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Wodan Timbur Coaster: General Discussion

Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Hi guys. It would appear that we surprisingly don’t have a general discussion thread dedicated to Europa Park’s GCI wooden coaster; Wodan Timbur Coaster! A lot of people like this ride, and it’s many people’s favourite coaster at the park, so I thought I’d make it a thread!

I made this thread to ask; has the ride sped up notably since its opening year? I only ask because I found this POV from 2012, and I’ve noticed that sections of it appear noticeably slower than they run now, particularly the low twisty ending:

Am I imagining things, or is that considerably slower than the ride runs now?

It certainly didn’t feel that slow on my April 2022 rides; it has to be the most relentlessly paced coaster I’ve ever ridden, and it was running so fast through the ending section that you could hear the wheels screeching on numerous occasions!

I’ve got to say I did love Wodan! Unlike many, I do not rank it as my favourite coaster at the park (Silver Star clinches that for me), but it’s certainly a close second, and a very worthy #3 overall! I found it packed full of airtime, relentlessly fast, really smooth for a woodie; what’s not to like?

But what are your thoughts on Wodan?
 
I'm sure someone else might have a more detailed answer but in short yes it runs faster now than it used too.

When Wodan first opened they were experimenting with different composite wheels. In order to comply with local noise levels they couldn't use steel wheels like most wooden coasters. So for at least the first 6 months the ride ran drastically differently each time they tried new wheels. Eventually they settled on a type that ran like steel but wasn't as loud.
 
Wodan was my very first ride, the very first time I went to Europa Park. It had been about ten years since I had been on a proper wooden coaster, so I had forgotten the unique feeling of a wooden coaster, as opposed to, for example, a steel coaster of the same height and shape. I was with a friend who was new to coasters, and I thought Wodan would be a good first ride since it's not as tall as Silver Star and doesn't have a launch or inversions like Blue Fire.

Unfortunately I forgot that the best wooden coasters make you feel like you're about to lose your head, in one way or another, for the duration of the ride. Long story short, my friend was as white as a sheet when we got off the ride. Thankfully the friend was fine in the end and we rode Wodan several more times that trip, but I might recommend waiting until your party is a bit warmed up before going on this coaster.
 
Interestingly, Wodan was also my first ever Europa Park ride. And it was also the ride I often tended to start my day on!

Although the reason for us doing it first wasn’t because of any motive of finding a “good first ride”; my parents were just keen to ride “fake Wicker Man”, as they coined it!
 
AT86 said:
Immediate petition for Matt’s parents to start referring to Wicker Man as ‘the fake Wodan’.
Click to expand...
In fairness, they did that naming system for every ride there where we’d done another of the same ride type elsewhere; Blue Fire was “fake Icon” and Silver Star was “fake Mako”.

They did eventually adopt the actual ride names, but initially, they were going off of what I’d told them each ride was similar to.

Although my mum still calls Silver Star “Silver Streak”, come to think of it…
 
Visited for the first time earlier this month and was slightly disappointed that the indoor, main part of the themed queue was closed off. I get this when the ride has a short wait, but the queue was 25-30 mins on all the days we were there meaning that there was some outside queueing and it was going back into the first indoor section.
It is a common occurrence for the main part to be closed off like this - it seems a waste for all that theming to go unseen.
 
Out of interest, where on Wodan did they supposedly install GCI Titan Track this off-season? I watched a 2023 POV, and I'm struggling to see where they've put it.

On a side note, these two side-by-side POVs would seem to prove how much the ride warms up over the course of a day:


The second POV looks noticeably faster than the first one, in my opinion!

I also think that similarly to Wicker Man, POVs don't do the speed of the ride justice; that pacing is absolutely ludicrous, and it's such a demented, yet brilliantly fun and rerideable ride from start to finish! When you have a loose lap bar, the ejector airtime can be absolutely stunning...

Overall, I have to say that I do still think Wodan has to be my favourite wooden coaster I've ever ridden! And while it's narrowly usurped by Silver Star for the title of my favourite coaster at Europa, it is still an easily steal for my #3 coaster overall, out of the 91 I've currently ridden!
 
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