Holiday World

Ok, we got back home last night and I'll give you some running news in the next posts, but for now a public service announcement laced with praise.

If you have kids, if Holiday World (www.holidayworld.com) is within your comfort zone as far as driving distance from where you live. YOU NEED TO GO!

This year marked our 5th consecutive year to go. 5 years, 6 visits, 0 complaints. Being in a service industry, I've heard about the "Disney' and "Marriott' way of doing things for years, let me tell you, niether has anything on Holiday World.

Employees are friendly, even when three kids are wanting to cram in one more ride 5 minutes before the park closes, even when a dad is ordering 5 ice cream cones 5 minutes before the park closes while 3 kids are riding that last ride. Employees don't lean, they clean. We picked a perfect time to go and the crowd was low, when rides were waiting for riders, the operators were wiping down the rides.

Unlike some of the other amusement parks around here, the rides, buildings, and staging areas are kept clean and maintained. At an indoor ride (Gobbler Getaway) I did a finger wipe of an "out of the way" flat surface, it came away clean

Food prices, we were camping, so we ate only one meal in the park. In the water park, which has the same quality staff and cleanliness as the amusement park, we had 5 big slices of pizza and drinks for less than $15. Oh yeah, and don't forget the drinks are free all day long in the self serve Pepsi Oasis (what is plural for Oasis?).

If you don't think kids and teenagers can behave, then you haven't been to Holiday World. Yes, I was bumped into in the pools and water play areas and this was followed by and "excuse me", or "I'm sorry". Teenagers, even groups of them, are well behaved and courteous. It's amazing how kids assimilate to the environment.

In closing, I have to offer high praise to the camp ground, Lake Rudolph. There were people planting flowers and cleaning up everyday. The camp store's prices were slightly higher than a regular big box retailer, but they weren't gouging anyone. There was plently of stuff for kids to do and the shuttles to and from the park were timely, clean, and staffed by some great people.

Ok, I'm through now. I wanted to email the park's management and tell them of my experience. I wanted to tell several of my friends about our experience. Once I found out that Google alerted Holiday World when I typed a comment in an earlier post and knowing that most of my friends visit here, I realized I could reach the largest group of people by blogging about our experience.

Next year, were planning on a week long trip.