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Hixee

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Hopefully you all had a spooky and special weekend! Looking forward to hearing about the trip!
 
Conor and I are spending a few days in Berlin so I'll just post some highlights for now:

THEME PARK DOGGOS
Launching out of Fluch to the park all lit up for the night
'What's your favourite kind of fish - selfish!'
Arse-slide
Everyone making 'noises' on Krake
Bum Bum for two!
Ridiculous but amazing Hansa Park show
SPARKLERS
Ian missing the fire at Movie Park
Everyone ****ting themselves on Karnan

What a fab few days! I love Halloween.


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Thanks guys for yet another incredible GhosterForce! Absolutely shattered after adding on Phantasialand yesterday and not getting home till 4am, so it's highlight time until I get enough sleep to process the magic that was our second Halloween trip outside the UK. Cheers again Ian for all the organisation and hard work. Big thanks to Hansa Park for their wonderful welcome, the discounted entry, the goodie bags, building Kärnan, and just generally being fab :D

Kärnan being legitimately ****ing amazing!
Everyone having the fear (when do you ever see goons that terrified?)
Having to swipe away a little tear on the lift hill
Theming? Coaster? Have a cred that does both.
Kärnan's selection room (and cheating it)
Raik not rape
*in opera voice* Novoogoroood
So many pitch black coaster sections (Kärnan, Novgorod, Van Helsing, filled-in Spite Hawk)
Dogos! Floof!
Mulled wine rather than drop tower
Just 'family friendly fun'
Flying out over the lit-up Hansa park on nighttime Fluch
Fluch's station
The 'planted date'! WTF?
The fab band at Hansa's entrance
Everyone actually liking Movie Park
Movie Park's fab costumes and make-up
Heide's bizarre mass of white creds
Finally getting Limit
Schloss Beck spite (again!)
Spinning sheep skull playground equipment
Fluch's maze exit (and the cretins hiding in it)
All of the amazing music, both in the parks and during the car journey
Trying to make the ultimate Halloween playlist
All of the terrifying animitronics (from the barely moving scarecrow to the hidious aliens in Bermuda Triangle)
Mildrid's Schlong
Great theme park food all trip
Hansa Park's incredible welcome (and how proud they were, coming to find us again to show off their award)
Goodie bags!
Hansa's CEO still being there after the fireworks directing people at the front gate
Hansa being gorgeous all lit up at night
Serena getting her foot spited by the water maze
Gooning out in the Star Trek queue
Being initially underwhelmed by the view of Star Trek; riding it and finding out it was actually fab
The 'so crap it was good' Halloween theming, especially the seagulls and lobster
Ian baldly going
Ian's bell ride
The fabulous sparklers appearing during Hansa's end of day show
Cockfight!
The dolphin character and everyone cheering for him
Right wing-rider Dan
Bum-bum
Re-living Krake and it's mist/missed
Thinking every big tower on the way home was Kärnan

Only negatives:
Evening Kärnan spite
Two SLCs in two days
Heide park spiting the fairytale boat ride
Getting a jacket potato actually swimming in sour cream
The un-immersive tunnel
Never enough sleep
Having to go home
 
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Still recovering, Thanks everyone, especially to Sue for being chauffeur extraordinaire!! I think I need a few days to Process everything - here are some of my highlights:-

Having a new top 5 Park (Hansa Park)
Movie Park Germany is actually quite fab
Startrek is 'Zupar' fun - congrats Mack and MPG
2 fab rapids in 4 days (Mystery river and River Quest)
excellent scare actors at MPG - and the 2 fab scare mazes I went through, very slick!
2 Creepy retro water dark rides - Bermuda Triangle and Movie tour
Heide Parks Landscaping and Halloween Decor - much more picturesque than expected
Krake!!
our VIP treatment and greeting from the CEO's at Hansa Park
Karen - say no more, an experiential ride with a solid coaster section
Fluch Von Novgorod - that is all!!
Spending 11 hours at Hansa Park, everyone being worried there wasn't enough to do.... but not getting everything in!! (both a positive and a negative)
Hansa Parks Autumnal light installations (and the boat ride through them)
the light Parade inc a mini Karnan float complete with fire-works
Random High energy evening show and fireworks - 'Cockfight Anal party'
BumBum for two!!
Fab vintage Schwarzkopf 'super' coaster - Nessie - long may she live!
rats-on-rails theming on the log flume at Hansa
mostly 5 and 10 min queues all day at Phantasialand
Taron is still fab!
The Fab Phantasialand 50 year anniversary mash-up CD - and playing it full blast with windows down whilst leaving the car park!
watching little kids literally just LIVING for new kiddie coaster 'little Tsar' at Hansa
random 'ministry of sound' raving space-themed dogems at Hansa - with confusing point scoring system - everyone was confused!
The Bell-end ride at Hansa (although the low through-put is a negative)
two fab enclosed coasters (Van Helsing and Winjas)
THE WEATHER!!...so lucky, beautiful on all four days!


Negatives
Walking around all day in squelching shoes after Chiapas - only to have them 're-soaked' on River Quest! lol
only one ride on Taron - and not being able to pick the back row
not getting to see everything at Hansa, and no time for night rides on Karnan
everything at Phantasialand shuts at 6 on the dot inc shops and catering i.e. finding a drink and snack to leave with was problematic
the 'bearded lady' good witch animatronic head on Movie tour being spited (now just generic pretty head)
two wild mice coasters;(
The blue tunnel queue line on mystery river!
Schloss Beck Spite!
Park face, sleep deprivation and theme-park food induced IBS!.....JOY!! lol
Colossus Spite - and it brazenly being like 'heeeeey' in the background!
Going on the kiddie-monorail at phantasialand thinking we'd get a cheeky view of the New F.L.Y site - but confronted by wall spite!!.... although got a glimpse from Colorado Adventure!
 
Given how attentive the staff at Hansa park were, I have to wonder if they'll read this forum looking for feedback or comments. They did copy-paste the CF logo after all, so they have visited the site!

I wonder what they'll think "Cockfight Anal party" would be be referring to!

If someone from the park does read this, then THANK YOU so much for the awesomeness.
 
Alright, let's report this fab trip :)

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Part 0: Phantasialand

Although not an official part of GhosterForce, many people from CF added a stop to Phanta before the main event. The temptation to return there and get more night Taron craze was too much!

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This was Rachel's first visit to the park, and her excitement was infectious! It's always a special feeling for me to return there and enjoy unique creative theming and rides, but to share the experience with someone who's never visited before added to my joy and certainly made me proud of my favourite park :D We also met @CSLKennyNI, which was a real pleasure. Really cool guy with great insights on the park and the German coasters in general ;)


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Starting with Maus au Chocolat allowed us to avoid long lines there, and therefore the high-pitch mice noises didn't get too annoying. I find this shooter dark-ride to be a lot of fun, despite the shoulder pain it indulges and despite my actually terrible aiming skills!



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The walk to Wuze Town includes a stopover near the much-discussed F.L.Y. sign. Winjas was good family fun as usual. It has a lot of gimmicks, but it truly adds to the experience instead of being a marketing overhype. Only complaint is that the cars are really narrow, even for a skinny dude like me :eek:

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We cleared off this side of the park with two of its more dated rides: Temple of the Night Hawk and Hollywood Tour. I suppose that, along the Berlin entrance, Phantasialand will work on refurbishing this zone to bring it to the standards of the park. Temple is actually fairly smooth and has some decent pace, but its family-ish layout calls for much more theming than a ride in the complete dark with no effects whatsoever.


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Chiapas is for me what a flume ride should be. Gorgeous, immersive theming and music that keeps you entertaining throughout. The disco part never ceases to keep me excited!


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After that, I split a while from the group to take more pictures and off-ride videos, we rejoined for Mystery Castle. The launch took me by surprise as I was expecting some more wait before the boost kicks off. I know it's part of the theming, but I wish it weren't so dark during the actual ride experience, so you could see the others as you drop and launch up again during the short program. Still a creative and exciting take on the usual drop tower/space shot type of attraction!



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We walked through the Klugkheim zone but did not ride the gem Intamin yet. Not exactly sure how we resisted the temptation with so many breathtaking interactions with the ride, but I also remember Rachel really really wanted to make Taron her #300!


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Colorado Adventure was I believe her final stepping stone before reaching 300. I still like this Mine Train very much, the long layout provides a enjoyable ride. However, Big Thunder Mountain in Paris did have more of a wild out-of-control feel since its rehab. The banking on Colorado is funky at times. You have some wonky laterals which gets really fun during the dark section. Not having hard OTSR on an old Vekoma (and no inversions either) really helps I suppose!


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Can we ride Taron now then? Yessss!!!

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After that exhilarating Night ERT last April, I was curious to ride again the much-praised Intamin Blitz. Predictably, it wasn't as intense at noon, but Taron still surprises me, notably with the wicked change of direction right after the first airtime hill! Really snappy twist coming after a dive under some building so you can't really see it coming if you're not familiar with the layout.


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I split again from the group for the launch break. I was planning to shoot more videos of Taron, but a 5 minutes wait for single riders decided otherwise... Not gonna refuse such a treat! Did 3 more solo rides then, and also grabbed a front row ride on Raik, which does have a twisty bit of its own. It's a cool extra really :)


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Black Mamba
at the front was still remarkably forceful. The layout is kinda generic, but very enjoyable nonetheless. The drum beat playing as the train exits the station always makes me more excited! Did a couple more re-rides later in the day which confirmed my positive thoughts about the Invert.


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I somehow forgot to take a picture of Talocan on fire. Such a spectacular thrill ride and once again, the scenery and atmosphere really enhance the experience there!


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Onto the final "new" attraction of the day: I never did Hotel Tartuff in 7 previous visits to Phantasialand. :eek: It's very easy to miss it and mistake it for yet another merch store in the Main Street. The CF lively atmosphere made the Fun House quite fun actually!

The rest of the day was re-rides so let's skip to the most exciting part...

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Exclusive rides on Taron for the hotel guests, yay! I have to say, while the coaster does feel less borderline insane than before, I still get the adrenaline rush that makes me run in excitement from the station exit to the ride's gates all across the empty line again and again. The epic fanfare, the magnetic roars, and a twisty fast-paced layout really kept me excited during the whole hour. I ended up riding Taron 10 times during that session, and 15 times the day overall.


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Other goons didn't seem to disagree either! Fab CF live atmosphere <3

I really can't help making endless reports, can I? Over to the rest of you guys, looking forward to your reports too :)
 
It certainly was a great trip!

Movie park:

Highlights:
Bandits' retracking turning a juddery ride into a fun ride
The mack goodness that is star trek
Van Helsing's twisty brutalness
creepy log flume
Beautiful rapids
No walk of shame on high fall (and it being utterly fabtastic) - new number 1 drop tower
The fab in your faceness of the scare actors around the park
Slaughterhouse - best scare attraction ever!

Lowlights:
Missing 2 scare mazes, and no time for rerides
ball pain on high fall
MP xpress - think the MP stands for "Much Pain"

Overall - the park was much better than on the last visit - bandit's improved, and I would certainly make an effort to revisit! The Halloween stuff wasn't quite as good as Walibi Holland last year, except for slaughterhouse

Missed Heide park (awkwardness getting there)

Hansa park:

Highlights:
The welcome and gifts
Karnan's surprise elements
Karnan's theming
Karnan's coaster section
The new theming on fluch since the last live
The welcome from the CEO
Karnan
Midgaaard
even the kiddy cred was nice
Karnan
Fluch at night
No walk of shame on IFCs own ride
Fab burger and crepe
nice spins on karnapult
The lovely relaxing boat ride at night

Lowlights:
No karnan night ride
Not enough time for the porn ponies
the waiting faff after lunch
The fussy no glasses rules - particularly on kleine zar

Overall:
Hansa park has gone from a solid family park with a couple of good thrill attractions, to a fabulous place with immersive theming and a great mix of rides and attractions! And did I mention how good their hospitality was? and what about karnans fabness? ;)
 
Phantasialand then.
First time visit for me. I've heard a lot about it, from what I understand it's quite popular amongst the enthusiast community.
Is it true you get 10 trophy points for putting Phantasialand as your favourite park in the profile info? Outrageous!
Anyways, let's get one thing straight; it's all about Taron. No, it really is all about Taron. More excusively, it's all about night time ERT on Taron. Highlight of the trip, right there. When it comes to rollercoasters, Taron at night is one of the world's hottest tickets right now.
Here are some exclusive, never-seen-before viewpoints of Taron:
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I really liked Taron. If Efteling spent all day gently cradling my plums, Taron just grabs hold and goes straight for the cum shot. It's a dirty, slutty, slag of a ride that just begs to be ridden, hard and fast, over and over again, as many times as you can muster - it's fantastic! Ferocious airtime on those two hills, you know the ones I mean, THE hills, wow! Never experienced airtime like it. Seriously, if it wasn't for the lap restraint, I reckon you'd land somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin.
And the second launch, with its giant fart noise that puts even Conor to shame? Sublime!
I particularly liked how the seats are mounted quite high up, so even a lanky twat like me gets the 'floorless' effect, enhancing the airtime and the freedom of movement even further.
Yep, top 5 coaster for me, no doubt about it.
If you haven't ridden it yet, do the night time ERT. Just do it. No matter what it costs, it's worth it.

Josh and Chris really liked Taron.
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Rachel really liked Taron, too. Ian looks like he may have just jizzed.
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I wouldn't be surprised if that happens quite often on this coaster.
You know how some rides have staff on standby ready to mop up sick? Taron probably has people on standby ready to mop up jizz - it's that good.
"Wanted: Full time jizz mopper.
Apply in writing to Taron
Phantasialand
Germany".

Anyways, enough about Taron. It's not all about Taron you know, Phantasialand has other stuff too. There's the impossible-to-photograph Black Mamba too. Good coaster this, definitely one of the better B&M inverts out there. Better than Nemesis? Don't be silly, but possibly challenging Montu for 2nd best. Try and bag yourself a front row ride if you can - makes all the difference.
There's also Colorado Adventure, the mine train. It's good, I liked it, and you can at least get a semi decent photograph of it.
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Chav Chris really liked Colorado Adventure.
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Talocan is pretty good, but another one that's tricky to photograph. If you're too far away from it, something blocks the view, but if you're too close, you can't get it all in.
You can get the people:
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And you can get the fire:
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But you can't get the people and the fire in the same shot. Same goes for the high angle; people:
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And fire, but not the two together. Stupid Talocan. It's a good ride though. We liked it.
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Goons, assemble!
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This was taken shortly after River Quest. Good rapids ride, that. We liked it lots.
*Why does that entire area stink of sewage, anyone know? Answers on a pigeon, please.
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I try to avoid taking scenery photographs in portrait mode, but you can't really help it with Mystery Castle. Is it just me, or does it look vaguely like a giant cock and balls?
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Really good tower ride this, we liked it lots.

Chiapas is really good too, here are some exclusive, never-seen-before viewpoints of Chiapas:
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We had a go on the Winjas, they're not bad as spinners go, nippy, some nice track tricks, unusual location, yep, we liked them. I didn't take many pictures, this was the only one I took. Terrible, I know:
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But it's ok, Chris should have some better ones:
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Chris really likes Phantasialand.
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We had a go on Temple of the Nighthawk, but it was a bit sh*te so we'll gloss over that bit. Doesn't belong in this park anymore, it let's the place down a bit, as does that Crappy Boat Ride - the Hollywood Tour thing. Unlike Fat Morgan - Efteling's 1980's boat ride - the Hollywood Tour looks very run down and dilapidated. I'd wager that Alfred Hitchcock himself looks healthier than the clunky, perished animatronic in this boat ride. Hopefully someone will have taken a good picture so you can see what I mean. Pretty creepy to be honest.

We had a go on Maus au Chocolat. Great dark ride shooter this, very original, we liked it lots. Best dark ride shooter out there? Possibly. Didn't take any pictures though. We also had a trip through the funhouse. Love a good funhouse, me. They're always best when done in a large group of intrepid goons, few attractions can really gel a group together like a good funhouse. Dodgems, maybe, but little else.

Not a bad looking park, I guess:
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As the end of the day approached, it was time for a reride on Taron. Not everyone was staying behind for the ERT session see, so we had to get another go in for the plebs.
I was gonna take a nice picture of Dr Dave in the queueline, but then something more interesting happened above him:
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As we exited the ride, the sun started to set casting an eerie pale glow over Klugheim. Cue lots of goons lining up, waiting patiently for that perfect moment to catch a cheeky silhouette photo before calling it a day.
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Expect to see lots of pictures similar to this one over the coming pages:
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It was a fantastic day in a fantastic park, capped off by a seriously fantastic rollercoaster. Some of my favourite goons made it even better.
So far this trip was going really, really well.
Stay tuned for Movie Park shenanigans, coming soon. :)
 
@Howie i think you may be in for a chance for best trip reporter this year, your reports are hilarious!
I've just realised that the only thing I took photos of at Phantasia was Taron. Sorry if this is an essay!

Day 1
My trip started with a day in Phantasialand, which although wasn’t part of the official trip, quite few of us went and it was my first time so I’m gonna write about it here.

Let me start by putting something into perspective – I’ve spent the past year listening to people talk about how amazing the park is and feeling a bit left out of the Phantasia love. If it sounds like I didn’t like the park, then let me clarify now – I do. It’s just that my expectations have never been so high for a park and unfortunately it didn’t quite blow me away like I thought it would.

We started the day with Maus Au Chocolat, the park’s shooter ride. The queueline looked great and well themed although we did walk straight through it. Apart from the annoying shooting action which causes massive arm ache, the ride was really fab and anything that smells like chocolate is a winner.

Next we headed over to Winja’s to get these out of the way early. I loved the whole indoor area, it was very Toverland-esque except with coaster track everywhere above you. I can’t remember what order we rode them in, but I preferred the first (can anyone else remember?).The see-saw section of track was cool and unexpected and I loved the little bump at the end of the ride. I have too much of a soft spot for Dragon’s Fury to rate it better than that, but definitely one of my favourite spinners I’ve ridden.

We followed up with the worst 2 rides in the park starting with Temple of the Nighthawk. Ian asked me if I was still awake halfway through the ride, what a complete waste of time and space. Next was the Hollywood Boat Tour which was so awfully bad and dated. The sooner PHL spite these 2 rides and use the space for something worthwhile, the better.

The decision was made to head on over to the 2 water rides, starting with Chipias. The disco room was fab and the theming of the whole area is incredible. I just thought it dragged on a little bit too much with nothing really that interesting to look at. Also the supposed airtime hill on the drop – sorry but I didn’t feel it. The best part of the ride was at the end when we were coming into the station and we bumped into the boat in front – a wave came out of nowhere and absolutely soaked Dan.

I invested in a poncho for River Quest. Everyone was excited to see my reaction, what with me being a River Quest virgin. The drops were actually quite terrifying, I’m pretty sure I remember seeing Chris nearly getting flung out the boat at one point. The ride is hilarious and the sense of tension built as your about to go down the drops is brilliant, however I have the same problem with this as other similar water rides in that I just spend the whole time cowered up in a poncho not wanting to get absolutely soaked. It’s the same issue I have with Valhalla, like I never actually take in what’s happening on the ride around me and that spoils it a bit.

We got spat out into the Mystery Castle area (which stank of sh*t wtf). The queue line was superbly themed, complete with a headless woman. I didn’t realise that this shot you up first so that took me by surprise. Being in pretty much complete darkness made it a really odd experience, it was fab.

The goons were practically drooling over Taron now, however I had one more cred to get first (thanks for all doing that by the way, it must have been torture haha). I think on the way we did the Ghost Train which was so bad, I took the opportunity to rest my eyes for a few minutes. Colorado Adventure was so good though, probably one of the best mine train coasters I’ve ever been on. It reminded me aof a Woodie, there was bags of airtime in the back row especially over the drops and it throws you around but not in a painful way.

FINALLY it was time to ride Taron. Being a special occasion and all I asked Ian to join me for a front row ride. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to ride a coaster before, I was literally bouncing up and down with excitement. The first ride was so good. Not exceptional, but we’ll get to that later. I knew it deserved a place in my top 10, the launches weren’t as powerful as I’d expected but the airtime, twistiness and overall speed was enough to have me going round with a massive smile on my face.

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After I’d received my IFC celebratory handshake I think we got some food before heading to the parks other main coaster, Black Mamba. We queued for front which I think is always worth it on the more compact B&M inverts. I’m not really sure what happened, I didn’t enjoy it that much compared to everyone else who absolutely loved it. It was super intense and I got quite a lot of ear bashing so I found the whole thing a bit too much and actually quite disorientating. We did have another ride later and whilst it wasn’t as bad (I sat in a middle seat this time) I still didn’t like it.

I think we did the fun house next followed by Talocan. The fun house was cool, not the best one I’ve been in but worth a walk through. Talocan was brilliant, lots of spinning which is always the best part of these rides and we were facing the better way yess!

Some of the others rode Chipias once more before we headed back over to Klugheim so those who weren’t joining us for the ERT could get one more go on Taron. Oh and we did Raik, meh.

After that we said our goodbyes and those who were staying on went to sort out their hotel stuff, before meeting back up for the ERT. I say meeting back up, but none of us actually bothered to wait for the others as the temptation to get as many rides on Taron as possible was too much. It was without a doubt the best hour I’ve ever spent at a theme park, just a complete adrenaline from start to finish. At 6.30 the sun was just starting to go down, so we got the most incredible sunset rides, being launched through the sky to a backdrop of pinks, reds and oranges. By the time we finished it was completely dark and the coaster just takes on a whole new life. I felt like a rag doll in a complete daze, just having my body thrown all over the place. The sideways airtime in the first half is just a complete wtf moment, and the second launch in the front row, going so fast that the spray from the waterfall actually hurts. It was just perfect, everything that a coaster should be. So after 5 long years Taron has finally claimed the space of my number 1. Well done Taron.

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The group spent 10 minutes trying and failing to take a good group selfie before someone kindly offered to come and take a photo for us.

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After a long day we finished off with a nice meal in the Matamba buffet restaurant. Everyone else went off to the Dragon bar but I think I was overdosing on adrenaline and about to crash so I called it a night and went to bed early to be ready for the first day of the official live.
 
Yep, an hours ERT on Taron with goons at night is the perfect hour. Easily my best experience as an enthusiast, glad you all had a great time!
 
Yep, an hours ERT on Taron with goons at night is the perfect hour. Easily my best experience as an enthusiast.

Yeah, I think I'd go along with that... possibly tying for first place with those night rides on Helix last year. Trouble is, now what? Where next? How can we top that? o_O
 
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