Danzibarr
Mega Poster
After a 6.45am wake up with a pretty big hangover from the previous night out in Amsterdam, we hit the public transport. We had to rely on public transport for the complete journey, which consisted of bus, train, train, bus - something that you'd have no hope with in the UK. In the Netherlands though it was amazing how efficient the transport was, and we arrived at the park by about 11am.
I had wanted to be there before opening time to avoid the queues, but when we got there, the car park was almost empty. One single ticket kiosk was open and there was no queue, and no rides looked to be running. So we walk on in, down the first 'stretch' and there's just nobody about, the only people we did see seemed to be pensioners sitting at tables with a coffee.
Goliath was my main priority, so we headed in that direction, trying to avoid other piles of rubble with Vekoma badges on. Problem was, the placement of the newer rides just seems rushed, and stupid, so the direction that Goliath was in turned out to lead to El Condor - so we thought we might as well give it a go. Surprisingly there was actually a bit of a queue, which took about 20-30 minutes. They were only running one train, which is logical for such a quiet day, although there was a big enough queue to warrent using two. I've been on Kumali and Infusion before, and was expecting a similar experience to Infusion - I was wrong. Whilst Condor looks nice amongst the trees and has some good footchopper moments, the ride itself jerks and bumps enough to eliminate any sense of flow or excitement. I didn't particularly like Infusion, but this was worse! The fact that it was the first ever SLC does kind of compensate this and the position within the trees do just about make it acceptable as a ride though. 5/10
Next up was Robin Hood, which was surprisingly good, for a Vekoma. I say this on the first go, but the second time we were in the back row, and the lap bars catapulted into us throughout the ride with the vibrations, it actually hurt quite alot, and that was with the bars right down! The hills are good, corners not so good, with the train making a really loud screeching noise as it went through them, as if the track wasn't the right width for the trains. I also felt that it had too large a footprint when the same 'elements' could be achieved in less. It does look nice though, would be nice to see a flat ride in the space in the middle though, like I said, it looks like it's just wasting space! It's not got anything on Megafobia or Grand National, but I'll give it 6/10
We then realised that to get to Goliath you had to go to the bottom of the park to get to a path that leads back up to it.. (reminds me of a dragged out version of getting to Speed at oakwood). There was absolutely NO queue for Goliath, which just seemed weird.. (maybe nobody else could find it? :lol: ). I absolutely loved this ride. The slowly increasing cable lift speed chucks you over the top at a good enough pace to really make use of the whole height of the drop, which looks much steeper in person than in pictures. Stengel dive was amazing, and all of the transitions into banking seemed so smooth, no sudden jerks as the track banks. I even got a bit of a grey-out on the carousel helix! You really do appreciate an Intamin amongst a sea of Vekoma, I give this 8-9/10
By now I had concluded that Xpress was just there for display purposes, and that there was actually no way of getting to it. Turns out there's a doorway within the entrance building that leads to the queue, and when we found this, we realised nobody else had, as once again there was no queue, we got the front two seats and off we went. My first ever 'big coaster' was Rock n Rollercoaster in Paris, so I was excited to see what this would be like going back to practically the same ride. The launch was good, but didn't seem as exciting as I'd remembered, but then, i've ridden intamin launch coasters in the mean time so that explains that. As the train entered the rollover I was so shocked at how smooth the ride felt. I'd become used to Vekoma coasters feeling like your head was in a bucket rattling around, so this was a nice surprise, getting a 7/10
We also went on Flying Dutchman and Wok's Waanzin, both of which seemed more fun than similar models by other companies. I know Waanzin is a kids ride, but the Zierer Tivoli's always seem to pack a pinch (see what i did there?), and sitting at the back was actually quite hard to keep a straight face!
We were still feeling fairly hungover so skipped most of the flats, but did the big wheel to take some photos, and then the train just to 'relax'; which turned out to be quite the opposite, as some dutch chavs were sat at the back mouthing off about something (no idea what!) and throwing stones at people. The park dealt with this by getting a member of staff to sit next to them, and then stopping the train in the foresty area where a security guard was waiting to tell them off, quite funny really!
So overall, it was a good day out. There's alot of variation within the park, for example, the area with Condor and the Rapids seems well themed, along with the area where the log flume is, that was quite impressive. The newer rides seem more just slapped down, particularly Xpress. It felt more like a large family run park, like a big Drayton Manor or Oakwood, than a 'proper' theme park; but it was worth the money and I'd go back. I think the emptiness kind of killed it as well just because there was no atmosphere.
I've ranted on, there's more I could say but I don't want to send anyone to sleep, never done a report before so sorry if it's not what you're looking for!
Dan
I had wanted to be there before opening time to avoid the queues, but when we got there, the car park was almost empty. One single ticket kiosk was open and there was no queue, and no rides looked to be running. So we walk on in, down the first 'stretch' and there's just nobody about, the only people we did see seemed to be pensioners sitting at tables with a coffee.
Goliath was my main priority, so we headed in that direction, trying to avoid other piles of rubble with Vekoma badges on. Problem was, the placement of the newer rides just seems rushed, and stupid, so the direction that Goliath was in turned out to lead to El Condor - so we thought we might as well give it a go. Surprisingly there was actually a bit of a queue, which took about 20-30 minutes. They were only running one train, which is logical for such a quiet day, although there was a big enough queue to warrent using two. I've been on Kumali and Infusion before, and was expecting a similar experience to Infusion - I was wrong. Whilst Condor looks nice amongst the trees and has some good footchopper moments, the ride itself jerks and bumps enough to eliminate any sense of flow or excitement. I didn't particularly like Infusion, but this was worse! The fact that it was the first ever SLC does kind of compensate this and the position within the trees do just about make it acceptable as a ride though. 5/10
Next up was Robin Hood, which was surprisingly good, for a Vekoma. I say this on the first go, but the second time we were in the back row, and the lap bars catapulted into us throughout the ride with the vibrations, it actually hurt quite alot, and that was with the bars right down! The hills are good, corners not so good, with the train making a really loud screeching noise as it went through them, as if the track wasn't the right width for the trains. I also felt that it had too large a footprint when the same 'elements' could be achieved in less. It does look nice though, would be nice to see a flat ride in the space in the middle though, like I said, it looks like it's just wasting space! It's not got anything on Megafobia or Grand National, but I'll give it 6/10
We then realised that to get to Goliath you had to go to the bottom of the park to get to a path that leads back up to it.. (reminds me of a dragged out version of getting to Speed at oakwood). There was absolutely NO queue for Goliath, which just seemed weird.. (maybe nobody else could find it? :lol: ). I absolutely loved this ride. The slowly increasing cable lift speed chucks you over the top at a good enough pace to really make use of the whole height of the drop, which looks much steeper in person than in pictures. Stengel dive was amazing, and all of the transitions into banking seemed so smooth, no sudden jerks as the track banks. I even got a bit of a grey-out on the carousel helix! You really do appreciate an Intamin amongst a sea of Vekoma, I give this 8-9/10
By now I had concluded that Xpress was just there for display purposes, and that there was actually no way of getting to it. Turns out there's a doorway within the entrance building that leads to the queue, and when we found this, we realised nobody else had, as once again there was no queue, we got the front two seats and off we went. My first ever 'big coaster' was Rock n Rollercoaster in Paris, so I was excited to see what this would be like going back to practically the same ride. The launch was good, but didn't seem as exciting as I'd remembered, but then, i've ridden intamin launch coasters in the mean time so that explains that. As the train entered the rollover I was so shocked at how smooth the ride felt. I'd become used to Vekoma coasters feeling like your head was in a bucket rattling around, so this was a nice surprise, getting a 7/10
We also went on Flying Dutchman and Wok's Waanzin, both of which seemed more fun than similar models by other companies. I know Waanzin is a kids ride, but the Zierer Tivoli's always seem to pack a pinch (see what i did there?), and sitting at the back was actually quite hard to keep a straight face!
We were still feeling fairly hungover so skipped most of the flats, but did the big wheel to take some photos, and then the train just to 'relax'; which turned out to be quite the opposite, as some dutch chavs were sat at the back mouthing off about something (no idea what!) and throwing stones at people. The park dealt with this by getting a member of staff to sit next to them, and then stopping the train in the foresty area where a security guard was waiting to tell them off, quite funny really!
So overall, it was a good day out. There's alot of variation within the park, for example, the area with Condor and the Rapids seems well themed, along with the area where the log flume is, that was quite impressive. The newer rides seem more just slapped down, particularly Xpress. It felt more like a large family run park, like a big Drayton Manor or Oakwood, than a 'proper' theme park; but it was worth the money and I'd go back. I think the emptiness kind of killed it as well just because there was no atmosphere.
I've ranted on, there's more I could say but I don't want to send anyone to sleep, never done a report before so sorry if it's not what you're looking for!
Dan