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Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2018

Burbs

TS Team
Favourite Ride
Iron Gwazi
Yes, it's only August, but HPWW has started to be advertised!

One thing I've noticed about this year's event is the Coaster Pass, which seems to be an Oyster-esque pre-payment "tap n ride" system for all 9 coasters at the event. There's a £30 initial pre-payment, and then you can top up the card online, with the first top-up receiving an extra £5 complimentary credit.

It seems like a pretty good idea to me, to avoid ticket kiosk faff. Although I wonder how much it would cost to ride all 9... The page all but confirms the return of Olympia (Munich) Looping, as well as Ice Mountain, Wilde Maus XXL, et al.

This year will be my first year visit to Winter Wonderland, now I'll be living in London it's MUCH easier to get there. I look forward to seeing it! :)
 
That really is a great offer, only downside is having to collect it in person but least if you add one of priority entry attractions on you do get instant entry to the park instead of waiting.

Edit.
I wonder if this gets rid of being able to use contactless bank cards for priority entry to the coasters and they want you to use their version to keep you spending more. But either way it is much easier to use this instead of ride token, it should be rolled out to all of the rides even if they don’t have a separate entrance.

Booked in for first Saturday and will go on charity night if they do it again as well. Now that is a bargain for unlimited rides.
 
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Was that a "tap n ride" system as well or did you use contactless in exchange for a ticket?
previously it was use your bank account contactless actually at each coaster, this then gave you priority entry as well. you’d get a plastic token to say you’d paid to give to the batcher
 
It was contactless at the ride's ticket kiosk. You got a plastic token to give to the platform host just like everyone who paid with tickets. i assume they would still have to do that even with this new system.
 
Seems utterly pointless to me. What was wrong with contactless?
I can only imagine they are reducing merchant fees but then everyone will be topping up this card the same way. And as you’ve got their card say you have £15 left it’s more tempting to come back another day than if you have to pay per ride via last year method.

Who knows they might have kept that as well
 
Is this similar to what they have at Bakken? For those who have never been, you can get a oyster card type token with 45 tokens on them (not sure if you can top up though). It's a decent idea tbf.
 
The coasters are pretty crap at Winter Wonderland tbh. Wild Maus XXL is worth a go, and Olympia Looping of course. But I'd much rather spend money on the flats.

Full powered, German operated Breakdance after a couple of beers and a sausage is what it's all about.
 
Olympia is sensational, one of my favourite coasters anywhere (literally, anywhere). The flats are indeed, also killer. But it's so expensive! The German summer Kirmis scene is still the one, particularly Dusseldorf.
£9 for Olympia Looping! I really wish there was some sort of wristband system, or a discount once you reach a certain number of rides. Say, I don't know, £40 for a day of unlimited rides? Still ridiculous, but considering it costs more than that just to get the credits, it would be an improvement.

Of course, most people probably only do one or two rides. I imagine us enthusiasts who want to try everything are in the minority.
 
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