Re: PTR : Eurotrip: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE/Versailles
So clearly if you have sense of geography you'd realise that the other good
reason to be hanging about somewhere north of Paris is today's park trip...
Day 13: Thursday : Parc Astérix
I don't mind saying that I was looking forward to this. New park for me, some
interesting coasters, I liked the pics I'd seen of the place and a spanking new B&M
to boot.
Weather was looking a bit shaky for the day, and indeed it had its "moments", but
I still had a good day there...
Park opens, and annoyingly they only open the gates at 10am (rather than letting
you in to loiter inside before they open the park proper) - so that causes a but
of a bottleneck to get in the place. Not a good start.
But get in, I have very little sense of where to go but I rush off in the general
direction of "Oz Iris" and get all the way into the station before I hit the Q.
They aren't in any rush to get the thing running, and after about 10 mins standing
around they start cycling the ride (1 train!). The French clearly don't know how
to queue properly and so I walk onto the front row of the third train out of the
day.
French/Egyptians queuing;
Station!
And it is good.
First half is really good; great lift and drop, dive loop, loop and immelmann then
the drop into a tunnel and the second half... second half ain't anything like as
good as the first though as its losing pace a lot, the first zero-g is OK and then
after a turn around the second is starting to crawl and then the ride is over.
But still, its a really good ride IMHO.
Grab a quick second ride before the Qs build up (and they are starting to) and hit
the nearby "SOS Numérobis" rethemed to fit the Egyptian area, Tivoli ride (third of
the trip). Theres only me and 2 others on it - the masses are heading to the B&M
next door!
+1 done, I set off around the park to see what else is going on... and its staring
to rain as well which explains the lack of pictures for this bit of the day...
Next up is "Goudurix" ; which looks stunning, really photogenic coaster. Rides
like crap though - head banging hell (and I was prepared for that), so unfortunately
ends up in the "interesting, but not fun" pile.
Rain has eased so carry on around to the woody "Tonnerre de Zeus" which has built up
a bit of a queue by now. However theres a SRQ so I wander down that, only to find
its roped off at the station end - thats silly isn't it ; so I ignore that and they
don't mind fitting me straight onto the next train... REALLY good ride this then,
wasn't sure what to expect, heard good and bad things about it but I really liked
it. Really long ride and pretty unpredictable (to me) about what was going on.
Next up was "Vol D'Icare" ; odd little filler coaster ; doesn't really do much
but its not too short and is OK to ride in the rain I found.
I wander around the park a bit and come across the kiddie credit "Ronde des Rondins".
I may have ridden this, but there were no witnesses, you can't prove a thing.
Last coaster was the bobsled "Trace Du Hourra" ; wasn't expecting much from this
and there was a heinous queue for it (best part of an hour!).
It had a some cool themeing in the Q though;
And the ride... GREAT STUFF ; probably the best Mack bobsled I've been on!
All coasters done then, wander around for a bit taking some pictures in the gloomy
weather;
(using the gloom as an excuse for these pics being rather rubbish)
Ooooh pretty...
Pretty bad that is..
Fed up of hiding from the rain, I make a brave decision to reride Zeus ('cos
they are still running it) in the rain. And it is awesome. I thought riding
EGF in the rain a few days earlier was fun - this was insane. I can hardly
even see afterwards and I'm laughing myself silly. Best ride of the trip that
was.
I brave the rapids in the rain, and get very wet as the rain starts to get very
heavy whilst I am out on the ride so I then hide inside for a while for lunch.
...and then I see this place...
Which looks like it should be a madhouse (but I have no real clue what it is),
ends up having this real convoluted queue where they take your picture, you're
indoctrinated into Caeser's Army (the thing is called "Le Defi de César") and
taken through a number of themed rooms, moving floors, vast amounts of water
going on - everything is in French of course, so I have very little idea of the
actual details of the story.
But you end up in a suspicously madhouse-looking boat affair (for a madhouse it
(eventually) is). A bit different to others to be fair, video screens in the
structure, attacks by giant beasts of the sea (we are in a "boat" remember).
Really good then, and (to me) total surprise. Cool.
Rain is stupid now, throwing it down. So I hide in a show that consists of a
bunch of clown/acrobats etc. Not following the plot at all I was amusing myself
by trying to work out which of the "audience volunteers" were stooges... until it
became apparent that they all were. D'oh.
The storm dumps its load on the park and then quickly vanishes. So while the park
is drying out I hit the giant splash ride, only to get a bit closer to this guy
(see all that blue sky, that wasn't there 20 minutes ago!)
And its possibly the lamest drop on and shoot-the-chutes type thing ever.
Flume is much better, and I get soaked on that (again)
OzIris is still wet though;
and shut...
but starting to look good
The improving weather makes even the painful rides look better;
Queue had built up for Zeus by then, so I didn't get another (dry) ride - and
nothing could have topped the rain-ride from earlier;
OzIris is STILL closed - maybe an hour after it stopped raining. The ops are all
busy washing black-mud from the queue lines;
But is is looking really nice now
After a little while, they open up. And because theres noone in the queue I can
grab a couple of rides again
...pausing only to take a few snaps of the themeing
Ride running now, and looking rather splendid too;
Loop de loop
So actually - depsite all the rain - a really great day at the park! Whole place
is well themed (although not so sure about the antique-cars in Asterix's day?)
and a really good park. I thought I'd gone on a quiet day, but the place was still
somewhat busy - must be a nightmare on a Saturday!
Amost forgot to ride the wave swinger before I left
Bye bye Asterix; you've been cool!
Get stuck in a bit of a traffic jam in the very short journey I have back to the
airport - I'm not catching a plane just yet though! Dump my hire car at CDG and
get the train into Paris for a couple of nights. No more coasters, just a bit
of sightseeing to come...