flotus

It's 2 months, still plenty of time to finish Kärnan. I wouldn't write it off just yet. Is the park worth the visit without it? I'd say yes, but if you're planning a Scandi Trip 201x you might delay it until then. Since you travel by train mostly, there is a train station near Holiday Park: "Haßloch(Pfalz)" trains from Hamburg take 5h there. Be aware, the biggest railway strike is going on in Germany right now, only 1/3 of the trains are operating. It's 2 months till your trip so you 're hopefully not affected, but keep an eye out on that. http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/fernverkehr/uebersicht.shtml http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/index.shtml

Since you're into well themed parks, Hansa Park is a good choice and really worth the drive. Also easy to reach with the Autobahn right next to it. Themeing for Kärnan however might still be missing when you visit. You mentioned Tripsdrill - Karacho? Novgorod and Karacho are 2 very very different coasters. I don't think they share any element other than a launch, a station and a queue. Hansapark isn't the biggest park, 3/4 of a day is probably enough (ofc. depending on queue times kärnen, etc.) so you can spend the evening of that day in Hamburg. It's a long very drive from Hamburg to Europa Park (>6h). You didn't say if you have an extra day for this. If not, 1/2 day Hansa, rest driving might be an option. Otherwise I'd suggest changing the order to go to Hansa first and then Hamburg and drive from there. If you do have an extra day for driving, use it for a quick visit to Holiday Park (Expedition GeForce). You'll drive by very close (<20km) anyway and even a 2 hour visit is very well worth it.

On which day are you visiting? I'd call or mail the hotel about the early entry. And make sure you arrive there in time, many people will check out in the morning just when when you want to check in. The early entry also opens a little early as well. For the Rides: Use early entry if possible, but make sure to be at "Matterhorn Blitz" ASAP. It has by far the worst capacity in the park and should be done in the very first minutes after park opening. After that go direct to the "Schweizer Bobbahn" which is close and should be empty so early as well. From there, especially if the weather will be hot: go counter-clockwise and do the water stuff first (Poseidon, Pegasus, *, Atlantica). Do Wodan and Blue Fire in the back of the park until the big crowd arrives there around noon. Walk back counter-clockwise via "Alpenexpress Enzian" and Arthur (skip if very long queues) and * . Make sure to be near the entrance (Eurosat and Silver Star) between 13:00 and 16:00 when there is the least people. SilverStar queue might look big, but moves very fast, the capacity is astounding. After that do whatever is missing and be at Woodan and Blue Fire again in the last hour before closing where the queues will be short. * Euro-Mir will be on your way several times, do it whenever the queue is short but skip for the moment if you want to get to another area quickly. You might save some time if you do Arthur in the early morning as well, but you might want to watch the 4D cinema film first. PS: Europapark has an app which shows the queue times for the rides. PPS: Don't forget the shows and other stuff at the park.

*bump* ?

Planning for a 2015 East Coast Trip. (Already been to NYC, Washington, SFGAdv, Kings Island and Cedar Point before) The plan is to spend 1 day (per line) at: Flight / Boston SFNE Lake Compounce (and Quassy) NYC / Cony Island SFGAdv Dorney and Knoebels Herschey WDC / SF America Kings Dominion Bush Gardens Europe Carrowinds Dollywood SFoG Flight Atlante -> Chicago SF Great America Fly back + 2-3 additional days for reserve and non park stuff. Questions: 1. Opening Days: Is it relatively save to assume the parks will open at similar times in 2015 as in 2014 (addjusted for Holidays, etc.)? 2. When is the best time to visit the parks? Many seem to be closed / open only on weekends until June / Memorial Day. I plan to use Fastpass, etc. in most parks but still like to avoid the school holidays and the hot / humid summer months. 3. When can the new Rides (Fury 325 and Wicked Cyclone) be expected to open? (I know things can always happen) 4. Is SF America worth a visit? Heard not the best about this park but well it's on the way anyway. 5. Which Order woud you suggest: Boston->Atlanta or Atlanta->Boston and why? 6. Any Parks or other types of (Thrill-)Rides on the way I'm missing? 7. Is it save to buy Fastpasses in the parks at opening (planning to be at all parks at opening hour) or can they be sold out through online sales? I'd like to stay flexible and therefore bying Fastpasses in advance online for specific days would be a problem. 8. Anything else? All suggestions welcome.

This thread needs some history, so: Germany - Phantasialand is 10 miles away from Cologne, famous for its cathedral. Construction started in 1248 and was stopped halfway done in 1560: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gross_St_Martin_-_Rheinpanorama_um_1856.jpg Resumed in 1840, construction finally completed in 1880 where the cathedral was the tallest building in the world. (Taller than Kingda Ka) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:K%C3%B6lner_Dom_nachts_2013.jpg Today it's the most visited tourist feature in Germany. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Koelner_Dom_Innenraum.jpg http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Hohenzollernbr%C3%BCcke_K%C3%B6ln.jpg Video (use HD): http://youtu.be/bwFu9dnWtCA?t=9m23s

There is a huge 4D cinema in the park (near the entrance). In the afternoon they show a short version of the film there which explains the story. Basic story: Arthur is a boy whose father (or grandpa?) is missing since 2 years. The minimoys are miniature people who live in his garden. Arthur lets himself shrink to get into the world of the minimoys on a search / rescue his father roadtrip.

This! LEDs are cheaper over the long run, but some good lighting can also be done without / before them. My favorite: Oktoberfest at night: (pics from wikipedia) From 16:37 to 17:23. Make sure to enable HD. Some more pics at 15:07 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfqRUWFlt20

Currently PA seems to want long queues so they can sell more express tickets. When I was there a few months ago, the park opened at 10am, but most rides including Shambala only at 11pm. And then only with 2 trains, switching to 3 trains at 12pm. So they had build up a long queue there which seemed intentionally and from what I've read this was not an exeptional day. Operations were not great either. Earlier opening hours, better operations and the new Ferrari world should increase the capacity substantially, but 10 million is still a lot. I'm curious however about the Ferrari Park, it seems very small on these maps ...

I can't help with a factory visit either. I can olny offer a link to a video you might already know: As for the parks, it really depends on where you're going. If you fly to/from Paris there is Parc Asterix and obviously Disneyland. If you fly to/from Frankfurt there is Holiday Park. Tripsdrill might be on your way in South West Germany. Feel free to ask any questions, also about non park stuff, here or via pm.

Option 1: Seems there are no direct flights from Toronto to Gothenburg anyway. So choose your flight so that you go from Toronto to a big european airport (arrive in the morning), visit a park nearby and continue to Gothenburg the next day. From Frankfurt you are close to Holiday Park (GeForce) which is doable even by train, or to Europa Park (2 hours by car). London (Heathrow) has Thorpe Park very close. Amsterdam has a number of parks around to choose from. Maybe Paris, Barcelona. Option 2: From Gothenburg / Liesberg the obvious candidates are: Oslo - TusenFryd Stockholm - Grona Lund Koppenhagen - Tivoli (and/or Bakken) All reachable by train within 3-4 hours (+ time from train station to the park) Option 3: From Gothenburg take the ferry to Frederikshavn (4 hours, possibly during night) and from there a car to Farup Sommerland (1h) and/or Djurs Sommerland (2h). From there it's < 1h to Tivoli Frihedden.

I absolutely agree that there is a dark side of dubai and things have not really improved according to Human Rights Watch. But what's even worse is that many countrys have a dark side, a click on "Publications" on the Human Rights Watch site brings up theese articles: And there is a lot more which could be said about the US (don't get me started) and many other countrys. If you exclude all countrys with a dark side, I'm afraid there won't be many left to go to. (I don't want to defend Dubai in any way, but we should take care of our own countrys first, before we teach other countrys.) On the topic: Will they also handle the heat with a mostly indoor installation? Im curious about the long term prospects of theese projects there. When they run out of oil and therefore mone, will they be able to attract enough tourists to finance all this stuff?

Hardly anything. Most of the time the Theresienwiese is used, is the time for buildup and teardown and the 2 weeks of the Oktoberfest. Then there is a small version of Oktoberfest in the spring, a winter festival "Tollwood" and a flee market. Currently there is some discussion about an arabian festival, but the city is very reluctant to the idea of camel races. https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/geplantes-orientfestival-ob-reiter-lehnt-kamelrennen-auf-der-theresienwiese-ab-1.2071833 (Although that would have some historical background, since the Theresienwiese and Oktoberfest originated from a wedding and a horse race)

Since B&M will only build a launched coaster if they can make the technology reliable, they absolutely should build one. I think there is lots of potential for improvements and new ideas. Like a combination of systems like wheels + LSM.

Which extra clicks? Or have they changed it? I was there 2 months ago and it needed just 2 clicks total to get going. It was very tight though and I think the reason is the seating position is not exactly horizontal but with an angle upwards for the legs. This plus big legs makes it so tight.