After a full day at Six Flags Mexico I was still feeling a bit worn out, and as luck would have it, there was a massive thunderstorm that would hit during the day. So it made for another good day to just take it easy. The next day, I knew that I would be going to see festivities for Día de los Muertos, but was looking for something to do during the daytime. Well, before this trip began I was aware of an amusement park that was being built in the greater Mexico City area by the name of ¡Kataplum!, located on top of a mall in the Southern part of the great Mexico City area called Las Antenas. As this trip was drawing closer, I kept an eye on the progress of the park with the mindset that the park could possibly be ready to open by the time I was there. Within a week of getting to Mexico City, I started to reach out to the park when I saw that they were holding a special preview opening for those who had already purchased their Katacards (which we’ll get into a bit later as to what exactly that is), and their response was that the park would not be officially opening until about a week after I returned home. Fast forward to the last full day of the trip, I was making a stop near the hotel when I received a message from Jesús Arévalo (a follower of the page and local resident in the Mexico City area) in which he told me that the park announced on their Facebook page that they were having a special opening of the park for that day, and thus I went right to the subway so I could get over to the park. Because it was a last-minute announcement that the park would be open, the crowds were light, which was perfect for making a short visit before going to Mixqic later in the evening. One of the great things about this park is that there is a Metro stop on Line 12 at Periférico Oriente, making it really easy to access the park after a short walk of a couple blocks. If you’re not sure which directions to go, you can see the park from the Metro platform. While this park is similar to many others in that you can either pay per ride or get an unlimited wristband, there are a few differences from other parks. For starters, everyone will need to get a Katacard to enter the park as you purchase the card, and then put on enough to cover the cost of admission (At the time of my visit, it was 30 pesos to get the card and then 20 for admission). Once inside, you could either put more money onto the card for the sake of paying per ride, or you could purchase an unlimited wristband called the Kataporte. Once you have your preferred method, then you simply go into the line of the ride you’d like to enjoy, and part of the way through the line there will be a touch point where you tap either the Katacard or Kataporte to take the ride. Another big difference between this park and others is that the price per ride fluctuates from day to day with the weekends being more expensive, and the earlier weekdays (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) being the cheapest. Throughout the park, each attraction has an electronic sign that shows the hours of the parks as well as the prices for the different days. One thing that I really liked about this park was the whimsical feeling with its design and decor. They also have a couple of stages in the park where a variety of performers entertain guests, from magicians to dancers to singers. The ride offerings include the likes of a carousel, a Zamperla Air Race and Disk’o, several children’s rides, a star-flyer tower and a go-kart track. One of the other attractions that they feature is the sort of wacky shack style walk through where a host does a variety of tricks that rely on optical illusions and the floor you stand on while you observe the tricks. The coaster selection of the park includes three, one of which I wasn’t sure if it was going to be one that I personally would count until seeing it in action. From the initial pictures, Choo-Choo appeared to be more of a tram-style ride on an elevated track themed to a train. But then upon seeing more of it, watching it run and riding it, it certainly felt like it qualified to be counted. Certainly not an extreme ride by any means, but it still counts. Another coaster in the park is Carros Locos. Their spinning mouse style coaster which was made by SBF Visa (the same company that has made the smaller spinning coasters that have been popping up all over the world), and compared to other similar coasters, the spinning is pretty fast. While I would have liked to give this another spin, it seemed to be suffering from a case of “Park Opening Technical Difficulties” as it seemed to be down for a while, and when the cars were moving again, they worked on it pretty much the rest of the time I was there. The third coaster was Insomnio, a Vekoma Family Suspended coaster that features the same layout as that of the Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot America in Orlando. This is definitely the big attraction of the park, and one thing that really adds to this ride is it’s placement as the second big hill is over the side of the mall, so it gets the feel of a bigger coaster. In all, ¡Kataplum! is really nice and worthy of a stop for a few hours. It certainly isn’t a destination park, but it is one of the nicest parks of the trip. I hope that the park is well maintained as time goes on, and I am curious to see what they do with the place in the future, as they have the benefit of being in a really busy area that can help them to draw crowds to the park, but don’t have a ton of space on the top due to being on the roof of the mall, which could hinder future new additions unless it ends up being a case of replacing rides with newer ones. From here, it was time for the last experience of the trip, and that is to enjoy the festivities of Día de los Muertos in Mixqic. |
See more of the 2018 Mexico Trip:
1: The Journey South / 2: A Day in Monterrey / 3: More Mexican Coasters / 4: Exploring Guadalajara / 5: Looking for Guadalajara Coasters / 6: Selva Magica / 7: A Night of Lucha Libre / 8: Cancun / 9: Back to Mexico City / 10: Día de los Muertos Parade / 11: La Feria Chapultepec Magico / 12: Six Flags Mexico / 13: ¡Kataplum! / 14: Día de los Muertos in Mixqic |
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