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Walibi Holland - 1st July 2019

So, over the end of June I went to the Netherlands to go to the Dutch GP, and didn't intend on visiting any parks. I was following Untamed, but didn't think it would be quite ready. Then I checked the opening date. The day after the race, Untamed opened, and my plans changed very quickly.

A Monday grand opening outside of Holiday time seems weird, but it came to Monday and I got the train over from Assen to Harderwijk station about 20 minutes away from Walibi. From what I knew beforehand, you pay on this bus with card, or their equivalent to the metrocard which I used. Buses came every half hour, so we got the train at around 9:00, and by the time we got off the bus at Walibi it was around 10:30.


The park itself, what can I say? I expected something similar to parks such as Thorpe or the six flags parks, not particularly Aesthetically nice, and a lot of upselling, but I couldn't be more wrong. This park is absolutely beautiful, from the planting, fountains and general landscaping, to the rides themselves. The only parks I've visited that challenge it for aesthetics in my opinion are Liseberg and Towers. However, unlike Liseberg it isn't small, but it isn't large. Larger than Thorpe but not near the scale of Alton Towers, and it was laid out rather simplistically and easy to work out what was where.


Enough about the park itself, onto the coasters! This park currently has seven coasters, the only one I didn't ride being Drako. Queues weren't too bad at all, and I managed to ride every coaster I wanted to multiple times. I won't go in depth onto flats, as the ones I did do were very similar to what we have here however blast was the best, wettest top spin I've been on, although it did open later on.

I didn't do any rides other than the few flats and the coasters but I'll probably be heading back, so if I've missed some non coaster gems please let me know.


The first coaster of the day was Lost Gravity. I'd heard mixed reviews heading into this, some people rating it highly, some people not particularly big fans. My first thoughts were that it looked unique, from the colour scheme, the theming, trains and the layout and in that sense I was spot on. The general theme suited the ride, tables upside down, helicopters crashed, some fire effects. Hell, in the queue there's even an elevator (a static one, however). The ride itself is the best "compact" coaster I've been on (euro fighters, El Locos etc) and offers a good range of inversions, drops and airtime with a very unique seating arrangement and feel. My 11th overall coaster. In one word? underrated!

The second coaster I rode was Xpress: Platform 13. This was the one I didn't know much about at all, and I don't want to spoil it too much so all I'm going to say is I was not expecting that! Outstanding theming for the average vekoma thrill coaster, probably my favourite queue line. The ride itself I didn't know much about other than it was vekoma, it launched and had a sea serpent roll, but that's the basic overview. It's smoother than what I expected by far, and had a nice kick to the whole ride. Another great themed ride, with a decent layout that was good. Probably about 20th, better than rides such as Rita, Galactica and Ninferno. Definitely one that exceeded expectations by far and was probably the biggest suprise, although it did die out towards the end.


Next up I rode Goliath. What a coaster. Not quite a hypercoaster, but more airtime than anything in the UK and a fantastic first drop. Top class. A fantastic first drop, the stengel dive is incredible and it carried its speed through the turns very nicely. The bunny hops towards the end were another highlight for me, a lot more airtime than I expected and definitely a back row coaster. You get airtime at the front, for sure but it's not as good. The most pleasing coaster on the eye within the park.


Onto the one I dreaded heading into the day.. El condor. Standard SLC. Only more painful. Ouch ouch ouch. Weirdly, it wasn't as bad as I expected, and not worse the insane, or Hero. Leaning forward as tense as you can cut out all the headbanging I found, but only after the first inversion. Would ride again and probably manage to not hate it. Not much else to say other than that, however yet again, it is presented nicely.


Then something happened that I only found out today, I met a milestone. 100 creds! I had no idea, as I was at 87 last time I added them up. My 100th credit turned out to be the coaster I had waited for, Untamed! There was press rides before hand which meant it opened at 3 and therefore I managed to get two rides in, one at 3:20 after a 20 minute wait, and one at the very end of the day, with a not much higher wait time. The whole wilderness area is very nicely landscaped, the queue offers nice views of the coaster and moved very quickly. The station itself fits in well to the theme, as do the other buildings around.

The trains look stunning in person and my first ride took place in the 2nd row. Summing it up, airtime machine is what comes to mind. As soon as you drop you leave your seat, every inversion, you leave your seat and even the smallest of hills send you flying. The most airtime I've had in a coaster, and competing for my number one spot ahead of Wildfire and Helix, which were all very very close after this ride.

I've always said I'm an fan of inversions other airtime, but to be a top coaster for me, it needs a mix of both, which Untamed does perfectly. It doesn't let up. As one of the earlier riders I thought it might be a little slow, and this wasn't the case. I wasn't sure if it beat wildfire but it was a lot better paced towards the end.

Got off, and got a complimentary ice lolly. To my horror though, the stick came out of the box, but the big chunk of ice didn't. Bugger. Was nice though! The whole ceremony was done well, and had that special buzz around it you only get on opening days. No one in front of you knows what to expect, no one behind you has ridden before.

Onto my second ride which was in the very back row just after close. Wow. I thought the pacing was good before, and all of a sudden it had got even better, it became faster, more intense, even more airtime and an incredible whip through every element. Think of Icon in the morning of its opening day, slower than a snail, compared to the last ride of the day on icon. Only imagine the first ride on untamed is paced like late afternoon icon, and the second ride is 5x better, minimum. Absolutely incredible.

The last time I came off a coaster like that was after my first ever ride on the smiler, and I somehow think its going to be hard to beat within Europe. The gap between Untamed and Wildfire/Helix isn't close for me, it's levels ahead of both. Honestly I can't wait to ride it again, and I'm certain I will.


The final coaster I rode was Speed Of Sound. Meh. Better than your average boomerang due to the tunnel and comfier restraints, but still an average coaster just with a funky feel. The least impressive coaster of the park, but still good.

Ranking the coasters
1. Untamed
2. Goliath
3. Lost Gravity
4. Xpress
5. Speed Of Sound
6. El Condor

And that top 4, is the best top 4 at any park I've been to, beating Thorpe, Towers, Liseberg, Grona Lund, BPB, Mingo,you get the feeling. Every single one of them in the top 20. 1st, 8th, 11th, and 18th

Pre Walibi
1. Wildfire
2. Helix
3.Icon
4. Nemesis
5.The Smiler
6.Stealth
7. The Swarm
8. Balder
9. Kanonen
10. Lisebergbanan

Then inferno, Jetline, Saw, Velocity, Colossus, Revolution, Twister (Grona), Oblivion are top 20 rides for perspective.

Post Walibi
1. Untamed
2. Wildfire
3. Helix
4. Icon
5. Nemesis
6. The Smiler
7. Stealth
8. Goliath
9. The Swarm
10. Balder
11. Lost Gravity
12. Kanonen
13. Lisbergbanan
14. Colossus
15. Saw
16. Jetline
17. Oblivion
18. Xpress
19. Nemesis Inferno
20. Speed

Personally, that top 11 is in a league of their own compared to other coasters I've ridden, and Walibi is the second best Park I have visited behind Liseberg. A beautiful park with a fantastic line up of rides.
 
Really glad you enjoyed the park - we seem to share very similar views of the place.
The final coaster I rode was Speed Of Sound. Meh. Better than your average boomerang due to the tunnel and comfier restraints, but still an average coaster just with a funky feel. The least impressive coaster of the park, but still good.
Did your on-board audio work? I've ridden both with and without, and it definitely improves the ride experience if it's working properly. "Buckle up, it's a THRILLLLL RIIIIIIIIIDE!"
 
Really glad you enjoyed the park - we seem to share very similar views of the place.

Did your on-board audio work? I've ridden both with and without, and it definitely improves the ride experience if it's working properly. "Buckle up, it's a THRILLLLL RIIIIIIIIIDE!"
No, imagine it would've added to the ride though. I did like the ride and much preferred it to the other boomerang, but once you've done a couple you've done them all. Definitely the most unique one despite the lack of on board audio.
 
No, imagine it would've added to the ride though. I did like the ride and much preferred it to the other boomerang, but once you've done a couple you've done them all. Definitely the most unique one despite the lack of on board audio.
Ah that's such a shame. I've only had it on 1 of the 3 rides I've had on it, and it makes it much better!
 
Nice report Ryan, Walibi Holland is pretty decent imo. Like a better Dutch version of Thorpe. Not sure about the latest graffiti style art they've added to Merlins castle though!

Slightly off topic but as a fellow bike enthusiast / motogp fan, I'd be more interested to see your review of Assen!
 
Nice report Ryan, Walibi Holland is pretty decent imo. Like a better Dutch version of Thorpe. Not sure about the latest graffiti style art they've added to Merlins castle though!

Slightly off topic but as a fellow bike enthusiast / motogp fan, I'd be more interested to see your review of Assen!
Really was a fantastic park, if there's one thing I regret it was missing out the water rides, however I don't know what they were like.
In terms of Assen it's the best circuit I've visited out of the 4 (Silverstone, Valencia, PI). I do think PI offers better racing but you could see a lot more of the circuit and roam around a lot more. TT fest is also in assen city at the same time so I went with a few of my Dutch friends, good selection of rides. Most insane wild mouse I've been on, something that looked vaguely like a tagada but on steroids, a slingshot, starflyer and afterburner as well as more. In terms of atmosphere it's fantastic. Geert timmer chicane were the best seats and we spent most of Saturday there, but there's also a hill at the far end of the circuit where you can see down into the return/ramshoek where the fastest corners are. Raceday we had seats in stekkenwal which were good, because they were higher up and I just about could see over the fence enough to see the race winning overtake. Can't recommend it enough!
 
I like Walibi Holland but I don't find the park as nice as somewhere like Alton Towers. Probably the final ounce of fanboyism within me after all these years.

I look forward to riding Untamed in due course and comparing with other RMCs!

I can't rank coasters anymore. I just know my top couple but beyond that nope!

:)

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