Massive Europe Trip Report

[MrenataShe turned me into a donkey! I got better...]

Hi everyone!

Most of you probably don't know me, but I'm from Brazil (the far far away land) and I'm a huge coaster enthusiast. I usually travel the world to ride coasters, and this year I decided to do something crazy: Go to Europe by myself, rent a car in Amsterdam and drive 5800km (aprox 3600 miles) and visit 20 parks and 4 kermis in 14 days!

Did I make it? Yes, I did, and it was amazing. I used old TPR trip reports as a guide to witch parks to visit, and ended up visiting the following: Amsterdam Dungeon, Movie Park Germany, Plopsa Indoor Hasselt, Walibi Belgium, Efteling, Walibi Holland, Wunderland Kalkar, Toverland, Bobbejaanland, Phantasialand, Klotten, Europa-Park, Tripsdrill, Holiday-Park, Hamburg Dungeon, Hansa Park, Heide Park, Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen. And I also visit 4 kermis: Amsterdam Ordorp, Aachen Ocher Bend, Frankfurt Dippemess and Hamburg DOM.

Day 1: Amsterdam Dungeon and Amsterdam Osdorp

Day 2: Movie Park Germany

Day 3: Plopsa Indoor Hasselt and Walibi Belgium

Day 4: Efteling

Day 5: Walibi Holland and Wunderland Kalkar

Day 6: Toverland and Bobbejaanland

Day 7: Phantasialand and Aachen Ocher Bend

Day 8: Wild und Freizeitpark Klotten and Frankfurt Dippemess

Day 9: Europa-Park

Day 10: Tripsdrill and Holiday Park

Day 11: Freizeitland Geiselwind and Freizeipark Plohn

Day 12: Hamburg Dungeon and Hansa Park

Day 13: Heide Park and Hamburg DOM

Day 14: Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen




Day 1: Amsterdam Dungeons and Amsterdam Osdorp

My plane landed in Amsterdam at 13:30 and I drove directly to the Dungeon, as my english tour was scheduled to begin at 15:30. Driving and parking in Amsterdam was actually pretty easy, considering that everyone rides a bike. The tour started on time, and I had no idea of what to expect. The only thing I knew was that they had a credit (a Mack coaster) at the end. The whole tour was pretty good, I was really frighted at some points, but the coaster was a little bit disapointing. It's too short, and doesn't do anything different. At least I got a credit.

I left the Dungeon and drove to Osdorp, where there was a small kermis going on. They only had a few rides, and It was raining, but I got some good pictures.

Amsterdam Dungeon

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Amsterdam Dungeon's restrooms

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Amsterdam Osdorp

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Spinning Coaster!

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Booster

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Boobytrap

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You read it right: BOOBYtrap!

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Day 2: Movie Park Germany


Lesson number one: Season Passes can save you a lot of money!

So, the first thing I did when I arrived at Movie Park was to purchase my season pass. Not only I could enter for free in ALL Parques Reunidos' parks in Europe with the season pass, but I would also receive a 50% discount on Efteling, Holiday Park, all the Plopsas, Slagharen, Toverland and Walibi Holland. All for just 89 Euros!

Movei Park is really cute. That's the word. Cute. Like a small, less crowded Universal Studios.

First I headed to the "kiddies" area of the park and rode the small coasters. Everything is really well themed there, one of the cutest kiddies areas I visited in the whole world. Then I headed to the other side of the park, the one that locates Van Helsing's Factory (that I discovered later, was the least fun Gerstlauer bobsled in Europe), MP Express and Bandit.

Bandit is a RCCA coaster, the same company that built Montezum at Hopi Hari (the worst woden coaster I've ever ridden), so I was expecting nothing but pain. But against all odds, Bandit was really good, wasn't bumpy at all and had some decent air times.

The last coaster of the day was MP Express.

Well, I live in South America, and we have 3 SLCs here: Raptor, the one at Fantasilandia, amazing for a SLC, really smooth. The one at Parque de La Costa (El Desafio) is the second worst SLC ever buit, and Firewhip, at BCW, is for sure a creation of the devil. So I had no idea if MP Express was more like Raptor, or more like Firewhip. Thank god, it was better than Raptor, and I can say now, after 7 SLCs, that MP Express is probably the best SLC ever built.

Cute Movie Park

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Kiddies area

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Ghost Chasers (Mack - Wild Mouse) - Doesn't it look like Goofy's Sky School?

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Cute water ride

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Another really cute and well themed water ride

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Atomic Flyer (Vekoma's SF coaster)

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The rip your nuts off drop tower wasn't open :-(

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Bandit (A really decent RCCA coaster)

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MP Express: Bad theming, good ride!

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Have you ever noticed all the information about the coaster on that sign?

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Disk'O

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Santa Monica Pier area of the park

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It is really themed after Santa Monica Pier

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[larrygatorObsessive Overlord of the TPR Park Index]

I'm very much looking forward to a South American's view of the European parks, especially Wunderland Kalkur, a park we don't see very often.

[MrenataShe turned me into a donkey! I got better...]

Day 3: Plopsa Indoor Hasselt and Walibi Belgium

Plopsa Indoor Hasselt is the second smallest park of the Plopsa Company (the smallest one is Plopsa Indoor Coevorden, but I'll get to that one later). It's a mostly indoor park in Hasselt, Belgium, and even though it is made for kids age 1-10, adults can have a lot of fun there too.

Plopsa Indoor Hasselt

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Rides for kids that adults can enjoy as well

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Slides! You gotta love slides!

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Outdoor area

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Credit spotted!

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Zierer really knows how to build a junior coaster!

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[MrenataShe turned me into a donkey! I got better...]

The first thing I thought when I entered Walibi Belgium was "OMG, I'm at Six Flags". In a good way. Both Walibi Parks made me feel like I was in the US for a second.

As soon as this wierd/coll feeling left my body, I started exploring the park. I thought I could start my day with a SLC, but Vampire was not open. First I thought it was down just for maintenance work, but as I could see from the top of Loup Garou, Vampire looked like it has been down for a while. A few days later, I was told that Walibi was replacing the old trains for new ones.

Since Vampire was down, it was time to ride Loup-Garou, a Vekoma woden coaster that was really nice. The next ride was Calamity mine, a very, very cool Vekoma mine train with 2 lifts, one right next to the other, looking like a racer coaster at some points. The whole "wild west" area is really well themed.

I walked around a little bit, and then I saw Turbine. I've only ridden 2 Shuttle Loops in my life, the one at Hopi Hari and the one at Gold Reef City. The one at Knotts is always down, and I already knew Turbine was going to get a makeover for 2013. I'm glad, I really like the Shuttle Loops.

As I walked by, I noticed the signs anouncing that " The Legend is Back" and a lot of people taking pictures. My french is not that fluent, but for what I could hear, Turbine is/was the most popular ride at Walibi, and people are really looking forward to its return. The funny thing is that they still call it Sirocco.

The last ride of the day was Cobra, a Vekoma Boomerang just like the ones we have here in South America. The one at Fantasilandia is ok, the one at Parque de La Costa was terrible, and the one at Playcenter (that is now going to Costa Rica) was really smooth. Cobra was smooth, even thought it still had the old Vekoma restraints.

I really, really liked Walibi Belgium. They do not have amazing rides, but they have all the good ones a park need in order to it's visitors have a blast.

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Loup-Garou

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Vampire looks like it hasn't been running for a while

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Calamity Mine

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How cool is that?

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Two lifts!

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Cobra

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[XYZA village is missing its IDIOT!]

Amazing trip reports, I really like how you put your opinion in the rides, I hate trip reports where people say "This is a picture of [insert ride name]!" but they never said how they enjoyed the ride or didn't enjoy it.

[robinschroderWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

Definitely looking forward to the next installments of your report!

[MeteornotesKeeper Of The Carnivorous Bees!]

Really good report. Looking forward to more!

dt

[larrygatorObsessive Overlord of the TPR Park Index]

I really, really liked Walibi Belgium. They do not have amazing rides, but they have all the good ones a park need in order to it's visitors have a blast.

That is a little surprising, Walibi Belgium is one of my least favorite parks in Europe. I know a lot of people on the TPR trip did not like the park.

[The BebesDonkeys are my way of life!]

I decided to do something crazy: Go to Europe by myself, rent a car in Amsterdam and drive 5800km (aprox 3600 miles) and visit 20 parks and 4 kermis in 14 days!

Mr. Bebe is seriously impressed!!!!!!! Looking forward to the rest of your reports. Keep it up!!!!

[BDGFavorite element on SkyRush is the Stengel Dive!]

Good stuff. Looking forward to more.