Walibi Holland

Walibi Holland
Slogan #HardGaan (#HardGoing)
Location Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands
Coordinates 52°26′24″N 5°45′45″E / 52.44000°N 5.76250°E / 52.44000; 5.76250Coordinates: 52°26′24″N 5°45′45″E / 52.44000°N 5.76250°E / 52.44000; 5.76250
Owner Compagnie des Alpes
General Manager Mascha van Till-Taminiau
Opened 1971 (1971)
Previous names Walibi World (2005 to 2010)
Six Flags Holland (2000 to 2004)
Walibi Flevo (1994 to 1999)
Flevohof (1971 to 1991)
Operating season April - October
Rides
Total More than 40
Roller coasters 7
Water rides 3
Website Official website

Walibi Holland (previously called Flevohof, Walibi Flevo, Six Flags Holland and Walibi World) is a theme park in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands.

Attractions include the Speed of Sound, Condor, Xpress, Goliath and Robin Hood roller coasters.

The adjacent associated event grounds has been the location of large music festivals.

History

The entrance to Walibi Holland

In 1971, the park was opened under the name 'Flevohof'. It was an educational themepark themed after agriculture and farming. Having struggled to compete with more modern family attractions, Flevohof went bankrupt in 1993, and was subsequently purchased by the Walibi Group that autumn, who redeveloped the site as an amusement park. After a major winter-long programme of reconstruction the park reopened as Walibi Flevo on 7 May 1994, featuring the world's first Vekoma suspended looping coaster (SLC), El Condor.[1] The park also adopted the wallaby mascot of its sister park, Walibi Wavre in Belgium. (The name 'Walibi', incidentally, is derived from the first two letters of three towns in Belgium put together to form a single word: Wavre - Limal - Bierges).

The Walibi parks, including Bellewaerde in Belgium, were purchased by Premier Parks Inc. in 1998, who subsequently overhauled the Flevo park, removing the 'Walibi' branding and building 30 new attractions as part of its transformation into Six Flags Holland in 2000. Six Flags's nominal expansion into Europe saw a similar refurbishment of the Belgian Walibi theme park, which was renamed to Six Flags Belgium. Both parks benefiting from the group's rights to use Warner Brothers characters within them, leading to the creation of a Looney Tunes-themed area and a powered-launch coaster themed around popular comic figure Superman, later changed to the Xpress.

In 2004, Six Flags Holland and its sister parks were purchased by financiers Palamon Capital Partners, who grouped the attractions under the name "StarParks". The park reverted to Walibi branding in 2005; numerous attractions having been rebranded as the sale of the parks also meant the loss of any references to Looney Tunes and DC Comics characters rights.

In the second half of 2006, the parks were sold for the second time in as many years to the French group Grévin & Cie (Compagnie des Alpes), most notably the operators of the French themed resort Parc Astérix, who also purchased two other Dutch attractions - the Dolfinarium Harderwijk and Avonturenpark Hellendoorn. In 2011 the park was renamed as Walibi Holland, which introduced new mascots.

The adjacent associated event grounds were originally developed with Scouting Nederland for the EuroJam 1994 and the 18th World Scout Jamboree in 1995. It is or has been the location of many festivals like the Lowlands music festival and the Defqon.1 music festival .

Attractions

Present rides

Roller coasters

Name Opened Manufacturer Type Notes
Drako 1992 Zierer Family Coaster Rattlesnake (2011-2013)

Wok's Waanzin (2005-2010)

Road Runner Express (2000-2004)

Keverbaan (1992-1999)

Condor 1994 Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster El Condor (1994-2013)
Robin Hood 2000 Vekoma Wooden Roller Coaser
Speed of Sound Vekoma Boomerang Coaster La Vila Volta (2000-2010)
Xpress: Platform 13 Vekoma LSM Launch Coaster Xpress (2005-2013)

Superman The Ride (2000-2004)

Goliath 2002 Intamin Hyper-Lite Coaster
Lost Gravity 2016 Mack Rides Mega Coaster Utilises Mack's new BigDipper style trains

Thrill rides

Name Opened Manufacturer Type Notes
Excalibur 2000 HUSS Top Spin
G-Force 1998 HUSS Enterprise
Karting 2000 Go Kart Track Race Way Go Karts (2000-2010)
Space Shot 1998 S&S Worldwide Space Shot Tower
Spinning Vibe 1994 HUSS HUSS Magic Il Gladiatore (2000-2010)
Skydiver 1994 FunTime Skydiver
The Tomahawk 2000SBF Visa Dance Party

Family rides

Name Opened Manufacturer Type Notes
5D Experience 2012 Entertainment Resource 4D Theater
Fibi's Bubble Swirl 2000 SBF Visa Wonder Flight Spotted Bubbles (2005-2010)

Elmer's Weather Balloons (2000-2004)

Haaz Garage 2000 SBF Visa Big Foot Rocky's Trucks (2005-2010)

Bugs Bunny's Trucking Company (2000-2004)

La Grande Roue 2000Vekoma Giant Ferris Wheel
Le Tour Des Jardins 2000 Chance Rides Antique Cars
Los Sombreros 1994 Soriani & Moser Mexican Fiesta
Merlin's Magic Castle 2000 Vekoma Madhouse
Merrie Go'round 1992 SBF Visa Carousel Cavalli Barocca (2000-2010)

Galopant (1992-1999)

Pavillon de Thé 2000Chance Rides Teacups
Space Kidz 2000 SBF Visa Tweety's Clubhouse Oscar's Treehouse (2005-2008)

Tweety's Tweehouse (200-2004)

Spinning Vibe 1994 HUSS HUSS Magic
Super Swing 1992 Zierer Swings Piccolini (2000-2010)

Wave Swinger (1992-1999)

Squad's Stunt Flight 1994 SBF Visa Red Baron Joe's Stunt Kite (2005-2010)

Yosemite Sam's Flight School (2000-2004)

Red Baron (1994-1999)

Tequilla Taxi's 2000SBF Visa Bumper Cars Speedy's Taxis (2000-2004)
WAB World Tour 2000 SBF Visa Looney Tooter Train Horn (2005-2010)

Looney Toones Tooter (2000-2004)

Walibi Express Chance C.P. Huntington Train Six Flags Express (2000-2004)

WALIBI Express (1994-1999)


Flevohof Train (19??-1992)

Walibi's Fun Recorder 2000 SBF Visa Crazy Cars Koa's Komische Carts (2005-2010)

Taz's Traffic Jam (2000-2004)

Zen's Graffity Shuttle 2000 SBF Visa Flying Coach Funny Lily (2005-2010)

Daffy's Crazy Bus (2000-2004)

Water rides

Name Opened Manufacturer Type
Crazy River 1994 Mack Rides Log Flume
El Rio Grande 1994 Vekoma River Rapids
Splash Battle 2005 Preston & Barbieri Interactive Boat Ride

Former rides / attractions

Name Opened Closed Manufacturer Type Notes
Aztec 2000 2009 HUSS Rainbow Demolished due to other Rainbows having issues.
Boris Klauter Island 2005 2010 Playground
Double Inverter 2000 2004 Chance Looping Ship Moved to Walibi Rhone Alps
El Toro 2000 2006 HUSS Breakdance Moved to Belleaerde
Flying Dutchman Gold Mine 2000 2010 Mack Rides Steel Wild Mouse Coaster Moved to La Mer de Sable as Tigger Express
Kids Playground 2005 2013 Soft Play Petanque Boris Factory Balls (2005-2010)
Safari 1982? 1999 Whirlgig
Sherwood's Revenge 1995 2006 HUSS Tri-Star Moved to La Mer de Sable as Peroke
Tornado 2000 2004 Chance Chaos Moved to Walibi Aquitaine as Kosmic
Hudson Bay 19942016 HUSS Pirate Ship Replaced by Lost Gravity
Waikki Wave 1995 1999 Vekoma Waikiki Wave Replaced by Excalibur

See also

References

  1. Marden, Duane. "El Condor  (Walibi Holland)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walibi Holland.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.