Hermanus

No able to post more details at the moment, but Toverland just announched the longest wing coaster in europe. Fenix will be the name, 40 m high and 813 meters long. 24 riders per train. From what I can see it looks very very good!

Never thought someone would be disappointed because an Intamin was chosen over a Vekoma.. Am I the only one who is super excited for this?? Don't get me wrong, this does not make me less excited, I just feel like the ending came way to soon. This ride needs more of the Intamin goodness imo

It did indeed win, but the ending is changed and well... a lot more boring. A bit of a shame considering the height and the speed left at that point

Wow, what a cool castle. With the whole expention I can only say one thing as a European: When is it finnaly Disneyland Paris's turn to get a huge expension??? Jealous!

You're saying that Vekoma needs to be taught a lesson? Seriously? They're layout proposals, not 100% concept marketing material. They're supposed to be functional. Besides, the only difference appears to be that someone at Intamin took a short amount of time to whip up what could pass in some countries as a building and a pathway. Both had overly-dramatic music, both had a set of custom trains, both used a combination of cinematic cameras and on-ride shots... To say that one simulation was miles better than the other is splitting hairs. Also, the videos are only a part of the bigger proposal. Do you honestly think the park going to make a decision based solely on a video? No, they're not! Both Vekoma and Intamin likely submitted elevations, overhead views, perspectives, etc to go along with the video. Heck, for all we know, whichever layout they go with could end up being different once it's drawn up based on the topography of the site it will be built on. You are being rather harsh without knowing my intention, but thanks for the feedback anyway. I agree that the park will probably not choose the ride from the video's alone, the park looks to much more than just a simple video. There is cost, how it looks and fits in the park, the amount of maintenance needed, the stats to present. The public however, is usualy easly swayed by good images. I've seen that more than once a better looking proposal gets chosen over the lesser looking proposal, eventhough the quality of the proposal itself was of the exact same level. (note, this is based on my 6 year experience in the field of Urban Design). So yeah, if Vekoma knows that they are going to put this up on facebook I think they should have taken time to make the video better looking. If there is even a remote change that the opinion of the people on facebook has any infuance on the decision of what ride to build they should try to influence those people on facebook. And honestly, if I'm correct you have played enough Nolimits to know what difference the look of a video can make (N7 surely knows it)

A lesson for Vekoma in the category: Never underestimate the better presentation. I think that Vekoma should have put much more work in their simulation. With a way better looking sim their ride would have had a much better opportunity at winning thing. No matter what, the ride will be good, but I would have loved to see vekoma do this since their lay-out look much more fan instead of a: 'lets throw as much in it as we can' lay-out.

Wildfire and Taron are like so much better than everything below it though. 1. Wildfire 2. Taron 3. Helix 4. Troy 5. Goliath 6. Expedition Geforce 7. Juvelen 8. Silver Star 9. Lisebergbanen 10. Flug von Novgorod

I haven't ridden Formula 1 myself, but one of my friends did. According to him the ride is incredibly smooth, just as smooth as a brand new B&M. Airtime is good, comparable to smaller intamin hills. The transitions are different. The G's build up during the turn as opposed to quick lead ins/lead outs. The trains are a much better version of newest the MK1212 trains, but the Hyper will not have those, so no problem there. Also, all new coasters by Vekoma using the outside rail system have been glass smooth. Orkanen, Formula 1, Tron etc are all on top of the smooth coasters list. So I think that smoothness should be no problem, especialy with this new designer they have.

Well, that G-graph says a lot. I've seen readings from Goliath a few years ago (still looking for them though) which stated that the max negative G-force on the ride was about -0,6G. The ride Vekoma designed has several moments of that. Also, the positive G's while not as much as Expedition Geforce, but overal it keeps up both speed, airtime and G-forces. I think most highly underestimate the amount of airtime this ride offers.

As far as I've heard the Formula 1 is a very good ride. The airtime is good, the ride is very smooth and the lay-out is fun enough. So we'll see. Looking at the POV the intamin will have a bit higher amount of airtime, but not that much less. Also the train is longer, so the back and front will probably have a reall good amount. Looking at the speed it will be much better than an B&M at least. The fact that Vekoma never really did airtime doesn't mean they can't do it. Also, the ending of the Vekoma seems much much faster and better paced. Umm, how long was Battlestar Galactica closed? How are those new trains working out? I'm not sure you can make that argument, especially when it comes to a prototype design at a height/speed unprecedented from Vekoma. Yes, they had that one failure with those trains, they also know why and have learned from it. Vekoma also had the first flying coaster, they build the tilt coaster, build one of the first SLM launches (opposed to the LIM premier used). They are also responsible for madhouses and boomerang coasters. The motorbike was one of their firsts and more important, all of those 'prototypes' didn't have to much problems. Intamin however had several problems with G-forces which caused ride modifications, had snapping cables on their launched coasters, parts of trains dropping of. Yes, they push more, but also have more problems. I really like Intamin rides, Taron is second only to Wildfire to me, but blaming Vekoma for that one thing while Intamins track record is much worse is not right imho. I'd really really really want to see how vekoma does this one. I think they will surprise everyone.

Looking at both lay-out's I think the Vekoma one offers a more fun ride than the Intamin. While the Intamin animation looks better, the lay-out of the Vekoma offers more of what I like. Also, I think this would be a great thing for Vekoma to step up their game. In the end Vekoma might have an edge because I think their ride will be a bit cheaper.

The castle is getting bigger by the day, I can't wait to see when they put the roofs on the towers! Source: https://twitter.com/daantjegrey/status/764046305521872898

I finally rode it...wait it's only just open, this is new to me. Nevermind that. Okea, so I rode it and can only say that it is awesome! To put some context into this short review, I recently rode Taron on the opening night and a few days before I rode Helix, so my top 3 was already changing more than usual. To get back, this ride is awesome. If you take the right (or bottom) trip round the park the first thing you will see is the backside of pre-drop. It looks a bit small from there. But once you go to the station it's quite big. The lift and the pre-drop area give you a very nice view of the surroundings. Of course, due to the ride being quite a bit above the lake level, the height really enhances the feel for the area. The first drop is nice and steep with a nice curve at the bottom. I rode it frontseat on the first run, backseat on the second. Do ride in the back! The drop was a ejector from top to bottom. Best first drop, even above Expedition G-force for me. Thje zero-g-stall, seriously the person who thought of that deserves a medal. That element is insane. Perfect floater from start to end. Then a very nice but fast transition into the banked hill. Also very nice element, gives a good but short pop of air before pulling you into the next bend. What follows is a great combination of a banked hill followed by and even better airtime hill and the way into the second inversion. This one took me a bit by surprise since it also gave a very nice zero-g feeling. You kinda floated through it, both back and front. The way down to the station turn around gives a good view of the area as well as a feel for the speed. The station turnaround gives a pop of air, which is better in front than back. The ending is a mixed bag for me. The barrel roll is just insane, but in a good constant way. I was expecting something like the roll on helix, but this one was way different. The only 'lesser' part of the ride is the last hill which gives no air, front or back. Also the turns are just not snappy enough for me. This was literally my only letdown. The train tears through the track from start to finish! Awesome, must ride. Best ride in Europe for me, right before Helix and Taron. So, what seat is the best? To me, G-wise the right backseat. The left back is also very good, but the right backseat felt better on some turns. Front is great for the view, but the forces are a bit tamer. For me the perferance for backseat is strange since I am a front seat guy 9 out of 10 times. A very very solid ride! The only thing I didn't like were the operations, but I got to cut some slack due to this being their first big ride. The problems I have are two fold: When you said you wanted to wait for a certain seat they did allow it, but in a very rude way. Now, if I was declaring I'd do something they would be totally right, but I asked it nicely every single time. The second problem is in the way the grouper works. Insead of assigning people to their row, they just let people trough, which caused some gates to be doubled up and some empty. While they did correct this it often took a while which slowed down the operations. Then again, I can understand why this is, it's a new thing for kolmarden as well as Europeans mostly (8 out of 10 parks let you pick your own seat and let you wait for your prefered seat no questions asked). I think that when the season end operations are going to be much better! On the side note, not that they need lightning fast operations, they ran two trains the whole day while the wait was 1-2 trains max! Absolute thumbs up for that. I would understand if they'd have run only one. Stange however is the short wait considering the main parking was almost full that day. The ride is awesome, but feels a bit out of place in the current context of the park. However, I will complain no more, this ride is so awesome I want to ride it again and again and again! I can't wait to see more RMC in Europe! Kudo's to RMC and Kolmarden for building this! Also, some pictures of this ride! You see, that view is amazing! All happy faces, I can dig that This element is so well done. Even gives a small pop of air while being twisty at the same time. I am not even sure if I wan the holes to be filled up with wood, tis looks so good this way.

I am so guilty of playing this game while in Kolmarden en Tivoli (mind you, not all the time, just during the more boring periods (yes, they do exist). The game is just basic fun. Especialy Kolmarden had some nice pokemon and stops to add to the fun. Why I like this game? I like pokemon, it's simple and a fun thing to do with friends. You can just grab the phone (and powerbank x2) and go out, have a good walk, talk and laugh. Casual fun. What I don't get are all the stories about having to jump over fences and all. I've caught pokemon 50+ meter from where I was standing, sometimes even more. You don't have to stand ON them to catch them. Also, there is no reason to overstep bounds just to catch something, that just goes to far imo. Stay on the path, don't bumb into anyone and everyone will stay fine. And to the people who don't like the game, your loss. I enjoy it a lot, it reminds me of my youth and I will keep playing it

I've also rode it twice, one time in the second car, one time backseat. It's an okea ride. For a junior/family it's a very fast ride! The lift goes up quite high, the turn after the station gives some nice g's and the tunnel is very veyr fast on the first pass. The ride doesn't go up high at all, which feels weird. The backrun is also nice because 1/2 is very low to the ground. The onlyt problem I did have with the ride are the restrains. There are your typical new style kiddie restrains from Vekoma, but they feel different. They are very uncomfortable for taller people (say 1.80-1.85) because of the way to fall onto your lap. They are positioned to the middle of your upper legs, as opposed to the hip. Feels really weird and even a bit unsafe (feel, there are perfectly safe). The shins are mostly there for smaller children, you don't notice those.

Just rode it for the 4th time. Trust me the pov does not do this ride justice. It's a wild ride from start to finish with some very good directional changes, airtime and laterals. It's anything but force less and it's easy a top ten if not top five ride. Not sure where I'd put it, but it has no single boring moment. Again, no video does this ride justice.

It was disappointing, yes. I don't think I've seen that many major rides closed in one park (or resort) at any given time. However, we had been to the park before so it didn't impact us THAT much. I would have liked to have gotten on Big Thunder Mountain again, but being that I live about 20 minutes away from Big Thunder Mountain and I probably ride it 2-3 times a week in my hometown, it wasn't a huge deal. But I can see why someone would delay a visit to the park until they get more of their rides back open again. Maybe for the anniversary next year? On another note, the Disney Dreams show totally makes up for any attractions not running! You were lucky, last year It's a small world was also closed, as well as buzz half of the visit. That combined with frequest breakdowns of Pirates (which is awesome), Space Mountain (which opened later without the onride music) and a lot of rain really brought my opinion down. The 6 hour EVT (exclusive visit time) we had in the studios park with 1500 other made up for it only a bit. Than again, the maintenance is needed, the park is going to look brand new in a year or 1.5 And you are so lucky, I've only seen the Disney Winter Dreams show. Still awesome though, that castle...wow

Queues were super short. Longest line ended up being about 20 minutes for Lost Gravity later in the day. We were pretty much "done" with the park (got all the coasters in) by about 12:30 and then we just hung out for a couple hours more and re-rode a bunch of other stuff. So no real problems at all. Queues in Walibi are never that long. The only real times that the park is busy is around Halloween (which, to be honest is GREAT compared to what other parks in the region offer). Off peak season I've never really seen a queue longer than 20 minutes and since the holidays in the Netherlands haven't started it is no surprise. The only park in the Netherlands with longer queue's is the Efteling, where 30 minutes for the coasters is normal, on and of season. With the current growth Toverland will probably even overtake Walibi by 2020. Something different though, what was your opinion on the amount of rides and area's closed in Disneyland? I've been there the last two years and to me it did really impact my visit in such way that I'm going to skip this year (and lets be honest, with every resort getting new rides Paris should get some in the next 5 years)

We won't be there for a couple of weeks still... Out of curiosity, when will you be there? Since I'm also planning on going there (which European coaster fan doesn't?) very soon.