Goliath at Walibi Holland
Quick Facts (thanks to RCDB for the statistics):
Height:153.7 ft.
Drop height: 150.9 ft.
Speed: 65.9 mph
Angle of drop: 70 degrees
Duration: 1:32
Manufacturer: Intamin
Type: Mini Hyper Coaster (I personally call them mega coasters)
Year Built: 2002
Height:153.7 ft.
Drop height: 150.9 ft.
Speed: 65.9 mph
Angle of drop: 70 degrees
Duration: 1:32
Manufacturer: Intamin
Type: Mini Hyper Coaster (I personally call them mega coasters)
Year Built: 2002
Before Ride thoughts
The first thing you see when entering the Walibi Holland parking lot is the massive green and black knot of track known as Goliath. Apparently, they repainted the ride's supports, and second train from purple to black. The paint job looks like it was done this year too. I love how Walibi keeps all of their coasters looking brand new. Although you can see Goliath from the parking lot, it is located all the way in the back of the park. You have to go along a crazy route to get from the entrance to Goliath. Before riding, I expected Goliath to take a spot in my top three, but it still greatly exceeded my expectations. I was surprised by how short the physical queue line was for this coaster as it is ranked among the top twenty steel coasters in the world according the 2013 Mitch Hawker Poll. However, I understood as soon as I saw Goliath's team of ride operators. They were churning out trains left and right, while using both of the coaster's two trains. I also love how there is a whole separate front row line, preventing the line for the front row from clogging up all of the other rows. The maximum wait we had for this coaster was fifteen minutes and the maximum wait time of the day was about 30 minutes, showing how great Goliath's team of ride operators are. For my first of three rides, I waited for the front row, which was only about a five train wait. I do have to say, the black train was looking a bit shabby, but the green train looked top notch. When it was finally my turn to ride, I chose the left side. The other two times I rode were towards the back of the train. For anyone who is going to ride this coaster, ride it in the back as it is much more enjoyable, fun, and packs more air time than the front.
The Ride
As Goliath rolls out of the station, I noticed there was nothing on the left side, making it feel very open, adding a thrill factor before the coaster has even reached the top of the lift hill. Unlike most coasters that use a traditional chain lift, Goliath uses an elevator cable lift hill, providing a smooth, fast, and quiet ride up the hill. Also, Goliath takes a fun jerk forward as it attaches to the cable, but it is only noticeable in the front. At the top of the lift, riders see nothing as goliath plunges down the first 70-degree drop, providing a great sense of what is only comparable to hang time in the front. In the back, however, you get a nice pop of floater air time when going down the drop. At the bottom, you get a really fast sense of speed, and having been on the world's third fastest coaster, this felt more out of control. After getting used to riding coasters, I almost never have a stomach dropping sensation while going down drops, but Goliath was a huge exception. While going over the first hill, riders in the front get some average ejector air over the crest of the hill. However, the back provides an insane amount of ejector air on the very end of the crest of the first hill. After taking a slight turn to the right, Goliath goes through it's signature element; a 121-degree banked turn/dive called a Stengel Dive. This provides some awesome hang time in the back of the train before plummeting into a huge sweeping turnaround. Up next is what my brother and I like to call an Intamin neck breaker, which provides some nice floater air time. It's kind of hard to describe this element, but its kind of like a giant twisting S-Bend with a hill in the middle. It didn't provide as much snap as we were hoping, but it was still lots of fun. After a large toilet bowl (or helix) over the water with some fantastic head choppers, Goliath goes into another neck breaker before its awesome finale. As the train rushes towards the station, it speeds over three small bunny hops packed to the brim with crazy amounts of ejector air that is even better in the back than the front. The only coaster I can compare this airtime to is El Toro, it's really that awesome. After the air time hills, Goliath is determined not to let up until the break run as it rushes through two intense turns before it goes through the magnetic breaks.
Overall Thoughts
Goliath is an insane roller coaster filled with ejector air time. It is butter smooth, and barely has any rattling towards the back of the train. The best part about it is how the ride just never lets up. It's always doing something crazy. For this reason, Goliath is now my favorite steel coaster, and might even take my favorite overall coaster spot from Bizarro at Great Adventure. Goliath shows how height and speed don't mean everything for a coaster. I enjoyed it much more than both Nitro, which is almost 80 feet taller, and Kingda Ka, which is about 300 feet taller. Walibi certainly has a fantastic coaster on their hands. I personally think it belongs in the top 10 steel roller coasters. It's just that good. If you ever happen to be in northern Holland, make sure to stop by Walibi Holland and ride Golaith, you won't be disappointed.
My rankings
For my overall ranking ranking of Goliath, I am giving it a 10 (Surperior). This coaster is truly top 10 material and it is packed with awesome ejector air. Sure, it is on the lower range of the 10 ranking, but I believe it deserves a 10, and I can't imagine anything unseating it from my top ten coasters in the future.
For my intensity ranking, Goliath gets a 4 for it's crazy ejector hills and mostly for its low-to-the-ground twists.
For my theming scale, Goliath gets a 1. Although it isn't a parking lot coaster, the name is not unique and you can obviously tell the name came from when Six Flags owned the park as there are over 10 different golaiths within the Six Flags chain alone. Secondly, the name doesn't fit the coaster at all as it actually isn't that tall. It looks like they attempted to make the station look like some futuristic, ancient Rome building. It just makes no sense. This is one of the ride's very few weak points.
Mitch Hawker poll rankings: Current poll ranking is 18th
Current poll ranking is 18th
Goliath has remained in the top twenty every year since its debut
Goliath was in the top 10 for five years in a row
Oops, looks like I forgot to make this a blog page. If you want to comment on this review, please visit the "what's new" page to comment. If you have ridden the coaster, I am interested on what you have to think.
For my intensity ranking, Goliath gets a 4 for it's crazy ejector hills and mostly for its low-to-the-ground twists.
For my theming scale, Goliath gets a 1. Although it isn't a parking lot coaster, the name is not unique and you can obviously tell the name came from when Six Flags owned the park as there are over 10 different golaiths within the Six Flags chain alone. Secondly, the name doesn't fit the coaster at all as it actually isn't that tall. It looks like they attempted to make the station look like some futuristic, ancient Rome building. It just makes no sense. This is one of the ride's very few weak points.
Mitch Hawker poll rankings: Current poll ranking is 18th
Current poll ranking is 18th
Goliath has remained in the top twenty every year since its debut
Goliath was in the top 10 for five years in a row
Oops, looks like I forgot to make this a blog page. If you want to comment on this review, please visit the "what's new" page to comment. If you have ridden the coaster, I am interested on what you have to think.