RCCGB FORUM

Magic · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:29 pm Post subject: Holiday World Announcement

ON Thursday Holiday World will announce their new attraction for 2010. All we know is that it's costing $5.5million, it will be a World Record breaker and is the 2nd largest investment in the parks history. Speculation is it'll be a Master Blaster for Splashin Safari, but we'll know the full details by the end of Thursday.
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Rough Rider · Strata Poster Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 403

Andy Hine MBE · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

The announcement!

SANTA CLAUS, Ind. — Will Koch had just announced plans for the world’s longest “water coaster” at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari amid more good news — attendance is up 3 percent and headed for a fourth straight million-customer year, bucking the recession.

Then came the question Holiday World’s president usually gets in private:

Are you going to build a steel coaster someday?

“Eeeww,” Koch responded with a laugh after unveiling plans for the Wildebeest. “It’s certainly something I think about, but we definitely have no concrete plans in the (foreseeable) future.

“What makes a steel coaster challenging is in order to do it special — I don’t like to do anything run of the mill — it would probably cost at least $10 million to $12 million...a significant investment.”

So far, the most Holiday World ever spent on a ride was $6.5 million for the Voyage wooden coaster in 2006, $5.5 million for the Wildebeest and $4.3 million for Pilgrims Plunge which opened in May.

Koch added, “I love doing things that are extreme and we’ve become a significant park. It’s exciting to be able to bring people a world’s longest or world’s tallest ride.”

That was the thinking behind the Wildebeest which will open next May on two acres north of the Bahari wave pool.

Designed by ProSlide Technology Inc. of Ontario, Canada, the ride will use an alternating magnetic field beneath the slide surface to propel the rafts, pushing them rapidly and smoothly uphill with linear induction motors. LIM technology is a popular feature in some steel roller coasters.

Koch said the ride is possible “because of the great summer we’re having.” He said it surprised him that attendance climbed despite fewer corporate picnics and some rainy Saturdays.

Koch emphasized the water coaster “was the next thing we needed” to keep Splashin’ Safari in the upper echelon of water parks. “We’ve been voted the No. 2 water park in the world (after Schlitterbahn in Texas, which is strictly a water park). We think this will keep us at least No. 2.”

“Splashin’ Safari is a huge part of what we are and has been expanded almost every year since it opened in 1993,” he added. About 70 percent of Holiday World’s customers visit Splashin’ Safari.

As for the new ride, Koch said the Wildebeest will be a third of a mile long (1,710 feet) and “thrill riders for two-and-a-half splashing minutes of hills, drops, twists and turns.”

Each of the 14 toboggan-style rafts will hold four passengers.

The world’s longest water coaster (a quarter mile) now operates in the Wisconsin Dells.

Wildebeest will begin with a conveyor ride up a lifthill. Following a 38-foot drop at a 45-degree angle, the LIMs will propel the rafts up seven additional hills, through three tunnels and around a helix.

“The LIM technology is fascinating,” said Koch, who holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Notre Dame. “It’s cool to see it applied to water coasters, too.”

Wildebeest’s top speed will be 25 mph and its tallest elevation 64 feet higher than its lowest drop.

Because riders begin at ground level and ride up the conveyer system, there are no stairs, making the ride easily accessible.

Koch said Wildebeest’s capacity will be 720 passengers per hour; riders will have to be at least 42 inches tall to ride with an adult, 48 inches tall without adult supervision.
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