Will
Strata Poster
Having been back from Vienna for 24hrs after a long journey home yesterday, time to put some thoughts together and hopefully give a bit more help to those of you visiting the Prater this weekend.
For those of you that don’t know, Friday was a somewhat stressful affair due to unforeseen circumstances, but eventually, I made it to Birmingham airport, then to Frankfurt airport (which is a burdenous interchange, with irritating buses to the terminal) and eventually, into Vienna around 2PM on Saturday. My original plan had been to catch the train to Geiselbergstrasse and walk the 2km to the cred at Bohmischer Prater, but… I’d forgotten to bring my map and got lost. Also, I was still dressed for England, but the temperature in Vienna was in the mid-twenties, meaning that walking and carrying a heavy bag was not ideal, so this plan was abandoned in around half an hour and I got back on the train to Praterstern.
The train ride showed that Wien Mitte and the Prater area were a far more attractive part of the city and as the famous Reisenrad came into view, the sleep deprivation from the 5AM start finally turned to excitement. From here, it was a 1km walk along the perimeter of the park to my hotel; I checked in with the friendly reception staff, turned my room’s air conditioning down 5 degrees, dumped any unwanted stuff and headed back into the Prater.
Having not eaten since a bacon sandwich in Wetherspoons at around 8AM, I needed food before I could get into the serious business of cred harvesting and the Rollercoaster Restaurant (next to Madame Tussauds) was my intended destination. My mood wasn’t great at this point and given the way the week was going and the amount of metal fencing I was walking past, I’d given up hope of Höllenblitz being open, especially given the half-finished state it had been in on the pictures I’d browsed on Austrian goon sites whilst bored at work earlier in the week. However, my mood was soon lifted as this turned out not to be the case, and I quickly handed over my €7 for my first cred of 2017 (it’s not previously been listed as a fixed attraction by coastercount, although it’s almost 9 years since I met my favourite coaster on the travelling circuit, and 7 since I nearly deafened Neal, John and Richard when I made an excitable noise when we stumbled across the ride whilst exploring Luxembourg). The staff’s main interest was in separating me from my Euros, but once this was resolved, they seemed suitably amused that I’d travelled all the way from England for the ride. As you may have gathered, I’m a huge fan of Höllenblitz – for a travelling coaster, it looks amazing, and everything that goes on inside with the water effects, lighting, dodgy music, fire, Christmas trees etc. is just… brilliantly mental. I have to admit that the actual ride wasn’t quite as thrilling as I remembered it being, but the scenery and overall experience more than makes up for it, and as I crossed the platform to the exit, I was happy once again.
“1!” I announced, perhaps a little too loudly, now resuming my search for the Rollercoaster Restaurant. This was a slightly confusing affair; arriving in the restaurant, I was informed I had to go downstairs to make a reservation, despite the seating area being half empty. This being the case, a reservation was easily made – I ended up with a private table after informing the staff that I’d already been to two such restaurants, but that there’s looked nicer. There are two main differences between Vienna’s coaster restaurant and those at Europa/Alton; firstly, the tablets are supplied by the staff upon ‘check in’ rather than being fixed to the table, meaning you have to sync them with your position. The first tablet I had didn’t work, but the staff, while busy, seemingly couldn’t do enough to help. Secondly, the food is a hell of a lot better (though as a result, my meal came to around 25EUR). As mentioned, I was hungry, but a burger topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and cheese was with me in 5 minutes, as was a coke, a beer and a large portion of fries. This was quickly consumed; more quickly, since my peace was sadly disrupted when a children’s birthday party was allocated the same table as me and I decided it was time to move on. All told, whilst perhaps not as nicely themed as Alton’s restaurant or Foodloop, this was definitely the best of the three, as well as having the best staff.
My wallet was already lightening, but would get lighter still as there was now the small matter of 11 creds to work my way through. After a large meal, a spinning mouse was not high on my to-do list, and a Volare even less so, so I wandered for a bit and ended up at Super 8 Bahn. RCDB informs me this is the only one of its type currently operating(?) but although I’d like to do a more thorough review, this ride is moreorless exactly what you’d expect. That said, it’s not nearly as vicious as many of its Italian cousins – it’s a bit of fun, it’s inoffensive and it’s a cred.
Having recovered a bit from food (though not enough for Dizzy Mouse) next up was Insider. I’d not realised there were park maps at this point, and had adopted the approach of wandering and riding creds as I arrived at them. My main memory of Insider is the queue line; it’s dark and contains an unexpected strobe and laser maze, which isn’t the most fun thing in the world when you’ve been up since 5 and you’re on your own. I... got lost in the maze, collided with my own reflection countless times, walked around in a circle at least 5 times and began to get pissed off. Eventually, I realised there was an obvious door that I’d missed, which led to the station; somewhere, somebody was probably watching me on CCTV, pointing and laughing. The ride itself exceeded my expectations; it’s a Maurer spinner with a few surprises and tricks up its sleeve, leading me to refer to it was the third Winjas. The effects inside are something you’d expect from a travelling fair, but the space-age theming also put me in mind of Eurosat. Whilst I wasn’t about to shell out another load of Euros for a re-ride, Insider is enjoyable and probably one of the park’s better coasters.
Unfortunately, my luck at picking good rides would soon run out, as the Volare was next up. ‘Surely,’ I thought, ‘it can’t be as bad as everyone says’. There are many times in my life when I have been wrong – and this was one such time. From start to finish, Prater’s Volare is VULGAR, leaving me wondering if this actually deserved to upstage dreadful Coaster Express to take the title of being my least favourite coaster. There’s a sign in the station reading ‘Sh1t happens’ and this is more honestly placed than one next to a bottomless pit stating ‘Don’t Jump’. Although the restraint isn’t intrusive and you barely notice its there to begin with, you become a lot better acquainted when the train decides to invert. Equally, it rattles and bashes you into things and just plain doesn’t feel safe. I did not like it – and I remembered I’ve still got to ride the ironically named Hero, which didn’t do much to cheer me.
With what would surely be the most offensive cred of the trip mercifully ticked off, my next stop was the Boomerang – and with its unusual restraint system, I was expecting this to be the best of the many, many rides of this type I’ve encountered. Firstly, forget any ideas of the pleasant lapbars offered by B&M, Mack and co. – this is an unwieldy and frankly rather pointy bare metal contraption, which looks like something Blackpool would have installed in the 1980s. The lack of harness improves the ride and makes for a very different experience (it’s probably one of Prater’s three best rides, when Höllenblitz isn’t in town) but there’s still the unpleasant matter of a backwards cobra roll and there’s still head rests and the side of the car to bang your head against. To be brutally honest, it wasn’t great.
By this point, I’m not certain what I did next, but I think I went in search of Hochshaubahn, which had many small children riding, leading me to suspect this was not your average wooden coaster. The only real way to describe this ride is ‘cute’ – and it’s reminiscent of the scenic railways at Great Yarmouth or Margate, though admittedly, not nearly as thrilling. For local goons, it must also be a fab thing to have as a first cred. It features confusing gnomes, VERY slow lift hills, VERY small drops and unexpected water squirty things.
Returning to the usual fare of spinning coasters, the eye catching Maskerade was next up. Again, this manages to be different enough from the conventional spinning mouse to remain interesting – the cars are wider and so too are the bends, but… that didn’t distract me from the fact that it just doesn’t do very much. The indoor building also has too much outside light, meaning it seems a bit… pointless. Whilst I wasn’t about to buy another ticket, this is one of those rides that, if it was at Efteling, people would like it.
Wilde Mouse was next – this seemed to be the standard Maurer Rattlesnake-style model, but felt considerably more than a year older than its Chessington cousin. The ride showed serious signs of age and neglect and was by a long way the roughest of these models I’ve encountered. I did not like it.
With two thirds of the park completed, I wanted to take a breather, but was distracted by Megablitz on my way back to the hotel. As other reviewers have mentioned, Megablitz may not look like much, but is a real surprise package and far and away my favourite non-Höllenblitz coaster of the trip. Aside from the brake-run at the end, this is a lot smoother than it looks, the forces are fab and it builds up a surprising amount of speed. Once lit up, it also looks great.
Having lost track of creds, I headed back to the hotel to check coastercount and see if I could find a map to figure out where everything else was. I also knew that if I was to stay awake much longer, I was going to need cigarettes and alcohol; apparently, the nearest place to buy these was the station. However, I also figured I was probably better riding Race and Zug des Manitu whilst sober, as these were in the children’s area of the park, so I grabbed these quickly. Race does far too many circuits for my liking, but its intended audience seem to enjoy it – the woman operating was also really friendly (something I like about the pay-per-ride thing is that they don’t judge you for riding small things – they’re happy to take money from anyone!) and gave me a map so I knew where to find the final elusive creds.
Zug des Manitu is hilarious to start with – a man climbing off with his small child warned me ‘Don’t do it – it’s dangerous!!’, then stood and watched in amusement/bemusement as the train went around with a lone English goon aboard. Like Race, this ride also does far more circuits than it needs to, and also starts by going backwards for reasons best known to itself. The slight roughness however, is what makes it – it’s a giggle for the first few laps, but after that becomes irksome.
Last but not least came Dizzy Mouse, back near the front entrance – this is moreorless a bog standard Reverchon spinner, and these are two-a-penny to seasoned European goons. Alas, I was on my own and the poor balancing of the car caused it to spin. Lots. I wasn’t sad when this ride ended, and this meant that in the space of around 4 hours, my dirty dozen creds was complete.
Praterstern station, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, gets very busy on a Saturday evening – working out how to get into the Billa. It’s a supermarket, but has something of a Home Bargains feel about it – and the queues stretched most of the way back down the aisles, leaving me wondering either if it was Christmas Eve, or if the shop would not be reopening tomorrow. However, water and whisky were purchased (leading to a 10-15 minute queue to pay) and then cheap fags (5.20 per pack) were grabbed next door.
With the ‘hard work’ behind me, I returned to the park, and relaxed at the originally named ‘The Bar’, where the staff were friendly and whisky shots were 2.90. For this reason, my happiness levels increased substantially over the next few hours, though my coherency and social skills probably did quite the reverse. I won’t bore you with the detail, but there followed a period of wandering and taking pictures (the park takes on a whole new atmosphere after dark and is much the better for it) while despairing at the music (Ketchup song and Mambo number ****ing 5 emanating from the nearby Breakdance).
Having taken a lot of my money back to the room to avoid too much silliness, I was down to my last 20euros, which were spent riding Geisterschloss and Hollenblitz (the former better than most English ghost trains, the latter definitely improved by the influence of alcohol) – then talking to the woman behind the bar in very broken German about everything from Olympia Looping to Brexit to the fact that my favourite Stoke player is Austrian. She kept giving me free Jagermeister (damn fool!) so I obviously wasn’t that annoying! The bar also had wifi. I can only apologise to those affected
All told, by the end, once the sun had set and the cred anxiety had subsided, I was pleasantly impressed with the Prater, even if I couldn’t quite justify the cash to ride many more attractions (and was in no fit state for the evil looking flat rides). The ride line up is by no means the greatest, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the park is a lot more fun to be in than Linnanmaki, Tivoli Gardens or other city parks I could mention. Take it for what it is, rather than complaining about what it isn’t, and, as I realised during my visit, I think you’ll have an awesome time. However, it’s also a very tiring trip with lots of travelling and walking and not enough downtime, making my mood rather variable through no fault of my own, so I came to the conclusion that ‘going it alone’ was the right choice.
Now for some photos - and I'll do some thoughts on 'touristing', 'hiding from the sun' and 'being hungover' on Day 2 at some point:
For those of you that don’t know, Friday was a somewhat stressful affair due to unforeseen circumstances, but eventually, I made it to Birmingham airport, then to Frankfurt airport (which is a burdenous interchange, with irritating buses to the terminal) and eventually, into Vienna around 2PM on Saturday. My original plan had been to catch the train to Geiselbergstrasse and walk the 2km to the cred at Bohmischer Prater, but… I’d forgotten to bring my map and got lost. Also, I was still dressed for England, but the temperature in Vienna was in the mid-twenties, meaning that walking and carrying a heavy bag was not ideal, so this plan was abandoned in around half an hour and I got back on the train to Praterstern.
The train ride showed that Wien Mitte and the Prater area were a far more attractive part of the city and as the famous Reisenrad came into view, the sleep deprivation from the 5AM start finally turned to excitement. From here, it was a 1km walk along the perimeter of the park to my hotel; I checked in with the friendly reception staff, turned my room’s air conditioning down 5 degrees, dumped any unwanted stuff and headed back into the Prater.
Having not eaten since a bacon sandwich in Wetherspoons at around 8AM, I needed food before I could get into the serious business of cred harvesting and the Rollercoaster Restaurant (next to Madame Tussauds) was my intended destination. My mood wasn’t great at this point and given the way the week was going and the amount of metal fencing I was walking past, I’d given up hope of Höllenblitz being open, especially given the half-finished state it had been in on the pictures I’d browsed on Austrian goon sites whilst bored at work earlier in the week. However, my mood was soon lifted as this turned out not to be the case, and I quickly handed over my €7 for my first cred of 2017 (it’s not previously been listed as a fixed attraction by coastercount, although it’s almost 9 years since I met my favourite coaster on the travelling circuit, and 7 since I nearly deafened Neal, John and Richard when I made an excitable noise when we stumbled across the ride whilst exploring Luxembourg). The staff’s main interest was in separating me from my Euros, but once this was resolved, they seemed suitably amused that I’d travelled all the way from England for the ride. As you may have gathered, I’m a huge fan of Höllenblitz – for a travelling coaster, it looks amazing, and everything that goes on inside with the water effects, lighting, dodgy music, fire, Christmas trees etc. is just… brilliantly mental. I have to admit that the actual ride wasn’t quite as thrilling as I remembered it being, but the scenery and overall experience more than makes up for it, and as I crossed the platform to the exit, I was happy once again.
“1!” I announced, perhaps a little too loudly, now resuming my search for the Rollercoaster Restaurant. This was a slightly confusing affair; arriving in the restaurant, I was informed I had to go downstairs to make a reservation, despite the seating area being half empty. This being the case, a reservation was easily made – I ended up with a private table after informing the staff that I’d already been to two such restaurants, but that there’s looked nicer. There are two main differences between Vienna’s coaster restaurant and those at Europa/Alton; firstly, the tablets are supplied by the staff upon ‘check in’ rather than being fixed to the table, meaning you have to sync them with your position. The first tablet I had didn’t work, but the staff, while busy, seemingly couldn’t do enough to help. Secondly, the food is a hell of a lot better (though as a result, my meal came to around 25EUR). As mentioned, I was hungry, but a burger topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and cheese was with me in 5 minutes, as was a coke, a beer and a large portion of fries. This was quickly consumed; more quickly, since my peace was sadly disrupted when a children’s birthday party was allocated the same table as me and I decided it was time to move on. All told, whilst perhaps not as nicely themed as Alton’s restaurant or Foodloop, this was definitely the best of the three, as well as having the best staff.
My wallet was already lightening, but would get lighter still as there was now the small matter of 11 creds to work my way through. After a large meal, a spinning mouse was not high on my to-do list, and a Volare even less so, so I wandered for a bit and ended up at Super 8 Bahn. RCDB informs me this is the only one of its type currently operating(?) but although I’d like to do a more thorough review, this ride is moreorless exactly what you’d expect. That said, it’s not nearly as vicious as many of its Italian cousins – it’s a bit of fun, it’s inoffensive and it’s a cred.
Having recovered a bit from food (though not enough for Dizzy Mouse) next up was Insider. I’d not realised there were park maps at this point, and had adopted the approach of wandering and riding creds as I arrived at them. My main memory of Insider is the queue line; it’s dark and contains an unexpected strobe and laser maze, which isn’t the most fun thing in the world when you’ve been up since 5 and you’re on your own. I... got lost in the maze, collided with my own reflection countless times, walked around in a circle at least 5 times and began to get pissed off. Eventually, I realised there was an obvious door that I’d missed, which led to the station; somewhere, somebody was probably watching me on CCTV, pointing and laughing. The ride itself exceeded my expectations; it’s a Maurer spinner with a few surprises and tricks up its sleeve, leading me to refer to it was the third Winjas. The effects inside are something you’d expect from a travelling fair, but the space-age theming also put me in mind of Eurosat. Whilst I wasn’t about to shell out another load of Euros for a re-ride, Insider is enjoyable and probably one of the park’s better coasters.
Unfortunately, my luck at picking good rides would soon run out, as the Volare was next up. ‘Surely,’ I thought, ‘it can’t be as bad as everyone says’. There are many times in my life when I have been wrong – and this was one such time. From start to finish, Prater’s Volare is VULGAR, leaving me wondering if this actually deserved to upstage dreadful Coaster Express to take the title of being my least favourite coaster. There’s a sign in the station reading ‘Sh1t happens’ and this is more honestly placed than one next to a bottomless pit stating ‘Don’t Jump’. Although the restraint isn’t intrusive and you barely notice its there to begin with, you become a lot better acquainted when the train decides to invert. Equally, it rattles and bashes you into things and just plain doesn’t feel safe. I did not like it – and I remembered I’ve still got to ride the ironically named Hero, which didn’t do much to cheer me.
With what would surely be the most offensive cred of the trip mercifully ticked off, my next stop was the Boomerang – and with its unusual restraint system, I was expecting this to be the best of the many, many rides of this type I’ve encountered. Firstly, forget any ideas of the pleasant lapbars offered by B&M, Mack and co. – this is an unwieldy and frankly rather pointy bare metal contraption, which looks like something Blackpool would have installed in the 1980s. The lack of harness improves the ride and makes for a very different experience (it’s probably one of Prater’s three best rides, when Höllenblitz isn’t in town) but there’s still the unpleasant matter of a backwards cobra roll and there’s still head rests and the side of the car to bang your head against. To be brutally honest, it wasn’t great.
By this point, I’m not certain what I did next, but I think I went in search of Hochshaubahn, which had many small children riding, leading me to suspect this was not your average wooden coaster. The only real way to describe this ride is ‘cute’ – and it’s reminiscent of the scenic railways at Great Yarmouth or Margate, though admittedly, not nearly as thrilling. For local goons, it must also be a fab thing to have as a first cred. It features confusing gnomes, VERY slow lift hills, VERY small drops and unexpected water squirty things.
Returning to the usual fare of spinning coasters, the eye catching Maskerade was next up. Again, this manages to be different enough from the conventional spinning mouse to remain interesting – the cars are wider and so too are the bends, but… that didn’t distract me from the fact that it just doesn’t do very much. The indoor building also has too much outside light, meaning it seems a bit… pointless. Whilst I wasn’t about to buy another ticket, this is one of those rides that, if it was at Efteling, people would like it.
Wilde Mouse was next – this seemed to be the standard Maurer Rattlesnake-style model, but felt considerably more than a year older than its Chessington cousin. The ride showed serious signs of age and neglect and was by a long way the roughest of these models I’ve encountered. I did not like it.
With two thirds of the park completed, I wanted to take a breather, but was distracted by Megablitz on my way back to the hotel. As other reviewers have mentioned, Megablitz may not look like much, but is a real surprise package and far and away my favourite non-Höllenblitz coaster of the trip. Aside from the brake-run at the end, this is a lot smoother than it looks, the forces are fab and it builds up a surprising amount of speed. Once lit up, it also looks great.
Having lost track of creds, I headed back to the hotel to check coastercount and see if I could find a map to figure out where everything else was. I also knew that if I was to stay awake much longer, I was going to need cigarettes and alcohol; apparently, the nearest place to buy these was the station. However, I also figured I was probably better riding Race and Zug des Manitu whilst sober, as these were in the children’s area of the park, so I grabbed these quickly. Race does far too many circuits for my liking, but its intended audience seem to enjoy it – the woman operating was also really friendly (something I like about the pay-per-ride thing is that they don’t judge you for riding small things – they’re happy to take money from anyone!) and gave me a map so I knew where to find the final elusive creds.
Zug des Manitu is hilarious to start with – a man climbing off with his small child warned me ‘Don’t do it – it’s dangerous!!’, then stood and watched in amusement/bemusement as the train went around with a lone English goon aboard. Like Race, this ride also does far more circuits than it needs to, and also starts by going backwards for reasons best known to itself. The slight roughness however, is what makes it – it’s a giggle for the first few laps, but after that becomes irksome.
Last but not least came Dizzy Mouse, back near the front entrance – this is moreorless a bog standard Reverchon spinner, and these are two-a-penny to seasoned European goons. Alas, I was on my own and the poor balancing of the car caused it to spin. Lots. I wasn’t sad when this ride ended, and this meant that in the space of around 4 hours, my dirty dozen creds was complete.
Praterstern station, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, gets very busy on a Saturday evening – working out how to get into the Billa. It’s a supermarket, but has something of a Home Bargains feel about it – and the queues stretched most of the way back down the aisles, leaving me wondering either if it was Christmas Eve, or if the shop would not be reopening tomorrow. However, water and whisky were purchased (leading to a 10-15 minute queue to pay) and then cheap fags (5.20 per pack) were grabbed next door.
With the ‘hard work’ behind me, I returned to the park, and relaxed at the originally named ‘The Bar’, where the staff were friendly and whisky shots were 2.90. For this reason, my happiness levels increased substantially over the next few hours, though my coherency and social skills probably did quite the reverse. I won’t bore you with the detail, but there followed a period of wandering and taking pictures (the park takes on a whole new atmosphere after dark and is much the better for it) while despairing at the music (Ketchup song and Mambo number ****ing 5 emanating from the nearby Breakdance).
Having taken a lot of my money back to the room to avoid too much silliness, I was down to my last 20euros, which were spent riding Geisterschloss and Hollenblitz (the former better than most English ghost trains, the latter definitely improved by the influence of alcohol) – then talking to the woman behind the bar in very broken German about everything from Olympia Looping to Brexit to the fact that my favourite Stoke player is Austrian. She kept giving me free Jagermeister (damn fool!) so I obviously wasn’t that annoying! The bar also had wifi. I can only apologise to those affected
All told, by the end, once the sun had set and the cred anxiety had subsided, I was pleasantly impressed with the Prater, even if I couldn’t quite justify the cash to ride many more attractions (and was in no fit state for the evil looking flat rides). The ride line up is by no means the greatest, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the park is a lot more fun to be in than Linnanmaki, Tivoli Gardens or other city parks I could mention. Take it for what it is, rather than complaining about what it isn’t, and, as I realised during my visit, I think you’ll have an awesome time. However, it’s also a very tiring trip with lots of travelling and walking and not enough downtime, making my mood rather variable through no fault of my own, so I came to the conclusion that ‘going it alone’ was the right choice.
Now for some photos - and I'll do some thoughts on 'touristing', 'hiding from the sun' and 'being hungover' on Day 2 at some point:
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