Tag: Preston & Barbieri

A short visit to Legoland California

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Legoland California

Legoland California is the third oldest (existing) Legoland in the world. Accordingly, the park has a lot of charm and differs from the newer Legoland parks worldwide due to the large number of attractions. The park also has a very impressive water park with a large number of water slides.

Miniland USA

The centrepiece of Legoland California is Miniland USA. Here you will find sights from nearby San Diego as well as buildings from Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, all of which have been impressively staged. As always, Miniland is the real highlight of Legoland and should definitely not be missed.

Lego Ninjago World

Lego Ninjago The Ride

Lego Ninjago The Ride is the first interactive dark ride where passengers use only their hands to aim. The ride system uses a series of sensors to detect the movements of the hands. Depending on the height of the hands and the angle to the sensor, the hand movement is interpreted and a coloured dot appears on the screen so that you know where you are aiming. The whole process is not very intuitive and so confused hand waving is actually a good way to score a lot of points. The movements can be refined on the many screens you pass, or while standing directly in front of the screen during a longer film sequence.

Overall, Lego Ninjago The Ride is a very solid dark ride. Although the technology is not as sophisticated as the Web Slingers in Disney California Adventure, this system works really well for a prototype.

Imagination Zone

Lego Technic Coaster

Passing the Bionicle Blaster teacup ride, we head straight to the first highlight of the theme park, which, despite the prominently placed Project X Test Track sign, goes by the rather generic name of Lego Technic Coaster; this is a bit of a shame, as it’s not just visually that the coaster has a lot in common with its sister ride from Legoland Germany. The ride on the large Wild Mouse coaster is also very similar; there is a big drop right at the start before the hairpin bends are negotiated, just before it goes over a few more hills towards the end. Overall, the ride is slowed down quite a bit and is therefore a little more gentle.

Land of Adventures

Lost Kingdom Adventure

The interactive dark ride Lost Kingdom Adventure is a nice little themed ride that uses individual cars and, thanks to the large number of rooms and the somewhat narrower route, tells a little more than the comparable Temple rides from the other Legoland theme parks around the world.

Castle Hill

The Dragon

In addition to The Royal Joust horse ride, the Castle Hill themed area is best known for its rollercoaster The Dragon. As at other Legoland theme parks around the world, you first experience the dark ride through the castle before reaching the rollercoaster section. After the sighting with the dragon, however, we first ride a little longer through a tunnel before reaching the ride’s lift hill. Once at the top, we first go through a slightly sloping right-hand bend before we start the big drop of the ride. With momentum, we now ride several laps through a long Bavarian curve. In a long right-hand bend, we then cross the ride’s lift before approaching the lowest point of the ride in a tight helix. This is also the fast-paced finale and after a short climb we land in the final brake, whereupon our entertaining ride comes to an end.

Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure

The Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure dark ride combines two of Merlin Entertainment’s core brands: Lego and Sealife. The ride through the aquarium is therefore quite impressive and a cool way to watch the goings-on in the large water basin around you.

Fun Town

Fun Town is home to many classic Legoland rides and is the real centrepiece of the theme park alongside Miniland USA. Here you will find the Junior Driving School, the Kids Power Tower and the interactive team challenge attraction Fun Town Police and Fire Academy.

Pirate Shores

Almost next door is the pirate area of Legoland California, where young pirates can take on Captain Cranky’s Challenge on a Rockin’ Tug before going on a wild water battle on the Splash Battle.

Pirate Reef

The main attraction in this area is the Shoot the Chute Pirate Reef. The water ride, which looks quite cute from the outside, has a lot to offer and gracefully soaks all the riders down to their pants. Unfortunately, the ride, which was built by Whitewater, was already closed for the season when I visited.

Lego Movie World

In addition to the large Flying Theatre Emmet’s Flying Adventure, Lego Movie World is also home to Queen Watevra’s Carousel and the two nice family freefall towers of Unikitty’s Disco Drop.

Emmet’s Flying Adventure

Instead of the usual flight around the world, the Flying Theatre Emmet’s Flying Adventure offers the opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the second Lego Movie. Here, Emmet’s triple-decker couch takes you on an adventurous and, above all, very colourful race through numerous adventure worlds.

Explorer Island

Coastersaurus

The Explorer Island theme area is home to the small Coastersaurus roller coaster. As in Legoland Germany, the family roller coaster from the manufacturer Gerstlauer impresses with its extremely abrupt first drop, in which the passengers are simply pulled to the right, and the overall great ride.

Pictures Legoland California

Conclusion Legoland California

Legoland California has a really nice atmosphere and offers some really nice attractions. I, at least, am glad to have visited Legoland California, even though I hadn’t planned to thanks to the extremely high entrance fee. Fortunately, the park is included in the Go City Pass San Diego, as is a visit to SeaWorld San Diego or Belmont Park – all of which I visited on the same day. The park is quite cool, even if I think it’s a damn shame that the Knights Tournament (a ride with Kuka robots) is no longer there.

 

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Click here for the next report of the California Adventure Tour

California Adventure Day 14 / Legoland California

A first visit to Dennlys Parc

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Over the years, the small family amusement park Dennlys Parc has grown up around an old marble sawmill. The name of the leisure park is a combination of the village name Dennebroeucq and the river that flows through it, the Lys.

Nitro

The first attraction we encounter on our tour of the park is the Nitro double roller coaster. The ride, built by Preston & Barbieri, offers two intertwined tracks on a very compact footprint, which are designed as a Möbius loop – so it is just one roller coaster with two sections.

Once all six cars have been loaded at the same time in the station, the wild ride can begin straight away. Once you reach a height of 10 m, you have enough time to enjoy the view on a long straight section before the first shot ride begins. Both sections immediately go over an airtime hill and then into a very tight upward spiral. This is followed by a leisurely zigzag course into the block brake. While the original right-hand side of the track now completes a leisurely right-hand turn and crosses the first descent, the original left-hand side immediately plunges towards the ground. A more or less undulating left-hand bend follows on both sides before the next block brake is reached. Shortly afterwards, you enter the station. As you are now on the other side, the second lap through the layout soon follows.

In principle, the Möbius roller coaster Nitro is kind of cool, if it weren’t for the generally uneventful ride and the rather poor ride characteristics. The compact design doesn’t really do the concept any good; there are now basically two very short roller coasters, but neither of them is really convincing.

Squadron 33

Directly opposite the Nitro roller coaster is the entrance to the Aerobat Squandron 33 by Technical Park. Compared to the prototype from the Parc des Combes, the ride is less cumbersome and, with a bit of luck, you can experience a very interesting ride without necessarily being upside down.

Furio

As in any good family amusement park in France, Dennlys Parc is not short of a Soquet roller coaster. The ride on Furio begins with a left-hand bend, after which the lift hill is reached. Once at the top, we enjoy the view of the surrounding area, including the Azteca dinghy slide, before plunging down into the valley. Following the left-hand bend, we climb a hill and, after a short change of direction, plummet rapidly to the ground in a 540° helix. Now we shoot over a small hill, which is followed by a very long right-hand bend in a shallow Bayernkurve style. After another change of direction, we are drawn into another dip, whereupon we reach the station again. This is immediately followed by a second lap on the generally very nice family roller coaster.

Voltigo

The last roller coaster in the park is located in a Mexican-inspired corner of the theme park, where you will also find the small interactive cinema where the film Desperado 4D is shown.

Voltigo is a compact spinning coaster from Gosetto. Like other compact spinning coasters from other manufacturers, the layout consists of a simple figure of eight. As you would expect, the gondolas get off to a good start and create a nice, leisurely spin.

Crazy River

The last major ride at Dennlys Parc is the Crazy River. This is a spinning raft by Reverchon. The ride itself is refreshing and takes you over several rapids after the initial shot, and with a bit of luck you can get quite wet.

Alcion, Icarius, Temp’O, Baie des Pirates und Vigie

The other rides at Dennlys Parc are largely from Zamperla. The Alcion boat swing, the Icarius wave swinger, the Disk’o Temp’O, the Baie des Pirates ride and the Vigie freefall tower are particularly worth mentioning, all of which have been staged very harmoniously.

Bilder Dennlys Parc

Conclusion Dennlys Parc

Dennlys Parc is a very nice, albeit very small, family amusement park in the middle of the Pas-de-Calais. Just getting to the park is a great experience and, combined with a visit to the nearby Bagatelle theme park or a day at the seaside, it makes for a really nice day out for the whole family.

 

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Dennlys Parc

Zipper-Dee-Doo-Dah in Cleveland

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As I’m currently in Ohio for business, I took the chance to visit the I-X Indoor Amusement Park in Cleveland this Saturday.  Since 30 years, the fair takes place in the International Exposition Center (short I-X Center). The name Amusement Park fits in very well thanks to the one-time admission fee and the additional show program. Nonetheless, the I-X Indoor Amusement Park is a typical American funfair. The highlight of the event is the weather independence of the fair and the interaction of many rides with the hall’s ceiling.

Most rides come from the Baker Bros. Amusement Company. Rockwell Amusements, Swika’s Amusements and Reithoffer Shows each provide a roller coaster. In total, the funfair hosts six roller coasters, three of them for children. However, they were not my reason of visiting. I wanted to finally ride a Zipper.

Like the Tilt-a-Whirl and Sizzler, the classic from Chance Rides is indispensable in any US funfair – the oval with the pulleys at both ends has been sold a good 200 times since 1968. And even in Europe you could find a Zipper in the past; on the downside they are very rare.

The ride itself resembles the one on a top spin: it rocks, swings and sometimes wildly rolls over. Only a nacelle brake does not exist; you leave everything to chance. The speeds during the journey are usually constant: The main arm rotates at seven revolutions per minute, while the steel cables make at least four revolutions. At the turning points, a short acceleration kick follows every time, which – with a bit of luck – puts the gondolas into a proper rotation. Since you are only secured by a comfortable lap bar, holding onto the handrails is definitely a good thing.

The ride in the narrow cages is definitely not for tall people. With shoe size 11 you also have problems placing your feet properly. People with a weak stomach will quickly reach their limits through the whole swinging thing – especially towards the end of the journey. The zipper itself, however, is a masterpiece of engineering of the late 1960s. Even before the great looping fever of the 70s, Chance Rides turned the fairground world overhead. Unluckily, our ride on the Zipper was somehow tame. In the end, we rocked more than we did anything else.

Luckily, there are plenty of other options at the Indoor Amusement Park, but due to the crowd, we concentrated on the Fabbri Kamikaze. This Italian ride offers some longer head-over stays at the top of the ride – in spite of the over the shoulder restraints – and wonderful hang time during the fast looping sequences. You basically lift off from your seat, whilst the stations drive throughs you will be pressed neatly into your seat. What a machine!

In addition to the small Zamperla Spinning Coaster Wild Mouse and the little Pinfari Wild Cat next door, the roller coaster G-Force turn out to be one hell of an adrenaline machine. This small Wing-Coaster-Butterfly from A.R.M. Rides is a lot of fun in a rather small package. After having taken a seat in the 16-passenger train, it raises leisurely up a way too steep straight. Arrived at the top, the train then latches out quickly. In the next second, you fall very fast to the ground. The transition between the much too steep lift and the ascending straight after is the only highlight, as the name of the rollercoaster proves itself. After experiencing the G-Force on your own body, the train swings back and forth and fastly comes to a stop again. If ever Sunkid Heege would produce such a ride 😀 .

The I-X Indoor Amusement Park in Cleveland is a pretty cool funfair. The choice of rides is quite balanced and offers something for every taste. On our visiting day, the indoor amusement park was pretty crowded, but the weather outside was also a mess all day. If it is a bit emptier you can definitely have a lot of fun here, I really liked the fair itself. The mood was great and the gimmick with the hall’s ceiling basically upgrades every ride to a maximum.

 

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Ohio