(WEHT) – An amusement park in the Midwest has announced plans for a new roller coaster featuring elements designed to take riders “back in time to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s house.”
The “gravy-themed” ride, called Good Gravy, is scheduled to open in 2024 at the Holiday World theme park in Santa Claus, Indiana.
Once open, the ride will join Holiday World’s other holiday-themed attractions spread across the park’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween and Fourth of July sections.
Matt Eckert, the president and CEO of Holiday World and its Splashin’ Safari water park, said it was hard to keep details of the new coaster under wraps.
“After a while it gets really hard to keep a secret,” said Eckert. “I didn’t even tell my kids, I didn’t tell my wife.”
Thrill-seekers who ride the Good Gravy coaster will start in the station, which is decorated in the style of “grandma’s house,” according to a press release from Holiday World. They’ll then be seated in the ride’s cars — which are modeled after gravy boats — before launching down the track past a 20-foot whisk, an 18-foot rolling pin, and through an oversized can of cranberry sauce.
“We really felt like this was something that fit a gap that we just didn’t have,” says Eckert. “We have a lot of smaller rides, like up at Christmas for the smaller kids, we have fun town, the Holidog area we have the Howler. We needed kind of a coaster that was in-between, so kind of a step up between the Howler and the Raven.”
Younger children not yet ready for the “Gravy” train will also be able to play in a new “Stuffing Springs” playground adjacent to the coaster.
Good Gravy, and the Holiday World theme park itself, will open to guests at the start of the 2024 season on May 4 and May 5 (for season passholders) before opening to the public the following week.