Theme Park Discussion / Fred's trip report thread

I'll be posting my trip reports in this thread.



Walibi Belgium - 02 april 2012

Walibi Belgium is the largest themepark of Belgium, and to my opinion also the one with the most prestige. It's the most interesting themepark of Belgium for people of my age, with a wooden coaster, Vekoma Boomerang and SLC it offers the most thrill. No need to explain this is a park I visit at least once a year. In 2010 & 2011 I had picked the wrong days to go to Walibi Belgium. It was incredibly crowded those last 2 visits and in 2011 I only could do ONE attraction! So I needed to visit Walibi Belgium on a quiet day.




The new mascot of Walibi Belgium. I liked the old one more, but that has probably something to do with nostalgia. Walibi Belgium is in the hand of the 'Compagnie des Alpes' group and they worked out a new re-branding plan for their Walibi parks. It has something to do with 2 bands fighting eachother with music... It was kinda crowded on the train to Walibi, so I was afraid I would not enjoy the park on a quiet day. Lucky for me, my feeling was wrong. Queue lines were about 5 or 10 minutes that day, I've never experienced the park that calm. Unfortunately, the main visitors were marginal teens from the outskirts of Brussels (the average public of the park). They jump queues, are very noisy and they don't smell good. But we didn't have any troubles with them, fortunately!

The first thing people go to when the gates open, is Loop-Garou/Weerwolf. The only wooden coaster you'll find in Belgium. We are no exception and Weerwolf (that's the Flemish name, I'll keep using that) is a pretty nice coaster. Not so special if you have ridden more wooden coasters, but still always fun. And I consider it the second best coaster in Belgium. We were lucky, we could walk trough the queue and only had to wait 10 minutes. Never saw it that calm at Weerwolf. On a bad day, you can queue for more than 2 hours over here! The last time I rode this coaster was in 2010... or 2009... I don't know, my point: it was a time ago I rode that thing and didn't remember the ride experience that much. But since the last time I rode it, I've done other wooden coasters like Megaphobia and Troy. Weerwolf isn't that good compared with those two, but it was still fun.




Bumping cars! Always fun, too bad they don't drive that fast. Next stop was the Western village, which is the most themed area of the park. It offers a top spin, an Intamin giant drop (77m high) and a Vekoma mine coaster. My friend did the top spin, I don't relly like thrill rides like that so I skipped that. We both skipped the gaint drop Dalton Terror, I have a fear of heights...




As coaster freaks, we went to the Vekoma mine train Calamity Mine, which was one of my favorite coasters when I was a young Fred. The park did their best to clean up the attraction, the rocks weren't overgrown by moss anymore and the waterfall effect worked! In his opening years, the coaster splashed, but that effect wasn't fixed (yet). It's a good ride, but unfortunately in the shadow of more themed mine trainers (BTM) or more wild ones (Colorado adventure).




On our way to Challenge of Tutankhamon we decided to do Gold river adventure, a cruise between poorly maintained forest and decrepit decoration. The condition of this attraction is an outrage, there is so much more they could do with this attraction. Bellewaerde Park (owned by the same company) had a similar attraction and they've cleaned it up en renewed it completely. So why can't Walibi do that? Anyway, whe decided to eat our lunch. Fred doesn't hate animals, and decided to feed the ducks and geese. Bad idea. One goose wanted more crums and followed us with an angry look. I tought it would jump into the boat, but ignoring it helped and he went to another boat looking to get some food.




Challenge of Tutankhamon was our next stop. It was opened in 2003 (when the park was a Six Flags park) and is the last attraction the park had opened since then (new 3d or 4d movies aren't new attractions Walibi). But CoT is one hell of a ride, it's one of the best darkrides I've done and it exceeds the level of the Belgian themeparks. Thank you very much Six Flags (I miss them)! It's a shooter, and despite we were only with 2 in a car, we scored enough point to see the treasure house.




And since we were here, with no queue, I wanted to ride de Keverbaan, the park's kiddie coaster. I didn't have it on my coaster counter yet. But the operator had to laugh when he saw me coming, "this is only for kids men" he said. Saying I was a coaster freak who counts their ridden coasters didn't really help to stop him laughing. Afterwards I should be this operator very thankfull, because of a miss count this could be my 100th coaster! Luckely the operator didn't let me go on this ride and Oz'Iris became my 100th coaster.




Cot and the Keverbaan are in the back of the park. To go back to the center of the park we had to cross a piece of the park where there are almost no attractions. Walibi should use this space better and create a nice Egyptian zone around CoT. We walked past Turbine, an old Schwarzkopf shuttle loop coaster which has been closed for a few years. It isn't a pretty image for a coaster fanatic, but the park announced they will reopen the Turbine in 2013. So Walibi can expect me back in 2013.




Flashback is the park's log flume, and since I like log flumes (I even operate one) we couldn't skip it. Since my last visit, it has been upgraded. A new coat of paint and old broken effects working like they once did. It's a fun flume, but not the best in Belgium. That would be the one I operate of course! We skipped Radja River, the rapid river of the park. With some (bad) luck you can get too wet in there, and we didn't want to take that risk.




No, this is not the rapid river. I had no idea why this was there. Maybe some forgotten halloween decoration?!




Angry goose is back! We wanted to do Cobra, a Vekoma Boomerang but when we saw that it was overtaken by some Brussels tribe we decided it was better for our mood and safety whe skipped this. We did the Paleis van de geest, a madhouse. Always fun to do, but maybe Walibi should revise this ride more often. At the end of the ride, a bolt fell off pretty close to me. Of course, I kept the bolt for my themepark collection.




You can see some marginal things in themeparks, but this mascot just beats everything! We went for another ride on the Weerwolf and Bumper cars. By then, we decided to go home. It wasn't even 5PM. The park has a problem. It opened their last new attraction in 2003 and since then, attractions were removed without a good replacement. On a crowded day you can't ride much rides because of the shitty capacity of the attractions. But on a calm day, you've seen the park pretty quick. Walibi Belgium needs more rides, and a big innovating rollercoaster. In our surrounding countries they kept investing, but here in the Belgian themepark industry there's only one park that keeps investing and it ain't Walibi Belgium.

+: very friendly staff
+: more than enough staff deployed to the attractions despite it was calm
+: CoT exceeds the level of Belgian themeparks
+: park was very clean

-: a bolt that falls of during the ride?!
-: the state of gold river adventure
-: the parks is in desperate need of new attractions

Terra Mitica - 15 & 16 september 2012

August was the busiest time of the year at work, I was glad when the summer holiday came to an end. Half september I could enjoy a nice vacation in sunny Spain. The Belgian Rollercoaster Friends organised a trip to Salou to discover Europe's newest highest rollercoaster: Shambhala (which was awesome). But while you're there, you can easily pick up another themepark.

That other themepark was Terra Mitica, in Benidorm. The Spanish seaside city is in my country known as a big retirement home. It is also called marginal, we Belgians would say it's the Spanish 'Blankenberge'. But most of you don't know Blankenberge, be glad for that, and I don't know with what to compare it else. I mean, it has a very marginal reputation.

We would spend two and a half days in Benidorm. The first day, we would search the coolness in Aqualandia. The rest of the group went exploring all the slides, I just remained the whole time in the big pool. Just floating, I don't like slides and I enjoyed just being in the water. In the Spanish climate, it was very welcome.

We stayed in a **** hotel, that has a golf course which spreads almost over the complete lenght of Benidorm. It was crazy as hell, we got a plan of the hotel when we checked in and still needed half an hour to find our room. Still don't understand how we got to sleep in such a big ass fancy hotel...

The second day, it was time for Terra Mitica. Surely the only good reason to visit Benidorm. If you don't want to visit Terra Mitica, and you're not 80 years old yet, stay away from it! The parking of the park was next to our hotel... but with a ravine between it. So we had to walk all round the ravine to reach the entrance. Instead of a five minute walk, it was half an hour walking.

Terra Mitica is a park which revolves around acient Mediterranean cultures and legends. The entrance is themed as an Egyptian momunment and it makes a great first impression. The impression just gets higher when you enter the park. There aren't good signals about the park: it would have financial problems because of lack of visitors, the coaster list isn't also very impressive,... But damn, just damn... All that great theming...

Just take a look at this photo. The atmosphere the park creates is just amazing. I'd say, if you only have to look at theming, this is Europe's second best park, after Disney. People who compare the Efteling with Disney, should visit this park. They wouldn't tell such stupid things anymore, Efteling doesn't even come close to the theming level of Disney, or Terra Mitica.

Cataratas del Nilo was the first attraction of the day. Even it was only 10AM it was allready pretty hot and some quenching is always nice in this climate. It was a nice flume, with 2 drops (one of them backwards) and it wets you really good. Not soaked, but still...

Terra Mitica not only have a high theming standard, also the greenery has been put together very well and it was very good maintained. From Egypt to Greece, you can do in just a few steps in Terra Mitica.

El Laberinto del Minotauro is named as one of the park's gems. It is a shooter dark-ride, made by the same company that gave us Challenge of Tutankhamon (see previous trip report). But I have to be honest, this one is better. It is not only longer, the theming is from a higher level and the story is much more original than violating an Egyptian tomb. For better darkrides in Europe, you have to go to Disneyland.

My friends saw Synkope and wanted to do it right away. It is a giant frisbee, I'm not keen on such thrill rides so I waited outside searhcing for something to drink. My friends loved it, but then we couldn't ignore the Vekoma SLC anymore. A coaster is a coaster, even if it is a Vekoma SLC. I'm not a fan of Vekoma, and certainly not of their SLC's but Titanide was maybe the smoothest Vekoma SLC I've ridden. I actually enjoyed doing a Vekoma SLC! We did him a few more times that day, can you imagine how not painful this Vekoma SLC was?!

Next to Titanide, there was a big Greek temple. Apparantly it contained a simulator, Templo de Kinetos. Because there was absolutely no queue we had time enough left to not skip it. It is named a simulator, but it has hardly simulator effects. It's just a movie, not even 3D. The movie was nice, but it had nothing to do with Greece or just anyother Mediterranean culture. Contained in such a nice Greek temple, that was a bummer...

Time for some quenching again! Next to the simulator there was La Furia de Tritón, a shoot-the-cute. There is no way you can get out dry! It soaks you completely, and with the temperature that high, that was very welcome, we did him two times in a row. Going further in the Greece area we pass the second coaster credit of the day: Alucinakis. A hybrid coaster as they name it. Steel track with wooden supports. It was a fun kiddie coaster, but the last turn really needs some more banking!

When you walk out the Greece area, you enter the Roman zone. This has 2 subzones. The first is a fortress from the Roman army, the other one is a Roman city. The Roman fortress entrance is pretty impressive, but it contains mostly children's attractions. However, the eye-catcher of this zone is a wooden rollercoaster. Magnus Colossus is placed on a hillside and is from almost every spot in the park visible. It sure is the most beautiful place to put a woodie on. I heard some bad stories about Magnus Colossus, it would rattle very hard and it wouldn't have an interesting layout. That last one, is correct. It's not one of the best woodies you can find, but it has some nice drops and it ain't that painful. We rode him a second time that day.

The eye-catcher of the other Roman zone, is also a coaster. Inferno is the parks newest rollercoaster, it opened in 2007. It's a ball coaster from Intamin. Since this was an investment of the new owners of Terra Mitica, the theming level is below the park's standards. If you look it that way, this is not a good strengthening for Terra Mitica. However, the ride experience makes up for it. Crazy it is! It's an Intamin ball coaster where you sit 2x2 back to back, on side of the track, and it spins vertically. The two heaviest persons (including me) sat back and that provided us a crazy ride, which ended braking upside down, looking at the ground. A crazy and intense experience.

It also has a Roman amphitheatre were you can watch a show about gladiators. We didn't see the show, but the park offers a lot of animation in the park itself. It really gives you a feeling of being there, in the old Rome, Greece,... There was also a not so high drop tower. I did skip it, in a rollercoaster I can overcome my fear of heights pretty easy, but not in those drop towers.

On an island, you can find the third water attraction of the park. Rápidos de Argos is a rapid river were you can get a nice amount of water over you, if you're lucky. It was pretty popular under our group, and we did it several times. Also on the island, there was what once seems to be a darkride/simulator/?. It was closed, because of the savings the park has to make. What a shame.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and that means the parks pirate show Barbarojja would start. The big floating ship that appeared from after the decor was pretty impressive. It was fun to watch, even though I didn't understand a word of it. The show finds place in the smallest zone of the park: the Iberian zone. Except from the show, there is a only a dodgem cars attraction, which we skipped.

That made our tour through the park almost done. We wanted to do the panoramic tower but an employee told us it was closed because of the wind. We did Puerto de Alejandría which takes you on a cruise on the lake. It also cruises near what seems to be the Disney Village of Terra Mitica?! It looked like a resort with cafes and restaurants, and even sleeping accomodations. But it was completely abandonned, I don't think that is open anymore.

We stayed until around siux o'clock in the evening. Others already went to the hotel, enjoying the pool or visiting Benidorm city. The next day we could enjoy the park a few hours, before we went to the airport of Valencia. I'm glad I was one of the few that decided to go back the second day, because it's a really enjoyable park. It is really sad that a park like this doesn't draw the attention from people like it should.

When people talk about European themeparks, they talk about Disneyland, Europa Park, Efteling, Port Aventura, Alton Towers,... but almost never about Terra Mitica. That's a shame, only looking at theming and atmosphere, this is the only park in Europe that can compete with Disneyland. The attraction range is not from the same quality, but overall, I place this park as third best European themepark. After Disneyland and Europa Park. If you are ever in Spain and have the chance to visit this park, do it, you won't regret it. And take a camera with you, because the park is so photogenic. It'd be really a shame if this went bankrupt, I hope they can find a good buyer for this park so many people can enjoy it's beauty.

+: The theming is incredible
+: Original stories, not the standard westernzone crap from most themeparks
+: Very nice greenery
+: Much animation in the park
+: Epic location to place a themepark: on a hillside overviewing Benidorm and the Mediterranean sea

-: It's in Benidorm

I've always thought Terra Mitica looked an interesting park, cheers for the photos!