TraX Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 Merlin go back and fix it? YEH RIIIGHT..Serious FAIL. It almost hurts looking at that set peice, with mist and effects around it's teeth, just knowing where it was designed to go.I look forward to going on the ride to compare it to Sheikra and Oblivion, but really? What a complete fu-k up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted April 17, 2011 Report Share Posted April 17, 2011 Tis a huge letdown, though I bet the guys who designed it are letdown as well that it didn't happen for whatever reason.Not that'd they'd admit it. But to have all the marketing being based of going into the teeth.. the entire teeth thing.. then have it away from the drop/main view - and more importantly... an age away from his body and tenticles.. is crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 I rode Krake 7 times over the weekend.Overall? Below average in terms of B&M's I have been on although an average coaster overall.It doesn't have much of a kick to it at ALL. The drop is inferior to Sheikra due to the height and inferior to Oblivion with less "intensity" and floater airtime. They also seem to be ensuring that restraints are quite tight.Although the theming is reasonable, the queueline is fairly sparse with only really the facade of the building themed fully. The roofs of the buildings are not themed, which you can see when you pass under the brake run to go into the building.Inside, the theming is reasonable on a similar scale to Th13teen although the ride lacks any of the atmosphere of both Saw and Th13teen in terms of the station itself, which is far too bright.There is a generic "hold on tight etc." announcement that plays inside the building and the station itself is too bright. There is no dispatch lighting/audio effects at all.There were 2 cars running all weekend but throughputs on this will not even get close to Oblivion even if they run 3 cars. That said, I never queued more than 50 minutes and at times the queue was less than 20 minutes.HOWEVER... on the plus side - this is Heide Park's best themed ride. It has a stunning splash down effect and there is some good theming at the bottom of the drop. The area music/ambient sound is decent. Most guests seemed to be enjoying themselves.It's not a patch on Fluch von Novgorod (row 1, at least) anyhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamY Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 I'm hearing that the themeing will be finished at the end of this year, in time for the 2012 season. It's an awfully long time for a ride to be without it's centerpiece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 ^Unsuprising though, considering they will have the drain the pool in order to correctly access it to put all the structural components of the theming together...Still a real disappointment though... I'm looking forward to comparing it myself with SheiKra and Griffon regardless as those are bloody forceless and have very little in my eyes going for them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 If you found Griffon and Sheikra poor then frankly you will find this worse, as I did.It looks kind of pretty though! Sit back row on the sides and you get soaked, which kinds of adds to it B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 If you found Griffon and Sheikra poor then frankly you will find this worse, as I did.It looks kind of pretty though! Sit back row on the sides and you get soaked, which kinds of adds to it B)That depends... Cos one of my major issues with those two is that they were TOO big... Comparing their pullouts to Oblivion's (Which is one of the major G-Force sections of the ride), they are rather pathetic :lol:I'm still eagerly awaiting this in May... Simply because it is a new European B&M... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm just back from a two day trip to Heide Park. Will upload some pics to my Facebook pages tomorrow.Firstly, I'm a huge Oblivion fan and so I was confident this wasn't going to be any better. I agree with what was said already of the US dive coasters, they do feel too big and there isn't really any force at all (as great as they are, still).First get the moans out of way.. The queue line is very dull, whilst it's entertaining (for a roller coaster fan), watching the ride shuttles glide into the brakes, anyone else would be pretty fed up. To be honest, the fences looked untreated or painted and in one example, aren't even finished. It feels like they forgot to build a queue line until the day before the ride opened. Then onto the batching area; whilst suitably themed once unto the pirate fortress, the batching area is tiny for such a big thrill machine. I believe this was commented on already, it's not organised at all and almost everyone in the batching area are waiting for the front row seat, preventing anyone to get into rows two or three. The amount of empty seats I saw was criminal, worse as I'd (on day one) waited an hour and 20 mins. All it would take is a batcher getting the rows ready before the gates open. A minor bug, that's easily fixed.The ride itself is surprisingly just as good as Oblivion. Dare I say, I perhaps enjoyed it even more (gasp)! Maybe just as it's new and I've ridden Oblivion to death, or it's that it delivers more than just the drop. The drop took my breath away as much as Oblivion can do and with a huge amount of airtime to be had on an ever so pleasing bunny hop and run into the brakes, it was very re-ridable. Back left seat gets a bit wet and oddly seems to be only the back left!The Germans LOVE this ride, tons of people below in a viewing area around the splash pool, cameras pointed and playing under the splash zone. It seems sad then that everyone seems to have forgotten the theming let down, and oh, what a let down!Whilst the theming in the pool is suitable, smoke and bubbles from the mouth of the Krake, the ship wreck and octopus tentacles look good too, however if it was put together as originally intended, this ride would have been EVEN BETTER. I found it quite hard to swallow this theming let down. Such a promising idea, but alas.The idea that Merlin will revisit this in their closed season, I don't buy for a second. The ride works well in every other way.So to wrap it up, Krake is awesome. Air time filled and very enjoyable. Managed about 8 rides and loved all of them. Just as good-if not as intimidating as Oblivion. So I wonder if I should perhaps be thanking B&M rather than Merlin. Merlin I'm afraid this is your biggest theming cock up of all time. Tut tut. Fred, Luke_A, Sidders and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamY Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Glad to hear the ride itself is fun Fever! It really is a shame about the mouth themeing, but I suppose we shouldn't be that surprised. As intended it would have been a huge piece, so with time, money, and everything else I suppose it's disappointing but slightly expected that it didn't make the cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted June 1, 2011 Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 I am not sure whether you rode the same ride as me, but I found barely any airtime on the bunny hop and found the drop nowhere near as intense as either Oblivion nor Sheikra.I found the whole thing average. By no means is it a bad ride, but it was typical modern, bland B&M in my eyes. I am just glad that on my visit the queue didn't top 40 minutes.It was all about Novgorod up the road.Still, at least some people rate it highly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 Well, it's not a patch on Raptor, obviously! Tbh it was your earlier comments that lowered my expectations, which was great as the ride took me by surprise. I do find a few of these new themed Merlin coasters the same at the moment in terms of theme; Saw, Thirteen and Krake, as much as they try, the theming still feels like a rush job. With Disney putting so much into queue line experience right now and Merlin can't even make a queue line look nice.I'd swap the bumpy, poor mans dive machine Saw coaster with Krake any day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 Oh I would, too. But Novgorod. My my. I presume you didn't nip to Hansa on your trip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 No, not this time sadly, it's on my list!Will be interesting to see if Merlin do sort the Krake theming, it would make a huge difference. My bets are a firm NO, unfortunately.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 I believe it IS going to be done for 2012. It was only not done this year as the TUV (German H&S) refused permission for the mouth at the last moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Gonna back up Neil here and say it was decent enough... Cannot compare Krake to Novgorod since they are completely different, shame about the unfinished theming, the bollocky queue and the bollocky station organisation... It's a solid enough ride to the park, and the guests LOVE it... There was so much excitement around it from everyone... Great to see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 I would totally agree that for the park, the guests clearly were lapping it up. I am just a picky enthusiast. You could say the same about many rides, another example would be Air at AT. Krake was "decent enough" although that very judgement shows that it's infact just shy of the true top tier found at many European parks, however Merlin simply don't 100% their rides - they tend to do just about what is needed without going any further (see Atlantis at LLW).Also - I do feel a comparison with Novgorod is justified. Krake could reasonably be assumed to be Heide Parks "reponse" to Hansa-Park, and both are the latest new developments in each park and both are a thrill focus. Given their proximity, they are in direct competition. I believe the public in the region will indeed compare both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 For some reason this evening, I’m all about KRAKE at Heide Park (another Merlin addition that we have to address in BOLD LETTERING).I was just going through some of the pictures that I took on a trip, that was solely based on this little dive coaster and with THE SWARM topics being so hot with discussions on both Raptor’s awesome score (and amazing ride, ahem) and this ride; if you haven’t heard already the KRAKE soundtrack then I think that it’s obvious that with Raptor and KRAKE having such a good soundtracks, high hopes are for Thorpe.I’m not going to go into depth as I believe that I already did, following my trip earlier in the year, but with all the excitement of Merlin actually going back to address the theming mess up (I stand completly corrected from my earlier comment in this topic), for this season—it’s a definite re-ride situation!Ok, ok, it IS a little rough around the edges, with all the standard Merlin dodgy queue line fences and generally feeling a bit unfinished (and an organised station to boot), but the ride, the score and the interaction with guests all around the lake, made this definitely one of my little highlights last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicky Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Having seen the dodgy themeing, it is going to be interesting to see how it works with the mouth if they are moving that into place. Just how it is placed over the water without having a below ground section is going to make how it exits interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Here's the latest progress of that additional theming, taken from their Facebook page. Sidders 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicky Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 It doesn't feel like the car is being swallowed up by the monster since it is just a through tunnel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Well, we haven't seen the details of what they're doing yet and surely a lot of it will be the (hopefully) near miss element for the riders. The mouth already had misters and water jets around it, so hopefully it will be stunning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valentez Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 A few recent images of Krake's progress taken from the Heide Park facebook page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 A couple of updates from Heide Park (one laready mentioned by Sheepie), with Krake's re-theme and attraction poster for the new horror maze Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Neil, that is starting to look so beautiful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 Thats right Germans, you just keep on working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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