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 Review of Voyage @ Holiday World
-1 Rating Posted by: SLFAKE on 7/6/2006 12:12:00 AM
Its big. Its fast. Its intense. Its impressive to look at. Its long. Its all of these things. But one thing for me that it really wasnt... it wasnt that much fun. The combination of height and speed of this coaster make it a very brutal ride. If it were a bit shorter, this intensity might not be too bad... but with the long length of the layout, by the time the train was nearing the end, I was simply hoping that I could stand it. There is a point when wooden coasters can be too big and too fast and therefore too intense. I think The Voyage has passed this point. Im wondering how the years will treat this monstrosity? How much money will be needed in maintenance and track work to keep this from becoming unrideable? Personally, I believe that Holiday World might have done better with a smaller, less intense coaster. Sometiems Quantity (Height, speed, Length) does not always mean Quality. To me, The Voyage is a prime example of this.
 

Review Comments

embalmer on 7/6/2006 6:07:16 PM said:
I agree with you completely. Entirely too rough of a ride to pay for its intensity. I realize wood was created before steel, but it appears there are limits to it when trying to expand the envelope.
CoastrGlxy on 7/7/2006 12:58:11 PM said:
Im traveling quite a distant to conquer this beast next week. After reading your review Im wondering if Ill be dissapointed by the roughness kind of the same way I was with BoulderDash. Can either of you elaborate? Are we talking bruised ribs rough or just very intense for an extended amount of time? Were you feeling like you were being shaken to death?
Hercules on 7/7/2006 1:10:55 PM said:
Any kind of rough makes this sound more and more like my kind of ride.
Pete C on 7/7/2006 3:36:37 PM said:
I am going to chime in on this one...The Voyage is a weird coaster when it comes to roughness. I rode it in the very back and the very front, and it was perfectly fine. The ride was amazing. I dont like rough coasters, and I would go as far as to say it was relatively smooth. However, we did one last run in the middle-front portion of the train, and it kicked my ass!! It was horrible...shimmying and rattling the whole way. I dont know if it is that one of the trains is bad, or if it is just that car or what. Since I only got to ride it 3 times (my head hurt after that 3rd ride) I cant say what is the cause. Either way, it doesnt bode well for the future of this ride. There are a few really bizzare turns that look like future rib-crackers in the making. The other steel-structured woodies have not fared well in this respect.
larrygator on 7/7/2006 4:20:47 PM said:
Coastglxy - it is certainly not rib bruising roughness, but the type of roughness that gives you a feeling of exhaustion after riding. Something Ive never experienced on a coaster before.

However, if you thought Boulder Dash was a rib bruising type of rough then you might not enjoy Voyage.
embalmer on 7/7/2006 6:27:22 PM said:
Pete C. one of my three rides being the middle front area like you mentioned was the one i couldnt wait to end. My first ride was the front seat and second towards the rear. I will admit if i ride it again i will have a few beers prior.
Timberman on 7/8/2006 2:30:02 AM said:
I rode Voyage exclusively in the very front and very back. I didnt keep track of how many times I rode it, but I would estimate at least 12, probably more. Nothing about it felt rough to me, but the ride does exert a unique physical and psychological toll on you. Its physically exhausting, but spiritually exhilerating. Personally, I think its a work of genius and vision, and I wouldnt change a thing about it. I can, however, see where it might not be everyones cup of tea. Still, that just makes me respect it (as well as the Gravity Group and Holiday World) that much more. You need to have serious roller coaster cojones to build a ride like Voyage in todays world.
fergusonat on 7/8/2006 11:40:42 AM said:
You know I have always wondered how long it would take for these new-aged steel-structured woodies to succumb to the fate of the old CCI ones, but I never thought it would be half-way into the first operating season
SLFAKE on 7/8/2006 11:04:16 PM said:
The roughness is not rib shattering... but as someone said "exhausting". Tusnami... I mean J2... at Clementon in NJ is another example of this. That coaster, for its size, is brutal. The difference is that J2 is less than half the length of The Voyage. On J2, just as you are about to hit the "When in Gods name is this punishment going to be over" point, you are returning to the station. On The Voyage, you hit that point with still a good 1/3 of the ride left to go.
CoastrGlxy on 7/9/2006 9:45:18 PM said:
Well hopefully itll be more fun than rough. At least I know to stay away from the middle-front area of the train. Its funny, looking at the onride video it looks like the greatest thing ever to have something so long and intense, but an "exhausting" ride probably isnt the greatest thing ever. I guess Ill see on Tuesday. Thanks for the info.
Ride6 on 7/11/2006 2:33:31 AM said:
I rode this 8 times over the course of a day about 10 days ago so its still pretty fresh in my mind. Im in agreement with Timberman on this one. Its an absolutely fantastic ride; my new #2 wooden coaster and #3 coaster overall. However by my 7th ride I decided that I was done. I rode it again because 1 person in my group had not and no one else was willing. Its a beast, no two ways about it; but its rewarding too.
voyage on 7/11/2006 4:51:56 PM said:
Wow you must have had a bad day because I think its the best ride ever and is very smooth wat people dont realize is that anything even partly made of wood is bound to be a little shaky, especially goin this fast. I mean i rode 11 times in one trip!
larrygator on 7/11/2006 11:20:06 PM said:
some like rough woodies while others prefer smooth coasters. It is the perogative of the reviewer. An 8 is not a horrible rating, he stated why it wasnt his favorite coaster so lets not berate SLFAKE on that, its not like he gave it a 1 as a rating.
SLFAKE on 7/12/2006 11:47:47 AM said:
Or the 4 that I gave Son of Beast. Funny thing is... I looked at my profile and saw that I had 1 more bad rating than I had yesterday, I imediately came here and low and behold... there it was. Oh well. I gave it an 8... still 3 notches above average. But, since this is the newest, biggest, tallest, fastest coaster at a park that many have labeled as the best on the planet, then I suppose to some anything less than a 10 is automatically an insult... regardless if they thought the ride was fun or not. Bottom line... would I ride The Voyage again if my travels ever take me back to Holiday World? Yes, absolutely (which is more than I can say for a certain looping wooden coaster in the news lately in Ohio... NEVER NEVER NEVER again... even if it does reopen) But is The Voyage the reason that I would want to return to Holiday World? No. That distinction would belong to The Legend, the more "over looked" (for lack of a better word) of the three coasters there. Raven gets the luv because it was the first and sentimentality can mean alot... Voyage gets the praise because it is the newest, biggest, fastest kid on the block. The Legend is just there. Then again, no one seemed to take issue with my 10 score for Legend... a score which it (and few other coasters) turely deserve... in my opinion.
larrygator on 7/12/2006 1:20:03 PM said:
SLFAKE - no need to further justify your rating. You have more respect from the regulars in this community for saying what you feel and backing it up with valid rationale versus following like a sheep. I got similar comments for only giving El Toro a 9 and saying that I liked 11 other woodies. Since my first rides I have ridden again and changed my rating, but still dont think it is the best.
CoastrGlxy on 7/12/2006 1:51:26 PM said:
I rode Voyage yesterday. The roughness and intensity are definitely there. You get thrown and flung every which way on your "1.2 mile trip". Is it TOO rough? At times it feels like it, but then I got off briefly exhausted, but not physically beat up. And then I kept finding myself back on another train 10 minutes or so later. It was really weird, like an abusive relationship I couldnt get out of. I can definitely see SLFAKEs point of view and I normally butcher rough woodies. You shouldnt need football pads or body armor to ride coasters. But on the other hand Voyages re-rideability was amazing. At least to me. The roughness must be just at my threshold or the overall ride is fun enough to balance out the intensity. Part of me wants to call Timberman, voyage, & Ride6 nuts for riding Voyage that many times, but had I had all day to spend at the park I mightve ridden it just as much.
SLFAKE on 3/22/2007 9:20:19 AM said:
HA HA HA! I have to laugh... give this coaster anything less than a 10 and you get slapped with a "bad" review. Just imagine... A very good rating (an 8 ), but that is still two loo for the Holiday World Fan-Boys who look at anything less than a perfect 10 as an insult to their favorite park and their beloved ride.
ginzo on 3/22/2007 9:31:30 AM said:
The Voyage got something like 1100 feet in retracking shortly after the 2006 season ended. I agree that this ride can be rough at times, but this depends highly on what seat you ride in and also on just plain dumb luck. Holiday World is perfectly willing to retrack this thing on a yearly basis to keep their flagship ride running in peak condition. And this wont cost them that much. They do a lot of the work in-house. Voyage only costed $6.5 million total remember, which is an extreme bargain for such a massive coaster. I think they were aware that such a large woodie would be a challenge to maintain. But, the gamble paid off for them. They hit 1,000,000 visitors in 2006, which is astounding for a park in the middle of fricken nowhere.
coaster05 on 3/22/2007 11:54:40 AM said:
Middle of nowhere is an understatement. If you havent been there, words cant describe how little there is around it.
coaster05 on 3/22/2007 11:54:56 AM said:
Middle of nowhere is an understatement. If you havent been there, words cant describe how little there is around it.
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