We arrived at Australia’s Gold Coast airport at 8 in the morning and thanks to my inability to sleep on planes I had now been awake for about 24 hours.
Our airline of choice was Scoot, an ultra low cost airline based in Singapore. The reviews of Scoot were worrying to say the least but there was no way our trip would have been as ambitious as it was if we hadn’t saved huge amounts of money on all of our flights. I’m no reviewer of airlines but I’ll say this, I’ve paid much more for worse, Scoot was fine, pretty good even.
Australian border force is exactly as it’s portrayed in the media. Strict, a little intense and extremely funny.
We had a shock when we were collecting our hire car, it was covered in dents and scratches but the paper work listed it as being clean. In any other country you’d have to report every single mark and get it noted down and countersigned before leaving the lot or risk massive fees on return. In Australia however it didn’t matter at all and in fact the car hire lady found it funny that we were worried about it.
While Singapore’s climate was a massive shock to the system, at worst it made you sweat and feel disgusting. Australia’s though, it’s pure evil. I got badly sunburnt on the way to the first park, in the car, with sun lotion on… Oh and this was only the beginning.
Sea World
I apologise if my recollection of this park is hazy but I was ruined for most of today. Literally falling asleep standing up and at points auto piloting to a ride or animal enclosure then coming to and wondering how I got there.
It took over an hour of heavy traffic to get to Sea World, just enough time to get sun burnt and fight falling asleep about 50 times.
Sea World is what you’d expect from the name, a marine based zoo but we aren’t really here for that, we are here for the 3 coasters they have.
Spongebob’s Boating School Blast – I don’t normally talk about the very clearly kiddie coasters but there’s so little to talk about at Sea World, so here goes. This coaster was memorable for 2 reasons, it was when I decided that Australia might be too hot and it was when I got the impression they aren’t used to seeing grown men squeezing into children’s coasters to get the credit.
StormCoaster – This clone Mack water coaster with enclosed sections was pretty disgusting. These things do nothing at all for me but at least many of the others look nice, this was just surounded by rusting shipping containers and had the splashdown in a slightly themed warehouse. My opinion of Storm Coaster also wasn’t helped by the queue going through an enclosed metal section that was insanely hot and loud, not at all what you want when you’ve been awake for 30 hours.
Jet Rescue – If it wasn’t for this Intamin family launch coaster my opinion of the park would have been more negative, thankfully though Jet Rescue is awesome. I was expecting a tamer much smaller version of Juvelen and while yes the layout is tiny, this thing packs a serious punch. While Juvelen builds up a surprising intensity, Jet Rescue stays at that from dispatch till brakes.
My opinion of the animal based stuff the park had to offer was that it was nothing special. You could put that down to being awake for 30 hours or doing the amazing Singapore Zoo a few days before though.
Much like me the park as a whole felt rather worn out and tired, with Jet Rescue being the only redeeming feature.
Thankfully though it seems things will improve in 2020 when the park are adding a massive Gravity woodie to their collection.
Once we got back to the car I was pretty much the walking dead and remember only random moments.
Almost losing the exhaust in the car park.
A grass hopper as big as my hand on a window.
A ghetto motel.
Then I was out.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 8 of this mega trip where we visit Movie World and ride the awesome DC Rivals.
To see his girlfriend (now wife) Heartline had made a tradition of visiting Singapore every New Year. They’d both asked me a few times was I interested in visiting but warned me not a lot really happens over there. With that in mind I didn’t really want to put myself through a 25 hour round trip but that was about to change.
“Would you be interested in Singapore, Australia, China & Hong Kong?”. “…yes!”
Day 1
We flew to Singapore with budget airline Norwegian and it ended up being one of my better long distance flights, though that isn’t to say being trapped in the air for 12 hours unable to sleep or even get comfortable is my idea of a good time.
I had been warned by more than a few people that I was going to hate the climate of Singapore because I don’t do well with heat and they were right. Even though it was Singapore’s winter and infact it was being considered by locals as a very cold winter, temperatures were still low 30s with extremely high levels of humidity. Shorts and 2 showers a day were an absolute must for me. It’s fine when you’re inside or on public transport because everywhere has aircon but when you’re spending large amounts of time outdoors you really suffer.
We spent the first day exploring malls, changing currency and meeting the inlaws. It’s fair to say even that was a struggle when you’ve been awake for 30 hours and your body hasn’t even started to get used to this new heat.
Heartline was slumming it with the inlaws while I got to stay in a really nice Hilton hotel in the Indian quarter of Singapore. We picked this hotel because of it’s close proximity to an MRT station and the convenience of which line it linked to. The locals here were an entertaining bunch with my favourite moment being a man in tears blessing his car in the middle of the street.
It wouldn’t be the most intense sleep of this trip but I was KO’ed the second I laid down after this insanely long day.
Day 2
Today we visited the World famous Singapore Zoo and needless to say if you enjoy zoos then you can’t do any better than this.
I rode the MRT on my own for the first time today and it can’t not be mentioned how good Singapore’s subway system is. Reliable, extremely clean and so cheap when compared to the rest of the World.
A quick journey on a bus after and we were at Singapore Zoo.
The zoo is split into 3 sections, the main zoo, the river safari and the night safari. Today we were going to explore the main zoo and the river safari.
The main zoo is what you’d expect but a lot better and featuring lots of animals I’d never seen before.
The river safari starts off the same as a normal zoo but then ends with a large water ride that takes you up close and personal with animals as well as featuring the standard water ride drop sections.
Day 3
Day 3 was more tourist stuff ending with an amazing light and water show in Marina Bay that I can’t recommend enough.
Heartline had decided from the very early stages of trip planning that we were going to visit Universal Studios on New Years Eve, this would end up being a brilliant idea but at first things looked risky.
Universal Studios is located on the resort island of Sentosa which you can access from the mainland via many different forms of transport.
If you’ve read my report on Universal Studios Japan you’ll remember that the park experience itself left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I was curious if the Singapore version would leave me equally dry or would it be able to live up to what I’ve told myself I expect from a Universal Studios park, let’s find out.
Heartline’s mother in law had decided to join us today and I was officially in charge of looking after her on the rides, this ended up adding an extra layer on top of today’s experience and we are now ride buddies for life.
Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase – A suspended dark ride themed to Sesame Street, the ride system was cool, the theming was cute but I’m in no position to give a more indepth review than that.
Battlestar Galactica – I’d been excited to ride these intertwined Vekoma monsters since Heartline first told me about them many years ago. Visually they are incredible, a complete mess of twisted steel with the occasional train tearing through.
Cylon – First up was the much more exciting of the 2, the inverted coaster, Cylon and it’s brilliant. Better than many B&M Inverts I’ve ridden, featuring crushing positives, intense inversions, several near misses and great pacing, it really was a lot better than I expecting it to be and I was expecting it to be very good to start with. What a fantastic first coaster to start the trip with.
Human – The sit down coaster of the 2 has clearly been built to cater for the family audience but even then it’s incredibly tame, if you’re anything like me you’ll ride this once and then spend the rest of the day team Cylon.
Treasure Hunters – Next we rode Treasure Hunters, a slow moving car ride that travels past egyptian theming and it was fine for what it is.
The major problem was the weather related shutdown that occured when we were 5 minutes from boarding. In Singapore at this time of year the weather can change from hot as hell, to insane thunderstorm and then back again in about 5 minutes. With almost all the other rides this is no issue but on Treasure Hunters they needed to sweep all the water off the surface the wheels run on and this took about 45 minutes…
Revenge of the Mummy – Singapore’s Revenge of the Mummy is absolutely incredible and epic in every sense possible.
The massive and beautiful entrance structure is breathtaking, the highly detailed queue is terrifying, the special effects are mindblowing, the onride theming is like nothing else, the soundtrack is wonderful and the animatronics are insane.
I think I’ve forgotten something…
Oh yeah, the coaster itself kicks ass too with an intense launch and a seriously good surprise airtime moment.
As a whole package, it’s almost impossible to beat.
It was about now I was doubting Heartline’s plan to come on New Years Eve because the park looked pretty busy and he told me he’s never queued 60 minutes for Revenge of the Mummy before.
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure – This Madagascar themed dark ride was so good that I felt quite tempted to watch the movie again, I still haven’t but I might.
We ate lunch at a restaurant in the plaza outside the park and decided to have the kimchi pizza, it was one of the most violent meals of my life.
Transformers – You’ll hopefully know I loved Spiderman at Universal Studios Japan but Transformers is even better still. This thing takes the fantastic ride system from Spiderman and then turns it up to 11 with more impressive theming, relentless special effects and much more intense movements, seriously you get thrown around like crazy on this awesome ride.
Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure – Singapore’s Jurassic Park is also so much better than the one found in Japan.
This time instead of using a flume style water ride they use a rapids ride and not just any rapids ride, no this thing is built by Hafema and that means only 1 thing, carnage.
Combine the beloved Jurassic Park experience from the other parks with probably the most intense rapids ride in the World and then for good measure add one of the most terrifying drops you’ll ever experience and you get this monster. It’s seriously fantastic.
Canopy Flyer – Right next to Jurassic Park is the suspended coaster Canopy Flyer. This cute little coaster takes you on an aerial tour of the beautifully themed Lost World area of the park, a great way to calm yourself down after Jurassic Park.
Next we went to watch the Waterworld show which I really did find myself enjoying.
Around about now Heartline’s idea of visiting on New Years Eve began to make sense as people were now leaving the park to go home or elsewhere to bring in the New Year.
Enchanted Airways – Which meant Enchanted Airways, a Vekoma Junior clone, was walk on. Normally I’d have just zoned this one out but thanks to my OAP ride buddy losing her mind I ended up having a great time.
Lights, Camera, Action! – After churros we experienced the park’s special effects showcase attraction Lights, Camera, Action! and it was amazing, much better than the already very impressive Backdraft from Japan.
It was now 8pm, we had ridden everything we wanted, the park was now deserted and we still had 4 hours left till close. More than enough time for many rerides on Revenge of the Mummy and Battlestar then!
At just past midnight the park had a small fireworks show to bring in the New Year, while I had an out of body experience while thinking to myself that the trip had only just begun.
Universal Studios Singapore is a fantastic park and definitely has the atmosphere I so desperately wanted to experience in Japan. That atmosphere when coupled with the park’s fantastic attractions makes for an amazing and very memorable day out. By the end of the day I was wrecked but extremely satisfied.
Day 5
We had a nice late start to this day which was much needed after getting back from Universal Studios at 1am.
Today was more general exploring of Singapore and ended with a night visit to the Merlion.
Today was our last day (for now) in Singapore and featured yet more wandering around. Heartline and wife went on a date to the cinema leaving me exploring on my own at one point. It was during this solo exploration that it struck me just how crazy it was that I’m here, on the other side of the World, just walking about like that’s normal.
Thanks for reading this super long post, please click here to read what happened on our first day in Australia during our visit to Sea World.
After no where near enough sleep we were soon up again and on our way to Movie Park Germany.
Movie Park Germany
This was a park that until they added their brand new Mack launch coaster I was completely uninterested in visiting. The line up seemed weak, the park looked run down and I’d heard many horror stories on the operations of the park. Now while the park is far from perfect and I could agree to some extent to those statements, I ended up having a really nice time in the park, so let’s go into it.
Star Trek: Operation Enterprise – The 3rd reason we came on this trip, Mack’s brand new and first ever shuttle launch coaster and of course it’s really good.
The theming in the queueline and preshow areas is amazing, I know nothing of Star Trek but was still blown away, if you were a fan I’m sure this would be incredible.
Coaster wise it was very comparable to yesterday’s Gold Rush and I’d struggle to clearly say one was better than the other.
Gold Rush is probably more intense, the launches hit harder and the airtime (though much less) is stronger.
Star Trek is longer, has more airtime moments and has a more exciting layout taking alot more risks.
While it’s the least memorable Mack launch I’ve ridden it’s still a super fun coaster and easily the best in the park.
Van Helsing’s Factory – I’ve never really been a fan of Gertslauer Bobsled coasters but Van Helsing changed that because this enclosed horror themed coaster is fantastic fun.
Extremely well themed inside and out and featuring a coaster that kicks serious ass. The dark setting makes everything feel really fast and for this coaster type things do get surprisingly intense at parts.
After a quick walk around to gauge crowds we decided to get the one go on everything except Star Trek fastpass because we weren’t feeling up to queueing that long for the park’s less worthy attractions, plus we really wanted another go on Van Helsing and that had now gotten quite busy. This ended up saving us so much time that we were able to fit in several more Star Trek laps even though we had to queue for it.
Mystery River – Movie Park’s rapids ride and it was such good fun. Violent rapids, hauled round parts of the course and the theming was so weird it was great. In short, Mystery River had a real character to it and thankfully this would become a theme today.
There was masses of food options to choose for lunch but Heartline wanted to go with Asian food and I really enjoyed it, very well priced too if I remember right.
Lost Temple – My first ever immersive tunnel and now I want more because this was great fun.
MP-Xpress – SLC and what an example of one it was too. Hidden at the back of the park, looking abandoned, covered in rust and I haven’t even told you how it rode. Well, mostly fine but then several moments it felt like something utterly awful was occuring. Me and Heartline were crying with laughter when we hit the brakes and how often does that happen on SLCs?
Bandit – Branded by many as one of the worst wooden roller coasters on Earth but in reality it’s completely fine and actually quite a fun coaster. Much like MP-Xpress, me and Heartline spent most of Bandit laughing out loud. I said as we left the lift, “the worst wooden roller coaster on Earth…”, then when it wasn’t that statement suddenly became the funniest thing ever.
Time Riders – John Cleese: The Ride. This simulator based attraction was class. The preshows just kept coming and get more and more funny and then the simulator itself is brutal as all hell, I came off bruised. I loved it.
Then I decided I needed crepes to calm my nerves and they were really nice, seriously good food showing at this park.
Burmuda Triangle – We probably couldn’t have a picked a better ride to end our day at the park than this wonderful, campy and incredible special effects filled water ride that’s set inside a freaking volcano.
If you’re visiting Movie Park Germany just for the coasters you may walk away disappointed but I’d strongly advise you to find the time to ride their dark/water rides because other than Star Trek and Van Helsing that is where the park truly shines. It was certainly the discovery of them that helped make my time in the park so enjoyable, I’m so glad we decided to get the fastpass or my opinion of the park may have been dramatically different.
We had a couple of hours spare after finishing with Movie Park, so we drew up a plan to go ride a rather unique coaster that was on route.
BillyBird Park Hemelrijk
As the sat nav told us we were going to arrive 5 minutes before the last entry time, we decided to phone the park to let them know we were coming. The lady on the phone was really friendly and told us not to worry about it.
When we got to the park we were able to put a face to that friendly voice as the same lady sold us discount late entry tickets and lead us into the park via a special staff only entrance, what a fantastic welcome.
Famileachtbaan – My first Tube Coaster, a relaxing coast to the beach while celebrating our victory of getting here in time.
There was nothing else of interest at the park so we got a slush and just relaxed for a while before our drive back to the airport, where our plane was delayed by the standard 2 hours.
This trip was formed around 3 key ideas, ride Taron at midnight at Phantasialand, ride the brand new Gold Rush at Slagharen and ride the brand new Star Trek: Operation Enterprise at Movie Park Germany. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad…
Day 1
We departed from Gatwick late due to it “being real busy in the sky lads”, this was slightly more a problem than normal because we were cramming in lots today but ultimately it wouldn’t be Gatwick Airport who would ruin our plans for today.
The car hire situation went about as well you’d expect, we ordered a Fiesta and drove away in a tiny Toyota hybrid but not before we emptied the back seat of 6 child seats while the attendant was shouting at us, it wouldn’t the last time I was shouted at today either…
Slagharen
After an hour and a half driving we were at Slagharen and despite it being the 2nd most visited park in the Netherlands queues were very managable.
I’d read mixed to negative thoughts on the park before but it’s fine, not much in the way of rides I’m interested in but the park is nice enough.
Gold Rush – We powered straight to the park’s brand new Gertslauer shuttle Infinity coaster and if looks could kill, seriously Gold Rush has one of the most beautiful colour schemes I can think of, looking extra special on Gertslauer’s fantastic track design, ok I’ll calm down now.
The coaster itself is really good. Relaxing forwards launch to get you moving, thrilling backwards launch that gives insane hangtime as you crawl up and stall on the dive loop, then a final intense forwards launch to get you onto the main layout. A layout that’s full of punchy ejector air and smooth graceful inversions.
Gold Rush uses the lap bar version of the Infinity trains which means you’re in for unnerving amounts of freedom which as mentioned makes stalling on the dive loop a real treat.
After 3 laps on Gold Rush we grabbed a bite to eat and rode the park’s other mine train themed coaster before getting back on the road.
As mentioned in my introduction one of the key reasons for this trip was to ride Taron at midnight during Phantasialand’s 50th birthday special event. This wouldn’t come to be and infact I’d end up having a very frustrating time at the park. What makes this quite funny (in hindsight) is that this was my 2nd trip to the park and the 2nd time I’d walk away disappointed in a park so many in the community rate as the best in the World.
After 2 hours of maxing our terrible car on the autobahn we arrived at the park and immediately things went South. The car parking man literally screamed at us for not parking close enough to the car infront. Then we tried to enter the park through the 2nd entrance next to River Quest and Feng Ju Palace and got shouted at again and told to walk round. So we walked round to the main entrance where the 2 women greeting people stared right through us without saying a word, what a welcoming start to the World’s best theme park!
Feng Ju Palace – The park’s Chinese themed madhouse attraction was closed on our last visit so that’s where we headed first and I really enjoyed it.
River Quest – River Quest was also closed the last time we were here and my God am I happy to have finally experienced this utterly terrifying water ride.
This thing scared me to death, causing me to seriously doubt it wasn’t going to drown me either with the stupid amounts of water it dumps on your head or via the boat flipping during the unthinkable elements it throws at you. For that reason, I loved River Quest.
With the only 2 rides missing from last time ticked off it was time to spend the rest of the evening/night riding Taron until we bled.
We walked over to the beast to be confronted by 2 awful pieces of news, 1 terrible and 1 unforgivable. The queue time was currently 110 minutes, oh and the queue will be closing at 21:30.
They were closing the queue for Taron at half 9 in order to have the area cleared by half 11 for a fireworks show. You may be thinking, well yeah they obviously need to do that for health and safety but I’ll counter that with 2 thoughts. Could they not have launched the fireworks from a different area and have their star attraction running late into the night as their website implied? Also, talking about their website, I went through the event page in detail several times before ordering tickets and there was no mention of Taron closing at 21:30. For reference, Blackpool Pleasure Beach tell you on their website every single attraction that’s closing early for their fireworks well in advance.
Well Taron’s what we came for, we’d better get into that 110 minute queue right now and stop wasting time if we’re going to even get 2 rides this evening.
Taron – We were already angered but the Taron queue tried it’s best to make it worse. 110 minutes of people standing far too close, vaping, drinking, smoking and shouting, normally I’m quite good at blocking out crap like that but this was a struggle.
As for the coaster, it’s still top 20 and one of the best coasters in the World, it’s just such a shame that you have to go through so much effort to ride it. Both times we’ve visited now (first time was a weekday), the queues for Taron have been long and disgusting, it doesn’t give you the chance to properly bond with a coaster when you can’t ride it many times a day.
We knew we’d have to get straight back into the stupid queue as soon as we got off Taron in order to just get 2 rides today, however we were hungry now, so we quickly grabbed a pizza from the pizza place in Klugheim. The man serving there was an absolute asshole, where does the park get it’s staff from?
The queue for Taron was now easily over 2 hours so we decided we’d try single rider, this was a terrible decision.
About an hour into the queue I got stomach issues (probably from the previous time queueing) and needed to bail out to the toilet. While in the cubicle an older sounding German lady starts shouting and trying to smash the door down. This must be a case of mistaken indentity I tell myself, then it happened again. Maybe a drunk I think, then it happened again. 10 minutes later I emerge to see it’s a cleaner lady and she’s not happy. She starts getting right in my face shouting at me, of course in German. I don’t know what’s going on, maybe she thinks I’ve done something wrong? “I’m sorry my German isn’t very good”, I calmly tell her, “YOU MUST LEAVE!”, she screams back. “Why?”, while washing my hands I make out through her angry shouting in both German and English that they are closing the toilets at 9 for the fireworks… This has to be a set up right?
Knowing I can’t rejoin the single rider queue I decide to go for a walk, then almost immediately a man comes running over and shouting I can’t walk that way, when I ask why he mumbles something about the fireworks and points me down another path. This is getting silly now.
The next hour was spent on my own, walking around in the rain, wandering between newly closed paths and uncomfortably busy open ones, not quite the midnight Taron I came here for.
Black Mamba
I managed to reunite with Heartline and we powered to Black Mamba the park’s B&M invert in time to get a few very memorable laps, it was these rides that took my mood from livid to just very disappointed.
The staff on Mamba were incredible, they were going absolutely insane, it was an awesome sight.
Our 3 rides went as such.
1 – Pitch black and the coaster hauling way more than it did for us on our last trip.
2 – Fireworks going off, so that every time you inverted you got to watch the show and once again everything felt faster.
3 – After lap 2 we came into an empty station with the staff still going crazy and they sent us straight round for a 3rd, with the fireworks still going off, it’s a shame finding an experience like this at Phantasialand is like finding a needle in a haystack.
We were completely shattered now after a very long day and both completely done with the park, so clearly the best thing for us was taking over an hour to leave the car park while the staff just stood and watched instead of trying to organise it.
Another trip to Phantasialand, another disappointment, hopefully our 3rd trip won’t be so bad but I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for reading, click here for part 2 of this report where we visit Movie Park Germany and BillyBird Park Hemelrijk!
During the night I’m certain our hotel room reached 40 degrees but other than that it was quite nice.
Thanks to the location of the hotel we took back roads all the way to Belgium, it was a lovely drive and quite beautiful in places, that was until we took a right and came face to face with 15 heavily armed soldiers! Of course they were fine but it wasn’t what I was expecting to see at 9am on a quiet Belgium back road.
Speaking of Belgium, me and Heartline have a bit of a history with it, in 2016 we visited Walibi and Bobbejaanland and let’s just say the country treated us less than fairly, shall we see if we do better this time? Spoilers, we don’t…
Bellewaerde
As we were rushing and everything was out to annoy us I don’t have much to say about the park itself, it has lots of trees…? Operations weren’t great…? Staff were alright…?
Our plan was to arrive for opening, knock off the coasters in an hour and then launch over to Plopsa, one of those things happened.
We got to the park 20 minutes before opening and that’s when it started to go wrong, some angry car park bloke lead us and half of Belgium down some sketchy road into a massive grassy overflow car park, good start!
We stood with several thousand heavily smoking Belgians at the turnstyles before running into the park to try to get the jump on them.
Huracan – We got to Huracan and there was only a few people outside, fantastic we thought, maybe we can still do this, then it opened late… Huracan is a partially enclosed Zierer Force coaster and it’s pretty great actually, with some nice theming inside.
Next we ran to the park’s tivoli coaster to find that they were were increasing the rows used every few cycles and that they were currently only allowing 4 people on the ride. As the queue was massive we decided to come back later.
Boomerang – We rode the park’s boomerang coaster while we waited, it wasn’t too rough.
They were now loading about quarter of the tivoli, not yet then!
Dawson Duel – So we went to check out the park’s brand new dueling alpine coasters. They were quite fun, something a little different at least but not worth the 30 minute queue.
Keverbaan – Even with them now loading the whole train we still queued far too long for the tivoli.
Now running majorly late we grabbed food to go and then made a serious scene leaving the car park, not on purpose I promise.
Plopsaland De Panne
We arrived at Plopsa at 2 and had to leave at 5:40 at the latest to make sure we got to the tunnel on time. That would be difficult at most parks but was going to impossible here.
Viktor’s Race – We got bored looking for the entrance to Anubis so we just opted to ride the park’s tivoli large, they were running it even slower than Bellewaerde…
Rollerskater – Then we ended up wasting even more precious time queueing for the park’s Vekoma junior coaster, the operator did notice we were cred running though, did we look that desperate?
Anubis: The Ride – FINALLY! The first proper coaster of the day. Anubis is one of only 2 Gertslauer launch coasters, the other being Lynet and both are really good. The coaster features a strong launch, crazy airtime on the top hat and then an intense and well paced layout.
SuperSplash – Is it a cred? Who knows. Was it a massive waste of time with awful operations? Yes, yes it was.
It was now 4 and we hadn’t yet experienced the park’s brand new GCI woodie, so assuming we’d want a few rides and almost certain there would be a queue, we decided to hell with the park’s other coasters, let’s cut our losses and go ride something decent.
When we got to the coaster we noticed it was closed with a member of staff at entrance, so we sat down and camped it out for a bit. 10 minutes later and the queue was opened and a bunch of us powered in, only to be told to leave by security, right…
We spent the next hour waiting and watching about 40 different staff members show up, do nothing, then leave. At 1 point a security bloke showed up and mocked those waiting and pretty much told us that the ride closes at 6:30, it’s almost 4:30, so what would be the point now, amazing…
Draak – We decided to ride the park’s powered coaster to get away from standing like idiots outside the closed woodie, this was a mistake… The worst operations of the day combined with the locals being as loud as humanly possible in an enclosed station only helped to sour the park experience even more.
Following this awful mistake we returned to waiting outside Heidi and stayed there right until the very last moment before we had to leave, this was pointless because nothing came of it.
Now very disappointed with the park we just wanted to pay for parking and leave, so course this had to be a mission too.
The parking machines were broken, so we had to go to guest services to get a ticket.
Guest services was manned by one very grumpy old lady who would not be rushed. Sell a car park ticket to this man, slowly answer the phone, print this man’s annual pass, go back to the phone, sell another ticket, go back on the phone, oh look we are next, no wait she’s on the phone again. When you’re already late and all faith in the park has already been lost, then the best thing to do now is just start laughing at this farce.
As we got half way back to the car Heidi went down the drop with guests on. It took less than a second and one nod to know what had to be done.
We sprinted across the car park, begged the turnstyle lady we just refused a hand stamp from to let us back in, sprinted across the park including through a restaurant and head first into a parade and finally got to Heidi.
Heidi – Thankfully I really enjoyed Heidi, sadly that about as much a review as I can give after only 1 lap but it’s certainly a positive one.
If you want a straight pros and cons review of Plopsa then I’ll try my best.
Pros – Some parts of the park are quite well themed (Heidi + Anubis areas)
Cons – Literally everything else.
Thanks to some violent driving we only missed our booked check in time by 3 minutes, sadly this meant we got put onto the next free train, which meant a 2 hour wait at the tunnel. Thankfully with the right company that’s no big deal.
This was the trip that started mine and Heartline’s tradition of taking the tunnel to Europe every summer. It’s an amazing feeling to get out to Europe without all the faff that flying presents, not to mention it’s great fun to fly down the European motorways in your own car.
Day 1
An extremely early start sent us flying towards the tunnel at half 4 in the morning and thanks to being the only car on the road we were on the train in no time.
We were slightly worried that the process was going to be complicated but it’s actually really easy and once you’ve done it a couple of times it’s second nature.
Parc Saint Paul
After almost removing the exhaust on my 4 month old car by means of the car park being made of boulders, we walked round to the entrance of Parc Saint Paul.
It was right now that I fell in love with this insanely wacky park, the first reason being the security guards are 7 and a half foot tall local celebrities and the second is just how perfectly ghetto the place looks.
Wild Train – My first ever PAX coaster and it was beautiful. From how ghetto and garish it looks to how insanely messed up it rides, it’s a work of art. Crazy unpredictable airtime, violent laterals and transitions that shouldn’t exist, Wild Train has it all!
Formule 1 – My second ever PAX coaster and it was also beautiful. Take all the positives of Wild Train, then add a serious risk of the whole thing collapsing, oh and real tigers pacing in cages by the brake run and you have Formule 1. Parc Saint Paul is one of a kind.
Yeah the park has other much less exciting coasters I could mention but I’d only be wasting your time, you’ll just have to return to the park in my 2018 report where they added the amazing Wood Express.
Incase you couldn’t tell I really like Parc Saint Paul, 2 really unique messed up coasters and a charming ghetto atmosphere combine to give the park so much character that just hearing the name makes me smile.
We grabbed some frites and then launched back onto the road to Parc Asterix.
Parc Asterix
I’d heard alot of stories both good and bad about this famous French park, so I wasn’t sure how to feel going in, so let’s find out.
We purchased the one go on everything fast track in advance with our tickets and this paid off because the park was quite busy.
Vol D’Icare – Rare Zierer Hornet model, it was fine.
Tonnerre de Zeus – Zeus was such a disappointment… I was expecting this massive CCI woodie to be really good and sadly it wasn’t. Almost no air time, almost no forces, almost all corners. Now using the Megafobia logic we may have just caught Zeus on a really bad day and it has the ability to be amazing sometimes but as I can only judge what I was subjected to, for now it’s a let down.
Goudurix – I’d read online that this Vekoma monster was one of the roughest coasters in World, it wasn’t, but it also wasn’t very good.
Pegase Express – The park’s brand new Gertslauer family coaster is just so much fun, the World needs more of these things.
OzIris – This was at the time of riding my first ever majorly disappointing B&M and it’s even more a shame when it’s an Invert which are one of the most consistant models out there for quality.
OzIris is almost forceless, rides badly and the layout doesn’t flow well, me and Heartline both sat in silence on the brake run, neither of us wanting to admit we’d just ridden a weak B&M Invert.
Trace Du Hourra – Possibly the worst Mack Bobsled coaster?
Menhir Express – The park’s log flume was really good and we needed it because today was very hot.
Le Defi De Cesar – Madhouse attraction that was really well done.
While the line up of the park was certainly well below what I was expecting it to be, the park itself is very well themed in places and I’m sure if it wasn’t so hot and busy it would be a nice place to explore. Operations were very good and the staff all seemed to be trying their best to reduce queue times. The pizza restaurant we visited was really nice and alot cheaper than we were expecting.
I think I can understand the appeal of the park to some people but I’m going to have to wait for a major new coaster before thinking of returning to the park.
That evening we positively flew to the hotel because we had to get there before night fall because I couldn’t work out how to fit the light reflectors to my car.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 2, Bellewaerde and Plopsa De Panne.
On our last full day of the trip we decided to dust off some of the other coasters in Seoul.
Children’s Grand Park
Children’s Grand Park might be over stating it slightly because it’s just a small collection of rides placed on concrete located in a much larger, greener and hillier park.
Crazy Mouse – An Interpark Crazy Mouse that spent most of it’s life closed and is now removed, I’m glad we got to ride it but it was nothing memorable.
That was Children’s Grand Park then, onto the next one!
Seoul Land
Much like the last park with it’s massive hills, Seoul Land had an interesting walk from the subway to the entrance. Street vendors were on both sides of the pathway, all selling the exact same thing but no one selling drinks, typical. Things got even more confusing when the entrance to the park was actually the entrance to a tram that among other places can take you to the amusement park.
We joked on the way to the ticket office that because of our T card discounts at Lotte World and Everland, Seoul Land was going to be the most expensive park in Korea. Almost as if we were heard the lady in the office pulled out a sheet stating the massively discounted entry price for tourists, well played Seoul Land.
While Seoul Land is a nice enough park to visit, it’s feels completely unfair to even think about mentioning it in the same league as Everland or Lotte World, everything at Seoul Land is fine and that’s enough. What was an issue though was the park was absolutely rammed with people and much like Lotte World they were prepared to queue any amount of time for anything. This meant Seoul Land wasn’t a quick one and done on all the coasters but turned into a whole day affair.
Blackhole 2000 – We queued almost 2 hours for this almost Vekoma looper knockoff and we almost got stung by a massive wasp.
Tikitoc Train – This Interpark Wacky Worm was the best ride in the park and I’m not being ironic. There was a single moment of insane sidways ejector air that I’m almost certain wasn’t meant to be there but it was amazing.
After the shock of having to queue many minutes to ride coasters that aren’t worth it wore off, I found my time at Seoul Land to be quite entertaining, not good, but amusing.
Day 12
I felt a real sense of sadness as I woke up on the last day of the trip, this was it, the ending of the first major trip of my life, the ending of the best trip of my life. Would I ever be able to do something like this again?
It was a slow and sombre journey to the airport before we boarded our flight home, where post trip blues were redefined.
Lotte World as I mentioned in my report on Everland is Korea’s other top amusement park but whereas Everland is located in the mountains, Lotte World is crammed right into the city and the way they fit everything in is insanely impressive.
Firstly from the outside you’d never assume this was an amusement park, the park’s entrance looks like just another mall but once inside things get really interesting.
The main bulk of the park is set indoors over 5 floors, with some rides located in an outdoor section. Those inside aren’t what you’d expect though because amongst them is a full size roller coaster, a full size rapids ride and several large scale dark rides.
As well as being an engineering masterpiece Lotte World is also a lovely place to visit. At first I assumed a big mostly indoor amusement park in the middle of a city was going to be chaos but there’s an incredibly relaxed atmosphere to the place. Perhaps it was present in Everland too and I missed it but at Lotte World we learnt the Korean way of how to enjoy your day out at a park. 1) Don’t worry about queue times or large ride counts, you’re there with your friends so just enjoy it. 2) Don’t rush around, breathe it all in man. 3) Get 1 member of your group to leave large queues to get snacks, so you don’t get hungry. It would never work elsewhere but here today, it was the only way.
Atlantis Adventure – The fabled and legendary Intamin Aqua Trax and it’s extremely good fun.
First things first Atlantis Adventure looks incredible, the palace the coaster dives in and out of is breathtaking and I could stare at it for hours and still find new details.
The coaster itself as mentioned is really good but could have been much better if the pacing wasn’t derailed by stopping dead followed by a slow lift hill mid course. Also not helping is the fact both sections after the first launch and after the lift hill are short. If there was a mid course 2nd launch to keep the ride flying along and things were a little longer then this could have been one of the best coasters in the World but it is what it is and it is a series of really good moments with a boring bit in the middle.
Atlantis Adventure’s launch is really intense and the air time hill directly after is insane, damn near ejecting you into the ceiling. Then you fly through and around the palace in intense fashion before the brakes and slow lift. After the drop you have 1 more ultra intense pop of ejector air then once again haul around for a while before it’s all over.
Atlantis Adventure is fantastic, just not as good as it could have been.
Comet Express – Crazy indoor Intamin spinning coaster, I started spinning (and laughing) as soon we left the station and didn’t stop until the ride was over, great fun.
FrenchRevolution – The previously mentioned full blown coaster in the indoor section. This Vekoma looping coaster outdoors wouldn’t be worth your time but indoors and with the crazy amounts of theming you interact with it’s actually quite enjoyable.
Fantasy Dream – Dark ride located outdoors and what can only be described as a drug fuelled nightmare where you slowly pass by more and more creepy singing objects.
Sinbad’s Adventure – A massive extremely well themed boat ride located in the indoors section, it shouldn’t be able to fit in here but it does.
Jungle Adventure – A full blown heavily themed rapids ride located indoors, it was really cool to experience the carnage of a rapids ride in extremely low lighting.
Dragon’s Wild Shooting – A really fun shooting dark ride in the indoor section where you take aim at all sorts of dragons and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.
Another compliment that must be paid to Lotte World is the sheer amount of food and drinks you can buy. There’s loads and something for everyone, even really fussy people like me.
After a really pleasant day out at Lotte World we left to go shopping and to see an LED water show from the side of a bridge. Was it good, no, will it cause me to laugh out loud at how bad it was until I die, yes.
Today was our last day in Japan and we were determined to end it on a high after yesterday’s nightmare. Things were off to a good start when a friendly lady came over to help us buy our train tickets and with them in hand we were in for a pleasant train ride to Hirakata Park.
Hirakata Park
With just a few hours left before we needed to the be at the airport we knew that as soon as we arrived we needed to hit the ground running. This was a massive shame in a way because Hirakata Park was a lovely little park and had a very simular feel to Greenland and Space World in that the staff were wonderful, it felt very “Japanese” and it was a rather pleasant place to just exist in. The perfect place to end our Japanese park list, just like Greenland had been the perfect place to start.
Crazy Mouse – Nothing special at all to this Reverchon spinning coaster, except the staff who were wonderful.
Elf – Adorable family sized Intamin woodie, nothing stand out but certainly a fun little coaster.
Fantastic Coaster Rowdy – I think they put more effort into the name than the coaster itself but I’m totally ok with that.
Peekaboo Town – The experience of a beautiful ride operator wedging my proportions into this tiny coaster is better than the ride could ever be.
Red Falcon – Maybe the best jet coaster yet. This time thinking to myself, “what an amazing trip I’ve had to Japan, also note to self, burn down Nagashima Spa Land”. The perfect coaster at the perfect park to finish up Japan.
We all left the park buzzing and with plenty of time spare to take it easy on route to the airport, then of course it went wrong.
As a group we completely ran out of Japanese currency between Hirakata Park and the hotel to collect luggage and due to reasons you couldn’t use credit cards on the Japanese subways. So we left the subway system to find a cash machine. First one didn’t take UK cards and the second one had a minimum spend of something laughable. After too much hassle we found one suitable and took out what we assumed was enough to get us to the airport.
After picking up our bags we ran to Osaka station where we learnt taxi drivers in the taxi rink don’t understand the word taxi and Osaka has 2 airports and we don’t know which one we need. We were already running majorly late now and couldn’t affford anymore confusion so we asked the information counter in the station which airport did we need and please sell us tickets for it.
The airport we needed was over an hour away and we didn’t have enough money to buy the tickets, so Heartline launched out of the station to look for another cash machine while I did some maths. At best we were going to arrive at the airport 45 minutes before the plane is due to take off, at worst and most likely we were going to miss our flight.
We managed to check into our flight after 30 minutes of bad signal on the subway but ultimately we all just assumed we were screwed. That was until after running through Osaka airport we got to the check in desk where they allowed us to check in our bags and made no fuss at all that we arrived so late. Then finally after an intense queue for security we got to our gate and collapsed in relief, we had made it.
Finally at peace, we landed in Korea at about 8pm and this time instead of taking the high speed train to Seoul station, then the subway to our new hotel, we opted to just board the subway at the airport and slum it the whole way which took forever. By the time we were all settled into the hotel it was midnight and we had to be up in 6 hours for Lotte World, I’d never complain but these trips really do test how dedicated you are for this game.
Thanks for reading, click here for our first day back in Korea, featuring Lotte World!
Our original trip line up did not include Nagashima Spa Land but Heartline went to an immense effort reordering everything so we could have a day at what I consider one of the two (other one is Fuji Q) legendary Japanese parks. After this experience however my opinion of Nagashima Spa Land has been forever ruined, am I going too far, I’ll let you decide.
We had planned and tried every option of getting to the park for it’s 9 opening but due to the worst case of car hire faff to ever exist we pulled into the car park at 10.
Nagashima Spa Land
It was lightly spitting with rain as we walked to the ticket office and noticed a sign saying half the park was closed today. Then we looked at another ride closures sign on the ticket office window that said only 3 rides were closed today. So we asked the very rude man selling tickets what was occuring. The 3 mentioned rides were down all day (note the website did not mention this on it’s maintenance page) and the sign with half the park listed as closed was because of the slight rain. We made sure to ask him extemely carefully, “if the rain stops only the 3 rides listed on this sign are closed?”. “YES!” he snapped back, well we’ve no reason to believe he’s lying, let’s do it.
We ran to Steel Dragon and joined the back of what looked to be at least an hour queue. On the way there we saw a sign that said that Steel Dragon was closing at 3 for maintenance. It was now half 10, Steel Dragon’s going down at 3, the park closes at 5 and there’s at least 10 more coasters to ride, plus the rain has just gotten heavier. With that in mind we decided to leave the queue and buy fast track for Steel Dragon from the Steel Dragon photos kiosk. The very rude woman snapped at us and responded that the ride was closed.
Arashi – With everything going to hell we joined the 45 minute queue for the park’s brand new S&S Free Spin coaster. At the time I really wasn’t a fan of Arashi but with a revisit I love it to pieces, so just call my first opinion based on the mood at the time.
We noticed that Steel Dragon now had a very rude man blocking the entrance and we were getting desperate for answers so went over to him. “If the rain stops Steel Dragon WILL reopen?”. “YES!” he angrily snapped back.
Corkscrew – All I remember of the park’s Arrow corkscrew coaster was getting wet, the staff being very rude and all hope for today being lost.
Jet Coaster – As well as the staff being very rude, the visitors to Nagashima Spa Land were disgusting. We’d seen school children in almost all the parks and they were completely fine elsewhere but at Nagashima Spa Land they were awful. We were queue jumped, barged into and then had our seats stolen on Jet Coaster. I spent the whole ride wondering if this whole day was just setting out to annoy me because it was working.
Peter Rabbit Coaster – Amazingly the park opened their children’s powered coaster in the rain but almost nothing else.
4 attractions that we wanted running in the entire park, so we went looking for food and a place to sit down. We ended up in a children’s oriented pizza restaurant because like the rides almost all the restaurants were closed too. During our meal the rain stopped completely, not only that but the sun came back too, so we sat there waiting and watching to see if anything moved for over an hour.
We got bored of waiting and because we’d heard it multiple times that things would reopen when the rain stopped, it was time to ask again.
Off to Steel Dragon and we stood at the entrance for over 15 minutes while the staff completely ignored us. A very rude staff member was in the control box, 4 or 5 were cleaning the queue, all could see us, none of them wanted to help. So getting angry we walked up the exit stairs and stood on the station platform, the very rude man in the control box hid under the console and those in queue still pretended they didn’t see us, unbelievable.
We asked a member of the Arashi team when was Steel Dragon going to reopen and she said tomorrow. It’s now 2pm, the sun’s shining, there’s 3 hours of operations left but Steel Dragon’s not coming back and nothing else is happening to the other closed rides.
It was clear then that the park had just given up because there was a few hours rain in the morning. I’ve since ridden Japanese coasters in downpours and witnessed Japanese park’s reopen as soon as bad weather stops so there’s no excuse at all for what the park was doing. Not only that but the fact that several staff members told us that when the rain stops everything reopens just made it even more insulting.
Talking of the staff they for the most part were all extremely rude, condescending and very un Japanese.
Nagashima Spa Land managed to morph from one of the most exciting parks of this trip into a park I’m in no hurry to ever return to.
In case you are wondering I deleted all my pictures of the park in disgust, I apologise for the lack of visuals in this report.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 8 where Japan redeems itself and we visit Hirakata Park.
