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[2024] Voltron Nevera | Mack Stryker Coaster

For what it’s worth, Nicky Borrill on CoasterForce rode train 1 yesterday and said it was “very, very rough” and “almost headache-inducing”… but rode train 1 again today and said that “it was as smooth as a coaster this extreme could possibly be”: https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...ryker-coaster-2024.41398/page-48#post-1171811

Could they have added the suspension to train 1 already? Given how efficient Europa are with these things, I guess it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise! Nicky’s experience two separate experiences of train 1 being vastly different in terms of smoothness would certainly hint that this has happened, anyhow…
 
RustyRider said:
In fairness, if you were personally invited by EP to experience their new coaster, I don’t think you’d want to risk never being invited again by ripping into it.

Ive seen a couple of vlogs now which have mentioned the roughness of the wing seats and row three in particular. The ride comparisons you tube channel were on the same train as TPWW and had very similar opinions coming off it. Even after 6 rides in various seats the consensus was still “Rough”!

Also if you break down lift hills and thrills comment where he said “I could do RTH at plopsa 6-7 times in a row but voltron is a 3 and done ride for me” is probably just a polite way of saying “it’s a bit rough” without offending the people that invited him.
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I try to not offend anyone but I'll always say it how it is. I have a head condition so intense coasters make me tap out much quicker similar to fairground rides which spin me into oblivion. I throughly enjoyed my rides and never experienced a 'rough' ride it was just VERY intense and that turntable was a much welcomed rest bite. I certainly didn't experience any roughness and as Shawn has recently posted (we had a chat at EP) his rides were much smoother after his first one and he didn't feel it at all. Only two trains seem to be having a rough issue currently as they trial different setups etc this was also confirmed by Michael Mack when I spoke to him at the event and coincides with what the coaster club posted on X.

I'll always be grateful for being invited but I'll never say nice things just to appease a press invite, it's not worth compromising honesty for a freebie but sadly the same cannot be said about MANY who get invited!

Tim said:
I understand why vloggers and media in general want to give a positive spin so that they will be invited back again. But from your or my perspective as the consumer of their content why should we accept that! Isn't that basically saying 'I'm OK with being lied to, if it means someone I don’t know and can't trust gets to keep going to special VIP events'?

I'll be honest in light of more recent reviews I'm starting to suspect EP cherry picked the people they invited for this very reason.
Lift hills and thrills was a bizarre choice. You can tell he doesn't know the park well (referring to Austria as Australia, and never having ridden those rides before the fire). He even acknowledged multiple times in the video that he wasn't sure why he was invited when so many people with long standing connections to the park weren't.
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I'm sure a slip of the tongue isn't particularly a reason as to why someone should or shouldn't be invited. This has since been edited out, blame 90 mins of sleep and a full travel day for someone with more medical conditions than the average Joe.

Behind the scenes I'm doing work with the park on a variety of businesses I own and operate and they were impressed with our original meeting back in September when I was asked over to the park for the first time. I work damn hard and having one of the quickest growing UK theme park vlogging channels is proof of that and it'll go from strength to strength, it also helps with the media sites I'm apart of to help further boost any views or exposure of any given coverage as Lift Hills on its own just isn't strong enough (for me) to warrant an invite like that just yet.

With that said the POV has overtaken many channels that have 6-figures+ subs and the standard vlog is keeping up with channels 4 and 5 times bigger than myself. Coupled with additional content, quantity and my ongoing relationship with the park I was honoured to be asked, overwhelmed even and I'll continue to be surprised whether or not the channel is at 18k or 180k subs and make no mistake about it, one day it WILL get there.

But to answer you question, the invites were not cherry picked. The UK isn't well represented with EP, it's a new thing for them to branch out and have the UK more involved. We weren't invited to give it good reviews and if you've ever seen ANY of my content I'm far from the kind of person to kiss a parks ass and have been struck off lists just for that reason, because I don't give the standard 'everything is awesome' press review but with regards to Voltron it was perfect (to me) yes the turntable needed to be enclosed more but that's really scraping the barrel with criticism.

Bizarre choice or not, we were there and will continue to be as long as they have us :)
 
I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere, but I’ve just noticed that the direction of travel of the turntable seems to alternate. No idea if it’s random or alternates between each car, but I thought it was another interesting detail that the park have added, seemingly just because.

Pretty nerdy I know, but there are some delightful details to the new addition.
 
If we could try and go back to discussion about the ride/area itself from here-on in it'd be appreciated. @LHAT of course has the right to reply to the points made earlier in the topic, so that post has remained. But I think all has been said that needs to be said on the press event/vlogger front, so let's keep things on topic in future - thanks :)
 
Well, I’ve just come back from my first ride this evening - fortunate that our planned trip had us arriving 2 days after opening, it wasn’t a last minute trip - and really surprised to have read all the talk about the coaster being rough. My experience was of a near-perfect smooth run, if a little long.

I came off thinking it was incredible. I expect after some more rides it will fall down to number 2 at EP, behind Wodan. But it’s a solid experience throughout. The interior queue is immense, like being inside Berghain (except everyone is wearing more clothes…), and the pre-launch is a lovely surprise.

I would say the turntable section, including the breaks leading to it, needs some work. Clearly an unfinished section but I have no doubt it will be added to over time.

Well done, Roland. Another winner
 
venny said:
I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere, but I’ve just noticed that the direction of travel of the turntable seems to alternate. No idea if it’s random or alternates between each car, but I thought it was another interesting detail that the park have added, seemingly just because.

Pretty nerdy I know, but there are some delightful details to the new addition.
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At a guess, I'd say that it just shuttles back and forth because of the way it's been wired up. There are several power-hungry launch fins on the turntable so a slip ring is probably not suitable, instead there's likely to be a fixed flexible wire that prevents continuous rotation of the turntable.
 
John said:
At a guess, I'd say that it just shuttles back and forth because of the way it's been wired up. There are several power-hungry launch fins on the turntable so a slip ring is probably not suitable, instead there's likely to be a fixed flexible wire that prevents continuous rotation of the turntable.
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Yeah exactly this, there is no way a slip ring could easily take the power needed to run the launch so it will be a a few HT cables so the turntable will alternate direction.
 
LHAT said:
I try to not offend anyone but I'll always say it how it is. I have a head condition so intense coasters make me tap out much quicker similar to fairground rides which spin me into oblivion. I throughly enjoyed my rides and never experienced a 'rough' ride it was just VERY intense and that turntable was a much welcomed rest bite. I certainly didn't experience any roughness and as Shawn has recently posted (we had a chat at EP) his rides were much smoother after his first one and he didn't feel it at all. Only two trains seem to be having a rough issue currently as they trial different setups etc this was also confirmed by Michael Mack when I spoke to him at the event and coincides with what the coaster club posted on X.

I'll always be grateful for being invited but I'll never say nice things just to appease a press invite, it's not worth compromising honesty for a freebie but sadly the same cannot be said about MANY who get invited!


I'm sure a slip of the tongue isn't particularly a reason as to why someone should or shouldn't be invited. This has since been edited out, blame 90 mins of sleep and a full travel day for someone with more medical conditions than the average Joe.

Behind the scenes I'm doing work with the park on a variety of businesses I own and operate and they were impressed with our original meeting back in September when I was asked over to the park for the first time. I work damn hard and having one of the quickest growing UK theme park vlogging channels is proof of that and it'll go from strength to strength, it also helps with the media sites I'm apart of to help further boost any views or exposure of any given coverage as Lift Hills on its own just isn't strong enough (for me) to warrant an invite like that just yet.

With that said the POV has overtaken many channels that have 6-figures+ subs and the standard vlog is keeping up with channels 4 and 5 times bigger than myself. Coupled with additional content, quantity and my ongoing relationship with the park I was honoured to be asked, overwhelmed even and I'll continue to be surprised whether or not the channel is at 18k or 180k subs and make no mistake about it, one day it WILL get there.

But to answer you question, the invites were not cherry picked. The UK isn't well represented with EP, it's a new thing for them to branch out and have the UK more involved. We weren't invited to give it good reviews and if you've ever seen ANY of my content I'm far from the kind of person to kiss a parks ass and have been struck off lists just for that reason, because I don't give the standard 'everything is awesome' press review but with regards to Voltron it was perfect (to me) yes the turntable needed to be enclosed more but that's really scraping the barrel with criticism.

Bizarre choice or not, we were there and will continue to be as long as they have us :)
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Just wanted to say thanks for responding. Having discovered that their genuinely is a difference between how different trains are running I of course take back some of my earlier speculation. It was just very bizarre to see reviews that differed so widely, and I was trying to make sense of it.
 
If anyone has been keeping track of which trains are considered rough, I have had 2 smooth rides and 1 slightly bumpy rides on random trains, but 1 very rough (in the wing seat) ride on train 2, followed by 15 mins in the break run due to a break down.

Good job they sell beer in the area!

Also, spotted a flaw in the SRQ locker system, where they batch a number of single riders and if they don’t have anything to put in the locker but you do, you could end up with 20 or so people cutting ahead of you, which could put an extra half hour in your queue time…
 
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EuroSatch said:
If anyone has been keeping track of which trains are considered rough, I have had 2 smooth rides and 1 slightly bumpy rides on random trains, but 1 very rough (in the wing seat) ride on train 2, followed by 15 mins in the break run due to a break down.

Good job they sell beer in the area!

Also, spotted a flaw in the SRQ locker system, where they batch a number of single riders and if they don’t have anything to put in the locker but you do, you could end up with 20 or so people cutting ahead of you, which could put an extra half hour in your queue time…
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That same flaw happens with Smiler. It's annoying. I wish they'd let you through one by one or ask if you have belongings and then make the people behind wait.
 
Tim said:
Just wanted to say thanks for responding. Having discovered that their genuinely is a difference between how different trains are running I of course take back some of my earlier speculation. It was just very bizarre to see reviews that differed so widely, and I was trying to make sense of it.
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As with some other coasters at Europa Park, Mack are using it as a bit of a testbed. Right now, some trains are missing stabilisers on their bogies.

More generally, i absolutely didn't expect this coaster to make it into my top 2, but the front left seat in the evening was out of this world.
 
TheTalbotHound said:
As with some other coasters at Europa Park, Mack are using it as a bit of a testbed. Right now, some trains are missing stabilisers on their bogies.

More generally, i absolutely didn't expect this coaster to make it into my top 2, but the front left seat in the evening was out of this world.
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Have we got a photo of some of the trains missing the stabilizers?

Interested to see what the different is.
 
I achieved two rides on Voltron on Friday. I was following along with TPW‘s blog and the commentary here and got really worried that the coaster I’d been looking forward to riding for so long was actually going to be a painful disappointment.

Friends, this is no disappointment.

We did really poorly at park opening and ended up really towards the back of the start of the day rush using the temporary queue line. In addition you could see the ride was going down for short but recurrent periods, lots of 5 minute gaps without a launch, some trains getting held on the brakes before the last section (and presumably therefore elsewhere) a couple of times. The line moved very slowly. Probably 75 minutes. Later in the day we queued for 45 minutes in a well moving line with no appreciable delays on the ride, it was a much more pleasurable experience.

I liked the outdoor queuing area, the flowerbeds, the river, the ride above your head (especially the initial launch) are all lovely. The slightly random waterwheel effect is entertaining but there probably needed to be one or two other water pieces dotted around or connecting to it to make it seem less random. I had deliberately skipped the bits of the videos of the indoor queue line and POV to give me something unspolied, and walking into the main chamber was unbelievable. The atmosphere in there with Tesla (whilst he’s not a great animatronic) and all the stuff going on is world class theming unlike anywhere I’ve personally seen. I’m glad I paid attention in the entrance anteroom though to the rat experiment which my friends didn’t as it kind of explains what the whole thing is for. If the queue moves fast you don’t have the time to see a sequence of the rat being teleported happening, but having witnessed it the shutters in the main hall suddenly make sense. The Tesla coils, the electricity effects, the music are all very entertaining.

I love the way you can see a train entering the pre-launch section and then the shutters come down, but one or twice the shutters remained open whilst a train was going up and down which ruins the surprise a little bit. I’m not sure if this is deliberate or just a bit dodgy on the triggers/timings. For theming that’s generally very visceral the video screen on the other wall is a bit disappointing, it’s not at all convincing and it’s the the same people every time (I know it’s the Mack family) - is this just happening during opening or will it be like this forever? Would be better to have 15 or so minutes of different faces so you never spot the repeat. The lockers worked really well for us, we never did it as single riders but they definitely need to be careful with batching here as you would lose your place in the queue quite badly. The station looks impressive, you have just enough time to see how the loading works before you get there, the staff were brilliant. The batcher is doing a flawless job at lining up a queue of perfectly formed 4s.

I really liked how the ride starts, its not obvious that the train in front has gone anywhere interesting but you slowly creep round seeing a dark and moody looking Tesla staring at you, his latest guinea pig, then you realise that the train has gone. The Tesla coil there is so atmospheric. The trick track is fun and unexpected. I saw Shawn complaining about the loop launch being underpowered but I think it’s just right. Any more force and it would become uncomfortable. It’s a fun launch and an interesting idea, but not great enough that I’d think it’ll be much copied.

The rest of the ride feels fast, it’s intense, you’re whipped round in a way similar to but more pleasant than The Smiler. I appreciated the break midway through for the turntable, it gives you a minute to decompress and then builds a bit of tension for the reverse launch, which if you haven’t ridden before comes as a bit of a surprise. My friend thought the ride was over. The music is done really well here to make the turntable feel quite ominous. I agree they could have done more with this section, and the minimum would be boxing it in properly so you can’t see a random road and building. The swing launch is good fun, and the second half is well paced.

I was hyper aware of the rattle rumours and I’m pleased to say I didn’t notice anything. My first ride was back row far right which was the more intense of the two and no it wasn’t as smooth as butter but it was completely acceptable and proportional to the speed and intensity of the coaster. My second go was front row centre right and it was completely smooth. It seems the consensus has shifted to there being varying experiences due to different wheels/suspensions on different trains, in my experience this coaster (when on the right trains anyway) definitely does not have a rattle. The engineering of it for my money is excellent.

I think Voltron is fantastic. It’s one of the best roller coasters I’ve ever ridden, and if they make a few small changes it could be perfect. Don’t believe the negativity, it’s world class. Europa Park and the Mack family can be extremely proud of themselves.
 
My review of Voltron. There are spoilers, obviously!

438168811_10161059486510250_5574219569604737915_n.jpg

So I forgot to do a nerdy review of Voltron, which I went on for the first time Sunday before last and rode six (?) times in total.
It is, put simply, a bloody good time.

The theming is yet another step up for EP, and although obviously the surrounding area is no Rookburgh, it's a thoroughly thought-through experience from beginning to end.

The main queue-line hall – which I had no idea about and wasn't expecting at all – is the most impressive section of queue-line I have seen on any ride, anywhere (inc Gringotts). I involuntarily gasped walking into it.

The Tesla animatronic! The window into the launch area! The video of the Macks waving to you from the train! The giant spark plug that sends each train on its way! Voltron singing its little song through the roof-mounted Tesla coils! Wow wow wow wow wow.

But *that room* is only one part of a masterful build-up of tension throughout, thanks to the clever and subtle use of music, design and lighting – they've finally mastered the art of creating, what you might call in Phantasialand parlance, 'a banger'. By the time you get to the station with the elegant conveyer loading, you're pumped.

The ride itself is an assault on the senses in the best possible way. The little jump trick before the main event is neat and effective, and the beyond-vertical (?) launch is the first of several punch-the-air moments.

The coaster itself is relentless, intense enough, tight (in a Smiler way) and LONG. It's bloody long. The rolling launch is another 'fuck yeah' moment, and the turntable into the (tiny) slingshot launch is a lot of fun (though could do with a bit more theming).

The biggest surprise is the absolutely *bags* of airtime throughout – there's tons of it, and proper ejector too. It's about as smooth as a coaster this intense can be, though rougher if you sit on the wing seats.

The intensity combined with the length and the audio-visual bombardment in the queue means that it can be, as Simon put it, "a lot". I can see how for some people it would be too much, but for me it's just what EP needed: a really intense banger.

I had high expectations and was preparing to be slightly let down, but it actually exceeded them. It's a close call between the 'big three', but it's probably straight in at #2 for me in the park (behind Wodan). In many ways it is the ride The Smiler should have been.

An absolute stonker of a coaster from the best to ever do it.

Feel free to ask any questions
🙂


--

Oh, a very nerdy postscript about OPERATIONS
🤓
and DOWNTIME
😩


OPERATIONS

Absolutely incredible, as you'd expect. The thing is built for throughput. Every new coaster should have conveyer loading (with a long station) by law. Not only is each dispatch as fast as it possibly can be 95% of the time, the constant movement creates a great sense of dynamism and drama in the station. You can set your watch by the dispatches (precisely two seconds after the train swoops past the Croatian plaza, another one should hit the vertical launch, all being well). In six rides I think I saw the conveyer stop briefly, once. Otherwise maximum throughputs. The time you have to get on the train is luxurious. Only very tiny flaw is that for some reason they batch you into fours (and merge with SRQ) about 20 metres before onload, meaning that inevitably people ungroup themselves or forget who they're sitting with in the intervening two or three minutes. But you have so much time to get on it's not an issue. Despite it being brand new and the park being absolutely rammed, we didn't wait longer than an hour for it (apart from the first evening when it went down for 30 mins). Most times we waited 45. The thing eats people.

DOWNTIME

Never seen anything like it. It's a highly complex new ride, and it opened a few days before we arrived. We expected it to be down a lot. We were there for an evening and three full days. The total downtime we saw was it cycling empties for 30 minutes while we were in the queue on the first evening, and then Richey and Simon being stuck on the brake-run for 15 minutes another day. Apart from that, didn't see any downtime whatsoever, which is incredible really (I'm sure it did go down in that time but we didn't see it either in person or on the app). Half a dozen techies pouring over laptops in the station the entire time (in addition to the op). Patrick Marx there most of the time too, and Thomas in the op cabin at one point. Never seen anything like it.
 
Might do a full review but people really weren't exaggerating the difference between the trains with and without the suspension. Glass smooth this morning, second ride agony. Didn't think it could be so different but even going in a straight line was painful.

Second ride also had an e stop on every brake, so got the swinging launch in the first half which was fun, by the end was hoping it would stop every time for a rest tbh
 
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