[gabed]

Holiday World has begun the countdown for what they say will be, "The biggest exapansion in the parks history!". They will not confirm or deny weather or not it is a roller coaster. All we currently know is that it will be located in the Thanksgiving section and the announcement will be made on July 24th.

EDIT: New for 2015: Thunderbird, the first launched wing coaster in the United States will open in 2015 at Holiday World!

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[Jay]

If you're talking about a teaser, it's important to actually link to it.

http://66daysatsea.com

[Jonathan]

They've hinted pretty strongly that it will be a coaster and the amount of land they are clearing in the woods near Voyage would seem to suggest that as well. I'm really interested to see what it will be. I have a bad habit though of visiting the park the year before a groundbreaking ride. 2005 and now next week.

[Edwardo]

I tend to go to HWN on even years, but I'm skipping this year .

[Jarsh]

I could be wrong, but I think this expansion is for the waterpark. Their next coaster isn't suppose to come until 2016, or so my sources say...

[Jonathan]

I definitely think you are wrong, given that it is Thanksgiving themed and they are clearing back out in the woods near Voyage. A Thanksgiving theme would not make sense for Splashin' Safari and from what I can tell the distance from the park that work is being done would rule out any sort of water park ride other than another huge water coaster (which I suppose is not out of the question).

There's also a couple of quotes from the park itself:

And as 2015 rolls closer …

Oh no, have I said too much?

"I cannot confirm nor deny that this project includes a roller coaster," says Eckert. "But I can confirm that this is by far the largest expansion project in our seven-decade history."

The fact that these were given out to ACE members could also be significant:



I'm starting to lean towards an RMC woodie or Iron Horse.

[Jay]

Johnny Upsidedown posted this picture of the construction on reddit -

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Of course credit goes to http://www.johnnyupsidedown.com/


Also curious if this ride will use the old Pilgrims Plunge building at all.

[Jonathan]

Hmm I didn't even realize they had expanded Splashin' Safari back over there. So it actually could be waterpark related. I'm still gonna bet against it though due to the Thanksgiving theme.

[Jarsh]

I was only suggesting that the coaster would come in 2016 due to some... uh... conversations about... uh... a big summer event for coaster geeks. Parks usually don't want lots of enthusiasts there the year after they open a big coaster, but it isn't unheard of. Just what I was thinking as I don't know anything about HW's plans for anything.

As far as the biggest expansion in park history, they could be looking at it from the standpoint of a multi-phase/multi-year project kinda like how Dollywood and Carowinds both announced multi year "biggest expansion ever" projects.

I could easily see HW's expansion for the next 10-20 years looking something like this. It would be cool to expand the theme park side into new dirt, but they've got to get the infastructure in there first and that only comes with expanding the waterpark. Besides, didn't I hear or read something about Will making a comment that he envisioned the waterpark surrounded by the theme park in the future?

[Edwardo]

I've heard rumblings from a few people in the know, some surprising.

I know Will said he planned for thanksgiving to be the center of the park. I also know he wanted a launched coaster.

I'm confident next years addition(s) will be major. And should be operational by HWN.

[Jarsh]

Not sure if you were implying it or not, but I wasn't referring to HWN as the big summer coaster event for geeks. Think more along the lines of ACE events.

[Edwardo]

I wasn't. That was commentary on the fact that most of this years attractions, save for Dollywood, aren't open yet.

[Jarsh]

Ya know... that's a good point. Everything this year is taking FOREVER to complete and open.

[Jay]

And more teases come out...

http://blog.coasterradio.com/2014/05/th ... ngdom.html

And if it's just a "random" coaster that has nothing to do with the project, that's even better.

[Jarsh]

Those look like B&M column markings.

Well now... things just got REAL interesting in Santa Claus.