The Voyage

The family owned amusement park Holiday World at Santa Claus, Indiana (USA) is particularly well known for its wooden coasters that are among the best in the world. It all started with The Raven, taking brave riders with him for a short but intense ride through the woods since 1995 and receiving rave reviews by park visitors. As a part of the continuous expansion of the amusement park, the next wooden roller coaster followed in 2000. The Legend easily outshines its older fellow next door in terms of height and length. After a few years the time had finally come for the next, even bigger roller coaster: For the 2006 season the amusement park opened The Voyage and with it the largest expansion of its history. An all-new themed area serves as the starting point of the new roller coaster ride that effortlessly manages to dwarf its two predecessors compared by statistics alone. But can it also life up to the very high expectations when it comes to the actual ride experience?

The Voyage is the only second roller coaster made by the Cincinnati based manufacturer The Gravity Group and uses a hybrid approach: The structure of the ride is made out of steel while the actual track is wood, just like at a pure wooden roller coaster. Using this technique keeps the typical riding qualities of a wooden coaster while reducing maintenance costs because of the maintenance-friendly steel structure. The three trains with 7 cars each are from Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, a manufacturer of wooden coaster trains with a long history and tradition. The technical facts of The Voyage look promising: The ride reaches a height of nearly 50 meters and a top speed after the first drop of 108 km/h. Along the very long 2 kilometres of track there are several tunnels, three turns with a banking of 90 degrees and a total of 24.2 seconds of pure airtime - no other wooden coaster on the planet has that much airtime to offer. We see almost nothing of all that however while we get closer and closer to the ride. Our destination is the new area that is themed after the Thanksgiving holiday and includes the station of the wooden coaster. As we finally arrive our attention is quickly drawn by the large lifthill - apart from that we can just spot a few turns and the final brake run which has been placed on a prominent spot directly above the entrance to the themed area. Every few minutes another train with screaming passengers thunders through the last meters of track alongside the boundaries of Thanksgiving area and straight into the final brakes. The bigger part of the ride however remains out of view for us and hidden in the depths of the forest which directly follows the themed area and is not accessible for park visitors. Without being able to look at the whole ride in advance we have to dare a ride into the unknown and curiously enter the queue line for The Voyage. Soon after we are inside the larger sized wooden station building. The riders of an incoming train cheer and clap ecstatic - the ride sure seems to be something really special. As soon as they disembarked we are finally allowed to take our seats, tighten the seat belt and close our safety lap bar. We are set to go - The Voyage begins, without delay.

Our train slowly rolls out of the station. After a short straight section the track bends down and we pass under another track section that will follow later on. Just as we start to climb the lifthill afterwards we hear screams coming closer and closer and another train rattles past us above our heads with a great speed. We slowly climb the lifthill and the tension increases with every meter we get closer to the top. What will wait for us in the depths of the woods after we passed the highest point? Soon we have reached the top of the lift and look straight down the steep and deep first drop. We just can catch a glimpse of the following larger hills in the middle of the forest as our train already picks up speed and pulls us down the deep drop. The train rattles through the valley with a breathtaking speed and then climbs the first hill. We are pulled out of our seats for the first time and remain in the car only thanks to the safety bar and seat belt. The second valley and the second hill are following and again we lift out of our seats as the train takes the top of the hill with still a considerable amount of speed. Straight afterwards we stare down a black hole before we speed through the first tunnel of the coaster. Complete darkness changes to broad sunlight for a short time as we rattle over a rather flat camelback directly into the next tunnel. Another hill leads straight into yet another tunnel before the ride gets really wild and untamed. Just after the tunnel we get thrown into a left turn just to fly over an airtime-filled directional change to a right turn immediately afterwards. Another directly following directional change leads to a long left turn that we ride through at an insane speed. After two small hills that are still in that turn, the banking increases and forms the first 90 degrees banked turn of the ride. The left turn then changes to a right turn that is also banked to 90 degrees. Unimpressed, our train afterwards rumbles over several small hills and through a tunnel to the mid course brake run. Only a few seconds remain for taking a desperately needed rest before The Voyage really gives everything it can. We plunge down into the next tunnel, then down another drop and after that we drop down yet again for a third time in complete darkness - a triple-down with loads of airtime. Because of the three drops back-to-back we gained a lot of speed and dash out of the tunnel directly over the next camelback which rips us out of our seats again of course. The track now follows the part from the beginning back to the Thanksgiving area. But unimpressed of the many meters of track which we have already ridden through our train continues to rattle on the track with an insane amount of speed through reckless combinations of turns and camelbacks, each one loaded with intense airtime. The closer we get back to the Thanksgiving area the more extreme our ride seems to get - we dash over hills, through turns, directional changes and the third 90 degrees banked turn. Soon we pass the directional change above the start of the lifthill and then rattle into the next tunnel directly between the station and gift shop of the ride. The next directional change crosses the block brake in front of the station and leads to a longer left turn. We rumble underneath the walkway to the area through a last tunnel and after climbing an upwards-leading right turn we finally reach the final brakes with still a lot of speed left. Phew - we made it! We need a few seconds to slowly realize what a stunning and incomparable ride we just experienced during the last 100 seconds as we already roll into the station again. With still shivering legs we slowly get out of our seats before our train is yet again ready to take the next group of passengers out for an unforgettable voyage.

When the sun disappears behind the horizon and it gets dark in Santa Claus, The Voyage unveils its truly untamed side. The train dashes through the pitch-black woods at what appears to be twice the normal speed and takes the seemingly endless course completely out of control. The many directional changes are much more radical and the airtime even more intense during the ride in complete darkness. The nighttime ride of hell cannot be compared with any other roller coaster experience and is nearly unbeatable with its intensity - dream and nightmare combined for anyone who has the courage to still dare a ride during the late hours.

The Voyage can be rightfully rated as one of, if not the best wooden roller coaster on the planet and cannot be compared to the other two wooden coasters of the park. The argument if a roller coaster manufactured with a hybrid structure can count as a wooden roller coaster at all is settled at the latest after the ride itself: A ride on The Voyage feels like a "pure" wooden roller coaster without any compromises. The track layout proves to be just as uncompromisingly: One unexpected moment follows the next one, from the many tunnels and quick directional changes up to countless hills with ejector airtime all the way - boring sections are nowhere to be found. The voyage through the forest is thereby very near to the physical limit - some persons may feel that the ride is a bit too intense for them what comes primarily from the enormous length of the ride. For the majority of the riders however Holiday World together with The Gravity Group did build a wooden roller coaster that leaves nothing to desire. The ride is the ultimate roller coaster experience for both normal park visitors as well as enthusiasts and is an enormous and incredible attraction for the lovely family park that's worth taking even the longest voyage.