Red Force Alert

Ferrari Land

After the Caribe Aquatic Park in 2002, Port Aventura Resort expanded once again in 2017 with the Ferrari Land theme park. In the tradition of many European second gate parks, the offer here was also very limited at the beginning. The addition of a children’s area the following year significantly expanded the range of attractions for families.  

Red Force

The park’s main attraction is the Red Force launch coaster by Intamin. The 112-metre-high roller coaster towers over the Port Aventura Resort and thus captivates everyone in its immediate vicinity and, unfortunately, draws them into its queue. Shortly before the attraction went into operation, the queue was already completely full and stretched over the course of the day to below the top hat of the ride, which corresponded to a waiting time of over three hours.

I myself was only in the official queue and therefore had to spend about an hour in it. As soon as I took my seat in the twelve-passenger train, the ride started. Once out of the station, the train starts to accelerate and it becomes increasingly uncomfortable. The train then climbs up the Top Hat with a brute force and immediately descends again, but without the spiral during the descent of the two preceeding Accelerator Coasters, Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka. At full speed, you soon hit the brakes and after a short uphill section, you come to a stop again.

Red Force is a very short, but damn good roller coaster. Here, as the speed increases, you notice the forces acting on the train before it reaches a height of 112 m, which is extremely impressive, especially in comparison to the Shambhala roller coaster in Port Aventura Park – currently the third-highest roller coaster in Europe with a height of 76 m. The descent and the final rush of speed also provide sufficient endorphins so that you leave the ride extremely happy. Regrettably, however, at this point another ride on the roller coaster was out of the question, unless you buy the expensive Express Pass for Ferrari Land, which gives you one-time access to the 4 ½ main attractions.

Junior Red Force

As impressive as the Red Force roller coaster is, the Race Coaster Junior Red Force from the SBF Visa Group is not. The ride in the small roller coaster offers basically nothing apart from a tapering downward spiral and a brute upward curve. Sure, the setting of the children’s coaster in the inner courtyard of the much larger Red Force is very nice, but that’s about it.

Miscellaneous

As it was getting increasingly crowded, I didn’t test any other attraction in Ferrari Land apart from the two roller coasters. The Flying Theatre Flying Dreams and the Racing Legends simulator ride would have been of particular interest here. In addition to a handful of children’s rides, the very nice-looking car ride Maranello Grand Race and the two S&S towers of the Thrill Towers (one Space Shot and one Turbo Drop) complete the contemplative offer.

Pictures Ferrari Land

Conclusion Ferrari Land

Ferrari Land is not a theme park where you would spend more than one or two hours, but you have to in high summer thanks to the low capacity of the rides. Overall, the entire amusement park is more like a themed area of the amusement park next door, which offers an extremely immersive experience in this respect. But as a stand-alone theme park, the park simply lacks what it has to offer.

Sure, Red Force is good and the Flying Theatre and the simulator are probably very nice, but that’s about it. The Ferrari theme is also extremely specific, which will certainly appeal to one or two visitors to the Costa Dorada, but unlike Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, you’re not standing right next to a race track here. It will be interesting to see how the park develops.

 

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Fuji-Q Highland



Theme Park:Fuji-Q Highland (since 1968)
Part of the Resort Fujikyu Highland Resort
Address:5 Chome-6-1 Shinnishihara
Fujiyoshida-shi
Yamanashi-ken 403-0017
http://www.fujiq.jp/en
Operated by:Fujikyūkō Co. Ltd.

TakabishaFuji-Q Highland (富士急ハイランド) in Fujiyoshida near Mount Fuji in Yamanashi is Japan’s most exciting amusement park. The park originated from an ice skating rink in 1961.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, hence the name Fuji-Q). In 1986, the park was upgraded to a resort with the construction of the Highland Resort Hotel. The event location Conifer Forest, as well as the shopping area La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa, two museums, two additional hotels and an onsen complete the resort.

Do-DodonpaFuji-Q Highland is famous for its Big 4, a selection of extraordinary roller coasters. Here, you can experience the fastest acceleration on a launch coaster, the steepest drop,  the most roll-overs on a 4th Dimension roller coaster and a 2km long hyper coaster. As these rides are extremely popular, they always features long queues and there might be not enough time to try any of the other rides. It is therefore highly recommended to get one of the strongly limited priority tickets for Eejanaika or Do-Dodonpa. Apart of that, Fuji-Q Highland is a nice park with an superb selection of rides and attractions. It also features a highly immersive children’s area themed to the popular series Thomas & Friends.

EejanaikaIf you want to experience the park for yourself, the easiest and fastest way to reach the amusement park is by coach from the Shinjuku station. The nearest JR train station is Ōtsuki. From here you can switch into the private Fuji-Kyūkō-line, which offers with the Fuji-Q Highland station a stop directly in front of the theme park. The train trip from Tokyo takes its time, but you can reach the theme park in time for its opening.

Fun Fact #1: When Dodonpa was transformed into Do-Dodonpa, it’s acceleration just got faster. The speed of the air thrust launch has been increased from 172 to 180 km/h and the acceleration phase has been reduced from 1.8 to 1.56 seconds

Fun Fact #2: The legendary roller coaster Moonsault Scramble was the most intense modern roller coaster. On its backwards ride through the first inversion, it pulled 6,2 G.

Fun Fact #3: The chance of succeeding in the interactive walkthrough attraction Ultimate Fort 3 is still 0%. For most people the experience ends after 20 minutes, but can go as long as 90 minutes.

 
 
 

Highlights of the Tivoli

 




Cool Jappaan

 

Cool Jappaan

The drenching boat ride

 


Eejanaika

 

Eejanaika

A truly extreme ride

 


Fuji-Q Highland

 

Fuji Airways

A fun flying theatre

 


Fujiyama

 

Fujiyama

The king of coaster

 


Nagashimasuka

 

Nagashimasuka

The extremely wet river rapids

 


Panic Clock

 

Panic Clock

The looping carousel

 



Takabisha

 

Takabisha

One of the steepest roller coasters

 


Voyage dans le Ciel

 

Voyage dans le Ciel

A fun family coaster

 



 
 

Past Highlight of the Theme Park

 




 

Do-Dodonpa

The roller coaster with the fastest acceleration

 


Mad Mouse

 

Mad Mouse

An interesting Wild Mouse

 



Parque Warner (2020)

A visit of Parque Warner during the Covid-19 pandemic

I haven’t been to Parque Warner in a long time. The park belonging to Parques Reunidos is known to have a great selection of breathtaking roller coasters and water rides soaking through to your underwear. However, 2020 is now the year of Covid-19 and the Spanish are known to have taken it a little harder, so I was very curious to see how the amusement parks are run in this country. Due to my experiences concerning the protection measures in Germany, I expected very long waiting times from the beginning and therefore bought the Pase Correcaminos Platinum in advance; a quite expensive ticket for pushing the queue with theoretically unlimited access to the attractions.

As I had made a little mistake in the bus schedule, I reached the park much later than originally planned. As the entrance was narrowed to two access points, there were already two very long queues at my arrival. On the day of my visit, there were no day tickets; unfortunately, shortly before my visit, the park offered 50% reduced tickets, thus the park was relatively full. As I could not find the office for the Pase Correcaminos right away, I also lost some time; who could have guessed that the man at the lockers would take care of it.

Equipped with my wristband it could go through the park. Basically, masks are obligatory everywhere – the correct way of wearing them is meticulously observed. The staff is perfectly trained for all Covid-19 measures and at all shows and attractions they take care of the hygiene measures, e.g. you have to disinfect your hands every time in front of the watchful eye of an employee, at the shows you are accompanied to your seat (even after the show you are only allowed to leave the theatre in groups) to guarantee the safety distance. The attractions are additionally disinfected after each use, before the next passengers are allowed to board. All this of course reduces the capacity, but the Spanish staff is surprisingly fast. The only thing I honestly should have saved was the visit of the mad house Hotel Embrujado.

Pictures Parque Warner

Closing Words

At the end of the day I could ride all the attractions at least once. Thanks to the Pase Correcaminos, the waiting time at the roller coasters was a maximum of 30 minutes, without of course much more. At the water rides and all other attractions I had a little more luck. Of course, a visit outside of Corona would have been much more fruitful, but nevertheless I am impressed by the professionalism of the park and therefore recommend a visit to Parque Warner this year.

A visit to the theme park could hardly be safer!

 

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