Visited Hansa Park last week and had the chance to experience its delights, ranging from the weird and wonderful such as De Glocke, through to the beautifully executed Fluch von Novgorod and of course, the park's new symbol - Karnan.
Karnan is one of the most bizarre rides I've ever experienced. It's a combination of so many different varieties thrown together; an intimidating yet intriguing being of height, an enjoyable and radically different "secret" element, before rampaging into an all out, intensive speed machine.
Given that the theming is disappointingly still yet to be complete, from a whole experience perspective the ride is nowhere near finished. The saddening prospect is that for the ride to be mindblowingly good, it's going to rely on what is yet to come next year.
The Karnan experience begins before you even set foot in the park, with its colossal concrete tower leaving much of the park in its shadow. The ride itself looks utterly ridiculous from offride, particularly its incomprehensible support structure on the ride's main exterior butterfly element.
Such concrete. Much wow.
Once in the main bulk of the queue line, the promises of a bright future for the ride begin with the intricate and deeply thought out backstory videos, depicting the story of a king with a hellbent vision on designing a terrifying, impenetrable fortress. As the queue progress onto the interior section, the detailing transitions from excellent to almost astounding. Even the storage of loose belongings is seamlessly weaved into the story.
With the station and boarding experience just around the corner, Karnan has yet another magical trick up its sleeve. Riders are batched into four rows inside a beautifully themed rounded room, under the false impression of their location on the train. However the ride disregards this, bestowing a cute lighting sequence that wraps its way around the room, evoking a sense of mystery. The floor underneath your feet illuminates your row, before one of the four doors ahead of you opens. This sequence is entirely random, meaning there is absolutely no way of guaranteeing where you'll be sat. On the rare occasion, the rows sync up perfectly much like our first ride. On the repeat rides however, the sequences failed to match up with the doors ahead, leading us to random rows and heightening the sense of anticipation to a front or back row ride.
Once through the doors and onto the station platform, the dark and mysterious theming continues, luring you onto the train. Frustratingly however, the negatives of the ride and somewhat part of Hansa Park's operations begin at this point. Glasses wearers, even with sturdy straps are deprived of their eyewear with the park's forceful guideline on no glasses at all on the park's more intense coasters, regardless of how excellent the strap is. The rule can be disregarded providing you pop your eyewear back on once the ride has been dispatched, but on Karnan this is no easy feat. Once off the platform it commences the ride with an unexpected bunny hop, which is followed bizarrely by a sudden braking and transition into the lift hill. Why the bunny hop is there is an odd thought, as it detracts from the experience rather than adds to it, neutralising what would possibly be better as a straight section of track with a well themed onboard pre show. I hope something is done along those lines next year, but I imagine all the efforts will be diverted to what follows next.
The ascent to the top of the tower is the bog standard expectation from a vertical climbing Gerst coaster, made all the more terrifying by a loose lap bar which can lead to you sliding slightly from the inclined seats. Sadly on the front row, the sensors partially light the way and remove any sense of anticipation as to when the ascent will end, but it does highlight just exactly how tall the tower is. The agonising wait at the top is currently not assisted by the lack of theming, but I have full faith this will be rectified next year.
Then there's Karnan's unique element - the reverse freefall drop. Not as punchy as anticipated, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's a similar experience to drop towers boasting the larger gondolas, going for the floaty and slower falls rather than attempting to slam you to the ground at ridiculous rates. Following this is another agonising wait as the lift hill catches back up with the train before the second ascent to the top. This time you're rewarded with the sensation of being dragged over the top, and everything that follows...
A bat sh*t crazy drop with a 90 degree twist half way down, the concrete walls rushing past and the natural sunlight from outside creeping in through the exit hole. The level out and following transition are tight, the train roaring out into the world like an escaped and enraged beast. The non-inverted butterfly loop should be the perfect break up from the relentless rush down from the top of the tower, but is tarnished only slightly by the slightest of shuffles.
Then Karnan changes its tones radically, proceeding from an intimidating horror of height to a seething monster of speed, sticking close to the ground whilst thrashing around at a remarkable speed. The lack of OTSR leaves riders being flung around in a terrifying yet nefariously enjoyable manner, jarred slightly by the wicked transitions and noticeable famed Gerst shuffle. The occasional pop of airtime is well composed into the layout whilst the immense speed is maintained, heightened by the proximity to terra firma.
The outside rampaging around thankfully doesn't outstay its welcome, before heading back to the station with one final delightful pop of airtime and onto the brake run. Before Karnan bids you farewell however, it escorts you back inside with a barrel roll, intent on having an inversion to its name as your head narrowly misses the jarring warehouse surroundings. Theming in here will be crucial next year, otherwise it is guaranteed to leave a sour taste to the monstrous experience you've just been put through. The ride is finished with the ORP, situated at the most bizarre spot on the ride's layout as possible. Perhaps not quite as ridiculous as Dwervelwind's ORP placement, but the tactic of attempting to capture guest's post ride elation is not always guaranteed to pay off.
After numerous re-rides throughout the day, Karnan failed to make a sufficient mark on my coaster rankings. It is a superb ride in the grand scheme of things, but Hansa's vision of the ride being an overall experience is yet to be delivered. Its mishmash of being a towering structure with a unique element through to a speed driven charge around the landscape leaves me with mixed feelings, paired with Gerst's usual failings when designing a coaster. The ride's tech of course wouldn't have been possible without them, but then the following coaster is tarnished as a saddening consequence. It is the perfect definition of a balls to the wall ride and a bold statement by Hansa Park, but sadly it fails to come out on top of its neighbouring cousin in the form of Novgorod.
The completion of the theming next year will almost certainly clinch the ride a higher rating in my rankings on an experience basis, but the unforgettable Gerst faults within the layout put a disappointing dampener on what is unarguably the most ridiculous roller coaster I've experienced thus far.
