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Parc Astérix: General Discussion

Looks really decent. Love these types of family coasters that cater for the thrill and family market. Nice colour scheme as well.
 
I was watching this go around on the weekend. They were sending one empty car around and one loaded with dummies. Both looked really painfully slow at the start but coming to life after going into the shed/shipping container (Merlin would be jealous of this). Although this has a tiled roof, a bit more effort than Merlin I suppose. I'm hoping the theming will come to this later.

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The finishing touches were being added to the station and it looks great. The only difference I can see from the concept art is that the concept has "Pegasus Express" in Greek lettering, whereas Asterix have gone with Gare Montparnassos in Greek lettering. A play on Gare Montparnasse I assume, however I only know Montparnasse from the famous image of the steam train crashing through the front, not exactly the best image to conjure up with a coaster :eek:

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Still only a few weeks to go until it opens :)

On a negative note OzIris appears to have swapped its single rider queue for fast track :(
 
Looking forward to giving this a go, if it rides like Firechaser - they're on to a winner.

Great family ride - the Runaway Mine Train of the present day.
 
Gare Montparnassos - hahahaha!

Gare Montparnasse is one of the major stations in Paris.

Nice Astérix humour as ever!
 
We have a POV:



The effects inside of the building have not yet been completed, hence nothing actually happens in the video.

Looks like a really solid and fun coaster. Just a slight shame about the ugly maintenance shed right by the lift and the sparce theming around the course of the ride.

:)
 
I felt the same.

The ride looks perfectly palatable - but the themless garage and the weak theming around the ride is a shame for the park.
 
Looks like a great family coaster and will slot in well with the line up of coasters they already have established.
 
I hate how the temple is just... Floating in the air... For a park that created Oz'Iris it's a weird decision...

Still looks fun though, which is as expected...
 
Sorry to bump this thread, but I was just reading a BlooLoop article about Compagnie des Alpes (https://blooloop.com/features/compagnie-des-alpes-investment/), and I found some interesting stuff about Astérix, including:
  • They want to increase their current visitor numbers to between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 by 2021 in order to reclaim the title of France's 3rd most visited park, or France's most visited non-Disney park.
  • The park is due a major 5D ride in 2019.
These are some nice plans, but I do think that 2.5-3m visitors by 2021 is a tad ambitious.
 
From my own experience if busy Asterix, the last thing they want is 3 million people turning up. A quiet day park if ever there was one.

Link won't load for me, who's France number one non Disney if it's not Asterix?
 
According to the TEA report, Puy du Fou and Futuroscope rank higher, but I don't know if they're targeting the same market?
 
Those two places (I'm loathe to call Puy du Fou a park in the traditional sense) are completely different markets really, though I'm always surprised that Futuroscope does reasonably well attendance wise...
 
Have you been to Futuroscope?

It should be remembered that the French love shows and everything about them. They have light/sound/mapping shows on half the old buildings in France during the summer.

Futuroscope is a massive project and the park offers a wide range of activities for the whole family.

:)
 
I have actually, many years ago but I mostly remember it as a mixture of funky architecture and God awful simulators...
 
Futuroscope actually looks quite nice now, sort of like a European Epcot, without World Showcase!
 
Benzin said:
I have actually, many years ago but I mostly remember it as a mixture of funky architecture and God awful simulators...
Click to expand...

They have added quite a few new attractions and/or redeveloped old ones in the past 5 years.

Of course, it's still not a "theme park" in the conventional sense. But it's very French and very unusual.

:)
 
Looks like the park are planning an Intamin LSM coaster akin to Taron for 2021!

Source

There seems to be a lot of these popping up recently, with Kennywood rumoured to be getting one also. No complaints from me! :)
 
Have to say, Compagnie des Alpes really are splashing out of late, what with this news and all of the Walibi developments. I really have a soft spot for Asterix and any new development like this only serves to strengthen the lineup. I wonder how much if any of this would be in direct response to the changing winds at DLP down the road.

Compared to say 8 years ago the industry in France seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds. It's often felt like a bit of a dead spot. In that time though they've seen Monster, Oz'Iris, Alpina Blitz, next year's Infinity Coaster for Rhône-Alpes, whatever Futuroscope are planning for next year (though at €22M it's surely something big?) and now this. Seems as though the market has started to mature. For such a big country though it still feels like most of the investment is driven by a small number of parks. Hopefully we'll start to see more park like Nigloland used to be stepping up a gear.
 
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