Pedro
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Expedition Ge Force
I didn’t know what to think about this park after all the episodes of the past years and during the closed season. After lots of painting, refurbishments, and a delayed start for the season, the park has reopened with a new management and new ambitions. (If you want to know what happened, just have a look on the appropriate topic here)
As I had no opinion about all this and it's only 1h30 from here, there was one thing to do: to visit it again! My last (and only) visit was in 2010 with some of you, I never wanted to go back after that day.
Apparently the park has had a great summer season, with lots of guests, thanks to a great weather. So I waited for it to be more quiet, and decided to go in September.
We were at the entrance at 10.10 am, the park was opening at 10.30. First impression was really good, the entrance has been repainted and it does look quite nice, with the new logo and mascotte everywhere (if you like pink and green).
I won’t give you a detailed trip report, I’ll just leave my impression as it comes, and compare before/after.
View from the carpark.
Theming:
As said lots of painting has been done, but there is even more to do! The park looks aged and even if some areas are renewed, it still miss something to make it great. The mack monorail, for example, looks out of age, and monster hasn’t be repainted since it was brought from Japan (except from the lift this year). But it still is far better than what it was, when the park was in ruin last year. I’m sure you all remember seeing some incredible pics... It will take years to be all done.
New entrance!
Rides :
Walygator = Monster : The massive B&M invert coming from Japan. No changes for this one, still is an amazing coaster, with an interesting layout and really intense. No theming has been added.
Changes for this year were somewhere else. The Space shot (Dark Tower), and the topple tower (Tang’Or) were fixed, and they were opened at the beginning of the season after being SBNO for 3 years. We tried the Space shot, but sadly the Tang’Or was, once again, SBNO. They have too many problems with it, and it will be removed at the end of the year.
Anaconda, the wooden coaster, has been partly retracked by GCI, but still is really bad! More retracking will be done in the closed season. Waly coaster, the old Vekoma still is the smoothest old wekoma I ever rode, but that doesn’t make it a great coaster!
The water rides (Flume + raft) were cleaned, so the water isn’t green anymore. And I really enjoyed both of them! The raft was very wet, as it was in 2010, but this time with clear (and not stinky) water.
If you’d like some memories from 2010, I let you watch this videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fh1hpzN5yw#
The terror house is closed for 2013 and 2014 and will be replaced by a new dark ride in 2015.
All of the attractions are now tested and approved by the TUV, as you can see on a sticker in every single ride. Maintenance seems to be good, we had some small problems, but they were quickly solved.
New ride for this year was a carrousel, nothing speical to say about it.
Monster, the 1st B&M coaster in France, but without any theming.
Food:
That was certainly one of the darkest points in old Walygator, and it’s what has changed the most. We went for a pizza in the main street, and it was really good! And more generally everything from crepes to burgers looks great! Even if I heard about those changes, I was really surprised.
Operations:
As the park was really quiet today, operations were not bad. Except for the 2 major coaster Anaconda and Monster : Staff was waiting to fill the trains. Monster wasn’t dispatched with less than 20 guest, Anaconda 16. And it was so busy that we waited 20min sat in Anaconda, waiting for people to come!
Shows:
We did 2 shows, 1 was a magic show, was impressive and great.
The other was some kind of Stunt show named X-treme show. It was really cheap, and short (13min)
I can’t compare this to 2010 as we didn’t do any show, but it was OK for a small park like Walygator.
Conclusion : Walygator 2010 or Walygator 2013?
No surprise, 2013 wins by far! The staff has done a great job in very little time! The park is far better than what it was with its old owners (Brother Le Douarin). But it was so down, that everything couldn’t be fixed in 3 month, and it still is partly disappointing. Sure the new management is on the right way, but they haven’t done half of it. It will need a few more years, and a lot of money, to make this park become a real good park. For example all the toilets are in prefabricated containers, it was too damage to be opened and they had no time to rebuilt it.
Let’s hope they will succeed, they seem to be motivated, and I’m sure it has potential!
Thanks for reading! Once again sorry if my English isn’t perfect.
I apologize for the number of photos, I left my camera in my friend’s car, so photos will come later when I can get it back.
As I had no opinion about all this and it's only 1h30 from here, there was one thing to do: to visit it again! My last (and only) visit was in 2010 with some of you, I never wanted to go back after that day.
Apparently the park has had a great summer season, with lots of guests, thanks to a great weather. So I waited for it to be more quiet, and decided to go in September.
We were at the entrance at 10.10 am, the park was opening at 10.30. First impression was really good, the entrance has been repainted and it does look quite nice, with the new logo and mascotte everywhere (if you like pink and green).
I won’t give you a detailed trip report, I’ll just leave my impression as it comes, and compare before/after.
View from the carpark.
Theming:
As said lots of painting has been done, but there is even more to do! The park looks aged and even if some areas are renewed, it still miss something to make it great. The mack monorail, for example, looks out of age, and monster hasn’t be repainted since it was brought from Japan (except from the lift this year). But it still is far better than what it was, when the park was in ruin last year. I’m sure you all remember seeing some incredible pics... It will take years to be all done.
New entrance!
Rides :
Walygator = Monster : The massive B&M invert coming from Japan. No changes for this one, still is an amazing coaster, with an interesting layout and really intense. No theming has been added.
Changes for this year were somewhere else. The Space shot (Dark Tower), and the topple tower (Tang’Or) were fixed, and they were opened at the beginning of the season after being SBNO for 3 years. We tried the Space shot, but sadly the Tang’Or was, once again, SBNO. They have too many problems with it, and it will be removed at the end of the year.
Anaconda, the wooden coaster, has been partly retracked by GCI, but still is really bad! More retracking will be done in the closed season. Waly coaster, the old Vekoma still is the smoothest old wekoma I ever rode, but that doesn’t make it a great coaster!
The water rides (Flume + raft) were cleaned, so the water isn’t green anymore. And I really enjoyed both of them! The raft was very wet, as it was in 2010, but this time with clear (and not stinky) water.
If you’d like some memories from 2010, I let you watch this videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fh1hpzN5yw#
The terror house is closed for 2013 and 2014 and will be replaced by a new dark ride in 2015.
All of the attractions are now tested and approved by the TUV, as you can see on a sticker in every single ride. Maintenance seems to be good, we had some small problems, but they were quickly solved.
New ride for this year was a carrousel, nothing speical to say about it.
Monster, the 1st B&M coaster in France, but without any theming.
Food:
That was certainly one of the darkest points in old Walygator, and it’s what has changed the most. We went for a pizza in the main street, and it was really good! And more generally everything from crepes to burgers looks great! Even if I heard about those changes, I was really surprised.
Operations:
As the park was really quiet today, operations were not bad. Except for the 2 major coaster Anaconda and Monster : Staff was waiting to fill the trains. Monster wasn’t dispatched with less than 20 guest, Anaconda 16. And it was so busy that we waited 20min sat in Anaconda, waiting for people to come!
Shows:
We did 2 shows, 1 was a magic show, was impressive and great.
The other was some kind of Stunt show named X-treme show. It was really cheap, and short (13min)
I can’t compare this to 2010 as we didn’t do any show, but it was OK for a small park like Walygator.
Conclusion : Walygator 2010 or Walygator 2013?
No surprise, 2013 wins by far! The staff has done a great job in very little time! The park is far better than what it was with its old owners (Brother Le Douarin). But it was so down, that everything couldn’t be fixed in 3 month, and it still is partly disappointing. Sure the new management is on the right way, but they haven’t done half of it. It will need a few more years, and a lot of money, to make this park become a real good park. For example all the toilets are in prefabricated containers, it was too damage to be opened and they had no time to rebuilt it.
Let’s hope they will succeed, they seem to be motivated, and I’m sure it has potential!
Thanks for reading! Once again sorry if my English isn’t perfect.
I apologize for the number of photos, I left my camera in my friend’s car, so photos will come later when I can get it back.
