Well a lot of this has already been covered by the other reports, but I wrote most of what follows offline during the last few days so may as well post it anyway!
This was my first CF Live so I was slightly trepidatious about spending 3 days with a bunch of (almost) complete strangers. Thankfully I had nothing to worry about on that score, but more on that later.
My journey for this Live started early. Really early! The only forum members on the trip I’d met before, Howie (Dave) and Neo arrived at my house at 5am on Friday and we drove up to Manchester airport. There we met Sandman (Josh), who had been there all night having arrived on a train from Cardiff the previous evening. Kudos to him for managing the entire day on just the half hour of sleep he got on the plane!
We arrived at Charleroi airport and met up with Chainedbanana (Harry) and Nosythemeparkr (Alex), who had travelled from London the previous day via Eurostar. With Team Waliplopsterix assembled, we picked up our two rental cars and, following a few SatNav difficulties, arrived at the first park of our trip:
Walibi Belgium
Arriving at midday, meaning we’d already been up for at least 6 hours, we got through the entrance and met up with Daviddoc, who had been doing his own thing around Europe for the past week. We’d been checking the Walibi app the last few days to get an idea of queue times, and thankfully David informed us that Thursday’s 45+ minute queues must have been an anomaly, as most rides were 5-10 minutes at most. The sadder news was that two creds were closed, Pulsar and Cobra. The latter was of little concern to the group, but the closure of the park’s newest ride was disappointing.
Anyway, we made a start on the park by hitting few rides before lunch, including the Woodie, Loup Garou, the drop tower, Dalton Terror and the mine train, Calamity Mine. That brought us to lunchtime and as we walked around to the side of the lake near Psyke Underground, we noticed that they were testing Cobra. Maybe we’d get that +1 boomerang after all. Then as we sat down for food, they started testing Pulsar too! There was a buzz of excitement in the group as the chance of grabbing all seven creds now seemed realistic.
After lunch we grabbed Psyke Underground, which actually had the longest queue of the day, followed by the shameful +1 of La Coccinelle, where I ended up accompanying a small Belgian boy on the front row due to his pregnant mother being unable to ride. That caused some amusement, but then the kid wanted to stay on so Alex had to accompany him on the next ride!
Psyched for Psyke!
Cockin' hell!
We then tried out the dark ride, which was a pretty fun shooter with nice Egyptian theming and some good animatronics. Next stop was supposed to be the log flume but we ended up riding Psyke again as the queue was virtually gone, and when we came out, the moment the group had been waiting for happened – Pulsar was open!
We quickly made our way over and waited about 15 minutes for a ride in the middle of the car, which didn’t get us too wet.
We then made our way back on our original course, riding the log flume, Flash Back, and then the rapids, Radja River. The log flume was quite fun, with slightly out of the ordinary theming and a reverse drop right at the start. The rapids were mostly crap, and half the group remained completely dry until the last element that sprayed us all. Poor Alex bore the brunt of the rapids, but there were wetter moments to come for all of us.
We headed back towards the front of the park for the boomerang, only to find it had been closed again after a brief period of operation. So we headed for another slice of Vekoma roughness instead, Vampire! When we came off the SLC, we saw people riding Cobra, so headed over there for the third time and finally grabbed the last cred in the park. It was not worth the wait.
With about an hour left, we grabbed a second ride on Pulsar, which had virtually no queue by then. This time we got the back two rows, and in my case an outside seat too, and the difference in how wet you get was dramatic. I got drenched!
To round off our visit, we grabbed a re-ride on Loup Garou and finally made our way back to the far side of the park for the madhouse, Le Palais Du Genie. That was kind of fun, although the language barrier was an issue, but the pre-show was entertaining and the effect of the madhouse seemed more disorientating than Hex or The Haunting.
Coaster ratings:
Loup Garou – far better than anyone would expect a Vekoma Woodie to be! It was kind of wobbly but not really rough, has a bit of airtime and the layout was decent. 7/10
Calamity Mine – best themed cred in the park, but never really gets going. A poor relative of Colarado Express. 5/10
Psyke Underground – probably the most thrilling cred at the park, with a surprisingly forceful launch and a typically intense Schwarzkopf loop. The indoor setting, music and lights just add to the experience. 8/10
La Coccinelle – shameful kiddie cred with an entertaining rollback feature. 3/10
Pulsar – impressive launches, plenty of airtime, very wet on the back row, but it didn’t really feel like a coaster to me. 8/10
Vampire – nice theming, and not the worst SLC I’ve ridden. Almost enjoyable if you brace yourself! 6/10
Cobra – just another sh*tty Boomerang. 4/10
Overall it was a decent start to the trip, with a quiet park, better weather than the forecast led us to believe and an enjoyable, if largely uninspired ride lineup. We had a good laugh as a group, getting to know each other, and the second ride on Pulsar was certainly memorable. This park is a bit of a Vekoma showroom/graveyard at the moment and it’s telling that two of the three best creds there are the shuttle coasters that everyone ridicules the park about. The recently announced revamp and addition of some high quality new coasters can’t begin soon enough!
Assorted park pics:
After leaving the park we made our way to Dunkirk, getting stuck in traffic around Brussels, stopping for dinner and not arriving at our ‘Premiere Classe’ hotel until nearly 10pm. We unintentionally met Ian’s group in the car park and had a quick chat before all hitting our luxurious rooms for the night. Mine was pretty clean but reeked of fags and had a mysterious curly hair threaded into the blanket on the bed, which I just chose to ignore.
I assume all the rooms had the same bathroom, where you could sh*t, shower and shave all at the same time!
After a nervous night I awoke at around 7am, delighted to find that that I hadn’t been murdered in my sleep by one of the hotel residents. After a bit of mooching around, we met for breakfast (better than expected) and then headed off in our cars to make the short trip to our next park and the official start of the Live.
Excited, boys?
Plopsaland De Panne
We all met outside the big door as planned at dead on 9:30, waited around longer than was comfortable for our guide, who then let us into the park through a side gate for the ERT, meaning we never actually used our park tickets! It was really cool to walk through the park before it opened, although I nearly got run over by a van after stopping in the middle of a pathway to take this photo:
Anyway, we headed to the new area, which looks lovely, and got our ERT on Heidi: The Ride. Handily at this point there were 12 in our group, which is exactly how many seats there are on the train! This was definitely one of my highlights of the trip – 7 laps of the ride with the only stops being for everyone to swap seats so that we all got a front and back row ride. To spend this time with a bunch of like-minded enthusiasts all enjoying it as much as me was just brilliant.
Happy goons!
After that great start, the park opened and we took the opportunity to get on De Vleermuis before the queues got too silly. It was still rather tedious queuing to grab both sides. By the time we’d all done that, our group was fully assembled so we headed into the rest of the park. Next up was Draak, the powered mine train, and by this point the weather was starting to brighten up – for the second day in a row, the threat of rain went unrealised!
Queues generally were no more than 10-15 minutes, and we continued to make our way round the +1 kiddie creds, first with Rollerskater and its bizarre product placement, then Victor’s Race and its vague space theme. Following those was an altogether more thrilling ride, Anubis.
That brought us to lunch, and another highlight as most of the group ended up in the same restaurant on a large table. The food was pretty decent here too – I had beef casserole and frites, a Belgian favourite. It was nice to sit down and get to know people a bit better and for a while we even managed to talk about something other than coasters. Don’t worry, it didn’t last long!
Our first stop after lunch was the impressive Vicky the Viking area, which I think had the best theming in the park. Most of the group rode the Disk-O, but I sat out as these things make me nauseous at the best of times, so being just after lunch I didn’t want to risk vomiting on my recently-met companions. After that we had a bit of a wander to the farmyard area where lots of people got quite giddy about goats, and we met a provocatively-posed pig.
We then ventured into the Forest of Plop, which wasn’t as bad as the name suggests, although it was a rather tedious dark boat ride. We tried to liven it up by crashing our boat into the one in front and splashing them (they were part of the CF group btw
)
A more thrilling boat ride was to follow, as the SuperSplash was now open. Various people were claiming this as a cred, but while I have counted it on Coaster Count, I’m not counting in my personal count because while it did have a coaster-ish drop, it didn’t really feel like a cred and was a bit crap in all honesty.
We rounded out the day with a walk over the suspension bridge, another ride on Anubis, then the log flume and finally one more go on Heidi (that sounds wrong!) After a bit of faffing and discussion it was decided we were pretty much done and we made our way out of the park around 4pm.
Coaster ratings:
Heidi – so nice to ride a brand new, smooth woodie, and while it may not have been the most thrilling, it still had some mild hints of airtime and a wild finale. Those 7 ERT laps will be one of my best memories of the season! 8/10
Vleermuis – an interesting idea, but the throughput is dire and the ride inflicts serious damage to male riders’ sensitive parts. 4/10
Draak – lovely theming and a great station flythrough, but otherwise a pretty dull powered mine train. 5/10
Rollerskater – weird theming, but an above average junior coaster with a bit of height. 5/10
Victor’s Race – Catwoman’s Whip without the sexy statue. 3/10
Anubis – the rolling launch and top hat are awesome, but after that it turns into a typical Eurofighter with rough moments. If it had lap bars it would probably be the best ride of its type that I’ve ridden. 7/10
Although the park is obviously aimed at younger visitors, this was probably my favourite day of the three. The ERT, laid back atmosphere, lovely theming and great weather combined with the chance to meet and chat with new people made it really enjoyable. In terms of the park itself, it’s not really missing anything given the target audience. If they wanted to attract more thrill seekers then another cred with inversions would be great, but the more obvious additions to the park would be a modern dark ride and/or a rapids. Even if it stayed as-is, it’s still a park I wouldn’t mind revisiting with my wife as I’m sure she’d enjoy it. Shame those tickets we didn’t need to use expire at the end of the year!
Various park pics:
After leaving the park, most of the group headed south half an hour to try the world’s best beer, brewed by monks. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a beer philistine, just as happy with a Carling as I am a craft lager, but the Blonde one tasted pretty good. The cheese was also excellent!
We then did another 2 hours driving to reach our hotel for the night, this time the Campanile Compeigne, which was a dramatic step up from Friday night’s hotel. It’s amazing what you can get for an extra £15 – such luxuries as an on-site bar and a bathroom you could almost swing a cat in! We grabbed a beer before bedtime, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake as it caused my roommate (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) to snore all night and keep me up!
Sunday morning came, and after a reasonable breakfast we made the short journey down the motorway to the final stop on our trip, though not before wasting ten minutes trying (and failing) to find a petrol station that was open. Luckily we had enough fuel to make it to...
Parc Asterix
As you already know by now, the weather on the morning of this day was pretty bad. We hoped that would mean the general public would stay away, but just as we were about to leave the motorway we looked over to see a huge queue of cars waiting to get into the park. Seriously, what the f*ck is wrong with all these French people, going to their local park on a day like that!? They must just love queueing, as following the car park queue there was a queue to get through security, a queue to get fastpasses, and queues of up to 30 minutes on most ride even though the park had barely been open 15 minutes.
Walking through the throng of slow-moving people up the main street in the rain was a real downer. I was so glad we’d got the fast passes but even so, the thought of spending the day soaking wet surrounded by all these horrible people was vile. The mood didn’t lighten much when we arrived at the meeting point to find that half the group hadn’t even got to the park yet due to traffic problems. With the queue for Pegase Express already outside the entrance, we decided to make the best of it while we were waiting for the others and grabbed a ride on Vol D’Icare, which only had a 5 minute queue at that point - it would later reach 45 minutes which was ludicrous for a junior coaster!
By the time we got back, most of the group had assembled and by 11am we were finally ready to start hitting the major creds. Everyone was in a bit of a bad mood but after a bit of grumpy discussion we headed towards Trace Du Hourra, the bobsled. In the first bit of good news of the day, we went through the fastpass queue only to find nobody was checking we had them, so got a cheeky fast ride for free. I shared my car with Sue, which was rather cosy for two people who had only met the previous day!
With one big cred done and the weather (and our moods) lightening a bit, we next hit the kiddie cred SOS Numerobis, yet another Tivoli, before riding my most anticipated coaster of the trip, OzIris. The first ride was somewhat of a blur as we were ushered from the fastpass queue and forced to sit where the operators told us to. I’d really want to have my first ride on the front so to be stuck on third row from the back just made me a bit grumpy again. I’d reserve judgement on the ride until a second go later on.
Next up we did the two water rides that were covered by the fastpass. The log flume was frankly ridiculous – the surprise coaster-esque drop mid way through was great, but the water was so choppy in places that were we getting soaked by random waves washing over the side of our boat. After that, the final drop wasn’t really that bad. This is what my legs looked like afterwards:
Next up was Le Grand Splatch, which I was going to skip but was reassured wouldn’t get me too wet. I intentionally grabbed a seat right in the middle of the boat to try and avoid a repeat of what happened on Pulsar, but still got hit by the water from most of the effects on the ride, much to the amusement of my fellow passengers.
That brought us to lunch, and the chance to sit indoors and dry off a bit whilst eating some pretty reasonably priced food – burger, fries and a beer for under 10 Euros. The rain had passed by for now and the sun was out, and with the queues dissipating a bit too, things were looking a lot more promising for the afternoon.
The group met back at Pegase Express and we finally rode the new coaster. Unfortunately I’d watched the POV so the surprise in the shed wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was still fun.
I spent most of the next hour waiting around as those people that needed the Vol D’Icare cred rode it, and then most of the group rode Discobelix, which I again skipped due to its proximity to my eating lunch! It was a little frustrating to be sitting around doing nothing, but I probably benefitted from the rest and it did give a chance to appreciate the amazing theming of the park. It also gave the opportunity to be at the front of the group when we rode our next cred, Tonnere De Zeus! Following advice from Coaster Hipster, myself and Josh rode the front row...
That just left the notorious Goudurix, which we had to queue around 45 minutes for. To be fair, the time passed pretty quickly with plenty of good chat going on amongst those brave/stupid enough to ride this monstrosity. I ended up with a back row ride on this and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. It also gave me the inauspicious distinction of having ridden the only two coasters in the world that have a butterfly inversion in the space of less than 3 weeks (the other is Blue Hawk at SFOG, fact fans!)
Cheer up folks, only 40 minutes to go!
With all the creds done, the group broke up into those that wanted to try the dark rides and those that wanted re-rides. I was in the latter, and we said our goodbyes to much of the group in order to take advantage of the single rider queue on OzIris, before cashing in our fastpass (for real this time) on Trace Du Hourra and making our way to the exit by 5pm in order to get home on time. After one last photo, Team Waliplopsterix went their separate ways as Alex and Harry were heading to Paris for the Eurostar, while the rest of us made the long trek back to Charleroi airport, then Manchester and home.
Team Waliplopsterix (l-r): Neo, Sandman, Chainedbanana, Nosythemeparkr, Howie, witchfinder
Thanks to Sue for taking the photo
Coaster ratings:
Vol D'Icare – one of the most dangerous coasters I’ve ridden, given that if you’re sat at the back, the only thing holding you in is the person in front. I could’ve easily just stood up whilst riding! That said, a nicely-themed but rather rough and uninspired family coaster. 5/10
Trace Du Hourra – crap colour, lots of vibration and not as exciting as Avalanche despite its larger size. 6/10
SOS Numerobis – enough with the Tivolis already! 3/10
OzIris – I never did get that front row ride, but the second go did confirm that this is the least forceful B&M Invert I’ve ridden. Not necessarily a bad thing but it’s nowhere near Nemesis quality despite looking great and having a fun layout. Still easily the best cred in the park though. 8/10
Pegase Express – a fun family coaster, but the launches were a bit disappointing and it did little other than meander a lot. 6/10
Tonnerre De Zeus – a bit rough around the edges but the first drop was ace, it had a bit of airtime and overall I really enjoyed it. 7/10
Goudurix – sit at the back, brace yourself properly and it’s better than anticipated. Some parts were even almost smooth! Give it the new Vekoma vest restraint trains and a less 1980’s paint job and it would have a new lease of life. 7/10
What to say about Parc Asterix? Well, it clearly had the best line-up of coasters on the trip, and the theming is fantastic, but due to the weather and crowds it was my least favourite day of the three. I feel like I barely scratched the surface on what the park had to offer, with several dark and water rides that I never even saw, let alone rode. Yet when I hear that it wasn’t especially busy that day, I have absolutely no desire to visit again! So I’m glad I got all the creds, and maybe if I went back there would be less stress about getting them all and I could enjoy it more, but I just don’t see myself returning any time soon. Of course, an exciting new thrill coaster might change that.
Various park pics:
This castle seemed happy all day!
So, to sum up the trip, three decent parks and although there were very few Top Ten contenders, the selection of coasters was interesting, I got 21 new creds and three more woodies to add to those I got in the US recently. More importantly though, I got to hang out with a group of people who were friendly, welcoming and just as enthusiastic and nerdy about coasters as I am. Even without the rides, just spending time chatting about the hobby we love was brilliant. So thanks to Ian for organising, everyone else for making a newbie welcome and a special shout-out to Team Waliplopsterix for helping keep my spirits up whilst driving across Belgium and France. It was exhausting at times but I’d do it all again at the drop of a hat.
Sadly I don’t think I’ll be able to make any of the other Lives this year but I’m already looking forward to meeting up again in 2018 - Poland please!
