Amsterdaaam! Day 2 (Part 2): Duinrell

[TilenB]

Some two weeks ago (we left on 20th of August, came back on 26th) me and my dad went to Amsterdam. For dad it was more or less a business kind of trip (he attended the IEEE Sections Congress, if it rings any bells for any of you), whereas for my it was pure touristy kind of visit.

We woke up pretty early on relatively cold August Wednesday morning. Our plane took off at about 7:00 am and after switching planes in Frankfurt (there are no direct flights from Ljubljana to Amsterdam on Wednesdays) we landed at Schipol airport at around 1pm. After a relatively long wait for suitcases to arrive on the belts and some guessing on how public transport actually works in The Netherlands we finally came to the hotel just a bit after 3pm (luckily our hotel, Novotel Amsterdam City was situated close to one of the main railway stations, Amsterdam RAI).

After unpacking our bags, we still had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to go and visit Van Gogh's museum. Sadly the line for that one looked absolutely horrendous, so we opted on visiting Stendelijk (is the spelling correct?) instead. It's basically a modern arts museum and it has some works from famous artists like Chagall, Picasso and also the more abstract ones like Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman. Here are some of the works.

they also have chairs.

that's one jolly painting

I'm not quite sure on what's happening on this one.

Neither am I with this one. But those paintings makes some serious bucks.

Lego room!

''Your work looks kind of messy. Would you need a broom?''
''Yes, thank you. Now it's just right!''

Okay, I'm done now!

After that we took a tram to the city centre. On our way there we stumbled upon some Street dance kind-of show. It was pretty good, but I didn't take any photos of it.
When we came back to the hotel, we went straight for the opening dinner (actually, it was only the opening dinner for Region 8 (Europe, Africa, Middle East)) and thus finishing our relatively long day with some warm buffet served meals.

Day 2 (theme parks!) coming up in the following days...

 

[ThomVD]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 1: Travel and modern arts museum

Nice start of the report.

^ This is art?

Anyway, you've seen more of Amsterdam culture than I have probably.

It's "Stedelijk Museum", close enough

Looking forward to the next part!

 

[Ian]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 1: Travel and modern arts museum

I love Amsterdam. Despite only biting for stag dos, I've managed to squeeze in a few museums too. Not sure if I'd like that museum, looks too modern (read: poncy) for me. The Van Gogh museum was fab though.

 

[Darren B]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 1: Travel and modern arts museum

Did you grab yourself a whore whilst you were in Amsterdam?

That's aimed at Ian, however, TilySlo can answer that question too if he wants.

 

[TilenB]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 1: Travel and modern arts museum

^^ I didn't really enjoy Van Gogh's that much. But I'll come to that later.

^ And I also didn't grab any hookers while I was there. I think I'm not really allowed, since I'm still a few months shy of 18. But even if I could, I most probably wouldn't. I'm not really into this kind of stuff (and hopefully never will be).

So, for day 2. (featuring Drievliet and Duinrell)

After grabbing a quite breakfast bite at the Congress centre, I've made my way to the Amsterdam Zuid railway station. When once at the congress centre both stations are about the same distance from where I was. So I opted to go to Station Zuid, thus saving 1€ on a metro ticket. But it didn't go that well, since I've spent a considerate time walking in the exact opposite direction from the one I actually should go.

Oh, well. All's well that ends well. I'd caught my train and got to the Hague at about 9:30. From there on I continued my way by tram.
Here are some shots of little of the city I've managed to see from the tram.

After some 20 minutes of tram riding, I'd finally arrive at the station 9292 suggested as being the closest to the park. After some 27 rotations around my axis, I've managed to spot a road sign leading to the park and followed it. Drivliet really has an awkward location, somewhere in the middle of an industrial zone, without any skyline dominating attractions.

After another few minutes of walking, this came to view.

Yay, theme park

Just as when I approached the entrance, it started to rain. It was just a light drizzle, nothing heavier, but still a bit annoying. First thing upon entering the park was finding my way to the wild mouse, where we agreed with ThomVD to meet up (yes, I wasn't visiting all by myself). But that part of the park was still closed. So, there I was, standing in front of a sign, that indicated that the rides in the other part don't open with the park, pondering what shall I do next. I turned around and spotted some guy in a raincoat walking towards me. 'Twas Tom!

After the initial greetings, we agreed on riding the KMG Afterburner, here called Nautilus. For me, it was nothing special, but Thom said it was his favourite ride in the park (or was it Formule X?). At least the rain had stopped by the time we disembarked and Twistrix opened as well.

It is a really unusual roller coaster. As of my knowledge also the only one of its kind that have come from Maurer Söhne+s factory. Other than being intriguing due to its uniqueness, it is a really bland and uninspired ride. I mean, it's slow, the cars barely spin and is also quite short and not-too-well-themed. 3,5/10

The next ride we did was the Mack powered cred, here named Dynamite Express. It was quite fun and fast and overall much better than Twistrix. If I'd compare it to the other two Mack Custom Powered coasters, I'd say that it's better than Runaway Mine Train, but still falls behind Alpenexpress. 6/10

After Mack came another Maurer - Kopermijn. It's basically a relatively mild off the shelf wild mouse from the Bavarian manufacturer. I'm not a big fan of Wild Mice (with the exception of Matterhorn Blitz and the wooden one in Blackpool) and this one was no exception. At least the trim before the lower part was on, so it wasn't as painful as the one in Prater. All in all, just another +1. 5/10

Upon exiting Kopermijn, we went straight for Formule X, the biggest of the park's coasters. There was a reason behind choosing Formule X as the last of the credits we did, it was Thom's 50th cred!

Goon's wet dreams

Overall it is a really fun and enjoyable little coaster. Launch was relatively strong and the inversions are taken with just the right amount of pace. My favourite part of the ride was the airtime hill somewhere in the middle. My only complaint about it would be overall ride shortness. I mean it's just a launch, inversion, airtime hill another inversion and brakes. The overall ride time can't be much longer than 30 seconds. The restrains weren't a problem for any of us, but I can imagine them being quite uncomfortable during any hangtime. 7,5/10

With creds out of the way, we continued our way around the other rides park has to offer. I can't remember the order, though, but I think that the next ride we did was Reverchon's Log Flume. It was alright, but nothing too special. Just an ordinary travelling flume, nothing more.

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After that, I can't really re-call in which order we did the remaining rides, but I can say that we also rode the Breakdance, waterslides, ghost train, chair swing, pirate ship, teacups and re-rode Dynamite Express once and Formule X twice.

Just before I left the park (Thom stayed for the remainder of the day) we rode park's Troika. So, at about 1:30pm, I've left the park and left for... (more on that in Part 2, which will hopefully come live quicker than Part 1)

The park was pretty crowded, quite a lot more than I expected it to be

 

[ThomVD]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 2 (Part 1): Drievliet

Awesome report :--D It was a great day. I really liked Drievliet, nice little park with a couple of decent rides. I'll just make a quick summary of the major rides:

Twistrix: 4/10. Pretty weird coaster. When re-riding it on my own I actually got a really decent spin, but like you said, nothing special.
Dynamite Express: 6,5/10. I actually like both powered coasters I've ridden, this one was really nice, but I prefer Alpenexpress. That indoor part <3
Kopermijn: 5/10. I don't like wild mouses, but like you said, it wasn't as painful, just really dull.
Formule X: 7,5/10. I agree with all that you said there. Really fun ride but sadly too short to be a real top coaster.
Afterburner: 8/10. I loved it. It was my first afterburner, and I had heard that this is one of the better ones. It had plenty of airtime and some good forces, and a long ride cycle.

 

[Gavin]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 2 (Part 1): Drievliet

The walk through the industrial estate is one of the more confusing and less attractive park entrances. I was confused and wondering if I had the right place as well.

Formule X is an interesting one and shows that ride placement and context play a big role how they're perceived. I really liked it and that must have been partly down to its "big coaster" status.

Happy Valley Wuhan have a clone, but it's hidden away in a corner of a kiddy area, not made any sort of focus of and gets no queues. Even though it's the same ride, I found it dull and just a +1. Weird really.

 

[TilenB]

Re: Amsterdaaam! Day 2 (Part 1): Drievliet

Formule X is an interesting one and shows that ride placement and context play a big role how they're perceived. I really liked it and that must have been partly down to its "big coaster" status.

Happy Valley Wuhan have a clone, but it's hidden away in a corner of a kiddy area, not made any sort of focus of and gets no queues. Even though it's the same ride, I found it dull and just a +1. Weird really.

I agree. Monster in Walygator Park actually looks like something that would make the park well worth visiting, while one wouldn't even 'notice' Raptor in Cedar Point, being surrounded by far more superior pieces of coaster engineering.

Part 2

As said, when I left Drievliet, it was about 1:45 pm. I knew that Duinrell was offering reduced admission after 4 pm, so I opted for a short walk from city centre to Central Station, over rushing to the station, catching the bus to Duinrell.

When I got to the station, I grabbed a quick bite at Burger King. I did some lurking around the station after that, because I couldn't really find the Bus station, due to it being on a platform in the first floor of the building.
In due time I managed to get my arse to Duinrell, paid the entrance fee (which also covered the water park) and entered the park. At first I wasn't really sure if I'm at the right place, considering that I had to go through the camping grounds first. But after some walking I finally managed to get to the section with rides. At first it was just some regular slides for kids, but short after glimpses of the bigger rides started to appear.

The first ride I did was their newest coaster - Dragonfly.

The ride was really neat, with just the right amount of forces for what essentially it is - a family coaster. The train negotiated the course with no bumps at all, making it one of the smoother coasters out there. I thought of it as a bit longer version of Th13teen without the drop and made by Gerstlauer. 7,5/10

The next ride I did was its bigger brother, Falcon. Again the queues where a bit longer than anticipated, but were still very well manageable. So, after some 15 minutes wait I boarded the 2nd row of the single Eurofighter train.

Again, another fine example of work from Gerstlauer's factory. Maybe a little bit rough on some spots (base of the drop, one of the turns in the middle), but otherwise quite fine and gentle ride. Under the line, this is still the worst ranked Gerstlauer in my personal rankings, but that mostly goes down to that I haven't yet ridden a coaster of theirs that I would dislike (after riding 6 in space of exactly a year). 7/10

The last cred left was off the shelf Zierer Tivoli Large, here named Kikkerachtbaan. It doesn't seem that I have taken any photos of it, but I guess that most of can imagine how they look like. If any of you don't, here is a photo from rcdb.

After clearing the creds out of the way, I rode the one ride I enjoy riding as much as the coasters - the Summer Toboggan.

On my way there I went past this station building. Does anybody here know what it was used for prior becoming a partially storage shed and partially kid's train station?

Waterspin was closed on the day I visited

The queue for the Rodelbaan wasn't too long, but it was understandably (due to its low capacity) slow, which resulted in the longest wait of the day (but still no longer than 20-30 minutes). Slow moving queue gave me plenty of time for taking some pictures. I might have came out just a little too goony in doing so, since the ride operator asked me on why am I taking so many pictures. (Oops ).

Lengthy lifthill.

Some more of the lifthill.

The ride was pretty good overall, because you couldn't really see what is there behind the corner. But it was a bit too short for me to really like it.
One interesting thing I noticed was that they closed the queue line for the left part of the ride just after I entered the queue. Upon questioning the ride operator he explained that they couldn't keep an eye on the queue once it gets too long (there was some shed blocking the view.

I've already ridden one that day, so there was no need to ride another.

Next ride I did was the Mad Mill, which was pretty ok, I suppose, but still falls behind the great Afterburner I rode earlier in the day.

I've expected to have time to ride Splash, but they've already closed off the queue by the time I got there, so I made my way back to Dragon Fly, just managing to catch the last ride of that day.

There's always next time...

Initial plan was then to spent some hour or two in the adjacent waterpark (for which my ticket was perfectly valid).

But after seeing the queue...

...I've decided on skipping it.

Skipping the waterpark meant that I had just enough time to catch the bus. Instead of going back to the half complete station in The Haague, I decided to get myself to Leiden (that meant switching the buses somewhere in Wassenaar). From Leiden, there was a direct train to Amsterdam RAI, where, after a quick stop at our hotel room, I reunited with my dad.

Instead of laying around our hotel room we opted to take a walk to the city centre, which was a nice end to a pretty busy day.

Coming up next - 2 days of Amsterdam culture!

 

[ThomVD]

Great report . I've always thought Dragon Fly looks really fun, and I love a good family coaster, so I'm glad it didn't disappoint. Shame you didn't have more time in the park to do the other rides too. I'll be going to this park soon (hopefully this year), so that will be interesting.