Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Energylandia Park Discussion Thread


Recommended Posts

This might've been pointed out before, but the picture for Zadra on Energylandia's website that shows up when you first visit the site doesn't really look like the real track. Disregarding the red wood at the front, the track behind the train also look like it's wood. Doesn't affect the ride of course, but they should've been able to use a picture with the correct track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This might've been pointed out before, but the picture for Zadra on Energylandia's website that shows up when you first visit the site doesn't really look like the real track.

I'll post a photo to elaborate what you're talking about:

355961380_ScreenShot2019-08-21at12_35_03PM.thumb.png.b10a4bbc4f2668836d167fafdc3f0041.png

zadra_slider_www.thumb.jpg.52f169605f2dab0b66375b47db30a5c3.jpg

zadra_slider_www1.jpg.aed5abfad56cbe8562e6224247d92344.jpg

Honestly having been to this park, this is 100% par for the course. The made-up facts, that flat out LYING about what the ride is and the records it holds. It has nothing to do with "locals don't know" it just is that this park knows damn well what they are doing and they don't give a shit.

 

Honestly, it has been a long, loooooong time since I was so turned off by a park like I was by Energylandia. And it's not even that Hyperion ran like crap for 3 out of the 5 rides I took in it, it was EVERYTHING about the park.

 

The whole place just seemed cheap and fake. Just like their marketing is. And just like most of their rides are. The RMC, Intamin hyper, and the Vekoma launched coaster aside, the park can really be summed up in this one statement...

 

"When you have SIXTEEN roller coasters at your park, and the FOURTH BEST coaster you have is a Vekoma SLC, that really says something about your park and the focus on quality."

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

LMAO.

 

So weird they would doubledown on these claims of a wood coaster when these hybrids are so "new" and "now" and therefore extremely more marketable (imo). Wooden coasters have been around forever, so why push something that so many people have seen/done, and not focus on the next-level, super cool technology you just installed? Eh.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is also the park with so many little rides and attractions in so many places that not only do they number the rides on the park map, they also have physical signs with the number on every single ride.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure the locals really care either. This is a clientele that's probably happy to have a huge theme park in their backyard in the first place.

 

I'm not sure I was -completely- turned off by the park in the end after our visit, but I can definitely corroborate some of Robb's feelings. But Zadra's marketing scheme is just ridiculous. Those people in the image aren't riding Zadra, they appear to actually be riding Hyperion!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About that whole steel, wood, hybrid thing. The Worst part is that people will call it a wooden coaster just because of the construction of the ride. I've been to Walibi Holland 3 times after Untamed opened and each visit I heard people regard it as a wooden coaster, it annoys me but what can I do about it, I mean I'm not going to correct them (I don't even know them) and even if I did I doubt I can get them to call it steel or Hybrid.

But Energylandia supporting them just angers me, they know they're wrong and it's just a record claim they don't really own. Also that cheap photo-shop really angers me even more as thats just lying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure I was -completely- turned off by the park in the end after our visit, but I can definitely corroborate some of Robb's feelings.

You have have to remember though my experience is a bit different. You only dealt with them from a guest-facing perspective. I dealt with them not only with that but also from a group/tour organizer and a video production/social media aspect as well. There was a lot more going on behind the scenes that soured my opinions of the park, not just the quality of the park itself and the rides.

 

And then on top of that, my overall park experience. Honestly this was the most "Chinese" park I've ever been to, and I've been to a LOT of parks in China!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the place that charged us $2,000 to film on their coasters from 9am - 10am, and we didn't actually start filming until closer to 9:30am due to their lack of proper scheduling, which also included them handing us gift bags (thank you) but then immediately telling us we had to PAY to put them in a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo before we would even be allowed to go into the coaster station, which ate into our paid filming time even more.

 

I had no idea that a park would charge you guys to allow you to film on their coasters! I guess I always figured parks would appreciate the publicity that your videos would provide, but I didn't previously consider there to other factors, like whether or not video monetization plays a role. Is this a common practice, or does it really just depend on the park?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, let me get this straight. Originally, when Energylandia announced Zadra's opening date this week, the ride was advertised to be 61 meters (200 feet) tall. At the same time, Energylandia spoke about "the largest and tallest wooden roller coaster in the world", while we all know there is one at Cedar Point of 62 meters (205 feet) tall.

 

A few hours after the original publication, the texts on Facebook and descriptions on YouTube were adjusted. Now, according to Energylandia, Zadra is not 61 meters, but 63 meters tall. The top speed was also adjusted a bit later. During the construction, 115 kilometers per hour was assumed. Energylandia is now communicating a maximum speed of 121 kilometers per hour. That is also a record for a hybrid coaster.

 

I mean, this is just ridiculous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The EL marketing and this whole hybrid/steel advertising is one thing. It annoys me but Energylandia is not first or last in that manner.

 

If you are talking about quality you still need to remember that EL is only 5 years old, and in fact for a lot of European parks Vekoma's SLC is still 3rd or 4th coaster in their portfolio, or at least it was until they just built one more (Walibi, Heide-Park and many more). I think there is nothing to be ashamed of. Everything requires some time. I believe family rides will get much better within next few years. I hope that marketing ang guest services will also improve. No one succeeded in Theme Park industry in Poland. And just after Energylandia opened no one expected it to grow so quickly, and of course there are parts where Energylandia is a little bit behind, still you need to give them a chance.

 

Regarding the height it was known (at least on polish skyscraperity) that Zadra will be the highest hybrid, as someone from RMC said that in the interview around begging of the year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there is nothing to be ashamed of. Everything requires some time.

It's tough because there are some parts of the park that I think just weren't designed well enough. The park's layout is an example of this - there are so many pathways that look like they're going somewhere only to suddenly terminate in a dead end. I was running late meeting the group in the afternoon before we left, and I was over by Hyperion. I looked out to see, "oh, I can see the parking lot, I can get out" only to be met with, surprise, a fenced dead end, and I basically had to sprint around blindly trying to find the way out.

 

Some of the queues have design problems too. Hyperion is particularly egregious - you have to climb two or three floors of gigantic spiral ramps only to then have to walk down three or four flights of spiral stairs. There are obvious exit doors that would allow for the queue to switch between "light" and "overflow" modes but they're not used, and even when the queue is only ten minutes long you have to make the entire walk. Plus, all of the thematic stuff, the stuff that would, you know, tell the story of the ride, is in the upward ramp section. That section is always empty and therefore you blow right past that stuff, defeating the purpose of going through all that effort to theme the ride!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are right. Setup of queue lines is extremely annoying especially that there are no shortcuts used. And preshow location in Hyperion building is just useless. Anyway I hope the setup of whole area with kiddie rides might change and what we saw on the plans they are planning all-new entrance area in completely new place (if everything will go right).

 

But I can agree sometimes their constructions year by year look like they do not have any idea what they are doing. Anyway still every year they are improving themselves. Also new area Smoczy Gród (Dragon Gord/Village) with Zadra looks much better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But I can agree sometimes their constructions year by year look like they do not have any idea what they are doing. Anyway still every year they are improving themselves. Also new area Smoczy Gród (Dragon Gord/Village) with Zadra looks much better.

 

The new area looks like a completely different park! Obviously different designers and budget...which kind of makes the whole thing more aggravating!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are talking about quality you still need to remember that EL is only 5 years old, and in fact for a lot of European parks Vekoma's SLC is still 3rd or 4th coaster in their portfolio, or at least it was until they just built one more (Walibi, Heide-Park and many more). I think there is nothing to be ashamed of. Everything requires some time. I believe family rides will get much better within next few years. I hope that marketing ang guest services will also improve. No one succeeded in Theme Park industry in Poland. And just after Energylandia opened no one expected it to grow so quickly, and of course there are parts where Energylandia is a little bit behind, still you need to give them a chance.

I think if this was still 1997 you would have a point. But it isn't, and there are so many European parks not far away that you could list as examples to follow: Europa Park, Efteling, Phantasialand, Parc Asterix, Disneyland Paris, Alton Towers, Hansa Park, etc, etc....

 

Even parks that I would consider some of the slightly lesser "themed" but still bigger "amusement parks" like Heide Park and Movie Park Germany have been stepping up their game and installing bigger more impressive attractions over the years.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that everything Energylandia has done to date has been done on purpose and by design. They seem like they are in a somewhat one-sided competition to be the "best park in Europe" in the shortest amount of time, but the record that I feel they are also going to claim is "Park that has cut the most corners to get there."

 

This is why I say I was so "offended" by the park. There is simply NO NEED to have that many kiddie coasters. No need to be placing random theming everywhere with little to no cohesion throughout the park just to have "theming." Even the new area, while it *looked* much better just seemed to have random rides and stuff jumbled together without any real purpose.

 

It was painfully obvious to me the direction of that new area with Zadra was "go look at Wizarding World and the area with Taron, come back and build something similar and throw a bunch of rides in there. DONE!"

 

And while that area looks much better NOW because it literally was brand new and opened the week before our visit, what will it look like in five years when they are focused on the next round of kiddie coasters and new themed area they are building?

 

This park was all about "quantity over quality" and I have a huge issue with that.

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think if this was still 1997 you would have a point. But it isn't, and there are so many European parks not far away that you could list as examples to follow: Europa Park, Efteling, Phantasialand, Parc Asterix, Disneyland Paris, Alton Towers, Hansa Park, etc, etc....

 

And this sentence is just enough for that

If you are talking about quality you still need to remember that EL is only 5 years old, and in fact for a lot of European parks Vekoma's SLC is still 3rd or 4th coaster in their portfolio, or at least it was until they just built one more (Walibi, Heide-Park and many more). I think there is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

It's just 5 years, I'm not saying there are not better parks, but even some parks from the European top in 2010 or in 2015 had offer not much better than Energylandia has now.

 

This park was all about "quantity over quality" and I have a huge issue with that.

 

But this is changing now. You are demanding the thing that other theme-parks have shown after 20 or 30 years of operation. They ordered bunch of additional kiddie rides in completely different market condition - first at very beginning, when noone could believe in theme park in Poland (after few failures of other investments, banks did not want to support this kind of business), and later on, when they were lacking capacity and still had small budget. I'm also not happy with kiddie rides and setup and themening of that area. But I can't understand how it could offend anyone.

 

They had some great RC form new Vekoma, later on they managed to build great Hyperion. And that is where the hype came from. There is simply no way to fix everything in one or two years. But since the hype began now you are starting to claim they not deserve it. They had great coasters and also some issues after the decision they made at the very beginning and now they have to deal whit it.

 

The new area is much better, not perfect, but I can't see why you are afraid what will happen after 5 years. They are not obliged to cram them another bunch of kiddie attractions and it doesn't seem to like they would. From the plans we have seen I'd say they will build new areas next to.

 

I'm not sure if they are in one-sided competition for the best theme park. I'd say the owner is huge fun of RC and he is doing that for is own fun, and money he can make. But if not for his fun it will be no point of building another mega coaster year by year just looking into business case.

 

Even the new area, while it *looked* much better just seemed to have random rides and stuff jumbled together without any real purpose.

Okay, I can agree with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This park was all about "quantity over quality" and I have a huge issue with that.

 

But this is changing now.

But it's not. They literally JUST OPENED two more unnecessary kiddie coasters in the area with Zadra. And the only silver lining to those kiddie coasters is that they had Vekoma design a custom Roller Skater since they already had their other Roller Skater models in other areas of the park!

 

You are demanding the thing that other theme-parks have shown after 20 or 30 years of operation.

That's not what I'm asking at all. I'm asking for some "quality" to be paid attention to rather than trying to rush this park to compete with parks that have been open for 20 to 30 years, and making huge glaring mistakes while trying to get there. There is nothing wrong with taking things a little slower with more attention paid to what you are doing and the overall big picture scope of the project.

 

Case in point... the new area with Zadra. In just a short five years, they basically already ran out of space installing all the crappy cloned rides they did, so they had to build this new area ACROSS THE STREET via the tunnel. Why? Why couldn't they have focused a bit more on slowly building up the park and incorporating that area into the original section?

 

I'll tell you why... because the whole idea from the very start was "build up as fast as possible... pay no regard to if it makes sense, we just need as many rides and areas as quickly as possible."

 

Take a park like Toverland, for example. We first visited that park in 2005 when they ONLY had the indoor Vekoma and the Booster Bike. Here we are visiting 15 years later and while they only have 3 additional coasters since our first visit, that park is BY FAR more "developed" with logic and reason than Energylandia is.

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new area is much better, not perfect, but I can't see why you are afraid what will happen after 5 years. They are not obliged to cram them another bunch of kiddie attractions and it doesn't seem to like they would. From the plans we have seen I'd say they will build new areas next to.

 

But didn't they open two kiddie coasters alongside Zadra? Which seems kinda redundant as they already have 9 kiddie/small family coasters? The only reason, that seems likely to me, why they would do this is, to try and claim the 'most rollercoasters in the world' record.

 

On the side note, how are the operations of the park? Just curious to see how it's run on a daily basis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the side note, how are the operations of the park? Just curious to see how it's run on a daily basis.

 

Very hit or miss. Some kiddie rides had three employees and they were having fun with guests and doing a great job! Some had employees sleeping on the entrance stairs that you would have to step over. Nothing was super fast (food, merch, and rides), but it certainly wasn't the worst we've seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the side note, how are the operations of the park? Just curious to see how it's run on a daily basis.

Mostly terrible. And I hadn't even touched upon that yet. To give you an idea, they had 14 operating coasters in the park for our visit and I only rode 4 of them. 3 of which I rode during our morning filming. I only went back to Hyperion later in the day and I rode the new Vekoma Roller Skater only because it 1. Had no line, and 2. at least was a custom layout.

 

I couldn't be bothered with the rest of the coasters because...

 

1. I just do not need to ride a bunch of kiddie coasters.

 

2. Everything was running one train, including Hyperion.

 

3. Their boarding process for getting onto rides was insanely frustrating with the whole red light/green light thing only allowing a certain number of people in the station and then you'd watch empty seats go out on every train during a 1-train operation because there was no human grouper.

 

4. All the major rides had lockers that you were forced to put stuff in, even though those same coasters has giant sized bins in the station.

 

5. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

 

I waited in line once for Hyperion because I needed more footage, and thankfully, like many of the European parks, they DO allow you to wear a GoPro with a chest mount, but a line that should have taken about 10 minutes had they either been running two trains or at least had some... ANY organization putting people in the queues for each row, took about 40 minutes, and the only reason I even got to ride a second time is because I was able to hop into an empty seat after my ride because absoultely NOBODY in the station seemed to give a shit about anything.

 

I did see some ride crews as we walked around interacting with guests in the station and not all of them seemed to be as bad as the ones I experienced, but even at the Vekoma Roller Skater that I did ride, I seem to remember that being frustrating for some reason, and that coaster had ZERO line at all.

 

I think I'd be less harsh on the park if it was at least "well run" but I didn't experience that either throughout my day.

 

And because I like visuals... These two pictures perfectly sum up my experience with the staff there...

845939699_staff1.thumb.jpg.d7939255059794c24ae9389277dbecac.jpg

This is the guy at the entrance to the Hyperion queue LAYING DOWN on the stairs!

 

1022366130_staff2.thumb.jpg.28691fd860f588af5d92e081f3365625.jpg

Here we have an entertainment stilt walker instead of greeting people as they walk into the park, he's leaning against the wall and checking his watch.

 

1844233083_staff3.jpg.80e562916cd58f8a2e6fb849c937c543.jpg

To be fair, this employee was super nice and high energy greeting guests. This was the ONLY EMPLOYEE in the park that I saw doing anything like this.

 

1400411835_ridesign.thumb.jpg.25803d4cd83baacb6c8a883e37a2bf7e.jpg

On top of that, this was also another operational annoyance. The wait time on this sign basically never moved and were 100% wrong the entire day!

 

2100028634_slc1.jpg.79a488f28bfa01a95cb943e18cb1dc64.jpg

Here is a giant line for the SLC running only one train...

 

2106443443_slc2.thumb.jpg.066e38f1defef2a1130c392e0bb3fbab.jpg

But yet the wait time was 0 minutes and it stayed like that pretty much the entire day.

 

food.jpg.792805e4c0eb2265d36fbdbfd7ed1aa9.jpg

And if you wanted to get food? Forget it. The restaurants were all a cluster fuck that made Six Flags food service look like amazing!

 

Here are a few random photos that I grabbed from our visit...

1.thumb.jpg.474dc270294534e6ff555ccb11961dea.jpg

2.thumb.jpg.29cefa0d8d188290fc1f301bdff328a0.jpg

3.thumb.jpg.6b3662bbf4a421118be3af53ea4f6054.jpg

4.thumb.jpg.1550d2d5e94509110dffe14a7a2a943c.jpg

This is what 85% of the park looks like. IMO, that's just cheap, irresponsible "Chinese park" theming and none of it makes any sense or fits together in any way.

 

And sure, the new area DID look better...

5.thumb.jpg.060fba26b5da36a86fecc6e52134d288.jpg

But it's basically just a Chinese knock-off of Wizarding World or Klugheim and how long until this looks as run down as the rest of the park and the rest of the park has only been open FIVE YEARS!

 

I saw stuff like this all over the park in their "older" *cough* five years *cough* sections where paint was already fading and chipping away and the initial build was so poor that the steel support structure was showing through....

theming.thumb.jpg.be02329e39f43c4c8bde46bae305acde.jpg

This is the quality you expect to see at a traveling fair. There is just no two ways about it, the park was "cheaply" made.

Edited by robbalvey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ Yeah, that looks terrible... Looks like some employees don't give a f**** simply because management might not be either. Since the park looks pretty abysmally managed when looking at those photos.

 

One thing that stands out to me are the trees. Or the lack thereof, I can't spot any from arial photos. Seems like the park forgot the greens, it makes the park kinda feel unauthentic.

Edited by gardyloo!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are certainly some nice garden areas, and most non-guest areas are covered in grass. There are trees, too, but they aren't grown in enough to make much of a difference yet.

 

Here's a photo of a nicely-landscaped pathway near the terrible Viking Roller Coaster. But today, this is still the exception. Ten years from now, maybe things will look nicer throughout the park.

DSC_0194_WM.thumb.jpg.dde8f09c036ae03b9d70d9da8f8ce9c1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ And this is why I said about 85% of the park looked like what I posted because you would randomly see some nice landscaping, but then on the other side of that, you just had a typical fairground ride with little to no decoration at all...

1547210271_ScreenShot2019-08-22at1_52_48PM.png.160259f6b5da38ccb2ffabe2a74cf31d.png

There was zero consistency, rhyme or reason to why some minor areas received slightly more attention that the ones right next to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ And that compared to what Legendia is doing at the "other" park in Poland. Just look at the difference in quality of area theming and landscaping around their latest ride....

994875755_lech1.thumb.jpg.a3c11eaa4368689e113577b4162e8c3a.jpg

412600432_lech2.thumb.jpg.1251d6bca8bb125e2ab7df88288041d6.jpg

155214754_lech3.thumb.jpg.c0ba887687f166d42476eb01b2a476a4.jpg

 

And sure, you can say "But Legendia has rides that look like ass, too" because they do...

ass.thumb.jpg.9587d472c593f129d4af5227cdc43360.jpg

But those are the OLD rides that park seems to be renovating or removing whereas Energylandia has built stuff like that recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/