Holiday World announces first flat-launched racing water coaster

August 6, 2019, 12:50 PM · Santa Claus, Indiana's Holiday World today announced its new attraction for the 2020 season — a flat-launched racing water coaster for its Splashin' Safari water park.

Cheetah Chase will be the park's third water coaster, following Mammoth and Wildebeest, leading the park to declare itself the "water coaster capital of the world."

Canada's ProSlide Technology is designing the ride, which will use its RocketBLAST system to power the ride. ProSlide has designed the industry's top water coasters, including the award-winning Krakatau Aqua Coaster at Universal Orlando's Volcano Bay.

Here's a fly-around concept video, followed by a side-by-side POV.

Cheetah Chase will feature two slides that will race in multiple locations during the ride. Each slide also will feature two of ProSlide's FlyingSaucer elements. The right slide will be one foot longer than the left, at 852 feet to 851, and the ride's top speed will be just over 20 mph.

"Cheetah Chase is the perfect thrill ride for families," Holiday World President Matt Eckert said. "The three-person rafts allow families to race face-to-face, and the launch is the first of its kind. There's nothing like this out there."

Update: To celebrate the announcement, Holiday World is running a contest to give away two 2020 season passes.

Replies (4)

August 6, 2019 at 2:59 PM

I'm not much of a water park (err - water theme park - sorry, Universal) aficionado, but this attraction actually looks really cool. Don't think it will be better than Mammoth (the best water coaster on the planet, in most everyone's humble opinion), but it definitely appears to be a thrilling and unique adventure. Might need to revisit HW in 2020...

"Water coaster capital of the world" - cracks me up. But so true.

And no, Robert, no matter how good Cheetah Chase turns out to be you cannot make it the coaster of the year in 2020! ;p

August 6, 2019 at 3:14 PM

SeaWorld really, really wants to win that title, it appears.

August 6, 2019 at 8:33 PM

Master Blaster is still the best water coaster. And yes I've been on Krakatau, Mammoth, and Wildebeest. They're certainly fun but haven't come close to Master Blaster for many many people.

August 6, 2019 at 10:26 PM

Based on the video and my experience on various water coasters, this one looks pretty good, but I'm not sure it looks good enough for me to start planning a return trip. In a park that already has the two best water coasters, adding something like this is a bit of a head scratcher. The racing aspect and the saucers do add a bit of uniqueness to the attraction, but with a notably shorter ride time and fewer hills it does seem a tad underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, it's still a nice ride that will be quite popular, but it doesn't seem like the best thing they could have added.

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