Holiday World's "Cool" 2013 News

Holiday World's recent teases that 2014 and beyond would feature some large expansions led me to believe that 2013 might be a bit of a 'year off' for them - but no, not at all it seems.

Today the theme and water park announced a slew of additions and changes to both parks for 2013, on which a total of $6.5 million will be spent.

The largest of the new attractions will certainly be the RhinoBlaster in Splashin' Safari, a new slide tower that features a total of four slides.

Three of the slides feature both enclosed and open sections, twisting their way downward from four stories in the air.  Double inner tubes will allow riders to go on the journey with their friends.  The fourth slide, the tallest at five stories, will feature a new half pipe feature that will allow tubes to slide back and forth, much like a skateboarder.  While not specified by Holiday World, the half pipe slide looks to be a TornadoWave model from Proslide.

I will no longer have to double check whether I spelled Pilgrims Plunge (no apostrophe!) correctly when I write about the park - next year the ride will officially become a part of the Splashin' Safari water park and be renamed as Giraffica.  The Giraffe is a great image for the ride when you consider its appearance, quite tall and slender. 

Splashin' Safari will also have its entrance area renovated, including a new style of lockers. There will be an additional 20 cabanas built for guests to rent.

Holidog's Funtown will see the addition of Kitty's Tea Party, a new family tea cup ride.  The park's high-dive theater will be replaced with a bigger and more modern version.

Elsewhere in the park plenty of other changes will take place.  The park will bring the laser show that's currently part of their Halloween event to the park each evening, and speaking of Happy Halloween Weekends, it will expand to six weekends next year.

The park will also add new misters and fans, as well as shade and additional seating, all in name of improving guest comfort.

So how's that for a 'quiet' year!  Sounds pretty exciting for the park.  For some additional details, be sure to check out this video about the news: