What's better than riding your favourite coaster? Riding it in the dark. On a train full of people dressed as zombies, vampires and ghouls.
The moment we booked this last-minute jaunt to Poland, I just knew night rides on Zadra and Hyperion would not disappoint. It's great when you can open the floodgates to your own excitement with no trepidation or fear of overhype. In fact, I've decided it's pretty much impossible to overhype those 2 phenominal rollercoasters.
We flew to Katowice after work on Friday night and stayed near the airport. It was so dark when we arrived that I didn't notice the menagerie of animals surrounding the hotel. Waking up the next morning to see surprise chickens and dogs running around was lovely, especially meeting this very good girl:
Drove 1.5hrs to EnergyLandia. Despite this being my fourth visit to the park, seeing that vast skyline of rides still gave me goosebumps.
We arrived at midday to see 90% of visitors dressed up in full Halloween costumes. For Halloween Night, EnergyLandia offer entry for a reduced price to those who turn up in full costumes. This is such a great idea - instead of forking out for loads of roaming actors, encourage your guests to dress up. It added such a great atmosphere and there were so many cool costumes on display.
First stop in the park was the Princess Restaurant for a bowl of EnergyLandia's delicious pumpkin soup:
Delicious!
Despite the park being full of people on a Saturday, the queues were short. With Hyperion boasting a 10 minute wait next door to the restaurant we reasoned it would be rude not to hop on for a ride...or two.
The first ride on Hyperion was so good we ran straight back round for another go. We sat in the front row both times because the front is the place to be on Hyperion - especially the elevated middle seats which Alex and I played a heated round of Rock, Paper, Scissors for.
The ops were absolutely amazing. We only waited an additional 5 mins for those front row rides each time. When I first rode Hyperion in 2018 I proclaimed that the steep first drop, the massive airtime hill and the cut back are the 3 greatest rollercoaster elements in succession. I still stand by this claim now. Those three elements just hit so insanely hard. The second half is lots of fun as well. What a brilliant ride!
Then we walked a million miles across the park to Zadra, my number one coaster.
I wondered if it would still hold up as my favourite coaster since riding the likes of I305 and Pantheon this summer. It did.
Zadra is still number one
There is simply nothing I don't love about Zadra. It's not just the powerful elements, but the way the ride flows between them. In their singularity - every motion is completely wild, but when combined one after the other, the elements of Zadra feel purposeful, varied and balanced. Zadra is as close to perfection as a coaster can be. How often can an enthusiast board a rollercoaster with sky high anticipation and have their own lofty expectations met again and again and again? Hardly ever. Put simply: Zadra absolutely delivers every single time.
Once again, the ops were running very well and the long line of people moved swiftly. I waited about 30 mins for a front row ride. Which for a busy Saturday is fantastic.
Now, here's a little bit about how EnergyLandia does Halloween haunts:
- The mazes are included free with your entry ticket. There is no upcharge for the mazes.
- The walk-through mazes are all located within buildings in the Dragon Zone. The Dragon Zone is also one massive scare zone as well, so you can queue for a maze and enjoy the ambiance of chainsaws buzzing around the area at the same time. There's lots of smoke, photo ops, roaming actors and even a coffin that you can climb into should you wish for a lie-down.
- They also add actors inside Monster House
We opted for Scary Loft as our first maze:
At 40 minutes, this was the longest queue of the day. I really enjoyed the maze, it had a gorgeous haunting soundtrack playing through out. The actors weren't focused on jump scares, opting for subtle creepy movements instead. It felt like a walk-through version of a classic ghost train as opposed to loud aggressive haunt. I found this subtle approach very refreshing. Alex...er, did not. Hahaha. I believe his words as we exited were "is that it?!"
Now, I'm not going to drag someone into every single maze if they didn't enjoy the first one, especially when said mazes have the longest queues in the park. So we made the executive decision to prioritise night rides, that was the main reason we came after all. (I would love to go back to experience the Monster House ride with actors another time though!)
We stopped for some tasty ice creams. I asked for 2 scoops and was essentially given an entire tub of ice cream, perched precariously atop a cone. All for the bargainous sum of £2!
As we headed back towards Hyperion the obsessive need to take photos of all the crazy Halloween theming at EnergyLandia kicked in. This happens every year I go. I just can't get enough of these cool pumpkin creatures and ghosts, they look so cool:
Why yes, the phrase you are looking for is "weird and wonderful"...not to mention EVERYWHERE. The Halloween theming covers every area of the park, which for a place as large as EnergyLandia, is impressive. Take that Alton Towers ScareFest and your measly lawn of theming.
By the time we got back on Hyperion for our 3rd ride, it was dark. There's not much lighting on the track, so you plummet 269 feet into pitch darkness. Absolutely breathtaking stuff. As the train hit the brakes Alex and I looked at each other and exclaimed in unison: "that's the best ride I've ever had on Hyperion!"
We ran back round for another go.
This giddy feeling, the one where you dash to ride a coaster again, full of joy is the pinnacle of being a coaster enthusiast. It's amazing that EnergyLandia has 2 rides so capable of delivering that continuous excitement.
Time to put on the hiking boots and trek back over to Zadra. It has started to rain but nothing could put a dampener on our high spirits as we saw this magnificent RMC beast looming against the night sky:
Oh boy.
This is gonna be good.
By this point, there were SO many enthusiasts in the Zadra queue. I spied Cedar Point merch, Movie Park merch, Efteling merch, Europa Park merch... We got chatting to some fellow Brits who had flown over to visit the park for the first time. They were a father / son duo. The dad had promised to take his son to EnergyLandia if he passed his GCSEs - what an excellent incentive! Needless to say, the kid aced his exams and here they were, telling us that Zadra is the best coaster they've ever ridden.
Night rides on Zadra are truly a thing of beauty. Diving in and out of the structure, barely able to see where you are...until you hit the turn around and BAM! All the lights of the park come flooding towards your eyes. You have approximately 3 seconds to take it in before this glorious scene is turned on its head as you enter the Zero G stall. Amazing stuff. We ran back round for another go, obviously.
It's worth noting that the Dragon Zone looks pretty spectacular at night, too:
By this point, it felt a bit weird that we had spent all day at EnergyLandia going between 2 rides. So I insisted we headed over to Aqualantis for a go on Abyssus, just for a bit of a change.
As soon as the ride got going, I remembered why I dislike it. Abyssus is very sickly and long. It made me feel ill.
When waiting to board Abyssus an announcement came on the public address system:
"The Halloween Parade will begin outside Formula in 5 minutes!"
Now, anyone who knows me knows I adore a good parade. Or even a sh*t one. They're just so much fun. But you know what I adore more?
Night rides on Zadra.
Once we were off Abyssus we didn't have enough time to get to the parade spot, so we opted for one last night ride on Zadra.
I decided to go a bit maverick and sit in row 5. And guess what readers?
Row 5 was the best ride we had on Zadra that day. It was the perfect mix of forces. Who would have guessed middle of the train would take the crown?! Not me, that's for sure. But alas, Zadra will always find ways to surprise you.
Grabbed one last snap shot of some wacky theming as we made our way to the exit:
As we headed back to the park entrance I noticed 2 things:
1. I had not heard the "Energylandiaaa Energylandiaa" theme song place ONCE. They had a different Halloween song playing around the park. It was, of course, a good track - but not the absolute banger we all know and love.
2. Every other time I have visited EnergyLandia, I have met some nice cats on park. This was the first time I hadn't seen a cat roaming around.
We walked out the exit and something rather magical happened...
A cat suddenly appeared in front of us and the classic "EnergyLandiaaa EnergyLandiaaa" music started playing on the speakers outside the park entrance. A lovely way to finish a superb day.
The moment we booked this last-minute jaunt to Poland, I just knew night rides on Zadra and Hyperion would not disappoint. It's great when you can open the floodgates to your own excitement with no trepidation or fear of overhype. In fact, I've decided it's pretty much impossible to overhype those 2 phenominal rollercoasters.
We flew to Katowice after work on Friday night and stayed near the airport. It was so dark when we arrived that I didn't notice the menagerie of animals surrounding the hotel. Waking up the next morning to see surprise chickens and dogs running around was lovely, especially meeting this very good girl:
Drove 1.5hrs to EnergyLandia. Despite this being my fourth visit to the park, seeing that vast skyline of rides still gave me goosebumps.
We arrived at midday to see 90% of visitors dressed up in full Halloween costumes. For Halloween Night, EnergyLandia offer entry for a reduced price to those who turn up in full costumes. This is such a great idea - instead of forking out for loads of roaming actors, encourage your guests to dress up. It added such a great atmosphere and there were so many cool costumes on display.
First stop in the park was the Princess Restaurant for a bowl of EnergyLandia's delicious pumpkin soup:
Delicious!
Despite the park being full of people on a Saturday, the queues were short. With Hyperion boasting a 10 minute wait next door to the restaurant we reasoned it would be rude not to hop on for a ride...or two.
The first ride on Hyperion was so good we ran straight back round for another go. We sat in the front row both times because the front is the place to be on Hyperion - especially the elevated middle seats which Alex and I played a heated round of Rock, Paper, Scissors for.
The ops were absolutely amazing. We only waited an additional 5 mins for those front row rides each time. When I first rode Hyperion in 2018 I proclaimed that the steep first drop, the massive airtime hill and the cut back are the 3 greatest rollercoaster elements in succession. I still stand by this claim now. Those three elements just hit so insanely hard. The second half is lots of fun as well. What a brilliant ride!
Then we walked a million miles across the park to Zadra, my number one coaster.
I wondered if it would still hold up as my favourite coaster since riding the likes of I305 and Pantheon this summer. It did.
Zadra is still number one
There is simply nothing I don't love about Zadra. It's not just the powerful elements, but the way the ride flows between them. In their singularity - every motion is completely wild, but when combined one after the other, the elements of Zadra feel purposeful, varied and balanced. Zadra is as close to perfection as a coaster can be. How often can an enthusiast board a rollercoaster with sky high anticipation and have their own lofty expectations met again and again and again? Hardly ever. Put simply: Zadra absolutely delivers every single time.Once again, the ops were running very well and the long line of people moved swiftly. I waited about 30 mins for a front row ride. Which for a busy Saturday is fantastic.
Now, here's a little bit about how EnergyLandia does Halloween haunts:
- The mazes are included free with your entry ticket. There is no upcharge for the mazes.
- The walk-through mazes are all located within buildings in the Dragon Zone. The Dragon Zone is also one massive scare zone as well, so you can queue for a maze and enjoy the ambiance of chainsaws buzzing around the area at the same time. There's lots of smoke, photo ops, roaming actors and even a coffin that you can climb into should you wish for a lie-down.
- They also add actors inside Monster House
We opted for Scary Loft as our first maze:
At 40 minutes, this was the longest queue of the day. I really enjoyed the maze, it had a gorgeous haunting soundtrack playing through out. The actors weren't focused on jump scares, opting for subtle creepy movements instead. It felt like a walk-through version of a classic ghost train as opposed to loud aggressive haunt. I found this subtle approach very refreshing. Alex...er, did not. Hahaha. I believe his words as we exited were "is that it?!"
Now, I'm not going to drag someone into every single maze if they didn't enjoy the first one, especially when said mazes have the longest queues in the park. So we made the executive decision to prioritise night rides, that was the main reason we came after all. (I would love to go back to experience the Monster House ride with actors another time though!)
We stopped for some tasty ice creams. I asked for 2 scoops and was essentially given an entire tub of ice cream, perched precariously atop a cone. All for the bargainous sum of £2!
As we headed back towards Hyperion the obsessive need to take photos of all the crazy Halloween theming at EnergyLandia kicked in. This happens every year I go. I just can't get enough of these cool pumpkin creatures and ghosts, they look so cool:
Why yes, the phrase you are looking for is "weird and wonderful"...not to mention EVERYWHERE. The Halloween theming covers every area of the park, which for a place as large as EnergyLandia, is impressive. Take that Alton Towers ScareFest and your measly lawn of theming.
By the time we got back on Hyperion for our 3rd ride, it was dark. There's not much lighting on the track, so you plummet 269 feet into pitch darkness. Absolutely breathtaking stuff. As the train hit the brakes Alex and I looked at each other and exclaimed in unison: "that's the best ride I've ever had on Hyperion!"
We ran back round for another go.
This giddy feeling, the one where you dash to ride a coaster again, full of joy is the pinnacle of being a coaster enthusiast. It's amazing that EnergyLandia has 2 rides so capable of delivering that continuous excitement.
Time to put on the hiking boots and trek back over to Zadra. It has started to rain but nothing could put a dampener on our high spirits as we saw this magnificent RMC beast looming against the night sky:
Oh boy.
This is gonna be good.
By this point, there were SO many enthusiasts in the Zadra queue. I spied Cedar Point merch, Movie Park merch, Efteling merch, Europa Park merch... We got chatting to some fellow Brits who had flown over to visit the park for the first time. They were a father / son duo. The dad had promised to take his son to EnergyLandia if he passed his GCSEs - what an excellent incentive! Needless to say, the kid aced his exams and here they were, telling us that Zadra is the best coaster they've ever ridden.
Night rides on Zadra are truly a thing of beauty. Diving in and out of the structure, barely able to see where you are...until you hit the turn around and BAM! All the lights of the park come flooding towards your eyes. You have approximately 3 seconds to take it in before this glorious scene is turned on its head as you enter the Zero G stall. Amazing stuff. We ran back round for another go, obviously.
It's worth noting that the Dragon Zone looks pretty spectacular at night, too:
By this point, it felt a bit weird that we had spent all day at EnergyLandia going between 2 rides. So I insisted we headed over to Aqualantis for a go on Abyssus, just for a bit of a change.
As soon as the ride got going, I remembered why I dislike it. Abyssus is very sickly and long. It made me feel ill.
When waiting to board Abyssus an announcement came on the public address system:
"The Halloween Parade will begin outside Formula in 5 minutes!"
Now, anyone who knows me knows I adore a good parade. Or even a sh*t one. They're just so much fun. But you know what I adore more?
Night rides on Zadra.
Once we were off Abyssus we didn't have enough time to get to the parade spot, so we opted for one last night ride on Zadra.
I decided to go a bit maverick and sit in row 5. And guess what readers?
Row 5 was the best ride we had on Zadra that day. It was the perfect mix of forces. Who would have guessed middle of the train would take the crown?! Not me, that's for sure. But alas, Zadra will always find ways to surprise you.
Grabbed one last snap shot of some wacky theming as we made our way to the exit:
As we headed back to the park entrance I noticed 2 things:
1. I had not heard the "Energylandiaaa Energylandiaa" theme song place ONCE. They had a different Halloween song playing around the park. It was, of course, a good track - but not the absolute banger we all know and love.
2. Every other time I have visited EnergyLandia, I have met some nice cats on park. This was the first time I hadn't seen a cat roaming around.
We walked out the exit and something rather magical happened...
A cat suddenly appeared in front of us and the classic "EnergyLandiaaa EnergyLandiaaa" music started playing on the speakers outside the park entrance. A lovely way to finish a superb day.
I adored this trip! Energylandia just make everything so easy and affordable; it really was a stark contrast to Portaventura two weeks prior. Riding the big two at night should be bucket list for any enthusiast and if I'm able I'd love to visit ever year. Despite not thinking much of the maze we did, there's no question they nailed Halloween-ifiying the park 
This yeah I got a Plopsa pass as my abroad season ticket of choice... I think next year it might have to be an EL one 