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Hyde Park Winter Wonderland: General Discussion

Curious to see how busy it gets when it's 'full', a number of dates selling out.

djtruefitt said:
Pretty sure they will, at the fair they will want to fill all seats and make as much money as possible. At towers it made no difference to them if they had 10 arms or 5 working.
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If Alton signed a contract that meant that the companies providing the rides got paid a flat fee irrespective of whether they were open, closed or partially available, more fool them.
 
Rick said:
Some nice footage of Olympia Looping being put together at Oktoberfest

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thanks for this share

what a ride - must be what 40 trucks? Amazing. Has anyone on here actually ridden it? Looks fun.

what amazes me the most is them painting it during construction- probably more maintenance on this than the simpler has ever seen!
 
Olympia really is a feat of engineering; in my opinion, it’s a remarkable roller coaster from a technological standpoint!

If you’d like a review from someone who’s ridden it; I myself rode it during HPWW 2019 (in fact, my ride was probably on one of the final days it operated pre-COVID), and as much as I hate to say it, I didn’t really rate the ride experience itself.

I can see why someone would rate it highly, and I know that most do, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea; the loops, while they didn’t make me grey or black out, were phenomenally intense to the point that they really made my head spin and made me feel a bit nauseous. I once heard it described as “Nemesis’ loop for the entire ride”, and I’d personally say that’s quite apt based on my experience; it’s quite possibly the most relentlessly intense coaster I’ve ever been on. Now I know that sounds great for many, but I personally prefer more fun and rerideable coasters myself; the type of thing that’s thrilling enough to give you a real kick out of riding it, but not intense enough to inhibit rerideability or make you nauseous.

The ride also has what might be some of the least comfortable restraints/trains I’ve ever sat in, with shoulder bars that genuinely made me wince in pain during the ride because they dug in so much.


In fairness, I guess it is an 80s Schwarzkopf, built in an era before things like rerideability and train comfort were really considered important, and as I said, I find it a remarkable ride from a technical perspective, but the ride itself was not really my cup of tea; given I’d heard so much hype, I went in with pretty high expectations, and in that regard, I was rather disappointed by how I rated it.

That’s not to say that you wouldn’t love it, though; I know I’m certainly in a minority in not especially rating Olympia, and I think that if you love relentless positive g’s, then it would be right up your street!
 
Rode it at HPWW in 2018 (and a ticket booked for next week). Went on the preview/charity night so got 9 rides on it (which would cost an insane £81 during usual operating days).

Very intense with the loops, but I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly smooth for both it's age and its travelling nature. Definitely something everyone who enjoys coasters should try and get on at least once.
 
Themepark-newbie said:
Great photos. It is absolutely incredible. Would love to know the operating costs to bring the thing to HPWW.
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Back in 2011 it was costing them in the region of €45k to move from Munich to Hamburg. With inflation, increased fuel prices, ferry prices and documentation for the UK, you’re likely easily looking at £150-200k at an absolute minimum. You’re probably looking at £30k minimum just to get everything over on the ferry alone!
 
So....we finally visited Winter Wonderland yesterday for our first ever visit. We also did Harry Potter Studios on Friday evening too which was also our first ever visit. That was great.

Anyway ...We did the early slot and arrived before 10am to be first in at WW.

Have to say as a person who isn't particularly that fond of travelling fairs or fairground type rides I was blown away with Winter Wonderland. We had a fab time.

Highlights:

Munich / Olympia Looping. Wonderful coaster. Got my 7 year old to come on with me for his first ever looping coaster. He loved it. So much so we had 2 further rides on it. So expensive but it truly is a great coaster.

The Ice Slide and Ice Kingdom were brilliant too. We prepaid for these with our entrance tickets and weren't disappointed at all. Great fun.

Wild Maus XXL. Only had one ride on it and that was enough. Mental how quick it is. The last 1/4 of the ride is incredibly rough though which spoiled it a little bit.

Negatives:

A fairly obvious one but the prices are obscene as you know going in. I kind of just went with it and said 'heck it's only money you can't take it with you' however just logged on to my bank account to see what we spent and it was eye watering i can't lie. Hahahaha.

Haunted Mansion. Went in with high hopes after knowing nothing about it and left feeling empty. It was pitiful. The facade is incredible but the ride is anything but.

Ride count:

Olympia Looping - 3
Wild Maus XXL - 1
Hangover - 1
Ice Slide - 1
Ice Kingdom - 1
Haunted Mansion - 1

I'm now a convert. Happy to say I was wrong. Great event.
 
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Craig said:
Back in 2011 it was costing them in the region of €45k to move from Munich to Hamburg. With inflation, increased fuel prices, ferry prices and documentation for the UK, you’re likely easily looking at £150-200k at an absolute minimum. You’re probably looking at £30k minimum just to get everything over on the ferry alone!
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Yikes, I can kind of see why ticket prices are so expensive for it, as they need to cover the transportation and operation costs (not to mention currency rates as well).
 
Rick said:
Glad you enjoyed it @Benjsh. I must say, I was surprised and delighted to read your post given some of our previous discussions on the matter.

Went in for a while today, no rides. Just booze.
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I was shocked I enjoyed it so much tbh. Still isn't a patch on visiting a good park of course but happy to admit it was a lot better than I thought before going in.

Theres plenty to do there for sure. We stayed for about 4 hrs because we had some food and drink too and took our time.
 
Benjsh said:
So....we finally visited Winter Wonderland yesterday for our first ever visit. We also did Harry Potter Studios on Friday evening too which was also our first ever visit. That was great.

Anyway ...We did the early slot and arrived before 10am to be first in at WW.

Have to say as a person who isn't particularly that fond of travelling fairs or fairground type rides I was blown away with Winter Wonderland. We had a fab time.

Highlights:

Munich / Olympia Looping. Wonderful coaster. Got my 7 year old to come on with me for his first ever looping coaster. He loved it. So much so we had 2 further rides on it. So expensive but it truly is a great coaster.

The Ice Slide and Ice Kingdom were brilliant too. We prepaid for these with our entrance tickets and weren't disappointed at all. Great fun.

Wild Maus XXL. Only had one ride on it and that was enough. Mental how quick it is. The last 1/4 of the ride is incredibly rough though which spoiled it a little bit.

Negatives:

A fairly obvious one but the prices are obscene as you know going in. I kind of just went with it and said 'heck it's only money you can't take it with you' however just logged on to my bank account to see what we spent and it was eye watering i can't lie. Hahahaha.

Haunted Mansion. Went in with high hopes after knowing nothing about it and left feeling empty. It was pitiful. The facade is incredible but the ride is anything but.

Ride count:

Olympia Looping - 3
Wild Maus XXL - 1
Hangover - 1
Ice Slide - 1
Ice Kingdom - 1
Haunted Mansion - 1

I'm now a convert. Happy to say I was wrong. Great event.
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Glad you enjoyed it!

Out of interest, what did you think to HangOver? I personally thought it was excellent, and easily my favourite ride there (I dare say I may even have liked it more than any permanent UK drop tower…), but I’d be intrigued to hear some different opinions!

—————————————————————————————————————

On a complete side note, I’ll confess that I have a bit of a controversial take on HPWW; as much as I did like my time at the event, and would happily return, I’m not entirely sure that I’d rush there every year like a lot of people do, and I’m also not sure that I’m entirely on board with all the hype that the event gets. I’m incredibly glad I was finally able to experience HPWW for myself, and incredibly thankful to my parents for taking me as a Christmas present, but I’ll admit I did perhaps feel a little bit underwhelmed by it in terms of how it compared to my expectations and the level of hype set beforehand.

Now please don’t construe that to mean that I didn’t like Winter Wonderland, because I certainly did! We did have a very nice evening there when we went in January 2020, and I’ll admit that the event is absolutely excellent at what it does, with a very wide range of stuff on offer (and some impressive stuff at that)!

However, I’ll admit that it’s not somewhere that I personally have a huge urge to rush back to. Don’t get me wrong, I’d happily go back if given the opportunity, and I did very much enjoy my time there, but based on my one experience there, I’ll admit that I’m not entirely on board the hype train for the event like most are.

I’d like to add that that’s not through any fault of the event itself, as I think it’s excellent at what it does and some of the stuff there is genuinely marvellous from an engineering standpoint, but I’m not sure if travelling fairs and that style of event are really my personal cup of tea compared to permanent theme parks.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m not personally huge on flat rides on the whole, and I was also quite sorely underwhelmed by Olympia Looping (although I’ll admit that my own high expectations might not have helped with that), and I apologise if I come across unfair, but that’s just my personal opinion on Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.
 
Winter Wonderland if you take it on just the rides alone is a fairly mediocre experience. Yes Olympia Looping is decent, Wilde Maus XXL and Hangover are great, but the rest of the ride lineup is fairly mediocre in the grand scheme of things. You have to really embrace the whole package to truly enjoy it, so the atmosphere, the live entertainment, the food, the drink and having a look around the market too.

It’s been a fair while since I’ve gone now, but ultimately I mainly went for the atmosphere, food and drink over anything else. Sure I’ll grab the odd ride on Olympia or Hangover, but that’s about it really. For a proper ride experience to properly compare to a theme park, I’d sooner visit one of the fairs in Germany or the Netherlands over anything that’s offered in the UK. That’s based on the number of rides being way higher and the general cost being considerably lower too.
 
Craig said:
Winter Wonderland if you take it on just the rides alone is a fairly mediocre experience. Yes Olympia Looping is decent, Wilde Maus XXL and Hangover are great, but the rest of the ride lineup is fairly mediocre in the grand scheme of things. You have to really embrace the whole package to truly enjoy it, so the atmosphere, the live entertainment, the food, the drink and having a look around the market too.

It’s been a fair while since I’ve gone now, but ultimately I mainly went for the atmosphere, food and drink over anything else. Sure I’ll grab the odd ride on Olympia or Hangover, but that’s about it really. For a proper ride experience to properly compare to a theme park, I’d sooner visit one of the fairs in Germany or the Netherlands over anything that’s offered in the UK. That’s based on the number of rides being way higher and the general cost being considerably lower too.
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Ah, that’s a fair point. We mostly did rides on our visit.

Maybe that kind of thing just isn’t really my cup of tea compared to a regular park?
 
Matt N said:
Glad you enjoyed it!

Out of interest, what did you think to HangOver? I personally thought it was excellent, and easily my favourite ride there (I dare say I may even have liked it more than any permanent UK drop tower…), but I’d be intrigued to hear some different opinions!

—————————————————————————————————————

On a complete side note, I’ll confess that I have a bit of a controversial take on HPWW; as much as I did like my time at the event, and would happily return, I’m not entirely sure that I’d rush there every year like a lot of people do, and I’m also not sure that I’m entirely on board with all the hype that the event gets. I’m incredibly glad I was finally able to experience HPWW for myself, and incredibly thankful to my parents for taking me as a Christmas present, but I’ll admit I did perhaps feel a little bit underwhelmed by it in terms of how it compared to my expectations and the level of hype set beforehand.

Now please don’t construe that to mean that I didn’t like Winter Wonderland, because I certainly did! We did have a very nice evening there when we went in January 2020, and I’ll admit that the event is absolutely excellent at what it does, with a very wide range of stuff on offer (and some impressive stuff at that)!

However, I’ll admit that it’s not somewhere that I personally have a huge urge to rush back to. Don’t get me wrong, I’d happily go back if given the opportunity, and I did very much enjoy my time there, but based on my one experience there, I’ll admit that I’m not entirely on board the hype train for the event like most are.

I’d like to add that that’s not through any fault of the event itself, as I think it’s excellent at what it does and some of the stuff there is genuinely marvellous from an engineering standpoint, but I’m not sure if travelling fairs and that style of event are really my personal cup of tea compared to permanent theme parks.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m not personally huge on flat rides on the whole, and I was also quite sorely underwhelmed by Olympia Looping (although I’ll admit that my own high expectations might not have helped with that), and I apologise if I come across unfair, but that’s just my personal opinion on Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.
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Hangover was fab. Very intense and great views. Definitely a solid drop tower and maybe one of the best I have done tbf.

As for HP Studios......we really liked it and are fans of the books and movies but I don't think we'd rush back either. Definitely feels like once you've seen it there's not much point going back tbh unless you're an avid fan whose life evolves around it.
 
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