I went here ages ago, something like a year, but what can you do?
After I'd been to Skyline Park, I got the train to Munich and stayed there for (I think) 3 nights. Munich was really cool. It's a really nice city with plenty to see and do and the nightlife is great. A guy I used to hang out with a lot in Korea is living there now, so I did the sightseeing stuff by myself during the day and had someone to hang out with at night, which was basically a great way to do things.
I'm not going to say much about the city other than I really liked it. I wanted to go back for Octoberfest, but it was a pain in the arse to just go for a weekend during term time, so I ended up not doing it. I didn't get up to the Olympic Park area either, so there's a couple of things I'd like to do if I head back.
I'll just throw a few pictures in before I get on with the park report.
Ok, so onto Bayern Park. I have to be honest, it wasn't exactly the best day out I've ever had. Firstly, I'd been out the night before and only had about 3 hours sleep before I went and, secondly, the weather was a bit **** which didn't help.
Unfortunately, there was no real option though. There's no train station very close to the park, but they put on a free shuttle bus from the nearest one. However, this bus only runs on Saturdays, or at least it did at the time of year I went. I'm not going to look into it again now, but I'm pretty sure it was the same year-round anyway. There's only one bus in and one bus out as well, which really limits choice with regards to getting there and back.
So yeah, feeling like crap, weather was crap, and the park's a bit crap as well. Have a picture of a lion in some lederhosen:
Despite being a Saturday, the park was dead. It was early in the season though, and the weather was s**te, so it wasn't totally surprising. I headed straight for the park's newest coaster, Freischutz.
There was no sign of life at all, which was really worrying. Luckily, it's just because nobody was in the park yet, so I ended up on the first ride of the day, in the front seat, completely by myself. Have a couple more pictures.
Some thoughts then. I was really looking forward to this. I remember thinking that the whole concept sounded cool: a coaster themed to an opera where the train is the bullet from a gun. None of that was evident in the ride at all though since there was basically no theming. I'd also really enjoyed Formule X at Drievliet and this was a similar coaster: a compact, launched Maurer X Car.
However, I didn't really like this coaster at all. For a new coaster, it rattled. A lot. The restraints, while nowhere near as bad as G-Force at Drayton, were a bit uncomfortable and seemed to tighten during the ride. It just wasn't the fun coaster that Formule X was. Despite the fact that the park was dead with everything being walk on for the entire day, and the fact that I was "trapped" for hours because of the shuttle bus, I only rode this 3 times over the course of the day.
Onto the rest of the park then. There was a slide thing, which I didn't ride as i would've felt stupid and it looked crap.
This spinny thing, which I didn't want to risk given my slightly "delicate" condition and the fact that I've been on a bunch of them before.
Like a lot of German parks, it had its fair share of do-it-yourself rides that are self-operated.
They had two (I think) bobsled things in different areas of the park, but both were closed, probably due to the rain.
The biggest coaster after Freischutz was this Tivoli thing, the same model as Green Scream at Adventure Island.
There was a basic, traveling log flume. It's the same layout as those traveling versions anyway.
Those pony things.
One of the better rides at the park was the rapids, which was actually pretty decent.
Have a few more of Freischutz.
Some other random crap.
Although it might not look it from the pictures, probably because it's a bit grey and miserable, the park itself was actually quite nice with plenty of greenery. The further away you move from the entrance, the more open it becomes, with nature trails and some animal enclosures (mostly different types of deer, but there were monkeys and lynx as well). There's a train that connects the two halves if you're being lazy.
There's a lake with a bit of a pointless boat ride.
A bit of theming over this side as well.
And the second of the bobsled rides.
More random crap.
On the far side of the lake was one of those pointless "garlic" boat ride things. It looked nice to be fair.
A view of Freischutz from across the lake.
Back to the other side of the park where most of the rides are.
Lederhosen lion in front of a church. An actual church, which I can't remember seeing in any park apart from Dollywood (which isn't surprising) before.
I came very close to missing this amazing cred as it's extremely well-hidden. I knew I could hear something that sounded like a coaster though. Kiddy froggy cred of shame.
There was also this butterfly "coaster", which I'm kind of loathe to call a cred, but every coaster website seems to label them as such.
There was a small indoor area. One half had a climbing wall and one of those things where you shoot balls at people.
The other half was space themed with more self-operated rides including this weird thing.
Another one of these, bringing the total up to three with the ones outside (or was it four?)
And another butterfly cred.
And that's it. Five coasters, though only one of them could be considered as anything major, and even that was a bit crap. I was stuck in the park for around 6 hours I think, even though I could have "done" it in less than two given the lack of people. I knew I'd be waiting around a lot though, so I walked around quite slowly and even killed some time in a quiet area with a book for a bit.
It was just a weird park to be honest. It's absolutely a park for families with young kids. Like, properly young kids aged around 8 and under. But then you've got Freischutz just shoved in there, seeming completely out of place and not fitting in with anything else in the park.
It's too intense for the demographic of really young kids the park is aimed at, but there's absolutely nothing else of any real interest for older kids/teenagers if Freischutz is used to get them into the park in the first place.
So yeah, I was glad of the +5 to the count, and glad I got to ride Freischutz even if I didn't like it. I can't say I'd recommend it to enthusiasts though, unless you're in the area, are driving, and have a 6 year old that needs entertaining.
After I'd been to Skyline Park, I got the train to Munich and stayed there for (I think) 3 nights. Munich was really cool. It's a really nice city with plenty to see and do and the nightlife is great. A guy I used to hang out with a lot in Korea is living there now, so I did the sightseeing stuff by myself during the day and had someone to hang out with at night, which was basically a great way to do things.
I'm not going to say much about the city other than I really liked it. I wanted to go back for Octoberfest, but it was a pain in the arse to just go for a weekend during term time, so I ended up not doing it. I didn't get up to the Olympic Park area either, so there's a couple of things I'd like to do if I head back.
I'll just throw a few pictures in before I get on with the park report.
Ok, so onto Bayern Park. I have to be honest, it wasn't exactly the best day out I've ever had. Firstly, I'd been out the night before and only had about 3 hours sleep before I went and, secondly, the weather was a bit **** which didn't help.
Unfortunately, there was no real option though. There's no train station very close to the park, but they put on a free shuttle bus from the nearest one. However, this bus only runs on Saturdays, or at least it did at the time of year I went. I'm not going to look into it again now, but I'm pretty sure it was the same year-round anyway. There's only one bus in and one bus out as well, which really limits choice with regards to getting there and back.
So yeah, feeling like crap, weather was crap, and the park's a bit crap as well. Have a picture of a lion in some lederhosen:
Despite being a Saturday, the park was dead. It was early in the season though, and the weather was s**te, so it wasn't totally surprising. I headed straight for the park's newest coaster, Freischutz.
There was no sign of life at all, which was really worrying. Luckily, it's just because nobody was in the park yet, so I ended up on the first ride of the day, in the front seat, completely by myself. Have a couple more pictures.
Some thoughts then. I was really looking forward to this. I remember thinking that the whole concept sounded cool: a coaster themed to an opera where the train is the bullet from a gun. None of that was evident in the ride at all though since there was basically no theming. I'd also really enjoyed Formule X at Drievliet and this was a similar coaster: a compact, launched Maurer X Car.
However, I didn't really like this coaster at all. For a new coaster, it rattled. A lot. The restraints, while nowhere near as bad as G-Force at Drayton, were a bit uncomfortable and seemed to tighten during the ride. It just wasn't the fun coaster that Formule X was. Despite the fact that the park was dead with everything being walk on for the entire day, and the fact that I was "trapped" for hours because of the shuttle bus, I only rode this 3 times over the course of the day.
Onto the rest of the park then. There was a slide thing, which I didn't ride as i would've felt stupid and it looked crap.
This spinny thing, which I didn't want to risk given my slightly "delicate" condition and the fact that I've been on a bunch of them before.
Like a lot of German parks, it had its fair share of do-it-yourself rides that are self-operated.
They had two (I think) bobsled things in different areas of the park, but both were closed, probably due to the rain.
The biggest coaster after Freischutz was this Tivoli thing, the same model as Green Scream at Adventure Island.
There was a basic, traveling log flume. It's the same layout as those traveling versions anyway.
Those pony things.
One of the better rides at the park was the rapids, which was actually pretty decent.
Have a few more of Freischutz.
Some other random crap.
Although it might not look it from the pictures, probably because it's a bit grey and miserable, the park itself was actually quite nice with plenty of greenery. The further away you move from the entrance, the more open it becomes, with nature trails and some animal enclosures (mostly different types of deer, but there were monkeys and lynx as well). There's a train that connects the two halves if you're being lazy.
There's a lake with a bit of a pointless boat ride.
A bit of theming over this side as well.
And the second of the bobsled rides.
More random crap.
On the far side of the lake was one of those pointless "garlic" boat ride things. It looked nice to be fair.
A view of Freischutz from across the lake.
Back to the other side of the park where most of the rides are.
Lederhosen lion in front of a church. An actual church, which I can't remember seeing in any park apart from Dollywood (which isn't surprising) before.
I came very close to missing this amazing cred as it's extremely well-hidden. I knew I could hear something that sounded like a coaster though. Kiddy froggy cred of shame.
There was also this butterfly "coaster", which I'm kind of loathe to call a cred, but every coaster website seems to label them as such.
There was a small indoor area. One half had a climbing wall and one of those things where you shoot balls at people.
The other half was space themed with more self-operated rides including this weird thing.
Another one of these, bringing the total up to three with the ones outside (or was it four?)
And another butterfly cred.
And that's it. Five coasters, though only one of them could be considered as anything major, and even that was a bit crap. I was stuck in the park for around 6 hours I think, even though I could have "done" it in less than two given the lack of people. I knew I'd be waiting around a lot though, so I walked around quite slowly and even killed some time in a quiet area with a book for a bit.
It was just a weird park to be honest. It's absolutely a park for families with young kids. Like, properly young kids aged around 8 and under. But then you've got Freischutz just shoved in there, seeming completely out of place and not fitting in with anything else in the park.
It's too intense for the demographic of really young kids the park is aimed at, but there's absolutely nothing else of any real interest for older kids/teenagers if Freischutz is used to get them into the park in the first place.
So yeah, I was glad of the +5 to the count, and glad I got to ride Freischutz even if I didn't like it. I can't say I'd recommend it to enthusiasts though, unless you're in the area, are driving, and have a 6 year old that needs entertaining.
