This bird crept up on me real fast, seemingly out of nowhere. I don’t recall paying much attention to the fact that Finland were getting an Intamin multi-launch on the side of a hill, either through spoiler avoision or lack of interest. And then suddenly we were booked to go!
The more I learned, the more I discovered how excited I perhaps should have been. This ain’t no Taron layout, it has much more of an ‘Intamin trying to make Helix’ kinda vibe. For me, that’s huge. But did it work?
I admired the styling of the ride, from entrance to station. Very subtle theming, nothing outlandish, following the tracks of the big bird along the pathway. It stares at you intensely from several screens throughout the indoor switchbacks, judging you. As you approach the station there’s a very average ride theme playing and statements like ‘ride the wings of Taiga’ coming over the audio, teaching us that we’d been pronouncing it wrong (still do). A large mural decorates the far wall in an otherwise unassuming loading area.
Intamin’s best rolling stock greets the riders with a stern look. I just love the seriousness of this beast. Like it’s on a mission, got a point to prove. Open seating, dangling feet, a cushy lap bar from above, this is how most coasters should be experienced. As we pulled forward onto the first launch track (not pictured), I had no idea what to expect.
A brief punchy launch carries the train into this first element, which provided a wonderful surprise in the form of many unusual forces. It twists seemingly in the wrong direction, hanging you out to the right side before tugging away and under to the left, like a zero-G that decides to turn a corner halfway through. Fantastic start, I’m a sucker for inventive inversions.
This moment leads you down into the lowest section of all, with a satisfyingly strong burst of positive force, before twisting and turning into the second launch. This leads to my biggest (slight) criticism of the ride. Very little has been traversed so far and so the pace is slightly off as we hit the next burst of LSM acceleration. Even the way it enters this launch felt slighly clunky somehow, it doesn’t dive into it with the grace of Taron, just awkwardly adjusts some banking and you’re off, rattling away with a slightly muted sense of power.
Into this huge, oddly-shaped top hat. And now things kick up a gear. When located in the back of the train, the drop out of this hill provides some excellent sideways ejection, reminiscent of distant cousins like the Intamin wing coasters and this makes me very happy.
Before there’s time to recover from that particularly special moment, my biggest surprise of the whole experience hits. It turns out Intamin are making stall inversions like RMC now. The execution of this floaty feeling, with the visuals of neighbouring ride Tulireki directly underneath and what we affectionately dubbed ‘Karnan’s tower’ just off to the left (right?) is simply glorious.
Before there’s time to recover from that second special moment, a violent speed hill is squeezed in before the next big inversion, the one that wraps itself around the starter element. This one provides yet another satisfying mix of forces and ensures all the upside-downy moments are wonderfully varied, just how I like it.
With that already world class sequence of elements behind us, the bulk of the twists and turns of the layout begin and importantly these are punctuated by several very strong bursts of airtime. This slither over the station has a particularly forceful exit, lurching down the side of a warehouse with a surprisingly out of control feeling.
This section alone puts Taiga in a league of it’s own when it comes to this ride type for me, with so much more contrast in the forces, even if there’s less theming to dodge. It goes on for an age and then ends with a final standout inversion, slowly rolling guests over one last time just to mess with their heads.
There’s some nice little extra touches on the way out of the ride like the ceiling height observation window in the exit shop from which I could just watch the train zipping about all day. The bird footprints follow you back out again here too. Straight back round for another lap. Overall I absolutely adored Taiga, so much so that we came back for a second morning marathon. It was clearly a top ten ride for me, but where would it sit in the almighty list, amongst all that fierce competition?
The two important questions for a multi launch obsessive like myself, particularly out here in Europe where we seem to hold the monopoly right now: ‘is it better than Taron?’ Yes, by miles. It does so many more interesting things and there’s barely a comparison in it for me. I’m not in it for just the launches, I’m in it for everything else on offer, namely airtime and cool inversions. ‘Is it better than Helix?’ No, of course not. The pacing between the two launches alone stopped that from happening for me. It also doesn’t have the airtime moments and aside from that it’s just not as sprawling or ambitious as a true terrain layout. The location and interactions are great, but not in the same league.
What it did do is remind me how truly special these multi launch coasters can be. I still can’t get enough of that sensation of regaining momentum, with a ride having so much more to give halfway (or perhaps a little early) through the layout, rather than being all downhill (ha) from the first drop. Keep at it Intamin, you’re definitely onto something here.
Name = ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade) Location = Japan – after a Korean overdose fuelling the first major park, I had a bit of a J-Pop phase in 2017, centred around two groups in particular. The music videos aren’t anywhere near as thematically inspiring, so there was opportunity to go a bit more freestyle on decoration here. Features include the seafront/beach, a replica of Tokyo Tower as an observation deck and a shopping mall (complete with indoor and outdoor rollercoaster of course).
Check out the videos below to see some of the rides in action, or download the map to explore the park.
Mack Rides multi launch coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 175ft Length: 7,687ft Max. Speed: 65Mph Inversions: 7 Excitement: 5.03 Intensity: 11.52 Nausea: 7.69
An obviously very Helix inspired Mack multi launch coaster, this ride uses two angled launch sections to keep momentum as it negotiates the hillside through a combination of every element under the sun (just how I like it). There’s a slightly jarring pause before each one as I opted to utilise active block sections and have multiple trains on circuit simultaneously. (I could cheat and say that it’s intentional as the original (Manta @ Sea World San Diego) does this anyway).
Racing Intamin multi-launch coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 115ft Length: 6,250ft Max. Speed: 77Mph Excitement: 12.06 Intensity: 9.55 Nausea: 6.74
How do you make something like Taron more visually intense? Make a racing version through a bustling city. I also threw in a bucketload more airtime because that’s how I personally believe something like this should ride. These Intamin multi launches were built before the game had updated the booster sections to have a bit more acceleration power, hence the classic chain noise on each launch.
B&M inverted coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 125ft Length: 3,448ft Max. Speed: 57Mph Inversions: 6 Excitement: 7.87 Intensity: 9.77 Nausea: 7.79 Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvD3CHA48pA
I’ve always dreamed of having more full scale rollercoasters built indoors (the world can do better than a Vekoma looper surely). Something like a B&M invert with very high intensity and disorientating inversions, in the dark with visual effects seems like something that could take the ride type to the next level for me (further evidence to support this after riding Black Mamba at midnight).
RMC wooden coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 145ft Length: 3,963ft Max. Speed: 65Mph Inversions: 3 Excitement: 11.04 Intensity: 8.80 Nausea: 5.44 Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhZ5BjwJ7cg
I was beyond excited the other week when a new track type was released for OpenRCT2 – the RMC hybrid. There’s still some limitations on the track pieces available, but this previous build was the first of mine that I was able to seemlessly convert. As useful as some of the other updates and features are, I feel that increasing players abilities to create more varied content in terms of ride hardware has been rather overlooked until this point, holding the game back for all but the most innovative, or perhaps the realism purists. As the trains themselves have existed for years I’ve been fascinated with making this ride type for a good while now, opting for standard twister track with painted rails to provide the desired effect. It’s a great opportunity to make some weird shapes and this one even has a slanted lift hill as a nod to the music video it’s inspired by. Prepare to get cosy with your neighbouring rider.
GCI wooden coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 175ft Length: 5,443ft Max. Speed: 58Mph Excitement: 8.98 Intensity: 9.98 Nausea: 6.11
I love building sprawling terrain GCIs in the game and for me it’s one of the most satisfying processes in coaster building. As this ride is mostly inspired by Python in Bamboo Forest, this hillside in the park is my idea of a coaster paradise, intertwining my two favourite rides in the world (oh, and an RMC next door).
Gerstlauer infinity coaster from my park ‘ファンタスティックパレード (Fantastic Parade)’ More rollercoaster and theme park content (real and otherwise): https://www.heartlinecoaster.com Height: 200ft Length: 4,820ft Max. Speed: 70Mph Inversions: 4 Excitement: 8.69 Intensity: 9.69 Nausea: 6.69 Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiLf1BmmGA
The Maurer Sky Loop style lift hill on this one is an usual choice for me as I usually despise this element in real life, but I like to imagine that it could be pulled off much more comfortably in a Gerstlauer Infinity train and/or with the distracting visuals from atop a building in Tokyo. With the world of citycentre based thrill coasters currently leaving quite a lot to be desired on the design front, my own ideas on how to make the most of the man-made landscape led to this rooftop-bound first half of the layout, which then dives to ground level with a somewhat Kärnan-esque second section.
I first visited Blackpool in October 2014 and it has become an annual pilgrimage ever since. There’s something about the laid back atmosphere, the sheer quantity of attractions and the ridiculously cheap wristbands that sets the place apart from all the other UK parks for me. While I have little love for the high hassle, low reward experiences I get from the rest of the British theme park scene these days, with the Pleasure Beach there really is no excuse and nothing to lose.
I had very different tastes back on that first day, having not yet embarked on the wonderful world of what I do now. For some reason I remember declaring Infusion was my favourite (steel) in the park and was the only one of the group to really enjoy Grand National. Having suffered through at least another 15 Infusions across the world since then, there is nothing but regret tied to that memory. I regret Nash for a different reason that we’ll come on to shortly.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is Valhalla. It was then, and remains to this day (2020 overhaul permitting), one of my favourite dark rides for the sheer ferocity and insanity of what’s involved. The real reason for the pilgrimage always hinged on the chance to subject our bodies to copious amounts of abuse by repeatedly riding the wettest ride in the world, in a t-shirt, in November, on the North West coast of England. I still plan to visit before the end of this season (2020 permitting), but things won’t be the same without it.
Nothing else in the park could ever touch those experiences, particularly as the rollercoaster lineup ain’t great, to be honest. I change my mind on the middle grouping of these all the time, though I will attempt to read between the blurred lines and rank them today, again, as I need something to fill the gap in the park page for this fantastic place. Here we go.
#11 Grand National
I love a violent ride and I really liked this one the first time. Possibly the second time? I can’t remember which year it tried to kill me but I can vividly remember everything else about how horrible those moments were. Everyone experiences things differently and I’d just like to emphasise that none of the following is exaggerated in any way. As soon as we took the first drop, the train began to negotiate the entire track with such terribly specific (possibly even resonant) jolts that I could literally feel my internal organs bouncing up and down out of sync with the rest of my body. It wasn’t just painful, it was deeply unpleasant. I have never felt anything quite like this before or since and it was so jarring that I truly believed it might have ended my hobby, right there. I could only assume at the time that the ride had caused a serious medical issue and insisted that we sat in the nearby cafe for a long while, as I contemplated what had just happened and how terrible my insides felt. A terrible thought crossed my mind several times – if any ride does that to me again, I’m done with this whole game, there is no alternative. Thankfully, so far, I’m good. For that reason I currently consider Grand National the worst rollercoaster in the world by a colossal margin. There’s tons of rubbish out there and I’ve done a lot of it since, but the worst they can ever do to you is something temporary and, if I was coerced, I would ride them all again, for a laugh. Not Nash. Not ever. I just can’t take the risk.
#10 Infusion
There we go, a complete 180 from my first visit, the top two are now the bottom two. Infusion isn’t actually too bad for a Vekoma SLC and it’s the only one I’ve ever ridden more than once, but it is just that, an SLC. When having to do new ones for the +1 is a chore, why would I ever bother with the local one again?
#9 Blue Flyer
The smallest wooden coaster in the park. It’s cute with those miniature trains, but it doesn’t really do much.
#8 Steeplechase
Everything from here onwards has that distinctive Pleaure Beach charm, a combination of rarity and vintage…ness. Nothing else in the world like Steeplechase exists right now and for that reason alone I’ll never say no to a lap. It’s not a particularly comfortable experience, the seat backs can be rather unforgiving in the bumps, but I do love a good race and it’s always tremendous fun to get into the spirit of the ride, physically and verbally willing your horse forwards. Come on!
#7 Big Dipper
The oldest woodie in Blackpool is an inconsistent beast for me, currently tapering off as the years go by. It has provided me with some great airtime in the first section of hills and I always love the completely unbanked section of laterals, but the rest of it is very hit and miss. I want to go back to the days when everyone rode it standing up, waving canes and wearing top hats, like the video in the station.
#6 Big One
Sitting in the back seat of this old Arrow hyper still puts the fear in me, though like with Big Dipper it seems to become more unjustified as time goes on. Taking the first drop from this position is notorious for the almost dangerous sensation of being whipped round the twist and nearly hitting your head on the support structure, but that’s about the only thrill that it can offer me these days. The remainder of the layout is a hilarious example of how far modern ride design has come as the train negotiates straight lines, the most shallow camelbacks known to man and a few big corners. It used to be brutal, now I just laugh as the big softy trundles and bounces along.
#5 Revolution
There seems very little reason for this ride to do so well, it just feels special. The whole execution is very dated and clunky but also charming and quirky. Revolution makes the humans do all the hard work by climbing to the top of the stairs. This gravity isn’t enough though, we’ll have to launch you forward with a crude block on wheels. Being launched into a drop has it’s perks in the airtime department, if only the train allowed you to experience it with a little more comfort. Of course it gets better backwards, the anticipation steps up a gear and I find myself enjoying it almost a bit too much.
#4 Avalanche
On paper this one ain’t good either, but Avalanche is actually a strong example of the ride type on a global scale. Having now ridden them all, the pacing on this one is top notch, it just keeps building and building, getting more intense as it goes. I’ve only more recently been riding it solo and with only one possible restraint position for the trains, Avalanche really tries to kick me out of the car with some surprisingly out of control moments towards the end.
#3 Nickelodeon Streak
My favourite woodie in the park these days is the orange eyesore. Streak has remained the most consistently thrilling for me over the years, sitting comfortably in the middle of good classic wooden airtime and not sucking all other sensations out of the ride by shaking itself to pieces. It also helps that the seats are like a sofa.
#2 Wild Mouse (defunct)
I’m not going to pretend like I was a huge fan of this before they removed it. The news was a shock, but it didn’t particularly bother me. I do now have the slightest sense that the Mouse would have appealed more to the tastes of current me, rather than the me that rode it in the past. The experience was vicious as anything and would leave seatbelt marks imprinted in places you wouldn’t think were possible. Wild Mouse was the best coaster in the park when it existed, but that wasn’t saying much. I respected it. I never truly loved it.
#1 Icon
And the trade off was oh, so sweet. We got a Mack launch coaster on our own shores. I still can’t quite believe it’s a thing. By far my favourite coaster in the country, the only one I actively seek out annual rerides on (at a minimum) and still can’t get enough of it. Can’t wait to be reunited at the end of the month. Will it be another 20 years ’til the next one?
I’ve often sat and wondered to myself what my favourite Six Flags park is and the truth is that I don’t really have one yet – none of them made a good enough impression on me as an amusement park in it’s own right. They’ve all been just soulless vessels for large quantities of creds (and then some RMC marathons). The phrase ‘have a Six Flags day’ also confuses me, because I haven’t worked out what it’s trying to imply. Give the guest a full day of whatever they feel Six Flags is synonymous with? For me that would be finding a way to dampen your spirits, as no day in their presence has ever gone entirely smoothly.
Thrilling day? Fair enough. Even though 2020 marks my second calendar year of owning their amazingly priced gold season pass, obviously it hasn’t been used at all (extended through 2021 now, yay!) and I’m still well short of the collection. Here’s two different lists and then some maths to try and work out which one I like the most so far. Hopefully with another 9 to go, the format can change and the bar can be set a little higher.
By ride lineup:
#6 Six Flags America
Umm… Wild One! I like Wild One. Great classic woodie. I was going to say the best Vekoma Flyer in the world (like that’s such a good claim) but even that might not be true any more.
#5 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
The RMC, Joker, plus some other one and done stuff. Lots of clones and even Medusa failed to impress me. Best Premier Sky Rocket II in the world though, wahey!
#4 Six Flags New England
The RMC, Wicked Cyclone, plus some generic rerideable stuff like Superman. 2 Boomerangs? Who asked for 2 Boomerangs? (Well even if we did they were both closed).
#3 Six Flags Over Georgia
The RMC, Twisted Cyclone (seeing a pattern here?), plus some generic rerideable stuff like Goliath, plus it has a unique dark ride in Monster Mansion.
#2 Six Flags Great Adventure
My boy El Toro, plus some cool rerideable stuff like Nitro. I’d struggle to name another even amongst 14 coasters. Bring on the Jersey Devil.
#1 Six Flags Magic Mountain
My boy Twisted Colossus, plus some other cool rerideable stuff like Full Throttle and Tatsu. It’s just so easy to fill a day here and I’ve spent 3 already, whereas I think I’d struggle on any of the others with a revisit as they are right now. A clear winner in the ride department.
By least troublesome days:
#6 Six Flags New England
Denied Wicked Cyclone to our face 5 hours before the park was originally due to close and 1 hour before the then amended closing time because they weren’t making money and ‘had to clear the area.’
#5 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Denied me an hour of walk-on Joker time at park opening because I owned the wrong type of season pass. The rest of the day saw the queue at 90 minutes a pop on 1 train op.
#4 Six Flags Magic Mountain
Constantly closing rides here and there, seemingly when they feel like it because supposedly they’ve got enough to keep you occupied. When I said above that I spent 3 days here, I physically had to to get more creds and even now I’m several short. It was a struggle at times, to say the least.
#3 Six Flags Great Adventure
Turned El Toro into a living nightmare by the end of the day through terrible operations. Many things went down many times, but it was just about manageable.
#2 Six Flags Over Georgia
The queues were too big, but we solved that with a flash pass. There were too many waspy things, particularly living in the station of the star attraction. We were spited a couple of B&Ms.
#1 Six Flags America
The woodie was closed for a while, but they fixed it. With hilarious consequences. The rest of the park was a breeze, even when every coaster was closing down for wind regularly. A clear winner in the hassle free department.
If we assign points in reverse order for first to last in each category, this leaves us with:
=3. Six Flags New England with 4 points =3. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom with 4 points 2. Six Flags America with 7 points =1. Six Flags Over Georgia with 9 points =1. Six Flags Great Adventure with 9 points =1. Six Flags Magic Mountain with 9 points
Nice and inconclusive, but at least it’s a good indication as to why I don’t have a favourite yet. Which one will it end up being? My money’s on La Ronde.
There’s an attraction in all the old Oriental Heritage parks called Pear Garden Tour. It’s themed to Chinese Opera and after trying one at my very first Fantawild in Ningbo I have since avoided the building in any park like the plague. It just so happened to be full of the worst guests imaginable, the soundtrack isn’t particularly easy on the ears and it seemed to go on forever. And it’s a shame. The dark ride aspect of it looks incredible, creating a really authentic and atmospheric feel with highly detailed sets full of bustling background imagery on screens, similar to what they pull off in other starattractions.
Enter Fantawild Asian Legend in Nanning. They finally put this ride system to good use with a fresh attempt at the attraction. Meeting in Ha Long Bay uses the same huge trackless vehicles to weave guests through a tale inspired by the Vietnam section of the park.
The whole thing looks fantastic both inside and out. I’ve mentioned before about the ‘waiting areas’ Fantawild has for certain high capacity rides that they choose not to run flat out on most of their empty days and this one was just downright amazing to be in.
My interpretation of the storyline (don’t hold me to this one) was that this guy on screen collects stamps. He was being interviewed about it as part of this preshow and the conversation moves to talking about this beautiful woman depicted on one of them. After boarding the vehicles there’s an introductory room in which the girl from the stamp comes to life and wants to be shown around all the lovely places on these other stamps. The man, of course, enthusiastically obliges and they set off.
The bulk of the ride then consists of joining them on this first date through many wonderful scenes and so much of it looks outstanding. There’s a super immersive section that really stuck with me where the car passes through a food market, the whole vibe and everything down to the smells is just absolutely spot on. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it right now. Quality of the highest order.
Overall it’s just a heart warming tale, a beautiful experience and a far cry from almost anything else in the theme park world. Sometimes we don’t even need thrills and this is the perfect example of why. Here’s a handy guide on how to avoid some Chinese Opera.
Celestial Gauntlet is a Vekoma looping coaster situated at Oriental Heritage Changsha. This new generation of rides from Vekoma has been exciting enthusiasts for a few years now, showing off a new age in their manufacturing skills after being stuck in the rut of their much lamented legacy of Suspended Looping Coasters and Boomerangs. While obviously a massive improvement by comparison, I’m yet to be truly convinced by their journey into the big leagues.
This particular layout has been titled the Hyper Space Warp, named after the original inspiration of Formuła at Energylandia, with the key difference here being the use of a conventional lift hill rather than an LSM launch. Guess what? There’s already another one of these at another Fantawild park, I’ll add it to the to do list.
Having now ridden both this one and it’s Polish Uncle, they are more dissimilar than I originally anticipated. Being a sucker for a lack of spoilers I hadn’t really studied them past the first inversion. While they do follow an identical layout for the most part, where Formuła hits the brakes, Celestial Gauntlet keeps the momentum going for several more hills at the end. Good.
The other significant enhancement you may have already noticed is the theming. The entrance plaza for this ride was stunning and being beckoned by a staff member in a fur cape to slip between the cracks of some magical looking rocks was a great beginning to the experience.
As is often the case in China I was greeted with an entirely empty train once in the station, with more staff members eager to actually run the ride and keep themselves entertained. Vekoma’s latest sit-down trains follow the modern trends of comfy seating with a lap bar that comes over from behind the head. There’s an unfortunate addition to this system in the form of vests however, something I was always sceptical about. Freedom of movement is very important to me on a ride and previous experiences with a similar setup on certain B&M creations had shown me that certain coasters can be inhibited by restraints of this nature.
I’m not sure what the theme to Celestial Gauntlet actually is, but as you crest the lift hill there’s an unusual sound bite that plays from some speakers that involves a lot of people screaming. Are we fighting with the Gods or is it just a cue for what to do on the ride? Who knows. The first drop has a certain punch to it, trying to kick you out of your seat briefly and then being marred by the restraint somewhat.
The following inversion is particularly glorious, giving a satisfyingly sustained moment of hanging riders upside down. I’ve developed a real appreciation for elements like this that actually try to create interesting sensations as opposed to the traditional loops and corkscrews of old, which were just for show really, something to grin and bear with.
This opening sequence is actually the strongest part of the layout and to keep the contrast of forces going, there’s some good positives into a tight banked turn before the most signficant moment of airtime in the layout. Again this hill is good, but could have been better if the human body was able to respond more naturally to it. From this point onwards the ride started to feel a little safe and clinical rather than the out of control nature I was hoping for.
The train bounces between both twisted and banked airtime hills, a couple more inversions and some sharp turns with an impressive flow and pace. It seems well designed and even while on ride, visually, it looks like everything should really deliver. The results were varied though. There seemed to be a bit more style than substance and I found many of the forces just weren’t quite hard hitting enough for my liking. This remains my general impression for all the new generation Vekomas I have experienced. Don’t go expecting game changers just yet.
The end result is a very fun and rerideable attraction, particularly with the interaction in the last part, diving in and out of caves with some very modern and unorthodox transitions. I’d struggle to take it anywhere beyond that word however, good clean fun. It’s not amazing and I didn’t quite think it fits the bill as a star attraction for a park of this magnitude. It would make a lovely complimentary coaster to something bigger and badder. Hmm… whatelsedoFantawilddo…
Colourful Trip and River of Tales are both boat based dark rides, seemingly inspired by Disney classic ‘It’s a small world.’ There have been three iterations of this ride system at Fantawild resorts so far and these are the two newest I have come across, currently only at Fantawild Asian Legend & Oriental Heritage Changsha respectively.
They’ve switched up the themes up a bit since the widespread originals (usally named Colourful Kingdom), finally moving away from the standard summary of people from different Chinese regions. In Colourful Trip, the country of Brunei is represented by many scenes of their national interests and tourist attractions including rainforests and mosques, each nicely decorated and detailed. I found the results of these two much more enjoyable and quaint than the originals, though a bit of translation obviously helps to enhance the experience.
River of Tales tackles four character Chinese idioms called Chengyu, using wonderfully imaginative scenes to depict various traditional phrases of wisdom. Here’s a few examples: To send charcoal in snowy weather = To provide help when it’s most needed. To play the lute to a cow = Talking to an unappreciative audience. And perhaps most famously – crouching tiger, hidden dragon = don’t underestimate someone with hidden talents.
I’ve been saying this regularly about my most recent Fantawild visits but it’s great to see that they are finally moving onto new things rather than just recycling the same old rides forever more. As well as providing fresh stories and theming, the whole aesthetic of all these types of attractions just gets better and better every time. The sets look nicer, the sound hits harder and it just feels more polished overall. Continual improvement all the way.
I wouldn’t usually get over excited about attractions like these but they really were a pleasant surprise to stumble across, particularly not even knowing one of them existed. They’re not the most mind-blowing rides around but definitely a solid addition to any true ‘theme park’ day out, to give you that real range of experiences. Here’s a handy guide to where they both are and what else is on offer.
All this talk of Jungle Trailblazers has made me think I may as well get this list out too. You may already know that the Gravity Group are my most favouritest manufacturer right now, because every single wooden coaster of theirs that I have ridden so far is, or tries to be, the bomb. It’s no exaggeration for me, they just perfectly capture the essence of what I love about rollercoasters (specifically wooden ones) and deliver it in the most consistently aggressive package around.
Born out of Custom Coasters International in 2002, a manufacturer no longer with us, the team instantly began to redefine the modern ‘classic’ wooden rollercoaster. It pains me to say that I haven’t ridden their firstfourcreationsyet, all of which appear to be just as insane and easily sit on or near the top of my bucket list. I don’t think there’s anything I need more in life right now than the trimless night ride on Voyage that almost happened.
China has completely stolen their market as of late and that’s where I’ve been lapping up all the goodness so far. This list will obviously need a major overhaul once my covid-spited USA trip actually takes place but there’s a good chunk to chat about in the meantime.
#11Twister – Gröna Lund, Sweden
Ah, all that praise, but we begin with a small dose of negativity. Twister wasn’t all there for me. I have huge respect for what it achieves in the miniscule footprint, setting the standard for Gravity’s incredible knack for generating pace out of tiny drops, but to fit everything in it ends up as mostly corners with several little hops and that just wasn’t enough. The noise and the steel supports (and the park in general) gave me a bit of a headache, so I probably didn’t give it the fairest of chances. Also the Timberliner restraints were off compared to any other I’ve done since, with the bar coming in much higher and more uncomfortably towards the chest.
#10Jungle Trailblazer – Oriental Heritage Xiamen, China
Time for confusion. This is the Jungle Trailblazer where the hills were constructed in the wrong order, full details here. The promise was there but it ran out of steam and fell short every time. One of them had to come last I guess.
#9Cú Chulainn – Tayto Park, Ireland
Ah, Ireland. It took too long for you to get a major coaster but you started in the big leagues. The pacing issues were here again, I managed to divide the ride into definitive thirds as we took our umpteenth lap on this beast. Amazing / good / alright. Bit too long, high bits in the wrong places.
#8Timber, Walibi Rhône-Alpes, France
Sweet, baby Timber. This ride is glorious but oh so short. Clearly the bar was set here to not compromise on pacing so with a mere 60ft drop you get bucket loads of stupidly good airtime before being thrust into the brakes crying for more.
#7Wood Express – Parc Saint Paul, France
Wood Express is where the real magic in France happened. Somehow the same sized drop as Timber then goes on twice as long and delivers 13 punchy airtime moments with near perfect consistency. It defies physics. My only downside with the small ones is that they just don’t have the sheer speed to be truly aggressive.
#6 Dauling Dragon (Blue) – Happy Valley Wuhan, China
I really wish I could have experienced the daulers in all their dauling glory, it might well have knocked it up a spot or two because I’m such a sucker for ride interaction. As it was I just had the one side to try and it was great, particularly the dawn of the sideways airtime hills that I admire so much. A little on the long side, loses pace at the end and certain moments tailored to the intertwined experience have noticeably come off worse for it.
#5Jungle Trailblazer – Oriental Heritage Jinan, China
This is the Jungle Trailblazer with the inversion that gave me a headache. I could also say the hills were constructed in the wrong order here, but the best ones are the littlest in the middle and to move them would be to do them a disservice. It’s just the follow up that doesn’t live up. Amazing, in parts.
#4 Jungle Trailblazer – Oriental Heritage Wuhu, China
Throw your hands up and say Wuhu (sorry). Approaching Jungle Trailblazer perfection but that ONE high up turnaround just… wasn’t necessary. The inversion seemed to work better this time and the rest is marvellous. The big spiters had big payoffs.
#3 Wooden Coaster – Fireball – Happy Valley Shanghai, China
The other big spiter. I rode this the day before the one above and it just edged it. Love the diversity in style on this one with the more traditional big hills and turnaround, even though it’s more Intamin’s forte. Just as if to remind you that Gravity are better though, it shifts a gear in the second half and gets stupidly out of control as it hurtles and hops between the structure in the wonderfully free and easy old PTC trains. Glorious.
#2 Fjord Flying Dragon – Happy Valley Tianjin, China
I hadn’t realised how well the PTC trains held up in the grand scheme of things, but they come in at number two as well. Fjord Flying Dragon is an absolute beast and the Jungle Trailblazer equivalent is a worthy tribute (if it had to exist at all). So aggressive, so much varied airtime, so much bruising. Why not number 1? The last one and a half hills don’t live up to the rest. The tiniest of margins.
#1 Jungle Trailblazer – Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou, China
Which makes it lose to the king. And the other king. Two Jungle Trailblazers in one and I should have resented it but I just love this ride so much. In one of the most amazing runs of my career (sadly unlikely to happen again) I did 4 of this list back to back and this thing came out on top. Raging relentlessness, pacing perfection, the ultimate Gravity Group package. Your move USA.
One more Jungle Trailblazer, just one more, then I swear I’m done (for now). The star attraction of Oriental Heritage Jinan was copy pasted from the original in Ningbo – a ride which I had collapsed in despair at the foot of because apparently 15°C wasn’t warm enough to open it for me. The only JT to elude me to this day (grumble grumble). The important thing is that at least I’ve tried all the layouts.
My first experience with the ride was arriving at the station to see the train coming in and that a Chinese man had been sick all over his restraint. That’s a solid sign that this will be intense then. Once that mess was cleared up I sat at the opposite end of the lovely Timberliner trains (back row is king again) and smiled to myself. Amateurs.
The start of the ride is reminiscent of the earlier build Fjord Flying Dragon (also now a JT) with a powerful straight drop, speed hill and bigger hill leading into a turnaround.
Where this one begins to lose out is in the inversion that follows – I don’t really get the appeal of these other than a good visual/selling point. Corkscrews just aren’t very good in general (Helix holding the only exception that springs to mind) and rattling around one on an aggressive woodie ended up giving me a bit of a headache. Great, now I’m the amateur.
It’s a shame that moment took me out of it a bit because other parts of the ride are as incredible as these should be. 4 quick, successive out of the seat moments hit hard before an overbank, forming the clear highlight of the ride. There’s an outbound leg of larger hills that are still satisfying and it loses purpose and direction at the end with another drawn out turn into an anticlimax of a final hill. After the morning headache had cleared and we had done the rest of the park I came back to find it riding a lot better, it had clearly ‘warmed up’ as they say and I did really enjoy it overall.
It might have one of the nicest vibes surrounding any of these, with the leafy lake (what the Wuhu one should have had, as Wuhu = leafy lake). The park was particularly gorgeous for a Fantawild and getting on the ride itself was probably the least faffy of any – no waiting areas or lazy staff, just a vanilla queueline.
This layout sits squarely in 4th for the optimistic, 2nd last for the pessimists. With competition that strong, that’s just how it had to be. Fantastic woodie as a standalone – you could do better though. Here’s a handy guide of where you can try it yourself, or better.
Oh no, not another Jungle Trailblazer. This one located at Oriental Heritage Wuhu was the final one in the collection for me (of unique layouts at least – damn Ningbo) and it was also a pain to make that happen (damn Wuhu). The first time I arrived in the city it was chucking it down and everything was closed – no surprises there. This meant that on the return visit anxiety was king and I did it all wrong.
Well not so much wrong as less than ideal. There’s a habit for most guests in these parks to follow a specific order of attractions as per the ‘recommended route’ on the park map, moving in a clockwise/anti-clockwise direction, experiencing everything once, tick, move on. Like sheep, or me on a cred run. In my desperation to not be let down again (I never trust the weather, or Fantawild, to not try and ruin my day at some point) I ended up following the sheep into the queue, making this the only Jungle Trailblazer I’ve ever actually queued for. How novel.
You don’t ever want to queue for one of these. A train that seats 24 can take upwards of an hour to serve 100 guests. The queueline areas are specifically designed like a waiting room, with benches stretching along the pathways. There’s never any hustle in proceedings, a train’s worth of people are batched in an area well outside the station and are not sent off on the ~2 minute walk to the station stairs until it has been cleared of the previous guests. I try to just zone it out these days and accept it as a part of the culture but when you’re so on edge about being able to actually ride these things, as the sky darkens above your head and everything moves at a snails pace, having tried so hard and come so far, it’s nothing short of agonising. I ended up in that for nearing 90 minutes, which would have been a new record by far in China for me had it not been for Happy Valley Shanghai the previous day.
It was worth it though. Love this ride. Middle of the road as a Jungle Trailblazer but as a woodie in it’s own right, pure world class, as I’ve come to expect (demand) from my boys at Gravity Group these days. First drops are always bliss in the back, they’ve perfected the punch. It’s an unconventional start for one of these in that you hit a big drawn out hill first. This is good, but not quite as impactful as their signature.
Before there’s been much time to process that, you’re turning into a vicious double down into the inversion. I love the out of control aspect of this section, though the corkscrew itself on a woodie never really does much for me.
Twisty, bouncy, overbanky. Pure Gravity bliss comes next and reminds me exactly why I rate these things so highly. Sadly it then enters a high up turn that saps the pace somewhat and is the sole reason this one came 3rd, the competition is that tight. Once that part is out of the way, normal service resumes again. 1, 2, 3, 4! pops into the brakes. Fantastic. I think I even had a Chinese man turn and say that to me with a thumbs up on the brakes. Yes mate.
Why was I ranting about queue times? Well we went off to finish the rest of the park and then of course I needed a lot more time with this bad boy. Every other lap was walk on from about midday onwards because everyone else in the place had one and doned it (how rude). From rammed to empty in a single sitting, it was literally just the worst timing, but I couldn’t have allowed myself to do it any other way.
This layout remains unique for now and I hope it stays that way – the world (I) needs as many new versions of these as physically possible. Here’s a handy guide as to where you can track it down.
