Coaster Hipster
Giga Poster
Last Saturday I went to Nigloland with a few non-enthusiast friends. Due to the clouded weather the park was not too crowded resulting in short lines including a 5-minute wait for Alpina Blitz!
A quiet day at the park...
But before going on the little airtime machine, first we headed for the 2016 new ride, Donjon de l'Extrême, a 100m high drop tower.
Set in a nice though a bit unfinished dungeon setting, the ride delivers a nice drop with some good airtime. The brakes weren't as suddent and intense as I expected. Still an excellent addition to the park.
Next we went to the Alpine zone and the Bobsleigh. It is an old Schwarzkopf Jet Coaster. Interestingly the main drops are hidden from outside and you can only see shallow turns so it is actually surprising to experience steeper drops on-ride. The ride itself is rather bumpy and short with some brutal braking, but at least it has some nice headchoppers along the way.
Alpina Blitz was closed for the lunch so we rode Spatiale Experience instead. I have no picture so here's one from rcdb instead:
It's kind of a cheap Space Mountain really. Not as bumpy as I remember and you can't really see much during the ride but it has nice speed throughout.
Back in the Alpine town we rode the Schlitt'Express which is your standard Wild Mouse. No airtime on the bunny hops and some smooth magnetic brakes to change from the awful Bobsleigh ones.
After that we went to the Canadian Village. One of my friend chose to brave the flume alone despite the weather.
We also rode the e-powered Mine Train which is hidden behind the flume and interacts quite nicely with it. It makes two laps, the second of which ends very slowly on a right banked turn. I sat on the right leaving me crushed by my (heavier) friend. Not cool!
Moving on to the final ride of the Canadian zone, the Grizzly. It is a larger version of Zamperla's Disk-O product. The motorbike seating make it for a pretty open experience. Not the most exiting thing ever but actually fairly scary when the car moves closes to an end and there is some nice weightlessness feeling at the top of the middle hill.
We then went on this airplane thrill ride with a nice twist: they let you choose the incline of each of your wings. If you manoever accordingly you can perform barrel rolls. Almost managed to do one
Last but not least, the main reason of our trip, the small but powerful Alpina Blitz!
(sorry for the blurred pic)
Having ridden it the past season and then ridden both Goliath and EGF I was looking forward to riding Alpina again to compare it with the other two. And while it isn't as intense as Expedition GeForce it still packs a punch! I strongly recommend seating on the front as the airtime on the first hill is way stronger. The bottom of the drop is also quite forceful, especially at the end of the day. Managed 7 rides on this little beast that day and I'd rank it clearly behind EGF and slightly behind Goliath. It is very fun all the way along, an excellent coaster for its size. The awesome first camelback and Stengel Dive are what put Goliath ahead.
For my final thoughts on Nigloland this is a very nice little park with its charm. Its narrow paths offer a welcome change from the crowds of Parc Astérix and Disneyland Paris and it has a lot of greenery around. Lately the park made some superb moves with the addition of Alpina Blitz and Donjon de l'Extrême which make it worth the trip. My GP friends also enjoyed the park, one of then even started binge-watching coaster vids afterwards! A new goon maybe ? ^^
But before going on the little airtime machine, first we headed for the 2016 new ride, Donjon de l'Extrême, a 100m high drop tower.
Set in a nice though a bit unfinished dungeon setting, the ride delivers a nice drop with some good airtime. The brakes weren't as suddent and intense as I expected. Still an excellent addition to the park.
Next we went to the Alpine zone and the Bobsleigh. It is an old Schwarzkopf Jet Coaster. Interestingly the main drops are hidden from outside and you can only see shallow turns so it is actually surprising to experience steeper drops on-ride. The ride itself is rather bumpy and short with some brutal braking, but at least it has some nice headchoppers along the way.
Alpina Blitz was closed for the lunch so we rode Spatiale Experience instead. I have no picture so here's one from rcdb instead:
It's kind of a cheap Space Mountain really. Not as bumpy as I remember and you can't really see much during the ride but it has nice speed throughout.
Back in the Alpine town we rode the Schlitt'Express which is your standard Wild Mouse. No airtime on the bunny hops and some smooth magnetic brakes to change from the awful Bobsleigh ones.
After that we went to the Canadian Village. One of my friend chose to brave the flume alone despite the weather.
We also rode the e-powered Mine Train which is hidden behind the flume and interacts quite nicely with it. It makes two laps, the second of which ends very slowly on a right banked turn. I sat on the right leaving me crushed by my (heavier) friend. Not cool!
Moving on to the final ride of the Canadian zone, the Grizzly. It is a larger version of Zamperla's Disk-O product. The motorbike seating make it for a pretty open experience. Not the most exiting thing ever but actually fairly scary when the car moves closes to an end and there is some nice weightlessness feeling at the top of the middle hill.
We then went on this airplane thrill ride with a nice twist: they let you choose the incline of each of your wings. If you manoever accordingly you can perform barrel rolls. Almost managed to do one
Last but not least, the main reason of our trip, the small but powerful Alpina Blitz!
(sorry for the blurred pic)
Having ridden it the past season and then ridden both Goliath and EGF I was looking forward to riding Alpina again to compare it with the other two. And while it isn't as intense as Expedition GeForce it still packs a punch! I strongly recommend seating on the front as the airtime on the first hill is way stronger. The bottom of the drop is also quite forceful, especially at the end of the day. Managed 7 rides on this little beast that day and I'd rank it clearly behind EGF and slightly behind Goliath. It is very fun all the way along, an excellent coaster for its size. The awesome first camelback and Stengel Dive are what put Goliath ahead.
For my final thoughts on Nigloland this is a very nice little park with its charm. Its narrow paths offer a welcome change from the crowds of Parc Astérix and Disneyland Paris and it has a lot of greenery around. Lately the park made some superb moves with the addition of Alpina Blitz and Donjon de l'Extrême which make it worth the trip. My GP friends also enjoyed the park, one of then even started binge-watching coaster vids afterwards! A new goon maybe ? ^^
