Simon Butcher

Walibi was a major let-down, and with so many people visiting the park for the first time it was quite disappointing. Colleagues at work were even quite disappointed and perplexed as to why I would possibly want to visit such a place on a regular basis. To be honest, I don't blame them for wondering.

Okay, so what was wrong with Walibi this year? Almost everything.

Half of the rides were closed, including the Turbine, which meant the queued were abnormally large, averaging longer than 90 minutes. Even the food was sub-par, with burnt waffles and ice cold burgers on sale. Walibi staff simply stated that this is how they are and didn't offer replacements. Yuck‽

Beyond everything, even the games in the arcade were failing us, with staff unwilling to even reset them or provide refunds. This is not how you run a business guys, but it does explain why nobody was really spending money there.

Of all the problems, the only one I am forgiving about is the Vertigo, which was intended to be a star attraction but has already succumb to several problems as I have already mentioned, is now closed permanently and will be dismantled. The ride was an utter failure technically, despite drawing large crowds.

Just prior to this season, the tracks were even removed from the ride for reworking. In May, Jean-Claude Van Damme helped reopen the ride after technicians believed problems were solved, but within weeks the ride was suffering and closed again. Officially the reason for removing the ride is that it could not cope with the capacity that the ride was originally designed for (and the press release has since been removed from Walibi's website), but constant technical problems are surely a major factor here.

Walibi were taking a big risk and were quite ambitious to try and install a ride that was unique in the world, but sadly it failed for reasons beyond their control.

In short, despite my history, I won't be buying a season pass for the next season, and I won't be returning next year. At the worst of times Walibi's still kept my interest — as shown by my previous posts — but now that their focus has been on getting people in the park without bothering to have anything reasonable to do while you're there, I'm no longer interested.

Goodbye Walibi.