Benin's Take on 2013 - International Parks

Entry posted by Benin November 18, 2013

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So I’ve discussed the UK parks, but what about the foreign ones I visited? Well here we goooooo!

Disneyland Paris

Well it snowed, oh BOY did it snow. Not that it ruined the enjoyment of course, there’s nothing more hilarious than riding Tower of Terror, getting to the top and the doors opening to a mini-blizzard. The park did extremely well dealing with the heavy snow and I take my hat off for the way they dealt with our booked restaurant situation.

The parks were their usually selves really, though it’s hard to judge due to the weather playing havoc with staff numbers and rides in operation. The real highlight of the trip was the Tower of Terror staff, which were constantly fantastic and provided the funniest moments of the week.

Also Disney Dreams, which is fantastic <3

Denmark

This was an exciting trip, especially to somewhere rarely visited by enthusiasts and had a fair share of ups and downs over the week. Although really it peaked from the offset with Eurovision-mania taking a real hold on Copenhagen and Tivoli in particular. Other highlights from Tivoli were Vertigo (terrifying thing of DOOM), the cuteness of Daemonen and the absolutely awesome Fun House. Classic Rusty Banana was an instant hit with us too, proving you don’t have to have all the latest technological advancements in the last 100 years to be a good ride.

Unfortunately the next two parks were not very good, Bakken in particular we all loathed and spent 2 hours there. Bon-Bon Land had one joke and it wasn’t very good, although the drop towers were an amusing time as was Fantasy World, the rest of the park was just mediocrity beyond measure (Fabbri Giant Swing aside ride-wise).

Bakken was just dire. That simple, with the worst Intamin in existence within its grounds (yes worse than Baco, having now experienced it I can give that opinion) in the shape of Tornado, which wasn’t even the worst ride in the park, as their Rusty Banana had been Kumbak’d. I shudder just thinking about them. And you know there’s something wrong when your best ride is a flat, and after you’ve spent the morning at the Carlsberg factory.

Fortunately, the other island proved more fruitful in our ride endeavours. Legoland was quite good; with the Robo-Arms probably the best ride there, although the Powered Dragon and Polar X-Plorer were both very suitable rides for the park. Viking River Splash was also pretty good, I look forward to their dark ride attempt next year mind, which looks AMAZE <3

Djurs Sommerland was the best park out of the 6. It had the best rides, the best dogs roaming the park; it had the best play-areas (bouncy pillows for the win). It was quite simply, very, very good. The standard of theming was surprisingly high for the only traditional theme park (bar Lego) we visited, and Piraten and JOYvelen were certainly worth the admission fee. JOYvelen especially was a complete surprise to us, as we weren’t expecting such a solid family coaster, but that’s what we got, and more parks need to buy one.

We finished with Farup Sommerland, which was a random place, filled with a lot more play areas, including the hour long adventure course. Lynet and Falken were good coasters, but we were spited by Orkanen unfortunately, as that looked quite good fun too. The park played well upon the family picnic market it seemed to, and it was a decent enough closure to our trip.

Overall we rode the best AND worst Intamins in the world. No mean feat for a country like Denmark.

Belgium, Part 1

My first trip to Belgium was partly cultural, with Bruges being involved. But why be cultural when you can ride creds?

First up was Bellewaerde, a weird Chessington like park, only not falling apart at the seams and a relatively decent zoo to go with it. The main headline was a Zierer family coaster, Huracan, which had an epic random dark ride section, but not a very good ride section. Considering the space they had available, it was a disappointment really. Fortunately the rest of the park was quite good really, with the Boomerang being smooth and the support rides being of a decent enough quality to suit the park.

Bagatelle was the next port of call since I had never been before. My 300^th coaster is now Triops, a Vekoma Invertigo, which was quite good but not as landmark as X (Six Flags) or Beast. The park is pretty poor really (Soquet are NOT a good manufacturer of rides), aside from the best Rapids in the world with their amazing whirlpool of spinning. When you actually lose 5 seconds of a ride due to the complete insanity of it all, you know it’s good. Even if the rest of the ride is a bit meh, it makes it all the more better as you focus on that one element.

Not the best parks in the world really, but easy enough to access really.

Coney Island

Over in New York for another cultural trip (though that’s up for debate when it comes to the USA), and a jaunt over to Luna Park brought to you by Zamperla for the classic Wooden coaster.

And it wasn’t very good. A real shame really as it had some promise, but after the first two turnarounds it developed into a rough and painful experience. Perhaps the hurricane had something to do with that though?

The rest of the park was unsurprisingly, mediocre; what with everything being a Zamperla, and my first experience of a Volare was one of sheer hatred. It was also VERY expensive, but Nathans was made of joy <3

Port Aventura

God bless the Spanish austerity issues, especially if the park is going to have such deals on the hotels and unlimited Express passes! So off we went to sunny Halloween Spain and experience two fantastic B&Ms and 1 god-awful Intamin. I won’t repeat myself much as the TR is still relatively fresh, but it was a good fun weekend overall, though the park needs some lofty improvements and to get rid of Baco post-haste.

Belgium 2 – Rock n Plop

Even more recently was another jaunt to Belgium to experience more Halloween events. Walibi’s is quite famous and it was also another excuse to go back to Plopsaland because Anubis <3

We shocked a Belgian enthusiast when we all loved Psyke Underground because it’s FAB, as well as enjoyed the new branding, the ridiculous number of actors (40 in one maze alone) and the music battle show. This is a good park with a fair amount of potential but problematic neighbours.

Plopsaland has Anubis, therefore it’s FAB <3 Also the new land was amazing and has an awesomely themed Disko Coaster. Again, the TR is still around so check that out for further details.

Overall, a decent year of parks for me, particularly abroad, where only 2 were really bad (as in, worse than Chessington bad). And so far next year’s plans are really looking to expand on things as well, which is a good thing considering none of the UK parks at the moment are looking to deliver anything worthwhile visiting for.

Roll on 2014!