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Halloween at Energylandia/Legendia

Benenen

Hyper Poster
Good evening and welcome to my Poland trip report. This is my second time visiting these parks having been last year just after Hyperion opened. A really good time was had and I was pleasantly surprised by how different Energylandia felt this time around. Let's get into it!

Saturday 26th October - Legendia
Landed at Katowice airport around midday and got an Uber into the town centre. It was about an hour until we could check into our apartment so we had some pierogi and beer in a cafe then checked in. Another Uber ride (about ten minutes) took us to Legendia and we were walking down that lovely main street area.
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At this point it was about 4PM and glorious sunshine so we went straight for the rowing boats before it got too cold. Really awesome that Legendia let you have a mess about on the lake free of charge, we had a row over to Lech on the opposite side to watch a few cycles. As expected the coaster looks gorgeous from this angle by the water.
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Next up was Bazyliszek, unfortunately my gun was a bit faulty during the physical scenes and I wasn't getting that beautifully satisfying vibration feedback from shots. The ride itself is just wonderful, one of the most charming dark rides out there. The screens are accompanied by projection mapping and lighting effects so you don't feel too bogged down by them and the physical sets are nicely themed. It's a bit stop and start through each scene as opposed to constant 360 theming but for a smaller park this was the perfect investment and hopefully sets the tone for future rides at the park.

I couldn't wait any longer so I marched to the other side of the lake to Lech Coaster. It's always exciting to ride a coaster you closely followed the construction of and thankfully Lech lives up to the huge hype that was banded about here during 2017. I really like the new Vekoma OTSRs, while you would arguably get a bit more airtime if it had lapbars I don't feel they intrude on the ride experience at all. The soft vest gives no headbanging and there's no tightening like on some of the B&Ms. The pacing on Lech is what really stands out, the first half is just mental but the second half has its share of smooth inversions and sharp airtime pops as well. The highlight for me is the first drop, I rode on the back left seat and the speed it pulls over the drop combined with how sharp the twist is feels amazing. Unfortunately the first inversion is a bit too intense (especially once you reach the pull out), I enjoyed the sheer intensity and the grey out it gave as a novelty for the first few rides but it's not something you can repeat many times. The first camelback does clear it and make you see normally again though which is a euphoric sensation.
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Other than Bazyliszek and Lech not a lot at Legendia stands out. Last year I loved the nauseating flat rides but it seems that Dragon Wrestling Tournament, Dragon Riders and Circus Hoppala have closed for good this year. The only decent flat ride left is an enormous flying carpet where you're seated sideways. You're thrown around and it gains some quite serious height, it was one of those rides you laugh the whole way round.

As the sun set the Halloween stuff was kicking off around the area with the Soquet looper (which actually rode well, very smooth but a dull layout past the loops). They had some roaming actors, some light theming and a fog machine. Nothing too serious but a nice effort nonetheless.

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I had some wacky shenanigans go down in the toilet though. After arriving at the urinal this guy tapped me on the shoulder and told me in a very erratic way that I need to look into the closed cubicle behind me. It felt very off and I got myself into quite a panicky state worrying about what could be there. I was running through all these horrible scenarios in my head where I was pushed in and beaten up or witnessed something sexual. In the UK you just don't get interrupted when you're weeing so I presumed something bad was happening. Anyway while I'm dithering trying to leave the guy pushes the cubicle door open and there's a scare actor lady standing on the toilet with a noose pretending to hang herself. Definitely one of those moments you only get abroad doing weird trips like this. As you can imagine I was really relieved but it made no sense to have a woman in the gents toilets scaring people!

Later in the evening there was a fire show which was solid. There was one man who was slamming these huge torches into the ground creating so many sparks. During the show the scare actors were in full force sneaking up behind people (which actually got a bit annoying but I love the effort they went to). There was also this lad in a wolf mask who hid on top of the toilet building and threw a fake corpse with a rope down on people exiting the loo, very creative.

Overall it was a great few hours at Legendia. Even on a Saturday during their big 10AM to 10PM Halloween night the biggest queue was ten minutes and most rides were walk on. Majority of the rides are off the shelf basic flats but the park is worth it alone for Lech and it does have a lovely atmosphere. Next up, Energylandia.
 
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Benenen

Hyper Poster
Sunday 27th October - Energylandia
Nice easy park to get to, the bus leaves Katowice at about 8:30 and arrives at the Energylandia entrance an hour later (for £3). As you get close you can see Zadra peeking over the trees then as you get closer the structure starts to appear. First impressions were I was amazed by how big and dense it was, it's a whopper of a coaster. Then in a magical moment the Energylandia theme song starts playing loud over the tannoy as we drive down the right side of the park. Out the window you can see Zadra, Mayan Coaster and Hyperion and my excitement levels are going through the roof. I like the new theme song a lot, it's cheesey in an electronic Eurovision way and fits the park better than last years more kiddy song.

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Upon arriving at the entrance you get treated to this amazing view of the whole Hyperion layout. There's a few Vekoma SFC seats dotted around the area so we take turns to sit in one while browsing the park map. At 9:50 the turnstiles open and we go through to the little Main Street esque holding area where a load of Halloween characters (zombies, doctors, stilt walkers, etc) roam about. It's an interesting, high energy way to start off the park experience then the rope dropped and we headed across the park to Zadra. Most people turned right immediately towards Hyperion so by the time we got to Zadra there were only a handful of other guests. After emerging out the tunnel into the new area of the park the view is really striking.
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It was about 10:25 before we reached the station and we had to wait a few more minutes for the train to be filled. My first ride was in the back and I adored it, it's very different to the other European RMCs (and any other coaster I've ridden). First drop in the back is outrageous, you feel yanked out the seat then as soon as the drop starts pulling out you get engulfed by the structure of the coaster. The drop after the turnaround didn't have as much airtime as I hoped in the back but it's got some funky banking and having had that stall in speed makes you appreciate how fast you're going again once you get to the bottom of the drop. The zero G stall is the highlight, it's a completely weightless moment which feels strange when you're upside down for a prolonged period of time. You can't feel your thighs against the restraint or the blood rushing to your head, it doesn't even feel like you go upside down. The outer banked stall that follows is probably the most intense part of the ride and offers two snappy transitions in and out of it. The next hill is taken nicely, sustained floater throughout but nothing too intense. There's a barrel roll type element next which is taken in typically smooth RMC fashion and doesn't quite feel like you go upside down then the double down has some great airtime. There's another pop of airtime and a fantastic transition on the twisted hill that follows then it's a fast paced barrel roll into the brakes.

I really liked Zadra. It sits at my number 2 behind Untamed which I preferred for the quicker pacing and stronger airtime. In comparison Zadra feels more like it's big element after big element which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it feels more sterile and controlled than Untamed. The airtime on Zadra wasn't as strong as I was expecting but after riding I realised that's not the point of the ride. It's more of a jack off all trades coaster and offers a better and more consistent mix of speed, airtime, inversions and transtions than any coaster I can think of. It's seriously amazing and well worth the trip to Poland for.
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Next we had a spin on the pedal monorail and mopped up the 2 smaller creds in the area then it was 11:00 and time for the horror mazes to open. I only had time do do the Psychoterria maze which was hospital themed but there was a haunted house one in the same building (both in the area with Zadra). Considering this is Energylandias first year at doing mazes I thought it was pretty good. I was in there for close to ten minutes and there was a large variety of scares. There was a guy who hung upside down from the ceiling to scare us, there was a section with live rats (and leg ticklers), a big set piece where actors were chopping up bodies with cleavers, etc. Lots of variety. There was even a section where we went into a small dark room about the size of a lift where the door locked behind us and an actor came through a panel in the ceiling. While the presentation was a bit budget with some big empty spaces I liked how many ideas they threw into the maze and I look forward to see how they expand their Halloween offering in future years. The next set of pictures are taken from the parks Facebook and give you an idea of the maze.
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We spent the rest of the day mopping up the other larger attractions and re-riding Hyperion and Zadra. I was disappointed by the rattle on Hyperion last year but this time I got a glass smooth ride on the front and realised how brilliant the layout is.
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For a Sunday the park was weirdly quiet. Hyperion and Zadra were on 1 train and never got more than a twenty minute wait and the other rides were about 5-10 minutes. Staff were very quick at getting trains sent out.

The other Halloween attraction was a live actor version of their awful Monster Attack dark ride, the one with fiberglass aliens in a big warehourse. The overlay was done really well with horror set pieces themed better than the actual ride. The actors were quite intimidating in full face masks and actually climbed onto the ride vehicles at times. There was also a great bit where there were a load of mannequins covered in ghillie suits on both side of the track with one ghillied actor who sprinted towards the car.

Last year I treated Energylandia as a cred run and felt a bit flat towards the park. This year I spent more time in the new area and time re-riding my favourites and I now think it's a really solid park. We didn't get round to seeing any shows and there were minimal queues but we still felt we had more stuff we wanted to do when the park closed. I think if coming next year it's worth considering two days, especially if you want to do shows, cred whoring and the waterpark on top of Zadra and Hyperion re-rides (which you're going to want to do a lot of) given there's going to be four new rides.
 
Really enjoyed this report and I think it's safe to say it has very much increased my hype (which was already pretty sky high) for my visit next year. Did you manage to squeeze in any night rides on the big two?
 

Benenen

Hyper Poster
Cheers mate! Glad I could provide some hype, looking forward to seeing your views on the park.

Unfortunately I didn't manage a night ride. I went to Energylandia the day after the clocks went back (that was a weird one reverting my watch back to UK time on day two of the trip) so I had half an hour of night time to play with. I wasted part of it by riding the ghost train as it had a huge queue during the day then I joined the Hyperion queue at 5:45 for my final ride. Annoyingly it seemed the whole park decided to do this too as it's right by the entrance and I ended up bailing as my bus was due to leave at 6:15 and the queue looked at least 5 one train cycles long.

Bit of a bummer as it clearly should have had two trains on but overall that was the longest queue I saw all day (about half an hour on a weekend) so can't complain too much. I ended the evening with a consolation ride on the SBF Visa Spinner then a zombie gave me a glowstick in the end of day parade.
 
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