HUSS

On a sleigh ride with Heidi

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Preface

Without a theme park the trip from Germany to England is somehow too long and too boring. Since I was already visited Efteling just before Christmas and I had to go through the winter hustle and bustle without a ride on the Bobbaan, I drove to the Belgian coastal town of De Panne, where Plopsaland De Panne holds its Winter Plopsaland Event for more than 10 years. The main reason for the visit was the roller coaster Heidi – The Ride, which I could only visual inspect during my last visit. As the theme area of the wild sleigh ride was still under construction, the area resembled a grey concrete complex rather than a colourful Swiss village. I was also very curious about the restrictions during the park’s winter operation.

Winter Plopsaland

The first impression of the event was quite positive. Plopsaland is very nicely decorated and even has a Christmas plop at every corner of the park. However outside the entrance, this design gets very repetitive. On the other hand, the number of rides in operation is significant. Winter events are nice and good, but if nothing is in operation you can skip the event. In the morning, it truly looked like that. In the afternoon, all rides – with exception of the park’s log flume – where in use. Even the Star Flyer welcomed its guest. Due to the high winds, the ride is kinda scary.

Heidi – The Ride

From the top you have a good overview of the region, Plopsaland and the wooden roller coaster Heidi – The Ride. By the late afternoon, the queue on the roller coaster was very short, therefore it was not a problem to try each of the 12 seats; some even double or triple. Towards the evening, the ride became more popular and the park noticeably fuller.

In a short dip you leave the station, whereupon the lift hill of the ride is climbed. Once the maximum height of 22m reached, you immediately plunge down the curvy first drop. Close to the ground, you are now swerving from one side of the ride to the other in a wild s-curve manoeuvre. This is followed by a double-up element with a double-down element ensuing. Unfortunately, the three hills here are very shallow and the airtime is quite low. Back on the ground level you immediately shoot up into a turnaround where the banking of the track increases steadily before you fall down to the ground. Rushing over hill and dale the track is now running parallel with the already experienced one.

After two fairly high hills follows a slightly twisted S-curve hill, which flows into a small double-down. In a tunnel, you now whiz over a very, very small hump before you are pushed to the right side of the train in a small curve. This is followed quickly by another very flat hill, before approaching in a short left-right corner combination the break run of the ride. In the same building as the station, you quickly cross the transfer track for maintenance before reaching the station in a 180° turn. If you are lucky, say goodbye to Heidi and her friend; during my visit the screen was not in use.

Well, how should I judge the roller coaster?! After my first rides with Heidi I was really underwhelmed – it took a very long time until I was ok with the coaster. At the same time, I do not want to blame the not yet retracted condition of the ride in the morning, as in the afternoon the ride was quite similar. For me, the ride is a little bit too short, which is also due to the fast paced sections near the ground-level, especially at the end of the ride (which I don’t really like). After a great first drop and the amusing S-curve, the ride loses its pressure. The ride catches itself somewhere in the middle and offers plenty of fun in a series of airtime hills, but before you know it the finale of the ride already starts.

But one thing must be left to the coaster: It just looks gorgeous and it fits the park’s audience perfectly. The wild sleigh ride is indeed family friendly and due to the fast dispatch – which is also due to the interestingly placed luggage rack (a chest in the middle of the exit platform) – family members don’t have to wait to long, when another one is currently riding. Overall, Heidi is a great ride for the whole family.

Pictures Winter Plopsaland

Conclusion Winter Plopsaland

As far as the Winter Plopsaland is concerned, I can fully recommend it. If the weather cooperates, you can easily spend a few hours with no waiting times within the whole park. In conjunction with the swimming pool Plopsaqua you can spend with ease the whole day in De Panne.

 

What is your opinion about the GCI wooden roller coaster Heidi – The Ride?  Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Plopsaland Belgium

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

Riding a roller coaster at Mount Fuji

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The History of Fuji-Q Highland

Fuji-Q Highland at the foot of the majestic Fujiyama, the King of the Mountains, is one of Japan’s most famous theme parks, with four record-breaking roller coasters waiting for the masses of park visitors to storm them. The fact that outside of these roller coasters there is a rather shabby, but in part also very likeable, amusement park is of no significance.

It all began with an ice skating rink in 1961, and with the construction of the Fuji-Kyūkō Line in 1964, the park was renamed Fuji-Q Highland and expanded into an amusement park. Since then, the park has been operated by the railway company Fujikyūkō Co Ltd. (Fujikyū for short). In 1986, the park was upgraded to a resort with the construction of the Highland Resort Hotel. Although the original skating rink, in the middle of which the legendary roller coaster Moonsault Scramble was built at the time, no longer exists, the resort remains true to its roots. In winter, skating is possible on several rinks, including an oval-shaped stadium in Conifer Forest outside Fuji-Q Highland, which is used for festivals and concerts in summer. Two museums, as well as two other hotels and an onsen complete the resort.

Tour of the park

After checking in at the park’s hotel, we were drawn through the Ville de Gaspard et Lisa – a French-style shopping and food street, including Café Brioche, a terrific boulangerie that is perfect for breakfast – towards the main entrance of the theme park. Three of the four big roller coasters are located here. The exemplary Japanese now dutifully follows the floor markings and then gets into one of the queues; stupidly, this is one of the reasons why the rides increase in waiting time very quickly. The smarter park visitor, meanwhile, reaches into his wallet and buys priority passes at a small stand between the Mad Mouse roller coaster and the Panic Clock flat ride, which are available in such small numbers that they are sold out very quickly. So it’s a case of the early bird catches the worm, and consequently you can be happy about getting on all the roller coasters in just one day.

Do-Dodonpa

We start our tour of Fuji-Q Highland with the launch coaster Do-Dodonpa, which has undergone a significant makeover over the past year and now boasts a 49-metre vertical loop instead of a top-hat. At first approximation, this is nothing bad in principle – a nice loop can be the highlight of any ride – moreover, the speed of the air launch has been increased from 172 to 180 km/h and the acceleration phase has been reduced from 1.8 to 1.56 seconds; all this sounds quite promising and already too crazy to be true for most park guests.

That makes you all the more excited about your first ride and suddenly, as an experienced roller coaster enthusiast, you ask yourself questions you haven’t asked yourself in a long time: “Isn’t the acceleration of the launch already too much to handle?”. You then enter the launch tunnel and shortly afterwards the countdown to the launch sounds. Before you know it, you have advanced 60 m and are travelling at 180 km/h; that was fast and surprisingly smooth for around 4.75 G. However, the gradient of the launch is maintained and the train loses its speed steadily and very quickly. Even the short dip that follows cannot stop this behaviour. The train then makes its way through a very wide right-hand bend towards the loop, which is driven through very pleasantly. A short left-hand turn is followed by the first brake section. A strangely transverse right-hand turn then leads you back to the station.

Luckily, we had bought a priority ticket for Do-Dodonpa, because after four hours of waiting, the disappointment about the uneventful ride would have been many times greater. Sure, the launch does a great job – but it only does so for 1.56 seconds. The rest of the ride is unfortunately not worth mentioning.

A strong opening in the first act is of no use if the rest of the piece is dull. It’s a shame that the predecessor, Dodonpa, had a second element in the form of the bone-crushing top hat, which had a decisive influence on the ride and thus invited visitors to ride it again. Accordingly, the update of the roller coaster here is unfortunately an improvement for the worse, and the fans of the old ride at least will not like it any more than I did after my first ride.

Takabisha

It’s a good thing that the Takabisha roller coaster is right next door. Built by Gerstlauer, an expert in steep descents from Münsterhausen in Swabia, the ride impresses with the steepest of all descents worldwide and other tried and tested elements. So nothing can go wrong here, especially since you’re travelling in the classic, shoulder-bar-equipped, Eurofighter cars.

The ride begins with a tight left turn, followed by a short but extremely steep drop. With a lot of pressure, you cross the following valley and elegantly throw yourself into a 180° left turn, which is followed by a wonderful heartline roll. This then leads into another left turn and soon into the first block brake. Via a mini-drop à la Karacho from the Swabian amusement park Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, you then reach the launch area of the ride, which accelerates you extremely powerfully over a longer period of time. Actually, it would be wrong to say that Takabisha has the better launch of the two launch coasters of Fuji-Q Highland, but Takabisha has the better launch.

This is followed by an oversized corkscrew, reminiscent of a top-hat, before you approach an extremely interesting element at full speed, and at the same time you are riding through a valley with wonderful intensity. The element in question is the so-called banana roll, a kind of cobra roll in the shape of a banana. The turn within the element takes place at the highest point, which results in an interestingly twisted exit. This is followed by a classic corkscrew that transports the car across the ride to the other side. This game is repeated again over a twisted and airtime-embroidered hill, before the entry into the second braking section awaits after a short ascent.

Inside the metal hall you now complete a 180° turn, whereupon the ride’s vertical lift is waiting to be climbed. The lift transports the passengers steadily to the maximum height of 43 m, so that they can enjoy the view on the subsequent descent; before the 121° steep drop, there is a short holding brake to generate an effect similar to that of the Dive Coasters from the manufacturer B&M. A few seconds later, the car is gently carried over the crest and then falls rapidly to the ground. At the same moment, interestingly enough, the onride photo is taken from far away – surprise, surprise (after all, you’d rather expect a photo of the ride going through the valley, which wouldn’t capture the facial expressions of this WTF moment)!

The drop keeps its promise and so the car rushes powerfully through the valley ahead. With a lot of momentum, you climb a hill, turn around your own axis and dive into a dive loop. This is also the prelude to a visually impressive double turning manoeuvre, because you now change direction again in an inside-top-hat before you climb an Immelmann loop. On its exit, the final brake awaits the passengers and soon the station of the 1000 m long roller coaster.

Takabisha is an all-round successful roller coaster from the manufacturer Gerstlauer, which is particularly convincing thanks to its launch and the significant steep drop in the second half of the ride. The banana roll is also an extremely interesting element that pulls you back and forth wonderfully. The riding characteristics are brilliant thanks to the classic cars. All in all, this is a roller coaster that absolutely lives up to its waiting time – as you could queue just as long for the ride here in Europe; in general, the queue is moving quite fast.

Fuji Airways

Admission to the Fuji Airways Flying Theatre is somewhat less rapid, as it always takes place at intervals. Built in 2014 by the manufacturer Brogent Technologies, the ride stands out above all (in the pre-show) for its absurd humour. Then in 2016, the film used was enhanced with 6K drone flight footage from the surrounding area and the inclusion of the gondolas from the nearby Tentekomai rollover ride. So they don’t take themselves too seriously here at Fujiyama, and so you glide over the landscapes with great enjoyment and perform an extremely impressive rollover in the middle.

Fans of this type of simulator will be thrilled; for me it was the first encounter with such a simulator and I thoroughly enjoyed the flight with Fuji Airways. The movements were fluid and the images shown were visually impressive; it didn’t really bother me that you could see the edges of the screen. Only the ride itself was a bit repetitive and generally a bit too long – but before the enthusiasm could die down too much, the roll over occurred and suddenly my enthusiasm was back again. All in all, a very nice ride at Fuji-Q Highland that you shouldn’t miss out on.

Tentekomai

In the same vein, one may also dare to take a ride on the Gerstlauer Sky Roller Tentekomai, which once again takes up the story of the fictional airline Fuji Airways and thus also does not take itself quite so seriously. The gondola rotation was easy, so you could get to the roll overs (if you want) quite quickly, however, the ride was over just as quickly. It took all the longer to clear the ride, which wasn’t too bad because of the crowds on the first day of the visit.

Thomas Land

We pass the Wave Swinger and the Shining Flower Ferris wheel, which is relatively small (only 50 m high) for a Japanese park of this size and now head for the children’s area of Fuji-Q Highland. This is based on the children’s series “Thomas & Friends” and was the first of its kind at the time. Since 1999, Thomas and other actors from the Railways Series have been transporting visitors across the island of Sodor. Sometimes even in alternating shifts, because on Thomas and Percy’s Fun Ride the locomotives are changed several times a day.

Otherwise, you feel like you’re in the middle of England. There is a pub ( which is unfortunately only a decoration), a tea room and much more to discover. In the middle of it all, four of the well-known locomotives are ready to be photographed and the fat inspector is of course also represented. In addition, the area is extremely well set up with a variety of rides, including the dark ride Thomas’s Party Parade (including turntable and switch), a very smartly integrated 3D Maze, a children’s log flume, a 3D cinema, and the L-shaped children’s roller coaster Rock ‘n Roll Duncan.

Mini-Fuji

At the back turn of the Do-Dodonpa roller coaster we leave Thomas Land and immediately find ourselves at the Mini-Fuji. There is a small slide here in winter, but otherwise this corner of Fuji-Q Highland lies largely unused. It is all the more interesting that you can actually climb this small mountain, which gives you a great view of the surroundings.

Adventure Land of Kaiketsu Zorori

At the foot of the small mountain is the star flyer Tekkotsubanchou, which fits in perfectly here with its construction site theme. Right next to it, you can explore the Adventure Land of Kaiketsu Zorori. A small, child-friendly funhouse with all kinds of interactive elements stretches across a 700 m² hall.

Ultimate Fort 2 und Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear

Nearby are two notorious indoor attractions; famous and infamous above all as the queues tend to reach their capacity limits by lunchtime. The Ultimate Fort 2 is an interactive walkthrough in the style of an Escape Room, where you have to carry out a seemingly impossible mission – the chance of success is about 0%, out of 100000 attempts usually only one group makes it. The second attraction is the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear, a scare maze in the style of a run-down hospital with a running time of about 20-30 minutes; advertised, however, are 50 minutes, making the maze one of the longest of its kind.

Nagashimasuka

Interestingly, there is another maze right next to it with a much shorter run time. Our eyes, however, are drawn towards the elevated Hafema rapid river Nagashimasuka and its cute and mean winky cat design. The nasty aspect of these cats can only be seen from here; otherwise the ride is extremely inconspicuous. Even in the station, the degree of wetness seems manageable, as if Nagashimasuka is a simple round boat slide.

But this illusion is clouded; as soon as the ride’s high lift has been climbed and the boat has raced down the first incline, you are wet, or rather soaked, because the short braking distance causes quite a high wave to crash down on the four unsuspecting occupants. The boat then slides down a 670° helix, at the end of which another wave awaits. Now mostly soaked, you bob along a wide curve, pass the lift hill and another turning curve. This is followed, quite surprisingly, by a double drop. Here, too, some water sloshes into the round boat, but the ride is far from over and you land straight in a whirlpool, which is again very typical for the manufacturer. Those who have already completed a few rides of this kind will know that at the end there is usually a wave front waiting for the passengers, which can moisten them quite efficiently: This is also the case here!

The way back to the station is now through a classic rafting channel on the back of the once so friendly looking cat statues, here correspondingly in the angry version. Along the way, you pass a volume meter that switches on additional water effects at the edge of the path if the volume is loud enough. After a wide turn, the extremely wet ride comes to an end, whereupon we were invited to a photo session with our two Japanese passengers (who had asked us in a friendly way if we wanted to ride with them) in front of the two waving cats – in typical Japanese pose, of course.

Nagashimasuka is an extremely great rapid river, which is absolutely convincing due to its very high degree of wetness. The multitude of elements makes the rafting ride absolutely worth experiencing and the double drop alone makes the ride a must-do. Interestingly, you can also try the ride in winter, but then additional protective walls are attached to the gondola.

Voyage dans le Ciel (avec Gaspard et Lisa)

Right next door is the station of the roller coaster Voyage dans le Ciel (avec Gaspard et Lisa), formerly better known as the Hamtaro Coaster. But interestingly, the suspended coaster has an eventful history as the first flying coaster in Japan: Originally opened as Birdmen in June 2000 with flying gondolas very similar to a Zamperla Volare (but with only two seats side by side), it didn’t take long until the first incident happened – during an emergency stop in May 2001 – and the ride was subsequently closed for two years. As a result, the ride was fitted with new gondolas and has since become a child-friendly entry-level ride.

After you have squeezed into the two-seater gondolas (with seats behind each other), the ride can begin. A chain lift transports the rather bulky gondola to the starting height of 23 m. From here, the ride begins with a left turn and then a right turn. Then a left-hand bend and a right-hand bend take you steadily downwards, before a small dip and a hill follow. After a short ascent, the first block brake is reached, whereupon you complete a left-leading downward helix around the Red Tower freefall tower. This is followed by a short left turn, which turns into a beautiful descent at the Spillwater Cool Jappaan. The ride’s second block brake then awaits you beneath the lift hill. In a wide left turn, past the Fuji-Q Highland pedal monorail, you approach the last brake section of the ride, whereupon the thoroughly enjoyable ride soon comes to an end.

Eejanaika

Arriving at the entrance near the Fuji-Q Highland Station, we had to tackle a very special steel colossus – as most visitors do here from the very beginning, because the ride is always crowded quite quickly due to its location directly at this entrance. We are of course talking about Eejanaika, the second delivery of a 4th Dimension Coaster – at that time, it was the first delivery of the manufacturer S&S. The basic layout is very similar to the prototype ride X from the American amusement park Six Flags Magic Mountain, but the gondola rotation was increased a bit at the request of Fuji-Q Highland. The ride is also somewhat larger and has a significantly lower capacity.

However, this is not due to the optimised dispatch process, where passengers prepare for the journey in separate boxes (all loose items and also shoes are placed in lockers) and also not due to the triple bar check, where you also have to become active yourself (probably for legal reasons), as well as the final show interlude before the train leaves the station. It is simply due to the fact that the train only has five gondolas on each side.

Once cleared, however, the ride begins quite quickly and in a 180° turn you immediately find yourself in the supine position, slightly upside down. You then reach the lift in a backwards position before it takes you up to a height of 75 m while lying on your back. Although this happens very quickly, you still have enough time to take a good look at the surrounding mountains – but not at Fujiyama, which is directly behind you.

A short pre-drop gets the wagon group going and aligns us again in the original riding position before we are then directed head-on towards the ground or towards the row in front on the next crest. We then maintain this riding position for a large part of the vertical slope, but turn over once in the lower third so that we complete the following valley looking slightly upwards. In the inside rave turn, the direction of travel of the rail is now changed once, but we always experience the element in the horizontal position, just before the exit of it is reached and we perform a short somersault. The train itself, now hanging under the rail, goes down a slope and then turns around its own axis in a zero-G roll, while we race forward through the dense forest of supports and avoid a rollover in the roll with a 360° turn around our own axis. Facing forward once more, we then enter an over-inclined turn, at the crest of which we are turned towards Fuji-Q Highland. Continuing with a view ahead, we cross a powerful valley alongside the station. On the hill that now follows, the track changes its orientation in a fly-to-lie element and we cheerfully turn 180°. Leading backwards, we then pass a valley and immediately climb a hill at the end of which the entrance of the outside raven turn is waiting. In this variant of the rave turn, we are also kept horizontal while the train changes its driving position and thus continues hanging under the track. At a significantly high speed, we now race towards another fly-to-lie element, which, in combination with the gondola rotation, pulls us back and forth quite a bit. Shaken and stirred, we find ourselves in the braking section and shortly afterwards in the station.

Eejanaika is the most intense roller coaster I have experienced so far. The ride is extremely powerful, robs you of your sense of direction in an absolute way and is surprisingly smooth in its ride characteristics (apart from the last ride element). You are simply not beaten up, even though you are sitting in the train with your legs spread apart in Pasha style. The minimalist, yet quite complicated, restraint reinforces the ride and the respect for it immensely, even if you have already experienced it once. And even now, several months after the ride, my verdict of the ride is simple: Eejanaika is awesome!

Cool Jappaan

Eejanaika does not need any more praise than that, and so we quickly move on to the neighbouring ride, the Shoot the Chute Cool Jappaan from O.D. Hopkins. This ride is identical to the one in Nagashima Spa Land; however, it has a shelter on its bridge with some of the windows missing. The ride itself is slightly less wet than its sister ride, so you don’t get flooded until you reach the bridge. However, you should urgently ride in a poncho – although the staff are very happy if you don’t – because the water here (as in the rafting mentioned above) is unfortunately not really clean and leaves strange stains on your clothes, although this circumstance may only have been present temporarily – at least I thought it could be better.

Panic Clock

Past the Red Tower, an S&S Turbo Drop with a very shallow ride, the path takes us back to the large plane of Fuji-Q Highland. Here we meet the Panic Clock (or PaniClock, as it is written on the ride itself), a Vekoma Air Jumper. A further development of the Sky Flyer from the same company, the ride has gondola carriers with classic SLC seats instead of two open-plan cabins, where passengers are only secured by a lap bar. On this ride, passengers enter and exit on a straight plateau, and before the ride begins, the floor is lowered and the gondola carriers are hydraulically angled so that – unlike the related Fabbri models – the seats are all on a similar circular track. Both arms of the ride then start to move in opposite directions, which is why you keep meeting each other in the valley and in the loop. After 6 full rollovers, the ride ends again. Unfortunately, the ride characteristics are not optimal for this type of ride thanks to the given freedom in the SLC seats. Visually, however, the ride is convincing all along the line.

Much less appealing, however, is the makeshift tent in front of the old Moonraker back wall (which – for whatever reason – was simply not disposed of). Here you can experience the Fujiyama and Dodonpa roller coasters (i.e. Do-Dodonpa before the conversion) as a virtual ride. You sit in the original trains, get wind blown in your face and experience the ride, complete with VR goggles and headphones, almost exactly as if you were just getting on the ride a few metres further on.

Mad Mouse

On the other hand, there is the Mad Mouse roller coaster in Fuji-Q Highland, which we of course love to get on. The two-seater cars are all loaded at the same time and are then gradually sent on their way. As in Greenland, however, this is done very quickly, so that one wonders once again why the Spaniards in Parque de Atracciones de Madrid simply can’t manage it on their Wild Mouse Vertigo.

The ride begins with a tight right turn into the lift hill of the ride. Once at the top, there is another right-hand bend and then the first dip. After a short incline, a right-hand bend is also negotiated and a subsequent dip awaits the passengers. After this, you quickly pass through a block brake and then a fast combination of right and left turns, each briefly interrupted by three short straights. Once you reach the other side of the ride, the first hairpin bend of the ride follows. After a few (Big Apple-like) waves, you then reach the ride’s second block brake. Here, too, there is a hairpin bend. On a short descent, you immediately pick up some speed, after which you race through the third hairpin bend.

On the following straight you pass through another block brake, but instead of going into a hairpin curve, you take a lap around the inner courtyard of the ride. After another block brake, however, you change back to the familiar driving behaviour of a wild mouse and ride through four more hairpin bends at short intervals before reaching the next brake. Now you make your way in quite wide right turns, each interrupted by longer straight segments, through the forest of supports of the ride, before some waves break up this behaviour again. After a narrow right turn, the waves increase and shortly afterwards you reach the final brake of the quite nice ride. From then on, the only thing left to do is to somehow heave yourself out of the wagons.

Tondemina and Evangelion World

Once you’ve managed that at some point, there’s nothing standing in your way for a ride on the neighbouring Giant Frisbee from the manufacturer HUSS. Except perhaps the fact that the Frisbee Tondemina is only distinguished from other specimens of its kind by its massive advertising for the pizza company Pizza-La. In this respect, a visit to the absolutely wild classic Japanese tea cups, the equally classic horse carousel or even the interactive experience Evangelion World around the well-known anime Neon Genesis Evangelion is recommended.

Fujiyama

Now let’s move on to the last roller coaster of Fuji-Q Highland, the King of Coasters himself: Fujiyama. Built by the Japanese manufacturer Togo and with a height of 79 m and a length of more than 2 km, the ride shows off wherever it can, which is partly due to the paint job on the trains. And yet the ride is surprisingly compact, which makes the former record holder look almost filigree. Interestingly, most opinions about the ride are mostly negative – time to change that.

After taking a seat in the very comfortable train, which is however equipped with a strange bar, the ride can immediately begin. Far above the visitors, we pass through a tight turn and immediately reach the lift hill of the ride. This takes us steadily up to the aforementioned starting height, where we now stay for some time. A friction wheel battery then gets the train going a bit, so that, after a short right turn, it plunges into the depths, carrying the passengers into the air. In the valley, you then return to your original seating position and experience wonderfully pronounced G-forces. After a long climb, you complete a wide turn with (theoretically) excellent views of the volcano of the same name. On the following crest, you take off from your seat once more and experience airtime as it is written in the book. When you reach the valley, you would like the airtime moments to go on forever; how nice when shortly afterwards a camelback actually takes you into the air.

With a beautiful pacing, you now cross an elevated turn below the lift of the ride. After the subsequent valley, a slightly left-bending ascent follows, which then leads into an airtime-embroidered double-up. From then on, you race along the support structure of the turning curve through hill and dale. You then leave the aforementioned curve via another peak and drive in a straight line through the following valley. In a steep curve, which later tapers more and more to a turning curve, you quickly build up height, just before you shoot down to the ground and remain there for a long time. At breakneck speed, you pass through a long straight and a right turn close to the ground before the train turns towards the sky again. Still at an extremely pronounced speed, you now pass through a series of hills that zigzag their way through the steel structure of the roller coaster. This is delightfully wacky and causes a broad grin on the faces of the passengers. After a total of 5 hills, you start to climb a hill for the last time on a straight section of track, but instead of a descent, the final brake of the ride is awaiting you. With a good amount of airtime and at a speed that is actually much too high, you are now slowed down to a standstill. Shortly after, the station is reached.

Fujiyama is a magnificent roller coaster that knows how to lift its passengers out of their seats. The ride in the Fuji-Q Highland is breathtaking, while never repetitive and knows how to surprise even the most avowed roller coaster fan during the ride. In this respect, I really like the ground-hugging curve in the last third of the ride, but also the totally crazy last hills have their charm; the core component of this roller coaster, however, is and remains the pronounced airtime during the ride. And there is plenty of it, which is why Fujiyama is the best roller coaster of Fuji-Q Highlands for me and also the best roller coaster of the entire tour. In any case, the amusement park is not exaggerating by singing the praises of the roller coaster as the King of Coasters in a continuous loop. Moreover, the waiting time here almost flies by.

Pictures Fuji-Q Highland

Conclusion Fuji-Q Highland

Fuji-Q Highland is a very strange amusement park that looks really run down in parts. On the other hand, the park has really nice corners and some very great rides. Unfortunately, everything here is concentrated on the Big 4, i.e. the roller coasters Takabisha, Do-Dodonpa, Fujiyama and Eejanaika – the rest of Fuji-Q Highland is partly extinct. Now, however, we were also lucky to experience the park on two empty days (although the second one wasn’t needed and I didn’t ride any other attraction apart from the rapid river); on a full day, a visit is only worthwhile without a free pass, as then you can hardly manage anything outside the big 4 and possibly not even these. From the afternoon onwards, possibly even earlier, the announcements of the attractions whose queues have now been closed become more frequent. Towards the end, there’s nothing left to do but ride the teacups or take a spin on the horse carousel. Nevertheless, I’ll gladly visit the park again.

 

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Click here for the next report of the Titanic Max Tour

Fuji-Q Highland / Titanic Max Day 11 and 12