Europe 08/20 – Geiselwind + many Wiegands

Day 4 – Geiselwind

I remember intentionally skipping this park a few years ago, describing it to myself as ‘£30 for a Boomerang’, and who wants that? Thankfully in a short space of time they’ve doubled their count and introduced a ride type that I’ve been saying I want to try for a good while now, so the time had come to check the place out.

For some reason I had imagined it to be a bit ‘concrete and riiides’ or a glorified funfair, so I was surprised to see how nice the surroundings of each area were.

The rate of expansion seems to be continuing with about 30 shiny new kiddie flat rides multiplying across the left end of the park. With another prompt arrival we had been left to wait for things to open and as the time approached, opted to start strong.

#1 Doggy Dog

On a Wacky Worm of course. That dog façade doesn’t fool me.

#2 Cobra

Deep in the forest was the ride I was most eager to experience, if only for sadistic reasons. It’s one of those coasters you hear about being so bad that you simply have to form your own opinion. A ride that was ‘too forceful’ to ever actually open in the US, although they were likely mistaking poor build quality for intensity.
As if to match the reputation, a good number of these installations are located in countries that aren’t the most inviting, so the fact that this travelling one has settled in Germany is a bonus. Aside from that, as ride types go, I really am starting to run out of new things and the legendary Interpark Wild Wind was surprisingly firm in the foreground of significance.

All that went out the window as soon as we boarded though. What fresh hell is this? The awkward seating position that almost isn’t fit for adults, the over the shoulder restraints that are equal parts tough and flimsy and now we’re climbing the lift. Assume the brace position.

I’ve had worse, but it did give my ears a bashing just from how poorly it negotiated the track. This was mostly in the pointless double helix rather than the inversion, which provided a wild wrenching action that wasn’t actually as bad as it looks. As the train powered back into the station I was glad it was over and done with but wait, no, 2 laps? I know it’s short but that’s really not necessary.
This time I opted to lean forward so my skull could take over from the ears and now we can relax. As if that wasn’t headache inducing enough we’ve got a Boomerang to go yet…

#3 Blauer Enzian

For a brief respite, the bog standard layout of the powered mine train was next. We are looking a bit funfair now.

#4 Boomerang

I suppose one advantage of not being able to go anywhere this year is that it’s been 8 months since I’ve ridden one of these.
You know what? Whether it was the Wild Wind talking or the way they’ve looked after their ‘star attraction’ here, it wasn’t actually that offensive. It’s old, so none of that gross instant backwards braking.

#5 Piraten Spinner

Moving onto better things, a second new ride type for me. The world’s one and only Zierer spinner.
It has an identity crisis at the moment, with new signage trying to blend it in with nearby attractions, calling it Piraten Spinner. All the old signs are still up inside the footprint as well though and I think Drehgondelbahn sounds better anyway. More German at least.

I did like this one. The perpetual spinning throughout the whole layout is amusing and as it dives into the indoor tunnel there’s one particularly violent piece of tracking that delivered comedy at different angles for every single one of the 10+ laps.

#6 Drachen Höhle

The final cred is yet another world exclusive Zierer as far as I can tell. Drachen Höhle is one of those coasters in the (half) dark that is more fun than it should be. A few lights and a bit of smoke can go a long way when all you’re doing is corners. The face on the car design helps too of course.

And with that we were 6 for 6. It may not be the strongest of line-ups but at least there’s a good dose of obscurity in there. Great place to spend a morning of credding.


AltmühlBOB

A couple of years ago I remember seeing something about this alpine coaster with massive airtime hills but to be honest I had completely forgotten its existence immediately afterwards.
During my heavy trawling through Germany on coast2coaster, trying to pad the trip out again after losing several countries, I rediscovered this gem in the middle of nowhere.

Turns out the place was super popular and we struggled to park, ending up improvising with a couple of other cars in an overflow field that may or may not have been trespassing. There was a huge, mostly unfathomable queue of guests adjacent to the road for both the rides and ticket window simultaneously and in a very un-German fashion it was poorly organised and signposted, with queue-jumping actually becoming a necessity for people to make it work.

#7 Speed Bob

I didn’t actually realise that, though it makes sense, you don’t get to control this bad boy. Just flip the lid, get comfy and let it do its thing to you.

It’s obvious looking at it now that giving someone the power to slow down would lead to disaster.
I loved this thing. All these new experiences in one day – it’s getting a bit overwhelming.
The starting double down wasn’t quite all there but the power of the 3 hills combined with a very vulnerable, almost lying down position and nothing but a car seatbelt made for a cracking ride.
As you come screaming over the final crest you find yourself instinctively scrambling for a brake lever regardless. It hits the fins hard enough to make Stealth blush.

#8 AltmühlBOB

There’s also a traditional Alpine here. It began to rain heavily as we ascended the lift so I don’t remember much beyond hurrying to the bottom to get it over with and then sprinting back to the car before we got bogged down in someone else’s field.


Erlebnisfelsen Pottenstein

There was just enough time for one more park, though we were beginning to get a little worried about last entry rules. Luckily this place was as busy as the one before, the sun was back in the sky and they were even holding people outside of the entrance to keep the numbers down. With the money they’ll be raking in right now, looks like the hours are going to be extended.

Situated atop the hill this time, there’s another Wiegand monopoly going on.

#9 Frankenbob

Straight onto another alpine coaster, this one brought the fear back. When I say hill, it’s more of a cliff down there and there’s these unnervingly large drops directly into corners that, once again, surely you can’t go full speed or you’ll just fly off and become a fireball. Do they rely on Darwinism?

#10 Hexenbesen

The other ride was an older lift hill version of the Hummel Brummel hardware the previous day. I found ‘the witches’ broom’ to be far superior, not least for the fact that you get to push the green dispatch button yourself. That’s a childhood dream come true right there.

As soon as the lift is cleared it started swinging much more than I had come to expect and as the seats enthusiastically wind their way down the hill there’s a trim brake every 5 seconds to stop it getting out of control. I imagine this is what you’d get if you tried to build Ninja at Magic Mountain, in your garden. And I see a point to that.

Day 5


Europe 08/20 – Tripsdrill + Schwaben Park

I wasn’t overly thrilled at the prospect of returning to this place, but the attractive looking Vekoma STC had definitely caught my attention, as much for the ride interaction as well as the relative uniqueness of the ride type so far. We had struggled to make even a morning out of Tripsdrill 5 years ago with mediocre rides and poor weather, so hopefully another couple of attractions and some sunshine could tip the scales in their favour.

Day 3 – Tripsdrill

They weren’t staggering openings as much as previously so the morning began straight away on the newness. It looks like they’ve got great plans for the station next year but at the moment it’s quite amusing to see no roof, bare concrete and a temporary shed for ops as though they literally got to 5pm on the 25th June, told contractors to down tools and leave on the spot. That’ll do lads.

#1 Hals-über-Kopf

It has a cool name and a cool ride. The trains with their backpack theming are great to both look at and sit in. It rides super smooth and can be forceful in some of the turns.

It didn’t quite deliver what I was expecting though. Foolishly I think I was after something a little more than the ‘family thrill’ that seems to do so well for the park. The ride lacked a certain spark that I can’t quite put my finger on and nothing more seemed to be brought to the table over the bigger SFC layout other than some inversions which are fine at best, if a little repetitive. I appreciate the fact that they chucked in some attempts at airtime hills to break the flow, even if they weren’t particularly prominent.
I’d probably just put it as the best coaster in the park, but that’s faint praise.

#2 Volldampf

The other Vekoma is pretty much finished, other than the end spike which will eventually burst through the other station nicely.

Again I like the train & station details and overall look of this one. The Junior Boomerang layout being much more linear and packed with hills is a welcome change to the usual compact turns and I’d say that makes it a little stronger than others of its type.

Once we had soaked up enough of the new area, it was time to revisit the rest of the park.

G’sengte Sau

The Gerstlauer Bobsled seemed to ride a little better than previous experiences, making the airtime hill section a bit more potent. Love how overgrown this has gotten now and that you can’t even see the track from most angles, it’s becoming a part of nature.

Mammut

I think I like this woodie a little more than most. Sure it’s underwhelming, but not to the point of being uninteresting. It bounces around with a certain charm and has some decent twisty moments.

Karacho

Their Gerstlauer Infinity was exactly the same as I remembered it, 900 creds ago – not very good.
It doesn’t ride with the relative grace of newer infinities and the whole layout seems a bit haphazard – a block section killing the speed directly before the only real airtime moment wasn’t the best of ideas.

All the water rides were closed last time so it was nice to try Waschzuber Rafting. The queue is massive and contains a museum about the history of washing clothes, so that’s something. As a ride it was on the timid end of the spectrum.

Also new to me was Badewannen-Fahrt, the infamous log flume themed to baths. This was great fun.
Dark ride sections, a surprise backwards drop and novelty boats – it had it all.

We went back for a couple more laps on the new boy, where I ran into my familiar old bugbear of inconsistent staff rules about glasses. Suddenly someone had decided that it was strictly not allowed and though I politely mentioned that I had been riding fine with them all morning, they got unnecessarily aggressive about it. For someone with a cred tattooed on their arm you’d think they’d be a little more forgiving.

To lighten the mood we tried to recreate our favourite memory from the previous visit – sitting in a quaint little café having a nice toasted sandwich. Unfortunately it was swarming with wasps, there was nowhere to sit, further staff continued to be unfriendly and the takeaway equivalent of the food was terrible.

Well, that’s enough of that then. What else have we got around here?

Schwaben Park

Another revisit with another 2 new creds. With all the other land clearing and construction we had seen a lifetime ago at the far end of the park I didn’t expect both of them to have been stuck out in front of the car park with Force One. It’s eye-catching, I’ll give it that.

#3 Wilde Hilde

Tried the obscure RES Roller Ball first. Although no flipping is involved, watching it from off-ride it looked rather vicious in the way that it was rocking back and forth, throwing people around so I was actually quite nervous going up the lift hill, getting flashbacks to rides like Arashi and Insane which have both tried to kill me in a good and bad way respectively. This was deceptive and unjustified as the ride just doesn’t really do anything. Trims heavily control each stage of the descent, meaning nothing more than a slight jolt downwards every few seconds and it’s all rather awkward as an experience. I left the ride wondering to myself ‘what was the point?’
The chicken song is the most entertaining part – I think it might make the trip playlist.

#4 Hummel Brummel

Another obscure contraption had barely opened before the visit and didn’t even have speakers up yet for the amusing bee soundtrack. They did have time to put some free lockers up front though, to help with the seating and station situation. There doesn’t seem to be enough of them yet, as people were queueing to wait for one to become available, though there was no queue for the actual ride. Spotted a Wiegand guy still on site overseeing the operation and soon we were boarding.
With controls like a bobkart it was arm pedal to the metal, but all this led to was a slight breeze in the hair and some corners. There isn’t much going on here and I think even the marketing speaks for itself – there’s a promo picture up everywhere of two kids riding it and they look thoroughly bored.
I left the ride wondering to myself ‘what was the point?’

Force One

Oh well, at least I like their old coaster.
This hasn’t aged well. It was vibrating rather unceremoniously throughout the layout and subsequently all the life seems to have been sucked out of it.
Maybe not then.

A surprise find saved the park. I had spotted what looked like an indoor boat/dark ride on the map and we went to check it out. In this unassuming building lives Azura. The queue was nothing but darkness and a strong smell of gas. Upon boarding, the ride logo is projected onto a waterfall in front of the station. What is this?
It’s essentially a warehouse that you slowly drift around in an oval shape. Sounds fun right? Well in the centre of the oval are fountains, lasers and fire effects and they create some pretty mesmerising sequences. A fireball sitting directly on top of a 10ft water jet is not something I expected to see and they have those bouncing water cannons like you put around pathways on Rollercoaster Tycoon, only the jets are lit up, in a curve, from the inside. Sorcery.
See I do like some simple things, I guess they just have to be shiny.
Never noticed that cat on the far left of the picture in person, so that’s just spooked me out a little. I think we’ll end it there.

Day 4


Europe 08/20 – Creds + Conny-Land

On the neighbouring mountain to the previous one is a small park owned by the same people as the big boy Alpine that looked like a bit of fun.

Day 2 – Steinwasen Park

Although the website claimed the rides opened with the park and we were banging on the door at opening o’clock, they ended up starting an hour later so we had time to take in the surroundings.

Inside there’s an Ice Cave walkthrough with a scary looking seal.

And a man milking a horse?

Outside is a humble affair with a few animals, a big bridge and more nice views.

Apparently it can hold 10,000 people, though not in the current climate. It wobbles unnervingly with the wind too.

A queue was forming near the entrance to the rides area and we opted to head to the alpine first as it was likely to get the busiest.

#1 Coasterbahn

2 back to back then. This one had the traditional lift hill that goes on forever. It started as wild as the previous one, with the added bonus of overgrown grass scraping my hands at full throttle but ended up with too many helices of doom.

The water ride nearby looked interesting with its bare metal styling and elevator lift.

Essentially Storm Surge with dignity, it kicked up one hell of a spin and then collided with a wall at full pace, nearly causing a casualty. Good.

In another display of Wiegand’s inventiveness, the summer toboggan cars automatically fold themselves in half here at the bottom of the layout before riding up to the top with a ski lift system.

#2 Gletscherblitz

Back inside there’s a rather unique combo of a duelling Mack powered mine train and Bobkart. One is themed to Yetis, the other themed to space. The mine train had a violent airtime moment upon exiting the station flythrough and I rather enjoyed the interaction between the two rides.

The Bobkart started in strobe lights and ended in concrete walls, with the layout being both entertaining and unrestricted.

Having finished everything of interest it was off to the next park on the itinerary.


Tatzmania Löffingen

A zoo with creds.

#3 African Spin

Only the finest too. An SBF spinner with no less than 3 ‘loops’.

#4 Gold Rusher

And slightly more interestingly a Gerstlauer Bobsled. Same layout as the one at Motiongate including a random block section where the indoor portion should have been. Only 2 of this one in the world so far, set complete.

Done. I’m sure it would have been a nice place to stay a little longer but we’re worn out on zoos right now and there were still borders to cross and bigger things to come.


I’ve had my eye on the only park in Switzerland for a while now. My only previous experience with the country was sleeping on the floor of an airport (the bastards) so it was nice to arrive by car instead.

Conny-Land

#5 Cobra

For a nation that’s home to two of the biggest ride manufacturers in the world, getting a Pax was certainly an interesting choice, but I’m not complaining.
It’s by far the most well presented of their coasters I’ve come across.
I learnt on the spot that NEW FOR 2020! the trains have been replaced with ones made by the people who build butterflies. They’re now comfortable and exposed – the perfect combination.

As the exit shop contains this reaction shot of opening day on the original trains, I’d hazard a guess at the new ones being an improvement.

The backwards lift up a beyond vertical spike is as unnerving as it sounds, relying on raw leg power to keep yourself in the train by the time you reach the top.

Putting shuttle loops to shame, the two airtime hills deliver decently on the outbound trip.

And I actually liked this monstrosity of an element. The loop realises halfway that it needs to change alignment to not crash into itself, jolting riders to the side in amusing fashion and the hang in the tail is pretty glorious.
I’d describe Cobra as rugged, not rough and I’m very glad we made the trip to try it.
Oh, the new train has some BACKWARDS! seats too. The lift isn’t as good but the rest of it is even better this way.

The craziness doesn’t end there as a strange attraction called the Mammut Tree was beckoning. A 16 seater open cable car that randomly stops, bounces and sways as it traverses a straight line towards this tower. It passes straight through, teases for a while and then gets dragged back inside. The doors close. The deep voiced tree says “HALLO.”
Words should not describe the sequence of events that happen next but it’s as one of a kind as Cobra was and I loved it.

They also have a dinosaur shooting dark ride with that cheap Golden Nugget type hardware. For sanitary reasons I ended up playing a game of spotting how many modern screens they have shoehorned in that all play the same animation of a baby dinosaur breaking out of an egg.

There’s a second cred!
Wait.
Gerstlauer clearly invented these just to annoy us didn’t they.

Never mind, Knuffelbeers.

This sign literally broke my heart.

I didn’t want to leave them but we wanted another country cred before the day was out, with a whirlwind culture cruise through one of those little places beginning with L.

Starting with Liechtenstein cat.

‘Tis a mountainous place.

Looking for a castle, found a church by mistake.

Where the King lives.

And where the King doesn’t live. Also cat #2 in the shadows. I believe they outnumber the human population here.

Austria had been announced as the next no-go destination the previous night so being extra goody two shoes we skirted around it and back through Switzerland (which followed suit the very next week) into Germany’s safe arms again.

Day 3


Europe 08/20 – Hasenhorn Rodelbahn

You don’t need me to tell you that 2020 sucks, but here’s a brief summary of my first world problems when it comes to enthusing this year.

April 2020 – Booked to go to Poland for the RMC and Hyperion, long overdue, no brainer. Cancelled.
June 2020 – Booked to go to the USA for 2 weeks with the intention of riding not just my 1000th coaster but also my 1100th. It was gonna be huge – Cedar Point huge. Before Poland went, the honour would have gone to that weird looking thing, Steel Curtain. After Poland went, it could have been epic – a trimless Voyage @ Holiwood Nights epic. Cancelled.

With over 6 months of no progress at all I started hitting the local +1s to tide the count over but although a good laugh it’s just not the same as doing something… good.
At least one of those trips I mentioned above is accessible by road right?
It was time to act and I booked a slot on the Channel tunnel. As the trip grew nearer the itinerary remained completely fluid and with good reason. Countries started closing left, right and centre.

Eurodemption was born. An adventure of both obscurity and basicness-ity. Plus the usual insanity.

Day 1 – Hasenhorn Rodelbahn

We had originally wanted to tick off Fraispertuis City on the way down but as of one week before, France was no longer an option – cancel the hotel in a vineyard. A brief 7 hour drive and no mingling later we crossed the Rhône/Rhine/Rhein into the bottom left corner of Germany. Even with getting up at 2am there wasn’t much of a day left so there was only really one thing on the cards and that was this.

In a small village nestled between two mountains lies an Alpine coaster that’s longer than Steel Dragon. It’s an unfortunate fact to learn but hey, +1.

To get to the top there’s a ticket window and a ski lift. One of the unnerving kinds that crashes into you from behind and you don’t even have to pull the bar down to stop you from falling out.

Apparently there was a 90 minute queue – what, for this? – but there was nothing else to do and it had been oh so long to get to this point.

It ended up around half that time once up the top, getting sunburnt on a mountain, just like old times. My body has forgotten what real Vitamin D feels like.

#1 Hasenhorn Coaster

It was long. Really long. So long that it started to give me a bad back, turning me into an old man all of a sudden. I’ve never ridden one quite as wild before either. Many sections of straight bumps and hills that you surely can’t take at full speed.

I know there’s upstops on these (you can see underneath them on this clever system that also ski lifts the cars to the top, I believe this is called a nerd shot) but the mortal peril is ever present. The way the track seems arbritrarily chucked together and stacked up on loose pebbles. It’s thrilling pushing it past the edge of what feels comfortable. Almost exhausting.

Good view too.

That was the day really. Stayed in a hotel in a corn field and started drawing up plans for the next day. All on the fly, never done it this way before.

Up next – somewhere we’re not allowed to go as I write this.

Day 2


Germany 03/16 – Tripsdrill

Our final visit of the trip took us deep into the countryside for what seemed like several hours. We still made good time and arrived at the park before opening. This may have been unnecessary.

Day 5 – Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

Upon entering the park we discovered that nothing was open yet and that all the rides were planned to open at staggered intervals.

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While clearly a very attractive place to be, this made for a lot of hanging around in rather cold and slightly miserable weather, waiting for things to happen.

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The first attraction that came available was this unusual drop tower set into a tree. It had a bit of a bonus surprise in the sequence that involved tilting forward but it left me more confused than thrilled. What just happened?

One by one, the rest of the coasters opened up, each with a good half an hour interval. We spent most of this time sitting on a bench and snacking on our food and drink rations to save fitting them on the plane that evening.

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Rasender Tausendfüßler

The smallest cred in the park is a Tivoli Large. The length of the trains on these Zierers always amuses me and their momentum makes for some strange moments in certain seats, seemingly defying physics by losing speed downhill or gaining speed uphill.

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G’sengte Sau

This was the first rollercoaster ever built by manufacturer Gerstlauer. Their bobsled coaster is like an upgraded wild mouse, taking certain manoeuvres like banked drops and helices that those would never attempt but also mimicking the high unbanked turns that provide strong laterals.
Though beautifully blended into the environment, the ride itself was a little underwhelming. The highlight of the ride was a sharp turn through a building with a prompt sign appearing out of nowhere, reading something like ‘Du Wessen?’ I couldn’t help but shout the question upon seeing it and the resulting hilarity was the best entertainment on the ride.

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Karacho

The Gerstlauer Infinity coaster starts indoors and navigates around a quirky set piece before a slow inversion in the dark catches you off guard. Following this, it drops awkwardly into a fast launch to the outside world, pitching you forward and then slamming you back again rather uncomfortably.

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The strangely shaped top hat wobbles unnervingly as cars traverse it and the remainder of the layout is a mix of turns, hills and inversions with varying impact. There were no particularly notable moments for me other than the speed with which it whipped into the dive loop underground. The best time we had with the ride was an unexpected lap in the hail, being blinded and pelted with ice is surprisingly beneficial.

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Mammut

Completing the park’s Gerstlauer trilogy we have the only wooden coaster they’ve ever built. Before taking the lift hill, the ride has a little preshow section in a shed with some effects which was a pleasant surprise – not often you see that level of detail on this type of attraction.

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It’s a surprisingly smooth ride for a woodie and like the other rides in the park, lacks any real moments of significance. I liked it enough, but wanted a little more out of it to be honest.

Which is a good parallel for my thoughts on the park. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the place, it just failed to inspire any real sense of significance. Each ride that became available would satisfy us for a short while, but we’d soon end up back on a bench waiting for the next rather than continuing with many more laps.
Sadly all of the water rides were shut due to poor weather as well so we were left with little to do other than kill time before returning to the airport. Most of this time was spent in a lovely little sandwich shop that we had all to ourselves. Finally a warm place to sit down, eat some hot food and watch the rain outside.






Germany 03/16 – Holiday Park again

The following morning we had a great time getting more acquainted with our favourite rides from the previous day at Europa, but our minds kept wandering back to the earlier misfortune at Holiday Park. What if the ride is open again now and we’re missing out?
By lunchtime we couldn’t take it any more and decided to phone the park for confirmation. The answer was positive, so by early afternoon we were back on the road for a revenge trip.

Day 4 – Holiday Park

We arrived in the car park and sat in the same position as before, remaining skeptical, watching and waiting for some further proof that Expedition GeForce was indeed active. 10 nervous minutes passed before we saw the train climbing the lift through the trees. The dashboard was punched and the car doors were flung wide open. “It’s running!”

With a mere 2 hours remaining of their operating schedule, the park may have thought us mad for turning up so late and paying full entry price, but it seems we weren’t the only ones. A minivan full of hockey players had also arrived at the same time for a quick stint, clearly the world famous ride has a bit of a cult following among the locals.

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Expedition GeForce

It was potentially better value for money than our first visit though. We racked up a total of 11 laps in that time and it was definitely worth coming back for.
The twisted first drop is particularly brutal, taken at such a steep angle. With the momentum carrying over from the faster than usual cable lift hill, a strong moment of multi-directional ejection starts the layout as it means to go on.

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Every single hill on this ride is designed to provide an almost unrivalled amount of airtime and it really is quite ridiculous to experience. The reactions from other riders is almost as entertaining, a particular standout being a man in a Silver Star shirt seemingly leaping into each of them with his whole upper body and doing windmills with his arms.

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Where the ride falls short for me is the extended section of turns in the middle where nothing much happens, when the ride is delivering so well at other times it feels like some wasted potential within the layout.

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The finish is as strong as the start, with a hill through the structure that threatens to cut your hands off, followed by the final series of consecutive hills that try to remove clothing, leaving our shirts half up and jackets wrapped across the back of the seat by the time it hits the brake run.

I can see why this Intamin mega is so highly regarded. If airtime is your sole jam, then there really is nothing to complain about and back when Expedition GeForce opened there was likely very little that wouldn’t pale in comparison. Personally I find it a tiny bit too one-dimensional and predictable to be considered the best of the best. I’m more a fan of variety in a layout as well as rides that provide a more out of control feeling – you can see all the airtime coming a mile away here and anticipation can be a killer. The element of surprise is often under utilised.

We simply couldn’t get enough of the ride though, running and/or staggering around through the queue each time until they eventually closed down for the evening. When the stars align, coaster marathons like this are always a fantastic way to end the day.

Day 5


Germany 03/16 – Europa Park

Due to the size of the place, a common recommendation for visiting Europa Park is that you spend a minimum of three days there. It’s the second largest park in Europe following the Disneyland Paris resort and is owned and run by the Mack family, the very same Macks that are involved in manufacturing rides that I often speak highly of. The main concept of the park is showcasing various countries throughout Europe as themed areas with their own rides and attractions.
Feeling like experts at this stage in our career, we felt that we could probably manage it in two days – let’s see how that turned out.

Day 3 – Europa Park

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After parking directly underneath a B&M hyper coaster – a novel place to put the car, we headed in to appreciate the scenery around the entrance area before the ride sections were opened to the public.

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In terms of rollercoasters, the most significant area in the park is Iceland, home to both a Mack launch coaster and a GCI woodie. It’s a particularly beautiful area of the park with great attention to detail in theming, scenery and ride interaction.

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Blue Fire

We began with the Mack, which in a way was a showcase prototype of the new and exciting hardware that the company were introducing to the world in 2009. The same technology that later went on to create my absolute favourite, Helix.

So I was excited to say the least, to see how it all began. It didn’t disappoint.

Following a smooth launch into a high turn, it’s a very well rounded layout taken mostly with a graceful feeling rather than one of intensity. The exception to this is the final inversion, which is taken at ridiculous speed and tries to spin you out of the train, making me instinctively hold onto my head every single time.

Other highlights include the exit to the mid course brake run, the twisted airtime hill that threads the loop and the close interaction with the rockwork which simply dares you to keep your hands up at all times.
The ride also has a great soundtrack, with a 90 second piece that is actually tailored to fit the on-ride experience. Sadly this only played through the onboard speakers during just 1 of our many laps, but I was overly thrilled when it happened.

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Wodan

Blue Fire’s wooden neighbour has a brilliant queueline that gets more and more intricate as you progress. Inside the station, there are statues high up that creepily turn their heads in sequential creaky movements to monitor the trains as they arrive and depart. For further intimidation, there’s a signature GCI station flythrough which the train simply roars through while you wait in anticipation, shaking the whole building in the process.

The start of the ride feels particularly out of control and intense, plunging it’s way through the structure. From here I found that it lacked a little definition, there were no standout moments and it rattles around some rather high up sections for longer than feels necessary.

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As with the other Iceland coaster, the interaction with the scenery greatly enhances the experience and towards the end of the layout Wodan begins to improve again, hitting some unusual transitions, strange track shaping in the corners and a couple of small hills that throw you all over the place. By the end of the ride I was simply laughing through sheer joy – high praise.

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Atlantica Supersplash

Continuing on through the creds, we find the first of two Mack water coasters in the park. Located in the Portugal area, this one uses larger boat vehicles, turntables and a backwards portion of track across the top section. Again the station scenery is a particular highlight.

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Poseidon

Over in Greece, these smaller boat/cars navigate a more significant coaster portion of twists and turns before ending in the classic splashdown.

Behind Poseidon is Pegasus, a Mack youngstar coaster which is a great family ride – very thrilling for the size and flawlessly smooth. It was running a Virtual Reality headset add-on that we tried, having not attempted any previously (it seems to be popping up everywhere).
This was based on a franchise called Monster Family/Happy Family and the visuals showed some of the characters riding alongside us through various fantasy antics, the most striking moment being when one of them jumped out of their seat in close proximity.
I wouldn’t particularly recommend the experience as it doesn’t really add much, especially when considered against the extra amount of time it adds to the proceedings for everyone involved.

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Matterhorn Blitz

This Mack wild mouse has a special feature, showing off an elevator lift system at the beginning of the ride in place of a traditional chain lift hill. The cars tilt rather unnervingly to the side and back again as they travel upwards before exiting the building and then traversing a mostly standard layout that never quite lives up to the initial spectacle.

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Let us pause for a moment to appreciate the other wondrous entertainment that can be found within the park – a lady herding geese.

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Schweizer Bobbahn

Disappointly this is a rather unexciting Mack bobsled coaster. The most interesting part of the ride experience for me was appreciating the efficiency of the staff and operations here – something Europa Park are potentially the best in the world at.

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Alpenexpress Enzian

Another place that VR has appeared in this park is on their Mack powered coaster. This is unfortunate as the ride spends some time in a beautiful indoor area with crystals, caverns and dragons. For some reason we chose to don the headsets again, I was underwhelmed again and I’m told that the screens weren’t even working for Mega-Lite, forcing him to sit in stunned silence throughout the ride. We made up for this by spending a lot of time exploring this magical hidden section of the park on foot instead.

As well as having this more traditional powered coaster, Europa Park saw the debut of Mack’s inverted powered coaster – a ride system that suspends guests below the track with cars that can gently rotate, it lends itself well to dark ride sections and strong theming, with good control over both the pace of the trains and the direction in which they face.
I don’t quite know why, but I never took photos of Arthur. To help with the seating arrangement, the area outside the queue has a free locker system to store loose articles but it was the most complicated and frustrating encounter of the whole park. A combination of tickets, coloured lights and German men shouting are supposed to indicate which locker you have been assigned to, while other guests attempt to steal it from you or block the way and end up timing you out.
Once on the ride, which is themed around the film Arthur and the Invisibles, there are several scenes on screens, a short outdoor section and a much more impressive indoor section through which the trains suddenly go swooping across a vast open area full of immersive scenery and guests walking below.
Other than this particular moment, I wasn’t overly taken with the whole system. The movement was a bit clunky and I failed to follow the storytelling or be left with any other significant impression (or a picture).

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Eurosat

For an indoor coaster that satisfies on all levels, a visit to the France area is a must. Eurosat is another Mack coaster and is situated entirely within this sphere, with an amazing soundtrack and a space theme. It utilises a spiral lift hill which appears to take several minutes to get to the top, climbing and climbing forever while the music keeps you thoroughly entertained.
When it finally reaches the summit, the train begins to wind its way down in total darkness, other than the sight of an occasional illuminated planet or asteroid. The movements are totally unpredictable and in many cases completely wild and it results in a rather intense but totally joyous experience from start to finish.

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Euromir

Sharing a lot of features with the above, Euromir is a Mack spinning coaster with a space theme, a great soundtrack and an endless indoor spiral lift hill. The coaster portion is outdoors this time, beginning with a series of teasing turns, high up between the striking structures, before dropping into a much more intense sequence of banked corners with occasional strong spinning. It isn’t as good as Eurosat, but still rather enjoyable.

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Silver Star

I believe that only leaves one more coaster – the big boy, the B&M hyper.
In a slightly unusual change from the rest of the park, this ride is sponsored by Mercedes, has nothing in the way of scenery (admittedly hard for a ride of this scale) other than some cars in the queue and an amusing song that encourages Silver Star itself to ‘ride on.’

We tried the comfy B&M trains with their minimalistic clam shell restraints in various positions and learnt that the ride offers vastly differing experiences. The front row simply wasn’t worth our time for the unobstructed view, providing an underwhelming set of forces throughout the layout.

The back row however was a completely different beast with powerful airtime through many of the hills and a really strong and unexpected kick out of the mid course brake run that violently tried to remove me from the train.

As well as an extensive coaster selection, there are many dark rides at Europa Park.

Cassandra’s Curse was one of the stand outs for me, being Mack’s own version of a Vekoma mad house, with a bonus physical surprise in the seating that was rather fun. It lacked the ambience of my inevitable comparison for these types of rides – Hex, which I feel will put most of the ones I find in future at a disadvantage, but I thoroughly enjoyed it regardless.

The other highlight was Piraten in Batavia, a boat ride with a strong resemblance to the Disney attraction Pirates of the Caribbean. It held it’s own rather well, with several impressive sets and a strong atmosphere throughout.

There are several tracked attractions including a ghost train and a shooting ride, but none of these particularly stood out to me on the day – the sheer number of attractions we got through in a single day (actually everything we wanted) was quite overwhelming at times.

Having successfully completed the park in a single hit, we were left with the whole of the second day to take a much more relaxed pace, enjoy many re-rides and then embark on a surprise side quest (stay tuned).

I was very taken with Europa Park overall, you couldn’t hope to find a more competent park in the way that attractions are presented and operated. One thing that was missing for me was a real standout ride, something that makes me desperately want to return other than just for the park itself. I couldn’t even name a favourite coaster upon leaving and that’s not to say that more than a few aren’t really, really good, I just feel that one especially killer ride would tip the scales for me and make it something truly special, perhaps almost unbeatable.

Day 4




Germany 03/16 – Holiday Park

The following morning we arrived bright and early at the home of the multi award winning Expedition GeForce – billed to be the standout coaster of the trip and a source of major excitement for us. The bright part might be a lie, it was a particularly grey and miserable day.

Day 2 – Holiday Park

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Unable to contain the excitement, we headed straight for the big orange Intamin mega coaster looming through the trees.

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Unfortunately it was closed, with no current indication as to why, so we continued on deeper into the park.

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Sky Scream

At the back of the park, the other major coaster was up and running so we began with that. A striking looking Premier triple launch coaster, something in particular seems to stand out – no corners. It’s very tall, high in thrills but fits into a tiny space. Sadly that means it’s going to be cloned everywhere.

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With an age restriction of minimum 14 out front, the queueline for this ride contains a number of horror elements like you would find in a scare maze at a halloween event. Nervously dodging our way through that with no other guests to use as shields, we reached the station amongst the very first riders of the day.

As soon as the restraint was pushed down on me by the member of staff, I wanted to leave the ride. This wasn’t through fear, just pure pain. For some reason these restraints have what’s described as a shin bar, a particularly stiff and pointy one in this instance and it was digging right into my shin bones in the most uncomfortable manner and not wanting to cause a scene there was nothing I could do about it.

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On with the ride then, teeth clenched. The shuttle launch – forwards, backwards and forwards again is surprisingly powerful, taking place over such a short space of track. With enough momentum from the last to reach the highest point of the layout, the train is rather unceremoniously thrust over the crest of the hill in what could have been quite a good moment of airtime had I not been so badly pinned in place.

The inversion across the top slowly rolls you over while I’m once again starting to wish it would just end. A trim brake teases it back into the vertical spike at the other side, resulting in the non-inverting loop being taken at a reasonable pace and with a final twist you’re racing back through the station for some braking action that could not have come soon enough for me. Please let me off now.
It’s a shame as I think I would have quite liked the ride, but I have never been so negatively impacted by a train design before and I really don’t see how it’s a necessary feature. (Future note: it isn’t. Clones of the ride exist perfectly fine without it, I can only assume that it’s part of the horror theme now – planned torture). Hopefully never again.

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Holly’s Wilde Autofahrt

Somewhere else in the trees hides this standard Maurer wild mouse coaster. It had a particularly brutal set of brakes at the end that stopped the car almost instantaneoulsy from high speed, but I was already immune to pain at this point in the day.

We wandered back past Expedition GeForce to see if it had sprung into life. There was activity from staff around the area and noises from the winch house that runs the cable lift hill. No luck yet though, so we found a few other attractions to tide us over.

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Very loosely themed to a TV show (you can see the extent of the detail in this photo), Anubis the Intamin drop tower gave a solid performance.

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In the family area of the park is a well themed boat ride based around the adventures of Tabaluga, a green dragon who also has a TV show. A relaxing little sit down.

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Burg Falkenstein was the complete opposite of relaxing. A ghost train that bordered on the edge of disturbing in some parts, we both ended up at the exit thinking ‘nah… that wasn’t quite for me.’

Expedition GeForce was still down and we had now run out of things to do. A man at the entrance to the queue gave a shrug and couldn’t tell us any useful information.

A tasty sandwich outside Sky Scream tided us over until a show that the park was putting on in this lake arena.

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Jet skis, speed boats, that water jetpack device and a slapstick plot that seemed to openly mock the French – it was entertaining enough. Would rather have been riding the ‘greatest rollercoaster in the world’ though.

So we sat outside that for an age, wishing for something to change. No further hints were given other than perhaps it was a little too cold to run ~8°C for most of the day I believe.

So we sat in the car watching it in relative comfort for an age, wishing for a train to crest the lift hill visible through the trees. It never did.
This was a major spite, my first major spite (from inside a park). One of the main reasons we planned this trip and we simply couldn’t ride it. Is this what the hobby is going to be like?

Day 3






Germany 03/16 – Schwaben Park

2016 marked the beginning of a significant change in my theme park visiting habits. Rather than just fitting them around general travel plans with the other half, this trip with cred buddy Mega-Lite was my very first that was entirely dedicated to visiting multiple parks abroad – nothing else was on the agenda.

This particular area of Germany seemed like a good starting point for the two of us. Home to one of the most highly regarded and major theme parks in Europe as well as 9000-time winner of various greatest steel coaster in the world polls.

Today being a flight day, things began a little more low key. We started in Stuttgart and made our debut on the fabulous Autobahn.

Day 1 – Schwaben Park

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This was a quaint little cred run for an afternoon and a good way to whet our appetite.

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The star attraction dominates the view as you pull into the tiniest of car parks – using the term loosely, some stones in a field.

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Force One

This brightly coloured Zierer has very comfortable trains and is the most significant ride I have encounted by the manufacturer, being more used to their common Tivoli models that are nothing more than filler.

The coaster packs a surprising punch with some decent twists and turns, some particularly low to the ground and almost scraping the grass in a rather thrilling fashion. Because the park is so tiny and there was almost no one else around, we took the opportunity for plenty of laps. It’s a solid entry and justifies a visit to the park a little more than the simple transaction of €20 for a +2.

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Crazy Worm

Talking of Zierer Tivolis, this appears to be one. The track is a slightly newer style but it follows the layout of a Tivoli Small. Still relatively new to the slightly more questionable side of cred hunting, this would have been an opportunity for testing our embarassment as we boarded this childrens coaster, but with still virtually no one around it was all too easy.

Took a wander to see if there was anything else worth our attention.

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Aside from construction sites and goats, we stumbled across one of these marvellous inventions.

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I really enjoyed my last Bobkart so jumped at the opportunity to try another. The rate of acceleration, all controlled by your own two hands still catches me off guard and no one has yet confirmed to me whether these tracks are intelligently built to handle full speed at all times. There’s always that slight apprehension that if you give it max from start to finish, you could just come out of the tube and die and some point. I like it that way.

Great way to kill a couple of hours before the hotel. From all that land and digging I think the park is on the up, will be interesting to see where they go from here.

Day 2


Germany + Denmark 04/16 – Heide Park #2

Djurs was billed to be the final park of the trip, with the last day being a casual trundle back down to Hamburg to drop off the car and head to the airport.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the previous mishap with Heide Park though, it was eating away at me – the fact that I had missed out on 3 of their creds and hadn’t really had enough time as I would have liked with the major coasters. They’ve given us those rainy day tickets to return, I don’t really want to have to come back another time for those more minor details just mentioned. How early would we have to get up to do it now…
4am?
Easy.

The trundle became a hurtle and we were soon back for revenge.

Day 7 – Heide Park

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That looks nicer doesn’t it. Let’s get those other creds first.

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Bobbahn

The Mack bobsled is the best of the three, featuring an unusual layout and quite a hefty pace for the hardware at certain moments. More than one lift hill takes the bobsleigh train, which runs within an open tube of track as opposed to on rails, to where it needs to be. Only it doesn’t seem to know where it wants to be, opting for meandering upwards slopes and scary trips underground in the process.

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Big Loop

This Vekoma looper has a certain endearing quality, but it’s not very good. Two loops, two corkscrews and a corner don’t provide much in the way of entertainment, particularly under the duress of uncomfortable trains and shoulder restraints. Nice to see it interacting with the pathways though.

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Limit

The park has worse to offer in the form of it’s Vekoma SLC though. This version rode notably poorly – always endurance over enjoyment.

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Colossos

With the mission complete I could spend more time getting acquainted with the good(ish) stuff. Had a slightly better time with the woodie knowing where to sit now. Still doesn’t help that helix of doom though.

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Krake

But the B&Ms remain the highlight of the park for me.

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Flug der Dämonen

As one final act of vengeance we got to ride the little boats this time too.

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As quaint as it looks.

I have to praise Heide Park for the efficient German operations. They don’t seem to be bound by any oppressive rules of the wider chain (scrimp and save, operate everything at a minimum) and though I was worried about coming back for less rides with more waits, this sunny Saturday found every major attraction running at full capacity, with no queues being more than 15 minutes.

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Fair play to the customer service team too. This email was found upon my return home and I even received a pair of tickets in the post for the following season. Frame it on the wall.

Here ends a quality trip with a quality park lineup. I’d recommend them all to a greater (Hansa) or lesser (Legoland) extent.