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False alarm everyone. Sorry Aerie Force One, into the bin you go.

Rest in piece. We can scrap it and Thorpe can buy Aerie Force One.

29th June 2026: Parc Astérix Today was an exciting day; after months (well, years) of UK park visiting, I had my first foreign park visit since September 2024, and it was to a very exciting park; today was my first ever visit to Parc Astérix in France! I couldn’t wait to get on the rides for the first time, particularly Toutatis! We’re currently staying in a house somewhere broadly between Parc Astérix and Disneyland Paris (that’s coming later in the week), so we left this morning at around 9am and arrived at Parc Astérix just after 9:30am in time for a quick entry into the park ready for rope drop. First impressions were good; it definitely has nicer theming than I was expecting! I had it in my head that it might be a more Busch Gardens Tampa-style affair with relatively minimal theming, but the park is very nicely kept and has some really good theming!: After rope drop at 10am, I initially directed us toward Toutatis. I wanted to get it done early, and my first ride at Astérix was to be my 150th roller coaster, so I also had hopes of continuing my streak of notable milestone coasters after hitting #100 on Iron Gwazi in 2023. Alas, this was not to be, as the ride appeared non-operational and the queue was enormous, so we decided to bail after 15 minutes or so of not moving and start our day elsewhere: After this slight disappointment, we instead started our day on… Trace du Hourra Trace du Hourra was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so as it was right next to Toutatis and open, we decided to take a ride. Pleasingly, the queue was exactly 30 minutes as advertised, and might I also say that I’ve never seen such rapid and mesmerising operations on a ride of this genre (yes, even on Schweizer Bobbahn at Europa Park!). They were frequently whacking trains out at 40-45 second intervals, and I honestly think that my throughput timings of 1,046pph and 1,090pph were somewhat harsh assessments of the situation; the trains were flying out, and there were points where watching it was almost like clockwork. When one train left the lift hill, another was right there ready to go up! It certainly put the 200pph or so Avalanche was getting on my last Blackpool visit to shame, anyhow… so, how was my first Parc Astérix coaster? Well, I quite like a good bobsled coaster, and Trace du Hourra was indeed a fun one! I was sat at the very front, and there were some good bits of speed and some fun twisty sections, and it wasn’t too rattly either! As for how I’d rank it relative to other bobsled coasters; I’d tentatively place it comfortably ahead of Schweizer Bobbahn, but perhaps not quite as highly as Avalanche. While it’s long and picks up some very good speed in areas, there are quite a few block brakes, which means you don’t ever quite amass the continuous feeling of speed that Avalanche offers. All in all, though, Trace du Hourra was a fun start to the day, and a good #150 even if not the one I was perhaps hoping for: After Trace du Hourra, we headed for something slightly bigger and more notable… Oz’Iris Oz’Iris was on an advertised 50 minute queue time, so while the queue was bursting out of the entrance, we decided to trust the queue time board and have a go on there as it was a major ride and a logical place to progress to. I was pleasantly surprised by the indoor queue for this, and once again, the queue time was pleasingly pretty accurate, with us waiting around 55 minutes in a queue that moved quite quickly. I had it in my head that Parc Astérix might have slightly shaky operations, but Oz’Iris was operated well and the queue moved at a very good rate. Oz’Iris also introduced us to a very odd recurring procedure at Parc Astérix; on numerous rides, the park likes you to put your loose articles in a trolley. I’m not sure how I feel about it; it does mean that things move quickly on the platform, but it’s a bit of a faff to rifle around looking for your bag when you get off! Anyhow, how was the actual ride experience? Well, I was interested to ride a new B&M invert, as while it’s one of my most ridden models, I actually haven’t ridden a new one in almost 10 years, and my opinion of the genre has changed a fair amount since then. Having predominantly ridden the two Nemesises (Nemesi?) since 2016, I have to say that my row 7 ride on Oz’Iris was absolutely superb and definitely had me crowning a new favourite B&M invert; it was fantastic, and perhaps controversially, I would say that it quite comfortably exceeded any recent ride I’ve had on either Nemesis (and my increasingly hazy recollections of Montu, my previous top-ranked invert) and I would place the ride within my overall top 15! In terms of what puts it at the top of the B&M invert pile for me; it’s got excellent forces and speed without ever being overbearing, is quite long and is impeccably smooth, but also has a very different and unique layout for a B&M invert. The sequencing is very different to any of the others I’ve ridden and offers a very nice flow, the various twists and overbanks provide some different and fun sensations compared to what you typically find on a B&M invert, it felt like there was more float in the inversions and I even thought I felt an odd little bit of airtime in one section! All in all, then, I loved Oz’Iris and was definitely happy to crown a new top B&M invert; it’s nice to see that a B&M invert still has the capability to surprise me after all this time!: After getting off Oz’Iris, me, my mum and my sister ticked off a much less notable coaster credit in the immediate vicinity… SOS Tournevis SOS Tournevis was seemingly walk-on, so while it wasn’t really a priority for me, I decided to tick it off anyway. The three of us were seated on the ride within 5 minutes, which we can never complain about! Interestingly (and I noticed this on Trace du Hourra as well), the staff member didn’t check our lap bars; they clearly have faith in their ride hardware! So, how was it? Well, I was sat on the back, and it was fun for a small coaster if not earth-shattering, just as the identical Cat-O-Pillar at Paultons Park was last month. These models have a surprising jolt of airtime on the first drop, and this particular example was also hardly braking and sent us flying around the pre-lift turn on the second lap, which was a fun touch! So all in all, then, it was good to get another credit ticked off: After SOS Tournevis, we headed back to a ride we’d just passed… Cetautomatix Cetautomatix was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, but as my family were not keen on doing a spinning coaster, I decided to take advantage of a secret weapon… the single rider queue! With it being such a frequent asset in the UK, I took a gamble on French single rider… and this proved to be a prudent gamble, as I was batched straight into a pre-boarding queue with a French family of 3 and waited no more than 5 minutes to board; I can’t possibly moan about that! Once again, the operations were phenomenally slick on here, with a non-stop conveyor belt of cars and routine 20-second dispatches; excellent work! So, how was the ride? Well, I’d never ridden a Gerstlauer spinning coaster before, and while I’m not the world’s biggest lover of spinning coasters, I would have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! The ride span well without spinning excessively, was pretty long and had some fun twists and turns, with the added fun surprise of a mid-ride tyre launch! I would say the inward-facing seating was mildly awkward for me as a single rider riding with people I didn’t know, but that’s a very minor niggle and doesn’t really take away from the actual ride experience. All in all, then, I definitely enjoyed Cetautomatix and would probably say that it’s surpassed Storm Chaser at Paultons Park as my favourite spinning coaster; it was very good fun, for sure: After getting off Cetautomatix, I met back up with my family and we headed to ride my most anticipated ride of the day after our earlier failure… Toutatis I figured that the queue for Toutatis probably wasn’t going to get any shorter and we were all increasingly keen to do it, so we decided to brave the advertised 55 minute queue and see how we got on. As with Oz’Iris, the queue was bursting out of the entrance (it took us 15 minutes to get through the actual entrance), and it seemed to move more slowly than the other queues, but it was again broadly accurate and took us around 60 minutes to board. As a stray observation, I did notice that a lot of the internal queue lines at Parc Astérix seem quite short, compared to the number of people that wait and the queue times, as both Toutatis and Oz’Iris were bursting out of their queue lines without excessive queue times and Zeus was on the cusp when we rode that later in the day. Why is this, I wonder? Anyway, that’s enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well, Toutatis was my most anticipated ride of our trip to France and probably my most anticipated ride since riding Shambhala in 2024; with VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure being my present #1, I was hotly anticipating a ride of a similar style! And my word, it did not disappoint! I was sat in row 8, and I don’t even quite know where to begin in reviewing it as there’s quite a lot to unpick… the ride starts with a nice punchy launch, and while the initial sections don’t look like much on a POV, I was actually very surprised at how potent they were; the zero-g stall is superb and provides some wonderful hangtime, and the undulations are surprisingly forceful! And then the ride kicks things up a notch… I’ve ridden swing launches before, and the one on Ice Breaker in particular was really good fun, but this was something else entirely; the forwards and backwards airtime is absolutely obscene, and when combined with the launching sensation and the wonderful sustained floater airtime of the backwards spike as well (which is far superior to the junior scorpion tails on Ice Breaker and Mandrill Mayhem), it makes for an absolute riot and quite possibly one of the strongest sequences of roller coaster I’ve ever experienced! And then you’ve got an entire layout afterwards; I was ever so slightly disappointed with the top hat compared to VelociCoaster’s, with the anticipation stall making for slightly weaker airtime, but every part of the ensuing layout hits and hits hard! The sense of speed is absolutely absurd, the forces are sublime, and there are many, many great elements here, including another superb zero-g stall, an absolutely wicked ejector airtime hill that hurls you out of the seat, a fast roll, some quick airtime bursts and even some turns that look inconsequential on a POV but provide surprising airtime and force on the actual ride! You could almost fill a book with good things about Toutatis, and many elements deserve a fair amount of words in their own right, but overall, the ride is absolutely sublime, top-drawer, a masterpiece, whatever brilliant adjective you can think of, with airtime, speed, smoothness, comfort, intensity and everything you could possibly ask for. I’m not going to provide an impulsive ranking or make an impulsive statement after this first ride, but what I will say is that given I’ve often been slightly underwhelmed by big hitters on the first go as of late, this was a very strong instant sale from the get go with the full euphoria, crying with laughter and shaking, head in hands wonder from the very first ride, which made me feel incredibly gratified and made me think that a top 3 placement at minimum was very probable. The full tale of Toutatis is to be continued later, as I’ve learned you can never fully judge a big hitter after just one ride: After getting off Toutatis, we headed in the direction of the other part of the park, getting some tasty pizza sandwiches for lunch. After this, we headed to our next coaster… Goudurix Goudurix was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so me and my sister gave it a whirl, with my mum and dad sitting this one out in anticipation of a headbanger. Once again, the queue time for this was pleasingly accurate, with us waiting exactly 20 minutes for our ride as promised. So, how was it? Well, my sister and I had been discussing pleasantly surprising rides prior to boarding Goudurix, where I reminisced on experiences such as Hagrid’s… and all I’ll say is that at the end of Goudurix, she turned to me with a pained look and simply said “that was not one of those pleasantly surprising rides we were talking about before, was it?”. My word, old Vekoma produced some absolute trash, and Goudurix is a fine example of this! It actually has a fairly decent layout, with that first butterfly element in particular pulling some surprisingly good g-forces, but it is just hideously rough, with so much of it spent being banged around in the restraints. One mild saving grace was that it had vest restraints, which did mean that our ears got off a little more lightly than they might have done otherwise (I think the ride might have been almost Infusion or Odyssey-level dire with regular Vekoma OTSRs)… but it was not a good ride. All in all, then, Goudurix was a ride my sister and I were both quite content only riding once; I’m glad to have done it, but I won’t lose too much sleep if I never do it again: After Goudurix, we met back up with my parents and moved onto our next major coaster… Tonnerre 2 Zeus We couldn’t quite decide whether Tonnerre 2 Zeus was on a 35 minute or 45 minute advertised queue time (we were discussing conflicting figures), but we decided to join it anyway. This queue line was quite possibly the most wasp-infested I have ever seen, probably due to the abundance of lavender within it, and we also got a good view of the ride and saw that areas of it were shaking possibly more than I’ve ever seen on any woodie (potentially an omen for the ride experience…). As with Mine Blower at Fun Spot, the Timberliner trains also produced an absolute racket negotiating the circuit that almost sounds a bit like Santa’s sleigh at Christmas (again, potentially an omen for the ride experience…). We ultimately waited 45 minutes for our ride, which was in line with one of our estimates… we weren’t sure if the queue was as advertised or 10 seconds over! So, how was it? Well, Tonnerre 2 Zeus is a ride I was, to say the least, incredibly intrigued to experience. I knew it was a big woodie and that it had been retracked fairly recently, which are usually good signs, but I also knew that the ride was deeply, deeply polarising. People either seem to think it’s the best thing ever or absolutely loathe it. I went in with low expectations, as I’d heard it was pretty rough and I don’t generally like rough coasters, but I have to say that the ride really surprised me… I sat in row 12, and I think I absolutely loved it! Now the reason I sound quite tentative is because Tonnerre 2 Zeus is one of those rides that made me question everything I thought I knew about my own taste in coasters, and it’s possibly the most undecided I’ve been getting off a ride. It’s quite unlike any other woodie, heck, any other coaster full stop, I’ve ever been on, and I’m finding it quite hard to fully decide where I stand on it, so prepare for me to talk quite a lot. I’ll start with the layout, which is easier to discuss. Layout-wise, it’s absolutely superb; the ride absolutely hauls its way through a long layout that never lets up and is filled with speed, intensity, airtime moments and excitement. On layout alone, I think it would be in my top 10 and most likely usurping Wodan as my top woodie, and if it had been retracked GCI-style like GhostRider or retracked with pre-cut track and the PTCs still in place like Megafobia, I think I would have an easier time placing it there. As with Mine Blower, the fact remains that I do not particularly rate those Timberliner restraints. I think they impede the airtime moments so you don’t feel them as strongly as you would on a GCI or PTC train, and if the ride had freer-feeling trains, I think I’d have an easier time putting it straight in the top 10. There’s a whole other aspect to discuss, though… smoothness. Now the ride is absolutely not glossy smooth in the same way as a GCI coaster like Wodan or Wicker Man… but it isn’t uncomfortably, painfully rough throughout in the miserable, horrible way that Grand National or Stampida are either and was generally a lot less uncomfortable or painful than I was fearing. It has its jarring moments, and in one sense, the ride feels incredibly rough, but in an odd way that… wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable or painful at all. I’m not even sure rough is the right word… I’d almost say raw or unrestrained. This was my first time riding a particularly large coaster with Timberliners (Mine Blower is quite small), and it felt utterly unhinged quite unlike any other woodie I’ve ever ridden in a way that’s quite hard to describe. It was deafeningly loud throughout (unlike any other coaster I’ve ever ridden… I couldn’t hear myself think!), and the whole thing just felt like a complete riot that I couldn’t help but crease up at in one sense… my family widely used terms like “unsafe-feeling” and “thought it was going to come off the track”, but they seemed to have similar thoughts. All in all, then, I think I loved Zeus and would rate it highly… but I remain slightly tentative on where exactly to stand on it. As I’ve rambled on for a fair time, I’m fairly sure it doesn’t beat Wodan as my favourite woodie, and my head would tentatively put it a bit below Wicker Man as well as I think I find that a bit more easily rerideable and fun and less objectively flawed… but Zeus was absolutely mental with a cracking layout, and part of me thinks it deserves to pip Wicker Man into my 10/10 tier and overall top 10 for raw mentality and shock value and the slightly unrefined tracking and less-than-stellar trains shouldn’t be a barrier to that: After getting off Tonnerre 2 Zeus, I made my way onto another smaller coaster… Vol D’Icare Vol D’Icare was on the way to our final unexplored section and appeared quiet, so I decided to give it a solo ride. I pretty much walked straight onto it and was batched onto the back car. So, how was it? Well, while a relatively minor ride, I was interested to experience Vol D’Icare by virtue of it being the only remaining Zierer Comet coaster, with the other one being the late Hornet down at Flambard’s in Cornwall, whose most notable selling point was being “Britain’s most southerly roller coaster”. As these Zierers go, I thought it was good fun, if not earth-shattering; there were some fun drops and bits of mild speed, but some of the numerous brakes were also quite sharp as well. All in all, then, it was a perfectly serviceable filler coaster for a park like Parc Astérix, but I’m quite glad I never ventured 3.5 hours down to the bottom of Cornwall exclusively to ride this exact coaster at Flambard’s: After Vol D’Icare, we headed to our final coaster of the day… Pegase Express Pegase Express was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so as it was our final unridden coaster of the day, we decided to give it a go. The 20 minute queue time ended up being somewhat understated, with us waiting 35 minutes, and while throughputs were generally quite good, the loading process seemed a bit chaotic on here, with sporadic batching and guests entering straight from the queue into the train without standing in the airgates. I don’t know quite what was going on here! So, how was the ride? Well, this was my first of these Gerstlauer family launch coasters, and I have to say that I thought it was really decent! The ride’s forward section was smooth, punchy and dynamic, the backwards section also packed a decent punch and was great fun, and the ride was generally excellent fun and a good length! Overall, I found it very enjoyable and on a similar level to rides like Thirteen at Alton Towers and Gold Rush at Drayton Manor; I really enjoyed it, and I definitely think this is my favourite Gerstlauer coaster: After Pegase Express, we were all pretty hot, so we decided to head to a water ride for some hydration… Romus et Rapidus Romus et Rapidus was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so seeking a cool-off after lots of hot queueing, we decided to take a ride on there. The queue time was overstated, with us getting on within 10 minutes, and we were quickly batched with a friendly French couple who could tell we were English and made conversation with us. So, how was it? Well, I thought it was a great rapids, and my boat companions seemed to agree; there were some good waves and a good element of chance, there were some decent effects, and it was decently wet without being a Bilge-Rats or Valhalla-level saturation event, which is just what you want on a hot day like today! Overall, then, Romus et Rapidus was a fun diversion from the coastering, and the cooling off made us all slightly less fried from the heat: After Romus et Rapidus, my family were done with riding, so as there was just under an hour left of the day and I was quite adamant I didn’t want to leave the park having only ridden Toutatis once, I headed for a reride on Toutatis. I was unable to use single rider as it was closed, so I got in a 45 minute advertised main queue that ended up being 65. After this morning, I thought I needed a second ride to settle my true feelings on Toutatis… and the second ride settled it. While it’s incredibly close and a return to Florida could easily tip the scales in the opposite direction, I am currently saying that I prefer it to VelociCoaster and am therefore crowning a new #1 coaster. While there are aspects of VelociCoaster I prefer (the top hat being the main one, and I also don’t think Toutatis’ roll at the end quite matches the mosasaurus roll), the fact is that that swing launch sequence alone is unspeakably phenomenal like nothing else I’ve ever experienced and the overall layout of Toutatis is every bit as good and hard-hitting as that of VelociCoaster outside of that, and that does swing the balance in Toutatis’ favour for me. What a ride, and what a model; I was once ambivalent at best about Intamin as a manufacturer, but that’s a 2 for 2 hit rate on these new-generation Blitz Coasters for me now, and I’m can see the hype. They really are that good!: After my reride on Toutatis, I met back up with my family and we headed out of Parc Astérix after a great and successful first visit: So, that brings a close to my first ever visit to Parc Astérix in France! I had an excellent day; it was great to get on all the rides and see the park for the first time! It is an excellent park; there are some absolutely brilliant rides, the theming is overall very nice, and the operations are also very good overall, even if there are some slight quirks! I’m not currently sure quite where to rank it compared to other European parks I’ve visited, as I think it’s hard for me to gauge a full feel for it having only had 1 day there, compared to Europa and PA where I had 3 and properly had time to explore and relax. Rides-wise, the key highlight was obviously my new #1 coaster Toutatis; I was excited for it and it did not disappoint in the slightest! But there’s so much more to the park beyond that; Tonnerre 2 Zeus and Oz’Iris were both fantastic rides, Pegase Express was an excellent family coaster, Cetautomatix and Trace du Hourra were good fun, the rapids were great, and there’s more to mention and more I didn’t ride! It seems like a park where you could easily spend 2 days if you wanted to, and it’s a more substantial destination in its own right than I’d perhaps expected. Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! There will be another one later in the week from a day at Disneyland Paris, which will be my first visit in 15 years! I can’t wait to get back there, get back on some things and also get on lots of things I couldn’t or didn’t ride the first time!

Toutatis’ SRQ was closed when I went to use it in the evening, but Cetautomatix’s was open and excellently advantageous, allowing me to pretty much skip a 45 minute queue! So I found this to be a mixed bag.

Glad you enjoyed it! I love Asterix. It has a great selection of rides, great operations, and a bright future. Their Halloween event is also top tier, some of my favourite mazes there. Toutatis is also my number 1 coaster. Will never get bored of that swing launch 🤣 One thing that really annoys me about the place is that they seem to hate operating the SRQs. I'm not sure why, as they seem to have the staff for it. When I was there last in October, Toutatis' single rider queue was closed all day, and OzIris' only opened for about 15 minutes before closing again.

I’ve returned to Paultons’s Park for the first time since I was a kid, this time with my own toddler who has recently made the magic 1 meter + 4 years old combo, meaning we could go on early everything. It’s probably been over 20 years since I was last there, and the place is now completely unrecognisable. WHAT A PARK. And what a breath of fresh air! I have read reviews and watched videos etc, and had high expectations. But honestly I was blown away by just how good Paultons actually is now, especially when it comes to their newer things. Every expectation I had was exceeded. The rides, theming, food, staff, availability, atmosphere, overall experience, value for money, prices in the park, everything was spot on. Valgard is truly spectacular, and will be unbelievable when the new water coaster opens next year. The back to back large scale additions this year and next are an extremely positive sign of things to come. Can’t wait to see the park continue to grow over the coming years. It’s so encouraging to have had such a positive experience at a UK park, and to see it doing so well. I hope it continues to go from strength to strength as we gain Universal. The future of the UK theme park industry may be shaky across the board, but there are some real positives - Paultons very much being one of them.

I must admit, I wasn't particularly excited for Drakon either, I think euro-fighters are kinda boring and things like the Mack big dipper are far more versatile and interesting. That being said, Paultons know their target audience incredibly well and have built a ride that caters to that. Obviously Drakon is a massive step up from Storm Chaser in terms of thrill. To be honest I'm far more excited for Serpents Curse. I cannot believe that no other UK park has chased the UK's first water coaster title frankly and I think it's a brilliant choice for Paultons for 2027. One thing I really like about Paultons is how each caters for the different family members. Take Valgard, it has the thrill coaster, the family coaster, the family flat ride, the play area for kids and in 2027 the water attraction as well as the kids water ride. They pack so much into small areas and theres no wasted space.

I attended the opening day of Valgard yesterday, so let me take a stab at a longer review. Let me start with the area and wider theming... The Area/Theming Overall, I think they've done a lovely job with the area! The theming is all absolutely lovely, and they've finished it off very well! In terms of a few specific points of interest: There are some very nice details around! One of my particular favourites was the sheep "powering" the lift hill for Drakon, but I thought that there was loads to look at! As someone who wrote a post a few days ago remarking that Paultons' theming lacked theatre and pizzazz, I do have to concede that Drakon is somewhat of an improvement in this regard; I was particularly surprised by the pre-lift section, which is very nicely done! People (myself included) griped for years about Cobra being unthemed and lacking atmosphere, and it looks a damn sight better now; they've done an absolutely brilliant job with Raven! Even just having the themed queue and station and little bits like the clock towers in the middle and the area around it has enhanced the overall atmosphere no end! The Feasting Hall is an absolutely excellent indoor space, with some lovely details and a beautiful interior finish. I particularly liked the big fireplace and the big viking ship! I didn't really notice The Edge not being cohesively themed in; as much as including it would have been nice, it's tucked away somewhat and I don't think it sticks out like too much of a sore thumb. One minor gripe I would raise is that I think Drakon could maybe have used some theming that interacted slightly more with the ride and/or was slightly more visible to riders. When queueing, you can see some nice details in the ride area, including a shipwreck that lights up with some fake fire and some spikes, but I don't think these are terribly noticeable when on the ride; after the initial interaction with Raven, it does feel a tad like you're riding over some generic nice landscaping. I think more visible theming interactions from on-ride in the vein of Storm Chaser and Pterosaur in the same park or Raven in the same area, or Merlin coasters like Nemesis, Swarm and Wicker Man, might have been nice. All in all, though, I think it's a lovely area and continues Paultons' streak of very nicely detailed and finished off areas. The park are certainly onto another winner alongside Lost Kingdom and Tornado Springs, and compared to an area like Drayton Manor's 2022 attempt at Vikings, I think it's absolutely night and day! Let me now move onto the main event... Drakon I was highly critical of Paultons building a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter and have made no secret of the fact that it was far from my first choice of coaster for the park. Having ridden it, I do maintain that it maybe wouldn't have been my first choice and it has not converted me to Euro-Fighters as a ride type in a drastic way, but I acknowledge that it is a good coaster and I think it will go down well with the audience, and that I was perhaps overly harsh at points in the build-up period. To raise a few specific points of interest: The stall does offer some very good hangtime. I'm quite surprised that Paultons went for such a dramatic inversion on their first ever inverting coaster, but I'm a fan of it and think it works well (or would if it weren't for the restraints... more on that later). I always like the drop on these Gerstlauer Euro-Fighters, and this one is no exception; it offers some nice airtime! The ride is definitely much smoother than I'd feared it might be; the tracking was generally very smooth throughout on my rides with minimal rattle or headbanging, although there were still odd sections where my head made mild, brief contact with the restraints. The ride is perhaps the least intense of the Euro-Fighters I've ridden, and I wouldn't call it an especially forceful or impactful coaster on the whole even if I think the layout is mostly good fun. For the park, I think this works well, but I thought it was worth pointing out. The first hill going over Raven doesn't really offer any notable airtime, which I was a little disappointed by. I understand that it probably had to be a certain height to clear Raven, but Gerstlauer, for all their flaws, are often quite good at injecting surprise airtime pops into their thrill coasters and a small part of me was hoping that it would be another surprise airtime burst from Gerst! The ride also doesn't really have any airtime more widely aside from the drop, so doesn't continue Gerstlauer's tradition of incorporating good surprising airtime moments. I wasn't necessarily surprised by this given the layout, but I do think this is something that Saw, Speed and Smiler do better. The main flaw I would raise, and a criticism that I 100% stand by from when the ride was initially announced, is that I think the OTSRs impede the ride and I would have preferred it with lap bars. On my 3 rides, I found that the OTSRs crushed my thighs and made the stall in particular somewhat uncomfortable. I begrudgingly accept the reasoning for OTSRs, but don't necessarily agree with the logic and think that some nice lap bars, as I know Gerstlauer offer, would definitely have made the ride more fun. All in all, then, I think Drakon, while not my first choice, is a fun coaster that will suit the park well. It's a very welcome step up in thrill from Paultons Park, and I think the younger guests will like it! In terms of comparisons, it's currently my highest-ranking Gerstlauer thrill coaster for the reason that it's more comfortable to ride than the others, although as I said, it didn't convert me to Euro-Fighters in a drastic way and I've settled on a 6/10 and #49/148 overall. I still personally rank Pterosaur, Storm Chaser and Raven slightly higher within the park. Finally, I'll briefly touch on Vild Swing... Vild Swing I'd never ridden one of these ART wild swings before, so I was interested to get on one for the first time. All in all, I'd say it was OK, but nothing to write home about as someone who's not a big fan of flat rides. The swinging is quite good fun, and early on, none of the sensations feel overly intense, but I would say that the cycle was maybe a bit long for me and I was starting to wear of the repetitive rotating motion by the end. If you’re keener on flats than I am, though, I think you’ll like it! So all in all, then, I’d say Valgard is a great addition to Paultons Park! The theming is delightful, Drakon is overall a fun coaster that will suit the audience well, and if you’re more of a fan of flat rides than I am, then I think you’ll enjoy Vild Swing! I also think Serpent’s Curse looks like it will be a fun addition for next year! To close out the review, here are a few photos I took throughout the day:

Preventing pipe leakages, why not newspaper and bootlaces?