Martin
TS Member
Intro
Last October I had a weekend at the Merlin south parks, and although I had a great time, I also spent a lot of it in pain, somehow finding almost everything uncomfortable and leaving me half wondering if now I'm the other side of 30 this hobby isn't for me any more. Fortunately for my mental state I only had days before I was due to make the increasingly mandatory European enthusiast pilgrimage to the small village Polish of Zator, an hour or so from the city of Katowice.In just a decade, Energylandia has gone from not existing at all to one of Europe’s leading theme parks, and featuring a barely believable 19 rollercoasters - more than Cedar Point, tied with Canada’s Wonderland as of 2025, and only one less than Six Flags Magic Mountain. Their relationship with Vekoma has a lot to do with their rapid expansion, but the relationship works both ways, as their collaborations in the early years likely contributed much to Vekoma’s revival as a top tier manufacturer.
As did another small park in this corner of Poland that has made itself one of the most desirable destinations for coaster nerds, Legendia. This small park in the middle of Katowice only has two coasters, and they could scarcely be more different, but they are almost equally as interesting. It would simply be a failure to visit one park and not the other.
Of course, I’d been dreaming of visiting for many years, but it wasn’t really on the radar for 2024. I had looked at prices earlier in the year and came up short, so I was expecting a 2025 visit at the earliest. But the idea never went away and eventually cheap flights and accommodation on good dates were found. I still wasn’t sure on the day we booked. I even only brought it up to try and come up with a way of gently pulling out of the trip, and yet an hour and a bit later, it was fully booked for just a couple of week’s time.
Katowice seems like a really nice city, I’d highly recommend spending some time there. Plenty of locals - including most of the Energylandia staff - have at least some English, and there’s decent mobile signal everywhere if you need to use translation.
Be careful renting a car though, take out the insurance, if you don’t you might find them trying to take the full deposit back. I ignored the advice to do that, and after initially getting the deposit released, a few days later my bank was in a panic with me over them trying to take out £800. The only damage on the car was already there, and we pointed it out to them on collection, but that didn’t stop them trying it. I know this isn’t just a Polish thing and it’s good advice everywhere, but just mentioning it again.
Now we're already well into the 2025 season I thought I should finally get this out of the drafts (I've had this as a Google Drive draft since October and literally just copied it in so apologies if there's anything missing or there's any big edits down the line lol), and while it isn't fully a 'trip report' in that there's no real narative nor is it particularly exhaustive due to the nature of the trip, I hope it's worthwhile for anyone considering going. I've seperated my thoughts on each of the rides, various thoughts on the parks, and some useful information into little chunks to hopefully make it clear and useful.
Energylandia
Getting there
It’s surprisingly easy to reach Energylandia, the Polish road network is often in a much better condition than our own and usually fairly quiet. Roads are smooth, wide and well marked and signposted. Just stick to numbered roads and you’ll be fine. Nobody bothers with the speed limit, especially at night, so be prepared for that, but otherwise, whichever of the two routes you follow from Katowice, it’s really straightforward. There’s also the option of a toll motorway, but it only saves a few minutes.Zator is a nice little village with plenty of accommodation available, including a Wild West themed resort, and a good amount of shops and restaurants. There’s a fantastic kebab house towards the edge of the village on the road to the park that I highly recommend, there’s also a McDonald’s just outside the park that I highly do not (nothing to do with this one in particular I just highly don’t recommend McDonald’s for other reasons). The main road through the village leads straight to Energylandia so you can leave the car and walk if you’d prefer.
Layout, presentation, operations, food etc
Arriving at the start of the day, the entry plaza PA system has a countdown to opening and then there’s a charming little voiceover in both Polish and English, about a magical land and opening the gates with a spell, followed by the shutters lifting and the turnstiles activating. It’s a lovely little touch that sets the tone for the day. This happens around 15 minutes before the advertised opening, and you’re only allowed into the main street and then held by ropes at the start of all the paths towards the rides - except if you take a hard right back on yourself and head to Hyperion, where they open the queue early. At exactly 10am the ropes drop and the Hyperia batching turnstiles open, along with all the other rides. Hyperion gets the biggest queues early on so if you’re there before 10 it’s worth going there first, or leaving it for a few hours and heading up to the far end of the park, as with so much to do it typically takes a while for the crowds to spread that way. I’m sure there were riders on Hyperion even before 10 on Saturday, so keep an eye out.Operations at the park are really good. Not Europa-Park levels of course but highly efficient, often ready to dispatch before the previous train has returned, and I don’t think we saw any downtime at all over the weekend. Every ride except for the baby Top Spin seemed in really good condition and well looked after, so it’s no surprise there wasn’t any down time even with how hard some of the coasters were getting pushed. They are all so smooth too, I don't think a single coaster had any real issues with roughness, but I just could not believe how smooth some of them were.
We weren’t sure how long it would take to get round all the coasters, but in the end there was no trouble. The park was fairly busy, but I don’t remember seeing any queue get above an hour, except maybe Hyperion briefly? Park opening was extended by an hour giving plenty of time for night rides and let us slow down a bit, but if pushed we would easily have gotten everything done in time without having to worry about consulting the app for queue times. Hyperion at opening, up to the back half of the park starting with Zadra, then working your way back down in whatever order you fancy, returning to Hyperion towards the end for seconds or if you arrived too late, is definitely the way to go.
Most of the coasters have fairly simple batching, a turnstile counts down how many guests to let through, and the operators can adjust depending on gaps or inaccuracies. At least one coaster, Absyssus, has two turnstiles to speed things up. Things are a little different on Hyperion and Zadra, where guests can split into three queues before the station. The first is for the front row, the middle is for single riders, and the third is for everyone else, with two turnstiles for efficiency. Single rider works differently here than what we’re used to, as the idea is instead of filling gaps in at loading, gaps are filled by individuals and smaller groups going through 4 at a time regardless of who they’re with. If the main queue turnstiles produce an odd number of guests, the single rider queue then allows another rider through. It works in theory but some groups do use it as a way to cut their wait down a few cycles. Once you’re through these gates you’re held in pens outside the station, waiting for the doors into the station to open once the airgates inside are free. I like the system, it keeps things moving and orderly without the need for a staff member to be present. I don’t like however that front row riders on these two coasters are handed goggles to wear, but thankfully there’s no cameras on the lifthills so you can take them off without getting into trouble.
Not all, as there’s no rule in place, but the majority of guests tend to politely fill rows in order, so it’s pretty easy to grab the back row a lot of the time. We managed to get the back row on every coaster except a couple of the really little ones, and managed the front row too on Abyssus despite it not having a dedicated queue for it - only by winning a footrace down the platform, mind.
There’s plenty of lockers around the park, and most coasters have lockers towards the end of the queue which can be accessed from the other side at exit. There’s a lot of lockers for each ride and there’s no ordering to this so it can be a bit chaotic. There’s still the usual space in the station to leave your things so you can gain a bit of time by just skipping the lockers if you don’t want to use them. You do have to pay one price to access them all day but it’s worth it if you do have a bag, it’s a good system that only allows you to use one locker at a time and keeps track of which one you’ve used if you forget. Just remember to make sure to fully close it once you’re done, and note that some of them, usually just the ones not inside a queue line and therefore intended to be used as and when you need throughout the day, need to be released yourself, while the ones in queues release automatically once you close them at the exit side. Hyperion has security scanners at the entrance (due to an employee being killed by a train attempting to retrieve a guest’s dropped phone) so I’d recommend buying a locker wristband just for that.
The park is split in two halves either side of a road, with just a single underpass connecting the new section with the old. As a result of the park's rapid expansion, there are inevitable inconsistencies, and there are some parts of the park that really need work to get up to the standards of the rest. The expansive kids area is fine, but much of the rest of the older half of the park is fairly all over the place without any real cohesion or vision. Examples are a main path having two different themes on either side and the Mexican themed top spin not being close to the Mexican themed SLC, or even facing it. The formula racing themed Formula looks really bare bones, yet the f&b venue opposite it that’s part of the same area looks like the sort of facilities you get at modern race circuits.
The new half of the park is very different, set into three very distinct, self contained themed areas that are completely separate from each other, and hopefully represent how the park plans to proceed in future. With so much space available they could have easily made these areas sprawling and unfocused but thankfully that’s not the case, and each has its own feel to go along with the theme. The Atlantis style area around Abyssus feels big and open, while the mediaeval Zadra area feels tighter and more imposing.
Most staff, at least all the ones we spoke to, had at least the basics of English, and all the signage is bilingual, so there shouldn’t be any issues with a language barrier, but like with anywhere it pays to learn the likes of please and thank you in the local tongue.
Throughout the park there’s absolutely tons of F&B and so much variety, although some were closed on our trip and many of them had long queues. Prices are cheap and quality is good, although we never tried the proper sit down options, preferring to just grab quick serve meals and snacks to keep us going. Really recommend the little Irish themed cafe bar by Zadra, especially the back half that looks out onto the ride, and great little spot for a coffee or a pint.
Rides
Viking
We thought best to get this out of the way first, as the ride’s reputation precedes it. An SBF Visa wild mouse with OTSRs? Oh God. But actually, it was fine. Weird, but fine. It never gets up to enough speed to cause any harm, except for the final brakes catching me out and giving my jaw a test. It trundles around in a way that no other coaster I’ve been on does; more like how it feels being in a car on a bumpy road than anything else. Well, as they say, a cred’s a cred.Mayan
Similarly, best to get the SLC out of the way when it’s quiet than have to endure a queue for something that’s going to cause suffering, right? No. Built new in 2015 with modernised restraints, this one rides incredibly smooth. Not just smooth for an SLC smooth, but smooth compared to just about anything. We rode back row and there was maybe one little bump on the first double inversion, but other than that, nothing at all. After spending the climb dreading what was about to happen, I was pleasantly surprised by the start, then when we felt that bump I thought “ah here it goes” but then there were no more issues, and by the time it reached the end I’d long stopped worrying. Would even ride again.Formula
When the story of Vekoma is written, this little 2016 launch coaster will be regarded as one of the most pivotal in the company’s history. Although their renaissance had started a couple years earlier, it was after this was announced that Vekoma quickly started revealing much more ambitious concepts and orders, and it was surely the success of Formula that played a part in giving other parks the confidence to accept Vekoma as one of the big boys again. And rightly so, as while far from as spectacular as other coasters in the park, it’s still a solid little ride that packs a lot of punch, especially when it comes to airtime and hangtime, while being a lot of fun too.Zadra
The first ground up I-box RMC and the joint-tallest wooden coaster in the world, if you count it as one. The track is steel and the wooden structure is heavily reinforced with steel, so the jury is always going to be out on that one. With its vertical drop and steel truss lift hill, it cuts a formidable figure on the park skyline, but even more formidable is the queue. Even with a fair pace you’re looking at the best part of 10 minutes even if the two extensions are closed. There’s even sets of stairs that seem to be there just for the fun of it. Once you finally make it to the ride and catch your breath, prepare to lose it again.This thing is relentless, and feels even more so with all the weaving in and out of the structure. It won’t break you with positive forces, but the constant sharp changes in direction and near misses at high speed provide all the intensity you need, and when it hits the brakes, it SLAMS into them, still with plenty of speed left. It feels like it could still go on for another minute before running out of steam. The first drop is incredible and there’s multiple other moments where you’ll be thrown out of your seat, you spend the entire sequence centred around the outer-bank floating.
The only other RMC I’ve done is Wildfire, which despite being incredible, does begin to falter towards the end as the speed and space run out. There’s no such issues here, and although it feels like the designers could have stretched it out longer, they picked just the right moment to force it to a close on a high. Not wearing you out, but not leaving you feeling short changed either. Wildfire does have the setting on the bay, but Zadra is definitely the better coaster.
We got into double figure rides over a day and a bit, with plenty at the front and back. At the end of day Saturday even though there was nobody waiting, they kept making us do the full queue over and over, so we definitely got our steps in! Because of how much there is to ride and how big the park is, on Sunday Zadra was only running one train for the first few hours as there just wasn’t enough people waiting to ride to make it worth it. If you’re looking to get round everything as quick as possible, definitely head to it first unless you arrive dead on opening and can get into Hyperion before 10.
Frida
One of several Vekoma Junior models, this one opened alongside Zadra and Draken as part of the expansion into the back half of the park, and feels quite out of place, round the back and not really part of the area and lacking any real theming. As a junior coaster it does what it aims to do and does it well enough, but it’s quite a bit smaller than even the other Vekoma Junior here so unless you’re desperate to tick off as many creds as you physically can, or you’re here with kids, there may be better things to do with your time.Draken
The second kiddie coaster in the Zadra area, this one is even smaller and built by the pretty obscure Preston & Barbieri. Taller adults may struggle to fit at all into the cars even if shame doesn’t stop them sooner. They’ve removed one of the drive tyres from each of the first two sets, which causes the remaining one to jolt alarmingly as the train goes through, but that’s about the only thing ‘interesting’ for anyone above the age of 6. But it wasn’t built for people above the age of 6 and it’s absolutely fine as a first coaster.Abyssus
The latest, and possibly last major coaster for a while at Energylandia, this Vekoma multi launch is slightly overshadowed by the RMC and Intamin hypers nearby but is still well worth a look, even if little bits of the theming and didn’t ever get finished and a lot less of it ended up being built over water than originally planned. Definitely much better on the front row, it’s a fast, flowing ride that’s a lot of fun, especially the final inversion. There’s not a lot of positive forces, even on the batwing, but there’s plenty of moments of airtime, and every one of them is really strong.Light Explorers
One of two Vekoma boomerangs at the park, but definitely the best one. It looks absolutely beautiful dipping in and out of the water and keeps a good amount of speed in both directions. It’s the same model as the new one at Emerald (with a slightly different spike if RCDB is to be believed).Choco Chip Creek
Finally opening in 2024 after quite a delay as the headline attraction in the new Sweet Valley area, there’s still significant portions of theming not finished, including what I’m guessing is a giant chocolate mountain that’s still just the steel frame. Hopefully this will be sorted in 2025. A custom variant of the Vekoma mine train model, it’s not as wild as Colorado Adventure but much more interesting than the more standard version. Featuring a weird queue that includes a basement locker room and pre-show ‘lifts’ that sadly weren’t working, coupled with the giant unfinished mountain, the experience is all a bit odd at the moment, so I’m hoping it was a case of getting as much done before they absolutely had to have it open, and they’ll come back to it over winter. There’s a great family coaster in here somewhere.Honey Harbour
Yet another Vekoma family coaster, this one the lesser spotted Kalypso model (also seen at Emerald Park) and while it’s another perfectly solid kids ride, the version at Emerald is lower to the ground and better landscaped, so is the better version despite this one having better theming. The layout really needs two laps to be worth it, and sadly because of the queue it was attracting it was only running one.Dragon
Not to be confused with Draken, this Vekoma (of course) SFC is one of the larger, more thrilling models. I really enjoyed the smaller model at Paultons and Grona Lund so was looking forward to the family-thrilling variant, and it did not disappoint. Like the smaller version, it lacks a little more punch than it looks to have, but never more than it should. I'm a big fan of these as they're just really perfectly designed all-the-family coasters. Interestingly, it opened in 2015 alongside the SLC as the park’s first major coasters, but the water that most of the ride is built over wasn’t added until around 2019.Speed
An absolutely huge Intamin water coaster, almost identical to Divertical but with a flat bit of track where the MCBR would be, thankfully the early October air kept most of the crowds away and only the most foolhardy or foolish guests were able to walk right on.I found the elevator lift to be absolutely terrifying sat on the outside seat, but after that there isn't too much to say, it is what you'd expect. It's a lot smother than Poseidon at Europa and I managed to not get soaked - not everyone was as lucky though.
Energus
Yet another Vekoma Junior coaster, this one is the more familiar model that there's quite a few of around the continent. It was running two laps right up until our go which was a shame. Again, these Vekoma kids coasters are really good at what they're for and there's nothing else to say.Boomerang
Same again. This is the same model as the one at Paultons, and unsurprisingly it's a really good ride for kids but nothing more than that.
Hyperion
Now we're talking. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from this, as I'd mostly heard really good things but also a couple of dissenting voices that I respect. While it helped that my first ride was at night, we did it enough times in the daytime to get a fair impression, and what a coaster this is. I've done Europe's two B&M hypers and although I really like both of them, this blows them both away. The airtime is incredible, the feeling of speed as it rushes around inches from the ground is like little else, and it is so, so smooth. On our final ride, on row 7, I noticed a slight rattle, but at that point I was basically nitpicking. Didn’t notice anything on several front and back row rides.Like Zadra, but not quite as bad, the queue is a bit of an endurance test. First you climb a spiral of ramps up to the top, pass over the station and outside, back down a load of stairs and back inside to where the lines separate.
At night the sci-fi theme really gets enhanced, with all the lights on the lift hill glowing upwards and leaving a black void below. I’m not sure how intentional it is but it looks incredible.
Apocalypto
I still miss Ripsaw, and not knowing beforehand what flats Energylandia has, when I first caught a glimpse and heard what I thought was a Top Spin, my heart skipped a beat. Sadly though, when we found it it turned out to be a really small, probably ex travelling version that runs a pretty terrible cycle and looks and sounds like it's had better days. Don't bother.Others
We didn’t do any other flats or water rides unfortunately. If we had the full second day we probably would have. Even with 15 new creds and some of them fairly dubious, there’s still another 4 coasters we didn’t do, including a Wacky Worm and some SBF Visa things meant for little kids, although apparently you need to be 1.2m tall to ride them alone. There’s both Frutti Loop and Happy Loops, Mars and the powered Circus Coaster which has an elevation change of around 6 inches. I know some of you will ride all of them.--
Legendia
Getting there
Located in the corner of a sprawling public park and recreation complex twice the size of New York’s Central Park, Legendia is extremely easy to get to, located just off the inner Katowice motorway ring road and served by plenty of public transport options, including the famously extensive Silesian tram network. It’s a bit odd that it seems to only have a pay one price option and isn’t open to the wider park with pay per ride.Layout, presentation, operations, etc
The park is set around a big lake which the main attraction, Lech Coaster, is partially built over. It looks gorgeous in the early evening glow of autumn. As you walk around the lake, rides are placed at odd intervals, sometimes in clusters but with no real plan or ‘areas’ Sadly a few rides have closed and are in a state of only part removal, I was especially sad to see their Enterprise is no more. For the most part there’s little to no theming, except for the two water rides and Lech, which are nicely presented. The park was absolutely dead so it’s impossible to comment on the operations. It’s such a shame there’s no access without a ticket, as it’s a really lovely place to be. If I was a local I would absolutely have a season ticket just to spend time walking around the lake or sitting by it with friends. I’m sure if it wasn’t walled off there would have been a lot more people around.Rides
Devil’s Loop
How strange that a ride with such an important place in the hearts of many British enthusiasts would end up here of all places, next to one of Europe’s best coasters in an otherwise empty coaster-less park. Devil’s Loop is the former Twin Looper at the closed American Adventure, and before that Soopa Loopa at Lightwater Valley, so for enthusiasts of a certain age and location, this was often their first ‘big’ coaster. Not one I ever expected to ride before realising it was here, I almost wanted to get on it as much as I did its neighbour, just to feel connected to that history. Who knows how much longer it has left?While it looks comically janky, it wasn’t as bad as I feared, or even close. Even on the back car, which has been modified to have a backwards row, things were fine. While not ‘good’, it is after all an ancient Soquet contraption that’s had modifications performed on it, I can see how back in the day this would have lit the sparks for a lot of us.
Basilisk
We’d been tipped off about Legendia’s trackless shooting dark ride, which I’m quite happy about because otherwise I’m certain we would have missed it, hidden away as it is. The entrance is located in a nice little cafe and indoor play up the hill at the side of the park, and you do have to actually enter the cafe to get to the ride. Even after entering what looks like the start of the queue, there’s still a kid’s play area to navigate before you get to the actual queue and the ride itself. It’s a nicely themed queue and the ride itself, while clearly done on a budget, is really nice. There’s a mixture of screens and physical, moving targets and some of the sets and effects are very well done. A great example of what can be done without having huge resources. I just wish the exit wasn’t through a soft play.Lech Coaster
What happened here? None of this makes sense. A park with no rides of note except a third hand Soquet with sentimental value to a few Brits in their 30s, purchases a prototype layout design by Vekoma right at the start of their revival just one year after Formula at Energylandia opened, and it turns out to be maybe the closest we’ve come to another Nemesis. I heard a rumour they got some of the calculations wrong, and that could explain why they never built another one of these despite it not technically being a custom design. At only around 130ft high, this should be a solid coaster, maybe even a really good one. But it isn’t. It’s one of the best in Europe.And doesn’t it look great doing it? The eagle crest on the front of the trains, the delicate patterned seat backs, the graceful twists over the lake, the burning light radiating from the openings in the station, it’s all so beautiful.
Having just ridden Hyperia a few days earlier, and spent the last day and a half on Zadra and Hyperion, I thought I was spoilt for great drops and no matter how good the first drop in Lech is, it wouldn’t compare. Wrong. It’s just as good. It might even be better. On the front right seat - the best on the ride - you can’t see any track below you at all once you crest the lift because of how sharply it not only drops away but twists at the same time, and you don’t see any until you start pulling up again. It’s a similar feeling to the one you get on a dive machine, only this has full length trains, so if you’re at the back, you’re going to have to be prepared for how much you’re going to be pulled through the drop.
Coming out of the first inversion the track tightens into a ridiculously sharp radius, as if to make up for the gentle forces of the other MK1101s down the road. It’s the first coaster to ever make me grey out, and as you’re still banking I found it completely disorientating. So when you immediately snap into a violent ejector hill, it must be how Andy felt at the end of The Shawshank Redemption. It’s euphoric, in the rudest sense. The build up and release of these two elements could be my favourite 1-2 sequence of any coaster I’ve been on.
From here the layout packs a succession of hills, turns and inversions, including a station fly-through barrel roll. I’ve of course watched many a POV of Lech since it opened so I was quite familiar with the course, and as well structured and paced as it is, could it do with one final inversion near the end? Was it just missing that one thing and would it make it more balanced with a stronger ending? No, as I rode it more and more, the more I came to realise just how perfect the layout is. An extra inversion would have been a mistake. Everything here is exactly how it should be.
With the park being so empty we were able to spend the best part of an hour lapping it to ourselves. Front row. Back row. Front row. Back row. Repeat. Daylight into dusk into darkness. The previous week’s mission had me questioning why I’m an enthusiast. This hour gave me the answer.
