the only rides here are tiny kids rides that you cannot ride, such as Reindeer Games, a Junior Drop Tower, Comet's Rockets, a Children's Water Rocket ride, Dancer's Fish, a roundabout ride, Dasher's Seahorses, a Junior Chair O Plane, and Prancer's Merry Go Round, a Children's Carousel. Here, they play lots of popular Christmas songs.
From Christmas, if you turn left, you enter Halloween, featuring The Legend and The Raven, as well as multiple flat rides themed to Halloween such as HallowSwings, a wave swinger, Scarecrow Scrambler, a Scrambler ride, and Frightful Falls, a log flume. There are no main food stops in Halloween, just some snack stands. Here, they play Halloween music and set a really spooky vibe. In fact, as a train dispatches on The Legend, the operators ring a bell! Legend is themed to the Headless Horseman so this does make sense.
From Christmas, if you continue straight, you hit the 4th of July section! This section doesn't feature any roller coasters but does feature a lot of fun flat rides such as Eagles Flight, a Flying Scooters ride, Firecracker, a Calypso, Liberty Launch, a Double Shot Drop Tower, Revolution, a Round Up ride, Rough Riders, the bumper cars, and the Star Spangled Carousel, as well as an antique car ride, Lewis and Clark Trail, the station for the minature train ride, Holidog Express, and a children's canoe ride, Tippecanoes. Here, you can find their famous blue ice cream from Udderly Blue Ice Cream location. I tried the blue mixed with Cherry on my latest visit and it was SO GOOD! Here, they play a lot of patriotic/American music.
From 4th Of July, you can turn left to enter Splashin' Safari, their world renown water park. Featuring 3 water coasters, Cheetah Chase, Wildebeest, and Mammoth, and tons of water slides, Splashin' Safari is definitely a hit if you like water slides. I didn't go to Splashin Safari on my latest visit, however I will be going next year.
If you continue in 4th Of July past Splashin' Safari, you enter the Thanksgiving section! This is what Holiday World is most known for. Home to The Voyage, Good Gravy!, and Thunderbird, this is definitely the top spot for roller coasters in Holiday World. For Food, you can get a Thanksgiving dinner from Plymouth Rock Cafe, and the food there is FIRE! It is so good! I got the turkey and mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, and absolutely loved every bite. Across my group, we all got unique food items and loved them all! There is also a shooting dark ride called Gobbler Getaway, a very fun and unique ride. This area is also home to Turkey Whirl, a Tilt-A-Whirl ride where the cars are turkeys! And it is home to a star flyer near Thunderbird called Crow's Nest. The only downside to this area is that the walk between Good Gravy! and Thunderbird is extremely long and there is nothing on it.
Overall, Holiday World is an amazing park, one of my favorites that I have been to, and I definitely recommend a visit.