INTRODUCTION


Me visiting Imperial Delight, still one of the prettier amusement parks I've seen, but lacks some big coasters !


Hello everyone! My name is Alan Toomer. I'm a roller coaster enthusiast and blogger living as an expat in Belgium. In a few days I'll be visiting Le Parc de Villeroy in the Jura mountains to ride their lastest addition, Albatros, which is a custom B&M Flyer! I'll be joining a group of fellow enthusiasts for an exclusive session on the coaster early in the morning before it opens to the public.

Here's a teaser shot the park's community manager sent to all participants at the event:


Credit: Parc de Villeroy

I have to say I am eager to ride this thing! The landscape around the park is quite spectacular and it could really suit the Flying roller coaster type if the layout lives up to the hype. Also to my surprise the coaster will have a steampunk theme, possibly inspired by Jules Verne's work. How did they get the money for such a large coaster and such theming is beyond me.

In this thread I'll give my impressions on the ride. I'll also post my own photographs of this promising B&M creation which hopefully won't disappoint!


Warning: I'm kinda talkative when it comes to Trip Reports so my report on Albatros will be split in several parts, even though I'll try to reduce my wordcount this time



Cheers,
Alan

LOL Where is the actual coaster?

^ in the teaser...?

looks good from what can be seen, keep it up

Thank you Drew_ . I'm glad you liked it

PART ONE: Steampunkish surroundings (station and queue)


Since Belgium is not so far away from the park, I elected to sleep at home and drive there. It meant however that I had to set my alarm bell at 6AM to join my fellow enthusiasts in time for the Exclusive Ride Time at 8.30 (one hour before the park opens). I usually dislike waking-up early, but riding a brand new B&M before everyone else was a very strong incentive to do so! And the pictures below tell me that it was a pretty decent idea


The station at dawn. The train is waiting for our bunch of geeks to ride this beauty!


Some stunning industrial town buildings cleverly enhanced by elevated paths and foliage. Not sure it is really Jules Verne-ish though... *nit-picky* :P


The queueline starts with a fancy arch exhibiting the ride's logo.


At Le Parc de Villeroy, a B&M storage track is part of the theming!


In the queue, the loudspeakers broadcast some epic music while the coaster flies above your head.


The first row line also provides a nice preview of the coaster's layout, thanks to some areas (purposely?) left open.


The track beams blend quite well with the station architecture, as if the coaster's steel was really coming from a factory of this steampunk town.

However, one thing worried me. It's a B&M Flyer with no double loading platform and the train is only 7 cars: usually the recipe for a capacity hell ride. But surprisingly the ride OP were really fast! The park manager told me that they went to Alton Towers to see how the ride personnel worked on Air to ensure the best possible loading time. I have to praise such dedication to make the coaster run as smoothly as possible!


And we end this part with a picture of myself in front of the sighty lift hill. But my account of the layout will wait for another time


Cheers,
Alan


Special thanks to Gary Roach Productions (GRP) for his BETA B&M Flying Catwalks!

Awesome!!!! Which parts are you doing and what parts are Cartus doing?

Thank you Chima.

Cartus made most of the architecture, most of the rockwork and forest, and was behind some really cool ideas such as the balloon ride.
I did the layout, supports, 3 buildings (including the storage track building), terraforming, terrapainting, the pathwork, the foliage and the presentation. Overall, the workload was fairly evenly split between the two of us, and both I and Cartus experienced many crashes and other issues too

GRP made the special B&M Flying Coaster Catwalks (beta version of his upcoming V2 catwalks set), a big thank you to him!
Hadès is working on the POV - we were running out of time

--------

PART 2: The ride

After half an hour watching the coaster running through testing, our time to ride Albatros has come! I was not lucky enough to get a first row seat on my first time, but I eventually managed to get a front seat on the left after a few rides. As with many Flyers, this coaster has to be experienced at the front at least once! Here's why:


The lift hill is located near the side of a cliff. Now that building is HUGE! The only time I've seen such massive coaster architecture was on Crystal Wings at Happy Valley Shanghai, another (brilliant) B&M Flying Coaster. Anticipation rising some more...


In recent years B&M started using steeper first drops. Sky Scrapper, OzIris, Banshee and now this. I'm not gonna complain!


The overbanked right after the drop gives a really good sensation of flight. The forest below and the river nearby only adds to the experience!


The giant Fly-to-Lie element. The train rises high up in the sky to perform a 180° roll. It is actually my favourite part of the ride! The swift elevation it provides feels very aerial.


The vertical loop. It is very intense on the entrance and exit, but does deliver some nice hangtime at the top. I'm very glad B&M took this element from the Vekoma flyers!


The train is running really close to the rock at the bottom of the helix! And worse, the flying coaster type makes it even scarier because the restraints prevent you from moving a lot as you are fully expecting to hit the boulders.


Wait... consecutive corkscrews on a B&M?


On an interesting note, the right side provides more frightening near-misses throughout the layout than the left, notably thanks to the interactions with the lighthouse and the balloon station (above) interaction.


That was really good! The ride is very immersive and contains several highlights from the steep first drop to the lighthouse helix. I also like the diversity of the layout. At first, the riders glide in high altitude over the forest but towards the end the train stays much closer to the ground, like a reinterpreted version of Air. Thus, I believe Parc de Villeroy have a winner in their hands! I am definitely looking forward to future B&M coasters. Enthusiasts in the 00s have sometimes criticised B&M for making smooth but forceless and predictable layouts. However, with Albatros as with other recent coasters, it seems it is no longer the case!


The next part will be some overviews I took from the balloon ride, random shots and an on-ride POV!


Cheers,
Alan



Disclaimer: I took most of the pictures during ride testing, when everything was (relatively) quiet. That's why you mostly saw empty trains

Absolute perfection.

Well, except for the missing fence pole in the overbank picture.