A quick disclaimer: since Imgur no longer works in the UK (something else to blame Keir Starmer for), meaning that all of my reports over the last 372 years are now completely f**ked if you’re opening them from there, I’m going to try out Imgbb instead. After uploading the pictures, I’ve realized that there are nowhere near as many options as Imgur when it comes to the size of the images shared, and I’m not f**king around resizing everything before I upload it. Imgbb has a full-size or medium sharing option, so I’m going to try out the medium so that it should all load a bit quicker. I’m sure they’re fine on a phone screen, but might be a bit small on a monitor. They should be clickable if anyone wants to open any particular image in full size. If they look a bit s**t, I might try full size next time and see what happens. Anyway, feedback on that please…
The new coaster at Happy Valley opened earlier this month, and I had a Monday off work a couple of days later, so it seemed like a good time to make a day trip. Despite this place being very easy to get to, especially now that there’s a high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, I hadn’t been for over 10 years, meaning that all four of the operating coasters were actually new. I got there around an hour after opening. I had not considered school trips, of which there were a whole s**t ton. Luckily, these were mostly very young primary school, so they weren’t really doing much, and the secondary kids that were there were being led around in huge groups with a teacher/guide, so it wasn’t too difficult to work around that.
The first priority was the new coaster, even though all the coasters were actually new to me, which was right at the back of the park. Some pictures I must have taken on the way, including another very new, and very pink coaster and not-so-larson loop thing which was also new since my last visit (any time I mention “new” going forward, it could have been added any time in the last 10 years). The ropes course had a zipline coaster, which I stupidly thought I might have “discovered”, but it’s already on Coaster-Count and has seemingly never opened. Well, the ropes course has, but not the “coaster”. Looking at it, I’m pretty sure there’s no way it would complete the course. And then there was Bullet Coaster.
We finally make it to the back of the park…
and it’s closed. There were some maintenance staff pottering about, but the digital sign outside had no opening time displayed, unlike everything else that was open / opening later, so I was not amused. Luckily, Happy Valley are a lot better than they used to be when it comes to information, and their WeChat page said it was opening at 2pm. It was around 11:15 I think, so I grabbed the other stuff I needed in the meantime.
Is Nemesis Reborn a new cred? Is Hulk a new cred? How about if a ride has been completely rebuilt, but by a completely different manufacturer? This place used to have a Vekoma mine train, but around 3 years ago, it was removed and replaced by a Jinma version. Maybe there are some minor differences in Jinma’s layout, but I don’t think so. They developed these coasters back when they were completely ripping off other manufacturers, though this is apparently their newer “K” model. RCDB states that the new ride is in a different location; I really don’t think it is.
In my last report, I commented that the mine train at Chengdu Sunac was the smoothest I’d ever done. Nope, now it’s this one. I rode in the back and there was not a single bump or jolt. So much better than the Vekoma it replaced. They were also running it on two trains, though keeping the 2nd train out of the station until the first had completely cleared the lift hill – maybe due to what happened with Bullet Coaster?
Terror Tower was new. I couldn’t get any pictures inside since there are lockers for everything before you go into the building, but I was excited to see a ride vehicle which was very clearly “inspired” by the Disney Tower of Terror models. It was s**t. The movement is just way too slow and controlled to allow for any sense of falling.
Power Splash opened about 6 years ago, but was not enough of a draw to bring me back earlier. I’m over these now. There was just the one boat running, which I wasn’t surprised by, and from what I saw as I went past a couple of times during the day, there was never more than a boat’s worth of people waiting anyway. I’m sure there were bursts of awfulness when groups of 50+ teenagers were dragged over to it. What I liked about this one is that they’ve built a splash cover over the path next to it, with some of the water dumping out into the rapids next door.
This is why I rarely if ever do Chinese rapids. They just constantly spray water for absolutely no reason. It’s not even like it’s on a timer to create that “will-it-won’t-it” suspense. It will. The locals also hate getting wet; they wear those ponchos for every water ride.
Coaster Adventures opened about a year and a half ago. It’s a launched spinner with half of the cars having inward facing seats and half outwards. Again, it was a one-train operation, but again, it didn’t really matter. I noticed a real improvement in operations here generally. The ride ops definitely weren’t in any rush to get stuff done, but there was no silly and pointless faff. There was no holding people away from the platform until everything from the last ride was cleared (or miles away from the station even #Fantawild); they’d fill the air gates while the train was out. This very basic and simple method of operation is not really something that should be celebrated, but for Happy Valley, it’s quite a big deal. The ride itself is decent. I wasn’t expecting a launch (there’s also a small booster launch later) and it was, again, very smooth.
Near the park entrance. There used to be a handful of Zamperla flat rides, including a small Discovery model, but those have gone and now there’s a huge gyroswing thing. I didn’t ride it, and I’m not sure who made it, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s a Chinese manufacturer given the park’s recent purchases and the fact that it took quite a while to get up to full height. In another area, the Christmas shooting ride was still there, but it’s one of very few rides from back in the day that’s still around.
I walked up the fairly massive hill to try the observation tower (there used to be an S&S shot tower up there), but it was also not opening until 2pm. I just took few pictures from the hill and headed back towards the back of the park.
The water chute thing is in the same location, but has been replaced with a smaller model and is nowhere near as well-themed as the old one. The Chinese screaming swing was new to me, and there was no queue. I don’t know why, but these don’t quite hit the same as the S&S versions despite doing the same thing. It's probably the OTSRs.
The sign outside Phantom Moto was now on and had it opening at 2pm. All very accurate then. A few people were hovering around, with a HUGE group of secondary kids at the nearby swinging ship, so I got to the front before they opened the queue, which I was glad I did since a big line formed right behind me. A lot of the rides now have facial recognition lockers just inside/outside the station area, which should create less faff since there’s no bag shenanigans on the platforms, but didn’t really seem to make too much difference. I was a bit annoyed at first since I was at the front of the queue, and the locker situation could’ve turned it into more of a free-for-all (they group a train’s worth of people at the lockers and then batch from there up to the station), but the people who had been behind me didn’t try to push ahead, so I still managed to get front row.
Despite the spike being very obvious, I was paying absolutely no attention so was unaware that it had a swing launch. I hadn’t really spent any time looking at the layout and missed the testing since I was standing in the station entrance, so that was a fun surprise. It’s really good, and again, really smooth. Jinma made a handful of Zamperla knock-off motorbike coasters years ago, but this was entirely different. The launches weren’t particularly strong, but other than that, it was probably the most forceful of the motorbike coasters I’ve done.
I wanted a reride, but the queue had filled up quite a bit and looked to be around an hour, so I thought I’d give it chance to hopefully die down a bit and head back later. The observation tower was open, so I just headed to that. I say “just” but it was miles away and, as I mentioned earlier, involved climbing a hill, so it was a bit of an effort. Considering that this is one of the few truly “family friendly” rides, it’s not exactly accessible.
And then it was a trek back to Phantom Moto, but the queue was the same. It was only around 3pm by this point, with rides open until around 10, but realistically my options were to either leave pretty soon to beat rush hour, or hang around a lot longer than I really wanted to wait for rush hour to calm down. I mean, it wouldn’t have been a huge burden to just head home during rush hour, but I wasn’t really in the mood for packed metro trains or awful traffic.
It was a decent day all-in-all. Not having been to the park for a while meant that there was loads of new stuff, and I was glad to see that the operations had improved a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it was still mostly single trains and not exactly fast dispatches, but it was better than it used to be. Their operating hours are much better now as well. They used to keep the park open until around 9pm, but close most of the rides by around 6, but now everything is open until just before closing at 10pm, and that was a weekday as well. If I wanted to do another weekday visit, it would be more than doable when I get a half day at work (lots of those during exam weeks), though whether I could be arsed is another thing entirely.
Bullet Coaster is the biggest question mark over this place at the moment. What makes me hopeful that it’ll reopen is the fact that it’s still in the park, along with the others at the other Happy Valley parks. Happy Valley tend to not usually leave rides sitting around closed if they know they’re done for good; they get taken out fairly quickly. This is purely speculation on my part, but I’m thinking they might be waiting on some government decision as to what they have to do with them. Years ago, a fault was found with a Maurer Skyloop, and all of them in the country (around 5 of them I think) were shut down for an extended period of time before being allowed to reopen, so I’m hoping something similar is happening here. As nice as the park is, and as good as Phantom Moto is, they don’t really have a signature attraction at the moment.
The new coaster at Happy Valley opened earlier this month, and I had a Monday off work a couple of days later, so it seemed like a good time to make a day trip. Despite this place being very easy to get to, especially now that there’s a high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, I hadn’t been for over 10 years, meaning that all four of the operating coasters were actually new. I got there around an hour after opening. I had not considered school trips, of which there were a whole s**t ton. Luckily, these were mostly very young primary school, so they weren’t really doing much, and the secondary kids that were there were being led around in huge groups with a teacher/guide, so it wasn’t too difficult to work around that.
The first priority was the new coaster, even though all the coasters were actually new to me, which was right at the back of the park. Some pictures I must have taken on the way, including another very new, and very pink coaster and not-so-larson loop thing which was also new since my last visit (any time I mention “new” going forward, it could have been added any time in the last 10 years). The ropes course had a zipline coaster, which I stupidly thought I might have “discovered”, but it’s already on Coaster-Count and has seemingly never opened. Well, the ropes course has, but not the “coaster”. Looking at it, I’m pretty sure there’s no way it would complete the course. And then there was Bullet Coaster.
We finally make it to the back of the park…
and it’s closed. There were some maintenance staff pottering about, but the digital sign outside had no opening time displayed, unlike everything else that was open / opening later, so I was not amused. Luckily, Happy Valley are a lot better than they used to be when it comes to information, and their WeChat page said it was opening at 2pm. It was around 11:15 I think, so I grabbed the other stuff I needed in the meantime.
Is Nemesis Reborn a new cred? Is Hulk a new cred? How about if a ride has been completely rebuilt, but by a completely different manufacturer? This place used to have a Vekoma mine train, but around 3 years ago, it was removed and replaced by a Jinma version. Maybe there are some minor differences in Jinma’s layout, but I don’t think so. They developed these coasters back when they were completely ripping off other manufacturers, though this is apparently their newer “K” model. RCDB states that the new ride is in a different location; I really don’t think it is.
In my last report, I commented that the mine train at Chengdu Sunac was the smoothest I’d ever done. Nope, now it’s this one. I rode in the back and there was not a single bump or jolt. So much better than the Vekoma it replaced. They were also running it on two trains, though keeping the 2nd train out of the station until the first had completely cleared the lift hill – maybe due to what happened with Bullet Coaster?
Terror Tower was new. I couldn’t get any pictures inside since there are lockers for everything before you go into the building, but I was excited to see a ride vehicle which was very clearly “inspired” by the Disney Tower of Terror models. It was s**t. The movement is just way too slow and controlled to allow for any sense of falling.
Power Splash opened about 6 years ago, but was not enough of a draw to bring me back earlier. I’m over these now. There was just the one boat running, which I wasn’t surprised by, and from what I saw as I went past a couple of times during the day, there was never more than a boat’s worth of people waiting anyway. I’m sure there were bursts of awfulness when groups of 50+ teenagers were dragged over to it. What I liked about this one is that they’ve built a splash cover over the path next to it, with some of the water dumping out into the rapids next door.
This is why I rarely if ever do Chinese rapids. They just constantly spray water for absolutely no reason. It’s not even like it’s on a timer to create that “will-it-won’t-it” suspense. It will. The locals also hate getting wet; they wear those ponchos for every water ride.
Coaster Adventures opened about a year and a half ago. It’s a launched spinner with half of the cars having inward facing seats and half outwards. Again, it was a one-train operation, but again, it didn’t really matter. I noticed a real improvement in operations here generally. The ride ops definitely weren’t in any rush to get stuff done, but there was no silly and pointless faff. There was no holding people away from the platform until everything from the last ride was cleared (or miles away from the station even #Fantawild); they’d fill the air gates while the train was out. This very basic and simple method of operation is not really something that should be celebrated, but for Happy Valley, it’s quite a big deal. The ride itself is decent. I wasn’t expecting a launch (there’s also a small booster launch later) and it was, again, very smooth.
Near the park entrance. There used to be a handful of Zamperla flat rides, including a small Discovery model, but those have gone and now there’s a huge gyroswing thing. I didn’t ride it, and I’m not sure who made it, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s a Chinese manufacturer given the park’s recent purchases and the fact that it took quite a while to get up to full height. In another area, the Christmas shooting ride was still there, but it’s one of very few rides from back in the day that’s still around.
I walked up the fairly massive hill to try the observation tower (there used to be an S&S shot tower up there), but it was also not opening until 2pm. I just took few pictures from the hill and headed back towards the back of the park.
The water chute thing is in the same location, but has been replaced with a smaller model and is nowhere near as well-themed as the old one. The Chinese screaming swing was new to me, and there was no queue. I don’t know why, but these don’t quite hit the same as the S&S versions despite doing the same thing. It's probably the OTSRs.
The sign outside Phantom Moto was now on and had it opening at 2pm. All very accurate then. A few people were hovering around, with a HUGE group of secondary kids at the nearby swinging ship, so I got to the front before they opened the queue, which I was glad I did since a big line formed right behind me. A lot of the rides now have facial recognition lockers just inside/outside the station area, which should create less faff since there’s no bag shenanigans on the platforms, but didn’t really seem to make too much difference. I was a bit annoyed at first since I was at the front of the queue, and the locker situation could’ve turned it into more of a free-for-all (they group a train’s worth of people at the lockers and then batch from there up to the station), but the people who had been behind me didn’t try to push ahead, so I still managed to get front row.
Despite the spike being very obvious, I was paying absolutely no attention so was unaware that it had a swing launch. I hadn’t really spent any time looking at the layout and missed the testing since I was standing in the station entrance, so that was a fun surprise. It’s really good, and again, really smooth. Jinma made a handful of Zamperla knock-off motorbike coasters years ago, but this was entirely different. The launches weren’t particularly strong, but other than that, it was probably the most forceful of the motorbike coasters I’ve done.
I wanted a reride, but the queue had filled up quite a bit and looked to be around an hour, so I thought I’d give it chance to hopefully die down a bit and head back later. The observation tower was open, so I just headed to that. I say “just” but it was miles away and, as I mentioned earlier, involved climbing a hill, so it was a bit of an effort. Considering that this is one of the few truly “family friendly” rides, it’s not exactly accessible.
And then it was a trek back to Phantom Moto, but the queue was the same. It was only around 3pm by this point, with rides open until around 10, but realistically my options were to either leave pretty soon to beat rush hour, or hang around a lot longer than I really wanted to wait for rush hour to calm down. I mean, it wouldn’t have been a huge burden to just head home during rush hour, but I wasn’t really in the mood for packed metro trains or awful traffic.
It was a decent day all-in-all. Not having been to the park for a while meant that there was loads of new stuff, and I was glad to see that the operations had improved a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it was still mostly single trains and not exactly fast dispatches, but it was better than it used to be. Their operating hours are much better now as well. They used to keep the park open until around 9pm, but close most of the rides by around 6, but now everything is open until just before closing at 10pm, and that was a weekday as well. If I wanted to do another weekday visit, it would be more than doable when I get a half day at work (lots of those during exam weeks), though whether I could be arsed is another thing entirely.
Bullet Coaster is the biggest question mark over this place at the moment. What makes me hopeful that it’ll reopen is the fact that it’s still in the park, along with the others at the other Happy Valley parks. Happy Valley tend to not usually leave rides sitting around closed if they know they’re done for good; they get taken out fairly quickly. This is purely speculation on my part, but I’m thinking they might be waiting on some government decision as to what they have to do with them. Years ago, a fault was found with a Maurer Skyloop, and all of them in the country (around 5 of them I think) were shut down for an extended period of time before being allowed to reopen, so I’m hoping something similar is happening here. As nice as the park is, and as good as Phantom Moto is, they don’t really have a signature attraction at the moment.
