The Official "TPR In Europe" Ongoing TR Thread.

Face Book · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:37 am Post subject:

Hey everyone! Day one of our trip is over, and it was a GREAT day at Walibi Belgium (aka. Vekomaland!)

Getting to the park from the hotel was very easy and we were one of the first ten cars in the parking lot. Since we bought our Walibi passes online, we were all set.

Entering the park we head for the Vekoma SLC first since it was right at the front and the boys needed their credit. To be honest, it wasn't that bad! I rode in the front row and probably didn't get head banged a single time! :shock:

After that we headed to Loup Garou, the Vekoma woodie. Not sure how this has managed to stay in good shape all these years, but it has. I can now say that there are two things Vekoma can do right: Roller Skaters and wooden coasters! Seriously, this ride is STILL great! Yes it shuffles a bit, and yes it has some bumpy spots, but it's not "rough" like some of those once great CCI's have become.

At this point we noticed that both Vampire (SLC) and Loup Garou had about an hour line each. It seemed that EVERYONE in the park was at these two rides because nothing else had a line.

Next we went to Turbine and if you remember, this is the shuttle loop that got stuck upside down a few years ago. Since then they have enclosed the entire launch track and the loop with only the spikes being outdoors. This coaster is so much fun because of that. Three years ago there were some really cool lighting effects inside the enclosed parts, and it was disappointing to see that they aren't there anymore (or at least weren't on today), but the ride was still really fun. Being a fly-wheel model the launch is strong, yet it IS braked on the way back through the station. Not as much as the weight-drop versions, but it is braked.

We made our way around to the back of the park, did the Intamin giant drop on the way (GREAT drop ride, BTW), hit up the Vekoma mine train coaster, and then we did something that was a complete surprise to us: 'Challenge of Tutankhamon' This was a dark ride built a couple of years ago using the new version of the Sally Dark Ride system. It's a 'trackless' ride system with the cars holding 6 people each. The effects were fantastic, using real fire in one section, there are three different endings depending on your score, and all of us were really impressed! It reminded me a lot of the Pooh system used in Tokyo Disneyland. We ended up riding this a second time we were so impressed with it!

Next up was the Vekoma Boomerang (we told you this was Vekoma land!) and that was actually decent...for a boomerang. Since the park was so empty, we went back and rode Turbine again, Loup Garou again, and did a couple of flat rides (tea cups that were more like a whip!)

And then....OMG...the most INSANE bumper cars any of us have ever been on!!! We called them the "no rules" bumper cars....because there were no rules! :shock: You could drive any direction you wanted, if you wanted head on collisions...GO FOR IT, and what ended up was complete chaos! It was crazy fun!!!

We wandered around a bit more, ate some crepes, rode Loup Garoup again, and finally headed back to our hotel. We spent a good 7 hours at the park and it was all very nice and relaxing, and overall fun. Even though it was "Vekomaland" we didn't hit one bad coaster today.

Tomorrow we're off to Bobbjaanland (or however you spell it!). Even though there will be a much bigger Europe update coming later, here are a few photos from today....

NOTE: If you want to go right to the page of the latest trip report and photos without reading through the responses, check the "what's new" page: http://www.themeparkreview.com/whatsnew.htm