Board the Mayflower for a voyage to the New World with the Pilgrim Fathers...
Theme Park | Holiday World |
---|---|
Park Area | Thanksgiving |
Type | Wooden Rollercoaster |
Audience | Thrillseekers |
Opened | 6 May 2006 |
Manufacturer | The Gravity Group |
Height | 159 ft |
Length | 6442 ft |
Inversions | 0 |
Max Speed | 67 mph |
Trains | Philadelphia Toboggan Company |
Duration | 2¾ minutes |
The Voyage flies over the lift hill
The Voyage is the largest and most of recent of Holiday World's trio of wooden rollercoasters, and is themed around the voyage of the Mayflower which brought the Pilgrim Fathers to North America in 1620.
A rollercoaster built to celebrate such an important moment in American history and culture must be special, and The Voyage satisfies the brief extremely well. At 6442 feet long with a maximum height of 159 feet and a claimed 24.3 seconds of airtime during its two minutes and forty five seconds duration, it is both giant and epic.
The ride was built by The Gravity Group, with Philadephia Toboggan Company trains. From the ship themed station in Holiday World's Thanskgiving section, the track ventures out into surrounding the woods and at one stage interacts closely with Thunderbird, the park's B&M Wing Coaster.
Highlights along the way include the first three huge drops (154ft, 107ft, and 100ft respectively), five underground tunnels which the trains enter a total of eight times, and a "spaghetti bowl" track section which acts as the turnaround for the train's return trip.
The Voyage is a triumph of ride design, combining excitement and pacing in a way that propels it high into the ranks of the world's best wooden rollercoasters. It won the Golden Ticket Awards' Best New Ride in 2006 and then Best Wooden Rollercoaster every year from 2007 to 2011 and still ranks highly in the Top 50 list.
If there's a slight negative, it is that The Voyage is not a particularly gentle ride. As with many wooden rollercoasters, it throws riders around a lot: considering the massive amounts of airtime this isn't surprising. However, that combined with the roughness towards the back of the train limits re-ridability a little bit. Still though, it's an amazing rollercoaster deserving of all the accolades that have been bestowed upon it.
The Voyage
The first two drops
Lift hill
A train leaves the station
Top of the lift
First drop
One of The Voyage's airtime hills
Interacting with Thunderbird
Banked turn
Brakerun
Queueline
Award winner