Poland 2017 - Trip Report (Energylandia + Legendia)

[Coaster Hipster]

I had to make it to Poland this year. The self-hype on Lech Coaster was too big for me to handle! A goon friend joined me (not without intense lobbying from my part ) on this adventure which would comprise +14 coasters... but no Intamin, Mack or B&M!

Part 1: Energylandia

After a short night of sleep and an early flight, I was quite tired when the cringy entrance theme of Energylandia greeted us. The entrance building is quite tall and mighty, but also lacks details and a less cubic shape.
 

The architecture and appearance of the short "Main Street" really tells that the park has only opened/got massively refurbished a few years ago. In fact, Energylandia was inaugurated in 2014 and underwent massive expansions year after year.

We decided to tick off the less glamorous creds first. Happy Loops was our first cred of the trip and it was slightly more eventful than its short and flat-ish layout suggests. Quite jerky and still dull though.

Owocowy Ogrod is the local Wacky Worm. I can’t believe that having never ridden one in my previous 13 years as an enthusiast, but I got 4 in a single year. This one had the better theming of them all, which doesn’t say much anyway.

Energus sits closeby as a stark contrast in term of kiddie coaster quality. The theming, although still needing improvement in some areas, is far superior and fitting for a theme park. We got a ride on the back row which provided a nice pull on the first drop. The rest of the layout felt decent but decidedly unmemorable. I'm sure the kids will love it nonetheless!

By this point we had enough of the mundane credits and felt it was time to go for some real coaster thrill. Formula 1 it is then. Finally getting a sight of the new, sleek Vekoma inverting track is quite impressive! It’s quite hard to resist being excited seeing how fast and seamlessly the new trains negotiate the tight elements

I have to say the operations are supremely efficient. What a pleasant surprise actually! I was not expecting such quick dispatches for a really young park. The ride station was run by 5 well-coordinated employees and trains rarely ever stacked, regularly leaving the station platform every 1 minute and a half. Perhaps even less!

I got to ride F1 a total of 7 times on my first day (plus an additional 5 the next day), and I have to say Vekoma have really done well! The ride is not the most intense, but exciting with a fantastic pacing and sequence of elements. It provides my favourite moment of hangtime on a coaster yet with the remarkable Immelmann loop starting the layout. The rest of the ride is beautifully engineered and the airtime gets excellent towards the end of the day. F1 does feel a bit short, but to me, is like a prototype from Vekoma which displays what amazing products they can produce nowadays! The vest restraints were a little inconvenient at first, but I did not notice them at all for the rest of the trip.

Our confidence in Vekoma boosted by this impressive experience, we proceeded to one of their older and most infamous designs: the SLC, Mayan Roller Coaster. However, the notable use of newer trains with vest restraints reportedly improved ride comfort - even though not all fans who already tried Mayan will agree. Our first lap on the front seats was actually really fun. It was still jerky and shaky at some times, but the vest restraints really mitigated the pain and allowed us to enjoy what is a fairly nice layout. The second lap, at the rear, that immediately followed (yes!) led me to the same conclusion. I even screamed in laughter surprised by how actually enjoyable this coaster design can be. The entrance of the double in-line twist provides a quite scary footchopper, and while not the most forceful ride, Mayan has a good pace. Curiously, my third ride, as well as my fourth on Day 2 on this coaster gave me a more ordinary SLC experience, with the usual jarring and discomfort. Inconsistent, but potentially good could well describe this recent SLC.

After a late launch consisting some cheap but decent kebab food, we wanted to digest with something relatively tame. The nearby Family Boomerang, confusingly named Boomerang was a good fit. The theming is among the more detailed from the park, and apart from a jolt during the backward lift hill release, the experience from there was smooth and entertaining for what it is. There was decent moderate fun for the family as well as some fun floating moments. A second lap the day after was a little less convincing, the back row seating we picked providing no floater during the second spike.

Viking, an SBF Spinner with OTSR (!!) had the longest queue of the day with a 50 minute wait. It was also by far the worst ride of the park. No redeeming quality and an awful lot of headbanging.

We got a couple of rerides on F1 to quickly forget this awful taste of poor coaster manufacturing, and found the new-gen Vekoma even more enjoyable. The only issue (with the park has not much to do with) is the annoying habit of some Polish peeps to shamelessly line-jump without being punished.

Two kiddie creds sat next to each other. Circus Coaster and Mars are both forgettable and feel out-of-place for an ambitious, well-presented park. The former didn't even added anything to my main Coaster Count as it is a e-powered!...

I was quite eager to try Dragon which is an iteration of the latest and biggest version of the SFC model. I find it to be one of the most exciting forms of family coasters, with a nice drop, an adequate amount of intensity and nice overall flow. The theming is probably among the best in the park, a quite immersive experience which interacts with the coaster. Re-rides on the next day made me enjoy the coaster even more!

I left Energylandia having spent two very cheerful days. Employees are very friendly and respectful despite the language barrier. I lost one bag in a hurry and was astonished to find it back at the park reception with everything in it. Such a relief since it contained my GoPro transfer cable! The park as a whole looks much nicer than I expected. It's clean, easy to navigate and the paths have nice textures and aren't too large to feel like peep highways. I thought Energylandia would be a mere collection of coasters, but I found instead a charming place despite the perfectible theming! Very efficient operations and a coaster line-up which is set to become one of the most exciting in Europe makes for a must-visit park in a few years, if not already

Part 2 will focus on Legendia and the aforementioned/super-anticipated Lech Coaster!

Edited August 2, 2017 by Coaster Hipster
Youtube Energylandia theme embed

[Gazza]

Just letting you know I haven't forgotten about your pending gallery pics, have been flat out past week.

I think the park looks quite nice and the Vekomas are well executed, but they've spammed the place with too much Italian stuff.

The buildings have that almost medieva look to them. Are they supposed to be, or is that just what a generic theme park building is to the Polish (Like when you go to Six Flags and the buildings tend to all be a turn of the century American style.

[Tim Dasco]

I am sure the Intamin Hyper coming next year will be a great addition for them. I believe Intamins first 4 seater Hyper? Still would be interested in seeing a park build the Vekom some they pitched. 

[Santa07]

13 hours ago, Tim Dasco said:

I am sure the Intamin Hyper coming next year will be a great addition for them. I believe Intamins first 4 seater Hyper? Still would be interested in seeing a park build the Vekom some they pitched. 

Nope, Skyrush is 4-seater. Will be the first non-winged one though.

[Coaster Hipster]

On 02/08/2017 at 9:18 AM, Gazza said:

Just letting you know I haven't forgotten about your pending gallery pics, have been flat out past week.

I think the park looks quite nice and the Vekomas are well executed, but they've spammed the place with too much Italian stuff.

The buildings have that almost medieva look to them. Are they supposed to be, or is that just what a generic theme park building is to the Polish (Like when you go to Six Flags and the buildings tend to all be a turn of the century American style.

Good to know! I also have a lot of Legendia pics in storage too

As it is my first visit to Poland, I'm not very familiar as to what is generic theming is to the Poles, but Legendia's Main Street was more of a... regular MS.
 

I also posted an Energylandia Vlog! No on-ride stuff as I didn't get permission, but I still managed to some safisfying off-ride footage
Feel free to make any helpful criticism to improve my video editing skills x)

[Coaster Hipster]

Part 2: Legendia

Not many have heard of this park before 2016, including myself. But the addition of a brand new and exciting Vekoma looper suddenly put Legendia (formerly Slaskie Wesole Miasteczko) on the map! But the park did not just purchased a coaster, they've also refurbished a large chunk of the park too, starting with the pretty Main Street. Love the pathwork here

You can see Lech right from the entrance, at the opposite side of the lake. Great location choice!

Scary Toys Factory has a nice facade enough, but it hides a Galaxy Zyklon that continues the series of fairground-quality coasters at otherwise very promising parks in Poland. Something incredible happened when the very brutal trim brakes towards the end of the layout completely stopped once car once. Instead of pressing some buttons, the ride op took a fricking hammer (!!) and slammed into some part of the ride to unlock the car. Filmed the funny moment but accidently deleted it You can't change things overnight and I feel this coaster will be removed in a few years when the park will further move on from its past.

My previous experience with a Soquet ride was the infamous King at a Paris fairground which was decidedly my worst coaster experience ever. Tornado being a permanent one as opposed to a portable one, I was wondering if that would improve the experience to a less horrible one. And honestly, that wasn't so bad... at least at the front. There's some good forces during the Vertical Loops as expected, and the turns do not provide too much banging. However, the backwards experience in the second-to-last row was appaling. Very jolty and really uncomfortable. At least I got 99 creds by this point which means...

Some lengthy calculations led me to realize that with good planning, Lech Coaster would become a milestone coaster: my #100. And so it happened. Months of anticipation and hype culminated there. I couldn't help but feel really happy, proud and obviously very excited to ride this beauty!

I ended up riding Lech 62 times in 3 days, and this figure tells how much I loved it This is one of the most intense and relentless coasters I've ever done in my life, yet it is smooth and doesn't feature any jolt whatsoever. A little breakdown of some of the many memorable elements:

- The drop is a little disappointing towards the back. Airtime and whipping laterals during said drop aren't as powerful as on Expedition GeForce, but still pretty good. At the front though, the drop is so much more visually impressive than the Intamin Mega from Holiday Park! A very fun plunge that sets the tone of incredible excitiment to come...
- I grayed out almost every time starting at the top of the Dive Loop. But then the following twisted hill gives a stunning airtime which instantly makes me regain my sight! It's a truly breathtaking sequence!
- The big airtime hump provide some good ejector air, though not on the insane level of El Toro's surprise hill.
- That fly-through inversion. It's also incredible! It's perfectly smooth, very fast and you get some fun delicate laterals if you seat left. You do not get the snappy rolls of B&M classics, but the speed and echoes inside the station are quite stunning in their own right!
- The small twisted hill after the turns around the station delivers the most extreme airtime in the layout. It's brutally fun!
- The Corkscrew has a continuous roll and no real snap unlike B&M Flat Spins, but is also taken at incredible speed.
- Then, an outward-banked hill lets you catch a small break, but isn't dull either with some soft laterals and floater air.
- The layout concludes with some forceful narrow turns and a final, surprisingly intense pop of ejector.

Simply put, Lech Coaster is a masterpiece of coaster engineering. Great and varied elements along with fantastic pacing and intensity. I did not have a problem with the restraints, and was able to enjoy the fast transitions as well as the blasting airtime without discomfort. Truly exceptional job Vekoma!

I was impressed by Diamond River's theming. Really cool buildings and the foliage around this Shoot the Chute is vibrant. The ride itself had a noticable jolt at the end of the main drop which was an unpleasant surprise.

Dragon Temple also has a nice - though similar - station building. This flat ride delivers a wicked yet amazing amount of laterals and some airtime too. I laughed quite a bit because of the ridiculous wonkiness of this attraction!

Dragon Riders was more of an endurance test/washing machine experience. Never been on an Intamin ZacSpin, but that flat ride felt even more absurdly disorienting.

Dream Hunters Society is the park's other Zyklon, and I struggle to remember something distinct from that second model, except for the unpleasant ride operator. The guy kept his arms crossed for the majority of the time and never smiled. Fortunately he was the only one to behave like that as all the other employees in the park were at least somewhat friendly, if not really enthusiastic in their job!

Legendia Flower has spinning gondolas. Yes. You also get some good views on Katowice and - of course - Lech.

Circus Hoppala was another piece left from the park's fairground-ish past. The restraints do not have several notches, which meant my skinny body was left with a lot of space. Predictably I bounced around a lot during the inverting moments of this ride... and to my surprise, I enjoyed that wonky stuff!

I have to say Legendia was a really pleasant surprise as a park! The place is certainly trying hard to compete with Energylandia and is doing quite well at that. The refurbished areas look really pretty, and while some of the theming may lack a little detail, it still feels quite charming and engaging. The self-service restaurant was also remarkably good quality for a park, offering fresh vegetables at a reasonable price. I really hope Lech Coaster is successful towards the public and that the park will continue investing. They have a top-class coaster to brag about, and it's a fantastic foundation to build upon!