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Dude, I hope you're not being serious. If you are, this is exactly why we can't have anything fun anymore. I don't see anywhere this is marketed toward children. I'm positive there isn't an age limit to ice cream. I think I've even seen my 80 year old in laws eating it, as bizarre as that sounds.

The best Splash Mountain is Knott's Timber Mountain Log Ride.

First test run from the official twitter! Looks more sanely paced overall than the original raptors, but the first drop looks like it could fire the back row into space if the restraints weren't there! I wonder how different the front and back rows will be with 10 cars? It's no comparison, but adding two cars to Olympia Looping drastically changes the ride, so this is similar.

I don't want to pile on but...

And alcoholic ice cream isnt a new concept. Reminds me of the people in WDW groups on Facebook that cry "think of the children!" when people leave their leftover beers outside their door at checkout.

Six Flags Over Texas Long time coming with this, the final installment of my October 2020 trip report. I haven’t been active on the forums lately because I’ve used the time to write my first novel. It has nothing to do with theme parks, but there are characters named Stengel and Gerstlauer in it, so if you belong to the nigh-impossible to ascertain overlap between the coaster and horror communities, consider yourself Easter egged. So where was I? Man, I don’t know how some of you can write these step-by-step trip reports for days you spent at parks sometimes a year or more ago. I suppose I could do it for something like my Japan trip, but a single day at SFOT just doesn’t leave an imprint on the memory quite the same way. I do recall that it was one of the better days on the trip. My dad and I said goodbye to Bert at Fiesta Texas the day before, spent the night in San Antonio, then drove up to Arlington in the morning. The park was crowded, but less so than Fiesta. We rode everything we wanted to with re-rides on all the biggies. More importantly, there weren’t enough people to negate the advantage of the gold Flash Pass this time. The only missed coaster we had not already ridden was Joker. I’ll make an effort to credit hunt as long as it doesn’t become an impediment to other, more important things I’d like to get done, and on this day Joker’s wait time crossed that boundary, Flash Pass or not. Neither of us particularly cared about riding another S&S Free Spin anyway, especially one almost certain to disappoint compared to Fiesta’s Batman. The resemblance is coincidental given that the parks were built by different owners, but I’ve always liked how SFOT’s Oil Derrick is analogous to SFMM’s Sky Tower. I rode one of the four rides in this photo. Hint: it’s not a credit. My first visit to SFOT came during Holiday in the Park 2015, so it was a little truncated with the shortened hours and several major rides were closed including Batman, Mr. Freeze, and Texas Sky Screamer. I came away impressed with the park’s atmosphere, scenery, and well-rounded coaster collection. Especially surprising were Titan and Runaway Mine Train, both of which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to. In 2020, all of the major attractions I missed five years ago were open and I snagged the Runaway Mountain and Mini Mine Train credits I missed back then as well. I can count Runaway Mountain as another one of the park’s very pleasant surprises, as referring to it merely as a “credit” in the sense we often term inconsequential coasters does this one a disservice. It was great! We didn’t bother with Pandemonium or La Vibora this time, but we squeezed in everything else. For being relatively crowded and some rides still running below capacity, it felt like we got a lot done. I think we rode Titan, Shockwave, Runaway Mine Train, and Mr. Freeze twice each and New Texas Giant four or five times. Overall, SFOT might be the hardest park in the chain for me to classify and grade. It’s easy to look at a park like SFFT and place it into the “good Six Flags” category or to dismiss oh let’s say… SFDK as “bad Six Flags,” but the original doesn’t feel particularly right in any category. It’s too large and complete a park to lump in with something more middling like Six Flags St. Louis, yet neither does it hit the highs of a coaster lineup like Great Adventure’s. SFOT has a baked-in, almost tactile history that permeates huge swaths of it. The park feels very much like its own thing in a way that other parks Six Flags later acquired and draped in all the corporate trappings don’t. Only SFOG, understandably, shares this presence somewhat. But something still feels missing from Over Texas. I hate to be so, I don’t know… shallow(?) as to simply clamor for another big RMC/Intamin/B&M/whatever, but one more true destination coaster honestly seems to be all the park needs—and Aquaman Power Wave ain’t it. As a whole, SFOT’s coaster collection is very satisfying. But unless you prefer the original, more graceful, tamer style RMC of New Texas Giant or you’re a hardcore Shockwave-stan, it just doesn’t have a real gem to get irrationally excited about. It’s another one of those parks with lots of good and even very-good coasters still awaiting a truly excellent one. This kid in black operating Sky Screamer drove me up a f’n wall. It’s been long enough I don’t remember exactly what his “sanitation” process was, but it could not have been any slower if he tried. I mean the minimum possible effort at the slowest possible pace. And the kid in blue just stood there with his drink and watched. If I didn’t have Flash Pass I’d have been so mad I’d have stayed quiet and just waited longer. My quest to find a functioning Zamperla Endeavour remains unfulfilled. Runaway Mine Train This was one of my favorites in the park five years ago and it still is. This was Arrow’s first mine train, built all the way back in 1964, and I don’t think they surpassed it until Thunderation in 1993! There are a few of these models that may be slightly more thrilling, but none of them are as well integrated with both theming and natural scenery. There’s water, tunnels, lots of trees, wooden shacks, and a lift-section through an old west saloon. It does everything these mine trains are all supposed to do, this one just does it more cohesively and better. There are none of those jarring moments other mine trains have where you see an absolutely baffling banking transition ahead of you, you brace for it, and then it still just ragdolls you even though you’re only going about 12mph. The profiling is somehow less crude than on many of those that followed. It’s still very tame, but tame in the best way. Sunset or magic hour rides on this are honestly some of the best experiences in the park. 7.5/10 Runway Mountain I don’t know how I’ve been an enthusiast for twenty-plus years and I’ve never caught-on to the secret that this little enclosed Premier is one of the best rides in the park. This thing was a blast and I’m sad I only got to ride it once. We hit it fourth after Mr. Freeze and the two mine trains, got right on with our Flash Pass, but later in the day it had as long a wait as New Texas Giant, which I just couldn’t justify. It’s smooth pretty intense for its size. There was also some Halloween theming and lighting effects I don’t remember that I thought added to the experience. It reminded me of a more compact, budget version of DL’s Space Mountain with a few actual drops instead of nothing but endless spirals. 7.5/10 Runaway Mountain—where a modest station belies an immodest experience. Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast The whole Gotham area was closed for Holiday in the Park in 2015, so I didn’t get to ride it then. I rode its twin at Six Flags St. Louis once in 2013 before it closed for the rest of the day, and to be honest, I remembered almost nothing about it. I obviously knew the layout and how the launch and LIM boost worked, but it must not have made much of an impression because I couldn’t recall if I even liked it. I have kind of a love/hate thing going with Premier as a manufacturer so I had milquetoast expectations going in this time. Well knock me over with a feather because Mr. Freeze is now my #2 overall Premier after only Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Orlando. The reverse launch is gut wrenching and the top hat and overbank are packed with positive g’s. I’d gladly trade Full Throttle and West Coast Racers for it. 8/10 Imagine how much better the Mr. Freeze experience would have been if Six Flags had Arnold Schwarzenegger hosting the queue video. The puns would be unreal. I can’t see it working very well on many other coasters, but Freeze’s dual-loading, sliding switch-track station will always be the coolest. It powers through the overbank. No hangtime here. So Mr. Freeze is red and Batman is yellow. Sure. Batman: The Ride After failing to get the Great White credit, at least I claimed this one, giving me 2/3 Batmen in Texas. Whenever you find yourself thinking, “Poor Texas, all three of their inverts are B:TR…” just remember, Canada also has three inverts… and two of them are SLCs. 7/10 I don’t have much to say about Batman, but I did ride Magnum XL-200 behind former pro wrestler Al Snow once. Titan It’s on-trend to dump on Titan and SFMM’s Goliath. I’ll defend Titan to the day I die, but boy do I ever love to dump on Goliath. It’s amazing what a better view and an extra helix do for Titan. The two big drops are still just giant ramps that don’t do a whole lot. However the immediate, sharp contrast between the long floater hill and the upward helix that follows makes the first half of Titan feel complete in a way that Goliath isn’t. Multiple helixes are often a sign that a coaster is about to waste a bunch of its momentum on practically nothing, but this isn’t the case here. Titan’s first helix is almost as strong as its second and it also means the train can cruise through the MCBR without the jolting kick in the chest Goliath gives you. Texas’s inherent flatness and the skyline of the football and baseball stadiums makes the horizon simply vast and allows Titan to feel even taller than it is. If its stats weren’t published, we could all be forgiven for assuming it was a giga. 8/10 Titan is neither a parking lot coaster nor a terrain coaster, but from some angles it manages to look like both. It's as if the engineers at Giovanola discovered the parabola sometime between designing Goliath’s (and therefore Titan’s) first drop and the pullout from the floater hill. If one extra helix improved Titan this much, Surf Coaster Leviathan will probably be my favorite coaster one day... Titan’s placement makes it look absolutely massive. Do you ever wonder why Six Flags didn’t copy and paste Titan’s name all over everything like they did Goliath? I do all the time. I love Titan’s queue area. It’s like it has its own themed land where the theme is, what else, Texas. Titan is a great ride after dark. The night wind had tears forming at the corners of my eyes by the end. Judge Roy Scream What I feel is the lone “bad” coaster in the park. While it looks like it could be Blue Streak at Cedar Point’s cousin, it rides nothing like it. I even assumed it was another classic John Allen designed woodie for years. But it’s actually a much more recent Bill Cobb coaster from 1980, which explains a lot. Cobb apparently collaborated with Allen on a number of projects, but nothing Cobb designed without him was ever well regraded outside of the original Riverside Cyclone. As for the Judge, there is little-to-no airtime and the trains do not track well. It’s a small, slow, uncomfortable woodie and nothing more. If it weren’t for its location and setting, I’d see no justification in keeping it. 4/10 Shockwave Do you ever feel like there are certain coasters that were designed just with you in mind? Like in 1978, Anton Schwarzkopf was sitting at his drafting table and thought, “You know, in about a decade, there’s gonna be a guy born who’s really going to appreciate what I’m building here.” This is how I feel about Shockwave. It was built at the nexus of when engineers could design some really intense, awesome stuff, but before CAD and ever more-precise heartlining made everything just a little too perfect. The loops on this old workhorse even supposedly pull 5.9 g’s. Whether they actually do or not, I have no idea. So then why do I merely enjoy Shockwave instead of love it to death? It’s definitely a case of liking the idea of something more than liking the thing itself. It’s very good. I wish I had time to ride it more. But despite appearing like it was designed with my sensibilities in mind, it never blows me away. The loops are pretty good, but no better or worse than Mindbender’s at SFOG and I think I like them a little less than the one on Montezooma’s Revenge. There are a couple spots of what I technically have to call ejector airtime, but for some reason it doesn’t feel like it to me. It’s as if Shockwave has all the ingredients to make my ideal 1970s roller coaster, but the essence was lost somehow. Maybe I’m right. Maybe I just need to ride it more. Or maybe I should be less introspective and stick to writing anecdotes about riding behind forgotten professional wrestlers. 8/10 Shockwave is a great coaster to photograph. That said, I think all of mine turned out just okay. The RIDDLER Shockwave… Clunky airtime. It doesn't feel like ejector air the way we usually think of it. It's more like the car just drops out from underneath you and leaves you hanging, then you plop down onto the hard seat a fraction of a second later. It's both uncomfortable and awesome. Schwarzkopf totally should have built a double-looping shuttle loop. Gray-out city, folks. I honestly wonder how feasible it would be for a park to do this. Cobble together parts of various retired shuttle loops and let it fly. Like if a park actually cared enough and thought it would net a return on investment. It might not be impossible from a technical standpoint. New Texas Giant When I last rode Goliath at SFOG, I turned to my friend and stated that it rode more like New Texas Giant than a B&M hyper. I think the inverse is also true, because for as innovative and significant as it is, NTAG is kind of like the B&M of RMCs. That’s not a diss. Put down your Molotovs and Antifa hoods. What it means is this coaster follows a more deliberate, graceful profile that eases you into its ejector airtime instead of grabbing you by the back of the neck and shot-putting you. It’s an excellent ride that will thrill you at its own pace and without the coaster—or you—breaking a sweat, just like… well, Goliath at SFOG. There’s nothing wrong with New Texas Giant at all and nothing about it I’d change. I just prefer to be shot-putted. I waivered on scoring it half-a-point lower, but 9/10. The drop crossing under the lift hill is probably the Giant’s strongest airtime moment. RMC came a long way from New Texas Giant to Steel Vengenace. It's especially telling considering how similar the two coasters they used as starting points were. RMC started out on a high note with this ride, but strove for constant improvement and refinement. It's amazing how far they've progressed in such a short time. I much prefer the Gerstlauer trains on New Texas Giant and Iron Rattler to RMC’s in-house trains. They probably couldn’t have handled the dynamics of the later designs, but they’re so much more open and comfortable. This might seem like a weird comparison, but this first drop feels like that of Millennium Force to me. Different scale, similar sensation. Some of the Halloween “theming” in the Mine Train station. Nothing fancy, but it kind of fits with the old south/old west theme. Some of it was a bit, um… morbid. Lighting, cobwebs, and the odd scare actor gave the older, more highly-themed areas have a great atmosphere in the evening. I would have liked to experience a proper Fright Fest here. The show scenes were not quite as well done as at SFFT. That sets were more elaborate and expansive there. December and October visits to the Texas Six Flags parks were nice, but it's time I come back during the summer for a regular season visit with full staff and operating hours. Looking forward to it!

Wait. . . so they're not the same?

Enjoy a cold one Pour one out for your homies Bam! You just bought two.

Good point, and it's not like Holiday World is getting you in other ways either. Both have gate ticket prices of $59.99, and both have online sales. Although Six Flags may want to check their math....

I've never done a membership or a dining plan. I'm holding out for the unlimited beer and Uber fun pass.

The original raptors ran about this pace in their first test runs. Trust me... this thing will speed up and start hauling. But perhaps the 10-car trains and redesigned/reshaped elements will make a difference in the pacing. I'm happy for all of you Pacific Northwest people. This will be a great addition to the park that is long overdue!

Ironic because one of the strongest drinks I've ever had was essentially a rum milkshake at Typhoon Lagoon

Wow, it's been so long since this park last operated that I complete forgot they were receiving one of these.

I didn't think you were. And yeah, MRB always tends to have a line...I always just bypass it and tell the host/hostess I'm going to sit at the bar LOL.

Interesting on the first one. Looks like they are looking to build smaller less intense versions of NTAG. (A well known example of a non-inverting I-Box coaster) I really liked its airtime and bunny hills so if they can do more of those I'm for it. Simple yet effective.

This. I don't have a dinning plan since it's 2.5 hours to SFOG, but between my free membership drinks and 50% off food my lunch there when I went a couple of weeks ago was $6.88 for a pork sandwich, fries, and a Coke Zero. My friend got something similar, but they just have the super cheap season pass and their meal was $21 and change.

But at least the park will be getting another RMC!

When Haiku is good I feel very "Japanese" And want some sake' ^ So don't drink it, then. And puh-lease. Every kids' fave candy and theme park snack has been (eventually) turned into something "adult," IMhO.

I can confirm that the Giga coaster beer is absolute piss if that's more your speed.

I thought you were beating a dead horse with the haiku, but that one got me! I'm not much of a craft beer/microbrewery beer drinker anymore, but that looks damned good. It might be heavy though, so it's probably a kickoff beer, before switching to piss water.

I've been in the same boat, recently trying to restart my own weight management. I really packed on the pounds during the pandemic, and right around Christmastime, I was up to 290 -- the heaviest I've ever been. Since the beginning of the year, I've been on a keto diet, purchased a spinning bike for the garage, have been doing daily walks between 3 to 5 miles, and been using a Nintendo Switch game called "Fitness Boxing 2" to get additional movement in. I've also been using my Apple Watch's activity mode to track and keep myself honest; it's just a little thing but I don't want to lose my streaks. In the first four months of the year, I have dropped from 290 to 248. I'm still shooting to get under 200 by the end of the year (and hopefully in the 220-225 range by August, assuming the California theme parks are open to out-of-state visitors by then).

In the meantime Soda is free at Holiday World. Six Flags is really pushing the limits here...

Unfortunately Melt isn't on the meal plan at CP....but all of you casting dispersion on it, what is wrong with you? Not only is their standard grilled cheese awesome, their grilled cheese burger is quite good and their "fried mac & cheese on a grilled cheese" is incredible. The mac & cheese side is also pretty damned good, and they're a full service bar so you can get your drink on too. Tom + Chee thankfully is on the meal plan at KI (but sadly only the standard offerings). Their most awesome, the grilled cheese donut, is not. Miami River Brewhouse is also a great food option at KI, and has the bonus of being a full service bar as well. Them, and Tom + Chee, are why I always get the all-day dining plan at KI. Just don't bother trying the pizza, neither from the one near Beast, the one in the Festhaus, nor the one on international street - it is all disgusting. The breadsticks are pretty good though.

14 months later and I still have to explain to confused Asian students that this is actually even a thing.

Are these prices real or an exaggeration?

Whatever it is, it's sure to be the most exciting amusement park attraction added in Missouri for years to come, as history has proven.

For what it's worth, I visited the park this past Wednesday with my daughter. After our inaugural visit back in 2019, where she just missed being tall enough to even ride the Shredder, we made the decision to not return until she hit at least 48" so she could ride way more stuff. Well, she finally hit her mark back in April, so we ended up picking up the low-price mid-week tickets that gave us free reign of the park from 12 PM to 7 PM. We didn't end up actually getting there until 2:00 PM (had to wait for her virtual school to end before we left), but once we did, it was a pretty painless process. We picked up our wristbands at the counter after they scanned the QR code from our online purchase. Unlike in the past where they were embedded with RFID chips and they would be scanned at every ride entrance, these are now just your average paper wristbands that we showed upon entry to the park and then never got checked again the rest of the day. Crowd levels were pretty light, as to be expected mid-week. In the span of the five hours that we were there, we rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times. None of the rides had more than a station wait, with the exception of Jimmy Neutron, which was closed earlier in the day but opened back up around 4 PM. For whatever reason they were only loading about four or five cars at a time on that ride, so it took us about three cycles to get on. The first coaster she wanted to ride was her nemesis from last time, The Shredder. This is without a doubt my favorite spinning coaster I've ridden so far (might change whenever I make it out to SDC, but for now, this slaps). The sheer length of it gives a lot of bang for your buck, and with only the two of us in the car, we got some absolutely insane spinning. Both times we rode it, they allowed us to stay on for re-rides thanks to no one else being in the station, so we ended up getting a total of four rides. It's just a great smiles-on-faces ride, and easily a big favorite here. Shellraiser was up next, and it was also a walk-on for us. Sadly, this one ended up being a one-and-done. Although the layout is great, I remembered half of the rides with my son being super rattly back in 2019, and unfortunately, it's only gotten worse since then. I don't know what they can do to fix this ride, but it's shaky to the point of the car feeling like it's going to tear itself apart mid-ride. We noticed at many points throughout our time there they were just sending empty cars throughout the course. Here's hoping they find something to do with this ride that makes it more enjoyable for everyone, because as it stands, this record-breaker is definitely the biggest flop in the park. Slime Streak was listed on the website as being down for maintenance from the 4th through the 20th, but for whatever reason, it was open that Wednesday! I was a bit apprehensive about riding as I had heard it was not particularly friendly towards larger body types and I'm still trying to shed those extra lockdown pounds, but I'm happy to say that although the trains were on the small side, the restraints were not overly restrictive. We did this one twice throughout the day. It's your average family coaster, nothing too special or thrilling but gives a nice view of the park. Timmy's Half-Pipe Havoc was open for the first time for us, originally being closed back during our 2019 visit. This was my second Intamin halfpipe coaster and my daughter's first experience. More ridiculous fun, with the back and forth launches and the rapid-fire spinning. We only did it once but wouldn't mind riding it again. Sandy's Blasting Bronco was also operating, but due to the height requirement being 52" and my daughter being short by 4 inches, we skipped it. It looks hecka fun, though, and hopefully the next time we go back and my son is along for the ride, we'll get a chance to give it a spin! Other rides of note: Kraang's Pandemonium is an absolutely bonkers mini-pendulum that picks up speed super fast, and the interaction with the ceiling (and ceiling fans!) is sure to thrill. Skyline Scream was operating as well, and this S&S tower runs a combo program; it shoots you up to the top and then bounces several times before pulling you the rest of the way up for a beautiful panorama of NYC and New Jersey. You are greeted up at the top by Spongebob and Patrick figures before you plummet back down. While it apparently can rotate, it wasn't rotating during any of our three rides on Wednesday, but it was still a lot of fun. Last but not least, while the Reptar carousel is cool to look at, it's a total pain to ride. Not sure whose idea it was to have the spikes on the tail poking your butt if you slide even slightly backwards. There were a number of new Zamperla kiddie rides scattered throughout the park, including a Crazy Bus themed to the Loud House, a Happy Swing themed to Dora The Explorer's monkey Boots, some cupcake looking teacups themed to Butterbean (whatever that is), and a mini-whip themed to Paw Patrol, but the only one that was currently operational was a Bubble Guppies themed spinning balloon tower. Here's some photos of the ones currently under construction: Foodwise, they're still only operating a single food stand located near the Half-Pipe coaster, with primarily pre-packaged sandwiches, hot dogs, popcorn, snacks, and the like. However, we noticed they were bringing more structures into the building as we were leaving Slime Streak for the second time, one of which said "Burger Bar" on it. Hopefully there'll be a little bit more options for food in the near future, especially considering that they aren't offering re-entry to the park currently. If you want to check out any of the other food options in the mall, you'll forfeit the remainder of your ticket. I'm definitely happy we visited on a slow day with the cheaper tickets and smaller crowds. I wouldn't want to visit on a weekend, where you're limited to timed entry and exit periods and the crowds are heavier, as I feel like you simply wouldn't be able to get through everything here (and it's not even as if there's a whole lot for that matter). Last but not least, the parking fee. It's free under two hours, and $2 for any length of time over 2 hours. This is ridiculous... and by ridiculous, I mean ridiculous to complain about. Literally go anywhere else in New York City and try to find parking anywhere near as cheap as that. Or for that matter, any other amusement park that isn't named Knoebels. Hell, the Queens Center Mall charges $3 for an hour of parking and all they have is a damn Target and Red Lobster. I get that people are looking for something to whine about, but this ain't it, chief.

Yep, exactly. The greater the inequality, the greater the crime. Now, whether you want to go about fixing that through poverty relief programs that raise people to a living wage, require business to pay a living wage directly, or just tax the hell out of the rich so the top tier comes down closer to the rest of us, all are ok by me. It's all relative. Reduce inequality, reduce crime!

Heres a photo put out of the construction fence that was recently put up. It now extends all the way down and around Firemans Landing and extending behind part of the smoking area in front of the old Waterboggan Tower. Let the speculation begin. lol

In case anyone was wondering... from a population stance St. Louis is not a great bet. Above is STL metro population. It appears to be growing for the most part, but let’s compare to KCMO across the state: Notice how the population growth remains positive? Now let’s compare to NW Arkansas: In an economic sense, STL is not very investable right now. There are areas with much more potential nearby.

I mean I know you aren't looking for the argument, but the second link kinda gets to the heart of it. Crime tends to go up the poorer an area is. It isn't a coincidence the least safe zip codes are also the poorest zip codes. Which of course creates a feedback loop (why would a business take the risk of opening in a higher crime area?).

So FYI - Kristen and her friends went Saturday at 3pm over to Universal. They somehow had a great time! Crowds were not bad for a weekend and it was our last decent weather day here in Orlando till October. At one point they went by Velocicoaster and it was a 75min posted wait. Since they are 14, and wanted bragging rights, they went for it! 75min later after a less than 10min breakdown they were on it. They all loved it! Kristen even had a single rider next to her as yes, they opened the single rider line. She was telling us such great things about Universal that we went down around 7pm with a 9pm closing just to get some steps in. Well, with single rider lines open on Hulk and Velocicoaster, we rode both!!! It was great. Back to the Intamin debate. I've always said I prefer most awesome Intamin rides even if they only operate 70% of the time to almost all B&M's that operate 98% of the time! Intamin really does push a lot of limits and I think a lot of their issues are fair. This coaster has been running since November so they had a lot of test and adjust time and it's great seeing them get to open a done and tested ride (unlike Hagrid's!)

This Saturday marked the day when Belgium finally started to open back up - Bars/Restaurants for outdoor seating, theme parks, etc. I met up with a friend in Brussels to his favorite bar Dynamo and one of my favorite bars - Moeder Lambic. It started a little rainy, but ended up being a great day to finally enjoy beer in terraces! Moeder lambic original in Saint-Gilles Brussels. First draft Cantillon Kriek I've had in brussels in almost two years! Can't go to Moeder lambic without getting a vintage bottle of Cantillon. Cantillon Gueuze with 7+ years is always beautiful. Alright, on to Walibi! Sunday morning I hopped on the train down to my new home park From where I'm living in Leuven, it's a whopping 20 minute ride! After processing my season pass, I headed straight to the back of the park to Kondaa. It was a bit cloudy early, with a little rain in the afternoon, but the sun came out for bits later. Entrance plaza. They did a pretty good job with the theming. It's no Taron, but it's more than good enough. The coaster definitely 'pops' visually. The outer banked turn delivers. I have only ridden a few RMC, but the airtime I would associate with this kind of element is more lateral airtime (with respect to seat position), where as this turn, the airtime is still perpendicular to the seat, while going through the banked turn. And it's straight ejector air the entire turn. It's killer. Of course the first drop reminded me a lot of Expedition GeForce, however I think this is slightly more forceful, especially in the back, as the train hauls up the lift hill. The first airtime hill is classic Intamin, a good 3-4 seconds of sustained ejector air. This hill did have a decent pop of airtime These final three mini-hops left me wanting more. They definitely delivered floater airtime. I just would rather one or two classic ejector bunny hops. Theming was plentiful. The station was pretty intricate with a lot of stuff hanging from the ceilings and there was intense tribal drum music being played. It was a good atmosphere. My Thoughts: I still don't completely have my head wrapped around the non-inverting cobra roll, I feel like it acts a bit differently depending on where in the train you are. The transitions are really smooth and I think there's a little floater airtime as you hit the peaks. Interesting element, but I'm not sure I'm completely sold, however it definitely is better than a regular cobra roll, and I'm probably just nitpicking.The following turns and airtime hills are really really good. In general, all the valleys and turns pull pretty strong positive g's. I was slightly underwhelmed by the finish. Basically from the double-down kinda of thing until the break run, there are all these quick little elements. The train is still flying through here, however none of the transitions are as sharp and forceful as Taron, nor is there really any ejector air from here out, it's mostly floater air. It could also just be it still isn't running as fast as it will once the weather warms up, I imagine just a slight increase could dramatically increase the airtime. I guess my issue is I prefer the 'basic' ejector bunny hops you get on Expedition Geforce to the quick-punch elements in general. Kondaa absolutely blows Taron out of the water though. The claim was also '15 moments of airtime', which I guess isn't inaccurate. However, I'd count it closer to 11 or 12 moments, but that's in my 'ejector air fanboy' opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. There were a few moments I thought might be a tiny bit of floater air, but like hall of fame voting, if I have to think and don't immediately go 'Holy Sh*t! Airtime', I don't consider it airtime . I got maybe 7 or 8 rides in, a few in the back, middle, and 2 in the 2nd row. Hard to say yet if I prefer front or back, the first drop is insane on the back, but I think maybe the finale is better in the front. I was also really REALLY impressed with just how good the middle-of-the-train rides are. My first ride I got stuck like dead center and was pleasantly surprised that the thing was still really intense, that usually isn't my experience. All in all, I think it challenges Expedition GeForce as my favorite steel coaster (and maybe overall). GeForce was my favorite coaster in Europe I'll need to wait to get to ride Untamed (hopefully) later this summer, but I think Kondaa makes a very strong case. And GeForce is a hard one to unseat as it's exactly my ideal kind of coaster and I finally got to ride it two years ago, after almost a 2 decade wait, so it isn't entire objective. I think I'll just need to make another trip out to Holiday Park to compare again. But then we do have the issue of reliability with Intamin.... I spent about half the day at Kondaa and the ride went down 3 separate times, each time requiring evacing a train from the brake run and walking up the lift (manual override?). It appeared there was a sensor issue that was causing the train to sometimes stop before clearing the first break run (at least I think). I get it's opening weekend of a new ride, but 3 times is a bit much... I thought ops did a pretty solid job. Two trains with very little stacking. More often than not, the train was heading up the lift as soon as the other hit the break run. There is also a single rider line, however they had it closed today. After a few hours at Kondaa, I headed to checkout the rest of the park and get the 'credits' Next up was Tiki-Waka, just on the other side of Kondaa. Kinda fun Gerstlauer, but nothing too exciting. Theming in the section was alright. Definitely a 'premium' Six Flags kinda vibe, without the stupid marvel branding and adverts. Then I headed to Calamity Mine, which was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable mine train. Again, not at the level of the mine train at Phatasialand, but still pretty good theming. You actually can get a little wet here! Don't think I've seen this on a mine train before. Great view of Kondaa's non-inverting Cobra roll from the station and viewing platform above. Then it was time to actually get wet on Pulsar! (I didn't actually get very wet, I got the lucky seat ) This was my first water coaster like this, I found the launch and forward/backward idea pretty cool and unique, though I probably would prefer a more traditional style with more theming. The next three credits were all about getting them over with and surviving . Vekoma woodie, SLC, and boomerang. Worst trio ever? I don't think there are any real good ways to get photos of Loop-Garou. I must say, I was actually a bit pleasantly surprised by Loup-Garou. I was expecting a suffer fest with a boring layout, but it actually ended up being not 'that' rough (of course it had it's Vekoma moments...) and the layout was much more interesting. I would actually ride this again, something I usually wouldn't ever say about a Vekoma woodie. That said, this would be a perfect RMC project.... .... .... Next is arguably my least favorite roller coaster of all time - the dreaded SLC! Vampire at least had some theming and very nice gardening and flowers, it looked way better than the typical parking-lot theming SLCs get. As I was approaching, I was praying it had the vest style harnesses.... nope, the old sh*tty restraints. Oh well. I found the first half actually not too rough, the second half was typical jerky though. Needless to say, I have no desire to ride this again. Last of the crappy credit trio Cobra. Another problem with boomerangs, they almost always have similar crappy theming. I forgot to take any photos of Psyké Underground, but I thought the theming was OK. I hadn't ridden a Schwarzkopf shuttle looper in maybe over 2 decades and I think this was the first with any real theming. I look forward to venturing down to Walibi on a semi-regular basis and see how Kondaa continues to grow on me. Not having ridden a decent coaster in over two years prior to yesterday makes it hard to judge Kondaa without recent reference points. I would say the rest of the park isn't really trip worthy, but Kondaa alone lives up to the hype and make Walibi Belgium a must visit.

No, it's not all they do, and that used to be better understood than it is now. HFE is an entertainment company. Their reason for existing is to entertain. They make a profit by entertaining so they can stay in the business of entertaining. Profit serves the mission of their business. It is not itself the mission of their business. Don't get that twisted.

I for one am shocked.

The majority of parks charge at least $20 to park. I have to spend $3 to park at my local target. I don't think this is worth complaining about.