The Official "TPR In Europe" Ongoing TR Thread.

Youtube · by **robbalvey** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:05 pm

Europe Trip Update!!!

Hey everyone! Sorry there was no update yesterday as our hotel did not have internet access. We are at the Hotel Phantasia now, which is VERY nice BTW, much like a Disney resort, and they DO have internet! Yay!

But since it is already very late (we were in the bar with Soren trying to hook Dan and Joey up with some hot chicks) and I have three parks to do updates on, they will be brief.

So here goes:

Day Nine: Heide Park

Heide Park is awesome. I never understood why the ACErs didn't like this park during our visit in 2002. But we love Heide for many of the same reasons we love Epcot. It's beautiful, relaxing, and although only has a few signature attractions, they are ALL great. Well, maybe except for the SLC!

Here are a few notes about our day:

- Heide is probably the best landscaped park in the world. Seriously, this place craps all over Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but for some reason never gets the recognition. I can't even imagine how much it must cost to keep this place looking as awesome as it does.

- Colossos still runs GREAT after 5 seasons. There is a *little* roughness where you can feel the track joints duing some of the ride, but 90% of it is glass smooth. I can't imagine a park wanting any other manufactuerer to build their wooden coaster after seeing the quality of this ride. It's not quite as good as Balder, but by the end of our day, it was producing MASSIVE airtime, and it's smooth as can be.

- We got a credit!!!! Limit, the park's Vekoma SLC was closed during our 2002 visit. We got that credit today! Yay!!! :lol:

- Slides of death. This park has the best slides of death collection. They are everywhere. And the ones with rollers on them give you extra extra speed!

- Scream! It was cool to see that one of the park's two observation towers has been convertered into an Intamin Gyro Drop. This one was just as good as PKI.

- Other random stuff - It was cool to meet up with more members of the board including Soren and his brother, Sebastian and his girlfriend. Great meeting up with all of you!

Now onto some photos!

by **Kroger8** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:12 pm

GREAT TR, as usual, Heide is a really well landscaped park from the pics, but the land around Colossos is very baren, still looks like a very AWESOME park, wish i was on that trip, have a great rest-of-the-trip!

Youtube · by **robbalvey** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:15 pm

Yes, the area around Colossos is the ONLY area of the park that is like that. It does seem as though the area was cleared, perhaps to build that coaster that was rumored, but never built?

The rest of the park is awesome, though.

--Robb

Youtube · by **robbalvey** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:48 pm

Day Ten Part One: Movie Park Germany

Originally we were told that it would not be possible to do these two parks in one day. I'm happy to report that we were not given correct information. Had Movie Park been packed, that might have been the case, but since there were minimal crowds there, with the longest line we waited in was about 15 minutes for the Wild Mouse, it was very easy to do both parks in one day.

Here are some notes about Movie Park:

- Nicer than we were led to believe. The park itself was nice looking, although the ride selection leaves a lot to be desired.

- The Coasters:

- Bandit (Wild Wild West) is one of the roughest coasters I've ever been on. This is a Cyclone clone that is a LOT rougher than Psyclone! :shock: But then when you get the SoB team together (RCCA Ride with Premiere Trains) what do you expect?

- FX or whatever they are calling Eraser now: Typical SLC. Pretty rough one too.

- Cop Car Chase (Lethal Weapon): What a GREAT ride!!! We had no idea! We were preparing for something really terrible, but this ride was really fun! It was very smooth, and most of it is inside the building including the vertical loop. We were told that the ride used to have some great effects, which none of them apparently work now, but still this ride was the best in the park.

- Drop Tower (Acrophobia clone): I forget what this was called, but it's the same as SFOG's Acrophobia, but this one actually turns and tilts like it's supposed to!

Overall, we had a fun day. We met up with a lot of people from www.onride.de and we want to say thanks for showing us around. We feel that Onride.de is a lot like the German version of TPR, you guys like to have fun at parks instead of geeking out too much! :wink:

Onto today's photos!

by **thunder001** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:57 pm

WOW...Movie Parks main street is Identitical to Movie World in Oz. You would have thought that they would have made them a little different between the parks.

Nice pictures as allways Robb, look forward to the rest of the trip reports, although I have a quick question. The SLC at movie park, does it have a helix style loop at the end of the ride or straight into the station?

Wayne "Wondering if the SLC's are the same too!" Currie

Youtube · by **robbalvey** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:03 pm

Day Ten Part Two: Toverland

Toverland: We had no idea what to make of this place. All we knew is that it was kind of like Camp Snoopy at Mall of America with most of the rides inside, but a few of them outdoors also.

This place was so much fun and for several reasons:

- Booster Bike was actually really cool!
- The Survival Course was INSANE!!!
- Lots of indoor rides.
- Really nice, fun place for families.

Yeah, the Booster Bike was actually a lot of fun! It's kind of like a launched Roller Skater with cool trains. We thought this would be really rough, and it does rattle a bit, but it's not uncomfortable at all. I really think Vekoma should stick to making rides without OTSR's! The launch was just 'fun' not intense, but really fun! It was one of those rides where EVERYONE on the train just seemed to throw their hands up and have a good time. That's a sign of a great ride, IMO!

Then some of us tried out the ultimate in the "never allowed in America" category - The Survival Course! This looked just like something you'd see on either Survivor or Fear Factor. If Universal wants a REAL "Fear Factor Live" attraction, they should really look into this. Basically, you are about 25 feet up in the air, the entire time walking a 'tight rope' around the whole course going though different obstacles. Only your safey rope and a helment keep you from meeting the ground in a not-so-happy fashion. This is NOT for the out of shape (which shocks me that Joey did this!!!)

We really had a good time at Toverland. They had two decent coasters, even though they were of a smaller size, the slides were fun, the survival course was fun and this place is just more proof that you don't need the world's tallest and fastest coaster to have an amazing time with a group of friends.

Onto today's photos!

by **Wishmaster** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:18 pm

^^ No, Movie Park Germany has got a normal SLC.

by **Shadowforce** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:25 pm

Ahhh, these reports are great. I really like the Survival Course. But just one thing to ponder, if it is indeed a "Survival Course", doesn't that imply that dying is somehow possible? :twisted:

Otherwise it'd just be an obstacle course, no?

by **CoasterFanatic** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:33 pm

I thought we were the only country that was evil enough to put Premier trains on a woodie. I stand corrected :twisted:

Have a Bitburger for me!

by **Ras** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:34 pm

yeah i agree..they are really awesome!!

^and yeah shadow, you got a good point there

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