Back to Shenzhen for the final day and Wood Coaster has decided to evade me for a second time by being under maintenance.
Against better judgment, we went for a revisit to Happy Valley instead. The gate price has increased significantly and the ride lineup has been slashed since my last visit due to the huge construction site that is swallowing up the park. All for a Pulsar clone. I forgot at the time but the 1 cred I was missing from this park, the mine train, was in the middle of the construction site, so nothing to be gained today. Spite. The site really takes up a big chunk of the park and is poorly signposted/not advertised outside the park or on maps. To avoid it, a particularly arduous walk around the half of the park with nothing in it is required.
30 mins of walking later, arrived at the entrance of an old friend.
The first train had been loaded, but about 19 members of staff were walking up and down the train staring in a befuddled fashion at the back of each row where all the restraint lights are.
This went on for around 15 minutes with them setting and resetting bars before they decided it wasnt going to be a quick fix. The train was emptied and the queue evacuated.
Well that’s this park finished for me. Mega-Lite went to do the SLC while I sat on the bench thinking of the million better things I could be doing with my time right now.
Went to go do the worm. Empty Bullet launch noise.
Went to sit outside Bullet for an hour. Various stories about a quick fix and should be opening soon.
Went to go do the worm. Did the shooting Santa dark ride. A shell of its former self. Disgusting.
Went to sit outside Bullet for an hour. Eventually opened.
Bullet Coaster
Got 3 laps in in quick succession. Once again wish I hadn’t bothered coming. It was riding a bit crap and as a result, my original memories of how good this used to be have been tainted. It has now lost the tied spot with its twin OCT Thrust SSC1000 on my list.
Crappy Valley Shenzhen has also become the worst in the chain for me.
Xiamen isn’t really on route to anything to have been part of one of my bigger trips here, but it was a necessary step in my quest to knock out everything ‘decent’ in 2 years worth of visa. Started with another dirt cheap Scoot to Shenzhen (via Singapore again). They weren’t so hot this time, losing their gate by getting in the way of other airlines, being very late to take off and then somehow losing another hour on approach to the city in a straight line. Well I did say ‘you get what you pay for.’ First day was very familiar territory. It was raining. Phoned the relevant parks. All closed. This isn’t my first time in Shenzhen so I just laughed and went Kpop shopping in Hong Kong instead.
Day 7 – Oriental Heritage Xiamen
It was a nervous 4 hour train ride due to the possibility of more weather spite, but we had committed. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
Fantawild adversity begins (though not quite at Zhengzhou levels) with a massive spiteful walk over a big rainbow bridge to get to another typically huge entrance plaza. I swear I took a picture, but can’t find any.
Exhausting.
The shape of this resort gives the parks a long, thin layout, so it felt like another half hour walk, greatly exaggerated by cred anxiety, to Jungle Trailblazer.
#1 Jungle Trailblazer (Xiamen)
Very glad to have done it, but it was a bit of a let down. It certainly doesn’t keep up its pace like other Gravitys. On paper it looked fantastic, but after a strong start it loses all momentum and was crawling by the end.
The weather might play a bigger part than how much it gets run in the day. I’ve never done any of these that weren’t total ghost town parks and walk on rides that hardly ever get dispatched, but it was about 20°C colder here, which might count for something. That or they just plain messed up the maths on this one. It’s done at least, only 1 more layout to complete the set.
#2 Galaxy Express
Another Vekoma SFC clone. Also not running very well.
Oriental Heritage being its usual glamourous self.
Water park is getting an upgrade. If the entrance plaza is anything to go by, it’s actually the centrepiece of this resort.
Skip.
They’ve got a strong lineup of the usual Fantawild dark rides here, but hiding under different names. I know this one as Dragon King’s Tale rather than Rumble Under the Sea. The pre-show and spinning water tunnel were off here, but it’s a very good ride. They love to copy paste and so I shall do the same. ‘Actual ride is a big boat taking you around various scenes. Oh no, the city is flooded and the (supposedly meant to be a boy, but i’ll maintain it’s a girl) has to ask the Dragon King to fix things. Dragon King is a bit of a dick and refuses for a while, but after a bit of persuasion through few action sequences, including real FIRE, he sorts it in the end.‘
The Flaming Mountains also goes by Devil’s Peak/Better than Forbidden Journey. ‘It’s the Harry Potter arm system, but all slowed down a good 10x so there’s no ridiculous rushing through an incoherent amount of scenes, but it feels a lot more awkward in the movements. It has more of an actual story, being about the Monkey King scaling a big mountain, fighting that golden dragon and a big ass lava bloke (part of Journey to the West).‘
Legend of Nuwa. Same name, still good. ‘Spiderman technology with another Chinese tale. There’s a hole in the sky and you’re helping out some magic woman with the key to fix it, but big red bloke, big blue bloke and a couple of dragons are out to stop you.’ The staff in the park weren’t particularly nice compared to some other locations, particularly on the woodie. They clearly weren’t happy to have to deal with guests as there was literally no one else in the park (a standard day for them must just be sitting around on the phone for 7 hours) and they actively made it a bit of a hassle to do many rerides.
Due to some lazy resarch on my part (only knowing the coaster lineup), I had assumed that next door to this was an Adventure park, which I despise. As we weren’t as enthralled as we might have hoped with this place, decided we might as well suffer the creds. Yes, I was fully prepared to skip them. How unlike me.
On closer inspection…
It’s a Dreamland with the same coaster lineup as my last Adventure. My last Dreamland had the same coaster lineup as this Oriental Heritage. Did you get that?
Fantawild Dreamland Xiamen
The front and back halves of the park felt very Adventure but they’ve padded out the middle with some good dark rides. It was another ghost town thankfully, as a 2 hour queue for a Skyloop would have ended the day, and operations were surprisingly decent.
#3 Mount Tanggula
Mount Tanggula was nothing more than hilarious. Very weird vibrations going on that brought new experience to such a well traversed mine train layout.
#4 Stress Express
Ugh.
‘Fantawild so big, I’d like to hire a car.’ Yes, but outside the park. Also ‘Quick, that Boomerang is about to do the inversion from the outside, call an engineer!’
#5 Terror Twister
Double Ugh.
I seem to be missing half my pictures from this day, or I’m just getting lazy. Did another 3 dark rides in this park, all ones I’ve done previously and really enjoyed a lot:
Wizard Academy ‘We use the term academy loosely here. Yet another spiderman ride. The wizard is evil and says you shouldn’t have come. He then proceeds to send many large mythical creatures to attack you, chucking in a few of his own spells as well. Those are the lessons. You survive. You get a certificate from the academy. Well done.‘
Qin Dynasty Adventure ‘In my best film trailer voice: “Things take an unexpected turn when an archaelogical dig at the Terracotta army uncovers something more sinister.” I started off liking the vehicles for this as they have quite a punchy acceleration between scenes and they bank the wrong way on corners to exaggerate things. Then it goes up hills and does fake juddery drops and I wish they just called Premier and made it a cred.’
Jinshan Temple Showdown ‘With the big ass boats and hugely impressive effect scene at the end. The showdown in question is between a woman who can become a snake and a demon hunter who is rather irrational. Has a bit of a cliff hanger ending, which makes a change.‘
Then the park closed. Could have got a bit more in if I had considered doing this half in the first place, but I’m sure these rides will crop up again.
Another case of unfinished business, but definitely not for the coasters.
Great position.
Saw the rest of the animals.
Rode the vintage cars. A real RCT throwback.
Did the train again.
Walked in and then back out of the Giant Drop queue. Not with that throughput.
And that was Dreamworld.
Went for a drive around.
Up some hills.
Ended up back at Gold Coast to do the observation deck owned by Dreamworld people. You wouldn’t know it was a tourist attraction as it isn’t really signposted at all. Stumbled across a little car park round the back of the area and walked across from there.
One of the fastest lifts in Australia or some dumb claim.
A few views from the top.
Dreamworld was promoted on signs up here. Movie World was not.
Withdrawal symptoms kicking in. Better get back to cred hunting tomorrow.
Day 5
Last day in Australia spent in style going a long way for a +1. The morning drive took us through the middle of Brisbane.
What is this, Japan?
What is this, China?
Aussie World
It was 1000 degrees, so this terrible picture was taken in vampire mode.
Here we are. The main event.
#1 Bug Run Kiddie Rollercoaster
A rare no-antenna tyre-lift model. Also can’t park itself properly.
Are you… scared
Of spiders!?
Finally, the first water ride of the trip. Can’t beat a good double down.
Took a spin on the wheel.
No sign of that spinner being built yet.
Developed a fear of large deceptive mirrors.
What’s in the shed? Honourable mention to the ride ‘Little Beaut Toot Toot.’
Golf was fun, though a little on the cheap side. I could have made it onto the hero board, but we were somewhat liberal with the scoring. And that was Aussie World, a nice little family place. Shame they lost their rare wooden wild mouse.
Found a few more things to look at in the area and on the way back.
Back here again first for some unfinished business.
Powered straight over to the SLC to get it over and done with. Escaped with only 1 trains wait and no one was going for the upcharge VR which is bought at a desk right at the entrance to the station.
#1 Arkham Asylum – Shock Therapy
It’s got those weird vest trains with missile firing handles. Rode like crap, but no lasting damage.
Called in for a quick re-ride on Superman on the way past as it hadn’t quite filled up yet.
Used the single rider trick again on DC. They had fixed one of the three broken seats since the previous day, but it still worked a treat. Also had one final backwards ride. So very worth the price.
Mission complete.
Dreamworld
Another scorcher of a day and another very busy car park. Hopefully they’re all in the water park next door.
First thing we came to was another Intamin family launch coaster, this time with motorbikes. Spent a good while in the queue watching the weird restraint system. Should be better than the Vekomas right?
#2 Mick Doohan’s Motocoaster
Nope. What a terrible ride. There’s some rubber padding where your knees sit that has worn away to a solid mess. Spent the entire ride which does absolutely nothing repeating the phrase ‘ow my knees’ ‘ow my knees’ ‘ow my knees’. It also reduced a local kid to tears.
Stumbled through some kids play area to Tower of Terror II.
#3 Tower of Terror II
The ride has become a bit of a joke. Whatever ambience it once had or fear it may have once instilled is long gone. The skull face and creepy industrial walkways are lined with TVs playing pop music videos while you stand in 40°C, moving 10 people every 10 minutes.
Almost ashamed to say this is the fastest ride I’ve been on, I’ll have to fix that very quickly. It certainly isn’t the tallest as it’s still barely making it halfway up the spike. Such a mediocre experience. Obnoxiously loud and felt nothing but a rattle. Then it failed to park itself. Then it overshot. Then you have to get in a grotty lift to exit which I was hoping to be some redeeming scare attraction. It isn’t.
Saw an exhibit of tigers and brave blokes upon walking the wrong way round to MadaPanda land.
#4 Escape From Madagascar
What sort of abomination is this? SFC with shoulder restraints. Rides like rubbish and even manages to bang heads at a top speed of 10Mph.
Well there’s only a Skyloop to follow this Arrow looper, let’s see if this park can go 5 for 5.
#5 Hot Wheels SideWinder
They’ve done it. Another miserable queue of heat, sweat and terrible music, finished off by a strong smell of sewage at the air gates. Trains have got a horrible clampy vest restraint ‘upgrade’. The track is terrible and not in the usual amusing fashion. Skip.
Affectionately named it the Drayton Manor of Australia at this stage, but really Troublesome Trucks is better than anything here.
#6 Buzzsaw
Better get that Skyloop then. I liked my first one. I like them less with each subsequent installation. At least it had no queue.
This 1-upped the throughput of Tower of Terror by being 8 people every 10 minutes.
Quite a good drop tower. Nice suspense at the top as it really takes its time to sort itself out. Doesn’t kick as much ass as a good small tower though. Height isn’t everything.
Walked past a couple of abandoned water rides to look at some animals.
Park was getting ready to close, so only saw a couple of critters.
Before jumping on the train to the entrance.
What a place. It’s quite nice to hang around in generally, but all the rides and queues are so grim. At least it’s done. Almost.
Bit of a teaser on the drive to the car park. Nearly caused a crash.
Day 2 – Warner Bros. Movie World
Rocked up at opening time to find it reasonably busy. Headed straight in to find an excited rabble of a queue to the entrance of the very reason we were here.
First impressions of the park is that it’s a bit squashed in places. 2 major coasters and the dark ride are all packed in just inside the entrance. Staff and managers were hanging around this area advising that morning checks were running a bit behind and the queue wasn’t open yet, but we persisted with the rest of the crowd. El loco ride hosts were leaning over the fence and asking people to ride. “Only 5 minute queues guys.” They were ignored. Maybe should have taken them up on the offer in hindsight, as it also got pretty busy later on, but like I said, no rush.
Eventually the main queue was opened and the crowd just about filled the length of it. Asked the man with the sign about backwards on the way past. $10 a pop, timeslotted fastrack. Cool.
Took about an hour from where we started to get on. I’d sort of zoned out what we were about to ride at this stage and it didn’t really hit me until the lift.
#1 DC Rivals Hypercoaster
It’s very good overall. Fantastic start with the crazy twisted drop, huge airtime hill and the non-inverting loop that would make Soaring with Dragon blush.
Middle section is decent but not amazing, the big banked corner doesn’t do much and is followed by a very long section of twisty turns and strong positives just on the right side of intense. I wouldn’t go as far as calling them deadspots, like my issues with Expedition GeForce and the like but if I’m looking for perfection, that’s where this ride falls short a smidge. Putting on my picky hat it doesn’t quite feel as well flowing or deliberate enough as a sequence of elements for this third of the ride.
The ending is back to fantastic again with the two very intense hills and another funky one halfway through a corner. I felt the airtime through my teeth here, which I’ll take as a good thing. It also joins the very exclusive club of rides where I instinctively use my hands to stop my head coming off.
Booked a slot for the backwards seats upon exiting and joined the queue for Justice League: Alien Invasion.
It has a nicely air-conned and themed building to queue inside. There’s talking going on from screens and an animatronic from the other side of the station, but you can’t really hear any of it in the queue. Don’t know much about this Batman stuff, but the gist of the story I got as the vehicle departed was ‘shoot Superman.’
Liked the ride quite a bit. One of those where you can shoot both the physical objects with lights on them as well as the interactive screens for your points. Shot Superman a lot, even when I wasn’t supposed to. Got the best score in Australasia. Good stuff.
Back to backwards. The time slot system got us on in about 10 minutes. Again I zoned out what we were doing until the very end of the lift hill. This was very clear on the on-ride video clip we watched at the end, which I rather regret not buying now. Calm conversation until the crest, followed by visible screams of terror and shouting down the drop and during the layout. Watching it back had us in hysterics. Whoever cooked this idea up is a mad man. Completely out of your seat falling vertically backwards and then sideways to kick it all off. Really intense throughout the whole layout and it enhances that middle section as without any sense of direction you feel things that didn’t even seem to be there in the forwards transitions. Hit the brakes just breaking down laughing and crying at the same time. A ridiculously good experience.
There’s still a park to complete. Jumped in the queue for the S&S El Loco.
Spent about 45 minutes watching Australia’s crazy wildlife. Birds fighting. Big lizards chilling. Good entertainment.
#2 Green Lantern Coaster
It was weird seeing the 4 across seating and riding another lap bar edition means I still like these rides just a little bit. They’ve definitely reprofiled that last turn since Mumbo as well, rides nowhere near as poorly.
Hit me again how compact this part of the park is, as you’re exiting this ride and running parallel to the main park entrance. Also hit us that half the day was gone and we still had quite a few rides to do. It was a little on the busy side so tactics might need to be deployed. Walked to Superman – 60 minutes. Hmmm. Walked to the SLC – 1 train and Virtual Reality. That ain’t happening. Walked to Scooby – 90 minutes. Nope.
#3 Road Runner Rollercoaster
Roadrunner it is. A bog standard Vekoma Junior. Tick.
Sucked up the wait for Superman after that. It passed quicker than stated. Lockers are back in action but they’re free here, unlike the meanies at Sea World.
#4 Superman Escape
Had a bit of a rollercoaster of expectations with this one. Came here with the phrase ‘Intamin launch full of air time hills’. Gonna be great. Saw it in person with the phrase ‘that’s just Rita with a top hat’. Gonna be crap.
Quite liked it though. Powering through all the indoor theming section on endless kicker wheels at the start is rather fun. “It’s SUPERMAN!” says the audio. “Lets go lets go!” says the Australian.
Offride is deceiving as it looked like the train was stalling on the top hat, but there’s a decent kick to all of the hills here and I apologise for the Rita comparison. Could have been really good but typically the shoulder restraints detract from most of the sensations.
Decided at this stage we weren’t going to achieve everything on that day and didn’t want to compromise on DC ridels. The main queue was staying full all day, so we jumped in the single rider queue which we had seen working well earlier in the day as at least 1 seat was broken/closed off on both trains. It worked. Saw from the top of the ride that the car park was now half empty. All the families seemed to have cleared off early. Booked another backwards slot and headed off to Scooby which was now a more manageable 30 minutes.
#5 Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster
Knew nothing about this indoor coaster until I was being told in the queue. More than just your average Wild Mouse, with a few tricks up its sleeve and a lot of fun for it. Didn’t quite see it at its best as they were currently in the middle of retheming/refurbishing it. There was a sign outside saying some scenery may be gone. Pretty much all the scenery was gone and the whole dark ride section was just a warehouse. Made it a bit off, but rather hilarious.
I’m always in Singapore at this time of year, which serves as a great base to head for creds in the further reaches. A certain new ride made this year the perfect time to tick Australia off the list.
Flew out with Scoot who have a terrible reputation online, which is mostly false and from people expecting too much out of their dirt cheap economy ticket. Most of the arguments out there can be beaten down with a simple ‘you get what you pay for.’ If you don’t pay for meals, there’s supposedly a no food and drink policy and people get screamed abuse at for trying to eat on an 8 hour flight. In reality they don’t care. There was a man eating a footlong sandwich in plain sight before we had even taken off, but we had some good fun out of jokingly being very subtle and hiding our eating from the attendants.
Nice little lighting celebration upon landing.
Picked up the hire car and trundled towards the park. The roads were very congested along the built up bit of the coast with a million traffic lights and it took an age. In a very welcome change, we were in no rush at all for this leg of the trip. Research this time suggested all the parks were suffering after the Dreamworld incident, but I still allowed some extra days just in case. I had been putting off this trip for a few years now (thankfully), because it was always going to have to be at this time of year, in the height of their summer holidays. In my mind that would always mean busy as anything, hot as hell and generally not very fun. Research also suggested that it should have been a cool 20°C, but we still got the hot as hell part with every day being 30+ and most of the country making the news for mega heatwaves. This seems to plague me wherever I go at the moment.
Day 1 – Sea World
The Sea World car park was very busy and turning up half way through the day put us well into the overflow section. Being a park that isn’t primarily about the rides however, crowds weren’t an issue.
#1 Spongebob’s Boating School Blast
Started strong on a Zamperla 80STD. Not sure if their 1 adult per car policy makes you look more or less cool. Highlight: +1 Lowlight: Lack of shade
#2 Jet Rescue
Moved onto the Intamin famiyl launch coaster with some excitement. Queue was a bit of an arse as they were only running one train and there’s some nasty locker faff. Didn’t have any coinage yet for the lockers, so managed to harness the power of the easy-going ride staff and perform a bag swap at the batch point.
The ride is packed from start to finish with very fast and forceful turns. It doesn’t feel like it even needs the second launch for its size, but that keeps it going strong right until the end which I respect a lot. You also get to ‘save the sealion’ by riding. Bonus points for morality. Highlight: Pacing Lowlight: Locker faff
#3 Storm Coaster
Had to locker up for Storm Force 20. Another not particularly pleasant queue, very hot and sweaty inside black shipping containers to start with, eventually opening out into a rather well themed shipping area.
Quite enjoyed it for a Skatteøen clone. Coaster section is dull of course, but redeemed by the misty air time hill into an indoor splash with bonus theming and effects going off. Highlight: Indoor section Lowlight: Outdoor section
All the flumes and rapids in this part of the world are still down since a certain incident, so no other way to cool off for now.
Jet Rescue stopped itself on the second launch halfway through queueing for our next lap and people got evacuated out of the tunnel. This resulted in a hilarious uproar from the locals who all vocally decided “we don’t need theme parks, lets drink and have a barbeque instead.” Ditched it ourselves to see some animals for a while and returned later.
Good place to kill a few hours overall. Could probably make a full day out of it if you were into the shows and other animal based frivolity. An overnight flight with no sleep meant I was drifting in and out of consciousness by mid afternoon, so I may not have appreciated everything fully. Got a frozen Fanta in a souvenir cup and called it a day.
Bit of a teaser on the drive to the hotel. They should put a warning sign up. Nearly caused a crash.
This guy is great. Watches Tomahawk all day and either sings classic hits or shouts at people in angry Spanish.
Day 3 – PortAventura
Thought the final day (a Monday) would be a breeze, but the sun came out and it got busier than the weekend. With many stories of how bad the operations are lingering in the back of our minds, thought that would be game over. It wasn’t.
Must have been some new operators around for the season. Got stuck on Khan for a while until an engineer showed up, laughed and said you’re doing it wrong, pushed one button and off we went.
Similar story with Stampida. One train decided it didn’t want to leave the brakes while the other stopped itself on the lift. Same engineer rocked up, laughed and said you’re doing it wrong, harnessed up, pushed a button up the lift and off it went. Sadly the winning streak ended here. 4 out of 5 ain’t bad.
The rapids ride was decent. Had a continuous fast pace to it, but no deadly wet moments.
Tried 4D Dinosaur Thing: The Ride. Queue was better than the ride. They cheaped out and used that same film I see absolutely everywhere now, just with a preshow added that bigs it up too much.
Some beautiful B&M pics:
Technical question: announcement was playing claiming Shambhala was running at low capacity – they ran 2 trains for a little while, but reverted back to 1 “due to the weather” (a sunny 15°C). Lies? or does it run so slowly that a slight breeze will stall it.
And that was PortAventura. Good little park that, far greater than the sum of its parts. Shame it gets a bad rep.
Kept forgetting this ride has actually been built, even while it was staring us in the face throughout the previous day. Last I remember knowing about it was mocking some wonky track installation and the weirdness of the brake run. That and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB2YPFOd5pM Amazing.
But here we are, the tallest and fastest coaster in Europe. It was alright.
#1 Red Force
Launch had a bit more kick than I expected, partly due to the ride not stopping at all before it hits. My 2nd experience with an intense face wobble at high speed, which is getting quite funny now. Ended up in the front row for the first lap and therefore had to wear the pigeon goggles. Eww.
Didn’t get the feel of the height for whatever reason, but I liked the ride a lot more than I expected to with the awfully uninspired layout. They added a train shortly after our first lap, so gave it another crack before the queue got too bad.
Wasn’t that fussed about the other rides here, but figured we may as well try some of it out while we were there.
The flying simulator was first up. Queue building was very flashy. The Mr Ferrari being up his own arse pre-show was not. A second preshow with a fair amount more faff followed with lots of safety instructions and a couple of failed jokes about how rich some people are. Then we got on. Movements were crap, visuals were poor and everyone clapped at the end. Terrible.
Tried the other simulator ride in the same building as it was down to a ‘0 minute’ queue. The park had been open a couple of hours now and it seems like everyone was finished for the day. Says something about the lack of attractions in this second gate of the resort so far.
Entered the same preshow room as the previous ride thinking no… this cant be… Yes. Same preshow. Then there was another one that kept banging on about how good this simulation was and how real racing drivers failed it and we were a cut above the rest. On and on, even into the next room. Sat on some Ferrari thing and jiggled about in front of some racetracks on a screen, overtaking generic unbranded cars. They should have had the balls to slap a Mercedes logo on the side or something. Better than the last ride but far from good.
Walked into the food place opposite. Pizzas for £28. Goodbye.
And that was Ferrari Land. Not impressed with the place. It doesn’t deserve to be a park in it’s own right with so little to do and the star attraction is as lazy as record breakers can be, it all just feels like a cash grab to pay for that big ugly logo.
PortAventura
Slithered through the special entrance between the 2 parks. Walked into the pizza restaurant. Pizzas for £10. Deal. With many stories of how bad the food is lingering in the back of our minds, tucked in with trepidation. It was lovely. Phoned Tibidabo while waiting to be served, just to check they were back in business. They were.
Had a little sit down on the train.
Rerode some stuff. Had a 4th straight win on Stampida.
Then jumped in the car and swept back up to Barcelona. There’s a different road that runs north of the city and takes you to the park from the top end of the mountains. This road has less tolls on it, so that was an added bonus.
Tibidampo
Parked up near the top of the hill again, ticket window was actually open now, got some wristbands and headed in.
#2 Muntanya Russa
This thing looks great and it is. Vekoma in their mental years.
Forceful turns and a good deal of twisty, you simply can’t beat a good ride built on the side of a hill. A fantastic view and well worth the trip alone.
The Virtual Reality plague strikes again on their powered mine train, #2 Tibidabo Express. Really can’t understand why you’d want a headset on a ride with this location. The visuals are done by Mack and from the queue video looked to be very similar to the Europa Park version, featuring the same characters and one of those pumpy mine carts.
RCDB says no VR is NOT an option, but it’s amazing how far a simple ‘nope’ can get you.
Did it without and had great fun racing along side some cars down on the road below and twisting round the better Mystery Castle.
Staggered up towards the top of the hill to see what else was on offer. Spent 5 minutes trying and failing to get a lift to work.
Spite.
Stumbled across L’embruixabruixes (go on, try and say it), which is a little suspended ride with outdoor and indoor sections. Very quirky and enjoyable, with an extra surprise at the end.
Braved the bucket on a stick ride as the sun was beginning to set. Not often I get scared these days, but trying to reposition myself to get some more photos at the very top while desperately trying not making this sway was rather terrifying. Great stuff.
Tibitabby.
The plane on a stick ride looked interesting, so gave it a spin. The cramped interior is intense and the mini toilet in the back behind a curtain was a nice touch.
Announcements were going off about the park closing at this stage, so rushed back down to the coaster for one final dusky lap.
Tabbydabo.
Glad it worked out this way in the end really. By coming back for an evening visit, we were treated to an enhanced atmosphere and able to take the park at a more relaxed pace. Covered more than we would have planned to do on the first day and had a much better time for it. Lesson (probably not) learnt.
This was at one point going to be my first park trip abroad, but for reasons I no longer remember it never happened (too basic?). So 5 years later…
Day 1 – Tibidabo?
Landed in Barcelona on a rather damp morning and picked up a car. Got a cheerily sarcastic “nice weather for the weekend” comment from the woman there, we laughed politely and thought nothing of it. This ain’t Nagashima.
Had a fun little drive in our fun little car up to the top of the mountain, not really paying attention to the weather. Got to the car park for the man to tell us: “The park is closed, but you can go up and have a look, there’s restaurants and stuff. Just make sure you pay for this parking ticket up there before you leave.” Humoured him and went up for a look and perhaps to enquire about later.
Well yes, it was closed, ticket windows included. Don’t know how to do this parking thing. Getting a bit wet. Better move on then. Came to leave the car park about 10 minutes later, a different man asked to see the parking ticket. He was confused by the fact it hadn’t been paid for, but wasn’t able to communicate as such so we got a shrug and were let out anyway. Can’t go anywhere any more.
Swept down the coast to check in at Hotel Caribe, part of the PortAventura resort. Not usually a fan of on-site hotels as I haven’t come across many that actually offer any worthwhile park incentives (or competitive prices) along with it. Couldn’t really say no to this one, with multiple park entries and fast tracks chucked in for dirt cheap. Bit of a queue in the lobby to get it all sorted, but I like how easy going the system is: Key card for the room also gets you into the parks. If you’re too early for a room, they give you the key anyway and text you the room number when it’s ready. No pointless faffy checkout. Just walk away.
PortAventura
Straight into this place then, aiming to remove any anxieties by getting everything at least once on the first day.
With many stories of how bad the queues are lingering in the back of our mind, didn’t expect to see this queue board.
With many stories of how bad Baco is lingering in the back of our mind, decided to save it for later.
#1 & #2 Stampida (Blue & Red)
With many stories of how bad Stampida is lingering in the back of our mind, boarded our first coaster with a little trepidation.
In the first of many ride mishaps on park, the red train was sent off without us, leaving us sitting in the station for their complete lap. Sad to say we lost that one.
I do like a good racing coaster and enjoyed this one a lot. It’s got character. Love the way the red lift hill is faster than the blue, adding an instant “NOOOOOOO!” moment to the race as they accelerate away from you. It rode with a perfectly acceptable amount of roughness. Haphazardly racing the other train in a huge mess of wooden track for it to disappear halfway and suddenly turn into Tomahawk was a particular highlight, great interaction within the confines of the layout. Won our first actual race. Went straight round for the other side and won again. Can we keep up the streak?
Left that ride buzzing and walked past a vulture singing Tom Jones. It was at this moment we decided that PortAventura is better than Phantasialand.
#3 Tomahawk
On to Tomahawk. Mini GCI trains were good to see, but a little short on leg room. Wasn’t too fussed about this ride. It was alright.
#4 Diablo
Feels like forever since I’ve done a mine train that isn’t a clone, so this Arrow installation was refreshing. I approve of the Helix style drop out of the station and the hilarity of the remaining layout. Lift 2, drop 2 is a true classic. What happened to the bit over the log flume? Feels like that should have a mountain over it or something.
#4 Dragon Khan
Dragon Khan was probably a bit of a standout back in its day, but I wasn’t too fussed about this one either. It was alright. For a B&M it doesn’t ride fantastically and layouts that are inversions for the sake of inversions don’t tend to impress me. The zero G not being zero G and being rather violent was good and the best part of the ride was the sharp upwards snap into the mid course. Worryingly I feel like Smiler pulls off this concept better.
Slithered into Sesame land to find #5 Tami-Tami up and running (we had been waved away earlier, rain or something). +1
Which brings us to Shambhala. Been a long time coming this one, and excitement levels were rather high. Perhaps a little too high.
#6 Shambhala
It was alright. Maybe it’s just not my thing, but can’t see why this ride is generally held in such high regard. The lift slows to a crawl at the top making for an underwhelming first drop. The big hills are all rather underwhelming, providing a feeling of ‘just a little more, just a little more… nope’. The speed hill was probably the highlight, but it’s contains a jarring trim brake, so that’s also the lowlight. Ugh. Very noticeable towards the back.
It’s good solid fun, that B&M slogan, but I didn’t find it to be anything special at all. Shamebhala.
#7 Furius Baco
Only Intamin’s notorious first attempt at a wing coaster was left, which decided to break down on us. Had barely settled in the queue before seeing it reverse itself off of the launch track and back into the station. They then emptied it and tried to reset something by reversing it onto the previous block and bringing it back in again. Tested it empty. Same issue. I’ll take my leave then.
Did another lap of the park for some rerides (including a 3rd straight win on Stampida) and came back to Baco again. Back seat lads, let’s see what the fuss is about. Bracing through the quaint little preshow about monkeys and wine, preparing for the worst. It was alright.
Found it quite a hilarious experience actually. As soon as it lands after that 1 hill, I just burst out laughing through a very comedic juddering around some corners, a concrete tunnel and weirdly one of the better inline twists out there – taken at a non-stupid pace. Daft layout overall though.
So thanks to the pleasant opening hours, got all the important stuff knocked out in the first day. Time to relax.
Apparently it had finally stopped raining back in Chongqing, so I guess there’s time for one more excessive day trip to get the major attraction schedule back under control.
Is this the right place?
Oh there it is.
Day 13 – Happy Valley Chongqing
The final park in the chain (achievement unlocked). Didn’t know what to expect from this one, other than it was very new.
For somewhere very new, it had a shocking amount of things closed according to a sign outside. Didn’t bother translating, too late now.
Got told the ferris wheel was closed while entering the turnstyles. That was a lie, it wasn’t.
The park entrance is on a big hill, so spent the first few minutes going down escalators watching the creds intently for any signs of life with the usual anxiety. I’d like to make the hill comparison to Liseberg, but it’ll probably end up with a more unfortunate one like Legoland Windsor. It is different for Happy Valley at least.
Ooh, that looks tasty.
#1 Jungle Dragon
The whole ride sits on top of another hill, with the queue area being at the bottom. At the final batch point, a trains worth of people gets let into a lift which takes you up to the station. That was all rather fun and from what I could see at the top, this could be a mini Python and the GCI excitement that had faded the previous day was temporarily restored.
It’s really good, but to be honest it should have been fantastic, so I can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed again. They seem to have developed an obsession for large swooping drops which do absolutely nothing. I’m sure the terrain had a lot more to offer than just that.
There’s plenty of good sensations in there, some of the straight hill sections in particular, but again less of their surprise moments than I’ve become accustomed to.
That thing next then, doesn’t look far.
It’s actually miles away. The park layout is 2 huge s-bends around the water, another central hill and the entire length of this beast.
#2 Flying Wing Coaster
The one with the airtime(?) hill and the loop. Still not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Was it really good? Or was I just wrecked by this stage of the trip.
It felt pretty damn intense for a B&M wing coaster. Is that what I want out of one? Probably.
All hope of any relief from the vest restraint goes out the window from the bottom of the first dip so the following hill ain’t great. I’ve concluded that airtime only works on these out of a straight first drop, so you can’t have any positive force on your shoulders preceding it.
It’s then a very fluid sequence of inversions as it winds its way downhill, passing over the pathways as it goes. Beautifully integrated into the area.
The ride ends with the classic slow inline twist, but instead of just mild discomfort and not being able to breathe for a second, I was seeing stars on the brake run. What just happened?
Operations were pretty dire, with one half of the train being loaded at a time and then the standard practice of having to let previous riders sort their belongings and clear the station before even considering batching any new ones. The park was also filled with a ridiculous amount of school groups of varying ages on this day, and very little else, so I didn’t arrive at the ride at a very good time and though it may have quietened later on, it was such a ridiculous journey to go back again more than once or twice in a day.
Can’t be good for their necks.
#3 Family Coaster
There’s a Vekoma junior boomerang overlooking a quarry. Themed to planes and/or rainbows.
These rides are smooth, reasonably forceful and decent enough for a family cred. Good to see HV still trying some different product types for themselves at both ends of the scale.
Game Ride (what a name) was very enjoyable. Mouse of Chocolate style shooter but without getting a sore arm, as you can just press and hold the buttons with your thumbs for maximum firepower.
Also reminded me of Lotte World’s shooting ride, as you have to aim at dragons, just slightly less evil in this case. They’re making meals or interfering with the preparation of said meals by standing around and pelvic thrusting.
The sections between screens were of decent quality as well. I do hope they look after this attraction more than the Santa ones.
#4 Mine Train Coaster
One more cred. It’s built into the hill, but it’s the same damn layout as always, so that was a disappointment. Oh yes, they’re still making mine train clones. This Golden Horse exists alongside Vekoma in the park and they’ve adopted the same look of new style track from somewhere. The queue was awful, filled with a million schoolkids, half of which were too small to actually ride but were getting as far as the station to find that out and then traipsing back past everyone in groups of at least 100. The ones that were big enough spent an entire half an hour trying to slowly nudge past us. +1.
Back to the impressive looking woodie for a bit then. Rode it with some Koreans. That improved it slightly.
Jumped on the closed Ferris wheel on the way out for some views.
Decent park then overall, one of the stronger Happy Valleys. No major issues and finally a park where everything was running. It has a good enough lineup, but it’s an arse to get around for rerides, a much more prominent issue due to Chinese operations.
And with that, we’re gone from China. Not sure about the love any more.
Summary of a Chinese Visa
I’d like to think I made the most out of one visa by getting 3 major trips and 1 side trip knocked out over the 2 year period. Looks a little something like this:
01/17 | 09/17 | 01/18 | 04/18
Fun facts and scary statistics:
Total parks: 37 Total creds: 104 Total mine train clones: 11 Total woodies: 10 Total Fantawilds: 9
Total train distance: 11615 km/7259 Miles Total train time: 64 hours 21 minutes
Spites: January 2017 – 5/32 (15.6%) September 2017 – 15/52 (28.8%) January 2018 – 3/11 (27.3%) April 2018 – 29/61 (47.5%)
So what have we learnt? January is the best time to go apparently… and the more you do it, the worse it gets. That April figure is truly abysmal, but there were still some cracking rides on this trip. No regrets.
