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Photo TR: Eric's European Theme Park Journey


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Our last day in Germany our tour visited another beautifully themed park, Phantasialand. The park featured a very whimsical theme. The coasters were all great and this place had a lot of charm. We stayed on property at the amazingly beautiful African themed hotel, Matamba. Along with Europa Park, both of these 2 parks have moved dangerously close to DisneySEA as being two of my all time favorite parks! First up, Hotel Matamba!

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Our hotel during our stay, Matamba at Pantasialand.

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The detailing of the hotel was fantastic.

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Hotel lobby.

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Looking down into the lobby.

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Looking up.

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Inside Fran and my room.

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Our roller coaster lover's dream view from our room!

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My awesome bed.

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Except for this.

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A closer look. Since I don't like snakes, I'm glad I didn't notice this till the next morning. But actually this shows how much detailing was put into creating this hotel.

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The second bedroom.

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More of the outside of the hotel.

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Coming up, our day at Phantasialand. Stay tuned!

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Wooooooooow...

 

Best coverage of Hotel Matamba I´ve seen so far. GREAT DONE !

 

George"I wish I could have met you too at the Europa trip since we seem to have EXACLY the same taste...including the love for Blue Fire" T.

 

(Wow...that was long... )

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I'm a Blue Fire buddy also. I loved Blue Fire

 

Glad you posted the room pictures from Hotel Matamba. I was just thinking about that room the other day and couldn't remember where my roommate slept. I knew I had the big bed and my rememberance was that there was not another bed in the room. Then you reminded me of the cave room.

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Our last day in Germany our tour visited another beautifully themed park, Phantasialand. The park featured a very whimsical theme. The coasters were all great. Had great ERT on Black Mamba and Winjas. All I can say about these 2 coasters is wow! I loved all the unique elements of WInjas, a definite favorite of mine.And Black Mamba, loved the way it interacted with it's surroundings! Onto the photos!

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On our way back to ERT for Black Mamba.

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The African section of the park, like our hotel, Matamba was well done.

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Almost to Black Mamba!

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Andrew was happy to ride Black Mamba.

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During ERT on Black Mamba.

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What a fantastic ride!

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The other gorgeous on-property hotel, Ling Bao.

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Ling Bao hotel.

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Amazing details!

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Ling Bao borders the Chinatown section of the park,

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Inside Chinatown.

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More of Chinatown.

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Inside this building featured another cool Madhouse attraction.

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A whimsical area of the park, Wuze Town.

Edited by live2tell75
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Phantasialand cont.

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Inside Wuze Town.

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Home to the unique coasters, Winjas: Fear and Force!

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Winjas got a thumbs up from Alfredo and Andrew.

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More whimsical theming of Wuze Town.

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The southwest section featured a very good mine dark ride.

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Colorado Adventure (aka Michael Jackson Thrill Ride) was a fun mine train coaster.

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The dueling log flumes!

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I LOVED Talocan! It was a pretty intense top spin!

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The park had an old wacky shack type attraction.

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I forgot how these attractions really mess with your equilibrium!

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Cont.

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Mystery Castle looms in the background.

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I loved Mystery Castle, a indoor highly themed drop ride.

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The queue for Mystery Castle traveled through rooms featuring scenes like this one.

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River Quest was a different kind of themed river rapids ride.

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Alfredo and I on River Quest.

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The girls came prepared.

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River Quest featured lots of really cool elements not found on to many rapids rides.

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The splash battle boat ride.

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We didn't really battle anyone, so we had our own splash battle on our side of the boat.

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I see you hiding Spaceship Earth wannabe!

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Favorite area of the park, Old Berlin.

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This area of the park had a lot of charm.

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Loved that the park had costumed people wandering the streets.

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Absolutely gorgeous!

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The group enjoyed the cooling fountains,

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More of Old Berlin - kind of freaky how washed out this photo is, its like the end of the street just vanishes!

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More of Old Berlin.

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I don't usually go gaga for carousels, but this took the cake! That's it for this update. Next up our last park day on the trip. =( Stay Tuned!

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Did the headless lady in Mystery Castle jump out and chase people around the room? Scared me!

 

No! We walked through the room pretty fast - I thought it was just a statue! After looking through other people's photos I now know see that she was indeed a live person! I'm like you, if that had happened to me, I would freaked out!

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Our Europe tour closed with our last park day at Efteling in The Netherlands. Like the other European parks, Efteling was beautiful. The place was huge, lots of unique dark rides, coasters and atmosphere. We had ERT on the park's latest attraction, Joris en da Draak - dueling wooden coasters that had just opened a week before. I enjoyed both sides of the wooden coasters. Since they were new, they were very smooth, which is my kind of ride! The coasters feature a great animatronic dragon and a nicely themed station. We also had ERT on The FLying Dutchman. I actually really liked this water coaster type ride. The Flying Dutchman's station and queue were great. I enjoyed the small dark ride elements complete with fog, a storm and the large ship. I thought it was all pretty dramatic. If the inside dark ride portion could have been a little longer it would be perfect. Like the other parks on the trip I really enjoyed Efteling. It was a great way to end the trip. Onto the photos!

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Our home for the night, The Efteling Hotel.

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Park management welcomed us to the park and brought us to the coasters for ERT.

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First up, ERT on The Flying Dutchman water coaster.

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The queue building for Flying Dutchman was very well done.

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More of the outside of the Flying Dutchman.

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TIme for ERT on Joris en da Draak.

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Tour members enjoying ERT on Joris en da Draak. Crazy red eyes - OMG how did a Cylon get on this ride!

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On Joris en da Draak, the race is on to the finish line!

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The station was complete with waving flags and cheers for the winning side and boos to the loosing side.

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Joris en da Draak's queue featured a pretty cool looking vending machine.

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All of the park's flat rides were well themed, like this pirate ship.

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Efteling's mascot.

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Surprise, surprise - another beautiful park!

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Loved the large trees that filled the park.

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Snack time! Melissa with some type of waffle goodie.

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I have no idea what Alfredo was eating here? He said it was good though.

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I joined Andrew for his last slushee of the trip.

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Droomvlucht, the fairy-themed ride was a surprise of the day. I think we all really loved it.

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I loved Droomvlucht's entrance.

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After riding Droomvluch a couple of times, Melissa and Christine give their impressions of a fairy.

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Villa Volta, another madhouse attraction.

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Inside the pre-show of Villa Volta.

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It was a fun madhouse, but I'm going to have to stick with "Magic House" at Gardaland as being my favorite madhouse of the trip.

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Gorgeous.

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Into the hedge maze.

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I had always wanted to experience a hedge maze.

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The excitement lasted just a few minutes, before long, I was tired and ready for the exit!

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Cute spinning teacup ride where people are the items being cooked in a brew!

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Had a great last lunch with the tour group and locals that came out for the TPR day at the park.

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Vogel Rok, was a very cool indoor coaster in the dark, featuring lots of special effects.

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"The Real World TPR Europe" conquers Vogel Roc!

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The Carnaval Festival - It's A Small World like ride.

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The ride featured a catchy song, that was hard to get out of your head!

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In the storybook area.

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With awesome Christine on the acorn monorail type ride.

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More awesome people, Joey and Amy behind us.

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Looking in front of us.

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The park had a really nice 4-D movie called Panda Vision. From what I saw of it was well done (I fell aspleep through most of it). It was dark and air conditioned and the last day of the trip, we all were pretty tired

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The park had brightly painted live birds, is this even legal? I guess it is in The Netherlands!

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More of the storybook land.

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Famous crapping donkey.

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Inside this building housed a few neat attractions including a large miniature train display, a water fountain show and a very ornate old carousel.

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The rather old but beautiful carousel.

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We ended the day with a relaxing 20-minute boat cruise around the park.

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On the boat ride.

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On the boat ride.

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Efteling like the other parks on the trip, was absolutely gorgeous! Next up, our last night. Stay tuned!

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Loved Efteling again, on this second tour (first time was '08). Always want to include it on any future European park tour I do, lol.

 

Sad that that Floating Island (Pagoda?) wasn't operating. The views of the park from up there are wonderful.

 

Great photo report Eric! I too, will be sad to see it ending.

But then that means I should get off my behind and start my TR up in the not too distant future, lol.

 

Thanks for sharing it all!

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  • 2 months later...

After our fun day at Efteling, we closed out the final night of the trip enjoying a fantastic group dinner and some good laughs hanging out in the hotel's bar area.

 

Thank you so much to Robb and Elissa for putting together another amazing trip, all of your hard work and organizing is greatly appreciated! To both of you, thank you for organizing with the parks the great ERTs and especially for everything at the Fair, that was such a highlight. I really never thought I would ever ride Olympia Looping in my life so thanks again for making this happen. All of the hotels on this trip were GORGEOUS! You picked some great ones for us to stay at. So you guys know these trips are a major high for me, so thank you! thank you! thank you!

 

To all the trip participants, it was great seeing old friends, and meeting all the new ones! Thanks to my Real World TPR Europe cast members - I love all of you!. Thanks so much for adopting me that first day at Gardaland. You guys made my trip! Melissa, Christine, Renee, Amy, Andrew (Drama Drew), Alfredo, Joey & Derek you guys are all awesome! I can't wait for many future "reunion specials"!

 

Derek - thank you so much for being our personal tour guide around Europa and Phantasialand, you were a gigantic help. Thanks to Larry for his informative not-to-miss dark rides and unique attractions guide, this helped everywhere we went! Frans, thanks for being a great roommate, it was nice getting to know you and I think Elissa did a great job matching us up! Morgan thanks for helping us with the translations at the fair, this helped ALOT! Bruno, thanks for the nice reception, and passes this was a great way to start the trip! Thanks to everyone else for the great conversations, even if we only shared a ride, a drink or a walk, it was great meeting all of you! I hope to see you all in the future! Please let me know if you are ever in the central Florida area I would love to meet up with you!

 

The Europe trip, like the other TPR trips I have done in the past was a tour full of great parks and sights but most importantly seeing awesome old friends and meeting fantastic new friends. The trips may seem like on the outside all about parks and coasters, but for me the trip is all about the memories made with a bunch of great people. At the last dinner Robb described a TPR trip like a summer camp for adults, I 100% agree! Thanks again to everyone!

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Thank you so much to my The Real World TPR Europe cast members - You guys are awesome!

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At the final dinner in Amsterdam.

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Christine and Alfredo more awesome peeps I met on the trip.

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I wish I could spent more time with Lou and Cameron - but it was good to see you both again!

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Joey - you rock!

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Alfredo and Robb - who knew? ;-)

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I think Andrew and Melissa had finally lost it!

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More awesome trip participants!

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Till the reunion show - Thanks!

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This trip was amazing! I would do the exact trip over again! I really liked the pace of the Europe trip as compared to the Deep South trip, I felt like we had a lot more time to just hang out and have fun with each other. I also loved our group AKA "Real World Europe", we had so much fun and best of all, no drama and we got along so well! You can't ask for much more.

 

Eric, I feel so blessed to have met you. You are a wonderful person and so much fun to be around! I am glad we "found" you on that first day!

 

Thank you for doing this TR!

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^^ Jordan it was great meeting you too! I'm on The Road To Cedar Point next year, if you're not doing that trip I'm sure we will run into each other on a different trip in the future!

 

^Melissa, you are too kind and just awesome, plain and simple - thanks again for making the trip rock!

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