Well, we’ve heard of weirder things, but this is definitely heading to the top of the quirky list: a roller coaster that is gravy-themed: the Good Gravy! Family Coaster. You’ll ride in a vintage “gravy boat” that hurtles through a giant can of cranberry sauce and past a dangerous-looking whisk, a rolling pin, a kitchen timer shaped like a chicken, and other familiar elements of a Thanksgiving dinner. Adorably, the picnic tables are shaped like turkey silhouettes. It’s wacky and we love it.
The Good Gravy! ride departs out of Stuffing Springs at Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari theme park in Santa Claus, Indiana. Opening in May 2024, it was just named the No. 1 new theme park attraction of 2024 by USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.
The ride’s narrative is that you’ve arrived at Grandma Gracy’s on Thanksgiving Day, only to find out there’s no gravy. You’re then loaded onto the empty gravy boat and pulled backward and ejected forward on a quest to locate gravy past all the elements that Grandma was smart enough to purchase ahead of time. The showstopper element is pausing atop a seven-story spike and then doing it all backward, but it’s fairly tame: children as small as 38 inches tall can ride, which includes most 3-year-olds, and it only goes 37 miles an hour.
It’s also wonderful nostalgia for older riders. “Our team had so much fun theming Grandma's house to be frozen in time in 1965–from the Sears Catalog on the coffee table to the kitchen phone with a stretched-out cord, the details make the ride,” says Lauren Crosby, the park’s director of entertainment and a fourth-generation owner. The park opened as Santa Claus Land in 1946 as the country’s first theme park and has since expanded. Ticket prices range from $42 to $75 for a single-day entry; buying a day in advance brings the cost down significantly.