Most recently I had been in Shanghai for two weeks to end my summer vacation. On a Friday, I decided to visit the Happy Valley amusement park chain's setup in Shanghai. It was a cool, mostly cloudy late summer day; probably the best kind of weather to ride coasters.
The entrance ticket was 200 RMB (slightly over $30) - quite expensive by Chinese standards. Upon entering the park, the first thing I did was head over to the wooden roller coaster, called "Fireball" in English.
"Fireball" opened in 2009 with the opening of the park and is China's first wooden roller coaster.
(not my picture but a better view)
Apparently everyone else had the same idea as me, as when I reached the ride there was already a line down to near the end queuing area. I also noticed that they were only running one of the two trains. I would say the time it took me to get on the ride was about an hour, made slightly longer by a few line-cutters.
The ride itself was pretty well-designed and enjoyable, by conventional standards. Good enough to return for a second run in the day.
The next ride I went on was the tower you see in the photo above. They were only running the freefall tower (instead of the powered launch), where the cart slowly rises to the top before you freefall to the bottom of the tower. Probably the less intense version of the tower. Still, good enough for a nice kick.
One thing I noticed was that the carousel was full of young adults (most of the park's guests the day I visited were young adults) at around 10 am - something you would not see in an American amusement park!
The next ride I went on was called "Diving Coaster," a kind of large-capacity vertical drop coaster that has similar models in other parks around the world (Sheikra at Busch Gardens Tampa, for example). Still, it was my first time going on a diving machine. I think having just gone on the freefall tower helped make the vertical drop on this ride less daunting
Diving Coaster - definitely the most "impressive" ride at the park, with the longest drop and highest maximum speed.
The ride has a few tricks to scare nervous riders, such as a sudden acceleration before a sudden brake before the first drop, and a 2-3 second hang over the edge before the first drop, as you can kind of see the train doing in the picture above.
The interesting thing about this amusement park was that the ride operators waited for the train to be mostly full before dispatching. Even though there was no line, people were rather reluctant to ride the Diving Coaster, so I ended up waiting for about five or so minutes for the train to slowly fill. I didn't even know that the Diving Coaster was open, earlier in the day, because I had not seen a single train running on the track during my time waiting in line for the wooden roller coaster. After a second consecutive ride of the Diving Coaster I decided it was time to try something else.
The next ride I went on is pictured above, a flat ride that spins you in two different axes, eventually reaching a 270 degree revolution. Went on it once and felt that was enough, but it was enjoyable.
Mega-Lite. Starts with a cable lift (which is about twice as fast as a conventional chain lift), and is a smooth, fast, coaster with lots of airtime.
No kids in sight on the kiddie coaster!
Spinning coaster.
Other rides I went on were the requisite Mine Train Coaster (they have one at every Happy Valley amusement park), and some dark ride not worth mentioning. I finished off my day by going on the wooden coaster again, this time with no waiting time.
I went on a weekday after summer vacation had ended for the Chinese kids, so lines were pretty much non-existent throughout the day. Including the hour I spent waiting for the wooden coaster at the start of my day, I finished going through the park in about three and a bit hours. I probably got as much enjoyment from hearing and seeing the other park guests' reactions to the roller coasters as from the rides themselves.
Popular rides that I did not try were the Shoot the Chutes (will never go on one of those willingly), the rapids, and any of the shows.
Would I go back? Probably not. But, it was a satisfying experience, and a much more comfortable one compared to the last time I visited an amusement park in China. Last year I visited Happy Valley Shenzhen in the middle of summer, and probably my most vivid memory of the whole day was wiping the sweat off my forehead every two minutes with an already soaked and dirty tissue (since I had to 'conserve' my tissues).
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