Leaderboard

one side up today.

It’s normally the kiss of death for a trip report if you post it at time when bigger news is happening, so after waiting it out, it’s time for the next instalment from Japan. Parue Espana – Shima Spain Village https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Shima/Parque_Espana_-_Shima_Spain_Village/ (over 200 pics published in the Parkz gallery) This place is in a bit of a pain in the butt location at the bottom of a peninsular on Ise bay about 90km South of Nagoya as the crow flies. However it’s over a 2 hour train ride because its so mountainous. I got to the town of Ugata (the station used to reach the park) the night before after my day at Nagashima Spaland. I did this by getting a bus from Nagashima to Kuwana, then using a Kintetsu limited express train to Ugata. The train is a bit pricey because you have to purchase both the base point to point ticket, plus an additional surcharge ticket to cover the fact its limited express. A word of warning. If rain is forecast, you’re probably better off rescheduling if you can. Neither Pyrenees nor Gran Montserrat run in any sort of rain or spitting, so you’ll end up doing a lot of waiting around if the weather isn’t good. In hindsight, if I was planning on doing this again, I probably would have based myself in Nagoya and daytripped rather than trying to work in a loop through destinations / parks and had a spare day. Would have meant the option to shift things around, plus return to Nagashima for re-rides (A subject for a future trip report) The park is quite good, and if you are going here, there’s really no need to visit Lagunasia. The main reason for Parque Espana is of course to ride Pyrenees, a superb B&M inverted coaster. There was a brief break in the rain earlier in the morning so it was testing when I arrived. However it started raining again so no dice. The day started on Iron Bull , an indoor coaster with some over the top restraints and a couple of lift hills. Moderate drops and helices abound. At the midpoint you come to a stop in a boiler room themed environment where there are a few special effects and flashing lights. Kiddy Montserrat was my 600th coaster since still no Pyrneees. I did like the Gaudi theming. The park did seem to make an effort to stay on point. The section it was in was probably the emptiest feeling. Batalla Del Alcazar Adelante was nearby. Like that magic powder ride at Lagunaisa, its a revolving dark ride, except the vehicles always stay facing towards the middle, where there is a big diorama in the middle of the ride where you shoot killer centipedes. What set this apart was the way the vehicles could slide back and forth on the spot, bringing you closer to the middle of the turntable. There was also an Alice in Wonderland walkthrough where you were given a magic wand to interact with some rudimentary effects. Credit to the girl running it for reading out a full english instruction card for me! Illumination Ride Nutcracker was also up this end of the park. The classical ballet soundtrack gives this ride illusions of grandeur, in reality its a detuned version of its a small world, with 2D sets and lots of fairy lights. Had a chicken katsu curry here for lunch: With no signs of the rain abating, I made my way down to the lower section of the park. The place is quite impressively themed, and carries that mid 90s vibe when theme parks seemed to be at their peak. One hidden gem everyone bangs on about is the Escalator ride. Flashing lights meets spanish pop music. It was ok, and yes probably unexpected for most guests. Down the bottom is slow boat ride called Feliz Cruise. It used to lead into a full on dark ride, but they chopped it short and now it's just outside. As well as big sets it had some funny dioramas too. There was a ship you could have a wander around in. There was a low key funhouse called Choquy's Mystery House. Not much in terms of physical obstacles, but plenty of optical illusions. One i thought was cool was a false hallway that actually turned out to be a prisim type shape pointed towards you when you got a bit closer. The main attraction at the lower end of the park turned out to be Don Quixotes Magical Flight A peter pan rip off, and probably of similar length, with some good production values. I decided to hoof back up the hill, where you pass through a Spanish Village. If i had been smarter i probably would have gone downhill through the village and come back up via the escalator. One of the buildings had a trick art exhibition. Back at the top of the park and still no sign of Pyrenees opening, so I delved further into the park. Grabbed some Pizza in the main street. Japanese style with Teriyaki chicken, seaweed flakes and mayo, This section was an entire indoor kids area. More Gaudi stuff I saw there was a 360 cinema, and here I got a proper dose of Japanese eccentricity, being treated to the most surreal kids 3d movie i have ever seen. I had no idea what was going on. It was a couple of kids wandering around in a spooky forest with seemingly random wierd stuff going on. It was all in Japanese of course, so even more baffling. I thought perhaps that would be the end of it, but a couple of weeks ago, I found who produced the film, and there's an english dub! https://www.thejuice.com/#https://www.thejuice.com/portfolio/hansel_gretel/ The linking seems to be wierd, but its the 45th movie in the portfolio: Skip to about the 4 min mark to see how im not lying about the wierdness. Hmmm, what else to do in the park. I was gonna wait till the very end to make sure i got on Pyrneees. At one point it seemed like the rain had stopped and they had commenced testing, but nope they got a few laps in before halting again. Arrrrgh. I had a good look around the Spanish museum in the park. The highlight was a cinema showing 80s stock footage from Spain that had evidently been produced just prior to park opening and never updated since. I did a re-ride on Don Quixotes Magical flight.... (Photo not good enough for database, but at one point you went under the sea) I also took a wander through the Fairytale village they had. I had been keeping a keen eye on the rain radar all day, and it looked like the last of the rain bands had passed over the area, and right on cue Pyrenees commenced testing, so I parked myself at the entrance...If i was gonna get a ride, i wanted to snare the front. After around 45 mins of testing, and with about 90 mins of park opening time to go, Pyrenees opened, to some high fives with a couple of locals and the attendant who had seen this funny foreigner waiting out to ride this thing. In the end I got 3 laps (front row, a back row, and then another near the back) until i had to leave, would have happily done more, but beggars cant be choosers, and i was thankful to have not missed it, the memories of missing both Eejanaika and Ultra Twister still there. As for the ride? It's mental, and lives up to the hype of being one of the best inverted coasters. Steel first drop, a loop that whips you around, a good zero g, another tall, but tight loop with plenty of force. The ride then really shines when it takes a downhill left turn at full speed into a trench and does a cobra roll with plenty of kick. From there it does a forceful helix, almost like a horizontal loop. The latter part of the course is a bit more drawn out, but still fast, doing a corkscrew along the way. For good measure theres actually a bunny hop right at the end that gives a good bit of air....enough to elicit a few screams on the train anyway. So there you have it, i came, i saw, i conquered. Last but not least i got a single lap on Gran Montserrat. Again, would have liked to ride more, but i had also been closed all day, and with the time till i had to get my bus it was either another go on this or a 3rd go on Pyrenees. Normally mine trains are slow and crap, this one isn't. It was built by mack, and just blitzes through the course at high speed, with heaps of helices. The only other that comes close is Mine Train Ulven at Bakken. I skipped the flume that runs through it due to the cold wet weather. As the sun set rapidly i got a night ride on Pyrenees before heading to the exit. So yes, definitley try to get here. Its worth the trip. Pyrenees is one of the best coasters in Japan, and the rest of the park is good quality (Abeit a little stained, though in better nick than Lagunasia) In normal circumstances, i think you'd be done here in 4 to 5 hours if its quiet, though with my bad luck with the weather i stuck around all day and spent a bit of time sitting around.

Great update thanks @Gazza! I love the tightness of those loops on B&M inverted's - those hectic G's that push you outward and the way they eject riders from the loops & on to the next part of the course. Would love to see MW replace AA (when the time comes) with a decent B&M inverted.

Pretty sure that THIS is a sign of demolition........... Seen any of these yet?? No? 😄

Ok. You seem to be confused, so let me be VERY specific. The rides sign, at the entrance, where the word 'log ride' was positioned in big letters, just below the word 'rocky hollow' had had the words 'log ride' removed prior to February 23, when I last visited, the day before the inquest findings were handed down. As at February 23, the words 'Rocky Hollow' were still there. And it's still not a sign of demolition. Its just a smart thing to do when you close a ride permanently so people don't get upset when they see a sign for a ride that they can't ride, and is also why the tower of terror signage was removed off the tunnel when tower closed permanently too. it's STILL not a sign of demolition, and it wasn't "JUST RECENTLY" when the ride has been closed for a month, and the signage had already been removed at least two weeks ago.

The part of Slick's article that says that is a quote from Bob Tan. Given recent developments, I'm surprised Bob even knew the park had a hollywood house to begin with. Because he sure as shit didn't seem to recall much else.

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway opens in a few hours and we've already got a few POV's. While I'm sad to see the Great Movie Ride go, this looks like a remarkable family attraction. Spent a fair amount of time trying to debunk a lot of the effects... to not much success. What does everyone else think?

Looks quite fantastic in some parts almost impossible to see the distinction between what is physical set and what is digital/projection mapped etc

Oh, I don't think anybody is suggesting that Movie World's operations have ever been anything you could call "good", but it does sound like you're just getting the unluckier ops days than others.

The word “Log Ride” has just recently been removed from the ride’s sign at the entrance.

Glad to see we are still commemorating the anniversary of this memorable and community-defining occasion. I actually received an email notification (bringing me here) saying my post from 2005 had been quoted - what a delight! To be fair - there are less grammatical errors than I was expecting, but the content is somewhat painful. May it sit there as a lesson for the ‘new’ younger generation - always question what people tell you, just maybe not in the company of AlexB. Cheers to an amazing 15 years! I don’t have much involvement in theme parks anymore, but I still credit my interest in them and my time on this site as the reason I got started in engineering. Plus some great friendships have come from this site. 🙂👍

They never listened to me in the past...so not sure if that will change lol

Ride operators (not supervisors) start 15 mins before park opening to do the pre-opening checks. Maintenance does the majority of everything and the ride supervisor starts 45 mins early to make sure everything is okay (For Scooby, one staff member also starts at this time to do a track walk). Obviously things can happen to cause delays, example a fault occurs during these opening checks or whatever. So they won't have cut back the start time on staff. If we really want to talk about village efficiency... all I'm going to say is Superman with no unloader... Running that thing with 3 staff (4 if you include the supervisor) was just a nightmare... Even with crew on their A Game you were lucky to get 10 trains launched in a hour. In the end it didn't save much money cause even on a quiet day we were often there till nearly 5:45pm! Glad they scrapped that horrible procedure, but based on what your saying it could be coming back with a vengeance! May as well cut one of the loaders as well and have the staff member cross the train to check the second half of the harnesses! (In all seriousness, that would never happen thank god...)

Well Vikings revenge has been waiting a long time.... But remember a world class attraction will replace Vikings Revenge in 2019! Oh wait..... At least Vortex will open in December 2019.... well Trident will open in April 2020...... oh wait.... maybe Leviathan might meet its deadline?