[Blog] European B&M Hunter

[chehza]

I'm Youri van de Konijnenberg, I'm 16 years old and live in Holland. I thought one day, I got to get myself a sort of mission. So I thought of ride all European B&M's before the end of 2013. I gave myself 3 years

 

Introduction

 

European Coaster Hunter! In 3 years i will hunt for all European B&M's and will end the hunt in 2013 by be done with riding all of the excist B&M's right now and the one who are build now!

It seems really long, but a lot of different blogs aren't be made, in Europe are now 12 B&M's and 2 are build now! Soon i'll begin with the blogs!

 

(Coasters on the list)

- Katun (Mirabilandia), Monster (Walygator Park), Black Mamba (Phantasialand) , Batman la Fuga en Superman Attracion de Acero ( Parque Warner Madrid) , Nemesis, Air en Oblivion (Alton Towers), Nemesis Inferno (Thorpe Park) , X-Raptor (Gardaland), Krake (Heidepark), Deamonen (Tivoli Kopenhagen), Dragon Khan (Port Aventura) en Silver Star (Europapark)

 

Part 1 :

We speak of 2 august 2010. A warm and sunny day in Savio, Italia. We settled us in our first week of the vacation nearby the themepark at the Adriatic Coast : Mirabilandia. The home of rides like Reset : Anno Zero and Rio Bravo and brilliant coasters as ISpeed and Katun. I'll speak of course about the last one.

 

 

Katun is an B&M Inverted Coaster, and that's why i'll speak about it . She's opened in the year of 2000. At 1 april 2000 rode this monster, 50 metres high, his first round with public. The coasters has got 6 inversions and the highest speed is 104 km/h. Katun is, beside of the track and lay-out, characterized by the monstercappacity, at least 1700 people can ride this coaster in 1 hour. Also the trains are characterising for B&M, by the 4-people-coaches. In fact of that and the 3 trains with 8 coaches explains why Katun can have a so high cappacity.

 

 

The name Katun isn't chosen by just picking a name. Katun is a period of 7200 days at the famous Mayan-calendar. The coaster is all over thematized to the Mayans and is situated in the village of 'Sian Ka'a'n', what means 'gift from heaven'. In reality is found in Sian Ka'an, what is situated in Mexico, is 23 Mayan-Ruins. Sian Ka'an is from 1987 member of the UNESCO-world heritage list.

 

 

It's 9:55, we are a bit late and while we ride at the parking of Mirabilanda we saw Katun made his first rounds. After quick buying the tickeys we passed all rides to go to our target. We walked into Sian Ka'an and the jitters in my stomach grow a bit for a bit. We rode some B&M's before, but this one felt special. The hights and inversions weren't the cause, we did that sort things before, but the fact that it is an Inverted, that's what made it special. (It was my 100th rollercoaster, that can helped either )

 

 

After just wait 5 minutes it was the time for our first ride in a new B&M-monster! We felt in a kind of time-dimension-portal and after a long lift and a small predrop we fall 45 metres to the ground at the first drop. We made almost 4G in the coaster when it came back up for one of the greatest and highest loopings of Europe. The looping pretends to being 'slow' because it's so big. It's an old and gold Looping, and a very pretty inversion. And how we know B&M the looping was followed up with an Zero-G-roll. It's taken really quick and what made me feel awesome about it was that the Zero-Gravity pretend to be really long! That was pretty intens also because we did fall into the deep again, after a big decrease of hight the coaster took an longer curve. After a little airtime moment we were directly in the Cobra Roll, our first one on a inverted. It felt both smooth as intense. With a graceful curve we get into the midcoursebreak. With a lot of airtime in the decrease after that it was time for the first corckshrew, just again smooth and intense. When we came out of the corckshrew there was the photo-moment at the ride, but you can't enjoy it long. We were already in the tunnel and when we can see the light again we already were in the second corckshrew. It was just like the first one, but than the opposite way in. The coaster doesn't stop slowly but with a curve with really high G-forces because this one is taken with a decent amount of speed and with an fast edge. This curve really caused a black-out by me! We end the coaster with another pass through an time-dimension-portal and flee into the brakes.

We pich the sweat off our heads and came by the conclusion that, Katun is a real Top-coaster, and a fantastic begin of our journey!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiXw7uyfF0E

 

Generally spoken, the Katun is a hell of a B&M, she's beautifull. She stands gracefully in a forest and you see parts of the track raise above the trees. The coaster is powerfull, the theme is unique and well done. Katun is an absolute toprollercoaster, and for me an special expierence!

 

Here some photo's (some where shot with my videocamera!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more pictures check :

http://s538.photobucket.com/albums/ff343/Chehza/BM%20Hunter%20part%20one/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ36

 

 

B&M 1 of the 14 is rode now, the journey has been succesfully started, but there is gonna be al lot to do if i want to ride the other 13!

The hunt will soon be continued soon!

 

Greetings, The European B&M Hunter

 

MOD EDIT: The link to your blog has been removed as it violates the Terms of Service you agreed to when registering on Theme Park Review.

Edited January 9, 2011 by larrygator

[tiger01]

This should be a fun thread. I've personally only ridden three B&M's . Oblivion, Air and Nemesis. Which were all terrific!

Mirabilandia has really called out to me as a park that I must visit. iSpeed and Katun just seem like top class coasters. Did you ride iSpeed or did you just ride Katun?

[samisthabomb]

Good luck, dude!

[chehza]

I rode of course ISpeed too, what a powerfull coaster is that! Awesome too!

 

 

Thanks for the responds!

[matteocrepaldi]

Good luck!

 

I've rode 9 of them.

[chehza]

My blog will be updated soon I hope!

 

2 years later I've ridden Katun, Black Mamba, Batman la Fuga, Superman El Attraction de Acero, Nemesis, Air, Oblivion, Nemesis Inferno, Krake, Dragon Khan and Silver Star. The only coasters left are The Monster in Walygator Parc (I hope in the new season they will open..), Raptor in Gardaland (will be ridden in the summerholiday!), Deamonen in Tivoli Kopenhagen (will be ridden in May) and the new Oziris in Parc Asterix!

 

Seems like I'll get my goal!

[Ed Farmer]

Nice. As disenchanted as I've become with most of their latest offerings, more than enough of their rides would litter the top of my rankings if I sat down to compile such a list. Whenever there's a new one going up, I still hold out hope that it'll be done right- right down to the deafening roar that too many parks have opted to design out of their B&M rides lately.

[matteocrepaldi]

The only two B&M I still have to ride are Deamonen and Krake but I don't think I'll be able to ride them next year!

[AstroDan]

My missing European B&M's are Shambhala and Daemonen.

 

So. Far. Apart!

[RCT3Bross]

I Only got to ride the German B&M's. Three great one's but I heard there are much better in Europe alone. I'm going to follow this since I love B&M.

[chehza]

X Katun (Mirabilandia)

- Monster (Walygator Park)

- Black Mamba (Phantasialand)

- Batman la Fuga (Parque Warner Madrid)

- Superman Attracion de Acero (Parque Warner Madrid)

- Nemesis (Alton Towers)

- Air (Alton Towers)

- Oblivion (Alton Towers)

- Nemesis Inferno (Thorpe Park)

- Raptor (Gardaland)

- Krake (Heide Park)

- Deamonen (Tivoli Kopenhagen)

- Dragon Khan (Port Aventura)

- Silver Star (Europa Park)

X The Swarm (Thorpe Park)

- Shambhala (Port Aventura)

- Oziris (Parc Asterix)

 

 

The Swarm

 

Thorpe Park, a themepark near London in a place called Chertsey. The theme park lies at an island where people can find great rollercoasters such as Collosus (10 inversions Intamin multilooper) Saw The Ride (Gerstlauer Eurofighter), Stealth (Intamin Accelerator) and a rollercoaster which I will discuss later on, Nemesis Inferno. When visiting the park it was the one of the crowded days in the season and despite that fact the personnel was very friendly and helpful. They even got time to make a little chat!

 

The Coaster

 

 

The Swarm is one of the newest rollercoasters from Bolliger and Mabbilard and went open in 2011. She is one of the new Wingrider-coasters of the world and has got a 'Apocalypse' theme, a theme which isn't new for Merlin Entertainment. The Swarm is 775,1 metres (2.543 foot) long and reaches the height of 38.7 metres (127 foot). In that short term the riders will experience 5 inversions, the first drop, named the Dive Drop, a Zero-G Roll, a Inclined Loop, a corkshrew and last but not least an Inline Twist above the station.

 

 

The Environment

The rollercoaster is surrounded by the 'apocalyptic' theming such as a fire truck, a destroyed airplane-wing and the best thing, the destroyed church which functions as the station for the ride. Furthermore the ride is surrounded by a food stand and a gift shop, which are themed as a container. The ride even goes above the water with a sort of wing dip. The queue are high fences where, with televisions, the story of the ride was told. That happens with newsflashes of a news channel which shows an Alien Invasion (The Swarm) attacked the earth.

 

 

 

The Ride

At the end of the queue there is an 'dispensary' for goods, a well used system by Merlin and Thorpe Park, it really works good! There we got assigned to a side. The first time we got to sit on the left-side of the coaches. It all starts with the little tunnel (which is themed as an upside down ambulance !) and the lift hill over the queue. After a huge lift hill we came by the whole new first drop, and the first inversion! The Dive Drop is a crazy element in the coaster where we first get slowly upside down and then we fall fast to the ground! The train goes under the airplane wing into the Zero-G Roll, from the right side a descent roll, then further to a crazy 360 degrees turn and into the wing dip in the water! Then we were heading for the corkscrew, which goes through the track of the ride, and then in the last turn above the queue (where you hear an extreme noise of bending metal) into and above the station, and there is the awesome inline twist! After that we reached the break sections and we roll out to the station.

Just when I thought this was good, we went directly another time and we could sit on the right-side of the train. There everything becomes much more intense! The rider is flipped-over every inversion which gave more adrenaline to the ride! The Corkscrew, Zero-G Roll and the Inline Twist improved a lot, and were just that small bit better to make the ride awesome!

Because of a lack of good instruction to the new employees of The Swarm we could ride the Swarm directly again, this time in the backseat. The ride then is even better, it is tremendous with how much power we dropped into the Dive Drop! The coaster wasn’t how I expected it, as a coaster with a lot of near misses, but instead it became a beast in power and adrenaline!

[youtube2]

[/youtube2]

 

Pictures :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more pictures, look at my Photobucket

 

The second B&M was rode and there are 15 B&M’s still waiting to be written and some to be rode! The hunt will continue in England! But that.. is for the next time.

 

Greetings,

The European B&M Hunter