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Europa Park | Voltron | Mack Rides Stryker Coaster | 2024

I reviewed this on a trip report, I’ll do a quote. But yeah it’s my #1, didn’t feel rough a few days ago. Maybe they’ve changed the wheels or something?

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Voltron is long, airtime packed, and has a lot going on. It is a complete ride. Some have mentioned roughness to which I honestly didn’t even feel a rattle, but maybe that was more of an opening week problem. The reliability certainly is a problem though, with the ride going down a few times a day which is rare for coasters at EP. The ride certainly is complex but I hope they are able to iron out any of the reliability problems.

I rode only twice, but I feel like I got a decent idea of the ride. The morning was brilliant, the evening ride was something else. We entered the queue just before park close, so we rode at dusk time. For me it solidified as one of my favourite roller coasters, top 3 at least, maybe my favourite. I don’t wanna overhype, but the evening ride I had was aggressive as hell. Some of the airtime moments felt stronger than most of the RMC’s, it was brutal (in a good way). Voltron is the best coaster at Europa and my favourite ride in Europe for sure. Steel Vengeance is the only ride I would say fights it, but I probably will put Voltron at #1 after some thinking/reriding. But yeah, Voltron is worth it. I queued two hours for my first ride, and don’t regret it!
 
I hear nothing but good stuff about Voltron. I had better get my a** over to Europa Park and get on it.

Current #1 bucket list coaster is Voltron, so yea :/
 
I’ve had multiple rides this week, and Voltron can be an amazing coaster. But it can also be horrible.
The good trains are fine on the inner seats and rough, but still bearable on the outer ones. The bad trains are rough on the inside and horrible on the outer seats.
I think I would rather skip a ride then having to endure one more ride on the outer seat of a bad train. It is that bad. Easily one of the worst rollercoaster experiences I’ve ever had.

But the good seats on good trains are actually really good. It’s a bit like on Hyperion, but way larger spread between good and bad.
 
This Coaster type would be a perfect replacement for Rip Ride Rockit, but unless Mack can fix the prototype, they won't sell any more of this Coaster
I had 9 rides in thuesday and every ride was a variation of (too much) vibration.
If Mack actually fixes the vibration , would it be the first time, or was it done before? (Without new track or trains)
 
Posted in the last cred thread, but...

davidm said:
I rode Voltron a few times today. It was good. It was better in the middle seats (which I got via the full q) rather than the left wing seat (which you will get in the SRQ).

Thought it was a bit Smiler-esque to start with but on later rides (and preparing for the next element better) it was a lot better. Turntable is very odd, but the launch after that is fab so makes up for the odd pause in the middle of the ride.

Very nicely presented too, decent locker system, seemed a good throughput too.

Bit of a winner then! :)
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Edit, the next day...

Rode it a couple more times today, liked it more and more each time I think, so yes very good.

It did different things today though;
on the first launch, it bounced (quite a lot - whole track section bounces up and down) before it launched. Was not doing that yesterday! Full of surprises. ;)
 
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CSLKennyNI said:
It’s been long discussed and concepts already exist in Mack NeXT’s offices for EuroMir 2.0 - it will basically be getting the EuroSat treatment. All that hasn’t been clear is when that will happen. Teaser seems to suggest it is the next project soon then!
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So does that mean no layout changes? It would be sad to see them stick with Euro Mir's 90s layout in a space with much fewer constraints than they had within the Euro Sat dome. The worst case would be a retheme without a layout change, losing the iconic euro mir music but staying stuck in the 90s for the layout. If Europa Park's decision makers had any sense in them, they would let their designers put in a better layout. But with Roland still in control, holding back progress for the sake of nostalgia at the park, and potentially even back to his old ways of micromanaging engineers and designers at mack rides, decisions at the top often don't make a lot of sense.
 
TheTalbotHound said:
So does that mean no layout changes? It would be sad to see them stick with Euro Mir's 90s layout in a space with much fewer constraints than they had within the Euro Sat dome. The worst case would be a retheme without a layout change, losing the iconic euro mir music but staying stuck in the 90s for the layout. If Europa Park's decision makers had any sense in them, they would let their designers put in a better layout. But with Roland still in control, holding back progress for the sake of nostalgia at the park, and potentially even back to his old ways of micromanaging engineers and designers at mack rides, decisions at the top often don't make a lot of sense.
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What has always surprised me is that Euro-Mir is not a true spinning coaster, in the sense that it doesn't really show the true potential of the model since for more than half the layout the vehicles are locked. Maybe with Euro-mir 2.0 they can keep the music banger, the rave spiralling lift, but change the layout for a smoother, more dynamic one. Hopefully, with new-generation trains we can enjoy free-spinning throughout the whole ride.
 
oriolat2 said:
What has always surprised me is that Euro-Mir is not a true spinning coaster, in the sense that it doesn't really show the true potential of the model since for more than half the layout the vehicles are locked. Maybe with Euro-mir 2.0 they can keep the music banger, the rave spiralling lift, but change the layout for a smoother, more dynamic one. Hopefully, with new-generation trains we can enjoy free-spinning throughout the whole ride.
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I think all of us are hoping for something like that. But the rumours coming out of both mack and europa park's camps right now all say "eurosat treatment". It's not clear what exactly is meant by that in each case, but it seems to suggest keeping the original layout but possibly changing the theme, just like cancan did. That would really be the worst possible choice of changes though. Keeping the part no one likes and getting rid of the only theme park music so iconic it gets played in clubs and bars.
 
I was at Europa for a couple of days last week and rode Voltron 5 times. Here are my thoughts.

In short, I liked it. I didn't love it, and that was a bit of a disappointment to me.

It's beautifully themed and the Croatia area is fantastic. The queue is great, and the kinetic energy around the area is incredible. The throughout is also really strong, and the staff do a great job at batching and keeping things moving.

I really like the pre-launch scene. It's a lot more fun and sillier than it looks on video. It's very Europa. The launches are good - stronger than most Mack launches - although the first one is kind of disappointing, as it starts fast but then rapidly slows to a fairly consistent speed as it arcs upwards. The beyond vertical part doesn't feel of much at all, other than hang time over the top. It's much more impressive watching it off-road than it is to experience.

From there on out, it's very repetitive. It's fun, it's quite intense, but it's a lot of the same movement other than the stall in the first half. The first half in particular reminds me a lot of The Smiler. The second half is paced a little better and has some different elements (the double up and the off-axis airtime hill are great), with some better interaction with the scenery. I prefer the second half to the first.

It is definitely rattly, moreso in some places and on some trains than others. Generally it's ok, particularly in the middle seats, but if you get a bad train wing seat, it's really pretty bad; it shakes so much, your head does hurt. I took a couple of painkillers after that ride.

I did like it more after a couple of rides and it grew on me a bit but it's definitely not the knock-out that off-ride visuals suggest, at least to me. I'd personally prefer all of Blue Fire, Wodan and Silver Star to Voltron, particularly with the current queue times. That said, it does round out the current ride offering nicely and fills a niche, and the public do seem to like it. Overall, a disappointment for me as I normally like Mack's creations a lot.
 
Voltron started running all 7 trains. This does improve the capacity a bit, although I haven’t yet timed it. 6 trains equal ~1500 pph.

You really see the closer timing when hitting the top hat. With 6 trains, you are on the top of the element when the next train starts going down the dive loop. With 7, the next train is in the valley of the dive loop when your train is next to it. So I guess about 3 or 4 seconds faster. That would equal ~1650 pph. I will try to time the dispatches tonight.

Edit: Reality is between 1550 and 1600 pph. So „just“ it’s theoretical capacity. Shame! (#sarcasm)
 
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Trax said:
Voltron started running all 7 trains. This does improve the capacity a bit, although I haven’t yet timed it. 6 trains equal ~1500 pph.

You really see the closer timing when hitting the top hat. With 6 trains, you are on the top of the element when the next train starts going down the dive loop. With 7, the next train is in the valley of the dive loop when your train is next to it. So I guess about 3 or 4 seconds faster. That would equal ~1650 pph. I will try to time the dispatches tonight.

Edit: Reality is between 1550 and 1600 pph. So „just“ it’s theoretical capacity. Shame!
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Shame it only does 1600pph?! More like shame uk rides only manage 800pph max
 
I'm back at the park today and noticed a few little changes. The Tesla animatronic has been moved from the center of the room to next to the single rider queue and the arcing electricity effect has been removed. There also seems to have been some extra scenes added to the arriving train video which have different people on board. The sliding doors before the first launch also didn't seem to be working and remained open, rather weakening the lighting effect.
 
Rollercoaster David said:
I'm back at the park today and noticed a few little changes. The Tesla animatronic has been moved from the center of the room to next to the single rider queue and the arcing electricity effect has been removed. There also seems to have been some extra scenes added to the arriving train video which have different people on board. The sliding doors before the first launch also didn't seem to be working and remained open, rather weakening the lighting effect.
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Thanks for the update. Did you notice any differences in how it tracks?
 
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It's gotten significantly smoother between my visits in mid-July and mid-August. The worst seats went from "OMG, this might be the worst coaster ever" to "Ok, it is rough, but bearable" - which is a huge step into the right direction. Apparently, they are still working on the ride to get it smoother, which is great.
I did Dynamite, a Big Dipper, recently, and that was so incredible smooth, that it makes it even harder for me to comprehend what went wrong with Voltron.
Anyway, it is good to know that they keep working on it, and that their work actually improves the ride by a lot.
 
Trax said:
It's gotten significantly smoother between my visits in mid-July and mid-August. The worst seats went from "OMG, this might be the worst coaster ever" to "Ok, it is rough, but bearable" - which is a huge step into the right direction. Apparently, they are still working on the ride to get it smoother, which is great.
I did Dynamite, a Big Dipper, recently, and that was so incredible smooth, that it makes it even harder for me to comprehend what went wrong with Voltron.
Anyway, it is good to know that they keep working on it, and that their work actually improves the ride by a lot.
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Yeah, I have no idea. Ride to Happiness is my favorite coaster and I could spend hours reriding it, while I had enough of Voltron after a couple of rides in relatively quick succession (courtesy of using mine and mum's virtual lines). Brilliant ride, but the bouncing just made me feel sick.
 
TilenB said:
Yeah, I have no idea. Ride to Happiness is my favorite coaster and I could spend hours reriding it, while I had enough of Voltron after a couple of rides in relatively quick succession (courtesy of using mine and mum's virtual lines). Brilliant ride, but the bouncing just made me feel sick.
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Voltron is more susceptible to bouncing, due to the wider trains and especially the way the outer seats are connected to the chassis. Additionall,TRTHBTL doesn't hit 4g throughout the the ride, while Voltron does. Higher forces usually cause more vibrations to occur.

But as I mentioned, Voltron has gotten significantly better since July.
 
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