I should start this one all the way back in 2022 when Nemesis closed to the public and the marketing campaign for the ride began with the Phalanx being created and taking over Forbidden Valley.
Alton Towers showed that they know what they’re doing when they put their mind to it. The Smiler Takeover wasn’t that, neither were some of the scare maze decisions last year, but to close the ride and hold an event for it, then keep up the hype train all year with various marketing details and documenting the rides retracking is masterful work.
There wasn’t a single enthusiast in the country that didn’t know what was going on with the ride. Even the general public had a much better idea than you’d expect when a ride is being built and it’s all down to that excellent marketing campaign. The creation of characters, the Phalanx and Nemesis herself were all done justice.
Fast forward to 2024 and the marketing is coming to a close, we know what the new beast will look like, we know what the new story is (to some extent) and excitement for the rides return is at an all time high.
Opening day arrives on the 16th of March 2024 and people are talking about camping out to get as close to the front of the queue as they can. The park opens and 5 hour queues form to get onto the new ride as we’ve all missed it in the last year.
Only 90 minutes when I queued!
I wasn’t in the first 5 hour queue, I got to the area to see what else had been done around Forbidden Valley. I knew that they’d replaced the original Nemesis cannon with a helicopter and I wasn’t that enthusiastic about the change but getting into the area and seeing that first instantly changed my mind. It’s massive!
It’s one of many changes through the area to bring Forbidden Valley and the Phalanx Research facility to life, and in my opinion, make it a world class area now.
The area isn’t just Forbidden Valley and the ride area isn’t just Nemesis, it’s now the Phalanx Research facility and the Nemesis containment area and the little details really sell it. The signage for the containment area is all twisted and bent, as though something large has pulled at the signs and almost attacked them.
Then there’s the station. My god, the station. It’s been overhauled and tidied up, and new effects added. Inside the station platform now resembles the innards of the Nemesis beast, with what looks like ribs and viscera all over the ceiling. The outside looks incredibly smart and the biggest new feature is the eye.
This appears to be a curved screen that loops animations of Nemesis’ eye and it gets angry as the train passes by and vents smoke onto the train. This looks visually impressive and because of the trains design, it pulls the smoke across the top of the station, adding even more to it!
The queue line has been moved around a little and has a large, if unaspiring looking canon built into it that ‘fires’ at the train as it passes by the first corkscrew. I say fires, but it’s just a sound effect and the canon is a little on the plain side compared with other parts of the queue line.
There’s also a container in the queue that belongs to a group of Nemesis sympathisers that want the beast setting free as they feel it should be left to its own devices and they claim the Phalanx are up to no good.
It is heavily implied that the Phalanx are now conducting experiments on the beast and forcing it to lay eggs that can be turned into weapons. What I got from all this is that they’ve lost control and are now panicking and are trying to save themselves from the wrath of Nemesis as well as those that would find out what they’ve been up to!
It’s very sinister and almost feels like it should be part of X Sector. Even the new Forbidden Valley sign feels very X Sector, but I won’t be complaining in the slightest!
As for the ride itself, it is still Nemesis. It does have a little of the iconic roar as it bounds around the layout, it is nice and intense where it used to be and it’s comfortable. The only issue, and it’s a fairly big one, is that the trains seemed to have developed a rather annoying bounce to them. It almost judders around certain parts and I hope this can be rectified in time as it’s about the only negative I can give for the ride!
Otherwise, John Burton has done John Wardley proud, his team have taken what Mr Wardley started 30 years ago and improved on it in almost every way possible in my view. Merlin have shown what they can do and I really hope Alton Towers gets even more of the good stuff in the years to come so they can thoroughly cement themselves as the UK’s premier theme park and a world class destination.
From left to right Me, John Burton, Tracy and John Wardley
As part of LoveTwoexplores weekend, on the second day we ended up at Gulliver’s Kingdom in Matlock Bath.
The first thing that strikes you when you approach the park is the terrain the park is built on. It’s essentially a mountainside! There’s definitely been some creative uses of the land throughout the building of this park.
Once we were parked up and got into the park we headed to our first of our two exclusive ride times. The first was on the only roller coaster called The Log Coaster. We only had one go around but it did mean we had more time for the next attraction which was the Riggers Revenge Zip Line.
Now I’ve never done one of these before but I have done similar and the idea is that you’re strapped into a harness and then attached to the rail above allowing what is this essentially free flight around the park. You start off the attraction by climbing a small hill and then you jump off and it swings you around the roof tops and trees before bringing you back into what is essentially a station. For all intense purposes it is a roller coaster though it’s not really classed as such!
By the time we’d had a few goes round on the zip line the park had open to the general public so we headed down to the chairlift for the first of many trips up and down the hillside. This lift takes you from the very bottom of the park to what is the second highest point in the park and onto our first ride up here the Laser Dodgems.
These are exactly as the name implies dodgems with laser guns! Though throughout the whole day the gun scoring systems didn’t work unfortunately. It was still a good laugh as these dodgems seemed faster than the ones yesterday and they had forward and backwards pedals which is unusual!
After a couple of cycles on the laser dodgems we moved on to the Drop Tower attraction. It looks quite small compared to other tower rides in the UK but it does have great views over the park and surrounding area. It’s also quite intense as it doesn’t mess around with the drops. It takes you up then drops you then takes you back up then drops you again and it is quite forceful, a lot of fun as well as being quite comfortable too!
Once we were done with the drop Tower we headed up to the the highest point in the park which is another Western themed area but getting there you get the chance to use something called The Travelator! This is a transport Ride of sorts that takes you up the final little hill to the very top of the park. This only covers about 75 m or so but it’s a unique thing I’ve never seen in a park before!
At the very top is the western themed area as mentioned earlier which includes two rides; a dark ride and the log Flume. We all had a go on the log flume first and like a lot of other rides at the Gulliver’s parks it feels like this should be more to look at but it does make up for it by going through what looks like a purpose-built gorge that does actually look really impressive considering the demographic of the ride! The drop was short and sweet and you didn’t get too wet overall so I’d say this is quite a pleasant little ride!
The next stop was Silver Mine but it didn’t open for about 20 minutes so we ended up having a bit of a break and then queued up for the dark ride. Much like yesterday’s Tombstone Mine this one is set in a Western mine area but this one retains its guns so there are targets to shoot at. Unlike other interactive dark rides in the UK though this one doesn’t keep score, the guns are simply there to activate things as you go around the ride. It was quirky but probably not as exciting as it could have been!
We then spent the rest of the afternoon riding very similar rides to Gulliver’s Valley, such as the Dino Explorer Cars, Crazy Barrels, Carousel and Gully’s Pirate adventure. A couple of standouts were The Cycle Monorail and Gully’s Magic Bikes.
Both of these are pedal powered attractions (of sorts) where the monorails is entirely powered by your peddling and the Magic Bikes raises and lowers depending on how fast you peddle. Great fun, but quite tiring if you’re as out of shape as what I am!
For dinner, we stopped in the parks chippy and had chips, sauce and a drink. The curry sauce was one of the best I’ve ever tasted and the portion size was decent for the price too. Food options were pretty standard across both parks, offering the usual fast food but it was tasty.
The vast majority of the afternoon was spent re-riding the attractions and just enjoying the scenery around the park. We had a look in the toy and puppet museum as well and this was a nice distraction from the rides!
To finish up, I’ll say that Kingdom is a great little park and definitely the more scenic of the two parks we visited but I think I prefer Valley. Purely because it’s newer and therefore it’s a lot tidier to look at. Kingdom seemed in desperate need of a pressure wash here and there and some of the scenery tidying up a little. That’s not to say that Kingdom is bad, far from it, but it would be better than Valley if it had a bit of work done here and there!
The Gullivers family of parks is a group that I wouldn’t normally be able to visit as they have a very strict adult to child ratio which means only adult groups can’t usually go.
However, thanks to Love2explore setting up a little event, 29 of us were allowed to visit as part of a larger group! We jumped at the chance to try something completely new to us and had a great day along the way!
Our first stop was the Gullivers Gears area of the park, which includes Carfari, a tracked car ride, Dodge City, a dodgems, and Grand Prix Racers, which is the biggest rollercoaster at the park. As part of our visit we were allowed 30 minutes with Grand Prix Racers all to ourselves so we cycled it over and over again. Though it’s hardly the most insane coaster we’ve ever had for an exclusive ride time, it was definitely one of the funniest!
The ride itself is a clone of Junior Red Force at Ferrari Land in Portaventura World but not quite as extensively themed. It is a nice, fun ride, if a little jarring on some of the transitions. Nonetheless, we had a right laugh riding it, and Gulliver’s were even happy with us recording on the rides, so we got a lot of footage through various different cameras!
Dodge City was the next stop and we had a great time here too, even if there was only six cars on the track and the track was pretty small!
Car fari came next and this feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity. The ride itself meanders round very short oval shaped course but doesn’t really have anything to look at, however right next to the Gears area there’s a little farm and it feels like it would be better if it went around the farm!
Once we had finished in the Gears area we moved on to the Wriggler. This is your standard wacky worm though when compared to other models, this one is incredibly smooth! You couldn’t fit two adults in each car but that didn’t take away from the fact that we all piled on the train and had a right laugh doing it!
Our final stop before dinner was the Rocking Tug, which is exactly as you would expect, a rocking tug! It does have some nice theming to it but overall it’s just a rocking tug.
Next up was dinner and we ate in the Lilliput Restaurant while a show was playing. The restaurant offered your standard thoroughfare of park food such as burgers and sandwiches and wasn’t too expensive. The only issue was that the digital boards for ordering food didn’t really tell you what was included in the price so Tracy ended up ordering more than she really needed!
After dinner we headed into the Western themed area of the park and had a go on the three attractions there. These were the Rocky Ridge Railway, Apache Falls and Tombstone Mine.
Rocky ridge railway first and unfortunately there’s not really much to talk about. The best part about the ride is arguably the fact that it feels like a wild mouse mixed with a conventional long train coaster as the layout is very back and forth like a wild mouse is. However unlike a wild mouse it’s incredibly slow, but this does make it a perfect fit for a kid’s first roller coaster.
Next up was arguably one of the best rides in the park, Apache Falls. This is a river Rapids ride very similar to the one that Fantasy Island installed last year though this one is a permanent fixture. It didn’t really have much theming to it but unlike the vast majority of other rides it did have some music playing which was nice to hear and added character!
Do be aware though, you will probably get very wet on on this rapids ride despite its deceptive size. The reason being is that Gulliver’s have installed wooden partitions in the trough which catches water and throws it back at the boat so you get a nice showering effect right off the lift hill. It feels very similar to storm surge at Thorpe Park though a lot more thrilling and more interesting!
The final ride in the Western themed area is Tombstone Mine which at one time of day was an interactive dark ride. However the shooting element has since been removed leaving a decent ride but not quite as good as it could be. I think the shooting element would have definitely improved this one, at least for me!
After the Western themed area we headed into the pirate themed area and had to go on the pirate ship and teacups ride which are both as you would expect. The teacups ride, here called Blackbeard’s barrels, is somewhat interesting in the rotates both ways so it will stop halfway through to rotate the other way and you’ll get decent spin in the cars.
The final area of the park is The Lost World and as the name would imply is heavily themed around dinosaurs. This theming extends to the five rides that we had to go on starting with Jurassic Jeeps.
Jurassic Jeeps is another car ride similar to carfari earlier however this one has a lot more things to look at. It’s not quite as good as the one at Paulton’s in my opinion but it’s still a great ride for kids.
Speaking of great rates for kids next up was Paragliders which is a swing ride but unlike most others, this one doesn’t lift and tilt it keeps a level spin which makes it once again perfect for kids.
The next stop was the thing that pretty much everyone was looking forward to, Gyrosaur. This is the most thrilling ride at the park and is a gyro swing ride which means it completely inverts.
Though it’s not quite as thrilling as Cyclonator or Maelstrom it’s still a great addition to the park as it means older kids have got something to go on while the younger kids go on the young rides. As a group of enthusiasts, we thoroughly enjoyed it naturally!
Finally there’s T-Rex Towers and Lost World River Tour which are both water rides of differing thrill level. T-Rex Towers is a fun set of dingy slides where two will race and the third does its own thing but is faster and covered. I had to go on the cover tunnel myself.
The river ride feels like an extension of Jurassic jeeps as both do the same, they traverse a short course surrounded by dinosaurs whether they be static or animatronic and with river rides case there’s a little show scene of dinosaurs playing Walk The Dinosaur by Was Not Was which is a bit of fun.
After we’d all had to go on the right and lost World we headed back to the entrance to have a walk through the final traction monster Manor. This is essentially a ghost house but very kid-friendly. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into this one as there are many scenes to see with plenty of details within. It’s not the scariest attraction but it does have a little bit of character to it and the Facade is quite impressive outside.
Once we’d finished in monster Manor we had a go around the shop and I was surprised to find PIN badges and patches but other than that there wasn’t really much Gulliver’s related merchandise which is a bit of a shame but I can understand it with the park appealing more to kids.
So how did we find it?
Despite the fact that we were all a large group of enthusiasts I felt like I had a really good day. Yes the rides weren’t the most thrilling but we still had a right laugh. It would be nice if Gulliver’s had days where no kids were allowed and groups of adults could come and enjoy the rides for themselves as everyone can enjoy every ride there, which means no one’s left out.
If you do have kids Gulliver’s is definitely worth your time and money, I think Paulton’s Park is still better but that’s because it appeals to a wider audience and has things that really really interest me. However don’t let that take away from the fact that Gulliver’s are still great fun and great value too. As we were part of a large group we ended up getting discounted tickets which came to around about £15 which is incredible value considering how much we got done during the day as well as having exclusive ride times on the roller coaster!
While we were at Portaventura we obviously had to try the new Intamin built Uncharted ride. This is a collaboration of my favourite ride manufacturer and favourite game franchise so what’s not to love? I’ll be going into everything that we saw and felt so please don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers!
Overall, it was a good ride, the layout was fun and snappy and there were a few surprise elements included in the ride such as the cars rotating and turning to face different directions as the ride progresses.
The experience all starts with the queue as you’ll go through 2 scenes in the show building, one is just an old West saloon looking building, and is very loosely themed to the franchise, at least in my opinion!
The second room is the one you’ll have seen all over social media with the two animatronics of Chloe and Nate. They have a decent likeness to the film renditions of the characters but I’ll assume they couldn’t use full likenesses of any of the characters for whatever reason! It is a bit of shame that they couldn’t use the games character designs but what we have is good enough.
Following the first two rooms, you’ll move into another area that looks like underground catacombs with stalactites and the occasional mist effect. I will say that the queueline did spoil the experience a little bit as we queued outside the building, then batched inside, then batched a 3rd time after the animatronics and all the time your thinking ‘how many more queues are there’!? It is to be expected though as the ride has always had long queues whenever we’ve seen it or passed any board with ride times on. I think we queued for about 2 hours all in.
Once you’re into the station though, the fun begins as you’ll drop your bags off and board the ride vehicles, themed around explorer Jeeps, and then sent off onto the ride!
You’ll see a static scene or two throughout the ride portion but a lot of the story is told through video screens. It feels very Uncharted: Drakes Fortune with the gun fight you’ll see and the helicopter lifting artifacts out towards the end.
There are 5 launches and they are all quite tame compared with other attractions I’ve been on, and some of them barely push the car faster than it already was, but they don’t feel unnecessary in my opinion.
There are a couple of fun elements such as a turntable, a return spike and a fairly sharp drop but other than those, it is quite a tame, but still enjoyable ride. Less of a coaster and more of a dark ride with coaster elements.
I wasn’t going into it with very high expectations as early reviews seemed a bit so so, praising the hardware but criticising the lack of scenery during the ride. I can see why people would think that, but it wasn’t devoid of scenery and there were always things to look at so I’d say it exceeded my expectations!
A very enjoyable ride in my eyes, a little lacking in places and much more enjoyable on a shorter queue, but definitely worth visiting for, especially if you like Uncharted as much as I do!
On our little holiday we spent a grand total of 5 days on Spanish soil, and 2 of those days were spent entirely in the main park, Portaventura World. Our first day consisted of our first ride on Uncharted as well as a good sweep of a the main attractions.
Day 1
We ended up buying Express Passes on the first day which entitled us to quicker access to 10 of the parks bigger attractions. These are:
Shambhala
Dragon Khan
Furius Baco
Stampida
Templo Del Feugo
El Diablo
Tutuki Splash
Silver River Log Flume
Grand Canyon River Rapids
Angkor
We started off on Uncharted, I’ll be writing a dedicated review for the ride as there’s a fair bit to cover, but in a nutshell, it had a very lengthy queue that lead into a very enjoyable ride afterwards.
Next up was Stampida, a Custom Coasters International wooden racing coaster. This one is a bit of a rough ride and in places is goes beyond comfortable but it doesn’t stay uncomfortable for too long leaving a very thrilling, unhinged woodie that’s definitely worth riding!
Our next stop was El Diablo, an Arrow Dynamics hybrid mine train. This is the first Arrow mine train coaster I’ve ever done and it was a good start! Not quite as unhinged as it could have been, but forceful where it needed to be, decently long and it interacted well with the log flume beside it. A great family fun coaster with something for everyone.
Onward to Dragon Khan and Shambhala next as they were the next closest attractions on our express passes. I’ll tackle Dragon Khan first as it’s the older of the two and one I knew little about before coming to Portaventura.
Dragon Khan is a Bolliger and Mabillard sit down steel coaster and a beast at that. It inverts 7 times, has great pacing and is very intense. It feels somewhat similar to Nemesis Inferno in a few ways but obviously not inverted. It makes a tremendous racket as well, as I assume the track spine isn’t filled with sand here!
Dragon Khan is also one of the rides that seems to get the best dispatch times as there was almost always a train on the circuit whenever we were looking at it. A long queue might not take as long as it looks as they really do fly through dispatches. We managed 2 rides during our visit, one was via express pass and the other was a regular wait and it didn’t feel very long at all.
The other coaster in the area is Shambhala and this coaster needs little introduction. Simply put, it doesn’t do much, if anything wrong really. It is incredibly smooth, not so intense that it makes it difficult to ride but not boring either. It truly is a brilliant coaster. The only small thing that could be improved is having restraints for larger people as Tracy couldn’t ride it unfortunately, and we did see a few stockier men having to get off too. Maybe a new car could be added with extra room for the larger folk so everyone can enjoy this immaculate ride!
Something that is also worth mentioning is that Shambhala, Furius Baco and Red Force all feature on board video recording, so you can watch your own run. We bought all 3 as they were a first for us and great fun too! It makes up for the fact I couldn’t record on the rides (I asked 2 different members of staff for permission).
As for the ride experience itself, it is very thrilling, offers some spectacular views over the park and surrounding area and it’s so smooth it feels like it’s skating on glass throughout the whole runtime. It’s a pure joy to ride and it has a bit of character to it, at least that’s what I felt anyway! The water splash is a nice element but it would have been nice if the coaster actually caused it rather than jets in the trough but that’s a very minor thing! I absolutely love Shambhala!
After I’d finished on Shambhala, we went back to the Mediterranean themed area for a ride on Furius Baco. Now I knew a fair bit about this one as it’s in the family of rides I really enjoy, the Intamin Accelerator coasters.
Furius Baco is somewhat similar to Rita at Alton Towers because it emphasizes speed and low twisting track over height. How it differs from Rita is the speed it launches at, around 80 miles an hour, and the single in line twist inversion towards the end of the ride. It’s probably also worth mentioning the fact that this is a wing coaster too.
It differs from the B&M wing coasters as you can cross the ride vehicle to get to the other side, allowing one side loading and unloading. Though this does come with quite a big caveat, the quality of the ride. If you’re in an outermost seat, the ride will be quite rough and ready, but those on the inner most seats won’t fair too much better!
Now I’ll be completely honest and say that I loved everything about this ride. I felt the launch was excellent, the layout was fun and thrilling, especially with the in line twist at the end. Even the roughness of the ride felt like it was designed to be part of the overall experience. It took us until our second ride to fully understand the story behind the ride and for it all to make sense.
The ride is called Furius Baco which translates to Furious Bacchus, where Bacchus is the Greek god of the vine. The story goes that the ride is a sort of experimental device for harvesting grapes and through some mishaps causes the mechanism to catapult riders out into the vineyards. If you like Rita and Stealth, you’ll probably like Baco too.
With all the big coasters done, we changed into wet shoes and put our stuff in a locker before having a go on the water rides, starting with Tutuki Splash.
Tutuki Splash is an Intamin Shoot the Chutes boat ride, in the same vein as Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park, but not quite as tall, but much longer. Where Tidal Wave has a shorter runtime and a huge splash, Tutuki has a longer runtime, 2 drops and a comparatively smaller splash. It’ll still get you quite wet, but not thoroughly! It’s worth mentioning that you’ll have to take any bags on with you too, so make sure valuables are in something water resistant!
The next ride we had a go on was Angkor, which is a somewhat hidden gem. Located at the very back of the park, underneath Shambhala’s hills is a nicely themed Splash Battle ride, Angkor. The ride does feature targets to shoot at but the best part about this ride is the soaking you’ll get from others in other boats. Naturally you’ll want to return the favour, and thus you’ll regularly be seeing two boats going hell for leather on each other as they get close. It’s fun to watch and even more fun to participate in! Short of the log flume, this is probably the wettest you’ll get.
This is assuming you don’t have a large and heavy boat load of people on Silver River Log Flume! We had a full boat and got very wet because of it. The ride has 3 drops of differing heights and is quite a lengthy ride. The station is themed around a lumber mill and has a large waterwheel that seems to rotate using water rather than a motor which is nice to see.
The final water ride we had a go on was Grand Canyon River Rapids and this is a bit tame and a little dull to be honest! It is well themed as it has a lot of nice rockwork around the layout and a couple of waterfalls, but there wasn’t much of a rapid feel to it. It felt very similar to the rides we have over here in the UK. Portaventura has done so well with everything else, I think it’ll be fair to let them off on this one ride! It’s not like it’s terrible or anything, just a bit dull.
After the rapids, we headed back to the hotel to get changed, have dinner and head back into the park for rerides on whatever we could get on. I got another ride on Shambhala as Tracy didn’t have to wait with me having the express pass and we finished off the day by watching the parade and FiestAventura show again.
The Second Day
We had a break after day 1 and did Port Caribe Water Park and Ferrari Land, which left our 3rd full day in Spain as another full day in the main park. The intention with this was to get on the flat rides and attractions that weren’t on the Express pass.
We started off at Serpiente Emplumada or The Feathered Serpent, which is a Schwartzkopf Polyp attraction. These usually have an Octopus theme or something similar but this seems to be themed around a Mayan wrestling with snakes. As for the ride itself, it is more intense than it looks! It gives some really good force but doesn’t disorientate you too much with all the spinning!
After Feathered Serpent, we head up to Hurakan Condor, which is Apocalypse’s bigger brother. That is literally what Condor is, a 5 tower, 350 ft+ drop tower. It even features cameras at the top so you can capture the moment the fear sets in!
There were only 2 towers working throughout our visit which is a bit of a shame as it does mean queue times are longer than they need to be, but we got there as it opened so only queued for about 15 minutes.
Once we’d finished on Condor, we had a go on The Secrets of the Maya, which is a mirror maze. I don’t feel it quite fits the Mexican/Mayan theme so well but it was still a bit of fun to go through, and we finished it quite quickly too. I think we were a bit lucky in the choices we made but we had a laugh doing it anyway!
Templo Del Feugo next and I’d heard mixed things here. Some were saying it was bad and that effects didn’t work all the time, very much like Valhalla actually, while others praised it.
We went in with an open mind, not really expecting much due to the comments I’d heard and it starts off a bit slow. You’re in a room with an archeologist who’s trying to open the temple, he interacts with the crowd and is quite funny, even in Spanish! The room goes dark and the roof lights up with an ominous face, but this doesn’t stop the archeologist from carrying on and taking us into the temple.
Inside the main room, you’ll see a grand set of a waterlogged temple and the archeologist starts jumping from rock to rock to make his way to the temple itself. Once on the main structure, his escape route is cut off, unbeknownst to him. He then opens up the treasure vaults and takes the single largest piece he can find, activating the temple and this is where the fun begins!
The room comes alive with fire effects, splashing water and animatronics moving around. All the time the archeologist is trying to escape but finds he can’t and ends up having to drop down back into the temple to try and put the treasure back when the room is pretty much entirely engulfed in flames. It is truly an awesome site seeing everything working and getting the full experience first time. To finish the show, while your distracted with the flame effects, the floor your standing on will drop ever so slightly and violently at that. This really adds to the immersion and excitement of the attraction. It is most definitely a hidden gem!
After we’d calmed down from all the excitement, we had a go on Yucatan, a Mack Rides Superbob. It is a nicely themed ride and has a decent runtime but doesn’t really do a whole lot, but it is very comfy!
Now we’d finished the Mexico section of the park, we headed around to China to take some photos of Shambhala and Dragon Khan, then moved into SésamoAventura, which is the parks Sesame Street area, primarily aimed at children of course! That didn’t stop us from having a great time here. We tried many of the rides that we felt we could go on such as Magic Fish, Coco Piloto, La Granja de Elmo and Street Mission.
Magic Fish is a similar ride to Hydras Challenge at Legoland, though only has 1 ride mechanism and no interaction with water jets. Coco Piloto is a monorail that travels around the area and gives great views over the park. La Granja de Elmo is a tractor ride but for some reason the on board audio plays Disney tracks? I’m not sure why, or even how they got away with that, but it sort of fits the attraction.
Then there’s Tami Tami, a Vekoma Sit-down coaster. I think the trains look identical to Thorpe Park’s Walking Dead, but the models are apparently different (Walking Dead is an Enigma, where Tami Tami is a Junior Coaster 207m). Maybe they use the same trains? I don’t know.
Anyway as for the ride, it’s a nice little kids coaster in a very nicely themed area. It was once part of the Polynesian area, but was closed for the construction of SésamoAventura where it now resides. It does feel like it should still be in the Polynesian area as it doesn’t really have any resemblance to Sesame Street. It’s a fun ride nonetheless!
Finally there’s Street Mission. The only thing I knew about this was that it has its own separate Express Pass so I expected a long queue for a good ride. We managed two rides during our stay and one was a walk on, the other was a 10 minute queue, so I do wonder why an Express pass is needed here. As for the ride itself, it’s wonderful!
It has a good mix of screens and physical props and sees you shooting cookies on the screens. The idea is that you’re trying to help Grover to find out what happened to the giant cookie that is needed for a street party (as it’s disappeared). There are plenty of scenes to see, and there is extensive use of smell pods in the ride which is the first thing I noticed to be fair!
Then there’s the room where the action happens, and I mean that literally. The car seems to race through Count Dracula’s castle and it feels energetic and fun, helped by the 3D glasses you’re wearing and the motion of the ride vehicle. This is most definitely one of those rides you have to try while here at Portaventura World as it’s one of the better interactive dark rides. It’s not quite as daft as Popcorn Revenge, or as serious as Challenge of Tutankhamun but as a kids ride, it’s perfect!
Our next stop was a ride on the train that takes you around the park, we did the whole trip and got off at SésamoAventura to finish off the area before we headed back around to the Mediterranean area. We were intending to have another ride on Furius Baco but we didn’t think we could get through the queue in time for our reservation at The Iron Horse.
I should explain a bit about eating at Portaventura World. If you stay on site and have a meal plan with the hotel, such as half board like us, then you can book different restaurants to eat at.
The hotel El Paso had a traditional restaurant and a buffet, the latter of which we ate at for most of our meals, because we missed out on booking the other places. You see, you can eat at the hotel or get a €19 spend in the parks restaurants but these need to be booked in advance and as we weren’t as organised with what we were doing and when we were doing it, we ended up only trying 1 park restaurant, The Iron Horse.
All booking is done through a web based app of sorts and is simple to use but does take a little understanding! There are a fair few options though and I hope we can try them out in future visits.
As for The Iron Horse, it was a nicely laid out and themed resting the Old West section of the park, so had a saloon feel to it. Even the staff uniforms were in-keeping with the feel of the place. The food was nice, if a little pricy, but we managed 2 burgers and 2 beers for our tea and only had to pay about €4 on top of our allowance. I don’t think I’d eat there if I was paying full price but with it mostly included in the meal plan, I’m not going to complain here!
One of the final things we ended up doing was watching the Bang Bang West stunt show which was excellent! It’s just around the corner from the Iron Horse and is about a band of outlaws trying to rob a bank.
The show is full of comedy and effects and it felt like we were watching a slapstick cartoon brought to life. Definitely a departure from the more serious tones of Raveleijn horse show (at Efteling, which was also excellent). I highly recommend taking some time out of the day to sit and watch this one, plus the seats are covered so you’re not in direct sunlight!
To round out the day we had a few rerides on Stampida and Tomahawk as well as a night ride on Shambhala making use of the single rider queue and we went off to watch the parade and FiestAventura once more (all in we ended up watching the show 3 times and each time is was just as good as before!)
Summary of Portaventura World
Portaventura World is a truly wonderful park. It has a great range of stellar attractions from Shambhala and Dragon Khan to Street Mission and Tutuki Splash. All the areas are themed wonderfully and even if you’re not a thrill seeker, you’ll be able to find something to do here, whether it’s the more gentle rides, the water rides or the shows (as there are so many shows!)
The park is incredibly pretty and sits in its own plot of land surrounded by mountains on one side and a bit of industry on the other which can spoil the view from the top of Shambhala a little bit, but look passed that and you’ll see the sea and the local towns.
Food is great, though a little pricy in places, the quality is good and it’s very tasty! We didn’t have anything that we thought was subpar, though I do wish we could have had longer to try more things!
The hotel was great if a little dated in places but the rooms were comfy and had plenty of storage, the bed was comfortable too and the shower was excellent, if a little too powerful when turned on to full! (It blew itself right off the wall when we first tried it).
The little web based app they have is good though I’d love to see that integrated into the Portaventura World mobile app, much like Efteling does so you can open your door with your phone and have all your photos and reservations in one place too.
I loved the digipass they offered as it was recently priced at €60 for the duration of our stay (€40 for a single day) and though if have liked to have gotten more photos, that’s not necessarily the parks fault there!
Overall, I was very impressed with Portaventura World, and I’m sure Tracy was too. I feel that we didn’t quite come across as enthusiastically on the accompanying vlog we did, but rest assured, we will be back to a phenomenal park! I can’t wait to see what they do next and I wish them the best of luck. Thanks for such a great time!
Once we’d gotten back from our European road trip, I had the travel bug so almost immediately we started talking about our next visit. We eyed up Legoland Billund, Tivoli Gardens and Liseberg but settled on Portaventura World.
This is the first time we’ve flown to a park and my first experience with Ryanair. I wasn’t expecting a very good experience with Ryanair as I’ve heard of lot of negative things about budget airlines but we found it to be quite straightforward. We paid for additional bags (and priority boarding which comes with those) as I was worried we’d struggle to get everything in both our allowed carry on bags.
Not once were our bags physically checked for size or weight which wouldn’t have mattered as all our baggage was within all the limits. I was told it was very strict but found it to be overstated. Maybe it was just this flight, I’m sure we’ll see in future!
We flew from Leeds Bradford and short of going to a check-in desk unnecessarily, we were straight through security and into duty free. A bit of waiting around later and we’re walking across the tarmac to board the plane and set of for Spain!
Onboard the flight, I found the seats to be quite comfy and had room enough for my legs. It was quite a warm flight as the overhead blowers are fairly asthmatic on any flight I’ve been on but other than that, it was uneventful.
Landing at Reus airport was pleasant and we even got a sneak peak of Portaventura from the runway too. We had a small wait at passport control before following the crowd and finding a lovely gentleman with a board with our name on it! This was about the only thing I even remotely worried about as I wasn’t sure how we’d find our transport to the hotel. He directed us to a travel agency’s booth and they told us the bus number and in so we headed off to board the bus to the hotel!
At the hotel we checked in easily as I’d already done online check-in (which was available up to 5 days before arrival). We got our room keys and a card with a QR code on it and headed to the room to see what it was like.
We were probably the furthest away from reception but fairly close to the pool. The rooms do indeed have air-conditioning, though it isn’t quite as powerful as it is in say Mexico or America but it was serviceable and kept us from melting too much!
While exploring the room, we found a little mould in the bathroom and when we tried the shower it blew the head right off the wall but literally as we’d finished cleaning up the water, the room’s phone rang and it was reception doing a courtesy call to check if everything was ok. We explained about the shower and they couldn’t have been more happy to help!
As the maintenance man didn’t need us there, we had tea in the buffet restaurant before heading into the park for a few hours to see what it was like!
I’ll go through Portaventura as a whole in the next blog as there is so much to see and do. We ended up getting on a few rides on Stampida, Dragon Khan and El Diablo before heading back to the start of the park to watch the parade and end of day show.
We were not expecting quite as big a welcome as the parade and FiestAventura gave us. Standing by the lake, with a tasty cold beer watching the fireworks, the water displays and the floating puppets performing their routines was right up there with something I will never forget. It was magical, and felt special. Efteling levels of special. It set us up for a very special and amazing few days at a fantastic park!
I wanted To write this blog to not only summarise our trip, but also give a bit of advice where I can about travelling around Europe.
The highlights
Thinking about things that stuck out on our trip, I’d have to say that most of Efteling, Rookburgh and the Charles Lindbergh, most of Toverland and The Ride to Happiness as a start. So to make it a bit more fun, I think I’ll go through highlights of anything and everything starting with the coasters.
The Coasters
Fury and Ride to Happiness are the clear standouts here. I was expecting Ride to Happiness to be great but wasn’t expecting as much from Fury but it sure delivered! Anubis was also noteworthy, as was Typhoon and Taron. Kondaa was quite impressive too, Revolution and Psyke Underground were very interesting and Troy is the best wooden coaster I’ve ridden so far!
The Flats
But rollercoasters aren’t just all a park has to offer, there’s the flat rides too. Here, the clear standouts was Talocan. I looked forward to this for a long time before going and it held up all I wanted it to be! I wish the fire had been working on our visit but it didn’t take away from what is a phenomenal ride. Mystery Castle is also a ride that I’ll never forget riding the first time either! Then there’s King Kong at Bobbejaanland, Le Rondes des Canards at Plopsaland and Scorpius at Toverland for how great it looked.
The Dark Rides
Then there’s the great selection of dark rides we had a go on! Popcorn Revenge, Challenge of Tutankhamen, Maus Au Chocolat, Carnival Festival, Droomvluct and the almighty Symbolica! Efteling truly is one of the dark ride capitals of Europe!
The Water Rides
Finally there’s the water rides, though Pulsar and SuperSplash are rollercoasters, I think they stand out more for their water elements. Though the rapids rides we had a go on are definitely memorable, River Quest being the absolute champion of rapids rides! Chiapas is the best log flume we’ve been on, but Flashback and Terra Magna were great too!
As for the park that stood out as the one that impressed me most, it’ll definitely be Toverland. Though Efteling and Phantasialand were the better parks, I felt that Toverland was so well done and we enjoyed everything there was to do at the park so much. I feel Efteling could do with a few more thrill rides personally and that would make it easily top of all parks I’ve visited. For now though, Toverland is up there along with Efteling and Phantasialand, with Walibi Belgium and Plopsaland being tied and Bobbejaanland being slightly behind those two. That’s definitely not to say Bobbejaanland was bad or anything, far from it! It’s better than the vast majority of parks here in the UK! It’s just competition is stiff!
All the hotels we stopped in were not much to write about besides the Loonsche Land Hotel and Charles Lindbergh which were very well done. It is worth noting though, that most of the hotels we stopped in didn’t have tea and coffee making facilities and the beds all seemed to use foam mattresses too. I suppose I should really mention Schwerelos Suite here as the host of this overnight stop went truly above and beyond with how they accommodated us!
Some advice about Europe
I’ll have an accompanying video for you to watch here if you prefer, but I’ll try and go into a bit of detail here as it’s easier to write!
The first piece of advice I’d say is to make sure you plan what you’re doing to within an inch of its life! I had an Excel spreadsheet with all sorts of information on it while we were going through the motions of deciding what parks we were doing, what hotels we were stopping at and our route. We ended up deciding on 6 parks and 9 hotels in total (2 being booked alongside their park tickets). The route we decided on was the most fuel efficient way that I could find as I used Google Maps to decide what was best.
Once we’d gotten our actual hotels and tickets booked, we turned our attention to what we’d need. This includes your V5 for the car, travel insurance, car insurance details (including European cover), passports and such. I’ll make a list at the very bottom to help out with what you might need to make it much easier to plan! It’s also worth noting how you’re getting there. By road you’ll have 2 choices, ferry or Eurotunnel. We opted for the Eurotunnel as it was a lot cheaper, but the ferry might have offers on or be more suitable to you.
Driving in Europe wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be as you are guided straight onto a french motorway as you leave the eurotunnel and it sort of clicks as you go. The first few roundabouts are interesting as cars are coming from the other way and you are used to looking right instead of left.
Having a basic understanding of French/Dutch or German will help you out plenty in France/Belgium/The Netherlands and Germany and it certainly helps if you have allergies or specific needs as we had a little issue with onions. I’m not allergic to them per se but they can seriously upset my stomach and it’s much easier to not eat them at all. We did had a few issues trying to say ‘no onions please’, but it didn’t always come across, which is on us for not knowing how to speak a foreign language!
Obviously the currency is Euros and I took a bank card with me, where Tracy went entirely cash. Either works fine and depending where you’re going depends on what you’ll need. Bobbejaanland for example is entirely cashless so you can convert cash into their own on park currency, but Phantasialand was easier with cash as some of the vendors didn’t take card.
Things you’ll need for driving in Europe
Passport
Travel Insurance
Car Insurance
V5C
High Viz Jacket for each occupant of the vehicle )reachable from within the behicle)
I’ll preface this blog by saying that the only things I knew of Walibi Belgium was that it was a Six Flags park and featured on Roller Coaster Tycoon, a game I grew up playing (and still play to this day), and Kondaa. That was it!
We arrived at the park nice and early as our hotel was only 10 minutes away and even though we arrived at about 9:15, the car park was already starting to fill up.
We got through the gates into the park and had a wander around the shop before joining the mass of people waiting to enter the park proper. We looked around and thought there was a lot of people here and made the executive decision to look into fast passes for the day. Their offers are incredibly reasonable and we paid €50 euros for our speedy passes. This equates to about £43 and it got us onto 18 rides, including Kondaa so I cannot fault the value here!
Our first stop in the park was Loup Garou (Werewolf), the parks Vekoma built wooden coaster. We’ve started each park that has a woodie with that woodie so didn’t break tradition here! Loup Garou is a decent ride with very comfortable seats that are well padded and very roomy too.
The ride experience is good, it’s not the best wooden coaster I’ve ridden, but it’s far, far from the worst! It does rattle about a bit and is somewhat forceful, but felt a bit more rattly than thrilling. Still a good time though, especially as it’s my first Vekoma wooden coaster.
After Loup Garou, we headed towards Vampier (Vampire if you didn’t guess) which is a standard layout Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC). It is identical to Infusion at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and rides just as well as Infusion. Though I do think Vampire was a little more comfortable than Infusion, maybe it’s the front row or the fact I’d braced myself for a beating but I found it to be decent, especially for an SLC!
Next up was the parks carousel and then onto the next big ride, another Vekoma! This time a mine train coaster called Calamity Mine and this is the same model as Phantasialand’s Colorado Adventure. Though not quite as good as Colorado Adventure, this ride is still great fun and arguably the second best runaway mine train I’ve ever done. It’s nice and smooth and a little tame but this does make it good for people who don’t like too much intensity!
While we were in the area, we had a go on Dalton Terror which is the same ride model as Apocalypse at Drayton Manor once was. It even has 5 towers like Apocalypse, though no standup towers here. It is taller though at 252ft (77m) making it the tallest drop tower we’ve done so far! This was exactly as you’d expect, slow ascent with a thrilling and quite lengthy descent too!
Our next stop in the park was the newest addition, Kondaa. This is an Intamin built coaster and features no inversions but does have a one of a kind non inverting cobra roll. The ride is fairly tall at 168ft and features a lot of whippy transitions and airtime hills. The trains are comfy and the restraints are very open allowing you to feel all the ride has to offer. I thoroughly enjoyed Kondaa, so much so that it had managed to break the top 10 of my all time favourites (at least currently!).
Also in the Kondaa area is a little junior ride called Kondaala and it slowly rotates you upwards and then back down again, it’s very tame and perfectly suited to smaller guests who can’t yet ride Kondaa.
Challenge of Tutankhamen was next up and I hadn’t really looked into this one too so didn’t quite know what to expect. What we did get though was Legolands Laser Raiders on steroids though! The ride system is almost exactly the same, though the rid wish trackless but the guns make the same sounds and the targets are identical. How it differs from Laser Raiders is how it feels more mature and serious I’m it’s presentation. Not only does it look good and work perfectly, but it also takes different routes on subsequent rerides. We managed two during our time here and got a few new scenes on the second ride around. Definitely worth a visit!
After Challenge of Tutankhamen, we stopped off for some dinner in one of the restaurants. We had what was essentially Walibis version of KFC and it was good, if a little pricey. What is nice to see though is the refillable drinks cups they offer. Though not as good as coca cola freestyle, the offer here is that you pay slightly more for your first drink and then can trade the cup back in for a return, making your drink much cheaper. I think it was something like €3.80 euros for a drink and returning The cup got you €1 back. You can of course keep the cup, which is what we ended up doing.
Tiki Waka was our next stop and I was looking forward to this one as it’s a Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster, similar to Cobra at Paultons Park, but a bit longer. This is a very smooth ride, not too thrilling but fun none the less! I love the theme of the area it’s in, the ride itself and the ride vehicles too!
Once we’d had a go on Tiki Waka, we tried Golden River which is a boat ride around the lake, before heading to Flashback for the first of 2 water rides.
I do remember flashback being in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2s version of Six Flags Belgium, so I was looking forward to riding a ride I only knew from the game. I wasn’t disappointed with it at all as it was just good fun all the way around. It features 3 lifts and drops, 1 is done backwards and it has a few lengthy sections in tunnels too. The final drop is quite a thrill too and despite it’s splash, it didn’t really get us that wet!
The same can be said for Pulsar, it looks intimidating and like a thorough drencher but it ended up being very pleasant and didn’t soak us through, which made the ride all the more enjoyable! Pulsar is essentially a shuttle launched water coaster and is the fastest coaster in Belgium! It uses linear induction to push the train backwards and forwards 3 times along it’s length with the final part being a splashdown into a big trough of water. What is quite unique about this ride, is not only the turntable loading system, but also the trough the boat passes through
The turntable means a boat can be on the track and another in the station, once both are ready, the align next to one another and the turntable rotates, taking on into the station and vice versa. As for the water trough, the boat passes through it 3 times when the water level is low and as it’s about to pass the 4th and final time, the trough floods quite quickly and causes the boat to splash down into it, slowing it down too, it’s quite clever and fun to ride!
Now that we’d finished on the water rides, we got dried off (travel towels are a must) and had a go on Spinning Vibe which is a Huss Breakdance, though not quite a full size, full throttle model. I was expecting to be a bit ill with all the spinning but found it to be quite pleasant though maybe a little repetitive by the time our cycle was done.
Pyske Underground was next up and what a ride this is! The station is quite unassuming and very calm, but when the ride starts, there’s a video that plays with some characters trying to initiate the start sequence for the ride. The countdown starts, then speeds through and the train launches into a dark tunnel, a loop, up a spike and back again in reverse. It took us completely by surprise as to how well executed this shuttle loop is!
We then decided to wander over to Fun Pilot and Palis Du Génie, two family rides towards the back of the park. Fun Pilot is a bit bigger Farmyard Flier, it has the same trains and a similar layout, though this is a bit longer. Rides as well as Farmyard Flier though! As for Palis Du Génie, this is another Vekoma Madhouse and though we didn’t quite understand what was going on in the preshow, the madhouse part was well executed rode well.
Further around the park we went until eventually we got to Popcorn Revenge, a trackless interactive dark ride that is probably the most wacky idea in Belgium, if not the whole of Europe!
The ride takes you’re through a lot of screen based sets that are made to look like cinema screens. The idea is that popcorn, that is apparently thrown at screens during terrible films has come to life and is getting it’s revenge so you have to fight your way through the cinema! Now this ride is definitely memorable and incredibly fun too! There’s just something about shooting popcorn versions of Marvel characters and other film icons!
The fun doesn’t just start on the ride though, the queue has plenty of mock posters advertising films such as The Corn of the Rings, Avacorn (Avatar) or Harry Popper. From entering the queueline to leaving via the gift shop, we had a blast on this ride!
Finally we had a go on Cobra which is a Vekoma Boomerang model, and is identical to Wipeout at Pleasurewood Hills. Not much to say here that I didn’t talk about with Wipeout but it was comfortable for the most part and very thrilling, especially backwards!
Once we’d done on Cobra we had a wander back around the park and had a few rerides on attractions we liked the most such as Challenge of Tutankhamen and Popcorn Revenge. We were hoping to have another go on Psyke Underground but it seemed to break down after we’d had a go and didn’t get back running again
The gift shop at the very end was well stocked with plenty of park specific merchandise as well as lots of other stuff such as Funko Pops and things for the kids. It was one of the more expensive parks but as I alluded to in the video log we took, I don’t mind paying more for things when I’ve had a great time and Walibi Belgium was definitely a great time!
I look forward to getting back there to re-ride Kondaa, Psyke Underground and the other coasters and since we’ve gotten back home, planning permission has been sought to build another rollercoaster too so I look forward to that!
With this brings the end to our European Parks. I don’t think there has been a single thing to properly moan about the whole way around all the parks we’ve been to, at least nothing that really matters all that much! I’ll be doing a blog going through highlights of the trip as well as a lot of advice to anyone who wants to do a trip like this for themselves!
Phantasialand was the park I was looking forward to the most out of all the parks we’d lined up to visit. I’ve heard rave reviews for Taron and F.L.Y. as well as the Rookburgh and Klugheim themed areas, so I was quite excited! Coupled with he fact we were staying in site at the Charles Lindbergh Hotel and were there 2 days, it all lined up to be one of the best park visits I’ve ever done.
We set off from our accommodation with plenty of time to spare but soon hit all the traffic going into Phantasialand and this lost a good 45 minutes, something I’ve never seen at any other park we’ve been to. Even at Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and Chessington, we’ve never been late for a rope drop but there was nothing I could do so we waited in the traffic and eventually got to the car park across the road from the hotel.
This was pleasant at least as we didn’t have to wait in more traffic to get to the main car park, so I’m thankful for that! Once we were parked up, we grabbed our park bags and headed into the hotel to check in as we needed our park tickets. We checked in online and this went through incredibly smoothly and we were in Rookburgh in no time. I’ll review the Charles Lindbergh in a separate blog (same with the Loonsche Land Hotel from Efteling).
Rookburgh really did blow us both away with how beautiful and heavily themed the area was. Nothing look like it was out of place, even down to the details of all the coal bunkers below the area that were filled with props and real stones made to look like coal (at least that’s what I think but I could be wrong).
F.L.Y. was doing circuits above us and since we had been to the hotel first, we got our fast pass tickets for F.L.Y. so we headed there first.
The boarding process is very unique, at least to us, as you have to remove everything from your pockets and take glasses off for the ride. Even this was themed to fit in with the ride which was good to see.
The boarding process is simple and the station is very pretty too. I won’t spoil the ride in any way as I found it fascinating seeing how it worked and the different approach Vekoma has taken to making a new generation flying coaster.
As for the ride experience itself, it was great, but not amazing, purely because of the restraints. Where Galactica has big bulky restraints that are actually quite comfortable and hold you in place nicely, F.L.Y. has opted for a minimalist design, and this is probably the only issue the ride has. When we first rode it, we found the leg parts to be quite uncomfortable and have left Tracy with bruises. We did ride it again on our second day and tried different seating positions but any difference was marginal.
It’s such a shame as the ride looks amazing and rides very well, if a little tame compared with other large rides. I’d say it was about as thrilling as Galactica is, and Galactica spends more time on it’s back than F.L.Y. does, but overall F.L.Y. is much better!
After we left Rookburgh, we headed into the next part of the park, Berlin. This is themed around Berlin from the 1920s and is very pretty too. It has a few calm rides and quite a beautiful and imposing looking Carousel.
We didn’t spend much time here as we were quite hungry and headed off in search of something to eat. Our search literally took us all over the park which helped with orientation too! Though while we were looking for something to eat, we found the entrance to Talocan and I insisted we have a go.
Talocan is the bucket list flat ride for me so I had to have a go! Tracy wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest, but I knew I was! Talocan is a very heavily themed Huss Top Spin and looks absolutely stunning, and I rarely use that to describe things!
The ride itself was everything I had hoped for, as it was very intense but didn’t make me feel ill at all. Tracy hated it as it’s really not her idea of fun as it goes upside down a lot! I’ve looked forward to this one for a while and I’d readied myself for it to be a bit of a let down as I’d overhyped myself for it, but it stood up to all I hoped it would be, definitely the best flat ride I’ve ever been on!
After Talocan, we continued our search for food and ended up in the Mexican area at La Cantina Tacana for burritos and these were incredibly tasty! Definitely the best burrito I’ve ever had and it wasn’t too expensive either at €15 (around £12.80) for a burrito, nachos on the side, 300ml drink and 3 dips.
After we’d had some dinner, we had a slow wander around to let dinner settle a bit before heading into the ghost train, here it’s called Geister Rikscha. This is another omnimover/Endless Transit System and goes through a lot of Chinese mythological scenes.
The ride system is good and it’s quite long too, but the animatronics and scenes you go passed are looking very tired and could do with a good overhaul. I’d still say it’s worth riding as we walked straight on, but its not worth losing time queung for in its current form unfortunately!
Feng Ju palace was next as this was another gentle ride and as it turns out, is another Vekoma Madhouse attraction. This is another ride that looks a bit older and definitely feels it! The preshow was decent but very cheesy. Almost like watching mortal Kombat, but with 80s technology! The ride part didn’t fare much better either as it also looks a bit tired too. I hope these two attractions get a bit of attention or replaced in the near future as they’re about the only rides we found that didn’t have the same quality or appeal as the others around the park.
Next up was Colorado Adventure, a Vekoma Mine Train coaster. This will be my first ever proper mine train as all the other I’ve ever ridden are powered coasters like Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers.
We both enjoyed this coaster with Tracy going as far as to say it was better than Big Thunder Mountain, though I can’t comment on that! It was certainly the best mine train I’ve ever done as it was a really long ride and thrilling in places too! I wish it were a little more unhinged and savage in places but it was perfectly fine as it is. It interacts with itself plenty of times, as well as with Chiapas too.
Our next visit was Mystery Castle as the queue was short and we had no idea what the ride was like. I was expecting something like Feng Ju palace or the ghost train but was pleased to find a ride I had actually heard about, though a very long time ago!
This is a drop tower ride that is entirely enclosed and unlike any other drop tower I’ve ridden (besides Apocalypse) as it features multiple towers. The ride can seat 48 people all in.
Once we’d got ourselves sat down and our restraints were checked, the ride begins and it starts off very slow. There’s a sudden jerk as the gondola is taken up about 10 feet, before it’s catapulted into the air and left to freefall back down. The ride then slowly returns to the start and I felt myself asking the question, is that it? The answer came very swiftly as we were hurled skyward once more and this time it’s right to the top of the tower where a little show plays out as you’re held near the roof before being dropped back down to the floor once again.
All this is done on near darkness with only the odd strobe effect lighting things up and I would go as far as to say this is the best drop tower ride I’ve ever ridden. It was excellent, comfortable and thrilling whilst being pleasant and an absolute joy to ride. Definitely worth a visit for this attraction alone! I’d say it was my favourite flat ride if it wasn’t for Talocan!
Taron was next on the agenda and we knew the queue would be lengthy so we headed into the queue for about an hour wait. We both knew it would be worth the wait so didn’t mind much at all. The queue did keep moving so it wasn’t too bad.
As for the ride itself, I remember getting off and thinking it was excellent but missing something, and I think that was partially my fault as I think I’d overhyped it in my head. The launches were great, especially the second one in the deepest part of the ride, the trench reverberates sound and the train make a right noise as it flies through.
The whole ride was very comfortable, the trains were very open and roomy and the lap bar restraints kept you planted but not stapled in. It was smooth as glass and even managed to have 2 transitions that will wake you up as they are very jarring without being rough though!
We did 2 rides on Taron over the two days we were there and the second ride was much better. Expections were lowered a little and it now sits very comfortably as a highly rated coaster, if not quite as high as I would have liked! It currently sits at number 5 on my list but it is more likely number 4 as it really does fight with The Smiler as to which I prefer! Loved it much more after the second ride so maybe more rides will increase this?
After Taron we headed over to the Africa section of the park and had a go on Deep Into Africa, which is a very lengthy walkthrough/climbing frame designed for all ages. There were great interactions with Black Mamba, and the attraction had water features, stepping stones, rope bridges, climbing frames that were very tight, and finished off with a slide back out of the attraction.
On paper it wasn’t much to write home about, but having done it, both of us had a right laugh and enjoyed it. It was simple but effective and I wish I’d taken more time in the attraction as it gives some phenomenal views of Black Mamba!
Speaking of Black Mamba, this was our next ride. This is the parks B&M inverted coaster and is quite similar to Nemesis. Not only is it the same model, but it looks to have been built to the same specifications as Nemesis in that it’s all very low to the ground and claustrophobic too. Just like Nemesis though it packs a punch, and rides very well. I’d even say it rides better than what Nemesis did and I’ve gone as far as to say it’s number 7 in my overall rankings, just behind Taron and Stealth!
It would be very easy to miss Black Mamba as it’s quite hidden away, only the lift hill and loop are easy to spot and the entrance is very subtle too, but make sure to head to this and give it a go as it’s another excellent coaster!
At this time in the first day we were starting to wind down and had 1 more attraction left in us which was Maus Au Chocolat. This is in the 1920s Berlin area and going into it, we had absolutely no idea what the attraction was about. The queue line takes you through a bakery’s stores and then through its production line a little bit before showing you a video giving some story to the ride.
Keen eyed riders will pickup exactly what’s coming, and I hoped I was right in thinking it would be an interactive dark ride, and sure enough as we got to the station, we found vehicles equipped with guns!
What we didn’t expect was how charming and brilliant the ride would be. Though it’s all screen based and requires the use of 3D glasses, the experience is excellent. The premise is that you’ve been brought in to help with a rodent infestation but can’t use traditional methods incase it contaminates the baked goods so a new method is needed.
This is where the weird shaped guns come into play as they’re shaped to look like icing bags and the idea is that you’re using icing to fight the mice, I think I recalled saying let’s ice some mice and maybe that should be the tagline!
Though this is all screen based, it doesn’t take away from it in my opinion. It does make it feel less of a ride and more of a video game but that’s fine by me! In-between the screens, there are some nice scenes and set pieces that make it feel more like a ride again, and the queue line is well themed too. Arguably the best shooting ride I’ve ever done but easily missed as its front fascia blend sin so well!
Once we’d finished with Maus Au Chocolat, we had a wander around the gift shop to see what merchandise was like. I’d heard that it wasn’t that great at Phantasialand but we did decently well here. There are the usual T Shirts and such but there was loads of different kitchen things with the Maus Au Chocolat logo on it and plenty of different things themed to the parks dragons (I’ll touch on this later). The merchandise for F.L.Y was very lacking though, especially considering the amount of effort put into making the ride as special as what it is!
After the gift shop we headed back into Rookburgh to check into the Charles Lindbergh, I’ll go though the hotel on a separate blog so look out for that one!
The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast and into the park for about 9am. We had a little to wait at the Rookburgh gates but eventually we got in and headed to Wellenflug (a Wave Swinger) in the central square. This is a very pretty ride as it has a ring of fountains that surround it and follow the wave motion of the ride, it’s very pretty and well decorated.
Maus Au Chocolat was next as we had a lot fo fun on it the previous evening (even with the hot and lengthy queue), and next up was the Fantasy area and Wuze Town. In Wuze Town you’ll find the Winjas twins and a few flat rides designed for kids, but it’s all indoors and therefore covered from the weather.
Our first stop was the Winjas twins, Fear and Force. I don’t recall which one was which however we found the one you board on the left of the station to be the slightly better one of the two, but not by much. Other than a couple of surprise elements at the very end of the ride, both coasters mirror each other and they are pretty decent. They’re Maurer Spinning coasters, though they don’t spin too much. Apparently the ride controls how much spinning each car gets, but I’ve only read that so I’m not sure if it does or not!
You have to take your bags on these and it can be a bit of a squeeze, especially if you bring as much stuff to parks as what I do, but it was comfortable enough and both are fun, if a little tame.
While we were here we had a go on Tittle Tattle Tree as it was a walk on. This is a tower ride and gives nice views around the Wuze Town area before we headed outside for a go on Crazy Bats.
This was something I was quite looking forward to as it’s an indoor coaster that has VR headsets, something I missed out on on Galactica. I was fully expecting to be ill after the ride though as I’ve done VR before and so long as I’m stationary, I don’t have a problem with it but rapid movement can cause me to feel woozy.
None of that here though! Even though there is a lot of action on the screen and you do move around a lot, it synched up that well with what the coaster was doing that it felt almost natural. I was very impressed with the whole thing! Tracy however, managed halfway up the lift hill before taking hers off!
I’d definitely ride this one again even if the ride itself was very tame and offered very little for those who don’t want to use the VR headsets.
Back outside and straight onto Würmling Express which is a pleasant monorail ride that takes your around the fantasy area of the park and borders the lake. A nice and smooth ride with good views over the area.
After we’d finished in the Fantasy area, we headed back into the gift shop to see if anything had changed and to be fair to Phantasialand, they had stocked the shelves and put out different sizes of the T-shirts on offer which meant I bought even more!
The rest of the day was spent doing rerides and generally wandering around the park, but we did get on Raik, River Quest and Chiapas towards the end of the day.
Raik is a bigger, meaner version of Accelerator or Velociraptor and it does give some impressive forces for the ride type it is. The station is well themed too and the trains were comfy. We both thoroughly enjoyed Raik!
As for thoroughly enjoying rides, River Quest and Chiapas were next and these two are, in my opinion, the current top rides of their type as they are both excellent!
River Quest first, and I’d love to tell you all about it but there are elements that need to confronted on your own so as not to spoil the ride! Needless to say, there is a sizable drop that you can see from the path and it has a lot more in store for you that that! Do be aware though that you will get very wet on both River Quest and Chiapas.
As for Chiapas, this was my favourite of the two water rides, and I think I’d go as far as to say it’s my favourite water ride overall. There is plenty to see and the ride is fairly lengthy, has 3 hills and a decent section of the ride is spent going backwards!
It also has a very intimidating final drop that you can see from almost anywhere in the Mexican area if the park. This drop reaches 53 degrees, the steepest of any log flume in the world and it drops 66ft (20 meters).
There are plenty of scenes set around the ride and it interacts nicely with Colorado Adventure as mentioned earlier. You will get wet on this one as there are parts of the ride that drop water onto you and it’s probably fair to say that the final drop got you the least wet!
After we’d gotten dried and sorted, we finished up the last few things we wanted to do before heading to the car to close out Phantasialand.
If you’ve seen my vlog of our visit, I might come across as a bit underwhelmed by Phantasialand or negative about the park but I can assure you that the park was excellent throughout! There are a few nit picks that I have, such as how incredibly busy it was on the first day, a Friday too, and how traffic was managed on when we arrived.
These small issues were quickly forgotten about though as we made our way through the park and experienced the attractions on offer. The other thing that’s worth noting, as I mentioned earlier was the parks dragons. In the gift shop, they sell a lot of merchandise relating to the dragons of the park. Each area has one relating to it, but I don’t remember seeing anything of them in the park besides the merchandise in the shop. I thought this was a bit of a weird design choice and I’d like to know more about them and what they are all about!
To close out this blog I’ll finish up by saying the park looks beautiful throughout, it has some standout attractions of various types, such as B&M inverted coasters (Black Mamba) and Intamin Log flumes (Chiapas). There wasn’t much of a language barrier either as everyone was multilingual and the park offers signage and leaflets in 4 different languages too.
I don’t think Phantasialand was quite as good as Efteling but it was certainly a close second here. I did prefer the rides at Phantasialand though! Can’t wait to get back and see what the come up with next to follow Taron and F.L.Y!
I could leave it there, but I’m going to elaborate, in detail, why Toverland is excellent.
Our day started at Troy and though it was delayed a little in opening, we eventually got into the queue line and already there’s things to point out. Firstly the queue line is tidy and looked after, but also very pleasant to look at. Though there isn’t much in the way of theming besides some stakes and such, the way the queue is separated using water for parts of it looks great!
Then there’s the ride itself. This is one of the taller wooden coasters in Europe, standing around 8th at the time of writing, at a height of 104.5ft (31.9 meters), dropping near enough 100 ft (30.7 meters) and reaching speeds of 54 mph (86.8km/h) over its 3534ft (1077.2 meter) length. It passes through the station (above and behind as the second train loads) and makes a phenomenal noise as it does so.
The ride is just rough enough to be enjoyable but not too smooth to make it bland and it does have at least 2 jarring transitions that really make it feel like it has a bit of a mind of its own and I love it all the more for that. Troy is a fantastic coaster with plenty to love.
The station is very basic and not much to write about and leads out into the gift shop where there are plenty of themed merchandise on offer, as well as ride photos.
Our next stop was Skorpius, a pirate thip themed to a Trojan ship and it looks good. After that was Paarden Van Ithaka, a horse ride very similar to Sleipnier at Drayton Manor, only this is themed around Greece and Ithaca. Both rides were good fun and did their jobs as intended.
After we’d finished on Paarden Van Ithaka, we wandered around for a bit, looking in the indoor section of the park and a few of the restaurants before heading to Dwervelwind, the parks Mack Spinning Coaster.
Dwervelwind is a lovely little ride, very smooth and just intense enough without being over bearing for the height restriction is requires. The ride features on board audio and it syncs up nicely with the lift hill and first drop, a lovely little addition. I feel it wasn’t quite as good as Storm Chaser at Paultons Park, but it was still better than a lot of junior coasters we have, at least in my opinion! The station was a nice place to be too.
Next up we headed into Avalon to be greated with one of the better views in any park I’ve ever been to. As you walk in, you’ll see the lake that sits nicely in the middle of the area, with Merlin’s Quest, a boat ride sailing around it. There’s construction work going on at the very back of the area as they build a tower ride that adds to sight line. Finally, there’s Fenix, which has a large airtime hill crossing from left to right of the area and then a zero-g roll on the way back and couple it all together and it just looks magnificent!
As for Fenix, we ended up getting two rides on it during the day (I’ll talk about both here) as we wanted to try both sides. We first tried the front left and then the rear most seats on the right hand side. I don’t think there was a lot to choose between them, but I think the back row was better than the front, the left hand side better than right so maybe we’ll need more rides to completely decide!
Anyway the ride itself is very smooth and thrilling, incredibly comfortable too. After the first dive drop, you head into the airtime hill I mentioned before and this is excellent. You get a good amount of airtime before it barrels into an immelmann and a large helix that surround Pixarus, a new attraction still under construction. After the helix is the zero-g roll and under the main path way where the cameras for the on ride photo sit. These are in a great position as they get great shots of the ride, and don’t look like an after thought too. A few twists and turns and you’ll be back on the breakrun ready to get off.
This is another ride I really enjoyed too. It’s very similar to The Swarm, but has a theme I much prefer with it being more magical in nature. The queue line is very pretty and the station is vast, though not quite as well themed as others are, but it’s still a pleasant place to be.
After we’d finished on Fenix, we headed to Merlin’s Quest, which is a lengthy boat ride. Merlin’s Quest is for the most part, quite slow and not much happens, but there is an indoor section that I won’t spoil and needless to say, it was very surprising!
With all the rides in Avalon (currently) finished, we moved indoors to see what we could find in the Land Van Toos and Wunder Wald areas. We had a look at the food offerings in Wunder Wald first and decided on pasta for Tracy and a pizza for me. It was reasonably priced and very tasty too.
After we’d finished our food, we moved onto the rides and first had a go on Villa Fiasko, which is a fun house and we had a good laugh navigating the moving walkways and slides. I wouldn’t say fun houses are my kind of thing but they are growing on me as they’re daft and just plain fun! Next we had a go on Karussell (which is a carousel) and the parks Rockin’ Tug, Alpenrutsche (which means Alpine Slide). These were exactly as you’d expect them to be, though nicely themed as all the other attractions have been.
We were intending to have a go on Maximus’ Blitz Bahn, a powered toboggan run, but the queue never seemed to drop below 60 minutes, so something for another visit! As we were doing Expedition Zork later, we headed into Land Van Toos. The first ride we went on, teacups, were well, teacups but one of the standout attractions in here, beside Toos-Express, is the Toverhaus. This is a peculiar attraction that you need a wand (whichis provided) and it allows you to activate things within the attraction. Almost like a shooting dark ride, without the ride or scoring elements, a good bit of fun and something different, though we found our wand didn’t work but we got enough out of the attraction by seeing others activating things.
As mentioned before, we had a go on Toos-Express which is a junior mine train coaster. It’s pretty much as you’d expect, a few helixes here and a hill or two there. Very comfortable and not too thrilling which is perfect for kids.
There were a few other small attractions that we skipped, such as a chair swing and playground so we headed outside and had a go on Wunderball. You pay €6 at a vending machine to get a wooden ball that is used in the attraction and all this equates to, is a marble run but bigger.
We both thought it was a really nice way to reuse and recycle some old props, as well as offer something that is unlike anything else we’ve seen in a theme park. There are two runs for you to put the ball onto and both are different in the effects and parts they use, but ultimately, the balls start and end at the same location. Some will see this as a bit of a rip off or a waste of time, but we enjoyed it, and you get to keep the ball as a souvenir!
By the time we’d finished on Wunderball, we’d been on most of the major attractions, leaving only Booster Bike, Djengu River, Expedition Zork and a few re-rides so we headed back to Troy. Back row this time and I can’t really decide whether front or back is better, but no matter where you sit, the ride is a beast.
Our next stop was Djengu River, a rapids ride that has a very nice indoor queue line but was quite slow to load as the boats kept stopping on the conveyor belt in the station. As for the ride itself, it was quite a pleasant little attraction. It was certainly one of the more tame rapids rides, especially when compared with another we’ve yet to talk about, but it was perfectly fine as a ride. Though there were plenty of waterfalls around the area that made up for the tame ride I’d say.
Booster Bike was next and much like Velocity at Flamingo Land, it only runs one train and made this a longer queue but it was something I wanted to do as this is the original model of Vekoma’s Motorbike coaster. When compared with Velocity, it is a bit slower and shorter, but this is the prototype so the evidently made changes to improve it with subsequent installations!
That’s not to say that Booster Bike was bad or anything, far from it! It was thrilling and smooth and the launch is nice and punchy, but not quite as violent as Rita, Stealth or even Anubis at Plopsaland. Great ride nonetheless!
Back into Wunder Wald to have a go on Expedition Zork, the parks log flume. You start off inside the Wunder Wald building and even have a backwards drop indoors, before the large lift hill takes you outside for a decent drop into a nice refreshing splashdown. This is a somewhat unique version of a log flume in that it uses a lot of turn tables. First to turn you backwards, then forwards part of the way up the large lift hill, then again at the top so you’re facing the drop.
You don’t get too wet on the ride and besides the two drops, there is a nice amount of scenery to look at and the free flowing sections and very pleasant and relaxing.
As the day started to wind down, we had another ride on Dwervelwind and Fenix, before heading back to the Port Laguna entrance plaza for merchandise and something to eat (fish and chips which were excellent!)
Merchandise was extensive and covered a couple of the rides, Fenix and Troy in particular, and you could get the usual staple of T shirts and clothing, but they also did wristbands, posters and little models themed around the two bigger rides. I ended up with a cup, some wrist bands, a poster and photos, where Tracy did a lot better picking up 2 of the models as well. I would have bought all the T shirts, but I was a little worried they might not fit and as I didn’t thy them on, so they’re still there for our next visit!
Overall, Toverland is arguably the park that has impressed me most so far. I went in expecting something around the Flamingo Land/Drayton Manor sort of level and found it to be more like and adult version of Paultons Park. The theming in the areas is lovely, the food was good and not too expensive, there was plenty of merchandise and rides that catered for everyone! Troy was definitely a standout, as was Fenix. Both are now my favourite of their ride types, though Dwervelwind and Booster Bike were still great rides too! I have absolutely no criticism what so ever of Toverland and I wish them the best of luck with the future and can’t wait to get back to see how Avalon expands, and to see what the park does next!
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