So we spent a few days in August at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana and let me tell you it was a blast. So much so we are planning on going back next year.
When I was booking the trip I over analyzed the hotel situation since it was the one area I heard that was lacking in the area. We decided to stay at a Holiday Inn Express in Tell City, which is about 30 minutes from Holiday World. It was a nice clean hotel with a lot of fast food restaurants nearby.
The first day when we arrived we went to The Christmas Shop which is in a little strip mall on Christmas Blvd. lol We got to see Santa and the kids loved it, they were not expecting it at all and it is so funny to have a picture of my kids in shorts and flip flops with Santa Claus. Santa was so sweet and good with all three of my kids and they all got candy canes and we were allowed to take our own picture and they sold pictures as well and we bought one (of course).
After our visit with Santa we went to Santa's Candy Castle. I cannot say enough about how nice the owner of this shop was. He "made snow" with my kids and two other kids that were in the store and they of course loved it, the had lots of prepackaged candy as well as some of their own fudge. They had a computer area which we didn't do because it was $6.99 and I was unclear of what it included. The best thing at this store was the Frozen Hot Chocolate, it was absolutely delicious. I need to figure out how to make it at home because that is a long drive to get more. lol We also bought our Holiday world 1 day tickets here at a discounted price it was the cheapest price I found for the tickets.
We then headed to Tell City to find our hotel after we checked in we went on a hunt to find a sit down restaurant. We happened upon a locally owned place called Capers, great food reasonably priced. We liked it so much we had them deliver to our hotel the second night. :) After dinner we went back to the hotel and swam in the hotel pool and had a lot of fun.
The next morning after our free breakfast at the hotel we headed to Holiday World. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I must say I was pleasantly suprised. First thing parking was free which is pretty much unheard of at any other theme park we have ever been too. Upon arriving we went ahead and bought the second day for $21 tickets so we didn't have to do it later because we planned on heading to the water park the next day. When we walked in there was a Holidog statue with a photographer being familiar with this at other parks being an expensive souvenier I started to walk past when the photographer stopped me and said the pictures were free they post them online and you can download them for free. How great is that? After our picture we went to the free sunscreen stand which are located throughout the park and lathered up.
The theme park is divided into different holidays there was a Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, 4th of July and Holidogs Fun Town. Each section had rides that the whole family could ride. The kids loved all the rides they could ride and they were so excited to see all the different holidays. The park is so clean and the employees are so friendly no one seemed annoyed even when they were giving us the free refreshments they were super friendly. The free refreshements were great they had Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Lemonade, Fruit Punch and Water. If you wanted bottled water it cost $1.59 but I thought the water from the fountain tasted fine. We decided to have lunch in Thanksgiving and it was so good and incredibly reasonably priced, the five of us ate lunch for $23 and we had fried chicken two sides and either a roll or cornbread. I had the best green beans I have ever had in my life! lol The park closed at 7:30 so we headed back to our hotel around 7 and ordered our Caper's for dinner it was great to have it delivered.
The next day we went to Splashin Safari inside Holiday World and it was a fabulous waterpark. When we arrived we rented a locked for our valuables I believe it was $5. Then we headed to check out the park. There was so much to take in there were 5 different kids areas, 2 for toddlers and 3 for all other kids. There were 2 lazy rivers, 2 wave pools and countless other water slides. There were free life jackets available but they were all gone when we first got to the wave pools so I would suggest bringing your own, we did and it just seemed easier. Again they had the free sunscreen and soda so that saved so much money. For lunch we went to one of the Grills near the wave pools. They had a meal that was 2 hot dogs with fries for $4.79 so we got two of those and the kids ate those and the Mr and I got cheeseburgers with fries that were also $4. So the five of us ate lunch for less than $15. A thunderstorm popped up shortly after lunch and everyone that stayed gathered under the covered areas it lasted about 10 minutes and everything was reopened and the crew went to work drying all the tables and chairs which was nice. Around 6 the kids were getting tired and wanted some ice cream so we went got dressed and got ice cream for the two little ones and a funnel cake for the rest of us to share. The ice creams were huge and they could have shared one because neither one of them at half their ice cream lol.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Chicago's Pizza in Tell City and it was really good VERY reasonably priced Chicago style pizza which I love.
The next morning on our way home we drove through the Lake Rudolph campgrounds and it seemed nice I mean it's a campground but it seemed ok and everyone we talked to who was staying there seemed to really enjoy their stay. All in all it was a great trip and we can't wait to go back next year, I think next year we may try Lake Rudolph campground and rent a cabin.
. We had 6 kids ages 2 to 11 playing on the water slide and there was plenty of room with no fighting and lots of fun to be had.
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