8/12 Isla Magica - Someone switched this freefall

After a long summer of not getting to ride (work made it impossible), I was pretty worked up about riding anything, anywhere. My parents decided to take the whole family on a trip to Spain. I tried to go to WBMW, Parque Attraciones, or even Port Adventura, but to no avail.

I did get to go to Isla Magica in Seville (which is a very beautiful city, especially from the top of a 200' freefall ride at night) for an evening.

The first thing that I noticed about the park was that it was really cheap. It was 21 Euros for a full day, 14 Euros after 4pm and 9 Euros (about $10) after 9:30. Since I arrived at the park at 9:10, I decided to wait it out and save the $5. Crazily enough, you also got a $4 coupon for food items anywhere in the park (I think. My Spanish is pretty bad and I didn't end up using the coupon having just eaten). They let us in at 9:15 anyway, so the night rate start time didn't really matter.

My first impression of the park was very much like IoA, but not as "loud." Not audibly, but visually. The park was built around a lake in a ring and had tons of trees and nice clean paths, but it didn't have huge rides busting up anywhere. It looked more like a zoo or a sea world than an amusement park. It was also decently themed and some areas in particular were quite nice. Having two and a half hours at the park, I decided to get the only adult coaster, an SLC, out of the way first.

The SLC, called the Jaguar, was pretty far from the main entrance so I got a good look around one half of the park on my way to it. The staff of the ride was extremely friendly, efficient, and even the language barrier didn't cause any problems. They were letting one trains worth of people into the station at a time and filling every seat (which I thought was quite impressive). There were also running two trains even though the line was one or two trains. The most impressive thing about this SLC: *It didn't suck!* I know, I should burned at the stake for such blasphemy, but it was actually pretty decent. It was fast, pretty smooth (save one spot coming out of the second inline which felt like running over a pothole) and the hill after the heart/butterfly loop (whatever you call that double inversion) that banks heavily actually gave some pretty solid airtime. It actually caught me by surprise. The Jaguar also featured the add-on helix before the final brake, which was pretty boring all things considered, but given the speed at which this ride was running, I would've felt a bit ripped off if we cruised into the final brake at the pace we were going.

I don't know if it was the cool night air, the friendly staff, better maintainance, the different design, or just the fact that I hadn't ridden in months, but the Jaguar actually became one of my favorite inverts.

After a couple laps on the SLC, I headed over to their kiddie coaster, which was uneventful. I took a spin on a dark ride which was okay, but I've never really been a fan of dark rides. Then I headed to their freefall tower.

I'm not sure who makes it, but it has a ring shaped ride vehicle that seats 32 people in 8 sections of 4. The tower is latice and looks like an S&S tower without the air tank in the middle. So I hopped on "The challenge" as it was called (but in Spanish. I got an English brochuse to help me around) and prepared for my 68m fall. (The ride was a walk on). The ops didn't physically check the restraints, but visually checked the ok lights. So we were slowly raised up to the top of the tower which gave a breath taking view of the city. After a few nerve racking seconds at the top...a slight jerk...and we slowly descended down the tower. Yes, we were lowered down the tower. Not really understand what was going on (I had seen it fall at full speed earlier) I hopped off and ran around to get on again. The next lap resulted in the same thing: Slowly up, a pause at the top, and a slowly down. I couldn't really ask the op what was going on, so I just kind of waited around. I heard one of them tell another gues "Once" which means eleven, so I figured I'd wait around for the half hour and see if something different happened. Sure enough, at eleven they switched it back to thrill mode. I guess they run it in alternating shifts as a scenic ride and as a thrill ride. Well, happy that it was back, I hopped on. We were still not physically checked by the ops. We were pulled quite rapidly up the tower and only had a second to catch our breath before we were dropped 68m. The brakes squeaked us to a halt (quite loudly, I might add) before we were yanked back up the tower. At the top, the vehicle was dropped without stopping, resulting in a sensation much like the top of the space shot side of an S&S tower. I liked this better for whatever reason, maybe because I wasn't really expecting it. Another loud stop, and we were yanked up a third time before being dropped again. A final ear piercing shriek and we were done.

I spent the rest of the evening just looking around, not feeling to compelled to ride anything else. The park had some nice shows and I wish I had had more time to check out some of the their other more unique attractions, but I hadn't the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and I really felt like the park did a great job of blending a laid back atmosphere with some good rides and hi-tech attractions.

I am glad to be back in the states and back to where I can get ripped off in a hot concrete park with rides that don't work. ;)

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff
*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy 8/21/2003 3:33:18 PM ***
*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy 8/21/2003 3:33:29 PM ***

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The Trip: CP, SFWoA, PKI, KW, HW, IB, SFGAm, MiA and LeSourdsville too.
8 Days- 10 parks. May 2003

The dutch, belgian or german members can tell you more about it, if they're around...

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Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.

Anyhoot, it was fun reading about a park no one ever goes to, even if it did sound lame. :)

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You suck big time.