Photo TR: Europa, Heide, Holiday, Phantasialand, MORE

So I had a couple of weeks booked off work, couldn't quite find the

enthusiasm to trek over to the States for the fourth July running (and

looking at the temperatures over there, this was probably a good idea)

so I booked a few cheap flights and stuff, and off to Germany I went...

 

Sunday 16/7

 

Flew into Stuttgart (from Manchester) at some god-awful late time (I said

they were cheap flights!) and crashed out at an airport hotel...

 

Monday 17/7

 

Pick up the car and drive on down to Europa Park, got there about 11am, dump

the car at the Colloseo and head on in...

 

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this place, I did have high expectations

of the park but then since all the rides are Macks (apart from their beemer) I

wasn't convinced that the coasters would be up to much.

 

First up was the beemer "Silver Star" - I've "done" the other big B&Ms in the

past (Nitro/Apollo/Raging Bull but not the new Goliaths) and really enjoyed them

- this was very good too, but probably the "least good" of the ones I've

been on - still good though and for me the best ride in the park (even if it

was being trimmed a bit!).

 

Right next to Silver Star is Eurosat, which is housed in their Epcot like dome

thing, but to celebrate (or cash in?) on the World Cup they had made it up

like a giant football (thats soccer to you ignorant yanks) - most amusing too;

 

Silver Star and a big football

 

Very much enjoyed Eurosat as well, very "space mountain" but pretty good with it,

encountered the first of the very odd Mack lift mechanisms - this one being a

giant rotating drum around which the track spirals upwards, the trains attaching

themselves to the side of the drum and are thus dragged up the track. Bizarre.

There was a model of the ride in the Mack museum;

 

Eurosat and its bizarre lift hill

 

While I'm on the subject of bizarre lift hills, I just loved Euro Mir's hill - it

has the same rotating drum business as Eurosat, but on acid. Filled with trance

music and the occasional spin around this was just trippy. The best bit of the

ride in my opinion. Not to say that the rest of the ride was bad at all, it was

pretty good indeed, a bit wild mouse like to start up with, then a few drops and

stuff, all with a bit of spinning around thrown in for good measure. I just really

liked the lift bit!

 

EuroMir's droppy bits

 

I worked my way around the rest of the park (which is pretty huge) and did all the

other coasters (apart from the big splashy one) - highlights were probably the

mouse "Matterhorn Blitz" with its (again) bizarre lift instead of a hill - and

the Poseidon water coaster (much better than Journey to Atlantis IMHO).

 

Spent the night at the Colloseo, which was pretty cool too, especially with

all the fountains and stuff going on.

 

Fountains and stuff

 

Tuesday 18/7

 

So I had the next day at Europa too - which I didn't think I'd manage to fill, but I

did quite happily. Glad I didn't try to rush it all into 1 day, the place was roasting

too - something like high 30's all week - ouch.

 

Got on the splashy ride before the queues built up, wasn't too impressed with the

ride (and indeed you didn't really get too wet either, the splash being directed

away from the boat) - but it was very pleasant to watch!

 

Atlantica SuperSplash

 

Overall a good couple of days at a nice park. BUT what is with all the Disney rip offs?

I mean the place has a MOUSE as an emblem ("EuroMouse" WTF??) an Epcot dome, Space

Mountain rides, a dark ride called Pirates of the somewhere-not-Carribean!!!

Honestly, its just in your face all the time! The downside of being owned by Mack

is that all the rides are Mack rides (duh!) - apart from the B&M that is, and the place

does have a bit of a "factory showroom" feel about it. Lots of stuff crammed into a

small area too, with lots of things on top of each other.

 

So in all not quite as "super" as I thought it'd be, but definitely worth the visit!

 

Wednesday 19/7

 

Spent the night at the Colloseo again (more money than sense me) - and up bright and

early to make the hop up to Hassloch (which a German friend of mine tells me sounds

very much like the German for ar*ehole!) for some Intamin goodness c/o Holiday Park.

 

Again the day is roasting and the park is seemingly full of day-trippers from local

summer camps. Nothing much to do at this place really apart from the obvious big ride

so thats where I spend most of the time.

 

So what did I think of the big ride - Well I expected it to be very good indeed, and

luckily it was! Only one dead bit on the whole ride I thought (the left hand turn

before you start back down the home straight of airtime hills) - but I'm nitpicking

here. There were some trim brakes in action as well, which is a shame, but nevermind

it was good times on Expedition GeForce all round!

 

I bet no-one has every taken this photo before!

 

Working my way around the rest of this sparse but large park, I did get to go on

something I'd never been on before, one of them StarFlyer thingys which it appeared

that they had only just opened. I must confess to having a great love of Wave Swingers

in general (try never to miss them out, very childish I think), I thought that this

was going to be a super-scary version of that. In practice it was more intimidating

than scary - the ride itself was pretty gentle, fairly sure you don’t spin around

that fast when you are up the top as compared to half way up. But still...

 

Holiday park's new "Lighthouse Tower"

 

Their corkscrew was interesting (to me anyway) as well - Alton Tower's version was the

first big coaster I ever went on (back in 1980 when it opened!!!) and I kind of have

a soft spot for the old girl (despite the regular pain she dishes out) - anyway

Holiday Park's Super Wirbel made me smile (before I ridden it and experienced the pain

that is) since it was doing it best to hide in the trees. Whereas Alton's version

in is a big open space surrounded by trees, HP's has all the trees in the middle of

the ride so you can't really see the whole thing at all. Cool.

 

Another totally unique photo I think

 

An odd place overall I thought - what on earth came over them when they decided

to add that Intamin mega to this otherwise rather small park? Well whatever

it was, I hope that more park owners follow their lead!

 

---

 

After sating myself on GeForce, it was back on the Autobahn for the trek up to Bruhl

and checking into the Phastasialand hotel for a couple of nights. Strangely I preferred

this place to the Colosseo (hotel geek that I am).

 

View from my room - not really I was over the car park

 

 

Thursday 20/7

 

Phantasialand. Today was all about one ride, their new B&M Black Mamba (anyone else

notice that BM is a B&M?).

 

BUT - park opens at 9am, rides DONT open until 10am (apart from a couple which open at

9:30) - and Mamba doesn't open until 11AM - what’s THAT all about?

 

So since I was in there at 9am sharp, I wander around a get an idea of the layout and

have a play on their indoor Vekoma "Temple of the Nighthawk" - which is surprisingly OK

for an old Vekoma, they don't make much of the potential for effects inside the structure

bit it was quite a good ride.

 

Their spinning coasters "Winjas" opened at 10, so have a go on them - I liked 'em.

Been on a couple of these spinners (Alton's and the one in Madrid), but these were probably

the best - a few trick track sections, odd lifts, racing around a building - cool indeedy!

 

They also have a ride that was using the same system as Universal's BTTF rides, only

this time it was all some underwater Neptune stuff going on and there are only 4 vehicles

in the IMAX dome thingy. Oddly, even tough the pre-show films were all in German,

the ride film was all in English - you'd have thought that they'd have sorted that out!

 

At the stroke of 11 I was in the BM queue - which moves pretty quickly - and which

winds its was through the rode in an excellent manner. A lot has been made of this

ride being a "Nemesis-killer" and the comparisons are apt. A lot of BM is dug into the

ground, its queue line snakes through the ride structure, its small (but perfectly formed!).

The themeing and attention to detail on BM is much better than Nemesis, the ride is not

as intense as Neme though and I'd have to say that I prefer the old girl at the end of

the day...BUT Black Mamba was very good indeed.

 

The layout is pretty simple, drop, loop, zero-g, junior immelman, couple of wingovers, a bit

of a helix, some wobbling around then you are done. But like Nemesis all this is done

right close to the walls and the queue, its excellent. If you sit on the right hand

side you sweep up past a waterfall on the jr.immelmann and that is just wonderful.

There’s a full African soundtrack as well, beating drums as you despatch and when you

hit the brake run (in the dark) - all in all very cool indeed. Probably the ride I

enjoyed most on this trip.

 

Drop

 

Loop

 

Wingover

 

Helix

 

What of the other rides here - I worked my way around all of them I think. Was a bit

disappointed that the Michael Jackson thrill ride didn't involve any "Jesus Juice", but

was in fact a pretty good mine train. The rapids ride was just wacky - I'd never been

on a rapids that didn't just snake off around the park, this one was all built on top

of itself and involved a lift to get you to the top. Thereafter you did the standard

rapids stuff, interspersed with some definitely non-standard drops! Wacky indeed!

 

I have to comment on their dark-rides though. They were all absolutely rubbish. Without

exception. From the awful Hollywood Tour to some Haunted Rickshaw thing, a silvermine trip

and some gondola ride thing. Awful, rubbish, tear them all down now and build more

excellent B&Ms.

 

One last work of warning about Black Mamba though, if you smoke in the queue line, ancient

and mystical African spirits will turn you into a hermaphrodite.

 

NO SMOKING or else!

 

 

Friday 21/7

 

Drive up the hour or so from Phantasialand to Movie Park and what a change of pace.

In all honesty I didn't have much hope for this place, and I don’t think that my

expectations were met.

 

It was one of the places that you think should be doing all right, they've obviously

spend lots of money at some point in a few places (their rapids ride was well done, as

was the "Ice Age" dark ride), but the place was empty, their coasters were cack and

the drop ride was broken.

 

The best of the bad bunch was probably the woody "Bandit", but that was bad too. Their

SLC was extra painful, the Intamin "Cop Car Chase" thingy was potentially interesting

but ultimately painful and pointless. Their mouse was OK, but its just a mouse, and I

couldn't even summon the enthusiasm for their kiddy coaster.

 

I hate to see places like this. They depress me. I had more fun wandering around the

local shopping mall next to my hotel that night (in Oberhausen) than at the park. (OK

maybe not true, but you get the picture).

 

I can't even find one decent picture of the place. So thats the lot from here.

 

The highlight of the day was chastising the waiter at the Irish pub I ate dinner in

for wearing a Portugal top (Gelsenkirchen was just down the road). He should have

expected to be getting grief from English like me, but even the Germans were giving

him stick for wearing it. Good on the Germans.

 

 

Saturday 22/7

 

Fancied a non-park day, so wandered around the Aquarium at Oberhausen (I'm a bit of

an Aquarium fan too) before the long drive across country to Heide. There was a

coaster at the shopping centre in Oberhausen, a spinning mouse - but I didn't indulge.

 

Aquarium was quite good though (if you like that sort of thing!)

 

 

Sunday 23/7

 

I'd overnighted about 20 miles from Heide Park in some small town - nice part of

the country around here, all trees and stuff. But the countryside wasn't why I was

here, big wooden roller coasters were why I was here, so off to Heide Park I went.

 

Went straight to Colossos obviously and given that there was no queue, spent the

next hour riding that. Blimey its good. Smooth and just loaded with air. Probably

the woody I've most enjoyed riding ever. Something to do with the fact that it

doesn't bash you around. I've been on some nasty bits of wood in the past with

otherwise good layouts - why can't they be as nice as Colossos?

 

Hope that El Toro is as good (can't imagine that it can't be) - when Alton get around

to installing their big woody in the woods, hope its one of these!

 

Oops - my panorama photo didn't quite stitch together!

 

Of the other coasters here, the bob was perhaps the best, up on the side of a hill

you got a good view from it too.

 

All 4 of Heide's coasters here (powered ones don’t count)

 

Their old Vekoma "Big Loop", was old and painful (looked like the original trains

too - ouch). Their SLC was just an SLC, painful as ever, and their powered coaster

was a bit dull. They do have an excellent gyro-drop, perched on top of a hill

too, that was cool;

 

Scream!

 

Overall a very pleasant park. Some odd ride selections (OK I can just about understand

2 log flumes, but 2 pirate ships?????), but plenty of flat rides, lots of transport

rides, nice lake setting and a marvellous huge woody. Can't ask for too much more.

(apart from maybe a new accelerator perhaps?)

 

More good wood, and it don't look like they've started building next years toy yet

 

I do think that their sandcastle competition needed more entries though.

 

And the winner is...

 

One more thing, there appeared to be a "popular music" festival going on next door,

"Party in the Park" or something - anyway headlining that day were the popular combo

"Tokio Hotel" - big in Germany apparently. Could have been worse I guess, could have

been David Hasslehoff.

 

 

Monday 24/7

 

Nothing to do today apart from wait around until my unbelievably cheap flight home from

Hanover to Manchester (cheap because it coast me €0.01 + tax - worked out at £15!, which

was the same price as the taxi took to get back from the airport to home).

 

Anyway, spent the day wandering around Hanover, which was OK. Nice town hall I guess,

 

Hanover Sights

 

..and some very pleasant formal gardens "Herrenhausen Gardens"

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenhausen_Gardens

 

which were at least interesting to me as part of a novel I read earlier this year

was set in them! (The novel being the third part of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle

"The System of the World" - which if you have the patience (the 3 volumes are ~1000

pages each) are well worth it, in fact I'd go as far to say that the 2nd volume is the

best thing I've EVER read!).

 

Nice to finish with a bit of culture don't you think?

 

 

Excellent report, and great pics!

I was at Europa Park on july 18 & 20!

Great report. Did you also think Eurosat was rough as hell?

Beautiful photos! Colossos looks awesome, El Toro was great so I'd love to try that one.

You know, not all of us yanks are ignorant and know that football in every other country means Soccer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Photo TR though!

Very nice report.

^^ just yanking your chain!

 

The US didn't do too well at this years World Cup tho' - made a better stab at it last time out.

 

^ lol I know

 

But yeah we did do incredibly bad in the world cup, I mean, we did better in 02 then we did this year.

What a great photo TR. When I see all se nice pictures, then I really miss my German theme parks! You are so lucky to ride Black Mamba, I need to wait for next year! Anyway, thanks for posting!

 

--Sören

Some more pixs in and around EuropaPark....

 

Your big Silver Star

 

with its fantastic noise shield

 

Its a very tree filled place

 

Lots of water around too

 

and giant footballs (Can't see EPCOT dressing their dome up as a footy ball)

 

Themed bedrooms in Colloseo (but no air con!!)

 

Slightly arty shot of the hotel

 

And again

 

Looks nicer as it gets darker

 

and the fountains look cool too

 

Looking back at the "ruin"

 

HiSpeed shot of the fountain outside the hotel

 

Proper arty shot (of the steps on the ruin)

 

and from the "ruin" you get a great view of the famous German pylons

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

and HolidayPark....

 

This is a big fun coaster

 

They are about to have some big fun

 

Do they look like they are having big fun?

 

This is not a big fun coaster

 

The StarFlyer sits at the end of the lake, very picturesque

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

and Phantasialand....

 

They do like their themed bunk beds in Germany

 

Did I mention how nice the hotel was?

 

and this is probably the best photo I've taken in many a while

 

Did you know they moved the real brandenburg Gate all the way from Berlin to a themepark?

 

 

Spinny Winjas thingies

 

Spinning away

 

You can walk right through Mambas loop if you feel like it

 

and you can see from this how its queue line winds around the ride

 

About to suffer a terrible fate, no not being eaten by a big blue thing, but having to

 

suffer one of their interminable dark rides

 

No observation rides, so you have to take these sort of shots from the Condor

At Europa Park, did you ride their new kiddie-coaster Pegasus? Just wondering, because I don't hear too much opinions about it.

I did, I quite liked it (for a kiddie coaster).

 

It was similar to the Vekoma Roller-Skater things (like the Unicorn at IoA) in size, but a better ride I thought. There was one nice big pop of air about half way around. Well themed trains too.

 

The only "down side" with it was that it was kindof crammed in behind the Poseidon water coaster and a bit tricky to find!!!

 

D.

Pegasus is a really fun coaster. The beginning after the lifthill is really fun, espacially in the back. The ride itself is maybe a bit short IMO.

Very cool photo TR, one of the best ones I've seen in a while. Makes me really want to go to Europe.

Nice TR David,

 

If you ever feel like uploading the images to TPR instead of linking to them, I'd love to add this TR to our park index pages.

 

--Robb

Done!

 

edit - d'oh they came backwards, and I thought I was being clever attaching them in reverse.

 

Should have read the instructions better. Double d'oh.

Silver Star and a big football

Eurosat and its bizarre lift hill

EuroMir's droppy bits

Fountains and stuff

Atlantica SuperSplash

I bet no-one has every taken this photo before!

Another totally unique photo I think

View from my room - not really I was over the car park

Drop

Loop

Wingover

Helix

NO SMOKING or else!

Oops - my panorama photo didn't quite stitch together!

All 4 of Heide's coasters here (powered ones don’t count)

Scream!

More good wood, and it don't look like they've started building next years toy yet

And the winner is...

Hanover Sights

Your big Silver Star

with its fantastic noise shield

Its a very tree filled place

Lots of water around too

and giant footballs (Can't see EPCOT dressing their dome up as a footy ball)

Themed bedrooms in Colloseo (but no air con!!)

Slightly arty shot of the hotel

And again

Looks nicer as it gets darker

and the fountains look cool too

HiSpeed shot of the fountain outside the hotel

Proper arty shot (of the steps on the ruin)

and from the "ruin" you get a great view of the famous German pylons

This is a big fun coaster

They are about to have some big fun

Do they look like they are having big fun?

This is not a big fun coaster

The StarFlyer sits at the end of the lake, very picturesque

They do like their themed bunk beds in Germany

Did I mention how nice the hotel was?

and this is probably the best photo I've taken in many a while

Did you know they moved the real brandenburg Gate all the way from Berlin to a themepark?

Spinny Winjas thingies

Spinning away

You can walk right through Mambas loop if you feel like it

and you can see from this how its queue line winds around the ride

About to suffer a terrible fate, no not being eaten by a big blue thing, but having to suffer one of their interminable dark rides

No observation rides, so you have to take these sort of shots from the Condor

so..which one is the best one from Europapark, phantasia land, or heidepark?

 

which one has more thrilling rides?

 

thanks!