There were misters behind the statues of the vikings at least, I believe. I was told by Stretch though that some of the fire effects weren't working, however all the major ones (firey door way and splash zone, log collisions, geysirs, ice room) all worked so I was phenomenally impressed with the ride!
It lacks the ride line-up of parks of a similar size, but simply makes up for it by being full of quality throughout the rides...
It's not a park everyone would enjoy, but with the top tier quality dark rides and fun coasters there's enough to at least spend 2 days there, bearing in mind that on my visit 3 attractions were closed, including the massive show...
Certainly better than PA because it feels more natural and not awful...
Better than Europa is the harder one, but I feel like it's just better, purely on the relaxing atmosphere compared to how Europa does pack in the rides sometimes... Akin to Towers in many ways where you can just roam around with no rides near you and chill...
I can't comment on throughput quality as most rides were walk-on, operational standards were pretty average, nothing bad, nothing exceptional bar some Joris based interaction for the winning train...
Will it be on people's bucket lists? Nah, it lacks a true stand-out ride for that to be the case, or a general knowledge of the park as a whole... It can be considered the most visited hidden gem of a theme park in Europe...
I'm a bit confused here Mark - what do you disagree with? Yep, 1995 they were competiting with Chessington, and the opening of Legoland drew ever nearer. The park was still a completely different place, and no doubt a thrill ride was thought as a natural step for a family park, especially when you look at the succusses of others, like you say. But still, I think X was never meant to be this scary thrill ride - at the time, the park had Calgary Stampede for thrill rides. But they needed something big, a centre point, and whilst it was designed to target the older audiences, it could never have been a proper thrill ride of a coaster; it wasn't the sort of park to install such a thing.
I completely agree with the incorrect advertising in recent years, as whilse the park developed and installed 'real' thrill rides, X seemingly remained as a 'big boy'; just one who was wearing shoes a couple of sizes too big. In the past 2-3 years, the pinching and pushing you speak of has been blindingly obvious, and hopefully we can finally see X find its place at the park.
I have mixed opinions on queueing outside. The queueing outside keeps the mystery for longer I think. But at the same time, it builds suspense, creating a fear of the unknown to those who don't know what to expect inside, which is not what should happen with X - it is not a ride to be feared any more. That's why X needs an upbeat theme - adding a scary / dark theme makes people expect a scary ride, and X is anything but scary. I guess that H&S stop there being too many people queueing inside, but I think depending on how any possible retheme works out, the outside queueing section could be made to 'fit in' better.
As for the possibility of it being turned forwards (I know it's pretty much all but officially confirmed that it will turn forwards, but I'm not going to say it will be till it's confirmed..), that doesn't take away from the fact it was the the world's first backwards in the dark coaster. Colossus is still the first 10 looping coaster, despite there be other 10 looping coasters, and an 11 looping coaster opening this year. It would just so happen it is now facing forward. As for the 'X:' (it's a bakslash, not a forward one! ) part of the name, I believe that was due to the original theme of the ride, a computer virus, as it is computer-related.
I agree about the forwards bit; the backwardsness of the ride is what helps make the ride so random. Turning it forwards could well make the random less random and, instead, further highlight the weak layout that X has.
And thanks!
Coaster reacted to pognoi in Creaking North Part 2 Big Things Require Big Expectations