Last Cred Review

[Flash Shift]

Condor at Walibi Holland is now my most recent cred. It was condawful.

Least it has vests, cannot imagine how bad it would be with the original OTSRs...

Oh yeah and Untamed exists too. It is very good.

I'm going to elaborate on my Efteling/Walibi Holland trip before I forget everything. Besides Condawful and the kiddie coasters (so Max & Moritz and the two at Walibi).

Baron 1898
Unexpectedly loved this? It's visually gorgeous, the theming is great, the story is a nice aspect, and the drop surprised me, especially in the back. Plus I got airtime coming out the immleman, thought these things were supposed to do nothing.

Joris en de Draak
Got both sides, banger ride. First drop goes crazy and the laterals are nuts, plus the duelling is great and on my first ride on the one side I even got Python cycling in my peripheral vision. This is essentially what I wish Wicker Man was.

Python
Not a huge amount to say, very well maintained and quite smooth. Definitely one of those old school loopers with some decent positive Gs.

Vliegende Hollander
This is an odd one because it's part dark ride, part coaster, part water ride, but doesn't really fully commit to all of them. The coaster part was not actually bad or anything, I liked it. The queue and the initial dark ride sequence are better though, but the dark ride section is just a bit short.

Vogel Rok
How much more black can you get? And the answer is none, none more black.

YoY
Spoke about this in the RMC ranking thread, but basically both sides are pretty good but not stellar. I found the chill side better for the airtime and also because it was easier to notice the duelling aspect as you're not constantly going upside down. Probably slots 4 and 5 at Walibi Holland for me.

Goliath
Bangin'. It's definitely an older type of ride with big helices but it was awesome getting on this after seeing it in RCT2 all those years ago. The first drop and camelback plus the last 3 hills all go really hard, and I love the sequence on the lake for the visual element even if the intensity isn't as strong there. The S-hills towards the back were pretty good as well due to the whip. This would have blown my mind if I'd ridden it 20 years ago or even 15.

Untamed
Best coaster of the trip, obviously. I think Hyperia does the outward banked turn into the lift hill better. It's obviously a blitz of airtime and has a good length to it as well so it doesn't feel too brief. I touched on this in the RMC ranking thread as well, but some highlights are the first drop, the double inversion after the speed hill (probably the best part of the ride), one random camelback after the first turn, the double up and down, going into the structure near the end, and the wave turns. I will say I wasn't as fond of the other 3 inversions as the rest of the ride and a couple of the hills towards the end kind of got a bit stale as I like a little bit more variety usually, but these are really only minor nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.

Xpress Platform 13
Amazing queue line, probably better than the actual coaster. The launch is pretty good but I don't really have a strong opinion on the rest of the ride.

Speed of Sound
My first Vekoma Boomerang babyyyy

No but really I didn't hate it. Shockingly forceful and hanging up the lift backwards feels freaky. A little bit gross in terms of positives though but it has vests, so at least no headbanging, though I actually didn't find it that rough anyway.

Lost Gravity
Last one to talk about - I used the single rider line on both rides so probably missed most of the theming in favour of getting pretty much walkons. This was another first, my first Big Dipper. The first drop and top hat are insane, the airtime is ridiculous. The first half overall was really stellar. Unfortunately, after the break run it is less impressive. The inversions were not bad and there's some good airtime moments, but it also gets a fair bit rougher in this portion (especially if you're on a wing seat) and it has more banked turns that aren't as fun as the stuff beforehand. I think this is what led me to put Goliath at number 2 for this park and not Lost Gravity. Still, top 3 in this park is no mean feat.

 

[JJLehto]

Siren's Curse
The hype is legit. The POV did actually do it justice. This thing was epic. The drop is of course fun and different but the layout is what really shines. Packed with airtime, whip, and forcefulness. Not Maverick or I305 (sorry habit can't break it) levels but was surprised how much there was. Great pacing too. Not a very tall ride but does a great job "stepping down" throughout so it keeps up a good pace. Jam packed with elements and they pretty much all hit. Very re-rideable I could deff marathon it unlike some others where after a bit you're really feeling it.

Top Thrill 2
Unexpectedly awesome. I figured it would be longer but not as thrilling but it's better now. The backwards launch and spike were great and even though you're already going so fast into the third launch you still feel it, and very much so. It added an intensity to it. Of course it's a much longer experience as well so yeah went from "good but I've done it I can skip it if need be" to this is now a can't miss at Cedar Point. Possible thanks to the fact it ran the whole time! I feel like the lines were not any worse than before despite the ride being longer my guess is bc it doesn't go down all the time now. Great stuff.

 

[uwurawrus]

Heiße Fahrt at Frezeitpark Klotten was the goal of my most recent stupid daytrip from the UK, and while I was expecting it to be a fun family coaster, what I didn't expect was one of the most underrated coasters in Germany.


I think it's my favourite gerstlauer bobsled! It features some really fun whippy transitions offering both laterals and airtime, some hills that actually provide solid sustained floater airtime, and some really funky lateral snaps off of its brake runs which do an incredible job at folding you across the car. It's a really diverse, well paced ride with some surprising punch for the model and helped make the daytrip to the Moselle region well worth it.

 

[Changa]

As part of a relentless schedule of weekend trips. I finally got to Europa Park. I'm not sure if it is worth a full trip report, as I would only state the obvious to all of you that came as a surpirse to me. But, it has comfortably placed itself at the very top of my parks list. The atmosphere, attention to detail, and relentless efforts to make the experience past the ticket booth as good as it could be with little care for the bottom line, made every second on the rides, in the queues, walking around the park, and just sitting still wherever we fancied, a wonderful experience. Unlike our UK parks, none of it felt like the slog you get through to experience the rides. All of it felt like it was adding to our day. Though, their legendary operations certainly helped with this, which put even my excellent impression of some of Epic Universe's rides to shame. And the theming was so consistently beautiful throughout the park that each ride could only really be judged within the context of the park. I felt bad for taking som. Anyhoo, in reverse order, we start with:

Matterhorn Blitz - 6/10 - Probably the best wild mouse that I have done. But that doesn't exactly clear the highest of bars. Maybe wilde maus xxl beats it by the merit of sheer lunacy. Nevertheless, it was well themed, if dated, fun enough, and was very pleasant to look at from across the park.

Swiss Bob - 6/10 - Also a good fun ride in the single back row ride we got. Though, when compared to other rides, this and Matterhorn suffered from a comparatively slow queueline which, weirdly, gave it more to live up to. Nevertheless, it was still fun, though I have had more fun in the back of avalanche at BPB.

Euro-Mir - 6/10 - Not as rough as I was expecting and, once the ride got going, it had a surprisingly fun layout. This also gets points for innovation, with the ride model being nearly a deacade ahead of its time. While it's quirky theme is both shockingly dated and incredibly charming with it's scale and effort. I thought this would be much worse than it was and I was pleasantly surprised. Though, it's closure is understandable as it is, by far, the most dated major attraction in the park.

Atlantica Supersplash 6/10 - I would happily class this as a coaster. But, as a water ride, it excels in all categories except for that it doesn't actually get you wet. If they tuned this to offer tidal-wave levels of drenching, it would skyrocket up my rankings.

Poseidon - 7/10 - A fairly generic if innovative water coaster that offer's a decent experience, if barely any soakage, held up by it's breath-taking station and surrounding theming.

Now for a jump up
Blue Fire - 8/10 - A shockingly smooth ride considering it's age. This is just a great fun ride that you could reride all day without breaking a sweat. The surroundings are lovely, the storyline an on-ride theming is stellar for a launch coaster, and the ride experience itself is just good fun. I can easily see why this layout has been cloned as much as it has, as it ticks off all of the boxes for a varied layout that looks intense but wouldn't discourage younger riders from braving it. Within Europa, it has been completely overshadowed by a newer addition that ticks the same boxes and more with a thicker pen. But this still makes for a stellar step-up thrill coaster alongside the park's titans of intensity.

Silver Star - 8/10 (#22) - Perhaps the weakest B&M Hyper I have done (though I barely remember Nitro at this point). However, this is still a B&M Hyper, and therefore a bloody good rollercoaster. In the front, you get a great feeling of speed and a surging airtime over the front half of each hill. In the back, you get the trademark whip over the back of each hill with a sensational reversal of gravity towards your slightly-too-loose restraint. While this is weaker than Shambhala and Mako, this is by no means a weak ride. It's lovely. Though, the ride experience is helped by the fact that you never stand still while "waiting" for the ride, as the operations are absolutely sensational for the ride. We went on a packed day with queues extending out of the ride's entrance, yet we never waited more than 25 minutes thanks to the speed of the operations.

In a surprising 3rd place:
Eurosat Can-Can - 9/10 (#18)- I would never have imagined this could have been as good as it was. The retheme that they gave this ride is so bizarrely left-field, yet they leant into how surreal the concept is and created a masterpiece of atmosphere. The ride is already very impressive in how much can be squeezed into such a small space, the retracking work that they did is left an impeccably smooth yet forceful layout, and the combination of the beautiful queueline, great use of cutouts and projections from the base of the spiral hill through to the waiting block, and the absolutely beautiful on-board soundtrack, made this an absolutely stellar, dream-like ride experience. I completely bought the chaos of the ride, the merging of the space theme and moulin rouge theme through a surreal jules-verne-esque trip down from space was absolutely inspired, and elevated a decent family ride into one of my favourite ever coasters.

Wodan - 9/10 (#11) - I won't be saying anything new here. But, my god, what an insane experience. I initially did not get the hype for the ride when it opened but was quietly hopeful after some great back-row rides on Wicker Man. This is not the same type of ride as Wicker Man. This, in the back row, is unrelenting in it's chaos. The sound of the ride screaming at you as you are thrown in every axis in the third and fourth dimensions, wrapping around around both itself, other rides, and into the surface of the earth itself, is indescribable. None of the POV's do justice how unrelenting the ride is in person. You can barely notice each element occurring because it feels like you need to hold on for dear life to a car that is holding on for dear life to the track. It is a sensory overload that was as addictive as it was tiring to ride. This had great operations for a GCI, but suffered the longest feeling queues of the big four due to its slower cycle time. But it was still worth queueing up for.

And last, but certainly not least:
Voltron - 10/10 (#2) - Good god, what an achievement. I have never seen a single ride try as hard as Voltron does to wow it's audience. There is not a single thing about the ride that I am not in complete awe of. The theming is stellar, from it's enormous scale to it's minute execution. The way the ride engages the queueline through it's sequencing, the consistently unbelievable speed in which it chewed through it's guests. Then, we have the ride itself. How can a ride be so long, yet be optimised to the millisecond in cramming every element under the sun into it's layout while keeping a perfect flow between each element? How can a ride be so smooth and comfortable ergonomically, yet so brutally intense that it makes RMC sweat? How can a manufacturer with launches so infamously weak produce two of the punchiest ones ever made? The whole ride is an absolute marvel of engineering that has come a close second to my astronimicly highly ranked Stardust Racers. Only falling short by the lack of a duelling aspect, not achieving night rides, and for one of our 5 rows being in a noticeably rattly car. Nothing that proved a detriment to the experience, but it definitely stood out compared to the four other glass-smooth rides we got on this masterpiece of a ride. However, this ride is easily takes my top spot for intensity, variety, theming, and engineering brilliance. No ride has ever felt more like a passion project of it's creators, and no one should ever feel as proud as them for pulling off such an amazing feat.

 

[MannekenPis]

Don't normally write up Walibi trips but popped in for an hour and a half to have a concerted farewell to Loup Garou.

I avoided wheel seats so had 2 rides on last but 1 row, 1 in 2nd row and another somewhere in the middle. Nr walk on for each. Not too rough on the middle rows, but not that intense either. Plenty of air front and back as long as you avoid stapling. Brace for the breaks. It's a really fun ride. I don't think it's world beating or anything, just a decent fun little woodie. I'd rather it stayed and a new ride go in the vampire plot .

I also grabbed 2 rides on Kondaa, single rider so no choice, 1 nr front, 1 nr back. Whilst Loup seemed almost subdued, in the heat, Kondaa was flying. So much air in the back, my thighs were burning, felt they were working to keep me in. At the front, so much positive, very different. Even the bunny hills at the end were fun today as it was so quick, where sometimes they feel pointless.

Walk on Loup Garou and Kondaa 5 minutes in single rider. 6 rides in 1hour 15. I considered riding vampire as a farewell, but it was on 15 minutes, wheras it's often 5 so I left it as needed to go. No disaster if it doesn't happen.