Holiday World

Visited: August 8, 2026

Attending: Brian, Buzzed Bars Coaster Club

Merry Christmas! It's 90 degrees with 90% humidity!

The Buzzed Bars Coaster Club was founded in 2021 at Holiwood Nights, so it was appropriate that they return here for their fifth anniversary celebration. Most members stayed in Santa’s Cottages, a group of adorable cabins just a few minutes from the park. Friday Night featured a “cabin crawl,” with participating cabins offering food and drinks themed to previous Buzzed Bars events. I was impressed by the level of creativity on display, even if I didn’t drink myself.

Walkback

The view of Voyage and Thunderbird that few get to see...except for all the other enthusiasts who've done a walkback at Holiday World.

On Saturday, we all arrived at the park bright and early for registration and our promised Voyage walkback. As walkbacks go, it was fine. Our guide led us back past Thunderbird to the gravel service path that loops around Voyage, so we got to see it from angles that generally aren’t available to the public. Of course, this is a pretty commonplace Holiday World perk, so many participants had done it before, and there are plenty of videos on YouTube showing this exact area. I don’t mean to belittle it, because it’s a wonderful perk to get, but I might have appreciated some narration or context.

After that, most park members went to the water park, where we’d been promised ERT on the park’s two “water coasters” (which I don’t consider coasters). A handful of us didn’t join in, declaring that we were Buzzed Bars Coaster Club, not Buzzed Bars Waterpark Club. So as soon as the park opened, we did our thing.

Good Gravy!

The oversized props are honestly the best thing about this coaster

Good Gravy! (with the exclamation point, like Hello Dolly!) is the park’s newest coaster, a Vekoma Family Boomerang. In general, it’s nothing to write home about, but some people hadn’t gotten the credit. Because it’s a boomerang, it can only run one train at a time, and operations are typically slow. Which meant that a group of hard-core enthusiasts needed to hit the family-friendly coaster first. Just like last time, we zipped through the queue (which I wanted a better look at) and onto the platform. Like last time, the slow reverse up the hill gives a magnificent view of the park, and Voyage specifically, but sadly, one can’t take photos on the ride. The drop back through the station was a little zippier than I remembered, but that’s about all there is to say about this ride. It’s cute, and we rode it.

Voyage

This ride wants to have its picture taken

During our trek over to Good Gravy!, we saw a lot of people, especially young people, on their way in, so we figured we’d better get Voyage out of the way. We had ERT scheduled for after sunset, but it’s always a good idea to ride Voyage when you can. The line ended up being about 20 minutes, and only got longer while we were in it. I opted for a seat about two-thirds of the way back, wanting to avoid the car-crash feeling I got from the back seat last time. That was a reasonably good idea. The first section, with the lovely floater airtime, was everything I could ask for. The twister section was fierce, but not more so than Mystic Timbers had been yesterday. The train came to nearly a dead stop on the trims, but that turned out not to be a problem. The return trip almost immediately regained all its speed, leading to a spine-crushing finale. I’m aware that this is about as tame as Voyage ever gets, and I still felt a coaster headache coming on. I think I’m actually a little afraid of what this thing would be like without trims.

After that, it was clear that the park was slammed. Other club members reported hour-long waits and terrible operations on Raven and Legend. So I just hung around and socialized for a bit, had a nice picnic lunch provided by the park, then popped back to my cabin in mid-afternoon for a rest, because it was crazy hot and humid, with heat indexes around 100.

Voyage Again

So calm and peaceful, right before it tries to kill you

At 8 p.m., the sun was setting, and I returned to the park for the main event of this trip: Night rides on Voyage. Buzzed Bars, about 100 strong, had the Voyage all to ourselves for an hour. Our prayers were answered, and not only did they run it without the trim brakes, but they also applied a new coat of grease right before they let us on. The club was ecstatic, as trimless Voyage night rides normally only happen at Holiwood Nights. We filled the station with song and cheering, and I think the staff and operators enjoyed it as well.

I got the second train of the event, in row 2, more by random chance than anything else. There was just enough light in the sky for me to see the track for the first couple of hills, but the third one goes into a tunnel, and I didn’t see it until it happened. The twister section seemed just as violent as it had earlier in the day, probably a little more so. We didn’t hurtle through the trims at top speed; there’s clearly a natural slowing point there, but in this case, it only lasted long enough to catch our breath, and then we were into the tunnel double-down in pitch blackness. As I suspected, the final section around the station was extra-violent. I suspect the effect was mitigated by being in the front, but the station turns were so sharp that I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if we’d derailed. I’ve described coasters as “out of control” before, but I’ve never ridden anything like this. Afterwards, I found myself a bit wobbly, and decided to sit out a train or two, while most of the club went right back around.

After a few minutes, I recovered, hydrated, and went back again, this time opting for a middle seat because that seemed the most sensible thing to do. It was full night at this point, and once we passed the first drop, all the shapes were just suggestions in the dark. I decided on a one-hand hold in the twister section, and that made me feel better as we slammed through the rest, but it was purely psychological; there was nothing to make this ride more gentle. After, I found it a little difficult to catch my breath, and I was even more wobbly as I retrieved my phone. I decided that was going to be it; any more, and I might not be able to drive back to the cabins.

According to JohnMike, the standard time for a run on Voyage is 100 seconds, from the drop to the brakes. He said the ops had clocked us at 90 seconds, a full 10 seconds faster than it’s “supposed” to run. There are coasters that feel extreme and out of control, like El Toro or GhostRider, but none of them have ever felt like leaving the track was a real possibility. I’m sure that we were just as safe as always, but I think perhaps they were pushing the coaster into a zone where it’s not meant to go very often. I wouldn’t want to ride that way every time; it’s just too much. But as a once-in-a-lifetime event, I feel privileged. The club was on a distinct high as we headed back through the silent park and back to the cabins. Unfortunately, we needed to get some rest early for the next day.