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Walibi Belgium ready for its transformation!

Actually, come to think of it, Europe was merged with Dubai in the report to become EMEA a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure if Walibi could beat the influx of Dubai parks entering the report.

Anyway, on an on-topic note, it's really nice to see Compagnie des Alpes making such good investment into its parks.
 
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Pictures by Walactu
 
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Some more news on the Tiki-zone and Aqualibi, opening in 2018 and other information about the parks transformation!

Exotic World
The Tiki-themed zone will be named 'Exotic World' and will include brand new rollercoaster 'Tiki-Waka' and the 'Tiki-Trail', which will run across the new rollercoaster and above the Intamin boat-ride 'Gold River Adventure'.It will include 5 viewing towers, a rope-tunnel and a tubeslide. The Fabulous Arena, which is the parks theatre will get a Tiki-theme aswell, but Walibi is not planning any new shows there. Also new will be a juice/cocktailbar. Soundtrack for Exotic World and Tiki-Waka by IMAscore. The facade of CoT will be re-themed aswell to fit the Tiki-theme. Construction of the rollercoaster and Exotic World is on schedule and is expected to open on March 31st.

Aqualibi
Aqualibi is a very popular waterpark in Belgium, with approx. 400.000 visitors per year. Aqualibi is opened all year round. The waterpark, opened in 1987, will get a Caribbean theme and a new zone for kids: Kiddie Bay. The waterpark, aswell as the reception and restaurant will get a new tropical look.

Mega Coaster 2021
One of the things fans are looking forward to the most is the mega coaster, which is planned for 2021. The lay-out of the rollercoaster on the concept arts from Walibi Belgium aswell as the stats of the mega coaster are NOT correct ( stats were 53 meters high, max. speed of 114 kmph). There is no deal signed yet with any manufacturer, but the park still has the ambition to open the highest, biggest and fastest rollercoaster in the Benelux. Could be interesting, when you think about Walibi Hollands plans with Robin Hood!

Coccinelle
The park has said that Coccinelle, the Zierer Tivoli coaster would return to its new location in 2018, themed New Orléans/Mardi Grass style. The park has now announced the Coccinele will not return in 2018 but in 2021.

More concept-arts and construction pics of Exotic World, Tiki-Waka and Aqualibi:
http://tpv.be/NL/article/1916/In beeld: Bouwwerven Walibi Belgium en Aqualibi
 
This is such an exciting time ahead for European coasters what with Hyperion this year, RMC Robin Hood the year after, Energylandia RMC the year after that (hopefully!) and then the big finale of Walibi's mega coaster the year after in 2021.

As for Walibi itself a tropical themed area with a decent family coaster and an IMAScore soundtrack sounds great and hopefully sets the rest of the investments up to be equally as immersive.
 
Thanks to French-Belgian newspaper La Meuse and Walibi Belgium's Marketing Manager Marc Guffens, we know some more things about the megacoaster coming in 2021!

* The station for the megacoaster will be 7 meters high and have to floors. Boarding platform will be on the second floor.

* The layout of the megacoaster on concept arts and such is pure for illustration and is not the final layout. The park has also posted some stats from this coaster (53 meters high with a maximum speed of 114 kph), but this is just illustrative.

* Marketing Manager Marc Guffens also says this megacoaster will be unique in the world in terms of total experience.

* Though it is unknown who will be the manufacturer of the ride, rumors point more and more in direction of B&M.
 
Great stuff! Isn't 53m roughly 173ft, give or take a couple of feet? If so, seems quite short for a hyper, but I suppose stats aren't everything, as Goliath at WH is only 47m/153ft tall and that looks insane!

A B&M hyper would be an awesome fit, because it's always great to have another of these awesome rides in Europe if Mako is anything to go by! However, I find it interesting to see Walibi go with B&M over a company like Intamin or Mack, as Compagnie des Alpes seem to have a better working relationship with Intamin and Mack than they do B&M (or at least they do with Mack, anyway.) As far as I'm aware, B&M have only ever built OzIris at Parc Asterix for Compagnie des Alpes, and that was in 2012, whereas Mack, for example, built both Lost Gravity at Walibi Holland and Pulsar at Walibi Belgium in 2016 alone for Compagnie des Alpes. Very interesting that they didn't opt for a DC Rivals-esque Mack hyper, in my opinion.

However, I think Compagnie des Alpes made the right choice going with B&M, because they will get a smooth, thrilling, airtime-filled, reliable and high capacity attraction! What's not to like? Also, even though they pack a great punch with some decent moments of force, it seems to me like B&M's hypers appeal to a wider demographic than Intamin's and Mack's do because whereas Intamin and Mack hypers (or at least their recent ones in the case of Intamin, anyway) are very aggressive, ejector airtime-filled positive g-force machines, B&M hypers are quite gentle, unintimidating rides. Even though they do have some decent moments of force, I'm going to presume that the forces are nowhere near as relentless as those on an Intamin or Mack hyper. For example, my mum isn't into big, intense coasters at all, and she loved Mako, so much so that she declared it her number 1 coaster. I think that if Mako had been a ride like Skyrush or DC Rivals, then she would have absolutely hated it. I declared it my number 1 coaster too, even though I like big, intense coasters! The point I'm trying to get at here is that B&M hyper coasters hit a sweet spot in terms of thrill level; thrilling enough to satisfy coaster enthusiasts, but unintimidating enough for those who don't necessarily enjoy intense coasters to enjoy the ride. So maybe Walibi opted for a B&M so that they could get high satisfaction rates from a number of different demographics.
P.S. Sorry for the long post.
 
Did Mack not say they are busy the next years so they could not even build a new coaster for their own park sooner? Perhaps this might be a reason for the choice of another manufacturer than Mack. But ... only rumors.
 
As you may know Walibi is re-theming the themepark and building new coasters every year.
One week ago I took pictures of this beautiful, new and re-themed zone called Exotic World! (I will not put a lot of pictures just the important stuff!)

Let's start with the view of this new world:
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In every little space there is place for detail and fun!
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The new funcoaster called Tiki-Waka also has a lot of details, here are some pictures!
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Even a long the ride there is some decoration that really brings out more the story of this ride!
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Even the Octopus has ben re-themed and now on is really adapted to the whole world!
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The whole façade of The Challenge Of The Tutankhamon has been re-themed!
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Even the little bridge has been detailed with a lot of components (as you can see on this picture not everything is build completely, so some elements may still miss from
what you eventually will see in the future ;-) )
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Nad the inside has been updated a little! (repainted)
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That's it! Will update on it more sooner or later.
 
Let's start! (BTW I know that Kristof already posted stuff but I am mid exams and haven't had time to post the pictures so here we go:)
9th JUne 2018 was Exotic World's inauguration. Here are some pictures that I took and my personal experience!
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We all received this VIP EXPLORER pass so that we could enter the zone because it was an exclusive event.
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When entering the Exotic World we received a coconut that we could drink out!
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We then got to see these dancers/actors/musicians who entertained us and were very nicely painted!
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This is a lil sign where you can put your head in and take beautiful pictures with.
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The food stands were very exotically-decorated and the food was delicious.
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The drinks were also good (no alcohol, I'm still underaged...)
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Now let's start with Tiki-Waka! It officially opened that day. A lot of people talked about the growth and change of the themepark and how beautiful the new Walibi would be in the next upcoming 5 years.
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Tiki-waka's waitingline looks finished, here are the new details that have been added:
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An overall view of the waitingline when empty:
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There is a space where you can buy your pictures, and that day it was in work although you couldn't buy them you could still see them!
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Here is the camera:
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That's when the picture is taken:
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That was it! If you want to see more pictures you can click here for more.
 
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