At this point, I don’t think Energylandia has suffered from a lack of attention, but I have and it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Looking back, the last one was for a trip to Pakistan in January/February 2020. I’ve just realised that one is actually unfinished. I might do a bump later; I might also finish that report.
Some quick background: Since getting back from that Pakistan trip in early February 2020, I’d been unable to leave Hong Kong. Well, leaving wasn’t the issue, but getting back in was. I’d tried to get back to the UK twice, but had to cancel both times due to constantly changing travel/entry/quarantine restrictions making it impossible.
The situation is still completely stupid here, but better than it was, so I finally managed to get back this summer for a few weeks. I wanted, no NEEDED, to get some new creds, and hadn’t been to a major new park for almost 3 years at that point, so grabbing some UK +1s wasn’t really going to cut it. Energylandia seemed like a great option for a new (to me) park, with some major coasters and a huge cred injection.
I flew from Liverpool to Krakow, paying a silly price for a Ryanair flight, got an Uber to the hotel and arrived late evening. The next day was the Energylandia bus, which I’d booked in advance. Quick note: The Ibis Hotel (also an Ibis Budget in the same building) next to the train station is perfectly located for a Krakow/Energylandia trip. It’s a couple of minutes’ walk from the main train station, which has direct connections to the airport. The bus terminal for the Energylandia bus is connected to this station. It’s also just a 10-minute walk into the old town.
The bus is supposed to arrive 15 minutes before park opening, but there was a queue of traffic near the park, so it arrived a few minutes after the park opened. There were a lot of people queuing, but that was just to buy tickets, so with an online ticket I was straight in.
Pictures of stuff we’ve all seen a million times coming up. I walked past all this to the back of the park because I’m clever like that.
I’d, frustratingly, been sitting at 1699 creds since February 2020. I could/should have hit 1700 on that Pakistan trip, but I missed out on a brand-new park which annoyingly popped up online as I was literally sitting in the airport, waiting to leave. Anyway, I’ve never been overly-concerned about which coasters to get as milestones, but Zadra worked out to be a decent one.
After a 25km walk through the queue line, I ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get on. Well, 15 since I had to get a locker sorted. Quick digression; I really liked their locker system. For those that don’t know, for every major ride, you must put stuff in lockers, which are located in or near the queue lines. I thought it was going to be a money-grabbing faff, but once you’ve paid for the first one, you get a wristband which you can then use all day. That includes not only the mandatory lockers at the rides, but the unlimited use of long-term/all day lockers throughout the park, all for about 2 or 3 quid.
Zadra then. Loved it. I’d still put Hakugei above it, but I think Zadra is the next best RMC that I’ve done. I did an immediate second ride (ended up being about 15 minutes since they added the second train, then moved to other stuff in the area.
The kiddy thing was walk-on, and the Vekoma junior thing nearby just had a couple of trains wait at that point. I know, I know, you should do the major stuff first and mop up kiddy creds if you have time, but they were right there and that part of the park was quiet; +2
From there it was on to the new Aqualantis area.
I hadn’t managed to get on one of the new Vekoma models up until this point. China is just a total no-go still, so I hadn’t had the chance. Abyssus didn’t disappoint. The park was getting busy and there was a 30-minute queue at this point, mostly in direct sunlight which wasn’t pleasant. I loved the coaster though. Long layout, airtime, smooth, decent inversions, forceful… It ended up being my 2nd favourite in the park.
I grabbed a fast pass for a later reride and moved on for a while. These were free, but could only be used once and only on a small number of rides. Apparently, Zadra has one, but I never noticed it.
I picked up the Vekoma junior boomerang thing, waiting around 15 minutes. These things are decent family coasters I guess, and this one has a nice location on the water. After that, I just waited around that area for a bit for the Abyssus fast pass to kick in.
I think I took the following pictures as I was walking past without riding them at that point. I grabbed a fast pass for Mayan. It had a 40-minute queue which I wasn’t going to do, so the fast pass worked out well even though it gave a much later return time.
I grabbed the +1s on the spinner and second junior boomerang, neither of which had too much of a queue, then backtracked slightly to Formula.
Formula was really good, but I think I’d been spoiled by Abyssus which is just a much more substantial coaster. I kind of wish I’d done them the other way around really.
At this point, I was pretty much in the middle of the park, so skipped over some other +1s (for now) to get Hyperion done. I got another fast pass (for much later), but I was surprised to see the main queue was listed at 10 minutes. From what I saw, it didn’t go much above this for the rest of the day.
I liked this a lot, but… that rattle. I got a few rides in, and was always stuck with an outside seat due to being by myself and ride ops moving me to free up seats. That’s all fair enough; the operations were very good here and I liked that they were making sure to fill trains effectively. It just meant that, often, I’d get moved. This wasn’t a big problem – I never found myself being moved from a back-row seat to somewhere in the middle, for example – but it did mean always getting an outside seat on Hyperion. I’m assuming it’s better in the inside seats, but the rattle on the outside was quite unpleasant. It’s that which made me favour Abyssus as my 2nd favourite ride in the park.
I spent a bit of time mopping up the remaining creds, including going back to use the fast pass for Mayan. Thank f**k for those restraints; with the older style, it would’ve been unrideable. I almost skipped the Vekoma family invert thing since it consistently had a 40-minute wait, but sucked it up nearer the end of the day since I had enough time. For some reason, I’d also left Speed until much later in the day as well.
I tried out one of the shows since it was there and I needed a bit of a break. ‘Twas s**te. It involved some white guy with dreadlocks spinning those irritating fire poi things around; he’d clearly been lifted off a Thai beach circa 2005.
I didn’t bother with any other shows after that. I also didn’t bother with any flat rides since they were just generic fairground crap. I did do a 4D cinema thing, which was also crap.
Nearer the end of the day, I headed back to Zadra for a couple more rides. Predictably, it was even better later in the day though RMCs seem to run really well even first thing in the morning. From there, it was back across for a couple more on Hyperion. The park was supposed to close at 8, so the bus was scheduled for 8:30. Since it was busy, the park stayed open an extra hour. The bus left at the same time though.
I ended up getting back to the hotel at around 10pm. I had a flight back to the UK the next day in the early afternoon, so I considered heading into the old town in the morning, but I figured that the 600-year-old church wouldn’t have changed much in the 10 years or so since I was last there. I ended up just having a lazy morning in the hotel instead.
Energylandia then? A mixed bag.
Positives: Zadra, Hyperion and Abyssus are all absolutely top-tier coasters. I can also see how Speed? Formula and Mayan would be viewed positively by most park visitors as "major" rides. There’s a decent selection of family and kiddy coasters, too. Thinking about it, if you want to name a park that is truly a family park - as in “family” includes adults and teenagers and not just young kids – then Energylandia really does fit the bill. Operations were excellent throughout. Trains were getting dispatched quickly and that whole turnstile countdown thing was a good way to cut down on faff at the stations.
Negatives? Crap flat ride selection. When you look at the scale (and expense) of their coasters, seeing a bunch of off-the-shelf carnival rides – and not even very good ones at that – is quite jarring. Theming wise, I liked the area around Zadra, Aqualantis was ok but I expected more, and the rest of the place really is quite lacking. Supposed single-rider queues; Zadra and Hyperion had one of the turnstiles labelled as for single riders, but this was totally ignored/misunderstood. It wasn’t an issue really, but they should just give up trying to separate the turnstiles in this way. The current free-for-all actually works just fine. Crossing through that tunnel multiple times got a bit annoying, and getting in and out of Aqualantis is a pain in the arse since there’s currently only one way in and out, which involves a long walk all the way round. This will improve massively though once that new candy-themed area opens up.
Thanks for reading/scrolling through pictures. Given how things still are in Hong Kong right now, you can probably look forward to another trip report from me this time next year.
Some quick background: Since getting back from that Pakistan trip in early February 2020, I’d been unable to leave Hong Kong. Well, leaving wasn’t the issue, but getting back in was. I’d tried to get back to the UK twice, but had to cancel both times due to constantly changing travel/entry/quarantine restrictions making it impossible.
The situation is still completely stupid here, but better than it was, so I finally managed to get back this summer for a few weeks. I wanted, no NEEDED, to get some new creds, and hadn’t been to a major new park for almost 3 years at that point, so grabbing some UK +1s wasn’t really going to cut it. Energylandia seemed like a great option for a new (to me) park, with some major coasters and a huge cred injection.
I flew from Liverpool to Krakow, paying a silly price for a Ryanair flight, got an Uber to the hotel and arrived late evening. The next day was the Energylandia bus, which I’d booked in advance. Quick note: The Ibis Hotel (also an Ibis Budget in the same building) next to the train station is perfectly located for a Krakow/Energylandia trip. It’s a couple of minutes’ walk from the main train station, which has direct connections to the airport. The bus terminal for the Energylandia bus is connected to this station. It’s also just a 10-minute walk into the old town.
The bus is supposed to arrive 15 minutes before park opening, but there was a queue of traffic near the park, so it arrived a few minutes after the park opened. There were a lot of people queuing, but that was just to buy tickets, so with an online ticket I was straight in.
Pictures of stuff we’ve all seen a million times coming up. I walked past all this to the back of the park because I’m clever like that.
I’d, frustratingly, been sitting at 1699 creds since February 2020. I could/should have hit 1700 on that Pakistan trip, but I missed out on a brand-new park which annoyingly popped up online as I was literally sitting in the airport, waiting to leave. Anyway, I’ve never been overly-concerned about which coasters to get as milestones, but Zadra worked out to be a decent one.
After a 25km walk through the queue line, I ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get on. Well, 15 since I had to get a locker sorted. Quick digression; I really liked their locker system. For those that don’t know, for every major ride, you must put stuff in lockers, which are located in or near the queue lines. I thought it was going to be a money-grabbing faff, but once you’ve paid for the first one, you get a wristband which you can then use all day. That includes not only the mandatory lockers at the rides, but the unlimited use of long-term/all day lockers throughout the park, all for about 2 or 3 quid.
Zadra then. Loved it. I’d still put Hakugei above it, but I think Zadra is the next best RMC that I’ve done. I did an immediate second ride (ended up being about 15 minutes since they added the second train, then moved to other stuff in the area.
The kiddy thing was walk-on, and the Vekoma junior thing nearby just had a couple of trains wait at that point. I know, I know, you should do the major stuff first and mop up kiddy creds if you have time, but they were right there and that part of the park was quiet; +2
From there it was on to the new Aqualantis area.
I hadn’t managed to get on one of the new Vekoma models up until this point. China is just a total no-go still, so I hadn’t had the chance. Abyssus didn’t disappoint. The park was getting busy and there was a 30-minute queue at this point, mostly in direct sunlight which wasn’t pleasant. I loved the coaster though. Long layout, airtime, smooth, decent inversions, forceful… It ended up being my 2nd favourite in the park.
I grabbed a fast pass for a later reride and moved on for a while. These were free, but could only be used once and only on a small number of rides. Apparently, Zadra has one, but I never noticed it.
I picked up the Vekoma junior boomerang thing, waiting around 15 minutes. These things are decent family coasters I guess, and this one has a nice location on the water. After that, I just waited around that area for a bit for the Abyssus fast pass to kick in.
I think I took the following pictures as I was walking past without riding them at that point. I grabbed a fast pass for Mayan. It had a 40-minute queue which I wasn’t going to do, so the fast pass worked out well even though it gave a much later return time.
I grabbed the +1s on the spinner and second junior boomerang, neither of which had too much of a queue, then backtracked slightly to Formula.
Formula was really good, but I think I’d been spoiled by Abyssus which is just a much more substantial coaster. I kind of wish I’d done them the other way around really.
At this point, I was pretty much in the middle of the park, so skipped over some other +1s (for now) to get Hyperion done. I got another fast pass (for much later), but I was surprised to see the main queue was listed at 10 minutes. From what I saw, it didn’t go much above this for the rest of the day.
I liked this a lot, but… that rattle. I got a few rides in, and was always stuck with an outside seat due to being by myself and ride ops moving me to free up seats. That’s all fair enough; the operations were very good here and I liked that they were making sure to fill trains effectively. It just meant that, often, I’d get moved. This wasn’t a big problem – I never found myself being moved from a back-row seat to somewhere in the middle, for example – but it did mean always getting an outside seat on Hyperion. I’m assuming it’s better in the inside seats, but the rattle on the outside was quite unpleasant. It’s that which made me favour Abyssus as my 2nd favourite ride in the park.
I spent a bit of time mopping up the remaining creds, including going back to use the fast pass for Mayan. Thank f**k for those restraints; with the older style, it would’ve been unrideable. I almost skipped the Vekoma family invert thing since it consistently had a 40-minute wait, but sucked it up nearer the end of the day since I had enough time. For some reason, I’d also left Speed until much later in the day as well.
I tried out one of the shows since it was there and I needed a bit of a break. ‘Twas s**te. It involved some white guy with dreadlocks spinning those irritating fire poi things around; he’d clearly been lifted off a Thai beach circa 2005.
I didn’t bother with any other shows after that. I also didn’t bother with any flat rides since they were just generic fairground crap. I did do a 4D cinema thing, which was also crap.
Nearer the end of the day, I headed back to Zadra for a couple more rides. Predictably, it was even better later in the day though RMCs seem to run really well even first thing in the morning. From there, it was back across for a couple more on Hyperion. The park was supposed to close at 8, so the bus was scheduled for 8:30. Since it was busy, the park stayed open an extra hour. The bus left at the same time though.
I ended up getting back to the hotel at around 10pm. I had a flight back to the UK the next day in the early afternoon, so I considered heading into the old town in the morning, but I figured that the 600-year-old church wouldn’t have changed much in the 10 years or so since I was last there. I ended up just having a lazy morning in the hotel instead.
Energylandia then? A mixed bag.
Positives: Zadra, Hyperion and Abyssus are all absolutely top-tier coasters. I can also see how Speed? Formula and Mayan would be viewed positively by most park visitors as "major" rides. There’s a decent selection of family and kiddy coasters, too. Thinking about it, if you want to name a park that is truly a family park - as in “family” includes adults and teenagers and not just young kids – then Energylandia really does fit the bill. Operations were excellent throughout. Trains were getting dispatched quickly and that whole turnstile countdown thing was a good way to cut down on faff at the stations.
Negatives? Crap flat ride selection. When you look at the scale (and expense) of their coasters, seeing a bunch of off-the-shelf carnival rides – and not even very good ones at that – is quite jarring. Theming wise, I liked the area around Zadra, Aqualantis was ok but I expected more, and the rest of the place really is quite lacking. Supposed single-rider queues; Zadra and Hyperion had one of the turnstiles labelled as for single riders, but this was totally ignored/misunderstood. It wasn’t an issue really, but they should just give up trying to separate the turnstiles in this way. The current free-for-all actually works just fine. Crossing through that tunnel multiple times got a bit annoying, and getting in and out of Aqualantis is a pain in the arse since there’s currently only one way in and out, which involves a long walk all the way round. This will improve massively though once that new candy-themed area opens up.
Thanks for reading/scrolling through pictures. Given how things still are in Hong Kong right now, you can probably look forward to another trip report from me this time next year.
Shame you didn't get a middle one, it's a totally different ride. (I'm not sure if it's psychological or not, but I almost always get an instant headache after one or two outside rides, but can ride the middle all day long.) 
