Alton Towers Archives • Page 7 of 7 • Themeparkblogger

There’s a monster in Maizières-lès-Metz

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Walygator Park

A year ago, during Easter, Thomas, Marcel, David and I went to Maizière-lès-Metz to visit the Walygator Parc. The weather was beautiful. The queues were well filled, basically a perfect day for a visit to the park, but unfortunately the reason for our visit – the B&M Inverted Coaster Monster – decided to stop working at that time. Since the park itself really wasn’t bad, our journey was worth it.

A year later, in the worst weather conditions of April, another attempt was made to get a ride on the former Expoland ride Orochi. We had a restful sleep and left the hotel slightly too early; we arrived at the parking lot an hour before the ticket booths were even opened. We had to wait for a while, but during this time the parking lot stayed more or less empty.

Monster

Just before the opening of the park, tests were carried out so that we could expect the park to eventually open. From experience we headed directly towards the roller coaster Monster, even if one or two rides on Anaconda would have made sense, as we first had to wait for 12 passengers in the station.

Gradually our co-passengers started to arrive and as we were the first ones, the first ride of the day took place in the front row on the sister ride of Cedar Points Raptor.

The ride in the first row is rather smooth, the forces in the looping, the quite high located Zero-G Roll and the Cobra Roll are hardly noticeable. Also the highly praised second part of the ride after leaving the former block area is comparatively harmless, as neither the corkscrews nor the helices at the end of the ride manage to build up enough pressure. In the back row the forces are way more pronounced. Where the first part of Monster can clearly convince, one is now pulled in the corkscrews and the helices at the end of the ride.

The monster itself is a good ride, but the layout is unfortunately not Batman La Fuga or as Jan would say it is not Nemesis. It doesn’t matter where the ride has been built, or how it is painted, as the ride itself is fun, it just lacks extremes. The forces themselves make the ride family-friendly, which is why it is a great addition to the park’s portfolio.

Südseewellen

After a round on Family Coaster, the park’s Wacky Worm, Jan went on to discover the park. Passing the former Smurf Village we went to the space area of the park, where the S&S Space Shot Dark Tower is still not completed this year, the Schwarzkopf Orbiter Südseewellen performed a decent, albeit quite monotonous and not too fast ride, and the Vekoma Hurricane Walycoaster waited for passengers.

Walycoaster

The Vekoma ride, which has been in the park since 1989, is one of the best Vekoma rides still running with an Arrow train. Although the latest generation of Vekoma trains can be regarded as truly ingenious, they simply cannot match the timeless design of Arrow. The ride is not bad at all and free of any rattles, but for time reasons we only did one ride.

Terror House

One of the park’s flagship attractions is the Terror House, a maze. Usually a long queue is formed relatively quickly at this ride, if there are other people in the area. However, the really creepy one is not the Maze that shines through some brilliant butcher’s rooms at the beginning of the arrangement of confusing corridors, but the Fun House that has to be completed before. The Terror House itself is quite big, the interior consists mostly of plain rooms with animatronics, there is also a frightener that tries harder than the lost pirate crew from the Lüneburger Heide.

Rafting

The park’s rapid river Rafting is located in the direct proximity of the maze. Built in 1989 by Soquet, this rafting ride is dedicated to the journey of Odysseus and has been superbly staged. Remarkably strange, as well as capacity reducing, is the handling of the boats, which are practically operated in a train system. A further curiosity are, similar to the log flume of the park, the different boats in use.

Tang’Or and Polyp

Passing the always broken HUSS Topple Tower Tang’Or and one of the children’s areas of the park, we reach the lake, where a very strange Schwarzkopf monster is located. Normally the excenter lifts after some time and creates the wave movement of the ride, but as this feature is currently broken you circle more or less fast at ground level. Luckily it’s not difficult to get a good spin on the ride, but the fun is reduced.

Riviére Sauvage

Passing the teacup, the wave swinger and the way too long and way too slow boat ride, you reach the log flume Riviére Sauvage. This ride, built by Soquet, is simplistic and features only a few bends and just one drop. Enough to get you perfectly soaked.

Anaconda

Located at the edge of the park is the wooden roller coaster Anaconda, which was once again voted the worst wooden roller coaster in the world. The coaster doesn’t offer airtime, crosses the tops quite slowly and needs extra weight on the Morgan-built trains, but it’s definitely not the worst wooden coaster in the world. As a wooden coaster, Anaconda delivers a solid ride. The speed, the height, as well as the out & back layout are actually pretty good and worth a ride.

Pictures Walygator Parc

Conclusion Walygator Parc

The Walygator Parc is not a bad amusement park, but also not a very good one. This year the expansion madness of the French showman brothers Claude & Didier Le Douarin continued and so they now present a new children’s land with rides bought by the fairground and simply put up. However, what became of the planned Wild Mouse is hard to say, also it is very likely that the park will not paint its Inverted Coaster for the time being.

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TKathke April 9, 2012 February 24, 2023 Walygator Grand Est

A day in the world of adventure

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Chessington World of Adventures

The day after Whit Monday we took the train to Chessington South and from there we walked about 1km to Chessington World of Adventures – a Merlin Entertainments theme park. There we immediately came across a wonderfully deserted animal and theme park. On the day we visited, all the rides were doing two laps in a row, which was quite amazing, especially on the roller coasters.

Dragon’s Fury

Passing the tigers and lions, which were still moderately active in the early morning, we made our way to the first object of desire, the Dragon’s Fury spinning coaster. This ride, built by Maurer Söhne, is relatively easy to describe as it is simply brilliant. The first drop ends in a crazy S-curve combo that leads into an Immelmann turn. This is followed by a couple of turns and helices, which then lead into another weirdness, the second fairly flat lift hill, which gives you the potential energy to complete the rest of the rather bizarre layout.

Dragon’s Fury is by far the best spinning coaster in the world, which is no mean feat with rides like Sonic Spinball at Alton Towers or Tarantula at Spain’s Parque de Atracciones de Madrid. The ride itself usually has a very good spin, which adds to the great layout of the ride.

Wild Asia

Next door, the newly designed Wild Asia area took us straight to Asia. The former Beanoland, which was dedicated to an English comic series, has been revamped for the 2010 season and now welcomes visitors with two new features.

Monkey Swinger

As well as a bumper car, a playhouse and a crazy bus by Zamperla, the area also boasts a very remarkable installation: A Zierer Wave Swinger. Normally found in almost every amusement park, Chessington World of Adventure manages to make the Monkey Swinger something very special by using water fountains. In contrast to the installation at Phantasialand, the fountains at the Monkey Swinger are not only an impressive decoration, but also serve as ice-cold refreshment. This is where you realise that the English are not really averse to water. It is not surprising, then, that you will find yourself running through the water fountains at least a dozen times during the ride. The outer seats, where you are already soaking wet, are still the driest seats.

Kobra

To get dry you can go to the body dryer or take a ride on the new Kobra ride, a Zamperla Disk’o Coaster. Unfortunately, the ride itself looks much more impressive from the outside than it is from the inside. Nevertheless, a ride on the Kobra is still a nice in-between ride.

Lorikeet Lagoon

The second new feature is the Lorikeet Lagoon, an attraction that is becoming increasingly common in zoos such as Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover and Weltvogelpark Walsrode. This is a walk-in aviary where lorikeets do their rounds and you can buy food for these birds for a small fee. The nature of these parrots is such that you can get into some pretty funny situations, as long as you have some nectar to attract them.

Dragon Falls

In the Chinese themed area of Mystic East you will find the log flume ride Dragon Falls next to the Peeking Heights Ferris Wheel, from which you can theoretically see all the way to Thorpe Park. This ride is beautifully designed but has a very low water level and a rather bizarre layout.

Rameses Revenge

Much to the surprise of the staff, we took a ride on the Top Spin Rameses Revenge. As the first guests of the day, we were surprised not only by the ride’s fountains, but also by the staff’s knowledge of German, who appropriately referred to the machine as a ‘Waschmaschine’.

Tomb Blaster

In the same themed area is the interactive dark ride Tomb Blaster, an attraction by Sally that is well worth seeing. A long train takes you through a series of breathtaking backdrops. Due to the yawning emptiness of the park and the resulting long pauses in the block areas, you could score a lot of points, but the ride also lacked some momentum.

Rattlesnake

Somewhat hidden in a pit like Top Spin, the cars of Rattlesnake – a Wild Mouse by Maurer Söhne – make their rounds. The waiting area in the middle of the layout alone deserves some attention, but the ride trumps that. Unlike the Crazy Mine at Germany’s Hansa Park, the original ambience has been preserved and not enhanced by functional additions.

Runaway Train

Slightly off to the side is the Powered Coaster Runaway Train – a Blauer Enzian model from Mack Rides. This standard model is perfectly suited to Chessington World of Adventures, as you can see from the queue that has somehow been inserted into the ride. The coaster itself is also much more harmonious than its sister ride Flying Fish at Thorpe Park, which is barely 15 miles away. The friendly staff also contribute to the great atmosphere.

Hocus Pocus Hall and Sea Life Centre

An interesting attraction is the passage through the Hocus Pocus Hall, where you can see some effects with special glasses. Another interesting walk is through the Sea Life Centre, which unfortunately has an ugly tent look from the outside. Inside, however, the aquarium is very impressive. The large variety of species and the elaborate design make for a high entertainment value. Thanks to the very low number of visitors, it was finally possible to take a closer look at the fish.

BubbleWorks

The Transylvanian themed area is home to the world’s most beautiful Burger King and a very special dark ride about squeaky ducks. The tour of the BubbleWorks bubble factory is quite amusing and has one of the most impressive finales as you literally take a bath. You won’t get wet, but the water jets you pass through are impressive.

Vampire

The last roller coaster in the park is an Arrow Dynamics and is a true suspended coaster. This rare type of coaster is mainly found in America and unfortunately the very few examples are getting rarer and rarer with time. So it’s good to know that there is one in Europe. The new Vekoma trains at least give hope for a long future.

The ride on Vampire starts out quite amusing with some combinations of curves where you are already swinging a bit to the side. Shortly after that the ride climbs the second lift hill, which completes the visible part of the ride. Passing the row of houses by the Burger King, you quickly reach the treetops where you continue to swing back and forth. The highlight of the ride comes shortly after when you exit a tunnel and swing out hard after a big drop. Unfortunately, you end up in the brake section, where you swing out a bit before returning to the station.

Vampire is a very surprising coaster, and the ride comfort for those who wear glasses is noticeably improved as soon as you take them off. Although Vampire is neither the tallest nor the fastest roller coaster in the park – mainly due to the local constraints of the park – Arrow Dynamics have managed to give the park an extremely entertaining ride that is definitely unique, at least in Europe.

Black Buccaneer

Next to it, in a very interesting location, you can admire the park’s boat swing, which, like all the other big rides, is located in a pit. Bizarrely, the entrance to Black Buccaneer is in a rather illogical position, so you might need to spend some time looking for it. Once you have made the impressive descent to the ship swing, you will be rewarded with a great ride with a rather large swing out.

Pictures Chessington World of Adventures

Conclusion about our first ever visit

Chessington World of Adventures is one of the most exciting animal and theme parks in Europe, with top quality rides, beautifully designed themed areas and a really good zoo. If you are in the London area and have to choose between Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland Windsor and neighbouring Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures is well worth a visit.

What is your opinion the theme park Chessington World of Adventures? Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

Click here for the overview page of Chessington World of Adventures

TKathke May 26, 2010 May 26, 2024 Chessington - World of Adventures

In Honour of O.D. Hopkins

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Preface

After Stefan unfortunately couldn’t come with us to England last year due to a small fracture and we received a ticket for this season through the Guest Relations, we went to the English island once again, where we not only encountered minimal waiting times at Pentecost, but also the best weather to celebrate O.D. Hopkins masterpiece Tidal Wave extensively.

Tour of the park

X:\No Way Out

The beginning of the visit was the magnificent and completely screwed up indoor roller coaster X:\No Way Out made by Vekoma. For many roller coaster fans of the world this ride is wrongly considered one of the worst steel roller coasters par excellence, but the ride only does what it was designed for. The strange lifthill passages, the reversing train, as well as the computer virus that the ride reflects story-wise, make the ride something very special.

Tidal Wave

In the immediate vicinity is Tidal Wave, a masterpiece of a spillwater from O.D. Hopkins. Tidal Wave scores with its enormous wave and the resulting high – but pleasant – degree of wetness. Unfortunately, the founder of the spillwater manufacturer O.D. Hopkins died shortly before our visit, so some laps on Tidal Wave were made in his memory.

Nemesis Inferno

Because Stealth was not running for a while the nearby Inverter of the park was visited. Nemesis Inferno is the bigger brother of its sister ride Nemesis from Alton Towers and has an equally good and fun layout.

Of particular importance is the start of this layout, where after a downhill bend you pass through a fog-filled tunnel before the train enters the lift. After having climbed it, a curvy descent follows in order to be released in a powerful loop. Typical for the manufacturer now follows a wonderfully intense Zero-G Roll, which then releases you into the interlocking corkscrews. After the last curves are completed, the short ride is unfortunately over again.

Detonator

Thematically, Nemesis Inferno forms a fiery unit with the Fabbri Freefall Tower Detonator. While the inverter is completely dedicated to the volcano, Detonator is already a little bit aside at the foot of it. The fall from the only 40m high tower lets nearly every other tower look old, because here you are not only dropped, but shot down by a preloaded spring.

Saw Alive

As Saw – The ride was out of service and there were high queues at the Maze Saw Alive, as well as at the neighboring multi-inversion coaster Colossus, the Canadian area was examined more closely. Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of downtimes in general, so it was no surprise that the huge S&S Power Sky Swat Slammer didn’t ride.

Logger’s Leap

However, the neighbouring log flume Logger’s Leap sent one boat after the other down its double slope, so a ride on the ride was targeted. The small boat tour starts quite nasty with a shot in the dark before it gets quite strangely closer and closer to the big shot. Once up it goes immediately downhill and this luckily with a pronounced airtime on the second gradient. Unfortunately the level of wetness is limited, but the ride on the log flume is always a pleasure. Besides there is also Tidal Wave to get you wet.

Stealth

Since Stealth was back on the road again, we went to the Amity Cove area again to be transported to the sky with the appropriate music playing. Stealth offers quite a short ride time, but you can rarely be faster in 60m height and back again, especially since the launch just rocks. Unfortunately, the ride doesn’t end after the Top Hat, rather on a hill where you get to know the shoulder restraints in an unpleasant way. At least the whole package is convincing, especially since the trains here are a bit bigger than on Desert Race and Rita.

Flying Fish

A little bit hidden and since the Swarm probably also more popular, you can enjoy the probably coolest powered coaster by Mack Rides. The Flying Fish does not only greet its passengers with the word Dude but can also show a quite interesting train. Unfortunately, another train rarely seems to be a good choice for a powered coaster of this model, especially since the whole thing can turn out quite painful like in the travelling version Feuer und Eis (fire and ice); over here, the train seems a bit too wide. This is evident in the ride, but the unharmonious transitions are hardly disturbing, as the train itself is equipped with the latest generation of seats and restraints.

Saw – The Ride

Because Saw – The Ride finally started to run again, we had to dare a ride there as well. Unfortunately, the course already showed significant losses in the second year, which was mainly due to the additional queue for the fast pass owners.

After finally being cleared, the car is starting to move. The first part can still be seen as brilliant, but unfortunately the outer part of the ride seems to have taken a turn for the worse. The first change you notice is the lower speed, as there is no longer the almost indescribable rush and the resulting forces. The second change is the rather ungentle approach with its passengers; the ride was suprisingly rough.

Samurai

More or less next door and unfortunately a little bit inappropriately designed for this area is the Top Scan Samurai by Mondial. This ride, that is very popular especially in the United Kingdom, is very convincing – at least if the rotation of the gondola also allows some rollovers. But the constant shifting of the legs to the right is not very pleasant in the long run.

Colossus

Also the world’s first 10 inversions roller coaster Colossus wanted to be ridden. The very photogenic ride, which by the way has the same epic soundtrack as its namesake from Heide-Park in Lower Saxony, continues to convince, provided you have completed the first three inversions. What the looping and the following cobra roll do to you isn’t that nice, but what follows is basically just great. The two corkscrews are passed with a wonderful speed before the four Heartlinerolls are started. These are slightly monotonous but are – at least in Europe – a unique experience and the prelude to the best inversion of a roller coaster par excellence, the final fifth Heartlineroll in the opposite direction. The roll is something special and rides wonderfully harmonious; a basically unique feeling.

Rush, Quantum, Vortex and Zodiac

In the same area there are still some rides, like the boring S&S swing Rush, where with a bit of luck a giant dragonfly is slapped in your face, which can be considered a highlight during the short ride program. The flying carpet Quantum and also the neighboring Afterburner Vortex show hardly any ride characteristics worth mentioning except for their manufacturers. The HUSS Enterprise Zodiac is a very interesting ride, not only because of its short ride program, like all rides in this area, but also because of its safety belt to attach the grid to the nacelle.

Rumba Rapids

The park’s Intamin Rafting ride is not really worth mentioning, because Rumba Rapids clearly gives away a lot of potential. The course itself features a wonderful wave pool that could flood the boats nicely. As always on European rapid rides, one remains dust-dry.