Slagharen 2017 - Gold Rush Gerstlauer Launch POV!

^ Nice photos!

[Coasterkidmwm]

Thank you for sharing Drik, those are some really neat pictures.

[mkingy]

Lovely pictures Dirk, the coaster certainly gives you lots of opportunity to get great pictures!

[herman116]

Nice pictures! Too bad that it wasn't open...

[Dirk_Ermen]

And finally ridden! About a week later. :3



Day started off slow. Techincal difficulties still occasionally haunt the ride. In this case it took about 1,5 hours after park opening before the ride opened.



But soon enough, it was send off flying. And due all the people leaving the queue. I ended up with my first ride front seat.



Baggage system was still a little weird. As the bins are on the same side as the entry gates. With roughly 2-3 trains in the station and waiting at the gates. They only used one bin for all the bags. Which ended up in quite a chaos.
Looking at the design, it's probably made for only 1 train at the time in the station. If they finally implement that, I really hope they add a single rider queue too. As there were average about 2 seats empty per ride.



I was quite impressed on how high this train actually goes on the backwards launch. Yes. This is how high it goes!



Very fun first element, on the left side of the train you'd get a good amount of lats. Meanwhile on the right side there is the little extra added airtime you'd get on the top.



Quite powerful immelman







Looping Star Memorials in the station. It's a nice touch for the people who know.





That backwards launch isn't super intense, but the hangtime is really impressive. Even in the front row you're way beyond 90??.



That 3rd and final launch is good though! I've talked to one of the Ride-ops that gave me a good inside scoop and asked about a possibility of
a continuous 2nd cycle. They've thought about that idea as well for the quiet days the park has. The Vekoma Junior in the park has the option, but they need approval to run it like that. So they're looking into it. It seems only like a software thing to me, if the current ride can't run like that.









Here's another lovely shot on how high up this train actually launches backwards.







This airtime hill is surprisingly good too. Nothing too intense but definitely an ejector.



The final twist back down the dive loop is better then I expected as well. On the left you'd get that lovely whip ejecting you from the seat. Meanwhile that right side tosses you over with the inverted kick when the twist stops. Even front and back are 2 fantastic differences as the front has the twist a lot more violent and provides some hangtime after the twist, but the backrow just takes it more gentle with a lovely dive down.





The queue is fantastic as well, as you're standing and watching right next to and underneath that final element. So seeing people being launched backwards into that spike is quite intimidating. I've heard plenty of people talk like: "I'm not going into the backrow as it goes upside down!"





Of course the ride can be seen throughout almost the entire park.











And with that I'd end my day.

Overall review:
Fantastic new ride for The Netherlands. The launches seem a little slow, but I think it's quite cool that the launches have an increasing power as well. All 3 of them are each a bit more powerful than the last one! The ride provides good fun on pretty much every seat. With unique experiences on the front, back, left and right! Good mixture of positive and negative G's throughout the ride, definitely enough to wow the more seasonal enthusiasts. If I would need to rank it between the Dutch coasters. Definitely top 10 material. Maybe even top 5.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Glad you finally rode, and thanks again for the pic spam.

I'm surprised it launches that far up on the reverse launch as well. Does the ride bounce around weirdly or anything like that?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Does the ride bounce around weirdly or anything like that?

So far I didn't notice any weird wobbling or bouncing. So it could be that this is one of the fewer Gerstlauer's without that.

I personally think that B&M needs to let some of their Floorlesses do such elements!