Category: Titanic Max

Hybrid Leisure Land Amusement

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Tobu Zoo Park

The Tobu Zoo Park opened its doors for the 80th anniversary of the Tobu Railway in 1981. Five years earlier, the operating company Tobu Leisure Planning Co., Ltd. was founded, which still operates the park today as a 100% subsidiary of the Tobu Group. A mixture of amusement park and zoo was selected prior to the park’s opening, with these being built separately at the eastern and western ends of the park. In 1990, the Tobu Zoo Park was expanded to include the Tobu Super Pool water park near the western entrance.

Coming from Tokyo you can take the Tobu Railway. From the Tobu-Dobutsu-koen station there is a shuttle bus to the eastern entrance of Tobu Zoo Park at regular intervals, but the park itself can also be reached easily by a short walk. If you enter the park from this entrance, you immediately find yourself at a lake, which you can also explore with pedal boats. This is the starting point for the internal bus line Animal Boo Boo and the park railway Tayno-No-Megumi.

If you follow the paths, you immediately find yourself in Liberty Land, a loose collection of rides along a slightly wider Mainstreet. Next to a merry-go-round, a small children’s ride, a pedal track and a music express there are two walkthroughs and two roller coasters.

Galaxy Walkers and Tentomushi

The interactive mirror maze Galaxy Walkers makes the beginning, in which you can save the world on two different missions. Not far from here, the ladybird ride Tentomushi makes its rounds on the figure eight-shaped course of the well-known Zierer roller coaster. As usual this is great fun for young and old.

Kawasemi

The highlight in this area is the Kawasemi roller coaster. Built on the site of the former Mount Rocky Coaster, the ride uses most of the existing foundations – some modified to withstand the existing forces – for an extremely dynamic ride.

As soon as you take a seat in the train, the journey starts immediately with the rapid climb to the top of the lift hill. In a 69° steep drop the train shoots towards the ground. The 31 m difference in altitude is soon overcome and the train is on its way at a top speed of 85 km/h. With a wonderfully pronounced pressure you now speed through a curve close to the ground with a 78° cross slope, before you take a rather steep and 22 m high turn just below the lift hill. On the following 20 m high airtime hill you are lifted out of your seat by negative forces in a beautiful floating airtime. After another curve close to the ground, a series of very wild turns follows. Here you change the direction of travel three times in fast intervals with simultaneous ejector airtime. This is followed by another curve, adjoining two straight airtime hills. In a turn similar to a Bavarian curve, you then approach the station, whereupon the adventurous journey soon comes to an end.

Interestingly, I liked Kawasemi much better than its European counterpart Piraten in the Danish amusement park Djurs Sommerland, which is just slightly younger. What I hardly liked back then, in extremely adverse weather conditions, was really a lot of fun here. So much so, in fact, that I was always happy to get in. The turns, the airtime and the available pacing make the trip very entertaining and invite you to several repetitions, preferably without interruption. This is also possible without any problems, as the way from the exit to the entrance of the ride is wonderfully short.

Airlift Sky Fish Express

Should you be able to tear yourself away from the ride at any time, a visit to the neighbouring scary labyrinth of the Event Plaza is a good idea. A trip in the Monorail Airlift Sky Fish Express is a little less nerve-racking. The nice ride far above the paths of the park even serves as a means of transport within the amusement park Tobu Zoo Park.

Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster

Shortly afterwards, we land in Heartful Town, the third stage of the Heartful Land theme. While the park that has already been explored may seem rather run-down, the children’s area, which was completely renovated in 2014, has a much more positive appearance. There are numerous typical Japanese children’s rides as well as the Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster roller coaster.

The roller coaster built by Hoei Sangyo is characterised by an oval-shaped layout with a central downward helix, very similar to the dragon roller coasters of the manufacturer Zamperla. Spraying mist during the passage of the supporting structure adds a little extra value to the ride, but otherwise the Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster is a nice children’s coaster for the youngest park guests.

The Zoo

As mentioned at the beginning, Tobu Zoo Park is a mixture of a leisure park and a zoo, which is why it is called Hybrid Leisure Land. The zoo itself consists to a large extent of far too small enclosures without any attempt at species-appropriate animal husbandry. The Monkey World is a very bad place, where the individual monkey species are displayed without any mercy in far too narrow cages.

The same applies also to the enclosures of most big cats (with exception of the lion enclosure), the elephants and the brown bears. I don’t expect any immensely large enclosures like in the English amusement park Flamingo Land, but surely the size of a German inner city zoo can be reached. Interestingly, the Hirakata Park with its few animal enclosures shows that this can also be taken for granted in Japan. And so the impression of the park becomes increasingly distorted the longer you stay in the zoo.

Nevertheless, there are also rays of hope in the zoo, which hardly matters anymore. The rhesus monkey mountain is large enough, the aviary with native animal species is very nicely designed and the savannah landscape with gazelles, giraffes and zebras is similar to that in Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover. So there is a lot of potential to run a magnificent zoo; but in the current state I advise everyone not to set foot in here.

Emma’s Cheese Windmill

The Heartful Farm, which was the first stage of the Heartful Lands, is worth a visit. This beautifully landscaped farm area houses the tractor ride Piggy’s Tokotoko, the Horn’s Farm Railway and the Emma’s Cheese Windmill Ferris Wheel. The latter was built in 2013 and allowed a smooth transition between the old and new wheel. Remarkably, two giant wheels stood in the park for one season. The new wheel has air conditioning on each individual gondola, a sound system and wheelchair access.

UFO Dome

After passing the Heartful Garden, a large botanical garden, the way leads us into the Pleasure Land. Next to a telecombat and a very nice wave swinger featuring water fountains (very similar to Monkey Swinger in the English amusement park Chessington – World of Adventures) there is the 3D cinema UFO Dome, in which a typical Japanese horror movie was shown this season. Interestingly, this cinema is actually a motion simulator made by Intamin. The installation is still operated in the tried and tested way, even the pre-show is used – only the movements of the two-seater gondolas during the main film are missing.

Regina

The main attraction of this area is the wooden roller coaster Regina. With a total length of 1330m and a height of 37m, this is a real colossus to explore. Since most of the ride was built on a concrete foundation above a larger lake area, the roller coaster within the park is known as the Wooden Water Coaster. But don’t worry, you can only get wet if it rains during your ride.

After climbing the stairs to the station, the Intamin train is ready to be boarded by the willing passengers. A short time later the train is dispatched and we leave the station in a short drop towards the lift hill. When we reach the top, we immediately cross the hilltop and plunge down the First Drop. Without shake, rattle, but with quite a lot of roll, we race with 90 km/h through the first valley and immediately up the first hill. The ascent is quite steep at first, but then it bends off into a rather flat ramp; which results in an interesting interplay of forces. In a wide 180° left turn we keep the gradient angle of the ramp, whereby the next drop is initiated surprisingly fast. After the next powerful valley follows a beautifully designed camelback. This is followed by another ascent, which also leads to a wide turn. This time, however, the descent starts at the summit crossing. The train now runs rapidly along the front side of the track, before we master the ascent into the block brake of the track in a double-up.

Without any deceleration we leave the brake into a 500° right leading downwards helix. Quite quickly we increase speed and decrease altitude. With a pronounced speed we climb a short incline at the rear end of the layout just below the first turn. In a right turn we promptly follow the same curve. Consequently, parallel to the first drop, we plunge to the ground one more time and make our way to the other side of the track in a series of steadily rising hills. One last dip and some short hops later we reach the braking track. Across the transfer track and another turning curve we return to the station.

Regina is a first class wooden roller coaster with absolutely remarkable ride characteristics, as the track is completely smooth. There is really nothing to claim here, the ride is good. The layout doesn’t offer big airtime moments or even remarkably wild manoeuvres, but the layout has a nice flow over a really long distance.

Pictures Tobu Zoo Park

Conclusion Tobu Zoo Park

The Tobu Zoo Park is a very good amusement park and a terrible zoo at the same time. The park can be placed in the midfield, as a successful mixture of animal and amusement park can be experienced in many other places in a much better quality. The improvements in the zoo give at least hope, even if the experience for the park visitor stands above animal welfare. The innovations in the amusement park are all worth seeing and indicate a promising future for the park.

 

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Titanic Max Day 10 / Tobu Zoo Park

The way to Yokohama

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After a day’s break, we were supposed to go back to Nagashima, but since our night’s lodging was in Yokohama, we went back to Nagoya after a hearty breakfast. Theoretically, we could have gone directly to the park with our suitcases, but since the return journey was to take place by shuttle bus to Nagoya due to the better departure times, we finally preferred to stow our luggage at the station and then take a return ticket to the park. The bus terminal is located directly at the station and has several levels, but the right departure bay is quickly found and the ticket purchase is, as always, quite unproblematic.

In the evening, after meeting Nicolas again in Nagoya, we took the Shinkansen directly to Shin-Yokohama and from there the local trains to Tsurumi Station. From there, it’s only a few metres to the Best Western. But I honestly don’t know if I would recommend this one, because the Best Western was by far the hotel with the smallest room on our Japan trip. In general, I have not had the best experiences with the Western chains in Japan. A Japanese business hotel is much more interesting and usually just as cheap, if not cheaper.

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Titanic Max Day 7 to 9

A crowded Waterpark

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Joyful Waterpark

When you learn about Nagashima Spa Land, you inevitably come across the Joyful Waterpark or Jumbo Ocean Water Pool and its immense number of water slides. With the construction of the Boomerang Twist water slide in 2013 at the latest, the park is also internationally known and should therefore not be left out; but more on that later.

The water park is open from the end of June to mid-September. Entrance is via the theme park and accordingly requires a ticket for both parks; an offer with a free pass for the rides and both entrances is quite affordable. As the park is very popular in summer temperatures, a visit during the week is recommended; the capacities are available but are not always fully used even on busier days.

No wonder, that my visit to Joyful Waterpark had the longest waiting times of the entire tour. Even worse when, on your first visit to the theme park two days earlier, there were virtually no waiting times at all in the entire resort. But hey, you learn from your mistakes and with a bit of bad luck you immediately commit another, more fatal one; you should not underestimate the sun in Japan and so I trained mercilessly for being an Englishman.

But before I distract you too much with the existing boundary conditions of the visit, let’s rather go straight into the Joyful Waterpark. To the right is the huge changing hall, to the left the covered children’s area and the showers. The Japanese visitors now make themselves at home on the car park style terraces and we turn our attention to the first slides, or sliders as they are called here.

UFO Slider

The two UFO sliders are the first, although only one of the two Space Bowl slides was in operation. You quickly pick up speed via a short steep curve before shooting into the funnel and then doing lap after lap, under the enthusiastic gaze of the Japanese, before eventually plummeting into the water pool.  While most visitors only managed two laps, people were always amazed when someone spent three or more laps in the funnel. In fact, it’s not that difficult if you stick to the recommended sliding position. After more than five rounds, however, I too fell through the middle at some point and landed quite ungently in the pool. It was great fun, and as a bodyslide with a deliberately unintentional landing, it gives you much more adrealine than comparable tube slides with their continuing slide out of the funnel.

Water Tubes

Across a bridge over Lazy River located in the front of the park, where the future swimmers were just doing warm-up exercises with the lifeguards, we go to the three Water Tubes. This slide complex consists of two bodyslides, each with a downward helix, and a very, very, very steep turbo slide. Waiting times were quite long due to the alternating operation of the two types of slides, which had a negative effect especially on the only operated helix tube. The slide is quite fast and very wild due to the plummeting exit. But the highlight of this slide complex is the steeply sloping slide in the middle, where you lose contact with the slide surface without mercy and thus experience a large part of the slide time in the air. Of course, the splashdown at the end of the slide is all the more brutal, but the airtime here is clearly unparalleled and rewards the slider, even with somewhat longer waiting times.

Spiral Slider

Passing the large water play area Japaaaan, we are now drawn to the Spiral Sliders, five open bodyslides of older design – including two for children and three for adults. All of them feature a multitude of helices and jumps. And they are quite something! Here, you swing quickly up the channel, constantly get splashes of water in your face and take off in the jumps. The finish of the slides is flawless, which makes the slide experience even better. It is therefore a little strange that the Spiral Slider is described as a beginner’s ride to the Tornado Sliders. If the waiting time wasn’t also relatively long, you wouldn’t get me off here so quickly. In this sense, I had a great time.

Onsen

Right next door is a small pool that is supplied with water from the nearby onsen, so even the non-nude can experience an onsen. Those who are more into action, however, can let off steam in one of the two non-swimmer pools in this corner of the water park. There is also a larger paddling pool here.

Free Fall Slider

Past the large wave pool, which interestingly (like the two lazy rivers) is cleared from time to time – probably to prevent the bathers from exhausting themselves – we now head towards the three kamikaze slides called Free Fall Slider. Interestingly, only the two highest slides were in operation, which at first glance seemed logical, but I would have preferred to take the middle slide on the way there. I don’t really like kamikaze slides and this one also uses a rectangular slide profile, which is already not an advantage on other slides of this kind. But when it finally went over the edge and the adrealine rush set in, all worries were forgotten. The water descent was also quite gentle, so I have no choice but to say: this Kamikaze slide rocks and it rocks hard.

Surf Hill and Wild River

Opposite is a double ride consisting of the Surf Hill and Wild River slides. Surf Hill is a mat slide where, in a very classic way, you race against several other sliders over a number of hills. Directly behind it starts Wild River, two crazy river rides with a rather boring course that is, however, really convincing. Here, the course descends steadily over several wild drops and obstacles before the terrific finale is introduced parallel to the mat slide. This is an unexpected surprise, especially in comparison to the visually impressive ride in The Boon water park of Hirakata Park, which was just okay.

Big One

The second Lazy River starts its round right next door. While the front of the two current channels is open and has no other highlights, the rear one is largely located under the Big One family raft slide and thus offers a rather unusual perspective.

The double Family Raft slide Big One is the second largest ride in the Joyful Waterpark and unfortunately does not live up to its name. The curves are all rather shallow; you hardly rock up and there are also none of the extremely strange moments of proximity between the passengers. There is an extremely large drop in the middle, but that doesn’t make the slide any better. However, since there is capacity, the waiting time is still manageable.

Tornado Slider

Unlike the significant slide tower Tornado Slider, where half of all slides were closed and none of the bodyslides were operating. While it was still easy to get rings in the early morning, the tower’s entire queue was filled by the afternoon at the latest. This consists of a large number of open and closed slides, most of them with using tubes. It is hardly possible to reproduce a single slide in words, due to the structure itself, and so you slide down a multitude of helices and jumps.

However, since I only tested one slide here, I can’t give a detailed overall experience of the big slide tower. However, I have to say that the slide I tested, the Black Hole tube slide, was rather average. So, all in all, nothing bad, but of course I can’t say whether the other slides are better or worse. I would have liked to test them all, especially the extremely fast-looking turbo tubes.

Boomerang Twist

Let’s move on to the largest ride in the Joyful Waterpark, the aforementioned Boomerang Twist. Consisting of the elements Family Boomerango and Manta, this giant from WhiteWater West offers a quite extraordinary slide experience; which is partly due to the extremely compact construction of the ride.

The ride in the round boats begins at about the height of the block brake of the Steel Dragon roller coaster. You leave the station via a short dip and immediately tackle a combination of curves at a lofty height. After a 180° turn and a longer, steadily descending straight, you plunge down a rather steep incline. In the valley that follows, you cross a large surge of water, but it doesn’t seem to slow the boat down in any way. As if possessed by madness, you race up the Boomerango and reach a considerable height. Back in the valley, you dash along a gently ascent before you cross the crest and throw yourself towards the ground once more. Actually, it’ s only the boat that wants to do this, your body is still too sluggish for that and prefers to spend some time in the air. In the following Manta element, you swing back and forth a few times and are continuously kept happy by the water sloshing into it. After this, you dive into a short tunnel, make another turn and are then carried back to the ending position by the current.

The Boomerang Twist is the best water slide I have experienced so far. The ride is extremely fun and simply overwhelming due to the elements used. Especially the passage between the two main elements, which is able to maintain the adrealine rush absolutely skilfully, is absolutely top class and makes many other water slides look old. I would go so far as to say that this slide is the best attraction in Nagashima and every amusement park fan should and must have experienced it.

Pictures Joyful Waterpark

Conclusion Joyful Waterpark

But for that, you have to be prepared to spend your time on more than just a large roller coaster from the manufacturer Morgan and, if necessary, to be very willing to suffer a little longer waiting times and many closed water slides. Joyful Waterpark is a very cool water park that I would have loved to experience empty. The chance was there, I just didn’t take it – but as I said at the beginning of this report, you learn from your mistakes. So next time I will go straight to the water park, because a visit here is definitely worthwhile and should be planned when visiting the resort.

 

What is your opinion about the water park Joyful Waterpark? Just write them in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          

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Joyful Waterpark / Titanic Max Day 7 to 9