China 09/17 – Happy Valley Wuhan

Yet another high speed train took us down to Wuhan from Zhengzhou. The next morning we managed to find a regular bus that conveniently stopped directly outside the hotel and went to the park of the day.

This all seems somewhat familiar.
They were doing a hard sell on golf buggy rental at the entrance today, because it was hot and the “park was big”. Speed wasn’t really required, however, with the staggered ride openings and lack of guests around. I’d quite like to give one a go some day to add some extra comedy to a cred run, but it’s crazily expensive (comparable to the entrance ticket) even in a country where you expect to feel well off. Add it to the bucket list.

Day 6 – Happy Valley Wuhan

#1 Monte Carlo Racetrack

Oh good, another mine train clone. That makes 4 this week. At least we’ve managed to pull off a different theme on each one.

#2 OCT Thrust SSC1000

I’ll take this clone any day though. Another dose of S&S launched magnificence.
With a fresh comparison, I think I’ve settled on preferring this layout over Beijing’s.

It’s just a more fluid sequence of elements, each one has full purpose and brutalises you with maximum efficiency.

It rode better than Bullet Coaster, but isn’t quite as nice to look at, so that’s a harder one to call.

Never found a dark ride I was looking for. Most staff didn’t remember it, one had a vague recollection of it being in the ‘desert area’, but the only building there contains an upcharge ice house (ain’t no Harbin), so I assume it’s gone.

#3 Dauling Dragon (Blue)

On to the next woodie of the week. I was half expecting it, so wasn’t massively put out by the fact they were only running one side. The red side was in ‘maintenance’ all day. But one non-duelling dragon is better than no duelling dragon.

This was good. Probably the weakest Gravity woodie of the week, but that’s not saying much as it had been an incredible week so far, it’s still well up there in the grand scheme of things. I think the duelling aspect could have elevated it slightly more, but it’s still fun to watch the way the tracks cross over each other. The first drop of the other side looked more interesting with its weird s-bend and overlapping of the blue drop.

The highfive element was cool, but not as killer as the antisocial highfive from the previous day.
It had some very good moments throughout, but the train runs out of steam a bit towards the end.

Woodies and locals anecdote 4: Had one particularly hilarious run in which every single person on the train around me was doing the weird ‘head bowed can’t cope with the forces’ thing again and one man appeared to completely pass out for the duration of the ride. It certainly kicked his arse.

#4 Hidden Anaconda

Opposite issue with the Skyloop here, not enough people wanted to go on it. The staff were amazing and managed to rally enough guests with their microphones so that there were enough numbers to run it for me, all while singing along to Jay Chou songs.

Got lucky again with that splash timing.

Chinese Formule X was spiting. Bit disappointed as it was my favourite Xcar layout at the time, but at least it wasn’t the star attractions. It’s amazing to think that a ride of that quality is way down the pecking order in this park’s lineup.

This here be a ‘pirate themed walkthrough’. Except that it isn’t. It starts off with a single pirate figure at a ship’s wheel. Then there’s an abandoned minivan. Then it’s pretty much the same nonsense as all the other haunted walkthroughs. What makes this weirder is that they also have a generic looking haunted walkthrough just around the corner. Didn’t bother with that.

Overflying Yangtze is a flying simulator. Quite liked this one. It had a good waiting area, was completely empty so only running the middle car for maximum immersion, and there was mildly interesting scenery to look at. With dragons.

Every park is made better by dinosaurs. Except Fantawild Adventure.

It started to rain a little around mid afternoon, the first time the weather had shown any sign of change from maximum sun spite. The park respectably soldiered on for a good while longer and I managed to grab a final lap on both Dauling Dragon and OCT Thrust in the rain before it got too heavy and they all threw in the towel for the day. Better than Nagashima Spite Land.

Had a good time here overall. They’ve potentially got the best coaster lineup in the chain, if they actually had it all running. It does however lack a lot in impressive theming compared to the others parks.

The rain ruined any plans of mopping up creds in the city that afternoon, so resorted to enjoying the ‘local sights’ around some malls.

Day 7

China 09/17 – Fantawild Resort Zhengzhou
China 09/17 – Hefei Wanda Theme Park

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