We arrived at Walibi at around eleven o'clock, and was sadly surprised to see Xpress on the list of closed rides. I hoped it would be open later in the day as it was one of my most wanted coasters in the park. Once we got in, decided to head straight for Goliath, the park's Intamin mega coaster. I have to say, I wasn't the biggest fan of this park's layout at first. I had to walk all the way to the back of the park in a roundabout kind of way. I found it kind of odd that Walibi's star attraction was the hardest to get to. However, there was only about a fifteen minute wait for Goliath and we got on two times in a row. once in the front row, and once in the back row. The Ride ops were very efficient and were dispatching trains left and right. By the end of my two rides on Goliath, my first impression of the park was pretty good.
After Goliath, we headed over to Robin Hood, Walibi's wooden roller coaster, which is actually made by Vekoma. However, in true Vekoma fashion, the ride broke down as soon as we got in line. This meant that we had a long walk to our next coaster stop, Speed of Sound, which is on the other side of the park. On our way to Speed of Sound, our group got lost in the wild west section thinking it would connect to the music section of the park where Speed of Sound is. However, we reached a dead end, and with the park's log flume, Crazy River, right in front of us, we decided to take it for a spin. It's a great flume with a fun backwards section and a great double down finally.
After going on Crazy River and taking a closer look at the park map, my brother and I found the way to Speed of Sound, Walibi Holland's Vekoma Boomerang. This was my first Vekoma boomerang and based on what I have seen, it is one of the best. Unlike most boomerangs, it has the new Vekoma trains instead of the old Arrow ones and the very comfortable restraints reminded me of the Superman: Ultimate Flight clones. It's a pretty good ride with decent theming. Unfortunatly, I'll have the really catchy annoying soundtrack stuck in my head for weeks. Afterwards, we headed for Xpress, which had just opened and for that reason had a crazy long line. However, the park's stellar operations once again proved successful as the wait was only 40 minutes. I guess I wasn't really expecting much theming from this park, but Xpress's theming blew me away. All they need is some theming during the actual ride. The Queue, station, and final brake run are excellently themed, making the overall ride experience much better. After a great ride on Xpress, it was time for lunch. You know what I like about this park? You can actually bring your own food in and have a nice lunch in the picnic area unlike the Six Flags parks. I was very surprised by my smooth experiences on these two Vekoma coasters.
After we had lunch, our group split up. My brother and I decided to conquer our first Vekoma SLC, which just happened to be the world's first SLC, while the rest of our group rode the antique car ride. The wait was one of the longest of the day, and since SLCs can be very rough from what I've seen, I wasn't too surprised that the back two rows were roped off. Even with my low expectations, this ride still disappointed me. It was filled with tons of head banging, even in the front, which is usually the smoothest seat on looping coasters. With the worst ride in the park over with, we met up with the rest of the group to cool off on the rapids ride. It's pretty fun, although the rafts made it harder to get wet and there are very few water falls and jets. Despite this, all of us came off pretty wet with huge smiles on our faces. It was actually better than the SLC in my opinion. Next, our group walked over to Robin Hood, the Vekoma wooden coaster of the park. It was back up and running, this time with two train operation instead of a single train. While waiting in line, the park decided to have a moment of silence in respect for the people in the dutch plane that went down over Russia. It was very respectful for the park to do this. Anyway, Robin Hood really surprised me. With several great pops of air time and the perfect amount of roughness and getting jostled around, this made my top ten and is either the second or third best coaster in the park. It really exceeded my expectations.
With all of the park's water rides and thrill coasters done, half of our group headed to the S&S Drop Tower while the rest of us went to the go carts. Although they are an up charge attraction, the Go Carts are worth it. They're lots of fun and it is easy to pass people up. After the Go Carts, we headed straight for Goliath again and went in the back few rows. I am amazed at how great this coaster is. The air time is nuts! After, we headed to Robin Hood, which had a fifteen minute wait, and my brother and I got front row. I still can't believe how much I underestimated this coaster. We also took another spin on the Rapids, so much fun! On our way back to the entrance of the park, my brother and I noticed Xpress was a walk on and hopped into the front row. The first half of this coaster is AWESOME, but the second half is just meh. Finally, half the group went to the SLC as they hadn't gone on it yet. Meanwhile, my sister insisted we should go on Speed of Sound one last time. This was not a good idea as the ride is fairly intense and I received a major headache for the next two days. Finally, we exited the park.
Walibi Holland really exceeded my expectations. Ever since Six Flags dumped this park, it has only gotten better. They have added new trains and enhanced theming to Speed of Sound, are retracking Robin Hood, and added crazy awesome theming to Xpress. They maintain their coasters very well. Every ride was freshly painted within the last three years. This is so much different than parks like Six Flags Great Adventure, who leaves awesome coasters like Bizarro sitting for years without paint with all of the special affects turned off. Operations were stellar. I would give the overall operations a 4 out of 5. All the coasters were using all the trains they could possibly run at once. The max wait we had was about 45 minutes with crazy long lines that could have taken almost two hours to get through at most parks. All of the staff was very efficient and very kind. This is a great overall park, and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend going to it. If you stuck with me through the entire trip report, thank's for reading. This is my first post so it's not very well written, but hopefully I'll improve.
Ride Count: Goliath: 3x; once front row, two times towards the back Crazy River: 1x Speed of Sound: 2x; once front row, once towards the back Xpress: 2x; once second row, once front row El Condor: 1x; first row El Rio Grande: 2x Robin Hood: 2x; once second row, once front row Go Carts: 1x |