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[2024] Voltron Nevera | Mack Stryker Coaster

Agreed with Dan. Just look at those crowds!

I don't think it can be understated how much opening day crowds have changed since vlogging became so popular. Now everyone seems to "need" to be there on the first day (FOMO) and we get crazy situations with rides that have 10+ hour waits.

Given that this is EP I bet it'll practically be walk on during the off season days in only a few months time, and the experience will be much better then anyway.
 
Got two weeks before my next visit. Hopefully its calmed down a bit before then. If not its playing the virtual queue game or single rider :)
 
Worth noting that virtual queue is not currently in use for Voltron, unsure how long it will be before they unable it.

Doesn't sound like the queue ever got quite as long as the Nemesis opening day queue did. And single rider appears to be working well.
 
Rob said:
Worth noting that virtual queue is not currently in use for Voltron, unsure how long it will be before they unable it.

Doesn't sound like the queue ever got quite as long as the Nemesis opening day queue did. And single rider appears to be working well.
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Thought that might be the case for virtual queue! Nice that they've got single rider open for day 1 though
 
ItsAllGood said:
Thought that might be the case for virtual queue! Nice that they've got single rider open for day 1 though
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They may as well have single rider open. If a group of 3 come along it only makes sense to fill the spare seat with a single rider! Not really any reason to leave it closed.
 
Even their own official social media has a clip showing people pushing their way through the crowds.
 

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Had they just led people to the extended queue line in the first place then that could have all been avoided. I know the ride had a delay but It's easy enough to evacuate a queue line as it just takes time. However putting kids and people in wheelchairs at risk through having ridiculous holding areas is absolutely shocking. You'd expect better from the so called best Theme Park in the world.

Its good to see them trying out different wheel compounds though. Looks like TPWW were just unlucky with theirs. Seen some people say the outside seats were fine for them so it definitely seems train dependent.

First day openings just ren't for me now because of the vloggers. It's become a bit of a farce. I got lucky with Smiler and Wickerman as it was non existent to very minimal for those ones.
 
Worrying thing is that with the way they open the park this could become a regular occurrence. They always hold people in Italy until 9am which can lead to large crowds building up on all but the quietest days. Usually it's not too bad as people split between Sat, Silver Star and a few others but with large amounts of people all heading for 1 ride it's always going to be problematic.

They might need to run it like Smiler and open the overspill queue before 9, then open the ride as soon as it's ready.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
That’s absolutely shocking, there genuinely could have been a fatal crush or trampling there. That rush and jostling was horrible to watch, the park have really let themselves down here.
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To be honest I don’t think EP have ever experienced the crazy that was demonstrated today.

It’s ironic that TPWW are bemoaning the control of a phenomenon they contribute to (and I really like Shaun even though I don’t watch the channel really), but non of EP’s coaster openings have ever had that level of bonkers.

They will probably learn from it for the future. Though I do think theme park fans and the insane number of vloggers maybe also need to re-assess their behaviour.
 
Well I think review wise so far it's about what I was expecting. It was noticeable when seeing it testing earlier this month that it was looking a little too slow for my liking, so no surprise to see comments on that front. Still, we'll see how it beds in - there was a time when we thought similar of Wodan after all!

I'm in agreement that (so far) based on other reviews it would appear to be pot luck as to getting a "better" train, so it'll be interesting to hear more views after multiple rides in the coming days. I do have to agree on the turntable though, it looks terrible so far and really unfinished. We can and should praise EP for all that they've managed to do in recent years with everything that's happened, but that's a real downer on the rest of the ride. I hope that if there are plans to add to it that they do so quickly, as it really does break things up at the moment, and not in a positive way.

To touch on the opening briefly, I don't think it's fair simply to state "it's vloggers" - that's a bit of a cheap shot at those who work to produce them. It's how everyone is in general these days, even if they don't have a Youtube channel or whatever. People want to be first, they want to show that they are first and likewise the park wants the #content to demonstrate how popular their shiny new ride is too. Like it or not, it's all part and parcel of marketing these days.

Regardless of anyone's opinions of that though, the onus and responsibility is on the park to manage that demand. Everyone expected it to be crazy, the park has people prebook to supposedly forecast demand, yet they were hideously unprepared with staff too busy positioning themselves to take photos and video for socials (see on the boat in France, top of the shop in Shawn's video) rather than have a proper plan to manage an influx of guests through a park that has shortcuts and paths everywhere. I hope there's a rethink for the coming days, because it's not an over-exaggeration to state that there could have been some very serious consequences. With everything that's gone on in recent years, more bad headlines is what the park should be doing absolutely everything to minimise.
 
xtpower said:
Shaun called it a Gertslauer because of vibrations...
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He actually said it’s worse than a Gerstlauer…. Not a glowing review.

Will never do an opening day for a coaster again. This one looks like a typical modern steel launch coaster to me. Not sure where this “slow” through inversions has come from? Wasn’t a thing in the 90’s.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
He actually said it’s worse than a Gerstlauer…. Not a glowing review.

Will never do an opening day for a coaster again. This one looks like a typical modern steel launch coaster to me. Not sure where this “slow” through inversions has come from? Wasn’t a thing in the 90’s.
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Remember he was in an outside seat though, it sounds better in the inside seats.
 
xtpower said:

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrXd0QFlGmc


I'm 12mins in and it has been a complete shambles from Europa Park. The pushing and shoving was terrifying.
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Seeing Ops Manager Lucas (aka Die Baudokumentation co-presenter) 5m 20s in by the Switz/Greece bridge trying to turn everyone away from Voltron on his own without any physical means to control the hoards truly was something I didn't expect to see from a park who normally has excellent operations. But as John says, the Italy crowd hold put everyone at a worse detriment today and I sincerely hope no-one was injured and/or traumatised by the stampede there or later at the Croatia entrance. Hopefully the park has learnt a valuable lesson in how not to handle extremely high demand, especially when they would've likely seen how many park tickets and hotel stays had been booked this weekend.

Also, unrelated elusive Jurgen Mack credit at 17m 54s in.

For a lighter video about Voltron's questionable opening day, Digital Dan's Voltron vlog (Vlog-tron?) is pretty fun. He was in the same outside seat as Shaun was but, presuming he was on a different train, has a far more positive opinion about the ride experience.

 
Rowe said:
For a lighter video about Voltron's questionable opening day, Digital Dan's Voltron vlog (Vlog-tron?) is pretty fun. He was in the same outside seat as Shaun was but, presuming he was on a different train, has a far more positive opinion about the ride experience.

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Yes the outer seat rattle does seem to vary per train. A lottery basically.
 
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