Wodan Timbur Coaster is one of the few attractions at Europa Park that wasn’t built by Mack,
but it’s easily one of their signature rides.
This is one of the tallest wood coasters from Great Coasters International and I think it’s
their best ride in Europe.
Find out why in this review.
Mack has a pretty diverse catalog of roller coasters.
And you can find many of their models at Europa Park since they own the place.
Since Mack doesn’t make wood coasters, they needed to hire an outside company to add one
to Europa Park.
And they selected GCI.
Wodan opened in 2012 and it’s the tallest GCI in Europe, standing 131 feet or 40 meters
tall.
The only GCIs taller are located in Asia.
And it dominates the Iceland section of the park with its hulking wooden structure.
Wodan is themed to Norse mythology.
Wodan is the German name for Odin, who is the ruler as Asgard.
The ride has an ornate archway and one of the best-themed queue lines for a roller coaster.
You have these ominously lit caves with statues.
Then you have an outdoor section with some additional statues and great vantage points
for Wodan’s finale.
And it’s a good thing this coaster has an interesting queue line since you may be waiting
in it a while.
This routinely has one of the longest lines at the park.
Most days, the line hovers around the 40-50 minute mark.
There is a way to skip this line.
For many years, Wodan had a single rider line.
This was usually just a 5-10 minute wait.
But in my 2021 visit, this queue had transformed into one for the Virtual Line.
Europa Park had a free skip-the-line pass service on their mobile app.
Wodan was one of the rides available.
You could reserve a 10-minute window for one ride at a time.
Spots for Wodan were harder to grab than others due to the ride’s popularity, but I just
kept refreshing until I saw one since it was a massive timesaver.
Wodan typically runs three trains, each seating 24 riders across 12 rows.
And Europa has fast operations, so the trains are dispatched at a steady rate.
The lengthy lines are mostly due to the ride’s popularity.
At the end of the standby queue, there are two lanes- one for the very front row and
one for all other rows.
The front is usually only an extra 5 or so minutes more.
It’s worth noting that you cannot get the front using the virtual queue.
My favorite seat on Wodan is the back.
If you use the virtual queue or the lane for all other rows, the grouper typically honors
seating requests if you ask nicely.
The trains are your usual Millennium Flyers except for one key difference.
Wodan is a rare wood coaster that runs with polyurethane wheels instead of steel wheels.
This is a softer material that puts less wear on the track.
This may explain why Wodan was still running smooth in 2021 after nearly a decade of steady
operation.
My rides towards the back in 2017 were pretty shaky, but my rides in 2021 were smooth across
the entire train.
The downside of the polyurethane wheels is that they have a higher rolling resistance
than steel, so the coaster bleeds off speed faster.
This is why Wodan despite its height has a similar track length to the other GCIs with
3444 feet or 1050 meters of track.
Fortunately, Wodan was designed such that it holds its speed until the very end.
The restraints are your familiar seatbelt and t-bar combination.
As usual, I recommend holding onto the lap bar after it’s checked.
Otherwise, it will lower throughout the experience and reduce your space for airtime.
The trains are super comfortable in general though.
Once dispatched, you navigate this a pre-lift section.
You have a little bunny hill and even a slightly outward banked turn.
It’s quirky, but doesn’t really add anything to the ride.
You then ascend the lift hill.
There are statues atop the lift, but this is the last theming during the ride.
And that’s fine since Wodan’s layout is strong enough to hold its own.
Wodan begins with a 270 degree turn high above the ground that gives a birds-eye view of
the back section of the park.
You then navigate my favorite drop on a GCI.
You have this large straight drop that pierces through the lift structure.
The drop’s profiling combined with the speed from the pre-drop results in fantastic sustained
floater airtime if you’re in the back.
I wish more GCIs had drops like this.
You then rapidly twist to the left, getting some laterals from the sharp banking.
And you charge through a brief tunnel feeling every bit of the ride’s max speed of 62
mph or 100 kph.
You then fly over a giant camelback.
Everyone gets weak floater airtime, but it’s more sustained towards the back of the train.
Rather than dropping all the way down, the drop leads into a 180 degree banked turn.
This element gives some decent laterals and it finishes by dipping down into another tunnel.
And this drop gives a decent floater pop if you’re in the back.
You then twist up and rip through the station for the fly by.
This element is loud as the sound echos through the station and the sense of speed is incredible.
You then rise upwards, getting some floater airtime up front.
But the resultant drop is amazing in the back.
It twists all the way back down to the ground.
You get good floater at the start, but halfway down the drop, the airtime cuts off and you’re
abruptly thrown sideways.
It’s a really wild moment and there’s also a sweet headchopper for good measure.
You then turn to the right and the turn includes this banked speed hill that gives a decent
pop of airtime for all.
And you also have a good near-miss with the support structure around you.
Wodan then hops into a turnaround, giving a great pop of airtime up front.
The entrance is so sharp, even those in the back get popped out of their seat, just not
as forcefully.
The turn gives some weak laterals and then you have a fun bunny hill over Atlantica SuperSplash.
This hill delivers nice sustained floater airtime for all.
You then twist to the left through another brief tunnel and navigate this funky bunny
hill.
It starts normally on the ascent and those up front get a solid pop of airtime.
But the top slightly turns to the right and then the drop twists left.
The weird profiling confuses you which way you’re going next.
And those in the back get some nice airtime as they start levitating out of their seat
at the apex, but get popped even higher on the descent.
Wodan then has another speed hill followed by a fast turn and another speed hill.
The two speed hills give good pops for everyone and the turn gives brief but decent laterals.
You then rise into the brake run.
It offers no airtime since it’s quite a bit higher than the bunny hills, but that’s
fine since the rest of the ride was so strong.
Wodan’s pacing is very strong.
The ride zips through the layout quickly and keeps throwing airtime hills and snappy turns
at riders.
So what would I rate Wodan?
I would give this GCI a 9 out of 10.
If you saw my recent top 100 video, I didn’t have Wodan on there, but that was a mistake.
After thinking more about this coaster’s ride experience, I think it’s the second
best GCI I have ridden and definitely the second best in Europe.
Wodan does many things well.
The ride has some fantastic drops in the back row, particularly that first one.
Then the rest of the course is filled with a series of airtime hills and snappy turns.
Add in that good sense of speed and awesome pacing plus really nice theming around the
attraction, and you have a winner.
So those are my thoughts on Wodan Timbur Coaster at Europa Park.
What are your thoughts on this wood coaster?
Do you think it’s the best GCI in Europe?
Let me know what you think down in the comments.
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