HoliWood Nights is the annual event that Holiday World holds for roller coaster enthusiasts.
And this is easily one of the best, if not the best, roller coaster events in the world.
So in this video, I will detail what Holiwood Nights is and help you determine if you should
plan a visit to Holiday World during this event.
Holiday World is a 125 acre amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana.
The park includes a dry park with 5 roller coasters including Voyage, which has an argument
as the world’s best roller coaster, Legend, which may have the best laterals on any coaster,
Raven, a short but fast-paced wood coaster through the woods, and Thunderbird, arguably
the best wing coaster in the world.
The park also includes an award-winning water park in Splashin’ Safari.
I have separate reviews on both the dry park and water park if you want more details, as
this video will discuss how Holiwood Nights allows you to maximize your visit to both
parks.
Holiday World’s original roller coaster enthusiast event was Stark Raven Mad, named
in honor of the Raven.
This was the coaster that put Holiday World on the map, as it won the Amusement Today
Golden Ticket Award as the best wooden roller coaster from 2000 to 2003.
Stark Raven Mad was held until 2003 when the event was home to a tragic death.
The event was revived and renamed in 2006 as Holiwood Nights and has been held annually
ever since.
The event is typically the weekend after Memorial Day.
This is notable since it often conflicts with Cedar Point’s enthusiast event CoasterMania,
which begins on the first Friday of June.
Typically, these two weekend coincide, but in rare cases they are separate.
This happened in 2019.
And this also was the most attended HoliWood Nights until 2020 when it was held in August
as one of the few enthusiast events held following the covid-19 pandemic.
So who can attend?
As of 2021, the event is open to 10 different roller coaster clubs, but I recommend checking
the event page for the most accurate list.
The list includes ACE, Club TPR, CoasterBuzz Club, Coaster Crew Platinum, European Coaster
Club, Florida Coaster Club, Great Ohio Coaster Club, NAPHA, Roller Coaster Club of Great
Britain, and Western New York Coaster Club.
Every card-carrying member is allowed to bring an unlimited number of guests.
Holiday World does not cap attendance for the event and tickets can be purchased the
day of; however, they go up in price if you buy them within a week of the event.
So it pays to plan ahead!
You can purchase the Friday ERT plus an all-day Saturday ticket.
Or you can purchase all-day Friday and Saturday.
The event is usually lightly themed to a popular movie such as Airplane or Monty Python and
the Holy Grail.
For 2021, it is themed to the Wizard of Oz.
The park will play music from the films throughout the park and the event papers will be teeming
with references to the year’s film.
If you haven’t seen the movie referenced in a given year, I’d recommend watching
it before arriving if you want to appreciate all the little jokes.
The event officially begins on Friday afternoon after Holiday World closes for the day.
The event usually begins with some snacks and Splashin’ Safari ERT.
And this water park ERT is one of the most underrated parts of the event.
The park usually gives 2-2.5 hours of ERT on the water coasters.
These slides often have hour plus waits on busy summer days, so being able to ride them
with no more than a 15-20 minute wait at worst is a major perk.
Wildebeest and Mammoth are chalk full of airtime.
You’d be hard pressed to find many water slides with better airtime.
And then Cheetah Chase is a unique racing water coaster with a few near-misses and some
soaking ascents.
Roughly 1.5 hours into the water park ERT, the ERT on the roller coasters begins.
At this point, the water park starts clearing out, so it gives you a chance to get some
rare dusk rides on a water slide and often walk right onto the slides.
There are also usually snacks during this ERT session.
Some are provided in the water park area itself.
Others are usually at a specific food location like the Kringle Cafe.
I typically reserve my ERT time for the rides.
Friday usually has 3.5 hours of ERT on the coasters.
The ERT often starts as the sun is setting, but it’s pitch black shortly into the session.
Because of how Holiday World’s major coasters all go out into the woods, they are all incredible
at night.
There is barely any light along the course and they all feel out-of-control, especially
the three wood coasters.
Voyage is undoubtedly the star.
It’s the park’s best coaster and the park runs it untrimmed for the event.
I personally do not find Voyage running untrimmed significantly different than how it usually
runs; the only element that feels different to me is the triple down in the back row.
I know I’m in the minority as it’s a bigger deal for others.
What is special for me is getting several hours of night rides on one of the world’s
best coasters.
For this reason, Voyage often has the longest wait at the event.
Usually, it’s no more than a 1-2 train wait for anything but the front or back.
The front and back rows may have queues going 6-7 trains deep.
However, Voyage had a lengthier ERT line in 2019 and 2020.
In 2019, the line was usually 15 minutes but it did reach upwards of 30 minutes at points.
And that was longer than the ride’s line was during normal operating hours.
In 2020, the line was 30-45 minutes due to social distancing.
Keep in mind, 2019 and 2020 were the two most well-attended years for the events, so these
lines hopefully will not be present in future years.
Most ERT sessions are walk-ons, so it was a bit surprising to have some waits even if
the ride was ultimately worth it.
And if Voyage is busy like it was in 2019 and 2020, the park may close the line early
similarly to what they do during normal operating hours.
So just plan accordingly.
The other three coasters are usually walk-ons since most people are focusing on the Voyage.
This was the case even in 2020 even with social distancing.
The staff dispatches trains just as efficiently as they do during normal operating hours and
Holiday World always has the rides running at their max capacities for the ERT sessions.
In both 2019 and 2020, Legend and Raven were running with one train during normal operating
hours but they had the second trains added for the ERT sessions.
The park also has some of the smaller flat rides and Gobbler Getaway open for portions
of the ERT session.
The non-coasters are almost always walk-ons, but I prefer to focus my time on the coasters
because they’re the attractions that improve significantly at night.
The event usually ends around 11 pm on Friday night.
For that reason, I strongly recommend booking a hotel near the park.
Unless you stay at the park’s campground, most hotels are 15-30 minutes away.
There aren’t too many because of how the park isn’t close to major cities.
I usually book my HoliWood Nights hotel a few months in advance.
And take note if your hotel is in the central time zone like Holiday World or in the eastern
time zone.
Many of the surrounding towns are in the eastern time zone.
How early your Saturday begins could be dependent upon if you won an experiential auction.
One of the other cool things about Holiwood Nights are the auctions.
Holiday World puts two types of items up for sale- physical items and experiences.
The physical items range from grab bags to used flags on the roller coasters to the logo
on the front of the Voyage’s train.
The experiences are more interesting in my opinion.
You can purchase the last ride of the night on the park’s coasters- and unsurprisingly
the Voyage is the most expensive as I’ve seen it go for over $200.
The winner of the last ride of the night can choose to ride alone or take as many enthusiasts
as they want to fill the train.
Last year, the winner decided to fill a train with enthusiasts wearing dog masks which was
quite the sight to see!
Or you can purchase tours.
You can purchase either a track walk or lift walk for the Voyage, a tour of Thunderbird’s
launch area, or a tour of the Gobbler Getaway dark ride.
I did the latter in 2019 and it was a very cool experience seeing the inner workings
of a dark ride.
This item typically costs less than the coasters and I found it more interesting, so I highly
recommend this one.
Plus, it gets you in the park early so you can often start queuing up to be on the first
train of the day for Voyage when the mid-course trim is still sometimes disabled.
These tours all occur on Saturday morning before the park opens.
During the day on Saturday, there are two walkback tours.
If you’re a photographer or videographer, these are really cool opportunities to get
unique vantage points of the park’s coasters you typically cannot get.
I always take the opportunity to go on these tours, but if you want free onride photos,
this is a great time to ride something like Voyage because I’m sure you’ll find your
photo online within the following few days.
After the Thunderbird and Voyage walkback, the park typically has a snack buffet.
The dish changes by the year, but I’ve seen loaded tater tots and nachos in the past.
Both were quite good.
In between the park closing time and the start of the ERT session, the park provides a catered
meal in the picnic pavilion.
This is where everyone is stationed while security clears the park out of those not
attending HoliWood Nights.
To be perfectly honest, this meal is not my favorite part of the event.
It usually has an extremely long line and it can eat into the nightly ERT line if you’re
stuck towards the back of it.
I also find the food just ok at best, usually it’s burgers and hot dogs.
I prefer to eat at Plymouth Rock Cafe during the day.
While this isn’t included with the Holiwood Nights ticket, I love the hearty Thanksgiving-style
meals and they’re some of my favorite food at any theme park.
This also ensures you will be good to go when the coaster ERT starts if the food line gets
backed up.
Saturday usually has 4 hours of ERT on the roller coasters and a few non-coasters.
The biggest addition to the Saturday lineup is the water cup challenge on Legend.
This is a quirky and challenging game where you are given a plastic cup filled to the
brim with water and you’re tasked to see how much you can keep in the cup while riding
Legend.
And considering how Legend has some airtime and strong laterals, it’s no easy feat.
I did find a way to return to the station with a full water cup, but a magician doesn’t
reveal his secrets.
The winner usually gets free tickets to the following year’s event.
The last thing I want to note is the weather.
As long as there isn’t thunder or lightning in the area, Holiday World will run their
rides in pretty much anything.
In 2020, the park ran rides despite the remnants of a hurricane being in the area.
So do I recommend HoliWood Nights?
Absolutely!
It is the best time of year to visit Holiday World.
The night rides alone make it worth it since Holiday World is so rarely open after the
sun goes down.
But when you get the chance to go backstage and meet a bunch of other enthusiasts as well,
it really is a special event.
The biggest con with the event is that the ERT line for Voyage can sometimes get longer
than it is during normal operating hours since the event does not have an attendance cap,
but it’s worth it to experience Voyage in its peak conditions.
So that is an overview and my thoughts on Holiwood Nights, the amazing annual enthusiast
event at Holiday World.
Have you been to this event?
What are your thoughts on it?
I would love to hear your thoughts about it down in the comments.
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Thanks for watching!