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Here are a few more galleries from my visit to France earlier in the year. I’m heading away again on Friday so I’ll have a bit of time in transit to write some trip reports to go with all these. Walibi Belgium https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-belgium Went here last minute towards the end of my trip as a day trip via high speed train from Paris to Brussels. Actually a good park. Konda is 10/10 and feels like a spiritual successor to DC rivals. The Mack powersplash Pulsar is legitimately good. And their bobsled Tiki Waka had great theming that reminded me of crash bandicoots style. Walibi Rhone Alpes https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-rhone-alpes Biggest little park in the world, and a really attractive place. Has a good variety of attractions, the difference is everything is scaled down a bit, but still a lot of fun, particularly Mystic and Timber. Remains to be seen if their new Intamin hot racer is smoother than Big Dipper Parc Spirou https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/parc-spirou-provence Not a big park, and lacking in shade. Main thing I wanted to ride is their rollerball coaster, which is like a non flipping version of a zac spin. It broke down after I rode it, so the visit wasn’t wasted. Also had a few simulators, which did have quite funny films. The level of finish didn’t quite match other parks, it felt like a lot of it was slapped together from bunnings (or whatever the French equivalent is) Vulcania https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/vulcania Science museum with a roller coaster really. The quad bike coaster Namazu is quite good, maybe slightly less intense than Jet Rescue, and nicely integrated into the hilly landscape, plus a well themed drop track. Got to go behind the scenes The rest of the park has doco films on big screens, simulators of varying quality, plus a decent trackless dark ride about cultures that worship volcanoes. Wave Island https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/wave-island A quick hit here since it was across the road from Parc Spirou. Has a lot of stuff from Polin. Enormous freefall slides, an 8 lane racer, and a few raft slides (3 of which used master blaster sections) The feel was kind of this beach shack feel, and in this case the ‘slapped together’ style kinda worked and made it feel really laid back. Futuroscope https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/futuroscope Frances answer to Epcot, but the pavilions look cooler from the outside. The park opened with a number of screen based attractions in a quantity that would make Universal blush. Many of these have been switched out over the years, so many buildings are empty. The Intamin spinner Objectif mars looked visually sharp, but the ride experience was middle of the road and the dark ride section didn’t gel for me. On the other hand, Chasseurs du Tornades is the best simulator ive done, with a huge rotating platform in the eye of the storm, with heaps of wind and fog. The rabbids dark ride was LOL worthy, other things like the Robocoaster and flying theatre were solid too. More to come…..

In light of the upcoming Steel Taipan at Dreamworld, thought sharing my recent experience on another thrill spinning coaster by Mack Rides could shed some insight. A few years ago, Plopsaland de Panne surprised many European fans when announcing The Ride to Happiness. The first Mack Xtreme Spinning Coaster on the Old Continent is also only the second model produced by Mack after Time Traveler. Plopsaland is usually visited by a crowd of familes and young children. To see the park invest in such a daring attraction, partnering with an "adult" IP (electronic music festival Tomorrowland) to boot it up, seems to indicate a desire to target teens and young adults this time. In short, I really enjoyed The Ride to Happiness. The spinning motion offers unique sensations, although I find it a bit too disorienting to re-ride. Let's describe the ride experience a little more in detail. The layout begins straight out of the station with a very funky curved barrel roll. I've never been a huge fan of such pre-launch slow inversions (Copperhead Strike's roll feels sluggish to me), but with Ride to Happiness I found the spinning dynamics help compensate for the lack of speed through the element. The train momentarily stops afterwards on the first launch section. You may notice magnet fins on the left side of the track. Those create extra spinning motion when each car traverse the launch track. Getting launched sideways and/or while your vehicle spins really compensates for the relatively tame acceleration of the Mack LSM boosters! The Top Hat offers great airtime, especially at the front and back seats. It is cut in the middle by an outerbank turn - another funky manoeuvre which takes advantage of the free spinning. Each ride can feel quite different from the other depending on how you spin. The cars could push you outwards through this element for an exhilarating effect. I find the Banana Roll to truly be a perfect inversion for this kind of ride. This inversion type first appeared on Takabisha, and its continuous curving shape gracefully matches with the spinning movement of the cars. This section of three consecutive inversions also delivers substantial G+. Unfortunately, I also consistently experienced vibrations through those elements. Having ridden a fair amount of thrill Mack coasters over the past 4 years, I found the German manufacturer has an uneven track record when it comes to smoothness. Some coasters feel perfectly fine to me (Icon, Helix, Star Trek) while others appear to feature a slight but noticeable rattle (Hyper Coaster at Land of Legends, Copperhead Strike, Lost Gravity). It's a nit pick though, and it says more about how much the standard for coaster smoothness has risen over the past decade. The twisted hill into the second launch delivers the only real dead spot through the ride. No airtime, no whip, similar to Alpina Blitz's first hill after the drop. Honestly given the sheer intensity of the coaster, I could happily use a respite. I suspect this s-hill purposely has an elevated height in the event of a rollback on the second launch. This way, the train can operate a backward then forward launch procedure if it ever gets stuck on the second LSM track section. Speaking of the second launch, it offers the lateral boost excitement of the first launch, and adds further speed and a surprising pop of airtime. Many coasters lose steam during the second half. The Ride to Happiness does the exact opposite. The second LSM section leads you right into a double inverting roll + dive loop combo. What a way to ramp up the intensity! The train twists and twists some more while you keep spinning. It is SO disorienting. With a little bit of luck, you may end up plunging down sideways while the track continues twisting (see car n°2 above). I've never experienced something like that on a coaster before, and I love it! The layout concludes with a strong airtime hops finale. The G- are arguably some of the strongest on a Mack coaster, and add welcome variety to a ride experience filled with disorienting inversions. The ride re-uses Silver Dollar City's Time Traveler trains. The Steampunk design fits well the Tomorrowland theme. Sadly the on-board audio did not work every time I rode the coaster, but when the music blasts, it very much adds to the insanity that RTH offers. After riding The Ride to Happiness 11 times, I would argue this attraction really push the boundaries of what roller coasters can do. I would compare it to the extreme experience of X² at Six Flags Magic Mountain, but with the rotation on a different axis. Most often, I find most inversions unexciting compared to airtime hills or snappy banking changes, but not on THRH! It appears Mack and Plopsaland decided not to restraint the spinning motion (as opposed to Time Traveler which moderates the spin with a magnet) for trial on opening year. The free spin creates very unique, breathtaking dynamics through each inversion. It also means the ride experience can be uneven depending on how your car spin - sometimes, the spinning movement work against the G-force profile of the layout. I found myself unable to re-ride Ride to Happiness in quick succession as I experienced motion sickness - something I rarely ever feel on coasters. While many enthusiasts present with me that day did not mind the intense spinning (quite the contrary in fact), some did find the free spin to be too much. The general public seem to enjoy the coaster though, as I heard no complaint going out the station, and the line remained consistently long enough for a 15 to 30 minute wait with 2 train operations. The Xtreme Spinning Coaster fill very nicely Mack Rides' attraction portfolio. It's not my favourite kind of sensations (I much prefer classic launchers or airtime-focused hypers) and at moments the intensity becomes too extreme for me to fully enjoy the ride. But the ride type certainly is very promising, and shows Mack Rides can deliver very, very forceful coasters! On-ride screenshots taken with a GoPro Hero 6, chest-mounted with the permission of the park.