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The Official "TPR In Europe" Ongoing TR Thread.


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Sorry to hear you had an awful time at Gardaland, it looks like it's gone very much downhill since I went last year.

 

I've been saying all along how rubbish the Screamin' Squirrel looks, and I can't say I'm surprised by your comments.

 

I hope you got to ride Fuga D'Atlantide, because the park really put a lot into that ride, and it really impressed me with the airtime it gave at the back. The Intamin drop tower was also really good, especially as it takes your photo while you are dropping.

 

I can't believe I missed out on going to Movie Studios Park! That place looks awesome! Did you get to visit the water park with the ejector slides?

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Great TR again though Gardaland seems really disappointing. We wanted to go there some time this year but I guess we better head north! I really hate unmotivated staff and beeing ripped off (they really should have upgraded your tickets but maybe you were somewhat lucky not having to spend another day in that park though you missed some credits)

 

 

Wether BigMac or Royale or plain Hamburger: it's all the same minced s**t. From the US to India and Europe, the only real choice you have is how much of it you want and what shape... Who can make up a good name that fits all McD products worldwide? My suggestion: McSoylentBrown

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We had the same disappointing experience at Gardaland.

It has some nice parts like the Rapids, the Fuga d'Atlantide and the Blue Tornado. Other parts of the park aren't that great especially the part with the topspin or the medieval part. And the kiddie section is way too much kitsch. :shock:

 

Sequoia is something they wasted their money on and they have put it in a ridiculous place as well.

 

We ended up liking the area around Atlantide and I Corsari was pretty good as well.

Put those rides in Mirabilandia and you have a great park.

 

About Mirabilandia, it is true it offers everything other parks have to offer and only have one or two "special rides". But don't all parks do this? And I think that Mirabilandia does a great job in just offering the "normal stuff".

 

By the way, Sierra Tonante isn't that bad, is it?

We ended up riding it quite some times.

 

Wait until you ride Anaconda at Lorraine then

(although I can appreciate that one...)

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Err robb, did you do Fuga da Atlantide, in gardaland?

 

It's an intamin Shoot the Chute with two drops and a huge theme! Don't tell me you missed it, it is said to be the best attraction in gardaland! Strange you didn't talk about it....

 

 

 

 

 

some more nice photos here:

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By the way, Sierra Tonante isn't that bad, is it?

We ended up riding it quite some times.

 

Believe me its bad, unless they have made it better since I was last there in September last year. Only Rob can confirm that. But at lest its not as bad as VILLAIN at Geauge Lake. Ouch it was the most painful wooden coaster I have ever been on. What it is with you guys in the USA & Wooden coaster there were not very many rerideable wooden coasters in the parks we visited. Michigan's Adventure, Cedar Point, Paramount's Kings Island, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great Adventure. I am a fan of CCI woodies and was very disappointed with villain.

 

How ever I did like Shivering Timbers, Legend, Raven, Twisted Twins, Cornball Express, Hoosier Hurricane very much and had lots of rides on them. Indiana Beach was a big surprise I love that park.

 

 

Nick “Hoping to go back to the usa next year” Collins

 

PS, Just to say Hi to the ride op that recognised us at Cedar Point on the Magnum XL-200.

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^ Nick you should try to do some southern parks if you come back to the US.

 

I could act as somewhat of a guide at Dollywood, Carowinds, or SFoG free of charge!

 

Brian, trying to score brownie points considering I might need a guide for my trip to the UK next year

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So...the awesome Intamin rapids and watercoaster weren't there ?

No, they were there, but just not for us. If you read my trip report again, you'll see that I wrote that we got rained out of the park that night. After the poor customer service experience we had, we decided NOT to give the park any more of our money the next day. Especially after the great time we had at Movie Studios Park, we kind of thought ending our tour of Italy on a good note would be a great idea!

 

We did not have an 'awful' day at Gardaland, it just wasn't that great. Certainly not as good as we thought it was going to be. So 'awful' is not the correct word to use. "Dissapointed" is more like it.

 

Overall, I understand that policies are policies, but when 3 of us in our group have all worked at Guest Relations in a theme park, you also know that you do make acceptions when they are deserved. Between the 6 of us total, we had spent nearly $1000 at the Gardaland resort, spending two nights at the hotel, purchasing a 1 day park admission, and dinner. The park closed most of the attractions after we had been there for 3 hours, and no one wanted to even allow us to purchase the difference between the one day and the two day pass. We couldn't justify another 200 Euros to go back the next day for a couple of coasters and water rides.

 

We missed the Vekoma SLC, the kiddie and the two water rides. Considering that no one in our group are really into water rides (we'll ride them when we can, but we won't go out of our way for them, even if someone says it's the best water ride in the world, it's just not our thing) we didn't feel it was a good value for money to spend yet another 30 Euros each to go on two uninteresting coasters and two water rides.

 

Overall, had Gardaland actually taken care of their guests, our review would have been MUCH different.

 

Movie Studios seems to be a park that knows how to take care of guests, and I hope that park continues to expand in the future, because if they did, based on our experiences, we'd go back there before we'd go back to Gardaland.

 

--Robb "Gardaland was nice, but it really lacked substance and service, IMO." Alvey

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Hmmm, pity about Gardaland. It seemed okay when I went, but that was nearly 10 years ago, and before both Blue Tornado and Fuga d'Atlantide (and obviously Sequoia too). The rest of my family are off to Italy in a couple of weeks though, and were considering taking in Gardaland as they are staying in Como, not too far away, so i'll inform them of the difficulties.

 

You've sure got round the continent quickly though, doesn't seem like over a week ago that I was in Gothenburg! Wish I was still there, but i've got Heide Park etc to look forward to in 9 days' time.

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Sorry to hear that Gardaland lacks customer sevice. The rest of Europe really looks great! BTW, when you go to Parc Astreix, Be sure to tell Dan and Joey NOT to ride Goudrix.

Kevin"If they ride, they will pay "Bujold

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Oh my God!! You were here in Italy and You leave it without say me hallo or invited me???

You are my Family eheheheh i hope when and if you come back in italy you call me ...A day with you guys is for me all...You are the best ... continue so!!!

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Europe Trip Day Sixteen: Credit Whoring at Walibi Rhone-Alpes and Nigloland!

 

Today was our "credit whore" day. Basically, we had a LONG drive from Gardaland and Disneyland Paris and when mapping out the trip we looked at ways to break up the drive.

 

Being that we have Walibi passes, we noticed that, if we routed our journey in such a way, we could almost pass right by two Walibi parks, Rhone-Alpes and Lorraine as well as Nigloland.

 

Credits that help break up a long drive? Sure!!!

 

Everyone had told us that Rhone-Alpes was pretty crappy and that we shouldn't even bother, but we figured since we had to drive right by it, and it was basically free, why not?

 

Well, everyone was right! The place was pretty crappy, but it was also pretty entertaining!

 

All I will say is that you HAVE to download the "Abnormal Boomerang" video! And I really want to know if anyone has EVER seen another Vekoma Boomernag do what this one does! Just download the video and you'll see!

 

The had a Boomerang, a Zamperla Wild Mouse, and a Tivoli kiddie coaster. Yeah...quite a quality selection of coasters, eh?

 

And on top of it, the park itself was pretty sad. Most of the rides looked like they were built out in a field with little thought put into path ways, landscaping, or anything. The lake that runs through the park looked more like a malaria infested swamp. Overall, we spent less than an hour, got our credits, and continued the drive.

 

BUT we did take away from the park the VERY entertaining "Abnormal Boomerang!" Basically, it acted more like a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop! Just watch the video and you'll see.

 

Onto Nigloland!

 

We had about a 4 hour drive in between the two parks and we got to Nigloland with about 3 hours left in their operating day. At first, we thought they might have been closed since absolutely NO ONE was in the rows of parking! Turns out they had a very small lot 'up front' which kind of looked like the "Marketplace Parking" on Grand Avenue at Knott's. And not even all those spaces were full.

 

If we saw 50 other people in the park today, I'd be surprised!

 

Arriving at this park we were expecting another "Let's credit whore our way through this crap hole and get out of here" but what we found was actually a pretty nice park!

 

Let's check out the coaster line up: Powered Mack Mine Train, Schwarzkopf City Jet, Wacky Worm, Indoor Mack Coaster, and....drum roll please....a Pinfari Inverted Coaster....YES! A looping, invcrted Pinfari! Does it get any better than that?

 

Oddly enough...the ride was just fine!!! :shock: If you have been on a Pinfari looping anything, you know how :shock: :shock: :shock: we were when the ride was totally smooth, and we didn't get jolted or bashed ONCE!

 

Did we luck out or is the ride always like this???

 

The rest of the park was very nice. Good landscaping, fun coasters, some good dark rides, well themed flat rides, a few 'interesting' signs (check out the photos) and overall it was really "cute."

 

The indoor Mack coaster was great! It reminded me a LOT of Euro-Sat at Europa Park. It used the same trains, same sprial lift system, and had the same violent, but amazing quality to it!

 

Elissa's favorite ride was the rodent themed 'outdoor dark ride', which I kind of get the feeling was the reason we came to this park in the first place.

 

They also had a haunted house dark ride, which was another one of Europe's "Bench: The Ride" systems. I think it's so funny that people have joked for years about "Bench: The Ride" to the point where I don't even remember the origin, but now that I've seen all these dark rides that litterally have a bench attached to a ride vehicle, I wonder if this is where it started!

 

Anyway, overall we had a great day of credit whoring and finding a little gem in Nigloland!

 

On to some photos and be sure to download that Abnormal Boomerang video!

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BEST. SIGN. EVER!!!!! (this was outside the General Store in the western themed area!)

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Dan loved Bench: The Ride!!! (It actually was a very good dark ride!)

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"Bench: The Ride." What is it with Europe dark rides with them bolting a park bench to a ride vehicle???

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They had a "Dinosaur Walk Thru" attraction. Totally random, and totally weird. We loved it!!! =)

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Yes, we are STILL credit whoring our way around France! =)

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But oddly enough, this ride was completely smooth and almost fun!

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The Pinfari Inverted "Bat Coaster." It just looks like hot death, doesn't it?

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The Rodent Themed Dark Ride is probably the reason Elissa wanted to come here!

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Here is one for you Schwarzkopf fans!

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This looks a lot like the new re-do of Disneyland's Space Mountain...hmm...I wonder if it took Nigloland three years to do this? ;)

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"It's amazing, but I hate it!!!" =)

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Inside this building houses a Mack enclosed coaster similar to Europa's Euro-Sat.

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Nice landscaping and "cute" theming was all over this park.

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"Wait...I'm confused...I thought this park was going to suck??? It actually looks like it has a decent amount of stuff!"

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Nigloalnd ended up being a really nice little park!

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Yes, we are indeed credit whores!!!!

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"Damn, My seat is wet....oh...wait...now I've found a good use for my park map!"

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The French made Dave ride alone.

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Ahh, a Zamperla Wild Mouse....thanks Mark! =)

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This Boomerang is doing something I've never seen any other Boomerang do. Download the video to find out!

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Dan and Dave are doing thier best to stay dry. Luckily the rain didn't last too long.

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"Here we have our Vekoma Boomerang, except that it thinks it's a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop."

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"...on the right we have the milaria infested lake. Swim at your own risk!"

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"Welcome to Walibi Rhone-Alpes....On the left we have random rides ploped down into a field where you need to navigate through nature to get to them...."

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It was cold and raining, so we helped keep Elissa warm with her fantasies of a three-some. Although somehow I get the feeling her fantasy didn't include some fat guy and a jew! :o

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When the entrance to Walibi Rhone-Alpes consisted of a small fence that you couldn't even see and a couple of umbrellas, not even a turnstile, we knew this wasn't going to be a candidate for "best park of the trip!" ;)

abnormalboomerang.zip

"Abnormal Boomerang!" Here is the video of the Boomerang that thinks it's a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop. Has anyone else seen a Vekoma Boomerang that does this???

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Ok, I added the video to the trip report. Check it out.

 

I forgot to mention that what you see in the video clip is NOT a roll back! It was doing this for EVERY ride cycle!!!

 

Enjoy!

 

--Robb

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Thanks for the new update and all the great new photos. Of course I directly downloaded the "Abnormal Boomerang" video and all I can say is:

Okay it isn't that screwed up^^ It isn't really normal either but I didn't found it very special

What do you expect from an old Vekoma it's no real surprise that the brakes don't work properly after a few years

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Robb, as far as the "back up the spike" after the backwards part goes, both Great Escape's Boomerang and Six Flags New England's Flashback have the train come all the way out of the station and up the spike (Great Escape's train didn't come all the way out of the station until about two years ago)...but the thing that I've never seen before is the part you mentioned...how it went back into the boomerang. Usually it goes back onto the spike, then is stopped a few times to get it back into the station normally. It would be cool to sit in the front car of that boomerang, though...almost a 7th inversion!

 

And that Pinfari Inverted coaster looks frightening...it looks to me like an SLC from lower depths of hell!

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Every Boomerang I've ever been on (At least 30 of them) has gone a *little* bit out of the station on the return, maybe 10 feet or so at the most, but this is the first time I've ever seen one go almost all the way back up the back spike, and then back into the boomerang again!

 

At the point that it goes BACK into the station for the very last time is what I'm used to a normal Boomerang doing on the return run.

 

That's why it's different and weird!

 

--Robb

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