Rob Coasters
Rob Poster
I don't really have a "bucket list" of rides that I am dead set on getting on - because it changes all the time. There'll be a ride that I initially won't care about in the slightest, then one day it becomes the only coaster I ever want to get on. This happened with a little single-rail launch coaster near Lyon, called Mahuka. For most of the year I was entirely unbothered by its existence, until one day, I realised I desperately wanted to ride it. So on 4 days' notice, I booked flights to Lyon to get on it.
Day 1 - Landing in Lyon
After some dry airport noodles we set off for an easyJet to Lyon where we were instantly greeted with some shocking 35 degree Celsius blaze which had us searching for shade at most opportunities. The airport is well-connected with a tram that takes you right into the city centre where our hotel was, and we were introduced to the city by getting off next to a man passed out on the street from heatstroke, who was thankfully being attended to, but first impressions of the whole place weren't incredible by any means. The whole area had this odd yet unpleasant smell to it, and we went straight to the hotel where we chilled until dinner.
You can pay for the trams using ticket machines before boarding them.
While the normal choice would be to try out some French cuisine, I instead opted to lose my Popeye's virginity as it was a pretty respected food chain according to some American friends. It was decent despite the coke being a little flat but whatever, I enjoyed it. We found a large arcade with DanceDance Revolution, a 4D zombie-blasting shooting cinema thing similar to Kinetorium at the jardins which was great fun, and one of those VR flippy things that we found on Walton Pier last year. The decision was made to do the 4D shooter and leave the VR thing for the day of our flight home (which we ended up not having the time for due to getting distracted by bigger things), and that ended day one.
The air conditioning in our hotel was so weak in this colossal heat that I actually ended up sleeping on the floor, which wasn't ideal by any means, but I got through it and day 2 started.
Day 2: Walibi Rhône-Alpes
Walibi Rhône-Alpes has an infrequent bus service that runs once a day for two months in the summer season, and the rush to get here was because of how few days were remaining before bus services stopped until at least July of next year. Easily bookable from the park's website, the online bus ticket provides good locations of exactly where to be picked up at the beginning and end of your day. While the bus is indeed only once a day in either direction, it gets you there for park opening and leaves after close, which enables you to get final rides in.
www.walibi.fr
You can get a direct 40 minute train from Lyon to La Tour du Pin, which is where your bus will be, and shortly we arrived.
#339 Mahuka was obviously the main draw of the trip and the reason I'm here. Covered with an archaeology overlay with a hint of Spice Girls in classic 'out there' Walibi fashion, it was very well presented for being a brand new coaster which is something you don't see too often in this day and age unfortunately. While yes there is a little bit of incompleteness still, the park aims to finish things off for 2025 so at least it's a priority which is the second best thing I can ask for.
The ride experience while not overly intense is a splendidly fun ride with plentiful amounts of airtime & whips to the side with a nice collection of inversions too - my favourite element had to be the twisted airtime hill which was fantastic for the amount of upper body freedom that the minimalistic restraint allowed. While I did note a rattle, it was fairly ignorable as long as you leaned forward and never touched the back or headrest which seemed to be more problematic in terms of un-smoothness compared to everywhere else on the car. It has an appreciable length too, and is the perfect addition for this park.
We hopped on for a lap of the park's kiddie coaster #340 Coccinelle which unfortunately only performed one lap before moving onto the next major coaster, #341 Generator. This was going to be my first ever looping boomerang with a lap bar so I was interested to see how differently it was going to ride, and the answer was very.
You feel a lot of weight pressing onto the lap bar as you're lifted up which is a strange, unique & oddly terrifying feeling before being released, and I'm happy to say that this is the smoothest and best boomerang I've ridden. I usually dread the backwards section as I get severely disorientated on the backwards cobra roll, but that wasn't half bad either. Overall, Generator was good for its type and I hope more of these rides get this retrofit.
#342 Timber! was some more Gravity Group wood and my second example of the 'mini' variant. It's an excellent usage of its short height, staying speedy throughout all of it with entertaining twists and pops of fun air on the hills. I wasn't a fan of the ride's buzzkill ending with a rather harsh trim at the very end that shunts you forward a little - I understand it's necessary as the brake run is too short, but it's an uncomfortable way to end what's otherwise a quality if very shaky ride. Despite its rattle, I preferred this layout to Wood Express.
#343 Woodstock Express was quite bad for a wild mouse with sharp turns that transition awfully and generally reeked of lack of build quality. Wasn't a fan and sits undisputed as my least favourite ride in the park.
We headed over to #344 Mystic next and this was awesome.; Going up the vertical lift with a lap bar was pretty freaky and the layout provided some amazing, out of nowhere lateral throws to the side. The first drop was something else while in an edge seat, the top hat provided great power to it, and the roll was brilliantly graceful and smooth. The upside down stall was the highlight as expected, being a memorably magnificent moment of hangtime as you lose your speed and start rolling backwards to end out this excellent ride. It's clear that I loved Mystic.
So far Mahuka, Mystic and Timber have all been qualifiers for the best ride in the park which surprised me as I thought Mahuka was going to be the evident standout but I was wrong - I had no idea the others were good enough to all be within breathing distance of the podium and I truly believe that they all had their spot as my favourite ride at certain points of my visit.
Up next was Totem, the park's shot tower. They have a peculiar loading procedure here, where they check seatbelts after the gondola begins its initial lift to prepare for blastoff but I imagine it must save time, so, cool. Unfortunately it was one of the weaker variants of this ride for me, the first liftoff was decent but the ride petered out very quickly I'm sorry to report.
Bambooz River was the park's log flume with nothing special to report, but it was fun.
The rest of the day was spent going between my three favourites, thoroughly enjoying each and every lap of them. The park is full of single rider lines (with ones featured on Timber, Mystic & Totem) and operators are very efficient with shouting down the queue for smaller groups - they work diligently to make sure as few seats as possible leave empty and I respect that highly. It cannot be stated how close the three highlights are to me, it took me until days after my visit to comfortably decide their placements in my ranking. I don't even care that the park doesn't have a standout because what they have is so insanely rerideable and fun, and the rides being as good as each other forces me to wander through the park instead of just spending my whole day in one area. And it feels great to wander round the park too. Everyone is happy to be there, is having a great time, it's one of the most 'good vibes' parks I've been in. It truly felt like escapism to the highest degree, a day where nothing else mattered.
After more Mahuka and Mystic it was time to leave. I got the last train of the day on Timber before making a swift exit to catch our bus. Overall I loved Walibi Rhône-Alpes and it has become an instant favourite of mine. Despite its lackluster flat ride lineup and lack of any dark rides, the park has so much going for it. Mission MAHUKA complete.
Tomorrow - Lyon tourism
Day 1 - Landing in Lyon
After some dry airport noodles we set off for an easyJet to Lyon where we were instantly greeted with some shocking 35 degree Celsius blaze which had us searching for shade at most opportunities. The airport is well-connected with a tram that takes you right into the city centre where our hotel was, and we were introduced to the city by getting off next to a man passed out on the street from heatstroke, who was thankfully being attended to, but first impressions of the whole place weren't incredible by any means. The whole area had this odd yet unpleasant smell to it, and we went straight to the hotel where we chilled until dinner.
You can pay for the trams using ticket machines before boarding them.
While the normal choice would be to try out some French cuisine, I instead opted to lose my Popeye's virginity as it was a pretty respected food chain according to some American friends. It was decent despite the coke being a little flat but whatever, I enjoyed it. We found a large arcade with DanceDance Revolution, a 4D zombie-blasting shooting cinema thing similar to Kinetorium at the jardins which was great fun, and one of those VR flippy things that we found on Walton Pier last year. The decision was made to do the 4D shooter and leave the VR thing for the day of our flight home (which we ended up not having the time for due to getting distracted by bigger things), and that ended day one.
The air conditioning in our hotel was so weak in this colossal heat that I actually ended up sleeping on the floor, which wasn't ideal by any means, but I got through it and day 2 started.
Day 2: Walibi Rhône-Alpes
Walibi Rhône-Alpes has an infrequent bus service that runs once a day for two months in the summer season, and the rush to get here was because of how few days were remaining before bus services stopped until at least July of next year. Easily bookable from the park's website, the online bus ticket provides good locations of exactly where to be picked up at the beginning and end of your day. While the bus is indeed only once a day in either direction, it gets you there for park opening and leaves after close, which enables you to get final rides in.
How getting here ?
Comment venir au parc d'attractions Walibi Rhône-Alpes ? En voiture ou en navette, trouvez la solution idéale pour vous déplacer !
www.walibi.fr
You can get a direct 40 minute train from Lyon to La Tour du Pin, which is where your bus will be, and shortly we arrived.
#339 Mahuka was obviously the main draw of the trip and the reason I'm here. Covered with an archaeology overlay with a hint of Spice Girls in classic 'out there' Walibi fashion, it was very well presented for being a brand new coaster which is something you don't see too often in this day and age unfortunately. While yes there is a little bit of incompleteness still, the park aims to finish things off for 2025 so at least it's a priority which is the second best thing I can ask for.
The ride experience while not overly intense is a splendidly fun ride with plentiful amounts of airtime & whips to the side with a nice collection of inversions too - my favourite element had to be the twisted airtime hill which was fantastic for the amount of upper body freedom that the minimalistic restraint allowed. While I did note a rattle, it was fairly ignorable as long as you leaned forward and never touched the back or headrest which seemed to be more problematic in terms of un-smoothness compared to everywhere else on the car. It has an appreciable length too, and is the perfect addition for this park.
We hopped on for a lap of the park's kiddie coaster #340 Coccinelle which unfortunately only performed one lap before moving onto the next major coaster, #341 Generator. This was going to be my first ever looping boomerang with a lap bar so I was interested to see how differently it was going to ride, and the answer was very.
You feel a lot of weight pressing onto the lap bar as you're lifted up which is a strange, unique & oddly terrifying feeling before being released, and I'm happy to say that this is the smoothest and best boomerang I've ridden. I usually dread the backwards section as I get severely disorientated on the backwards cobra roll, but that wasn't half bad either. Overall, Generator was good for its type and I hope more of these rides get this retrofit.
#342 Timber! was some more Gravity Group wood and my second example of the 'mini' variant. It's an excellent usage of its short height, staying speedy throughout all of it with entertaining twists and pops of fun air on the hills. I wasn't a fan of the ride's buzzkill ending with a rather harsh trim at the very end that shunts you forward a little - I understand it's necessary as the brake run is too short, but it's an uncomfortable way to end what's otherwise a quality if very shaky ride. Despite its rattle, I preferred this layout to Wood Express.
#343 Woodstock Express was quite bad for a wild mouse with sharp turns that transition awfully and generally reeked of lack of build quality. Wasn't a fan and sits undisputed as my least favourite ride in the park.
We headed over to #344 Mystic next and this was awesome.; Going up the vertical lift with a lap bar was pretty freaky and the layout provided some amazing, out of nowhere lateral throws to the side. The first drop was something else while in an edge seat, the top hat provided great power to it, and the roll was brilliantly graceful and smooth. The upside down stall was the highlight as expected, being a memorably magnificent moment of hangtime as you lose your speed and start rolling backwards to end out this excellent ride. It's clear that I loved Mystic.
So far Mahuka, Mystic and Timber have all been qualifiers for the best ride in the park which surprised me as I thought Mahuka was going to be the evident standout but I was wrong - I had no idea the others were good enough to all be within breathing distance of the podium and I truly believe that they all had their spot as my favourite ride at certain points of my visit.
Up next was Totem, the park's shot tower. They have a peculiar loading procedure here, where they check seatbelts after the gondola begins its initial lift to prepare for blastoff but I imagine it must save time, so, cool. Unfortunately it was one of the weaker variants of this ride for me, the first liftoff was decent but the ride petered out very quickly I'm sorry to report.
Bambooz River was the park's log flume with nothing special to report, but it was fun.
The rest of the day was spent going between my three favourites, thoroughly enjoying each and every lap of them. The park is full of single rider lines (with ones featured on Timber, Mystic & Totem) and operators are very efficient with shouting down the queue for smaller groups - they work diligently to make sure as few seats as possible leave empty and I respect that highly. It cannot be stated how close the three highlights are to me, it took me until days after my visit to comfortably decide their placements in my ranking. I don't even care that the park doesn't have a standout because what they have is so insanely rerideable and fun, and the rides being as good as each other forces me to wander through the park instead of just spending my whole day in one area. And it feels great to wander round the park too. Everyone is happy to be there, is having a great time, it's one of the most 'good vibes' parks I've been in. It truly felt like escapism to the highest degree, a day where nothing else mattered.
After more Mahuka and Mystic it was time to leave. I got the last train of the day on Timber before making a swift exit to catch our bus. Overall I loved Walibi Rhône-Alpes and it has become an instant favourite of mine. Despite its lackluster flat ride lineup and lack of any dark rides, the park has so much going for it. Mission MAHUKA complete.
Tomorrow - Lyon tourism
