Photo TR: Aaron's Grand European Tour

[azza29]

Parc Asterix

When I was younger I'd regularly read the Asterix series of books, so I was interested to see what the brand might bring to a theme park. Having heard mixed reviews of Parc Asterix, I wasn't expecting too much - but we ended up having a great day! The park itself is kind of like an ancient-era version of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, with representations of classical Greece, Rome, Egypti and (of course) Gaul.

 

OzIris was the only real standout coaster, probably one of the better B&M inverts I've been on, and definitely one of the best themed. Tonerre de Zeus was fairly good also, with a classic "wooden coaster through the forest" feel. As for Goudurix - let's just say it's best avoided entirely. I was impressed with how well all of the rides were integrated into the themed areas, without any awkward attempts to disguise the fact that you were in an amusement park. Think of it as a well-themed Six Flags.

 

Rollercoasters aside, Parc Asterix also had a good selection of water and flat rides, including the best-looking disko coaster you'll ever see, and an excellent walkthrough/madhouse experience. There were a couple of shows of varying quality, the highlight being a kind of reality show-style contest between the Gauls and Romans. It might not be a destination park but overall there's a lot to like about Parc Asterix - here are some pictures!

 

The day started with a short TGV ride to the airport, from where would catch the shuttle bus to Parc Asterix!

It's a very nicely themed park, and the buildings look like they've come straight out of the comic - very cool!

No selfie sticks, sir!

From his seat up one the mountain, Asterix watches over us, always.

La Trace du Hourra translates as "Trail of Hooray". It's a 3000-foot long, somewhat bumpy, bobsled ride through the woods.

Apologies for the blurry train... I was a using a new camera and hadn't quite figured out the settings. Overall this one was not all that different that any other bobsled ride, and a solid family coaster.

Unlike every other bobsled this one didn't have cheesy "Olympic bobsled race" theming. Hooray!

Vol D'Icare (or "Flight of Icarus") is a Zierer Hornet, which is sort of like a cross between a wild mouse and one of those Vekoma family coasters. Like the bobsled it's not going to inspire generations of coaster enthusiasts, but I didn't mind it.

The park's newest addition, Discobelix is an excellent disko coaster. The park have taken a fairly standard flat ride and themed the hell out of it!

It has a splashdown, and fire!

Diskobelix hairtime!

Zeus welcomes us to his wooden rollercoasters, Tonerre (or Thunder) de Zeus!

I bet nobody has thought to take this angle before.

For an almost 20 year-old woodie Tonerre de Zeus holds up pretty well. It's got some rough spots but is a solid ride overall.

There's even a reasonable amount of airtime to be enjoyed!

Deep breath... here we go... The World's Worst Rollercoaster!

Plenty of warning signs, but I was sadly eligible to ride. Weirdly Goudurix had the longest wait time of anything in the park, I guess the French don't mind a beating?

What else to say? I mean, it's just as awful as you'd expect, plenty of old-school ear-bashing and weird transitions.

All I can suggest is to just brace yourself as much as possible, and never return.

All that said, I don't know if this is actually the Worst Ride Anywhere, but it's definitely on the shortlist, and makes SLCs feel like RMCs.

For some reason Parc Asterix has added a dolphin "show". Featuring the most well-fed dolphins I've ever seen, the trainers didn't really seem too concerned about whether they could actually perform, or not. This was still entertaining, in its own special way.

Transdemonium is a lengthy haunted house-style dark ride, a sort of meander-through-the dungeons affair. I'm not sure if there was much of a story but it was quite good overall.

That's an ice-cream Jeff is holding. Get your minds out of the gutter!

Taking cues from Gladiators and Dancing With the Stars, Gaulois - Romains: Le Match is one of the better theme park shows I've seen.

Billed as a battle between the Gauls and Romans, the show starts with a dance-off and also featured acrobatics and chariot racing!

Authentic vintage cars from ancient-Britain!

Parc Asterix houses no fewer that four water rides, starting with the roman rapids.

This was a reasonably dry rapids ride, nice setting though.

Oxygenarium, a spinning raft ride, rates very highly on spin factor. It's also entirely hidden from view, so here's a picture of the entrance.

The park's log flume, Menhir Express.

Who doesn't enjoy a good flume ride?

Splashdown!

Translation: you're gonna get wet.

The queue has a strong "fountain" theme.

Le Grand Splatch was quite long, and meandered around the "mountain" in the middle of the park. But it was all a bit meh - sort of like Pirates of the Caribbean, if there was nothing to look at.

Le Defi De Cesar is billed as a madhouse, but there's a lot more to it than that.

The story is that you are signing up to join the Roman Army, and this is your introduction. The madhouse itself is very well put together, but it's the preshow elements that make this one awesome. Without wanting to spoil too much, think of Poseidon's Fury at IOA, but with a ride at the end.

For the sake of completeness, here's the kiddie coaster!

OzIris is a great looking ride!

The queue isn't bad either.

I'd rank this as one of the better B&M inverts, the layout is a little less predictable than some of the others, and it doesn't have any mid-course brakes to interrupt the ride.

The park have also gone nuts with the theming - you're constantly weaving between obstacles.

Does this count as an underwater invert?

Ooh... fountains!

Angled photo = artistic!

That wraps up Parc Asterix - it's definitely worth a look if you're visiting France. Next up - some photos of actual Paris things!

[cfc]

Agreed on Blue Lagoon -- in a park without a ton of great restaurant options (a stark difference from WDW) that was pretty good. Not getting to Remy's is one of my regrets.

 

I was kind of surprised at the general lack of food variety throughout the two parks. Most food carts and snack windows sold exactly the same cookie/popcorn/potato chip selection, and if you wanted something different, tough! I feel like the other Disney parks (Tokyo in particular) really benefit from having a good selection of unique dining options, even if it means they're only available in one location (Gyoza Dog, anyone?).

 

I thought food was one of the most surprising disappointments at Paris Disney, considering we were in France, but it looks like it's improved since 2008.

[Alice Kane]

Agreed on Blue Lagoon -- in a park without a ton of great restaurant options (a stark difference from WDW) that was pretty good. Not getting to Remy's is one of my regrets.

 

I was kind of surprised at the general lack of food variety throughout the two parks. Most food carts and snack windows sold exactly the same cookie/popcorn/potato chip selection, and if you wanted something different, tough! I feel like the other Disney parks (Tokyo in particular) really benefit from having a good selection of unique dining options, even if it means they're only available in one location (Gyoza Dog, anyone?).

 

I thought food was one of the most surprising disappointments at Paris Disney, considering we were in France, but it looks like it's improved since 2008.

 

It kind of blows the mind that in the country of France where you can stumble into almost any little bistro in any of its regions and enjoy the most exquisite food preparation, that Disney Paris is so remiss in its good food options! Shame! (Although Remy's looks like one of the most whimsical dining experiences to be had in any of the worlds of Disney!)

 

Alice

[azza29]

Paris

As much fun as Parc Asterix and Disney might be, there's more to see in Paris than amusement parks. So we spent a couple of days doing the customary sightseeing - Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre... the list goes on. I'm not really one for spending hours at a single landmark, but some of these places were quite impressive - the architecture at Palais Garnier in particular is a sight to behold. The Catacombs were another highlight, with a haunting atmosphere that I did not expect.

 

Because they had an interesting looking spinning coaster, I dragged Jeff along to Jardin d'Acclimatation, a small city park not far from the Arc de Triomphe. This turned out to be a cool little diversion, with much more than a couple of questionable credits. On to the pictures!

 

Paris is themed to the Ratatouille ride at Disney Studios, as far as I can tell.

It's a very walkable city, but the Metro is also very convenient if you've going more than a few blocks.

The stations are bright and relatively urine-free.

Landmark, or tourist trap? I think I'd rather just watch the film...

This impressive building is the Palais Garnier, also known as the Paris Opera.

Even by Paris standards, everything in here is incredibly ornate. No surface has been left undecorated!

A popular spot for selfies.

The theatre inside. Extravagant doesn't even begin to describe it.

Everyone is very impressed.

The grand foyer. I suspect even Liberace would think this was over the top!

I noticed a lot of very talented street performers around Paris. These guys were raising money for something, and it helped that they were pretty good!

The Arc de Triomphe: "Bigger Than You Thought".

Le Jardin d'Acclimatation is city park which happens to have a few rides dotted around.

Most of them are "classic" rides, like this old-timey carousel.

Wave swinger!

I'd noted there were supposed to be three coasters here, we stumbled across Le Tacot Express first.

A modestly-sized powered coaster, it was actually not bad, and picked up some decent speed. There's even a short tunnel!

This offbeat ride is the main reason I wanted to visit. RCDB describes it as a "junior spinner", and there are two in the world, both in France.

While the degree of spin wasn't spectacular, I did like the unique layout - it didn't have the cookie-cutter zigzag you see on bigger versions of this ride.

Angry Eyes: The Ride

We kept looking for the third coaster, this definitely wasn't it...

A helpful staff member told us that the other credit would not be open today, so we decided to wander around the park instead. This funky building is the Louis Vuitton Institute.

Noticing something called the "Imperial Waterfall" on a map, I headed straight for it, ready to be amazed.

Umm yeah. This was it. A moderate trickle about a foot and a half high.

Eventually we stumbled across the mysterious "Dragon" coaster. Turns out it was undergoing some fairly heavy maintenance.

This ride definitely wouldn't be opening today, or anytime soon.

It seemed to have been closed for some time.

Yes, those are vines growing in the track. It's France's own Orphan Rocker!

I wasn't all that anxious to check out the Eiffel Tower, but it's visible from everywhere in the city, so we decided to take a look around.

We got the "special edition" Eiffel Tower with a giant soccer ball hanging from the middle.

The ball was to celebrate the Euro 2016 soccer tournament. Fans from all over Europe had converged on Paris to watch their teams play.

It's just like Kings Island!

Lots of people enjoy taking selfies under the tower.

Not far from here you'll find the entrance to the Catacombs!

Pro tip: this place is very very popular! We turned up a mere half hour before it opened, so the line was already pretty long.

After a good ninety-minute wait we made it to the front, through a very nondescript entrance.

There was long spiral staircase to get down to the tunnels. And there's another one back up at the end!

There are about a thousand signs reminding you to "look but don't touch". Most people seemed to do the right thing, but I saw more than a few skull gropers, which was disappointing.

Once you get to the ossuary (bone areas) it's both grand and unnerving. On one hand it's "I guess this is how they used to bury people", but there's no escaping the fact that these tunnels are full of real skeletons.

Only a small portion of the tunnels are open to tourists, the rest is one huge labyrinth under Paris.

The ceilings are pretty low in there, especially if you're as tall as Jeff.

There were a few examples of "bone art" in the tunnels, which seemed somewhat macabre.

Continuing our self-guided "sights from Disney movies" tour, here is Notre Dame! For a 700-year old cathedral it's looking pretty good.

The detail sculpted into the exterior is definitely impressive.

Gargoyles!

Inside doesn't look too bad either.

One more stop on this "slides from Paris" tour. The Pantheon!

The Pantheon is a mainly used as a mausoleum. Many famous French people are buried in the crypt here - Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, among others.

Those willing to walk up a few hundred stairs can see Paris from the outside of the Pantheon's dome. It's definitely worth the trek.

Viewing the city from up there is like playing "spot the famous building". That's all from Paris. The next update will have many many more rides, all the way from Bobbejaanland!

[Alice Kane]

Aaron, thanks for your beautiful tour of the spectacular city of Paris. You really captured its romantic, haunting flavor! It definitely deserves its title of "City of Love."

 

Alice

[The Great Zo]

This gets a bump, as I'm a bit delayed in catching up on trip reports.

 

Having heard mixed reviews of Parc Asterix, I wasn't expecting too much - but we ended up having a great day! The park itself is kind of like an ancient-era version of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, with representations of classical Greece, Rome, Egypti and (of course) Gaul.

 

Asterix looks pretty nice! I wonder how much of the park's overall reputation is wrongfully built around Goudurix? Based on your report, that definitely seems unfair, and my view of Parc Asterix has been given a boost. There are plenty of things to do in Paris to make me want to return again in the future, but I think Parc Asterix will have to be on that list.

 

This was a reasonably dry rapids ride, nice setting though.

 

That sure seemed to be a theme throughout the trip -- much different than in the US, where pretty much every rapids ride runs the risk of a complete soaking. I kind of wish I'd gone on a few more over there, but it's not always easy to tell in advance.

 

A popular spot for selfies.

 

This could easily be amended to "all of Paris." I've never seen so many selfie sticks.

 

One more stop on this "slides from Paris" tour. The Pantheon!

 

Speaking of places I need to visit on my next trip to Paris -- wow!

 

Great shots, can't wait for the rest of the report.

[Nrthwnd]

I love the architecture of Paris. Daytime or night time it's all amazing.

Glad to read you got to see so much stuff there. And too bad about the Dragon Coaster

being down. It actually packed a bit of a wallop on it, I remember. (Wallop?)

 

Oh well, that means another visit there, right? Right Aaron?

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Paris is an amazing city. I spent three days there in 2009 getting the whirlwind tour, and it wasn't enough time at all. Looks like you got to see most of the important sights. Did you spend any time at the Louvre? That's the single greatest museum I've ever been to.

[azza29]

Oh well, that means another visit there, right? Right Aaron?

I don't know if I'd go back just for that one, but I'm sure I'll return to Paris at some point!

 

Did you spend any time at the Louvre? That's the single greatest museum I've ever been to.

We went "to" the Louvre, but didn't go inside on this visit, mostly due to time. I'd probably head there next time I'm in the city though, it certainly looks worth a visit!

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Ah, oh well. It absolutely is worth seeing. One day is not enough to see everything, but you can get to the major works easily enough. There are maps that will point them out. I spent most of the day in the Spanish, French, and Italian Renaissance rooms, then went down to the basement for the Egyptian artefacts. I feel good about that, but honestly I saw about 20% of the museum.

[azza29]

Bobbejaanland

Our first stop in Belgium was Bobbejaanland, a park with quite the eclectic collection of rides. It's one of those parks that seems to have evolved quite a bit over the years as new attractions and themes are added. They've hit all of the familiar theme park tropes - you've got a Western area next to King Kong, beside the Aztec rapids. There's no faulting the sheer volume of rides, and In that respect it reminded of some of the Japanese parks I visited last year - plenty to do, nothing particularly spectacular.

 

It's definitely a family park - no Intamin hypers here - but Bobbejaanland was not without notable rides:

- Revolution/Mount Mara was my first chance to try out a VR coaster. In this instance the VR certainly improved on the headset-free experience, though I wasn't quite sold on the whole thing. Riding a coaster is (usually) by nature a group activity, and the VR headsets are weirdly isolating, and the visuals lagged noticeably in spots, even when the train wasn't going particularly fast.

- The El Paso Special - want to shoot Mexicans from the comfort of your bench? Visit Trump: The Ride!

- The Forbidden Caves are Bobbejaanland's newest attraction, one of those new-fangled immersion tunnels. Think of a scaled-down version of Universal's King Kong, complete with tram and 3D glasses. This had a great-looking queue and was impressive for a small park, but the motion simulation didn't quite match the screens, so maybe they've still got some tweaking to do.

- El Rio is a rapids ride with a whirlpool. Awesome!

 

Good morning Bobbejaanland!

Something about European parks, always so picturesque!

Dizz is a Maurer spinner. Don't let that early nineties artwork fool you, this ride was only opened in 2011.

Important picture of transfer track in operation.

Kyle and Jeff are ready to spin!

So this was one of those spinners which, uh... didn't. We tried quite a few combinations of big/small people in full/empty trains with limited success. It wasn't a bad ride, just didn't spin all that much.

Typhoon is an early model Eurofighter, which rides like an early model Eurofighter.

Exclusive picture of coaster maintenance entry!

What's a trip report without a picture of a coaster wheel assembly?

If the restraints don't open after the ride, you get to sit there awkwardly and await rescue. While people take pictures...

It wouldn't be a Eurofighter without a vertical lift hill.

Typhoon is kind of like a cross between a bigger Eurofighter and an S&S El Loco. It's quite compact, has some funky slow inversions but also something like eight trim brakes so you never really get much speed.

It's definitely unique, and from memory was much smoother in the back row. But after a couple of rides I was ready to move on.

Perhaps it's time for some Adventure?

There's definitely something impressive about a ride which is also 100% theming.

King Kong looks like something straight out of Rollercoaster Tycoon, and that's awesome!

Revolution is a Vekoma "Illusion" coaster. I'd never tried one of these before, and was intrigued.

In the afternoon, everyone wears a VR headset and it becomes Mount Mara.

Fortunately our group was able to try both modes in one block. Hooray!

This coaster also has the longest train I've ever seen. No fewer than 20 individual pods. It wasn't hard to see why they chose this ride for VR. The regular "Revolution" experience is about two-thirds spiral lifthill, and after that it's mostly dark with some flashing lights. I'm sure it was impressive 25 years ago when it was new, but not anymore. The VR experience was a little better - I didn't leave completely sold on the concept but it was passable.

Bob Express is a powered coaster, of formidable length.

Hooray, we aren't in the line with noisy kids anymore!

For a powered coaster Bob Express was quite good, decent speed and it had some cool interactions with the log flume.

Rounding out the family coaster lineup we have Oki Doki, apparently thrilling enough to inspire a Bolt!

Any ride which can't be built in this era of trigger warnings and hashtag campaigns deserves to be celebrated. One such example, The El Paso Special!

Please sit down, lower the lapbar, and grab your pistol.

These Americans sure love their guns...

There's nothing racist about wanting to shoot a mariachi band.

More things to point a weapon at!

This was new - a warm snack vending machine. Basically if you didn't want to line up at the fast food counter, you could just select something from one of the little food lockers.

Indiana River is an indoor log flume that will get you very, very wet. I was more focused on staying dry than try to follow the story, but it seemed to be some kind of "ancient jungle temple gone wrong" theme.

Dream Catcher is a Vekoma Swinging Turns.

It's pretty much like one of their family inverts, except you swing a bit on the corners. Not bad. Like most of the coasters at this park, it's neither terrible nor amazing.

You enter via teepee though, so there's that.

Who's excited for a new credit? These guys!

Genuine Vekoma.

Bobbejaanland's new hotness is The Forbidden Caves.

Looks promising...

The queue is an Indiana Jones-style jungle trek, which is pretty cool.

Look, rockwork! We must be getting close...

As I mentioned earlier, the actual ride itself isn't that crash hot. But the overall experience was quite good, so hopefully they can get the ride sequence up to par with the rest of the attraction.

Hidden in a random corner of the park is Slegehammer!

Gotta love a good Frisbee!

I noted in Scandinavia a couple of years ago, it seems like every European park has to have a "Western" area. Bobbejaanland is no exception.

If Texas is to my left and Arizona is to my right, where am I standing? Belgium of course!

I have no idea what goes on inside of Rincky Tincky, and I'm not sure I want to either...

We love pedal horses!

Rounding out the park's collection of middle-of-the-road coasters is Speedy Bob, a wild mouse.

If every car is in the station, it's like a giant wild mouse train!

I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you've probably been on one of these before.

The park has gone to the effort of painting the supports to look "wooden". Credit where it's due.

Speedy Bob's neighbour is El Rio, which I guess is Spanish for "spinning rapids".

Like most European parks, this one is designed to only splash a little, and not drench riders to their core.

El Rio has an awesome whirlpool, these should be in more rapids rides!

That's it from Bobbejaanland...

...except for BONUS rural Belgium sightseeing! We spent a couple of nights in Wavre, a village outside of Brussels. There's not much to see there, apart from this old church.

Out the front is a statue of a boy climbing a fence. His butt is shiny because it's good luck to rub it, or so we were told.

Some decided to try it out...

and others went in for a selfie.

Here is a picture of the "American Shop" we found in Wavre. I'm counting this as a culture credit. That's it from Bobbejaanland, next up we check out Walibi Belgium!

[The Great Zo]

Any trip report with Le Maca is sure to be a winner!

 

A very good and fair review of Bobbejaanland. If it wasn't among my favorite parks on the trip, it's only because of how many really great parks we went to.

 

- The Forbidden Caves are Bobbejaanland's newest attraction, one of those new-fangled immersion tunnels. Think of a scaled-down version of Universal's King Kong, complete with tram and 3D glasses. This had a great-looking queue and was impressive for a small park, but the motion simulation didn't quite match the screens, so maybe they've still got some tweaking to do.

 

Between that and the one at Movie Park, I guess I'm just not a fan of the concept. I think there were screen problems at both locations, actually.

 

So this was one of those spinners which, uh... didn't. We tried quite a few combinations of big/small people in full/empty trains with limited success. It wasn't a bad ride, just didn't spin all that much.

 

You get ten seconds to start spinning before you hit the next brake run! Yeah, it ain't Winjas or Crush, unfortunately.

 

Indiana River is an indoor log flume that will get you very, very wet.

 

Oh my, did it ever.

 

- The El Paso Special - want to shoot Mexicans from the comfort of your bench? Visit Trump: The Ride!

 

This ride is a family hit. Clearly one of the most popular at Bobbejaanland. I have no idea why it hasn't been cloned and built at other parks all around the world.

 

Or maybe it's the most terrifyingly awesomely horrible thing I've ever been on, and obviously I was too appalled to actually participate in the insensitive, xenophobic ride experience, as I'm sure the pictures will show.

 

...scrolls down...

 

...did someone steal my hat and pretend to be me?

 

Darn you and your photographic evidence.

[SharkTums]

When Bobbejaanland is one of the 'lesser' parks on a 3 week Europe Trip you know there are a LOT of awesome parks in Europe. I really like the park, it has like this old school Europe park charm to it.

[azza29]

Walibi Belgium

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Walibi Belgium. It's not a huge park, has changed hands a few times, and on paper the selection of rides looked fairly mundane, without any standout rides. But you shouldn't judge a park by its RCDB listing, and we had a pretty good day there. Pulsar (2016 new hotness) was a great surprise - I definitely didn't expect a shuttle water coaster to have some decent airtime - and no doubt we'll see some clones appear around the place before too long. Calamity Mine was another highlight, proving that mine trains work much better with theming!

 

Onto the photos, with some bonus Brussels culture at the end!

 

Good morning Walibi! That tiny patch of blue sky is encouraging, maybe it won't rain too much?

Here are some birds. Playing with the zoom lens is in my top ten "things to do while waiting for the park to open" list.

The park mascot is a slightly crazed looking wallaby. Wallaby? Walibi! Get it?

Not one, but two shuttle coasters grace the skyline of Walibi Belgium.

Psyke Underground is one of those delightful shuttle loops, this one is indoors!

It may not be the most elegant design, but this "coaster tube" keeps the light (and rain) out.

The ride is adorned with some very, uh, "hip" establishments. Fancy an evening at Club Shake It? If not, perhaps Shakey Dave's Tattoo is more your style.

Inside the ride. While the traditional flywheel launch was replaced with LIMs a couple of years ago, it still has a good punch, and the whole experience is weirdly disorienting. We had a couple of lights on rides which were even more confusing, but in a good way. I am a big fan of shuttle loops, it's great that Walibi Belgium have given theirs some love.

Next up, Pulsar (pronounced "pullll-sarrrr").

Nicely themed queue, there wasn't much of a line but from what I gathered it's something about energy.

Pulsar features a capacity-boosting turntable loading station, which is amazing and should be mandatory on all shuttle coasters!

The ride sequence is simple - you go backward, forwards, backwards again, and then get wet.

The ending is quite spectacular.

Where does the water end, and clouds begin?

The splashdown pool is emptied after each cycle, and rapidly refilled while the car is on its final "spike". Four pumps like this make it happen.

I remember seeing some IAAPA videos a few years back when Mack were shopping their "shuttle water coaster" around, and wondering if anyone would actually buy one. But they did, and overall I thought Pulsar was pretty solid, a fun ride that has good family appeal. Once they've finished with those S&S free spin things, I wouldn't be surprised to see Six Flags adding one of these to every park in the chain.

Loup-Garou (French for "Werewolf") is a Vekoma woodie! My spine hurts just typing that.

I've now tried all three wooden coasters built by Vekoma. Mercifully they seem to have decided to stop building them, though this one wasn't the worst.

Everyone is very excited to be coming into the brake run.

Vampire is an SLC. Hello, old friend.

Kyle and Jeff are wearing protection and super excited to be riding this in the back row. In the rain. Good luck guys!

Continuing the trend of terrible rides having weirdly long waits, this was the only attraction with any kind of queue at the park.

The imaginatively named Cobra is another Vekoma special - a boomerang!

Please note the fancy wait time sign.

Have you taken the damn picture yet? Hurry up so I can stop smiling and BRACE BRACE BRACE!

The first four seconds of any boomerang ride are always the most enjoyable.

Coccinelle. A ride for children, and credit whores.

According to the internet, Coccinelle reaches speeds of up to 16.2 miles per hour!

Walibi Belgium also has a great shooting dark ride - Challenge of Tutankhamon

There's a lot to see in the queue, though we didn't have to wait long.

More tomb stuff.

It's trackless to boot, which seems to get theme park people very excited.

So the inside is your standard Sally dark ride, but with two different endings, depending on how many points you scored. Winners are taken in a glorious treasure chamber, losers are summarily dismissed out the exit.

It a European park, so of course there is a Wild West area!

Artsy angled photo to fit in the drop tower.

Calamity Mine is a great Vekoma (who else) mine train, with some excellent theming!

OK so they have an algae problem, but how great does that ride look?

One more fountain to keep the algal bloom at bay.

Calamity Mine was a good, long ride. Much better than most of the regular mine trains!

One more artistically questionable shot of the drop tower to round out a fun day at Walibi Belgium. Thanks to the park for showing us a great time!

After the park closed we decided to head into Brussels. I assume this street sign is indicating a picket fence, followed by breasts.

While waiting for our train we spotted what may be eitehrregular steel beams, or possibly a secret Vekoma project to imitate RMC track.

This is Brussels. It's not a bad looking town.

Town hall, or Cinderella's castle?

I didn't realise we were known for ice cream...

This tiny statue - Mannekin Pis - is the pride and joy of Brussels, and celebrates public urination.

Basically 95% of all tourist merchandise here involves some representation of this statue. I mean, it's no Eiffel Tower, but I guess you have to work with what you've got.

But any city with Tintin murals can't be that bad. So ends our time in Belgium, the next installment will be from Toverland!

[Stonem]

OMG the face of that girl is priceless

[SharkTums]

I love how angry Kristen looks while being forced on the kiddie coaster.

 

And seriously...I really wanted to hate Pulsar, but it was so much fun! I could seriously see these taking the places of a lot of the older splashdown boats in the US.

[The Great Zo]

Great report from a park that exceeded my expectations!

 

Not one, but two shuttle coasters grace the skyline of Walibi Belgium.

 

Probably the park's two best coasters, too. Both are simple concepts done right. You're spot-on about Calamity Mine, also. That's an outstanding (and well-themed) mine train. Might have to claim Challenge of Tutankhamen as my favorite attraction in the park, though!

 

Heck, even Vampire was the best SLC I've ever been on -- which means it's somewhat painful yet still not really enjoyable rather than just skull-shakingly all-out horrible. No, all-out horrible was at the other Walibi park a few days later.

 

The Grand Place in Brussels is probably the most jaw-dropping 360-degree architectural view I've ever seen. So glad we ventured into the city for a couple hours. The gyros were good; the waffles were better.

[cfc]

I love how angry Kristen looks while being forced on the kiddie coaster.

 

And seriously...I really wanted to hate Pulsar, but it was so much fun! I could seriously see these taking the places of a lot of the older splashdown boats in the US.

 

I admit to being indifferent about Pulsar until I spoke with some of the group who had ridden it and saw TPR's video. Now I'd like to ride it, myself.

[tanthonyam]

Are there any rapids rides in the US with those whirlpool features? Looks really fun.

[SFOG1991]

Are there any rapids rides in the US with those whirlpool features? Looks really fun.

Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Georgia has one on their rapids ride (Tasmanian River Rapids). It's a very cool feature and definitely makes these models of rapids rides more exciting. They are very tame otherwise.

[HAZE]

MACK always makes amazing water rides.

 

As a result, I was excited about Pulsar as soon as it was announced.