pritchardavid
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MADrid 24-hour'er: Parque Warner 04 October
djtruefitt
TS Team
After having a think about this and looking at all the costs I have decided to give it a miss! Got quite a lot going on this month as it is!
Dave
TS Founding Member
Burbs
TS Team
Hope you're well, Dan.For personal reasons, I am no longer attending this trip.
I look forward to visiting Phantasialand and Europa-Park in October, however!
DiogoJ42
TS Member
Well, for your sake I hope that it's similar to Portaventura, in that they all speak English because reasons...
(I found Porta especially confusing, because although I studdied French at school, my brain defaults to German. So I did my best to attempt to speak Spanish... while my brain thought in German... then the staff realised I was not local and replied in French!)
(I found Porta especially confusing, because although I studdied French at school, my brain defaults to German. So I did my best to attempt to speak Spanish... while my brain thought in German... then the staff realised I was not local and replied in French!)
pritchardavid
TS Member
Don't worry
Have a translator app on my phone, plus I'm sure others have as well!
Not long to go now
DiogoJ42
TS Member
John
TS Member
"It's frivolous, it's environmentally irresponsible, it's the MADrid 24-hour'er" – Sam
During the Staffordshire meet, a number of TST members got slightly drunk at spoons and booked a trip to Parque Warner as no-one could be bothered going on the planned Fantasy Island trip.
The trip consisted of a 6.30 flight from Stansted to Madrid, taxi to the park in time for opening, a full day on park and taxis back to an airport hotel before a mid-morning flight the next day. Total cost for park entry, travel and accommodation was £125 – not too far removed from the planned east coast trip, but far more exciting.
As part of the whirlwind nature of the trip, no-one stopped to take any photos, so I’m pilfering a few from RCDB to punctuate this report.
The major rides:
Coaster Express – this RCCA wooden coaster certainly looks impressive especially when lit up at night, unfortunately the ride experience leaves a lot to be desired. It’s pretty fast in places, but all the drops are shallow and it’s very slow over the top of most hills with pretty much no airtime anywhere on the layout. It also bounces around the track, making for a rather uncomfortable ride in all but the middle rows of each car. As with most woodies with 3 car trains, the best row is the 2nd from the back. As an aside – why are all the major wooden coasters in Spain so rubbish? The best woodie in the country seems to be Tomahawk (I’ve not been on Magnus Colossus, but that's apparently terrible as well).
Superman – one of the best non-inverted B&Ms in Europe, the first drop is sublime at the back of the train, and the second half of the ride benefits hugely from the lack of an MCBR. The best seat is the front left though, for the experience of floorless and how close it comes to the ground in the final helix.
Batman – old-school B&M at their best. Unfortunately single train operation, a couple of minor breakdowns and the enforcement of a no re-ride policy (which is apparently relatively new) meant I didn’t get many rides on this one, but it’s vying with Nemesis for my top European B&M. Batman has the more intense layout, but Nemesis is probably the better all-round package.
Stunt Fall – Vekoma’s giant inverted boomerang is like no other coaster ever built. It’s also one of the most terrifying rides ever built - from the view of the ground far below you on the reverse vertical lift, to the alarming jolts as the train engages with the 2nd lift and the sheer insanity in between. Being a Vekoma it’s slightly rough, but nevertheless an absolutely phenomenal ride, easily my favourite in the park. Just a shame that due to a massive design flaw in the retro-fitted evac platform you’re no longer allowed to ride in the front or back rows, but even with 10 seats out of use the park was quiet enough that throughput still wasn’t an issue
Correcaminos Bip Bip – Clone of Pegasus at EP, but with a regular transfer track rather than a PMBO-style vertical one. Top class kiddy coaster, not much else to say.
Tom y Jerry – Tivoli large. Well themed, but not worth queuing too long for as it only gives 1 lap.
Lex Luthor Invertatron – Top Spin. For all you Ripsaw geeks out there it was running p. 7, but with an alarming side-to-side vibration whenever it did anything interesting. Still pretty good though, and decent throughput too considering there was only 1 staff member.
El Joker – triple S&S towers, they change the settings throughout the day so we rode when it was on combo mode. All 3 towers were in use so there was no queue; take note PA - this is how to operate a tower ride (OK Condor is better, but I’d rather have no queue at all for an average tower ride than wait an hour for one where you can’t choose your ride experience)
Rio Bravo – Valhalla’s ride system without the unacceptable wetness. Fairly well themed in places but a little run down and the section between the two drops slightly outstays its welcome. The back row is the best place to sit, mainly for the first drop.
Cataratas Salvajes – Intatmin chute ride, a quick way of getting extremely wet.
Hotel Embrujado – Haunted hotel themed Vekoma mad house. This one has semi-mirrored windows set into the side of the room. Unfortunately the building lets lots of light in, which spoils the illusion. As with many madhouses it very reliant on the story, so not really worth riding unless you speak Spanish.
Los Carros de la Mina – a breakdance, but not a very good one.
Scooby Doo – interactive, trackless dark ride. Not bad by any means, but could have done with a few more targets, and some of them didn’t seem to work which is an issue when it’s the targets that trigger the effects.
Our visit was on one the first days of their Halloween season, and they had quite a lot on. There were several scaremazes and walkthroughs, plus several roaming actors and a scare zone between Stunt Fall and the mad house. Unfortunately one of the Halloween attractions used the Acme rapids queue/station so the ride was closed but every other ride was running for most of the day aside from the odd breakdown. We did one of the mazes, which used the madhouse queue line, it wasn’t great but had minimal queue. We skipped their headline scare maze as the queue was massive due to only being open for 3 hours, most of us had never visited the park so we prioritised getting on a few more rides.
Overall the park seemed fairly quiet, with queues for major rides generally no more than 15 minutes. Superman and Coaster Express went to 2 trains later in the day when the wait went to about 4 or 5 trains, which was great to see (take note Thorpe!). The kids area was somewhat busier, with both coasters there having longer queues than any of the others.
Overall it’s a great park, though it seems to struggle to get guests despite a very reasonable entrance price (we paid €24.90 online). As a result it isn’t getting much investment, with few major rides added since opening and some areas starting to look a little run down. It’s probably got the best ride line up in Spain, but PA is a more pleasant park to be in. I’ll definitely be visiting again in the next few years, and will hopefully be able to do Parque de Atracciones as well next time. Maybe one day I’ll even do something in Spain that’s unrelated to theme parks!
During the Staffordshire meet, a number of TST members got slightly drunk at spoons and booked a trip to Parque Warner as no-one could be bothered going on the planned Fantasy Island trip.
The trip consisted of a 6.30 flight from Stansted to Madrid, taxi to the park in time for opening, a full day on park and taxis back to an airport hotel before a mid-morning flight the next day. Total cost for park entry, travel and accommodation was £125 – not too far removed from the planned east coast trip, but far more exciting.
As part of the whirlwind nature of the trip, no-one stopped to take any photos, so I’m pilfering a few from RCDB to punctuate this report.
The major rides:
Coaster Express – this RCCA wooden coaster certainly looks impressive especially when lit up at night, unfortunately the ride experience leaves a lot to be desired. It’s pretty fast in places, but all the drops are shallow and it’s very slow over the top of most hills with pretty much no airtime anywhere on the layout. It also bounces around the track, making for a rather uncomfortable ride in all but the middle rows of each car. As with most woodies with 3 car trains, the best row is the 2nd from the back. As an aside – why are all the major wooden coasters in Spain so rubbish? The best woodie in the country seems to be Tomahawk (I’ve not been on Magnus Colossus, but that's apparently terrible as well).
Superman – one of the best non-inverted B&Ms in Europe, the first drop is sublime at the back of the train, and the second half of the ride benefits hugely from the lack of an MCBR. The best seat is the front left though, for the experience of floorless and how close it comes to the ground in the final helix.
Batman – old-school B&M at their best. Unfortunately single train operation, a couple of minor breakdowns and the enforcement of a no re-ride policy (which is apparently relatively new) meant I didn’t get many rides on this one, but it’s vying with Nemesis for my top European B&M. Batman has the more intense layout, but Nemesis is probably the better all-round package.
Stunt Fall – Vekoma’s giant inverted boomerang is like no other coaster ever built. It’s also one of the most terrifying rides ever built - from the view of the ground far below you on the reverse vertical lift, to the alarming jolts as the train engages with the 2nd lift and the sheer insanity in between. Being a Vekoma it’s slightly rough, but nevertheless an absolutely phenomenal ride, easily my favourite in the park. Just a shame that due to a massive design flaw in the retro-fitted evac platform you’re no longer allowed to ride in the front or back rows, but even with 10 seats out of use the park was quiet enough that throughput still wasn’t an issue
Correcaminos Bip Bip – Clone of Pegasus at EP, but with a regular transfer track rather than a PMBO-style vertical one. Top class kiddy coaster, not much else to say.
Tom y Jerry – Tivoli large. Well themed, but not worth queuing too long for as it only gives 1 lap.
Lex Luthor Invertatron – Top Spin. For all you Ripsaw geeks out there it was running p. 7, but with an alarming side-to-side vibration whenever it did anything interesting. Still pretty good though, and decent throughput too considering there was only 1 staff member.
El Joker – triple S&S towers, they change the settings throughout the day so we rode when it was on combo mode. All 3 towers were in use so there was no queue; take note PA - this is how to operate a tower ride (OK Condor is better, but I’d rather have no queue at all for an average tower ride than wait an hour for one where you can’t choose your ride experience)
Rio Bravo – Valhalla’s ride system without the unacceptable wetness. Fairly well themed in places but a little run down and the section between the two drops slightly outstays its welcome. The back row is the best place to sit, mainly for the first drop.
Cataratas Salvajes – Intatmin chute ride, a quick way of getting extremely wet.
Hotel Embrujado – Haunted hotel themed Vekoma mad house. This one has semi-mirrored windows set into the side of the room. Unfortunately the building lets lots of light in, which spoils the illusion. As with many madhouses it very reliant on the story, so not really worth riding unless you speak Spanish.
Los Carros de la Mina – a breakdance, but not a very good one.
Scooby Doo – interactive, trackless dark ride. Not bad by any means, but could have done with a few more targets, and some of them didn’t seem to work which is an issue when it’s the targets that trigger the effects.
Our visit was on one the first days of their Halloween season, and they had quite a lot on. There were several scaremazes and walkthroughs, plus several roaming actors and a scare zone between Stunt Fall and the mad house. Unfortunately one of the Halloween attractions used the Acme rapids queue/station so the ride was closed but every other ride was running for most of the day aside from the odd breakdown. We did one of the mazes, which used the madhouse queue line, it wasn’t great but had minimal queue. We skipped their headline scare maze as the queue was massive due to only being open for 3 hours, most of us had never visited the park so we prioritised getting on a few more rides.
Overall the park seemed fairly quiet, with queues for major rides generally no more than 15 minutes. Superman and Coaster Express went to 2 trains later in the day when the wait went to about 4 or 5 trains, which was great to see (take note Thorpe!). The kids area was somewhat busier, with both coasters there having longer queues than any of the others.
Overall it’s a great park, though it seems to struggle to get guests despite a very reasonable entrance price (we paid €24.90 online). As a result it isn’t getting much investment, with few major rides added since opening and some areas starting to look a little run down. It’s probably got the best ride line up in Spain, but PA is a more pleasant park to be in. I’ll definitely be visiting again in the next few years, and will hopefully be able to do Parque de Atracciones as well next time. Maybe one day I’ll even do something in Spain that’s unrelated to theme parks!
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
I'm considering doing a similar sort of thing just after Christmas if I can get the time off work. Trip reports and youtube videos of their 'Navidad' event do seem to suggest that all the major coasters are open. Mine will be a very short one like this though as I don't have much holiday left at work. Glad to hear it can be easily done in just a couple of days