Tag: Splash Battle

A Sik ride experience

itemprop="discussionURL"0

Since my first visit to Flamingo Land in early 2013, a lot of rides have been added to the line-up. Two of the major additions (Hero and Twistosaurus) covered in this review were actually in construction back then. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the 10 inversion coaster Sik was being installed. With restrictions being now a thing of the past, the ride was finally able to open for the 2022 season. 

Twistosaurus

Twistosaurus is an off-the-shelf junior twister coaster from Zamperla and comes without much theming. However, it fits in well with the Dino Stone Park theme area. The ride itself is a nice little family coaster with some hairpin turns and a helix that makes the cars spin. The whole experience is relatively stomach-friendly and great fun for the whole family.

Sik

For all friends of Colossus at Thorpe Park living in the North of the country, there is finally a very similar experience available in Yorkshire. Although it is the first installation of the roller coaster, Sik is actually a rather old ride. The ride was set to open at the Brazilian theme park Hopi Hari in 2012, but never installed due to  financial situation of the park and a rather strange leasing deal. The ride moved basically from parking lot to parking lot and after a short stay at the Movie Animation Park Studios in Malaysia the ride was finally being bought by the Gibb family.

What makes the experience rather unique is the ride’s history and the extended degree of freedom due to the restraint system in use. Compared to Colossus, the layout features a different first drop, yet the remaining course consisting of a loop, a nice airtime bump into a tunnel, a cobra roll, two corkscrews and a total of five heartline rolls (four of them are straight in a row) is pretty much the same. 

Although it is a new ride in Flamingo Land, you get quite a shake on this roller coaster. Compared to Colossus, which offers a good ride apart from the first three inversions, or Altair at Cinecittà World in Rome, which has the same layout and train design, Sik is not the smooth experience you might expect. The ride is still fun, but it could also be much better if it ran a little smoother. 

Hero

Another coaster model which is infamous for its ride experience is the Zamperla Volare. This small scale flying coaster puts you into a cage and squeezes you like the filling of sandwich before sending you through a multilevel layout on a very tight footprint. While doing that, the ride offers a bunch of very cool heartline rolls and some seriously tight hairpin curves. It is no big news, that most roller coaster enthusiasts actually dislike this coaster model. Personally, I think a Zamperla Volare is actually lot of fun and a surprisingly smooth ride experience. There is nothing wrong with this model and especially not with Hero. It’s a good ride. 

Pictures Flamingo Land

Conclusion Flamingo Land

The Flamingo Land still is a rather unique animal and theme park. With the recent changes, the park now appears a lot more coherent. The 2022 addition Sik fits in nicely and has a nice style to it. Especially Sik’s station has a great flair and the train with the dark coloured Union Jack has something very special.

 

What is your opinion about Twistosaurus, Hero and Sik?  Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Flamingo Land

On Street Mission at Port Aventura Park

itemprop="discussionURL"0

A few years have passed since my last visit to Port Aventura Park. Apart from the two new attractions Angkor and Street Mission, nothing has greatly changed in the park since then, but a lot has changed in the resort. For example, the new Ferrari Land amusement park with Europe’s highest and fastest roller coaster was built right next door.

Anyone planning to travel to Salou by train in the near future should reconsider. Although the Salou – Port Aventura station still exists, it is only very rarely used. It is also the current terminus and is therefore only an alternative to the car for resort guests. I had planned to reach the park around noon, but thanks to numerous train cancellations it turned out to be much later. So I basically only had one evening and one afternoon to experience the park in all its fullness.

As you might expect in peak season, the park was extremely busy. Since I was still without the Express Pass on the first evening, I concentrated on some beloved classics, such as El Diablo – Tren de la Mina, before I headed to the Far West area. This area, like the Mediterrània area, had much longer opening hours, but here too the offer was very limited. Basically, until closure of the park, you could only ride the Stampida wooden roller coaster, the carousel, the break dance Crazy Barrels, the Rapid River Gran Canyon Rapids and the launch coaster Furios Baco.

While the crowds were still okay on the first evening, the second day of the visit took the cake. After my flying visit to the Ferrari Land theme park, I first went to an Express Pass sales point, only to find out that buying the €65 upgrade to Express Premium Gold was not really a good idea. Since the amusement park does not limit the upcharge offer, almost every visitor had the Express Pass, so that even with the pass, you still had to wait at least half an hour everywhere.

Angkor

Interestingly, during my visit, the Splash Battle Angkor had the longest waiting time in the entire park – even with the priority ticket, you easily had to wait 90 minutes here. The water ride is by no means exciting or remarkable in any way. The leisurely river ride is quite nicely presented, but the consistent use of static figures makes it not really interesting. Thanks to the limited number of boats, there were never any of the water battles for which this concept is actually known, which meant that the ride ended on a very dry note.   

Street Mission

The nearby Street Mission dark ride was also new to me. Set in the Sesame Street universe, we go with Detective Grover in search of the world’s biggest cookie, which went missing shortly before the Cookie Day Parade. Now the search for clues takes us through all the well-known Sesame Street locations. In the process, you meet familiar figures, as well as some that might be unfamiliar to me. The successful mix of screen sequences and three-dimensional scenes creates an astonishingly high level of immersion, which I had not expected. Coupled with the long ride time, it’s quite enjoyable and encourages repeat journeys. Well done, Sally!

Pictures Port Aventura Park

Conclusion Port Aventura Park

Port Aventura Park could not really convince during my last visit. Limited opening hours and a greatly reduced capacity in all rides despite the very large crowd in the park do not cast a good light on the park. While elsewhere in the country the parks were back to pre-crisis levels, at Port Aventura the Corona-related cost-cutting measures were particularly noticeable. This in turn meant that even the priority queues reached extreme lengths. This is a pity and therefore I have no other choice but to advise against a visit during the high season in August for the time being.

 

What is your opinion about Angkor and Street Mission? Just write it here below the report in the comment field or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Port Aventura

Parque Warner (2020)

itemprop="discussionURL"1

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!

 

What is your opinion on the Covid-19 security measures at Parque Warner? Just write it here below the report in the comment field or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Parque Warner