Wednesday 19th
The day after getting back to London from the UAE it was back on a plane and over to Krakow. We got to our Air Bnb pretty late at night so we didn't really get to see anything until the next day. The place was kinda perfect, short walk from the train station and the town centre.
Thursday 20th
This was our main culture day and I didn't take my camera with me due to not wanting to faff with it on our journey. We had a big tour group thing booked to see Auschwitz and the Salt Mines. It conveniently picked us up right outside our apartment and took us to around for the day. It was interesting seeing Auschwitz but they really try and cram as many people through as possible which made it all feel a bit rushed, didn't leave much time to really soak in what you were seeing. Our tour guide was fab though and just knew everything there was to know.
The salt mines were FAB! One of my favourite tours I've been on, the guide was hilarious and really friendly. The actual mines were far more interesting than it sounds, one of the later rooms I audibly went "wow". I highly recommend taking this tour, just a great experience.
We got back to the city centre fairly late so I grabbed my camera, we took a gander around and had some dinner. This city is amazing, we both fell in love with the place. I actually look forward to returning in 2020. Some pics.
Friday 21st
After grabbing some breakfast at a bakery we got an uber out to Energylandia. There is a bus service but only on weekends and busy summer days, this was neither of those annoyingly. Our driver was actually really fab though and gave us a few bits of info about the places we passed on the way. He gave us a card and we arranged for him to pick us up at the end of the day. It was funny how far away from the park you can spot Hyperion just peering over the trees.
The park theme tunes playing at the entrance were super cheesy and amazing. Annoyingly our groupon ticket had a weird thing so we had to get it sorted but it meant we got free CDs!
The park was rammed and we arrived much later than planned so we just hit up the rides as we got to them. First up was the annoying SBF spinner which had a silly queue. There were a couple of mascots hanging around which looked like they were cooking alive in the sun - it was super hot out.
The water coaster had a ludicrous queue so we headed to the back of the park for the next gen Vekomas. I prayed it didn't spite later in the day.
Our first newkoma was the family suspended coaster, Dragon roller coaster. The theming has a bit of a cheap look to it but it's nice they put the effort in. The big dragon head you go through is fab though.
Don't think I've seen this on a lift hill evac staircase before?
The coaster is fab, really fast and very smooth - a totally different experience to the one in Warner Bros. Yay for newkoma!
Next up was Formula the launched newkoma, I have been really excited for this since 2016.
This coaster makes me so happy, the launch might not be that amazing compared to others but the ride is so smooth, twisty and the restraints actually stretch so they'r comfortable throughout the ride. Next up was Mayan, the SLC. Could Vekoma actually be on a roll and make another ridable SLC (the other being Walibi Belgium)?
Yes! They did it, the restraints were comfortable, it was smooth and the speed felt more ridiculous. If it didn't have a silly queue we would have gone around again.
Next up was the spinning coaster from hell, cooked up by some crazed idiot. The over the shoulder restraints felt unnecessary and it jolted about like there was no tomorrow. Very painful and stupid experience.
We didn't ride but there is a top spin hidden within these walls and I thought it was strange that it was very hard to know that before going through the turnstiles.
It's in a really fab little Swiss-themed street though.
Next was the Vekoma family boomerang. The theming on this was cute.
Next up was the Vekoma family coaster, Energus. It has a cute theme based on their mascot character, it's a fairly standard family coaster.
We then went to grab a quick bite to eat. We settled for some pizza slices and they were actually pretty good! Next up was the very standard big apple, Frutti Loop. Not much to say here but +1.
It was then finally time to join the queue for Hyperion. I don't understand the queueline, it's a bit ridiculous. Massive ramp up and then a huge outdoor staircase back down and into the unorganised mess where the queue splits into 3 (front, single riders and the rest of the train). I had a feeling front would be amazing but the additional wait didn't feel worth it. So we opted to try and get the back. We lucked out and got to the turnstiles for the start of the next auto-batch so we managed to get a back row.
It was brilliant, the speed throughout is excellent and the fast turns were exciting. The little bunny hop after the first air time hill was a bit underwhelming though. Really fun coaster though, would happily sit on that for ages.
Most of the coasters done now and with only a few hours left it was time for us to join the still lengthy queue for Speed, the Intamin water coaster. The one at Mirabilandia has spited me so I was excited to finally ride one. It was fun, that type of lift is always a novel experience on coasters and it wasn't too wet - although I think we got lucky, certainly a few peeps came off very wet.
Our last cred of the day was Mars, a weird family coaster from SBF. The thing was covered in those cheap looking models. It amused me though.
casual getting around copyright infringement
We nearly did the ride that hides in this building but the ride poster made it sound like a spin and spew - not our cup of tea. I later discovered via the park's Top Trumps that it's a small dark ride. Dammit! Hopefully it's still there in 2020.
With a bit more time left on our hands than expected we took a small break with a ride on the teacups in the Swiss area.
That ride was long, so if you are looking for a relaxing break from the creds then perfect. Not a lot to look at as you meander around.
We then had another ride on Formula which was still fab.
It was then back over to Hyperion for one last ride, the perfect way to end our day in the park.
While we waited for our driver to come pick us up I went and took all of the photos of Hyperion from the car park.
I actually really enjoyed my day at Energylandia, I wish the queues weren't quite so long so I could have relaxed a bit more. There's a lot of rubbish in there and there's not much of a cohesiveness in terms of theming and things but hopefully that's something they address over time. It's still insane how much they've built in such a small amount of time and it looks like it's working. Despite the queues the staff were actually amazing, very quick and just on the ball. I look forward to returning for the RMC in 2020.
In the evening we ate at Hard Rock like the tourists that we are. It was a bit rubbish really, very cramped and not that enjoyable.
Thanks for reading. I'll have the other two days up soon.
The day after getting back to London from the UAE it was back on a plane and over to Krakow. We got to our Air Bnb pretty late at night so we didn't really get to see anything until the next day. The place was kinda perfect, short walk from the train station and the town centre.
Thursday 20th
This was our main culture day and I didn't take my camera with me due to not wanting to faff with it on our journey. We had a big tour group thing booked to see Auschwitz and the Salt Mines. It conveniently picked us up right outside our apartment and took us to around for the day. It was interesting seeing Auschwitz but they really try and cram as many people through as possible which made it all feel a bit rushed, didn't leave much time to really soak in what you were seeing. Our tour guide was fab though and just knew everything there was to know.
The salt mines were FAB! One of my favourite tours I've been on, the guide was hilarious and really friendly. The actual mines were far more interesting than it sounds, one of the later rooms I audibly went "wow". I highly recommend taking this tour, just a great experience.
We got back to the city centre fairly late so I grabbed my camera, we took a gander around and had some dinner. This city is amazing, we both fell in love with the place. I actually look forward to returning in 2020. Some pics.
Friday 21st
After grabbing some breakfast at a bakery we got an uber out to Energylandia. There is a bus service but only on weekends and busy summer days, this was neither of those annoyingly. Our driver was actually really fab though and gave us a few bits of info about the places we passed on the way. He gave us a card and we arranged for him to pick us up at the end of the day. It was funny how far away from the park you can spot Hyperion just peering over the trees.
The park theme tunes playing at the entrance were super cheesy and amazing. Annoyingly our groupon ticket had a weird thing so we had to get it sorted but it meant we got free CDs!
The park was rammed and we arrived much later than planned so we just hit up the rides as we got to them. First up was the annoying SBF spinner which had a silly queue. There were a couple of mascots hanging around which looked like they were cooking alive in the sun - it was super hot out.
The water coaster had a ludicrous queue so we headed to the back of the park for the next gen Vekomas. I prayed it didn't spite later in the day.
Our first newkoma was the family suspended coaster, Dragon roller coaster. The theming has a bit of a cheap look to it but it's nice they put the effort in. The big dragon head you go through is fab though.
Don't think I've seen this on a lift hill evac staircase before?
The coaster is fab, really fast and very smooth - a totally different experience to the one in Warner Bros. Yay for newkoma!
Next up was Formula the launched newkoma, I have been really excited for this since 2016.
This coaster makes me so happy, the launch might not be that amazing compared to others but the ride is so smooth, twisty and the restraints actually stretch so they'r comfortable throughout the ride. Next up was Mayan, the SLC. Could Vekoma actually be on a roll and make another ridable SLC (the other being Walibi Belgium)?
Yes! They did it, the restraints were comfortable, it was smooth and the speed felt more ridiculous. If it didn't have a silly queue we would have gone around again.
Next up was the spinning coaster from hell, cooked up by some crazed idiot. The over the shoulder restraints felt unnecessary and it jolted about like there was no tomorrow. Very painful and stupid experience.
We didn't ride but there is a top spin hidden within these walls and I thought it was strange that it was very hard to know that before going through the turnstiles.
It's in a really fab little Swiss-themed street though.
Next was the Vekoma family boomerang. The theming on this was cute.
Next up was the Vekoma family coaster, Energus. It has a cute theme based on their mascot character, it's a fairly standard family coaster.
We then went to grab a quick bite to eat. We settled for some pizza slices and they were actually pretty good! Next up was the very standard big apple, Frutti Loop. Not much to say here but +1.
It was then finally time to join the queue for Hyperion. I don't understand the queueline, it's a bit ridiculous. Massive ramp up and then a huge outdoor staircase back down and into the unorganised mess where the queue splits into 3 (front, single riders and the rest of the train). I had a feeling front would be amazing but the additional wait didn't feel worth it. So we opted to try and get the back. We lucked out and got to the turnstiles for the start of the next auto-batch so we managed to get a back row.
It was brilliant, the speed throughout is excellent and the fast turns were exciting. The little bunny hop after the first air time hill was a bit underwhelming though. Really fun coaster though, would happily sit on that for ages.
Most of the coasters done now and with only a few hours left it was time for us to join the still lengthy queue for Speed, the Intamin water coaster. The one at Mirabilandia has spited me so I was excited to finally ride one. It was fun, that type of lift is always a novel experience on coasters and it wasn't too wet - although I think we got lucky, certainly a few peeps came off very wet.
Our last cred of the day was Mars, a weird family coaster from SBF. The thing was covered in those cheap looking models. It amused me though.
casual getting around copyright infringement
We nearly did the ride that hides in this building but the ride poster made it sound like a spin and spew - not our cup of tea. I later discovered via the park's Top Trumps that it's a small dark ride. Dammit! Hopefully it's still there in 2020.
With a bit more time left on our hands than expected we took a small break with a ride on the teacups in the Swiss area.
That ride was long, so if you are looking for a relaxing break from the creds then perfect. Not a lot to look at as you meander around.
We then had another ride on Formula which was still fab.
It was then back over to Hyperion for one last ride, the perfect way to end our day in the park.
While we waited for our driver to come pick us up I went and took all of the photos of Hyperion from the car park.
I actually really enjoyed my day at Energylandia, I wish the queues weren't quite so long so I could have relaxed a bit more. There's a lot of rubbish in there and there's not much of a cohesiveness in terms of theming and things but hopefully that's something they address over time. It's still insane how much they've built in such a small amount of time and it looks like it's working. Despite the queues the staff were actually amazing, very quick and just on the ball. I look forward to returning for the RMC in 2020.
In the evening we ate at Hard Rock like the tourists that we are. It was a bit rubbish really, very cramped and not that enjoyable.
Thanks for reading. I'll have the other two days up soon.