Drachenritt was the first roller coaster at Belantis, opening with the park in 2003.
This was Gerstlauer’s third bobsled coaster, which is the German company’s take on the
classic wild mouse coaster.
You have the familiar hairpin turns, but you also have a more fleshed out layout with helices,
banked turns, and bunny hills.
But is this one of the better Gerstlauer bobsleds?
Find out in this review of Drachenritt.
Gerstlauer built their first bobsled and first coaster in general at Tripsdrill in 1998 with
G’sengte Sau.
And Drachenritt has a lot of similarities to this ride.
The layout is near identical.
It has the same progression of elements- drop, hairpin turns, double helix, bunny hills,
and helix finale.
And the first half has some theming as well.
Drachenritt is German for Dragon Ride and that’s a fitting name for this coaster.
It’s part of Belantis’s Insel der Ritter or Knight’s Island section.
The coaster’s first half takes place around a castle while the finale takes place over
the park’s central lagoon.
While the coaster has a rather dull color scheme, the ride’s placement and theming
more than compensates.
The ride’s queue line is bizarre.
The entrance is not where you’d expect.
It faces away from the attraction in these giant hedges.
It looks more like one of these hedge mazes from Roller Coaster Tycoon than a coaster
entrance.
But that sort of is fitting because the queue is basically a maze.
After winding through the hedges, you navigate this weird series of switchbacks.
It’s just a dirt path with some temporary fencing.
It’s a pretty jarring contrast to the rest of Belantis, which looks pretty nice.
The next part of the queue line is this floating bridge above the park’s lagoon that sways
with each step.
You then reach Drachenritt island.
You then follow this stone path with tall hedges on each side and it eventually leads
to the station.
If the line starts in this section of the queue line, as it did for me, you’ll have
to wait roughly 20 minutes.
Each car seats 4 riders total across 2 rows.
On the day I visited, Drachenritt was running 3 cars.
The station is dark and has some light medieval theming.
Once dispatched, the door in front of you opens and you ascend the lift hill.
The top of the lift passes through one of the castle’s turrets and then you head down
a decently steep drop, which gives a tiny pop of airtime.
The pullout then twists to the left and has a terrifying headchopper through a cutout
on the castle.
You pass through a mid-course brake run then does nothing and then navigate a series of
hairpin turns atop the castle.
You get some decent laterals, but you don’t have a ton of speed so they’re not as extreme
as some wild mouse coasters.
But the view overlooking the lagoon is beautiful.
After passing through another mid-course brake run that does nothing, you navigate back-to-back
helixes.
The first is a downwards one with some ok force to it.
The second is quite dizzying, as it’s a more compact upwards helix that pulls some
good sustained positive Gs.
After another mid-course that won’t slow you down, you traverse back-to-back bunny
hills.
The first offers ok floater airtime while the second is much better.
It offers decent floater airtime and the drop is much bigger, as it dips below the pathway
and below water level.
You then rise into another mid-course brake run that surprise-surprise, doesn’t slow
you down.
You then navigate a relatively tame helix over-the-water, but it finishes by zooming
into a dragon-themed tunnel.
You then navigate one mildly forceful turn in the dark before emerging into the daylight
and hopping into the brake run, ending the ride.
So what would I rate Drachenritt?
I would give this Gerstlauer bobsled a 7 out of 10.
This is a solid family coaster.
The ride is presented well with the castle in the first half and the dragon tunnel at
the end.
And it’s decently well-paced.
Despite all the brake runs, they don’t slow the down one bit and Drachenritt does a little
of everything.
It has a decent initial drop, some enjoyable hairpin turns, good helixes, and some airtime-filled
bunny hills.
This ride is extremely smooth and I wish some US parks bought this model since it really
is a crowd-pleaser.
I prefer Heibe Fahrt at Klotten and Van Helsing’s Factory at Movie Park Germany, but Drachenritt
is in the next group of Gerstlauer bobsleds in terms of quality.
So those are my thoughts on Drachenritt, the fun family coaster at Belantis.
What are your thoughts on Drachenritt?
Do you enjoy Gerstlauer bobsleds?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this coaster down in the comments.
If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered
subscribing since there will be a lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here
at Canobie Coaster.
Thanks for watching!