I know it’s not like me, but today you’ll have to suffer through pure sightseeing. Not a single cred was squeezed in.
Day 8 – Terracotta Army
So this place isn’t how I imagined it to be. For some reason I pictured it out in the sticks a bit, but instead it still feels like it’s in the city, which is a bit run down and rubbish. The bus wasn’t great, taking 90 minutes for what was meant to be an hour of journey and then dumping you in the hell, next to the actual attraction, which is 100 people running over and shouting at you to come buy their touted tickets/MERS food/knock off souvenirs. This observation is mainly in comparison to the Great Wall buses, which all had a dedicated guide instructing you during the journey on what to do when you arrive to avoid this crap. Powered past it anyway and into the legit ticket office. We had arrived painfully early (~07:30) to avoid any ridiculous levels of overcrowding and this worked, getting us through the turnstyles within 5 minutes, slithering past 10000 tour groups of confused old people already causing chaos.
Another swift 10 minute walk through some trees and here we are.
The place is split into 3 ‘pits’, the first one having all this lot standing to attention:
Also not quite what I imagined. Pictured it to be a little adventure through some narrow old tomb (mainly thanks to Fantawild), rather than an aircraft hanger. But with other people involved, that would probably be disgusting.
Pit 3 has some broken ones.
Pit 2 they haven’t fully dug up.
It was all nice, quiet and relaxed in those bits. They had a few exhibits to the side of the buildings with stories and individual statues in glass (making for terrible pictures).
There was also a seasonal exhibition hall which had something in, but by the time we reached that it was a total scrum and you couldn’t really see anything. Believe it was about light and dark. Meh.
For one of the ‘big things’ to do out here, I wouldn’t really rate it personally. Might be because I prefer more of a visual experience as opposed to reading history while standing up. As we’ll come to later, I’d say there’s better ‘culture’ elsewhere in this city.
Heading back out of the place, there’s an assortment of shops, restaurants and stalls.
We’ve all got this guy to thank for discovering all that apparently. Smug.
Included free in the same ticket is the Emporer’s Mausoleum, so jumped on the shuttle bus for that next.
Heading into the place there’s an assortment of stalls and animals.
They were all just setting up for the day, so it was still very early.
Again, not what I was expecting. The tomb is an underground pyramid, under some grass in a closed off area. They ain’t done yet.
Turns out it’s a bit of that.
Some of that.
And a whole lot of this.
Here’s a model of the 2 for reference. Terracotta buildings on the left, whatever this place is on the right. All those surrounding areas of trees, now run down suburbs.
Looked like you can just walk out the back of the pit area and into this other place, rather than all the way off the left edge of the screen to take a shuttle bus, but that would be too clever wouldn’t it.
Legs already tiring, decided that was enough of that.
From the plaza outside, we found someone offering a completely unofficial ride to the next thing on the agenda. Jumped in some bloke’s minivan with 1 other customer and off to
Huaqing Palace
This place seems more seemlessly integrated with the city, rather than having slums form around it. I actually really liked it.
Palace is an understatement to be honest, it’s a whole complex of its own, similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing but nowhere near so ’99 things the same’. It wasn’t built as a place to rule China from, it was built as a place to chill out with the ladies.
Also comes with a free mountain.
Some of the buildings have museums in.
Others just sit pretty.
The complex is also linked to Huaqing Pool, in which some of the areas are hot springs.
Wisely decided to take the cable car up to the top of the mountain. It did an E-stop not far into the journey, which was rather fun, and then restarted very quickly. A woman at the top decided to have a hilarious shouting assault at the ticket window about the incident, claiming they shouldn’t have stopped it like that. All they could do was laugh in her face.
An overview of the size of the palace area.
Still going up.
Bit murky at the top. From here it gets a bit more complicated, as you’ve entered normal civilisation again, public roads and houses.
There’s a team of golf buggy entrepeneurs on hand who do pick-ups and drop-offs at the various bits to see up here. They’d have you believe the sights are spread across “3 mountains” meaning “walking up and down each one”, but that’s a slight exaggeration/sales pitch. It is walkable, though as we’ll soon find out the sit down is rather welcome.
Stop 1.
Stop 2. There’s a bird park up here. Didn’t fancy it.
Stop 3. A nice quiet temple area.
Stop 4. More, busier temple areas.
Final stop. Still more temples. They all have different shrines and statues for various Gods within. Not meant to take pictures inside though.
Unwisely opted to walk back down to the bottom of the mountain from here. It’s a long old way – must have been a couple of thousand stairs downwards, interspersed with winding pathways.
All those steps turned the legs to jelly and it was somewhat more difficult to walk for the next couple of days.
Time to see what else we can mop up around Nanjing then. Phoned Suzhou Giant Wheel park due to the imminent threat of Stingray retiring form service. I had already missed it once. Ride’s still closed. Phoned the mall park with the motocoaster. I had already missed it once. Still a building site, not answering the phone.
Oh well, had my eye on this place for a while. Day 7 – Gingko Lake Park
First impressions were mixed. Pretty much the most expensive park in China (other than Disney). Seemed like a lot for what they had on offer.
The amusement park isn’t a massive part of it though, once inside it’s like a big glamorous version of the city parks, so a good place for a stroll.
That was nice.
Onto the main event then. I’ve got a bit of a thing for Jet Coasters, so seeing that there was one relocated from Japan to China with no RCDB pictures definitely piqued my interest.
#1 Bullet Train
Being the weekend, it was managing to hold a bit of a queue, around 30 minutes. I can’t quite believe it, but they run it with 2 trains!
Not well admittedly. It has 2 lifts, the second train isn’t sent until the first train is well clear of lift 2, then with all the regular loading and unloading faff it ends up sitting on the brake run for 3-5 minutes. Still, a positive effort.
Technically 3 lifts. It has a bit of an unconventional transfer track and storage section.
The ride was glorious, as all Jet Coasters are. 1 accidental air time moment in the first half. 1 accidental dodgy moment at the end where it looks like they’ve retracked it badly for the transfer track.
I like a good ride stat sign. The reference to curve radius of a ride was new to me.
2 more creds to hit then. The amazingly named SLC: Flying and Floating Over the Clouds and Water, and a baby Jet Coaster cutely named: Cho Cho Train.
But then it rained, everything closed and I was back to being disappointed.
After getting as far as the entrance and not being able to ride anything here last time, I had greater than normal anxiety for doing Jungle Trailblazer, so made the possibly wrong decision of trying that straight away.
#1 Jungle Trailblazer (Wuhu)
Everyone else clearly had the same anxiety, or they just follow the ‘suggested route’ like sheep and do everything attraction once like they always do so the queue had about 200 people in it. Busy right?
At 1 train dispatching every 10 minutes, this might have topped my record in China set the previous day. All a bit fruitless really, as the ride was empty for the rest of the day, but wasn’t gonna let it go all Steel Dragon on me again.
Again, finally got on the damn thing and it’s really good. Wasn’t a huge fan of the previous layout of these with an inversion as it didn’t quite click with me, but this iteration has a bit more going for it.
It’s got the same big hill start as Fireball. The double down into the inversion is amazing. The rest is again filled with the stuff they do best, little twisty hills and little straight hills that go on and on and just chuck you about in all directions.
Only got one minor nitpick – the high up turnaround that doesn’t really do much and ruins the pace a bit, so having now done all of the unique layouts of the world’s Jungle Trailblazers (achievement unlocked), it left me torn between putting it 2nd or 3rd.
The indoor mine train clone had a bit of a queue from the natural flow of guests, so headed over to the Vekoma Boomerang next.
#2 Stress Express
Only 2 trains worth of people ahead of me, but they’ve reached new operational lows with this one. For some reason, they’ve decided to not put the usual storage bins on the platform at the far side of the train, rather a storage bin area at the point of batching, below the station. Guests still exit at the far side of the station, so the impact of this is that you have to wait for them all to slowly bumble along an exit path, return to the storage area in front of the waiting queue, faff around with their stuff, leave by the gate, forget their stuff, come back in, faff around with their stuff and leave again before the staff can start batching the next group. All while the train and station lies totally dormant for several minutes. Classic.
#3 Land of Lost Souls
The indoor mine train was now empty, so got that done. It was rougher than the previous iteration (which I think was in Jinan) and was missing the big screen at the end. Still a tad more interesting than the outdoor ones.
Went back to Trailblazer and was told it was down for half an hour while they fixed the water spraying fans in the queueline (life savers).
Believe I’ve already done everything else this park has to offer, but thought might as well have a spin on one of the dark rides while waiting. Devil’s Peak was closed until later, Nuwa had an offensively huge queue, Dragon King’s Tale it is. (Exit pictured above, all their exit signs have another confusing name above them). As in Xiamen, this cloned ride wasn’t running the preshow or the spinning water tunnel, assumedly because they can’t be bothered. Love the ride though, great attention to detail in all the screen based antics of a boy fighting a dragon.
Went back to the woodie once it had reopened and racked up several laps on the bounce. Great stuff, this trip is finally starting to make sense.
That’s about all of interest to come out of today. Let’s have a bonus picture round of signs!
Some more beautiful than others.
Legend of Nuwa layout.
Dragon King’s Tale layout.
Over to the other park in the resort then. Can’t slow down, creds.
Fantawild Dreamland Wuhu
Space Warrior layout.
Fantawild Dragon!
Wizard’s Academy yu-gi-oh card.
Anyway, we had the 2 park 1 day ticket, but I had had too much fun on Jungle Trailblazer and turned up too late to be able to do much here (no regrets). Lots and lots of show based attractions with timings that had all given up for the day.
#4 Golden Whirlwind
Got the cred. Bit of a stain on Fantawild, particularly a Dreamland park. Bad ride and no theming.
Didn’t get the worm, no adults.
Caught a 4D cinema showing I hadn’t done before – Origin of Life. From dinosaurs to bullet trains, it covered just about everything in the history of the world. Mildly interesting.
We also begrudgingly ended up waiting for another Space Warrior out of lack of things to do yet again. Actually got on it this time, my gun didn’t work at all and I was forced to wear kid sized 3D glasses. Didn’t care.
In summary: Oriental Heritage – would be a very good park if you haven’t done any of their attractions before. Still very good for, you know, having a world class woodie with a unique layout. Dreamland – wasn’t a great experience, but I was only in it for the +1. Probably needed the two big shows they have to step it up for me, but they’re difficult to fit into a tight schedule, particularly across 2 parks. If you’re new to the Fantawild game, Jinshan Temple Showdown, Wizards Academy and Qin Dynasty Adventure (all closed two and a half hours before park close) would make it worth the visit. You can find my reviews of these attractions at other parks in the chain.
Here’s a pic of that last one closed, a common sight.
Boonie Bear says come back for the food festival. I’m good.
The next basecamp was Nanjing, where I had allowed a couple of days to make up for the fact that the last time I visited this city it was a total washout and I achieved precisely nothing in the area.
With a quick phone call ahead to ask my favourite question in the country “Is the woodie open?” “Yes.” “I’ll hold you to that”, first thing on the agenda was a bit of vengeance at a certain Crappy Valley, which was within reasonable (for a madman) striking distance after another hour on a train.
Day 5 – Happy Valley Shanghai
It’s taken me 3 visits to get this park dusted off and I rather resent it right now, but I don’t get beaten that easily.
Just to be extra spiteful the place was completely rammed on a weekday, which was unprecedented in my experience of China. Too far gone now. Straight into the queue for Fireball.
It took about an hour (the current record holder for me in China) with one train operation and the famed exercise faff going on in the station.
This ride is unique in the chain in that it has it’s own exercise song built into the sound system, so you can hear the torturous inefficiency and you know exactly what’s coming for the whole time you’re in the queue.
Train 2 basking unused in the sunlight.
#1 Wooden Coaster – Fireball
Finally got on the damn thing and it’s really good.
The ride has more big hills than most Gravitys in the region, it’s always good to see strong variation in layouts.
There’s also a fantastic section of about 6 aggressive and twisty hills progressively downwards in the second half, packed full of the sort of sensations these rides are really good at.
Definitely in the upper reaches of their builds over here, I’ll enjoy plenty more of that later, but…
The final cred needed here was Mine Train Ulven #2, so sweated over to the other side of the park for that.
#2 Mine Train Coaster
It has better theming and rides about the same, just doesn’t quite have the charm of the Danish original.
Back row was a must, for the very punchy first drop and at least it’s two days in a row now of not another Vekoma/Golden Horse layout. Damn Turkey for spiting me the set.
Wandered over to see if the B&M Suspended Family Coaster was worth a quick spin. Closed.
Would be rude not to ride a Megalite while you’re standing next to one. Closed.
How’s the dive coaster doing? 1 car operation and a longer queue than the woodie. Disgusting.
Back to Fireball then. Queued another hour. Loved it again.
Then as I ran back round for another go they did a Phantasialand and closed the ride 3 hours and 40 minutes before the park was due to close to ‘clear the queue’. Heartless bastards.
Diving Coaster was still open so took a token lap on that. Normally easy to get whatever seat you want out here, but the locals spite you on these super wide trains. You may be first in your row of 10 to pass through the air gates, but by the time you’ve sprinted to put something in the boxes on the far side, they’ve nabbed all the outside seats, swapped rows and caused a massive confusion amongst everyone by not leaving enough space for the relevant groups and it takes a good 5 minutes to sort out.
Had made a phone call a couple of days prior to a park with a new S&S launch coaster and found out that it wasn’t yet open, so that’s yet another of the reasons I ended up at the previous Fantawild and was in no particularly hurry to get to the next base camp for the trip (Jinan), where the only remaining destiation of interest was…
Day 4 – Quancheng Euro Park
Yeah, it’s that place.
Anyone can cook.
First impressions weren’t great, being told that several coasters were down and the rest had some faffy time slots going on. The somewhat inspired main street area was a total construction site, so had to access the rest of the park through some weird side room that was anything but professional looking.
This kicks you out in the new family area they’ve got going on. It’s themed to Holland and plays German music, so a little of that Euro spark seems to be working its way into the park at least. A relocated kids coaster is now here and though the sign has no rules beyond ‘1 adult per car’, we were told no adults allowed. Having done one 2 days ago with 2 adults in a car, what a dumb rule.
This indoor coaster was closed for some reason.
Looks fine to me. According to some commentary on the train ride much later in the day, theyre getting 2 new coasters in here. Not hopeful.
Battle of Blue Fire was closed until later in the day for ‘maintenance’. This maintenance involved pumping empty trains out every couple of minutes for several hours which, for China, was rather impressive. Seems strange though, as the park was so dead, once it actually opened, it only really operated for about an hour before no one went on it again and it stopped running. Will get to the ride later.
#1 White Horse Coaster
First thing actually open was the ‘Family Coaster-Medium’. A Mack Youngstar inspired ride with the usual imaginative name.
Hilarity came into play here as you must wear a mandatory padded green jacket to ride. This protects you from the not much going on that the ride has to offer.
Bit of theming, bit of shelter from the scorching heat of the day, wasn’t too bad actually. Couple of near misses and accidental wonky air time moments.
A subtle nod to Europa Park on the walls. I wore my Europa Park shirt to this place, hope someone got the joke.
From here, entered another indoor section where some kiddie flat rides used to be. Found them later in the new area.
SLC was opening later.
Didn’t fancy a splash.
Spinner #1 was opening later. (No picture for some reason, so have a closed water ride instead).
Animal Crisis. The deceiving exterior might have you believe this ride was inspired by the Madagascar films, but it’s a bit darker than that. Once inside, there’s lots of images and stories on the walls of an apocalyptic future in which humanity is facing a crisis of some sorts.
That and glowy tunnels.
Once you’re in the cars, which use Universal Studio’s Spiderman ride technology, the attraction involves following 3 superheroes on screen (ice shooting woman, fire shooting man and lightning shooting man) around various scenes fighting various monsters (big water snake, big land snake, hybrid man-spider in a lab that produces gargoyles, big godzilla boss fight). Interspersed with this is some general city destruction and, to fit the name in there somewhere, seemingly random appearances from zoo animals such as a herd of rhinos sliding across a fountain courtyard with poor graphics. The characters win in the end, get statues erected in recognition of their heroics, and you get various treasures and gems shot at your face in 3D for tagging along.
I actually quite liked it. The quality of the ride was a bit lacking compared to the real deals, but it’s on a similar scale to the earlier Fantawild iterations and I thought it was a decent effort. There’s a couple of good physical sets thrown in, whilst you’re spinning madly between scenes. One particular 3D screen effect as you head down a tunnel and burst into another scene was rather visually striking and effective.
A refreshing mine train experience was next. Finally, a unique layout. Not even two lifts.
#2 Mine Coaster
The ride had a couple of rough tracking moments, but also got a little intense in some parts with some sharply banked curves as it wound its way down the mountain. Kinda good, if only for being different.
The Motorbike coaster was closed. Half glad because I hate those things, but at the same time, spite!
#3 Spinning Coaster
Spinner #2 was open. Same thing again, not great.
Having completed the first lap of the park, found some tigers out the back of the new kids area.
They’ve tried to add a a sense of danger to the exhibit.
But it doesn’t look like the tigers are interested.
Sat down and had a snack while waiting for other things to open.
There’s another building like Animal crisis on the opposite side of the park. The whole place is quite symmetrical in its execution. I wondered what it housed and it turned out to be another flying simulator. Might as well give it a go later.
#4 Battle of Blue Fire
Got to Blue Fire as it finally opened and took a couple of laps.
The launch section is a bit of a different experience to the original, being concrete, some blue lights and pop music.
The first installation of this ride has faded into obscurity somewhat in my mind (except the theme, which I love, and sang to myself on the first lap here), so it was nice to run a little refresher course on it.
It’s actually better than I remembered. I had often associated it with being solid fun with a lack of air time or significant force (other than the last killer inversion), but there’s definitely some there when you’re snapping in and out of the mid course brake run and on the twisty hill through the loop.
The inversions range from good to great, it is more forceful in places than I gave it credit for, a solid package.
Did Global Journey, the flying simulator from there. All I remember from this one is wondering how the ride system worked, with the pods all starting horizontal but being hooked into what looked like a permanent ceiling with tiles and lightning fixtures. The seats then somehow shifted into the vertical position, but not far enough apart so you could see lots legs dangling above your head. Film was eh, I guess.
Stuff inside the building about the park? I can see Hulk in there and maybe even a 4D coaster. What else can you spot?
#5 Twister
Oh no, the SLC. It looks so awful off-ride. The green padded jackets are back on this one to protect you. Didn’t make me feel any safer.
It was a survival experience. Nothing too lasting, but still rather grim.
Had another weird moment of upside-downess on the stupidly shaped second inversion, so it’s almost becoming a regular feature on these, as is losing its speed at a ridiculous rate from just how badly it judders around the track.
#6 Crazy Snowboard
Spinner #1 was open and forcing people to sit on opposite corners to reduce the spin. Even the German manufacturers can’t pull off fairground layouts like this decently and this one just rode particularly poorly.
All available creds complete, took another couple of laps on Blue fire before they gave up for the day again.
Wishing Lost Gravity was here too.
Went to Gods Station to find out about the train. Had 40 minutes to wait, so thought we may as well catch it from the beginning of the circuit at the entrance to the park.
Wandered past the kids coaster to see if staffing had changed. It hadn’t.
The train arrived and it goes round the perimeter of the park grounds, which are actually much larger than the ride sections would make it appear.
There’s a cave on the first corner of the park where you can see more tigers being lazy.
Located on the far edges are 2 mountainous sections. This one is the fiery one.
You can walk to them, but it’s a long way, it’s hot, and there isn’t much in them for now except a few dinosaurs.
Then out the back they’re apparently working on a massive zoo expansion.
Then there’s the icy mountain. Again you could walk here, but it’s a long way, it’s hot, and there isn’t much in them for now except a few ice age creatures.
Third station by the SLC was a ghost town. Wonder why.
There’s another tunnel section on the final corner, but I only remember it containing bricks.
The spiting Motorbike coaster.
I like this model of the park at the entrance. Shows a good scale of ambition. Shame it hasn’t quite come to fruition yet with a good proportion of the attractions being closed or on a very limited service. I doubt things will improve in the future as parks like this tend to slip into a perpetual state of laziness, doing the bare minimum with what they have on offer and simply hoping guests will put up with it anyway.
Final day in the city and my backup plan list was already running dry. It had all been very unsuccessful and rather demoralising. Options were: risk the Botanical Garden being winded out again (they weren’t answering the phone), do another city park with basically the same boring lineup as the first day, or put myself through another Fantawild Adventure park.
Reluctantly…
Day 3 – Fantawild Adventure Shenyang
The bus pulled directly into the car park which was a welcome start for one of these parks. There looked to be about 20 cars total, with someone in a BMW trying and failing to do donuts in the open space.
Walked down the massive main street section which is all set up for a second gate. It’s just wasteland for now, but will probably open before the new Hotgo park. For a rare change, I didn’t even care what was open and what wasn’t so ignored the signs, no questions to the staff, bought tickets and headed in.
The castle centrepiece is in scaffolding making for a pretty sight. Quite a nice effect, from a certain point of view.
Came to Sky Sailor first, which was next running in about an hour. Seen several of the buildings that housed these rides before, but hadn’t actually managed to do it yet, missing the most recent one by about 5 minutes. So we made plans to try it this time.
Water ride wasn’t open. Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of the themed ones open.
#1 Vesuvio Volcano
Cred then. Mount Tanggula, but with a volcano instead. That same double lift mine train layout that is just absolutely everywhere over here now. Not as hilariously bad as the previous iteration though.
#2 Flare Meteor
Standard operations meant that took an age, so cred ran to the Golden Horse SLC to get it out of the way. It actually felt a bit windy today, unlike the day before when things were closed, so my thoughts on the lift were mainly ‘please don’t stall, please don’t stall, please don’t stall.’
I reckon the wind made an impact as the ride had an overly long upside down moment in the cobra roll that actually felt quite cool. The rest of it was quite bad. It’s not the side to side that gets me on SLCs any more, it’s the weird backwards and forward pumping that some of them develop. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it just shakes your insides a little too much. This was the latter.
Slightly injured, cred ran back to the complete opposite end of the park (dedication) to arrive just in time for Sky Sailor.
Rode too many flying simulators on this trip, so I’m struggling to even remember which one this was… Nope. Can’t.
Not bad, but obviously nothing special. Better than Ferrari Land.
Did a full lap of the park from there, seeing what else might be new to me/interesting enough to do again. Everything we came to was either closed or had a time slot that was way later in the afternoon, by which time we would have to leave.
The only attraction even worth considering was Space Warrior in the end, the screen shooting ride that I really didn’t like previously.
Some of the dark rides at Fantawild parks have what I’ll call reception areas at their entrance, separate to the queue, with benches and in this case, books and colouring pencils. This is mainly because on quieter days they take regular breaks from running the ride, only operating in waves or a few cars at a time. Stood in this reception area for about half an hour while the staff girl was waiting for ‘the call’ from the ride team. Ended up having a good chat as she was rather friendly. Apparently only 3 ‘westerners’ had been to this park before (I reckon I can name them) and life working at Fantawild is rather boring. Gave up in the end, said we’ve got a train to catch and told her not to worry, we’ve done this ride in Zhengzhou. Shock face.
Gave up on the park as well, leaving nothing to chance with transport and getting out of this city. It wasn’t necessary to hurry as for the first time I’ve ever seen, all the high speed trains in the region were delayed by over an hour. Due to, yes, wind.
Didn’t mind this park as much as the previous iteration as there were zero stakes, minimum faff and no particular need to rush anything (though I still ended up running like an idiot). Still felt like achieving very little (other than a +2) out of half a day out though and, ugh, this hobby bothers me sometimes.
Grabbed a taxi the next morning and asked to head for the Hotgo resort. It contained another friendly driver but he was somewhat useless and must have smoked about 30 times during the journey. The somewhat useless part came half an hour into the journey where he pulled over and asked a man on the street where Fantawild was. Whoa whoa whoa, whoa whoa. There’s no way I’m going to another Fantawild Adventure in a hurry (HA!). In his mind, Hotgo was in the same place. In reality, I knew he was way off. He opened up maps on his phone and got us to find the route for him and then set off again.
Another half an hour later we had left civilisation behind and a massive castle with a couple of B&Ms appeared on the horizon. I fully expected them not to be ready as the construction progress was almost moving backwards by that time, but I wanted the woodie in the same resort, so told him to follow signs to the already completed Jungle World park. As he got near he pulled over to what looked like construction workers sitting around in the road, but he maintained these were local taxi drivers. Turns out the whole resort was closed. Turns out I’ve discovered a new adversary and stumbled across the only big brand park in China with a seasonal opening calendar. None of it wast open at all until the following weekend, so cheers to the website for being completely useless.
The driver now had no clue how to leave the area we had taken so long to find and, while I got out my list of backup parks again, he jumped out of the car and into the passenger seat of another passing taxi for a chat. “Where to next?” “Botanical Garden mate.”
Got a rather spiteful view of Time Travel on the way out of the area. The rollercoaster I had come so far to ride, only for it to slip through my fingers by a mere week. To add insult to injury, I didn’t realise how good it actually looked until I saw it in person. It seems to follow the terrain very well.
Day 2 – Shenyang Notanical Garden
This place wasn’t too far down the road and we were soon pulling over at the side of the road by a big bridge that crossed over to the entrance. Desperate to get back to civilisation, the taxi bloke had already acquired another passenger before we had even left the vehicle. Thanked him for the detour and jumped out.
Crossed the bridge into the massive entrance plaza and spotted the ticket window. Asked about the rides. Nope. Turns out I’ve discovered 2 new adversaries in China. All closed for the wind. Not wasting any more time with that then. Back over the bridge and into the car park where apparently a bus should be along soon. On closer inspection there was no way a bus was going to bother entering this run down car park with barriers everywhere, so waited by the side of the road while a dog barked at us for half an hour. Another taxi would have sufficed as well, but it was a desolate place. Salvation appeared on the horizon. A bus back to the city.
This terminated at the main station, directly opposite the hotel we had left many hours earlier. Well that’s the morning gone. Next backup park?
Jumped on the metro. Went to the wrong mall. Had ice cream.
Went to the right mall.
Day 2 – Sinbad Happy Castle
This place had a certain charm to it, reminding me most of Berjaya Times Square. Interesting setting inside a building, but a bit tacky really.
#1 Jungle Explorer
It felt so good to actually get on something for the day, so Children Coaster (dont think it’s called Jungle Explorer, but who am I to argue with the internet?) was an instant hit. Only 1 lap of magnificence though.
#2 Star Express
Another spinner was up next, high up in a mall alongside some bad windows looking out over a construction site of a city. Oh yeah, that’s where the resemblance comes from.
Were joined by a local couple, who received a swift nod, so had a full car on this version. It actually span a lot and the guy was loving every second of the girl’s reaction. Not bad.
Took a lap of the park to see if anything else interesting was lurking. It wasn’t.
Just to be sure, rode this suspended monorail which takes a lap of the park. Nope.
Well this trip was a right mess, hopefully that makes for a good read.
First day was cut in half by a ‘rescheduling’ of the flight. Not that this really mattered in the end (spoilers). Touched down in Shenyang halfway through the day to find that apparently there’s no legit public transport from the airport to the city. Ended up with a taxi ride that seemed to take forever, though the driver was friendly enough.
Checked into the hotel. Still time for a few creds. Took the metro to somewhere vaguely near a backup plan park. Strolled through a nice green space from there, but there were no surprise creds in sight. I always forget how massive everywhere is in China, so the plan to walk it was becoming a burden and ended up jumping on a bus to…
Day 1 – Nanhu Park
Always good to start strong. One of those ‘stick a grubby amusement park in the back of some trees in the city’ places that China does so well.
Walked past various other activities like karaoke in the pagoda, karaoke on the bridge and karaoke on the riverbank. Varying vocal quality.
Eventually stumbled into the hustle and bustle of the amusement area. Turned down about 50 people wanting customers for some dodgy looking flat rides. “Nah mate, creds only.” The first person to earn some money was standing outside this ride, somehow managed to negotiate a 2 for 1 deal out of him.
#1 Spinning Coaster
Classic spinner of unknown origins. The cars have the ability to rotate from the top of the lift, unlike the usual ones of these that don’t allow any spinning to kick in until about halfway through the layout, but the poor trackwork never allows it to pick up enough speed to do anything much.
A proper beast was up next, looking lonely and abandoned. An old woman was running some insignificant ride in front and beckoned. No no, open the cred for us instead. Money in hand, how could they say no?
#2 Golden Dragon Roller Coaster
Loved this one. Such character. Before we could sit in the train, a musty old cushion was placed on the seat for us. After squeezing in, a second musty old cushion was wedged in between my left side and the edge of the car. I like where this is headed.
Got 3 laps of pure comedy, each time the lift struggling more and more to engage, breaking our backs once it did. Need to relocate that cushion.
#3 Jungle Squirrel
JUNGLE MOUSE! I’m ashamed to say that I’ve had to enter the country 5 times to get on one of these, so I was very happy to finally do it. Close your eyes and the spirit of Wild Mouse lives on. Minus the air time.
Headed over a bridge to a more barren section of the park for the biggest ride of the day. Now some damage could be done. The guy running it was delighted to have a customer and immediately jumped on the microphone to try and churn up some more business with me as the poster boy. Nah. No one was buying it.
Off we go then.
#4 Roller Coaster
The layout starts with a slow helix of doom that builds tension before you plunge into the undersized loop.
The inversion was pretty grim, something akin to a sucker punch. The remainder was manageable.
The final and most shameful cred in the park was a small worm thing, but it was abandoned and the train parked in the wrong place, so that didn’t happen. Pity, probably one of the few of those that would actually let adults on. Here’s a depressed monkey instead:
Jumped on the ferris wheel opposite for some views.
Boat ride on a zipwire there that I expected to go into the water at least. Nope.
The pods on the wheel didn’t smoothly follow with gravity, rather lurched and grated in stages, so it felt a little sketchy. Not the worst wheel of the trip though.
I had tried to distance myself from the hype surrounding this ride somewhat, for the year or so leading up to it opening. In trying not to let it sink in that my favourite ride type was coming to the UK, it eased the expectations and even by the time I was sitting down in the thing, the realisation hadn’t quite hit me. When that moment finally arrived I found myself in a sexy Mack bucket seat, sitting on a launch track, in Blackpool. What?
First impressions were good. Nothing was overwhelming, but it felt like a solid layout that had somewhat more to give… and give it did.
I kept going back to it throughout the course of the day and it only ever got better. I soon came to the selfish realisation that regardless of how well Icon was received by the public, how well it did for the park, whatever, this ride is exactly what I wanted for the UK.
This isn’t purely down the ride itself, but also the park it’s located in. Blackpool Pleasure Beach is great for its easy-going atmosphere, but the park also separates itself from most others in the country by being just well run and packed full of enough attractions for you to really get the most out of your day there. Queues don’t get huge, operations are great.
When I first rode Icon it was a gorgeous weekend, we didn’t even arrive for the park opening time, but had done all the rides bar a couple of breakdowns by lunchtime. The brand new attraction never got above 15 minutes, but it can’t physically hold a queue of more than about 20 minutes.
Why does this matter? Because Icon is ridiculously fun and re-rideable. Something that has been missing for me in this country, personally, forever. I’m very happy to say it’s my new favourite in the UK and I’m extremely excited that it’s been built somewhere that really lets you make the most of that.
Nemesis had that crown before, and it’s great, but it was never a ride I’d want to do 10 times in a day, even when the UK scene was all I had. Merlin parks are forever falling out of my favour as the queues and operations get steadily worse. It’s a struggle to turn up to those places on a whim and have either an overall good time or spend some time whoring something you love. Even if they did get something as good as this I just feel it would be harder to enjoy and appreciate. When I do turn up to them, the time investment is rarely worth the return for me, and that’s a much more significant factor when you’re dealing with your ‘local’ parks – there’s no real obligation to stay when you can just sack it off and go home if you’re not feeling it.
Enough sidetracking. The back seat of Icon is where it’s at, all the key air time moments are enhanced by this position and it’s those moments punctuating the other sensations going on that make this style of ride special for me. The first hill is crazily good with it’s sharp entrance and exit, separated by a slow drag over the crest.
A well executed sequence of twisty elements follows to keep you amused, never too repetitive and always with at least some purpose.
The gentle downhill inversion is glorious, something Mack have always managed to nail for me. Then the ride gets a little wild and kicks you down into the second launch and you’re soon being dragged through another almost indescribable feature with a mesmerising mix of sensations.
With more twists and turns, including one particular moment of the layout that stands out with some strong positive forces (another tick for variety), the ride keeps you happy all the way into the brakes, never truly letting up. I even appreciated the way it flies straight out of the brake run again and into the station, coming in hot. I like a sense of purpose in a ride.
Minor onride nitpicks: The mist in the tunnels that it opened with was off within the first few weeks. The wonky hill near the end doesn’t kick as strongly as some of its rivals and is a bit unbalanced in that it’s tailored towards the left half of the train. I would have liked a counter to it somewhere in the layout. I never really felt, appreciated or even noticed the interactions and near misses with other rides that, during the whole ‘how the hell are they going to fit this ride in at Blackpool?’ conversation, seemed like they would be a dominating part of the ride experience. Maybe I was wrong earlier and I was overwhelmed, the whole time.
The entrance and queue are decent. I like the framing of the ride over the gate and the way the pathway follows inside the supports for a while. The fact that Grand Prix is mincing along the fence next to the queue makes me laugh. The station is decent too. It looks like a bit of modern interior design, the phrase ‘those mirrors will just open up the room’ must have been said at least once. They’ve adopted the free-for-all row allocation strategy which I know and love, the staff sometimes got annoyed by this, but I hope it sticks. The bag holders and section of wall that is built directly into the transfer track and move with the train also make me laugh. The exit to the ride is a bit lacking. The plain black walls are too high to enjoy the views as you pass between the two launches, the floor is already collapsing and the stairwell is boring.
I fell for the soundtrack as soon as I heard it in person and found myself singing it quite often throughout the day which is always a good sign. It ignites an infectious spirit within me, standing in the station and tapping along to it while waiting for my turn to ride. The music ended up a worthy addition to trip playlists.
It’s the only rollercoaster in the UK I can say I actively want to go and experience, every year, many times. I think that says it all.
As the largest theme park in the UK, Alton Towers is home to a wide variety of interesting rollercoasters. Often attempting to be leaders in ride innovation or, more recently, seekers of ‘world’s first’ claims, the ‘secret weapon’ series of installations at the park has seen both prototypes and record breakers come to life within its vast grounds. Although I seem to have grown out of visiting this park any more than necessary, I do appreciate the relative level of consistency and uniqueness across a coaster lineup of this scale.
#11 Octonauts An inoffensive +1 with notable theming.
#10 Beastie A surprisingly vicious +1 that can no longer be found at the park. Fear not, this ride now lives in deepest, darkest Wales.
#9 Runaway Mine Train Although it is probably one of the stronger Mack Powered Coasters out there and a solid family favourite with ride operator interaction and multiple laps on offer, it’s a very long time since I’ve gone out of my way to ride this one and I generally skip past the whole area of the park that contains it now. I do love it when multiple rides within a park are intertwined and their atmosphere can feed off of each other so the fast section of the layout that runs past the rapids ride in the tunnel was always my favourite moment.
#8 Spinball Whizzer/Sonic Spinball I have had good rides on this at certain times as you can get a bit of a violent spin. There’s even an on-ride photo of me for this somewhere, of which I’d say there are less than 10 in the world from any ride so it must have meant something important at the time. The ride is rarely worth the queue for me these days though, particularly with its poor capacity, just a bit too much of a fairground attraction for Alton Towers really.
#7 Rita – Queen of Speed/Rita If you’re into launches, it lacks the punch of a Stealth. If you’re into coaster layouts you can really sink your teeth into (like me), Rita lacks anything else interesting as well, consisting of corners in alternate directions with uneventful hills between. It was built in the era when launching into a corner mostly led to an awkward transition, bordering on the uncomfortable if you’re not prepared for it. It used to be an ordeal to ride when I was more susceptible to this type of thing, now it’s just there. What I do like about this ride is the launch announcement. The half hearted ‘go, go… go’ is very representative of the ride and always brings a smile to my face.
#6 Wicker Man The simple process of riding other wooden rollercoasters makes this ride seem weak. Couple that with the disproportionate popularity/queue times and I am often left with this question to myself: ‘why bother?’ It took us 22 years to get a new woodie in the UK and with all the technologies and manufacturers now on offer they still failed to surpass the very low bar set by the others we already have in the country. The preshow is better than the ride experience and builds towards something that wants to lean on its theme more than its thrill, which I would be perfectly fine with if it actually made any further attempt to do that. It doesn’t. The hardware is an underwhelming experience and the ending shed is completely squandered. Wicker Man is the worst GCI in the world, but it’s otherwise fine to ride.
#5 Air/Galactica I know Merlin have developed a reputation for dark and dingy theming these days, but at least that’s a theme. Air had none of that, no presence, no energy. Just a prototype in a car park, by a car park. For a park that definitely errs strongly on the side of theme, I see this as significant step down. Then it had a name change and Virtual Reality added and that of course didn’t help at all (other than the new soundtrack, which I have a strong appreciation for). I like the build of momentum at the start of the layout with the double down style first drop and the sections where the train is swooping over grass rather than concrete are decent, but the fly to lie being the only interesting element it attempts just ends up being uncomfortable and something I’m glad they never repeated. Air is now the worst B&M flyer in the world, but it’s otherwise fine to ride.
#4 Oblivion When the concept worked for you, this was a great experience, I can’t deny that. Now the ride boils down to a singular decent out of your seat moment. This is the UK, so that makes a good ride by comparison. Fear of a single element as a base concept on a ride seems almost impossible to bring about these days and I do miss that to a degree, even if it’s just by watching or experiencing it through other people. There’s a lot more out there now diluting the simple sensations that used to scare people, like just a (near) vertical drop. Oblivion is now the worst B&M dive layout in the world, but it’s otherwise fine to ride.
#3 Thirteen I was never subject to any of the hype and/or marketing around this ride, so the common complaint that it wasn’t what people were expecting never bothered me. The only thing that bothers me is the trim brakes on the first drop that drain it of any real significance. It’s actually the only coaster in the park I have a soft spot for, a little bit of an emotional attachment. The drop track still kicks my ass (particularly with the teasing bounce it does before the drop) and it was potentially my first ever genuine joyous surprise moment on a ride the very first time it shot backwards in the dark. It’s also the first time I ever saw this new era of quirky shuttle layouts and switch track sections being run at an efficient and impressive pace. Watching the track move, followed by the mini ending launch is so satisfying and I remember thinking this could become so much more. And it did.
#2 Smiler I like the ambition behind this ride. It was made to break a record and often in this industry that leads to a lack of creativity, but I’d argue this was done in a better way than most other significant records. What came before it? Colossus. How can we do the most inversions? Let’s take that super basic sequence of inversions already out there (loop, cobra, corkscrew) and add enough rolls at the end to win. Smiler went beyond this, the inversions are almost all different and much less commonplace – they even invented one for the ride (or is it two?) and they’re paced between other interesting features like the vertical lift. The best part of the ride, as with the previous record holder, is the surprise airtime hill between inversions, and it does this twice, and better. Sometimes being upside down is fun too now, it’s a statement of how ride inversions have improved in general – they have a lot more variety than they used to and offer many more sensations to go with it. It doesn’t fully pull them off due to Gertslauer’s struggle with quality at the time, but the ride gives it a good go. If it was built to their current standard, we could have had a potential Nemesis beater. As a ride it’s both long, something the UK lacks a lot (Ultimate aside) and intense to me even now, which is also hard to come by these days. I like an intensity that earns itself – if I could ever ride the Smiler several times in a visit, I suspect I may even struggle a little, but I also think I may grow to like it even more than I currently do. Sadly the park, the queue and to a lesser degree the restraints mean that will never happen.
#1 Nemesis The most clinically positioned ranking in the list. Yes, it used to be my favourite ride but that was before I really thought about such nonsense (deep scientific importance). I believe it says more about the quality of the other things I had done than it does about this ride. Aside from that, it was always a professional relationship with Nemesis for me, never personal. I never fell in love with it. I enjoyed it because it was the done thing to do and I respect it. The overarching use of storytelling and intelligent integration of the hardware into the terrain set a good benchmark for many future attractions. As a ride it’s forceful, well made, well paced and that downwards helix that introduces you to the concept of having your feet ripped off by the force of a rollercoaster is legendary. Unlike the rest of this list, Nemesis is a good example of the ride type, but it doesn’t excite me.
