Tag: Break Dance

Parque Warner (2020)

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A visit of Parque Warner during the Covid-19 pandemic

I haven’t been to Parque Warner in a long time. The park belonging to Parques Reunidos is known to have a great selection of breathtaking roller coasters and water rides soaking through to your underwear. However, 2020 is now the year of Covid-19 and the Spanish are known to have taken it a little harder, so I was very curious to see how the amusement parks are run in this country. Due to my experiences concerning the protection measures in Germany, I expected very long waiting times from the beginning and therefore bought the Pase Correcaminos Platinum in advance; a quite expensive ticket for pushing the queue with theoretically unlimited access to the attractions.

As I had made a little mistake in the bus schedule, I reached the park much later than originally planned. As the entrance was narrowed to two access points, there were already two very long queues at my arrival. On the day of my visit, there were no day tickets; unfortunately, shortly before my visit, the park offered 50% reduced tickets, thus the park was relatively full. As I could not find the office for the Pase Correcaminos right away, I also lost some time; who could have guessed that the man at the lockers would take care of it.

Equipped with my wristband it could go through the park. Basically, masks are obligatory everywhere – the correct way of wearing them is meticulously observed. The staff is perfectly trained for all Covid-19 measures and at all shows and attractions they take care of the hygiene measures, e.g. you have to disinfect your hands every time in front of the watchful eye of an employee, at the shows you are accompanied to your seat (even after the show you are only allowed to leave the theatre in groups) to guarantee the safety distance. The attractions are additionally disinfected after each use, before the next passengers are allowed to board. All this of course reduces the capacity, but the Spanish staff is surprisingly fast. The only thing I honestly should have saved was the visit of the mad house Hotel Embrujado.

Pictures Parque Warner

Closing Words

At the end of the day I could ride all the attractions at least once. Thanks to the Pase Correcaminos, the waiting time at the roller coasters was a maximum of 30 minutes, without of course much more. At the water rides and all other attractions I had a little more luck. Of course, a visit outside of Corona would have been much more fruitful, but nevertheless I am impressed by the professionalism of the park and therefore recommend a visit to Parque Warner this year.

A visit to the theme park could hardly be safer!

 

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Parque Warner

Wild Mouse Galore

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Luna Park Milsons Point is probably the theme park with the most breathtaking view of all. Located right next to the world-famous Harbour Bridge and within sight of the Sydney Opera House, the classic Tivoli amusement park offers some of the best entertainment in Australia.

History of the Luna Park Sydney

Interestingly, the history of the theme park begins in Adelaide. From 1930 to 1934, there was the Luna Park Glenelg. Due to political decisions in South Australia that made the operation of the park no longer profitable, the Philipps Brothers looked for a new location in Sydney. At the same time, the use of the former Dorman Long site for people’s amusements was put out to tender. The Phillips Brothers won the tender and moved the rides to the new site at Milsons Point shortly afterwards. One year later, Luna Park was opened.

In the 1950s, David Atkins and Ted Hopkins, among others, took over the park from the Philipps Brothers. In 1969, when Hopkins retired, the lease was taken over by the World Trade Centre Pty Ltd. As a first measure, the consortium closed many of the old rides and replaced them with new American thrill rides. A new operations schedule, a new slogan and even a mascot were introduced to make the park more popular – even though the lease expired in 1975. Although Luna Park was allowed to continue operating, its continued existence was not assured. After two incidents in 1979, the New South Wales government put the park out to tender again.

Australian Amusements Associates won the tender in September 1980 and took over management of the site in early June 1981. Luna Park continued to operate as Harbourside Amusement Park between 1982 and 1988. After two independent engineers determined that several rides in the park needed to be shut down for renovations and repairs, the park was closed on 10 April. In November, the lease was transferred to Luna Park Investments Pty Ltd – and the chaos took its course. After several applications to replace most or all of Luna Park with appartment blocks and hotels, and with no apparent interest in the amusement park, the New South Wales government gave the company an ultimatum to open Luna Park by 1 June 1990. Shortly after, rides were moved, repainted and renamed to give the appearance of preparing the site for operation. The directors kept making excuses to get a postponement, but shortly after the ultimatum, the lease was terminated and the Luna Park Reserve Trust was formed. Shortly afterwards, the National Heritage Trust added several buildings on the site to its list of protected structures.

From 1991 to 1995, the park received a major refurbishment, which led to the installation of the Big Dipper roller coaster by Arrow Dynamics. Due to noise complaints from the new ride, the park had to reduce the operating hours of the ride, which led to a decline in visitor numbers and eventually to the closure of the park in 1996. In June 1997, the New South Wales Government presented four development proposals to the public. In February 1998, the NSW Department of Public Works and Services called for proposals for the redevelopment of Luna Park. Metro Edgley Group won the tender. Their proposal called for most of the rides to remain, but requested that the Big Dipper be replaced with a multi-purpose concert hall and asked that the Crystal Palace be redeveloped as an events centre. During the long decision-making and approval process, Luna Park was allowed to operate in late 2000, early 2001 during the Olympic Games and the summer season.

The redevelopment and restoration of Luna Park was carried out over 14 months. Since 2004, the amusement park has been continuously operating again.

Tour of the Luna Park Sydney

Rotor

If you enter the amusement park through the iconic entrance portal with its smiling face, you will immediately find one of the amusement park’s smash attractions to your right: a Rotor. The ride, patented by W. Ernst Hoffmeister, makes its passengers stick to the wooden wall just by the centrifugal force of the rotating cylinder and the friction between the passenger and the wall. A delightful fun ride, but one that can easily lead to dizziness.

Volare, Tango Train, Ferris Wheel and the Hair Raiser

The Volare wave swinger and the Tango Train musik express are less wild. The beautiful and quite new musik express offers two ride programmes: Mild and Wild. The wilder ride is especially recommended, as it takes place both forwards and backwards.

Directly opposite, you can enjoy the view on the Ferris Wheel or take a ride on the Hair Raiser. The small free-fall tower from Larson & ARM Rides is a real challenge due to its design, because thanks to the panels mounted above the passenger, you never know when you will reach the top of the tower and when you will fall straight down. The very short braking distance also makes for a very intense drop experience.

Dodgem City and Tumble Bug

Above the Dodgem City bumper car was once the station of the Big Dipper roller coaster and in the future the entrance to the New Big Dipper roller coaster – a single rail coaster by Intamin. At the time of my visit, nothing was known about this and so I only enjoyed a ride on the HUSS Troika Tumble Bug, which has since left the park.

Wild Mouse

On the other side of Main Street is the entrance to the Wild Mouse wooden roller coaster. Unfortunately, the wooden Wild Mouse belongs to a dying species and since the removal of the Wild Mouse from Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, you can only experience this type of roller coaster here or in Indonesia. Yet wooden Wild Mice are one thing above all: bloody good roller coasters!

The ride on the Wild Mouse begins after a right turn with the ascent of the lift hill. Once at the top, we race through a series of tight hairpin bends before whizzing down a level in a wide curve. After two long straights, we then approach the first big shot and are immediately lifted off the seat. After coming back into contact with the seat in the valley, we immediately go over another hill accompanied by finest airtime. After a climb, we now cross the entrance area of the roller coaster, slightly pressed into the side wall of the car. After a crisp S-curve, we plunge to the ground once more. Here, too, we experience airtime par excellence. After a final hill and two fast straights, we approach the exit area of the ride.

The Wild Mouse is a blast of a roller coaster and I hope it stays at Luna Park for a long time. It is certainly one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world, making it one of the top sights in Sydney for any roller coaster fan.

Coney Island

Another sight for every theme park fan is the large Fun House Coney Island, which offers a variety of attractions. In addition to classic cake-walk elements, you will also find a devil’s wheel, a mirror maze, a variety of very steep slides and an extremely remarkable collection of old pinball machines.

Spider and the Moon Ranger

Directly behind the Fun House is a larger outdoor area, which, however, is less charming and offers a few rides. The Break Dance Spider and the Moon Ranger were located here. The latter was one of the reasons why I really wanted to visit Luna Park Sydney, because a HUSS Ranger is a fun machine that has unfortunately become very rare. Now the area has been redesigned and will soon have two new roller coasters: Little Nipper and Boomerang. There will also be a collection of new family rides from Zamperla, as well as the large Sledgehammer flat ride.

Pictures Luna Park Sydney

Conclusion Luna Park Sydney

I really enjoyed Luna Park Sydney. Unfortunately, I only had about 2 ½ hours in the park, but I loved every minute of it. The charm of the old amusement park, the breathtaking location and the extremely good selection of attractions characterise Luna Park like hardly any other park in Australia..

 

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Click here for the next report of the Hell Yeah, Schabelteah! Tour

Hell Yeah, Schnabelteah Day 9 and 10 / Luna Park Sydney

On the road with the Loopinggrufti

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Preface

One day I received an e-mail from Michael Singer – better known as Loopinggrufti in the amusement park scene – with reference to the Vertigo carousel, which makes its rounds at Tivoli Gardens. Since he was already standing in front of the ride a few years ago, it was very important for him to finally get into the ride. We talked and after some time it came like it had to come and we drove together to Copenhagen.

We have booked the Tivoli All-Inclusive Package of the Tivoli Hotel. Even if the name suggests it, the hotel is not located at the park, but some streets away from the park. We travelled with the Flixbus from Hamburg, which (if the route goes over the ferry connection Puttgarten – Rødby) is a quite inexpensive and pleasant connection. But we went back over the Storebælt bridge, which made the trip more like a torture without a break. Arriving at the hotel we immediately went to the amusement park.

Tivoli Gardens

In no time at all, the object of desire was selected. A short time later Michael was completely enthusiastic. Although the Tivoli has meanwhile abandoned the backward ride program on its crazy propeller, the ride was still able to convince with its versatile ride. Over the course of the day, more laps followed. At the end of the day we even snuck into the queue, which was noticed. Shortly afterwards the queue was opened again, so that we were able to legally wait in line.

Kamelen

Directly next door the roller coaster Kamelen was built this year on the place of the roller coaster Karavanen. Thus Kamelen is already the second iteration of the roller coaster Mariehønen here in the park, which shaped this roller coaster type from Zierer in 1974. The model is no longer called Tivoli Coaster, but the layout passed the test of the time with flying colours.

Fata Morgana

Something you might not have been able to say about the HUSS Condor, as over time many rides of this classic 80s ride have disappeared from the scene. But suddenly in 2014 a new model appeared in a Chinese amusement park. A few years later, the Tivoli also decided to follow up with Fata Morgana. This makes the ride the first of its kind in Europe. In addition to the classic gondola design, the model also has two rigid gondola rings – very similar to the Intamin Spinning Star at Cosmo’s World Theme Park in Kuala Lumpur – with an outward-facing driving style. These gondolas were then equipped with a new lifting technology this year, which initates an additional rocking movement.

The ride is simply terrific. The view of the city of Copenhagen is ingenious and the rocking of the gondola makes the ride a successful mixture of thrill and relaxation. However, the praise refers only to this version of the ride, as the other version lags behind the original. The ride is rather jerky and you bang permanently into the upper and lower stop of the now mechanically (instead of hydraulically) controlled swing track. This is a pity, because otherwise a second generation HUSS Condor with the mixed gondolas would definitely be a recommendation for many other amusement parks, but this only leaves the advice to chose the more “thrill-heavy” gondola type.

Tik Tak

I wonder if we can say the same thing about the Mondial Shake Tik Tak. This rides replaced the old, but very stylish, HUSS Break Dance Snurretoppen this year. While the old ride was quite open, the shake got a roof, with a huge clockwork, which is a nice eye-catcher. The gondolas are quite detailed and represent small time machines. The ride itself is fast, although without many rollovers.

VR on Dæmonen

Another novelty for me was the VR movie on the B&M roller coaster Dæmonen. The film is exclusively made for Tivoli and shows in a very artistic way the fight of a Chinese dragon with a demon. The whole thing peaks in a fireworks display, whereupon you find yourself at a Chinese New Year celebration. Unfortunately, Dæmonen is a very intense roller coaster, which makes the headset press quite hard on you. Otherwise, Dæmonen in the VR version is definitely worth an experience, especially as the graphics of the film are of high quality and don’t resemble a 20-year-old computer game. The experience is definitely a recommendation, even if it can be uncomfortable.

Pictures Tivoli Gardens

Closing Words

In general, a visit to the Tivoli is always a recommendation. On 06.12.2019 the new roller coaster Mælkevejen will open. This replaces the roller coaster Odinexpressen, which entertained the visitors in Tivoli Gardens for 33 years. However, nothing was to be seen at our visit yet, but the pictures on Rcdb promise an as funny ride as the old Powered Coaster did before.

 

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Tivoli Gardens