Walibi Holland: General Discussion

[Lordy]

It's like they're teasing us with "this is what The Smiler could have been"

XD

 

[Rob]

It's not the best but here is a testing video from Walibi Holland's Snapchat:

 

[TheMan]

Looks weird!!

And put a proper testing video up for goodness sake, what the f was that?!

Courtesy:
http://themeparkfreaks.eu/2016/02/d...lost-gravity-in-walibi-holland-zijn-een-feit/

 

[DanJB]

Doesn't show too much, but it's better than the official video:

That first drop looks great!

 

[Sammy]

So let's take a moment to appreciate quite how terrifying those outside seats are going to be on the first drop!

(Images: @Laurensvheerde Twitter)

Literally... WOW!

 

[Rob]

Holy crap, that almost doesn't look safe! Can't wait for this.

 

[Sammy]

Holy crap, that almost doesn't look safe! Can't wait for this.

The one time I'd actually quite like a vest restraint!

 

[Benzin]

It's almost tempting to return just for this... But I don't think I can really justify it...

 

[TheMan]

Seems to go slowly through some of those inversions but absolutely rockets through other aspects so can only assume it's designed that way!

Front left seat as you look at it - YES PLEASE!!!!

Now all they need to do is fit 15 inversions onto a 50p piece and Gerst's market is chomped.

Though with Karnan they upped the game again.

Coaster building is creeping towards another halcyon age.

One of these is going to come up with a new concept soon that will equal the B&M inverter impact. (I don't think the 4D has ever really lived up to that).

What it will be though, goodness knows.

 

[CGM]

Coaster building is creeping towards another halcyon age

Creeping towards? I'd say we're already in it! The only improvement I can think of would be if a few more RMCs made their way over to Europe. The same goes for Macks in the US.

 

[TheMan]

Creeping towards? I'd say we're already in it! The only improvement I can think of would be if a few more RMCs made their way over to Europe. The same goes for Macks in the US.

No I don't think we are yet, there's improvements taking place, and I don't really class the RMC as this amazing innovation like an inverted was. It's clever, but I don't think it's that "wow" innovation.

At some point, because of the intense competition now, it's going to take someone coming up with something sublime to stand out from the crowd.

Really, the SFX coasters are on the way - but what I'd like to see, is something like that bought OUTDOORS and integrated into a monster of a coaster - that kind of thing, or the SFX done inverted. That would be frankly insane.

But that's the kind of impact the B&M inverted had when it arrived. It was just leagues ahead of everything else, blitzed the competition into submission.

So this little Mack at Walibi, is Mack poking at other markets - ultimately though, I think it may well be them that do it.

Whatever "it" turns out to be....

 

[Martin]

Yeah I came to the realisation a while ago, we are definitely in a new golden age. RMC have revolutionised wooden coasters probably even more than CCI did, let alone GCI and GG. Mack seemingly can't do no wrong, even Gerstlauer are producing ridiculous rides, not to mention Lagoon's new in-house coaster is just as good, if not better, than what the established manufacturers are doing. Intamin are still a bit hit and miss and B&M still aren't what they were, but when they get it right, they really do, and the wealth of types, technologies and designs available now are just so far ahead of any other time in history, and crucially, more accessible than ever.

There's nothing standing out because everything is so good. It would be nice if something comes along and changes everything in the way the inverted coaster did or even B&M in general did, but I don't think that's possible now with the quality being so high to start with. When B&M came on the scene, the major player was Arrow, and god loves a trier but they over night they became positively archaic. Schwartzkopf et al had already been cracking heartlining and stuff before, but no one had really applied it to big coasters like B&M did with their multi-loopers. They pushed Arrow and Morgan into hyper territory for a while, and then took over that too, proving even >200ft coasters could be smooth and well designed. By the time Arrow caught up with their Dollywood coaster it was too late. We won't see anything like that again because apart from Intamin's 'quirks' and B&M's tendency to be too conservative, the industry leaders now actually know what they're doing. But the rise of Mack and RMC is pushing everyone forward. Looking at stuff like Helix and Taron it's hard not to think we're in a golden age.

 

[TheMan]

I still don't think we're there yet.

We are in terms of quality and choice no doubt.

All industries take leaps forward.

It's due a BIG one. The game changer.

VR isn't it.

But I do think it will be Mack that do it.

 

[Ted]

I agree that B&M and Intamin are no longer the top dogs in the coaster industry, and also that we are in a new golden age. It was only as little as 12 years ago that it was the norm that, with a few exceptions, all the renown coasters were B&Ms and/or Intamins. If you're park didn't have one of them, then you'd probably had a rough Vekoma or Arrow, or even a Maurer as your top thrill coaster.

However with the rise of Gerst and Mack in the industry, there's a hell of a lot more competition and smaller parks can boast about having a good Gerst coaster nowadays. Look at Oakwood, Speed is regarded as a great ride and Hansa Park have two Gerst coasters as their line ups and they both look great! Hell even Smiler, at a big park, is a brilliant ride (even if it's been a technical nightmare).

Mack in particular though, I reckon in 10 years time few people will them as a company that makes just powered famiyl coasters. Helix and Blue Fire are two of the best coasters to have been built in the past few years, and what with Blackpool Pleasure Beach apparently getting a Mega Coaster, their is a hell of a lot of excitement and anticipation from them. Not to mention there's this new mental coaster at Walibi Holland as well.

We have a few interesting and exciting years in the theme park industry ahead for us!

 

[AstroDan]

It is like an El Loco / Gerstlauer in one!

 

[CGM]

I still don't think we're there yet.

We are in terms of quality and choice no doubt.

All industries take leaps forward.

It's due a BIG one. The game changer.

VR isn't it.

But I do think it will be Mack that do it.

I think if you are holding out for the next big thing, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. I honestly don't think we'll see the likes of the B&M inverter again in terms of the impact it had on the industry. Here is my reasoning:

Throughout the 90s, the coaster industry was built on gimmicks. Essentially, even the B&M inverter is a gimmick. It's just a looping coaster suspended beneath the track. The thing is that the level of engineering and ride quality that B&M brought to the table was so far beyond any of their competitors, no one thought of it that way. What could have been an early 90s fad like the standup coaster or the Arrow suspended became an instant classic of coaster design and soon every major manufacturer had their own version.

No doubt partly due to the success of the invert, B&M continued to lead the way in producing weird and wonderful seating arrangements and a host of other quirky innovations. The other manufacturers did their bit too.

The problem was that around the turn of the millennium, pretty much every configuration that was worth doing had been done. We had inverted coasters, flying coasters, standup coasters, swinging suspended coasters, launch coasters, shuttle coasters, spinning coasters, coasters that go backwards, coasters with vertical drops, coasters without floors and even coasters with seats that flip.

With the number of ways it is possible to sit near a track exhausted, It was becoming harder and harder for parks to market coasters based on gimmicks alone. Around the time that floorless coasters became popular was when it started reaching barrel scraping levels.

As a result of this, for a brief period, the coaster world became an arms race with parks striving to build the tallest and fastest rides. The biggest players were obviously Magic Mountain and Cedar Point but the trend was everywhere. If you can't have the fastest ride in the world, you can still have the tallest / fastest ride in the continent or country or state.

Launch coasters came into their own here making it possible to easily one-up the competition by adding a few extra mph to the launch. Unfortunately, many of these rides were built only with the record statistic in mind and outside of that, they lacked substance or length. Eventually, this trend stopped being economically viable. Cedar Point spent $25 million on Top Thrill Dragster only for Kingda Ka to pip it a few years later. You could easily end up spending tens of millions on breaking a record only for it to be snatched away the next year and be left with a somewhat underwhelming ride with its main marketing point taken away. Case in point: Stealth.

So that brings us to the era we're currently in. With the height and speed ceilings limited by budget and the old guard desperately trying to wring out new gimmicks like drop tracks and wing coasters, the likes of Mack and RMC started building coasters that were just plain good. Instead of spending the budget on new fancy trains or breaking records, it went towards building coasters that are well paced, have a decent length, that are well integrated into the terrain, with never seen before, mind-bending elements. Basically, coasters that put ride experience before short term marketing appeal.

Recently, the more established manufacturers have cottoned on and we have rides like Fury 325 and Taron. We now have the kinds of coasters that used to only exist on NoLimits track exchanges. They don't necessarily have the wow factor of the B&M invert's unveiling but I do believe that the coasters being built today are the best that have ever existed.

It used to be the case that there were only a handful of truly exceptional coasters in the world. But now, more and more are being built every year. That's why I believe it's a great time to be a coaster enthusiast and that we should enjoy where we are now rather than waiting for the next big thing.

 

[Sammy]

Soooo it would appear that 'Lost Gravity' is set to have a song as its soundtrack or at least part of it.

Looping report that Walibi Holland have drafted in Dutch/Polish raper Mr. Polska to write them a song, which is titled 'Move Up (Lost Gravity)' a sample of which can be heard in the video from Wonder World Web below.



It's interesting. Now I know I may well be a fan boy, but I'm sure most will agree. At least You Me At Six's - The Swarm actually fits the theme of the ride! That said... What is the theme of this ride?!

 

[Rob]

It's interesting. Now I know I may well be a fan boy, but I'm sure most will agree. At least You Me At Six's - The Swarm actually fits the theme of the ride! That said... What is the theme of this ride?!

I'm not sure even Walibi know that! Heard this song last night, I assume it is being done largely for marketing purposes. The theming of this ride is seemingly going to be very random though.

 

[TheMan]

Wut.

I watched a video on how it's proven beyond all doubt music is becoming dumbed down.

I didn't get to Towers last season, but listening to the Nemesis track last night gave me chills.

It's just on a different level to stuff like this.

I don't get it, it's (insert your choice of four letter swear word here, feel free to add more)

 

[Benzin]

It's no Psyke Underground, which is clearly the vibe they've gone for (club style), but it fits Psyke Underground since it's actually meant to be themed to a nightclub... Plus their on-board soundtrack for the Boomerang that they changed last year (from the far superior "Hello World" remix, the buggers)...

Of course, out of context YMAS' song is bloody weird for a ride...