Benin

Yeah it really is in the middle of nowhere, you could probably get a train to Bar-sur-Aube and get a taxi or sommat but the park doesn't have great connections via public transport... Another Towers parallel

Day 2 – Nigloland To say that Nigloland is in the middle of nowhere would be quite the understatement, with the signs telling you the park is Xkm away, and no visible sign of it until you are literally on the local village’s doorstep. The village itself is on the park’s doorstep itself, with some front gardens literally a road and hill away from the actual entrance building. The way the park is accessed feels slightly Towers like, with country roads, a small village and a descent into a giant valley with a forest backdrop providing an interesting opener to the day. A busy day awaited us As part of the EU “Parks should open rides after the park has actually opened” law, we had 30 minutes to spend having breakfast on park. Eventually the rides opened and we headed towards the dead end of the park (themed to Canada), where the Gold Mine Train lives. As we were to discover, Nigloland has a ridiculously healthy relationship with Mack, as half their rides are built by them. This is powered Mine Train that kind of sits between that gap of Chessie’s and Towers’, in that it goes off on a little adventure (with a decent drop into a tunnel) but isn’t too long a ride time. However since it actually goes off into the woodland and interacts with the Log Flume next door, it gets a lot of points on that front. Next door was the aforementioned Log Flume that interacts with the Mine Train. With just a singular drop it was rather short, a basic figure of 8 layout I think actually, however with an extended amount of interaction with the Mine Train it improves the meander around somewhat. Certainly a sign of a ride built from a park slowly building its reputation, and as the park’s only real water ride it’s one of the flaws the park has. Hopefully they plan to rectify this soon. Next up was our first non-Mack ride, Grizzli, a Zamperla Disko Coaster, which was as standard as the rest of them are. However it was cool to finally ride the one that appears in practically all of Zamperla’s advertising of the ride, and it was also rather well themed (apart from the clash of shed). We started to head further into the park, and chanced upon The Travels of Jacques Cartier, which was a non-spinning boat variant of Seastorm. It made up for this by having decent animatronics in the middle of the ride and being surprisingly intense. Further in and we found a ride many of us were anticipating, Air Meeting, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly. These are essentially an intense version of the old Flying Scooters, and are fantastic if you want a solid work-out, lots of confined spinning, and enjoying physics. The seats rotate based on the position of the wings and your own momentum, it’s a rather difficult method to describe and there certainly is a knack to doing it, just got to get it right, because once you lose the momentum mid-ride, you never get it back. I wouldn’t mind seeing one in the UK, but the throughput would be an immense issue. Themed staff and stadium announcers Next up was the Space Experience, located in the 50s area of the park. So naturally, it was some good old fashioned cheesy space times, essentially it was EuroSat light. It was rather good fun, especially in the back row which promoted the tight turns and decent near misses with the scenery, although the change from pounding techno music in the queue and exit to classical was a bit curious to say the least. After this there was a toilet break, which I took the time to watch the construction taking place around Alpina Blitz. Again that EU Law of “Rides cannot be completed on time, but can run later in the day”. As I was watching, a man came up to me and asked if I was John. This was a result of John getting in contact with the park prior to our arrival and asking if he could chat to anyone about Alpina Blitz and the park in general. He had received an email the night before asking if we were still visiting and Rodolphe had clearly developed a goon sense having worked at the park (and Madame Tussauds and Pleasurewood Hills), having noticed people talking not only in English but in possession of a Walibi hoodie. Needless to say John’s reaction when he vacated the toilet was quite amusing. Rodolphe explained he’d had a busy morning doing stuff for a kids TV show, so needed a drink, promptly treating us all to something as well. We had a good natter amongst ourselves over our drinks before he suggested he take us on a mini backstage tour of the park. What kind of goons would we be to turn down such a chance? So off we went. Even their engineers are goons Having seen the entirety of the backstage (including the bakery, locker room and a very teasing Alpina Blitz sign they didn’t need anymore and would obviously resulted in a fight to the death over if my Peugeot had been alive), we decided that as most of the rides were closed for lunch (a system they use for very dead days, like this day was), we would also do that. And once again we were treated to a local delicacy which can be described as pork bolognaise, which was rather good and certainly in the upper limits of theme park food. After more tales of Rodolphe’s exploits at IAAPA and EAS, we decided that it was time for Alpina Blitz. After finding out the various reasonings as to why Nigloland went with Mack over Intamin (cheaper to build (ride alone costs €4.5m), great working relationship, better trains/restraints and many more), we were all pretty excited to ride it, if only to compare it to the Intamin version. Of course, as we were Rodolphe’s guests in the park, we went via the exit and stood on the offload platform as the ride was going around. Eventually the back two rows were held off and we were on. The first drop and turn are a fantastic start to this ride, and any qualms people had of it losing speed throughout due to the high second hill can be discarded as rather unfounded. I was greying out everytime on the first turn, which arguably makes it more intense than Piraten, and the second hill when sitting in the front involves a rather special bit of ejector due to the transition. The rest of the ride is filled with airtime of both the floater and tonnes more ejector variety, and I can but hope our reactions as we returned to the station made Rodolphe very happy indeed. We were allowed to fill up some empty seats (the park really was empty), before being allowed to use the bridge of randomness to access the front row. It’s just as good if not slightly better than the back purely for the second hill turn. Later on that night we found that the Mitch Hawker polls had come out, with Kawasemi 7th and Piraten 12th. If these are relatively accurate depictions (though why the Mega-Lite clones are separate I have no idea), then Alpina Blitz is quite clearly superior then Piraten at least. The Mack trains take a rather good layout (with some changes it must be said, it’s as much of a clone as Cinecitta World’s 10 looper is a clone of Colossus) and make it something even better. This ride alone makes me believe that Helix could easily be Europe’s best coaster, and hopefully with lots of parks visiting Nigloland to ride Alpina, we’ll be seeing plenty of these in the near future. Which can only be a good thing. After that, Peter enquired if we could have a nosey at the park’s hotel, a small 32 room affair but with 4 stars. So off we went. It looks rather unassuming (or bland) from the outside, however inside is a different matter. Beautifully themed from the bar to the restaurant, and the rooms are pretty decent as well, we all liked it so much that when we inevitably return to the park we’ll be booking a stay in the hotel for certain. It kinda shows the difference that a good family run park can provide compared to a corporation run park, as the attention to detail not just in the hotel but also throughout the park (themed staff uniforms, etc) with a focus on providing a great experience with a long term plan over monetary gain in the short term. Nigloland really does tick all the boxes brilliantly. Back in the park, we decided it would be a good time to grab the rest of the coasters as they were all nearby. Starting with La Chenille, another Wacky Worm, before Schlitt Express, a Mack Wild Mouse which was a lot better than Bakken’s equivalent (probably because it wasn’t at Bakken), and finally Bobsleigh, a smaller version of Black Hole which was quite heavily themed it must be said. The two major coasters were both very enjoyable and themed to a very good standard, with the Bobsleigh standing out as looking rather brand new for something rather old, upkeep eh? After Bobsleigh, Rodolphe showed us the hydraulic room for the Chairswings. Which on the inside are nothing out of the ordinary, however the theming effort put into the outside is something I’ve only really seen at Europa Park in the pump rooms for Atlantica. The fact that the piping linking the shed and ride together is buried under themed rail and mining cars is that next level set of detailing that sets great parks apart from good parks. To quote Rodolphe “Theming, theming, theming”, and he’s damn right. After another drink we headed back onto Space Experience, where Rodolphe went off and got the lights turned on for us. It was quite cool to see the level of detail hidden amongst the theming that is dotted around the building. We then had another quick go on Air Meeting, where I did a couple of spins and thought better of it. Rodolphe then urged us to do “their Zufari”, in Africa Cruise, which is basically Jungle Cruise on a budget. However the home-made rocks looked really good, and the commentary of such issues on the ride like “we need more greenery to hide the mechanics” and “I was told we wouldn’t be able to see the concrete” showed a real honesty and enthusiasm about the park, which seemed to flow through the entire place. Very refreshing indeed. After this we ventured into the Haunted Mansion, which was practically Disney-light. You do have to love a good old-fashioned Disney knock-off, although the independent spinning car and the lighting of the load vehicle was pretty awesome it must be said. Give this ride an upgrade with brand new effects/animatronics and it’d be even better! After this we headed over to the King of Mississippi riverboat, where Rodolphe had to leave us to do some real work (rather than show some dodgy English folk the park), so we went around without him. It was quite nice really; nothing too special around it, but one of those rides filed under “for a long sit-down”. With the rides closing shortly we decided it was time to whore Alpina Blitz a bit, with various rows experienced and the last ride of the day. It truly is a fantastic ride and hopefully we’ll see a lot more of them in the future, especially for a base price of €4.5 million, it’s SUCH a bargain! We met up with Rodolphe at the hotel for a quick drink but unfortunately dinner in the hotel (which he invited us to) had to be cut off as Peter had clearly ridden Alpina Blitz too many times in the heat of the day (turns out you CAN have too much of a good thing). So we bid farewell and promised that we would return to the park in the future. And that we shall, because even without Rodolphe’s tour of the place we would have loved it anyway. The park itself is presented well, with lots of rides dotted about with some immense theming (I fell in love with the Tractor ride as an example), and just an overall look and atmosphere to the place that few parks can achieve. Alpina Blitz is a brilliant landmark coaster for them to be put on the map in the wider world of the industry, and hopefully that will kick-start them into pushing for a lot more guests not only this year but in the years to come. I send a lot of thanks to Rodolphe as well for giving us an even more fantastic day and really going above and beyond the levels of park hospitality for us, the sort of stuff that in my experience is only reserved for those huge groups who pay for it, rather than 4 random people. His tales and honest opinions on the industry, the park and his own experiences and future were both fascinating and insightful throughout the day. And his enthusiasm about the park (and his career in general) certainly rubbed off on us. [/size][/font]

https://www.facebook.com/liseberg.se/posts/828416733854561 Sigh, I want it to be July so badly...

Platform numbers have only been in use for 10 years, since at Chessie the numbers were only on the pods themselves, so naturally trying to find the right allocated seating row was a lot more nightmarish than it is now... They don't tend to do the whole "Rows 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4" thing anymore do they? That probably doesn't help...

People are riding the Snow White Coaster...

€19 a head, so about £15 give or take the exchange rate... Pay for what you get really which is decent enough value, as there's plenty of other attractions and shows dotted around the park that we didn't go on (39 rides and attractions apparently)...

Probs the same reason why you see museum shops with fake rocks/gems and stuff (which I think are already sold in Sea-Lifes?)... Based on some of the merch Smiler got, nothing is too ridiculous for Merlin's retail department...

Wild Train is 1.3m and Formula 1 is 1.2m minimum, so they are the thrill end of the family market... Formula 1 especially has a wicked first drop and the overbanked turns were just weird, tonnes of airtime too... Unfortunately with one train operation on Wild Train and only being able to walk along one side of Formula 1 an array of pics were hard to come by, especially given the limited time we ended up having in the park as a result of the dead car... It was slightly RCT (though not as bad as Walygator), but the rides felt reasonably bedded into the place with some themes linking into each other slightly... Unfortunately we didn't see the Pirate Ship blessed by Jesus until we were leaving... Which clearly was the best thing the park had...

The CEO natters about the ride (there are English subtitles and a lovely backing track)...

6th longest steel coaster though

RCDB lists it as 4,530.8 ft, which takes it to 6th in the European length table (Ultimate wins that round)...

Day 1 – Parc Saint Paul A rather early morning of 3am was the choice made to venture to a selection of rather un-known French parks, and after a McDonald’s service station breakfast and a quick jaunt on the Eurotunnel we were firing down the French motorway with not a care in the world. Unfortunately, disaster would strike us. We began to hear noises from the car, and decided to pull over on the hard shoulder to investigate. After some initial checks, we agreed to move the car forward slightly to see if there was truly something wrong, and it refused to start up. Many calls were made and eventually a mechanic (who of course, spoke no English) turned up, and made that classic intake of breath noise that all mechanics do that tend to signify that the car/vehicle is completely buggered. We were taken to a nearby garage, and made the decision that €2000 for a new gearbox was not worth the money at all, so we would leave the car forever in France, grab a hire car and continue with our adventure post-haste. The garage were very helpful to us especially given the language barrier, however Demi Lovato’s version of “Let It Go” was not particularly appreciated by myself. We got a taxi to a hire car place and after many a hasty phone call from the guy working there we were eventually given a Volkswagen UP! So after a delay of about two hours we continued on our adventure to Parc Saint Paul. Upon arrival, our expectations of the place were not high, especially as their new Vekoma Junior coaster was being spiteful and not open. Nevertheless we headed to our first coaster of the trip, a Wacky Worm. Joyous! This one however was very well themed, with lots of statues, a very giant apple and even astroturf. Of course, it was still a Wacky Worm. Next up in the actual coaster department was the Wild Train, my first Pax coaster (who aren’t exactly known for being good). And the slight launch out the station worried us greatly as to how awful this ride might be, so to say it exceeded all possible expectations would be rather accurate. It was certainly wild, with a fair amount of airtime and reasonable Gs about, with a hint of re-rideability, which is always a bonus in my book. We meandered further into the park, and decided the spinny mouse could be done later because it had an awful queue (which didn’t get any better unfortunately) and went onto the next Pax coaster, Formule 1. Unsurprisingly, it’s themed to Formula 1, with the different cars based off different manufacturers, and a scary statue of Schumacher at the entrance. It’s also a slight rip-off of the Gerstlauer Bobsleds, with a much steeper lift and a more insane experience, with over-banked turns being the main culprit of this. Again it was rather enjoyable ride, if slightly terrifying. We wandered a bit further into the park, discovering that it wasn’t all quite run-down as we expected it to look within. There was a fair amount of woodland, lakes and even some buildings taken straight out of Lightwater Valley. It’s very family set with more for the kids, but we saw tonnes of BBQ sets for people to come and cook their own food, and it did have a rather lovely atmosphere. Back to the rides, Mini Mouse Cartoon was next, which is a Zamperla Mini Mouse or something. It makes a Wacky Worm look interesting that’s all I know. +1 Next door to that was Telepherique, which was by far the most amazing thing ever created by a French person. It’s a platform led zip line, only in (such a) cred format. It involves a lot of spinning, swinging and swearing (and even crashing in some cases, like with me). Part of that old “Never in the UK” ideal, I thought it was brilliant, but the others not so much. We headed back to the Souris Verte Spinning Wild Mouse of boredom, having endured the queue of burdenous times. I’m so bored of these now it’s not true. Again, +1 We then decided to go and see the Tiger show, to which those who visited Bagatelle and seen their Lion show had “I have seen things” moments as a result. However only two of the tigers looked like they wanted to eat the fat French man who was flicking them with a whip. Fortunately there was no maiming of the fat French man (or unfortunately, dependant on opinion of such animal shows), so we were able to continue on our journey via a Giant Slide. As John and Peter did the horror house thingy, we meandered around the House of Mirrors, which wasn’t very entertaining. After they returned, we went into the 3D Walkthrough, which was actually quite epic and looked tonnes better than Hocus Pocus Hall even did. We then marvelled at the themed bins and doors as we had some ice cream. We had another go on the Formula 1 coaster, before me and John did the Drop Tower of Forever – Extreme Edition, which decided it would go from slow to fast to slow again during the trip up the tower, which was equally hilarious and burdenous. I don’t think my laughter was appreciated by the randomer next to us though who was unsure about the whole thing. When it did get to the top, the drop was instantaneous, so it was all a bit weird. Good though. We finished this with another go on the Wild Train before heading off for a long drive down to our hotel, but not before a quick character photo! Overall, the park exceeded our (admittedly lower than low) expectations of it. It’s very much like Lightwater (but tinier), and whilst it had a fair amount of rides dumped in places, they did make an attempt to make them look really nice. Hopefully the park can continue on a positive trajectory in the future, because we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Rumours are for an internal elevator lift (which knowing Hansa, would involve show scenes)... It will be epic if this happens... Because Hansa and on-ride pre-shows are just

If only we had Ms Thompson in charge of Chessie, she'd sort it right out...

Hansa did it with Fluch, although that was primarily down to the harsh winter they had that season (and this also affected their last coaster), so perhaps they're seeing it as an attempt to minimalise the effect a potentially bad winter can bring to the project... But then Plopsa did this sort of thing with Wickieland, so it's all completely random it seems...

Yet another European attraction being built in stages... Least dont have to return next year then...

Thing is with the likes of Blackpool and Southend they are city parks, and benefit from extended times a lot more as people are more likely to visit for an hour or so during the day... With the 'proper' parks, it's a full day jobbie to most guests, so 8 hours is generally enough time for the most part... Not to say of course the parks would easily benefit from extended times in true peak season, but 12 hour days (say 9-9) for them isn't as attractive to guests really... It's long and tiring, whereas locals in Blackpool can pop in late for an hour or two, it's just no doable at the likes of Thorpe and Towers...

Only if you jump/climb the fence leading to Zufari... Of course, this could have been avoided with a decent full 3d building over the cheaply done final result...

If it's chucking it down as bad as it is at home, then more than likely... Fury disagrees with rain immensely...

Second best company in the world everyone... Originality truly is dead... It'll end up being a Krake clone or something...

Source for that? A weird decision, given that the Mack restraints aren't that restrictive...

Problem is with Chessie especially in recent years we've heard all the "things will improve" stuff time and time again from those working there... But since Wild Asia opening, we haven't seen any real improvement to the overall quality of the park after a decade of pure neglect... Yeah they hope to get something big in the future, but doesn't every park? And since Chessie has had a history of projects being cancelled or designed by idiots, it's literally at times a "we will believe it when there's an actual new ride opening"... As for Bubbleworks, I just wish the fire had burnt down a lot more of it... Would have made it easier for the park to put some effort into it... The idea as well that Merlin seem to believe that theming and escapism is not the way the UK industry should go is so opposite to the European ideals... Amazing how they can so badly run these parks, and we should really hope that Paramount park opens and shows the UK what a real theme park is like again... Not full of half arsed ideas with awful execution...

Which is really the point... Smaller parks with less budget to buy a 10 pack of Freddos can produce some fantastic theming (though Raptor Attack is the best example available at LVW, the Pirate area is tacky and cheap), and yet for one of the top parks in the country we should be happy with bland additions with a real lack for detail... Recent example, Nigloland completely hid their hydraulic system for their Chairswings in a chalet building and scenic train tracks... Why? Because it adds to the feel of the park's themed areas... We do not see this level of detail and ideas from Merlin as any enthusiasm gets knocked out by marketing heads who panic against any lack of instant return... It's not just the commercial and thematically uninspiring IP choices Merlin as a whole make, it's what they do with them... And even then, the likes of Swarm and Smiler cannot be considered world class because they lack the little details that takes a ride from great to fantastic... The 'details' so far in this area retheme constitute as 2d things stuck to walls at random... Subtlety is certainly not Merlin's strong element...

Swarm's station is a mess anyday of the week on two trains... Such an awful design...

Thing is, what's been done so far, you'd expect from a park like LWV, Paultons, etc... Not the biggest UK company who can afford higher quality products... I mean, 2d things stuck onto buildings? Not breaking down the walls of immersiveness are we? Fibreglass models to be dotted around at probably random locations inside the area? They look nice but it's so simplistic and basic... The entrances are entrances so provide very little to the overall area itself, but will probably follow the simplistic style/look of the games... Of course, there is no point comparing it to DIC, because they invested the absolute bare minimum, but of course the Merlin additions are better because they couldn't really get any worse could they? And Scorpion Express looks rubbish, very bare, bland and boring with the 2d facades and stuff... The usual Merlin addition really, a 3d element followed up by blandly designed buildings and parts that make no sense to the uninitiated... Once again I find myself wondering how parks who cannot afford such additions get by, probably because they think long-term and know that people won't come if their park is awful... What's the budget for this btw? Including the cost of the IP...