Germany PTR - Day 14-15: Leipzig + Plohn

[gavin]

I've been in two minds whether to bother writing this since I prefer to write them up on places that fewer people have been to rather than these really basic places, especially since quite a few reports have popped up over the last couple of weeks with a lot of these same parks. I suppose it could be good to read a different (i.e. more important/correct) opinion about these places though.

This was a park and sightseeing trip, so I'll throw some culture crap in as well since, let's face it, most people who go to these places just drive to the park, stay in some industrial estate Formula 1 craphole afterwards, then go back to the airport. Cretins.

Although this was mostly a Germany trip, not having Walibi Belgium has been bugging me for ages - it was closed on weekdays when I was last in Brussels - so I decided to knock that off. I flew into Brussels, but had no intention of spending any time in that dreadful s**thole, so got a train from the airport straight to Ghent. Last time I was in Belgium, I had time to either visit Ghent or Bruges, and went with Bruges.

Day 1 - Ghent

Unlike a lot of European cities, the main train station here was quite far outside the main area, but easily accessible with a quick tram ride. My hotel was "near the cathedral", which was quite accurate as the view from my window proved:

The location was great, right on one of the main squares with everything worth seeing within a short walking distance.

It was evening, so any touristy s**t was closed, but it was still light out, so I went for a wander. It was all strangely dead, but I think it was just a weird time of day. Stuff was closed, but it was too early for people to be out having dinner/drinks. Some big festival had just finished the day before as well - various stages were being disassembled around the place - so that probably had something to do with it.

It was all very pleasant. I'd allowed myself a proper full day later since I hadn't really planned to do anything that first evening. I did another quick circuit as it got dark and called it a night.

Day 2 - Bellewaerde and Ypres

Since this place wasn't too far away, I headed there on the first full day of the trip. For anyone who's wondering (nobody), it was train ride from Ghent's main train station to Menen, then a bus from there. All very simple and took about an hour and 15 minutes. The bus wasn't very regular though. The one I got got me to the park for about 10:45, the next one would've been about 2 hours later.

The park then:

I headed straight for the new alpine coasters, which may have been a bit of a mistake since it seems a lot of people had the same idea.

I think I waited about half an hour the first time, then came back later in the day for the second side and it was down to 20 minutes. They're crap really. They use the regular alpine coaster cars, but the control handles are locked and do nothing. I guess you could argue that they're more of a real coaster because of that, but the whole thing just felt a bit too controlled/tame.

It was just such a weird choice to build alpine coasters in a place with no terrain for one. Most of the cost must've been on the walkway/queueline structure. The whole thing takes up a hefty chunk of space. They could've gone for a family woodie for the same kind of price, which would have a higher throughput and be a much better ride. I'm sure they had their reasons, but I still think this was a poor choice.

Anyway, other stuff. I didn't do either of these, but was pretty impressed with the overall theming in the area. The park itself was actually lovely overall.

I almost didn't bother with the drop tower since this model is s**te, but there was no queue. Nope, still s**te.

I had a quick look in the squirrel monkey walkthrough, then did the rapids, which were uneventful in that I barely remember them. I always like these "bendy" boats though.

I walked through a small zoo area to get to more rides. Pleasant enough, with a free-roaming lemur area.

+1, which luckily had a short wait:

Considering this is the first Boomerang (yes, yes, there's an older piece of metal which plenty of pedantic twats on Facebook were touching themselves over when they thought they were "correcting" someone, but this one opened first), it wasn't too offensive at all.

I did the topple tower simply because out of three previous examples I've seen, only one was operational. They're crap.

Huracan was probably the only coaster here that was actually any good. Part dark ride, part coaster which is pretty fun. It was the only ride I did more than once.

I came across this kind of by accident as I was heading back to polish off the second side of Dalton Duel. It was just weird.

Houdini, a madhouse, was really good. One of the better examples I thought.

I was done after a few hours, so decided to leave a bit earlier than planned. Despite there not really being any standout rides, the park as a whole was lovely. I was expecting it to be a bit of a cred run, but I ended up taking my time a bit and had a decent day.

The same bus I'd arrived on carried on and terminated in Ypres, so I decided to have a quick look around and get a train back to Ghent from there. It's best known in connection with WW1, and they were getting ready for some anniversary thing which was happening a day or two later.

There are various museums and WW1 battle/burial sites around the area, but I didn't have time since I really hadn't planned to be there in the first place and, to be honest, I'm not that interested anyway.

So yeah, it was a direct train back to Ghent from there, going out for a few drinks that night since the next day was going to be quite chilled, and I was still "awake" since it was early in the trip.

 

[Hixee]

Ghent looks pretty nice actually. We did a similar thing to you a few years back driving over to Germany and decided on Bruges, but maybe next time I'll give Ghent a go.

Bellewaerde looks rather lovely too, but I'm with you in that I think the alpine coasters are an odd (and frankly rubbish) addition. Looking forward to hearing your take on the rest of the parks of this trip.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Would have liked to have spent a bit more time at Bellewaerde like that. Had the madhouse down as a must, then completely forgot about it.

 

[gavin]

Day 3 - Ghent

The next day was the one I'd given myself for general tourist s**t around Ghent. Even though I'd pretty much seen the place during the first couple of evenings, I still had this day free, so had a bit of a lie in and went inside a bunch of places that were closed during the day.

The catherdral outside my window houses the Ghent Alterpiece by Van Eyck, considered to be one of the most important ever pieces of art. It's in a separate room, you have to pay to get in to that room, half of it has been replaced with high-res photos while the original panels are undergoing restoration, and they're anal about taking photos.

I went into the bell tower across the square for the views. It was a bit pricey, but at least there was a lift inside so you didn't have to climb all the way up.

More wandering around.

The castle didn't really have much inside it, but I like them and there were various decent vantage points. I just thought that it was cool to have a castle just casually mincing in the middle of the city.

And then just another slow wander.

The view from this bridge is kind of famous, taking in the three towers of the old town.

Ghent then. Lovely little city. Well, actually, as a whole it's actually not that small, but as a visitor everything of note is mostly very centralised around the Old Town area, making it all very easy to just wander around. Bruges is arguably a bit more attractive, but I don't think Ghent was far behind, and there was generally a bit more going on, not being quite as touristy. When I'd been out for drinks, it was mostly locals I ended up chatting to, for example. Yeah, nice place.

Day 4 - Walibi Belgium

This day was one of just a couple during the trip that had the potential to be a pain in the arse since I was a doing a park on the way to somewhere else while hoofing luggage with me, but it turned out to be absolutely fine.

I got a train from Ghent to Bierges Walibi Station - there was an easy transfer on the way - which was then just a 5-minute walk to the park, getting me there for opening. They had luggage storage for €5, so I just left my stuff there and waited with everyone else for them to open the main gate.

I decided to head straight for Pulsar, thinking that most people would be doing that. Back to this thing later:

It turns out that I was one of very few people to do that though. Most people went straight for Vampire and Loup Garou, and I ended up on the first train of the day for Pulsar.

This was entirely unnecessary since they also have a single rider queue, which I only noticed when I exited and is great as it's literally right at the platform, meaning that there no need to walk all the way through the rather long queue line.

I sat in the back left seat on the first ride and got drenched. Because I was soaked already, I decided to get a few more rides in, walking on via single rider, rather than dry off and get wet again later, seeing as how I had a fair bit of traveling to do after the park.

I loved this ride. The backwards launch over the hump had surprising airtime, and the rear spike and splash were fun. It seems the the right side of the boat is nowhere near as wet as the left, especially further forward.

Psyche Undergound was walk-on, so I got a few rides in until people started to arrive.

I liked it, but maybe not as much as I was hoping to. I like these rides, but I don't think the indoor aspect particularly elevated it too much. Plus, sorry, but the older lauches on these are better. I'd ridden one not too long before at Nagashima, so it was fresh enough to remember properly rather than any nostalgia bollocks.

I was still soaked, so just did the log flume. It was a very good one as well, but was the first of many, many examples I noticed of gross pond water being used in water rides in this part of the world.

The drop tower was only running two sides, but only had a 5-minute wait. These models are always worth doing, and this one was pretty massive. By the time I got off, the queue had roughly doubled and they'd put a third side on.

The mine train was walk-on. Excellent theming, but not a great ride. One of the rougher ones I've done, and that's including Golden Horse's versions.

Obligatory +1

I'd completely forgotten that this existed after thinking it looked pretty amazing years ago when it was popping up in the forums.

It was really good. The trackless vehicles kind of seemed a bit wasted on it since I'm not sure they were used to their full potential, but this was still a very impreesive shooter.

Loup Garou had the longest wait of the day at around 30-40 minutes. Well, longest for me since I'm sure Pulsar's probably got longer later in the day. Maybe not this long though:

Confession: I quite liked Robin Hood, but have since put it down to being quite inexperienced at the time, so wasn't expecting much from Loup Garou.

I actually liked it though! The big thing letting it down is the restraints, which are quite painful, but that's only because it actually has some decent airtime in places. It was a worth a second go after polishing off the two remaining creds anyway.

In contrast, Vampire was an actual piece of fetid, steaming s**t.

F**cking awful thing.

The boomerang was fine, but I've never really found any of them overtly offensive.

I'd been making very good time, so gave the rapids a go, figuring that I was still a bit damp anyway. They were fine. A few splashes, but nothing to get me too wet.

I literally had no idea this was here:

It wasn't as good as Houdini a couple of days earlier, but was still a very good version.

I was done with the park much earlier than I was expecting thanks to it not being too busy and tackling the back of the park first when it was empty. Really, the only things I would've wanted to ride again at that point were Loup Garou and Pulsar, but I didn't want to wait in a 40-minute queue again for the woodie, and didn't want to get soaked again on Pulsar since I'd mostly dried out.

I liked this park a lot more than I'd been expecting to. I always thought it looked a bit crap, but it's actually pretty nice with quite a few decent rides. When the hyper was announced after I'd arranged this trip, I did think "Ah, crap, I should've held off," but since that's still a few years away it's not really an issue.

I had a train ticket booked for a few hours later, giving myself plenty of time at the park, which couldn't be changed. Well, the main Brussels to Cologne part of the ticket anyway. I could use the first part to get me into Brussels at any time. Like I said earlier, I had no intention of being in Brussels for this trip since it's a massive dump, but rather than hang around the park, I just decided to go to the one nice area of it and get food/coffee there for a bit before walking up to the North Station.

The hotel in Cologne was amazingly located, with one entrance right in front of the cathedral and the other actually inside the train station.

The hallway outside the rooms had a gorgeous view of the train platforms.

This was at the other side of the station. It's been running for about two years, but is closing soon, so they're selling all tickets at a bit of a discount.

I just thought "f**k it" and got a ticket for the show the next night.

Culture s**t for the next couple of days...

 

[gavin]

Day 5 - Cologne

This was my Cologne sightseeing day, but it turns out that there aren't actually that many sights to see. I was next to the main one anyway, the cathedral, so went in there first.

Meh.

It houses the remains of the three wise men. Or it would if they were real, which they're not, so it houses this gold thing with some bones in it.

I took the ballache walk up to the top of one of the towers, which was gross since it's totally covered in graffiti. There's not much to see from the top anyway; it's not exactly an attractive city.

The area around the cathedral is just a massive tourist trap.

From there I just wandered around a bit. Not much to say really. Bits of it were alright.

I quickly came to realise that the tourist map I'd picked up literally highlighted any old s**t since there wasn't much of any real note, and stopped bothering with it.

Cologne. Meh. The cathedral is very impressive from the outside, but otherwise it's a very generic city that doesn't warrant more than an afternoon at best. It was all a bit "Manchester" really, probably a decent enough to place to live and with a decent nightlife (apparently, I never went out but the train station was always full of hen parties), but not much to see or do during the day.

I went to see The Bogyguard in the evening, which was pretty good. The spoken bits were German, but all the songs were English. I knew the story so that wasn't an issue.

Like I said, the hotel was located perfectly for the station/cathedral, so it was a very quick walk back there.

Day 6 - What to do?

Because of a very basic error in planning, I had a full day still in Cologne with nothing to do. When I had planned this trip out, it was originally going to start a week earlier, and this day would have been spent on a day trip to Dusseldorf for the fair. I'd decided that I wanted to start later, so literally just shoved everything back by exactly a week and started booking hotels/trains etc., without factoring in that I'd allowed myself this extra day for a fair which was finished by then. Ugh.

I was planning Phantasialand for the next day, a Monday, and thought about just going on this day instead, but I wanted to avoid the weekend and would have still had the same problem - a day to kill - the following day anyway. I ended up getting a train south for an hour to Koblenz in the morning, then to Bonn in the afternoon, which was on the way back to Cologne anyway.

Koblenz

Turns out Koblenz was lovely. I'd never heard of the place, but a friend recommended it when I said on Facebook that I was stuck in Cologne with nothing to do.

I took the cable car up to the fort, which in itself was nothing special but had nice views.

There was some kind of market/fair up there, but I didn't hang around for too long.

I got lunch somewhere around there then got the train to the next place.

Bonn

Former capital city. Nice enough, but not very big and not a great deal to see.

Beethoven was born here, so they make a big deal of that. He famously f**king hated the place though. Hated. It.

The house Beethoven was born in:

I was back in Cologne in the early evening since Bonn is only about half an hour away.

I haven't bothered writing much because there's not much to say really. Both places were very pleasant, and I'm glad I made the (small) effort to head to them rather than just hang around Cologne for the day with nothing to do. I got to see two cities I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with, and they were nice, so it was a productive enough day.

Phantasialand next.

 

[davidm]

Koblenz definitely looks like it was the better kill-a-day option than Düsseldorf would have been. Good choice.

 

[Hixee]

^I'm with him.

Koblenz looks much nicer (than Cologne, too), and sounds like a win. One to bear in mind if I'm looking for a break from creds next time I'm at Phantasialand.

 

[roomraider]

Enjoying the report. I was also surprised by Walibi but unlike you I managed to have a decent ride on Vampire. Venus and Mars must have been aligned just right or something.

Had a similar day to burn in Cologne a few years ago. We went to Wuppertal to check out the worlds first suspended railway. Was pretty cool for the engineering/transport goonieess,
Koblenz certainly looks worth a visit though.

 

[gavin]

Thanks for the comments so far. Yeah, I'd recommend Koblenz if anyone's in the general area. Wuppertal was another option for the Pina Bausch connections, but there was nothing going on at the Tanztheater, so I didn't bother.

Day 7 - Phantasialand

I'm pretty sure that nobody will have visited or heard of this place before; I've certainly rarely heard it mentioned. It was a very easy trip from Cologne, just a quick train (also possible by tram but would take longer) then the park's shuttle bus.

I'd been before, but it was a bit of a rushed visit and was extremely busy, so I didn't really remember anything about the layout of the park. I didn't really have a masisve plan of action. I was itching to go straight to Klugheim, but I knew that everyone would do that, the two coasters have single rider anyway, and everyone has said that Taron is better later in the day.

Instead, I waited with a handful of people outside the "Fantasy" area, getting straight in when they dropped the rope. Advice to anyone going, especially if it's a first visit: DO THIS.

I walked straight onto one side of Winjas - can never remember which, on the right as you go down the steps - then waited about 5 minutes to get the other side. I'd done them before, so they weren't a priority and I probably wouldn't have waited, but they're very good, so I'm glad I got another go on them.

I got a bit lost looking for the entrance to Temple of the S**te Hawk.

When I eventually found it, it was walk-on, so I did it.

It's really not up to the standard of the rest of the park. As a coaster, it really doesn't do anything, but it could be a good overall experience if they themed it inside. Instead, it's just a dark room with nothing happening for the whole thing.

I hadn't done the Hollywood boat ride on the previous visit. Again, it was a walk-on.

Not quite as bad as I was expecting, but, again, definitely not up to the park's current standard.

I've got a feeling that the reason they've left this and Night Hawk to stagnate is because they've likely got plans for the building/area at some point, so don't see the point of spending money on them at the moment.

I'd inadvertantly walked right past Maus - which I think would have already been open - on my way to wait for Fantasy to open. I think I was expecting a bigger, grander, more obvious building/entrance, but I loved how it just blended in with the area.

With it still being relatively new, I was expecting a queue, but it was only around 10 minutes.

I really liked this. It totally s**ts all over Midway Mania to be fair, in that there's a lot more to it than just a method of placing you in front of screens.

So, by this point, I'd knocked off three coasters (all done before though), a boat ride and shooter (both new for me) in around an hour. Onto the more substantial stuff...

I walked past this:

But did this since, again, the queue was small and I hadn't done it before.

Yes, the theming massively elevates it, and yes these suspended versions are better, but I'm still not a fan of top spins.

Chiapas had the first queue of the day, at around 40 minutes, but I walked straight on using the single rider line.

Great stuff. I did a quick second ride while I was there. It's definitely up there with best log flumes. Yeah, it's kind of not a log flume, but it's closer to one of those than other forms of boat ride.

By now, the anxiety was building up a bit too much, so I headed into Klugheim. Taron, visually, really does knock you back a bit as you walk into the area.

The way that the whole thing blends in seemlessly with Mystery Castle behind it is superb. It's not a big area, but manages to feel bigger because it's on such a grand scale.

Worryingly, there were no trains going around on Taron. I waited around, without joining the queue, for a good 15 minutes with nothing happening.

I did Raik instead. The regular queue was at 45 minutes, but single rider "only" took about 30 minutes. That's fine, obviously, but was a bit of a jolt to the system after walking onto everything up until that point.

It's good, and despite being low capacity, it's a smart addition, especially given the use of space.

By this time Taron was open, but was posting a queue time of 70 minutes, with the single rider line closed. It would have been better to come back later since the queue was obviously longer thanks to the previous breakdown, but I still had loads of time and was itching to just get on it.

I ended up waiting about an hour, including the extra 10 minutes to wait for the front row. I figured since I'd waited anyway, I might as well. Typically, by the time I got near the front I realised that the single rider line was open; some cow was obviously delighted to get the front row with me after waiting about 15 minutes. Bitch.

It's an amazing ride. I don't do top tens and stuff anymore, but I really liked this. It's definitely true that it warms up quite a bit later in the day though.

I did an immediate 20-minute, single-rider reride, this time near the back. The airtime was better back there, but I really don't think this is a "better in the front/back" coaster, not really. There's not loads in it, but they offer slight differences. The front left seat, fo example, was great going up the waterfall since you actually get splashed by it.

I'm just going to keep dumping Taron photos...

I knew I'd done the ghost train in the China area before, but remembered nothing about it. I hadn't done the madhouse before. It was back to walk-on rides, so I did both. The madhouse was ok, the ghost train was f**king s**t, another one due for a massive overhaul/replacement.

River Quest was down for the day, which was disappointing, but at least I've done it before. I had it in my head that Mystery Castle got busy, but walked right onto it.

I loved this last time, but it felt a bit lacking this time. No idea about different cycles, but I'm sure it did more last time I rode it. This time, it was just straight to the top, a few seconds wait, then a drop. Seems a shame that they'd run it on a short cycle when there was no queue.

Colorado Adventure was even better than I remembered it and solidified itself as my favourite mine train coaster. Again, no queue.

Black Mamba was the first thing since the two rides in Klugheim that I had to wait for. I waited extra for a front row ride first, putting it at about half an hour, but the regular queue was only at about 10 minutes.

Still a great ride and up there with the better inverts, admitedly a lot of that is to do with setting/theming though.

At this point I did a couple of single-rider rides on Taron, waiting around 15 minutes the first time, and about double that for the second. The normal queue was hovering around an hour at this point.

I took a break to see Musarteum.

F**king dreadful. Just a really cheap circus-style show. Not to disparage any of the performers, because what they do is very difficult, but it's all stuff that everyone's seen a millions time before. Just really f**king dull.

I redid Mamba I think, then decided to finish off with more Taron. They were going to close the queues off at 7:30, and it was coming up to 7 by this point. I'd already decided that I was going to just suck up the normal queue and ask for back row, but the single rider was closed again anyway.

Turns out I didn't even need to ask since I got stopped right at the station and got sent to the back row anyway.

The park was closing at 8, with shuttle buses running until 9, but I just got on one that was leaving at 7:45 since queue lines were all closing anyway.

I had a great day there, and it was easily the fullest, longest day of the trip with regards to park days. It was very busy, but the only things I spent any time queueing for were Taron, Raik and Mamba. Having said that, Chiapas did have long lines - I just skipped them - and I didn't go back to the Fantasy/Wuze Town area after knocking it off very quickly in the morning.

Overall thoughts. It was great to finally get back here and feel like I could take it all in a bit more this time. It's clearly a stunning park and feels much bigger than it actually is, partly down to deliberate design I'm sure, but also, I think, down to a quite confusing layout. I found myself doubling back or going the long way around for various stuff throughout the day, and didn't feel like I had it properly figured out until well into the afternoon. Anyone who goes regularly will clearly disagree with that, but as a first-time visitor, which I might as well have been, it really can seem a bit haphazard.

That's not a critism of the place, though, since it's clearly down to creative use of limited space, and I don't think many other (any other?) parks come close to Phatasialand in that respect.

There is one big criticism I have with the place though. Smoking literally anywhere and everywhere. Unlike basically ANY other park, they don't have smoking areas - they're certainly not highlighted on the park map at any rate - so it was everywhere, including queuelines. The cattlepen area of Taron, as only one example, was f**king disgusting, with multiple people lighting up and cigarette ends everywhere.

I'm not anti-smoker at all - I've lived almost my entire adult life in Asia - but it was just very, very noticeable, especially in an otherwise "perfect" park.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

There is one big criticism I have with the place though. Smoking literally anywhere and everywhere. Unlike basically ANY other park, they don't have smoking areas - they're certainly not highlighted on the park map at any rate - so it was everywhere, including queuelines. The cattlepen area of Taron, as only one example, was f**king disgusting, with multiple people lighting up and cigarette ends everywhere.

I'm not anti-smoker at all - I've lived almost my entire adult life in Asia - but it was just very, very noticeable, especially in an otherwise "perfect" park.

THIS.
Always annoys me in Phantasialand. I hate people smoking in the queues.
It is actually banned in all of the park's queuelines - In Taron's queue they've small no smoking signs up and the safety announcement that plays every now and then says it. I've even seen staff shout at people to stop smoking - even once threatening a man with being kicked out.
Unfortunately there isn't always staff around, and people just don't bloody listen or pay attention to the signs or announcements.

Great trip report though!

 

[Hixee]

Some cracking photos there Gavin, and it sounds like you had an excellent day.

Great to hear your thoughts on a little visited park.

 

[gavin]

Day 8 - Movie Park

This was the second, potentially, pain-in-the-arse day due to heading to a park with luggage on the way to somewhere else. Again, it turned out fine though. The park was a very short walk from the train station, and there was inexpensive luggage storage just inside the entrance.

Having heard about awful operations here, the first thing I did was buy a fastpass, opting for the "Gold" option which allowed for one-time access to everything except Star Trek. At €30, it was really good value. After getting that, it was straight to Star Trek, which despite being right at the front of the park, actually has the entrance quite far away.

I was very tempted to head into Van Helsing's Factory, but since I could fastpass it later, thought it better to skip for now.

I loved that Star Trek was themed to The Next Generation. As a kid, I was totally into it, but haven't kept up at all with where the franchise has gone more recently.

I took most pictures of the actual coaster later, so will shove them in as they appear in the upload, but I'll give a quick review now.

I really liked it. It's much smaller/more compact than I thought, but it manages to do quite a lot with the space. It's really not about the launches, which are pretty weak, but the rest of the layout is really fun, and even had a couple of decent airtime moments, especially at the back of the train.

I got a couple more rides in later in the day. The queues were always hovering around the 30-minute mark, so not too bad until you realise that they didn't run more than one train all day, which is a bit of a piss take on a brand new coaster in the middle of summer.

I hadn't done one of these for a while, and since I could walk on to literally anything in the park, I gave it a go.

I used my fastpass for the SLC, which turned out to be totally unnecessary since there was no queue anyway. I was, for a nanosecond, annoyed with myself for "wasting" it, but then realised that there was no way I'd want a reride anyway.

Dreadful. Earlier in the report I'd said that Vampire was a piece of s**t, but I think I was getting things a bit mixed up. THIS thing was the awful one; I don't think Vampire made much of an impression either way.

Bandit then, frequently hailed as the worst wooden coaster on the planet.

Ermmmmm, it was actually fine? It's not a good coaster by any stretch, but I've done much, much worse.

I was surprised to see that they had a drop tower. I was then surprised to see that it was a gyro drop (my favourite kind). Then I realised it was a stand-up version, and then found out, while riding, that it tilted. Loved it. Best thing at the park after Star Trek and Van Helsing.

I figured that I'd probably want a reride on Van Helsing's Factory, so used the regular queue first, which only took about 20 minutes, and rerode later.

Operations were really good here; they seemed to be getting cars through really quickly.

It's a fab little coaster. Some of the theming is a bit naff, but as a coaster itself it was good anyway for something so small.

Up until this point, I thought I'd wasted my money on the fastpass since queues had been small to non-existent, but it totally changed in the kiddy area. The queues for all of the rides here were 30 minutes or more. Using the pass, I knocked off the three smaller coasters within 10 minutes, when it would have taken about 2 hours otherwise. The fastpass definitely paid for itself just for this area.

This thing was f**king s**te:

It's just one of those immersive tunnel things, but the whole loading, batching, preshow crap is just so horribly, horribly overworked. The whole "experience" took about half an hour. Such a time commitment for such a crap attraction.

The best thing is the dino animatronic at the exit.

Star Trek pics are here...

This water ride was decent. Very outdated, but quite a huge indoor section. Well, it's all indoors really apart from the loading platform and final splashdown. Gross pondwater though.

I'd prebooked Walking Dead when I booked my park ticket online, but it wasn't really necessary. I used it at the wrong time (about an hour early) and they didn't care.

It was ok, but I was expecting more. The sets were good, but the "actors" were just very generic zombies - very basic costumes and make-up - with the predictable jumping out crap. The whole thing was over really quickly. Meh, not worth the upcharge really. I've done much better temporary Halloween stuff.

I'd totally missed the rapids while I was in the kiddy area, so went back over there.

They were really good, especially since you can still see all the Neverending Story stuff even though they've clearly lost that license.

I ended up leaving the park by about 3 I think. Like I said before, the fastpass hadn't been totally necessary, but it was worth getting considering the low price and that it meant shaving a good deal of time off and getting out early.

Thoughts on the park then. Not as bad as I'd been expecting, but definitely the poor cousin of the major German parks. Star Trek is an excellent addition, Van Helsing is very good, and their water rides and drop tower are decent. It ends there though really. It all just felt a bit tired really. There are a lot of attempts at decent theming, but it's either a case of it being run-down and shabby (water rides) or a sense of it having been done on the cheap (Van Helsing and Star Trek).

The next proper destination was Hamburg, but that was a fairly long train ride away, so I'd booked a hotel in Dortmund for the night instead, which wasn't too far from Movie Park. The thought process was that if I needed the whole day at the park, a short, direct train ride to a nearby city, with easy connections to Hamburg the next morning, was preferable to a long train journey and arriving in Hamburg really late at night.

Dortmund

I had a hotel across the street from the train station, so just checked in and went for a wander/food. Meh, nothing to the place at all, which was totally fine since it was literally a place to sleep for the night.

My hotel room looked right onto some football museum. No idea or interest.

 

[Hixee]

And here I was, eager for a Schlossbeck review.

 

[gavin]

^ I did call in for the cred on the way out, but as I was typing the report realised that I hadn't uploaded any pictures (I maybe took 3) and couldn't be arsed to dig my camera out again.

It's actually a cute little place. I thoroughly enjoyed my 15 minutes there.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Great report so far. I'm glad I missed the show at Phantasialand. Didn't even realise it was there! It is wonderful to see the Taron fan club grow.
I thought Cologne was nice, but I ended going back to the Airport 2 hours early after half a day there as I ran out of things to do/see (and that's with the Christmas Markets on.)

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Nice to see some Gavin sarcasm directed towards European parks for a change. Koblenz looks a good spot for a few hours. I plan to try Wuppertal this year instead though as the suspended railway 'cred' appeals.

Welcome to the cult of Taron. Good to see someone else enjoyed it outside of the Live bubble and prove it stands up on it's own merits. As for Mystery Castle's cycle, I think I've heard somewhere that they run much better cycles from the late afternoon.

I too had a fairly decent ride on Vampire. Was totally shocked that an SLC was enjoyable. But I've heard bad things from others so maybe it's a bit hit and miss.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

It's cool to have your perspective on German parks indeed. Must be quite shocking to go from Chinese operations to Germans! Glad you loved Taron too.

Your comment on Bandit raise me a question about the worst woodies you've ridden. Old US classics or poorly maintained Japanese ones?

 

[gavin]

^ Japan doesn't have many woodies, but Jupiter is the worst I've done in any country. I'd even say it was worse than White Canyon before that was demolished and that was quite horrific. In the USA, it's not usually the oldest that are the worst. Both Hurlers, for example, were appalling but not particularly old.

 

[roomraider]

^ Japan doesn't have many woodies, but Jupiter is the worst I've done in any country. I'd even say it was worse than White Canyon before that was demolished and that was quite horrific. In the USA, it's not usually the oldest that are the worst. Both Hurlers, for example, were appalling but not particularly old.

Well as you saw they gave it brand new PTC trains just after you went.... then it killed someone.
So as it's Japan it will probably closed for a few years now.

 

[nadroJ]

Agreed about Bandit, it's just really not that bad at all. Anybody who thinks this is horrendous it's a shame you'll never get to ride Hurler at KD. Awful piece of ****.