Raging through Hyperspace Mountain

Disneyland Resort Paris is celebrating its 30th birthday and continues to be at its very consistent best. While the resort has been undergoing some changes lately and can look to the future with high expectations, changes in the main park are few and far between.

Apart from the ever-changing entertainment line-up, just three attractions have been upgraded to a new level since my last visit eight years ago – yet there have been no real novelties. All these new attractions are to be found in the Discoveryland theme area.

Star Tours: L‘Aventure Continue

The large-scale simulator Star Tours: L’Aventure Continue made the start in 2017. The fast-paced space journey in the Star Wars universe now shines with a variety of films, a generally very sharp image and great 3D effects. At the same time, C-3PO now welcomes us as the unwilling captain of our space flight.

Mickey’s Philharmagic

After Captain EO was sent into his well-deserved retirement at the end of 2015, the Discovery Theatre was only used irregularly; in addition to previews of new films, it also showed the Pixar Short Film Festival known from the Epcot theme park. In 2018, Mickey Mouse moved into the theatre and has been presenting Mickey’s Philharmagic there ever since, although he himself hardly appears in the story. In fact, Donald Duck accompanies us in a slightly clumsy manner on a musical journey through the worlds of numerous Disney classics. 

Interestingly, Mickey’s Philarmagic is by no means new. The film itself originated in 2003, but due to the quality of the animation and the possibility of keeping it up-to-date with new sequences, it seems timeless compared to the two previous films Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! and Captain EO, which is a very welcome change.

Hyperspace Mountain

Hyperspace Mountain is the third incarnation of Dutch Space Flight, but instead of being shot into the Jules Vernean future on the Columbiad, the Baltimore Gun Club has been focusing on a trip back in time to a galaxy far, far away as of 2017. In the process, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain shines with new trains and new video projections, while the old scenery has mostly disappeared from the ride.

The ride itself is still an extremely intense journey, which is now much more pleasant thanks to the soft waistcoats of the new trains. After the jump through hyperspace, the music in particular is reminiscent of Star Wars, while you occasionally speed past video projections that are a little too dark. At the same time, the media integration during the second inversion of the ride is extremely successful, staging the very surprising moment of the ride perfectly and putting a big grin on your face, while the grand finale with the destruction of the star destroyer is nowhere near as memorable as the eponymous supernova from Space Mountain Mission 2.

As a temporary solution or event overlay, as in other Disneyland parks around the world, Hyperspace Mountain is an exceedingly coherent overall package. As a permanent installation, Hyperspace Mountain lacks a bit of thematic richness; too much of the focus is on Baltimore Gun Club and its Columbiad. Apart from the music and the video projections, hardly anything is reminiscent of Star Wars.

Pictures Disneyland Park

Closing words

I was surprised to find that Disneyland Park had the far lower waiting times over my entire visit than the Walt Disney Studios Park right next door. It seems as if the novelties of the last few years are pointing in a clear direction. The solid overall concept continues to be convincing all along the line, but one or two new additions would also do the main park good.

 


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Home of the Lech Coaster

Legendia

Balerina and Tea Cups

As soon as you enter the park and leave the nicely designed Main Street behind you, you immediately find yourself on the banks of the central lake. Following the clockwise direction, you will come across the remains of the Circus Hoppla flat ride and two classic family rides. These include the Hully Gully Balerina and the Tea Cups ride, which still looks the same as it did at Heide Park.

Bazyliszek

The main attraction in the front part of the park is the Bazyliszek interactive dark ride. Interestingly, the ride’s queue is partly used as an expansion of the family restaurant in the entrance area and there is also a bouncy castle. However, the ride itself is definitely great and offers a successful mix of elaborately designed scenes and big screen action.

Dream Flight Airlines

Passing the large Legendia Flower Ferris wheel, we are now drawn to the Flying Machines Dream Flight Airlines. This old flying carousel from 1956 is an incredibly great experience and one of the reasons to visit the theme park. Unfortunately, there is only a ride every 10 minutes as the ride is incredibly inert and takes several minutes to accelerate and decelerate per cycle. However, the actual flying experience is great and should definitely not be missed.

Dream Hunters Society

The Dream Hunters Society is one of the two classic Zyklon / Galaxy roller coasters in the park, whereby the Scary Toys Factory in the front section of the park has not been in operation for years. The 335 metre long roller coaster is particularly impressive with its two longer descents and an endless helix in the middle section of the ride and is ideal as a larger entry level roller coaster for younger park guests. As the only real family coaster in the park, it always has the longest queue in the park.

Phoenix and Dragon Temple

The two rides Phoenix and Dragon Temple already have a very eventful history behind them. The HUSS Enterprise Phoenix and the HUSS Rainbow Dragon Temple first became stationary in Serengeti Park, where they entertained visitors for years before both were moved to the Danish Sommerland Syd, which was closed for good shortly afterwards. The two rides are now entertaining the Polish public and will hopefully continue to do so for a very long time to come.

Diamond River

Also coming from Sommerland Syd is the large Diamond River log flume. The relatively long ride offers two breathtaking descents that will leave you soaking wet when you get off the ride.

Giant Water Pump und Dragon Wresting Tournament

One of the most interesting rides at Legendia is the small Frisbee Giant Water Pump, which throws a handful of people around in a fairly tight radius as it swings comfortably back and forth.

Things were not quite so cosy at the Dragon Wrestling Tournament, of which unfortunately only the remains can still be seen today. This was a HUSS Flic Flac – a merciless and extremely fun upside-down carousel.

Lech Coaster

The most famous roller coaster at Legendia is the Lech Coaster. Built by Vekoma, the ride impresses with its very intense first drop, which is highly twisted on the descent. This is immediately followed by a reverse sidewinder, which at first looks like an Immelmann, but in its exit is more reminiscent of a corkscrew. After an extremely wild turn and an airtime hill, you approach the station building, which you ride through in a roll. A very tight turnaround follows at the back of the station, which then turns sharply into a bend close to the ground. We then make our way over hill and dale to another corkscrew. After a short turnaround, there is a combination of bends close to the ground shaped like an eight before we reach the final brake and the surprisingly dynamic ride comes to an end.

The Lech Coaster is one of the best roller coasters from Vekoma and one of the best roller coasters in Europe. The ride is extremely dynamic and offers a large number of incredibly wild manoeuvres in a very compact space. Chapeau!

Dolina Jagi

The Dolina Jagi water ride is a very modern wild raft ride from the manufacturer Hafema. In addition to all kinds of rapids, the water ride impresses above all with its very fast ride and lovely presentation.

Diabelska Pętla

Once known as the Tic-Tac Tornado, the Diabelska Pętla is a classic French looping roller coaster from Soquet, which you can experience backwards in the rear carriage. The ride itself is mainly characterised by its two loops, but also features several intertwining right-hand bends towards the end of the ride, which immediately leads to the brakes after a final dip.

Sky Flyer

I’m a big fan of Mondial and Vekoma rides. Reason enough to like the Sky Flyer – after all, a ride that was created in co-operation between the two companies. Here at Legendia, however, the ride on the upside-down swing doesn’t stop at all, and after a short time, the bar starts to put a lot of pressure on your stomach. So much so, in fact, that at some point it becomes quite difficult not to vomit. In other words, shorter is sometimes better. Nevertheless, the Sky Flyer is a really neat ride and is a lot of fun to watch.

Pictures Legendia

Conclusion Legendia

Legendia Śląskie Wesołe Miasteczko is a really nice city park with a great feel for rides. If you’re on your way to Energylandia, it’s definitely worth stopping by. Although the park is quite small, it has a lot more history to show for it.


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Lots to do in Energylandia

Energylandia

Little Kids Zone, Family Zone & Extreme Zone

When Energylandia opened in 2014, it was by no means foreseeable how rapidly the park would develop in the following years. What initially appeared to be a collection of numerous rides straight out of the Italian car bootleg, complete with a cheap and hackneyed design, has fortunately quickly blossomed into a very respectable theme park thanks to European funding.

The park’s beginnings can be seen – at least in part – in the three children’s rollercoasters Circus, Frutti Loop and Mars, none of which are anything special, as well as the Pyramid 7D cinema and the Space Gun and Space Booster rides in front of it. Despite the numerous measures taken by the theme park, the corner of the park looks rather cheap and not at all attractive.

Speed

Past the SBF Visa Happy Loops Spinning Coaster and the entrance to the Energylandia water park, the route now leads us straight to the Intamin water coaster Speed.

Once you have left the long queue behind you, the ride can begin. As the ride’s vertical lift is still a long way off, we bob along the canal for a while, whereby, interestingly enough, a pretty good whitewater feeling is created here, with the waves almost hitting the boat again and again and making us literally jerk away from the water droplets that are whirled up. As soon as we reach the lift, we quickly get to the starting height of 60 metres. With the best view of the park, we’re soon pushed over the crest. On the following 45° gradient, we gain a lot of momentum and immediately whizz through the first water basin and over a hill with hardly any braking. Here we take off a little before throwing ourselves into a fast Bavarian bend. Hoping to lose a little speed through the following block area, we now pass through it without any braking effect and are then released into a right-hand bend. A brisk downhill helix follows, but then turns into a hill, which introduces the final shot of the ride. Well soaked, we are released back into the canal and reach the station shortly afterwards.

As with Divertical at Mirabilandia, the ride on the Intamin Water Coaster Speed is really impressive. However, I don’t recommend anyone to attempt a ride in late autumn, as the ride can turn out to be a little wetter than expected and the full-body dryers in the park can’t really dry you out.

Jungle Adventure

From the exit of the Speed rollercoaster, it is not far to the station of the Intamin Rapids Ride Jungle Adventure, but once again the park has built a very long queue, the entrance to which is unfortunately on the completely opposite side. The ride itself is quite fast, but unfortunately, with the exception of a few rapids, very uneventful.

RMF Dragon

When the Danish Fårup Sommerland opened the Orkanen roller coaster, the amazement was huge. The layout, which was specially designed for the park, was built on a lake and dives into a tunnel directly after the first drop, while the rest of the ride route runs largely close to the ground and over the lake. When Energylandia copied the layout, a large pool was built and the ride in Zator did not dispense with the tunnel either.

Here too, the first drop leads us directly into a tunnel, with the entrance modelled on a dragon’s mouth. Back on the surface, the route leads us smoothly through an overbanked turn and over a small speed bump, which leads us into a wide helix. We immediately cross the station building, only to end up in another helix on the other side. A compact right-hand bend then leads us into a small dip, whereupon we enter the station building after another bend and our extremely entertaining ride unfortunately comes to an end.

Formula

One of the most important milestones of the Energylandia theme park is the small Formula launch coaster. After leaving the station, we immediately enter the launch track, where we accelerate to 80 km/h after a short stop. We then enter the large Sidewinder with plenty of pressure, which we then exit in a curve close to the ground. This then leads us over an airtime hill and immediately into the second inversion of the ride – a corkscrew. We also leave this in a curve close to the ground. After a short turn to the left, corkscrew no. 2 immediately follows, which leads us into a Bavarian curve. From then on, we make our way over hill and dale, before we reach the braking section shortly afterwards and our ride on this cream of the crop from Vekoma comes to an end.

Anaconda

Intamin Spillwater lives from its design. Here in Energylandia, the ride is completely naked in the area. Thanks to the eternally long queue, which once again starts at the other end of the ride, you also have a very good view of the ride’s supporting structure. As the manufacturer’s standard model, the ride offers two shots and a fairly modest level of wetness overall.

Mayan

The ride through the tried-and-tested SLC layout with the roll-over, sidewinder and the two inline twists is really impressive, which is mainly due to the modern trains and the resulting smooth ride – the Mayan roller coaster therefore shows in a very pleasant way that Vekoma suspended looping coasters are not bad roller coasters from the ground up.

Aztek Swing und Apocalypto

The Aztek Swing and Apocalypto rides were also opened in the theme park’s first year of operation and therefore hardly fit in thematically with the theme park. While the Aztek Swing is more popular, the small Top Spin Apocalypto is rarely used, which is simply because it can be easily overlooked.

Viking

The SBF Visa roller coaster Viking is a bottomless cheek; whoever came up with the idea of fitting a simple Crazy Mouse roller coaster with a over-the-shoulder restraint deserves to have to ride this roller coaster for eternity. Everyone else should avoid riding this rollercoaster.

Boomerang

The Boomerang family roller coaster impresses above all with its curves close to the ground and the small hill above the station. The layout itself resembles a figure of eight, with the two ends running over the loops.

After riding backwards up the lift hill, we descend rapidly and then go full throttle through the station. This is followed by a left-hand bend close to the ground and the aforementioned hill over the station, where a slight airtime sets in. After a right-hand bend under the lift hill, there is a hill over the first bend, which has a small bump in the middle. Here we come to a standstill, whereupon the reverse journey begins. A little more leisurely than before, we now make our way back to the station, where the rather pleasant ride comes to an end.

Atlantis, Splash Battle und Toffifee Gold Mine

Directly opposite the Boomerang children’s rollercoaster is the SBF Visa Rafting Atlantis, which – with the exception of a few tame rapids – is more like a calm water ride. Right next door, there are two more water rides with a much higher degree of wetness: Splash Battle and the Toffifee Gold Mine log flume.

Śmiejżelki Energuś

The family roller coaster Śmiejżelki Energuś is located directly at the entrance to the theme park. After a short curve and the subsequent lift hill, we immediately take a steep curve with a subsequent upward helix to the left, pass through a short valley and then ride through a wide right-hand curve near the station. Over a hill, we cross the route we have just travelled, whereupon we lose some height in another helix. This is followed by a left-hand bend, after which the braking section awaits. After one lap, the ride is already over.

Hyperion

The Hyperion roller coaster, which runs prominently alongside the theme park’s car park, characterises Energylandia like no other roller coaster. The Hyper Coaster from Intamin impresses with its 77 metres in height and the large out & back layout, which becomes more twisted towards the end of the ride.

The ride on Hyperion begins with the fairly fast lift hill, after which we immediately take on a descent of 82 metres. This is followed by two wonderful airtime hills, where we turn to the side on the crest of the second one and initiate the oversized dive drop. The rest of the route then takes us over several hills close to the ground before we take on another airtime hill. From then on, the route leads us through a large overbanked turn and immediately through a series of hills and curves close to the ground. With plenty of steam, we then race over another classic airtime hill before we are led into the braking section after a climb.

Hyperion is a really good roller coaster, which is characterised above all by the curves close to the ground after the big dive drop. The ride is extremely fast and – with the exception of the rear outside seats, which have an interesting swinging behaviour – absolutely worth experiencing.

Dragon Zone

The Dragon Zone is a medieval themed area on the other side of the access road to the theme park, which can be reached via a tunnel. In addition to the two family roller coasters Draken and Frida, the park’s large Ferris wheel and the RMC hybrid roller coaster Zadra are also located here.

Frida

The Dragon Zone also has its family roller coaster from Vekoma. However, the layout itself is unique in Europe, even though it is one of the most frequently copied Dutch-made installations and was built a total of 16 times in 2017 alone. The major customer in this case is the French company Carrefour, which ordered the rides for its Transmart shopping centres in Indonesia.

As in East Asia, the route first takes us to a height of 13 metres, whereupon we hurtle down a steep bend. This is immediately followed by a wide helix to the right, which then turns into an equally wide helix to the left. After a short turn to the right and a short turn to the left, we immediately find ourselves in the station of the ride. This is followed by a second lap on the family roller coaster, which is quite nice overall.

Zadra

The Zadra roller coaster is the largest roller coaster built by RMC to date. While many of the IBox Track Coasters have breathed new life into existing wooden roller coasters, Zadra is a completely new installation. Accordingly, the ride is more comparable to the Goliath roller coaster from the American theme park Six Flags Great America.

After climbing the 62.8 metre high lift hill, we are ready to go. With plenty of momentum, we are pulled towards the ground and immediately over a wave close to the ground. After a steep curve, the path leads us back towards the lift hill and immediately into the Zero-G stall, where we remain upside down for a few seconds and experience a very fine feeling of weightlessness. Back in an upright sitting position, the path immediately leads us behind the station, where we are first turned 90° to the right in an airtime hill before exiting it in a left turn. After a right-hand bend close to the ground, a classic airtime hill follows, which allows us to skilfully glide out of the seat. Shortly afterwards, we dive into the rafters in a zero-G roll. A steep turn is immediately followed by two smaller airtime bumps. A short turn then takes us to the other side of the wooden structure, where another zero-G roll awaits us. Shortly afterwards, we reach the braking section of the ride.

Zadra is a really good rollercoaster, although it is surprisingly gentle by RMC standards. Instead of being mercilessly sent from one airtime hill to the next at a rapid pace, the ride takes much more time – the pacing of the ride is therefore not quite as insane as on other rides, which also makes the ride itself feel much more rounded. It is a pleasure to get on here again and again, although this is made much more difficult if the shortcut at the lockers is closed during the course of the day and you have to walk through the overly long queue again as a result.

Aqualantis

The Aqualantis themed area shows once again how well Energylandia can realise themed areas when they try. In addition to a large number of rides from Zamperla, including the Disk’o Coaster Tidal Wave Twister, the area is particularly impressive with its two roller coasters Ekipa Light Explorers and Abyssus.

Ekipa Light Explorers

As every type of rollercoaster at Energylandia has to be built at least twice, there is also a Family Boomerang from the manufacturer Vekoma in this area. While the Boomerang roller coaster is rather compact, the track on Ekipa Light Exploreres takes you across the lake, with several small turns along the way.

Abyssus

Abyssus is basically the same roller coaster as Formula, only longer and bigger. After a rather leisurely launch, the track immediately leads us into a right-hand bend and over numerous turns with small airtime moments and wonderfully smooth curve changes before we reach the actual launch section. Here we are accelerated to the maximum speed of 100 km/h. We immediately ride up an interesting-looking hill, on the top of which we experience some really great airtime. Unfortunately, the descent is a little trimmed. Nevertheless, we cross the subsequent valley with a lot of pressure, as well as the following loop. An extremely fast right-hand bend then leads us into an airtime hill, whereupon the prominently placed Batwing at the entrance to the ride is initiated. This is travelled through very quickly and is the highlight of the ride. After a large turn and an airtime hill, a fairly flat corkscrew follows, which then leads us into a heavily banked airtime hill. After a fairly fast helix, there is one last quick turn, which then leads us into the braking section of the ride.

Abyssus is a really fine rollercoaster with a great layout and a very long track. Unfortunately, however, the ride is located at the very end of the theme park in a cul-de-sac, which will only be resolved at some point by the candy-themed area that has been under construction for years. As a result, you might want to think twice about whether you actually want to take the long walk to the rollercoaster or whether you would rather take a ride or two on Hyperion and Zadra.

Pictures Energylandia

Conclusion Energylandia

Energylandia is quite a pleasant theme park and home to many attractions. Accordingly, my image of the park is not necessarily the best, as apart from the very good roller coasters Abyssus, Formula, Hyperion and Zadra, there is also a lot of junk around. Two more roller coasters are currently being built, one of which will once again be a family roller coaster by Vekoma. The large number of very similar roller coasters does the park no favours, nor do the very extensive grounds and the miserably long queues. In addition, the division of the theme park into two parts creates a less homogeneous overall impression.


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