Wuxi Sunac Land – 2019 Trip Report

Okay… now we’re talking! We’ve got wing coasters, bubble waffles, ice cream and an amazing setting. Let’s refuel.

Okay now we’re going to review Falcon. The world’s tallest Wing Coaster is just a few centimeters shy of being a technical hyper coaster, but it sure feels like one!

A mix of outstanding forces, great elements, and integration makes for a cool ride experience.

The ride’s shared footprint with the adventure trail and rapids ride/slide also make for a cool experience. The ride’s towering elements make for a great back drop.

We wanted a better view of Falcon and climbed up 16 flights of stairs to get to an advertised and fully accessible cafe/lounge… but I don’t think we were supposed to be up here? (Maybe that’s why the elevator didn’t work).

Either way we got some great views!

The ride is very much a 2-part experience. The first half is big drawn-out B&M elements such as the dive loop, zero-g-roll, immelman and airtime hill, however the second half is where it really counts with near-misses, some good forces and the perfect integration.

The dive over the rock work towards the water is one of my favorite moments of the ride.

The big turn around was amazingly good in the back right row, but not as much of a stand out element is some of the other seats.

The trains are gorgeous! Not as flashy as rides like GateKeeper or Fenix, but the color pallet works well.

The ride’s best moment is the quick transitional S-turn through the rock work that is incredibly intense and very well integrated. 

The ride’s mid-course brake run is cleverly hidden in the rock work.

I have been calling the coaster Falcon all report long…. but really I am going to go with the direct Mandarin translation of Eagle Flying. Confusing, as usual.

Admire the ride’s beauty before I throw some shade…

I will be completely honest here. Did I think this super tall, mega Wing Coaster was all that great? No. Just because you have the tallest inversion in the world, and stand nearly 200 ft. tall, does not make you a great coaster by default. The ride’s main focus is the second half of the ride, the integration with the the rock work. In order to get there it quickly needs to lose some speed, so we have generic B&M Wing Elements drawn out and high in the sky. Tall is great, but there is not an inch of character in the first half of the ride, in fact GateKeeper does a better job right out of the gate.

The second half of the ride is an improvement. The drop into the turn around, S-turn, and slow roll are solid, but the ride that started at 200 ft. in height comes to a slow finale rapidly and there’s some wasted opportunity. The ride is by no means bad, but of the three Chinese B&M Wing Coasters I’ve ridden it comes in last, and from the seven I have personally ridden worldwide, it lingers somewhere in the middle. Great ride, but if you solely plan a trip for this credit and don’t give the rest of the park a very solid run, you’ve wasted a visit to this park.

From the closed-yet-accessible cafe we get a good look at the park’s show venue which is home to a Fantasmic type show!

Hours later Steam Racers remains closed for high winds. Let’s stick around and hope for a reopening. Here’s a look at its awesome logo.

And we’re winning! Thank you Wuxi Sunac Land for putting in extra efforts to open Steam Racers! You did not have to do that given your location.

Some of our readers may have already ridden Blue Fire or another clone of it, and Alex had too, however for me this was actually the first one. A phenomenal product that understandably is located at many parks around Asia and the Middle East now. Solid launch, great inversions, some good transitions. It does it all.

Steam Racers has a great queue and pre-launch but lacks all the thematic fluff mid-ride. Thank goodness that the ride’s layout alone can carry the experience.

The balance of elements was pretty refreshing, it’s one of those models where when you dissect it, it makes complete sense that it’s such a successful product.

Though it can always use a tad more airtime!

Steam Racers’ launch is themed to being launched out of a cannon. The ride’s launch track is lined with dancing fountains. A very nice aesthetic.

The ride is actually great looking, even though it doesn’t quite have all the rock work like Falcon.

#HangTime

This Steam Racers photo is ART.

I leave you with a few more pictures of this stunning coaster:

The park is also home to a parade! We didn’t quite anticipate there even being one, and so when we saw it start we stuck around.

Highly impressive parade! Great floats and lots of characters. The themes related to the park’s areas, of course.

Sunac!

It helps there is a university around the corner, I bet that’s how they staff this massive parade.

Time for another snack?

Ah! Here are our international students!!

And some more! I have seen more white people in this parade than I had seen in the previous 3 days.

Just like the steam punk area is the best area in the park, the associated parade float is phenomenal as well.

Before we head out, we’ll say goodbye to the park’s super star that is not quite as perfect as some of these pictures may indicate.

It sure is a unique coaster, and the sheer size remains impressive.

Goodbye Wuxi Sunac Land. You were an impressive new Chinese park that I would advise people travel to. And while Falcon looks amazing, the rest of the park is equally as amazing.


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