Sandman
Giga Poster
Last week, my partner and I headed out to Madrid for a few days away. Neither of us had been to Madrid prior to this trip, so we thought it’d be a nice place to visit. Plus, the weather was meant to be fantastic for the whole duration of our stay. Since we had a limited number of days in Spain, a compromise had to be made. Parque de Atracciones or Parque Warner? One is more conveniently located and the other has 2 B&M coasters. Parque Warner it is.
Upon arriving in Central Madrid (more specifically,Recoletos) we were greeted by a number of armed police patrolling the vicinity of the area. Hmmm, we wondered. A large number of Spanish people in what looked like football shirts marched down the central Boulevard. We thought we might be in and amongst a hostile football crowd. Turns out it was just an occupy protest.
It took us about 15 minutes to walk to our hotel which was just on the edge of Gran Via, which is Madrid’s main shopping district. We stayed in Hostal Tokio which cost us £115 for 4 nights. Pretty reasonable price, especially when the cost is split between 2 of you. The hotel wasn’t anything special but it was clean and we had en-suite. It also helped that we were within walking distance of many of the places we wanted to visit.
On our first night we had a little walk around the area just get an idea of what shops/bars/attractions we had nearby. We went for food at a local food market – Mercado de San Miguel. I had some delicious tapas, which was about 7 euro for a huge plateful. Thought I’d try one of their margherita pizzas too (3 euro for a mini-pizza). Again delicious, and the pizza tasted really fresh and quite sweet.
The next day we spent a lot of the afternoon chilling out in Retiro Park, which was probably 20 minutes from our hotel. The weather was predictably gorgeous, bordering on 45 degrees, and we enjoyed walking around through shaded woody areas and laying down with a cold drink. Quite a simple delight. We had a go on the boating lake which was 6 euros for 40 minutes. Very reasonable in my opinion. The lake is pretty big too, and having the Monument to Alfonso XII as a backdrop was nice. Retiro Park has a lot of well-kempt monuments. It also has a hugeeee public library, there are so many stalls. It’s quite nice to see so many people enjoy reading in a peaceful environment. Better than walking through a city where everyone is glued to their phone.
I’ll just throw a few more photos in to round up my time in Madrid, as a lot of our time was just exploring or relaxing, so I haven’t got much to write in detail about, but it’s worth noting that Madrid is an absolutely gorgeous city with fabulous architecture and a diverse range of culture. The fact it has consistent weather probably adds to that delightful experience. One thing I would recommend to anyone visiting though is to not pay attention to the local beggars. If you give them any sort of eye contact or verbal response, they will try to rope you in quite a bit. Aside from that, Madrid is a fabulous place and one of my favourite European cities. Very friendly place and easily accessible.
Now onto Parque Warner. Please excuse the shabby photos in this section, I didn’t use my camera in the park but my terrible phone instead.
Getting to Parque Warner was fairly straight forward no thanks to the internet. I think I actually read a couple of trip reports prior to going, but generally speaking you’ll find a lot of conflicting information on websites such as Rome2Rio, Parque Warner’s official website and Google Maps. In case anybody needs to know:
Train: Sol to Pinto (Purple Line travelling to Aranjuez)
Once you jump off at Pinto train station, exit and walk straight across the road to the only bus stop.
Catch the 413 bus (usually a green coach/ easy to identify). They more or less run every 30 minutes.
The coach will pick you up from the same drop off point.
We set off from our hotel at 9am and got to the park at around 10.45am with it due to open at 11.30. Probably a good idea, as by 11am the entrance plaza was getting fairly busy, mostly with school trips (do these kids visit every week or something?). One thing to take note of, particularly for all those vampires out there is the lack of shaded area around the entrance. Be aware that if you arrive early you’ll be waiting around directly under the blinding sun.
*internally screaming* MOVEEEEEEEEEE
Anyway, upon arrival, it’s sort of difficult to gage an idea of what to expect from the place. Aside from a Thorpe-esque (a bit better than Thorpe may I add) pre-arrival view of the coasters, you have no major view into the park. The majority is nicely tucked away behind buildings and trees. The place is in the middle of nowhere, mind you.
Colour coded school trips ffs
One thing I did enjoy prior to the gates opening was the use of crescendoing theme music. It really got the crowd excited, and everyone seemed to be really eager to rush in and onto the rides immediately. Once the gates opened I bashed past several brats and down the ‘main street’. I was initially surprised by how immaculate this place looked, and it certainly bared some resemblance to areas of Universal Studios. Can’t really fault this look overall, it’s all very detailed and clean. It’s very evident that this park must care about first impressions.
Also, it quickly becomes obvious that the park is really easy to navigate thanks to it’s simplistic street style layout. Lots of large, straight and clear pathways that direct you to most of the major attractions.
Seeing the rides head on like this shortly after stepping through the main entrance is a certified anticipation builder. We headed over to Superman first.
Walked straight onto the train. Second row for our first ride. The first drop is fab, as are the first few inversions. The second half has some nice floater moments and good forces as you swoop through a tight helix at ground level. Generally a fantastic coaster. I did do a backrow re-ride shortly afterwards and that was even more fabulous. Some great force going over the crest on the first drop, with some great speed as you’re dragged through the inversions. I’d give it somewhere between an 8-9/10. Let’s call it 8.5/10. Fantastic coaster, some great speed and forces too. Loved the layout and so happy that it’s not broken up by a MCBR or anything. I think all I’d really add to that is some attempt at theming around the ride itself. It’s kind of stuck out on a limb. I did think the first bit of the queueline which is themed to The Daily Planet offices was great.
For our next ride we had to delve into the Gotham City area of the park, which was just beside Superman. First impressions then. Fantastic ambience, with some well thought out aesthetics to intrigue and excite guests. The music again is really fitting with the area. Really builds up the anticipation. I think initial additions I’d like to see is more interactive elements for visitors, for example characters wandering through the area. Don’t have to be major characters like The Joker, but generally any sort of antagonists that can provoke and intensify the ambience.
Unfortunately I have no photos of Batman La Fuga, but that was our second ride after Superman. Loved the entrance building and queueline, really well themed but in a minimalist tone. It works really well especially in the context of the rides theme and general narrative. Again, a few more interactive elements would really set this whole experience apart. The coaster experience was really good, I’d heard this thing was crazily intense but I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. It is fast and forceful, but it’s not too much as others may perhaps find it. The first drop is lovely, and I really love the tightly banked turns that are scattered throughout the layout. I’ll give it an 8/10 and admit that I much prefer the layout over Black Mamba although I still prefer Mamba because it has a better and more detailed/exciting experience from the entrance to the exit.
And now we move swiftly through Gotham and into the Old West Territory, which is actually quite an impressive take on the Western theme.
Our third coaster was the Rollercoaster Corporation of America built woodie, Coaster Express (inventive name, I know).
Yeah, so I’m currently racking my brains but I’m fairly sure this is the worst coaster I’ve ever been on? **** layout, rough as a ****. The less said the better, quite frankly. Rarely does a coaster actually give me chest pains, but this thing bounces quite horribly along the track. Honestly, it’s so bad. 0/10
By this point it was closing in on 45 degrees and we were both hot as hell, so we switched it up and headed for what looked like the busier of the 2 water rides in Old West, which was Rio Bravo.
An intamin built water ride similar to Valhalla at Pleasure beach, Rio Bravo is themed to a film production of an old Western film? That’s sort of what I took from the initial queueline and ride experience anyway. It features 2 drops, one smaller backwards drop after the first lift hill, and the grand finale which you can see below.
Splashdown from the ride exit.
I mean, it wasn’t amazingly themed. Going round the ride you wouldn’t really take away a proper narrative either. But it wasn’t bad. I really enjoyed it actually. You get fairly wet on the back row, and it’s quite satisfying being hit with a load of really cold water after feeling sweaty about 2 seconds prior. I was sure we’d come back to this later once we’d done a few more rides.
Gf after a Rio drencher
My girlfriend opted to do the Intamin Shoot the Chute next, and then we’d move onto the kid’s area (Cartoon Village) for a bit. What a crazy bitch. I came off with my clothes literally sticking to every part of my body. But honestly, if there was ever a time to get absolutely **** drenched, this was it. We were actually bone dry again after like 20 minutes of walking round.
I should point out now before I forget, a lot of these Spanish kids are little **** and will snake around and wait for their opportunity to jump past you in the queue. It did piss me off quite a bit, but it’s a bit of a weird situation where a lot of them don’t really speak English, plus they’re kids. You can’t do very much really. If this was at Alton Towers or something I’d have to say something because it’s shamelessly done.
So we headed into Cartoon Village for a quick food break and to pick up the 2 credits in that area. Lack of photos again, sorry!
The food was your average fast food restaurant burger and fries. Wasn’t too bad and the service was actually quite fast. Over to the next credit, Correcaminos Bip Bip, a Mack Youngstar themed to Road Runner. This was my first Youngstar and I thought it was quite a nice little credit, silky smooth and had a good pace to it. Not the longest coaster in the world but definitely a good one for families. Could do with a bit more of an immersive theme though.
Grabbed the Tom and Jerry credit which was just a standard Zierer Tivoli.
Had a quick freshen up under this.
Next up was the Acme Rapids. Quite an interesting entrance which hints at this being an amusing experience (Acme factory with a big hole in the wall and lots of hints towards potential disaster). The ride then takes you on a journey through what is presumably an array of Acme designed contraptions, all which soak you from various angles and to various degrees. The rapids themselves were actually quite choppy and fast through the trough, plenty of bashing and turning, but it was all really good fun. Probably the most consistently entertaining water ride at the park, and to be honest in the intense heat you start to become enthusiastic about getting an absolute soaking.
So we did a bit of darting around after this, getting re-rides here and there as well as ticking off some of the flats and dark rides, which were mostly standard ride experiences although some had good theming and designs. Nothing to write home about though.
Just noticed that I forgot to mention Stunt Fall. It’s actually really fun, and surprisingly fairly smooth. I think the front row is definitely the best on GIBs because a lot of the experience relies on anticipation, especially when you climb up the first vertical lift and you’re dangling there looking straight down at the people at ground level. 7/10 from me.
So to summarise… I think Parque Warner is a really good place, certainly one of the most underrated in parks Europe. 2 solid b&ms, a good water ride line up and the GIB make it well worth a visit. Everything else in the park comes as a bonus, I mean you’ve got a 300ft s&s shot and drop tower, a well themed Huss Topspin and a couple of interactive dark rides that I’m sure are a lot of fun with friends and I can imagine kids loving. I’d definitely visit Parque Warner again, probably with some friends just because I loved going on the water rides while it was really hot, the coasters are all pretty re-ridable and queue times don’t seem to be ridiculous either. Not in a rush to get back soon though. I’d love to see some more investment in the coming years, since the majority of their attractions opened at the same time the park debuted. I’d probably start by ripping out that piece of **** woodie and starting again (ahem, RMC, GCI).
Upon arriving in Central Madrid (more specifically,Recoletos) we were greeted by a number of armed police patrolling the vicinity of the area. Hmmm, we wondered. A large number of Spanish people in what looked like football shirts marched down the central Boulevard. We thought we might be in and amongst a hostile football crowd. Turns out it was just an occupy protest.
It took us about 15 minutes to walk to our hotel which was just on the edge of Gran Via, which is Madrid’s main shopping district. We stayed in Hostal Tokio which cost us £115 for 4 nights. Pretty reasonable price, especially when the cost is split between 2 of you. The hotel wasn’t anything special but it was clean and we had en-suite. It also helped that we were within walking distance of many of the places we wanted to visit.
On our first night we had a little walk around the area just get an idea of what shops/bars/attractions we had nearby. We went for food at a local food market – Mercado de San Miguel. I had some delicious tapas, which was about 7 euro for a huge plateful. Thought I’d try one of their margherita pizzas too (3 euro for a mini-pizza). Again delicious, and the pizza tasted really fresh and quite sweet.
The next day we spent a lot of the afternoon chilling out in Retiro Park, which was probably 20 minutes from our hotel. The weather was predictably gorgeous, bordering on 45 degrees, and we enjoyed walking around through shaded woody areas and laying down with a cold drink. Quite a simple delight. We had a go on the boating lake which was 6 euros for 40 minutes. Very reasonable in my opinion. The lake is pretty big too, and having the Monument to Alfonso XII as a backdrop was nice. Retiro Park has a lot of well-kempt monuments. It also has a hugeeee public library, there are so many stalls. It’s quite nice to see so many people enjoy reading in a peaceful environment. Better than walking through a city where everyone is glued to their phone.
I’ll just throw a few more photos in to round up my time in Madrid, as a lot of our time was just exploring or relaxing, so I haven’t got much to write in detail about, but it’s worth noting that Madrid is an absolutely gorgeous city with fabulous architecture and a diverse range of culture. The fact it has consistent weather probably adds to that delightful experience. One thing I would recommend to anyone visiting though is to not pay attention to the local beggars. If you give them any sort of eye contact or verbal response, they will try to rope you in quite a bit. Aside from that, Madrid is a fabulous place and one of my favourite European cities. Very friendly place and easily accessible.
Now onto Parque Warner. Please excuse the shabby photos in this section, I didn’t use my camera in the park but my terrible phone instead.
Getting to Parque Warner was fairly straight forward no thanks to the internet. I think I actually read a couple of trip reports prior to going, but generally speaking you’ll find a lot of conflicting information on websites such as Rome2Rio, Parque Warner’s official website and Google Maps. In case anybody needs to know:
Train: Sol to Pinto (Purple Line travelling to Aranjuez)
Once you jump off at Pinto train station, exit and walk straight across the road to the only bus stop.
Catch the 413 bus (usually a green coach/ easy to identify). They more or less run every 30 minutes.
The coach will pick you up from the same drop off point.
We set off from our hotel at 9am and got to the park at around 10.45am with it due to open at 11.30. Probably a good idea, as by 11am the entrance plaza was getting fairly busy, mostly with school trips (do these kids visit every week or something?). One thing to take note of, particularly for all those vampires out there is the lack of shaded area around the entrance. Be aware that if you arrive early you’ll be waiting around directly under the blinding sun.
*internally screaming* MOVEEEEEEEEEE
Anyway, upon arrival, it’s sort of difficult to gage an idea of what to expect from the place. Aside from a Thorpe-esque (a bit better than Thorpe may I add) pre-arrival view of the coasters, you have no major view into the park. The majority is nicely tucked away behind buildings and trees. The place is in the middle of nowhere, mind you.
Colour coded school trips ffs
One thing I did enjoy prior to the gates opening was the use of crescendoing theme music. It really got the crowd excited, and everyone seemed to be really eager to rush in and onto the rides immediately. Once the gates opened I bashed past several brats and down the ‘main street’. I was initially surprised by how immaculate this place looked, and it certainly bared some resemblance to areas of Universal Studios. Can’t really fault this look overall, it’s all very detailed and clean. It’s very evident that this park must care about first impressions.
Also, it quickly becomes obvious that the park is really easy to navigate thanks to it’s simplistic street style layout. Lots of large, straight and clear pathways that direct you to most of the major attractions.
Seeing the rides head on like this shortly after stepping through the main entrance is a certified anticipation builder. We headed over to Superman first.
Walked straight onto the train. Second row for our first ride. The first drop is fab, as are the first few inversions. The second half has some nice floater moments and good forces as you swoop through a tight helix at ground level. Generally a fantastic coaster. I did do a backrow re-ride shortly afterwards and that was even more fabulous. Some great force going over the crest on the first drop, with some great speed as you’re dragged through the inversions. I’d give it somewhere between an 8-9/10. Let’s call it 8.5/10. Fantastic coaster, some great speed and forces too. Loved the layout and so happy that it’s not broken up by a MCBR or anything. I think all I’d really add to that is some attempt at theming around the ride itself. It’s kind of stuck out on a limb. I did think the first bit of the queueline which is themed to The Daily Planet offices was great.
For our next ride we had to delve into the Gotham City area of the park, which was just beside Superman. First impressions then. Fantastic ambience, with some well thought out aesthetics to intrigue and excite guests. The music again is really fitting with the area. Really builds up the anticipation. I think initial additions I’d like to see is more interactive elements for visitors, for example characters wandering through the area. Don’t have to be major characters like The Joker, but generally any sort of antagonists that can provoke and intensify the ambience.
Unfortunately I have no photos of Batman La Fuga, but that was our second ride after Superman. Loved the entrance building and queueline, really well themed but in a minimalist tone. It works really well especially in the context of the rides theme and general narrative. Again, a few more interactive elements would really set this whole experience apart. The coaster experience was really good, I’d heard this thing was crazily intense but I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. It is fast and forceful, but it’s not too much as others may perhaps find it. The first drop is lovely, and I really love the tightly banked turns that are scattered throughout the layout. I’ll give it an 8/10 and admit that I much prefer the layout over Black Mamba although I still prefer Mamba because it has a better and more detailed/exciting experience from the entrance to the exit.
And now we move swiftly through Gotham and into the Old West Territory, which is actually quite an impressive take on the Western theme.
Our third coaster was the Rollercoaster Corporation of America built woodie, Coaster Express (inventive name, I know).
Yeah, so I’m currently racking my brains but I’m fairly sure this is the worst coaster I’ve ever been on? **** layout, rough as a ****. The less said the better, quite frankly. Rarely does a coaster actually give me chest pains, but this thing bounces quite horribly along the track. Honestly, it’s so bad. 0/10
By this point it was closing in on 45 degrees and we were both hot as hell, so we switched it up and headed for what looked like the busier of the 2 water rides in Old West, which was Rio Bravo.
An intamin built water ride similar to Valhalla at Pleasure beach, Rio Bravo is themed to a film production of an old Western film? That’s sort of what I took from the initial queueline and ride experience anyway. It features 2 drops, one smaller backwards drop after the first lift hill, and the grand finale which you can see below.
Splashdown from the ride exit.
I mean, it wasn’t amazingly themed. Going round the ride you wouldn’t really take away a proper narrative either. But it wasn’t bad. I really enjoyed it actually. You get fairly wet on the back row, and it’s quite satisfying being hit with a load of really cold water after feeling sweaty about 2 seconds prior. I was sure we’d come back to this later once we’d done a few more rides.
Gf after a Rio drencher
My girlfriend opted to do the Intamin Shoot the Chute next, and then we’d move onto the kid’s area (Cartoon Village) for a bit. What a crazy bitch. I came off with my clothes literally sticking to every part of my body. But honestly, if there was ever a time to get absolutely **** drenched, this was it. We were actually bone dry again after like 20 minutes of walking round.
I should point out now before I forget, a lot of these Spanish kids are little **** and will snake around and wait for their opportunity to jump past you in the queue. It did piss me off quite a bit, but it’s a bit of a weird situation where a lot of them don’t really speak English, plus they’re kids. You can’t do very much really. If this was at Alton Towers or something I’d have to say something because it’s shamelessly done.
So we headed into Cartoon Village for a quick food break and to pick up the 2 credits in that area. Lack of photos again, sorry!
The food was your average fast food restaurant burger and fries. Wasn’t too bad and the service was actually quite fast. Over to the next credit, Correcaminos Bip Bip, a Mack Youngstar themed to Road Runner. This was my first Youngstar and I thought it was quite a nice little credit, silky smooth and had a good pace to it. Not the longest coaster in the world but definitely a good one for families. Could do with a bit more of an immersive theme though.
Grabbed the Tom and Jerry credit which was just a standard Zierer Tivoli.
Had a quick freshen up under this.
Next up was the Acme Rapids. Quite an interesting entrance which hints at this being an amusing experience (Acme factory with a big hole in the wall and lots of hints towards potential disaster). The ride then takes you on a journey through what is presumably an array of Acme designed contraptions, all which soak you from various angles and to various degrees. The rapids themselves were actually quite choppy and fast through the trough, plenty of bashing and turning, but it was all really good fun. Probably the most consistently entertaining water ride at the park, and to be honest in the intense heat you start to become enthusiastic about getting an absolute soaking.
So we did a bit of darting around after this, getting re-rides here and there as well as ticking off some of the flats and dark rides, which were mostly standard ride experiences although some had good theming and designs. Nothing to write home about though.
Just noticed that I forgot to mention Stunt Fall. It’s actually really fun, and surprisingly fairly smooth. I think the front row is definitely the best on GIBs because a lot of the experience relies on anticipation, especially when you climb up the first vertical lift and you’re dangling there looking straight down at the people at ground level. 7/10 from me.
So to summarise… I think Parque Warner is a really good place, certainly one of the most underrated in parks Europe. 2 solid b&ms, a good water ride line up and the GIB make it well worth a visit. Everything else in the park comes as a bonus, I mean you’ve got a 300ft s&s shot and drop tower, a well themed Huss Topspin and a couple of interactive dark rides that I’m sure are a lot of fun with friends and I can imagine kids loving. I’d definitely visit Parque Warner again, probably with some friends just because I loved going on the water rides while it was really hot, the coasters are all pretty re-ridable and queue times don’t seem to be ridiculous either. Not in a rush to get back soon though. I’d love to see some more investment in the coming years, since the majority of their attractions opened at the same time the park debuted. I’d probably start by ripping out that piece of **** woodie and starting again (ahem, RMC, GCI).