Theme Park Discussion / Trip Report Parque Warner 24./25.06.2019

It says "Trip Report" but I can't really be bothered to remember in which sequence we did all rides so here is just a list of attractions and my thoughts on them (in order of encountering them when entering the park).

 

Chinese Theater 3D:

It's a rather nice replica of the Chinese Theater in L.A. that showed a kids show and Superman-Man of Steel. We watched the latter (mostly to get out of the heat). It's basically a 15 minute cut of Man of Steel that you probably can't understand (mostly because it's in Spanish).

 

Parade:

It's a rather nice parade. The soundtrack is horrible (Celebration by Kool & The Gang on a loop) but with all the licenses they have it's kinda hard to mess this up. I have no idea why a huge ass train was part of the parade (except to make Jappy happy if he ever visits) but it was definitely a highlight. Only issue is that the parade blocks the exit from one side of the park.

 

El Mago de Oz: Una Nueva Generación:

This one is a weird one. I really liked it. I actually watched it twice. It's basically a 40 minute musical with Spanish dialogue and English singing (although the singing was done with such a heavy accent that I didn't understand all that much). It's basically a shortened version of the Wizard of Oz movie but placed in modern times with some more modern songs (which were mediocre to weak for the most part). Why did I like it despite not understanding it and the songs being sometimes weak? I thought it was a bold move that worked out well. The lead singers actually sang live (as far as I was able to tell) and the show featured some strong costumes and set designs. I expected it to do the theme park thing of going really cheap and putting no effort in, but the effort was there, as were some of the classic songs of the movie. Also, three of the "new songs" were pretty good. As a musical guy I would love for more parks to try something like this.

 

Cine Tour:

Car ride. Interestingly done with solid theming objects and really well painted back walls. I can only say that painted back walls are underrated and should have been used more often. It's an enjoyable ride through a L.A. inspired landscape that sadly had some low effort mistakes (such as artificial trees only being completed on 3 of the 4 sides, etc).

 

Stunt Fall:

My friend and I were really anxious before riding this. I head solid things about GIBs, but when seeing a 50m tall Vekoma, doubts were definitely swirling in my head. Shockingly, the things I heard were true. The ride was really thrilling and the roughness (which was less than most old school Vekomas) was well countered by really soft cushions to both sides of the head. The drops out of the two towers were amazing and the ride was really fun and enjoyable, all in all.

 

Police Academy:

My friend and I both had fond memories of the show with the same name in Movie Park Germany. I think the show lived up to expectations. We obviously didn't understand a word but the stunt work was excellent and it was really enjoyable.

 

Hotel Ambrujado:

It's a Madhouse. It's a very good madhouse. I might even say it might be my favorite (the biggest rival for that spot is Hex in Alton Towers). The park really understood what counts when building such an attraction, so there is a lot of darkness and mystique in that ride. So much atmosphere. The only small issue is how the actual building (a really dark manor) sticks out like a sore thumb next to super bright buildings around it.

 

Superman: La Atracción de Acero:

Oh my. Out first ride on the first day and what a ride it is. A great B&M Floorless with tons of positive Gs and a surprising amount of airtime. It's a bit rattly but definitely more as in "it has character" than in "it is painful". First drop and airtime hill offered a ton of airtime, the zero G roll was basically perfect and boy is the part between Loop and Immelmann intense. Great ride, but sadly shit operations. They constantly stacked the two trains since they only had two ride ops to check a B&M train. At least they only allowed one train at a time into the station, making the actual loading process pretty relaxed. The station building is very bland, but the queue beforehand is really cool.

 

Sillas voladores de Mr.Freeze:

It's a wave swinger that looks kinda cool.

 

La Venganza del Enigma:

Don't as me why the Riddler is called Enigma in Spain. I usually avoid drop towers, but since it's a Riddler ride, and since it has a similar ride cycle as Mystery Castle I decided to try it out. My heart was really pumping when I sat down, since I was still a bit nervous. I ended up being really disappointed, since the ride turned out to be way tamer than Mystery castle. Maybe the other ride cycle (that features a traditional drop from the top of the tower) is better, but the launched freefall cycle was boring.

 

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Europe's Batman clone. It used to be called "Batman La Fuga" but then it got VR and the re-theming to the popular Batman video game. This was not a good idea. Three rows of the ride are reserved for VR and the whole VR goggles operations takes forever. It takes so long that once the loading of the train hadn't even started when the other train arrived in the final brake run. The VR line was shorter, but sadly both me and my buddy got really nauseous when using it. At least they used assigned seating, making the boarding process smooth.

 

Los Coches de Choque de El Joker:

Bumper Cars! Ever since we spent an hour riding the bumper cars at Skyline Park, me and my buddy are itching to ride these things. Sadly, most of the time the experience is underwhelming, since most parks don't give them as much space as Skyline Park did. Also, you couldn't drive the cars backwards, so that was another let down.

 

Gotham City Stunt Show:

Okay. Actually pretty good if you take into account that it's essentially a show in the general area (so not set in an extra arena with seating, etc). Sadly, all the stone benches are in the sun. Not good planning for a park in Spain.

 

Cataratas Salvajes:

It's a super splash. I guess it's pretty okay.

 

Coaster Express:

Recently re-tracked and with trains by Intamin. That gave us hope. Manufacturer: Rollercoaster Corporation of America. Please, stop. It wasn't as bad as Bandit, but just because the retracked parts were rideable. the other parts were horrible and place this coaster on a level with Anaconda and Bandit.

 

Rio Bravo:

Intamin Log Flume esque thing (the ones with 2 seats in 4 rows per boat). It has a surprise effect that would probably lead the multiple lawsuits every day if this was in America. The surprise was so insane, that I was kinda afraid to experience it for the second time (if someone wants to know what it is, just PM me). Enjoyable ride overall with some cool theming (and some non working effects).

 

Wild West Live!:

Another show in the general area. A lot of children assembled for this, so I wasn't exactly prepared for it to be about hookers being robbed by two guys with a lot of sexual innuendo.

 

Tom & Jerry:

It's a big Zierer Tivoli.

 

Rápidos ACME:

The highlight is probably the queue line with the ACME factory theme. The ride itself is kinda weird, since most of the water comes from above of the rides and barely any water came from the actual ride. At least it was themed to the Looney Tunes.

 

Correcaminos Bip Bip:

Mack Youngstar coaster, which means it's a perfect family coaster: Fast, smooth and very enjoyable.

 

La Aventura de Scooby-Doo:

Apparently this existed in the Paramount parks? At any rate: Okay shooting dark ride. Cool concept to have the hits trigger little effects instead of just giving points. I would have preferred a real dark ride.

 

Crowds:

Well, it was the first two days of the summer holidays. I still didn't expect the park to be full with 12-16 year olds. They were probably 80-85% of the overall crowd. They also arrived in busses, so a lot of people knew each other. Which is usually not a problem. The issue is that Spanish people are not familiar with the basic rules of queuing. I think we can all agree that you should enter queues as a group, and if you can't manage that you have to let people pass until the group is completed. Well, in Spain queues are treated like normal paths. People leave the queue to get something. People skip half of the queue to join a group. People skip part of the queue because there was a small gap on the other side of the fence. Horrible. Over four days we only saw one ride op that actually did something against this.

 

Ride Ops:

Holy fuck. They do stuff that would get them fired in one go in parks like Phantasialand or Europa Park. Spanish people apparently really like to argue, so dispatches were often delayed because the ride ops had some sort of discussion with each other. It's really annoying when Superman isn't dispatched because the main ride op called the ride op at the gate to talk to him face to face.

 

General opinion:

Oh boy. It's a good park for a guy who visited it on one occasion. I enjoyed both of my days there. I can't stop feeling however, that the park could be soo much better under better management. The theming is good (not Europa Park/Efteling/PHL level, but good) but sometimes not as good as it could have been. The park opened in 2002 with every coaster they have now except one. Really? This park has a ton of visitors each year and can't be bothered to put in any new coaster. One thing that it definitely did is motivate me even further to build a Warner Bros style park in the future, so look out for that after Heckengäu is finished.