Winter Wonderland Hyde Park 2016

This Sunday, I ventured out into London to ride Olympia Looping ... Wait ... I just said that. It still does not feel real that this epic legend had made its way onto the petty little island of England. Firstly though, let me speak about the event, it first came about in 2006 and had a few rides and a big wheel. Over the years, the event had evolved from small, overcrowded muddy paths and animal rights infringements, to a festive, family friendly, fabulous and flipping amazing event, which even though it barely lasts a few months, it feels more permanent that some parks I have been to.

Winter Wonderland this year is massive. It is about the size of Thorpe Park, and is mostly made up of log cabins selling food and clothing at an admittedly appalling price however the charm makes handing over £2.50 for a 250ml bottle of water a scratch which can be buffed over with a ride on any of the high quality attractions. I did my best to capture the atmosphere of the place with the pictures, but lets put it this way; I am not festive, especially not at the very start of December, but the whole place made me feel so happy. By the looks on other people's faces, I was not alone.

I did go for the rides, and for that reason, I will now commence my in depth reviews about the main attractions:

Olympia Looping: Amazing. Some of you may have read my rave reviews about Nemesis, however after my first ride at the front on Olympia Looping, I was seriously considering if it was better, and thus going in as my second best coaster. After my second ride on the back row this time, I concluded it was just about better. I went again on the front, and have to say, it was way better than Nemesis, but not quite Helix. Also, for the first time in the UK, it was running 7 carriages when I went. Woohoo! More intense.

I walked up for my first ride and forced my skeptic companion on the front row with me, which was walk on and got in the surprisingly comfortable seat and pulled down the two part harness (which for me did not push down during the ride). A horn, then before I knew it, I was being lifted up into the air, on my first ever Schwarzkopf looping coaster. While I climbed the curved lift hill, to my left I saw the beautiful red track swirling beneath me like a churning ocean.

Now onto the proper ride. At the top of the surprisingly tall ride, all you can see is the track disappearing beneath you. The first drop is great and gets the ride going fast. It is a near vertical dive down into smooth swoop onto the black track. Black tack means a loop. It is hard to describe the sensation of a Schwarzkopf loop. The first one is different to the rest and it is essentially a sensation of sticking to the seat the whole way around, while having a range of g-forces acting upon your body. You never seem to loose speed the whole way around, and is more intense than a B&M Invert loop like Nemesis. On the way down there is a funky curve which gives some disorientating lateral G-forces.

After that, you hit red again, and blast around a 180 degree helix-ish turn, picking up more speed to hit the second and third loop in quick succession. The forces never let up and the two perfect loops merge together to form a heavenly combo. For anyone yet to experience a proper Schwarzkopf loop, it feels like a defiance of gravity with forces like what are experienced on an aerobatic plane, which for anyone who had not done that, are high. The only difference between the front and back, is that at the front, when you enter the loop, the forces are large, but when you exit, they are big, but on the back, you enter with big forces, get dragged over the top, with ever increasing force to the point where you think it cannot go any further, until you swiftly exit out. I prefer the front as you get the wind in your face and the views, but the back is slightly more intense, but not much more than the front.

After those two perfectly shaped loops, you climb back up and get a little boost from some wheels, before a fun and again, forceful swoop down, like the first drop, but you do not enter a loop. It teases you before thundering down another 180 curved drop into the tightest and final two loops, which are probably the most intense of the lot. They are smaller, but taken at speed. The green loop is the most forceful, so much so that you barely recognize the final yellow loop. The only thin that tells you that you have hit another loop is the track colour. After that, there are no more loops, but it is still fun.

With tears or joy running down your face, there is a helix, a lateral airtime hill, another beautiful corner, a small airtime hill, and into the breaks. Some coasters are so near perfect. This is one. The lack of theming and the fact it is not on a hill side or anything like that does mean is cannot be the worlds best coaster. However, factor in its age (28!) and the fact it travels, how smooth it is and how compact, it is up there with the best, that even theme parks cannot beat. It may not be the best - how can it be? - but it is the most legendary. It is genuinely sad how nothing like this will ever be made again, and that this ride may soon make its way to the scrap yard. I beg a park like Thorpe Park to add this ride to their line up if it comes to sale. It's throughput could fit any major park, and it is better than DBGT by a long way!

I will explain the other rides more briefly as the pictures go by, but this ride is worthy of a full review, and I hope I have allowed those who cannot ride it the power to imagine it. Imagine your favorite loop, then repeat it five times, add some more awesome, and you basically have this travelling ride in your head.

Pictures!

The entrance

There were lodes of these fun shops and stalls around.

The wheel and star flyer were placed to make the number 10 to celebrate the events 10th bithday.

The Bavarian village was nice and looked really permanent.

Pretty

This was a large pub type thing which was massive.

This guy has to be here. It would not be Winter Wonderland if he was not.

I have been on it last year and it was great. If you have never done a ride like this it is worth a try.

Obviously this picture was taken to show case the parks massive flat ride selection.

Here it is.

A recycled entrance from power tower 2. It looked nice but there were the normal ticket booths open right next to it.

Going up. First ride in the front.

Wilde Mouse XXL is a standard mouse ride with two large drops on either side, and no trim breaks. Really fun.

LOOPS!!!

Blue

Me next to the beast.

Classic.

A nice sculpture gets you back into the festive mood.

This was a standard spinning mouse, but felt completely different.

Next up, is Euro Coaster, which was bad.

Not painful, just uncomfortable, badly made and strange but not in a good way. I was not amused.

mostly it was indoor and had lodes of lighting, laser and music effects, as well as some theming. It worked really well and I even forgot where in the ride I was. Not thrilling, but worth a go.

This is a quality ghost train. Last year I went on the massive one, but it was actually quite bad, however this was really good. There were good sets, and the fact your legs hung free meant there were great opportunities for some unique scares. Also there were three live actors.

New signs on this ride. Every bulb worked, like on every other ride.

No. Just no. Painful and awful. Not worth £7 even to get the cred.

Another flat ride.

Sorry for the sideways picture, but this was extremely high, and fast. Although it did not swing, it went more in a looping fashion, only unlocking at the very end, but it did mean that I ended up 80m in the air, weightless, really fast and getting some great upside down views of London. If you like fast rides, this is for you! I have not been on a normal booster, but I imagine it would be similar, just a bigger version. At the start though, the seats rotated.

Back for more.

This is the best travelling ghost train I have been on. It is a suspended ride, which allowed for some cool unique scares and had three live actors inside. It was so well themed, it could fit into a normal park!

Munchen looping

Do I need captions for these? I will just say loopy from now on, as you must have read the veview and there is not much more to say really.

Loopy

Loopy!

Hangover! This is the best non-stand-up drop tower I have ever been on. It is really fast, long and gives sustained ejector air time. The modified Gerstaluer seats also have a really free and nonrestrictive harness, with only a small bit holding you in. It means you fly our of your seat for the full 4 second free fall. It is like a detonator style feeling, just longer and with better harnesses. Also, another reason to ride is for the views. WOW!! They were incredible. As the gondola rotates as well, you get full panoramic views of Hyde park, London even over to Wembley!

XXL is a massive KMG swinging ride.

Forceful and spun a lot. Also really fast and gave epic air time. It does not look tall, but it sure does feel it and it goes to a steep angle as well.

Not for the weak stomach as it also has a long ride time.

I got a hang over! Whooaahh! That song plays when you drop.

More German villages. Wait, this is only here for less than two months??? This is theme park style theming.

Dodgems.

Now, this was a sight to see!

How to turn a basic kiddy ride into a massive party with snow, fog and lighting. If you are on drugs, I would recommend a ride on this.

There were these large fun houses. Sadly I did not have time to go on one, but there is next year.

This.

I like this picture

OOPS! Forgot to say LOOPY!!!

Loopy!

The station did seem old, and it was a shame there was zero effort for something Christmassy.

Blocked off Olympic rings. Obviously this ride has nothing do do with the olympics...

This corner is great, leading up to two loops.

Many station attendants.

The curved lift has a really clever mechanism. A chain would not work, so they have to use wheels, however if all the wheels worked on a motor each, then if one motor breaks, it would be harder to fix, or if one motor was faster or slower than the rest, it would jolt, making the smooth lift hill rough. All the wheels are powered by one motor at the start, which turns a clever system which moves all the wheels in sync. If you go look at it.

It is actually harder to get a station shot of this ride than an action one. That shows how good their system is.

Sausage.

Getting dark, so the lights showed up well.

Night photography.

Looks nice.

The carousel bar was a bar ... on a carousel.

Arches of colour

Speed and lights

Night photography only really works on fair rides

Many rides in motion.

For all those who think the Tube is nice, it is not.

Lovely

Healthy mist of germs form multiple people sneezing on your back.

On that note...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

See you again once the off season has gone by.

Quality post and photos, mate.

"Pretty Little Island of England"

Didn't have the best Geopgraphy teacher in school young man? England is not an Island, as its not entirely surrounded by water. Those two other countries attached to it prevent that from happening.

Being a welshman, (a deeply offended one at that) as punishment, we will happily smash your little "Island" rugby team into pieces in the 6 Nations.

#WalesAndScotlandAreCountriesToo

I know people like to make fun of your posts and quote them to the dumbest things thread, and I'm not going to act like there isn't a good reason for that, but I've enjoyed a few of your TR's you've posted lately. You always cover most of the rides at the place you visit and there's a lot of great pictures and information in there too without being overly lengthy.

I feel like the saying quality over quantity applies here. I don't mean to sound condensing with that, just it's obvious you really enjoy doing these TR's and posting on TPR and I feel like more great TR's like these go a long way.

Great report and photos.

Also that creeper in the last shot =

Great update! I'm extremely jealous of everyone who's ridden this coaster.

Also that creeper in the last shot =

Yeah, I quickly put away the camera though as I looked a little creepy as well to be fair!

Thanks for the feed back.

Excellent report! Looks like a fun Christmas event.

Here is a video of one of the rides, XXL:

How would you rate XXL compared to an Afterburner (like the one in Thorpe) and Zamperla Discovery (SpinRock at Liseberg)?

I've only ridden SpinRock and maXair and I love SpinRock but dont really like maXair (it hurts so much).

Nice photos BTW, visiting England for the first time next year but sadly WW will be gone by then.

How would you rate XXL compared to an Afterburner (like the one in Thorpe) and Zamperla Discovery (SpinRock at Liseberg)?

I've only ridden SpinRock and maXair and I love SpinRock but dont really like maXair (it hurts so much).

 

Nice photos BTW, visiting England for the first time next year but sadly WW will be gone by then.

since Henry was temp banned for a month I will give my thoughts....

XXL is FAR superior to Vortex at Thorpe Park. I haven't been on a Zamperla Discovery but everyone I know who has been on both (usually Black Widow and Beast at Kennywood and Playland PNE respectively) prefer the XXL model. The thing that makes them so good is that they push you up into the swing, instead of down into the next swing. Its kind of hard to explain but I feel like I did a reasonable job. They are absolute airtime machines - if XXL was a coaster I honestly would put it above a LOT of other rides even major coasters like maybe Nemesis Inferno for example.

That sounds really fun, but as far as I know they only exist in fairs and I never go on those (for geographical reasons). We'll be getting an Intamin Gyro Swing with lapbars next year but I can't find whether it boosts you on the way up or the way down.

So judging from your comment I'd guess it's your favourite flat ride then? I've not really ridden that many good ones but my favourite is by far the Zierer Star Shape (like the one in the trip report, or more specifically Mechanica at Liseberg). Zierer make great flat rides and I hope they make more coasters in Europe.

That sounds really fun, but as far as I know they only exist in fairs and I never go on those (for geographical reasons). We'll be getting an Intamin Gyro Swing with lapbars next year but I can't find whether it boosts you on the way up or the way down.

 

So judging from your comment I'd guess it's your favourite flat ride then? I've not really ridden that many good ones but my favourite is by far the Zierer Star Shape (like the one in the trip report, or more specifically Mechanica at Liseberg). Zierer make great flat rides and I hope they make more coasters in Europe.

I have been on quite a few different flat rides including Danter's Air, which is a Starshape. I am not a huge starshape fan though I prefer a good top scan!

Enjoyed the post. Places like this look better than some full time parks.

^ This is true, some times.

Really nice too see! I wish I can ride the Olympia Looping! It reminds me of Texas Tornado from Astrowolrd!