Tag: Compagnie des Alpes

Visiting the little prince

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Parc du Petit Prince

After the Futuroscope near the French city of Poitiers quickly developed into one of the most successful theme parks in the country, the Grévin & Cie Group planned a similarly oriented park in 1993, where the theme “Man and Nature” was to be dealt with in various pavilions (similar to a world exhibition). It was not until 13 years later, and now under the Compagnie des Alpes, that the Bioscope near the French city of Mulhouse was put into reality with the help of public funds (which brought the park into criticism quite early on). Unfortunately, the number of visitors did not meet expectations, so that after only six years CdA sold the park to Aerophile SAS, a manufacturer of captive balloons and other observation flights. They redesigned the park around the stories of the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, whose great-nephew and estate administrator first gave them the idea. Since the summer of 2014, visitors have been able to experience the world of the little prince up close in the Parc du Petit Prince.

The Parc du Petit Prince describes itself as the world’s first and only flying park, which is probably mainly due to the two captive balloons and the Aérobar. Interestingly, this was usually done by the simplest means, e.g. the impact crater in the centre of the park, around which the Parc du Petit Prince is arranged in several circles, was supplemented by the asteroid B-612, i.e. the home of the little prince.

Les Chaises Volantes and Courrier Sud

We now start our round in a clockwise direction, where we are immediately greeted by the wave swinger Les Chaises Volantes from Zierer. This is the first classic ride was the first flat ride of the park and was installed here for the reopening of the park. Directly next to it is the Courrier Sud, an interactive walkthrough where you have to answer various questions by standing on the corresponding field on the ground or, later on, by using your hands. In Bioscope’s time, this attraction was known as the Planète Party, which describes the actual game inside a little better. A great game!

If you follow the paths, you will soon find yourself in a short cul-de-sac, where you will find the Volcano, a covered children’s playground with various bouncy castles, but also this year’s novelty Le Serpent and the Petit Train station.

Le Serpent

The ride on the roller coaster Le Serpent begins with a small right turn, after which the 9m high lift hill is quickly climbed. After a short straight line at a lofty height, the train plunges down a right turn. After a flat hill there is now a wide left turn, which crosses under the lift towards the end. This is followed by a slightly undulating right turn, where you enter an oversized tree trunk. You leave the tree trunk under hissing of a snake and immediately find yourself in the braking section of the roller coaster. After another short right turn the station follows. However, for the time being you only cross the station. In the following second session you will get to know the snake that gives the roller coaster its name and all kinds of water mist.

Aérobar du Buveur

As the two captive balloons had to stay on the ground because of the strong wind, we only had the Aérobar du Buveur, i.e. the air bar of the drunkard, left to observe the park from above. This is a very interestingly constructed observation tower, where the passengers sit around a table with dangling feet. As an interesting gimmick, you can and should take drinks and food to the top, but there is no obligation to do so.

Métamorphose

In the former Bioscope Pavilion Métamorphose, during a film screening, you can observe the various stages of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. There are also several butterfly houses in the immediate vicinity. On the wide meadows at the rear of the park, the park also has several animal enclosures and a dovecote. The animals are presented at regular intervals, but have plenty of room to retreat if necessary.

Planète Sous-Marine 4D

The Planète Sous-Marine 4D features an interactive theatre by the manufacturer Alterface, similar to the Desperados ride at the Danish amusement park Bakken, where you can sit on moving vehicles and shoot at the screen with pistols. Interestingly, the original film has already been reworked slightly to take into account the characters from the Petit Prince universe, but the realisation is not yet 100% ideal.

Le Petit Prince et la Cigogne and L’Aviateur vous raconte

The neighbouring Petit Théâtre hosts two puppet shows during the season. Le Petit Prince et la Cigogne focuses on the park’s younger audience, while L’Aviateur vous raconte is also dedicated to older audiences.

La Tyrolienne and Le Petit Prince 3D

Past the cable car roller coaster La Tyrolienne, which was still in maintenance at the time of our visit, we were drawn into the park’s huge 3D cinema, where the worth seeing film Le Petit Prince 3D (among others also in German) is shown.  Together with the main character of the park and his best friend the fox, you travel around different planets in search of his rose.

Atlantique Sud

Next to the cinema hall, the log flume Atlantique Sud by the French manufacturer Soquet is currently under construction. This is characterised by a single, but quite high shot and promises a wet and cheerful ride.

Labyrinthe de la Fontaine

Right next to it is a rose garden, as well as the maze Labyrinthe de la Fontaine, in which you can not only lose your way mercilessly later on in the tour, but also get the fountain at the end of the path running by entering a solution word. The individual components of the solution can be found under the statues of each person from the corresponding universe. Here it is recommended to have actually read the little prince at some point.

The small fun house Vol de nuit, the children’s carousel Aérousel, and the trampoline hall Trampoline Park in the entrance building sometimes complete the park’s offer. And this is, without exaggerating, simply great.

Pictures Parc du Petit Prince

Conclusion Parc du Petit Prince

The Parc du Petit Prince is an extremely professional amusement park, where you can look forward to the future with justifiable anticipation. At least we had a very successful afternoon here, where we even had a very short time to get everything done in time, as there seems to be another surprise at every corner. The entrance fee of the park is very fair, so a visit is recommended without any restrictions, but you should spend a little more time here and if necessary read the book before, it’s worth it!

 

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Parc du Petit Prince

The Pulsing Waters of Walibi Belgium

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Preface

It is rare that a concept where you always ask yourself how it actually works is put into action. It is even rarer if this is done by a park, which has already gained quite negative experiences. Well the Doppelmayr cable car coaster Vertigo, which was put into Walibi Belgium 9 years ago, is said to be quite fun on the few open days back in May of 2008; This was nevertheless a disaster on both sides. This time, however, the ride comes from the traditional roller coaster company Mack Rides. Therefore, the chances for another debacle were rather low with Pulsar. The Power Splash can be roughly described as a shuttle coaster, i.e. a roller coaster without a closed circuit, with a watering towards the end of the journey. What should go wrong, especially when the park knows a lot about shuttle roller coasters? Nothing!

Pulsar

Thematically Pulsar represents a machine (in the form of a beating heart), whose destructive energy is derived via a roller coaster at regular intervals. The nice thing is that the visitors are the missing component to make all of that possible. The story plays in the same universe that was created to restructure Walibi Belgium in 2011; So no “F*ck Slow, #Hard Gaan”, as in the Dutch sister park. In general, the audience in Walibi Belgium is now very pleasant; but it may also be that unwanted crowds of visitors (I remember times when the cashier was regularly insulted as “fils de pute”) fail to comply with the additional security measures all around in Belgium.

After walking through the queue on the upper floor (or as a Single rider just a few meters till the turnstiles) you are already divided into one of the five rows. You store your luggage in the shelves on the right side of the station and wait for the next arriving boat. The boarding is done very quickly thanks to automatically closing lapbars, so that only a few moments pass before the 20-passenger boat – accompanied by the heartbeats of the machine – is rotated towards the actual track.

Once in position, the boat is immediately accelerated backwards over a hill. The initial scepticism about the (still) quite shallow acceleration is soon to be forgotten, as you fly over the hill. Now you pass the still unflooded water water basin and climb the vertical spike on the rear end of the ride about half of its height. At about the same speed, the return leads to the station, where you are now noticeably accelerated on the hill and neatly lifted from the seat. Now you climb the front spike of the ride up to its end. With noticeably fast speed, you cross the acceleration hill for a third time, which now tries to eject you from the ride. Back in the rear section of the ride, you climb the spike till its (slightly flattened) top. During this manoeuvre the water level in the basin is raised by 30 cm. In the meantime, the upcoming splash quickly moves back into the memory of the passengers, whereby the previously accumulated joy suddenly passes into a respectful panic. At 100 km/h, the boat now dives into the pool, which leads to a visually very impressive wave. However, this rewards the front rows of seats only with a little mist, while it can thoroughly soak the rear of the boat. Shortly thereafter you pass the hill for the last time and are slowed down to walking pace, whereupon you stop in the next valley. The turntable then turns you back to the station and the bar opens.

Pulsar is an all-round successful attraction, where you always like to get on again. The ride is just terrific and can absolutely convince just by its unusual acceleration phases over the hill. The watering is optically more impressive than it is while riding; However, it is definitely scary! Especially if you suddenly get soaked after the first rather dry ride. Hopefully more copies of this truly enhanced water ride will follow.

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Closing Words

Due to the location within Walibi Belgium, the paths in the park are now slightly optimised so that you can commute on the fastest routes between the main attractions Flashback, Psyké Underground, Pulsar and Loup Garou. Interestingly, the probability to suddenly meet an old friend of yours in the park is reduced. However, whilst waiting for another round on Pulsar I suddenly got a call from my friend David. He was in a group waiting in the normal queue and I just got on as a Single Rider. After the ride, I finally realised him in the queue, so I took another round via the single rider to actually sit with him in the same row. My plans to leave Walibi for another visit of Plopsa Coo or Plopsa Indoor Hasselt were discarded. The times to leave Walibi Belgium early are now a thing of the past. Thanks Pulsar!

 

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Walibi Belgium

# Hard Gaan

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Hard Gaan in Walibi Holland

Slowly but surely one can say that Walibi has recovered from the Six Flags era. The re-branding of the brand in 2012 and the changes in the park that went along with it were long enough, but there were no novelties except for the reactivation of the roller coaster Speed of Sound and the truly ingenious design of the launch coaster Xpress: Platform 13. As successful as the restructuring of the park around the fictitious bands W.A.B. and The Skunx is, it seems that people in Holland prefer to go their own way and simply throw a lot of things overboard; because “Hard Gaan” and so on. There’s not much sense in that anymore, especially since they now serve a rather antisocial clientele. But what can you do when the biggest competitor serves all other target groups? As a first step to go fast, according to the literal translation, was to rob Speed of Sound of its soundtrack. Sure, the new track is good, but it takes away its history. The second step was taken this year with the opening of the roller coaster Lost Gravity.

Lost Gravity

The design of the queue is wacky, but partly very conservative and inevitably reminds of the roller coaster Dizz of the Belgian amusement park Bobbejaanland. A lot more would have been possible here, especially since the custom-made comic universe of Morvan, L’Hermenier and Wuye provided a lot more possibilities. The cars of Lost Gravity, on the other hand, are truly unusual. Similar to the Intamin Wing Coasters, they offer two seats with a corridor and two without, but also have a high front. The seating comfort is great and the design of the cars has very little, or more precisely, a negligible effect on ride comfort.

The ride begins with a right turn out of the station before it quickly climbs up via a chain lift. Without any rest the car immediately throws itself down the 32 height meters in an insane way; at least this is the case if one has taken a seat on the left side of the car. The extremely steep and widely twisted gradient is breathtaking without question, but at the right side it is almost boring compared to the left side, the radius is simply too narrow. With a lightning speed you pass over a ground level double-up, over whose hill you literally fly, before you find yourself on a top-hat element that is slightly tilted to the side; which you could also describe as a non-inverted banana roll, if you like. Somewhat contradictory to the previous layout is a huge camelback hill, which takes the passengers out of their seats again. At a breathtaking height, one now races through a wide turning curve, which in addition is also tilted outwards. So far, so good, and if Lost Gravity would end now, it would be a very short roller coaster, but also an extremely ingenious one. But instead of the final braking section there is a block brake followed by the second part of the ride.

After having reduced your speed, you now lean to the side and dive towards the ground again in a dive loop. A tight turn and a Zero-G roll are now carried out in a very tame way. The next turn will also be a turn where at least one of the acceleration vectors is zero. As a result, it is no longer possible to speak of a dynamic ride. You constantly brake and accelerate from new, which is equivalent to the accordion effect known from traffic jams. Over a hill you change direction again, cross another hilltop, pass a last pressure-laden valley, make a last turn and then find yourself in the final brake of the ride.

Lost Gravity is an excellent roller coaster for a little stop along the way, but nothing more. The first rumors were still about a revolving gondola roller coaster, this would have been hardly feasible with the first part of the ride, but ideal for the second. Either way, the first part is absolutely amazing, but the second one is wasted. The last curves are still a lot of fun and let you leave the ride with a little grin on your face, but the premiere of Mack Rides Big Dipper was not as convincing as it should be; at least there is enough potential for further installations.

Pictures Walibi Holland

Closing Words

Finally, I would like to appeal to human reason, which Dutch students probably no longer call their own. I assume that the student in question is striving for an equivalent to the German Abitur (as nowadays everyone does) and therefore should not be stupid – but how could one come up with the idea to sit on the seat and hold on loosely in a rafting ride with movable boats, like Rio Grande is? This is dangerous and should normally be rewarded immediately with exclusion from the park for a lifetime. If this boy would have fallen into the water and drowned, I would have neither been shocked nor worried about him; in fact, it was predictable. His buddies were similar, but in the postfactual age, you can’t let something arbitrary like rational rules distract you from your own horniness. Let’s all have a selfie! Yeah!

Walibi, you’d better think about Hard Gaan again, you might not be doing yourself any favours in the end.

 

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Walibi Holland