Polish Trip 2023 - PART 2
Visiting historic Krakow, "Rollercoaster Capital of Europe" Energylandia
and exploring the hidden depths of the Old Town!
Energylandia in Zator
An early start to day 2 (and a warm one), as I would be venturing nearly 40 miles west of Krakow, with a 75-minute ride aboard the Energylandia coach!
Once we had negotiated the rush hour, it was a nice journey through vast rural countryside, forests and lakes to the settlement of Zator. It really was the middle of nowhere, yet now where everything was happening!
Perhaps this was the reason for it being the prime location for the largest Theme Park in Europe, created very recently in 2014, offering a staggering 123 Attractions across 70 hectares, with 2 sections of the park separated by a main road, joined by a subway!
The skyline on arrival is dominated by Hyperion in the foreground, a completely mad 269-ft drop Hyper Coaster, plunging riders at an angle of 85 degrees into a tunnel, before a series of ejector airtime hills and “grass-cutter” inversions.
Towards the back of the park, Zadra, currently ranked the 3rd best ride in the world (only behind Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens in Florida and Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point in Ohio, 2 more parks on the bucket list!). To describe all the elements of this phenomenal ride would require a blog all of its own. Suffice to say, it manages to beat the outstanding Wildfire at Kolmården in Sweden I rode earlier in the year, also by the same manufacturer, which is quite some feat!
Including the two landmark rides, there are a total of 17 Coasters on this epic site, and a good few water rides.
Another ride beyond the “normal” sphere is Speed, in the rare Water Rollercoaster category, which hauls riders up an open-air elevator before placing into the drop zone and letting gravity take over! Deceptively, although the first drop is steeper, you actually get much wetter on the innocuous-looking, submerging 2nd drop (not far from Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park proportions at times!)
This was very welcome on a balmy first day, with temperatures reaching 27 degrees - not bad for mid-September!
The layout of the park reminded me of the days of playing Rollercoaster Tycoon, where you’d go a bit mad initially putting something into every conceivable space for fun, but find not everything was stylistically finished off quite right, and you hadn’t really accounted massively for transportation options.
This seems to be the case with Energylandia - some parts are incredibly well themed (Zadra has its own immersive area), whilst others adopt a more US Amusement Park style. It’s a bit of a mismatch, however it doesn’t detract too much and the rides speak for themselves, and undoubtedly they have truly exceptional ones!
There are also a few positive innovations with this modernist park, that could well be utilised elsewhere. Firstly, there is the wristband locker system, whereby you buy a strap for the day, scan at each ride’s locker section, and it will cleverly assign you the nearest free locker, and you scan again to release from the other side when you exit. Secondly, the ride rows are barrier automated to count in the requisite number per row shown on a display, so all seats are filled and no mad scramble for your row and dumping bags! Also saves any communication issues, as English can be quite limited here, however the staff are very friendly and helpful as they can be.
Overall, a great couple of days, a bit rainier on the second morning but soon cleared away, and ample opportunity to make the most of the showcase rides, and to get that iconic shot in front of the large Energylandia letters!
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