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Bellewaerde Park | Mundo Amazonia | Intamin Rapids & More | 2024

Trax said:
So, I've returned from my trip which included Bellewaerde.
I did not expect Amazonia to be open when planning the trip, but I certainly don't complain.

Once the gates opened, we imediately walked to the rides entrance. The queue isn't bad, but quite long with no ways to shorten it. You will walk quite a bit before reaching the final cattle pen and the subsequent station.
After a few minutes of the ride not moving at all, they started moving some boats and boarded us with a father and his son onto the first boat of the day. Good for us, as a significant queue has built up in the 10-15 minutes we were waiting for boarding. It is their newest headliner attraction after all.

Before bording, they had all the people for the board step on a scale (simultanousely) to be weighed. Our group of four (3 adults + child) was ~330kg. Don't know if this matters, but I might as well mention it. I should also mention, that the boats do not feature handrails in the middle, and nothing to put your feet on except for the stairs. So if you're like me used to putting your shoes up - you can't do it here.

The ride itself is really strange. The first bit of the lift is actually rotating 90° to be able to take the boat. Once the boat is on that piece, it roates to become part of the lifthill. The first bit is pretty much your run of the mill tube-style rafting ride - BUT I can confirm, it really spins a lot in some places. I recall a total of 2 times that we got in a spinning that I never anticipated in a rafting. It was more intense then on most spinning coasters.

Second lift is nothing special either, allthough I have to admit that spinning lifts, and lifts with "open" ends always cause some feeling of insecurity in me - which is something I actually enjoy, as this is something I rarely experience in a (safe) park.

The big thing is of course the drop. It isn't the steepest, but it is fun. The first swing upwards is still untrimmed, the strips will only affect the subsequent swings. And it's actually working. We were rocking left to right a bit, but there was more than enough room between us and the sidewalls.

The final element is the effect track. It actually runs a decently long cycle, nearly long enough to be considered its own attraction. It goes suprisingly deep down (which included some themed lighting as well) and gives very weak floater. That alone wouldn't be necessary a good thing, but with you having no classic restrain, it is a fun and thrilling element.

One more thing to note is that the boats are being automatically rotated into certain positions prior to the second lift in the drop track. Those rollers used for the rotation are an accident waiting to happen. They are completely open, and you could easily get your hand stuck between them and your boat if you were careless enough.

Is it wet? Not really. There was one wave which got our bums a bit wet, but nothing to bad. With the design of the boat, most of the water was actually behind us and flowing into the middle of the boat to flow out. Please keep in mind that we only were 4 people with 330kg in the boat. A fully loaded boat might be significantly wetter. I don't know of the max weight for groups, though.


To sum it up, it is something different, but certainly a fun ride. And while thrilling, it is still suitable for children and its ending might suprise a few guests - even though the air powered system is naturally not quiet. I would have gone for a second ride, but time contraints and a certain stuck boat cancelled those plans.

Sorry for my horrible language skills today. I am quite tired, but wanted my report to be posted whilst my memories are still fresh.View attachment 30903
Yes, that's the stuck boat. When we rode the Boomerang 45 minutes after this photo was taken, the water was turned off, and there was no movement on Amazonia. Don't know if they reopened.
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Thanks for the review!

Do you know what's going on with Huracan? It has been closed all week, was it open for your trip? We were hoping to visit in May and that's the main attraction but don't know if it's undergoing long term maintenance.
 
It was still open during my visit, and when we left the park it was still running fine. So I can’t give you much information on that one, sorry :-(
 
Bowser said:
Thanks for the review!

Do you know what's going on with Huracan? It has been closed all week, was it open for your trip? We were hoping to visit in May and that's the main attraction but don't know if it's undergoing long term maintenance.
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I don't know when you're planning your visit, but yesterday Huracan was open all day.

But I suggest you wait as Amazonia is down since Tuesday for maintenance..
You do receive a voucher for 70% off tickets for a later visit because of it!
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M91 said:
don't know when you're planning your visit, but yesterday Huracan was open all day.
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Thanks for the update!

They annoyingly just updated the app so now you can no longer see ride openings/queue times unless you're on site.

We were looking at May half term as hoped it would be quiet due to Belgians not having that school holiday afaik but think it'll more like be summer now anyway so hopefully everything is up and running then.

Always get a bit suspicious when parks make that change to their app (cough cough Alton Towers).
 
I now can see why parks buy the same old things tbh - the amount of variables, fixes and remaining potential risk in this seems rather unappealing if I was a business owner. A shame because the concept is fun, but I just can't believe they messed up with the boats this badly (although that's on the park right, as they didn't buy the manufacturer's offering?)
 
Intamin have had an atrocious track record when it comes to their water rides, so many of them have had to be removed within a few years, or have a huge amount of downtime, or killed someone.

I can’t see them having any less issues even with Intamin’s own boats, this would all have had to happen anyway.
 
Crazycoaster said:
Intamin have had an atrocious track record when it comes to their water rides, so many of them have had to be removed within a few years, or have a huge amount of downtime, or killed someone.
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Literally this. It's obvious now that it's been poorly designed. I wouldn't blanket over all Intamin water rides as being bad but if I were a park I'd be opting for Mack.
 
CrashCoaster said:
Literally this. It's obvious now that it's been poorly designed. I wouldn't blanket over all Intamin water rides as being bad but if I were a park I'd be opting for Mack.
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Do Mack make rapids rides that are as innovative as this though? This is a first of a kind and looks like it will be incredibly cool once they have figured out all the issues.
 
As of now, the ride is still shut down, with no opening date being published anymore.

According to an article on Loopings.nl, about 15,000 people were able to ride the attraction, which is about as much as a regular rafting ride can do within a single day.

AMAZONIA CLOSED​

We are very sorry to have to inform you that our new Amazonia attraction is currently closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Amazonia is a prototype and is unique in the world and this of course entails certain technical challenges.
The attraction builder INTAMIN is doing everything he can to make the attraction open as quickly as possible in complete safety and comfort. Unfortunately, the attraction builder cannot specify an exact opening date at this time.
We deeply apologize for this disappointing news.

www.looopings.nl

Bellewaerde Park komt onder druk wél met statement over sluiting van waterattractie Amazonia

Bellewaerde Park communiceerde de afgelopen weken nauwelijks over de sluiting van publiekstrekker Amazonia, een nieuwe waterattractie van 14 miljoen...
www.looopings.nl www.looopings.nl
 
Trax said:
As of now, the ride is still shut down, with no opening date being published anymore.

According to an article on Loopings.nl, about 15,000 people were able to ride the attraction, which is about as much as a regular rafting ride can do within a single day.

AMAZONIA CLOSED​

We are very sorry to have to inform you that our new Amazonia attraction is currently closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Amazonia is a prototype and is unique in the world and this of course entails certain technical challenges.
The attraction builder INTAMIN is doing everything he can to make the attraction open as quickly as possible in complete safety and comfort. Unfortunately, the attraction builder cannot specify an exact opening date at this time.
We deeply apologize for this disappointing news.

www.looopings.nl

Bellewaerde Park komt onder druk wél met statement over sluiting van waterattractie Amazonia

Bellewaerde Park communiceerde de afgelopen weken nauwelijks over de sluiting van publiekstrekker Amazonia, een nieuwe waterattractie van 14 miljoen...
www.looopings.nl www.looopings.nl
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TT2, Hyperia and now this? I swear ride openings this year must be cursed
 
Amazonia is back open now. The inconspicuous bumper in the halfpipe has apparently been removed, and the weight limit of 400 kilos per boat still applies. Intamin allegedly tried to use the extended closure to resolve the weight issue, but the park decided that having the ride open with limited capacity was better than not having it open at all. The park is set to make an official statement on the matter sometime today.

www.looopings.nl

Waterbaan Amazonia in Bellewaerde na vier weken weer open: 'Grootste uitdagingen opgelost'

Goed nieuws voor bezoekers van het Belgische pretpark Bellewaerde Park: de veelbesproken waterbaan Amazonia is weer open. Op woensdag 1 mei werd de...
www.looopings.nl www.looopings.nl
 
Here is the official statement:

Since May 30, visitors to Bellewaerde Park can experience the unique attraction Amazonia again. The manufacturer INTAMIN has managed to solve the biggest technical challenges, allowing us to return to a soft opening .

For the time being, the attraction is running fairly stable with only an occasional short standstill, which is why we have decided, in consultation with INTAMIN, to continue the soft opening during the weekend.

If everything continues to evolve positively, we will be able to move towards an official reopening of our world premiere Amazonia.

Source
 
1000031425.jpg
Amazonia to reopen officially on the 15th of June
(picture and text source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8HwS3goVmi/?igsh=cmJ5c2xvaTFtcTc4)
Good news! Amazonia reopens its doors this Saturday June 15, after a series of complex technical challenges, the world-class attraction, with a total investment of 14 million euros, will finally be open to the general public!
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The manufacturer INTAMIN, in collaboration with Bellewaerde technical and operational services, ultimately succeeded in overcoming all the complex technical challenges.
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Several electrical components (such as frequency regulators for motors and pumps) were delivered months late and INTAMIN had to make up for this lost testing time.
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Several boats were also added to increase capacity. Due to this increase, the timing and position of the different boats, distributed throughout the attraction and in the three different areas, must be coordinated perfectly. It's more difficult for a water attraction than for a roller coaster.
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