Janster

Well, if you like twists and turns, but no drops and loops. You should go on "Space Invaders". It's an indoor roller coaster. No drops, no inversions; just turns. You can try "Steeple chase", that's some sort of a mechanical donkey trail. You sit on horses and with three people you race simultaneously around a small circuit. Not much of roller coaster, but it's fun! I guess you are also quite tolerant for the wooden roller coasters in blackpool. Just try "Roller Coaster" first. Not that high, not that intense. You can also go on "Avalanche". It's a bobsled that only makes turns. Don't go on "traumatizer" (the "new" inverted; infusion has moved from southport to blackpool). It's rough and painful. And it would be a real traumatic experience. I know someone who didn't dare going on roller coasters, and he first went on "El Condor" @ Walibi World. He never recovered, he doesn't go on any coaster with inversions anymore. If you want to push your limt: go on "Irn Bru Revolution". It's small, the ride is over withing 40 seconds. It has no high drop, no forcefull launch and just one loop.

Wow, I always wondered what that park must look like. It looks OK. Nice pictures. Negative q-ing times. The ride has to wait for riders in stead of the other way around. Cool that you sacrificed a ride on Anaconda to make that picture. I guess I won't be going to South Africa soon, but if I'm around, I will visit Gold Reef City. That ToT looks so scary. I guess that's one of those "WTF OMG I'm gonna die today" kinda rides. Is there anyone who rode it in the good old days?

Hmmm... Sounds like a cool god to me. Did he blessed us with roller coasters as well?

What does it mean "Furius Baco"? I thought a "Baco" was some sort of snake. Furious Baco would have been an angry Mediterenean snake. But furius baco... anyone? The above link says that the coaster will open may ending / june 2007. Any news about a precise opening date? Or is there any news about a pull through or some actual test riding?

This thingy looks really weird. Hopefully it will give us coaster lovers a new and special sensation. I will check this one out on my scandinavian trip this year!

I didn't feel that much of a difference in G-forces. RCDB says: Nemesis - 3 G / Black Mamba - 4 G. So according to RCDB it's the other way around. I think those figures are incorrect btw, they both hit 4 / 4.5 G's.

Nemesis and Black Mamba are two of my top five roller coasters. Both rides are fantastic. I rode Black Mamba 11 times (6 times front seat, really the seat you have to go for in these inverted coasters) and Nemesis 5 times (2 times front seat). Nemesis was probably the first, small, highly themed B&M inverted. Phantasialand pushed this concept a little further by building Black Mamba. Everything is themed in Black Mamba. The food in the "Deep in Africa" section of the park are African specialities. The employees in the shops and operators of the ride are black (now that's theming, bit of an ethical issue though). The music in the q-line, the loading station and on top of the lift hill really boosts the atmosphere around the coaster. And then the landscape: the waterfall, the tunnels, the canyons, gorgeous. Both rides have the same inversions - Zero-G roll, two corkscrews and a loop - but in a differnt order. I like the loop in the middle of the track in Nemeis. The train just doesn't seem to slow down and there is still speed left for the full vertical loop. Black Mamba however, features a really unique element - the Junior Immelman. I gues you can call it some sort of an inclined loop, it's no full inversion. Both track layouts are very original and the "pacing" is perfect. B&M is the Rolls Royce of Roller Coasters, both rides are smooth. Black Mamba is my number one Roller Coaster. Track Layout, atmophere, theming and suspense; Black Mamba scores a tiny bit better. Nemesis is more of a classic (trendsetter) though.

Do they put more then one car (two? or three?) on the track? All other X-cars have only one tandem x-car (12 passengers) and even though X-cars are located in small parks, they still have a terrible capacity problem. If they put one single X-car (6 passengers) on this one, the "kingda-ka-three-hour-q-lines" will come to Drievliet.

Pobably. I didn't hear it on Expetion Geforce though, and in the past the loud bang wasn't there.

Ah, how nice for you two. I hope mother and baby continue to do fine. Congratulations.

Yep, so true. La Via Volta already looks like scrap metal and so does Xpress. They really need to repaint Xpress this year. Goliath also showed some rust colleration here and there. Hopefully WW uses the extra money for maintenance. Lately Goliath also made a loud bang, just before ascending the lift hill (did somebody else notice?). They should fix that too.

A lot of negative noises about X-cars in this thread... I've only done G-Force at Drayton Manure. I didn't think it was rough, I experienced quite a smooth ride. Perhaps due to the lack of speed or because there were no over the shoulder restraints to bang your head against like sharktums said on the previous page. I'm also quite tolerant for X-Car's lab bars. Didn't hurt me. It's not much of a Roller Coaster though. The hanging upside down in the first loop was an OK feature. But the rest of the track... That so-called airtime hill didn't do anything to me, those inversion were original, but I didn't like them and the track was way to short. This year I'm going for Abismo at PdA Madrid, that one should be a bit better. Let's not judge Formule-X in advance. Maurer does try something new here. The speed is low (65 kph ~ 43 mph) and just lab bars, so it can't possibly be very rough. The track layout looks cool to me, though a bit short. This is a nice addition for a small park like Drievliet. The coaster looks kinda "cute" I think.

I don´t know what to think of BPD. On the one side, I really enjoyed being on those antique Roller Coasters. It's nice to ride them once, but that's it! Blackpool also has the good old atmosphere as well. But I experienced it once, and that's enough! On the other side: I'm living here and now, and I know that modern technology makes it possible to build rides like Oblivion, Nemesis, Air and Rita. Those rides really, really, really work for me. I return to Alton when I'm around, no doubt about it. I can't say the same thing about blackpool. So perhaps replacing one of them antiques by a state of the art coaster is a good thing to do for BPB.

Walibi World just announced their strategy for 2007. On a dutch website I found this article (in dutch): http://www.rides.nl/nieuws/bericht/1031 It says that Walibi World continues to focus on getting a more "balanced selection of rides": - Rides for the kiddies (there will be a new playground for the little ones) - Family rides: Robin Hood, some pretty descent water rides, Merlin's Magic Castle and a new "interactive fountain", whatever that may be. - Rides for the thrill seekers (Goliath, Xpress, Space Shot) I Guess that's a pretty good strategy. Family parks do seem to work here. Take Efteling for example, it's been Holland's most popular day trip for years. Walibi World bases it's strategy upon research they did on their visitors. That's a good thing to do. But for me as a Roller Coaster lover, that's a pity... but that's just me. For a nice family trip and not just for thrills. This policy - that's been going on for two years now, starting with "splash batlle" - resulted in the demolition of "La Via Volta". In may this year they will tear this cruel, spine torturing machine down. In april you can still ride it and say goodbey to LVV. I would rather have see them putting the new smooth train on it. But hey... tearing down a traditional boomerang is always a good thing to do. We don't have to expect new spectacular Roller Coasters from Walibi World in the future. Too bad Walibi World didn't become the "Roller Coaster Capital of Europe" they once promised to be in TV commercials. I only go back there for Goliath, and that's one hell of a reason, isn't it?

Difficult to point out one worst coaster. Some coasters where I think the builders and designers really should have done a better job: X:/No Way out @ Thorpe: Terrible. No speed, no sharp turns, no drop, standing still due to the number of brakes, bad theming.... The idea behind it is good though: "Travelling backwards, twisting and turning and coming out completely desorientated in a maze". But the ride F@k!z up big time! Temple of the nighthawk @ Phantasialand: Why couldn't I take my cup of coffee on this thing operators? We might just as well have a complete lunch in here. I didn't feel like I was on the back of a predator hunting down it's prey in the deep dark night. Pepsi Max Big One @ Blackpool peasure beach: The location is wonderful and the structure impressive (nice skyline blackpool!), so is the view, the speed, the wind and the hight. And PMBO was the trendsetter for megacoasters in Europe. But what's a roller coaster without airtime or positive G's? And that first drop was painful.

Just a topspin. I don't like top spins. Bummer.

Menghini on Villa Volta - Efteling: Do you think language is really that much of a problem? I mean, people can read the story in four different languages in the Q-line. After you know the simple story it's suspense, atmospere and illusion that should do the trick. I know the story of VV by heart, but the ride still works for me. They might just as well do the pre-shows in Chines for me.

Oh yeah, those are the moments you live for! In 2006 I had it on Sream (103 m tall gyrodrop at Heide), Oblivion and Rita (my first Intamin Rocket). The tilting of this coaster looks freakin' scary.

Cool video. The park looks very nice and tidy and it seems like they do have a nice selection of rides. Smooth Boomerang, Booster, an awesome frisbee ("in the house, out the house...." ) and that woody... Yummie, it looks awesome. I'm looking forward to go to Power Park this june! They also have a race / cart track near the park. Is that also worth going to?

I was hoping for a highly themed rocket coaster. And wow! It looks like it´s going to happen! Did they look at the competing park phantasialand where Black Mamba showed that theming can boost a small coaster to one of the best rides in Europe? I'm looking forward to Desert Race! And scream and the massive airtime in Colossos ofcourse! Heide Park does have a nice selection of rides when Desert Race is finished.

Efteling will never build a Millenium Force, Kingda Ka, Colossos or any other huge thrill ride. That's not Efteling's style. Most of the 20 million euros are spent on theming and the dark ride section. Good Efteling theming can beat the larger thrills in parks nearby easily. It's not a waste of money. Efteling is a family park and families living nearby will always come back to this park. For year's Efteling is the most popular day trip for dutch families, it beats Walibi World, Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Harbor and other touristic attractions. If they can build every five to ten years a typical Efteling ride, people keep on coming to Efteling. Just don't expect a rocket coaster, MF, expedition Geforce or a Dragon Khan to come to Efteling.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at DLR Paris. If you compare this ride to Xpress at Walibi World you can see what theming can do to a ride, because they have the same track layout. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is awesome. I like the music, the light effects, the q-line, the loading station and Tyler screaming 3, 2, 1, GO!!. I didn't care that the ride was kinda rough, because it's in harmony with the rock theming. Xpress is just the roller coaster version of a plate of spaghetti, standing there, twisting and turning, without any theming. I quess the the rnrc's in the US have the same track layout as Rock 'n' roller coaster at DLR paris.

That's so true. I thought of it just after I posted my message! But how about a flying Rocket Coaster!?! That would be the ultimate superman ride... I haven't been on dodompa, but I read the thread on Dodonpa. I have to say, you've all took away my last doubts for embarking on a Japan Coaster trip! But you are right, human perception is way more important then those figures.

Just done some calculations on rocket coasters and G-forces, I’m a bit surprised: Stealth: 0 – 80 mph in 1.9 seconds. 80 mph = 128 km/h = 35.6 m/s (metres per second, just another way of indicating speed). That speed is reached in 1.9 seconds. Acceleration is speed difference divided by time it took. Stealth’s acceleration is 35.6 / 1.9 = 18,7 (m/s)/s. The gravitational constant on earth is 9.81 (m/s)/s, that’s the one G you feel when you sit in you’re chair browsing websites. The number of G forces you feel as a result of the launch in stealth is only 18.7 / 9.81 = 1.91 G. Dodonpa reaches 2.71 G during the launch. That’s not very much. Most roller coasters hit more G’s in sharp turns and in the dips, usually 4 – 5 G’s. So in rocket coasters there is still some room to increase acceleration. We can take 5 G’s, can’t we? A 5 G launch would go in one second from 0 – 180 km/h (112 mph).

All the parks in the Netherlands are within a three hour drive. Efteling will be this year's homepark, since I have a season pass for the park. Some parks in Germany: Heide Park (3 hours), Moviepark Germany (3 hours), Phantasialand (4 hours). Holiday Park (6 hours)