Yesterday I went to my first amusement park - Walibi Holland. I got up at around 6am as it is a long journey from The Hague to Harderwijk by train. The intercity train I had planned on taking was cancelled so I took an earlier Sprinter train at 7:13am. Breakfast at the hotel opened at 7am so I skipped it and walked to the central station. The streets were all deserted, which was eery. But still nice to see the city centre without the usual crowds.
On the train the conductor asked if I was doing anything fun today and I said “yes, to Walibi” and he said “that is very fun!”
From Harderwijk there was a bus to Walibi, which was quite busy.
The gates into Walibi only opened just before 10am. We all proceeded through the gift shop but the doors beyond that were also closed until just after 10am. And then lots of kids and parents started sprinting to the rollercoasters!
My first ride was the new “Yoy: Thrill” - a new single rail dualling coaster. The lift hill was initially extremely slow. It was a fun ride - though I think the lateral forces put a lot of pressure on my hip that left me thinking about a hip replacement after!
The next ride I went on was Condor, a suspended coaster also with loops. That ride was extremely rough, and I did not go back on it! Though the signage on it said “eat 1994” so perhaps the roughness was unsurprising - the rollercoaster is older than me!
Subsequently I rode Goliath, which I really enjoyed! It didn’t have any of the roughness of Condor but had some fun drops and speed.
Untamed was my favourite rollercoaster - an RMC hybrid coaster. It had a very steep drop initially followed by a long inversion with a lot of hang time. The coaster sped through the course like a demon which surprised me.
Xpress: Platform 13 seemed to be a hybrid haunted house/launch coaster. The queues had a lot of scary elements which was fun. For the ride itself the launch was good - very punchy, and then immediately went into a loop. But after that the ride slowed down substantially and felt quite tame. Though I think the attraction had the best theming of all the rides at Walibi.
Lost Gravity kept closing throughout the day due to technical issues, so by this point I thought I wouldn’t get to ride it. I bumped into Taylor from Coaster Studios (a YouTuber). I told him about the Lost Gravity issues to which he said “it’s closed? That is useful information”. He gave me a wristband which was nice of him. And then I bumped into them again leaving Eat My Dust - a kiddie coaster with a car theme.
Next I rode Speed of Sound, a Vekoma boomerang coaster. The ride starts going up the lift hill backwards! So that is new for me. And then the ride was released, travelling forwards through the course with three inversions. After this the ride goes up another lift hill - forwards this time. And is released again and returns back to the lift hill backwards - including through the inversions!
Thankfully just before I left Lost Gravity reopened and I got one ride in. I could tell at boarding it was a Mack coaster by the seating, which they always do really well. The ride seemed like a prototype for their Voltron ride at Europa Park, just with less inversions and a lift hill. A fun way to end the day.
My ranking of the coasters:
- Untamed
- Goliath
- Lost Gravity
- Xpress: Platform 13
- Speed of Sound
- Yoy: Thrill
- Yoy: Chill
- Eat my dust
- Condor
This brings my coaster tally so far to 9.
