Massive Europe Trip Report

[ernierockerWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

Artistico does look insane! I am not a big flat ride person, but that thing looks amazing!

While your opinions on some parks/rides seem to differ from others on this site, you do a great job of explaining why in each case and no one should fault you for being honest! Too often, people get on here, trash a ride/park, but offer no real explanation for what was wrong with it and in the end come off as a whiny complainer.

Really great trip report. Please keep sharing more of your trips with us in the future!

[australianalexA village is missing its IDIOT!]

My only concern about the park is that they do not have anything amazing or breathtaking.

Blue fire begs to differ.
But I understand your opinion, since you were judging the park mainly on coasters. As others said, I'm sure that if you were there on a nice sunny day and took time to try the food offerings and other rides you would've had an amazing time.

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

Day 10: Tripsdrill and Holiday Park

Tripsdrill is a two hour drive from Frankfut, so my plan was getting to Tripsdrill early in the morning and then after lunch drive another hour to Holiday Park. Due to some road work on my way to Tripsdrill, I parked my car at the park sometime around noon.

Tripsdrill, along with Klotten, are the two parks in Germany that are located on a rural area.

I thought Tripsdrill ticket price was a little bit high (24 Euros), specially because the park doesn't have a large number of rides and attractions. At least they have 4 very interesting rides.

The first one is the drop tower. It's more like a frog hopper, with an extra something at the end. I didn't ride it, though, since there were only kids riding it. The second one is the bath tub water ride, Badwanna Sturzfahrt. The boats are themed as bath tubs and at some point you enter an ancient roman bath (or something like that) with half naked women on it and then you travel backwards for a while. That pretty much sums the ride.

I was really looking forward to ride G'sengte Sau, since I had a nice time at Heisse Fahrt. G'sengte Sau's queue area is very nice, with a horse/saddlery theme. Once you get to the station you can see some newspapers hanging on the wall with the story of the guy who skated this coaster on the opening day.

G'sengte Sau and Heisse Fahrt would be pretty much the same if it wasn't for a small detail that makes a lot of difference. G'sengte Sau hits the brake before going throught those airtime hills, while Heisse Fahrt speeds into them.

Mammuth was one of the nice surprises I had on this trip. As I was watching it from the queue area, I thought "what a smooth ride, it barely makes any sound". My thoughts were proven correct when I rode it. What a good coaster! Fast, smooth, nice turns and banks. It made me think it was a pre-fabricated track, or even a grape flavored fruit chew structure. It's kinda funny that 2 of the best wooden coaster in Europe (Mammuth and El Toro) are "hidden" in small parks.

I also rode the zierer coaster, but that was only for credit whoring reaons.

One last thing I should mention about Tripsdrill is that they sell the best park souvenirs in the whole Europe. I could find pens, lighters, keychans, stickers and even a puzzle with Mammuth on it.

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Holiday Park


I left Tripsdrill around 14:00 and Holiday Park was a 1 hour drive from there. At first I was worried that I would not have the time to visit Holiday Park properly, but as I got to the park I realized there were not much to see.

Holiday Park's entrance is going throught some changes, since the park was bought by Plopsa. All the stores and restaurants at the entrance plaza were under some kind of work. There were only one store open, the Plopsa Store.

Holiday Park's layout is a little bit odd. Expedition Geforce is isolated in the middle of the woods, and the rear part of the park, with the star flyer and the water boats was deserted.

I was suuuuuper looking forward to ride Expedition Geforce, since the reviews are so great. I was expecting El Toro + Nitro + Magnum + Phantom's Revenge + Superman/Bizarro all on the same ride. And well, it was not even close. The first drop is really good, but that's about it. I rode it again and again, first row, back row... But it was just a good coaster.

Holiday Park has a Condor ride. It is nice to see that there are still a few of them in the world. I got to see 3 of them in Europe (Holiday Park, Geiselwind and Slagharen). There's a condor here in South America at Fantasilandia (Chile). The funny thing is that in Chile they use a super fast program, with the cars spinning like crazy, making it a thrill ride while in Europe all the Condors have a slower program, more suitable for kids and families.

Holiday Park also has a Super Wirbel Coaster just like the one at Beto Carrero (Star Mountain). While I was riding it, Super Wirbel stopped on the lift hill and started to roll back slowly, when it suddenly hit the anti-rollback system. At least now I know how those anti-rollback systems work. The ride itself is not that bad, but it is really bumpy.

Holly's Wilde Autofahrt is actually cute, and the park has a lot of cute flat rides as well. My overall impression was that Holiday Park was more like a small park, such as Geiselwind, Slagharen, Plohn, etc, with one of Europe's best rollercoaster.

Anubis, Europe's first free fall drop tower.

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Expedition Geforce, hidden in the woods

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

Expedition GeForce varies wildly depending on the weather - the most amazing rides are generally delivered during the summer on a hot, sunny, wind-less day... It is often reported not to be running so well at the start of the season. If you're ever nearby when it's 21 degrees C plus, don't let your first experience put you off from a re-visit!

[AstroDanI teach at the school of donkey!]

Great reviews.

I think with re: EP, it's not a park with massive, "rip your face off" coasters like you would find at a Cedar Fair or Six Flasga park. It is far more an experience; a family park.

1 day in the park is not enough to experience it properly. Spending time there with the shows, smaller rides and hotels add up to make it one of the best parks in the world.

For sheer, raw, coasters - clearly, it is nowhere near the best. There are many better parks in Europe for that (Mirabilandia, Heide Park, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park etc.).

[vuurvogelDonkeys are my way of life!]

Expedition GeForce varies wildly depending on the weather - the most amazing rides are generally delivered during the summer on a hot, sunny, wind-less day... It is often reported not to be running so well at the start of the season. If you're ever nearby when it's 21 degrees C plus, don't let your first experience put you off from a re-visit!

I completely agree, Expedition GeForce is very temperamental. The first time I rode it I thought mehh, I know better coasters. But that was in the morning with temperatures just over 15 degrees C. Then I rode it again in the afternoon with temperatures over 20 degrees and the coaster warmed up by the many ride cycles of that day. Wow, it then feels like a whole different coaster.

To bad you rode it on a cold day, it then does not live up to its hype.

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

Day 11: Freizeitland Geiselwind and Freizeipark Plohn


That was one of the crazyest days of the trip.

I left Frankfurt at 8:30am and drove 171km (about 2 hours) to Geiselwind. I entered the park right after the gates were open (10:15am), so there were just a few people there.

Geiselwind is one of those parks that you have just a few information about it. It barely appears on the industry news or websites, but it is a park that is worth a visit. It's not a theme park, even thought it has some kind of dinosaur theme/rides. It's more like an amusement park, with a zoo.

The rides are pretty much standard: kiddie rides, a wild mouse coaster, a boomerang coaster, a drop tower, observation tower, pirate ship, powered coaster and of course, the boat jump! It reminded me a lot of Fantasilandia (Chile).

The boomerang coaster is an average boomerang. It's not as bad as the one in Argentina, but it's nearly as good as The Speed Of Sound. The wild mouse seems to be a traveling coaster that Geiselwind rented for one or more seasons. In fact, their wildwasser ride gave me the same impression. Does anyone know anything about those rides?

Drehgondelbahn, the spinning coaster made by Zierer, is a little bit different from the other spinning coasters. It's one of the dinosaur-themed rides at the park, and has a fun small drop inside the "dinosaur cave".

The drop tower is actually pretty good, probably the best one I've found on small parks around the world.

Geiselwind is a cute small park. It's woth a visit, for sure. Had it been built in South/Central America, it would be one of the best parks here.

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This dino train takes passengers all the way to the zoo

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Really odd theme

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56m shoot and drop tower!

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Boat jump!

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Bad A$$ birds

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Freizeitpark Plohn


I left Geiselwind around noon and drove another 212km to Freizeitpark Plohn.

Plohn is another park that you don't hear a lot about it, since it's almost on the Czech Republic. It's one of those small parks with an incredible rollercoaster. I think the word that better describes Plohn is "weird".

Plohn was built on an area that looks like a national park. The layout is very, very confusing, since there are rides everywhere, most of them hidden by the trees. It's divided in a lot of areas, some of them very nice, some of them creepy as hell.

The park has 4 coasters and a few flat rides. It also has an "enchanted forrest" attempt that looks nothing like Efteling's. And when you think it's over, you discover that they have a swamp area with a small free fall ride and a dinosaur/swamp ride that looks like "Malaria: the ride".

Silver Mine is just ok, but Plohseidon is actually a nice junior coaster. But let's talk about El Toro! El Toro is great! It's fast, with a lot of unexpected turns and hills. It's not better than Joris, but it's definitely better than Troy and Wodan. And when I was leaving El Toro, I saw a newspaper hanging on the photo booth with Robb on it! Awesome! haha


I left the park at 17:30 and drove another 511km (5 hour drive) to Hamburg, my last stop on this trip. In case you didn't keep track of the numbers, this day alone I drove about 900km (550miles) just to ride rollercoasters!

The park is really weird, starting by it's entrance

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On the first level, you find a "lake" with paddleboats, this Buddha and a "surf" ride that looks creepier than the ones in Brazil

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That's the "surf" ride

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On the second level, you find most of the rides

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Plohseidon!

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El Toro!

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Look what/who I found!

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Silver Mine

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They also have an indoor western show

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On the third level, there are some playground rides and a family coaster

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The fourth level is some kind of enchanted forrest

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But it's more creepy than enchanted

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Last, but not least, Malaria Land

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Malaria, The Ride

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[simon8899If the donkey is rockin, don't come knockin!]

You must be very late in Hamburg if you started at Plohn 1730. Did you had a fast car making a spin on our Autobahn?

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

You must be very late in Hamburg if you started at Plohn 1730. Did you had a fast car making a spin on our Autobahn?

No, I had a Fiat Panda that barely made 160km/h. In fact I got to Hamburg around 22:30, not bad considering all the road work and traffic jam around Heide-Park. Seriously, why do they close the roads like that?

[simon8899If the donkey is rockin, don't come knockin!]

Many Autobahnen are expanded from 2 to 3 lines per direction - especially on Autobahn 1 - and its horrible at times. The fun begins while overtaking on the narrowed left line...