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Germany/Netherlands Summer 2010 |
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Written by Jason & Janessa
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Friday, 18 June 2010 00:00 |
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Coaster Community visits Europe
Since I hate actually writing trip reports I'll keep this one short and hit the highlights. We started our adventure in the Netherlands at Toverland. We got there right at opening on a Tuesday morning and we had just gotten off of a plane 2 hours earlier. The park was great and it had several rides that we liked but jetlag held us back. We never waited more than 10 minutes for any ride and that was with several school groups in the park. Troy was the stand out ride but we have yet to find a GCI that isn't. Booster Bike was a new experience for us and a good one. The obstacle course ended our day. We both got hurt and we both blame the jetlag. Rest up before attempting.
Here's a couple of photos from our day and a link to the gallery
After a couple of days of sightseeing and beer drinking we found ourselves at Phantasialand. This park was several notches above most with regards to theming. The only stand out ride was Black Mamba and it was easily a top 5 B&M invert for us. The extreme theming added a lot to the ride experience. Mystery Castle was a cool ride. It was a launched tower ride made by Intamin that bounced like an S&S Space Shot. All of the lines were really short. Never waited more than 5 minutes for anything.
Some sweet photos and a link to the gallery
This next park was a total surprise. We were visiting the small town of Cochem and while touring the castle we saw one coaster on the top of a hill across the valley. We found a chair lift that got us to the top of that hill and then had to hike another mile or so up to get to the park. Wild- und Freizeitpark was one of the wackiest parks we'd ever seen. It's definitely a kid park but adults were able to partake in most activities. There was only one coaster, a Gerstlauer bobsled coaster. I actually prefer these to the spinners that they've been installing in the US. Janessa took a ride on their boat jump. It was basically an old school metal playground slide with a ramp at the end. You ride a boat down it and launch into a catch pool. The coaster at this park gave us our longest wait of the trip to this point. 15 minutes. We couldn't stay long because we had a boat to catch and a long hike back to the chair lift.
Photos and a link to the gallery
A few days later we popped into Holiday Park. Since Expedition GeForce was down we made quick work of this place. The lack of even a small crowd made this even easier. The highlight was their Star Flyer at the back of the park. It's not the tallest version but at 262 feet it's difficult to keep from ruining a perfectly good pair of trousers. I hope that these eventually make their way to the US. Because of bad weather that day I didn't take any photos.
Europa Park was the crown jewel of Germany parks. It's close to being on par with a Disney park but it has big ass coasters. It was also really busy. The two big coasters Silver Star and Blue Fire Megacoaster were both approximately 45 minute waits. The rest of the waits varied from 20 to 45 minutes. They were also two of the best rides from the trip. Silver Star had a lot of strong positive g's and plenty of air. The trims weren't an issue. Blue Fire is one of my favorite launch coasters. The lapbar setup can't be beat and makes inversions a lot more interesting. Maverick would destroy most launch coasters if it had these restraints. The food was good and beer was easily accessible. The park would rank in our top 5 if we bothered ranking parks.
A couple of choice shots and a link to the park gallery
Another surprise was the Alpine Coaster in Todtnau, which is located in the Black Forrest. It's an expensive ride but well worth it in my opinion. You take a ski lift to the top of the mountain, strap into a one person car and then haul ass back down. There's several small air hills along with wicked turns. During our first trip down we hit some traffic and had to tap the brakes. Because of this we paid for a 2nd ride and went top speed the whole way down. No brakes at all. This was one of our most memorable coaster experience and we will be seeking them out wherever we go in the future.
Our final park experience was Tripsdrill, which was another cute kid park. This one included a lot more big kid rides though. The theming was pretty extensive and their wood coaster was solid. I'm pretty sure that it runs on poly wheels. It was quiet and very smooth. It also had a 30 minute wait. They also had a Gerstlauer bobsled coaster with a lot of theming.
Photos and a link to the park gallery
We enjoyed every park that we went to. They all had at least one ride that we really like and others that were fun. Most had a dark ride of some sort and even included bonus nudity. The food was good everywhere that we went and the beer was cheaper than water in some cases. Our only other international experience was Japan and we were consistently underwhelmed by the rides and parks there. Germany was the exact opposite.
Here's a link to the photos from the rest of the trip http://picasaweb.google.com/hnosaj/Germany
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