Right these are just our opinions from our experience during our last visit. It was a real quiet off peak day so operations were a little different. Nothing we are about to discuss are facts but they are only opinions. We hope you guys enjoy this blog and we’d love to know your thoughts.
By off peak we’re talking one train operations across the coasters but waiting for people to fill them. That’s just how quiet it was and admittedly it was fab for re rides and appreciating those rides that we don’t during peak days. But that is a whole blog in itself. This blog is all about Valhalla and our experiences during our first ride of the season.
To begin with there was literally not one person in the queue but boats stacking in the station. We’ve never seen this before as usually the boats continuously move within the station whilst loading / unloading. We got straight onto the boat and once we dispatched we got held at the end of the station belt. This was pretty interesting as this isn’t how we’ve seen Valhalla operate before they were sending a boat once another boat returned. We’re unsure whether this is an off peak thing or new for the 2019 season?
Heading into the building everything looked ace and pretty perfect. The water fall upon the entrance was working, the dogs and fire at the lift working mint. Once off the first lift everything again was working amazingly. Got to the turn table to head backwards down the first drop and weirdly never got all that wet. One way to describe the wetness was like a sprinkle.
The next room is of course the Ice room which wasn’t all that cold. There was no falling snow and the temperature was normal temperature. Of course if you didn’t know those things were there you’d probably never even realise they aren’t working. Once heading down the next drop it was almost inevitable that perhaps it was an equal amount of working effects to not working. Again this drop didn’t get you all that wet neither and there was no vortex. Within that section now you can see the rest of the ride which is on the same floor as each other. It’s something that’s maybe always been there but it’s something we’ve never noticed before.
Heading up the final lift into the upper section of the ride. Once in that room it’s very clear everything is working beautifully. The lighting seemed a little better compared to our last visit. I don’t believe there was one effect not working within this room. The hammers were working perfectly and got us quite wet. There was smaller effects like fire lanterns which light up as the boat passed them which we’ve never noticed before. It seemed there was some bucket effect before heading to the skeletons which drowned us and the main culprit for how wet we got. Even the skeletons had effects which we haven’t quite seen before like atmospheric lighting and smoke.
However heading down into the final drop and hoping for the ring of fire to be disappointed as it weren’t working. Of course given the previous room it didn’t dampen the ride at all. Within that section after the drop there wasn’t any fire which again was okay. Final room the fire was working perfectly and that was our ride on Valhalla.
Now is Valhalla overhyped? This is were our opinions differ accordingly to each ride. Our last ride made us feel as if it’s a little overhyped we didn’t get all that wet and it was 50/50 for the effects. Those rooms where the effects were working solidly meant the ride is fab whereas the non working rooms let it down. It’s such a unpredictable ride in regards to effects. The ride we had was really good but not quite perfect a few more effects then it would of been perfect. In all honesty it could do with a small overhaul of black clothes to cover the scenes from each other and perhaps a board to display the amount of working effects. Either way there’s no denying we are so incredibly lucky to have such a large scale water ride in the UK.
Let us know your thoughts across our socials or down below.
