Team Heroes - Stanza V: Holiday World

[spacemt354]

HERE IS THE BRAINSTORMING THREAD FOR HOLIDAY WORLD

STANZA V - PATCH 'EM UP

We’re a long way from Disneyland! Welcome to the untamed wilderness of Regional Parks. Out here, even Six Flags and Cedar Fair are too corporate. Our attentions now turn to independently-operated parks and their wholly unique charms.

The villains are closing in, and our heroes must combine their strengths. To survive, you must become Team Heroes.

Your task: Using $250 million per park, Team Heroes must make 4 regional parks into vacation-worthy destinations.

Exactly what makes a “vacation-worthy destination?” Something which would make you say "Forget Orlando next year! We're going to that amusement park in Utah!"

Naturally these regional parks don’t have the advantage of popular IPs or an Orlando location, so we're not expecting Wizarding World of Harry Potter or anything. Given your locations and limitations, what can you achieve?

Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN

This Project is due on Thursday, February 21st at 11:59PM EST

​

 

[Magic Feather]

(Knock, Knock) You guys might want to get the ball rolling.

 

[Outbound]

So upon research, Holiday World is divided into lands themed to holidays. I am unsure just how themed they are. The lands currently are:
• Christmas (entry land)
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• 4th is July

I am immediately seeing red flags. A Christmas central land might do fine for a regional park, but in the bigger world you have to contend with minorities... “Winter Wonderland” might be a better name.

New Lands?
Most of Holiday World is a giant water park. It seems most of their attention has gone there, which is a shame because it looks largely generic. I think some more holidays could fill up these gaps... perhaps ones from around the globe, such as:
• Lunar New Year
• Dia De Los Muertos
• Holi Festival of Color

 

[James G.]

So upon research, Holiday World is divided into lands themed to holidays. I am unsure just how themed they are. The lands currently are:
• Christmas (entry land)
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• 4th is July

I am immediately seeing red flags. A Christmas central land might do fine for a regional park, but in the bigger world you have to contend with minorities... “Winter Wonderland” might be a better name.

New Lands?
Most of Holiday World is a giant water park. It seems most of their attention has gone there, which is a shame because it looks largely generic. I think some more holidays could fill up these gaps... perhaps ones from around the globe, such as:
• Lunar New Year
• Dia De Los Muertos
• Holi Festival of Color

I understand what you're saying, but remember that you need to focus on your audience. Holiday World is in Santa Claus, Indiana, heart of the Bible belt. It started as Santa Claus Land, and changing it to Winter Wonderland or Happy Holidaze or anything else will meet with fierce resistance and outrage. I've been there, I live in the Midwest. Believe me, you do NOT want to go down that road! I strongly encourage us to embrace the four holidays already there, PLUS them like there's no tomorrow, and add another important holiday that everyone can get behind.

Holiday World is always going to be a "regional" park, simply because of its location. You have to drive through miles of cornfields to even get to it. We'll do much better to make it the best regional theme park, with a totally unique and original theme that nobody else can touch without being accused of copying Holiday World. Yes, their themed lands need to be majorly reskinned and exploited, and yes, it needs at least one more holiday, and the best one, in my opinion, is New Year's Eve. Everyone celebrates it- nobody can say that it's a religious holiday, and it is a big party.

Others probably should be considered, but they all have issues:
Valentine's Day- popular, and has potential for things like a tunnel of love
Easter- The religious nature of the holiday might make it controversial to have a theme park secularize it
Memorial Day/Labor Day- Not sure how to "Holiday World" them. Mostly grilling hot dogs and drinking beer, not really appropriate to a family theme park
Dia De Los Muertos- interesting choice, some possibilities in that it would seem extremely exotic in rural Indiana. I wonder how many people would know the difference, or would think it was just a strange Mexican version of Halloween
Lunar New Year- People might have heard of it, but have no idea what it is
Holi Festival of Color- even I have no idea what it is.

Sorry, but I feel strongly that if we start screwing with the already established holidays in Holiday World it will be a disaster. Political correctness is not real popular around here (which is really hard on us die-hard liberals in a blood-red State!). We need to embrace the holidays that Holiday World has, plus them and please, please, add a good, clean, family hotel and a good, clean, large campground. Camping is really popular here- even Cedar Point, with its limited space on site, has dedicated a huge area to camping, campers and cabins. Welcome to the Midwest.

I won't be able to be as active in here as I'd like since I've got this PM job that I'm trying not to screw-up too badly, but I'll do what I can. I'm going to rely on everyone else, especially @Evilgidgit and @Brer Oswald , and @OutboundFlight (glad you're helping out in here, bro!) to keep this going and make it amazing! Holiday World is a really great park! Exploit that greatness, build on it, but tread carefully on Midwest culture. Tradition and traditional values are really important here.

 

[Evilgidgit]

Because multi-quote isn't appearing for some reason, I've had to copy and paste James' comment from the initial PM.

On another park thread, someone found a figure from Disney that they'll spend $100,000/room for a hotel. Costs in Indiana are a lot lower than in Orlando, so if we say $80,000/room and we build a 200 room hotel that's $16,000,000. Add a convention center as a reason to attract more people to the area (it really is in the middle of nowhere) for a guess of $10,000,000, that's still only $26 million for a new hotel and convention center, leaving us $224 million to spend on the park itself.

I know squat about money, finances, budgeting, so I can only assume this is a realistic pricing range, relying on James' own knowledge since he is from the Midwest area.

 

[Evilgidgit]

Whilst I agree with the need for a hotel, there is a campground literally 0.2 miles from the park. https://www.holidayworld.com/plan-your-trip/hotels-camping/

 

[Evilgidgit]

Okay, so here the priorities:
-Plus the existing for holiday lands (Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving) with better immersive theming, include a more educational motif to the lands (especially the latter two), and make the attractions not so generic. Overhaul the lands if necessary.
-Build a hotel.
-Make sure whatever changes/additions made fit within our imaginary budget.
-Crush the badguys.
-Apply kung fu when needed!

This might also want to be acknowledged: http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2018/10/holiday-world-announces-details-of-55.html

Below are some quickfire ideas on what to do with the four lands.

CHRISTMAS

-Overhaul the whole thing and include the theming expansion as conceptualised above. All the buildings shall become old school Swiss architecture, and feel Christmas-y all the time, now set within Santa's village/grotto, with fairy lights everywhere, an enormous Christmas tree in the centre, permanent magically unmelting snow on the rooftops.
-A Santa's Workshop tour - a dark ride through the workshop showing how the elves make toys.
-Reindeer and sleigh-themed kiddie coaster, creating the feeling of flying (think Casey Jr.)
-Petting zoo with reindeer.
-A Jack Frost-themed walkthrough within an actual manmade ice cave (inspired by an attraction I saw at a museum in Iceland), guests offered thermal jackets and hats to wear whilst in this attraction.
-Ice rink.

HALLOWEEN
-Appears to celebrate classic American horror literature, which could be expanded on a bit more.
-The land should become a lot more creepier, or at least feels like it invokes Halloween. Jack o'lanterns and Halloween decorations everywhere, have a Halloween candy/costume shop, turn the land into a 19th century spook town full of playful spooks.
-Houses two of the park's wooden rollercoasters - Legend and Raven, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Raven in-name only. Add some more theming to them. Raven can be seen as the personification of madness and torment that the titular bird from Edgar Allen Poe's sttory itself brings. Not sure what could be done with Legend since it is so huge, but the area around it could take inspiration from the actual Sleepy Hollow, and have a statue of the Headless Horseman on display.
-A small museum/exhibit to Poe and Washington Irving.
-Scarecrow Scrambler is re-themed, now based around a legend of a nightmarish scarecrow that stands in the middle of the field. It comes to life and causes the scrambler (posed as harvesting tools) to whizz out of control.
-Hallow Swings gets a Gothic makeover to look like guests are being swung out by great bats.
-Frightful Falls would either remain the same, or be re-themed around H.P. Lovecraft's creations like Cthulhu.
-Introduce the Frightful Friends, a group of spooky but playful permanent trick o' treaters who are actually monsters - Patch the Pumpkin Kid, Wilhemina the Witch, and Boo the Ghost Dog. An entire line-up could be made and created as marketable mascots.

FOURTH OF JULY
-Celebrate American patriotism a little more and have the land be a permanent 4th of July party.
-Remove the Lewis and Clark trail as when did America's greatest travellers ever use cars? Instead, the Raging Rapids would be re-themed based around the trailer Lewis and Clark followed, incorporating elements from Native American mythology.
-Introduce an animatronic musical show similar to America Sings/The American Adventure, telling the history of America through comical musical numbers.
(May need some help with ideas).

THANKSGIVING
-Build an actual replica of the Mayflower, but use forced perspective.
-Turn this land into a bonafide Pilgrim's town where all the cast members dress as early pilgrims.
-Add in a walkthrough attraction related to the mystery of the disappearing Roanoke colony.
-Legends of America - some sort of forest ride based around mythological figures in US history like Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and the Wendigo.

 

[Outbound]

Okay, so here the priorities:
-Plus the existing for holiday lands (Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving) with better immersive theming, include a more educational motif to the lands (especially the latter two), and make the attractions not so generic. Overhaul the lands if necessary.
-Build a hotel.
-Make sure whatever changes/additions made fit within our imaginary budget.

I like all these ideas!

I think a hotel is essential to Holiday World's success. From what I can see on Gmaps, there is no nearby hotel beside "Santa's Lodge", a simple motel. Now in no ways am I saying they are a bad company but I myself usually feel safer in either a major hotel chain or the park's hotel. This could be a turn off to many people who want to go to Holiday World not as a day trip- the campsite or lodge is your only option, and if you don't like them oh well.

It's exciting working with such a remote park, unlike the more well-known ones there is a lot of empty space! Anyways, I think this parking lot would be the best place for a hotel. There could be a bridge (black line) over the road that connects directly to the park entrance. A new lot could be added right next to the hotel to make up for the loss of spots.

After a walk through the park on Gmaps, I have to come to the conclusion that HolidayWorld should be family focused. The theme suits children well and in my opinion, trying to add thrills to any of the holidays besides Halloween will lose what makes that holiday special in the first place. So my proposal is to appeal to a "Legoland" audience.

Christmas
For the part, I agree with the Christmas land. A reindeer kiddie coaster like @Evilgidgit suggested would be lots o' fun. I think it could be made into a half dark ride half coaster about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, not unlike the dragon coaster at Legoland. Guests board onto a sleigh themed coaster and they head through a couple rooms accompanied by the song... first Rudolph is born, then Rudolph tries to hide his nose, then he is left out of the reindeer games... before the room goes dark. Then Santa asks if Rudolph will guide his sleigh and the coaster part begins. Now it is a regular kiddie coaster. Once that part is done, there is a short scene of "Rudolph going down in history" before it ends.

A Fantasyland dark ride themed to Santa's Workshop as @Evilgidgit mentioned would also be fun. I think it could be played out like an exclusive factory tour following a present down the assembly line. An elf narrator would keep explaining everything matter o' factly while the elf AA's are always messing things up.

Halloween
I have a different idea of a Halloween land. While we could keep with the ongoing American Horror Literature theme, I don't think this is the right choice especially for youth who may have no idea who Irving or Poe is. Keep the two coasters, but the rest of the land could give a more "spooky" vibe rather than straight up "scary".

For some reason, Halloween Land has a dive show??? How about we replace it with a Haunted House/Forest dark ride showing various scenes of common Halloween myths.

I agree with everything @Evilgidgit said regarding Thanksgiving and 4th of July.

 

[Evilgidgit]

I like all these ideas!

I think a hotel is essential to Holiday World's success. From what I can see on Gmaps, there is no nearby hotel beside "Santa's Lodge", a simple motel. Now in no ways am I saying they are a bad company but I myself usually feel safer in either a major hotel chain or the park's hotel. This could be a turn off to many people who want to go to Holiday World not as a day trip- the campsite or lodge is your only option, and if you don't like them oh well.
View attachment 350352

It's exciting working with such a remote park, unlike the more well-known ones there is a lot of empty space! Anyways, I think this parking lot would be the best place for a hotel. There could be a bridge (black line) over the road that connects directly to the park entrance. A new lot could be added right next to the hotel to make up for the loss of spots.

After a walk through the park on Gmaps, I have to come to the conclusion that HolidayWorld should be family focused. The theme suits children well and in my opinion, trying to add thrills to any of the holidays besides Halloween will lose what makes that holiday special in the first place. So my proposal is to appeal to a "Legoland" audience.

Christmas
For the part, I agree with the Christmas land. A reindeer kiddie coaster like @Evilgidgit suggested would be lots o' fun. I think it could be made into a half dark ride half coaster about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, not unlike the dragon coaster at Legoland. Guests board onto a sleigh themed coaster and they head through a couple rooms accompanied by the song... first Rudolph is born, then Rudolph tries to hide his nose, then he is left out of the reindeer games... before the room goes dark. Then Santa asks if Rudolph will guide his sleigh and the coaster part begins. Now it is a regular kiddie coaster. Once that part is done, there is a short scene of "Rudolph going down in history" before it ends.

A Fantasyland dark ride themed to Santa's Workshop as @Evilgidgit mentioned would also be fun. I think it could be played out like an exclusive factory tour following a present down the assembly line. An elf narrator would keep explaining everything matter o' factly while the elf AA's are always messing things up.

Halloween
I have a different idea of a Halloween land. While we could keep with the ongoing American Horror Literature theme, I don't think this is the right choice especially for youth who may have no idea who Irving or Poe is. Keep the two coasters, but the rest of the land could give a more "spooky" vibe rather than straight up "scary".

For some reason, Halloween Land has a dive show??? How about we replace it with a Haunted House/Forest dark ride showing various scenes of common Halloween myths.

I agree with everything @Evilgidgit said regarding Thanksgiving and 4th of July.

I don't even know what a dive show is.

 

[Outbound]

I don't even know what a dive show is.

DIVE!

\

From what I can tell, people watch other people dive off the board. In the Halloween land!

 

[Evilgidgit]

DIVE!
View attachment 350389\

From what I can tell, people watch other people dive off the board. In the Halloween land!

...yeah, that's got to go. What does that have to do with Halloween in the slightest? Unless it becomes some sort of audience participation thing where they are challenged to jump into the pool and get money? Fear Factor on a smaller scale.

 

[James G.]

...yeah, that's got to go. What does that have to do with Halloween in the slightest? Unless it becomes some sort of audience participation thing where they are challenged to jump into the pool and get money? Fear Factor on a smaller scale.

When we went there we didn't bother with seeing it, so I have no idea how popular it was. Cedar Point had a dive show many years ago in their water stadium, after they removed the dolphins and before it became their extreme sports stadium. It lasted a year or two, was popular for awhile because it was new and different, but nobody cried when it was removed.

 

[Evilgidgit]

Okay, look, I need to be honest here. I don't think this project is going anywhere. I feel like I am doing this on my own. James is busy with his role as PM, OutboundFlight is chipping in when possible, and Brer Oswald hasn't shown up yet. And every other project is miles ahead. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the process used in this stanza.

 

[James G.]

I understand how you feel. I'll be working at my real job all weekend, but let me see if I can rally some help for you. Please, stick with me here- we need you! Once I get the frame story finished I'll be a lot more available and will dive in (no dive show, though!) and we'll make this happen. Do what you can, and I'm sure I can get some help in here.

 

[Evilgidgit]

It occurred to me that the park's Legend Lot is ENORMOUS! Big enough for a resort to be honest.

It's exciting working with such a remote park, unlike the more well-known ones there is a lot of empty space! Anyways, I think this parking lot would be the best place for a hotel. There could be a bridge (black line) over the road that connects directly to the park entrance. A new lot could be added right next to the hotel to make up for the loss of spots.

A portion of this car park, perhaps the left hand side where OutboundFlight has written Hotel, can be utilised for the hotel, and the blue area we can either use to expand Christmas (which is the best choice IMO) or use it for a fifth land - I'm leaning towards Easter or Valentine's Day. Easter seems more appropriate, since this is a part of the bible belt.

The hotel should definitely be called the Holiday Hotel, with wings based on each holiday.

Attraction List (new additions)

-Overhaul the whole thing and include the theming expansion as conceptualised above. All the buildings shall become old school Swiss architecture, and feel Christmas-y all the time, now set within Santa's village/grotto, with fairy lights everywhere, an enormous Christmas tree in the centre, permanent magically unmelting snow on the rooftops.
-A Santa's Workshop tour - a dark ride through the workshop showing how the elves make toys.
-Reindeer and sleigh-themed kiddie coaster, creating the feeling of flying (think Casey Jr.)
-Petting zoo with reindeer.
-A Jack Frost-themed walkthrough within an actual manmade ice cave (inspired by an attraction I saw at a museum in Iceland), guests offered thermal jackets and hats to wear whilst in this attraction.
-Ice rink.

HALLOWEEN
-Appears to celebrate classic American horror literature, which could be expanded on a bit more.
-The land should become a lot more creepier, or at least feels like it invokes Halloween. Jack o'lanterns and Halloween decorations everywhere, have a Halloween candy/costume shop, turn the land into a 19th century spook town full of playful spooks.
-Houses two of the park's wooden rollercoasters - Legend and Raven, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Raven in-name only. Add some more theming to them. Raven can be seen as the personification of madness and torment that the titular bird from Edgar Allen Poe's sttory itself brings. Not sure what could be done with Legend since it is so huge, but the area around it could take inspiration from the actual Sleepy Hollow, and have a statue of the Headless Horseman on display.
-A small museum/exhibit to Poe and Washington Irving.
-Scarecrow Scrambler is re-themed, now based around a legend of a nightmarish scarecrow that stands in the middle of the field. It comes to life and causes the scrambler (posed as harvesting tools) to whizz out of control.
-Hallow Swings gets a Gothic makeover to look like guests are being swung out by great bats.
-Frightful Falls would either remain the same, or be re-themed around H.P. Lovecraft's creations like Cthulhu.
-Introduce the Frightful Friends, a group of spooky but playful permanent trick o' treaters who are actually monsters - Patch the Pumpkin Kid, Wilhemina the Witch, and Boo the Ghost Dog. An entire line-up could be made and created as marketable mascots.

FOURTH OF JULY
-Celebrate American patriotism a little more and have the land be a permanent 4th of July party.
-Remove the Lewis and Clark trail as when did America's greatest travellers ever use cars? Instead, the Raging Rapids would be re-themed based around the trailer Lewis and Clark followed, incorporating elements from Native American mythology.
-Introduce an animatronic musical show similar to America Sings/The American Adventure, telling the history of America through comical musical numbers.
(May need some help with ideas).

THANKSGIVING
-Build an actual replica of the Mayflower, but use forced perspective.
-Turn this land into a bonafide Pilgrim's town where all the cast members dress as early pilgrims.
-Add in a walkthrough attraction related to the mystery of the disappearing Roanoke colony.
-Legends of America - some sort of forest ride based around mythological figures in US history like Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and the Wendigo.

-Overhaul the Christmas land to turn it into an authentic Santa's village with Swiss architecture.
-Santa's Workshop dark ride.
-Rudolph-themed kiddie coaster/dark ride hybrid.
-Petting zoo.
-Jack Frost manmade ice cave walkthrough (with mini-mountain show building)
-Ice rink.
-Give the rollercoasters more theming.
-Scarecrow Scrambler gets a re-theme and story.
-Hallow Swings gets a gothic overlay.
-Haunted house/spooky forest dark ride (to replace the Dive!)
-Frightful Falls with a graveyard jamboree theming.
-The Frightful Friends mascots
-Lewis & Clark trail is removed - theming reworked into Raging Rapids.
-America Sings-esque musical show telling the history of the USA (or at least the American Revolution.)
-Replica of the Mayflower for Thanksgiving.
-Dark ride/walkthrough about the legends of America (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Bigfoot, Roanoke colony, etc.)

 

[spacemt354]

What is the objective you're trying to accomplish with this enhancement? Is it to facilitate more rides/refurbs in the given area or is it to expand.

Once you answer that you'll be in good shape.

You mentioned this being in the Bible Belt, but holidays such as easter being too secularized for the park - might I suggest two other 'holidays' that might work?

A St. Patrick's Day Village (themed to Ireland, with additional restaurants, and maybe another wooden coaster) this would appeal to the Bible Belt (being a Saint) but also have broad appeal given how non-secularized the holiday has become.

April Fool's Day - a comical, upside-down sort of Toontown geared towards kiddie attractions.

Veteran's Day - an American history themed section of the park, as an extension of the 4th of July. Akin to the old Disneyland Virginia wartime themed Civil War lands. The strong patriotism vibes would be supported here, as well as possibly holding future Veteran's Day events.

 

[Outbound]

A heads up @Evilgidgit I will be away today at Disneyland and not much help.

That being said, when I come back tomorrow I will be spending most my time in the Holiday World brainstorm. @spacemt354 and I have pretty much finished the Hersheypark brainstorm so most my resources can be moved here.

I like the idea of more holidays, my one concern is at what point do we run out of money. We have a lot of changes so far.

 

[Evilgidgit]

On another park thread, someone found a figure from Disney that they'll spend $100,000/room for a hotel. Costs in Indiana are a lot lower than in Orlando, so if we say $80,000/room and we build a 200 room hotel that's $16,000,000. Add a convention center as a reason to attract more people to the area (it really is in the middle of nowhere) for a guess of $10,000,000, that's still only $26 million for a new hotel and convention center, leaving us $224 million to spend on the park itself.

This was the financial ideas James G. suggested earlier. This could help.

 

[spacemt354]

So what I would do is make this project the first of 2 or 3 'phases' of Holiday World Expansion.

With the first phase being the $250 million investment.

With that said, I would take your list here -- and pick a couple to describe in detail rather than have a smorgasbord of smaller additions.

Attraction List (new additions)


-Overhaul the Christmas land to turn it into an authentic Santa's village with Swiss architecture.
-Santa's Workshop dark ride.
-Rudolph-themed kiddie coaster/dark ride hybrid.
-Petting zoo.
-Jack Frost manmade ice cave walkthrough (with mini-mountain show building)
-Ice rink.
-Give the rollercoasters more theming.
-Scarecrow Scrambler gets a re-theme and story.
-Hallow Swings gets a gothic overlay.
-Haunted house/spooky forest dark ride (to replace the Dive!)
-Frightful Falls with a graveyard jamboree theming.
-The Frightful Friends mascots
-Lewis & Clark trail is removed - theming reworked into Raging Rapids.
-America Sings-esque musical show telling the history of the USA (or at least the American Revolution.)
-Replica of the Mayflower for Thanksgiving.
-Dark ride/walkthrough about the legends of America (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Bigfoot, Roanoke colony, etc.)

Pick like 2-4 big additions (dark ride, roller coaster, etc) and design those as 'Phase 1' of the Holiday World expansion under the Americana partnership.

That will help create a mission statement for the Holiday World project, with the reader knowing there is more to come in the future, while also keeping the project succinct.

 

[Evilgidgit]

So what I would do is make this project the first of 2 or 3 'phases' of Holiday World Expansion.

With the first phase being the $250 million investment.

With that said, I would take your list here -- and pick a couple to describe in detail rather than have a smorgasbord of smaller additions.


Pick like 2-4 big additions (dark ride, roller coaster, etc) and design those as 'Phase 1' of the Holiday World expansion under the Americana partnership.

That will help create a mission statement for the Holiday World project, with the reader knowing there is more to come in the future, while also keeping the project succinct.

This sounds like a great idea. I can imagine the Christmas expansion being a part of Phase 1, along with a couple of other smaller attractions, like the spooky forest ride to replace The Dive, and the America Sings-esque show to replace the Lewis and Clark trail. Any new lands should be left for later phases. The Hotel will be part of Phase 1.