James F
Hyper Poster
"Madness, as you know, is a lot like gravity. All it takes is a little push"
-
March 22nd 2025
After an early start waking up at the wee hour of 4:10am it was time to make my way to this Spanish theme park. My flight arrived in Madrid early, but after 20 minutes of taxiing, I unboarded the plane by the scheduled time. The public transport was straight forward, consisting of the metro to Madrid, a regional train to Pinto and a bus to the park. When I got to Pinto however I discovered that I stupidly forgot to bring any Euros, meaning I couldn't get the cash only bus.
After 5 minutes of fretting desperately trying to open uber and failing to get online I found a taxi outside that accepts card. It cost me €25. A little steep, but it got me there quickly. Teached me a lesson anyway.
I arrived at the park for about 13:45, which was an hour earlier than I was expecting.
The weather wasn't looking great. It was 10c for most of the day and it was forecast to rain all day. I was a little worried that they wouldn't bother operating the coasters if it was going to chuck it down. Having walked through the park and not seeing BGCE cycle, I was a little worried.
Fortunately as soon as I approached the entrance I saw those beloved intamin trains blast over the pathway into the first inversion. Unfortunately the queue was advertised as a 40 minute wait. While I certainly think it's worth a 40 minute wait, after hearing about the reliability issues I was half expecting it to break down in that time, so I tried to book a fastpass. This turned out to be a lost cause as the wi-fi was so slow that the webpages just stopped loading, after trying to download the app and failing to again to access fastpass I decided that I'll have to just queue.
Surprisingly the queue was moving despite the slow operations. I heard that the park had poor throughputs and after only seeing a train cycle every 3-4 minutes I can attest to this, but more on that later. After waiting for about 30 minutes outside it was time to enter into the preshow. Knowing where the exit was I got through the "escape" corridor before the crowd, part of me thought, maybe Parque Warner's operations have improved?
Sadly this was not the case. As soon as I reached the corridor towards the station the queue did not move for at least 5 minutes and when it did it was only by a small amount. By the time I had got to the station I had been waiting for almost an hour. This is when I realised they were only running one train.
a small bit a fortune for me was that they called out for single riders so at least I got on a few minutes earlier and hey it didn't break down at least.
I was given the second to back row. As soon as the first launch kicked in I was taken aback by the power of it, despite having ridden other Intamin LSMs. I actually hit the back on my head, regardless to my brief discomfort I was still in awe.
The first corkscrew offers some solid hangtime with a bit of lateral kink. I am a sucker for hangtime so this suited me well. Then came the second launch which was good, but nothing on the spectacle of Taron's. The top hat delivered as expected, got a great pop of air going in and a strong and aggressive moment of ejector on the way down. I didn't think that the trim brake took much away from the pacing as it was over a lot quicker than I anticipated and in some ways it makes the drop feel more forceful due to the sudden contrast in forces. I would say it's on-par with the tophat on Toutatis, but both feel different if that makes any sense?
One of the signuture "wow" moments is the camelback hill. I was told alot of positive things about this moment and let me just say that it didn't disappoint. While it's not quite as batsh*t crazy aggressive as I believed, it was still strong ejector, what really impressed me was how sustained the airtime was, it felt as if my butt hadn't returned to the seat until the next valley. The "outerbank dive loop" was cool and often a solid pop of airtime at the apex, but gets lost in the mix of more eventful elements. The dip down was again cool and offered a respectable pop of airtime. The remaining section leading to the third launch was good fun and while not as intense as what came before it offered a variety of forces which I appreciated. After launching a third time the train slams into a sharp left turn which provided a shocking moment of positives. Batman saves the best for last as the stall might just be the best moment of hangtime there is. From the visuals of the Gotham Street beneath you to the feeling of dangling helplessly, it's the true showstopper of the ride.
Admittedly it's all over a little too soon and before I knew it the ride was pulling back into the station. First impressions? It's lived up to my expectations, certainly worthy of being considered one of the best coasters in Europe and while I could nitpick about incrediblely minor things it's still a 5 star coaster.
This is all gotten a bit BGCE heavy so let's focus on some other coasters shall we? The next coaster to do was stunt fall which was surprisingly open, considering it had been closed for the most part of last weekend. Stuntfall was the sleeper hit of the trip, I wasn't expecting much other than a big ass boomerang. While it definitely is a big ass boomerang and it was also so much more. I was sat on the back row. After a brisk backwards vertical climb I felt my whole body thrown skywards as the train plummeted towards the ground. I couldn't help but laugh in shock at how unhinged this moment was, then POW I was hit with strong Gs entering the massive Colbra Roll. The loop kept up the intensity going until the reverse vertical lift, then it all happened again backwards, not that I need to explain the concept of a boomerang to you, but still. All in all, a real treat that I wasn't expecting to enjoy half as much as I did. It ended up being my second favourite ride in the park.
Next up was the B&M Floorless "Superman: Atracción de Acero". This delivered right on expectation. I got a few rides in the back row as it was a walk on. Walk on, sounds good right? Well not quite; This being Parque Warner and all, it took 10 minutes to dispatch a train. I think I've seen paint dry faster. Granted I am aware it's a quiet day and all, but I have never seen a dispatch take so long and it's not like we waiting for more riders as the train was almost fully loaded.
The ride itself was what I expected. It has some solid forces here and there, especially on the final Helixs and the first drop had some floater airtime in the backrow, while I definitely prefer Seaworld's Kraken, Superman Is a solid B&M multi looper.
The last major coaster to get was Shadows of Arkham which is my first Batman Invert clone. It's a solid Invert, even though it opened in 2002 it had that old school feel, properly due to the layout. The upwards Helix was the highlight for me as it offered copious amounts of force. The inversions also offered good snap especially the zero G roll. The queue line was also suburb and helped build up an atmosphere despite the stark looking station.
Oh no! It's closed. Anyway ...
After aimlessly walking around the western area and finding nothing to do, I decided to ride the family creds. Tom and Jerry is an average Zierer Tivoli, nothing of note other than the laterals you get when you ride alone. Correcaminos Bip Bip was fun as expected, I would like to see more youngstar coasters as there a solid option for most parks.
The final ride I rode of note was Hotel Embrujado, a Vekoma madhouse. This one is one of the better ones out there with a well detailed queue which is reminiscent of Disney's Tower of Terror.
As the park was getting dark it was time for re-rides. I waited another 45 minutes for BGCE, it felt slightly faster as it had warmed up. I got a few more rides on Shadows of Arkham, Superman and one one more on Stunt fall before my night ride on BGCE to end the day.
After a much shorter wait of 15 minutes it was time for my third and final ride on Batman. Once again I was lucky enough to get the back car and unsurprisingly it was the best ride I had, as expected the forces felt much more exaggerated by the cloak of darkness. As the soundtrack bellowed into the night as the train snaked it's way through the course, this really did capture all the excitement you expect from the Cape Crusader.
After that awesome ride it was time to call it a day. Parque Warner is a park with so much potential. It has a great collection of coasters and the presentation and atmosphere is also on-point, if they just improved their operations (significantly) it could be of the best parks in Europe. In any case I had a good day here, sometimes my patience was tested, but the rewards were worth it and I'm glad I made the trip out. Hope you have enjoyed reading.
* Apologies if there is any spelling errors and the like. I will amend soon, I have typed this on my phone and I haven’t had much sleep.
-
March 22nd 2025
After an early start waking up at the wee hour of 4:10am it was time to make my way to this Spanish theme park. My flight arrived in Madrid early, but after 20 minutes of taxiing, I unboarded the plane by the scheduled time. The public transport was straight forward, consisting of the metro to Madrid, a regional train to Pinto and a bus to the park. When I got to Pinto however I discovered that I stupidly forgot to bring any Euros, meaning I couldn't get the cash only bus.
After 5 minutes of fretting desperately trying to open uber and failing to get online I found a taxi outside that accepts card. It cost me €25. A little steep, but it got me there quickly. Teached me a lesson anyway.
I arrived at the park for about 13:45, which was an hour earlier than I was expecting.
The weather wasn't looking great. It was 10c for most of the day and it was forecast to rain all day. I was a little worried that they wouldn't bother operating the coasters if it was going to chuck it down. Having walked through the park and not seeing BGCE cycle, I was a little worried.
Fortunately as soon as I approached the entrance I saw those beloved intamin trains blast over the pathway into the first inversion. Unfortunately the queue was advertised as a 40 minute wait. While I certainly think it's worth a 40 minute wait, after hearing about the reliability issues I was half expecting it to break down in that time, so I tried to book a fastpass. This turned out to be a lost cause as the wi-fi was so slow that the webpages just stopped loading, after trying to download the app and failing to again to access fastpass I decided that I'll have to just queue.
Surprisingly the queue was moving despite the slow operations. I heard that the park had poor throughputs and after only seeing a train cycle every 3-4 minutes I can attest to this, but more on that later. After waiting for about 30 minutes outside it was time to enter into the preshow. Knowing where the exit was I got through the "escape" corridor before the crowd, part of me thought, maybe Parque Warner's operations have improved?
Sadly this was not the case. As soon as I reached the corridor towards the station the queue did not move for at least 5 minutes and when it did it was only by a small amount. By the time I had got to the station I had been waiting for almost an hour. This is when I realised they were only running one train.
a small bit a fortune for me was that they called out for single riders so at least I got on a few minutes earlier and hey it didn't break down at least.I was given the second to back row. As soon as the first launch kicked in I was taken aback by the power of it, despite having ridden other Intamin LSMs. I actually hit the back on my head, regardless to my brief discomfort I was still in awe.
The first corkscrew offers some solid hangtime with a bit of lateral kink. I am a sucker for hangtime so this suited me well. Then came the second launch which was good, but nothing on the spectacle of Taron's. The top hat delivered as expected, got a great pop of air going in and a strong and aggressive moment of ejector on the way down. I didn't think that the trim brake took much away from the pacing as it was over a lot quicker than I anticipated and in some ways it makes the drop feel more forceful due to the sudden contrast in forces. I would say it's on-par with the tophat on Toutatis, but both feel different if that makes any sense?
One of the signuture "wow" moments is the camelback hill. I was told alot of positive things about this moment and let me just say that it didn't disappoint. While it's not quite as batsh*t crazy aggressive as I believed, it was still strong ejector, what really impressed me was how sustained the airtime was, it felt as if my butt hadn't returned to the seat until the next valley. The "outerbank dive loop" was cool and often a solid pop of airtime at the apex, but gets lost in the mix of more eventful elements. The dip down was again cool and offered a respectable pop of airtime. The remaining section leading to the third launch was good fun and while not as intense as what came before it offered a variety of forces which I appreciated. After launching a third time the train slams into a sharp left turn which provided a shocking moment of positives. Batman saves the best for last as the stall might just be the best moment of hangtime there is. From the visuals of the Gotham Street beneath you to the feeling of dangling helplessly, it's the true showstopper of the ride.
Admittedly it's all over a little too soon and before I knew it the ride was pulling back into the station. First impressions? It's lived up to my expectations, certainly worthy of being considered one of the best coasters in Europe and while I could nitpick about incrediblely minor things it's still a 5 star coaster.
This is all gotten a bit BGCE heavy so let's focus on some other coasters shall we? The next coaster to do was stunt fall which was surprisingly open, considering it had been closed for the most part of last weekend. Stuntfall was the sleeper hit of the trip, I wasn't expecting much other than a big ass boomerang. While it definitely is a big ass boomerang and it was also so much more. I was sat on the back row. After a brisk backwards vertical climb I felt my whole body thrown skywards as the train plummeted towards the ground. I couldn't help but laugh in shock at how unhinged this moment was, then POW I was hit with strong Gs entering the massive Colbra Roll. The loop kept up the intensity going until the reverse vertical lift, then it all happened again backwards, not that I need to explain the concept of a boomerang to you, but still. All in all, a real treat that I wasn't expecting to enjoy half as much as I did. It ended up being my second favourite ride in the park.
Next up was the B&M Floorless "Superman: Atracción de Acero". This delivered right on expectation. I got a few rides in the back row as it was a walk on. Walk on, sounds good right? Well not quite; This being Parque Warner and all, it took 10 minutes to dispatch a train. I think I've seen paint dry faster. Granted I am aware it's a quiet day and all, but I have never seen a dispatch take so long and it's not like we waiting for more riders as the train was almost fully loaded.
The ride itself was what I expected. It has some solid forces here and there, especially on the final Helixs and the first drop had some floater airtime in the backrow, while I definitely prefer Seaworld's Kraken, Superman Is a solid B&M multi looper.
The last major coaster to get was Shadows of Arkham which is my first Batman Invert clone. It's a solid Invert, even though it opened in 2002 it had that old school feel, properly due to the layout. The upwards Helix was the highlight for me as it offered copious amounts of force. The inversions also offered good snap especially the zero G roll. The queue line was also suburb and helped build up an atmosphere despite the stark looking station.
Oh no! It's closed. Anyway ...
After aimlessly walking around the western area and finding nothing to do, I decided to ride the family creds. Tom and Jerry is an average Zierer Tivoli, nothing of note other than the laterals you get when you ride alone. Correcaminos Bip Bip was fun as expected, I would like to see more youngstar coasters as there a solid option for most parks.
The final ride I rode of note was Hotel Embrujado, a Vekoma madhouse. This one is one of the better ones out there with a well detailed queue which is reminiscent of Disney's Tower of Terror.
As the park was getting dark it was time for re-rides. I waited another 45 minutes for BGCE, it felt slightly faster as it had warmed up. I got a few more rides on Shadows of Arkham, Superman and one one more on Stunt fall before my night ride on BGCE to end the day.
After a much shorter wait of 15 minutes it was time for my third and final ride on Batman. Once again I was lucky enough to get the back car and unsurprisingly it was the best ride I had, as expected the forces felt much more exaggerated by the cloak of darkness. As the soundtrack bellowed into the night as the train snaked it's way through the course, this really did capture all the excitement you expect from the Cape Crusader.
After that awesome ride it was time to call it a day. Parque Warner is a park with so much potential. It has a great collection of coasters and the presentation and atmosphere is also on-point, if they just improved their operations (significantly) it could be of the best parks in Europe. In any case I had a good day here, sometimes my patience was tested, but the rewards were worth it and I'm glad I made the trip out. Hope you have enjoyed reading.
* Apologies if there is any spelling errors and the like. I will amend soon, I have typed this on my phone and I haven’t had much sleep.
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