Holiday World

Holiday World far surpassed our expectations. It's out in the middle of nowhere and a little kitschy with every ride, game, restaurant name, etc. having to be holiday themed, but they have a great little park! It's clean, well-run with friendly staff and we had a blast on both the regular rides and the water rides.

We started off at the water park and knew that they had plenty of things for young kids to do, but we weren't sure if Noah would want to venture out of those areas. We were pleasantly surprised to find that he loved both the kiddie pools with small slides as well as the big wave pools, the lazy river and even one of the big water slides (the Watubi) where a group of you are in a big, round raft together. I got drenched on that one but I was more concerned about Noah as we seemed to go vertical on every turn way up on the side of the slide. There were a few moments when he looked apprehensive, but he wore a big smile for the majority of it and couldn't wait to go tell Nana about it.



Elena was a real trooper and played in the shallow water a little bit and napped on someone's shoulder several times a day while we tried to keep her out of the sun as often as possible. As fearless as she is, I don't think it will be long before she's out there on the same rides with Noah.




The second day at the park, we went on some of the more traditional park rides. Noah rode a train with Nana and Pop Pop and then went on the Doggie Roller Coaster with Sarah. The train was a big hit, but I think the roller coaster was a bit too jerky for him. Thankfully, the roller coaster was only about 10 seconds long and we were able to just move on.




Noah rode several other kid-only rides including the seahorse merry-go-round, the airplanes and the canoes. He actually rode the canoes twice although the first time he got in backwards and the worker didn't turn him around, so he rode through the whole ride facing the wrong way! Poor guy, but he didn't seem to mind and just got back in line to ride again facing forward.





Noah had a few "doozies" where he got completely drenched or unexpectedly went completely underwater, but he had on his life jacket and we were always right there to help. Thankfully, each time he thought the doozie was really funny and couldn't wait to tell someone the story! And I was so proud of him for trying new things and being so adventurous.

We had a truly memorable trip. Certainly at some point, Holiday World will end up on our calendar again!