Europe 08/21 – Magic Park Land, OK Corral, Funny Land + Magic World
Day 9
Today began with a trip to what could quite possibly be the worst park in France, Magic Park Land.
I’ve seen some truly awful excuses for car parks in my life but Magic Park Land’s attempt is hands down the worst ever, it was like driving on the surface of the moon. Honestly it was impossible to not enter at least one of the thousands of potholes while dodging the literal boulders in the way. I’ve no idea how we managed to escape without any lasting damage.
Already at odds with the place, things were only about to go even further downhill.
You’ve heard it all before, long queue, in the sun, barely moving. This time though it was even longer still, featured frequent queue jumping and worst of all took place in the shadow of a Pinfari. Are we sure this is worth it?
Storm
And straight to that Pinfari we went…
When I rode this it was named Strom, now that its name has been spelt correctly this jerky, rattly, piece of crap coaster has absolutely nothing going for it.
Formula 1
Upon arriving at Formula 1, an off the shelf Fabbri spinning mouse, we discovered that the park operates some of their attractions like Jacquou Parc. Which in this case means 2 things, badly and that they close rides an hour after you’ve entered the park to have lunch.
Thankfully this time we just beat the cut off point to enter the queue. Not so thankfully we’d be forced to watch shady operations from an operator who clearly only had his mind set on his upcoming lunch, while the coaster structure itself was on the verge of collapsing any second.
Shark Trip
Once again we just beat the closing cut off point for the best ride in the park, Shark Trip.
Now let’s get out of here.
OK Corral
To a much more exciting place.
If the picture above and park name don’t give it away, OK Corral is a family theme park dedicated to the Old West.
The park managed to win my trust before we’d even entered, when they agreed to give me a refund on the spot after one too many tickets were purchased through a misunderstanding. I’m certain very few parks would react in this way so that’s major bonus points to OK Corral.
Speaking of bonus points, OK Corral is a visual delight. The Western theme is solid throughout and that coupled with the park’s location surrounded by mountains mean there’s always something nice to look at.
Gold Rush
The first coaster to check out was one I was excited about.
Gold Rush is a Gerstlauer family shuttle coaster and it would be my first time getting to ride one of these rare beasts.
But first, sadly, OK Corral couldn’t help itself and made quite possibly the strangest entry into the medical mask saga so far.
We were waiting at the airgates in Gold Rush’s nicely presented station. All 3 of us were wearing our go to masks we had been wearing all trip. Some people in the station weren’t even wearing a mask. Then the operator comes up to Heartline and tells him that his mask isn’t good enough and he needs to change it…
Let that sink in. Some people weren’t even wearing masks, Heartline’s wife was wearing the exact same mask as him, but no he has to go change his, only him. It still makes my head hurt now…
Anyway back to the coaster, it’s really good fun, twisty, fast paced and with nice pops of air. Gerstlauer family coasters are some of the best out there and I’m happy to discover that their shuttle models are just as good.
Pioneer
Up next was yet another rare coaster type I was excited to check out.
Pioneer is one of only three custom Zierer ESCs in the World.
What makes this rare coaster even more unique though is its seating arrangements. In keeping with the park’s Western theme, the front 3 rows of the coaster are ridden on horseback, while the rear 3 rows are ridden in chariots. While I honestly preferred riding in the chariots, there is no denying that for both visual and re-rideability reasons this was a genius move taken by the park.
No matter where you sit though, Pioneer is great fun and I’d really like to see more custom Zierer ESCs pop up around the World.
Serpent Hopi
To complete OK Corral’s coaster line up we next headed over to Serpent Hopi, the park’s Zierer Tivoli.
Mystères de l’Ouest
Then it was time to check out the park’s only dark ride offering, Mystères de l’Ouest. While nothing special, this ghost train themed to the Old West did manage to make this coward jump a few times, so I don’t feel in any position to bad mouth it.
The ride is in the building to the left of this picture.
The nice lady at admissions who helped me sort out my refund told us that we needed to check out one of the many shows the park run daily, so with time to kill before tonight’s Summer Funfair we took her up on that offer.
This is a view of the show arena, do you see what I mean about there always being something nice to look at now?
The show then…
It was certainly interesting…
First you got a fun and horse stunt heavy introduction to the bad guy Indians. Then you got a fun introduction to the good guy Cowboys. Then there was a fun and stunt filled battle between the 2, where all the Cowboys died and then the show was over…
No epic Cowboy revenge scene? In a park themed to Cowboys? No? Alright then.
I enjoyed it but man was the ending strange. How many of you would want me dead if I said I preferred it to Raveleijn? Sorry wait, no, that’s spoilers.
With that our visit to OK Corral was over and I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed it. Heartline always had this park listed as something special but to me it was the surprise hit I desperately needed after the immense letdown that was Magic Park Land.
Funny Land
Next was a quick stop off at a place named Funny Land in order to ride their Wacky Worm.
The park is a free to enter, jutons (tokens) to ride affair, making it perfect for a speed run.
Crazy Chenille
The Wacky Worm ended up being the rarer and better model with the diagonal lifthill. These models from experience offer stupid unexpected airtime as you launch over the drop and Crazy Chenille was no exception to this rule.
Magic World
The final park of the day was Magic World and was yet another Summer Funfair to add to our count.
Mouse Coaster
With another Reverchon spinning mouse. This one however I forgot to take a photo of.
Banzai
Banzai was next on the list and what a strange contraption it was.
The coaster is essentially a 100 foot tall butterfly and really is an experience of 2 halves. The honestly unnerving climb to the top, before turning into 2 minutes of endlessly rocking back and forth.
Magic Pomme
The final coaster of the night was, you guessed it, another Wacky Worm.
Thank you for reading, click here for day 10 of my trip report, where we visit another 3 Summer Funfairs, Azur Park, Lunapark Fréjus and Antibes Land.