krinkels15600
12-29-2007, 12:32 PM
La Ronde's Goliath may look repetitive and lifeless when it's the first time you see it, but it's only an impression. It actually does deliver a breathtaking first drop, some wonderful airtime hills and sexy Apollo's Chariot-like tight turns!
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When the park opens, everybody starts running towards the same direction. Where the hell are they going? They just wanna get saved from waiting 2 hours in Goliath's queue line, even if it'd be worth the ride. From this point, there's no time to get wasted: do exactly the same thing as they do! The queue line could've been better because it is too much standard and doesn't innovate. It's split into four big sections of concrete zigzags, sometimes covered by a roof: the kind of thing you've already seen before on thousands of rides. After that, it goes up to the station with steep stairs and into it, it's really tight. If you wanna go on the front row, you'll have to find the right queue line, which is probably mixed up with the others. It's sometimes confusing and hard to understand how to get on the front half of the 9 cars train, but it's easy to know how to get on the rear one.
When the gates open, the people who have a pack sack have to cross the train to put it inside a case. The seats are very comfortable and let your free, but I guess I don't have to tell you how great the B&M hyper seats are! Then, the chain lift goes pretty fast and is kinda steep. Behind you is the park and the Jacques-Cartier bridge, on the left is the St-Laurent river, the Montreal island and the Olympic stadium that you can clearly see, in front of you are, of course, the hills and on the right are the parking lot, the St-Laurent river, the city of Longueuil and the marina.
All of these elements, combined, create a nice landscape up from the 52 meters hill. The giant drop is here and now is the time to say your prayors, because it's long, scary and steep. But it is very fun! After having reached a speed of 110 km/h and done a quick 40 degrees turn to the right, the train goes up a big hill that delivers some amazing airtimes, followed by some others that, together, create an awesome feeling of joy that never lets up for a second. When these hills are done, the train sure has to go back to the station. Here, a hammerhead turn, just like on Nitro, would have been cooler than what they have put instead. Here's how it actually happens: the track goes up by turning right, goes left, starts descending and goes under the ascending track by turning right. Let's don't say that it sucks, however: it's highly banked, turns from one side to another quickly and feels very unstable, which is fun.
On the way back, there is three 15 meters high bunnies. They deliver some great floater airtime, one after another. They're followed by a little special hill that turns right and left quickly and a second one that only turns left only. These two feel very wild and, strangely, memorable! Finally, the train goes up and hits the brakes. The first thing you wanna do is talk about it and then ride it again, because it simply rocks.
Overall: 9.5 /10.0
Station/Queueline/Scenery: 7.5 /10.0 (Original station building, quite good view from the top -- disappointing queueline, disappointing scenery along the track, disappointing organisation of the boarding operations)
Experience: 9.5 /10.0 (3 giant airtime hills that give an unforgettable sense of liberty, 3 quite big bunny hills that give some nice floater airtime, awesome first drop, nice tight turns at the end -- Lack of helixes, a hammerhead turn would have been superior to what is actually there)
Comfort: 10.0 /10.0 (Super comfortable B&M hyper trains and restraints:D, perfectly smooth ride)Photos:
Here's some of the hills and the special 360 degree turn at the edge ofthe
park
http://www.goudy.ca/carnet/images/goliath.jpg
http://www.goudy.ca/carnet/images/goliath.jpg
Here's some weird people having a good time on the ride :p
http://media.canada.com/01135ebc-53cc-4d7b-8172-cbc446f9b580/goliath1.jpg
http://media.canada.com/01135ebc-53cc-4d7b-8172-cbc446f9b580/goliath1.jpg
Here's the ride seen from Le Monstre
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/54/250px-Goliathlaronde.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/54/250px-Goliathlaronde.jpg
Here's the nice 52 meters drop and all of the hills
http://www.loeildulynx.fr/wp-content/gallery/LaRonde/LARONDE_07102007-07.jpg
http://www.loeildulynx.fr/wp-content/gallery/LaRonde/LARONDE_07102007-07.jpg
_____________________________________________
When the park opens, everybody starts running towards the same direction. Where the hell are they going? They just wanna get saved from waiting 2 hours in Goliath's queue line, even if it'd be worth the ride. From this point, there's no time to get wasted: do exactly the same thing as they do! The queue line could've been better because it is too much standard and doesn't innovate. It's split into four big sections of concrete zigzags, sometimes covered by a roof: the kind of thing you've already seen before on thousands of rides. After that, it goes up to the station with steep stairs and into it, it's really tight. If you wanna go on the front row, you'll have to find the right queue line, which is probably mixed up with the others. It's sometimes confusing and hard to understand how to get on the front half of the 9 cars train, but it's easy to know how to get on the rear one.
When the gates open, the people who have a pack sack have to cross the train to put it inside a case. The seats are very comfortable and let your free, but I guess I don't have to tell you how great the B&M hyper seats are! Then, the chain lift goes pretty fast and is kinda steep. Behind you is the park and the Jacques-Cartier bridge, on the left is the St-Laurent river, the Montreal island and the Olympic stadium that you can clearly see, in front of you are, of course, the hills and on the right are the parking lot, the St-Laurent river, the city of Longueuil and the marina.
All of these elements, combined, create a nice landscape up from the 52 meters hill. The giant drop is here and now is the time to say your prayors, because it's long, scary and steep. But it is very fun! After having reached a speed of 110 km/h and done a quick 40 degrees turn to the right, the train goes up a big hill that delivers some amazing airtimes, followed by some others that, together, create an awesome feeling of joy that never lets up for a second. When these hills are done, the train sure has to go back to the station. Here, a hammerhead turn, just like on Nitro, would have been cooler than what they have put instead. Here's how it actually happens: the track goes up by turning right, goes left, starts descending and goes under the ascending track by turning right. Let's don't say that it sucks, however: it's highly banked, turns from one side to another quickly and feels very unstable, which is fun.
On the way back, there is three 15 meters high bunnies. They deliver some great floater airtime, one after another. They're followed by a little special hill that turns right and left quickly and a second one that only turns left only. These two feel very wild and, strangely, memorable! Finally, the train goes up and hits the brakes. The first thing you wanna do is talk about it and then ride it again, because it simply rocks.
Overall: 9.5 /10.0
Station/Queueline/Scenery: 7.5 /10.0 (Original station building, quite good view from the top -- disappointing queueline, disappointing scenery along the track, disappointing organisation of the boarding operations)
Experience: 9.5 /10.0 (3 giant airtime hills that give an unforgettable sense of liberty, 3 quite big bunny hills that give some nice floater airtime, awesome first drop, nice tight turns at the end -- Lack of helixes, a hammerhead turn would have been superior to what is actually there)
Comfort: 10.0 /10.0 (Super comfortable B&M hyper trains and restraints:D, perfectly smooth ride)Photos:
Here's some of the hills and the special 360 degree turn at the edge ofthe
park
http://www.goudy.ca/carnet/images/goliath.jpg
http://www.goudy.ca/carnet/images/goliath.jpg
Here's some weird people having a good time on the ride :p
http://media.canada.com/01135ebc-53cc-4d7b-8172-cbc446f9b580/goliath1.jpg
http://media.canada.com/01135ebc-53cc-4d7b-8172-cbc446f9b580/goliath1.jpg
Here's the ride seen from Le Monstre
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/54/250px-Goliathlaronde.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/54/250px-Goliathlaronde.jpg
Here's the nice 52 meters drop and all of the hills
http://www.loeildulynx.fr/wp-content/gallery/LaRonde/LARONDE_07102007-07.jpg
http://www.loeildulynx.fr/wp-content/gallery/LaRonde/LARONDE_07102007-07.jpg