BooMT
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Sucker for a B&M!
During our recent trip to France (where we also visited Puy du Fou) we spent a day at Futuroscope, the most unique park I've visited so far! Here's a trip report for anyone curious (sorry, I know I'm a serial trip reporter 
)
Futuroscope is centred around technology, simulated experiences and architectural intrigue. It has the strangest atmosphere... almost Dystopian or even post-apocalyptic. Walking into the park feels industrial, functional & lacks the excitement factor, although there's a great deal of sculpture-like structures, there's certainly a coldness about the area. The park itself located within a confusing puzzle of formal-looking, newly-built buildings & roundabouts - we did take the wrong exit a couple of times! Plus point: large, solid car parks (no muddy fields or shingle, yay!) - we were given a free parking ticket due to having RAP. We utilised the Google translate app around the park as there were few English speaking staff & no English translations on rides (which we accept being in France! However, most of the attractions involve scripts and storytelling throughout so wanted to be able to keep the kids in the loop!).
Their RAP scheme is straightforward; present your documents at Guest Services & you will be given a wristband plus a sheet for ride hosts to mark. The RAP is one-shot for most rides & multi-use for others but we were told if the queues were short, the hosts were likely to overlook the restrictions (we only did everything once anyway). There are multiple queue lines for each ride & RAP users are treated incredibly respectfully. The only long wait we had was on Arthur... just when you think the queue has ended and it's time to ride, you move to ANOTHER section of queue
Of course, we had to make a beeline for the infamous Objectif Mars, no longer operating with rotation (which I believe was removed following the fire). A very bizarre coaster to say the least it needs the spinning element, without it, it was lacking any kind of punch despite having a variety of elements & effects. The couple of tyre launches were okay, there's a surprise element that would work far better if it was in a mid-section & overall, the coaster feels like something that should have been completely indoors rather than the mixed sections.
Chasseurs de Tornades is the star for me. A Dynamic Motion Theatre that combines immersive simulation, live performances & effects with queueline storytelling & a fun pre-show. It's a brilliant Family attraction that I'd love to see adapted for somewhere like Towers to diversify the offering & bring new tech to the UK. The best simulated experience I've had to date! The Extraordinary Journey was a close second (my hubbys favourite!), another Dynamic creation, housed in a completely bonkers looking building, it's a similar format to Flight of the Sky Lion, the ride hardware is slightly different to accommodate a higher throughput; we enjoyed the novelty of the seats moving into screen facing position! The ride was recently upgraded & features an exceptional quality complex projection system, uninterrupted by glimpses of the floor/ceiling (like FotSL. These are the only two flying cinemas I've experienced hence the comparison) the storyline is engaging, flows well with the pre-show (which reminded me of the Great Glass Elevator!) the main show is visually stunning & works well with the effects, my only gripe is it felt too short.
Most of the 4D experiences here were standard so I won't harp on about each one. I'm not the biggest 4D fan either! Arthur's never-ending queueline was really beautiful, better than the ride itself which seemed to be a tad out of sync & simulation/effects were jolty. The main queue for this was probably about 2hrs... I'd have been disappointed had we waited that long! My youngest was given a booster seat and we were escorted to the front row because he's so small, unsure if we lost some of the magic because you can see a lot of hardware/backstage elements at the front. The visuals were wishy washy, however, disclaimer: I have vision loss so do struggle with things like this! Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time was absolute chaos (as you can imagine). A tracked dark ride system with 4D & responsive trains, again, slightly out of sync & lacked smoothness of transition at times but silly fun, different & the kids loved it! We didn't experience any queueline as RAP takes you straight on to the ride but from what we could see, it looked very fitting to the IP Definitely one to visit, just for the giggles! Chocs Cosmiques isn't 4D but a Planetarium... it's quite long and if you don't understand French, the show visuals alone may not be enough to keep your interest. We didn't particularly rate this attraction, although it was popular.
Due to our limited time on Park, we didn't manage to get around to everything; in between rides, there were some great little parks, climbing frames, fountains & an upside-down house (with a ridiculous queue). Futuropolis is a central plaza area with multiple smaller attractions - you could probably spend half a day getting round everything in this section if visiting with family, not sure how much appeal there would be if visiting as adults only. Unfortunately, we didn't experience this area of the park which we had intended to - time just ran away from us! We visited during Futuroween, there were sprinklings of the theme across the park, mainly near the entrance, a little halloween village & some roaming actors, oh, also some crashed UFOs dotted around with smoke effects!
There are plenty of good value F&B options & picnic spots for the better weather - we opted for hot-dogs from the street food plaza which were 100x better than Rollover, cost less & had a delicious veggie option! Just outside the park is a Rollercoaster Restaurant called Space Loop (this ties with the Extraordinary Voyage); we toyed with the idea of eating dinner here but after being underwhelmed at AT, gave it a miss & went to an all-you-can-eat Asian place nearby instead
Overall, I don't think it's a park we plan to return to but I'm glad it's one we've ticked off the list & grateful to have experienced some new attractions. Plan to get my first visit to Phantasialand, Europa, Toverland, Plopsaland & Asterix next year... until then, aside from taking the kids to Winters Tail at Chessy next month, that's Park season 2023 done
)Futuroscope is centred around technology, simulated experiences and architectural intrigue. It has the strangest atmosphere... almost Dystopian or even post-apocalyptic. Walking into the park feels industrial, functional & lacks the excitement factor, although there's a great deal of sculpture-like structures, there's certainly a coldness about the area. The park itself located within a confusing puzzle of formal-looking, newly-built buildings & roundabouts - we did take the wrong exit a couple of times! Plus point: large, solid car parks (no muddy fields or shingle, yay!) - we were given a free parking ticket due to having RAP. We utilised the Google translate app around the park as there were few English speaking staff & no English translations on rides (which we accept being in France! However, most of the attractions involve scripts and storytelling throughout so wanted to be able to keep the kids in the loop!).
Their RAP scheme is straightforward; present your documents at Guest Services & you will be given a wristband plus a sheet for ride hosts to mark. The RAP is one-shot for most rides & multi-use for others but we were told if the queues were short, the hosts were likely to overlook the restrictions (we only did everything once anyway). There are multiple queue lines for each ride & RAP users are treated incredibly respectfully. The only long wait we had was on Arthur... just when you think the queue has ended and it's time to ride, you move to ANOTHER section of queue
Of course, we had to make a beeline for the infamous Objectif Mars, no longer operating with rotation (which I believe was removed following the fire). A very bizarre coaster to say the least
it needs the spinning element, without it, it was lacking any kind of punch despite having a variety of elements & effects. The couple of tyre launches were okay, there's a surprise element that would work far better if it was in a mid-section & overall, the coaster feels like something that should have been completely indoors rather than the mixed sections. Chasseurs de Tornades is the star for me. A Dynamic Motion Theatre that combines immersive simulation, live performances & effects with queueline storytelling & a fun pre-show. It's a brilliant Family attraction that I'd love to see adapted for somewhere like Towers to diversify the offering & bring new tech to the UK. The best simulated experience I've had to date! The Extraordinary Journey was a close second (my hubbys favourite!), another Dynamic creation, housed in a completely bonkers looking building, it's a similar format to Flight of the Sky Lion, the ride hardware is slightly different to accommodate a higher throughput; we enjoyed the novelty of the seats moving into screen facing position! The ride was recently upgraded & features an exceptional quality complex projection system, uninterrupted by glimpses of the floor/ceiling (like FotSL. These are the only two flying cinemas I've experienced hence the comparison) the storyline is engaging, flows well with the pre-show (which reminded me of the Great Glass Elevator!) the main show is visually stunning & works well with the effects, my only gripe is it felt too short.
Most of the 4D experiences here were standard so I won't harp on about each one. I'm not the biggest 4D fan either! Arthur's never-ending queueline was really beautiful, better than the ride itself which seemed to be a tad out of sync & simulation/effects were jolty. The main queue for this was probably about 2hrs... I'd have been disappointed had we waited that long! My youngest was given a booster seat and we were escorted to the front row because he's so small, unsure if we lost some of the magic because you can see a lot of hardware/backstage elements at the front. The visuals were wishy washy, however, disclaimer: I have vision loss so do struggle with things like this! Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time was absolute chaos (as you can imagine
). A tracked dark ride system with 4D & responsive trains, again, slightly out of sync & lacked smoothness of transition at times but silly fun, different & the kids loved it! We didn't experience any queueline as RAP takes you straight on to the ride but from what we could see, it looked very fitting to the IP Definitely one to visit, just for the giggles! Chocs Cosmiques isn't 4D but a Planetarium... it's quite long and if you don't understand French, the show visuals alone may not be enough to keep your interest. We didn't particularly rate this attraction, although it was popular. Due to our limited time on Park, we didn't manage to get around to everything; in between rides, there were some great little parks, climbing frames, fountains & an upside-down house (with a ridiculous queue). Futuropolis is a central plaza area with multiple smaller attractions - you could probably spend half a day getting round everything in this section if visiting with family, not sure how much appeal there would be if visiting as adults only. Unfortunately, we didn't experience this area of the park which we had intended to - time just ran away from us! We visited during Futuroween, there were sprinklings of the theme across the park, mainly near the entrance, a little halloween village & some roaming actors, oh, also some crashed UFOs dotted around with smoke effects!
There are plenty of good value F&B options & picnic spots for the better weather - we opted for hot-dogs from the street food plaza which were 100x better than Rollover, cost less & had a delicious veggie option! Just outside the park is a Rollercoaster Restaurant called Space Loop (this ties with the Extraordinary Voyage); we toyed with the idea of eating dinner here but after being underwhelmed at AT, gave it a miss & went to an all-you-can-eat Asian place nearby instead
Overall, I don't think it's a park we plan to return to but I'm glad it's one we've ticked off the list & grateful to have experienced some new attractions. Plan to get my first visit to Phantasialand, Europa, Toverland, Plopsaland & Asterix next year... until then, aside from taking the kids to Winters Tail at Chessy next month, that's Park season 2023 done