Day Ten - Parque Espana
Day Ten - Parque Espana
Owen Rees
The boat ride theming was amazing, with an unpredicted ramp to the finale down a slope. The magic circus was stunning.
Anneliese Heiner
Parc Espania was s; even though there were only three coasters, one of which was closed, there was more than enough to do. Pyrenees, the B&M inverted had extraordinarily tight vertical loops and an airtime hill. The mine ride was an unexpected treat; it had severely banked turns, reminded me of Whizzer, and I think will make my Top Ten steel coaster list. I quickly named the surface boat ride 'Pirates of the Mediterranian,' and a dark ride as 'Peter Pan Meets Don Quixote.' Both were excellent. There was also a dark ride which was actually a light ride; I think it was called 'Carnival Light Show.' Also lit up beautifully was the escalator tunnel, which I had heard about from other roller coaster fanatics and I was glad to experience. The music around the park was catchy.
Maggie L. and I went to the hotel hot spring afterwards. This was a wonderful extra that Justin told us about earlier that day. We had some misadventure getting there; we wore our room robes down, rather than our spa robes; we didn't bring our spa tickets (they were in Japanese); and we brought our towels down, which we weren't supposed to do. But once we got everything sorted out, the hot spring was wonderful. No bathing suits; everybody was naked. It was single-sex, except for some little boys, one of which had a great time jumping around. One of the pools was outside, with an infinity edge and a view of the sunset. One of the inside pools had very strong jet massagers. Ummmmmmm. Maggie & I parboiled ourselves! We also partook of the cold water; you take a small bucket and dump it on yourself.
Andreas Lindemuth
Parque Espana is probably the only major theme park in the world where the theme is only one country ... and why the park picked Spain to be that one country, is still not entirely clear. Apart from the Disney parks, the theming was the best seen on this trip so far. Everything is relatively authentic; restaurants serve Paella (although mine included only one single shrimp and was served in a plastic dish, which is not the way you would have it in Valencia) and some of the buildings were set up in a Gaudi style - the theming did not include Spanish speaking staff members though, and some Italian specialties could be spotted in between the tapas menu.
The Mack mine train is smooth, fast and offers some impressive positive G's. Pyrinees appear like an exploded Batman type of B&M inverter. The ride has the usual B&M feel, with some not-so-usual rough spots and a brief air time moment. Dark rides were pleasant, and another walkable fridge was available, something else you would not find in Valencia.
Tim Herre (Karaoke God)
Today's park, Parque Espana, was by far the best themed we visited if you don't take Disney into account. Excellent landscping, fabulous theming and brilliant dark rides, along with some of the finest coasters of the trip, made this day at Shima Spain Village surely one of the trip's highlights. The Mack mine train coaster was as good as I expected it to be - german engineering still rules the world and the Americans.
One more time had to bow to the excellent powers of Deutschland, the f#cking best country in the entire universe. It's strong positive g's surely were a bit edgy for a family coaster, but, well, German families could stand it. After all, if everybody would stick to their wives instead of going for holiday crushes, we would have less divorces in the world and more intact families could enjoy these great, powerful family rides. But I'm off topic now ... OK, let's get back on: second highlight of the day, and surely the top notch eve in terms of socialising, was the Karaoke bar night out we had. Malcolm Marr and myself did some weird, special versions of Song 2, Ghostbusters (with altered lyrics: "If there's Finkelstein at the front of the line - who you gonna call? Q-BUSTERS!") and a very rocky remix of Fight for Your Right of Beasty Boys fame. Truly horrific, maybe a good preperation for the big haunted house at Fuji-Q we'll be hitting tomorrow ...
Evan Hoagland
A wonderfully themed park. The train had custom crossing gates of colorful poles that came down spreading like a fan. There was a fine flamenco dance show. The sparkling carnival ride was a dark ride through an abundance of twinkling holiday lights. The Bosque De Cuentos was a long walk with scenes from Spanish fairy tales. Could easily have spent more time in this park.
Brian Sisk
Park Espana was probably the most unique park I've visited in that I actually felt like I was in Spain and not just in an amusement park with a Spanish themed area. The entire park is themed like a Spanish village. I forgot all about the fact I was in Japan for a few hours. A very pleasant park.
Ric Turner
Wow, Parque Espana was an amazingly immersive theme park. Everything in the park fron the attractions to the cobblestone streets and Spanish tile roofs make you really feel like you are in Spain. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are in Japan. Adventure Lagoon is a huge boat ride with animatronics, projected environments, water explosions, and some very interesting machinery that moves the large boat around in surprising ways. Fantastic!
andycoasterboy-san
moshi moshi from Parque Espana a fantastic park high on the hill side overlooking oyster bays. A fantastic mack trian ride. a cool freezer walk through. A great themed pirate ride a disco esculator ride!! very hard to imagine that we are in Japan. Then back to the parks hotel for an amazing buffet :) and onto the bar with and a night of karaoke. Blur will never sound the same after a Tim and Malcolm remix... Jeff and Wortsie the beer is still very good.
Lee Bennett
As previously mentioned parc espana is a very well themed park. Le Pyrene was a delight to ride due to the massive amount of G-force. Also Grand Monzerratt was a very impressive mine ride. In the evening we were treated to a very nice buffet. very very good.
John Gerard
What a surprise Parque Espana was! Much, much more than I was expecting. Great theming--I especially enjoyed their homage to Gaudi. It wasn't just a few colored tiles, either, the buildings actually looked like something he'd have designed. Actually, all the areas were very accurately themed and a good cross-section of popular Spanish icons. A nice selection of shops and restaurants, too. I loved their choice of Don Quixote for their mascot. Pyrenees was a fun Beemer--a cross between Batman, Raptor and Talon. The tangle of track through the second loop was very photogenic and I thought their paint scheme of brown supports with white tracks (like snow on mountains) was a good choice. Gran Montserrat was an unexpected pleasure--a very powerful Mack mine train with great Gs at the bottom of a few of the highly banked, swooping drops. The boat/dark ride that was interesting, especially the way that the boat was tilted down onto the last drop. There were several other interesting dark rides. There was also a "flying" Peter Pan type ride themed to the Don Quixote story that was head and shoulders above the Disney version. Even the LED fireworks had convincing booming noises at the right time.
Malcolm Marr
I type this with a bruised elbow following a moshing collision with Tim Herre during Blur's "Song 2" at last night's Karaoke takeover at the Park Espana hotel. The park itself was a big surprise with the second best theming of the trip. It was really hard to believe you were in Japan, the Spanish theming is that good. The B&M was great with a better airtime hill than Fire Dragon at IOA and the Mack mine train ride was really smooth too (as Tim was constantly reminding us this was due to German Engineering). The park also has a nice mixture of dark rides including one that used the same system as the pyramid thing at Terra Mitica, but this one was a lot lot better. The third park with a refrigerated walkthrough, and this one was the best themed one yet with a single rose in the centre of each block of ice. I was stupid enough to sleep on the ice bed; in hindsight the day has been the wrong way around as I could do with some ice right now to heal my arm.
Richard Bannister
Riddle me this, Batman. The stage is set when a small park in Japan purchases a large B&M inverter, with three trains, for umpteen billion yen. The ride as delivered is capable of somewhere around fifteen hundred persons per hour, with a considerable portion of the build price spent on the equipment to allow this to happen. With this investment made, two trains are installed in a garage area where they won't get in the way. Next, the operators adopt the insane policy of wiping down every seat on the one train after every ride. With the train fully fumigated, each of the eight queueing areas is filled (slowly - tickets must be checked first). Only after the train has been parked three minutes or so is a safety announcement made, and maybe thirty seconds after that the gates will be opened so people can load. Ninety seconds later, on a good day, the train will be dispatched. That's right folks - five minutes to unload, clean, load, and check, on a ride that takes about two minutes out on track. Total capacity? An astonishing 275 per hour. Pure genius.
David Cornell
Park Espana made me feel very much like I was back in Spain, including the heat. The operation of the B&M coaster, Pyrenees, was perplexing and slow. It took 11 minutes to get a train all the way around because the Japanese culture was imposed on the operation. They of course would not let you on the platform until the ride was ready. Plus each seat even the ones not used had to be individually opened, cleaned, closed, then opened again if someone line up there. The rest of the park was great. The boat ride had a great surprise at the end. There was a very technically interesting dark ride with cartoon animal robots and 3D. I was told by someone that the flying island observation ride was one of only 3 running in the world. I have now done them all including the ones in Cypress Garden and Efteling. We finally had a chance to do Karaoke in Japan. It was fun though I only sang with Brad and John. Others were much more fun to watch.
George Greenway
This is a must see park. Whilst it doesnt have a great number of coasters, Pyrenees is another good B&M turn out, still re-rideable, probably due to its lack of use. the throughput of riders is 20% of its operational capacity. A tragic waste of thrill factor, but on the upside it meant I speant more time exploring the other areas of the park. Despite suffering an injury to my right foot in a Hirakata Park, "The Park of a Thousand Steps" heading towards the kiddie coaster, serves me right, I still managed to walk 4.5 miles. The highlights were the musical staircase which has to be seen. If you're fit you can traverse all four escalators before the music stops. The river dark ride is in a huge building themed like an acient earthquake destroyed ampitheatre and happens on two levels before dumping you back into the lake by the pirate ship. The amount of detail has you believing you are in a Spanish Park with few Japenese tourists, we managed to quadrupple the attendance in one visit. The biggest surprise is the cultural exhibits. the Gaudi museum is a collection of reproductions of spanish culture, clothing and some quite graphic scenes of Spanish conuering, looting and murdering of East Asian countrys. As usual scant little merchandising worth buying.
Dolores Damm
Pyrennes among best of BM INVERTED COASTERS. PARQUE Espana beautiful Spanish themes set amidst spectacular mountain lake setting in Japan's shima oyster-gathering area. Great view of park and Pyrennes from hotel balcony.
Bob Roginski
Parque Espana has two excellent steel coasters. The Pyrenees B&M inverted is the best of its type I have ever ridden although not everyone might agree. It has the speed, pacing and all the necessary thrill elements necessary for a great ride. The load/unload procedure is rather inefficient due to a wipe down of each pair of shoulder restraints. The operators are apparently somewhat paranoid of funky armpit odor establishing permanent residence.
The performance of the Mack Gran Montserrat mine train coaster took me quite by surprise. This is coaster heaven for helix lovers. The S-curved double-down following the second of two chain hills is probably the quickest part of the ride. The ride is very smooth and all turns are properly banked. I wish we had one of these at a park near Scranton, PA.
B. Derek Shaw
We visited another great park today. This time it was quality over quantity, with an assortment of fewer, but better and more unique rides. It was fun to feel like I was in Spain even though we hadn't traveled there. Pyrenees was a unique B&M layout. The mine train was phenomenal with extreme banking, head chopper sections and decent speed. The ride boasts two lift hills being shared by the same structure. We visited our third ice house on the trip, complete with a table and chairs and a bed at probably 25 degrees F! For an added fee, we enjoyed a flamenco dancer show. They made it look easy.
My only disappointment was finding that the always precise Japanese were not. At 4:57PM, the entrance to Pyrenees was closed for the day. I thought I had three minutes to spare to take my second ride on that coaster, but it was not to be (in general many Japanese parks close at 5 or 6 PM are considered "day parks".) This makes night rides impossible to get.
After a superb group buffet dinner that included lamb (one of my favorites), many of us packed the karaoke bar to sing at our best (or worst) until the wee hours. I even sang "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, although I'm sure Mick wouldn't approve. This is something that I normally don't do, however the alcohol helped!
Derek Cromarty
A great park, Park Espana. It was a three minute walk from the hotel (bliss). Three coasters. First up was a B&M inverter - a great ride. The second one was a mine train type. This was a very smooth great ride. The third one was closed, so no comment. The park was a great place, very well themed in a Spanish style setting. We even caught a flamenco show. They even had a very cold igloo house where it was great to cool off, only for a few minutes though. It contained an ice bed, but we didn't try it.
Ricky Cooper
A beautiful day at Parque Espana. The B&M inverted had the tightest loop of any coaster I've seen thus far. First ride was in the rear left and was filled with plenty of intense "your-shoes-are-gonna-come-off" positive g's. What a rush to start the riding day.
The mine train was another surprise with some of the strongest positive g spirals I've had on a "mine train."
The park theming was extremely well done. I have not yet visited Spain but the Plaza area with the fountains looked just like all the photos in my old textbook.
I stopped by theater to experience what I thought would be some comical movie attraction. It turned out I was treated to an I-max movie giving a lesson on art history with 3 of the Spanish painting masters -- all done in Japanese. Not at all what I expected but I did learn a bit and would be glad to share with you some of the finer points on the works of El Greco.
Still smiling and bowing in the Land of the Rising Fun.
Bill Tyson
A very nice day at Parque Espana started of with a bang when we rode the Pyrenees, what an incredible ride. Very well designed with interlocking elements. The mine train was unexpectedly quick and had some serious g's. Went to see the Flamenco dance and that was very good. Can't wait to see what is in store for us next.
Maggy Linka
Super trip! Meeting lots of great folks from Europe and USA, making lots of memories. Blisters on feet and bruises from rides are healing up now; although, expecting more bruises from the short Togo cars. It's hard to cram long femoral bones into the shorter cars! The knees take a beating, except in the front seat.
The signage is a riot! Japanese translations of ride rules into English are truly FUNNY!! Been taking photos of these rule/precaution signs because they are such a hoot. One ride closed for maintanence said. "Ride closed. It does not know when it works."
Food is an adventure, as well. Ate some octopus for lunch yesterday. Seaweed for dinner. The transition to Japanese culture is well underway. Can't read a word of Japanese, so we just point to a picture of some food item that looks good, and hope for the best! So far, not one's been sick on the trip (knock on wood).
Went to a traditional Japanese bath house yesterday. What an incredible experience! Hot spring bathing in outdoor pools overlooking a harbor surrounded by mountains, watching a pink sunset while water melodically slipped over boulders in the background. Soothing to the extreme!
Wonderful country, wonderful coasters, wonderful enthusiasts!
Tom Barr
As we left Parque Espana we took a road that made me think of the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), we overlooked the Pacific Ocean from a couple a hundred feet above, on a very very narrow two lane road in a BUS! They have a gutter on the side of many of the roads that give a new meaning to "no shoulder, steep drop-off". I just can't believe the skill of the bus drivers and the courtesy of the other drivers. In some cases you go one foot off the road and your tire is in a one foot trench!
The coaster and parks are really great, but as they say it's not only the destination, but the journey. That is certainly the case here.
Andrew Weiss (aka "ACE - san")
Parque Espania was very interesting, it was built for large crowds. Some very impressive dark rides were there. Disney was a big influence here, Pirates was similar in a very elaborate building which cost a lot of money. With a unique final drop. The circus 3-D ride was in a wild building where the floor rotated and dropped. The mine train was one of best I have been on. Pyrnees was intense, but I liked Orchi at Expoland better.
Marlon Scott
Parc Espana was a fabulously themed park. Almost too good! The 'pirate' ride they have is very elaborate with a surprising ending. The B&M Inverted, Pyranees, was a larger version of Montu with an extra speed hill at the end-not bad!
They keep a supply of rubber bands in the station for securing loose shoes. I took a couple and strapped them from my camcorder to my hand and convinced the ride ops to let me shoot POV!
Parc Espana spread out a massive banquet for us. Meats, shushi, Paella, lamb and so much more. Afterwards, a large group of us took over the hotel lounge and made mad fools of ourselves with Karaoke. Crazy!
David Hamburger
Parque Espana was a really nice park with many intricately themed dark rides and Gran Monserrat, a very good mine train ride. But I’m a huge fan of B&M and positive G’s, so for me, this park was all about Pyrenes. This was old-school B&M, just filled with positive G’s, especially in the amazing cobra roll (easily the best one I’ve been on, and the helix immediately following it. The last quarter of the ride after the mid-course brake was somewhat weak, mostly getting the train over to the neat little airtime hill over the queue. But the middle of the ride especially made up for it with some of the most extreme G’s seen on a B&M coaster. Fans of old-school B&M should really try to get out here! What was really great was getting to ride my new #3 steel coaster just a day after riding a new top 10 woodie in Aska!
Jeppe Nygaard
Parque Espana surpriced me big time, being a very, very well themed park, except for the two Disney Parks by far the best looking park so far. (And we have almost seen them all now) Their huge B&M, Pyrenes, was very good, fast and smooth. Not the most usual track layout, and some very intense G forced around the middle of the ride. But the ride operators was the slowest I think I had ever seen. Almost doing their utmost the load and unload the train. I mean they whiped all the seats of the train every time it was unloaded. I was quite surpriced with the Grand Monserrat ride, with was a great Mack minetrain, quite fast and very smooth, good high speed helixes.
At the Park Hotel they set up a superb buffet in the evening. Maybe the best looking one I have ever seen on a Club trip. More then 20 meters of table packed with food.. Justin was smart enough to organize how to send us table by table to the buffet, so it did not get ruined whithin a minute.. Thanks for a very good meal J
After the dinner many of us went to the hotel Karaokee bar, and really had a fun party night. I am all to shy to sing, but not too shy to really enjoying myself watching some of our fellow friends really working that entertainment. Thank to Carole and Marlon for getting the party started, and Tim and Malcolm for being by far the wildest performers on stage, (And offstage too. Hope your bruises has gone away now, Malcolm.)
Many of us, including me, are starting to feel really worn down now. The trip has been very good fun, but also quite exhausting with a lot a walking. (Not any moaning Justin)