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Getting spooky in Germany and Holland – October 2019 {Day 3 - Walibi Holland}

Hixee

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Okay so this is another basic bitch trip report – feels like I’m the last person on here to go ride Untamed! I’ve been to these parks before, and the weather wasn’t spectacular this weekend, so I’m afraid this won’t be quite as picture heavy as I normally manage, but had a good trip liked up with @Ben, Sam and a few others though so hopefully this’ll be engaging enough to scroll through.

Day 1 – Movie Park Germany

Day started with a disgusting (and I mean dis-gus-ting) departure from Bristol. Flight was grotesquely early in the morning, staff at the airport were foul, and they made us walk across the tarmac to the plane in a miniature typhoon. Awful.

In Schiphol soon enough, and after a little bit of car faff we were on our way in our enormous Outlander PHEV. Lovely stuff.

Last time we’d been to Movie Park we’d been spited by Star Trek (basically just Germans being uncharacteristically lazy), so that was first order of business. On the way, stopped for a quick go on Van Helsing as it was a walk on. This one is great, despite some hilariously vicious corners in the dark.

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I do like how Star Trek is framed at the park entrance, although it’s barely visible from most of the rest of the park.

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Good theming of the outside of Van Helsing.

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Not so much for Star Trek – very cheap feeling, sadly.

Star Trek was alright, in the end. Mack launches aren’t ever up to much, but the reverse spike was good and the ride had some halfway decent forces in places. The airtime out of the first inversion and high-speed corner thing being the highlights. We rode towards the back, and I’m sorry to say that it had an awful vibrate-y rattle to it – definitely not what I’d expect from a Mack. We all agreed that whilst it’s a good ride, it’s not really substantial enough to be the park’s flagship coaster – they are in dire need of something just a little more powerful.

With that done, it was time to wrap up a few more of the creds for the others who hadn’t done them – thankfully not goons though (yet!) so no need to ride everything. Took a quick spin on Bandit which was just as stupid as before – in other words bouncy, rough and fun! Ben took Ryan on the SLC for some insane reason, but the more sensible of us decided to sit that one out.

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One of the least bouncy drops.

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I’m not trusting those smiles...

We wandered around for bit, grabbed a bite to eat, met spooky SpongeBob and then headed to Area 51.

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@Ben.

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Area 51’s revamped platform.

Admittedly when I rode Area 51 as Bermuda Triangle back in 2017 it didn’t have much of an effect on me. The recent retheme didn’t really ring any major bells, other than that the whole thing feels a bit more polished around the edges. Frankly, though, most of the enjoyment of this ride comes from the people you ride it with – and with some mildly more intense splattering that we were expecting there was plenty of drama from the group. A trip to the drying booth was in order, so I used the opportunity to make the most of Area 51’s placement to get some shots of Star Trek. Probably the best location for getting photos this – which is odd as it’s very tucked away.

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Even then, the angles aren’t amazing.

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Almost a reverse-flying-snake-dive… almost.

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The final corkscrew is rather good.

It was just about time for all the Halloween stuff to start, so we made our way to the main stage for the kick-off party. Started with a lot of hype and build-up (which ran for quite a while longer than it felt like it would, to be honest), before all of the actors who’d be mingling around the park headed out on this really fab ‘release’ into the park. Cool way to kick the evening off, I have to admit.

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Disco tent.

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Some dancing.

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Only got one shot of them coming out – camera in the wrong mode (doh!) so couldn’t get the rest sharp. You get the idea though. Lots of impressive make-up - which apparently the performers all do themselves!

We spent the rest of the evening trying out all of the mazes. I won’t go into loads of detail, but I’ll give a brief summary of each one. Can’t really remember the order in which we did them either, so I’ll just do them alphabetically.

Campout: This was possibly the weakest of the attractions. The setting is interesting out in the woods, but there isn’t much more going for it. The scares were okay, but the use of whistles was a bit of an immersion breaker.

Circus of Freaks: Another one I didn’t particularly like. I appreciated the actor costumes, they were great and you had plenty of time to look at them, but I thought the scares were a bit weak (read: non-existent).

Hostel: This maze had a good theme and was well executed, particularly the ending escape/chaos. Had a good use of senses too, balancing light and dark, smells, noise and even water!

Insidious: The most notable thing about this was the size of some of the sets. The large open rooms made for a good tense attraction with us all being thrown by not even knowing the direction we were meant to walk in, let alone where the actors were likely to be. I don’t know the stories that well (I think I’ve only seen one of the movies), but was a good standalone attraction.

Project Ningyo: The new-for-2019 maze was a notable cut above the rest. The start in particular, with a great set with actors not scaring you (lab workers going about their business, kinda thing). Once the chaos ensues there are a few good sections and scares, but also a few slightly odd bits that only made sense to us as we’d had the tour with the designers beforehand!

Slaughterhouse: This was at the park when we visited a few years back, but still holds up as one of the better ones. The ending is particularly good with a huge fog-filled room for you to navigate through. By the end of the night, the fog had started to permeate through the whole maze – they were obviously getting their money’s worth from the smoke machine!

Walking Dead Breakout: This is their permanent attraction open year round, and it’s fair to say it’s got the most impressive sets – probably because they’re authorised (and paid for in part) by AMC. Scares this time, however, were few and far between. It felt like there were only half the number of actors there should have been – shame really…

Wrong Turn: This might have been my favourite idea. If you don’t know, and to avoid giving too much away, they turn the rapids trough into a horror maze which you navigate with your own interactive lamplight. Very cool concept. It wasn’t massively good from a scare perspective, but it was a unique experience.

General Scare Zones: This was where Movie Park Germany really excelled. They had a great variety of actors (although they must have had a good discount of baseball bats this season) walking around, creeping up on people, startling people, all the usual stuff. Their make-up and costume work was really impressive.

I’ll chuck some general pictures up now.

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The entrance to the main scare zone.

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The ‘main street’ area of Movie Park Germany.

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Here the actors wait at the entrance to the scare zone.

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Some of the areas were quite nicely decked up in Halloween theming too.

At this point it was time to head to the final closing show. Highlight was the fire, of course, but the whole thing was reasonably impressive. We’d been told that they had to stop the fireworks temporarily as the neighbours has kicked up a bit of a stink. The park were still trying to negotiate at the time of our visit.

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Fire and creds isn’t a bad shout.

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And lasers too, I suppose.

And that was that. Joined a pretty monster queue to get out of the car park, but once we’d filtered out of the bottleneck car park exit it was a smooth trip to our hotel. By the time we got in, we’d been on the go for about 20 hours, so we hit the sack for a much needed rest.

Movie Park Germany’s Halloween event was pretty good, really. With eight mazes and some impressive scare zones, the whole park felt like they’d done a good job of pulling everything together. The park itself is a bit naff – nothing inherently wrong, but nothing inherently good either. Don’t expect I’ll go back for a number of years now…

Next up is Toverland and all of the fun that entails.
 

Hixee

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Day 2 – Toverland

Now I like Toverland. I like it a lot. I think they’re proving themselves as one of the best parks in Europe, and if Avalon is their benchmark for future development then they’re one to watch. I guess competing with Phantasialand and Efteling does wonders for a park…

We had a very leisurely start in the morning, and arrived at the park around midday. First order of business was Troy, of course. Queue was probably only a 8-9 train wait, but they were running it on one train so wasn’t massively quick. Problem was they then decided to put the second train on… burdens! Just start the day with both trains – you know you’re going to need it. Anyway, Troy was running pretty well and it was good fun. Always good to start the day with a decent cred.

We minced around riding a few other rides (Booster Bike – lame, Blitz Bahn – fabulous, giant climbing frame things – silly), before making our way over to Avalon for Fenix.

Was a gloomier day than our visit last year, so pictures won’t be quite as pretty, but it did give me an excuse to take a few more experimental pictures. Fenix was great, again. I particularly like the airtime hill, that’s one of B&M’s finest moments. I’ve talked quite a bit, so let’s have some pictures.

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@Ben and Sam in the front row.

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Exiting the zero-g roll (Ben and Sam front left seats).

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Even on a cloudy day this ride looks lovely.

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Another artistic one – this time thanks to a longer zoom.

We were getting hungry, and not fancying the restaurant in the warehouse, the obvious choice was The Flaming Feather. Not only is the menu good, the food excellent (even if our eyes were much bigger than our bellies), but the restaurant itself is also beautiful. See?

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Nice entrance sign…

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…but the inside is just the best. It’s simple, but it’s nice.

Having had far too much to eat, we decided Merlin’s Quest was the right option next. Shame the indoor section is so short, as it’s really quite impressive. Thankfully when you’re floating about outside you at least get some great views of Fenix. As do the surrounding paths.

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Got quite addicted to these blurry ones.

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How about a quadruple train blurry one? :p

We rode Dwervelwind and the rapids before heading indoors for the first of the mazes. Same as before, I’ll just chuck some thoughts up alphabetically.

The Dollhouse: Okay, horror maze in a fun house? This could be awesome! Understandably, but disappointingly, they have almost all of the fun house ‘effects’ turned off, but the setting still works moderately well. Sadly, the actual scares were pretty weak. They were few and far between, not particularly scary and predictable. Swing and a miss, sadly.

Fear the Woods: This was a very basic maze, but was the highlight of the night. The open woods setting with various monsters emerging from the trees was very effective. Only gripe really was the ‘tent’ scene – not through scare maze issues, but more just health & safety! If you are doing this maze, make sure you keep your head down as you go through the tents – there’s a spiteful bar halfway along that serves as a great place to whack your head/nose/neck/etc (delete as applicable based on how tall you are).

Trapped: This was awful. Like, the concept was good (horror maze in an actual corn maze), but the execution was dire. There was no guidance through the maze at all, with actors repeatedly scaring people into dead ends to the point where we ended up with a group of about 20 people literally stuck. It took far too long and the novelty wore off. God, it was so frustrating I can’t be arsed writing any more. Annoying.

General Scare Zones: In general the scare zones were a bit pants too, to be honest. The best was the marine section, as the costumes/make-up were great and the lighting, fog and soundtrack worked well. The rest of the scare zones were a bit… meh.

We didn’t do The Witches Forest as the queue was absolutely foul. We had a look and decided not to bother, night rides on Troy are always going to win that equation. Plus, we got a night ride on Troy while the fireworks show was going off, so that was special.

During all of this wandering around and riding stuff at night, I’d been snapping away. Got a few more pictures now before my closing thoughts.

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Troy looks amazing!

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But not as good as the trojan horse with fog, lights, zombie centurions, the works.

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Oh yes, that’s how you do a station fly-by!

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Spooky areas in the park.

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Fenix doesn’t photograph well at night – my camera didn’t like the blue lights at all!

So… Toverland…

The park is still as great as ever. I love it’s mix of rides, theming, non-ride attractions and food, all carried off well in a nice independent park. Really enjoy going to Toverland. Their Halloween event left a little to be desired, I have to admit. They definitely felt more on the budget end, and I wonder if in a few years’ time they’ll have dialled it in a bit more. Fingers crossed, as I think they have a lot of potential.

Late drive into the night this time, but arrived at our strange woodland hotel safe and sound (only one run-in with a sneaky speed bump on a country road).

Walibi Holland tomorrow, they have that RMC, you know?
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
Great pictures Hix, love those blurry train ones.
Looking forward to the Walibi/Untamed review. :)
 
Strange, we really enjoyed trapped, the fact there wasn't an obvious route and you got caught in dead ends, combined with the smoke, red lights and soundtrack made for a pretty good haunt I thought. I guess we got out quick enough to prevent the novelty wearing off, but I thought it worked pretty well.
 

Hixee

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Day 3 – Walibi Holland

Okay, time of the final day of this short trip.

Painless enough drive from the hotel to Walibi and we were soon heading into the grotty parking field with copious mud. Across the temporary bridge and through the burdenous security (although I will say their idea of closing up the ticket booths during Halloween to streamline the entrance was a good call) and we were on our way straight to the RMC. Why would we waste any more time?

Approach to the coaster is alright, but the framing of the logo with the lift hill and turnaround is pretty good – making for some good photo opportunities.

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The oh-so distinctive RMC rails.

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Untamed was looking nice with the autumn colours around too.

@Ben and I had been in touch with the park before the trip (part of the usual CF relationship building stuff), and the park invited us to film Untamed. There was a little bit of faff with the marketing people and engineers as we mounted the cameras, but in the end we got some nice footage for CF, which is now live the YouTube channel too.. This was our first ride on Untamed too – so a genuine reaction!



Now, you’ve probably already read dozens of trip reports detailing Untamed, so I’ll keep it reasonably brief. It’s flipping fantastic! I’m happy and sad to say that I think it’s a better ride than Storm Chaser. The layout does a bit more, and the twistiness flows better (it doesn’t really flow on Storm Chaser). Steel Vengeance and Lightning Rod are definitely better RMCs, but it might be the best after that – of the ones I’ve done. That said, if I had to choose between Wildfire and Untamed? I’d probably be on a flight to Sweden. This is leading me to think that I value the giant RMCs more…

Both front and back rows are brilliant, but I think front row actually wins it for me. I like getting the views and the airtime into the crazy hills.

Anyway, I digress. Untamed is brilliant. Not so sure I like the first inversion thing, but everything else is absolutely stellar. The airtime is relentless, layout is interesting and it’s wonderfully smooth. Knocked it out of the park.

I snagged a few more photos in the area, before heading around the rest of the park. I’ll just chuck them all here.

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I like how the sign is framed in front of the ride.

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This turnaround is great. Almost a perfect RMC job, I reckon.

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Oh yes, they are nice twists.

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Another angle where the autumn colours compliment the ride well.

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The view from the other side gives a good reflection shot.

We spent a fair bit of time between our initial rides on Untamed and the proper Halloween stuff kicking off riding everything else we were interested in in the park. Principally Goliath and Lost Gravity.

Goliath was running really well, and really makes me realise how pioneering these Intmain coasters were. Airtime wasn’t anything like the RMC, but given it’s age Goliath delivers better airtime than most coasters out there. Fantastic.

Lost Gravity? Not so much. It seems to have developed an awful shake throughout most of its layout, which horribly detracts from the ride experience. I’m a little worried about the lifespan of this coaster – at this rate it won’t even see a decade out. So much for prototypes, eh?

Some of the group wanted to do The Clinic – which just sounded totally awful to me – so I headed off with Ryan to ride a few other bits and bobs while the others did their allocated time slot. They reported back that it was fantastic, and I don’t doubt them, but not for me.

We did head into the Festival of Freaks for a bit during the daytime – mostly a win for hairstyles.

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That hair can’t be real, right?

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Oh nice! (And yes, I know it’s not real-real).

Right, time for a bit of spookiness.

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Let’s go!

I’ll start with the various mazes:

Below: I really don’t want to spoil much, but this was fantastic. It was one of the most unique scare attractions I’ve ever done, and the quality of the sets was second-to-none. It was a bit short, but I suppose that’s inevitable with a horror maze like this. Wading through the sewers getting attacked by all sorts of nasty beasties was, surprisingly, quite fun!

Camp of Carnage: Some of the sets in this attraction were quite impressive, particularly with their use of light and smoke to create a scary and disorientating environment. The scares themselves weren’t the best, but it was okay.

Haunted Holidays: I liked the theme to this one with lots of holiday themed scares throughout. I particularly liked the finale bringing all of the characters from the rest of the maze together into one room.

Psychoshock: I couldn’t really remember which maze this was without some Googling. I don’t think it was bad, but I think it was fairly generic. It did provide a good view of Untamed though…

The Villa: Based on lots of famous horror movies from across the years, this maze had lots of call backs to classic scares. I’ve not actually seen any of the movies in their entirety, but I have seen enough internet references to know the ‘important’ bits. I quite liked it for this reason, but I’m not so sure that it would hold up to much scrutiny.

General Scare Zones: Pirates Cove, Tangled Twigs and Villains were the highlights. The costumes were great, local lighting and sound effects were good and there seemed to be plenty of actors about. All in all rather good.

Okay, time to throw in a whole bunch of photos.

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Entrance to Twisted Twigs.

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I liked the lighting in this one.

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Don’t remember where this was… not one of the three areas mentioned above…

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The Clinic façade looks awesome.

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Firepit area was alright, improved by the live band, too.

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Pirates Cove had this neat UV lighting effect that came on every now and again.

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The actors have UV make-up on and their acting style changed with the light, cool eh?

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The Villains area had a lot of bright UV colours.

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Many of the costumes were impressive too.

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Ride might have been a bit of a dud, but it looked cool nonetheless.

After all of this, we decided for some final laps on the coasters. Lost Gravity was still pants – shame. Goliath was still fantastic – nice. Untamed was on top form too – flying round the layout almost to the point where the airtime was too intense for the little lap bars! Yes, RMC, that’s what I’m talking about. Photos a little harder at night, though.

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I do rather like the logo, especially in the giant letters.

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With the whole turnaround.

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The station platform is fantastic at night.

So that was that. Walibi Holland’s event was the best of the lot I think. Probably emphasised even further by the fact that they have two fantastic coasters in the park. Their scare zones were easily the best and their mazes were probably better than the other two parks.

We slithered out of the park about 45mins before the park actually shut, so missed most of the bother with the car park and we zoomed along to our hotel near Schiphol for our early flight in the morning. It’d been a manic weekend, and so Monday at work (after having landed that morning and gone straight to the office) was a bit grizzly, but all good fun in the end.

I’ll do one of those stats posts shortly with a little map. They’re always nice.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
Just a few points to make: firstly - really good report (would expect nothing less from you, Sir). Secondly - yes, isn't Untamed fantastic? So glad you liked it, superb coaster. Thirdly - I can't believe you didn't do The Clinic bro?? Trust me, I was just as apprehensive of it going in, but was so glad I did it in the end. I genuinely believe that it's one of the world's 'must do' theme park experiences. Simply brilliant.
And lastly - things that I wish I could unsee... but can't; @Ben 's belly flapping away in the wind on that rider-cam POV! ???
 

Hixee

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Summary

Time for some stats!

New creds: 2
Total creds: 11
New parks: 0
Total parks: 3

Milestones:
None!

Best Park: Toverland is the nicest park by a ****ing landslide, but Walibi Holland had by far the best Halloween event (both in terms of scare zones and mazes).

Best Cred: Untamed is utterly ridiculous and I loved it, so that, of course.

And the route:
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Green = Airport, Blue = Nights, Red = Parks/Activities

I think that’s it for the year now. Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Great series of reports @Hixee! Without even having ridden Untamed, your ridercam video really shows how strong that RMC airtime is!
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
Great stuff as always, particularly love the night pictures. Something I really need to become capable at one day.

I miss Toverland already.

Not sure what's going on with this Lost Gravity thing unless it's car dependent. Rode absolutely fine (and the same as it always had) the week before.

When a coaster tries to undress you, you know it's a good ride!
A philosophy I've lived by for several years now.
 
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