Coaster Review #1
I've now done most of the major coasters in the Netherlands! Thought I'd write a stream of thought "review" of my experiences when it's still fresh in my memory.
The rough order of review is best to worst for each theme park. My top favorites are probably Untamed, Lost Gravity, Troy & Fénix.
Walibi Holland
The best park to go if you like coasters. They don't do much in theming, and are rather lackluster about theming consistency, besides weird funky colors, and putting trees everywhere. It's also rather easy to get lost here. Coaster lineup is excellent however.
Untamed
Best coaster in the park by far. Smooth, comfortable restraints, great airtime, and just keeps going. Station is also quite nicely themed for Walibi Holland standards. The front rows make all the funky elements more snappy, and seems to make the airtime a bit stronger. The back row provides great airtime over the first drop, and makes the funky elements a bit slower. I prefer the back row for this reason, as I like sustained airtime. Surprisingly little positive G forces.
Lost Gravity
Fastest lift hill I've been on at time of writing. Instead of trains, there are cars seating 8 riders at a time, in 2 rows of 4 wide each. The edge seats on the first drop are excellent, as the left side will throw you over the track, and the right side will have the floor pulled from underneath you. Unfortunately, the edge seats are a bit rougher than the middle seats, and they make the zero G roll and a few corners less enjoyable for me. I prefer sitting in the center seats ever so slightly for this reason.
The coaster provides some good airtime, and has in my opinion the best seats and restraints of all coasters I've been on as of time of writing.
Goliath
Good all around. Great ejector airtime on the first hill, and last 3 bunny hills. Good positive G forces on the two helices close to the ground. The last turn into the brakes is the most forceful of the turns, and comes as a surprise. Feels quite smooth as well, and the restraints are very out of the way.
YoY Chill
First of the YoY (pronounced "Joy") coasters I've been on. For a new coaster, it's not that smooth sadly, and I find the restraints rather weird. I have to split my legs to go over the center rail in a bit of a weird position, making the lap bar fit weird. It also has over the shoulder straps, but these barely do anything, because it's very easy to slide out of them. On a more positive note, the single row train does increase the feeling of the airflow past you compared to the other bigger coasters.
When talking with one of the ride operators, they said the other "Raptor" coasters are similar to YoY (aka kinda jank), meaning I probably won't really like them.
The layout itself is fine, and provides some good airtime. The station sadly is just a box with the track colors on each side, and on the chill side, has some fish sculptures suspended from the ceiling. On the thrill side, it's some plant leaf thingies instead.
YoY Thrill
Similar to Chill, but inverts several times. Provides a bit less strong airtime because of this, but I slightly prefer this layout. The general public apparently prefers this one by a lot, as it had much longer lines than the chill side. The times I went they were also only running one train, which made the lines a lot longer than they needed to be.
Xpress
Best themed queue line at the park, and actually has a story that goes with it! The coaster itself is fine. The launch is quite good, the first inversion is quite good, and then it kinda just goes around a few times until it hits a rather rough corkscrew, and then goes around a bit more.
Condor
The first and supposedly worst SLC! The first time I rode it I thought it "wasn't that bad", but I've done it twice more now and I can understand why this coaster type is so hated.
I mostly survived it by hugging the vest restraint to prevent being bounced around in the seat. This seemed to have worked! But I did get a bit dizzy after, and would not recommend riding this coaster several times in a row, unless you are simply built different.
Speed of Sound
The first thing I noticed is that they changed the theme tune that plays during the ride since the last time I went on this coaster (2019). The original was called "Thrill Ride" by Randy van Velde and the buildup was excellent. The new one "Burn it to the ground" by Sasha DRK and Get It Done has a significantly worse buildup. I do prefer the new song when listening to it standalone, but I find it works less well during the ride itself, due to the noise the coaster itself makes.
The ride itself isn't the smoothest, but here are good vest restraints that help. The constant positive G forces made me dizzy after the first ride, I do not recommend doing a second ride immediately after if that is the case for you.
Toverland
Small, but surprisingly well themed park! Also easy to find your way around.
Fénix
The big B&M Wing coaster. Smooth, fast, fun, and a way too intense helix for what is a park aimed at mostly family. Unlike Lost Gravity, you go over the first roll drop a lot more slowly, giving you some hangtime. Also has a good airtime hill right after. The station is also very well themed.
Then after the turnaround, there's the helix. The right seats are a bit jank going into it in my opinion, but it's very strong and very sustained. On my first ride, I got tunnel vision at the end. On one of my subsequent rides, I tried relaxing completely and my vision went gray until midway through the zero G roll that follows. On some of the photos after the ride (camera is placed right after the zero G roll following the helix),I saw people that seemed to still be out at that point.
I found that if you tense up during the helix, you can prevent graying out. A fellow enthusiast I rode with referred to this as the "shitting position" (because I explained it that way), and can attest to it working, as he went
Shitting position!
...
Oh my god it works!
during the element.
Excellent coaster, Sadly I can not really recommend riding it a lot of times in a row due to the helix being this strong and sustained.
Troy
An excellent wooden coaster. Excellent pacing, and does not stop until you are in the brake run. I rode it on a hot day, and the big airtime hill provided quite decent floater airtime. I've heard this can be worse on colder days. Sadly this isn't the smoothest coaster out there due to being a wood coaster, but it is very reridable if you can stand being shaken around a bit. The cushioned trains help a lot, and it isn't nearly as bad as Condor.
A surprising element was that some of the more banked turns have a slight bump in them right before the turn, giving a short moment of airtime going into the turn.
Dwervelwind
My first spinning coaster. I have no clue what was going on but it was pretty fun.
Booster bike
Very fun seating position. I do feel the launch is a bit weaker than the one on Xpress sadly, despite being a hydraulic launch. The coaster also has a bit of a shake to it. The last two hills do provide some airtime which feels very weird in this seating position. It also lacks the theming the other coasters at the park have.
Efteling
The big themed park in the Netherlands! Has a lot of dark rides and other things to look at, and some quite good coasters too.
Python
The first coaster of the park. After the 2018 retrack, it is glass smooth. I don't recall how it was before that. It provides some nice G forces through the loop and corkscrew, but no airtime.
Baron 1898
A short but fun dive coaster. Excellent theming, and comes with a short pre-show before going up the lift hill. The layout is rather short, and very floaty, besides the helix. The zero G roll is best experienced in the center seats. As expected from somewhat older B&M coasters, it is glass smooth.
Joris & de Draak
A dueling wooden coaster. First half is excellent, but the second half provides less forces for some reason. The forces are also best experienced in the front or back of the train, as they are less intense in the middle. There isn't too much difference between each side, and the dueling seems to actually be random. I found it to be a bit smoother than Troy, but this may also be that it is less intense.
De Vliegende Hollander
The coaster part of this ride is rather underwhelming, but it has a cool splashdown at the end. The best part instead is the dark ride section before the coaster starts, as it is very well done.
Vogelrok
An indoor coaster. Reasonably smooth, and has some nice effects along the way. Due to the darkness I found it to be rather disorienting, and I was dizzy at the end.
Max & Moritz
Two powered coasters that go though the course twice. The second time it goes faster, and becomes quite forceful when doing so. Sadly not as smooth as it could be.