uwurawrus
Roller Poster
Hello, and welcome to my FIRST trip report! I really want to do these, but alas, I never felt like I had the writing talent to do so. Here's my first attempt. Hopefully you like it.
I have Wednesdays and Thursdays off work, and I haven't done a random daytrip in a while, so I really had the urge to go do one. Luckily, a bit of late night rcdb browsing one night reminded me that there was in fact, a TOGO Standup in Italy and of course curiosity killed the cat so I decided there was no other choice other than me having to go and ride it. I've always been TOGO-Curious and after enough back and forth between the rational part of my brain and the non rational part of my brain I booked the first flight in the morning from London Gatwick to Pisa and the last flight out from Pisa to London Stansted. It cost me all of 45 GBP for the flights, plus an extra 10 euros for the Pisamover airport shuttle, about 16 euros for the train ticket between Pisa and the closest station to the park, Castagneto Carducci-Donoratico and 26 euros for my entrance ticket into Cavallino Matto. Very cheap all things considered.
I prepared myself for a long day of travelling, went through security at Gatwick, probably my least favourite airport serving London (It's no Stansted!) and prepared for a 2 hour hop on an A319 over into Italy.
I was sat next to a lovely couple of coffee enthusiasts, told them about a chocolate you can only get in Italy known as Pocket Coffees (Hollow chocolate eclairs containing pure liquid espresso inside, fantastic) and then a few moments later landed in the Tuscany sunshine.
I went through passport control, boarded the airport shuttle for a short ride over into the central Pisa station and had some time to kill (Less time than I thought I had) so decided it would be a good idea to go for a walk outside the station.
As with anywhere in Italy, Pisa is an insanely gorgeous city straight out of a video game. It's absolutely beautiful. However,
of course, all of this is actually irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, went to the supermarket to try to obtain the delicacy
known as pocket coffees, couldn't find any and then gave up and returned back to the station to board my train. Oh well.
Didn't take any pictures of the train so have a dirty window...
Woo dirty windows!
I got off and started to follow Google Maps to Cavallino Matto, ended up getting distracted while passing by
a supermarket and decided that THIS would be my ultimate chance to obtain the delicacy known as Pocket Coffees.
Of course, they did not have any, but I did spot a sign reminding me of what lay ahead of me that day...
I did not buy any.
Eventually my walk merged me with the road and I begun a rather terrifying trek
living my life as a car storming down the roads of Tuscany. Eventually I sighted a drop tower in the distance.
This was it!
Cavallino Matto is a BEAUTIFUL park, surrounded by trees giving plenty of shade to all the pathways, which was
crucial on a 30 degree day like it was. I followed the signs and made a beeline towards the reason I came...
#322 - Freestyle
I very much had low expectations for Freestyle, being a relocated TOGO I thought it was going to be absolutely brutal.
I was wrong. I was assigned somewhere towards the middle of the train for my first ride, unfortunately despite being absolutely dead I could not request rows
at all until later in the day, when I think they realized that I had nothing better to do with my time than spend my life riding a togo standup.
These restraints are weird! You pull down on a lap bar/not a lap bar thing, step in, put your arms into these otsrs,
tighten them and buckle them together with a seatbelt, and then lift up your restraint to the desired height.
I preferred to have the bicycle seat thing a little below where my you know what is; any higher
and it caused pain to that area during positive g moments and any lower this coaster's airtime was nowhere near as pronounced.
I had my first ride on Freestyle, had the opinion of 'It's really fun actually!', managed to jump on once more towards the back
where it wasn't anywhere near as good, went around for my third ride and one of the ops decided to enforce
this absolutely bizarre reride policy that in all my years of riding coasters, i had never seen anywhere else.
Apparently I couldn't ride for another 50 minutes. What a bummer. I have no IDEA why a park would enforce a restriction like this.
I asked one of the two ops (The one that spoke a little bit of english), who proceeded to tell me that it was to prevent "Emotional Damage", whatever that means.
Ah well, it was approaching 1:30, so I thought I should wait out this 50 minute jail period doing something useful, like eating. I passed by Jurassic River, the park's Technical Park Water Coaster and unfortunately...
What a bummer. Ah well, there's still more coasters to ride...
I rode #323 - Speedy Gonzales and #324 - Wild Mine, a pair of L&T coasters that unfortunately I don't have any pictures of
so instead I'm going to link their RCDB pages. They were both alright I guess. The Wild Mouse didn't trim at all and had great laterals,
but there was no airtime whatsoever making it by far one of the weaker mice I've done. It was ok.
I then had food.
Woo, culture. It was okay. Not as good as the Ryanair Lasagne, but definitely better than some attempts I've seen.
One cultural lasagne experience later, it was time to pick up the remaining two creds (Not Jurassic River unfortunately due to the sign earlier informing me of its
closure for the day
).
#325 - Project 1 is yet another L&T Systems coaster. I was expecting it to be a fun, forceful little coaster but unfortunately it was just okay.
The turns were nowhere near as forceful as I hoped they'd be but it was ultimately smooth and provided a fantastic view from the top of the parks surrounding trees.
I also really like the green track colour. It's nice and vibrant. Pretty much every coaster here at Cavallino Matto is, which is fantastic to see.
I then went for a ride on the park's drop tower, Huracan which is yet another ride I regrettably did not take any pictures of, a 50 meter tall Moser tower
that I thought was very much rather forceless however did provide a spectacular view of the parks surroundings.
Unfortunately and regrettably I did not ride the park's relocated Schwarzkopf Monster from Liseberg.
#326 - Topo Zorro is a rare SDC Brucomela with a helix instead of the drop after the waves which, while better than some worms I've done recently, is
nowhere NEAR as good as the top tier wacky worms out there such as La Pomme at Foire du Trone (Which to this day is still my favourite wacky worm by far) and unfortunately provides little in the way of laterals. The schoolgroup on the ride were loving it though.
After my little sweep up, I decided to head back towards Freestyle, but before I could get some more rides on it...
It opened!
I made the tactical decision to ride Freestyle first anyway incase the 50 minute rule once again kicked in to haunt my day, and this time managed 3 rides; a ride at the front, one in the second row AND one in the back of the train.
Now, my favourite place to ride Freestyle is definitely the front. In the back through, this drop is awesome. You get violently yanked down and stay airborne if your restraint is high enough. You get some wicked airtime. In the front, this drop is just okay. But that's alright, because what follows is one of my favourite vertical loops on any coaster. This vertical loop is absolutely brilliant and crushes you with positive gs no matter if you're in the front or back of the train. I greyed out on this loop quite a few times. It really is fantastic.
Normally standup coasters are inversion based layouts. Freestyle has just completed its one and only inversion. From here, it becomes a totally different beast, and this is where Freestyle shines.
You ascend a hill that sharply dips down into a downwards helix. If in back you'll experience a sudden brief jolt of strong floater on the way down. But if you're at the front of the train, you'll get a powerful ejector moment cresting the hill and you will stay midair with your feet off the ground for a good few moments. This is a cool sensation on any coaster. But in the standup position, it's borderline freaky getting ejector airtime of this quality. It is one of my favourite airtime moments in the world.
What follows is an intense downwards helix. Unfortunately, the transition into this element is quite jolty. On a positive note, this is the only such moment on Freestyle and it's completely comfortable before, and after this moment If you can tolerate it though this helix packs on the positive gs and also some faint laterals. It's insane how much speed you have going through this moment. You are then treated to yet another fantastic moment of sustained ejector airtime if you are in the front of the train. Your entire body levitates off the floor once again. This time through, the hill is profiled so that even those in the back of the train will get sustained air, although nowhere near as strong as the front does.
What freestyle does next is totally bizzare. Riders bank to the left in what is one of the strangest design decisions one could make on a standup coaster; a trick track. It's not totally uncomfortable, but just doesn't really offer any lateral forces and instead just provides a neat visual. It's wasted track space, and on a ride this short and with as many standout moments as it has it really does stick out like a sore thumb.
Fortunately, Freestyle ends strong. You bank to the right and experience a rather tight right hand turnaround that provides strong positive forces. There is a kink during the upwards rise that delivers a slight jolt of laterals, but nothing too uncomfortable. Freestyle then ends with a bang, going down a small drop that delivers nothing but a faint pinch of air in the very back of the train into two consecutive speed hills that provide a bouncing sensation across the entire train before rising up into the brake run delivering one last dose of strong ejector airtime to the riders at the very front.
All I have to say is WOW. Every single one of my expectations for this coaster were well and truly shattered. It's a smooth, intense, airtime filled layout with a unique riding position that really does a stellar job of accentuating this coaster's forces. It's absolutely a top tier coaster and that's why it's earned a space in my top 25:
20. Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
21. Balder (Liseberg)
22. Megafobia (Oakwood Theme Park)
23. Freestyle (Cavallino Matto)
24. Sik (Flamingo Land)
25. Shambhala (PortAventura)
I don't know what went wrong for a TOGO to be so good. Either the park just take really good care of it (Which I've heard is the case), or I'm a masochist. Either way, this thing slaps.
In order to prevent me from "Emotional Damage" (they probably just got bored of me) the ops decided to enforce the 50 minute rule, which I was more than happy to wait because I still had one more credit to get - #327 - Jurassic River, the only Technical Park Water Coaster in the world, one I waited 30 minutes for the privelege of getting on.
Of course, it was the only ride queue I actually had to wait in all day.
There's also a 30 file upload limit so I guess I'll have to carry on this thread with another post. Doh!
I have Wednesdays and Thursdays off work, and I haven't done a random daytrip in a while, so I really had the urge to go do one. Luckily, a bit of late night rcdb browsing one night reminded me that there was in fact, a TOGO Standup in Italy and of course curiosity killed the cat so I decided there was no other choice other than me having to go and ride it. I've always been TOGO-Curious and after enough back and forth between the rational part of my brain and the non rational part of my brain I booked the first flight in the morning from London Gatwick to Pisa and the last flight out from Pisa to London Stansted. It cost me all of 45 GBP for the flights, plus an extra 10 euros for the Pisamover airport shuttle, about 16 euros for the train ticket between Pisa and the closest station to the park, Castagneto Carducci-Donoratico and 26 euros for my entrance ticket into Cavallino Matto. Very cheap all things considered.
I prepared myself for a long day of travelling, went through security at Gatwick, probably my least favourite airport serving London (It's no Stansted!) and prepared for a 2 hour hop on an A319 over into Italy.
I was sat next to a lovely couple of coffee enthusiasts, told them about a chocolate you can only get in Italy known as Pocket Coffees (Hollow chocolate eclairs containing pure liquid espresso inside, fantastic) and then a few moments later landed in the Tuscany sunshine.
I went through passport control, boarded the airport shuttle for a short ride over into the central Pisa station and had some time to kill (Less time than I thought I had) so decided it would be a good idea to go for a walk outside the station.
As with anywhere in Italy, Pisa is an insanely gorgeous city straight out of a video game. It's absolutely beautiful. However,
of course, all of this is actually irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, went to the supermarket to try to obtain the delicacy
known as pocket coffees, couldn't find any and then gave up and returned back to the station to board my train. Oh well.
Didn't take any pictures of the train so have a dirty window...
Woo dirty windows!
I got off and started to follow Google Maps to Cavallino Matto, ended up getting distracted while passing by
a supermarket and decided that THIS would be my ultimate chance to obtain the delicacy known as Pocket Coffees.
Of course, they did not have any, but I did spot a sign reminding me of what lay ahead of me that day...
I did not buy any.
Eventually my walk merged me with the road and I begun a rather terrifying trek
living my life as a car storming down the roads of Tuscany. Eventually I sighted a drop tower in the distance.
This was it!
Cavallino Matto is a BEAUTIFUL park, surrounded by trees giving plenty of shade to all the pathways, which was
crucial on a 30 degree day like it was. I followed the signs and made a beeline towards the reason I came...
#322 - Freestyle
I very much had low expectations for Freestyle, being a relocated TOGO I thought it was going to be absolutely brutal.
I was wrong. I was assigned somewhere towards the middle of the train for my first ride, unfortunately despite being absolutely dead I could not request rows
at all until later in the day, when I think they realized that I had nothing better to do with my time than spend my life riding a togo standup.
These restraints are weird! You pull down on a lap bar/not a lap bar thing, step in, put your arms into these otsrs,
tighten them and buckle them together with a seatbelt, and then lift up your restraint to the desired height.
I preferred to have the bicycle seat thing a little below where my you know what is; any higher
and it caused pain to that area during positive g moments and any lower this coaster's airtime was nowhere near as pronounced.
I had my first ride on Freestyle, had the opinion of 'It's really fun actually!', managed to jump on once more towards the back
where it wasn't anywhere near as good, went around for my third ride and one of the ops decided to enforce
this absolutely bizarre reride policy that in all my years of riding coasters, i had never seen anywhere else.
Apparently I couldn't ride for another 50 minutes. What a bummer. I have no IDEA why a park would enforce a restriction like this.
I asked one of the two ops (The one that spoke a little bit of english), who proceeded to tell me that it was to prevent "Emotional Damage", whatever that means.
Ah well, it was approaching 1:30, so I thought I should wait out this 50 minute jail period doing something useful, like eating. I passed by Jurassic River, the park's Technical Park Water Coaster and unfortunately...
What a bummer. Ah well, there's still more coasters to ride...
I rode #323 - Speedy Gonzales and #324 - Wild Mine, a pair of L&T coasters that unfortunately I don't have any pictures of
so instead I'm going to link their RCDB pages. They were both alright I guess. The Wild Mouse didn't trim at all and had great laterals,
but there was no airtime whatsoever making it by far one of the weaker mice I've done. It was ok.
I then had food.
Woo, culture. It was okay. Not as good as the Ryanair Lasagne, but definitely better than some attempts I've seen.
One cultural lasagne experience later, it was time to pick up the remaining two creds (Not Jurassic River unfortunately due to the sign earlier informing me of its
closure for the day
).#325 - Project 1 is yet another L&T Systems coaster. I was expecting it to be a fun, forceful little coaster but unfortunately it was just okay.
The turns were nowhere near as forceful as I hoped they'd be but it was ultimately smooth and provided a fantastic view from the top of the parks surrounding trees.
I also really like the green track colour. It's nice and vibrant. Pretty much every coaster here at Cavallino Matto is, which is fantastic to see.
I then went for a ride on the park's drop tower, Huracan which is yet another ride I regrettably did not take any pictures of, a 50 meter tall Moser tower
that I thought was very much rather forceless however did provide a spectacular view of the parks surroundings.
Unfortunately and regrettably I did not ride the park's relocated Schwarzkopf Monster from Liseberg.
#326 - Topo Zorro is a rare SDC Brucomela with a helix instead of the drop after the waves which, while better than some worms I've done recently, is
nowhere NEAR as good as the top tier wacky worms out there such as La Pomme at Foire du Trone (Which to this day is still my favourite wacky worm by far) and unfortunately provides little in the way of laterals. The schoolgroup on the ride were loving it though.
After my little sweep up, I decided to head back towards Freestyle, but before I could get some more rides on it...
It opened!
I made the tactical decision to ride Freestyle first anyway incase the 50 minute rule once again kicked in to haunt my day, and this time managed 3 rides; a ride at the front, one in the second row AND one in the back of the train.
Now, my favourite place to ride Freestyle is definitely the front. In the back through, this drop is awesome. You get violently yanked down and stay airborne if your restraint is high enough. You get some wicked airtime. In the front, this drop is just okay. But that's alright, because what follows is one of my favourite vertical loops on any coaster. This vertical loop is absolutely brilliant and crushes you with positive gs no matter if you're in the front or back of the train. I greyed out on this loop quite a few times. It really is fantastic.
Normally standup coasters are inversion based layouts. Freestyle has just completed its one and only inversion. From here, it becomes a totally different beast, and this is where Freestyle shines.
You ascend a hill that sharply dips down into a downwards helix. If in back you'll experience a sudden brief jolt of strong floater on the way down. But if you're at the front of the train, you'll get a powerful ejector moment cresting the hill and you will stay midair with your feet off the ground for a good few moments. This is a cool sensation on any coaster. But in the standup position, it's borderline freaky getting ejector airtime of this quality. It is one of my favourite airtime moments in the world.
What follows is an intense downwards helix. Unfortunately, the transition into this element is quite jolty. On a positive note, this is the only such moment on Freestyle and it's completely comfortable before, and after this moment If you can tolerate it though this helix packs on the positive gs and also some faint laterals. It's insane how much speed you have going through this moment. You are then treated to yet another fantastic moment of sustained ejector airtime if you are in the front of the train. Your entire body levitates off the floor once again. This time through, the hill is profiled so that even those in the back of the train will get sustained air, although nowhere near as strong as the front does.
What freestyle does next is totally bizzare. Riders bank to the left in what is one of the strangest design decisions one could make on a standup coaster; a trick track. It's not totally uncomfortable, but just doesn't really offer any lateral forces and instead just provides a neat visual. It's wasted track space, and on a ride this short and with as many standout moments as it has it really does stick out like a sore thumb.
Fortunately, Freestyle ends strong. You bank to the right and experience a rather tight right hand turnaround that provides strong positive forces. There is a kink during the upwards rise that delivers a slight jolt of laterals, but nothing too uncomfortable. Freestyle then ends with a bang, going down a small drop that delivers nothing but a faint pinch of air in the very back of the train into two consecutive speed hills that provide a bouncing sensation across the entire train before rising up into the brake run delivering one last dose of strong ejector airtime to the riders at the very front.
All I have to say is WOW. Every single one of my expectations for this coaster were well and truly shattered. It's a smooth, intense, airtime filled layout with a unique riding position that really does a stellar job of accentuating this coaster's forces. It's absolutely a top tier coaster and that's why it's earned a space in my top 25:
20. Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
21. Balder (Liseberg)
22. Megafobia (Oakwood Theme Park)
23. Freestyle (Cavallino Matto)
24. Sik (Flamingo Land)
25. Shambhala (PortAventura)
I don't know what went wrong for a TOGO to be so good. Either the park just take really good care of it (Which I've heard is the case), or I'm a masochist. Either way, this thing slaps.
In order to prevent me from "Emotional Damage" (they probably just got bored of me) the ops decided to enforce the 50 minute rule, which I was more than happy to wait because I still had one more credit to get - #327 - Jurassic River, the only Technical Park Water Coaster in the world, one I waited 30 minutes for the privelege of getting on.
Of course, it was the only ride queue I actually had to wait in all day.
There's also a 30 file upload limit so I guess I'll have to carry on this thread with another post. Doh!
Glad to hear that this one's running well though.