Since the Timberliners weren’t ready yet, I was a bit concerned about how good the Voyage would be with only six car trains. Less cars equals less weight equals slower ride, right? After our first ride I was thinking “that wasn’t as good as I remember it.” I was very concerned. Then we rode it at night. Yup, it’s still number one in my book by far. All my doubts were completely erased. I swear the ride was running five to ten miles per hour faster than it was earlier in the day. I know you probably don’t believe that but the ride was down for a little bit in the afternoon so maybe they greased the tracks, or lubed the wheels or something. Man were we flying. The airtime was ridiculous. You’ve got to experience it for yourself. Pure insanity! It’s hard to believe the Timberliners could make the ride even better.

The newest addition to the park is Wildebeest, the world’s longest water (slide) coaster. It may also be the most popular. Wildebeest had the longest line in the park by far, sometimes stretching to over an hour and a half. I got some pretty insane airtime for a water slide. I rode Wildebeest twice, once in the front and once in the back. The first time we waited in standby queue for probably an hour. The second time I did the single riders line, which was full, and got on in about twenty minutes. I think the trick is to sit in the front and put all the weight in the back. I was flying. My brother sat in the back and he said he could see me getting some good airtime. They have a single riders line so every raft has exactly four people in it.

Sadly, it was while waiting in the line for Wildebeest is the last time that I saw Will Koch. He was checking on the operations of the ride and making sure everyone was staying hydrated in line (they placed a couple of water coolers with cups throughout and at one point had an employee spraying down guests with a hose). I was going to say hi to Will but he looked like he was deep in thought, like he was planning the next great attraction for the park. That next great attraction will have to be carried out by the new president, Will’s younger brother Dan, who spoke to Will on the phone almost everyday and had discussed Will’s long term vision for the future of the park.

My biggest complaint (and really only actual complaint) was that Splashin’ Safari needs a new locker area bad. The current one is way too narrow. They could really use one on the other side of the park, by the Bahari River. That way you don’t have to walk all the way across the park on hot cement just to turn around and go back. Some kind of paperless money system would be a plus too. Something where you could put some money down on a key, wristband, card, or something that you can easily carry around with you and take on the slides would be extremely helpful. Maybe the new president will get this problem fixed. Good luck to new president Dan Koch and all of his staff!

SANTA CLAUS, IND—–Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari owner and president, Will Koch, passed away Sunday evening at his home.

“Will was not only our leader, he was our dear friend,” says park spokesperson Paula Werne. “Our park family is in mourning for this sweet man who worked tirelessly to bring fun and happiness to so many families in the 20 years he ran the park.”

Koch died at home of what the family believes to be complications from diabetes. He was 48.

“The Koch family wants to assure the public that Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari will be open today and will continue to be owned and operated by his family,” says Werne. “We know that’s what Will would have wanted.”

Born and raised in the town of Santa Claus, Koch attended Heritage Hills High School in Lincoln City, and was Valedictorian of his graduating class in 1979. He graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. In 1986, he received a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Koch was Chief Executive Officer of Koch Development Corporation, the parent company of Holiday World Theme Park and Splashin’ Safari Water Park. Under his direction, the theme park followed an aggressive growth program including the addition of Splashin’ Safari Water Park in 1993, The Raven and The Legend wooden roller coasters in 1995 and 2000, plus The Voyage wooden coaster in 2006, for which he was a designer. In 2004, Koch received the international Applause Award from the amusement industry; the criteria for the coveted award include foresight, originality and creativity, plus sound business development and profitability. Each year since 2006, annual seasonal attendance at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari has topped one million visitors. This year, the park premiered Wildebeest, the world’s longest water coaster.

Koch served as president of the Lincoln Boyhood Drama Association, which worked with the State of Indiana to reopen the Lincoln Amphitheatre in 2009 with a new drama honoring the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. He was also a past member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions; and he served on the Administrative Council of the Santa Claus United Methodist Church.

Koch is survived by his wife, Lori, and three children: Lauren, Leah, and William. He is also survived by his mother, Pat, and siblings Dan, Kristi, Philip and Natalie.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the Lincoln Boyhood Drama Association or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Funeral arrangements are pending.

This is why Holiday World has such an outstanding reputation. Most other parks wouldn’t care that the capacity was down on one of their main attractions for a few weeks, especially if  increasing capacity required as much as work as modifying existing trains on one of the other rides. Not to mention the president taking the time to explain the whole process on video. Kudos to Will Koch and Holiday World for a fantastic job!

Still confused on what a haiku is? Here are a few of my and other contestant’s submissions:

Tame the Wildebeest
The longest water coaster
Up hills like magic

Engineer I am
LIMS are fascinating tech
Will is my hero

Visit with ten friends
Weight limit is eight hundred
Can’t ride all at once

I’d actually feel bad about winning because Holiday World is one of the few parks that is worth the money. The free nights in the RV would be a great deal though. Good luck!

Before we look at the data a question must first be addressed: What qualifies as an attraction? We recently had a discussion about this topic in the forum. A few of the answers were: “Attractions are anything that attracts people.. So it can be anything in the park that is worth noticing I guess.” “I’ve always thought of it like Attractions can be broken down to rides, shows, eateries, playgrounds, etc.” “Everything that is worthy to be noted on a park map fits in them.” For now we will go with that, whatever is listed on the park map as an attraction.

On their park map, Universal Studios has 21 attractions listed compared with 18 restaurants and 28 shops. This means that for every ride there are 2.19 shops (from now on I will group food venues with shops and simply call them “shops”). Universal Studios’ neighbor, Islands of Adventure, is much worse with a 3.15 ride/shop ratio. Because of the high number of listed attractions the Magic Kingdom looks much better with a 1.52 ratio. Kings Island was next with a one-to-one ratio, one shop for every ride. The park with the best ratio is Holiday World, although I included the water park and all of the slides into the equation, and is the only amusement park on this short list with more rides than shops. This might be a little unfair comparison because I didn’t include Kings Island’s water park into their equation.

I decided to go a step further and look at some pricing statistics. I listed all of the ticket prices I paid and then divided that by the number of rides. Islands of Adventure had the highest ticket price per ride at $2.73. Kings Island had the lowest with only $1.02. A few people have been saying they think Cedar Fair is giving away the gate and compared to these other parks they definitely are (I think they should lower in-park prices and raise the gate but that is another article for another day, or a number of days ago).

Next, I looked at the number of rides that I actually rode on the day of my visit (I have a habit of putting tally marks down on the park map of each attraction I visit). Now, I can take the ticket price I paid and divide by the number of rides for my cost per ride. Universal Studios had the worst value by costing me $7.79 for each ride. Holiday World had the best value with a $2.00 per ride ratio.

Finally, I looked at the number of rides I rode per hour by taking the number of rides I went on and dividing by the number of hours I spent in the park. Islands of Adventure had the highest with 3 rides per hour, followed by Holiday World with 2.5. Kings Island had the lowest with only 1.45.

By looking at this statistical data, I can now confirm with numbers what I have believed: that Holiday World was a better value visit than Kings Island. The rides per hour and the cost per ride was much more favorable at the family owned park.

That being said, this may actually not be a perfect comparison because of a number of variables. The months I visited the parks were different, ranging from May to November. This can have a big impact. To do a perfect study we would have to visit the parks all in a short time span, or take an average over the course of an operating season. Another variable beyond my control was weather, which can greatly impact crowds and throw off your ride per hour numbers. You cannot argue, however against the ticket price per ride and the ride to shop ratios. Those are both in total control of the parks.

Now that I have completely overanalyzed this what do you think? Would you like to read similar articles or is this boring to you? I would appreciate your thoughts and feedback!

SANTA CLAUS, Ind. — Word that Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville is closing brought a mixed reaction from Will Koch, president of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari here.

“It’s tough, always sad when another park closes,” Koch said Friday morning. “We know the people (employees) over there.”

But he said Holiday World also sees it as an opportunity to draw even more customers from the Louisville area.

“We would love to offer our park to their fans and we think we have the capacity,” said Koch.

He said while Holiday World’s attendance — just over 1 million annually — has remained fairly flat since 2006, the family-owned park has continued to open new rides and make other improvements and expects corporate picnic business to rebound this year.

In May, the park’s 64th season, the world’s largest water coaster, the Wildebeest, opens.

Also, the park’s largest wooden coaster, the Voyage, has new cars that will make the ride faster and smoother, lessening waiting time in line.

And there have been expansions in the water park area, including last year’s debut of the world’s tallest water ride, Pilgrims Plunge.

Holiday World draws more customers from the Indianapolis area than anywhere else, followed by Louisville and Evansville, Koch said.

Six Flags, which has owned Kentucky Kingdom since 1997 and is undergoing a bankruptcy restructuring, announced Thursday that it has rejected a lease from the Kentucky State Fair Board and will close the amusement park, which employs about 1,000 people each summer and has 40 rides and a water park.

Although attendance numbers aren’t available for Kentucky Kingdom, Koch said he doesn’t believe the Louisville park drew as many customers as Holiday World, although it was bigger at one time.

Kentucky Kingdom opened in the mid 1980s. Holiday World’s attendance in the early 1990s was only 300,000. Holiday World is only about an hour drive from Louisville, Kentucky. Six Flags said its 13 other U.S. parks are not affected by the move.

“The #1 Wooden Roller Coaster in the World will feel faster and a lot smoother in 2010, thanks to a new set of trains, engineered by the same team who designed the record-breaking coaster.

“When the engineers at The Gravity Group told us they designed Timberliner trains with The Voyage in mind, they definitely got our attention” says Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari president Will Koch. “The Voyage is extreme and we want to keep it that way season after season. These new trains will help a lot.”

Koch says the Timberliner’s wheels are engineered to steer through curves as they move along the coaster track, creating a smoother ride and less wear and tear on the track. The seats are ergonomically designed for greater comfort, including an exclusive seat-suspension design. The padded seats will also accommodate wider-hipped and longer-legged riders.

“Since the trains will ‘track’ better, riders will experience a much smoother Voyage,” says Koch. “That also means there will be less ‘rolling friction,’ so the ride will quite possibly be even faster when it reopens in May.” The Gravity Group’s engineers tested a prototype Timberliner at Holiday World last spring.

The Voyage is 1.2 miles long and provides a record 24.2 seconds of “air time.” This steel-structure wooden coaster, ranked the #1 Wooden Coaster in the World by Amusement Today for three years running, includes a record five underground tunnels (some are double, creating eight “underground moments”), a series of dramatic drops (including a 66-degree angle of descent on the first drop), three 90-degree banked turns, and multiple track crossovers.

The Voyage’s two new trains, which will each seat 28 riders, will be manufactured in Indianapolis. The Gravity Group is headquartered in Cincinnati.”

Hoosier Energy keeps Holiday World’s fun keep on going and has had to keep up with that park’s growth year after year. Here’s an excerpt from a recent case study:

Nearly $32 million in new investment have gone into the park since 2006, including the new Wildebeest, the world’s longest water coaster (one-third of a mile) due to open in 2010. Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari set an attendance record at the end of the 2009 season – more than one million visitors for the fourth year in a row.

Southern Indiana Power, the local REC member of Hoosier Energy, has been there consistently to meet the electrical power demands of the park that covers more than 120 acres and employs more than 2,000 seasonal workers – the Wildebeest ride alone is expected to draw nearly one megawatt of power at its peak load.

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