Burbs
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Iron Gwazi
In my valliant attempts of third-wheeling around the world, I’m currently sat in Vienna Airport Terminal 1 having spent a few days with my good friends @Rowe and @Cheese, after our weekend of Wiener Pratting. We’ve had quite a jaunt around the city, ticking off lots of sights and touristy bits, but the main Prater the trip, of course, was a visit to one of the world’s oldest permanent fairgrounds!
We visited the Prater on Sunday, with a better-than-anticipated looking weather forecast, and a substantial list of rides and coasters we wanted to experience. The long and short of it is that it is a place full of largely crap oddities. I can only really describe it as a more permanent version of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, but each ride being about half the price you’d expect to pay there, which was of course very welcome.
It’s a very affordable day out, if you’re intending to do a couple of rides and soak up the atmosphere (unlike HPWW which feels like a financial investment regardless of how many rides you do), but as someone with a list of 10 coasters and several flat- and dark rides to do, I easily went through €60-70 in total, and coming away with not much to show for it in the whole grand scheme of things. We had a very good day, mind, in spite of the rides rather than because of the rides.
Anyway, the reason for this thread being titled as such is because lots of things there are… really weird! They have more dark rides than you can shake a stick at, including 2 indoor coasters (Maskerade, a Gerst spinner and Insider, a Maurer spinner), both of which are utter balls and the latter has a better queue line than the ride itself. I finally managed to get on a Zamperla Volare, having never had the misfortune to get to Flamingoland, which was not as bad as expected but a lot of that is down to my coaster riding experience and knowing how and where to brace. God help anyone not bracing, that’s for sure.
Other coasters of any note include the rather intense, yet short Vekoma MK-700 Megablitz, and the completely stupid Rollerball (think Wilde Hilde), which also happened to be my 300th cred. In addition, the 2 highlights on the coaster front would be the new Gerst Bob Die gesengte Sau, which is pretty nippy and very good fun despite the rather harsh MCBRs, and of course the Vekoma Boomerang, albeit with Sunkid Trains which have a lap bar instead of OTSRs, rendering the ride a lot more enjoyable than usual. Olympia Looping is currently under construction, but not the end of the world as we’d all ridden it before. It’ll be good for the park’s lineup once OL and the Mack Big Dipper, Wiener Looping, are both built.
With Rowe in tow, naturally we were to go on a few of the dark rides, of which there were an abundance! I did the very silly interactive Eisberg, complete with humping polar bears, and the walk through Dinosaur experience, which is one of those that’s just so bad it’s good!
Towards the end of the day, thanks to everything being a bit naff, we slowly lost enthusiasm (and financial security) for riding much more, so bailed on a few rides on my list such as the Breakdance, drop tower and some of the other dark rides.
Overall, we had a very good day and I’d be interested in returning once the Big Dipper has opened. Fortunately there is no entry fee so just a case of rock up and do whatever you fancy. It’s a weird and wacky place, with a lot of history, that is worth a visit if you are in the area. Unless you’re desperate for credits regardless of quality, I simply couldn’t recommend a visit to Vienna for the Prater alone.
We visited the Prater on Sunday, with a better-than-anticipated looking weather forecast, and a substantial list of rides and coasters we wanted to experience. The long and short of it is that it is a place full of largely crap oddities. I can only really describe it as a more permanent version of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, but each ride being about half the price you’d expect to pay there, which was of course very welcome.
It’s a very affordable day out, if you’re intending to do a couple of rides and soak up the atmosphere (unlike HPWW which feels like a financial investment regardless of how many rides you do), but as someone with a list of 10 coasters and several flat- and dark rides to do, I easily went through €60-70 in total, and coming away with not much to show for it in the whole grand scheme of things. We had a very good day, mind, in spite of the rides rather than because of the rides.
Anyway, the reason for this thread being titled as such is because lots of things there are… really weird! They have more dark rides than you can shake a stick at, including 2 indoor coasters (Maskerade, a Gerst spinner and Insider, a Maurer spinner), both of which are utter balls and the latter has a better queue line than the ride itself. I finally managed to get on a Zamperla Volare, having never had the misfortune to get to Flamingoland, which was not as bad as expected but a lot of that is down to my coaster riding experience and knowing how and where to brace. God help anyone not bracing, that’s for sure.
Other coasters of any note include the rather intense, yet short Vekoma MK-700 Megablitz, and the completely stupid Rollerball (think Wilde Hilde), which also happened to be my 300th cred. In addition, the 2 highlights on the coaster front would be the new Gerst Bob Die gesengte Sau, which is pretty nippy and very good fun despite the rather harsh MCBRs, and of course the Vekoma Boomerang, albeit with Sunkid Trains which have a lap bar instead of OTSRs, rendering the ride a lot more enjoyable than usual. Olympia Looping is currently under construction, but not the end of the world as we’d all ridden it before. It’ll be good for the park’s lineup once OL and the Mack Big Dipper, Wiener Looping, are both built.
With Rowe in tow, naturally we were to go on a few of the dark rides, of which there were an abundance! I did the very silly interactive Eisberg, complete with humping polar bears, and the walk through Dinosaur experience, which is one of those that’s just so bad it’s good!
Towards the end of the day, thanks to everything being a bit naff, we slowly lost enthusiasm (and financial security) for riding much more, so bailed on a few rides on my list such as the Breakdance, drop tower and some of the other dark rides.
Overall, we had a very good day and I’d be interested in returning once the Big Dipper has opened. Fortunately there is no entry fee so just a case of rock up and do whatever you fancy. It’s a weird and wacky place, with a lot of history, that is worth a visit if you are in the area. Unless you’re desperate for credits regardless of quality, I simply couldn’t recommend a visit to Vienna for the Prater alone.
