A trip for the milestone – Germany – August 2023

[Hixee]

This’ll be a short-ish trip report. It was a short trip, and I’m not going to write masses, but I do like wrapping these up with a little report. Whilst I didn’t aim for a specific coaster for the milestone for this trip, it was a trip I’d been keen to do for some time to visit these parks and I was keen to bump myself over #800.

Plus, mostly just an excuse to post the photos.

Day 1 – A berry lovely day - Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal

After a bit of airport faff, I went to pick up the rental car:

Ah, that’s not ideal.

Back to the terminal, and a bit of laughter with some very confused staff, and I was back on my way with an alternative. Short drive got me to Karls a little after midday. Loads of these places, and they’re well documented on here by now, but here’s my two cents - what a charming little park!

The large shop/market type entrance is unique, but also quite nice and once I’d wrapped up all the coasters I enjoyed wandering around before I left.

Coasters wise, the selection is small. The standout coaster – by quite some margin – is the original coaster here, K2. With it’s small but comfortable trains and smooth, fun and bouncy layout, it was hard not to be left with smile!

The rest of the coaster selection (barring the two tiny coasters that have an enforced 40kg weight limit, writing those off) wasn’t anything particular interesting, though I will applaud the very ‘on brand’ big apple strawberry.

Picked up some strawberry wine, a few miscellaneous bits of candy and made my way down to Leipzig – my nightly base for the trip.

Ended up enjoying plenty of wine that evening in a lovely Airbnb and felt thoroughly relaxed heading to bed that evening.

Straightforward park-only day next!

 

[Hixee]

Day 2 – The milestone - Belantis

A relative stone’s throw from Leipzig, giving a very chilled start to the day, is the park of Belantis. To be honest, the approach to this park is not the most enticing. It feels somewhat run down, the car park is fairly uneventful, and as the car park is part of a wider ‘nature park’ (or whatever the Germans would call it) there’s a sense of not really being sure you’re at a theme park. Thankfully it was still relatively quiet, so parking near the entrance makes life a bit easier.

The start to the day was a little bit damp with scattered showers, so as I headed in I was prepared for a damp day.

Arbitrarily headed right at the entrance, so got to their Egyptian themed area first. The coaster was pleasant enough with a fairly detailed queue, but of course the rapids/boat ride is probably Belantis’ most well known ride.

The ride experience itself is a little odd. I was expecting the drop to be the big finale (as if often the case on water rides), but in fact it’s the first [of two] big elements. The boat is strange – it moves, flexes and slides around in the trough during the drop. It lacks the sense of rigidity that traditional log flumes have, whilst luring you into thinking it should. The drop itself wasn’t earth-shattering, but it was genuinely quite fun. Glad I’ve ticked this ride off now – I enjoyed it. Later in the day it built up quite a large queue as the weather had improved, but otherwise I’d have happily taken a second (or third) lap.

At this point I (foolishly) decided to simply lap the park. In retrospect it’d have been easier to double back past the entrance and head straight for Huracan. Instead I walked the long way round! Especially as the bobsled was down on my first pass (though I’d have gone past it heading for the milestone now).

So there we have it, drawn into view, the very red Gerst.

I’ll be honest, in general I think Gersts are a bit turd. Their shaping is trash, their trains are uncomfortable and I’m not a big fan of beyond vertical drops (from anyone, let alone them!). This was, I’m afraid to say, by all accounts, run of the mill. It was alright – I went back for a second lap later in the day, but definitely not getting anywhere near a Top 50 (lucky if a Top 100, to be honest). Still, #800 in the bag.

From across the lake I’d spotted the bobsled running (again, ignored the 40kg limit kiddie coaster manned by a stern old man), so made my way over for that. Enjoyable, but repeatable. That said, this really is one of the only coaster models (including the ‘new’ versions) Gerst should bother making – it’s the only stuff they make that is actually fun!

Now, I fancied a break at this point. I’d got all the creds, the park wasn’t busy, and this ‘nature park’ thing was intriguing me. In particular, this observation tower in the middle of the woods: link.

And well, fair play, the views were rather nice.

I headed back to the car (to drop off water bottle and some lunch food stuff) and made my way back into the park. Took another lap riding the bobsled and Eurofighter again, before taking some pictures and calling it a day.

Easy peasy plain sailing. More like that please!

I dropped the car off at the Airbnb, and then went for a wander into central Leipzig. All very charming and pleasant, though I will say disappointing slightly that there was some massive festival thing going on in the town centre with copious amounts of beer varieties going and not a single gluten free option. Maybe I’m disillusioned living in Bristol where I’ve not struggled to get a pint in years!

Next up is another straightforward park-only day.

 

[Hixee]

Day 3 –The day I expected to be the faffiest – Freizeitpark Plohn

Now, I say the faffiest – park was the furthest drive (albeit not really that far), it was a Saturday and the weather was decent, and it was the park with the most coasters. All manageable, but equally could all conspire against me!

Park entrance was much more inviting that Belantis, and crowds weren’t looking too bad when I first parked up. Headed straight into the park (note – they have a policy of no re-entry (including hand stamps and whatnot) to the park, so lots of people brining truckloads of supplies in for the day) and straight up the hill towards the coasters.

First up was their modified Zierer with the extended pre-lift section. This was surprisingly well (albeit strangely) themed, and I was glad to have got on it early as later in the day had built up quite a queue.

Up the hill towards the main draw of the park – El Toro. Up into the station and… perfect!

Must have been on one of the first trains of the day, but even with little warming up this coaster was flying. It ripped through its layout, with great pops of airtime and laterals. I had no idea what the layout was too, which was also refreshingly fun! For me it was great in the front and back, but the front just pipped it for me (as is often the case with GCIs).

Following the path round the back of El Toro and there’s a great little viewing tower of the first drop too, which is a nice touch.

Quite a lot of netting around the various paths from there down towards Dynamite, but chose to embrace it for artistic merit.

Okay – on to the second big coaster. Queue initially looked sizable, but to the credit of the staff they were smooth and efficient in their operations and it turned out to be only about 15 minutes. I didn’t know much about this coaster other than “oh that other BigDipper they built in Germany – it’s red, right?” – so the layout was entirely unknown to me.

First drop was decent, and the mix of forces through the turnaround and helix into the loop were well balanced. The loop and zero-g combo was good and it was quickly into the brakes. Overall a solid little coaster, but I can’t help but feel like it could have done with another couple of elements before the brake run. Not wanting it to drag on, but conversely it felt like it’d just gotten going and it was all over.

At this point you’ll have to excuse the lack of photos as I didn’t seem to have any of any huge merit, but you’re not missing much. I basically took a lap round all the other coasters. In summary:
Family Coaster : Wacky Worm. +1. Next.
Miniwah: This was a highly themed indoor powered coaster. It starts with a slow lap past all the set pieces (making me feel a bit like it was more of a dark ride than coaster!), but as the train rounded the final corner towards the platform it set off like a rocket for another two laps. It was overall really quite enjoyable and I had a great big grin on my face!
Drachenwirbel: SBF Visa crap. +1.

At this point I’d done a full lap of the park and there wasn’t much else jumping out to me (I couldn’t really be bothered with the [frankly mediocre looking] water rides), so I headed for another couple of laps on El Toro and Dynamite before calling it a day.

If they’d had a normal re-entry policy I may have taken a break for a bit and come back in for an hour or so later, but in the end I decided to head back to Leipzig and have another chilled evening. What I had half expected to be a bit faffy, ended up being a super easy day.

Final day next.

 

[Hixee]

Day 4 – A hop across the boarder – Majaland Kownaty

Right then, keen to wrap this short trip report up.

Not too far off the route was the Heide clone that was built in Poland a few years ago. Once I’d scoped out the rest of the trip, this seemed logically like the only time I’d ever really be anywhere near it on a coaster trip, so I packed up early and made tracks towards Poland. Most the driving was in Germany, effortlessly zooming up the autobahns before the traffic started to build. Once in Poland it was only another 30-40 minutes or so, so really quite straightforward.

Weather had grown increasingly grim on the way, and on arrival at Majaland I wasn’t entirely sure anything would be open. Poked my head in the main entrance and everything seemed to be all systems go with staff busily getting the park ready for opening. Bang on 10am they opened the gates and I was off.

Very reminiscent of Toverland/indoor Plopsalands, unsurprisingly, but I wasn’t here for that stuff first. Headed straight outside to see if the woodie was running – not feeling optimistic at this point. Once outside it’s hard to miss, and sure enough only a moment later a train ascended the lift hill with a lone ride-op on board. I made my way into the queue/station and was enthusiastically greeted by two young ride-ops who triple checked I wanted to ride in the rain. I can’t say I did, really, but I had little choice.

The coaster was decent, as is it’s original version, and in the wet it was keeping up some good speed throughout. It was a quite enjoyable experience overall, but definitely on the wetter side. I hopped into the back seat (the ride-ops said I could do whatever I wanted – I was the only one there), and then decided it was probably time to get the indoor coaster.

This was, by all accounts, pretty run of the mill too. Nicely themed, but simple hardware. I had a little mooch about the rest of the indoor park, which looked nice and was being looked after, but the attraction selection wasn’t huge. Most of the outdoor park was a write off on a day like today.

I did go for another two laps on the woodie before calling it a day and it dawned on me the second time that the theming isn’t massively in keeping with the rest of the park. I don’t know (and didn’t care to know enough to look it up) if the werewolf thing is part of a wider Plopsa chain thing, but it definitely contrasted the rest of the park. Anyway, another front and back solo ride done, and it was time to go. I was wet and getting cold, and wanted to leave myself plenty of time to do the usual rental car faff at the airport. Turned out to be smooth sailing enough, and a few hours later I was back at home. Happy days.

I’ll do a short summary post soon.

 

[Hixee]

Summary

New creds: 14
Total creds: 23
New parks: 4
Total parks: 4

Milestones:
800th coaster – Huracan, Belantis
175th park – Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal

Best Park: I’d probably say Belantis, actually. I didn’t really jibe with Plohn that much – perhaps the day overall at Belantis was better… not sure. Overall they were both pretty decent regional parks, though.

Best Cred: El Toro, I reckon.

And the route(s):

Green = Transportation, Blue = Nights, Red = Parks

Cheers for reading – hope you enjoyed the pictures too.

Got another one – maybe a bit longer – to Denmark to try and write now!

 

[Matt N]

Great report @Hixee; I’m glad you managed to get your milestone!

Out of interest; if you’ve done Lost Gravity at Walibi Holland, how does Dynamite compare? It’s never a ride I’ve heard an awful lot about, which is surprising given that it’s a new Mack and Lost Gravity is generally quite well received, for the most part.

 

[Hixee]

Out of interest; if you’ve done Lost Gravity at Walibi Holland, how does Dynamite compare? It’s never a ride I’ve heard an awful lot about, which is surprising given that it’s a new Mack and Lost Gravity is generally quite well received, for the most part.

Dynamite feels like half of Lost Gravity really. Length is the major thing setting them apart, and Lost Gravity wins that argument. They're fun, but personally I don't think they're amazing.

 

[Hutch]

Good work on collecting those lesser-known parks/creds. Being on the eastern side of Germany & Poland, that area seems like a bit of a lull that makes it tough to tie in with other parks on the western side. Sounds like a pretty solid long weekend to clump those together!

Looking forward to the Denmark report!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

The boat is strange – it moves, flexes and slides around in the trough during the drop. It lacks the sense of rigidity that traditional log flumes have, whilst luring you into thinking it should.

Part of what I loved about that ride, along with the overly harsh water braking at the bottom of the drop. It's just that little more more unnerving than your average water ride. Shame Belantis have basically done nothing but close their Madhouse since I was there what, 7 years ago now.

Cracking photos, as always.

 

[HandsUpPantsDown]

Thanks for the report! It really is tragic how poor the offering is in East Germany, to say some of the biggest cities in the country are there. It's still recovering from reunification clearly. But there is hope, Plohn have announced expansion, Karl's have their new (albeit family) 'Bibi & Tina' park coming soon, and it's feels like Belantis are coming up to their turn to get some investment from Parques Reunidos, fingers crossed, but I doubt there'll be anything significant unfortunately

 

[ECG]

Good stuff as usual @Hixee - now you need to update your coaster count (which is still listed as 766)
I think El Toro is one of the most over-looked small footprint woodies, so it's nice to hear that it's running as good as it ever has.

 

[Hixee]

Good stuff as usual @Hixee - now you need to update your coaster count (which is still listed as 766)

Too many places to update! Thanks for the spot!

 

[gavin]

I thought I was the only person to prefer Belantis over Plohn. I'm sure expectation, or lack of, had a lot to do with it, but I had a better day out at Belantis.

 

[Hixee]

I thought I was the only person to prefer Belantis over Plohn. I'm sure expectation, or lack of, had a lot to do with it, but I had a better day out at Belantis.

I think objectively Plohn is the better park - better coasters and better scenery/setting - but I just much preferred my day at Belantis as it felt more relaxed and the weather turned out great.