Europe 08/20 – Tripsdrill + Schwaben Park

Day 3

Today saw us return to 2 parks that were rather special to me. Special because they were both on what I consider to be my first real coaster holiday. Not special because they were any good the first time around.

Tripsdrill

Last time we visited Tripsdrill we walked away rather disappointed. The park’s attractions weren’t anything too special compared with the other parks on our trip and thanks to freezing weather and staggered openings the atmosphere did nothing for me either. Why are we returning then? The park had just opened the World’s first Vekoma Suspended Thrill Coaster and it looked awesome.

Hals-über-Kopf

And after seeing how busy the car park looked we powered straight to it. Thankfully this was just a tease because the coaster remained walk on all day.

It looks beautiful doesn’t it? Well the coaster itself does but in typical German fashion the station building is completely bare and still looks like a construction site. I’m sure it’ll look great when it’s finished though.

Do me a favour and pretend you can’t see the Junior Boomerang in this shot OK? Look at all those bare concrete walls and the lack of roof, crazy.

On second thoughts I do need to mention the interactions between Hals-über-Kopf and Volldampf (the Junior Boomerang). While they don’t really add anything to either ride experience they do look very cool and it’s one of the things that got me so excited to ride the coasters.

Enough about how it looks though, let’s talk about how it rides. It’s very good, certainly much more impressive than I was expecting going in. It’s fast, it’s got a great mixture of forces, the inversions are snappy and it’s got a real sense of purpose about it, I wasn’t expecting that. Despite what I stupidily proclaimed at the time, it is not quite worthy of entering the bottom of my top 25 (even more so after this trip) but the very fact I considered it shows how much I enjoyed Hals-über-Kopf. We need more of these things please Vekoma.

Volldampf

I’ve never been much of a fan of Vekoma Junior Boomerangs but I’d probably rank this as my favourite of the bunch thanks to it’s interactions with Hals, the goat on the back and the comedy this coaster caused on the day and for the rest of the trip.

We will come back later for more laps of Hals-über-Kopf but now let’s go re-live the park’s other attractions.

G’sengte Sau

Starting with Beer Coaster. Tripsdrill’s Gerstlauer Bobsled was riding slightly better than I remembered but it’s still just a slightly extended clone layout that does nothing for me.

Mammut

I think I owe Mammut, the park’s Gerstlauer woodie, an apology. I really wasn’t all that interested in it 4 years ago and probably ranked it unfairly. Today however it was delivering a really fun ride, full of character, that had me and Heartline laughing the whole way round. Mammut I’m sorry and I’ve just moved you up in my woodie rankings, can you forgive me?

Karacho

What I’m certainly not sorry about though is disliking Karacho last time because it still sucks. After recently riding and loving many Infinity coasters I was sure I was wrong about Karacho, but no it’s just not very good and is easily the weakest of all the Infinity models I’ve ridden.

Waschzuber Rafting

Next up we rode the park’s rapids which was closed on our last visit. These things are always fun with friends but there wasn’t anything too special about it overall.

Badewannen-Fahrt

Also closed on our last visit was the park’s legendary log flume and wow, this thing was awesome and far exceeded my expectations. It’s huge and suprised me with a massive dark ride section and a backwards drop.

I was really starting to become a fan of the park at this point. Hals was far better I thought it would be, Mammut had become a bit of a beast, I really enjoyed the log flume and the atmosphere of the park was beginning to get to me. Sadly the park would throw it all away in the next hour…

We went back for more re-rides on Hals-über-Kopf and there the staff began to become aggressive towards Heartline for attempting to wear his glasses on the coaster. He wore them during all our rides in the morning but now it was a major issue. So while the coaster was still kicking ass, it wasn’t worth putting up with the aggression and inconsistency of the staff working on it.

We had originally planned to stay all day at Tripsdrill but after riding everything we wanted, including re-rides, the only thing left to do was re-ride Hals until close, a prospect ruined by rude staff.

So instead we called it a day and went to get a bite to eat before leaving. We visited a restaurant that on our previous trip was a real highlight but that wasn’t to be today. The food selection and quality had massively descended and the woman working in there made the aggressive idiots at Hals-über-Kopf look like employees of the month.

Let’s get out of here.

Schwaben Park

I quite enjoyed my last visit to Schwaben Park. It was fun exploring this lesser known German park and I enjoyed my rides on Force One. The reason for revisiting today, other than Tripsdrill annoying us, was the park had since added 2 new coasters. Neither of them looked any good but they were both very unique.

Wilde Hilde

First up was Wilde Hilde, one of only 3 operating RES Roller Ball coasters in the World. Off-ride this contraption looked like my worst nightmare and brought back horrible memories of Insane at Gröna Lund with the way it appeared to violently lurch it’s riders back and forth. Thankfully (I think) on-ride almost nothing at all happens and you just very slowly and completely pointlessly make your descent. It really wasn’t very good and I’m suprised RES managed to sell more of these.

Hummel Brummel

Talking of not very good, neither was the park’s brand new attraction Hummel Brummel. This Wiegand creation can best be described as a suspended Bobkart but without the fun. I’ve no idea what made the park decide to add this costly mess to their lineup. It looks awful, the ride experience is completely pointless and despite the park being quiet it appeared to be an operational nightmare.

Force One

Thankfully the park is still home to Force One. This Zierer coaster, despite now rattling more than ever, still provides a fun ride that’s made even better with it’s fantastic train design. Schwaben I’m begging you, look after this thing, it’s still your star attraction.

Bobkart

Next we rode my other highlight of the park from last time, Bobkart. It didn’t quite hold up after riding Spacerunner yesterday but I still enjoyed re-living my first Bobkart experience.

Azura

On a lap of the park to make sure we hadn’t missed anything else that had been added since our last visit we stumbled on Azura. Which from the outside looks like a whimsical dark ride, from the interior queue looks like a ghost train, but it’s actually a water based special effects show that you travel around in a small boat. It was pretty awesome actually and a great accidental find.

And with that we were done.

Thanks for reading, click here for day 4, where we visit Geiselwind and ride more alpine coasters.