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Hansa-Park: general discussion

Okay, I knew I'd seen it somewhere, the picture below shows the strange shaped opening in a better perspective! It does shows that the opening doesn't actually go outside, but is infact at the top of a partition wall that splits the tower in two straight down the middle. Presumably this means that the lift will go up one side, cresting as it passes through the gap in the wall and diving into the drop straight down the other side.

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Now, having looked a bit further into it all, if you look at the following image showing the opening where the train exits the tower towards the bottom... You will see that it is on the wider side of the building. To me, this indicates that not only will the train be falling vertically from a height of over 200ft, it will also make a 45 degree turn to the right as it drops.

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It has to be said, this ride really is some what of a puzzle... A puzzle that is getting more and more interesting by the day!!
 
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@Sammy that has been driving me bonkers!! I think you've got that nailed! It also explains why I always thought the tower looked very thin inside compared to out.

OH YES! I see what you mean as well about the 45 degree twist!

Oh Wardley. They trusted Gerstlauer with this :D hahahahaa

This feels like giving the keys of an F1 car to a Vauxhall Nova boy racer!
 
Well worked out Sam, it does indeed look like the inside of the tower is split in two! That drop is going to be batsh*t crazy!!

:)
 
Rob said:
Well worked out Sam, it does indeed look like the inside of the tower is split in two! That drop is going to be batsh*t crazy!!

:)
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That was really doing my head in.

Isn't this what we feed of as enthusiasts though? And you've got to give them credit for thinking

Gunter: "Oh, here's an idea, let's build a Gerst hyper vertical drop with lap bars a 45 degree twist!"

Friedrick: "Come on now Gunter (made that up, in case you didn't realise), that's not crazy enough, must do better"

Lars: "We can add some inversions"

Hugbert: "Let's put in a huge concrete tower themed like a spooky castle!"

Nick: "Why don't we put some Fanta stickers on it, add a fast track queue, paint the track white, and use the Oblivion logo"

Gunter: "SECURITY!!!!!"

Amanda: "OH MY GOD IT'S HORRIBLE!"
 
"So yeah, we're going to build this coaster with a 200ft tall vertical lift and drop... And enclose it all within a 250ft tower!! How awesome does that sound?"

"Wow, how are you going to build that?"

"Well, we will build the solid concrete tower first, then lift the ride over 250ft into the air and lower it down through the roof... Obviously! I mean, how else would we do it?"

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Photos courtesy of the Hapa Forum Facebook page!

Seriously, this ride is absolutely mental... Everything about it, from the ride itself to the construction. And yet we still don't really know much about the layout itself!

Also looks like another new lift structure from Gerst. Almost a cross between The Smiler's vertical lift and Kingda Ka's Tower, clearly designed to support the extra height! :p
 
MOTHER OF WARDLEY! :eek:

I just absolutely love it when parks go SCREW IT! LET'S BUILD THIS!!

A bit like Towers used to.

I just thought, imagine the sounds from people screaming and shouting in it??!
 
Sorry for double but I also noticed this:
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We've spotted this before, but they added this caption....

What kind of part is this?
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Also

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20 Menthols Please.
 
TheMan said:
MOTHER OF WARDLEY! :eek:

I just absolutely love it when parks go SCREW IT! LET'S BUILD THIS!!

A bit like Towers used to.

I just thought, imagine the sounds from people screaming and shouting in it??!
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When Alton Towers announced they were building a 14-loop spaghetti bowl rollercoaster, I would challenge anyone to claim it is anything other than insane. Like this.
 
AstroDan said:
When Alton Towers announced they were building a 14-loop spaghetti bowl rollercoaster, I would challenge anyone to claim it is anything other than insane. Like this.
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To a degree, I do agree with you. I do like to clarify at times like this I like The Smiler, in fact at night bathed in the blue light with the mist around it's pretty spectacular in places. But really it was about cramming as many inversion in as possible.

I'll say this, it was well thought out in terms of it just squeezes in enough to be tolerable, an extra inversion in the first half would have made it too much, same with the second, it's perfectly balanced in that sense and doesn't cheat like Colossus did.

Perhaps a little unfair of me to also discount the Marm that's rather bonkers and I do love it... but it only got half way there.

This over the course of two years is showing signs of being Oblivion-esque in its delivery, if it was just a height thing it would lack as much impact, but that tower - vertical up, and down, inside it, is plain crazy. It's a little odd too that they showed the track with grooves in if its just a standard maintenance bay transfer track as well.

I think the sheer insanity of such a monster eventually themed castle tower is going to capture the imagination more than adding a couple of extra inversions over the record, as good as I think The Smiler is.

Also, no disrespect to these other parks, but I'd far rather be comparing Alton to the likes of Universal etc than Hansa Park.
 
Alton Towers is far better than Hansa-Park.

I have been and although it's a great smaller/mid-level park: Novgorod and Midgard are two great coasters within their class and very wel themed - but it doesn't really have much else.

:)
 
AstroDan said:
Alton Towers is far better than Hansa-Park.

I have been and although it's a great smaller/mid-level park: Novgorod and Midgard are two great coasters within their class and very wel themed - but it doesn't really have much else.

:)
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That's my point though, Liserberg build Helix, Hansa Park build this. The Smiler is arguably not as impressive as Helix (given the reports) and in terms of impact I think this will have a bigger one on the world stage.

That's why I find it disappointing. Not that The Smiler is bad, far far from it, but that we've gone from comparing the likes of Oblivion and Nemesis to other rides across the globe for which they stood shoulder to shoulder, to be equaled; or arguably in some respects bettered, by far smaller parks.
 
I beg to differ that Helix has the marketability of The Smiler.

The Smiler is absolutely perfect to get guests through the gates and is part of the reason why 2014 was one of AT's most successful years ever.

:)
 
AstroDan said:
I beg to differ that Helix has the marketability of The Smiler.

The Smiler is absolutely perfect to get guests through the gates and is part of the reason why 2014 was one of AT's most successful years ever.

:)
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I don't disagree, I was saying based on reports that The Smiler isn't as impressive as Helix - meaning in delivery of experience, and that Karnan has a more striking visual piece being the tower.

I was making two separate points there, apologies.
 
Little harsh on The Smiler to say its layout is just a cynical attempt at getting the inversion record by just throwing inversions in. If it was purely an exercise in turning you upside down more than any other coaster previously has, they could have just done a Colossus and repeated itself until reaching 14. The tiny space and the way it interacts with itself and the Marmaliser, it's a lot more creative than that. It's not just about the record, it's getting as much ride as possible out of as little possible, something it does very well. The only thing that lets The Smiler down for me is the inconsistent/crap theming letting down the really interesting theme and the suspect build quality.
 
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Blaze said:
Little harsh on The Smiler to say its layout is just a cynical attempt at getting the inversion record by just throwing inversions in. If it was purely an exercise in turning you upside down more than any other coaster previously has, they could have just done a Colossus and repeated itself until reaching 14. The tiny space and the way it interacts with itself and the Marmaliser, it's a lot more creative than that. It's not just about the record, it's getting as much ride as possible out of as little possible, something it does very well. The only thing that lets The Smiler down for me is the inconsistent/crap theming letting down the really interesting theme and the suspect build quality.
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Quite a lot of people like that aspect of Colossus, I personally loathe it but love the rest (when it's not riding with square wheels).

It's very impressive what they did in such a small space, credit to Gerst, but could they have had less inversions, a smoother ride, and a stronger theme? Maybe it was still to have them all, then my opinion would different, but as don't know for certain, and Merlin didn't provide enough funding back up to counter any groundwork issues that came about, the resulting thought process must have been - it's got 14 inversions, that'll get people in, big marm will draw attention, make the rest concrete and forget it.

Did the project start off so cynical? I'd say there's nothing wrong with going for an inversion record, it's finally a great length coaster also in the most ridiculous of places to try, and we all "know" it was last minute. I just don't find that attitude very Towers like so yes I do believe it was a little cynical.

That being said, how it turned out, in terms of the quality of the finish - now I do firmly believe someone somewhere made a cynical decision based on the fact it had that many inversions that it wasn't NEEDED to up the budget and finish it properly.

Everyone will have an opinion based on the inversion record aspect, mines relatively on the fence, but cynical decision making by Merlin? Not on the fence on that one by any margin. Undoubted yes from me.
 
People need to quit moaning about The Smiler.

Yes - the theming quality is mixed and yes the build quality is suspect.

But for years, all you'd read on TTF (when we were all on there) was how much a simple 'sit down looping coaster' was craved at Alton Towers. How much people wanted a long coaster at Alton Towers. How much people wanted a coaster that really put AT back on the map.

The Smiler is it and will probably remain the most popular ride in the park for many years.

:)
 
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