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Heide Park Discussion Thread


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I love and adore Intamin Rides, but if I was a park operator I would never buy anything from them. They are expensive as hell and have problems like...this one.

I think it's because Intamin rides require a lot more of a commitment than some parks are willing to give them. You don't buy a Ferrari and treat it like a Toyota. And I get the feeling that is what is happening in lots of cases like this.

 

I'm going to guess that Heide Park did the bare minimum to keep that ride operating in the years that Merlin owned them. And like, if you think you can own a Ferrari and just do a basic oil change every 5,000 miles you're quickly going to discover you have a Ferrari that doesn't function like it should.

 

It's really a shame. I feel like if a park isn't willing to put the effort into it, they should just buy from a company who makes rides that require less care. You may not get a top ten ride with that scenario, but at least you'll have one that works if you want to treat it like a Toyota.

Edited by robbalvey
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It's also really interesting to me that what seems like just a few years ago (before RMC really hit the ground-up coaster market), Intamin pre-fabs were considered the "best" quality, lowest maintenance wooden coasters available. There were threads titled something along the lines of "Why aren't there more Intamin pre-fabs?" and everyone seemed to pretty much agree it was due to upfront cost, *despite* the lower maintenance costs.

 

And fast forward maybe five years or so, and we have El Toro running absolutely nothing it did in 2006 (it's still an incredible, reasonably smooth ride, but it used to feel like a new steel coaster) and the ride that inspired it most likely to be deconstructed after just 15 years. I'm really curious to see how the first RMC wood coasters age after 10, 12 years knowing what we do now about Intamin's model, seeing as they serve very similar purposes.

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It's also really interesting to me that what seems like just a few years ago (before RMC really hit the ground-up coaster market), Intamin pre-fabs were considered the "best" quality, lowest maintenance wooden coasters available. There were threads titled something along the lines of "Why aren't there more Intamin pre-fabs?" and everyone seemed to pretty much agree it was due to upfront cost, *despite* the lower maintenance costs.

This is why the question remains... how did you mess up an Intamin pre-fab?!?!

 

And fast forward maybe five years or so, and we have El Toro running absolutely nothing it did in 2006 (it's still an incredible, reasonably smooth ride, but it used to feel like a new steel coaster) and the ride that inspired it most likely to be deconstructed after just 15 years. I'm really curious to see how the first RMC wood coasters age after 10, 12 years knowing what we do now about Intamin's model, seeing as they serve very similar purposes.

Where are you getting this from? We had ERT on El Toro last year and on Balder the year before that and both of them ran absolutely FANTASTIC. In fact, we even rode Colossos last year and while it was most certainly the roughest of all the Intamin pre-fabs I've been on recently (you can tell it just wasn't being maintained) it will still smoother than 90% of most wood coasters out there.

 

So I'm not really sure where this disparaging comments about the others are coming from unless they've suddenly gone to total crap in the last 16 months.

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My rides on El Toro in 2017 were noticebaly rougher than in 2015 and earlier. Not like Voyage rough or anything like that (even though I still like Voyage), but nowhere near what it was like when it was newer. Rougher on wheel seats and still smoother than the average wooden coaster, but definitely showing serious sign of either aging or less care than it used to get.

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I rode Balder and El Toro this year and they are glass smooth in any seat but the very back. In the very back, I felt a few bumps here and there on both but nothing that I'd consider remotely rough.

 

I can't comment on Balder in past years but for El Toro the back used to be glass smooth. Even when it's "rougher", El Toro in the back is still smoother than 90% of coasters.

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I rode Balder and El Toro this year and they are glass smooth in any seat but the very back. In the very back, I felt a few bumps here and there on both but nothing that I'd consider remotely rough.

 

I can't comment on Balder in past years but for El Toro the back used to be glass smooth. Even when it's "rougher", El Toro in the back is still smoother than 90% of coasters.

Yeah that sounds about right. I mean, isn't this El Toro's 12th season that it operated? You find me another wood coaster that runs that smooth and still that batshit crazy intense that has ran for 12 years and I'll bet you can't find too many.

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Personally I've got to say that over the last 5 years or so I haven't noticed any difference in how El Toro has been running. Before that we went a lot less frequently so I can't really speak to that with as much confidence, but in general I haven't noticed much of a difference in it period since the year it opened. It's pretty consistent and always awesome.

 

If you sit in a non-wheel seat, it feels like riding in a cloud, if you sit on a wheel seat it runs smoother than 90% of wood coasters but (I guess) you can feel a tiny bit of bumpiness at the bottom of the turnaround and basically nowhere else.

 

Again, I'm just speaking from personal experience. Your mileage may vary, but we do get out to the park 4 or 5 times a summer so we ride the thing a lot and to me it seems like the park has done a great job with El Toro.

Edited by coasterbill
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T Express is running great even though Everland is so busy, there's only one other coaster in a park with long hours and year-round opening times, and apart from a winter rehab has to endure temperatures from -15 to 35 throughout the year.

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Based on my experience this past October, El Toro is kind of inconsistent in terms of toughness. The first few hills can’t be smoother but that turnaround has some awful jackhammering, so does the valley of the hill after the turnaround and the bottom of the rolling thunder hill. Otherwise El Toro is perfectly smooth and despite the headache I got after a few rides, it is my favorite wooden coaster. That kind of messed up design is definitely something only Intamin is willing to do.

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Heide Park have released a video talking about Colossos, its all in German but basically it just repeats everything said before. They cannot get new wood to redo the track with apparently because there's a shortage of it and it closed due to a TUV inspection after its 15th year. I don't know if anything was said about the termites or whatever other rumours there are so if someone German could summarise that would be great.

 

not sure if the links right, don't know facebook well

 

https://www.facebook.com/HeideParkResort/?hc_ref=ART5mxAe9VecrfseFV_RUmiWHa-zovzobb_Fkjx-a0oqeEIjSxPhqADwFpboOv78QCE&fref=nf

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Based on my experience this past October, El Toro is kind of inconsistent in terms of toughness. The first few hills can’t be smoother but that turnaround has some awful jackhammering, so does the valley of the hill after the turnaround and the bottom of the rolling thunder hill. Otherwise El Toro is perfectly smooth and despite the headache I got after a few rides, it is my favorite wooden coaster. That kind of messed up design is definitely something only Intamin is willing to do.

Interesting anecdote about the turnaround because that was where Colossos started falling apart for me (the first two big hills were fine and had some nice float), and that's not even getting to the jackhammer helix of doom.

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Based on my experience this past October, El Toro is kind of inconsistent in terms of toughness. The first few hills can’t be smoother but that turnaround has some awful jackhammering, so does the valley of the hill after the turnaround and the bottom of the rolling thunder hill. Otherwise El Toro is perfectly smooth and despite the headache I got after a few rides, it is my favorite wooden coaster. That kind of messed up design is definitely something only Intamin is willing to do.

Interesting anecdote about the turnaround because that was where Colossos started falling apart for me (the first two big hills were fine and had some nice float), and that's not even getting to the jackhammer helix of doom.

I'm going to guess that the turn around is probably an area of less stress than those hills that the train FLIES over at crazy speeds trying to kill each rider launching you out of the train. So I'm going to assume those areas probably get less regular maintenance probably because it doesn't require as much?

 

Again, these are only slightly educated guesses...

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  • 1 month later...

Excellent news! The renovation has a cost of 12 million Euros (14.3 million USD). To be honest, I'm sort of shocked they're investing that much into Colossos as opposed to purchasing a new ride. I would have thought the latter would be more marketable. Anyway I'm glad they decided to save their pre-fab but I still can't believe they let the ride reach a point where this became necessary.

 

Below is a link to the story that can be translated into English.

 

Link

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To be honest, I'm sort of shocked they're investing that much into Colossos as opposed to purchasing a new ride. I would have thought the latter would be more marketable.

 

They're a Merlin park now, trust me, they'll find some horrible way to market it!

 

Perhaps it will be another WICKER MAN!!!!

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That's fantastic news!

I really liked Colossos when I first rode it a couple of years ago, but that backbreaking helix really did take away from the experience for me.. So I am glad that they are going to improve the ride, and most importantly reopening Colossos!

Never thought I would say this, but Merlin might have made the right decision this time.

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This is good news! Would hate to see a massive Intamin get ripped out.

 

Obviously we know they've recently been replacing some of El Toros track sections, just as we've seen a few times in the past but I wonder if/hope Great Adventure is keeping an eye on this whole situation w/ Colossus.

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