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Walygator Parc, new, but with a long history
A turbulent past.The park opened its gates for the first time in the eighties as Big Bang Schtroump, after its bankruptcy it came under the wings of Walibi and became Walibi Schtroumpf. In ’98 the American firm Premier Parks (now known as Six Flags) bought the park, together with most other parks of the Walibi-group. They changed the course of the park by removing the Smurfs out of the park and renaming the park (again) to Walibi Lorraine. When the private equity partnership Palamon took control over the group in 2004, they introduced new mascots: the Walibi Friends. But again they didn’t stay long in the park, as Palamon (aka Star Parks) sold the park again to its current owners. The park is now in private French investors: Claude and Didier Le Douarin.
A fairground-family in control of an amusement park.The two brothers Le Douarin are not unfamiliar with the park. They were already managing some food stalls and amusements games for some years. With their ambitious plans they would like to attract 350.000 - 400.000 local visitors to the refurbished park. This improvement of more than 100.000 visitors should be realized by adding covered attractions, so the park will become less weather affected and by adding attractions for small children to attract whole families.
Reality todayThe park looks fresh and new, with a lot of quiet green parks. The fact that “Walygator” is the new park mascot shows al around the park. Everywhere you look you’ll find this friendly alligator, on restaurants and attractions.
The “Haunted House” is thé new attraction, unique in France, for 2007. This Walk-through attraction with lots of scaring effects is build as a beautiful gothic castle. The other investment are rather small, but not less popular: a new ‘floated’ playground where children can play for hours and a whole new ‘kids zone’ where fairground-attractions for children have been introduced (and there is even a small new roller coaster – type big apple-)
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Our judgement
