Tag: Vekoma

Welcome to the Ghetto

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Preface

Unfortunately, the Compagnie des Alpes decided to not operate their Shuttle Loop roller coaster model (Turbine) just some days towards our visit to Walibi Belgium. Fortunately, I had the honor to ride the ride back in 2008.

Lot has changed in the park since my last visit to the worse. Although this time the Flashback ran without any problems, there was a great potential for improvement on almost everything. Positively, the remains of the roller coaster Vertigo could not be found everywhere in the park.

Tour of the park

Cobra and Palais du Génie

Since the crowds in the morning are always go in the anti-clockwise direction around the lake, it is recommended to start the round tour with the most gentle of all Vekoma Boomerangs, called Cobra. If you follow this path you can ride the really beautiful Vekoma Mad House Palais du Génie without any queues. Unluckily, the music was quiet, so that we could hear the drum doing some cracking noises.

Radja River and Flashback

Radja River was as drenching as always. When it started to rain, we rode this ride and flashback alternately. There is only one point in the ride where you could get soaked, but it is a quite efficient one.

The log flume Flashback is one of the best, albeit also one of the strangest, log flumes out there. The tunnel after the first descent can get you very wet, especially the people who are sitting in the front of the boat. While the people in the back of the boat should worry about their clothes on the last drop. The industry look of the ride is just brilliant and very well harmonised with the nearby roller coaster turbine. This theme is truly different and special.

Challenge of Tutankhamon

The dark ride Challenge of Tutankhamon is a very great ride by the American company Sally. The different paths of the cars make this rides to one of the best of its kind. Especially the end is just awesome, as long as you are able to defeat the boss. However, the building is a bit out of the way and can easily be overlooked, especially if you are not allowed to ride the small Tivoli Coaster on the forecourt.

Calamity Mine, Dalton Terror and Buzzsaw

If you follow the round tour past some broken rides you reach the western area of Walibi Belgium, where you can find the mine train roller coaster Calamity Mine. The ride itself is gentle, but the overall theming is just great. The adjacent Intamin Drop Tower Dalton Terror can be skipped, especially since some tracks are always broken. The Top Spin Buzzsaw is among the worst rides ever build, but celebrated by the anti-social public within the park. The screeching French gits make it quite an amusing one to watch.

Loup Garou and Vampire

The two remaining roller coasters Loup Garou (werewolf) and Vampire were a lot worse than in 2008. It may have been due to the lack of care. The suspended looping coaster was operated extremely slow. You spend quite a long time in the lifthill and went through the track so slowly, that you could have been happy to arrive back into the station at the end of the ride.

Closing Words

Later in the day, we only switched between Flashback, the Darkride Challenge of Tutankhamon and Radja River. Walibi Belgium itself clearly has a bigger problem with its guests than the Movie Park Germany, and incidentally has got into a disastrous condition. Let’s see how the future for the park will be like.

 

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Walibi Belgium

A day in the Amusement Park of Slagharen

Attractiepark Slagharen

Attractiepark Slagharen is located in the town of Slagharen right next to the border between Germany and the Netherlands. The Bemboom family owns the recreational and holiday park. It started as a Ponypark in 1963. In contrast to later projects of the family, the Dreamland is located in Margate, Great Britain, Londoun Castle in Galston, Scotland and the Freizeitpark Kirchhorst not far from the city of Hanover the Attractiepark Slagharen is still in operation today and offers more than one million visitors a special park experience every year.

In addition to the dominating Western theme you will find many things you can not find in any other amusement park these days. Ride connoisseurs will find their nostalgic heart beat faster. New rides are indeed quite rare, except for a free fall tower of the company Fabbri. Overall the rides in this park can be simply described as ingenious.

Enterprise

It is not surprising that you suddenly stand in front of one of the last Enterprise by the German manufacturer Schwarzkopf, where you have to open the roof of the cars for entry and exit, whereas Huss simply moves a grid on the side of the car. The biggest difference between the two enterprise manufacturers are the power of the machine at the start and the different seating position. Both versions promise a great ride, which today can amuse up to four decades after the advent of this type of ride.

Apollo

In addition to the beautiful Monster Octopus, which unfortunately only completed test drives on the day of the visit, you will also find a converted Apollo by Schwarzkopf in the park. Instead of a Ferris wheel kind of spinning ride, you will find yourself in probably the most ingenious chair swing of all time. Since almost everything is allowed here, the driving pleasure is simply unlimited and the rapid pace of the system takes its toll.

Traumboot

Also a rarity is the Traumboot by the Bremen based company Weber. This is an looping ship style ride, where the boat – unlike a HUSS Ranger – is build without any curvature. The ride is great, but the lap bar is rather painful.

Ripsaw Falls and Mine Train

Right next to the Reverchon log flume Ripsaw Falls with mediocre moisture level you will find the Vekoma family roller coaster Mine Train. The layout promises a lot, at least for the little ones, and can certainly keep this up. The brakes are a little bit to hard, so you better hold tight.

Ocean of Darkness

In the Ocean of Darkness dark ride enthusiasts take a journey to the depths of the sea in a diving bell, where not only Neptune is waiting for you. Although the ride can easily be classified as trashy, it is still something very special and absolutely ride worthy. Sitting in a diving bell with a strongly limited view at the beautiful scenes is just amazing.

 

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Attractiepark Slagharen

A day in Walibi Aquitaine

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Walibi Aquitaine

After I spent a year in France in the years 2005/06 and did not come to count except for a trade fair for agriculture, where among other things a Reverchon spinning mouse, a Mondial TopScan and some other funny rides could be found. I had to make up for this during my visit in the lower Saxonian easter holidays in 2007. The destination of the excursion was the Walibi Aquitaine amusement park.

As the season always starts late in France, we were able to visit the season start of the largest regional amusement park in the southwest of France shortly before my departure. Walibi Aquitaine is well known to everyone but this does not automatically mean that there is something going on in the park during the low season.

Coccinelle and Boomerang

The park itself is only medium in size, but has some good rides for the whole family. In the front part of Walibi Aquitaine you will find, besides a children’s area with the Coccinelle roller coaster, the biggest roller coaster of the park: Boomerang. This Vekoma Boomerang was the first one I saw and I was thrilled from the beginning. The ride through the three inversions is incredibly fun in the forward direction, but in the backward direction the whole thing is skilfully topped once again. The original HUSS-Arrow trains did their best, especially when it came to repeat runs.

Bateau Pirate

Not far from the Boomerang you can carry your dinghy up the steps of the dinghy slide yourself or slide down the carpet slide on a scratchy carpet. This only depressed the mood a little, the southern French could make up for it in the nearby boat swing Bateau Pirate. The slogans during the ride were simply too divine.

Radja River

Also the Intamin rapid ride Radja River enjoyed a visit. The ride through the beautifully designed course could offer a good moistening, which we gladly took up more often thanks to the short waiting time.

Splash Battle

The situation was somewhat different in the rather young Splash Battle. The Preston & Barbieri ride, built in 2006, was able to soak without any resistance (after all, almost all water cannons were broken), but most of the effects were switched off, which really spoiled the fun.

Drakkar and Zig-Zag

However, if you want to get wet, you can go on the Soquet log flume Drakkar in the northern area of Walibi Aquitaine. The boats had no outlet for the water, which was therefore accumulated in the back of the boat during the lift ride. Also the splash was so big that even with only two lightweight people in the boat you got completely soaked. Luckily there is an Italo mouse from Zamperla right next door, which could blow you dry again in a very short time. The layout of the Zig-Zag doesn’t come close to a Wild Mouse of German manufacturers, but convinces with its smaller drops on the lower levels of the ride.

Tam Tam Tour

The sea lion show is definitely worth a visit for many French people, as the park suddenly became deserted during the show times. Also worth a look is the boat trip Tam Tam Tour, which was taken over by frogs during spring. The otherwise quite nice African themed ride becomes quite eerie due to the loud frog croaking, especially since you cannot even see the frogs so quickly.

Apart from a water fountain show, Walibi Aquitaine also offers some good flatrides, such as a tea cup ride, a wave swinger and Chance Chaos, which unfortunately was broken on my visiting day. The park also has a long ride in a vintage car, which is nicely situated in front of the old building in the middle of the park.

 

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Walygator Sud-Ouest