CCI

WAA!!! Walibi à la française

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History of Walibi Rhône-Alpes

À chacun son WAA!! While I’m looking for the book by Dominique Fallon to entertain you with some lively facts about the entry of Avenirland in France, you can already be amused about the great phonetic cry from Walibi Rhône-Alpes. Eddy Meeùs, founder of the Belgian amusement park Walibi and exclusive distributor of waterskiing facilities in Belgium, was offered a share in the French amusement park Avenirland near Les Avenières in 1981. This rather small amusement park near Lyon offered since 1979 a small collection of rides from Mack and Soquet in a – not necessarily matching the name – western setting. Meeùs and a French amusement ride manufacturer first took over 40% of the shares, before they each owned 50% just two years later.  Differences of opinion between the two parties led to Meeùs holding all the shares by the end of 1985.

1986 saw the opening of Aqualibi, the first water park in the group. Although there were already plans to build a swimming pool in Wavre in 1975, these were never realised due to a lack of funds. Ten years later Dominique Fallon visited the Duinrell amusement park with its brand new Tikibad, and the idea for the Aqualibi water park was born in Belgium. Eddy Meeùs himself could only be convinced of the idea in January 1986. After that, everything actually happened very quickly. Both Aqualibis opened in a tight time frame, although the French water park would only be open during the summer months due to its location and therefore was rather sparse compared to the Belgian Aqualibi – which at the time was the status quo for water parks in Belgium.

Two years later the park received its first large roller coaster, the Boomerang.  However, the lack of visitors almost meant the end for the amusement park. The park had an image problem and Dominique Fallon had the solution. The Walibi brand was known throughout France through extensive advertising on the Luxembourg radio station RTL – although the advertising was always aimed at the Francophone Belgians – and the new rapid river, the Radja River, was on everyone’s lips. So Avenirland was to get its own Radja River, and the park was to be renamed Walibi Rhône-Alpes. Within one year the number of visitors increased from 250000 to 450000.

The 1990s were characterised by the rapid growth of the Walibi Group, while Walibi Rhône-Alpes stagnated somewhat in terms of visitor numbers. In 1997, a large part of the group was sold to Premier Parks (with the exception of the two Brussels attractions Mini Europe and Océade which were henceforth managed by Thierry Meeùs). During the Six Flags era, the number of visitors stabilised again at 400,000. This was followed in 2004 by the takeover by Star Parks, a chain of theme parks created by Palamon Capital Partners. In 2006, it was sold to Grévin & Cie, the current theme park division of Compagnie des Alpes.

From then on, Paris had the say and the first action was the massive expansion of the Aqualibi water park. It also received a new name with L’île aux Pirates. In 2011, the park’s biggest innovation followed, when the cuddly kangaroo was given its own universe and was then given a much more modern appearance. As a result, the water park also regained its original name. Large parts of Walibi Rhône-Alpes were redesigned and were now based on the leitmotif around the two fictional bands WAB and The SkunX. Even if the overall reorientation was only short-lived, it was groundbreaking.

Nowadays, the decision-making power on the orientation of the amusement park is no longer exclusively in Paris, which allows the individual parks to develop according to their own needs. The fact that a new attraction has been offered every year in Rhône-Alpes for the past seven years is a very interesting development. Not every park is able to perfectly adapt its novelties to the themed area in question.

Tour of the park

Dock n Roll and Hurricane

So it is hardly surprising that I was absolutely thrilled by the park right after entering the newly created entrance area. Walibi Rhône-Alpes is downright stylish, which is also due to the newly created Festival City themed area with its Rockin’ Tug Dock n Roll and Vertical Swing Hurricane, as well as the park’s 4D cinema. Unfortunately, the chain flyer was still under construction at the time of the visit; I liked the design idea with the multitude of fans very much.

Bamba

For dramaturgical reasons, we are now moving counter-clockwise through Walibi Rhône-Alpes. We will soon come across the original principal area of the park, the actual western town. Nowadays, this area is of course very colourful to match the look of Morvan’s, L’Hermenier’s and Wuyes’ comic strip. The area boasts a wide variety of restaurants and family rides, including a merry-go-round, a vintage car ride and a bumper car, as well as two faster rides. The first of these is the Mack Rides Calypso Bamba, which offered a solid, albeit monotonous, ride and, at almost 40 years of age, is still able to thrill the family crowd.

Skunx Tower

The main attraction in this area is the Skunx Tower, which at the time was placed in the park by Premier Parks as the Totem Infernal. This 57m high launch freefall tower from S&S Power does what a freefall tower from the company in the Space Shot programme does and takes you to the top of the park with a good dose of speed. Once there, however, something happens that you would never expect and you are transported to the shoulder restraints. Airtime olé! Needless to say that you get out of the ride with a big grin on your face and if the queue at such a tower wasn’t always so long, you’d get back on board in no time. A great tower that you should not miss!

Aqualibi

Following the paths, we cross the tracks of the park railway and have a look at the water park Aqualibi from the outside. It was not in operation at that time of the year and also the interesting looking slide Coursaire was located on a site next to the water park. Actually I always wanted to go to Walibi Rhône-Alpes to test the park and the water park, but now I was a bit too early. But that doesn’t matter, because the water park will be massively extended in the near future in order to entertain the guests as an independent water park just like in Wavre. I am very interested in the tube slide with the constantly narrowing curve diameter.

Bambooz River

Directly opposite the entrance to the pool is the modern log flume Bambooz River by Interlink and Soquet. Built in 2012, this ride was the first new attraction since the rebranding. The ride stands around relatively naked in the area, but is impressively adorned by larger steel sculptures. The ride features two shots of different heights, with the smaller one also featuring a double downhill run. Both are wet. In fact, the Bambooz River can really soak you, which is great and desirable. Unfortunately, however, you are not allowed to do any of the water rides in the French CDA parks on your own, which is why I only left it at one ride, which seems strange, especially on the next ride on our park tour.

Tam Tam Aventure

We are now embarking on a French classic, the Tam Tam Tour or Tam Tam Aventure, as the eternally long boat trip is called after its transformation. As I know the ride from Walibi Aquitaine – today’s Walibi Sud-Ouest – I was very curious to see whether the ride would drive you crazy with the monotonous croaking of countless frogs. It turned out differently. Very much so, in fact.

Since I was not allowed to go alone in the boat, but was the only one far and wide at visiting time, I was allowed to wait a little bit for other passengers. It was a good thing that within a few minutes a big crowd of girls passed by at a bachelor party. There was singing, trumpeting and of course drumming, after all there are drums built into the boats especially for that purpose. Actually, you are supposed to drum in the appropriate rhythm to the built-in film scenes – but nobody really does that. The trip itself has a great visual impact, the scenes are really creative and funny. The narrator is also highly ironic. This is really a lot of fun and gives the old boat trip a right to exist.

Coccinelle

Speaking of the right to exist, let’s now move on to the Coccinelle. Since 1992, this classic ladybird coaster in its largest version has been entertaining park guests from Walibi Rhône-Alpes. As always, the roller coaster with the layout of a side-by-side double eight knew how to convince, but unfortunately the track was only used for a single lap. This is of course a bit of a pity, after all these rides are predestined for a multiple lap operation.

Mini Ferme and Les plongeurs de l’extrême

I spent an unexpectedly long time at the Mini Ferme, a small domestic animal zoo. It is vividly designed and yet surprisingly spacious. It’s amazing how many French family parks have such an area, the Mini Ferme here in Walibi Rhône-Alpes is one of the most beautiful examples and is especially suitable for families with small children to spend the time or at least to use the time until the next wet side story. Les plongeurs de l’extrême offer a great and absolutely worth seeing Acapulco Cliff Diver Show.

Gold River

Let’s now turn to the Radja River rapid river, which has belonged to the Explorer Adventure theme area since the construction of the MonORrail – at least parts of which run above it – and has been called Gold River ever since. In contrast to the original from Belgium, the Radja River is a Soquet product with eight seats per boat. However, the trip through the rapids is quite leisurely and without a major highlight.

On the other hand, I was quite taken with the monorail running above it. This monorail, also made by Soquet, scores with unusual insights into the park’s Vekoma Boomerang, as well as with a terrific smoothness. A truly great ride.

Le Galion

Past the park’s large amphitheatre, which is only used in the summer months, the attraction now moves more and more towards the Timber wooden roller coaster! But before that, we dedicate ourselves to Le Galion, after all we are in France. This HUSS swing ship would not be worth mentioning if the seats were not separated by seat dividers, so that even small children can ride on each seat absolutely safely. As these seat dividers were never used on a Pirat, I was quite astonished.

Timber!

“It’s going down, I’m yelling timber! You better move, you better dance”. Someone must have liked the song by Pitbull quite a bit, because the exclamation Timber! was certainly not known to any Frenchman before. So it’s all the nicer to have a Montagne russe en bois with lots of timbres in the park. The manufacturer of this beauty is the American Gravity Group, the founders of which were previously responsible for numerous works by Custom Coaster International, or CCI for short. For some time now, the company has been building mainly smaller wooden roller coasters, which makes them especially interesting for small to medium-sized amusement parks. So it’s no wonder that Walibi Rhône-Alpes took up the business back then.

The wild ride in the short trains starts quite quickly with the ascent of the only 17m high lift hill. After a tight turning curve, the train rushes down mercilessly over the far too narrow hilltop, accompanied by appropriate music. With plenty of airtime we complete the first drop of the ride as well as the following hill, which is quite close to the ground. After a short bend to the left we wind our way up over three tops, once in one direction and then inclined in the other direction, and are torn out of our seats every time. In a right-hand bend close to the ground we approach the park boundary, shoot over a very flat hill once more and turn around. Below the third hilltop we now perform a wild and airy turning manoeuvre. Just after that we make another turn and fly over a hill shortly after. A series of smaller hills follows immediately after a right turn, whereby the speed is reduced a little in a trim brake. Before you know it you reach the braking distance of the ride and the short and wild ride comes to an end.

Timber! is an extraordinarily great roller coaster, which has been fantastically staged and scores with its extremely powerful ride. If you compare the ride of the roller coaster with the wooden roller coasters of the manufacturer GCI which are better known in this country, Gravity Group’s ride here is quite a statement. Unfortunately there is one small detail on the ride that spoils the fun a bit and that are the trains! Timberliners may be justified, especially since they allow smaller children to ride safely. But what on earth are the blinkers on the sides of the train for? I’ll let the manufacturer get away with the stupid construction of the stirrups, because they are actually only clumsy, but the blinkers are very restrictive. You just don’t sit comfortably. Nevertheless, a good ride – but not my highlight because of the trains used.

Woodstock Express

Passing the Zamperla Barnyard Volt-O-Vent we are now heading for the Wild Mouse Woodstock Express. This Italian mouse coaster construction from the house of Zamperla offers a similar ride pleasure as the rides from L&T Systems, but with a small, but extremely fine difference right at the beginning of the ride. While the other mice escort their passengers in a right-hand bend into the lift hill of the ride, the Zamperla Mouse shoots out of the station on a short gradient before the lift makes a big noise. As I already knew this behaviour from Walibi Sud-Ouest, I was accordingly riding by and supported myself from the backrest until the moment in question. This was followed by an absolutely butter-soft ride, for which I was always happy to get in line.

EqWalizer

Passing the boat slide Surf Music, we now go to the last roller coaster of the park and my personal favourite: the Vekoma Boomerang EqWalizer. Now you might ask yourself, why of all things a Boomerang should be better than a crazy and extremely powerful wooden roller coaster. The answer is simple: The train.

Vekoma Boomerangs are per se extremely funny roller coasters, which can easily convince on both forward and reverse ride through cobra roll and looping; as long as they ride well and at least that is what they are good for in Europe. Of course there are better roller coasters, but when a Boomerang suddenly comes along without shoulder restraints, you have to be in a pretty good position to compete against such a ride. The unusually high level of freedom on the Sunkid trains is a great benefit for the ride and makes you hungry for repeat rides. And here in the park you don’t have to pay 5€ every time like on the Vienna Prater.  However, I also have some minor points of criticism regarding the EqWalizer, which at least partly concern the ride, but do not diminish its quality. For example, getting into the second row of seats in a car is an extremely tight procedure, which could certainly be optimised with a slightly different lap bar shape. Altogether a great coaster!

Pictures Walibi Rhône-Alpes

Conclusion Walibi Rhône-Alpes

Walibi Rhône-Alpes was – as the last remaining Walibi Park – on my bucket list for quite some time now and fortunately, thanks to the upcoming novelties, it has been back on the list for quite some time. The park has a great charm and convinces with its really coherent overall concept. The park also has a very pleasant audience, which further strengthens the family park character. It was also nice to meet the bachelor party troop again and again, who really thanked me every time for the ride with them on Tam Tam Aventure. In any case, I couldn’t have imagined a better start for my roller coaster trip, although the Yukon Quad roller coaster celebrated its premiere in Le Pal on the same day, but we’ll look at it in the next review.

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Click here for the next report of the Tron-Tron-Trône Tour

Tron-Tron-Trône Day 1 / Walibi Rhône-Alpes

A guide to (S)Oakwood without replacement T-shirt

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Preface

“Will you come and visit me in England? There’d be some great CCI wood in Wales.” – “Hmmm…” We’re talking about the Oakwood Theme Park that was hit as a late sequel to this chat.

Since a long weekend is always a bit difficult to combine with my work, it was of course very convenient for both of us that the Oakwood Theme Park had a few more open weekdays on Halloween in addition to the usual weekend openings in October. Add to that some unusual flight connections and an absolute hotel bargain, and the mini-trip deep into the Welsh pampas had already taken shape.

Pretty much on time I landed in Bristol, where I was through the passport control in no time and was able to pick up my travel bag. Tobias came through the airport entrance door at exactly the same time as I did through the locks on arrival – timing! Only a few minutes later and accordingly only poorer by the minimum parking fee, we already romped through the left-hand traffic again, which I could tolerate this time in a much more unexciting way. After first errands and a tank of gas at Tesco Extra we drove through Bristol on a route that was, ahem, not exactly low on roundabouts, until we finally passed the long and quite Tampa Bay-like bridge over the Severn Estuary to Wales. Shortly after the toll station we found our Hampton Inn, where after a tasty meal at Sawyer’s Bar & Grill across the road we just ploped into the comfortable beds.

The next day, after a fantastic breakfast at the hotel’s own buffet with English and continental concessions, we soon tackled the remaining 110 miles to Canaston Bridge. Sounds like a phrase in this sentence now, but let me assure you once again: it goes on and on and on. The park is not only located at the proverbial ass end of the world, but rather at the tip of a hair on a pimple at the same place. On the way, one crosses the most beautiful landscapes, but one has to be a very dogged CCI-pilgrim to make it worthwhile. The park is almost cut off from public transport – also according to its own statement on its website. The running gag, that not even a certain Ingo Wahlen should be able to find his way here without a two-hour hike, we are happy to release at this point as an impulse for a Stinson-like “Challenge accepted!”. A nice detail: the closer you get to the park on the unusually well developed country roads, the higher the probability that the brown signs will again bear the original name Oakwoood Leisure and not Theme Park.

But at some point – you can hardly believe it – after passing the probably hottest roundabout decoration for the coaster addicts, the parking lot of our destination today is reached! At the entrance I got out my online ticket, which I bought and printed out at home in Switzerland for £20.25, Tobias and his English student card even managed to get in for only £18. God knows, you can’t complain about that!

Tour of Oakwood Theme Park

A small train takes the park guests who have just arrived from the ticket booths to the actual attraction area. As it only runs every quarter of an hour and we had just missed it, we walked the short distance on foot. En route, a fascinating side effect of the modest weather became apparent: you don’t see a more than 30 meter high Intamin Mega Splash every day so autumnally wrapped in fog. Due to equipment reasons and also because the ride would start at 14.00 o’clock, we postponed a ride with it for now.

Megafobia

Passing the exit station of the park train, we would have actually wanted to head for this year’s novelty, the Scotland Import Flight of the Giant Peach. But as the queue had already grown to a respectable size and it was only going very resinously, we took a run under the railings and walked to the main reason for the visit of our whale detour, which was already audible from far away, but not so visible in the fog and behind the trees: straight to the CCI monster Megafobia!

The sight and the sounds alone make your mouth water! With a height of about 26 meters, a length of 900 meters and a top speed of about 77 km/h the local exemplar is not exuberant spectacular, even within the CCI family I love so much. While the first few rides of the day were already really, really good, the performance of this fun wood improved so much during repeat rides in the late afternoon that it has now secured itself a place high up in the personal Woodie hit list. Let’s start from the beginning:

Looking from the access path to the gates in the station building, it looked like Walk-on all day long. However, it must be specified that this was the only way it looked during the first rides right after arrival, for a very British reason: The visitors applied the principle of the empty station – and they did it completely on their own! Completely without Sixflag’s instructional brats, they waited at the line after the stairs until the previous passengers had passed the gates, then the next 24 people (or at least nearly as many) joined the gates. And this without the station staff having asked for it via loudspeaker or anything like that, but simply as a natural consequence of British queuing culture. I’ve never seen it so real before!

Once you take a seat on the classic PTC train, you’ll already be confronted with one of the funniest aspects of the ride: the slightly older and above all charmingly nonchalant ride op with gnome beard and late hipster chignon!  On most of our rides during the day he entertained the guests – and above all himself! – with announcements and actions that were bursting with flat jokes. Examples that have remained special to us:

– Each time before immediate departure: “All right, folks. You know what to do. Try not to fall out.”

– After arrival: “After opening your searbelt push down on your lapbar to open it and exit to your left. Come on, do it. What’s keepin’ ya? Go on, you too. Yeeeah, you can’t, can you? Seems like I’ve got to push that button over here first. You know, the one that goes swsssh. Whole other noise than the green one over here, which I push to open the gates for the next guests. That one kinda goes like fmmmp.”

– Checking the bars when a young lady in the row just checked takes out her smartphone: “Oh, you naughty girl, you. What do you have there? Puppy pictures? Let me see! Aaaw, isn’t he cute? How old is he?” usw.

– After he invited people to stay seated in the late afternoon, but some deliberately wanted to wait another cycle for the front: “Typical. All right. Wait it out if you must.”

– To the question of a little boy in the front part of the train, how steep is the track: “Oh, you know, 78.5°. It’s steep, okay? Beyond vertical even.”

Whether it’s simple jokes, flappy sayings, quirky onomatopoeia of control panel noises or biting sarcasm – this guy truly accounted for half the charm of the already great attraction! For the regular reader of reports and Helvetism catchers I repeat myself at this point, but still: geile Siäch!

Join us now on a journey with this proverbial wooden gem! If the last capers of the funny staff are over, the belts are closed and the bars of some seats are locked in a strangely high position due to protruding screws on the thread, we’ll soon be off! The lifthill brings you into the Welsh autumn weather and the typical woodie chaindog concert accompanies you up to the starting height – with great views of the track to be rattled through at once, you’ll get all tingly!

At the top, you disengage from the lift chain and already complete the first dipped CCI turn rich in lateral forces. Thereupon, you race down the first drop, which is quite narrowly capped and elegantly curves away to the left in the valley. Especially at the back of the train and during the rides later in the day, you’re going to be really high-flying! In combination with the narrow headchopper through the following section and the truly rough and tumultuous valley afterwards – the only part of the track that can be described as rough – a really incredible start! I would say that there is or was only one more time such a striking airtime moment on a classic Woodie: on the infamous ride in the over 18 backrow on Cyclops in Mt Olympus.

Thereupon one races over a parabolically much more generous hill, immediately afterwards into the next valley, over the following hilltop and to the second CCI-turn, here of course a little more banking. In my opinion, the next hilltop is the best part of the track. Almost as striking as the first drop, you are thrown out of your seat, photographed in a nosedive on the rather steep descent – seldom does a photo location produce such funny and horny snapshots as here! – in the following bottom of the valley because of the somehow much too narrow “re-up-radius” you get crushed in such a way that you get beaten in the stomach with every single ride! Sounds a bit more brutal than it actually is – first of all the sequence and pacing of these elements is just crazy and makes you laugh forever even on the sixth time!

And it’s not that you can’t recover from that, because two somewhat flatter ramp hills now join back to the Lifthill, where you are forced to cuddle with the side pad or the one sitting to the left: a wonderfully bankless curve, bordered by supports in the second part and turning a total of about 180°, is completed. On the now back leading and, because it is done on the top of the slope, even rather small hilltops, fantastic floating airtime is produced in all rows of seats, the longest lasting one naturally at the back of the train. Simply extraterrestrially beautiful and a real celebration!

After a tight 180° turn and a subsequent fall, a very strange bunnyhop follows, which seems to be completely straight when approaching it, but in a very curious way it turns sharply left. Somehow this abrupt slide to the right surprised us anew with every ride and was simply awesome! Emerging from the valley formed by it, a kind of CCI-turn follows again, but its second hilltop is much higher than the one at the beginning and with the loss of speed that comes with it, it actually allows something like a breather. But it doesn’t last long, because now follows a surprisingly deep dive, which leads directly into a right turn, which is again free of crossings. Somehow the only part of the ride that explicitly reminds me of another CCI ride: Rampage in the Alabama Splash Adventure. From there you pass two final bunny shops and reach the final brake, which finally puts an end to the truly wild ride.

Megafobia was, quite simply… mega. The varied layout, which plays with the topographical conditions and is surprisingly versatile for the rather small dimensions, offers a riding experience from which many woodies would benefit! It may be that I, as a fanatical CCI-lover, am a bit too prejudiced or blind of fog (giggle!), but all the rides, which were much more intense later in the day, have lifted Megafobia directly to a top position in the personal Woodie charts. Together with Shivering Timbers, the Hershey-GCIs and Joris in the Efteling, the ride will definitely make it to the lacront-club of favourite Woodies, who will really put a big smile on your face once they’ve warmed up! But that’s not all: this treasure of gold, so carefully placed and hidden in the deepest pampas, has plenty of attractive attributes anyway. Two murderous ejector airtime spots and countless tamer ones as well. A numerically not necessarily distinct, but in terms of conciseness extremely effective use of lateral Gs. Superb headchopper and near misses with supporting structure and vegetation. As well as a simply perfect and just the right amount of shaking, wooden roller coaster ride dynamics – except maybe the first valley.

Another thing that really impressed me was that although I’ve ridden some CCI tracks all over the USA and the typical elements like the dipped turns are present here, the track as a whole didn’t immediately remind me of anything else from West Chester, Ohio. Only the descent into an unbanked right-hand bend after the last 180° turn reminded me a bit of Rampage in Alabama, especially during the more intensive afternoon rides. Obviously, they have put a lot of effort and thought into creating something totally unique here, which is almost tailor-made for Oakwood Theme Park and the space conditions – attention, C-in-CCI humor. In any case, I cannot emphasise enough that every left-hand traffic mile, no matter how stupid it is, is completely worth it! And to the UK-experienced Tobias, who after our little ride marathon and hard fought Frontrow-drive now counts this gem among the best Woodies in the UK, there is no way to thank him enough for having made the Oakwood Theme Park proposal in the first place and for actually driving the long distance out here.

After the first few rides on Megafobia the exploration tour through the Oakwood Theme Park led us past the pedal rental. In the afternoon we saw some boats on the water despite the still modest weather. The Pirate Ship remained closed the whole day. This was already pointed out to us at the cash desk.

Snake River Falls

At least until the early afternoon a part of the Snake River Falls boat slide quartet was open. As far as I remember the two open wave slides in the middle and the cobra tube were in operation, we had a fun ride on the right of the two wave slides. I got the wettest on the elbows and the sleeves of my jacket, because most of the water came from this height of the slide channel wall.

Bounce

The Huss Shot ‘n’ Drop called Bounce, which was somehow neatly placed in a dip, probably to comply with height regulations, was announced last year that it would be closed. But it is still standing, together with the packed passenger gondola and the apparently operational control box. A certain heavyweight romanticism in all the autumnal foliage during our visit cannot be denied.

Treetops

Right next door is an attraction with a slightly longer lifespan: the oldest roller coaster at Oakwood Theme Park, Treetops. You don’t see such a beautiful Tivoli Large embedded in forest and trees every day! It may be that at its opening in 1989 it was still towering above the treetops, but that’s definitely not the case today. It is somehow eerily beautiful how one can disappear in the darkness of the forest and in the vegetation even on visiting days with good weather.

There is not much new that can or must be said about the journey itself. The long trains, the smooth ride and the naturally numerous near misses with scarce rail crossings, tree trunks and branches are great fun for young and old alike. Worth mentioning is the fact that only the back half of the train was occupied, although there were times when there were enough people in the queue to fill it up completely. We suspect that this had less to do with the Oakwood Theme Park’s compliance with loading regulations of a physical or mechanical nature, but rather with the fact that the seats and floors up to the sixth or seventh car were totally covered with rainwater, leaves and twigs.

Furthermore to mention: the one ride operator was a bit gnarly and stupid, when I took some pictures of the track at the station. He probably assumed that I wanted to record a POV, since he mentioned that I had to check this with Guest Relations. In the age of smartphones and stupid park guests, he will of course have the correction to clearly point out the rules here. Nevertheless, motive-conscious “station/access route photographers” like me, who of course store the camera in their short pockets during the ride and thus do not violate the attached regulations at all, should proceed somewhat discreetly here.

Circus Clown

Since the Eurofighter Speed, which is located next to Treetops, would not start operating until 13 o’clock, we explored the children’s areas of the park a little more. The Pinfari Circus Clown named Circus Clown is part of a roundabout of children’s rides with circus theme, whose attractions are probably supervised by a single ride operation in rotation, as you have seen for example in Conneaut Lake or other small American parks. We felt that it was a bit too stupid to do count-begging.

Neverland

The second larger children’s area of the Oakwood Theme Park is Neverland, which can be reached through the walkthrough attraction Journey to Neverland. Once you arrive at Neverland, you will find yourself in a small hook/pirate area. It consists of the Dragon Wagon Crocodile Coaster, the log flume Skull Rock and the indoor playground Hook’s House of Havoc.

Skull Rock

The Mimafab log flume, taken over from the Camelot theme park, is very nice, has a considerable pirate cave section for a park of this size and the only drop produces some very nice fountains. As I was sitting in the front of the log I was probably too well protected by the front cavity to get really wet; Tobias sitting in the back looked a lot more speckled afterwards.

Tink’s Flying School

But never mind! Immediately afterwards we applied the proven Blackpool method of airflow drying to Tink’s Jelly, uh, Flying School, by the way Tobias’ flyer premiere. I found the oversized cutlery replicas leaning against the control box especially funny – I had a lot of fun going round and round, heading for the flying box in the same way, so that there probably wouldn’t have been half a meter missing to erase the respective tips. As always very cool and within Europe also with rarity value!

Crocodile Coaster

The access to the Crocodile Coaster, which was put into operation sometime during the afternoon, is right next to the one to the whitewater ride – you then pass through a tunnel through the skull and behind the drop of the whitewater ride. Except for the fact that the instructions before departure had a certain Glenwood Caverns AC tendency (“Thumbs up if you understood.”), I can’t write much more than: shaky affair.

Flight of the Giant Peach

Since now just halfway there, we made a second attempt at this year’s novelty. The heart of the new Dahland (themed and designed according to the stories of Welsh writer Roald Dahl) is the Pinfari RC40 imported from M&D’s Scotland’s Theme Park. Also known as Cobra, Express and finally Space Coaster – according to the old RCDB entries, the Pinfari RC40 was designed after Dahl’s children’s book James and the Giant Peach and is now called Flight of the Giant Peach.

Luckily there was almost nobody left when we passed the cue this time, which was illuminated in a very effective orange colour. Not only Tobias had a premiere on that day: after some thorough RCDB tuning this might have been my first Pinfari ever. The comment of our expat was very harsh: “What a first impression for you!”. Somehow, this statement brings all my impressions of the track to the point. It’s just a fairground coaster. In spite of not existing rollovers it is equipped with (automatically lowering!) shoulder restraints. Apart from the one harsh valley, the ride as a whole is actually quite okay, but it doesn’t offer too much excitement. Twice done and somehow already forgotten.

Marginal note: The storage track was not built up at all and is, as Tobias rightly noticed, in the inner courtyard of the railway. So there is probably only one train at present, and thus only one entry – despite a separate exit station, where the poor ride-ops had to trample over the wet ground in every cycle.

Spooky 3D

We waited a while at the entrance to the Spooky 3D creepy walkthrough (we assume), but it seemed to be on a break. Right next to it is one of the Halloween mazes, where sometime during the afternoon people actually queued up for it. We assumed that these mazes were only in operation during the longer Saturday evening opening hours; on other Halloween special days, the Oakwood Theme Park closed at 5 pm.

Speed: No Limits

As announced, the giant Eurofighter Speed: No Limits started operation at 13 o’clock in its own small cul-de-sac. Thus we joined it directly for a few rides. One thing I can already anticipate: the ride was the absolute surprise hit of our Wales trip! Due to the route layout, which was somehow quite “generous” for a Eurofighter, and not least because of the impressive key figures, I expected a ride that was a bit different from the usual Eurofighter standard. Nevertheless, the indisputably fancy thing simply blew us both away! With Megafobia you could somehow foresee in advance that the ride would be really good – here you could just marvel and laugh about how much power and speed are offered on the 610 meters of track!

As expected, only one of the four possible eight passenger cars was in use, so our three rides consumed a considerable amount of waiting time compared to the park. But in retrospect I would have estimated that this was a maximum of a quarter of an hour or so for the first run; on the two repeat runs we were even faster. And as we were supposed to be impressively demonstrated, every single minute was worth it! Thanks to the, as always, extremely comfortable Gerstlauer shoulder restraints, the check-in as such never took very long – most of the time, the waiting was spent watching how the train unrolls the compact course and how the passengers react to it.

Once all eight shoulder restraints have been controlled by the quite dislocatable Ride-OP, the vehicle starts moving and over a 90° bend out of the station, you already reach the foot of the vertical lift, which is intimidating with every ride due to its sheer shape. Under unbearable tension, the chain is soon set in motion, which you finally hook into and which now turns you into the 90° angle required to force this type of lift. In the process, even the otherwise so dominated British and Welsh people elicit highly yankee-like sounds of disbelief, rapture and fear – “I don’t like this at all!” or “Oh my God, why did I let you talk me into this?!” were part of the repertoire often heard at this point.

Lying on your back in the seats, you’re now 35 meters up into the fog – even after defeating other Eurofighters several times, it’s still queasy, oppressive and fucking weird! Freaks like Tobias and me turn our heads to the right or left to enjoy an unreal tilted panorama of Oakwood Theme Park and Megafobia, or rather to see exactly what kind of metal stuff is lying in the field next to the track. But at some point the top is reached and you tilt from the supine position now in one go first into an upright sitting and finally into a forward overhanging position. With a truly frightening view of the unreal 97° shot in front of you, you lose contact with your seat and plunge into the shoulder restraints, catapulted up into the yawning depths – what a start! After the forward tilted madness fall, you gradually straighten up again in the valley and reach the top speed of 90 km/h, which is terrific, triggers tears of wind and even gives inspiration for naming the ride.

Immediately afterwards, you climb up and fly over the best part of the track: the airtime hill. Not only does this give the runway a great unique selling point in an internal comparison of the “classic” Eurofighters – it also really, really, really hits you hard!  According to Wikipedia, -1.3 g is effective here, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there were a bit more to it. In any case, you are thrown incredibly awesome towards the sky and photographed in the following nosedive. And as Tobias laughingly stated, I had the same incredulous expression on my face full of enthusiasm and surprise about this totally unexpected kick – because according to my reaction nature to such moments nothing else was possible! What a power hillock!

Now you elegantly glide through a huge over-bent curve and then race through a really pressure-packed vertical loop, where the sheer joy of the truly unexpectedly awesome ride dynamics of this caliber during at least two rides inevitably led to an Alvey scream – “Loop-de-Loop!!!”! Thereupon you climb up the ramp to the intermediate brake, where slight contact with the shoulder restraints is usually not easily avoided, but not really painful due to the generous width of the shoulder parts. After a small dip from the not too tightly gripping brake, you now roll slowly through an inline twist on the slope, whose slanting position is immediately adopted at the exit for a seamless transition into a fast steep curve. One rather brutal change of direction later you race through a downward helix that turns 540° and has alternating wide curve radii, where you are pressed into your seat for a long time. Thereupon the final brake is reached and another brilliant ride is unfortunately over.

I guess you could tell from the sheer volume of text for a Eurofighter (!): we really liked that thing a lot! Whether it’s the 97° downhill run, which as always is extremely well run, the power-airtime hill, the sloping curve, the powerful loop, the roll or the squeezing final helix – the track simply offers a complete package that will blow your mind! As mentioned, this is definitely a track where the potential for surprises is so great that you’ll be baffled afterwards! At the end of the day Speed: No Limits is still a Eurofighter, which is a bit more special than its conspecifics in terms of the layout, but from the outside you would never expect such power and fervor. And that’s the crux of the matter and the beauty of such tours: Appearances can be deceptive and it’s important to sit down and form your own opinion. Come and see it – it’ s great!

Waterfall

To be honest: we had already planned to do the surf slide attraction Waterfall. Especially since I am a big fan of this type of slide in water parks and in swimming trunks and I wanted to have a try in a leisure park just because of its rarity. But when we saw how the water just dripped off the buttocks of the passengers who had just completed a ride, we decided to postpone it until later. And since we could do the ultimate water ride in Oakwood Theme Park only at the end of the park because of certain, um, gear handicaps, Waterfall was simply no longer on the way. But a good reason for an early return.

Bobsleigh

The queue at the park’s own mini-summer toboggan run with a roller conveyor lift called Bobsleigh was actually quite long all day long, as there were only five or six bobs on the circuit. After our visit, I would list this as one of the most urgent points for improvement in the park: with the Flight of the Giant Peach in forced induction mode and a summer toboggan run with only as few sleds in use, there are two main attractions with extremely low hourly capacity right at the beginning of the main circuit through the Oakwood Theme Park, which means that the waiting time there probably increased to an estimated three quarters of an hour shortly after the park opened. Which is a bit bitter for an otherwise completely empty park. I really hope that next season, or at least during the main visiting periods, the capacities will be increased a bit.

Anyway, the queue had shrunk to a much more bearable size during the third pass, so that we dared to go inside and finally waited for 15-20 minutes. However, Tobias still a considerable additional time longer than me, because I just caught the last sled of the “six-man group”, if you can call it that. To both our surprise, the Wiegand course, which is only 275 meters long and only consists of six curves, was surprisingly good! Especially because of the fourth turn, which really surprises you with the low sidewall and the tight radius. And anyway – it’s cool that you thought: “Hey, we have a small slope available! Let’s add a bit more and build a luge!” Not many amusement parks in the conventional sense would have done this – that’s for sure.

Drenched

It had to be done. Even if as a continental European you ask yourself somehow head-scratchingly why on earth a park like Oakwood Theme Park gets an attraction like an Intamin Mega Splash in this climate: even on mini holidays you have to adapt to the local mentality without reservation. And here, this includes letting yourself be soaked up to your underwear at autumnal 14°C! Seriously: I don’t really understand the decision of the Oakwood Theme Park, and I probably would have acted differently as the operator – but I can’t deny that this fabulously sick looking thing was, besides Megafobia, one of the main reasons for wanting to tackle the Welsh side trip. And this cognitive dissonance is really half the fun of this mad attraction!

There were two main reasons why we saved Drenched to the end. Firstly, because it was tactically cleverly placed near the parking lot and changing room, you can quickly and relatively easily change into dry spare clothes afterwards, so that you don’t catch cold. But in order to do this – and this is the really stupid second reason on my part – the prepared laundry at home in Switzerland has to get into your travel bag!

I usually pack for such trips according to the principle: lay out everything I need in a large pile and then distribute it in the bag with optimized compartments. Which usually works great. But this time somehow simply not. The three T-shirts I thought of – one especially for the ride on Drenched! – have simply remained snotty and cheeky at home. Everything from the pile came with me – including some unimportant stuff, which I hadn’t sorted out on the outbound flight because of the included checked baggage. Just not the T-shirts. So there was not much else to do than to storm the souvenir shop at Megafobia before our ride and buy a nice Oakwood Theme Park T-shirt. Which on the credit card statement in francs hurts a little bit. But that makes a very good impression concerning the production quality and curses one more also the most effective reminder for it is to make a checklist for packing next time.

Anyway, the T-shirt ubulus was relieved and we went straight to the station of the actually running water ride. During stops for taking pictures she had had some dropouts. As nothing else was possible as a replacement, I had to give her back to me in the best Valhalla tradition of the previous year – in jeans and Oakwood Theme Park T-shirt at 14°C!

Until the end I secretly hoped that I wouldn’t be able to fit into the boats and that I wouldn’t have to do this nonsense to myself. The shoulder restraints, which had to be retrofitted because of the fatal accidents on the sister attraction Perilous Plunge at Knott’s Berry Farm and the local specimen, don’t exactly have a reputation for offering particularly generous seating. To my astonishment (and annoyance), I fitted in, with a completely inverted distribution of problem zones than expected: there would have been plenty of room for the lap belt and the corresponding part of the stirrup, but my upper body was brutally squeezed in due to the strange “angle” of the upper metal bars of the shoulder restraints. In such a way that with each inhaler I got sometimes a little bit of space shortage and the cold metal bars bored themselves into my chest. The solution was somehow suboptimal, but unfortunately it became necessary after the accidents. I do have a more pronounced, but not so large chest muscle circumference that would have caused me problems on other shoulder restraints. I therefore assume that more people with a large bust than those with a large back or thigh circumference could have problems here, but this is completely different from body to body…

But well, to get back to Federal Heights and Pfäffikon: What do you do for awesome rides? At some point we were sitting in them – of course in the Frontrow! – and were pulled up the insanely stupid, about 30 meters high lifthill. The tirades of demonisation of the project, which get stronger with every meter, are nipped in the bud by the shoulder bars, but at some point the top is reached, where we turn around 180° and now face our doom. With an almost RMC-like airtime push, which is quite remarkable for a water ride, the only and about 78° steep fall is finally completed. Despite all its shortcomings, you really have to give it a try: not only because of the various cold conditions, this is an incredibly goose-skin-causing and terrific adrenaline rush – this drop is absolutely amazing!

With almost 80 kilometers per hour reached, you ultimately rush into the water, where a splash, which is somehow less than expected for both the inmates and the spectators, sets in. Don’t get it wrong: even so, as a passenger you get wet except for your underwear and have absolutely no chance to stay dry somehow. Even on the downhill run, you get water splashes in your face in the frontrow. And even my shoes were soaked from behind during the first ride, despite the sophisticated drainage system on the bottom of the boat! But still, the spray attack was less intense in terms of “pressure intensity” than, for example, one on a typical US spillwater. Depending on the specimen, it seems as if you get a bucketful of water slapped in your face at once – but here on Drenched it felt more like getting under a battery of freezing cold Aquaclic indoor pool shower jets: stinging, constantly wetting, but somehow without the water “slapping” you. I hope you can follow me. It may be that this is just the way it is since the boats were converted, or that this is a deliberate modification for the cooler off-season by Oakwood Theme Park. But the fountains created during our visit just looked a bit World of Fun-like – some of the water masses didn’t even come out above the height of the bridge railing. This circumstance and the fact that we were simply too wet to operate the cameras afterwards, explains why neither of us managed to get a usable photo of the immersion process. But as we actually drove a second time in the second row – when in Wales and wet anyway! – and this is documented enough in the whole internet sphere, I hope you can generously overlook that we didn’t fulfil our journalistic mission as thoroughly as usual.

And with this final picture of Hydro we now slowly say goodbye to the Oakwood Theme Park! Anyway, after our rides on Drenched, we went back to the parking lot, which was not so far away, and changed back into dry clothes and shoes at the car. Concerns that one is guilty of indecent exposure are completely unfounded, because most of the guests in our part of the parking lot did like us. Originally, we had thought about going to the nearby Blue Lagoon with its impressive domed building on a hill behind the Oakwood Theme Park, as there would certainly be good opportunities to get changed and have a warm shower. In the end, the return trip to Portsmouth, which Tobias had to master on the same day, was simply too long.

Pictures Oakwood Theme Park

Conclusion Oakwood Theme Park

The Oakwood Theme Park as a whole is a totally enjoyable and rewarding small park, which is absolutely worth every adventurous journey and drive out into the Welsh Pampas. The attraction portfolio is amazingly varied and boasts some absolutely brilliant pearls of attraction. While the joyrides on the well established CCI treasure Megafobia were somehow predictable, especially rides like Speed and Drenched were totally unexpected and therefore twice as beautiful. And then there are simply all the park specific additional links, which enrich the visitor experience enormously, even with the actual standard stuff. That Treetops is so ingeniously interwoven with the dark forest. The flyers in Neverland, which are quite unique in Europe. That a short but through one curve suddenly streamlined luge winds down the slope in the middle of the Oakwood Theme Park. Funny and mostly also quite unique water rides, which are a house number for a park of this size and climate… All this makes Oakwood Theme Park somehow just adorable. Especially in view of the comparatively low and really fair entrance fee the park is really great. Merch could be a little cheaper, but I wouldn’t really mention that if I had had a little more brains when packing and didn’t know exactly that I had to take care of myself in this point. For those of you who are still wondering if you should include the Oakwood Theme Park and the necessary detour into a tour, I say, with regard to the textile theme, unfortunately highly ironic and fittingly outfittery-like: Do it, just do it! It will be worth it! Yr wyf yn addo!

 

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Oakwood Theme Park

A lot of bling about Shambhala

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Port Aventura

After the Spanish resort Port Aventura, consisting of four hotels, the water park Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park and the theme park Port Aventura Park, was bought by the Italian Investindustrial from the Bank la Caixa, a lot has happened on the outskirts of the tourist city of Salou. Long overdue investments in the area of amusement park maintenance, as well as the expansion of the water park, bear witness to this, as do new investments in the coming years.

Compared to the last visit the amusement park Port Aventura Park was in a much better condition, which was mainly due to the only slightly scribbled trains and queues, as well as a much higher level of cleanliness in the park. But the view of the queue was clouded, after all the express entrance was used most of the time.

Although the purchase of the Express Premium wristbands was not profitable at all on the first day, after all there was a waiting time of 0 minutes at most of the attractions, it proved to be a necessary investment on the second day to avoid waiting for an average of 90 minutes. The advantage, with a few exceptions, to always pass the queue without waiting and to get your turn right away was actually worth the money, even though the 15 minutes waiting time at Dragon Khan seemed like half an eternity.

It would be wrong to say that the system is fair for everyone, but at least it is affordable for everyone. The situation is different for the food, which is simply not affordable. By not selling single tickets, you save yourself too much of a crowd at the express queues, and in addition, as a normal day passenger, if not too many people pay the extra cost of a one-way trip in the first row, you have an increased chance of a seat in that very row.

Stampida

If you stay at the Hotel Gold River, you can enter the spacious western area through its own entrance and enjoy the slightly different view of the dueling wooden coaster Stampida. Although the two tracks usually run parallel to each other, the middle part, introduced by a tunnel each, is completely different. In this part the two tracks meet each other, which is a great effect, which is sometimes enhanced by the small wooden coaster Tomahawk. The racing effect is quite distinct, which is mainly due to the well calculated track. However, the two trains should have about the same weight.

As the tracks of the ride are almost continuously bent in the wrong direction, the ride is quite special and mostly of the rougher kind, which is what a wooden roller coaster should be. The used trains are not disturbing at all, even if the bar sometimes closes quite tight.

Silver River Flume

Passing a merry-go-round, a bumper car and a beautifully designed break dance, we immediately arrive at the entrance of the Silver River Flume log flume, one of the best and strangest rides of its kind. Since you can wait here for half an eternity in a full queue, despite the very large capacity, it was always a pleasure for us to take a seat in one of the boats through the Express Pass entrance and without any waiting.

After leaving the station, the first lift hill is reached within a few metres. The following shot brings you up to the plateau on which a large part of the track leads and where the El Diablo mine train shows up from time to time. After the front side of the boat has been well moistened, a short time later a second lift takes you up to the top of the trees. Through the second slope, which now prefers to soak the rear part of the boat, you get back down to the plateau only to cover some more metres. Here you are float around for a longer time and even start to wonder how long the track actually is. Then you climb another lift and after a short turn you can start the impressive, but not wet, final. Back at ground level the track leads to the exit where you get out more or less drenched.

Furios Baco

Over a bridge with artificially attached rivet heads and along the Grand Canyon Rapids ride, which is unfortunately hardly worth mentioning although it is rather stylish, the path takes us towards the entrance area of the Port Aventura Park, where, apart from some transport rides, the catapult launch coaster Furios Baco is located. The prototype of the Wing Rider Coaster, which is definitely worth seeing, is a real wonder bag in terms of theming, but also in terms of ride characteristics. Notoriously and quite rightly the ride is considered to be a shaking machine of the more extreme kind, which at the time of our visit also cost Martin his mobile phone.

However, Furios Baco is quite rideable, as long as it is in the first row on the left inner seat, where the vibrations of the train vanish into thin air in an interesting way and the best launched coaster from Intamin shows up. It looks different on almost every other seat, where the pleasure is on a rather medium level or is only felt by people with a sadomasochistic disposition. But what is always in common is that the straight sections of the track are absolutely brilliant and the direct gradient after the launch creates a lot of airtime. No matter how much you are shaken in the curves, the Inlinetwist always provides a short moment of joy, even if another curve is passed immediately afterwards. After all, the train then goes into the final brakes and the rapid ride comes to an end.

Furios Baco is without equal a very brute roller coaster, but a very interesting and fun at the same time. The launch and inversion are rarely found in this form and should be tested during one or more rides. The storyline at the attraction is original and just as bizarre as the range of the too experienced ride characteristics. The rear part of the train on the right hand side is indeed the worst possible seat, which makes the ride oscillate strangely between “absolutely brilliant” and “absolute nuts”.

Sea Odyssea

The Sea Odyssea simulator shows similar behaviour, whereby a strong distinction must be made between the theme and the film currently running. The hardware in Port Aventura Park, as well as the general design of the ride, is on the highest possible level, but the software, i.e. the film, is no good here. Why of all places in an amusement park with a multitude of roller coasters a 4D film with a roller coaster is shown, although a water roller coaster is still missing, remains a big mystery, just as why the film, whose preshow is still shown before loading, was stopped a few years ago.

Tutuki Splash

In addition to the Kon-Tiki Wave ship’s swing, as can be found in Flamingoland, and a small children’s train, the Spillwater Tutuki Splash also shares the area known as Polynesia.

If this ride is not running at its best capacity, there is a real chance of getting wet, and this in a rather nasty way. If, however, the best possible capacity should be run, due to the high rush, then on the one hand you get a cold while waiting for the return to the station and, apart from a few drops, you hardly get wet due to the two slopes, but with a little luck the water cannons are occupied in this case.

After you have been assigned to a row in the double loading station and have boarded your boat, your journey starts quickly. After a few meters of distance you find yourself inside a volcano, whose ceiling is covered with chewing gum. After passing a second, interestingly less glued tunnel, the first shot follows. Unfortunately you hardly get wet, but this can change very quickly when you climb the first lift hill. If at the same moment, when the boat reached the beginning of the lift, a boat shows up on the slope of the second descent, you can assume that you will be showered properly from the side in the next moment. But the level of wetness is less than when the same thing happens at the spillwater La furia de Triton in Terra Mitica, Spain, where you actually get soaked down to your pants. Either you continue to climb the lift hill dry or now refreshed and moistened. Afterwards you will race towards the double drop in a turn. The double drop, however, is not quite as smooth and basically only ensures that no big waves are formed during the subsequent splashdown which could cool down the spectators on the bridge from the exit of the ride. During this drop you get at least a little wet, so that the trip can be worthwhile even without the wave from the falling boat. The subsequent shower from the cannons will then make for smiling faces on both sides.

Dragon Khan

Since last year, you can reach the two big coasters of the Port Aventura Park much faster than before through the children’s area Sesamo Aventura. At the same time the way allows completely new perspectives on the roller coaster Dragon Khan, which is now incredibly photogenic and brings movement into the picture due to the short handling time.

Although Dragon Khan was long considered to be the worst steel roller coaster for me, a lot has happened to the ride since my visit. Not only does it shine in a beautiful new colour scheme, but the ride has also not been affected by the neighbouring construction site. Without sand on the tracks, the ride still runs very brute, but this is due to the continuously high forces, which are generated by the clearly too high speed. Dragon Khan just races down the track and is not really regulated, which doesn’t really help when the block brake is released, but makes for an interesting driving experience.

After the train has climbed up the lift, after a short bend, the way goes downhill. Meanwhile the train experiences positive forces for the first time, which it doesn’t really want to give up until the block brake. Shortly before the valley you get a little bit wiped from the right and left side, which affects the ride a little bit, but supports the overall picture of the ride. Full speed ahead you go up the loop, the top of which is not at all reminiscent of a hangtime. Shortly afterwards you pass a diveloop, whereupon the hardest element of the ride awaits you with the Zero-G Roll, whose name should have a much higher number. It is easy to get in contact with the restraint during this inversion. By means of a Cobra Roll you make a turn above the final brake only to take the drive up into the block brake with full speed, which of course does not brake you, but releases you rapidly into the next curve. The following loop is much more powerful than its big counterpart within the track. Through a turn you screw yourself to a higher level and then you are turned upside down by two interlocking corkscrews. Shortly afterwards you reach the final brake and can finally take a deep breath.

Dragon Khan is one of the few rides that really demands a lot from its passengers without harming them, as long as you’re not that crazy and try to ride it permanently. Although the inversions elsewhere are even more powerful, it is the length of the track that makes the ride very stressful.

Shambhala

In the background, and unfortunately not so photogenic, the latest roller coaster Shambhala towers up. The Hyper Coaster from Bollinger & Mabillard is only the second ride of its kind in Europe, but it mercilessly lets the first, and previously highest roller coaster in Europe, sink into oblivion. Silver Star had never been a real danger to other comparable roller coasters, but Shambhala is.

The experience does not have to start positively in order to end positively. Therefore, it is advisable not to be served by certain persons when the train is being handled and to close the hanger properly from the beginning. After a short bend, the train climbs up quickly, with a much better view on the right side of the train, unless you want to look down on ugly hotel complexes and a construction site. Shortly afterwards the train descends rapidly down the 78m slope, where you have lost most of your contact with your seat, and then descend into a tunnel underneath a magnificent head chopper. This is followed by a high but hardly eventful hill, on whose descent, however, airtime appears again. The turning point is the highlight of the ride, even if the banking could be more pronounced at the top. The supports offer great head chopper effects, but these are more pronounced in the right part of the train. Back in the valley you pass a much too low speed bump and are lifted out of your seat with unusual force. Another, quite high, hill follows, whereupon you pass the most impressive element for the passers-by, the splashdown. After this, basically unspectacular straight, where you get a few drops of water in the back of the train, another hill follows over the lifthill of the neighbouring roller coaster Dragon Khan to enter a block brake. This block brake is passed again without any braking before you feel negative G-forces for the last time after a downhill turn. During the subsequent braking the rear part of the train gets its money’s worth, on the other hand it takes place quite smoothly.

Shambhala is one of the few roller coasters that actually gets better on every ride, yet Shambhala is not the best roller coaster in Europe, nor the best ride of its kind. I personally like rides like the Big One at Pleasure Beach and the GeForce Expedition at Holiday Parks more, because they not only have an insane first drop in common, but also a fun ride from the beginning. But what is interesting about the big roller coaster from Port Aventura is that it entertains you very well on every seat. Where the forces at the back are a bit rounder, the ride at the front more or less voluntarily takes your shirt off.

El Diablo

Coming from Dragon Khan, you can walk directly into the arms of El Diablo, the mine train of the park. This roller coaster from Arrow Dynamics is the last ride of its kind and one of the strangest. The track basically consists of only three lift hills, where you spend most of the ride time, and a bit of distance between them. However, these parts are quite fast, except for the second major part, which is only used to pass the maintenance buildings of the ride. The resulting views of Port Aventura Park, the two big coasters from the Chinese themed area, and the log flume further enhance the family-friendly roller coaster.

Hurakan Condor

The second supposed highlight in this area is the Giant Drop Hurakan Condor, a freefall tower with a sloped roof and several different “fall pleasures”. Whatever could go wrong with such a ride has been realised in perfection, because the tower does not only look wrong from far away, but also from close up when you see how exactly the gondolas fall. It’s strange that such a simple principle is ruined by lateral displacements, these produce a clearly noticeable bump or a little wobble in the lower part of the tower, depending on which track you have caught. Interestingly, the fall experience is accompanied by very long waiting times, which also apply to Express Pass holders, so that it was quite easy to do without several rides. The manufacturer Intamin has proven many times that size is not everything and with Hurakan Condor has created its worst tower.

El Secreto de los Mayas

Very close by is the glass labyrinth El Secreto de los Mayas, the novelty of the current season, which, like the Templo del Fuego, was not visited. While the first ride kept us from going on due to long queues, the brilliant fire show was already closed for the season.

Yucatan and Serpiente Emplumada

Not far from there, the Musik Express Yucatan is making its rounds, which made for a good squeezing session at unfortunately only medium speed, of course to the delight of the other onlookers. The Schwarzkopf Sombrero Serpiente Emplumada, whose ride is not only ideal for a dry spin, is a completely different pleasure. This ride, which can best be described as a mixture of a polyp and take off, is always worth a ride, if you are not unlucky and have queued up at the beginning of the boarding.

VolPaiute

However, the loading procedure is still halfway reasonable, a feature that Flipper VolPaiute cannot offer. Although there are two people working here, it is hardly possible to board the gondola on your own, because here the loading of each individual gondola is called to the gondola after some waiting time so that it can be dispatched. The whole spectacle lasts for several minutes, a period of time when one could have ridden at least three times the Flipper of Heide Park. Of course, there might have been a risk in closing the HUSS bars on their own, but then it could have been solved like the HUSS Magic at Walibi Holland. The ride itself is boring and as soon as you think the ride is going to accelerate, it ends.

Tomahawk

Opposite the still best animatronics of all times is the entrance to the wooden roller coaster Tomahawk. This children’s roller coaster is used by the small PTC trains, which unfortunately leads to a low capacity, as only one adult fits in one row of seats. The ride is quite wild and has some daring curves, but it runs on the best level, making the ride an ideal entry-level roller coaster.

Conclusion Port Aventura

Port Aventura is, to my own surprise, a much better park than I remember. Although the attractions themselves may not always be 100% convincing, the overall offer is coherent. Totally adapted to the Spanish preferences the park presents a large number of shows that you can watch as you like and without regretting it afterwards. Nevertheless Port Aventura is not the park you should visit every year, because there is still a lot of room for improvement and the offer is not yet mature enough, although this year increased amounts of money were invested in the resort.

 

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Port Aventura