vaugc002
Hyper Poster
A quick trip report from a recent visit to Madrid's oldest theme park.
My genius idea was to walk to the park in time for opening at 12, however it took more than 1 hr 30 from the city centre, and is quite remote too being situated in a national park type surrounding - not the best of walks on a 39c day. There's a Metro station right near (Batan) which I returned via, so I highly recommend that rather than on-foot.
I visited on a Friday, bought the speedy pass gold ticket, and was ready to explore. The park is divided into two halves - with a big central fountain display in between. On the left - intense rides, on the right seemed the family side with a Nickolodeon land, water rides etc. It was really quiet at opening, but gradually got busier as the day went on. Firstly, I spotted that the rapids was closed - disappointing given how hot the weather was. I continued on and rode Vertigo - a typical Wild Mouse coaster. Strangely, the only coaster in the park that didn't have an express pass queue. It was fine - heavily trimmed but that didn't affect the experience too much.
Next up was the Gerst Mine Train - quite intimidating for a family coaster, but not overly intense to ride. Great fun though, with steep overbanks and fun swooping drops that cut int and out of theming pieces It was close by the shoot the chut ride - a moderately-sized one-trick pony. Not a fan of the dirty water to be honest, but it does what you expect,
There were only a few kids rides now on this side so I headed to the other side of the park (only approx a 5 min walk) to ride Tornado - the Intamin inverted coaster. It's quite impressive-looking to be honest, and has a terrain-hugging layout. Dispatch was slow, as the operators had to wait to fill the entire train (yup queues were non-existent at this point). Rode front row expecting a smooth ride... It wasn't that however! It had a real judder, not quite SLC bad but it definitely made it uncomfortable. The loops kinda lagged while going round due to the length of the train, but the corkscrew was amazingly quick, and the corners created good force. Didn't want to reride this one - it just wasn't that comfortable.
By that point it was lunch time so I copped a quick bite at the Dominos cafe (tourist etcetc), before heading to a couple soothing rides. First was the Jungle River ride La Jungla. It was a fun immersive ride - a cable pulled your raft around a well-themed river course. No thrills, old but impressive animatronics... tranquilo as the Spanish say. After this I took a trip on the aerial tramway Zeppelin. This super old-school ride is surprisingly long and takes a good tour around the park. Very nice and peaceful.
Back to the coasters. I rode Tarantula next - a ride I'd been excited to ride. I remember when it was built being shocked that a spinning coaster could be 80+m feet tall. It;s quite intimidating from the ground, and going up the lift hill is an impressive experience, as the hillside drops away to the right so the height seems so much more. The ride itself wasn't as intense as I had anticipated - I think both Winjas are better, but it's a big ride with good drops and fast elements.
Then it was time to ride Abismo - a ride I was pretty nervous for. It had been testing intermittently, and wasn't running much simply because people were too scared to ride (or just didn't want to). It looks scary from the ground, and with the extreme heat (39c at this point) my mind started worrying something mechanical could go wrong. I queued for a few mins, got on the back row and pulled my harness down - just one lap bar and no seat belt. Not overly reassuring given I'd be hanging upside down on the lift hill so was putting all my trust in that faded bar. I waited for the staff to check the ride restraints but guess what... they didn't. They dispatched without checking which was insane to me. A girl in front looked scared and she checked her own restraint. I presume a computer system told them all seats were locked, but definitely was disconcerting. Anyway, the lift hill was scary, the drops were good, the lap bar crushed down so made any airtime painful, and I was relieved when it was all over.
There wasn't much more to do that I wanted to now. I rode the Paw Patrol 13ft tall kiddie coaster for the cred, and took a couple of rides on the log flume - an archaic flume with bizarrely steep lift hills, and incredibly wet drops - genuinely I got wetter on this than on the shoot the chute. This ride had a big queue - I think everyone had the same idea on the day I visited - it was hot. Last ride was the Huss Condor ride - big and impressive with great views, but run on quite a slow cycle. Still good fun and an impressive ride even today.
In all, it was a fun little park with some impressive rides. Slow operations didn't affect me too much as it wasn't a busy day, but I imagine on a weekend it might get annoying. One thing I want to mention here is that there was great entertainment - a big show during the day, and roving entertainment as well as music around the park. They had Paw Patrol characters touring around, and there was a guy with a BMX which was amusingly small-scale for theme parkj entertainment but attracted a decent crowd after a bit.
Overall: Definitely recommended, especially as it's not an expensive visit - approx 29 Eur for a standard ticket. It's easy to get to and has a decent selection of rides. I'd say get in early and out, because it gets hot in the summer and the crowds come late. Thanks for reading.
Trip
My genius idea was to walk to the park in time for opening at 12, however it took more than 1 hr 30 from the city centre, and is quite remote too being situated in a national park type surrounding - not the best of walks on a 39c day. There's a Metro station right near (Batan) which I returned via, so I highly recommend that rather than on-foot.
I visited on a Friday, bought the speedy pass gold ticket, and was ready to explore. The park is divided into two halves - with a big central fountain display in between. On the left - intense rides, on the right seemed the family side with a Nickolodeon land, water rides etc. It was really quiet at opening, but gradually got busier as the day went on. Firstly, I spotted that the rapids was closed - disappointing given how hot the weather was. I continued on and rode Vertigo - a typical Wild Mouse coaster. Strangely, the only coaster in the park that didn't have an express pass queue. It was fine - heavily trimmed but that didn't affect the experience too much.
Next up was the Gerst Mine Train - quite intimidating for a family coaster, but not overly intense to ride. Great fun though, with steep overbanks and fun swooping drops that cut int and out of theming pieces It was close by the shoot the chut ride - a moderately-sized one-trick pony. Not a fan of the dirty water to be honest, but it does what you expect,
There were only a few kids rides now on this side so I headed to the other side of the park (only approx a 5 min walk) to ride Tornado - the Intamin inverted coaster. It's quite impressive-looking to be honest, and has a terrain-hugging layout. Dispatch was slow, as the operators had to wait to fill the entire train (yup queues were non-existent at this point). Rode front row expecting a smooth ride... It wasn't that however! It had a real judder, not quite SLC bad but it definitely made it uncomfortable. The loops kinda lagged while going round due to the length of the train, but the corkscrew was amazingly quick, and the corners created good force. Didn't want to reride this one - it just wasn't that comfortable.
By that point it was lunch time so I copped a quick bite at the Dominos cafe (tourist etcetc), before heading to a couple soothing rides. First was the Jungle River ride La Jungla. It was a fun immersive ride - a cable pulled your raft around a well-themed river course. No thrills, old but impressive animatronics... tranquilo as the Spanish say. After this I took a trip on the aerial tramway Zeppelin. This super old-school ride is surprisingly long and takes a good tour around the park. Very nice and peaceful.
Back to the coasters. I rode Tarantula next - a ride I'd been excited to ride. I remember when it was built being shocked that a spinning coaster could be 80+m feet tall. It;s quite intimidating from the ground, and going up the lift hill is an impressive experience, as the hillside drops away to the right so the height seems so much more. The ride itself wasn't as intense as I had anticipated - I think both Winjas are better, but it's a big ride with good drops and fast elements.
Then it was time to ride Abismo - a ride I was pretty nervous for. It had been testing intermittently, and wasn't running much simply because people were too scared to ride (or just didn't want to). It looks scary from the ground, and with the extreme heat (39c at this point) my mind started worrying something mechanical could go wrong. I queued for a few mins, got on the back row and pulled my harness down - just one lap bar and no seat belt. Not overly reassuring given I'd be hanging upside down on the lift hill so was putting all my trust in that faded bar. I waited for the staff to check the ride restraints but guess what... they didn't. They dispatched without checking which was insane to me. A girl in front looked scared and she checked her own restraint. I presume a computer system told them all seats were locked, but definitely was disconcerting. Anyway, the lift hill was scary, the drops were good, the lap bar crushed down so made any airtime painful, and I was relieved when it was all over.
There wasn't much more to do that I wanted to now. I rode the Paw Patrol 13ft tall kiddie coaster for the cred, and took a couple of rides on the log flume - an archaic flume with bizarrely steep lift hills, and incredibly wet drops - genuinely I got wetter on this than on the shoot the chute. This ride had a big queue - I think everyone had the same idea on the day I visited - it was hot. Last ride was the Huss Condor ride - big and impressive with great views, but run on quite a slow cycle. Still good fun and an impressive ride even today.
In all, it was a fun little park with some impressive rides. Slow operations didn't affect me too much as it wasn't a busy day, but I imagine on a weekend it might get annoying. One thing I want to mention here is that there was great entertainment - a big show during the day, and roving entertainment as well as music around the park. They had Paw Patrol characters touring around, and there was a guy with a BMX which was amusingly small-scale for theme parkj entertainment but attracted a decent crowd after a bit.
Overall: Definitely recommended, especially as it's not an expensive visit - approx 29 Eur for a standard ticket. It's easy to get to and has a decent selection of rides. I'd say get in early and out, because it gets hot in the summer and the crowds come late. Thanks for reading.
Trip
