Rob Coasters
Rob Poster
Day 1 - Walibi Belgium
My next adventure involved a jolly weekend down in Belgium for the new year, primarily for the 1am closing at Plopsaland De Panne, but also to gain a few more rerides on the standout attractions at Walibi Belgium. A three-day assault of errors and mistakes on our behalves resulted in this being a pretty unforgettable time and for all the wrong reasons.
We started out with transport to Manchester Airport where we skipped out on staying in a hotel due to the extremely early flight down to Charleroi, so we decided to camp out overnight at the airport instead. As a result, day one was spent operating on around an hour and a half of sleep.
Our introduction to Charleroi is that it was an understatement to call this one of the worst airports I've ever been to, with long passport control lines and an incredibly confusing way to leave the airport. With no Ubers in the area, and the taxis REFUSING to go anywhere except for the Brussels city centre, where we didn't want to go, our only option was to figure out the incredibly baffling way of paying for buses out of the area.
However, shortly after we were on our bus to Fleurus, where with a change at Ottignies, we were headed towards Walibi Belgium. The waiting at the train station was instant proof that we were significantly underdressed for the occasion, with the cold already reaching unbearable levels, my three layers absolutely proving to not even be close to warm enough.
Upon entrance to Walibi Belgium, my immediate first destination was to buy a beanie hat to fight against the elements. A Kondaa hat that said "I SURVIVED" with no additional context, I quite liked.
We quickly ran through the park, reaccommodating ourselves with the classic credits. My travel friend not being a fan of dark rides and flat rides in the slightest, we opted to skip all of these in favour of more rides on the roller coasters. Token laps were had on Tiki Waka, Fun Pilot, Cobra, Pulsar and Psyke Underground with my opinion remaining fairly unchanged on these attractions (although Cobra was a little less terrible than I once remembered).
My general opinion of Kondaa changes to become more favourable as I gain laps on it. In April earlier this year I was quite underwhelmed by the experience, even calling some elements a let-down (such as the first drop and the outer-banked turn). Perhaps it is me adjusting myself from my originally un-met standards as I start appreciating the ride a little bit more for what it is. I've started to love how the first half focuses on larger elements while the second half retains its sense of speed and stays low to the ground, which is my favourite sensation on any roller coaster.
Calamity Mine...
AWARD WINNER: LOUDEST. On paper this is a fairly standard family mine train coaster, essentially Disneyland Paris's Big Thunder Mountain but with slightly dialed down theming and lacks the tunnel that sets it apart from the rest. Then I leave the station. Behind me were a few groups of kids who decided that their mission was to scream louder than any human has ever screamed before for the *entire duration* of the ride, including during the lift hills. At first it was ridiculous, but slowly it became hilarious as we slowly joined in towards the second half of the ride as the entire train slowly descended into nothing but white noise that had me questioning my entire reality as I froze to death in the Belgian winter. This wasn't screaming out of fear, this was just being as loud as vocally possible for nothing more than the sake of being as loud as vocally possible. This whole ordeal turned a fairly nonchalant family coaster into one of my most memorable coaster experiences ever.
Loup Garou retains its status as one of my favourite wooden coasters as well, with the way it runs on the track making for yet another incredibly memorable and amusing ride.
My travel friend was intending on hitting their 300th credit on Ride to Happiness tomorrow, but we were unaware that Vampire was closed, so then sparked a lot of absolutely frantic searching for "emergency funfairs". After a desperate plea, we had finally located a fairground in Dunkirk with exactly one roller coaster in it, a powered dragon. Good enough. The fair had a lot of intriguing flat rides, some I haven't ridden in years companied by some others high up on my "to-do" list, but we both knew what we wanted.
The rest of the night was spent looping between lapping Kondaa and trying our absolute hardest to at least try and warm up in the bitter freeze. After a couple of Kondaa night rides, the arctic temperatures had finally gotten the better of me, and after making the decision to sit out any more rides, my travel friend also decided they were done, and we headed out around two hours before close.
The evening was spent in Leuven where we had a Belgian McDonald's which was thoroughly enjoyed, definitely up there in the country McD's tier list, preparing ourselves for the 15 hours of lapping Ride to Happiness that was due for the next day.
My next adventure involved a jolly weekend down in Belgium for the new year, primarily for the 1am closing at Plopsaland De Panne, but also to gain a few more rerides on the standout attractions at Walibi Belgium. A three-day assault of errors and mistakes on our behalves resulted in this being a pretty unforgettable time and for all the wrong reasons.
We started out with transport to Manchester Airport where we skipped out on staying in a hotel due to the extremely early flight down to Charleroi, so we decided to camp out overnight at the airport instead. As a result, day one was spent operating on around an hour and a half of sleep.
Our introduction to Charleroi is that it was an understatement to call this one of the worst airports I've ever been to, with long passport control lines and an incredibly confusing way to leave the airport. With no Ubers in the area, and the taxis REFUSING to go anywhere except for the Brussels city centre, where we didn't want to go, our only option was to figure out the incredibly baffling way of paying for buses out of the area.
However, shortly after we were on our bus to Fleurus, where with a change at Ottignies, we were headed towards Walibi Belgium. The waiting at the train station was instant proof that we were significantly underdressed for the occasion, with the cold already reaching unbearable levels, my three layers absolutely proving to not even be close to warm enough.
Upon entrance to Walibi Belgium, my immediate first destination was to buy a beanie hat to fight against the elements. A Kondaa hat that said "I SURVIVED" with no additional context, I quite liked.
We quickly ran through the park, reaccommodating ourselves with the classic credits. My travel friend not being a fan of dark rides and flat rides in the slightest, we opted to skip all of these in favour of more rides on the roller coasters. Token laps were had on Tiki Waka, Fun Pilot, Cobra, Pulsar and Psyke Underground with my opinion remaining fairly unchanged on these attractions (although Cobra was a little less terrible than I once remembered).
My general opinion of Kondaa changes to become more favourable as I gain laps on it. In April earlier this year I was quite underwhelmed by the experience, even calling some elements a let-down (such as the first drop and the outer-banked turn). Perhaps it is me adjusting myself from my originally un-met standards as I start appreciating the ride a little bit more for what it is. I've started to love how the first half focuses on larger elements while the second half retains its sense of speed and stays low to the ground, which is my favourite sensation on any roller coaster.
Calamity Mine...
AWARD WINNER: LOUDEST. On paper this is a fairly standard family mine train coaster, essentially Disneyland Paris's Big Thunder Mountain but with slightly dialed down theming and lacks the tunnel that sets it apart from the rest. Then I leave the station. Behind me were a few groups of kids who decided that their mission was to scream louder than any human has ever screamed before for the *entire duration* of the ride, including during the lift hills. At first it was ridiculous, but slowly it became hilarious as we slowly joined in towards the second half of the ride as the entire train slowly descended into nothing but white noise that had me questioning my entire reality as I froze to death in the Belgian winter. This wasn't screaming out of fear, this was just being as loud as vocally possible for nothing more than the sake of being as loud as vocally possible. This whole ordeal turned a fairly nonchalant family coaster into one of my most memorable coaster experiences ever.
Loup Garou retains its status as one of my favourite wooden coasters as well, with the way it runs on the track making for yet another incredibly memorable and amusing ride.
My travel friend was intending on hitting their 300th credit on Ride to Happiness tomorrow, but we were unaware that Vampire was closed, so then sparked a lot of absolutely frantic searching for "emergency funfairs". After a desperate plea, we had finally located a fairground in Dunkirk with exactly one roller coaster in it, a powered dragon. Good enough. The fair had a lot of intriguing flat rides, some I haven't ridden in years companied by some others high up on my "to-do" list, but we both knew what we wanted.
The rest of the night was spent looping between lapping Kondaa and trying our absolute hardest to at least try and warm up in the bitter freeze. After a couple of Kondaa night rides, the arctic temperatures had finally gotten the better of me, and after making the decision to sit out any more rides, my travel friend also decided they were done, and we headed out around two hours before close.
The evening was spent in Leuven where we had a Belgian McDonald's which was thoroughly enjoyed, definitely up there in the country McD's tier list, preparing ourselves for the 15 hours of lapping Ride to Happiness that was due for the next day.
