AidanCKY
Mega Poster
So I was in Japan mainly for Tokyo Disney and Universal, but ended up swinging by Nagashima Spa Land, Cosmo World and Fuji Q.
I'd never been to Nagashima Spa Land before, and was excited mostly about Steel Dragon 2000.
Firstly, getting there sucks in my opinion. Give yourself plenty of time if you go. We got off our Shinkansen at Nagoya and it was a longgg train ride and a bus ride to get to the park.
The park seemed deserted, nobody outside the gates and barely anyone to be found. The queuelines were all basically 1 train worth of people too.
However, the ride operations at this park - jesus christ they're bad! They can make basically a walk-on level of queue into a 45 minute experience. Can't imagine what it's like in peak season. The general experience goes like this:
1. Get told to read various signs an attendant is holding in the queue.
2. Be frantically told to put everything in your bag and empty your pockets before you get anywhere near the station
3. They want you to visually pat your pockets to show they're empty
4. They want you to put big elastic bands on your shoes if they don't have laces
5. They explain how to sit, hold on, brace yourself, etc.
6. Once in the station you are metal detected, assigned a row (don't even dare try ask for a specific row as they won't allow it)
7. Then there is the worlds slowest check of the restraints, many times.
8. A pre-recorded announcement is made, which sounds as if it's someone talking live but it's actually a recording, and very loud and annoying.
9. Finally the train dispatches
This was the case for Steel Dragon 2000, Hakugei and the Manta clone. Strangely the Corkscrew and Ultra Twister basically told you nothing and were operated by a single person each with seemingly less rules and health and safety rules.
Anyway, enough about the operations.
The rides themselves were fairly decent - Steel Dragon 2000 was excellent, way better than I expected and suuuuper long. The B&M trains are decent, although there is some random shaking and hunting at certain parts of the layout.
Hakugei was brilliant, i'd say the best RMC i've been on, but i've not done many of them.
Ultra Twister was better than expected, a very random type of coaster but other than the sudden abrupt stops it was a fun experience. The one here was operated by 1 guy, who had to run about the platform to dispatch a train at the op booth, then he'd run to start loading the next guests.
I didn't get on Arashi, because it broke down in the middle of the day and didn't re-open.
Corkscrew was your standard Corkscrew type ride, it ran well though.
Acrobat, the clone of Manta at SWO, was fun. It felt very out of place at this park though - having dual loading stations, all that capacity and then running a single train with about 6 riders on the whole thing.
Shuttle Loop, Looping Star and the Jet Coaster were closed all day.
They closed the queue for Hakugei way too early, then I went over to the shop to buy some cool merch - to find they don't really have any. A theme with all the Japanese parks really, they dont really seem to do merch well.
Overall it was a fun day, but also really frustrating with the terrible ops. Very happy to experience Steel Dragon and Hakugei, and tick off my first and only Ultra Twister.
I'd never been to Nagashima Spa Land before, and was excited mostly about Steel Dragon 2000.
Firstly, getting there sucks in my opinion. Give yourself plenty of time if you go. We got off our Shinkansen at Nagoya and it was a longgg train ride and a bus ride to get to the park.
The park seemed deserted, nobody outside the gates and barely anyone to be found. The queuelines were all basically 1 train worth of people too.
However, the ride operations at this park - jesus christ they're bad! They can make basically a walk-on level of queue into a 45 minute experience. Can't imagine what it's like in peak season. The general experience goes like this:
1. Get told to read various signs an attendant is holding in the queue.
2. Be frantically told to put everything in your bag and empty your pockets before you get anywhere near the station
3. They want you to visually pat your pockets to show they're empty
4. They want you to put big elastic bands on your shoes if they don't have laces
5. They explain how to sit, hold on, brace yourself, etc.
6. Once in the station you are metal detected, assigned a row (don't even dare try ask for a specific row as they won't allow it)
7. Then there is the worlds slowest check of the restraints, many times.
8. A pre-recorded announcement is made, which sounds as if it's someone talking live but it's actually a recording, and very loud and annoying.
9. Finally the train dispatches
This was the case for Steel Dragon 2000, Hakugei and the Manta clone. Strangely the Corkscrew and Ultra Twister basically told you nothing and were operated by a single person each with seemingly less rules and health and safety rules.
Anyway, enough about the operations.
The rides themselves were fairly decent - Steel Dragon 2000 was excellent, way better than I expected and suuuuper long. The B&M trains are decent, although there is some random shaking and hunting at certain parts of the layout.
Hakugei was brilliant, i'd say the best RMC i've been on, but i've not done many of them.
Ultra Twister was better than expected, a very random type of coaster but other than the sudden abrupt stops it was a fun experience. The one here was operated by 1 guy, who had to run about the platform to dispatch a train at the op booth, then he'd run to start loading the next guests.
I didn't get on Arashi, because it broke down in the middle of the day and didn't re-open.
Corkscrew was your standard Corkscrew type ride, it ran well though.
Acrobat, the clone of Manta at SWO, was fun. It felt very out of place at this park though - having dual loading stations, all that capacity and then running a single train with about 6 riders on the whole thing.
Shuttle Loop, Looping Star and the Jet Coaster were closed all day.
They closed the queue for Hakugei way too early, then I went over to the shop to buy some cool merch - to find they don't really have any. A theme with all the Japanese parks really, they dont really seem to do merch well.
Overall it was a fun day, but also really frustrating with the terrible ops. Very happy to experience Steel Dragon and Hakugei, and tick off my first and only Ultra Twister.
