Phadd-F
Roller Poster
Energylandia! Legendia!... euh euh... Zatorland?!... Stop the clock. It could be a quiz question: name Polish theme parks. The first two, every theme park fan will know. But does the country known of Chopin, Copernicus and Marie Curie have other theme parks to offer? Time to found out what else we can find here.
Every European will know that you can score some good deals with RyanAir. Sometimes it's just cheaper to fly to the other side of the continent than taking a train to another province. It appeard the prices to fly to Lodz were a screamer, € 17 for a one-way ticket?! That was too good to ignore. Though flying to Poland for just one day only to ride some coasters is really decadent. But... you only live once... and the coaster counter needs to be filled. So why not?
One of the few other Polish parks I knew off (except for Legendia & Energylandia which I've visited before) is Mandoria. All I could tell you it is an indoor park and they have a Gerstlauer. That's all my knowledge of Mandoria before my visit. I like to be surprised and when entering the park, I was immediately positively surprised by the theming. It was clear this park held a high level of theming and that's not something I really had expected!
The park would seem like it never was crowded but the coaster credit-stress came upon us. We saw some some buses on the parking which means school field trips... Oh oh, would we have enough time to get around here? Would we still have time to go to the other park as we had planned?! Let's hope our stress is unjustified.
No time to lose! So we entered the queue of the first rollercoaster we stumbled upon. Merkant is located next to the park entrance and is the Gerstlauer the park has to offer. However, not a bobsled coaster which is rotting away in a thousand pieces on the parking lot. This coaster is a so called bob coaster, one of 4 bob coasters Gerstlauer has build. In this coaster type, you sit behind eachother. Two riders per car, a bit like Bobbejaanlands Revolution but here with a little chair back in the middle so it's way less romantic.
There were some kids in the queue before us, but in the end we didn't have to wait long. Not that operations were great. Station is also not well designed for that, with riders having to step out on the same side as you enter the car. So you have to wait until everyone has stepped out and cleared the station before you can open the gates and load a new batch of riders. I don't think this park is ever too crowded to worry about operating on maximum capacity though. But for an experienced theme park/rollercoaster fanatic it was a very small point of frustration.
The coaster wasn't really special, it contained a second lifthill which seemed very unnecessary given the short length and height of the coaster. Good for once, a second ride wasn't really wanted by anyone from our group.
The big hall were Mandoria is located in, is pretty small in width but quite big in length. The roof is a bit too low and it shows on the photos. In real life, the roof was less disturbing probably because the park has done a really great job at the beautiful Mediterrean theming. The whole park looks really good and charming. When it comes to rides, we noticed they did mostly have little rides for kids: a rockin thug, little swing mill,... they even got a little log flume, sadly only suitable for kids to ride.
Behind this facade there was our second coaster of the day: Mroczny Dwór. Again, nothing really special because we're talking about a SBF Visa spinning coaster. A missed opportunity here because despite being located in it's own little hall - inside a hall, hallception - it was just a ride in the dark. A bit of light effects and theming could do so much more to this. The ride itself was quite unpleasant because these cars aren't really a great fit for people with a big butt. SBF Visa doesn't lie and doesn't like big butts.
Halfway our coaster quest here we skipped a coaster to go directly to the parks main ride. Aquila is the newest coaster of the park, it only opened in January this year. It's a family launch coaster from Vekoma, and while I have done no other coasters from this type I do have some expectations because newgen Vekoma rules. I expect Aquila to be as great as all the other newgen Vekomas I've ridden.
The queue was pretty well themed, also pretty long in length. The queue fences were made so you really can't easily skip over them or crawl under them. A good thing since it helps avoiding surpassing which seemed like a national Polish sport when I visited Energylandia. We spent more time walking through the queue than waiting in the queue and eventually chose for a backseat ride.
Did Aquila meet my expectations?! Yes it did! The launch was pretty fun and pacing was really good as the train never seemed to lose any speed. There's a lot of quick turns and the whole ride feels quite punchy. The best moment is the sideway banked hill over the queue entrance. The track itself isn't that long but it grabs you from start to finish and is quite forcefull. Cherry on top: it gave 2 consecutive laps.
We really liked this coaster so much that we immediately went for some more rides on it. It really is a hidden gem that would be welcome in any theme park. I also found it surprising how forcefull and punchy this coaster was, despite being aimed at families. We saw multiple kids going on it and liking it as well which really shows that coasters and rides don't have to be soft for the younger generations! Watch and learn family parks, looking especially at you Bellewaerde Park.
So we finally had just one coaster to do to get our bingo in this park. That was Carrara, a Mack powered coaster. It was pretty OK though it had some pretty weird janks here and there. It also gave away 2 laps but that was enough for us. No repeat value here for us.
Our credit-stress was completely gone now. In 90 minutes we scored all 4 coasters Mandoria has to offer, one of wich we made multiple rides on. Our worries when entering the park were unjustified, we aren even ahead on planning... So we decided to fill time by riding Aquila again for a few times and walking around the park.
It's a pretty small park but with a good and consistent level of theming which some parks can learn from. But on ride catalogue the park scores quite a bit less. Aquila is a gem but the other coasters are only good to ride once to get the credit, they don't hold any repeat value. There's a bunch of small rides that are aimed at kids, so Mandoria is a good stop if you visit Poland with kids. For adult theme park/rollercoaster fans a bit less interesting. For me personally they'd have to get something new and interesting before wanting to come back.
Our time in Mandoria was done, but we still were not ready hunting rollercoasters. We got in our fluo green rental car and headed towards Warsaw where we wanted to visit Majaland Warsaw. As the names says, it's a typical indoor Plopsa park but it is not - fully - owned by the Plopsa group. This park is a joint venture by the Plopsa group and Momentum Leisure who owns the majority of the shares in this park and the other Polish Plopsa parks (Majaland Gdansk and the more known Majaland Kownaty).
Because of that, my Plopsa season pass wasn't useable here. Not even a discount. Allow me to find that pretty weird, you buy a season pass on Plopsaland De Panne with one of the advantages to have entrance at every Plopsa park. Except these Polish ones just because of the construction this enterprise is set up. You see a park that 100% looks like a Plopsa park, you see the Studio 100 figures and IP which lets you enter the Plopsa world but accounting says no. I'd say at least offer a discount for season pass holders, how many of them will make the trip from Belgium to Warsaw or Gdansk you think?!
The photo above could have been taken in Coevorden or Hasselt. Once inside you immediately recognize the typical Plopsa formula, there might be small differences with Plopsa Indoor Coevorden/Hasselt but it feels all the same. That's not really a critique because I don't think the average Polish citizen even knows about the existense of Plopsa Indoor Hasselt/Coevorden. We do our ride on Rollercoaster Wikingow, a clone of the coaster also to be found in Hasselt & Coevorden. Another +1 on the counter and for us the only reason to visit this park.
Also here they found it a great idea to have a dinosaur themed ride in a Swiss village...
We did the little free fall ride, always great fun those things. And then we checked out the outdoor area which was mainly an open concrete space with some rides smacked down on it. We recognize the Firetrucks ride they also had in Plopsaland De Panne, some research tells us this is not the version that was located in De Panne before.
This whole outdoor area is themed to the series of Super Wings, which is not a Studio 100 production. But appearantly it is popular enough amongst Polish kids to get the IP. The most remarkable ride here is the Gerstlauer skyfly ride, somewhat the only ride together with the rollercoaster to be interesting for us. I passed for a ride on it (never been a fan of flat rides) but a must-do for the rest of our group. There was also a little slide-complex which of course was closed this time of year.
Good, now we'd hit 5 new credits on our coaster counter and we were hoping to add a sixth one. In the centre of Warsaw there's an alpine coaster to be found. The park next to it was crowded with locals enjoying the early warm spring weather but the alpine coaster was deserted. Shame, no sixth credit for us!
We flushed down missing out on the alpine coaster with a big fat Messi burger at Warsaws Hard Rock Cafe, which was located next to the impressive Palace of Arts and Science. It's the second highest building of Poland and a relic out of the Soviet era being build in 1952. Appearantly it was disliked by the Polish who see it as a sign of Soviet oppression. Pretty understandable but from architectural point of view it's a gem.
That was enough culture for us, who says that themepark/rollercoaster fans don't see anything of the world?! It was time to head to our hotel for a well deserved night rest, we had to get up early to fly back to Belgium. Had a good 24h in Poland with friends and scored 5 new credits, we'll be checking RyanAir more for more of these kind of trips. Do zobaczenia Poland!
Every European will know that you can score some good deals with RyanAir. Sometimes it's just cheaper to fly to the other side of the continent than taking a train to another province. It appeard the prices to fly to Lodz were a screamer, € 17 for a one-way ticket?! That was too good to ignore. Though flying to Poland for just one day only to ride some coasters is really decadent. But... you only live once... and the coaster counter needs to be filled. So why not?
One of the few other Polish parks I knew off (except for Legendia & Energylandia which I've visited before) is Mandoria. All I could tell you it is an indoor park and they have a Gerstlauer. That's all my knowledge of Mandoria before my visit. I like to be surprised and when entering the park, I was immediately positively surprised by the theming. It was clear this park held a high level of theming and that's not something I really had expected!
The park would seem like it never was crowded but the coaster credit-stress came upon us. We saw some some buses on the parking which means school field trips... Oh oh, would we have enough time to get around here? Would we still have time to go to the other park as we had planned?! Let's hope our stress is unjustified.
No time to lose! So we entered the queue of the first rollercoaster we stumbled upon. Merkant is located next to the park entrance and is the Gerstlauer the park has to offer. However, not a bobsled coaster which is rotting away in a thousand pieces on the parking lot. This coaster is a so called bob coaster, one of 4 bob coasters Gerstlauer has build. In this coaster type, you sit behind eachother. Two riders per car, a bit like Bobbejaanlands Revolution but here with a little chair back in the middle so it's way less romantic.
There were some kids in the queue before us, but in the end we didn't have to wait long. Not that operations were great. Station is also not well designed for that, with riders having to step out on the same side as you enter the car. So you have to wait until everyone has stepped out and cleared the station before you can open the gates and load a new batch of riders. I don't think this park is ever too crowded to worry about operating on maximum capacity though. But for an experienced theme park/rollercoaster fanatic it was a very small point of frustration.
The coaster wasn't really special, it contained a second lifthill which seemed very unnecessary given the short length and height of the coaster. Good for once, a second ride wasn't really wanted by anyone from our group.
The big hall were Mandoria is located in, is pretty small in width but quite big in length. The roof is a bit too low and it shows on the photos. In real life, the roof was less disturbing probably because the park has done a really great job at the beautiful Mediterrean theming. The whole park looks really good and charming. When it comes to rides, we noticed they did mostly have little rides for kids: a rockin thug, little swing mill,... they even got a little log flume, sadly only suitable for kids to ride.
Behind this facade there was our second coaster of the day: Mroczny Dwór. Again, nothing really special because we're talking about a SBF Visa spinning coaster. A missed opportunity here because despite being located in it's own little hall - inside a hall, hallception - it was just a ride in the dark. A bit of light effects and theming could do so much more to this. The ride itself was quite unpleasant because these cars aren't really a great fit for people with a big butt. SBF Visa doesn't lie and doesn't like big butts.
Halfway our coaster quest here we skipped a coaster to go directly to the parks main ride. Aquila is the newest coaster of the park, it only opened in January this year. It's a family launch coaster from Vekoma, and while I have done no other coasters from this type I do have some expectations because newgen Vekoma rules. I expect Aquila to be as great as all the other newgen Vekomas I've ridden.
The queue was pretty well themed, also pretty long in length. The queue fences were made so you really can't easily skip over them or crawl under them. A good thing since it helps avoiding surpassing which seemed like a national Polish sport when I visited Energylandia. We spent more time walking through the queue than waiting in the queue and eventually chose for a backseat ride.
Did Aquila meet my expectations?! Yes it did! The launch was pretty fun and pacing was really good as the train never seemed to lose any speed. There's a lot of quick turns and the whole ride feels quite punchy. The best moment is the sideway banked hill over the queue entrance. The track itself isn't that long but it grabs you from start to finish and is quite forcefull. Cherry on top: it gave 2 consecutive laps.
We really liked this coaster so much that we immediately went for some more rides on it. It really is a hidden gem that would be welcome in any theme park. I also found it surprising how forcefull and punchy this coaster was, despite being aimed at families. We saw multiple kids going on it and liking it as well which really shows that coasters and rides don't have to be soft for the younger generations! Watch and learn family parks, looking especially at you Bellewaerde Park.
So we finally had just one coaster to do to get our bingo in this park. That was Carrara, a Mack powered coaster. It was pretty OK though it had some pretty weird janks here and there. It also gave away 2 laps but that was enough for us. No repeat value here for us.
Our credit-stress was completely gone now. In 90 minutes we scored all 4 coasters Mandoria has to offer, one of wich we made multiple rides on. Our worries when entering the park were unjustified, we aren even ahead on planning... So we decided to fill time by riding Aquila again for a few times and walking around the park.
It's a pretty small park but with a good and consistent level of theming which some parks can learn from. But on ride catalogue the park scores quite a bit less. Aquila is a gem but the other coasters are only good to ride once to get the credit, they don't hold any repeat value. There's a bunch of small rides that are aimed at kids, so Mandoria is a good stop if you visit Poland with kids. For adult theme park/rollercoaster fans a bit less interesting. For me personally they'd have to get something new and interesting before wanting to come back.
Our time in Mandoria was done, but we still were not ready hunting rollercoasters. We got in our fluo green rental car and headed towards Warsaw where we wanted to visit Majaland Warsaw. As the names says, it's a typical indoor Plopsa park but it is not - fully - owned by the Plopsa group. This park is a joint venture by the Plopsa group and Momentum Leisure who owns the majority of the shares in this park and the other Polish Plopsa parks (Majaland Gdansk and the more known Majaland Kownaty).
Because of that, my Plopsa season pass wasn't useable here. Not even a discount. Allow me to find that pretty weird, you buy a season pass on Plopsaland De Panne with one of the advantages to have entrance at every Plopsa park. Except these Polish ones just because of the construction this enterprise is set up. You see a park that 100% looks like a Plopsa park, you see the Studio 100 figures and IP which lets you enter the Plopsa world but accounting says no. I'd say at least offer a discount for season pass holders, how many of them will make the trip from Belgium to Warsaw or Gdansk you think?!
The photo above could have been taken in Coevorden or Hasselt. Once inside you immediately recognize the typical Plopsa formula, there might be small differences with Plopsa Indoor Coevorden/Hasselt but it feels all the same. That's not really a critique because I don't think the average Polish citizen even knows about the existense of Plopsa Indoor Hasselt/Coevorden. We do our ride on Rollercoaster Wikingow, a clone of the coaster also to be found in Hasselt & Coevorden. Another +1 on the counter and for us the only reason to visit this park.
Also here they found it a great idea to have a dinosaur themed ride in a Swiss village...
We did the little free fall ride, always great fun those things. And then we checked out the outdoor area which was mainly an open concrete space with some rides smacked down on it. We recognize the Firetrucks ride they also had in Plopsaland De Panne, some research tells us this is not the version that was located in De Panne before.
This whole outdoor area is themed to the series of Super Wings, which is not a Studio 100 production. But appearantly it is popular enough amongst Polish kids to get the IP. The most remarkable ride here is the Gerstlauer skyfly ride, somewhat the only ride together with the rollercoaster to be interesting for us. I passed for a ride on it (never been a fan of flat rides) but a must-do for the rest of our group. There was also a little slide-complex which of course was closed this time of year.
Good, now we'd hit 5 new credits on our coaster counter and we were hoping to add a sixth one. In the centre of Warsaw there's an alpine coaster to be found. The park next to it was crowded with locals enjoying the early warm spring weather but the alpine coaster was deserted. Shame, no sixth credit for us!
We flushed down missing out on the alpine coaster with a big fat Messi burger at Warsaws Hard Rock Cafe, which was located next to the impressive Palace of Arts and Science. It's the second highest building of Poland and a relic out of the Soviet era being build in 1952. Appearantly it was disliked by the Polish who see it as a sign of Soviet oppression. Pretty understandable but from architectural point of view it's a gem.
That was enough culture for us, who says that themepark/rollercoaster fans don't see anything of the world?! It was time to head to our hotel for a well deserved night rest, we had to get up early to fly back to Belgium. Had a good 24h in Poland with friends and scored 5 new credits, we'll be checking RyanAir more for more of these kind of trips. Do zobaczenia Poland!
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