China 04/18 – Quancheng Euro Park
Had made a phone call a couple of days prior to a park with a new S&S launch coaster and found out that it wasn’t yet open, so that’s yet another of the reasons I ended up at the previous Fantawild and was in no particularly hurry to get to the next base camp for the trip (Jinan), where the only remaining destiation of interest was…
Day 4 – Quancheng Euro Park
Yeah, it’s that place.
Anyone can cook.
First impressions weren’t great, being told that several coasters were down and the rest had some faffy time slots going on.
The somewhat inspired main street area was a total construction site, so had to access the rest of the park through some weird side room that was anything but professional looking.
This kicks you out in the new family area they’ve got going on. It’s themed to Holland and plays German music, so a little of that Euro spark seems to be working its way into the park at least.
A relocated kids coaster is now here and though the sign has no rules beyond ‘1 adult per car’, we were told no adults allowed. Having done one 2 days ago with 2 adults in a car, what a dumb rule.
This indoor coaster was closed for some reason.
Looks fine to me.
According to some commentary on the train ride much later in the day, theyre getting 2 new coasters in here. Not hopeful.
Battle of Blue Fire was closed until later in the day for ‘maintenance’. This maintenance involved pumping empty trains out every couple of minutes for several hours which, for China, was rather impressive.
Seems strange though, as the park was so dead, once it actually opened, it only really operated for about an hour before no one went on it again and it stopped running.
Will get to the ride later.
First thing actually open was the ‘Family Coaster-Medium’. A Mack Youngstar inspired ride with the usual imaginative name.
Hilarity came into play here as you must wear a mandatory padded green jacket to ride. This protects you from the not much going on that the ride has to offer.
Bit of theming, bit of shelter from the scorching heat of the day, wasn’t too bad actually. Couple of near misses and accidental wonky air time moments.
A subtle nod to Europa Park on the walls. I wore my Europa Park shirt to this place, hope someone got the joke.
From here, entered another indoor section where some kiddie flat rides used to be. Found them later in the new area.
SLC was opening later.
Didn’t fancy a splash.
Spinner #1 was opening later. (No picture for some reason, so have a closed water ride instead).
Animal Crisis. The deceiving exterior might have you believe this ride was inspired by the Madagascar films, but it’s a bit darker than that. Once inside, there’s lots of images and stories on the walls of an apocalyptic future in which humanity is facing a crisis of some sorts.
That and glowy tunnels.
Once you’re in the cars, which use Universal Studio’s Spiderman ride technology, the attraction involves following 3 superheroes on screen (ice shooting woman, fire shooting man and lightning shooting man) around various scenes fighting various monsters (big water snake, big land snake, hybrid man-spider in a lab that produces gargoyles, big godzilla boss fight).
Interspersed with this is some general city destruction and, to fit the name in there somewhere, seemingly random appearances from zoo animals such as a herd of rhinos sliding across a fountain courtyard with poor graphics.
The characters win in the end, get statues erected in recognition of their heroics, and you get various treasures and gems shot at your face in 3D for tagging along.
I actually quite liked it. The quality of the ride was a bit lacking compared to the real deals, but it’s on a similar scale to the earlier Fantawild iterations and I thought it was a decent effort. There’s a couple of good physical sets thrown in, whilst you’re spinning madly between scenes. One particular 3D screen effect as you head down a tunnel and burst into another scene was rather visually striking and effective.
A refreshing mine train experience was next. Finally, a unique layout. Not even two lifts.
The ride had a couple of rough tracking moments, but also got a little intense in some parts with some sharply banked curves as it wound its way down the mountain. Kinda good, if only for being different.
The Motorbike coaster was closed. Half glad because I hate those things, but at the same time, spite!
Spinner #2 was open. Same thing again, not great.
Having completed the first lap of the park, found some tigers out the back of the new kids area.
They’ve tried to add a a sense of danger to the exhibit.
But it doesn’t look like the tigers are interested.
Sat down and had a snack while waiting for other things to open.
There’s another building like Animal crisis on the opposite side of the park. The whole place is quite symmetrical in its execution. I wondered what it housed and it turned out to be another flying simulator. Might as well give it a go later.
Got to Blue Fire as it finally opened and took a couple of laps.
The launch section is a bit of a different experience to the original, being concrete, some blue lights and pop music.
The first installation of this ride has faded into obscurity somewhat in my mind (except the theme, which I love, and sang to myself on the first lap here), so it was nice to run a little refresher course on it.
It’s actually better than I remembered. I had often associated it with being solid fun with a lack of air time or significant force (other than the last killer inversion), but there’s definitely some there when you’re snapping in and out of the mid course brake run and on the twisty hill through the loop.
The inversions range from good to great, it is more forceful in places than I gave it credit for, a solid package.
Did Global Journey, the flying simulator from there. All I remember from this one is wondering how the ride system worked, with the pods all starting horizontal but being hooked into what looked like a permanent ceiling with tiles and lightning fixtures. The seats then somehow shifted into the vertical position, but not far enough apart so you could see lots legs dangling above your head. Film was eh, I guess.
Stuff inside the building about the park? I can see Hulk in there and maybe even a 4D coaster. What else can you spot?
Oh no, the SLC. It looks so awful off-ride. The green padded jackets are back on this one to protect you.
Didn’t make me feel any safer.
It was a survival experience. Nothing too lasting, but still rather grim.
Had another weird moment of upside-downess on the stupidly shaped second inversion, so it’s almost becoming a regular feature on these, as is losing its speed at a ridiculous rate from just how badly it judders around the track.
Spinner #1 was open and forcing people to sit on opposite corners to reduce the spin. Even the German manufacturers can’t pull off fairground layouts like this decently and this one just rode particularly poorly.
All available creds complete, took another couple of laps on Blue fire before they gave up for the day again.
Wishing Lost Gravity was here too.
Went to Gods Station to find out about the train. Had 40 minutes to wait, so thought we may as well catch it from the beginning of the circuit at the entrance to the park.
Wandered past the kids coaster to see if staffing had changed. It hadn’t.
The train arrived and it goes round the perimeter of the park grounds, which are actually much larger than the ride sections would make it appear.
There’s a cave on the first corner of the park where you can see more tigers being lazy.
Located on the far edges are 2 mountainous sections. This one is the fiery one.
You can walk to them, but it’s a long way, it’s hot, and there isn’t much in them for now except a few dinosaurs.
Then out the back they’re apparently working on a massive zoo expansion.
Then there’s the icy mountain. Again you could walk here, but it’s a long way, it’s hot, and there isn’t much in them for now except a few ice age creatures.
Third station by the SLC was a ghost town. Wonder why.
There’s another tunnel section on the final corner, but I only remember it containing bricks.
The spiting Motorbike coaster.
I like this model of the park at the entrance. Shows a good scale of ambition. Shame it hasn’t quite come to fruition yet with a good proportion of the attractions being closed or on a very limited service. I doubt things will improve in the future as parks like this tend to slip into a perpetual state of laziness, doing the bare minimum with what they have on offer and simply hoping guests will put up with it anyway.
Somewhat satisfied, called it a day.
Day 5