Day 17 – Walibi Holland
Okay, final ‘big’ day of the trip now. Getting there, but running out of steam a bit!
Short hop down the road from the hotel, and we were at the park, with its ghastly entrance and main street theming. Seriously Walibi, what were you thinking?!
Urgh.
First coaster we came to was Platform 13, and although it felt like the reasonably non-enthusiast thing to do, we headed straight for it. Walkthrough style queue line and loading bay is surprisingly atmospheric (although music admittedly loud at times). Coaster itself is a bit pants though really. It’s much smoother than I expected, but the lack of indoor theming like you find on the Disney ones makes you realise that these rides are pretty uninspired.
Now, for the last time on this report…
We did the boomerang (Speed of Sound) last – it was awful. Been through this before.
Hixee’s previous rant said:
So I rode five Boomerangs on this trip, and hated every single one. I’m just going to get the rant done now. Each of the five boomerangs (Canada’s Wonderland, La Ronde, Great Escape, Darien Lake and Walibi Holland) were all of varying qualities. Some had the old trains, some the new trains, some were smooth, some were rough – all of that is totally academic as I’ve realised that it’s the backwards inversions that really :emoji_zipper_mouth:s me up. Every single one, regardless of all the other factors, left me feeling exactly the same as we hit the brakes. Gross. Terrible pieces of :emoji_poop:. Okay, rant over.
Thank **** that’s over. Hate them.
The boomerang was 599 for me, so we’d planned on making the 600 something a bit more notable. Of Goliath or Lost Gravity, Goliath was the winner for me. It’s one of those coasters I’ve known about for over decade, and never had the chance to ride (#basic), and so now it was a chance to make it a milestone. One of those ‘inspirational’ coasters you read about early in your enthusiast life.
They were still testing when we arrived at the queue, but a few empty trains later and they starting loading guests. We probably only waited about 15 minutes at this point.
The ride was really good. Definitely got that slightly old-school feel to it, where the transitions between elements are a little more drawn out and the trains don’t snap through them quite as much, but has some solid airtime over the hills and nice forces in the helices. I bagged front row too, so happy with that.
It’s not a proper milestone unless you take a picture out front, let’s face it.
Moved round to Robin Hood next, which is a wholly unremarkable coaster. It has some really weird shuffling and jumping (for want of a better word) at the crests of the hills, which I can’t recall ever having experienced before. The airtime is bland, the layout is dull, on the whole a pretty naff Woodie. It could really do with the RMC treatment…
Our wandering through the park landed us at Lost Gravity next, which is certainly a very interesting coaster to look at. I kinda like the idea of the aesthetic, but in places it feels a little too forced and almost
too messed up for my liking. It’s all exacerbated by the ridiculous looking trains. Let’s give it a go then.
Okay, so that was strange. Brilliant, but strange. The way the trains move through the elements, and the shaping of those elements, leads to some pretty mad sensations. The first drop is great, with a really strange lurching feeling as it twists, followed by the tiny hill and weird top-hat thing (which I remember puzzling over for some time during it’s construction). Quality ejector hill next, an then the random corner and MCBR. Second half is a flurry of inversions, tight corners and pops of air. Really enjoyable coaster, and definitely something pretty unique!
On the way out, we faffed around for a bit taking some photos, so I’ll just throw them all in here.
One of those trick shots that works really well with Lost Gravity as the trains are so small. Plus, this one has FIRE! Must be worth some bonus points, what do you reckon, @davidm?
Over in the corner of Lost Gravity is another cred, Drako and the VR experience (thing?) The Clinic: Neurogen.
So the Clinic thing was interesting. We’d opted for the €5 ‘timed slot’ when buying our tickets online, which saved us a healthy queue, and we essentially walked straight in. The aesthetic inside is pretty great (and creepy, in some ways), with that whole sinister hospital of the future vibe going on. Choose your experience (makes little difference, I think) and then enter the room where you don the VR kit.
Woman in my room wasn’t terribly helpful as she just handed me the VR headset and headphones and from there didn’t provide any help in getting them on. For some reason she also made me put the headphones on first, with the VR elastic strap over the top – that’s not how it normally works, right? Calibrates the view, and off we go.
I won’t go in to any real detail on the experience, to avoid any spoilers, but it’s essentially like a memory trip through your own past and future. It’s a nice idea, with some good scenes and some interesting uses of ‘4D’ effects throughout. At the end you’re brought back into the clinic abruptly (although in line with the story) and you’re sent on your way. I think I’m a bit of a cynic with these things, but I thought this wasn’t a terribly impressive experience. The video resolution wasn’t great, there was sometimes little point in looking around the scene and I didn’t really ‘get’ the whole narrative. I had no idea what to expect, really, and I was anxious going in, but I left feeling a bit… meh. That said, I can definitely see how this sort of thing
could be done really well, and provide a good use of VR in theme parks. Hopefully parks realise that this is a better use of VR that putting it on coasters! I dunno though, maybe I missed the point.
@Lofty seemed to like it!
We did the rapids and lunch, before heading for the SLC. This one was pretty bad, to be honest. Some really horrible slams (a bump would be an understatement) in some of the elements – most notably the exit of the sidewinder. Awful piece of ****. At least it’s not a boomerang though.
Still using up old stock, too.
That was all the creds sorted, so we re-rode Goliath, whilst also quickly doing the mad house (another one I don’t remember the details of…). We managed to talk Ben on to the ferris wheel, as Mark and I wanted to give it a go for the views. To be fair, I think Ben hated it, but we did get some decent pictures so… worth it?
After a re-ride on Lost Gravity (mercifully shorter queue, although still burdenously long time spent in the elevated tunnel and mirror room) we called it a day. Mark and I popped out of the park towards to the car park entrance for some final vantage points of Goliath. Something about this look of this coaster really appeals to me!
The Stengel Dive that inspired so many of my early NoLimits creations.
Walibi Holland: You know what, I really can see how this used to be a Six Flags park. It had a feel quite reminiscent of one of the smaller SF parks. To be honest, if it wasn’t for Lost Gravity of Goliath, the place would be a bit of a dump. The layout of the park is a bit strange with a few dead ends and unclear directions. This is particularly bad on the route to Goliath, which is nothing short of ridiculous, especially given that there’s a path built underneath the SLC that they just don’t open. Rest of the park is okay, I guess? Once it’s got an RMC, it’ll be much better. If/when I go back for that, I’ll probably only ride that, Lost Gravity and Goliath – the rest is a bit naff. Oh, and **** all the bees. There were thousands of the bloody things, park-wide – they really needed to get pest control in.
We took a break on the drive home to stop in Almere for dinner. Found one of those new developments with a whole bunch of restaurants, cinema, apartments, you know the type. One of the places had a “bottomless satay chicken”, which made it the default choice. Plenty of that, and then it was on the road back to Schiphol. We were staying right next to the airport, as it was only Mark and I that were doing the final day, so a morning transfer was easier. Quality stuff.
Final day next, with two small parks. Hopefully not going to take me too long to get that posted.
