I've been in two minds whether to bother writing this since I prefer to write them up on places that fewer people have been to rather than these really basic places, especially since quite a few reports have popped up over the last couple of weeks with a lot of these same parks. I suppose it could be good to read a different (i.e. more important/correct) opinion about these places though.
This was a park and sightseeing trip, so I'll throw some culture crap in as well since, let's face it, most people who go to these places just drive to the park, stay in some industrial estate Formula 1 craphole afterwards, then go back to the airport. Cretins.
Although this was mostly a Germany trip, not having Walibi Belgium has been bugging me for ages - it was closed on weekdays when I was last in Brussels - so I decided to knock that off. I flew into Brussels, but had no intention of spending any time in that dreadful s**thole, so got a train from the airport straight to Ghent. Last time I was in Belgium, I had time to either visit Ghent or Bruges, and went with Bruges.
Day 1 - Ghent
Unlike a lot of European cities, the main train station here was quite far outside the main area, but easily accessible with a quick tram ride. My hotel was "near the cathedral", which was quite accurate as the view from my window proved:
The location was great, right on one of the main squares with everything worth seeing within a short walking distance.
It was evening, so any touristy s**t was closed, but it was still light out, so I went for a wander. It was all strangely dead, but I think it was just a weird time of day. Stuff was closed, but it was too early for people to be out having dinner/drinks. Some big festival had just finished the day before as well - various stages were being disassembled around the place - so that probably had something to do with it.
It was all very pleasant. I'd allowed myself a proper full day later since I hadn't really planned to do anything that first evening. I did another quick circuit as it got dark and called it a night.
Day 2 - Bellewaerde and Ypres
Since this place wasn't too far away, I headed there on the first full day of the trip. For anyone who's wondering (nobody), it was train ride from Ghent's main train station to Menen, then a bus from there. All very simple and took about an hour and 15 minutes. The bus wasn't very regular though. The one I got got me to the park for about 10:45, the next one would've been about 2 hours later.
The park then:
I headed straight for the new alpine coasters, which may have been a bit of a mistake since it seems a lot of people had the same idea.
I think I waited about half an hour the first time, then came back later in the day for the second side and it was down to 20 minutes. They're crap really. They use the regular alpine coaster cars, but the control handles are locked and do nothing. I guess you could argue that they're more of a real coaster because of that, but the whole thing just felt a bit too controlled/tame.
It was just such a weird choice to build alpine coasters in a place with no terrain for one. Most of the cost must've been on the walkway/queueline structure. The whole thing takes up a hefty chunk of space. They could've gone for a family woodie for the same kind of price, which would have a higher throughput and be a much better ride. I'm sure they had their reasons, but I still think this was a poor choice.
Anyway, other stuff. I didn't do either of these, but was pretty impressed with the overall theming in the area. The park itself was actually lovely overall.
I almost didn't bother with the drop tower since this model is s**te, but there was no queue. Nope, still s**te.
I had a quick look in the squirrel monkey walkthrough, then did the rapids, which were uneventful in that I barely remember them. I always like these "bendy" boats though.
I walked through a small zoo area to get to more rides. Pleasant enough, with a free-roaming lemur area.
+1, which luckily had a short wait:
Considering this is the first Boomerang (yes, yes, there's an older piece of metal which plenty of pedantic twats on Facebook were touching themselves over when they thought they were "correcting" someone, but this one opened first), it wasn't too offensive at all.
I did the topple tower simply because out of three previous examples I've seen, only one was operational. They're crap.
Huracan was probably the only coaster here that was actually any good. Part dark ride, part coaster which is pretty fun. It was the only ride I did more than once.
I came across this kind of by accident as I was heading back to polish off the second side of Dalton Duel. It was just weird.
Houdini, a madhouse, was really good. One of the better examples I thought.
I was done after a few hours, so decided to leave a bit earlier than planned. Despite there not really being any standout rides, the park as a whole was lovely. I was expecting it to be a bit of a cred run, but I ended up taking my time a bit and had a decent day.
The same bus I'd arrived on carried on and terminated in Ypres, so I decided to have a quick look around and get a train back to Ghent from there. It's best known in connection with WW1, and they were getting ready for some anniversary thing which was happening a day or two later.
There are various museums and WW1 battle/burial sites around the area, but I didn't have time since I really hadn't planned to be there in the first place and, to be honest, I'm not that interested anyway.
So yeah, it was a direct train back to Ghent from there, going out for a few drinks that night since the next day was going to be quite chilled, and I was still "awake" since it was early in the trip.
This was a park and sightseeing trip, so I'll throw some culture crap in as well since, let's face it, most people who go to these places just drive to the park, stay in some industrial estate Formula 1 craphole afterwards, then go back to the airport. Cretins.
Although this was mostly a Germany trip, not having Walibi Belgium has been bugging me for ages - it was closed on weekdays when I was last in Brussels - so I decided to knock that off. I flew into Brussels, but had no intention of spending any time in that dreadful s**thole, so got a train from the airport straight to Ghent. Last time I was in Belgium, I had time to either visit Ghent or Bruges, and went with Bruges.
Day 1 - Ghent
Unlike a lot of European cities, the main train station here was quite far outside the main area, but easily accessible with a quick tram ride. My hotel was "near the cathedral", which was quite accurate as the view from my window proved:
The location was great, right on one of the main squares with everything worth seeing within a short walking distance.
It was evening, so any touristy s**t was closed, but it was still light out, so I went for a wander. It was all strangely dead, but I think it was just a weird time of day. Stuff was closed, but it was too early for people to be out having dinner/drinks. Some big festival had just finished the day before as well - various stages were being disassembled around the place - so that probably had something to do with it.
It was all very pleasant. I'd allowed myself a proper full day later since I hadn't really planned to do anything that first evening. I did another quick circuit as it got dark and called it a night.
Day 2 - Bellewaerde and Ypres
Since this place wasn't too far away, I headed there on the first full day of the trip. For anyone who's wondering (nobody), it was train ride from Ghent's main train station to Menen, then a bus from there. All very simple and took about an hour and 15 minutes. The bus wasn't very regular though. The one I got got me to the park for about 10:45, the next one would've been about 2 hours later.
The park then:
I headed straight for the new alpine coasters, which may have been a bit of a mistake since it seems a lot of people had the same idea.
I think I waited about half an hour the first time, then came back later in the day for the second side and it was down to 20 minutes. They're crap really. They use the regular alpine coaster cars, but the control handles are locked and do nothing. I guess you could argue that they're more of a real coaster because of that, but the whole thing just felt a bit too controlled/tame.
It was just such a weird choice to build alpine coasters in a place with no terrain for one. Most of the cost must've been on the walkway/queueline structure. The whole thing takes up a hefty chunk of space. They could've gone for a family woodie for the same kind of price, which would have a higher throughput and be a much better ride. I'm sure they had their reasons, but I still think this was a poor choice.
Anyway, other stuff. I didn't do either of these, but was pretty impressed with the overall theming in the area. The park itself was actually lovely overall.
I almost didn't bother with the drop tower since this model is s**te, but there was no queue. Nope, still s**te.
I had a quick look in the squirrel monkey walkthrough, then did the rapids, which were uneventful in that I barely remember them. I always like these "bendy" boats though.
I walked through a small zoo area to get to more rides. Pleasant enough, with a free-roaming lemur area.
+1, which luckily had a short wait:
Considering this is the first Boomerang (yes, yes, there's an older piece of metal which plenty of pedantic twats on Facebook were touching themselves over when they thought they were "correcting" someone, but this one opened first), it wasn't too offensive at all.
I did the topple tower simply because out of three previous examples I've seen, only one was operational. They're crap.
Huracan was probably the only coaster here that was actually any good. Part dark ride, part coaster which is pretty fun. It was the only ride I did more than once.
I came across this kind of by accident as I was heading back to polish off the second side of Dalton Duel. It was just weird.
Houdini, a madhouse, was really good. One of the better examples I thought.
I was done after a few hours, so decided to leave a bit earlier than planned. Despite there not really being any standout rides, the park as a whole was lovely. I was expecting it to be a bit of a cred run, but I ended up taking my time a bit and had a decent day.
The same bus I'd arrived on carried on and terminated in Ypres, so I decided to have a quick look around and get a train back to Ghent from there. It's best known in connection with WW1, and they were getting ready for some anniversary thing which was happening a day or two later.
There are various museums and WW1 battle/burial sites around the area, but I didn't have time since I really hadn't planned to be there in the first place and, to be honest, I'm not that interested anyway.
So yeah, it was a direct train back to Ghent from there, going out for a few drinks that night since the next day was going to be quite chilled, and I was still "awake" since it was early in the trip.