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Dark ride disappointment

Somebody hold me back and patronise be by saying “he’s not worth it, Marcus”

The Bubbleworks is a calamity of the highest order, and I really shouldn’t be wasting my breath on it. Everything that made the Bubbleworks work has been auctioned off on eBay or thrown into the skip leaving one of John Wardley’s legacies in complete tatters.

The new ride is boring, sterile, pretentious and doesn’t entertain.

Bubbleworks now boring and Marcus is now angry.

While the state of the Bubbleworks was no great surprise, I must admit, Alton Towers’ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was actually a genuine shock. In its most basic form, it isn’t bad, but the lack of music and dead spots leave it feeling quite a flat experience considering the possibilities.

The lift simulators at the end get points for effort, but the whole ride feels like it is lacking even before the honeymoon period has ended. The story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn’t adequately told, meaning to those not au-fait with the book, the subtlety is lost, while there isn’t enough to entertain those who worship either the book or – to a lesser extent – the film.

Elsewhere

There were plenty of other coasters and rides that opened this season, most of which got back to basics with original layouts as opposed to showy party tricks. That, readers, is a good thing.

Kumali, Flamingoland’s second Vekoma in as many years, received amazingly positive reviews, especially on the back of the generally negative stick that Jubilee Odyssey receives. At the moment, it’s smooth, but don’t be lulled into the usual trap; all Vekomas start off smooth, it isn’t until the third season or so that you can accurately judge its roughness.

Thunderbird at PowerPark was another ride that was completely ignored. It was the first GCI outside America, and opened to good reviews. It is a fairly original coaster for Europe in that it is a wooden coaster focusing simply on turns and spirals as opposed to airtime hills.

Abismo at Parque de Atracciones in Madrid also received surprisingly good reviews considering it looked average at best. Imagine a dull looking G-Force, and that’s Abismo, but apparently it offers a surprisingly good ride. I remain sceptical, though.

Speed Monster is another Intamin Accelerator, a compact version of the ride straddling the entrance to Tusenfryd. Like many rocket coasters, reviews are varied and frankly lacking, but most people agree that it is a perfect ride for the small park, complimenting the already popular Thunder Coaster.

New for 2006 2007

In addition to the many rides that opened throughout Europe, two of the most anticipated didn’t open due to teething problems:

De Vliegende Hollander

Vliegende Hollander hasn’t even opened and has already earned the reputation of being a sleeping pill in ride form. While the elaborate theming astounded, so too did the plodding pace of construction during which problem after problem seemed to arise.

Photos and videos on Dutch forums seemed to tell the same story day in day out; boats were valleying, flooding and getting stuck on the overly elaborate horizontal chain lift back into the station.

With months of botched testing clear for all to see, that much was clear. But what wasn’t clear was the extent of the problems inside the building.

This became ever more apparent when in July Efteling announced that De Vliegende Hollander would not be opening in 2006 due to problems with the 45-degree lift hill inside the building.

What followed was a blame game; Efteling have an unenviable reputation for being an awkward park to work with when it comes to new rides and, apparently in the case of Vliegende Hollander, the park outsourced much of the work to other contractors meaning that the ride wasn’t done to Kumbak’s original specification.

Kumbak, meanwhile, were blamed as compared to many manufacturers, they were comparably novice.

Nevertheless, Intamin – who have previously dealt with Efteling for rides such as Dream Flight and Fata Morgana – were brought in to assess and fix the problems with De Vliegende Hollander.

The ride is still due to open at the beginning of next season.

Vertigo

Isn’t this ironic? The homepage of Vertigo’s manufacturer says: “Wherever the new Mountain Glider appears, there is action”

Despite the claims of action, there was little to be had on Doppelmayr’s new suspended coaster. Like Kumbak, Doppelmayr’s experience with building coasters is limited. Doppelmayr’s normal area of expertise is aerial guideways and ski lifts, so a coaster of any scale was something of a departure to say the least.

But by any standards, Vertigo was quite the colossus. Standing at 180ft tall, the coaster uses a flexible rail capable of spanning some 1600ft without means of support. Between long spans of elegant swoops, the track curls and spirals around tripod-like supports with each four-person car monitored by radio, and kept apart automatically.

It was this system that caused problems with Doppelmayr and Walibi Belgium. While the ride operated happily with a single car, it was the system of cars ‘talking to each other’ to keep them separate that was troublesome.

By September, they managed to run three trains, and before the park closed for the season the ride was certified to run with people. The park will use the time before the ride officially opens in 2007 to theme the queue line – if the press spiel is to be believed, it will celebrate the ideology of flight and freedom using lighting effects, mist and mirrors to create the illusion of flight.

It looks like a different ride, something original, but it also looks like a forest of ugly trees has appeared at Walibi Belgium. It will also be interesting to see just how much longevity the ride has to it. Continues...