Nicky Borrill
Strata Poster
Not a trip report, not really, more of a summary, and a huge shout out and thank you to those I met on my travels, who I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 days with.
Flew into Katowice on Sunday morning and caught an Uber to Legendia, because I’m lazy (cost £18.40) got there shortly after park opening and was met by @JKM we promptly purchased tickets and entered the park. The park was much busier than I’d seen in any reports or vlogs, which to be honest was nice to see, and meant a more relaxed start to the trip. First ride was Diabelska Petla, backwards. It was not as rough as expected and the second loop is almost swcharzkopf intense due to being smaller. Us old fogies will remember this from its American Adventure days as Iron Wolf / Twin Looper / JCB Looper, where I personally rode it well over 1000 times, so it was good to be reunited with an old friend. Then of course we headed for a couple of rides on Lech, stunning coaster, for which I’ve done a seperate review. We also did the dark ride, not my thing really, wasn’t as good as I’d heard, but if you enjoy the chocolate mouse thing at Phantasialand you will probably like this, like a scaled down version.
We tried to get the other cred (I say other, as one is currently SBNO) but it was the longest queue of the day, and I’m a crap enthusiast, I’d rather enjoy a good ride than stand in a queue to ride a crappy Zyklon for creds. So back to Lech for a reride.
Me and JKM then sat down for 30 minutes with a drink just chewing the fat, and putting the world to rights. Fantastic company, was a pleasure to meet you Peter and hang out for the afternoon.
It was now 2:30 and I’d seen that Energylandia had extended opening hours presumably because it was busy. So I headed off there, as I wanted to see the park busy, and catch my first rides on things when they’d warmed up... Definitely NOT a mistake.
So 50 mins in an Uber and £35 lighter, I was at Energylandia. Went to buy my tickets, thinking I’d now need 3 days, and was advised to get an annual pass, as it would only be 29zl (£6) more than a 2 day and single day, and would last me until 22nd Sept 2020. Immediately thinking of Aqualantis, I agreed, a decision which would certainly pay off.
I entered the park, it was absoloutely packed, and my first impressions were up there with the best theme parks I’ve visited. Not sure if plants, trees and shrubs etc have matured since others have visited, but this was not the EL I was expecting, not the car park I thought it would be, it was beautiful, flowers, trees and just georgeous landscaping everywhere. Everything was themed too, I wasn’t expecting that. The theming is not to the highest order, but it’s there, and better than a lot of parks manage. It’s also a bit random in places, as in there are some parts where it’s just a themed ride randomly placed in a nicely landscaped area. But some highlights were the space theme around Hyperion, The viking themed area, the Racing themed area, in which there is a themed cafe where you can get geourgous views above the park while eating lunch, and of course the Dragon zone.
My intention for this first evening was to get some ‘warmed up’ rides on Hyperion and Zadra, so I headed to the back of the park first. Despite the park being packed, the queue for Zadra was only 20 - 30 mins, and the trains were flying out. I enjoyed 2 rides on Zadra (see seperate reviews) and then headed to Hyperion. The queue here was slightly longer, maybe 30 - 40 minutes, but I also enjoyed 2 rides on this.
One little rant about EL, is that the modern queue system they use, with the 4 gates counting people in for certain sections of the train, works extremely well when the park is busy, but not very well when it is quiet, as everyone queues for the front, and they won’t send trains until they’re full.
Anyway, after these initial rides I decided to just wander around the park and take it in, really liking what I saw. The atmosphere when this park is busy is outstanding.
Time to walk to my accomodation, 10 minutes up the road, (past a McDonalds) is Western Camp Resort. It’s a really nice resort, with glamping options and log cabins. There’s a lake, restaurant, outdoor cinema, private fire pits for hire and sports activities. My ‘chuck wagon’ was lovely inside, 3 power points, air con, heating, plenty of storage including a secure locakable chest and a huge and comfy bed. I couldn’t of asked for any more for the money, it was superb.
I am going to condense the next 3 days down a little, this is getting longer than planned already.
The next morning I entered the park and headed straight for Zadra, whilst queuing I’d noticed the 2 next to me were speaking English and thought nothing of it. As I sat on the back row a young lad infront turned and asked me a question, turns out it was Fin, @pvnks’ little brother. We were supposed to meet up the next day, but fate had decided we were just going to have to spend the whole of the next 3 days together. And what a great 3 days they would be. We basically spent most of the time riding Zadra and Hyperion. With a few rides on Speed, Formula and Mayan thrown in for good measure. Of course we rode all of the family creds, and I split off for an hour or so on the third day to get the kiddie creds. The rapids weren’t as bad as expected, the 267 drop cycle on the drop / gently lower tower was abysmal, and we got far wetter than planned on the shoot the chute.
Pvnks and Fin were great company, we had some good laughs and they really made my trip special, I was originally planning and happy to do this trip alone, but I am so thankful that we met up, it really wouldn’t have been the same without them. Fin is extremely passionate about coasters and remarkably knowledgable for his age, really surprised he isn’t already on the forums.
On the 4th day, I was supposed to leave around lunchtime for a late afternoon flight, but I had a browse in the morning and found a later flight I could switch to. I decided that my day would be lost travelling anyway by the time I got home to the midlands in the evening, so I might aswell stay the whole day and get home late night. So a quick message to Pvnks to blag a lift to the airport, saving me Uber fare to put towards the flight change costs and all was arranged, I would stay the whole of the 4th day!!! That annual pass really did pay off. At Breakfast that morning I heard a couple speaking English, so I casully went over and said “you’re Enghlish right” ? to which they answered “yes.” Suspecting I already knew the answer I asked what bought them to Poland, of course the answer was Energylandia and another new friendship was born after Katie excitedly said to Liam “look a liseberg tshirt.” Turns out they’re visiting Liseberg in a few weeks. They’re not on the forums but hopefully we’ve persuaded them to sign up.
So that morning, the 5 of us met up at the gates and headed to.... Zadra ???
To Summarise, a great 4 days in Poland, with some great people who I would definitely love to spend time with again, riding some great rides, Poland is lucky to have such a beautiful park that is only going to get better.
Zadra or Hyperion... I am still not fully decided!!!
Flew into Katowice on Sunday morning and caught an Uber to Legendia, because I’m lazy (cost £18.40) got there shortly after park opening and was met by @JKM we promptly purchased tickets and entered the park. The park was much busier than I’d seen in any reports or vlogs, which to be honest was nice to see, and meant a more relaxed start to the trip. First ride was Diabelska Petla, backwards. It was not as rough as expected and the second loop is almost swcharzkopf intense due to being smaller. Us old fogies will remember this from its American Adventure days as Iron Wolf / Twin Looper / JCB Looper, where I personally rode it well over 1000 times, so it was good to be reunited with an old friend. Then of course we headed for a couple of rides on Lech, stunning coaster, for which I’ve done a seperate review. We also did the dark ride, not my thing really, wasn’t as good as I’d heard, but if you enjoy the chocolate mouse thing at Phantasialand you will probably like this, like a scaled down version.
We tried to get the other cred (I say other, as one is currently SBNO) but it was the longest queue of the day, and I’m a crap enthusiast, I’d rather enjoy a good ride than stand in a queue to ride a crappy Zyklon for creds. So back to Lech for a reride.
Me and JKM then sat down for 30 minutes with a drink just chewing the fat, and putting the world to rights. Fantastic company, was a pleasure to meet you Peter and hang out for the afternoon.
It was now 2:30 and I’d seen that Energylandia had extended opening hours presumably because it was busy. So I headed off there, as I wanted to see the park busy, and catch my first rides on things when they’d warmed up... Definitely NOT a mistake.
So 50 mins in an Uber and £35 lighter, I was at Energylandia. Went to buy my tickets, thinking I’d now need 3 days, and was advised to get an annual pass, as it would only be 29zl (£6) more than a 2 day and single day, and would last me until 22nd Sept 2020. Immediately thinking of Aqualantis, I agreed, a decision which would certainly pay off.
I entered the park, it was absoloutely packed, and my first impressions were up there with the best theme parks I’ve visited. Not sure if plants, trees and shrubs etc have matured since others have visited, but this was not the EL I was expecting, not the car park I thought it would be, it was beautiful, flowers, trees and just georgeous landscaping everywhere. Everything was themed too, I wasn’t expecting that. The theming is not to the highest order, but it’s there, and better than a lot of parks manage. It’s also a bit random in places, as in there are some parts where it’s just a themed ride randomly placed in a nicely landscaped area. But some highlights were the space theme around Hyperion, The viking themed area, the Racing themed area, in which there is a themed cafe where you can get geourgous views above the park while eating lunch, and of course the Dragon zone.
My intention for this first evening was to get some ‘warmed up’ rides on Hyperion and Zadra, so I headed to the back of the park first. Despite the park being packed, the queue for Zadra was only 20 - 30 mins, and the trains were flying out. I enjoyed 2 rides on Zadra (see seperate reviews) and then headed to Hyperion. The queue here was slightly longer, maybe 30 - 40 minutes, but I also enjoyed 2 rides on this.
One little rant about EL, is that the modern queue system they use, with the 4 gates counting people in for certain sections of the train, works extremely well when the park is busy, but not very well when it is quiet, as everyone queues for the front, and they won’t send trains until they’re full.
Anyway, after these initial rides I decided to just wander around the park and take it in, really liking what I saw. The atmosphere when this park is busy is outstanding.
Time to walk to my accomodation, 10 minutes up the road, (past a McDonalds) is Western Camp Resort. It’s a really nice resort, with glamping options and log cabins. There’s a lake, restaurant, outdoor cinema, private fire pits for hire and sports activities. My ‘chuck wagon’ was lovely inside, 3 power points, air con, heating, plenty of storage including a secure locakable chest and a huge and comfy bed. I couldn’t of asked for any more for the money, it was superb.
I am going to condense the next 3 days down a little, this is getting longer than planned already.
The next morning I entered the park and headed straight for Zadra, whilst queuing I’d noticed the 2 next to me were speaking English and thought nothing of it. As I sat on the back row a young lad infront turned and asked me a question, turns out it was Fin, @pvnks’ little brother. We were supposed to meet up the next day, but fate had decided we were just going to have to spend the whole of the next 3 days together. And what a great 3 days they would be. We basically spent most of the time riding Zadra and Hyperion. With a few rides on Speed, Formula and Mayan thrown in for good measure. Of course we rode all of the family creds, and I split off for an hour or so on the third day to get the kiddie creds. The rapids weren’t as bad as expected, the 267 drop cycle on the drop / gently lower tower was abysmal, and we got far wetter than planned on the shoot the chute.
Pvnks and Fin were great company, we had some good laughs and they really made my trip special, I was originally planning and happy to do this trip alone, but I am so thankful that we met up, it really wouldn’t have been the same without them. Fin is extremely passionate about coasters and remarkably knowledgable for his age, really surprised he isn’t already on the forums.
On the 4th day, I was supposed to leave around lunchtime for a late afternoon flight, but I had a browse in the morning and found a later flight I could switch to. I decided that my day would be lost travelling anyway by the time I got home to the midlands in the evening, so I might aswell stay the whole day and get home late night. So a quick message to Pvnks to blag a lift to the airport, saving me Uber fare to put towards the flight change costs and all was arranged, I would stay the whole of the 4th day!!! That annual pass really did pay off. At Breakfast that morning I heard a couple speaking English, so I casully went over and said “you’re Enghlish right” ? to which they answered “yes.” Suspecting I already knew the answer I asked what bought them to Poland, of course the answer was Energylandia and another new friendship was born after Katie excitedly said to Liam “look a liseberg tshirt.” Turns out they’re visiting Liseberg in a few weeks. They’re not on the forums but hopefully we’ve persuaded them to sign up.
So that morning, the 5 of us met up at the gates and headed to.... Zadra ???
To Summarise, a great 4 days in Poland, with some great people who I would definitely love to spend time with again, riding some great rides, Poland is lucky to have such a beautiful park that is only going to get better.
Zadra or Hyperion... I am still not fully decided!!!
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