Walygator Grand-Est park info, rides and attractions

Opened	9 May 1989
Season	April to November
Owner	Aspro Parks
Website	www.walygatorparc.com/grandest/
Nearby	Plopsa Coo (82 miles) Europa-Park (97 miles) Holiday Park (97 miles) Nigloland (97 miles) Phantasialand (113 miles)

Covered entrance area

Originally opened in 1989 as Big Bang Schtroumpf (Big Bang Smurf) and having spent several years as a Walibi park, Walygator Grand Est is a theme park in Northern France now under the Walygator brand.

The mid-sized park features the usual mix of rollercoasters, water rides and thrill rides, some of which have taken on a ... let's be kind and call it "shabby chic" appearance.

Chief amongst the rollercoasters is Monster, a B&M Inverted Coaster famous for being a clone of Raptor at Cedar Point. Sadly it looks nowhere near as good as its sister ride, with a slightly pink-tinged white track sat in the middle of a field and a second train in the open air station being slowly cannibalised for spare parts.

Given that, it might sound surprising that Walygator's Anaconda wooden coaster is extremely smooth and very re-rideable. It's definitely the highlight of the park.

Other attractions include Caribbean Boat, a rickety old swinging ship; Krinoline, an unusual spinning flat ride more often found on the German fair circuit; and Waly Boat Tour, a gentle tow boat ride across the park lake.

While by no means completely rundown, Walygator is a park in need of an injection of cash to spruce it up a bit. It's sad to see Monster in the state it's in, but that's probably testament to just how expensive it is to maintain a B&M coaster. Luckily for Walygator Grand Est and its visitors, Anaconda is far and out the star of the park and a superb example of a D H Morgan woodie.