Family Coaster

Scenic Fun on the Scenic Railway

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Luna Park Melbourne

One of the smallest amusement parks, an enthusiast might encounter during his travels is the Luna Park Melbourne in St.Kilda. The historic theme park is sitting on a triangular spot of land with no space to expand anywhere. The amusement park heavily influenced by Luna Park on Coney Island in New York opened its gates in 1912. Its star attraction is the Scenic Railway, which runs along the outskirts of the park and gives it a beautiful aesthetics. Within the courtyard of the wooden coaster, all other attractions are placed.

When you enter the park through its beautiful yet creepy entrance portal, you directly encounter one of the park’s mayor attractions. The Luna Park Carousel was built in 1913 by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters and features 68 horses and chariots. Each horse is unique and has a name.

Right next to it you can find a HUSS Enterprise, a Meisho built boat swing, as well as the Spider by the Eyerly Aircraft Company. This old-style flat ride has one of the creepiest decorations to be found on the eccentric designed by artist and children’s book author, Leigh Hobbs.

Power Surge

Past the park’s Ferris-Wheel, we quickly encounter a Power Surge by Zamperla. Although these rides are quite common on fair grounds in Australia and in the US, I’ve never encounter one of these attractions in person. I was surprised by its smooth and thrilling ride experience.

Scare Mazes

During our visit to Luna Park Melbourne, the park had hold two scare mazes. Extreme Phobia was located on the top level of the old Dodgems building, which nowadays is home to the Luna Palace room and Haunted Fairytales was located on the top floor of the Stardust room. Both haunted houses were upcharge and a rather expensive experience. My friend Aris went through Extreme Phobia yet did not found it particularly scary nor worth the money.

Ghost Train

An attraction I would have wished to be at least a little bit scary was the traditional Ghost Train by the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company from 1934. The short ride in the small trains featured for the most part just dark corridors with static paintings, some black light effects and just a handful of animatronics. Given that the ride featured the longest line in the park, I was not at all impressed.

Speedy Beetle

The novelty of this year was the small spinning coaster Speedy Beetle by SBF Visa, which just replaced the aging Silly Serpent family coaster. Surprisingly, it was the first spinning coaster of this type, I have come along. The small Figure-8 coaster can be found nearly everywhere around the globe and provides an excellent spinning ride for smaller guests.

Pharaoh’s Curse

The second big thrill ride of Luna Park Melbourne is the Kamikaze Pharaoh’s Curse by Fabbri. Unlike other Kamikaze rides by the company this one is much closer to the Original Sky Flyer by Vekoma and Mondial featuring just a comfy lap bar for the thrilling inverting ride. As good as this ride is, it looks like being in a terrible condition.

Scenic Railway

Something you cannot say about the Scenic Railway, which seems to be overall well kept. During my visit, it was the oldest operational roller coaster as Leap-the-Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania was currently in restoration. However, the ride is famous to be the oldest continuously operating roller coaster.

The ride on the Scenic Railway begins with a small S-Bend into the cable lift. After climbing the (for a coaster of that age surprisingly straight) lift, we pass a curve above the iconic entrance of Luna Park Melbourne. A large drop follows. After another scenic curve at lofty heights, we now descend close to the ground level and enter a camelback covered by a tunnel. With best views onto Port Phillip Bay, we take another turn. Shortly thereafter, the second round in the triangular layout of the ride starts. First, we take a large drop behind the station building of the Scenic Railway, before we take another S-Bend in order to continue our journey in the courtyard of the ride. Now we take a series of airtime hills and a tunnel while following the layout of the previously experienced track. While doing so, the train loses a lot of momentum and nearly crawls towards the station in the last curve.

The Scenic Railway is a historically significant roller coaster. Unfortunately, it is also the weakest scenic railway, I had the chance to try so far. It seems that the brakemen are using the brakes a bit too much and that the ride therefore becomes so gentle. Nevertheless, I am quite sure if you have a well experienced brakeman, you can have a blast of a time on the Scenic Railway.  It is a nice coaster with a fun layout and therefore worth to keep it running as long as possible. Just don’t miss it when you are visiting Melbourne.

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Conclusion

Luna Park Melbourne is not a park I recommend visiting other for their iconic Scenic Railway. The park is expensive and there is a lack of attractions. Overall, it seems that the Luna Park Melbourne had its best years far behind. Everything is just a bit worn off and for a park of its size that does not give the best image you could have.

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

Hell Yeah, Schnabelteah Day 6 to 8 / Luna Park Melbourne

Choose your own fury

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Preface

My last visit to Bobbejaanland was ages ago. During that time, many things changed. Some of them were small things, like the name change of the roller coaster Dizz to Naga Bay in 2017 to better fit the theme of the immersive tunnel Forbidden Caves next door. An interesting choice when considering that Forbidden Caves already became obsolete shortly after its opening in 2015 – with this years novelty Fury and its theme area Land of Legends, Naga Bay serves as a connection between the two areas, which is just fine. In the meantime Bobbejaanland sold their HUSS Fly Away to a small french theme park, teamed up with Samsung VR to offer with Mount Mara a new and exiting ride on the roller coaster Revolution – which apart of the low resolution does a fantastic job to the old ride – and the wind energy turbine next to Bobbejaanland was removed.

Land of Legends

The Land of Legends truly sounds more legendary as it is. The theme area consist of an unappealing long queue line for the roller coaster Typhoon – which got a new paint job –, a new queue line for the HUSS Giant Frisbee Slegdehammer – whose ride has been significantly enhanced by the sight of a novelty suddenly appearing underneath –, a water playground and the roller coaster Fury. Apart of Fury, which has a never seen before feature on a roller coaster, nothing stands out. In my opinion, the Land of Legends looks cheap and plastic. Of course we have the obligatory music by IMAsore, like all the other European theme parks.

Fury

Fury itself is a reasonably large ride with some exiting and interesting elements, which can be ridden forwards or backwards. The ride gives you a choice if you want so. If you really need to ride Fury forwards, you also have the choice to wait slightly longer in line and use the queue to the left in the station. If you want to be surprised by the choice of all the other people in the train and want to take part in a small poll, keep to the right. After boarding feel free to push whichever button you like and enjoy the turntable of destiny shortly after leaving the station.

Turned into position, the ride starts with its first launch in direction of the Top Hat. It then passes the same launch track in reverse, whereupon the Scorpion Tail Jr. element follows. This is basically a slightly overbanked vertical slope, where the train loses momentum whilst the riders hang upside down for a moment. After the third launch the train passes over the Top Hat with a very small pinch of airtime and suddenly drops down in a twisty motion. At full speed, the train climbs up a giant corkscrew, where the exit of the element ressembles a Banana Roll. You basically leave the element with a change in direction. Over a hill, the train then plunges down into the entrance of a very forceful loop. After the looping, the train enters the final valley. Similar to the beginning of the ride, the train changes speed in three stages. In the first one, we climb the second Scorpion Tail Jr. element and change direction. With reduced speed we now travel across the braking track and climb the exit of the loop for some meters. When entering the braking track for the third time, the train stops on the adjacent turntable. Back in position, the train enters the station and the ride comes to a finish.

Fury is definitely a nice Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster. It fits well into the ride portfolio of Bobbejaanland and complements it. The ride itself is very family-friendly, although it features a rather intense loop at the end of the ride. The backwards option is well received and offers an exiting ride for the thrill seekers out there. For everybody else, the forward option is a permanently available one, which is a good thing for all those who are not sure (or willing) to ride a roller coaster backwards. Although Fury is not the most exiting coaster in Europe, it is a nice one to give it a try when nearby.

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Bobbejaanland

Nessie and the Highlander

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Hansa Park’s Beautiful Britain

Nessie

The Superrollercoaster Nessie is one of the most famous roller coasters in Germany. This Schwarzkopf looping coaster was the first stationary roller coaster featuring a vertical loop and is more or less a product of its time. Once the definition of a thrill coaster, it later became a beloved family coaster and the first roller coaster to go upside down for many growing up nearby the Baltic sea. It has been a very fine roller coaster for the past 38 years, but starting from this year it just got better.

During the past decade Hansa Park was working hard to get rid of its late 70s look and became a very Hanseatic theme park. After most of the facades were finally transformed, the park decided to expand its overall theme and added Britain as the first trade partner to the park. Hence, Nessie got a theme and moved back to its home in Scotland. The new station building looks amazing and due to the location of the new entrance, the ride regained a lot of its former popularity. Well done, Hansa Park!

Highlander

Another addition for this year is the drop tower Highlander, the tallest one of its kind. Built by the Austrian company Funtime, the ride offers a new way to enjoy the view onto the Baltic Sea and the surroundings, as well as the already proven drop experiences known from various German funfairs and other theme parks worldwide – currently, there are two options: a non-tilting one in the morning and a tilting one in the afternoon. I don’t particularly understand why they wanted to introduce two options, as the drop in the tilted position just enhances the overall experience without increasing the fear factor. Many visitors would not even notice it when looking at the ride. Needless to say, the Highlander became a hit among visitors during its first year of operation.

Personally, I don’t rank the Highlander as high as others. Compared to other installations of the manufacturer, it has some flaws. Yes, it might be the tallest one of its kind, but it lacks the thrills and the capacity of Donjon de l’Extrême at Nigloland. At least, the ride is far better than the Power Tower Montezuma, which used to stand at the park till the year 2012.

Pictures Hansa Park

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Hansa Park