Lowkey Wannabe @ Walibi - Coaster Kings

Alexander: What’s shakin, peeps? Who’s ready for the drug trip of a lifetime??

Today we’re at Walibi Holland to score some serotonin; there’s no better place than this, the greater Amsterdam area’s primary regional park, to scrounge up goods of this nature. Walibi is ready for us, but are you?

– Over the years, many of our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that not everyone mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to cabincrewcoasterkings.com. Thank you!

Welcome to the thrill capital of Nederlands! See those six flags on the right? Betcha can’t guess why those are there.

Walibi Holland is one of Sean’s favorite childhood parks. He visited it various times during its exciting-but-tumultuous period as a Six Flags park, as well as the troubled-but-ultimately-positive, immediate-post-Six-Flags years.

A park that has often struggled with its identity, Walibi Holland has now ascended to a level of confidence that warrants more than a few “throwing the cards in the air” decisions.

One of those more recent decisions was to take the park’s paint-by-numbers-esque entrance plaza and turn it into an Alice in Wonderland-meets-Hollywood acid blitz.

What kind of park turns part of their main midway into a climate-controlled indoor plaza? Walibi.

What kind of park puts on-board audio and an LED light tunnel on an otherwise standard Vekoma Boomerang? Walibi.

What kind of park cannibalizes part of their kiddie area to introduce a industrial-dystopian wasteland with one of the region’s most thrilling coasters? Walibi.

Nothing says “I used to be a Premier Parks-era Six Flags park” like a Huss Frisbee & Top Spin (pictured later).

Also, let’s appreciate the kiddie coaster that was displaced by a certain black-and-yellow thing. The Wild Mouse that once sat here was voted off the island.

Welcome to your post-sociatal fantasy come to life!

Enter: Lost Gravity.

Honestly they should have called it Lost Mind because Mack lowkey lost theirs when they were designing this thing.

Caution tape is something you’d usually want to avoid right?

Well crazy-ass Lost Gravity deadass crazy as a fox.

But before you can lose yourself, you must navigate the relics of human occupation.

What kind of park uses a reclaimed escalator as canonically-accurate queue space? Walibi.

Shipping containers are the gig here. Is this how a cat feels when they’re surrounded by empty boxes?

Look at that drop. Who in the right mind…

Lost Gravity is the first of Mack’s Big Dipper product line. It is the marriage of Skyrush-without-the-agony vehicle configuration and Gerstlauer Infinity-like maneuverability.

Lost Gravity is about the squirreliest coaster I’ve ever ridden.

Just when you thought Gerstlauer had the compact looper market locked up, Mack rolls in a with a product that makes the Euro Fighter look sedate and space-inneficient.

The airtime on this thing is sick, btw. It’s some RMC stuff, but sharper.

Gotta pass thru the neon-fractal shipping container before you ride!

I’m pretty sure Big Dipper trains (we didn’t realize its actually two, 4-across vehicles and not one, 8-pax car until our first ride) have the best articulation in the industry.

I mean LOOK at that drop. I can’t wrap my head around the ride’s ability to negotiate that transition.

Alright, ok. There’s other stuff here too.

Here’s this thing.

Walibi’s Condor has the dubious distinction of being the original Vekoma SLC.

Nowhere more than here are the improvements of later installations so apparent – this thing needs vest trains, stat.

Bad: dreadful capacity, terrible operations, apathetic staff.

Good: I like the way this picture came out.

IMPORTANT:

Walibi’s Goliath remains one of Intamin’s most decorated installations. Despite lofty expectations, the Jr. Hyper did not disappoint.

ALSO IMPORTANT:

Robin Hood, Walibi’s Vekoma wooden coaster, is closing at the end of this year. Its departure is what motivated a timely visit.

With Europe’s first RMC conversion on the horizon, the public must part ways from this surprisingly solid child of ’99.

Here’s that Top Spin I promised. It’s called Excalibur (using the same logo and aesthetic as the ride of the same name at Six Flags St. Louis), and, unlike most Six Flags Top Spins, this one actually operates.

There are pockets of Walibi that still verge on normal.

But such conventionality is heftily combatted by curious creations such as Speed of Sound, a particularly thrilling Boomer with custom audio that is pure fire.

“Best Boomerang” may sound like another dubious dedication for this Vekoma-centric park, but Speed of Sound’s status is hard-faught and well-earned.

The flume is still waking up! Brb.

Fun Fact: The helicopter under Lost Gravity like belly-rubs.

Fast Lane shenanigans! What kind of park puts a Fast Lane/single rider queue through a retired school bus? Walibi.

Yay! The flume is awake!

And look! Proof that the Top Spin was actually topspinning on our visit.

What an excellent flume! Good length, forward and backward drops, airtime! Two fabulous Mack creations living in harmony.

The center of the park hosts this still-very-dainty antique car ride. A Huss Magic undulates in the background.

For lunch went to literally the most Dutch restaurant ever: a Handsel and Gretel-themed pancake house and kiddie park.

LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS IS! I would have died for this when I was younger.

Actually tbh I’m dying for it right now.

In the Netherlands pancakes are a lunch-or-dinner affair.

Here’s a look at the inside of the restaurant.

Here’s a look at the hot chocolate I ordered, which is a solid reflection of the inside of the restaurant.

Here’s my enormous pancake w/ cup of Nutella. It was gone in mere moments.

Time to leave Handsel and Gretel to their own devices once again – we’ve got more coasters to ride!

Back to Walibi!

Goliath is the kind of coaster that’s best photographed from outside the park.

As far as theme park hood ornaments go, this is about as good as it gets.

Time for some more SOS.

The haus-banger-thriller gets top marks from the squad. It’s worth mentioning that, thanks to the ride’s audio terminal, these are the heaviest (read: FASTEST) Boomerang trains around! It’s a jam, fam!

On this year, the swan song of Robin Hood, rerides were warranted on the surprisingly-not-bad woodie.

I’m not saying that the ride’s 3-bench Vekoma trains don’t “stumble” their way through the ride’s puzzling out-and-back layout, but I’m also not saying it isn’t a fun ride in its own right.

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Hello, sweet prince.

I like the bus.

Don’t tell me this photo isn’t squad goals.

Fans of Walibi may have noticed that X-Press: Platform 13 has been largely absent so far; that’s because it was closed ALL DAY with the exception of the last 15 minutes-ish of the day. We were told it wouldn’t be open at all – SCORE!

I don’t have a pic of the ride actually running, but here’s a haphazard shot of the inside of the station. Pretty much the whole park flocked here once they realized it was open. It was a party.

Despite simply being Disney’s Rock N’ Roller Coaster outside, X-Press feels very special. Its queue is a metro station-themed haunt, and the ride features great launch and brakerun sequences. The location over the water makes up for the ride’s mild 2nd half.