I’ve only attended one rollercoaster opening day before, Storm Chaser at Paultons Park. I went into that day expecting chaos. Pulling in to a services close to the park for a full refresh and stock up, ready for the longest wait of my life. In the end? I waited fifteen minutes. But this time, I was sure things would be a little different. This was no family coaster. I would be heading over to Parc Asterix in Paris, France, for the opening day of Toutatis, a coaster that looked destined to stand tall amongst the world’s greatest. A coaster that unsurprisingly had garnered an appropriate amount of attention. It felt like about 80% of the UK community was making the trip, and lord knows how many others across Europe. So, with nothing less than chaos expected, how did the day go? Well, it was pretty magical…
Toutatis was set to open on April 8th 2023, which just happened to be the saturday of Easter weekend. Oh boy. Along with the masses, we hit the road on Good Friday and journeyed down to a certain train in a tunnel under the sea. The Eurotunnel was surprisingly chilled, and in what seemed like no time at all we were pulling up at Parc Asterix, and Les Quais de Lutèce.
I’ve already written a whole blog post dedicated to the immersive wonder that is Les Quais de Lutèce, but I can’t not mention how lucky I was to have the chance to return to this very special place the night before to drink in even more of it’s charm. My previous stay here was as part of a solo trip, so I didn’t get around to trying out the bar area but made a point to change that this time and I can confirm that their Pina Colada’s are exceptional – and they’re only 9.90€! I know how much I’d be paying were I in a similarly themed hotel at a certain major theme park in the same city, and it sure as heck wouldn’t be under 10€. I also had my first taste of French cider – sorry France, I’m no nationalist but British cider is way better – all in a gorgeous, relaxing environment. I’ve spoken to people in the past who don’t actually rate this hotel very well, based on it’s lack of atmosphere and I do agree that the river area could very much benefit from some audio, but honestly, I’m absolutely here for the chill vibe. If you’re planning to come away with a large group of friends and party every night, this is absolutely not the hotel for you. But if you just want a quiet place to relax after a day of travel or rides, that just so happens to have some of the greatest theming out there? Well, then you’re in luck. I can also confirm that the bunk beds are every bit as comfortable as I found the main bed. Seriously, if Asterix let you buy their beds the way Premier Inn do, I would be on that. The only flaw in all of Asterix’s hotels is that none of them have a shop. In my opinion, you should always be able to pick up a few essentials in the hotel, and I would love to see some hotel merch too!
But, incredible as it is, the hotel wasn’t why we were here. Though it was a massive, massive, help. Hotel guests at Parc Asterix are granted early access to the theme park, including 30 minutes of exclusive ride time on a selection of attractions in the Greece area of the park. On my last visit, this was an extremely useful perk for getting on these rides (Greece has a fantastic line-up, after all), but today we’d be using it slightly differently. Having entered the park at 09:20, 40 minutes before park open, we headed toward the edge of the Greece area, where a rope held the crowd. A cart right next to this point seized on the moment and opened up early, selling many excited guests – including me – appropriate headwear for the day. These Dogmatix ears were only 10€ with 10% hotel discount bringing that down to 9. A bargain!
Waiting with the other hotel guests, we hoped our location, and smaller crowd, would grant us a slight advantage over the day guests entering through the main entrance, but we were given even more of a treat when our rope dropped at 09:50. Even then, I believed the main guests would also be on their way but as we entered a completely empty land it became clear that we’d just been granted early admission on opening day – what a perk! Walking straight into the queue line for Toutatis, I couldn’t believe it as we walked and walked and walked. We didn’t stop until we were actually in the incredible station.
The station is absolutely packed with elaborate carvings, displays, and beautiful lighting, and with an excitable crowd in attendance, the atmosphere was unmatched. Once inside, we had a choice. In an unusual system, you can choose to join the line for rows 5-10, rows 2-4 or row 1. (From my limited – one – experience, requesting specific rows after this is not possible.) Having anticipated a wait of many, many hours, we opted to take what felt like it would be our only opportunity for row 1 and proceeded to wait 25 minutes for our first, front-row, ride.
The operations on this coaster were nothing short of spectacular. First, they were operating a baggage system I’ve never seen anywhere before. Guests seat themselves on the ride, holding on to their bags. Then, whilst restraints are lowered and checked, a member of staff pushes a large wagon down the side of the platform, and guests are asked to simply chuck their bag in as it passes by. No faff, no lockers, no money, just efficiency – you love to see it! (Just maybe not so great if you’ve got something super fragile in there.) This was, of course, a factor in the speed of the dispatches they were achieving. If a dispatch took a minute, something had gone very wrong. There was a countdown visible in the station, with a cartoon of the Toutatis statue, whose eyes glowed red should the optimum dispatch time be breached! All of this meant that, despite only operating two trains, the queues were being eaten up. Posted waits topped out at two hours, even getting as low as 45 minutes at lunchtime. On a sold-out opening day, that was really something for the park to be proud of. So, too, was the reliability. From frequent checks of the app, it appeared as though the ride managed to operate solidly until about 5pm, after which it went down a couple of times. With Intamin having a little bit of a reputation, this was above and beyond expectations!
So I’ve chatted ops and queues and everything else, but how does the thing actually ride? Well, pretty darn spectacularly. First of all: dispatch effects. I love a dispatch effect! It just makes the whole thing so much more exciting, and Toutatis might have one of the best of them all. As the train dispatches, lights run through the cracks in the stone ceiling of the station. Except, they don’t stop there. The lights follow you, running through the stone walls at either side of the dip in to the first launch, chasing the train as it launches out and into… well, I have no idea what this element is called (I’m such a fraud), but it twists to the point that you feel you’re about to fully invert before flipping back. I was so excited to try out this element, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! The closest thing to this I’d experienced before was a jojo roll, with that slow tilt into the inversion, and it definitely gave me those RTH vibes for a moment. Next up was some delightful banked airtime before entering the swing launch. These launches were punchy, and thanks to a high-speed switch track (only the third in the world), the train is able to launch straight back from the top hat on to the vertical spike – via some ridiculous backward airtime – where you dangle face-down for what feels like an eternity, before falling back down to earth, hitting the final launch and reaching the fastest speed of any rollercoaster in France – 66.5mph! This is, of course, when the train crests the top hat. I feel like I should have known more about this top hat beforehand than I did. For instance, I had no idea that this was Intamin’s steepest ride, with an angle of 101 degrees! And, with the top hat trimmed to provide an ‘anticipation stall’, you feel every last degree. I’m normally someone who would start kicking off about such a trim, but this was glorious, particularly in the front row. Being dangled at 101 degrees as the rest of the train caught up was fantastic and one of the real surprise moments of the layout for me. I didn’t get to try a back row on my visit, but I’d love to know how this rides in the back! From here, the train flies into one of my most anticipated moments, the zero-g stall. If you’ve been around here before, you’ll know I’m a sucker for hangtime. Zero-g stalls are amongst my favourite elements and are always a ride highlight. This one was, of course, no exception. It provides a glorious moment of hangtime. Sure, it’s not the Zadra zero-g stall, but then what is? From here, the train flies around a low-to-the-ground curve before beginning a finale that basically throws everything at you one final time. There’s an airtime hill, some twists, an overbanked cuve, a barrel roll, and finally, some bunny hops. You enter that brake run, gasping for breath, something we noticed from the queue line. If people are reaching the final brake run still screaming, you know it’s going to be good! This is a coaster that has everything. It’s fast, it’s got glorious hangtime, quirky elements, and airtime that leaves your thighs begging for mercy. Personally, the fact that it lacks theming on the main portion of the layout does detract from the overall experience, but only in such that it means it doesn’t beat Taron for me. Hardware alone? Most definitely. But for overall experience, Taron is still up there personally. But, this is an incredible, incredible ride and one that I’m already making plans to return for!
On the way out of the ride, there is the obligatory gift shop, and what a gift shop it is! They have an insane amount of merchandise available. Particularly cushions. If you love themed cushions and rollercoasters, do I have the shop for you! T-shirts, resins, magnets, pens, backpacks, caps, thimbles… you want it, they got it. Plus, the shop has some pretty neat theming too!
But that’s not all that’s new at Parc Asterix! Toutatis is no stand-alone addition, it’s located within a brand new land, Festival Toutatis. As well as the coaster and its accompanying gift shop, guests can find a beautifully themed Zamperla NebulaZ, a children’s play area, and a quick service restaurant.
There were even characters about all day, much to my delight!
We skipped the NebulaZ on this visit – glorious rides, but they’re such a faff to load that I never ride on a busy day – but loved its positioning overlooking the rest of the land – I bet it offers spectacular views from the top! It’ll come as no surprise that we also didn’t spend a lot of time in and around the children’s play area either, however we certainly did make very good use of the new quick service restaurant, Au Dolmen Gourmand. After our first ride, we headed here to regroup, share thoughts, and – most importantly – try out some of the, you guessed it, themed snacks! Admittedly, I’d only go as far as calling one of the snacks truly themed, but there were plenty of delicious tarts and pastries all bearing a ‘Festival Toutatis’ topper – themed, right? I opted for the raspberry tart, which was delicious with ripe and tasty fruit and buttery pastry, whilst my friends grabbed the dessert, which we believe to be themed to a potion present in the gift shop! This was mousse-based and very much not vegetarian, but super cute. We also grabbed some soft drinks, opting to pay the additional euro for a re-usable cup with Festival Toutatis branding. The restaurant itself has a seemingly endless amount of seating, spread across different levels, which was the perfect place to relax and take in the new land.
Later in the day, we returned to Au Dolmen Gourmand for some lunch. I’d seen online that they’d be offering some plant-based ‘chicken’ nuggets, and I had my sights set on them! We were greeted by a very friendly host who directed us to the ordering screens – a blessing when in a different country! Here I went to order my food and was disappointed that the nuggets didn’t come as part of a meal option. Never mind, individual purchases it is! The food certainly wasn’t cheap. I believe one portion of nuggets, and one of fries came in at just under 14 euros with no drink. It is what it is, but ouch. Thankfully, the nuggets were amazing! A very, very convincing veggie nugget and a large portion, too, with a metal cup full of the things. 10/10 would order again. I wasn’t a fan of the fries here at all, though. They were limp and soggy and tasted very bland, so I definitely wouldn’t be paying the money for an individual order of these next time!
Elsewhere in the park on this sold-out day, things were busy but reasonable, with most major coasters topping out at around an hour. Over in Egypt, OzIris had its single-rider line open – a first for me in three visits. This meant we were able to hop on the ride in less than ten minutes, skipping an hour wait! I even scored a back-row ride! This beast remains my favourite invert in the world, and the second zero-g roll will never not have me giggling like a little kid. May the single-rider line forever be open!
Sadly, I didn’t get to ride my beloved Tonnerre 2 Zeus, as it was having issues through most of the day and by the time it was operational, I didn’t have time to get in the lengthy line before I had to leave. Thankfully, however, I did get to ride the wonderful Pegase Express. This remains one of my favourite family coasters, and I was very happy to score a ride with just a 20-minute wait.
Of course, this day was all about one coaster. So before I had to dash back to Charles de Gaulle for my late flight home, another ride was most definitely on the agenda. This alone was a shock. I’d come in to this day expecting to wait the majority of the day for my one ride on Toutatis, but instead had enjoyed a full day at Parc Asterix. Sure, I didn’t do too many rides, but mostly that was due to spending time chatting to the many, many friends from the UK community who were present at the park. I simply couldn’t have asked for a better day. So, having met up with some friends, we hopped in a perfectly reasonable 70-minute wait for what would be my second and final ride. Having adored the ride first thing in the morning, this time, I would come off shaken. I was properly shaking as I stepped off what was an incredible, definitely-warmed-up ride. There are not many coasters that leave me shaky, but Toutatis claims that honour! It’s that good.
Toutatis opening day was a theme park day I’ll always remember. Filled with friends, sunshine, and an incredible rollercoaster, this was the sort of day that makes this hobby what it is. I can’t praise Parc Asterix enough for what was an exceptionally well organised and fun-filled day.
Par Toutatis!
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 