After much anticipation and a hard-fought battle to avoid as many spoilers as possible, I finally got to ride Voltron at Europa-Park. The Stryker coaster, constructed by Mack Rides, is regarded by many as one of the best coasters in Europe and even the world, and after riding it, I can happily confirm that I share this opinion.
The Ride Experience
Your experience starts by entering the outdoor part of the queue, which has some great theming elements and gives you some amazing views of Voltron itself. The outdoor part of the queue is located next to the beyond-vertical launch, and as a result, it has some amazing views of all the riders being launched through it.
Next, you will enter the indoor queue. This part of the queue is arguably one of the best queue lines in the world. There is a whole spectacle located inside with loads of different details that you will surely miss the first time queuing there. From the Nikola Tesla animatronic to the secret preshow, there is so much to look at that time flies by, and you will be at the lockers in no time.
The last element of the queue consists of a locker bay, where you will dispose of all your personal belongings, and you will be given a white card as a key to this locker. The system is the same as Arthur and is definitely one of the better ones out there.
Afterward, you will go to the station, which is a continuous loading station. This station is why the throughput of this ride is so high. Voltron has a capacity of 1600 people an hour, and as a result, never really has a line that is over 2 hours even though the queue line is completely full.
Once you have boarded, your actual ride experience starts. The ride starts with a very special element called a vertical bounce track. It is quite similar to a drop track except that you bounce up instead of falling down. The first launch that you will experience is the beyond-vertical launch. This launch was way better than I expected and was actually very forceful.
The first part of the layout is rather inversion-based, while the second part is focused on some insane airtime. The whole layout is divided in the middle by a turntable and a swing launch. The inversions are very forceful, with some great positive forces combined with some great hangtime. The airtime on Voltron is really something out of the ordinary; it is so strong on some hills that you literally feel like you are being launched into space.
The Best Coaster in the Whole Wide World?
So is Voltron the best coaster in the world? Let's address the elephant in the room first: of course, I haven’t ridden every coaster in the world, so I can’t say that it is the best in the world.
What I can say is that Voltron is definitely the best coaster I have ridden and beats out coasters like Batman Gotham City Escape and The Ride to Happiness. Despite Voltron being a (bit) rough in some places and it being so forceful that it is hard to re-ride multiple times, it is miles ahead. The layout is near perfection, and the theming is jaw-dropping.
Mack Rides has really built something magnificent, which will keep me coming back to Europa-Park for years to come. You should really go and check out Voltron at Europa-Park for yourself and enjoy this gem of a coaster.
You can also watch the review on my YouTube channel:
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