Been here before, not much to say, just a whistlestop tour of some old creds and a new B&M.
The little Gerstlauer used to be the best in the park. Potentially still is.
I always thought this was its name though, but no, that’s the Zierer Dragon with Dark Ride section. One thing I noted here is how the big lego dragon isn’t continuous like Windsor – you see two different parts of him, but they aren’t physically connected.
Kinda bothers me that the new land is just plonked unceremoniously behind Egypt. The Windsor Mythica has a bit of a presence to it, but to a visitor of that one, this just felt like a low effort copy and paste of some figures.
As such this lost its striking impact somewhat. Pretty cool entrance on the flying theatre. Now a blue shed for a bad cred.
Oh, I spoilt the review. Well I don’t know how, but they managed to make this less interesting than Mandrill Mayhem. It was such a non-event of a coaster. I can’t even remember it’s name. Oh, #1 Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters.
Uncomfortable inversions and very little else interesting going on. Didn’t seem popular either. Shortest queue, area was dead. I guess it looks kinda cool at the right angle, but deep down I wanted it to kick Chessington’s ass. Shouldn’t have expected that from it also being Merlin, and Legoland.
But hey, +1, and back to having ridden all the B&Ms in Europe, woo.
And they have one of these. Eww.
P.S. didn’t realise German Daddy Pig (Papa Wutz) was a thing now, what a scam.
The other new draw in mainland Europe was of course Mahuka. Feels like it fell a distant third to the Mackness going on this year and isn’t getting enough attention, but that’s part of the appeal of this park. Understated, but brilliant.
#1 Mahuka
Not naming names, but lessons available here on how to make a new ride look good, and complete, even though it had opened a few days prior and there’s still mud under it.
Nice details in the queue.
There was a radio here that would occasionally fire up and play ’90s hits. Character. A sense of fun.
These bag ‘chutes’ were pretty genius.
And those trains look tasty.
So, how was the ride? Loved it.
The trains are tasty. It’s exactly what the single rail needs. Openness, freedom, convenience.
Being multi-launch it’s got a satisfying length to it. A crescendo of sequence.
Full of some weird and wacky stuff, look at that ribbon of a track.
Airtime in places is really good. Bit of a Mosasaurus inspired roll at the end to finish.
All in all it just looks and rides great. I prefer it to the RMCs, which by default puts it in the top 5%. It doesn’t have the extremes of a Railblazer, but I feel like you have to be very forgiving about everything else going on with those rides and solely focus on those extremes. Let us not speak about Jersey Devil.
This hits the spot just right. Comfortable, varied and long while still being a little wild and unpredictable as it can perform manouevres you wouldn’t otherwise expect. It does a bit of everything and it flows so well. From the moment you step into the area really, they run a tight ship considering the capacity. The perfect addition for a park this size, they just keep on nailing it here.
Mystic
This was the last thing they nailed and it holds up. I love Mystic, it’s got such an aura about it. Still a top 3 Gerstlauer.
The guy with the fish laughs at you as you dispatch and it’s all downhil from there. Great sense of intimidation and guest reaction – this is still the bad boy of the park.
And it rides real good, with some killer ejector and even more killer hangtime. Stuff like this just shouldn’t be possibile but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Timber
Timber is great for what it does. A classic showcase of Gravity getting way more than should be possible out of something so small scale.
That said, it does manage to ‘feel’ the shortest of those, but at least it still hits hard and makes it count.
Not sure what they’ve done at the end. Added a trim to the final hill which kills its impact but also provides a hilariously awkward moment of braking which adds to the character and almost balances out the loss.
And that’s the park. They’ve tidied it up real nice, it’s very pleasant just walking around. There’s little else going on, a few +1s, no dark rides (sadly) and their 4D cinema seems to be out of action this season (not so sad). It doesn’t matter though. The quality of the top 3 coasters, including their consistency and variety, makes this one of the standout locations in Europe. They’re enough to keep me happy just bouncing between for a half day, a full day, it doesn’t really matter. You can play it cool at Walibi France. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into Walibi Holland.
Fire is bad, but getting a new +1 is good. Fresh Mack mine train, rides well. I was glad to not feel obliged to need the VR on this occasion and thereby ruin the visual experience although it’s a shame it don’t go through the diamond cave no more. This statue of the miner mourning the loss of the dragon is such a beautiful touch.
#3 Baa-a-a Express
Last time I was here this was under construction, a little blip of track seen from the observation tower. It was being lovingly run by an old guy, so chill. Retirement goals to work on a ride like this. The sheep sings as you go round, what more could you ask from a +1.
Piccolo Mondo
Don’t remember much of anything about it from before. Don’t remember much more now. Was cute.
Madame Freudenreich’s Curiosites
Don’t remember much of anything about the old dinosaur ride but this genre of ‘add more character to a tired old dark ride’ is something I can definitely get behind.
Gorgeous queue.
And dinosaurs with cake. Perfection.
Abenteueuer Atlantis
I liked working out which targets score more points on the interactive dark ride. Tactics always add to these things. S’alright.
Bench: the Ride
Don’t remember much of anything about it from before. Don’t remember much more now. Was cute.
Euromir
I liked Euromir a lot, save for the fact it bashed my knees up back in the day. Managed to avoid that this time and had a great time on it. Spins less than I remember with the whole controlled rotation aspect, but is probably wise, it goes real hard in that final section and would probably mess people up at any other angle. Great ride with great character. Next one to get a looking at now that Croatia is done though I hear.
Piraten in Batavia
Fire is bad, but getting a dark ride rebuilt is good. Don’t remember much of anything about it from before.
Now it’s amazing, a real standout in the park. In being very comparable to such Disney rides, it’s nice to ride one that isn’t a clone and matches the quality in many ways. Epic scenes, gorgeous scenery, a good time all round.
Snorri Touren
I love how understated some of the entrances are at Europa. With such a breadth of things to do they don’t even need to hammer you over the head with –>MAJOR RIDE HERE<–.
And Snorri is a solid addition to the dark ride lineup. Love the character and the pacing in the first half of the ride but then it does end in a rather jarring and abrupt fashion, which I found a bit odd.
Best thing about the whole thing – his animatronic actually hits the right mushroom drums in time with the soundtrack.
Voletarium
Best thing about the whole thing – the drone in the queue.
It’s fine, it’s a flying theatre. Having one run semi-efficiently without a huge interruption between pre-show storyline and final showdown makes for a nice change but it’s still a faff and then just wafting over some stuff. Was interesting how many European locations I didn’t recognise – I swear they made some of them up.
Donkeys
The park has an excellent donkey game.
There’s even one in the new area, with a hat.
Also love how many parts of the park can simply go unseen. Tell me where this is.
Eurosat
I was extremely worried about what had happened to my beloved Eurosat. Really fell hard for this ride in the past, it was a defining moment of the trip back in the day, an overwhelming emotional rollercoaster hearing the soundtrack in person on the lift, thoughts equivalent to ‘I’m finally out living the dream and visiting these worldwide theme parks’ in the early days of my hobby, perfectly paralelled with the phrase in the soundtrack ‘finally, the time has come’.
Then they said they were making it the Can-Can. It felt like they were turning it into a joke. There’s no way that can work, ride ruined.
And yet, somehow, it works. I expected to despise everything it had become but sitting there on that endless spiral lift hill – wait, what’s this? They’ve kept the old music here, an updated and slowed orchestral version in perfect tribute to what this ride once was. The emotions hit me all again while in the dark, anticipating the inevitable. It’s such a beautiful touch.
Then with all the build up and crescendo of reaching the top and it turning into something wild and fun, the Can-Can music actually works too. A wink from the moon and a bon voyage leads to a frantic carnival of sound with a wild indoor ride that still hauls and still kicks ass in all the ways it shouldn’t be able to given the limitations of its situation. A classic piece of music that doesn’t know how to end, but then neither does the ride, as you drop through a windmill and then there’s just a whole extra floor to go after its already been going on an age.
It ends to epic fanfare, as it should. They’ve made it better, against all odds. I can only applaud.
Only thing I miss is the astronaut stuck in a wall mouthing words we’ll never understand.
Silver Star
I’d heard they killed the fun of this ride too, by canning the cheesy ass song that was its only character anyway.
Don’t remember the queue being quite as unpleasant, but it is. Basically a warehouse with some bad cars in it, and tv adverts for bad cars. But then on our second go, the theme hit on the speakers. It was all we needed. Ride on, Silver Star.
Still one of the better B&M hypers in my books, I had worried how it would stand the test of time (and experience). The old school nature doesn’t lend itself well to that magic row near the front, which works on many of the newer ones but is a bit of a dud here. Instead, back row is best for the unrefined, jankier moments that include ejector out of the midcourse and some uncharacteristically fun twists and turns that so many others fall short on.
Pegasus
Better than a Vekoma Junior, but priced accordingly.
Kassandra
I don’t remember this madhouse being so incomprehensible, but it is. The magic of the swing is a little lost when you don’t know what’s going on in the themed experience, but the magic within the seat itself cannot be denied.
Jim Button
Hadn’t heard of this, and though this park is likely highly researched, it looked like it posed the question ‘is it a dark ride?’
It wasn’t, but this big dragon is great.
Wodan
Still one of the better GCIs in my books, I had worried how it would stand the test of time (and experience). I don’t see it as being quite as epic as it once was, it’s better than ‘the norm’ but far from up there with the greats. What have they done to the start? I remember it being real out of control into that first drop but now it just wobbles around on some asphalt.
Arthur
This went up in my estimation in that it was nothing like how I remembered. The locker faff has been rectified. I remember issues with the screens in that sitting in the back row would miss all the action in a comedic sense, unless I’m confusing it with another ride. There aren’t many though. The soundtrack was funny. It had far more physical sets than I recall. It rode with a little vigor too and thus, wasn’t entirely pointless. I’ll assume they’ve fixed things rather than that I was wrong. Oh, and is that spotlight and camera combo meant to look like a face? Creepy.
Frog game is pretty good too.
Think that’s about it for Europa. Blue Fire was a thing of course, but I’ve ridden like 12 of them since, so really didn’t care. They messed up the onboard soundtrack on my single lap, which is the only thing that makes the original worth doing to me, so that sucked.
Had a lovely 2 days, queues were a little bigger than you’d normally like to get absolutely everything done or spend time on some filler coasters, but shout out to the free fastrack system. If you game it on your phone in the first couple hours it can reward you pretty well, including a walk on Voltron or two.
It’s been 9 long years since I last visited Europa Park. For the sake of a crazy statistic I had 126 creds to my name at the time, meaning there’s been just another 1500-odd in the interim.
I really, really liked the place back then, it was clear that it was a global standout. I had also always looked forward to returning some day but it was always on the preface that they got something worth returning for, to sweeten the deal. The years went by…
I heard they got something. We spent 2 days on park, which was the perfect amount for our own needs and pace.
The primary need was to experience #1 Voltron as much as possible. I avoided whatever spoilers I could and went in knowing as little as possible.
Presentation-wise, I think the whole thing looks excellent. An entrance exterior with that start coming out of the top of it.
A dedicated observation tower built within the layout. Plenty of opportunity to get in, up and under a lot of track for views and photos, while maintaining a little mystery about the back end of the layout. With constant trains buzzing round, on a summers day it’s a coaster lovers dream.
Plus other stuff in the area going on because why not.
The indoor queue brought new hope to my hobby. As I passed through for the first time and absorbed the details in here a crescendo of emotions built to a level of excitement for a new rollercoaster/attraction that I haven’t felt in what seems like quite some time. Far surpassing the simple raw excitement of skipping down some queue in China (that’s actually open) to ride some world’s fastest Mack thing, no, this was an anticipation you can only build with a themed experience. The development of character for a ride. A reason you want to like it, to support it, to back this creation of steel. Standing there in that room for the first time, with those feelings, is exactly why I’m in this game.
The big turret thing that plugs itself into the wall to power up. Mr. Tesla waffling on about who knows what.
Easter egg characters in the return to station screen.
The fact that the shutters close when you see a train enter the preshow, to hide what’s going on. And then the ride theme injected into your eardrums by terrifying tesla coil noises. Awe, intimidation, elation, the lot. This is how you make someone (like me) want to like a coaster.
From a practical standpoint, the locker system is the best I’ve seen yet. Choose your own locker with an RFID card, get on the ride. Don’t worry about remembering the number after an overwhelming experience because it can just tell you at the end. Unlike Wildcat’s Revenge. The throughput, capacity and efficiency with the moving station and just Europa Park being Europa Park in general is beautiful to behold once more.
– – –
Onto the ride experience then. I didn’t know what the trick was, and it’s hilarious. Brilliant for first timers and crowd reactions. I love it, but it loses impact over a few goes, so I kinda hope it remains somewhat unique to this attraction and that not everyone starts doing it, there’s a risk of losing the magic as always. Possibilities are endless though, so mix it up.
Before you’ve fully recovered from that you’re lurched off, and up, and over, and out. Of that start. It’s so unnatural but it’s done so gracefully considering the combination of technology and forces. Looking at it, it shouldn’t feel like it does, but it works, and then you’re suspended in the air for a brief moment for a ‘this is where the fun begins’ into the layout proper.
Frantic, I think is the word for all the elements that go on in between the defined sections, namely a combination of inversions and airtime moments. It’s our bread and butter at this point. It reflects the theme of science experiment gone wrong rather perfectly in this regard, but, critical hat on, I’m going to introduce another word into the fray. Lumpy.
I like and appreciate the individual components of what’s going on in this sequence, but there’s something about the flow. It’s lumpy. I think this is just an inherent issue I personally find with shorter trains and ride vehicles. It reflects back to my experience with the Big Dipper model, and by extension Infinity coasters (both of which I love more than most) and Eurofighters. Regardless of their execution I just can’t see myself sitting in one and thinking ‘this is the best rollercoaster layout in the world’. You can’t create as beautiful a symphony of forces with a ride that’s built for the tightest of manoeuvres. Blame physics.
Anyway there’s a multi launch bit on a curve in there which follows the recent industry trend of ‘adds a little pep, doesn’t take your breath away’ moments into the recent industry trend of the stall. A couple of newer rides have made this their own standout moment (Batman GCE and the Super Boomerang spring to mind), sadly Voltron does not. Surprisingly the most characterful moment for me hits home when you come slamming into the brakes at the end of the first half. It’s pretty brutal. And then you’re on a turntable with lightning and what the hell is this?
I’ve got two ways of looking at this – it’s amazing, clever, fun to behold, did you know it can turn in either direction? I didn’t until a few laps in. Quirky, love it. The other – it leaves a little to be desired in terms of presentation when compared with the station, queue, pre-launch experience. You’re just in a crude circular cage with no roof and a sunbleached graphics display. Doesn’t quite uphold the wonder.
What it does lead to is a wild backwards launch, again another great crowd reaction moment but you can give it your own extra punch with anticipation by putting your arms and legs directly in front of you and getting a wicked ‘fold you over the restraint’ moment. Then you’re forwards again with the most satisfying launch, one which lands closest to those I personally adore with their ‘the fun is far from over yet’ sensation. It’s faffy, but given it isn’t detracting from ‘damn near best thing ever’ status either side of it, I think it works.
The wonky top hat puts me straight back into the ‘lumpy’ mindset however, albeit what follows is an incredible sequence of powerful airtime moments, shouty after shouty, including up into and back out of another mid course. Dizzying inversions and strong positives round out proceedings before one final shout of airtime into the brakes. Ends strong this one.
And I think that review should demonstrate a little why I’m all over the place on Voltron. There’s so much of the experience that I adore to the core, but as a coaster it fell short of perfect in many, many ways. To clarify, the ‘lumpy’ business is nothing to do with ride comfort. I’ve heard riders found discomfort in left wing seats etc. and while there was noticeably a bit more shake there, it didn’t impact my personal ride experience. It is pretty damn intense though, and I don’t doubt that the ‘lumpy’ flow of the layout does exacerbate such feelings.
I’ll stop saying lumpy now, but I will also mention that a few of the inversions lack definition and character. If you’re going for the golden seven, make them count.
Though I went in with lack of spoilers there was a little thought at the back of my mind with the whole 9 years away from Europa Park thing. What a wonderful moment it could have been, having traversed the globe and, by my most recent assessments, ridden basically everything worth riding, to come back to such an early days trip and land a new #1. It was Mack, it was Multi-launch, it was Europa Park. It was possible. It wasn’t to be.
Enough ramblings, it’s the perfect prototype and near perfect showcase. Go ride it if you haven’t already, it needs to be beheld. Technology 11/10. Presentation 9.5/10. Layout 8/10. By all rights it should be threatening my top 20, but I keep talking myself out of it. Maybe. For the feels.
On the way down to (spoilers) Europa Park we decided to get a new country cred. Last time this was considered was back in covid days, when you had to write a letter to the King of Luxembourg in order to be granted special permission to enter. We were tempted at the time, given that they had one of those big Schwarzkopf travelling coasters in town while our own Eurodemption was going down. Postage time may have been an issue though.
First stop was a castle, don’t have those at home.
It was free to park and free to wander around, a common theme for Luxembourg, and my kinda sightseeing.
Is nice.
I was a little confused by the strategy of the location upon approach as it seemed to be rather far downhill to get to it, but it makes more sense from over here, in the rain.
Luxembourg City
My recollection of a Tom Scott video had me thinking that all public transport in Luxembourg was free. Sure enough, it was, so we went to the capital, Luxembourg City, and did a park + ride job to get into the centre. Free and easy, just how public transport should be.
We got off the bus in front of this.
Over the road from this.
And this. Everything is very elevated, and green.
Took a wander through the centre, which is very town-like for a city.
Or even model village-like from out the other side. You can basically walk to all the ‘things to see’.
History, culture.
Excitement? You can spot our next target out towards the back left.
After crossing a busy city road.
And going down a hill.
The great glass elevator in the sky is a tourist attraction here.
Not your average elevator.
Up top there was a piano, with what I believe to just be another visitor riffing some highly impressive piece and making intense but awkward eye contact with everyone else.
It was great. And free.
And that was Luxembourg. We chilled for a bit, had some food, then drove off to a travelling cred in Germany. Would recommend.
Merzig Funfair
Parking anywhere near here was a nightmare because the entire town was undergoing roadworks and the fair itself was on the only car park.
But it was all worth it of course, for three laps of #1 Kuhnos Farm.
Back in Shanghai, we’ve reach the end of the line. There’s one more launch coaster here that’s been eluding me for a while now, I’ve never actually been to the park so it’s lower down the spite scale, but it is getting quite annoying. Landed in the hotel, it was raining, phoned Steel Dolphin, not open of course.
Was only a few months ago that I was in Shanghai, and it was raining, but managed to mop up a couple things on the Eastern side of the stupidly massive city. This time there were a couple of backup options far out to the West that caught my eye. Indoor ones.
Day 15 – Wanda Children’s Park
I’m not exactly sure when this one appeared on the coaster hunter radar, don’t remember spotting it when researching previous visits and didn’t realise Wanda had a foothold in this city, albeit a not very good one.
Inside was a baby spinning coaster that looked rather cute.
But the curse of soft track obstructions strikes again, slightly less decorative this time. Why?
And that’s the park.
Wanda Auto Theme Park
Over a bridge, in an adjacent mall, there’s another one.
And a slightly more interesting one at that.
Mainly because it’s home to this, whatever this is. It’s like a Jinma version of the stupid spike coasters but better capacity and it actually operates. This is what I clocked on the trawl of coast2coaster and immediately thought ‘I want that’.
They had complicated wristband options on the door but you could pay per ride, at the ride, using QR codes which worked. Getting better. I immediately paid for both sides, to the alarm of the staff. The advice of ‘you should try one side first to see if you like it’ fails to consider that liking things isn’t a factor in this game any more.
I did kinda like #1 & #2 Speed Racing anyway, it’s by no means offensive, more a bit something and nothing. It goes real slow along the whole first straight and turn, but gives a decent burst of acceleration along this return stretch with a bit of ducking and diving. The other end is just more slow turns and then it ends though it looks quite cool/weird, there’s a bit of theming like a crashed car in the wall. Biggest gripe is that it doesn’t do anything about the racing aspect. There’s was no indication of victory when we beat a small child on the second side.
They also have this thing, which looked awful.
And a simulator, which looked intriguing, so waited for the appropriate time slot.
Asia-Europe Rally had decent attention to detail, the entrance walls were plastered with newspaper cuttings about all the different characters and vehicles that were going to feature in the film.
Vehicles look quite good and are on carpet. Somehow they rise above the carpet when it’s time for action.
The action was, as proclaimed, a race across the world. Very farfetched, silly and wacky, these old timey cars and caricature characters crossing all sorts of terrain and famous landmarks while constantly trying to foil each other. It started in China and ended in Paris and the main guy won, or was it us. Decent quality anyway, this would have done well at any actual Wanda park that’s lacking a dark or show ride.
Park complete.
Trip complete.
I’ll leave you with this haunting image.
Summary
New creds – 35 New dark rides – 51 New parks – 14 New Fantawilds – 6 Best new coaster – Beyond the Cloud Best new dark ride – Legendary Dunhuang Best new park – Oriental Legend Planes – 3 Trains – 19 Automobiles – 53 Spites – 8/43 (18.6%)
Next stop Nanjing. Been here afewtimes, gradually chipping away at its offerings. I didn’t know what to do with myself this time though, what with the public holiday situation. Had one park in mind, no backup, would just have to suck it up and see I guess.
Day 14 – Huachang Dragon Valley
Bit of a trek into the park from the Didi drop off point. It’s a resort as much as any other theme park is a resort at least, out in the lush green hills beyond the city. Got a water park and stuff.
Main entrance to the amusement park is contained within this building, with a big fancy graphics display, turnstiles, a shop, not much else.
Heading outside again you’re greeted first with this type of view. The big star water ride looks rather awesome offride, but it wasn’t on my radar.
Bypassed all that in an anti-clockwise direction and straight to the star coaster #1 Jungle Dragon. Not to be confused with the Happy Valley GCI that used to be called Jungle Dragon and is now named after an animated plane for kids.
Also known as Abyssus without the multi launch. Also known as a Vekoma Shockwave.
Even though this was the Saturday directly following 3 days of public holiday chaos, miraculously the Chinese theme park scene had returned completely to normal. I walked straight onto a half empty train.
It’s a great ride. I liked Abyssus a fair bit, though it’s hard for it to stand out amongst its lineup. Amongst the lineup on this trip however, Jungle Dragon was a pretty hard hitter. I’m not sure if the faff/start/multi-launch helps Abyssus in any way, all the meat of the layout comes from the main launch onwards before it starts to die a bit at the end. Maybe 3 acts are better than 2, will reconfirm at some point.
What I did know was that it packed a lot more punch than the Hyper Space Warp which didn’t do much for me a few days prior. I actually wanted to reride this, though it was a struggle to ride multiple times on the bounce, 2 weeks into a China trip anyway.
The trimmed top hat is silly, and not in a fun Wrath of Zeus, Toutatis or Batman GCE kinda way, but once you get that out of the way it’s packed with strong positives, solid pops of air time and plenty of twisty. Locals loved it. I did too.
Now that it had been confirmed that timing wasn’t going to be an issue, it was time to mop up the rest. Starting with the duelling family coaster cred(s).
There’s a reasonable chance that visiting one day prior would have bagged both sides of #2 Dragon Race, but under extreme duress. Alas, though it still had maybe a 10-15 minute queue that steadily grew due to a mostly family oriented demographic on park, they were only opting to run a single side because China.
Haven’t come across this layout before anyway, another slight glimmer of hope that Jinma are getting more interesting and creative, but it’s a little short and does nothing. Two more out there apparently, woo.
The park is split into multiple indoor lands aside from the coasters. This was the one with the tree.
It had a 4D cinema about a bee, called 4D Mine Adventure for some reason.
It wasn’t very good.
And a flying theatre by the name of Mystical Tour.
It was a flying theatre.
The indoor area that contains the big boat ride is a lot more impressive, all decked out like this.
Loads of just cavey sections to explore.
Some museum about stuff.
One path lets you see the elevator lift of the boat ride in action. No cred here.
Pretty though.
Haunted walkthrough I assume.
Theme of the next indoor area was space. This meant that they were playing How to Train your Dragon 2 on a big screen…
Dragon Valley I suppose.
Also guns.
Some 4D ball.
But the most interesting attraction was Star Tours the dark ride, not to be confused with Star Tours the simulator.
It’s another 4D motion based car ride from our new friends Playfun. Pretty hefty and extravagant.
Name aside, the other influences are quite clear. We get our spaceship thing repaired by some robots and head out into a huge space battle which looked rather cool. Reminded me of the epic intro to Revenge of the Sith and then had me wishing we had a Star Wars dark ride that did something around that. This is where the fun begins.
We also had Pandora. And Transformers, lots of Transformers.
It had lots of other different things in it too though, was great fun. Movements don’t kick enough ass again, but it’s to be expected for now.
Sadly there was still one more coaster to obtain, I’d been putting off #3 Through the Ring.
There’s no way I would have queued this.
For this. I absolutely hated this. The new revelation that I don’t even care about the upside down any more. Just the horrible, horrible tracking that rattles your brain and gives you a headache.
And then it rained and then I left.
Success I guess, nice enough place. Got some good visuals and a decent headline coaster and dark ride, rest is meh. The quintessential Chinese theme park lineup.
The next convenient stop on the way back to Shanghai was Xuzhou. Was here earlier in the year for the new Fantawild / Super Boomerang, with no time (or weather) for anything else. There’s a mid-sized unspecified brand of park also in the city by the name of Xuzhou Paradise, which was my original intention to visit on this trip. The lineup however consists of a Blue Fire clone(!), a modern Jinma SLC, another of those inverting spinners I keep missing and probably a mine train or some rubbish. Maybe an unlisted dark ride or two. Given the public holiday situation and experiences so far, none of these seemed like something I’d have the energy to be queuing multiple hours for, nor would I want to end up in the same unsatisfied position of having half completed a park.
As such, my attention turned somewhat further out from the city to a place with only dark rides that I had discovered a while back. It’s near the city of Suqian, but not really, so one stop on a train took us to Sui’ning (saw the Fantawild out the window <3), from which we took a Didi through some rather rural spots for about 40 mins. Driver was another weirdo sadly. Aside from having an accent that was near impossible to understand, initially the conversation started out as enterprising on his part, with the offer to come get us at the end of the day, cut out Didi and get his extra 20% etc. After exchanging numbers however he got greedy and played the same old card about ‘I’ve already accepted this fare, but how dare you inconvenience me by going from a railway station to a tourist destination? – I won’t be able to get any business.’ He then wanted us to pay for the return empty journey both ways and said there would be nothing for him at the tourist destination.
Upon arrival at the tourist destination on a public holiday it was heaving of course, so he looked like an idiot, but kept going on and on about it while we slowly slid ourselves out of the car, maintaining eye contact. Got things to do man, see you later. We ghosted him later.
Day 13 – Zaohe Longyun City
Anyway, the place in question is this. A scenic spot about dragons and such. Maybe boats. I really didn’t know much about it and nor does our corner of the internet because it doesn’t contain a rollercoaster. Dark rides though.
A sign outside confirmed that everything I wanted should be operational and getting in was offensively cheap. Some wristband for roughly £7.
There was a priority list as we headed through the bustling park. Main dark ride>shooter probably>flying theatre>5d cinema. It all seemed doable but when public holiday queues could literally have been anything, it would have to be a case of making the best of it.
Landed outside the building for the main dark ride first (hold that thought) and clocked the newly dreaded sandwich board outside. That’s a 2 hour queue lads. Eh, easy these days.
There was a bit of a congregation outside of the entrance again, forming the tail end of the queue, which slowly headed inside and wrapped round a foyer first. In here there was a staff member peddling fast track options. A single shot at this ride cost more than the entrance fee of the park, at around £9, but given the entrance fee of the park that seemed more than acceptable. We could suffer this for two hours, or money.
With some assistance from her we scanned a QR code on the wall that actually worked, a miracle, paid up and got the most VIP of fastracks you could ever hope for. A ‘follow me’, followed by literally powering you past everyone else in the building, stewing and confused, straight to this batched waiting area.
It was in this waiting area I realised I had made a terrible mistake. This ain’t the dark ride. This is the flying theatre.
See?
While I was partially disgusted at having to pay for one of these, and it not being what it actually wanted, it needed to be done anyway so no biggy. Was funny.
A Millenium of Ancient Fortune flew over some local stuff as per usual, including a version of the park that looked better than it really was, not that the park looked bad by any means. Also had some particularly nice scents going on, I remember that much.
One down, moving on.
You may be able to forgive me for confusing the ride buildings, as this is the one for the actual dark ride I wanted.
Chasing Water had the same sandwich board outside also claiming a two hour queue. We knew the routine. QR code. Money. VIP treatment.
Which landed us straight in this little preshow batching area. The synopsis – things are afoot and this magic monk is gonna kick some monster asses.
Our little splurge had messed up the batching for this particular ride though and, to much confusion, more people arrived at the air gates than the car could fit. Gracefully bowed out of that one and then got the added bonus of the next car to ourselves. No guests shouting on their phones throughout the experience today.
Onboard I got a little giddy. It’s another 4D motion based car ride thing, but it runs through water, which I think is rather awesome.
This room was really well done. It’s a full 360° screen that you enter and exit in two different doors built into the screen, combined with rotating and media shenanigans that make it confusing and or magical. As for what was going on, some creatures were attacking us, but it’s clear there’s also a bit of Shanghai Pirates inspiration here too.
It had a smattering of physical moments too, rawr. Eventually we beat up the big bad blue water god and fall out of a pagoda.
Your bravery saved the water town, you can meditate with me any time.
It was very good, in parts, there’s always bonus points for just being unique and it was that in many ways both for China and globally. One obvious thing they really need to work on is the fact that you could prominently see the massive projector setup and gantry above every scene. I don’t know who made it, there seem to be quite a few locals in this game now what with Playfun, OCT, Jinma and of course Fantawild, but the other main sticking point for me was that the motions didn’t hit hard enough for what was going on, which is also quite common out here. We know Fantawild ones can be violent enough to injure, we know Jinma have the potential to but have only delivered it once that I’ve seen. Shame I couldn’t find the plaque.
Two down, moving on.
As previously stated, it was a nice looking place, when you couldn’t see all the people anyway.
This was some museum about boats.
And magic gallery.
Moving on.
In the flying theatre, this was an authentic old-timey boat.
This was the interactive shooting ride, Dragon Palace Adventure, posted at a mere 90 mins, so slightly less popular. Given that we’d been killing it timewise, for obvious reasons, and that the two fast tracks had brought the day up to about the price of a regular Chinese theme park visit, opted to suck this one up and it only took an hour in the end. It was fiiine.
Premise here was that the oceans are polluted. We were to help the sad mermaid and some fiery kid clean up the fish. With fire. Literally burning the purple sludge off of them. Underwater.
So that was cool, something different again. Ride system is an old classic, but my gun didn’t work so just observed what was going on.
Glad I didn’t pay for not being able to take part I guess, though that may have been grounds to go again. Not that I would have been particularly bothered to do so.
Cute story, not much going on.
Holiday decorations of some description, lots of this stuff around.
They sent this boat round the park occasionally with some costumed characters on it, quite quaint.
With time in hand, may as well try the 5D cinema as well. It’s got a bear in it.
Dayu Flood Control didn’t even have a queue time so the wait was anyones guess.
Pretty huge capacity though, I think we were in to this non-pre-show by the second cycle. It just showed clips of what we were about to see on small TVs. The equivalent of my pet peeve with coasters showing their own POV in the queue. Spoilers.
It weren’t good, but it had comedy. Classic three characters on some epic journey adventure that involved snakes, some logs in a raging river, jungle etc. Then they just do the ol’ Lord of the Rings hop on some eagles and make all of that walking effort completely pointless.
Once again the quest led to confronting the big bad blue water god guy who was flooding the world. Boss fight happens, they don’t do so well but then one of them turns into a bear and cracks the guys skull while the other two shout his name triumphantly a million times. That again.
World fixed, moving on.
Or rather, moving out. Mission complete, got everything I wanted. Was worth the effort just for the dark ride and likely a more pleasant day out than most other park visits could have been given the public holiday circumstances.
We escaped the horrors of Lanzhou the following morning and caught the next train back down to Xi’an. Once here I had one particular park in mind. In the absence of almost any actually decent rollercoasters to do in China now, my attention has turned to the latest and greatest from good old Jinma. They’ve been trying their hand at a few more ride types and track styles as of late, so let’s go sample their (Aurora) Flying Coaster or FXC-28A.
Day 12 – Silk Road Paradise
I don’t know the brand behind this place. but in terms of scale and presentation it seems fairly top tier for China. It also seems possible they did the Silk Road park down on Hainan, are they doing more? Maybe they can hang with the other big players. We’ll see.
As for today though, the driver dropped me off at the East entrance to the park, as it was geographically convenient to do so. Turned out it wasn’t logistically convenient to do so, as there wasn’t a ticket office on this side, just a confused rabble of guests seemingly unable to get into the park because of various QR code and app faff. I also tried the QR code on the park map here, but it didn’t work. Ugh.
The map indicated however that there was a far more significant entrance on the North side, so I hotfooted it around the perimeter to that point and sure enough there was a big ticket office to one side of the plaza.
If you’ve ever wondered how (some) Chinese parks make any money and can be so quiet for most of the year, I present to you a public holiday visit. The ticket office was set up like a train station, with 12 or so windows and it was packed. They were absolutely raking it in.
I’d been too busy focused on getting in and not quite noticed the sheer scale of the place just yet. Is huge.
Particularly this thing, I was rather fascinated by it. Such a striking centrepiece and seemed to be a good 1000ft tall, looming over the park in every direction.
I battled my way through the crowds and towards the main coaster. A small queue was present outside of the entrance, no biggy, and then I clocked the sign. A temporary sandwich board sign. That’s a 4 hour queue lads.
Well, I’ve come this far.
It seems an injustice to dismiss what turned out to be a four and a half hour wait for a coaster in a single sentence, so some observations:
Time passed relatively quickly for me, all things considered. I think a combination of getting older and having past experience with bad theme park situations helps with this and maybe also that I cared less about the end result. Two combined stints at Maverick totalling the same amount of time was far more stressful and included breakdowns. Two hours not moving in the Taron single rider queue for ‘midnight Taron’ at 8pm with a thousand train despatches vibrating your feet while people around you have panic attacks was far less pleasant.
In general, the Chinese didn’t seem to care, it was par for the course to be spending their precious day off in a barely moving queue.
They had roaming staff in the room allowing people to leave for bathroom, food etc. provided they took a photo with their group and then showed it upon return.
One family tried to cut about 15% of the queue by sending their children forward and trying to join them after. Both the surrounding guests and staff gave them a good shouting at and they were removed in shame. Shame that doesn’t happen in other parts of the world.
Some of the community spirit was rather heartwarming, some prospective riders had family members just pop in every hour or so with some food or a power bank for their phone, pat them on the head and check they were ok.
One guy left the queue area to sit down and cry on a box for a bit, though it could have been unrelated.
They also did a Taron and closed the queue 4 hours before park close so that it would be empty by the end of the day. This confused people so many times because of course they had to keep opening it to let returning queuers through, then stop normal guests who would come and ask is it open?
But, through all that, it was running one train when it has two. None of this was necessary.
Made it to the station anyway and ended up back row, outside, woo.
So, how was the ride? I enjoyed it.
#1 Aurora Flying Coaster doesn’t have the refined qualities of an old B&M (let’s not talk about new B&M), but it doesn’t ride poorly by any means.
It feels a bit prototype in that they’ve gone all in with their own pretzel loop element, but then not much else happens layout-wise around that. The same could be said for Superman clones.
And, for now, I’d take it over one of those purely because its different. Once they build 10 of them that will likely change.
For those who don’t like pretzel loops/intense moments on flyers, you’d probably like this more. It manages to make the pretzel a little more pedestrian and less lung-crushing somehow, though it has some strong positives in the later turns.
Best bit about the whole thing for me was the seating position though. Yes, it’s old school Vekoma loading, but those tip you slightly on your head in the horizontal position and it’s deeply uncomfortable waiting in the station and on the brake run which, at Carowinds, takes forever.
This one has you perfectly flat on your back. Comfortable, just chillin, yourself and your thoughts on a rollercoaster, looking straight up at a high wooden ceiling and then some ominous sky as it was threatening to rain. In that sense it was unlike anything else I’d ever experienced, and a good thing for it.
It also retains the more effective anticipation of backwards lift hill, which I always appreciate. I hope they can take this stuff further in the future now – the technology is definitely getting there, now they need a good creative streak from a designer and to do something much more exciting with it.
With more than half the operating day gone on a single attraction, decisions had to be made of course on what else I wanted (and was willing) to do.
The back of this theatre tells us that the park has six themed lands. I saw two and a half at most.
From the queue I had clocked on a TV that they had a major dark ride, so that became priority number two. This is it, the Mysterious Adventure of Marco Polo. Queued about an hour, all in.
You know that adventure, where Marco Polo is in the desert, meets a wizard lady and helps her stop Godzilla rising from the earth. It’s a well known tale.
Well this was that, on a 3D, motion based dark ride.
See?
Oh and she gets a dragon friend at the end, because merch.
It was alright, not the best of quality, not the worst. Again mostly enjoyed for being something new.
This park actually has quite a selection of branded merch, a shocker for China. I didn’t have the time nor the inclination for any of it given the circumstances though.
From there I learned a few more things. Every time I see Jinma spinner with the inversion listed in a park I assume the clone, which I’ve still not yet managed to do.
This one isn’t a clone. But on a day with 4 hour queues, the 4 seater spinner had, naturally, already closed its queue for the day.
And they’ve got a Flying Theatre, but my willingness to put effort in had been drained for the day. More multiple hour queues for lesser indoor attractions, already closed rollercoasters, and it started to rain, so I left.
Such a tease of a visit. It’s almost worse for me having been to half a park and simply not being able to see or experience most of it, than not knowing at all. Inevitably I’ll have to return for the rest of the rides (and a Zacspin! they’re building a Zacspin! eww), and probably not queue 4 and a half hours for the flyer. Which, on an obsessive level, renders this visit moot.
Oh well, rode the new Jinma and liked it. Got some dark rides for the database. Beats doin’ stuff.
After escaping Dunhuang again in a far less themed manner it was back to Jiayuguan to tick off the other Fantawild park.
Day 11 – Fantawild Adventure Jiayuguan
Though only branded Adventure, it also has some unique styling, which is nice.
Wouldn’t be one without a castle though.
Next thing I noticed was less expected. The place had queues. Queues? On a Wednesday? At a Fantawild? In the middle of nowhere?
Well today was labour day for China, on which they take a few days off and hit up some theme parks, so good for them.
I’d say that this was all part of some grand scheme on my behalf to ensure I got on Beyond the Clouds at some point this trip, suffer at all costs if necessary, but I remained ignorant to what was really going on this day. Luckily, being the middle of nowhere, it didn’t manage to affect things too much. It soon would.
Anyway, skipped past the SLC because it looked a bit sweaty and joined a 20 minute queue for the Boonie Bears Adventure interactive shooter.
This was from an era where they still had the original ride system, but already had Boonies to play with so went straight in with that, rather than overlaying poor old Fantawild dinosaur.
Speaking of whom, this was the closest I’ve come to acquiring another one, except that it was either £1100, or they wouldn’t sell it. Or both.
He even had his own shop again.
But it was closed.
Woo, service gates.
They also have a Boonie theatre, but I’d seen this film (the original) not too long ago, so had other priorities.
Musi… Skip!
One such priority was The Silk Road, the last of the unique dark rides in the region. In an Adventure park? How unprecedented.
Poor camel.
Queue had some stuff.
And I was worried about the sheer volume of people in here, but then clocked the ride system. We’ve got ourselves a people eater.
Once a thousand people are aboard, the curtains close and you get an introductory video on the left. Silk Road is a thing, lets travel along it. Then you move off.
Given the vehicles, the direct comparison is Chinese Opera Express, and this one successfully highlights the problems with that one. Range of scenes.
You’ve got cold bits.
Animals.
Hot bits.
It also had its own Dunhuang/Mogao Cave section.
And in the usual revolving platform spot, this guy. Still had the screens too, more stuff happened, but though I was perhaps unexpectedly expecting to spin around with this guy and some huge sets, it didn’t happen.
Was decent enough.
Main priority out of the way, it was cred time on #1 Mount Tanggula.
It also had a stewing queue, but hold on a minute. They added a second train !
This marks the second park in the whole country at which I’ve borne witness to the phenomenon, outside of Disney (and Universal – do powered Mack inverts really count though?)
Admittedly they were sending them out with multiple empty rows for no other reason than a couple of air gates were broken, but still. Progress.
Yeah, the other cred was teasing me from afar. Decided to leave it a little while longer though.
The other, other cred teased me up close, by being unobtainable.
Space Journey had a queue outside the building, which is never a good sign. But I was still yet to ride one after the magic door bloke stole the last one, so we sucked it up. Wasn’t terrible.
The insides hold some momorabilia, and not much of a queueing area thankfully.
Preshow. It’s the 50th anniversary of space and we’re having a celebration. Then Chinese Joker comes over the comms (you never get a visual, I just pictured it in my head)and says he’s gonna do terrorism. I believe Picard season 3 stole their plot from this ride.
Of course we’ve got to board our high tech, all terrain, space cruiser and help the city stop the terrorist. Provided we’re the appropriate heigmt for such an undertaking.
Simulated excitement.
It was ok. Plot wasn’t all there, we catch up to the guy a number of times and then he drops a cubular time bomb in a building. We catch it and Iron Man it out to space before it explodes. I guess the Avengers stole a bit from here too.
There’s no resolution to that though, we stopped the bomb but as far as I can tell the guy is still out there causing chaos, we didn’t catch him. Oh and we don’t actually go to space.
Space.
Didn’t manage to obtain a vantage point for this parade, though it happened outside the exact same ride building, so that was trippy. I’m confused by the concept of this one, it was just a bunch of Chinese in cosplay, and some clowns, but I’d seen half of them on park already, in ride queues. Do they work for the park? Are they volunteers? Can you rock up and get free entry if you do the parade? Would I? Probably.
Sadly it was SLC time, though #2 Flare Meteor had faded to a mere two train wait because most people had done it once, never again.
It was fiiine. Or was it. No, I think it was pretty bad. Doesn’t matter, it was a thing.
Wizard Academy is also a thing here, another sign that this is the newest Adventure park. No dinos rampaging here.
Endorsed by Duludubi.
And this is where we keep learning new things. Unlike any other iteration I’ve done, this one has a preshow with an animatronic and everything. It weren’t running though. I really needed that back story.
The cars had more effort put into them.
And on board there were a couple more surprises, the same screen sequence was interluded with a number physical effects that aren’t often there either.
Rawr
Wizard chucks some logs at you cos he’s evil.
And arrows.
OG Old mate octopus.
Your bravery saved yourselves. From me. You can visit the Wizard Academy any time.
Satisfied, we headed out and then things started to go wrong. Didi couldn’t find us a driver. Gave it like half an hour of saying it was searching and that we were in a queue. And there were a couple other parties out by the road in the same situation as us, also in that queue. There weren’t even any dodgy drivers hanging about either, strangely. I guess they get the day off too.
Time ticked on towards the train and things got desperate. A taxi rocked up, but had been prebooked for someone else on park and didn’t want to take the emergency fare. I was ready and willing to pay top dollar to not be stranded in a city with like 2 trains a day, but they were an honest soul and it wasn’t necessary. Instead another of the friendly groups that were waiting, also fair play to them, helped to reason that we just pay for both the outbound and return leg, the taxi can hotfoot it to the station and back and still meet their commitment. So they did.
Yay for China.
– – –
I should learn to trust my instincts when trains sell out unexpectedly. Like that time it snowed. It would have been possible, and was the original plan, to take a train directly back to Xi’an that night, but they all sold out the moment they were released.
Not to worry, I just booked one that went half the distance, a hotel for the night, and then one for the following morning.
UGH, this was such an unecessary added faff. Upon arrival at Lanzhou station, henceforth known as a hellhole, the same Didi failure was happening again. There’s a designated pickup point at most stations set up to cope with online booking shenanigans and not ruin the taxi ranks and or/car parks and, though while standing at this point watching a million cars go by, none of them could be assigned to us apparently. We waited a good half an hour for the ‘virtual queue’, eventually got to the front, a car came up on screen, then instantly cancelled on us. It then says sorry mate, you’re our priority now, but nothing came of that either.
Should have just gone to the normal taxi rank. Went to the taxi rank, where there were millions, got a car instantly… dumb. Problem was it took over an hour to do a couple miles to the hotel, because traffic, during which the driver told us all the delights of the public holiday that was news to me. I swear I looked that up…
Anyway, many wasted hours just to unnecessarily transit through a city. All in a days work.
