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Hyde Park Winter Wonderland: General Discussion

I’ve always thought Alpi would be a far better fit for WW. Its more family friendly, while still being a blummin fun ride, and it already fits the theme.
Of course, having both would be better, but thet’s never going to happen.

(While we’re here, Hollenblitz is nowhere near as good as it sounds. It’s nuts, but only in a “what were they smoking?” way. Still better than that joke of a spinning mouse in a tent, though.)
 
Alpinabahn is a good, solid ride. The theme definitely does fit for HPWW and it's less intense than OL, which isn't a bad thing for some. No issues with dodgy restraints on it either. Problem is I only ride it in the evening at Oktoberfest, after a few steins of Munich's finest. So can't really add anything really constructive.
 
I did Alpina Bahn at Munich Oktoberfest this year as well, it was my first ride on it and I thought it was a really fun coaster, very smooth and had some nice surprising little moments of airtime to it. It’s a nice looking ride as well.

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I think it would most definitely fit in really well at HPWW if Rudolph Barth decides at some point that the cost of transporting Olympia Looping is becoming prohibitive. Does anyone know where Alpina Bahn normally spends the festive period?


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Had a go on this for the first time yesterday as I was having withdrawal symptoms from the main season being over. It’s a great ride, smooth, has plenty of force in the right places and a decent length. My favourite “new to me” coaster for 2023 without doubt.
 
I went here today.
Airborne was quite relaxing.
Ice Mountain was very good, and much better than what I expected.
Where on earth has that Olympia Looping been for the past 6 years that I have been riding it? I was in the back row. It was amazing, but I have been in the back row before twice, so I am confused. Today's ride has boosted a ride that would have been outside of my top 15 into my top 5. It was somehow attaining a throughput of 1702 pph despite being on 2 trains.
Racing Coaster was OK. Its throughput was abysmal.
Wilde Maus was nothing special.
Time Machine was rough and unenjoyable.
Hangover was fun, but I prefer Detonator at Thorpe because its drop is more powerful.
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We went yesterday for the first time. A day trip on the train from Brizzle, our first time going to London since Chimp was tiny so a day of firsts.

First thing we noticed is it is amazing how quickly queues can move when there are plenty of staff on the rides who just don’t muck about.

We did all 5 of the big coasters, Olympia Looping was our favourite, the queue for Euro Coaster impressed @Chimpy. Time Machine was ok but the rain and metal floor caused a painful incident, Ice Mountain & Wile Maus were good.

Non cred rides were Energizer, and Dr Archibald. We both found Dr Archibald weird but good, Energizer wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. We were planing to do Hangover and possibly Airbourne but it got a bit too crowded for our liking, and the Chimp’s batteries ran out - next time we’ll probably go earlier in the day and pull the pin before it gets so mad busy.

Food was ok if a bit pricey. Best skinny chips in the world can be had from the Venezuelan place. Vegan dog was edible, Chimp’s bratty was disappointing. She likes her donuts though. Couldn’t get a proper can of coke/Pepsi (I.e. with actual sugar in it) for love nor money.

(Photo is Chimpy before her batteries ran out)
 

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This year we did a targeted hit. Weekday, earlier on and it worked well. In, Wilde Maus, Energizer, OL, out for food and drink.
 
Same here with WW this year. Went in at 10am did OL and Ice mountain and was out in half an hour. OL is such a good ride, especially considering it's a traveling coaster, I love how intense it is!
 
Wasn’t sure where to put this post but this thread seemed the best place to ask.

Ocean Beach in South Shields are putting up a coaster and they say it’s the UK’s largest mobile spinning coaster and it was seen at HPWW. Does anyone know what showman owns this and what it is normally called when it isn’t at HPWW, is it just called Spinning Coaster?

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I assume Stokes' Crash Test is no longer there? That used to be there, but that goes to Hull and has different car shells.

The only UK based spinning coaster at HPWW recently is Ryan Crow's Spinning Coaster as Ice Mountain, but that's a standard Reverchon spinner and is painted blue and brown. Odd. The other spinning coasters are Buwalda's Time Machine that is based in the Netherlands, Schneider's Heidi - The Coaster that was last here in 2021 is German based and different colours and Buwalda's Spinning Coaster that's also Netherlands based and last seen in 2021.

**EDIT**

Think I've found it. Manning Jnr & Thurston have acquired Spinning Mouse from Mellors, this ride operated at HPWW in 2017 with Joseph Manning and is a match for colours and vehicles. Photos from Coaster-Count.

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Poisson said:
I assume Stokes' Crash Test is no longer there? That used to be there, but that goes to Hull and has different car shells.

The only UK based spinning coaster at HPWW recently is Ryan Crow's Spinning Coaster as Ice Mountain, but that's a standard Reverchon spinner and is painted blue and brown. Odd. The other spinning coasters are Buwalda's Time Machine that is based in the Netherlands, Schneider's Heidi - The Coaster that was last here in 2021 is German based and different colours and Buwalda's Spinning Coaster that's also Netherlands based and last seen in 2021.

**EDIT**

Think I've found it. Manning Jnr & Thurston have acquired Spinning Mouse from Mellors, this ride operated at HPWW in 2017 with Joseph Manning and is a match for colours and vehicles. Photos from Coaster-Count.

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Great detective work, thank you!

Coasterpedia lists it as a Twister Coaster by the Turkish manufacturer Levent Lunapark.
https://coasterpedia.net/wiki/Spinning_Mouse_(Mellors_Group)

And no Crash Test wasn’t at Ocean Beach last season following on from the accident last April with an employee, it was removed and they had a log flume up as their large attraction.
 
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rob666 said:
Opening night tonight.
Not very positive feature in today's I paper.
Ice skating for 45 minutes, £34
Big Wheel, £22.
Ice Kingdom, £26.
Ice Bar £36.

Four hundred quid all in for a day trip.
Ouch.
Not for me!
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Nope, and as per TPWW's vlog security and bag checks have been next to non existent. They're doing a Towers and just peering into bags and waving people through, and one of the staff did admit to Shawn that on busy days they won't be able to cope. 🤦‍♂️
Not good at all.
 
I always wonder when Hyde Park Winter Wonderland comes around; is it only me who doesn’t really get the hype?

I went in January 2020 (so it was the 2019 event), and while I had a nice time and I’m glad I went to experience the likes of Olympia Looping, it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to.

While I admit that Olympia Looping is impressive, I didn’t overly rate it as a ride experience, and the other coasters there are all variants of wild mouse coasters, a ride style which I don’t rate at all. I’m also not generally a massive fan of flat rides either. I admit HangOver was very good, however; that was probably my favourite ride there!

It’s also very expensive compared to a regular theme park; I seem to remember 7 rides costing over £60, and that was back in 2020.

In general, I think it’s not really my sort of thing. It’s not somewhere I’d make specific effort to go back to annually, and to be honest, I think I’d only go back if another of the big, significant travelling coasters came over, like Alpina Bahn or Hollenblitz.

Is it only me who feels this way about HPWW?
 
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