Photo TR: Wodan media day at Europa Park (new GCI coaster)

[Guy T. Koepp]

What a beautiful coaster and beautiful que as well. As is always the case, the pictures are amazing Hanno.

[XII]

Wodan looks incredible. I knew Europa Park would do a great job theming Wodan, but they still managed to blow my expectations away with how well they themed this ride. Can't wait to ride it in June.

[CpBluestreakCp]

Wow...that coaster looks amazing. The theme adds to it well. Great TR, love the angles of the pictures and such.

[STR8FXXXINEDGE]

Man, this thing looks fantastic! I had no idea all that theming was going into the queue as well. Everything looks so good! I can't believe they had a sky bar and everything for the media day. So cool. Add that to the long list of reasons why Europa Park, is in my opinion, the best park ever! Thanks a bunch for sharing these pics, Hanno!

 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I am SO bummed that I can't make the Europe trip this year. I can't wait to get back there!

[ThatFalafelGirl]

Really nice photos, Hanno. That skybar looked insane! You don't have any pictures of that from the ground, do you?

 

Good work!

[CorkscrewFoley]

Europa has a few coasters on my coaster booklist, ugh the cliche, and this one is going right up there with Euro Sat and Blue Fire. The pics and the TR were great Hanno. Thank you.

[Kyle Coleman]

Great pictues of an amazing looking ride. Some of that theming in the que could compete with disney level quality. Looks like I have another reason to try and get to europa someday(as if I need another).

[KCForce]

Thanks for the wonderful report and pictures, Hanno. Now, if Wodan is anything like Prowler, I wasn't too impressed with it at first and thought, enh, nice family ride. By mid-season it had moved all the way up to my number 2 spot for woodies. The airtime and forces dramatically improved as it "broke in", and my hope for you is that Wodan will blossom like Prowler did. It'll be interesting to see what you think of the coaster after it is broken in later this season. Peace!

[DerekRx]

I don't know if it's the incredible pictures Hanno always seems to capture, but I think I have a new most anticipated coaster of the summer. Or I'm just excited to get back to Europa

[Noxegon]

Three weeks to go until I'm there... time seems to have slowed...

[Nyteowl]

Such a beautiful coaster! Great PTR, made my day .

[Hhappy]

Hanno, do you know it there`s an extra line for the first row ???

i have not seen signs for that. Maybe it will be added.. maybe not..

[Jay20016]

Is it bad that this sky bar had me more intrigued than the beauty of a coaster?

[Taylor Finn]

GCI makes fantastic coasters with unique layouts and this one is no exception. The theming, as everyone has already addressed, is fantastic. This park is at the top of parks I want to visit not in the US.

[Hhappy]

Anybody interested in more pictures?

Today the ride was open for a few hours for fans

[thrillgeek]

Stunning pictures as always Hanno. It seemed like just a few months ago that I had seen a model of this coaster in the IAPPA video and now it's the real thing! Another great reason for me to visit this great park some day.

[Hhappy]

So today the ride was open for a few hours for a group of fans.

I was lucky enough to be able to join them for this event which gave me the opportunity to take more pictures.

More pictures is always good (i've been told) and this time there will be more rider pictures.

 

I do hope you like them and feel free to comment

First things first (aka this morning) More theming was added to the ride

and other work was still being done

those are some giant letters

Flash forward a couple of hours and something like 300 fans are ready to ride

those letters add a nice touch (i think)

They might look a little different tomorrow.. or not..

it adds to the look

you should go this way to ride.. (letters tomorrow on the shield?)

beautifull curve

(german) story time

"old" dude

first train with riders today

there will be a lot of pictures of happy riders today

it's a nice location for pictures

here's some zoom use

owh my hair..

happy riders

no train

yes train

maybe tomorrow with a boat?!?!?

hairtime

fun for all ages

tunnel time

looks like some laterals..

funny faces

the sun decided to show up after all today

mind the gap (or hole or whatever comes to mind)

aaarrggh

(h)airtime

attempting artsy and orange

more random folks

owh boy (it's first drop time)

almost at the end

picking up more speed

end of the fly through

more first drop fun

"mama"

turn turn turn

hmm, not precisely what i had in mind..

and there is the sun again

this time with a train

todays special guests

lots and lots of joy

and for the fun of it they got to ride again

open up..

yup, looks like a fun ride

just because it's pretty

and just because it's pretty and we have a train

right before the onride photo point

ok, this could be interesting..

now that's a different view indeed

where's that boat when you need it

overview

more overview

and this should about complete the overview

drop time

zooming in just a bit

yup, looks like fun

something different

here they go

hands up if you like this ride

the home stretch

time for another crossing

ok, time to go. That's it for today. The park will be open tomorrow.. so hopefully i'll be able to get some ride interaction pictures tomorrow

[SharkTums]

Was the fire going today?

[BeemerBoy]

Nice work, Hanno.

 

Does this park do anything wrong?

[Hhappy]

Was the fire going today?

 

I've seen them test the fire on top yesterday evening but i did not notice it today. It's not that big so it can be challenging to see when the sun is shining..

fire as seen from my hotel room the day before

[RoCo]

More awesome shots and these really made me appreciate how beautiful the trains are. Could be the best looking Millennium Flyers I've ever seen. Mega-bonus points for putting the Wodan logo on the back car, too.

[DJeXeL]

Ok now they are just being cocky.

It keeps getting better and better with every update...........keep the photos coming!

[JimmyBo]

All I can say is "HOLY CRAP!" Is this not the best, most themed, most awesome, most insane looking GCI out there? Can anyone name a better one? Seriously? I can not wait to get off my fat butt and get out to Europa Park and try this ride out. Of course, that's not happening anytime soon but I can still dream. Looks like Europa has got one amazing new ride on their hands.

 

Jimmy "Way to go Europa!" Bo

[Jackie Chan]

Great stuff! Thanks for all the photos.

You must have a real good time over there. I can't wait to ride Wodan and bluefire again

[Kooky]

really nice pics from today... tomorrow i will add a offride and some other video shots from the queue!

so a short coaster review:

 

Was a nice day and after half an hour wait we got onto the ride. The queue is really nice themed. You walk along a (very long) gangway with nicely added lamps and really intresting theming. On many parts of the queue you walk directly under the lifthill and the first drop which is really impressive. Then you walk through the indoor queue which is like hanno said, very well themed,too. Very less light and really nice atmosphere...

 

The whole in a wall which hanno showed is a smoke screen were a 3D-Hammer is projected and the surrounding building construction start to shake earthquake like (animactronic), which many people shocked the first time (us too ) - Here a video (sorry a little bit shaky, but you can see the nice effects and the building shaking at the end):

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

 

Then you walk through some more nicely themed scenes and arrive in the station.

 

One of my favourite little details of the ride-theming was that the statues in station startet to turn the head in the direction in which the train was leaving and when the train was gone they looked in the direction from which the trains arrives... awesome!!! Here a short Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbGgMXgR6RQ

 

 

 

So to the ride... after leaving the station it gets a little bit speed to get first turn with a wrong banking! Especially in the last car i was really suprised about it. Then up the Lifthill (fire was off) and down the first hill has nice air, especially in the last row. The rest of the ride is just like hanno said a fast chain of curves through which you ride with some decent speed and some pops of air on some points. What i liked most is the sometimes little bit weird banking and the nice unpredictable strange bumps in curves -a lot of fun and gives a nice turblent ride feeling. So overall not in my top ten for airtime but definitly in the top 10 for fun and theming on a woody and a all ages family friendly funride. First ride in the second row was fun, the next two times i get a ride in the last row which really added a little bit more fun to it, so ride it in the back if you were introduced so(no own "choose a row"). And talking to the chief spokesman he told the ride will get faster and faster overtime, can't wait to ride it on my next visit in one month again. Overall it is a really great addition... the only problem of this day was operation speed, which was in my opinion a big letdown. With 300-400 people on the ride and two trains running, operations were really slow and you moved very slow in the queue for EuropaPark standards. But i think they tested a lot and today they trained the workers very well, so maybe after some weeks and with three trains running they will get the operations as fast as we were used to