Good Gravy! Thanksgiving coaster now open at Holiday World

By Andy and Abby Guinigundo

Holiday World previewed Good Gravy! Family Coaster on May 4, 2024 for season passholders and officially opened the attraction to the public on May 11, 2024.

You may be thinking, “Good Gravy! That’s a funny name.” We’ll delve into that a bit later, but this sixth coaster for the park fits nicely into Holiday World’s lineup and will play an important role in raising the next generation of roller coaster enthusiasts.

What is Holiday World?

Tucked into the farmland of southern Indiana between Louisville, Ky. and Evansville, Ind. — not far from the Indiana border of the Ohio River — is a little town called Santa Claus. Rising from the fields, from a distance, you can see a few telltale signs of a theme park: the orange steel of Thunderbird, a launching winged roller coaster … the construction of the monstrous wooden coaster, The Voyage … a bright yellow water tower.

This fourth-generation, family-owned theme park opened in 1946 as Santa Claus Land. In the 1980s, with the additions of Halloween and 4th of July areas of the park, the name of the park was changed to Holiday World.

Comparing Holiday World Roller Coasters

Matt Eckert, president and CEO of Holiday World, states, “We have had the idea of a gravy-themed ride within the Thanksgiving section of the park for a long time, but what we didn’t want a hastily put-together ride.”

The park’s coaster lineup is comprised of kiddie coaster The Howler; the progressively more extreme wooden coasters The Raven, The Legend, and The Voyage; and the massive B&M steel winged coaster Thunderbird, complete with a launch and inversions galore. Eckert states that Good Gravy! was meant to fit between Howler and Raven.

First Roller Coaster to Travel Through a Cranberry Sauce Can (Probably)

For many, Thanksgiving is a holiday that means food, family, and gratitude. The ride, the queue, and the surrounding plaza of Good Gravy! capture all of these themes in a whimsical and nostalgic manner.

The queue takes a nod from that of Gobbler Getaway (a nearby dark ride also within Holiday World’s Thanksgiving-themed land), but raises the level with multiple rooms in “grandma’s house” that could be from the 1960s or ’70s. Hanging on the wall are several talking pictures, a la Hogwarts at the Universal theme parks. This is the wrong holiday, but there are a ton of “Easter eggs” within the queue.

The load station is the garage at grandma’s house. The train cars? Yes, they are gravy boats, of course. This family coaster fits that billing.

The larger-than-life kitchen “things” — including a whisk, milk bottle, rolling pin, and cranberry can — are spread along the track’s route.

Good Gravy! is fun for the whole family who could conceivably all ride together. It’s not too extreme for the new (or aging) coaster enthusiast, but it is fun enough to whet your appetite to jump on The Voyage next, if that’s your desire.

If all this gravy talk is making you hungry, you can eat a Thanksgiving dinner complete with gravy at the Plymouth Café just a few dozen feet from the ride.

Leah Koch-Blumhardt, director of park communications and fourth-generation owner, stated all of “this” was precisely the goal. “It’s all about family,” she said.