Chuck's Oktoberfest & More Trip Report

[The Great ZoBonafide Donkey Expert]

The world's #1 park to just get lost in. And if you go hungry at Europa, you're doing something wrong. Can't wait to get back there sometime!

Did you enjoy the comfy seats on the new kiddie coaster?

Great report as usual! You can never have enough Angry Corn.

I think the benches/theming in the queue of the observation tower basically sums up how great Europa is. What other park would do that?

[NrthwndBAYSIDE STATION!!!]

~ Raclette Is Nirvana ~

[JimmyBoMr. October]

Amazing Report Chuck! I loved how you had the amazing theme music in the beginning because I turned that on and then read the report. I'm really bummed I haven't had the chance to experience this wonderfully themed park but hopefully whenever I make it out there, it will still be as awesome as it has looked in the past several years and won't go down a crappy rabbit hole like some Cedar Fair Parks *cough* Knott's *cough*.

Jimmy "I've always loved the Chuck photo captions" Bo

^Thanks, Jimmy--you definitely need to see Europa!

Great report as usual! You can never have enough Angry Corn.

I think the benches/theming in the queue of the observation tower basically sums up how great Europa is. What other park would do that?

Yep--no one outside of Disney or perhaps Universal.

[ObeyTheShihTzu!Which came first the turtle or the donkey?]

Part 4: Fall at Europa Park
...........................
This holiday isn’t as big a deal in Europe as it is in the United States; Phantasialand, for example, doesn’t recognize it at all. Europa, however, has embraced All Hallows Eve and puts on its own haunt, complete with scare zones and mazes. This year’s version is Traumatica, a post-apocalyptic story in which five factions are fighting for dominion over the Earth:

Shadows (vampires who rule the world)
Ghouls (reject vampires who feast on the dead and work for the Shadows)
The Pack (werewolf bikers who work for the Shadows)
The Fallen (insane human beings who want to be Shadows themselves)
The Resistance (humans fighting for their piece of the world)

OMG. Are you sure this story wasn't patterned after our administration in Wash. DC?! (Thank goodness for The Resistance faction.)

Great report as always, Chuck. I miss Europa Park -- and I've never BEEN there! So many needs....so little time....

Alice

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

Excellent report! Had me laughing all the way through. Really glad the group took the time for Neuschwanstein; visiting a European castle or palace is always an unforgettable experience (been to Versailles and Wawel in Krakow myself). Your connection to the King Ludwig story seems to have made it special for you.

Part 5: Expedition GeForce with a Side of Taron

It was a fairly long haul from Europa Park to Phantasialand, but we had a good place for a rest stop: Holiday Park, where we had ERT on Sky Scream (a Premier “Sky Rocket II”) and Expedition GeForce (an Intamin legend in its own time). They even cooked dinner for us, which was particularly noteworthy because the park wasn’t open that day.

Yes, we literally had the place to ourselves. As for GeForce, it was running as great as ever, with crazy ejector air and outrageous speed; in other words, it was running like GeForce. This is noteworthy because the ride didn’t even have a chance to “warm up” before we got there.

What a great evening! My thanks to the folks at Holiday Park, and Robb and Elissa, for setting all this up. Next stop, Phantasialand--and Taron.

[NrthwndBAYSIDE STATION!!!]

Mmmmmm. Still have good good memories of the park and GeForce...and my first ever StarFlyer!
They fed us too, back in 2008! With beer as well, I remember. I loved Germany.

And Sky Scream looks awesome. What a replacement for Super Wirbel, LOL!

Great TR, Chuck! On, to Phantasialand!

In the rocky walls and rustic village of Klugheim, Phantasialand has built a themed environment to match the best work of Disney and Universal. The detail in the buildings, rocks, and landscaping is impressive and provides an excellent setting for Klugheim’s two coasters: Taron (a launched Intamin) and Raik (a Vekoma “Family Boomerang” that runs inside Taron). I have only two very minor complaints about Klugheim: 1) It might be bit too intricate (that is, finding your way from Taron to Raik is a bit of challenge as you wander up and down a variety of paths between the two coasters) and 2) I’m not entirely sure what the “back story” of this new section is. That being said, it looks great.

As for Taron, I liked it quite a bit. There are two nice pops of ejector air, and a bit of floater air before you hit the final brakes, and the launches are fun. Like Black Mamba (the park’s B&M invert), Taron is much enhanced by its beautiful setting. However, it’s not on the same level as Cedar Point’s Maverick (which is in my top five); I also prefer Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa to Taron. But the Phantasialand ride is a cut above Alton Towers’ Rita and Heide Park’s Desert Race, when it comes to Intamin launched coasters. Our hotel-guest ERT session that evening was fun, too.

As for Raik, it’s a nice family shuttle, but nothing special--aside from its setting. But it is a bit disorienting when you see it running backward as you zip forward on Taron (a great “what the hell?” moment).

So, let’s have a look at Taron and a bit more of Phantasialand (especially Hollywood Tour, a ride that I find hilarious). My photos of Taron aren’t perfect thanks to 1) my middling skills as photographer, 2) the speed at which the trains move, and 3) the gray, rainy weather.