Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Last week myself, @Sazzle and @Russell ventured to new lands for us, Poland! With Energylandia having grown somewhat enormously over the past 10 years it has been on the to-do list for a little while. And of course it would have been rude not to check in on Legendia whilst in the area. Not only that, we actually did some tourist/culture stuff, a rarity on these theme park jaunts!
Day 1 - Fly Out and Krakow
We flew out bright and early on Monday morning last week from Stansted airport, arriving at Krakow airport around midday. Very smooth flight with Ryanair (operated by Buzz, a delightful bumble bee) and we then collected our hire care which was a nearly brand new Toyota Corolla saloon. Perfectly decent car, not the most comfortable driving position; it did have Apple Car Play which made music and navigation simple and straightforward.
Our hotel was only a couple of minutes down the road, we had opted to base ourselves at the Hampton by Hilton Krakow Airport for this trip. It seemed like a good base and was a very new hotel, plus we would have an extremely early start for our journey home so being close to the airport meant no real travel time! The hotel turned out to be a great base! The room was a tad on the small side with 3 sharing, but other than that I couldn't fault it. A pretty good bar/restaurant also, we ate in the hotel on 3 three occasions and all of my meals (pasta, burger, Polish pork chop) were delicious!
After grabbing a quick sandwich we decided to head in to Krakow for the afternoon/evening. We all wanted to be able to have a drink, so got an Uber from our hotel to the centre of the city. Bonus of being right by the airport, there was always an Uber barely a minute away! I think it only cost about £5 for journey in to Krakow, and £8 back later that evening.
Krakow is such a beautiful city, the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is easy to see why. Wherever you look there is a wonderful old building, the main square is absolutely massive with ample places to eat and drink, and the castle/cathedral are a must see. We just had a wander around, enjoyed a couple of beers (or wines) and then found a lovely restaurant for what was the best meal of the trip. Following this a visit to a cocktail bar, and then it was back to our hotel for a good nights sleep ahead of what was set to be a busy day 2.
Day 2 - Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine
I feel that you can't come to this part of Poland and not visit Auschwitz. We all know of the atrocities that took place here, but seeing it all for yourself really helps you understand the sheer scale of what the Nazis did and how it was planned to every last little detail. We were on the official tour which I cannot recommend enough. Our tour guide was fantastic, set the right tone and gave what information was needed and then let what your eyes saw do the rest of the talking. It of course left us all feeling very sombre; I still find it difficult to comprehend how evil some humans can be, and how complicit others are.
So to brighten our moods, we had booked to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine in the afternoon, and were doing the Tourist Route tour. Wow, this was worth it and then some! As part of the tour and museum visit you only see about 1.5% of the entire mine complex, but it is quite astonishing. I don't want to give too much away, as part of our amazement was not knowing at all what to expect. But again, if you're in the area and have time, this is a must do attraction!
Day 3 - Legendia
Now on to the bits you're all far more interested in, the theme parks!
There is of course only one reason for visiting Legendia - finally being able to get on Twin Looper (formerly of American Adventure)... sorry, I mean Lech Coaster! Without Lech Coaster this park would not be close to being on a theme park enthusiasts radar. But as it is very easy to do with a trip to Energylandia it's more than worth popping in.
I had suspected that Legendia would be quiet, but not quite as quiet as it was. There cannot have been more than 300 people in the park, and even that might be me being a tad generous. At times it was like we'd hired the park out ourselves with not another guest in sight! The park will have lost money that day, unless there was a sudden influx of guests after we left (which was at about 4.30pm, with the park open until 7pm).
Needless to say that, after grabbing a coffee, we worked our way around to Lech Coaster and waiting for it to open at 11.30am. Managed to do it twice without leaving the station, front and back row, and we had the train to ourselves both times! So, my thoughts on the parks 3 coasters are as follows:
Lech Coaster
There is hype for this coaster (looking at you @Danny
), and hype for a coaster can be a dangerous thing. It can set your expectations too high, causing you to be let down when you experience it for yourself. I was really hoping that this wouldn't be the case with Lech, as ever since it opened back in 2017 I've thought it looked a top class coaster. The positioning of the coaster in the park is spot on, right across the lake from when you walk in. Needless to say that it dominates its surroundings, and that first drop from certain angles looks batshit. I also had not appreciated just how tall Lech is, and it is noticeable how the rest of the coaster is much lower to the ground compared to the lift/first drop.
Anyway, did Lech deliver? Short answer: yes. Our first couple of rides in the morning were good, and then once it had warmed up later in the day it went to another level. This coaster is an unrelenting beast, and once warmed up there was one section where I nearly greyed out each time. This fast, intense, crazy coaster is made a delight to ride by the brilliant new Vekoma trains complete with vest restraints that B&M should take a look at when it comes to comfort. There is no locking of the vest, meaning that when there is airtime to be had, you do pop up. I was worried that vest restraints as opposed to over the head lap restraints would ruin Lech, but they did not at all. Lech is also perfectly smooth. How did Vekoma go from being so bad to so good?
Lech Coaster is also really well themed with various near missed and an inversion through the impressive station building. There is also a pre-show, however this was not running during our visit, probably because of how dead the park was.
Devil's Loop
Ahh, the former Twin Looper, @Sazzle was in her element here. As previously eluded to, I never went to American Adventure so never rode this when it was on our own shores. But now I would get the chance to Soquet and see what it was all about. Right turn the ride, as I like to call it, was actually not as bad as I was expected. Pretty smooth, albeit very unrefined. The shared OTSRs are an interesting contraption. There's nothing more to say really, it's presented well and does a job.
Dream Hunters Society
I've been riding coaster for 15 years now, yet until this day I had not ridden any iterations of a Zyklon/Galaxi coaster. These look crap, are pretty crap, but it was a good laugh; sounds like the front of the car is more comfortable than the back. Very much a one and done.
As for the rest of Legendia, there is not a whole lot to shout about. The park's rapid's, which opened in 2020, are from Hafema and are not massively dissimilar to those at Toverland. Very pretty, you don't get too wet, but they would have been enhanced by some audio. There is also an ETF interactive trackless dark ride, Bazyliszek, which for a park like Legnedia is pretty impressive. It's not a patch on something like Symbolica but a really solid and decently themed family ride. Tricky to find the entrnace to the queue though, they clearly build too much queue line and have turned much of in to an arcade/kids play area!
We had been hoping to sit with a drink by Lech Coaster, however this large food outlet was closed during our visit. Not really surprising, having it open would have been throwing money down the drain. There were actually only 2 food outlets open in the park; one at the end of the entrance street and one in the same building as the dark ride. We opted for pizza near the entrance for lunch, where our pizza was freshly made and cooked - delicious!
Legendia is a really well presented park. Clearly there are areas that need work, and there are still a lot of temporary fairground rides. But you can see with new investments that they do want to go down a themed experience route, which is great. Like everywhere we went in Poland it was spotlessly clean, Polish people clearly take more pride in keeping their environments clean and tidy than we do here in the UK.
It was back to our hotel after we had finished with the park, and then an Uber just down the road to a traditional Polish style restaurant which felt like a cross between Silver Lake Saloon and EP and Rutmor's Tavern at Phantasialand for what was another delicious meal.
Days 4 and 5 at Energylandia will follow!
Day 1 - Fly Out and Krakow
We flew out bright and early on Monday morning last week from Stansted airport, arriving at Krakow airport around midday. Very smooth flight with Ryanair (operated by Buzz, a delightful bumble bee) and we then collected our hire care which was a nearly brand new Toyota Corolla saloon. Perfectly decent car, not the most comfortable driving position; it did have Apple Car Play which made music and navigation simple and straightforward.
Our hotel was only a couple of minutes down the road, we had opted to base ourselves at the Hampton by Hilton Krakow Airport for this trip. It seemed like a good base and was a very new hotel, plus we would have an extremely early start for our journey home so being close to the airport meant no real travel time! The hotel turned out to be a great base! The room was a tad on the small side with 3 sharing, but other than that I couldn't fault it. A pretty good bar/restaurant also, we ate in the hotel on 3 three occasions and all of my meals (pasta, burger, Polish pork chop) were delicious!
After grabbing a quick sandwich we decided to head in to Krakow for the afternoon/evening. We all wanted to be able to have a drink, so got an Uber from our hotel to the centre of the city. Bonus of being right by the airport, there was always an Uber barely a minute away! I think it only cost about £5 for journey in to Krakow, and £8 back later that evening.
Krakow is such a beautiful city, the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is easy to see why. Wherever you look there is a wonderful old building, the main square is absolutely massive with ample places to eat and drink, and the castle/cathedral are a must see. We just had a wander around, enjoyed a couple of beers (or wines) and then found a lovely restaurant for what was the best meal of the trip. Following this a visit to a cocktail bar, and then it was back to our hotel for a good nights sleep ahead of what was set to be a busy day 2.
Day 2 - Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine
I feel that you can't come to this part of Poland and not visit Auschwitz. We all know of the atrocities that took place here, but seeing it all for yourself really helps you understand the sheer scale of what the Nazis did and how it was planned to every last little detail. We were on the official tour which I cannot recommend enough. Our tour guide was fantastic, set the right tone and gave what information was needed and then let what your eyes saw do the rest of the talking. It of course left us all feeling very sombre; I still find it difficult to comprehend how evil some humans can be, and how complicit others are.
So to brighten our moods, we had booked to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine in the afternoon, and were doing the Tourist Route tour. Wow, this was worth it and then some! As part of the tour and museum visit you only see about 1.5% of the entire mine complex, but it is quite astonishing. I don't want to give too much away, as part of our amazement was not knowing at all what to expect. But again, if you're in the area and have time, this is a must do attraction!
Day 3 - Legendia
Now on to the bits you're all far more interested in, the theme parks!
There is of course only one reason for visiting Legendia - finally being able to get on Twin Looper (formerly of American Adventure)... sorry, I mean Lech Coaster! Without Lech Coaster this park would not be close to being on a theme park enthusiasts radar. But as it is very easy to do with a trip to Energylandia it's more than worth popping in.
I had suspected that Legendia would be quiet, but not quite as quiet as it was. There cannot have been more than 300 people in the park, and even that might be me being a tad generous. At times it was like we'd hired the park out ourselves with not another guest in sight! The park will have lost money that day, unless there was a sudden influx of guests after we left (which was at about 4.30pm, with the park open until 7pm).
Needless to say that, after grabbing a coffee, we worked our way around to Lech Coaster and waiting for it to open at 11.30am. Managed to do it twice without leaving the station, front and back row, and we had the train to ourselves both times! So, my thoughts on the parks 3 coasters are as follows:
Lech Coaster
There is hype for this coaster (looking at you @Danny
), and hype for a coaster can be a dangerous thing. It can set your expectations too high, causing you to be let down when you experience it for yourself. I was really hoping that this wouldn't be the case with Lech, as ever since it opened back in 2017 I've thought it looked a top class coaster. The positioning of the coaster in the park is spot on, right across the lake from when you walk in. Needless to say that it dominates its surroundings, and that first drop from certain angles looks batshit. I also had not appreciated just how tall Lech is, and it is noticeable how the rest of the coaster is much lower to the ground compared to the lift/first drop.Anyway, did Lech deliver? Short answer: yes. Our first couple of rides in the morning were good, and then once it had warmed up later in the day it went to another level. This coaster is an unrelenting beast, and once warmed up there was one section where I nearly greyed out each time. This fast, intense, crazy coaster is made a delight to ride by the brilliant new Vekoma trains complete with vest restraints that B&M should take a look at when it comes to comfort. There is no locking of the vest, meaning that when there is airtime to be had, you do pop up. I was worried that vest restraints as opposed to over the head lap restraints would ruin Lech, but they did not at all. Lech is also perfectly smooth. How did Vekoma go from being so bad to so good?
Lech Coaster is also really well themed with various near missed and an inversion through the impressive station building. There is also a pre-show, however this was not running during our visit, probably because of how dead the park was.
Devil's Loop
Ahh, the former Twin Looper, @Sazzle was in her element here. As previously eluded to, I never went to American Adventure so never rode this when it was on our own shores. But now I would get the chance to Soquet and see what it was all about. Right turn the ride, as I like to call it, was actually not as bad as I was expected. Pretty smooth, albeit very unrefined. The shared OTSRs are an interesting contraption. There's nothing more to say really, it's presented well and does a job.
Dream Hunters Society
I've been riding coaster for 15 years now, yet until this day I had not ridden any iterations of a Zyklon/Galaxi coaster. These look crap, are pretty crap, but it was a good laugh; sounds like the front of the car is more comfortable than the back. Very much a one and done.
As for the rest of Legendia, there is not a whole lot to shout about. The park's rapid's, which opened in 2020, are from Hafema and are not massively dissimilar to those at Toverland. Very pretty, you don't get too wet, but they would have been enhanced by some audio. There is also an ETF interactive trackless dark ride, Bazyliszek, which for a park like Legnedia is pretty impressive. It's not a patch on something like Symbolica but a really solid and decently themed family ride. Tricky to find the entrnace to the queue though, they clearly build too much queue line and have turned much of in to an arcade/kids play area!
We had been hoping to sit with a drink by Lech Coaster, however this large food outlet was closed during our visit. Not really surprising, having it open would have been throwing money down the drain. There were actually only 2 food outlets open in the park; one at the end of the entrance street and one in the same building as the dark ride. We opted for pizza near the entrance for lunch, where our pizza was freshly made and cooked - delicious!
Legendia is a really well presented park. Clearly there are areas that need work, and there are still a lot of temporary fairground rides. But you can see with new investments that they do want to go down a themed experience route, which is great. Like everywhere we went in Poland it was spotlessly clean, Polish people clearly take more pride in keeping their environments clean and tidy than we do here in the UK.
It was back to our hotel after we had finished with the park, and then an Uber just down the road to a traditional Polish style restaurant which felt like a cross between Silver Lake Saloon and EP and Rutmor's Tavern at Phantasialand for what was another delicious meal.
Days 4 and 5 at Energylandia will follow!
