NuttySquirrel
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Batman: Gotham City Escape
Against my better judgement I returned to Madrid at the end of September to have a second bash at the two main parks, Parque Warner and Parque de Atracciones, after a rather disastrous (not to mention chilly!) trip in Spring 2024 where an entire day was rained off and we managed only 7 rides in each park. This time around, better weather and ride availability was expected, and I was particularly looking forward to enjoying the atmosphere of a midnight close at Parque Warner (or a "midnight" close as I'll get onto later!).
A few complexities had to be ironed out - for logistical reasons we would only have Friday and Saturday as park days and as Parque de Atracciones doesn't open on Fridays at this time of year, we decided to get a 2-day ticket to Parque Warner so we could spend all day at the park on Friday but still get in some night rides on the Saturday - and we'd slot in Parque de Atracciones on Saturday afternoon. A 2-day ticket for Parque Warner is very reasonable if tricky to find - you actually have to purchase a 1-day ticket through the website and accept the upsell offered for the second day - in our case just 8 euros per person. Immediately upon checking out I was also offered a generous discount on Parque de Atracciones tickets (the two parks are owned by Parques Reunidos), so that's well worth looking out for if you're planning to do both in one trip.
Having paid for everything, I went and did the classic @NuttySquirrel thing of complicating things by breaking my foot (sorry it's not an interesting story!), and given that I wasn't sure which rides, if any, I'd be allowed on with a medical boot (thankfully I was not put in a cast!) I decided I'd try to manage as best I could in a pair of sturdy winter boots (I should point out that this is not medically recommended!). I also realised 3 days before setting off that the airport hotel I had booked for the first night was booked for the right days but the wrong year (2026!), so that had to be hastily rescheduled. Furthermore, I developed a pain in my lower back a few days before which would later be diagnosed as a kidney infection. It was starting to feel like another one of "those" trips...
I must at this point thank my travelling companion @John for being my chauffeur for the entire trip - which definitely wasn't the original plan - and for his expert display of parallel parking in Valdemoro which absolutely should not have been necessary (see Booking.com for my snotty review of the thoroughly useless Hotel Victoria Valdemoro!). And sorry again for landing you with a terrible automatic that was horrid to drive, even it was a BMW.
After the slowest ever Top Gear-style race to Pinto train station (which John and I lost!) and a comic episode involving a very large suitcase and a very small car boot, we met up with @Danny and headed to Parque Warner Madrid. We were excited to see that Stunt Fall was actually operating upon arrival - being one of only three still-operating Giant Inverted Boomerangs in the world and notoriously unreliable, this is an elusive cred indeed, and one I hadn't managed to get on my last trip. Predictably, despite hobbling through the turnstiles as fast as I could, by the time we got to the ride entrance it had broken down. Gotham City Escape had already died in the first hour of the day whilst we'd been Laurel and Hardying with suitcases, and Superman had yet to open. Lex Luthor was very dead and Rapidos ACME appeared to have closed for the season. It definitely had the feel of a typical Merlin "Opening Later" (or not, whatever) day.

We ticked off Batman La Fuga / Batman: Arkham Asylum / Shadows of Arkham (man this ride really does have an identity crisis!), which is the only Batclone in Europe. I had forgotten how intense this ride is - certainly more so that Nemesis Reborn - featuring the first of two vertical loops immediately after the first drop, and I actually came off feeling rather dizzy (not helped by the group of teenagers screaming in our ears all the way around!). Fortunately Superman had now opened, offering a rather less intense (and quieter!) experience with a greater emphasis on airtime and big, sweeping inversions. This is a solid pairing of classic B&Ms, showing their age only in terms of their faded presentation and not in ride experience.
The opposite could be said of Stunt Fall, which gleamed gold against the blue Iberian sky, but once on board felt every bit of its 23 years. Words I would not use to describe Stunt Fall are: Ergonomic, Sleek, Sophisticated, Logical. I can only assume that whoever at Vekoma designed this contraption all those years ago had a penchant for mind-altering substances (which makes sense given where they are located). You begin by being pulled backwards up a huge vertical lift, so you are hanging in your restraint starting at the floor, which feels neither comfortable nor very safe - then you're basically dropped straight down into the cobra roll and hurtle around the loop before being launched up the other vertical tower and doing the whole thing again in reverse. It's a ridiculous ride, designed by mad people for mad people. And it's a lot to take, even for a seasoned enthusiast. But actually, it's also pretty damn awesome. In some ways it was refreshing to feel utterly terrified on a rollercoaster and actually be screaming with fear the entire way around. I still haven't decided whether it gets 1/10 or 9/10 in my coaster ratings.

We stopped for a spot of lunch next (and beer). Unfortunately none of the gluten free meals were available (sigh!) so I made do with some fries and the snacks I had smuggled into the park that morning. Officially you are not allowed to take food in unless you have a dietary requirement - and then you must provide medical evidence such as a doctor's letter. However they're pretty laid back about checking bags - my rucksack was in fact not checked at all on Friday and given only a cursory glance on Saturday, so if you can bury your snacks under a jumper or something you'll probably get away with it. I say this not to encourage people to flout the park's rules, but because I think it's unreasonable to expect people with legitimate dietary needs to provide medical evidence.
After lunch we slowed the pace down with Cine Tours - a tracked car ride which could have been charming but was actually pretty dreadful. We did get a laugh out of the backstage view of the rather pathetic sequoia tree stumps though. If you want to see sequoias in all their beauty, don't go to Madrid.
Then we went from the worst the park has to offer to the best - Batman: Gotham City Escape was testing, and by the time we arrived in the area people were being allowed into the queue. We didn't hesitate. Such are the reliability issues of this ride that if it's open, you get in the queue - and you MAY even get on it. I exaggerate, but only slightly. If you are lucky enough to be able to ride, this Intamin LSM multi-launched coaster is truly sublime. I had put this straight at the top of my coaster rankings on the last trip and was worried a revisit might demote it, but it didn't. It's just everything I'm looking for in a coaster and more. Smooth, fast and thrilling - the launches are forceful but not violent, every single element of the ride is standout, most especially the zero-G stall, suspending you and your disbelief for several seconds over the main thoroughfare. The excessive trim break over the top hat seems like a stupid idea but it just works. This alone was what had brought me back to Madrid.
Back to Earth with a bump now and Coaster Express. What exactly is the point of Coaster Express? I would really like to know Why this thing exists. It takes up a huge amount of space and basically offers nothing other than a bit of jolting about and an un-scenic train ride. This is a cry for help in coaster form. RMC, please come and save it. Or failing that, just bring a match. Oh, did I mention that we broke it? Unfortunately it reopened later that day - well you can't say we didn't try...
We then ticked off a couple of the kiddie creds, including Correcaminos Bip Bip which hadn't featured in the 7-ride line up of my first trip in 2024. Actually it's alright for a family coaster, it's a Mack Youngstar and very similar to Pegasus at Europa Park. Wasn't too sure about the queueline theming though...

Then, because I had to know for myself how bad it was, and because the queue was only 5 minutes (though felt much longer), we subjected ourselves to La Aventura de Scooby Doo, an interactive, trackless dark ride. Do you like cheap UV cardboard cutouts? Then this is the ride for you! ETF, what were you thinking taking on this joke of a project? Aren't you better than that? I did at least win the shooting game, but I think that might because my jaded companions had long given up the will...
Since we'd thoroughly had enough of rubbish rides by this point, we did a final lap each of Fuga de Batman: Shadows of Arkham Asylum (or whatever the Batclone is called these days) and Batman: Gotham City Escape (honestly these names!!) and headed out of the park around dusk.
My thoughts on this park are very mixed. It's got some of the best coasters in Europe, but also some of the worst garbage you could find in any mediocre regional park. Rather like a Merlin park, so many areas would benefit from a spruce up and a lick of paint. The one-train operations and minimal staffing are frustrating and come across as penny-pinching. Food and beverage could be so much better than it is. Attitudes to additional dietary and accessibility needs are indifferent at best. On the other hand, the view walking down Hollywood Boulevard of the new Intamin arching over the top hat in front of the famous tri-pillar S&S drop tower against a deep blue autumn sky is pretty special. Sure this place can be maddening, but I somehow think I'll be back again before too long.

A few complexities had to be ironed out - for logistical reasons we would only have Friday and Saturday as park days and as Parque de Atracciones doesn't open on Fridays at this time of year, we decided to get a 2-day ticket to Parque Warner so we could spend all day at the park on Friday but still get in some night rides on the Saturday - and we'd slot in Parque de Atracciones on Saturday afternoon. A 2-day ticket for Parque Warner is very reasonable if tricky to find - you actually have to purchase a 1-day ticket through the website and accept the upsell offered for the second day - in our case just 8 euros per person. Immediately upon checking out I was also offered a generous discount on Parque de Atracciones tickets (the two parks are owned by Parques Reunidos), so that's well worth looking out for if you're planning to do both in one trip.
Having paid for everything, I went and did the classic @NuttySquirrel thing of complicating things by breaking my foot (sorry it's not an interesting story!), and given that I wasn't sure which rides, if any, I'd be allowed on with a medical boot (thankfully I was not put in a cast!) I decided I'd try to manage as best I could in a pair of sturdy winter boots (I should point out that this is not medically recommended!). I also realised 3 days before setting off that the airport hotel I had booked for the first night was booked for the right days but the wrong year (2026!), so that had to be hastily rescheduled. Furthermore, I developed a pain in my lower back a few days before which would later be diagnosed as a kidney infection. It was starting to feel like another one of "those" trips...
I must at this point thank my travelling companion @John for being my chauffeur for the entire trip - which definitely wasn't the original plan - and for his expert display of parallel parking in Valdemoro which absolutely should not have been necessary (see Booking.com for my snotty review of the thoroughly useless Hotel Victoria Valdemoro!). And sorry again for landing you with a terrible automatic that was horrid to drive, even it was a BMW.
After the slowest ever Top Gear-style race to Pinto train station (which John and I lost!) and a comic episode involving a very large suitcase and a very small car boot, we met up with @Danny and headed to Parque Warner Madrid. We were excited to see that Stunt Fall was actually operating upon arrival - being one of only three still-operating Giant Inverted Boomerangs in the world and notoriously unreliable, this is an elusive cred indeed, and one I hadn't managed to get on my last trip. Predictably, despite hobbling through the turnstiles as fast as I could, by the time we got to the ride entrance it had broken down. Gotham City Escape had already died in the first hour of the day whilst we'd been Laurel and Hardying with suitcases, and Superman had yet to open. Lex Luthor was very dead and Rapidos ACME appeared to have closed for the season. It definitely had the feel of a typical Merlin "Opening Later" (or not, whatever) day.

We ticked off Batman La Fuga / Batman: Arkham Asylum / Shadows of Arkham (man this ride really does have an identity crisis!), which is the only Batclone in Europe. I had forgotten how intense this ride is - certainly more so that Nemesis Reborn - featuring the first of two vertical loops immediately after the first drop, and I actually came off feeling rather dizzy (not helped by the group of teenagers screaming in our ears all the way around!). Fortunately Superman had now opened, offering a rather less intense (and quieter!) experience with a greater emphasis on airtime and big, sweeping inversions. This is a solid pairing of classic B&Ms, showing their age only in terms of their faded presentation and not in ride experience.
The opposite could be said of Stunt Fall, which gleamed gold against the blue Iberian sky, but once on board felt every bit of its 23 years. Words I would not use to describe Stunt Fall are: Ergonomic, Sleek, Sophisticated, Logical. I can only assume that whoever at Vekoma designed this contraption all those years ago had a penchant for mind-altering substances (which makes sense given where they are located). You begin by being pulled backwards up a huge vertical lift, so you are hanging in your restraint starting at the floor, which feels neither comfortable nor very safe - then you're basically dropped straight down into the cobra roll and hurtle around the loop before being launched up the other vertical tower and doing the whole thing again in reverse. It's a ridiculous ride, designed by mad people for mad people. And it's a lot to take, even for a seasoned enthusiast. But actually, it's also pretty damn awesome. In some ways it was refreshing to feel utterly terrified on a rollercoaster and actually be screaming with fear the entire way around. I still haven't decided whether it gets 1/10 or 9/10 in my coaster ratings.

We stopped for a spot of lunch next (and beer). Unfortunately none of the gluten free meals were available (sigh!) so I made do with some fries and the snacks I had smuggled into the park that morning. Officially you are not allowed to take food in unless you have a dietary requirement - and then you must provide medical evidence such as a doctor's letter. However they're pretty laid back about checking bags - my rucksack was in fact not checked at all on Friday and given only a cursory glance on Saturday, so if you can bury your snacks under a jumper or something you'll probably get away with it. I say this not to encourage people to flout the park's rules, but because I think it's unreasonable to expect people with legitimate dietary needs to provide medical evidence.
After lunch we slowed the pace down with Cine Tours - a tracked car ride which could have been charming but was actually pretty dreadful. We did get a laugh out of the backstage view of the rather pathetic sequoia tree stumps though. If you want to see sequoias in all their beauty, don't go to Madrid.
Then we went from the worst the park has to offer to the best - Batman: Gotham City Escape was testing, and by the time we arrived in the area people were being allowed into the queue. We didn't hesitate. Such are the reliability issues of this ride that if it's open, you get in the queue - and you MAY even get on it. I exaggerate, but only slightly. If you are lucky enough to be able to ride, this Intamin LSM multi-launched coaster is truly sublime. I had put this straight at the top of my coaster rankings on the last trip and was worried a revisit might demote it, but it didn't. It's just everything I'm looking for in a coaster and more. Smooth, fast and thrilling - the launches are forceful but not violent, every single element of the ride is standout, most especially the zero-G stall, suspending you and your disbelief for several seconds over the main thoroughfare. The excessive trim break over the top hat seems like a stupid idea but it just works. This alone was what had brought me back to Madrid.
Back to Earth with a bump now and Coaster Express. What exactly is the point of Coaster Express? I would really like to know Why this thing exists. It takes up a huge amount of space and basically offers nothing other than a bit of jolting about and an un-scenic train ride. This is a cry for help in coaster form. RMC, please come and save it. Or failing that, just bring a match. Oh, did I mention that we broke it? Unfortunately it reopened later that day - well you can't say we didn't try...
We then ticked off a couple of the kiddie creds, including Correcaminos Bip Bip which hadn't featured in the 7-ride line up of my first trip in 2024. Actually it's alright for a family coaster, it's a Mack Youngstar and very similar to Pegasus at Europa Park. Wasn't too sure about the queueline theming though...

Then, because I had to know for myself how bad it was, and because the queue was only 5 minutes (though felt much longer), we subjected ourselves to La Aventura de Scooby Doo, an interactive, trackless dark ride. Do you like cheap UV cardboard cutouts? Then this is the ride for you! ETF, what were you thinking taking on this joke of a project? Aren't you better than that? I did at least win the shooting game, but I think that might because my jaded companions had long given up the will...
Since we'd thoroughly had enough of rubbish rides by this point, we did a final lap each of Fuga de Batman: Shadows of Arkham Asylum (or whatever the Batclone is called these days) and Batman: Gotham City Escape (honestly these names!!) and headed out of the park around dusk.
My thoughts on this park are very mixed. It's got some of the best coasters in Europe, but also some of the worst garbage you could find in any mediocre regional park. Rather like a Merlin park, so many areas would benefit from a spruce up and a lick of paint. The one-train operations and minimal staffing are frustrating and come across as penny-pinching. Food and beverage could be so much better than it is. Attitudes to additional dietary and accessibility needs are indifferent at best. On the other hand, the view walking down Hollywood Boulevard of the new Intamin arching over the top hat in front of the famous tri-pillar S&S drop tower against a deep blue autumn sky is pretty special. Sure this place can be maddening, but I somehow think I'll be back again before too long.
