Coaster Hipster

Sometimes when I tell friends and family about my interest in coasters, I get the feeling my hobby is dismissed as low-brow, childish stuff. Not eveyone reacts like that of course, in fact, many other friends or family seem geniunely warm and supportive about my enthusiasm. I was curious to know your experience on how friends and social circles perceive being a coasterfan. Is the hobby seen in a stereotypical, "nerdy" and even obsessive unhealthy light, or treated in a more favourable and respectable way? Also, do parks in Australia (or wherever you live) acknowledge the coasterfan community and gives some it winks from time to time? Just wanted to ask those meta questions out of curiosity!

Before making it to Plopsa/Efteling, I made a little stop in Northern France to get some creds at Bagatelle. Not the best first impression tbh, but this is actually the worst looking part of the park - perhaps along with the Triops zone. The core of Bagatelle is quite pleasant to walk through however. Triops is actually the original Invertigo. After its troubled start at Liseberg in 1997, it moved several times and landed here. Reviews generally regard this model better than the regular Boomerang, and after 3 laps (both ends and a middle row), I ended up with the same opinion. A bit jolty and rattly at moments, but the comfort is still significantly improved upon the overused brother. As a result, I was able to enjoy the surprising intensity of this shuttle coaster design a lot more. The OTSR are excessively bulky imo, but the face to face seating is a really cool idea and fits well the backwards/forward Invertigo experience. Gaz Express sounds suspiciously similar to Pégase Express at Astérix. However, this one is a 1987 Soquet family coaster which underwent several name and theme changes. I actually quite like the new scenery. It is light-hearted and fun, coupled with some striking fire effects. That raised a little my expectations, but the ride itself is rather underwhelming now that I've been on more modern and exciting family coasters. Still a great fit for the park nonetheless. Famous Jack looked like the dreadful Viking SBF spinning wild mouse at Energylandia. Thankfully this one doesn't have OTSR! Still a very uncomfortable and unenjoyable coaster however. Bagatelle is a decent place. Good compact thrill coaster, decent family rides and the park is mostly pleasant with the scenery. There's some dated and/or out-of-place stuff like the Wacky Worm (ugh), but I still had a good time there. With some smart investments they could easily overcome their flaws

Really cool idea! I like being able to find out roughly what forces the coaster will deliver. Good interactivity (and fantastic nerd-service stuff), I wish more parks can do this for future coasters!

I've seen people riding at the front, but has there been testing with people on the back seat as well? With such a particular first drop *and* the backwards seating, that seems like a really particular experience to test out!

Have you tried Taron by any chance? That coaster at Phantasialand is almost all about low to the ground twistyness, and because of the sheer speed and snappiness of the experience, it provides a truly exciting and thrilling ride - although the gorgeous scenery does help. I love airtime machines, but Taron made me realize there were other ways to create exilarating coasters than a series of intense hills. I think B&M Hypers are a great product, consistently delivering enjoyable amounts of floater airtime. But they tend to be quite similar to each others, with the occasional innovation here and there - Shambhala and the upcoming one at HotGo Park in China are notable examples of more original layouts. Mack, on the other hand, are trying to create more diverse layouts and experiences which I appreciate. DC Rivals will have a 90° twisted drop that none of the many B&M Hypers have. I understand the disappointment of not having the same quantity of airtime a classic Intamin Mega or a B&M hyper might deliver. However, Movie World AU has a unique and very promising big Mack coaster in hand. I think that will attract more attention and interest from coasterfans worldwide than yet another Mako or Diamondback!

I'm actually quite surprised to read that. Rode Superman the Ride last year and it was very good and enjoyable, but nowhere near the intensity and crazy ejector-ness of Expedition GeForce. I heard it does not run as well as in its heyday, perhaps because of the several train changes, but my point is StR isn't necessarily the strongest airtime machine out there - and judging from my conversations with American coasterfans, I still look like I'm overrating it! I am a little disappointed about the trims, but I don't mind them very much tbh. DC Rivals trimless looked ridiculously fast and so much snappier than Helix. Helix is actually rather moderate intensity though the constant speed and great duration, plus amazing layout more than make up for that. If it is only slowed down a little, I think DC Rivals will still be more forceful than Liseberg's multi-launch, especially if that first hill is not trimmed! I will give my full impressions on that ride in a video, but honestly I can see it making at least my Top 10!

My father drove from Efteling to Plopsa. It is mostly (like 90% of the time) highways and take roughly 2 hours and a half. The Belgian motorways are a little less well maintained than French ones, but they do have lighting most of the way - something unconceivable in Australia I suppose, but not too far stretched for Belgium, although expensive.

Part 2: Plopsaland Plopsaland opened my 2017 season and I discovered the park last April not in the best circumstances. The weather was rainy then, and I happened to visit a certain place called Phantasialand the day after. With the park not being too far from Efteling I thought why not trying it again? Night opening was also a lure - although that did not end up according to my plans... The summer sky really improves the look of the entrance plaza! Love the cartoonish facade. The farm section of Plopsa is quite an odd fit for an amusement park, but I actually don't mind! I find it amusing more than anything else. The nearby Circus zone does feel tacky though - not up to the park's standards. After a lot of wandering and camera stuff, I entered the queue for Heidi the Ride. The wait time wasn't indicated, but I ended up riding the little GCI an hour after my first steps into the queue. I was now thinking I should have arrived earlier at the park and not rest so much from the tiring 12 hour Efteling day... The actual ride was good fun. Not worth an hour wait, but delivering nice speed and a lot of little humps - although few of them actually deliver real airtime. Front row ride certainly helped a lot too! Vleermuis is the type of odd wonky ride that RCT3 made me discover. Finally rode it after it spited me last April. Painful braking and rattly trackwork downgrade an otherwise dull experience. Still, I can't help but feel the park should keep this fairly unique coaster (is it considered one or two credits anyway?) for the curiosity. Anubis was another hour queue. The layout started out so well, with a really good launch followed by a very fun airtime moment. It rattles at the start of the Top Hat, but the discomfort was negligible since I sat at the front. However it all went downhill from there. The Dive Loop was fine, but everything after that either was dull, uncomfortable or both! The girl sitting next to me added to my misery with her loud and very high-pitched screams The slow operations on Rox-Flyer, increased my frustrations even further. The employee, who was cheerful and decent tbf, significantly delayed each dispatch by walking across the platform to give us riding procedures in French, English and Dutch. I am usually very supportive for multilinguism, but that was a case where it felt really uneffective. This local Sky Flyer did delivered on its promise of great views and fresh wind however. Rollerstaker's theme is so weird, but it still like it for some reason. I guess I enjoy the eccentricity. Despite its old age, it holds up fairly well for a family coaster! De Grote Golf is your standard Zamperla Disk-O, but enhanced with cool theming! I can see the appeal to parks for this model, as it is supposedly cheap and it provides some spectacular near-misses at both ending spikes of the track. I wish I could tolerate the spinning and back-and-forth movements more though My unconvincing previous experience on Anubis wasn't enough to deter me from a night ride. That lap in the dark amplified everything. The Launch and Top Hat were really exciting and the Dive Loop felt quite snappy, but everything else ended up more brutal and nauseating than before. The oddly-banked turnaround after the Dive Loop provided one of the worst moments of headbanging in my coaster experience - which does say a lot with both Goudurix and El Condor being in my coaster count. A nasty headache resulted from both laps, which only enticed me to leave, even with about an hour left before park closure. The whole day was frustrating. Some of it was definitely my fault - I wish I had planned this visit much better. Plopsaland is heading the right way. The theming is very appealing for the most part and Heidi is an excellent addition. Unfortunately external circumstances exacerbated their noticable flaws. But despite the negativity, I do not regret going there again. I am very grateful for the park allowing me to use my chest-attached GoPro. The inspiring scenery and fun woodie are worth the detour, and I wish that one day I can fully appreciate the parks of this park.

Traveling and crossing borders in Mainland Europe isn't too bad, so I took the opportunity to visit again two parks in nearby countries north of France! Part 1: Efteling As I moved on from simply visiting and credding to filming videos at parks. I started appreciating places that actually care about theming and landscaping a bit more. I had visited Efteling 2 years ago, and while I thoroughly enjoyed that trip, I felt I needed to go again sometime to fully enjoy the merits of the park. That's why to my surprise, I did not need a new coaster, as the addition of Symbolica and night opening were attractive enough to get me back there! I arrived shortly after the 10 am opening. The entrance must be one of the most distincive and majestic among theme parks. I went against my instincts by strolling along the lake to take some pictures. Efteling is a really large park, and the distance covered by the lake is only a fraction of it! I had surprisingly pleasant memories of Bob, one rare surviving iteration of the Intamin Swiss Bob model. My ride this time was not as enjoyable - the fun swinging and relatively steep drops couldn't make up for what was some noticable bouncing in the train. I waited 45 minutes, completely forgetting about the single rider line nearby. Oh well... Went for the second row on Baron 1898 and got right wing seat. It was a bit underwhelming. The drop didn't feel as floaty and impressive as I remembered, and I felt a couple of minor headbanging during the inversions. Nothing too serious of course, but still surprising. Hopefully I got a couple of rerides afterwards, but that's for a another paragraph (Ugh, my camera sometimes fails to get a non-blurred picture. Frustrating!) Joris ended that run of (slight) disappointment as it happily matched my expectations. Went for Vuur first, and it was running pretty well! Good pace and a lot of fun laterals. Ever since my Poland trip, I have the unreasonable curiosity in (re)riding any old Vekoma to put to the test my recent love for the Dutch manufacturer. Equipped with vest restraints, Python turned out only slightly uncomfortable. There was some notable rattle during the drop and vertical loops, but the ride as a whole felt more uneventful than really horrible. The Pagoda is the only ride (to my knowledge) which provides great overviews of the park and where you can bring your camera. It's really valuable since the views from up in the air are quite impressive! Symbolica was another eye-drawer from outside. Really like this type of architecture as I find it fitting for the carefree atmosphere of a theme park, and here it is implemented really well! This dark ride was the 2017 and it shows its infant age. Really sophisticated and enjoyable addition. The scenery is appealing except for the stairs leading down to the station which lack some details. Loved the atmosphere and wish I could have done it more if it weren't for the substantial queue wait... Wanting to give Baron another try, I was rewarded with a fun lap at the front! It eliminated the (minor) jolts issue and provided a much more impressive drop! At this point I went across all the park to take more pictures. I also wanted to buy some merch before the crowds flood the stores right before closure. Went back to Joris only to find it temporarily closed for some minor technical problem. The issue was quickly solved however, which meant I ended up waiting a little less for my lap on the Water side! That one is certainly my favourite of the two. Some really good hops in quick succession here (That picture was taken hours before) Vliegende Hollander never impressed me in videos or on-ride. Not a single exciting layout element and the boat section is almost completely in the dark. Too bad for a ride with such a fab queueline and building Night ride on Baron was undoubtedly the best I've had. I even got a small pop of airtime of the final hill, which was really cool I then wasted too much time on taking (yet more) pictures, and it ended up costing me a final ride on Joris. Unfortunate, but Baron was still an excellent way to end the day on a high note! Next in Part 2 will be Plopsaland with another night opening!

If the speed stays like that, this coaster will exceed my expectations - which were quite high in the first place! The first camelback looks insane and so many turns seem to provide thrilling snappy forces. I'm finger-crossing for no trim brakes now...

So many announcements to handle in a couple of hours Steel Vengeance is obviously the biggest news, very long, mighty and intense layout lining up for CP next year. The quantity of airtime is beyond comprehension! The other announcements aren't bad either. Twisted Timbers looks amazing, with a triple camelback promising very good airtime as well. It's remarkable what RMC has achieved with a not so inspiring original layout! Railblazer is relatively short but surely action-packed. Capacity is obviously a big concern though. I'm not sure what to think of Time Traveler. I'm afraid the spinning aspect might be detrimental to the ride... why add spinning cars when the layout is already impressive, and you have some great lanscape to back it up? I appreciate that Mack is taking risks though!

Part 2: Legendia Not many have heard of this park before 2016, including myself. But the addition of a brand new and exciting Vekoma looper suddenly put Legendia (formerly Slaskie Wesole Miasteczko) on the map! But the park did not just purchased a coaster, they've also refurbished a large chunk of the park too, starting with the pretty Main Street. Love the pathwork here You can see Lech right from the entrance, at the opposite side of the lake. Great location choice! Scary Toys Factory has a nice facade enough, but it hides a Galaxy Zyklon that continues the series of fairground-quality coasters at otherwise very promising parks in Poland. Something incredible happened when the very brutal trim brakes towards the end of the layout completely stopped once car once. Instead of pressing some buttons, the ride op took a fricking hammer (!!) and slammed into some part of the ride to unlock the car. Filmed the funny moment but accidently deleted it You can't change things overnight and I feel this coaster will be removed in a few years when the park will further move on from its past. My previous experience with a Soquet ride was the infamous King at a Paris fairground which was decidedly my worst coaster experience ever. Tornado being a permanent one as opposed to a portable one, I was wondering if that would improve the experience to a less horrible one. And honestly, that wasn't so bad... at least at the front. There's some good forces during the Vertical Loops as expected, and the turns do not provide too much banging. However, the backwards experience in the second-to-last row was appaling. Very jolty and really uncomfortable. At least I got 99 creds by this point which means... Some lengthy calculations led me to realize that with good planning, Lech Coaster would become a milestone coaster: my #100. And so it happened. Months of anticipation and hype culminated there. I couldn't help but feel really happy, proud and obviously very excited to ride this beauty! I ended up riding Lech 62 times in 3 days, and this figure tells how much I loved it This is one of the most intense and relentless coasters I've ever done in my life, yet it is smooth and doesn't feature any jolt whatsoever. A little breakdown of some of the many memorable elements: - The drop is a little disappointing towards the back. Airtime and whipping laterals during said drop aren't as powerful as on Expedition GeForce, but still pretty good. At the front though, the drop is so much more visually impressive than the Intamin Mega from Holiday Park! A very fun plunge that sets the tone of incredible excitiment to come... - I grayed out almost every time starting at the top of the Dive Loop. But then the following twisted hill gives a stunning airtime which instantly makes me regain my sight! It's a truly breathtaking sequence! - The big airtime hump provide some good ejector air, though not on the insane level of El Toro's surprise hill. - That fly-through inversion. It's also incredible! It's perfectly smooth, very fast and you get some fun delicate laterals if you seat left. You do not get the snappy rolls of B&M classics, but the speed and echoes inside the station are quite stunning in their own right! - The small twisted hill after the turns around the station delivers the most extreme airtime in the layout. It's brutally fun! - The Corkscrew has a continuous roll and no real snap unlike B&M Flat Spins, but is also taken at incredible speed. - Then, an outward-banked hill lets you catch a small break, but isn't dull either with some soft laterals and floater air. - The layout concludes with some forceful narrow turns and a final, surprisingly intense pop of ejector. Simply put, Lech Coaster is a masterpiece of coaster engineering. Great and varied elements along with fantastic pacing and intensity. I did not have a problem with the restraints, and was able to enjoy the fast transitions as well as the blasting airtime without discomfort. Truly exceptional job Vekoma! I was impressed by Diamond River's theming. Really cool buildings and the foliage around this Shoot the Chute is vibrant. The ride itself had a noticable jolt at the end of the main drop which was an unpleasant surprise. Dragon Temple also has a nice - though similar - station building. This flat ride delivers a wicked yet amazing amount of laterals and some airtime too. I laughed quite a bit because of the ridiculous wonkiness of this attraction! Dragon Riders was more of an endurance test/washing machine experience. Never been on an Intamin ZacSpin, but that flat ride felt even more absurdly disorienting. Dream Hunters Society is the park's other Zyklon, and I struggle to remember something distinct from that second model, except for the unpleasant ride operator. The guy kept his arms crossed for the majority of the time and never smiled. Fortunately he was the only one to behave like that as all the other employees in the park were at least somewhat friendly, if not really enthusiastic in their job! Legendia Flower has spinning gondolas. Yes. You also get some good views on Katowice and - of course - Lech. Circus Hoppala was another piece left from the park's fairground-ish past. The restraints do not have several notches, which meant my skinny body was left with a lot of space. Predictably I bounced around a lot during the inverting moments of this ride... and to my surprise, I enjoyed that wonky stuff! I have to say Legendia was a really pleasant surprise as a park! The place is certainly trying hard to compete with Energylandia and is doing quite well at that. The refurbished areas look really pretty, and while some of the theming may lack a little detail, it still feels quite charming and engaging. The self-service restaurant was also remarkably good quality for a park, offering fresh vegetables at a reasonable price. I really hope Lech Coaster is successful towards the public and that the park will continue investing. They have a top-class coaster to brag about, and it's a fantastic foundation to build upon!

DC Rivals's main drop, as well as Time Traveler's one at SDC suggests Mack are really trying to further push their envelope. That big camelback will certainly provide an excellent sustained airtime!

@Rollercoaster_Lover You're right about not realizing how (relatively) lucky France can be coasters-wise. I was mainly poking fun at the fact my country does have some very awful rides (and I did not even mention the infamous Anaconda woodie at Walygator). The Vlog being a one take/live commentary type of thing, I didn't get the chance to express more faithful and accurate thoughts on the matter. In reality, I think France has a fairly good momentum right now. Not crazy fast expanding like Poland, but adding exciting stuff every other year is quite an improvement over not receiving anything for a decade or so. The 2000s were fairly lacklustre, but 2010s? Let's recap: - A B&M old-school Raptor clone (Monster, 2010) - Arguably the best themed El Loco coaster (Timber Drop, 2011) - Finally our first ground-up B&M coaster (OzIris, 2012) - A really fun Mack Megalite (Alpina Blitz, 2014) - A small but relentless Gravity Group woodie (Timber, 2016) - A gimmicky but enjoyable Gerstlauer family (Pégase Express, 2017) - Juvelen Clone (Yukon Quad, 2018) Pretty solid addition lineup actually - and I did not mention some other stuff coming up such as the Zierer looper at Parc Spirou. I believe French coasterfans were for a long time somewhat frustrated seeing neighbouring countries such as the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain getting top tier rides such as Nemesis, GeForce, Katun and iSpeed (among others), while the best thing we had was a fast-deteriorating CCI woodie. Things started changing a few years ago, but it's some lasting impression which is hard to entirely forget. I suppose it must have been even more frustrating for Australian fans though!

Good to know! I also have a lot of Legendia pics in storage too As it is my first visit to Poland, I'm not very familiar as to what is generic theming is to the Poles, but Legendia's Main Street was more of a... regular MS. I also posted an Energylandia Vlog! No on-ride stuff as I didn't get permission, but I still managed to some safisfying off-ride footage Feel free to make any helpful criticism to improve my video editing skills x)

Awesome pictures! The excitement is still as high. There's some really promising twisty bits and good airtime in this

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav...s-single-rail-wonder-woman-coaster/534583001/ Exclusive: Six Flags to debut single-rail Wonder Woman coaster Six Flags announced today that Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster will open next spring at its Fiesta Texas location in San Antonio. The park says the new attraction won't look or behave like any thrill machine that preceded it. That's because instead of riding a set of two rails like traditional coasters, its narrow trains would soar along one 15.5-inch-wide steel track. It will be the world's first single-rail coaster. "I expect it to be crazy smooth," says Larry Chickola, Six Flags VP and chief corporate engineer. "And crazy fun. There will be extremely quick twists and turns – quicker and smoother than regular coasters." Before settling on "single-rail" to describe the new genre of ride, the engineer referred to it as a "monorail" coaster. But Chickola said the designation might conjure thoughts of the slow and poky vehicles used to transport passengers at airports and elsewhere. Wonder Woman, he insists, will be the opposite of poky: a "high-thrill and edgy experience." Above all, however, he emphasizes that it should be velvety smooth. Why is Chickola forecasting a super-smooth ride? Traditional wooden coasters are known for knocking passengers around. Their rickety, rough-and-tumble ride experience is part of their charm. Steel-tracked coasters can mitigate some of the roughness, but even they have an inherent problem: Because they ride on two rails, the slightest misalignment between the left and right sides can result in moments of roughness. With Wonder Woman's single rail, nothing could get out of sync. The coaster will be "visually stunning," says Jeffrey Siebert, president of Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It will be set against the multi-hued quarry wall that surrounds the park. Visitors may be surprised when they first encounter the ride. "It's just going to look wrong, but in a nice way," Siebert adds. Instead of a wooden coaster's lattice-like timber structure, Wonder Woman will have steel supports. But its ultra-thin track won't require as many supports as a typical steel coaster. Chickola says it will look like a thin ribbon of track suspended in the sky. The eight passengers aboard the coaster's trains will have unique views as well. Each car will have a single seat. There won't be anybody sitting to the left or right. And when they look to either side, riders won't see any track either. The single rail, a scant few inches wider than a foot-long sub, will be underneath the train. If passengers lean over the cars, they'll see straight down to the ground. "You're going to feel like your gliding through the air," says Chickola. Wonder Woman will climb a 113-foot hill, drop about 100 feet straight down at 90-degrees, and hit a top speed of 52 mph. It will include overbanked turns and the free-floating sensation known as airtime. Among its three inversions will be a "180-degree stall," in which the train will roll halfway over and suspend riders for a few agonizing moments before it unrolls and returns them right-side-up. Siebert says that it is going to be "odd to go upside down on such a tiny track. It will feel like you're riding Wonder Woman's whip." The ride's queue will include a crashed airplane, Greco-Greek architecture, and other references to the comic book world of the female superhero, whose popularity surged after the huge success of the recent Wonder Woman movie. The stall inversion is a signature element of the coaster's designer and manufacturer, Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC). The innovative ride company has developed its own take on coaster rails, which it calls "IBox" track. Instead of the tubular steel track that is used on traditional steel coasters, IBox track is flat on top and configured like the letter "I." The trains' side friction wheels, which help tether the cars to the rails, fit into the track's I-shaped channels. The unique track may account for the especially smooth rides that RMC coasters deliver. The New Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas was the first coaster to feature IBox track. The park chain followed that with Iron Rattler at Fiesta Texas. Both of the rides were traditional wooden coasters that had not aged well and were notoriously rough. RMC left the wooden structures intact, but removed the original tracks and replaced them with IBox tracks. Known as hybrid wooden-steel coasters, the two repurposed Six Flags rides are now gloriously smooth. RMC's designers took the basic concepts of their IBox track and developed the single-rail system, which the ride company refers to as "raptor track." Using the next evolution of the breakthrough IBox track, Wonder Woman may whip its park mate, Iron Rattler, for slithery smoothness.

I had to make it to Poland this year. The self-hype on Lech Coaster was too big for me to handle! A goon friend joined me (not without intense lobbying from my part ) on this adventure which would comprise +14 coasters... but no Intamin, Mack or B&M! Part 1: Energylandia After a short night of sleep and an early flight, I was quite tired when the cringy entrance theme of Energylandia greeted us. The entrance building is quite tall and mighty, but also lacks details and a less cubic shape. The architecture and appearance of the short "Main Street" really tells that the park has only opened/got massively refurbished a few years ago. In fact, Energylandia was inaugurated in 2014 and underwent massive expansions year after year. We decided to tick off the less glamorous creds first. Happy Loops was our first cred of the trip and it was slightly more eventful than its short and flat-ish layout suggests. Quite jerky and still dull though. Owocowy Ogrod is the local Wacky Worm. I can’t believe that having never ridden one in my previous 13 years as an enthusiast, but I got 4 in a single year. This one had the better theming of them all, which doesn’t say much anyway. Energus sits closeby as a stark contrast in term of kiddie coaster quality. The theming, although still needing improvement in some areas, is far superior and fitting for a theme park. We got a ride on the back row which provided a nice pull on the first drop. The rest of the layout felt decent but decidedly unmemorable. I'm sure the kids will love it nonetheless! By this point we had enough of the mundane credits and felt it was time to go for some real coaster thrill. Formula 1 it is then. Finally getting a sight of the new, sleek Vekoma inverting track is quite impressive! It’s quite hard to resist being excited seeing how fast and seamlessly the new trains negotiate the tight elements I have to say the operations are supremely efficient. What a pleasant surprise actually! I was not expecting such quick dispatches for a really young park. The ride station was run by 5 well-coordinated employees and trains rarely ever stacked, regularly leaving the station platform every 1 minute and a half. Perhaps even less! I got to ride F1 a total of 7 times on my first day (plus an additional 5 the next day), and I have to say Vekoma have really done well! The ride is not the most intense, but exciting with a fantastic pacing and sequence of elements. It provides my favourite moment of hangtime on a coaster yet with the remarkable Immelmann loop starting the layout. The rest of the ride is beautifully engineered and the airtime gets excellent towards the end of the day. F1 does feel a bit short, but to me, is like a prototype from Vekoma which displays what amazing products they can produce nowadays! The vest restraints were a little inconvenient at first, but I did not notice them at all for the rest of the trip. Our confidence in Vekoma boosted by this impressive experience, we proceeded to one of their older and most infamous designs: the SLC, Mayan Roller Coaster. However, the notable use of newer trains with vest restraints reportedly improved ride comfort - even though not all fans who already tried Mayan will agree. Our first lap on the front seats was actually really fun. It was still jerky and shaky at some times, but the vest restraints really mitigated the pain and allowed us to enjoy what is a fairly nice layout. The second lap, at the rear, that immediately followed (yes!) led me to the same conclusion. I even screamed in laughter surprised by how actually enjoyable this coaster design can be. The entrance of the double in-line twist provides a quite scary footchopper, and while not the most forceful ride, Mayan has a good pace. Curiously, my third ride, as well as my fourth on Day 2 on this coaster gave me a more ordinary SLC experience, with the usual jarring and discomfort. Inconsistent, but potentially good could well describe this recent SLC. After a late launch consisting some cheap but decent kebab food, we wanted to digest with something relatively tame. The nearby Family Boomerang, confusingly named Boomerang was a good fit. The theming is among the more detailed from the park, and apart from a jolt during the backward lift hill release, the experience from there was smooth and entertaining for what it is. There was decent moderate fun for the family as well as some fun floating moments. A second lap the day after was a little less convincing, the back row seating we picked providing no floater during the second spike. Viking, an SBF Spinner with OTSR (!!) had the longest queue of the day with a 50 minute wait. It was also by far the worst ride of the park. No redeeming quality and an awful lot of headbanging. We got a couple of rerides on F1 to quickly forget this awful taste of poor coaster manufacturing, and found the new-gen Vekoma even more enjoyable. The only issue (with the park has not much to do with) is the annoying habit of some Polish peeps to shamelessly line-jump without being punished. Two kiddie creds sat next to each other. Circus Coaster and Mars are both forgettable and feel out-of-place for an ambitious, well-presented park. The former didn't even added anything to my main Coaster Count as it is a e-powered!... I was quite eager to try Dragon which is an iteration of the latest and biggest version of the SFC model. I find it to be one of the most exciting forms of family coasters, with a nice drop, an adequate amount of intensity and nice overall flow. The theming is probably among the best in the park, a quite immersive experience which interacts with the coaster. Re-rides on the next day made me enjoy the coaster even more! I left Energylandia having spent two very cheerful days. Employees are very friendly and respectful despite the language barrier. I lost one bag in a hurry and was astonished to find it back at the park reception with everything in it. Such a relief since it contained my GoPro transfer cable! The park as a whole looks much nicer than I expected. It's clean, easy to navigate and the paths have nice textures and aren't too large to feel like peep highways. I thought Energylandia would be a mere collection of coasters, but I found instead a charming place despite the perfectible theming! Very efficient operations and a coaster line-up which is set to become one of the most exciting in Europe makes for a must-visit park in a few years, if not already Part 2 will focus on Legendia and the aforementioned/super-anticipated Lech Coaster!

Came right back from Legendia and a 35 ride marathon on Lech Coaster! The ride averages 15 minute waits, but I used the unlimited fast pass (which cost a very cheap 39 Polish zlotys or 13.5 AUD!) and well... chained walk-on re-rides. This non-sense whoring now means that Lech becomes my second most-ridden coaster with... 35 laps, behind Goliath Walibi Holland and my seemingly unattainable 210+ rides on it. I feel very nerdy goony right now, and need to get some sleep!

So excited to see the big camelback now completed! It should certainly be one highlight of the ride. Some comparison pictures: (Picture of Helix by Oligao) (Picture of Flash by gavin on CoasterForce) Difficult to exactly tell since the camera angles aren't the same, but I think DC Rivals' got the tallest hill overall. Maybe it is slightly steeper too (which is even harder to judge). Of course height and steepness doesn't matter much if speed is lacking. But don't worry, coasterfans in Europe generally agree that Mack's latest coasters provide good, sustained airtime! As you may know, I've been on Alpina Blitz and Helix, and while I think the air isn't ridiculously insane as on El Toro and GeForce, it's very good nonetheless. What makes DC Rivals' camelback very interesting is its unrivalled height by Mack standards. You may get a very, very sustained and decently strong airtime indeed ;)

That weird sketchy-banked Arrow/Vekoma that closed down a few years ago? This one looked so wrong in many ways! Surprised to hear it isn't worst than HK Dragon.

Some cool stories here! Glad to see I'm not the only one riding coasters an unreasonable number of times ^^ Marathoning Superman Escape sounds very exciting...

Do you ever marathon some coasters you really like? By "marathon", I mean chaining a lot of rides over and over again on the same coaster. Of course, sometimes it's not possible because the lines are too long, or/and the operations too sluggish. But if given the chance to, would you go coaster abuse? My biggest memories of marathoning a ride are on Goliath (Walibi Holland) when I was a teenager in 05/06'. At the end of the day, the park usually got almost empty but the ops still ran 2 trains! I remember literaly staying in the train, in the same seat, and getting something like 15 rides in a row Pretty insane in hindsight and probably something I will never experience again (except for set-up ERTs). I'm not even sure I could withstand sustained physical forces for such a long time now! Having said that, I managed to clock 24 laps on Monster (Walygator) last month on a quiet day and taking single rider to my advantage...

Thanks @Gazza! Merci également à Glubbo que j'ai oublié de mentionner SOS Numérobis (without a second "o") means "Emergency phone number bis". Numérobis is also the name of the Egyptian architect in the Astérix comics I remember La Trace du Hourra being pretty smooth and fun when I was a child in the early 2000s. Then again, that was several years before my first Intamin and B&M... I'm not sure the parc is finished with the theming to be honest. Since opening they kept adding some queueline details and a train "departure/arrival" fake sign in the station. I hope they'll hold on doing more improvements but from what I've read on French forums, that's unlikely. I think part of the success of Parc Astérix lies in the spirit of the comics, which basically tells the story of a Gaul village resisting against invading Romans. Today, Astérix feels to some like the smaller French park trying to fight against a giant US corporation - Disney. Though the comics aren't that popular indeed since Uderzo (the cartoonist and co-creator) retiring, they're clearly part of the French landmark pop culture I'd say. I will come back on August 5th to take more pictures - hopefully with a much better weather. In the meantime, there will be a Poland trip in between. I'm way too excited to ride Lech Coaster!

Glad to read your enthusiastic opinions on the Joker sign As I wrote in the original post, I'm not fully convinced yet, but I hope it'll grow on me. We'll see if it becomes part of the iconic looks of the coaster as a whole!