Monorail

WAA!!! Walibi à la française

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History of Walibi Rhône-Alpes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tour of the park

Dock n Roll and Hurricane

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

Bamba

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

Skunx Tower

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

Aqualibi

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

Bambooz River

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

Tam Tam Aventure

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

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

Coccinelle

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

Mini Ferme and Les plongeurs de l’extrême

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

Gold River

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

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

Le Galion

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

Timber!

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

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

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

Woodstock Express

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

EqWalizer

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

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

Pictures Walibi Rhône-Alpes

Conclusion Walibi Rhône-Alpes

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

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

Beaulieu (2017)

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In the middle of the New Forest, a heath landscape with free-roaming horses, is the village of Beaulieu and the seat of the Earl Montagu of Beaulieu, who built a kind of museum leisure park on his estate around Palace House and the former Beaulieu Abbey. The most famous attraction is the National Motor Museum, a museum very similar to the two large car museums in the city of Stuttgart. In addition, there is a monorail that also leads through the museum, as well as the World of Top Gear, which we will turn to later.

We start our tour of Beaulieu with Beaulieu Abbey, whose French monks gave the place its name. The abbey is famous for its large tapestries, all of which can be admired in one hall. The rest of the monastery must be partly imagined, unfortunately there is not much left.

The next stop is the Spy Museum in front of Palace House. Here in Beaulieu was a training centre during the Second World War – absolutely secret, of course. Meanwhile, in the Palace House behind, guided tours with butler and maid take place. The house is really fancy, I can tell you that, and there is also a secret staircase.

The National Motor Museum is quite well designed and has a large number of exhibits. In this respect, it is not necessarily different from other car museums, but what makes the museum in Beaulieu special is its dark ride Wheels. Very similar to the Spirit of London dark ride at Madame Tussauds London, the Mack Rides dark ride takes you through numerous scenes and is available in French and German on request. Real cars can be seen again in the On Screen Cars exhibition, such as the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter.

If you want to take a ride with The Stig or pay homage to the British engineering skills of Hammond, May and Clarkson, the World of Top Gear is the place to go. Although they also cover the subsequent seasons with Matt LeBlank & Co, it’s primarily about the three guys at Amazon when they were still at the BBC. Who knows, maybe there will soon be the World of Grand Tour, enough interesting vehicles have already been built in the current seasons, although my favourite is still the car train. And the episode should be topped first.

 

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Hampshire

Hybrid Leisure Land Amusement

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Tobu Zoo Park

The Tobu Zoo Park opened its doors for the 80th anniversary of the Tobu Railway in 1981. Five years earlier, the operating company Tobu Leisure Planning Co., Ltd. was founded, which still operates the park today as a 100% subsidiary of the Tobu Group. A mixture of amusement park and zoo was selected prior to the park’s opening, with these being built separately at the eastern and western ends of the park. In 1990, the Tobu Zoo Park was expanded to include the Tobu Super Pool water park near the western entrance.

Coming from Tokyo you can take the Tobu Railway. From the Tobu-Dobutsu-koen station there is a shuttle bus to the eastern entrance of Tobu Zoo Park at regular intervals, but the park itself can also be reached easily by a short walk. If you enter the park from this entrance, you immediately find yourself at a lake, which you can also explore with pedal boats. This is the starting point for the internal bus line Animal Boo Boo and the park railway Tayno-No-Megumi.

If you follow the paths, you immediately find yourself in Liberty Land, a loose collection of rides along a slightly wider Mainstreet. Next to a merry-go-round, a small children’s ride, a pedal track and a music express there are two walkthroughs and two roller coasters.

Galaxy Walkers and Tentomushi

The interactive mirror maze Galaxy Walkers makes the beginning, in which you can save the world on two different missions. Not far from here, the ladybird ride Tentomushi makes its rounds on the figure eight-shaped course of the well-known Zierer roller coaster. As usual this is great fun for young and old.

Kawasemi

The highlight in this area is the Kawasemi roller coaster. Built on the site of the former Mount Rocky Coaster, the ride uses most of the existing foundations – some modified to withstand the existing forces – for an extremely dynamic ride.

As soon as you take a seat in the train, the journey starts immediately with the rapid climb to the top of the lift hill. In a 69° steep drop the train shoots towards the ground. The 31 m difference in altitude is soon overcome and the train is on its way at a top speed of 85 km/h. With a wonderfully pronounced pressure you now speed through a curve close to the ground with a 78° cross slope, before you take a rather steep and 22 m high turn just below the lift hill. On the following 20 m high airtime hill you are lifted out of your seat by negative forces in a beautiful floating airtime. After another curve close to the ground, a series of very wild turns follows. Here you change the direction of travel three times in fast intervals with simultaneous ejector airtime. This is followed by another curve, adjoining two straight airtime hills. In a turn similar to a Bavarian curve, you then approach the station, whereupon the adventurous journey soon comes to an end.

Interestingly, I liked Kawasemi much better than its European counterpart Piraten in the Danish amusement park Djurs Sommerland, which is just slightly younger. What I hardly liked back then, in extremely adverse weather conditions, was really a lot of fun here. So much so, in fact, that I was always happy to get in. The turns, the airtime and the available pacing make the trip very entertaining and invite you to several repetitions, preferably without interruption. This is also possible without any problems, as the way from the exit to the entrance of the ride is wonderfully short.

Airlift Sky Fish Express

Should you be able to tear yourself away from the ride at any time, a visit to the neighbouring scary labyrinth of the Event Plaza is a good idea. A trip in the Monorail Airlift Sky Fish Express is a little less nerve-racking. The nice ride far above the paths of the park even serves as a means of transport within the amusement park Tobu Zoo Park.

Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster

Shortly afterwards, we land in Heartful Town, the third stage of the Heartful Land theme. While the park that has already been explored may seem rather run-down, the children’s area, which was completely renovated in 2014, has a much more positive appearance. There are numerous typical Japanese children’s rides as well as the Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster roller coaster.

The roller coaster built by Hoei Sangyo is characterised by an oval-shaped layout with a central downward helix, very similar to the dragon roller coasters of the manufacturer Zamperla. Spraying mist during the passage of the supporting structure adds a little extra value to the ride, but otherwise the Diggy & Daggy’s Tram Coaster is a nice children’s coaster for the youngest park guests.

The Zoo

As mentioned at the beginning, Tobu Zoo Park is a mixture of a leisure park and a zoo, which is why it is called Hybrid Leisure Land. The zoo itself consists to a large extent of far too small enclosures without any attempt at species-appropriate animal husbandry. The Monkey World is a very bad place, where the individual monkey species are displayed without any mercy in far too narrow cages.

The same applies also to the enclosures of most big cats (with exception of the lion enclosure), the elephants and the brown bears. I don’t expect any immensely large enclosures like in the English amusement park Flamingo Land, but surely the size of a German inner city zoo can be reached. Interestingly, the Hirakata Park with its few animal enclosures shows that this can also be taken for granted in Japan. And so the impression of the park becomes increasingly distorted the longer you stay in the zoo.

Nevertheless, there are also rays of hope in the zoo, which hardly matters anymore. The rhesus monkey mountain is large enough, the aviary with native animal species is very nicely designed and the savannah landscape with gazelles, giraffes and zebras is similar to that in Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover. So there is a lot of potential to run a magnificent zoo; but in the current state I advise everyone not to set foot in here.

Emma’s Cheese Windmill

The Heartful Farm, which was the first stage of the Heartful Lands, is worth a visit. This beautifully landscaped farm area houses the tractor ride Piggy’s Tokotoko, the Horn’s Farm Railway and the Emma’s Cheese Windmill Ferris Wheel. The latter was built in 2013 and allowed a smooth transition between the old and new wheel. Remarkably, two giant wheels stood in the park for one season. The new wheel has air conditioning on each individual gondola, a sound system and wheelchair access.

UFO Dome

After passing the Heartful Garden, a large botanical garden, the way leads us into the Pleasure Land. Next to a telecombat and a very nice wave swinger featuring water fountains (very similar to Monkey Swinger in the English amusement park Chessington – World of Adventures) there is the 3D cinema UFO Dome, in which a typical Japanese horror movie was shown this season. Interestingly, this cinema is actually a motion simulator made by Intamin. The installation is still operated in the tried and tested way, even the pre-show is used – only the movements of the two-seater gondolas during the main film are missing.

Regina

The main attraction of this area is the wooden roller coaster Regina. With a total length of 1330m and a height of 37m, this is a real colossus to explore. Since most of the ride was built on a concrete foundation above a larger lake area, the roller coaster within the park is known as the Wooden Water Coaster. But don’t worry, you can only get wet if it rains during your ride.

After climbing the stairs to the station, the Intamin train is ready to be boarded by the willing passengers. A short time later the train is dispatched and we leave the station in a short drop towards the lift hill. When we reach the top, we immediately cross the hilltop and plunge down the First Drop. Without shake, rattle, but with quite a lot of roll, we race with 90 km/h through the first valley and immediately up the first hill. The ascent is quite steep at first, but then it bends off into a rather flat ramp; which results in an interesting interplay of forces. In a wide 180° left turn we keep the gradient angle of the ramp, whereby the next drop is initiated surprisingly fast. After the next powerful valley follows a beautifully designed camelback. This is followed by another ascent, which also leads to a wide turn. This time, however, the descent starts at the summit crossing. The train now runs rapidly along the front side of the track, before we master the ascent into the block brake of the track in a double-up.

Without any deceleration we leave the brake into a 500° right leading downwards helix. Quite quickly we increase speed and decrease altitude. With a pronounced speed we climb a short incline at the rear end of the layout just below the first turn. In a right turn we promptly follow the same curve. Consequently, parallel to the first drop, we plunge to the ground one more time and make our way to the other side of the track in a series of steadily rising hills. One last dip and some short hops later we reach the braking track. Across the transfer track and another turning curve we return to the station.

Regina is a first class wooden roller coaster with absolutely remarkable ride characteristics, as the track is completely smooth. There is really nothing to claim here, the ride is good. The layout doesn’t offer big airtime moments or even remarkably wild manoeuvres, but the layout has a nice flow over a really long distance.

Pictures Tobu Zoo Park

Conclusion Tobu Zoo Park

The Tobu Zoo Park is a very good amusement park and a terrible zoo at the same time. The park can be placed in the midfield, as a successful mixture of animal and amusement park can be experienced in many other places in a much better quality. The improvements in the zoo give at least hope, even if the experience for the park visitor stands above animal welfare. The innovations in the amusement park are all worth seeing and indicate a promising future for the park.

 

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Titanic Max Day 10 / Tobu Zoo Park