Europe 04/25 – Walibi Holland

Holland then. Was last here the year of Untamed, and had one of the worst park experiences of the era. It was all Halloweens fault.

Day 2 – Walibi Holland

So came back again expecting the worst, again. Turned out to be another great day. Something seems to have changed, felt like the place had matured a bit. Good queues, efficient sneaky single rider opportunities, better layout now they’ve opened up the new area. A great time all round.

Took a spin on Untamed first, anticipating the crowds to head towards the newness instead.

This paid off, with staff allowing stay in your seat extra laps until a station wait had time to build. Another plus point.

I was kind of ambivalent about Untamed on my first encounter with it. No doubt it was a top tier ride, RMCs always were at that point in time. But its reputation for me was somewhat marred by both the poor circumstances under which it was experienced, and being on the tail end of a year riding multiple other excellent RMCs.

Given that time to breathe, I was quickly reminded of how excellent it really is. I think visually it’s got better with age and once it warmed up it was a proper wild thing, just like the plants around it.

Extreme airtime galore, though I still think it misses a few beats with the other faffier moments in between the hills. In trying to come up with these wacky shapes, not everything lands, so I stand by my original positioning of it amongst RMCs, almost dead in the middle of the pack, which is still world class and wonderful.

Knowing nothing other than the names Walibi Holland and #1 Eat My Dust, I expected some gaudy nightmare of a children’s coaster but instead got this.

The little area they’ve put it in seems to be done really nicely and it definitely helped that mature feeling I alluded to earlier. Making this park feel more classically European again. Tranquil, tasteful and trees.

Still not convinced by Goliath‘s new look, though it’s been quite a long time now apparently. Walking straight onto it was great, and it still packs a punch. Simple, effective, better than its American counterparts. What a top three this park has.

Would #2 & #3 Yoy enter into that conversation? No it would not.

This ride type has become so cursed, and it’s doing no favours to the company that was the gold standard for enthusiast coasters for the last 10-15 years.

It’s a shame, there was a time when RMC could open literally anything and it was a unanimous ‘I must move the earth to ride this, it will be an absolute contender’. Just 5 years ago, the prospect of any park in the world having THREE RMCs would have instantly made it more Mecca than Cedar Point. Since laughing at the face on the front of the Jersey Devil and then Wonder Woman literally falling apart in front of my eyes, suddenly I don’t care any more. I went into Yoy with low expectations, and they were spot on.

The most fun thing about it, for me, was the Twisted Colossus 2.0 lift hill. The lifts are programmed to make a duel happen, and try even harder to do so. This results in some amusing exchanges of one train accelerating, overshooting, then holding back, then the other doing the same, in a silly little feedback loop. It’s character and sure passes the time.

So it’s a shame they just ride so poorly isn’t it. Awkward seating, stupid shoulder straps that are uncomfortable and then fall off (so, what’s the point?), making you have to think about adjusting them mid-ride instead of just enYoying* yourself.

*I can’t take credit for this one, I caught someone in the queue saying ‘sit back, and enYoy’ and feel obliged to spread their genius.

Anyway I’m meant to be reviewing the ride. The green side just rattles you around and not in a good way. The airtime is stunted, the layout wasn’t that interesting and I don’t know, there’s something about having to hold yourself in that awkward position and sort of concentrate on not getting a headache that made the duelling aspect almost a complete miss for me. It wasn’t thrilling to see another train dance around, the high-five element hasn’t yet become an established hit with the crowd and there’s a weird loss of communal spirit in it being single file. It just all kinda happened.

Admittedly they had some technical issues and one side wasn’t running half the time anyway, but this felt like no big loss. It has none of the ‘oh my god, I need this to duel and be lifechanging’ aura of Twisty C. Probably because there’s no ‘oh my god, my thighs have turned to dust’ either.

What else can I moan about? Ah, just the Raptor model itself.. what’s happened to it? I rode Railblazer back when it wasn’t a wreck and there’s just something about that prototype layout. It really pops, it really lends reason for the ride type to exist. The ridiculously steep drops and airtime, the breakneck pace that made it look otherworldly from offride, the weird fast unbanked corners and laterals.
None of those elements that to me, defined the very essence of the Raptor, have made it into the future designs and it leaves me wondering why do they exist now, other than to be cheap? As I said to the Devil, they now only do all the things a regular RMC could just do better, the fact that it’s single rail adds nothing but discomfort and a lazy highest, tallest, biggest claim.

Positives? The blue side was quite fun. To chill was actually better than to thrill. For me it’s a victim of poor advertising (Thirteen, rahhh!), though probably my fault for not paying any attention to the advertising. I thought it would be a lot more ‘family’, but it’s not. Without wobbling over your shoulder straps upside down, you get a bit more chance to take it in, feel some airtime, get some wind in your hair. It’s alright, it’s alright.

Oh and the tag line is lame. Ride the other side… Feels like an old man rubbing his legs, standing up from a bench and saying ‘welp, guess I’ll ride the other side now..’ (in an American accent for some reason). Purely as an obligation, not because you want to. Oh wait, that’s this hobby. Nailed it.

Sorry, the structure of that review was just a horrible ramble. Tl;dr Mecalodon wins.

You know what I do like? Lost Gravity. On the subject of prototypes that defined their niche – this.
This.

Vicious, vicious moments in those comfy ass winged seats. That drop, that speed hill, that Speed: the ride hill. That crazy little bump right before the last corner that I always forget exists. If Eurofighters were good, they’d be this. It’s weird to me that the comfort took a turn for the worse by the time Voltron came around, but there’s a lot of manufacturers in that boat right now it seems.

Sucks that the shop is gone for it. Always loved the ‘ask me about Lost Gravity’ shirt. Please do.

Also that photo was taken from the Ferris Wheel, if you hadn’t noticed.

Meaning we rode the Ferris Wheel, woo.

And that’s that. Great days, great parks, some great rides and a cheeky +4.