NemesisRider
Roller Poster
Intro: The Siren Song of the Eurostar Sale
I’m almost as much of a sucker for a good deal as I am a good theme park. For this reason, when I saw I could get a one-way Eurostar ticket from Brussels to London for a mere £35, the cogs in my brain began to turn. I’ve long considered a trip to the Netherlands using Ryanair’s dirt-cheap Manchester to Eindhoven connection – using this in combination with Eurostar would allow me to tick off Bobbejaanland, the last major Belgian park I was yet to visit, alongside some of the Southern Dutch parks I’ve been eyeing for a while.
As I’ve grown more accustomed to travelling solo to parks in the last year or so, I’ve grown more confident in taking on parks with slightly more challenging public transport connections. I planned to arrive mid-afternoon in Eindhoven from Manchester, have a brief explore, then stay in the city centre for the night. On my first full day in the Netherlands, I would travel an hour or so East and visit Toverland, before doubling back West to reach Kaatsheuvel by the end of the night. Next, I would have one full day at Efteling, staying at an Airbnb within 15 minutes walk of the park to save me an arduous journey home after the 9pm close. Lastly, I would depart Kaatsheuvel early and take a messy combination of buses and trains to Bobbejaanland, where I would have a near full day to explore before heading back to London on the last Eurostar of the night. Phew.
Flash forward to late August. After landing in sunny Eindhoven without a hitch and subsequently buying my own weight in Stroopwafel at Albert Heijn, I went for a wander around the city. Eindhoven is mostly pedestrianised and easily walkable - the Dutch certainly know how to do urbanism. I went to a well-reviewed noodle shop for dinner then headed home to rest up before a jam-packed few days...
Day 1: Toverland
Toverland is surprisingly well-connected by public transport – a 25-minute hop on the train from Eindhoven Centraal to Horst-Sevenum, then a short local bus took me to near the park. Unfortunately, the park’s main entrance was not fantastically signed, so I confidently followed 2 staff members to the wrong one before I realised my folly. In spite of my poor direction skills, I was comfortably at the gates for the 10am opening, and ready to go.
I find the history of Toverland fascinating. It is arguably the most successful “self-made” theme park to open in Europe in the 2000s, starting as a large indoor play area in 2001 then gradually expanding to capitalise on its growing success. After the success of Troy in 2006, the park seemed to shift gear, moving towards elaborately themed areas of the quality one might expect from industry titans like Europa Park. This is made more impressive by the fact it remains a family business without major corporate or government backing; the folks at Toverland should be very proud of what they’ve achieved.
I visited on the first standard day following Toverland’s “Summer Feelings”, with beautiful weather and the park operating a 10-6pm day. Crowd levels were low to modest, with most queues sitting comfortably below 15 minutes all day despite one train operations.
The main entry, Port Laguna, doesn’t really have any rides per se, instead seeking to serve primarily as a gateway comparable to something like Islands of Adventure’s Port of Entry. Its charmingly detailed buildings and vibrant colours are a statement of intent: “yes, we’re a proper theme park, and we’re playing in the big leagues now”. The park’s main shop can also be found here, offering a surprisingly great selection of merch.
The indoor area at Toverland was my first stop. My research had revealed that Maximus’ Blitz Bahn was the optimal place to start my day, given its terrible capacity and tendency to amass long queues. Luckily, there is an appealingly detailed queueline going through Maximus’ house to entertain you whilst you wait, added as part of a retheme from the original Woudracer identity. Blitz Bahn was the best coaster (?) of this type I’ve ridden, taking off abruptly into the darkness then whizzing through the track at amusing speed. The nearby Zork Expedition has also benefited from a recent-ish overhaul, importantly including the installation of a large goblin head doing a pouty face. Compared to most flumes it has minimal filler, incorporating both a backwards and a forwards drop in its short ride time. It’s no Chiapas, but I found it better than the average flume.
Crossing through a small, themed passage leads you to the second part of the indoor area. Admittedly, I didn’t spend much time investigating here as there were plenty of more exciting things still left for me to do in the park and it is a bit out of the way. Sadly, as the oldest section of Toverland, I think it is arguably the weakest, feeling more like a big warehouse than part of a genuinely world class theme park. It’s also home to Toos-Express, a mostly forgettable Vekoma family +1. I genuinely think the ride itself was less memorable than the faff to find it’s unintuitively situated entrance.
Emerging back into the daylight, it was time to go racing! Or something like that, the ride’s theme is a bit non-existent. Booster Bike, Vekoma’s prototype motorbike coaster, has an odd restraint system best compared to a Zamperla Disko. Whilst the restraints have more flex than the former, the seating position is a bit compromising, feeling a lot less glamorous than Intamin’s motorbike-styled straddle coasters. Luckily, the layout is good fun for a family coaster, with a reasonably punchy launch, some swoopy low-to-the-ground sections and decent airtime hills. Nothing mind-blowing, but better than I expected.
The fantasy themed Magische Vallei, to me, best underlines the turning point where Toverland really began to up their game in regard to themed area design. There are cute play areas, hidden pathways to explore, and a small fountain show at Katara Plaza. Later in the day I got lunch at the restaurant here, getting a Turkish kebab meal for a very reasonable £10. The main coaster of the land, Dwervelwind, is a fantastic family ride. I was impressed by how it offered a much more comfortable experience than the Maurer models whilst still offering enough excitement and force to entertain a thrill-seeker like me. When the cars are off-balance, you can get a great spin going! Venturing further into the valley, the Djengu River Rapids includes a lot of pretty rockwork but was definitely on the tamer side for a rapids, offering little more than a gentle misting.
OK, time for the big boys. Avalon was definitely what put Toverland on the map for me personally – as a Flug Der Daemonen enjoyer with a historic soft spot for wing coasters, Fenix looked like precisely my kind of ride. However, even with these reasonably high expectations, this area blew me away. It would not feel out of place in somewhere like Europa Park, which is frankly astounding considering Toverland’s age and humble roots. Fenix looks fantastic, with its shiny golden trains zipping around on the royal blue track. The location of the Pixarus skyfly, nestled in the bird’s main helix, is an inspired choice that creates some neat interactions. The presentation allows even non-riders to feel involved in the action and enjoy all the area’s rides in motion.
As for Fenix, I personally think this is a clear winner for the best wing coaster in Europe. It’s very much a full package, combining detailed theming and solid ride hardware. The queue is exquisite, perfectly setting the tone for the ride ahead, although it was so dark that I nearly got lost on my first journey through. After choosing your wing (I slightly preferred the right), you enter the similarly lush station and get ready to board. The pre-lift even has a cool animatronic dragon, which definitely earns it a few bonus points. A panoramic turn after the lift leads into the opening dive drop, which is strong but not the best in its class. B&M’s wing coasters with longer trains like The Swarm seem to be profiled slightly differently to offer a more suspenseful and hangtime-y drop, in my view. This is then followed by an exceptional airtime hill, offering sustained airtime that I thought previously impossible on a wing coaster. Diving under a pathway, Fenix charges through an Immelmann and into the helix, which offers a near grey-out moment of intensity. The wonderfully floaty zero-g roll brings back your vision, before a couple more rapid twists and turns bring you back to the station. Despite being on the shorter side for a wing coaster, it is entirely satisfying, and extra length could easily have diluted the breakneck pace. 10 laps solidified this as a definite top 25 ride for me.
Avalon is not just about Fenix, however. Pixarus, whilst visually fantastic, is one of the weaker skyflys I have ridden. I found it very hard to get spinning properly, which lead to a lot of time being hung almost upside down in various compromising positions. Merlin’s Quest is thankfully more enjoyable, offering a chilled sail through the area and an absolutely gorgeous, albeit brief, dark ride section. I ultimately skipped the Dragonwatch family drop tower to focus on reriding Fenix more, but it also looked good fun.
Toverland’s original headlining thrill coaster is much less of a whole package than Fenix, but offers a raucously fun experience. The Ithaka area is comparatively plain, and Troy’s twister layout is very self-contained, making photographing it tricky. It does have a little theatrical flair though, notably including a station fly-through which will leave your ears in pain as riders go shrieking through. Troy mostly consists of rapid-fire banked turns and violent airtime pops, but also throws in some more varied manoeuvres like the sustained floater hill. Despite feeling like quite a long coaster, it hauls through the layout with plenty of speed right until the brakes. Troy is just about the upper limit of characterful roughness for me, in no small part rescued by the comfy Millenium Flyer trains. Some of the initial valleys, particularly going into the first turnaround, would definitely benefit from retracking to tone the shakiness down a little; I finished the day with bruised hips and would have struggled to properly lap the coaster without getting a headache. Equally, I absolutely want a GCI like Troy to have some rough and tumble, and it’s certainly far less painful than a ride like Thundercoaster or Tonnerre 2 Zeus. I found myself preferring the front row on the ride, as it offered stronger airtime and a smoother experience, but any seat offered a good time. Whilst I think Fenix just barely edges out Troy for me, Toverland have a deceptively strong 1-2 punch here.
Whilst I would have happily stayed for a nineth lap on Troy, I had a bus to catch, and so left the park at 6pm. Toverland left me thoroughly charmed – the park is fun to just exist in, with wonderfully themed areas, a great lineup of family attractions and two really good thrill coasters. Whilst I cred ran the place in under 3 hours, it would be a disservice not to give it a full day to enjoy. Toverland’s recent additions seem to have only increased in quality, so I will be watching the park with great interest as they push to become a multi-day destination.
Next up: speedrunning the World of Wonders.
I’m almost as much of a sucker for a good deal as I am a good theme park. For this reason, when I saw I could get a one-way Eurostar ticket from Brussels to London for a mere £35, the cogs in my brain began to turn. I’ve long considered a trip to the Netherlands using Ryanair’s dirt-cheap Manchester to Eindhoven connection – using this in combination with Eurostar would allow me to tick off Bobbejaanland, the last major Belgian park I was yet to visit, alongside some of the Southern Dutch parks I’ve been eyeing for a while.
As I’ve grown more accustomed to travelling solo to parks in the last year or so, I’ve grown more confident in taking on parks with slightly more challenging public transport connections. I planned to arrive mid-afternoon in Eindhoven from Manchester, have a brief explore, then stay in the city centre for the night. On my first full day in the Netherlands, I would travel an hour or so East and visit Toverland, before doubling back West to reach Kaatsheuvel by the end of the night. Next, I would have one full day at Efteling, staying at an Airbnb within 15 minutes walk of the park to save me an arduous journey home after the 9pm close. Lastly, I would depart Kaatsheuvel early and take a messy combination of buses and trains to Bobbejaanland, where I would have a near full day to explore before heading back to London on the last Eurostar of the night. Phew.
Flash forward to late August. After landing in sunny Eindhoven without a hitch and subsequently buying my own weight in Stroopwafel at Albert Heijn, I went for a wander around the city. Eindhoven is mostly pedestrianised and easily walkable - the Dutch certainly know how to do urbanism. I went to a well-reviewed noodle shop for dinner then headed home to rest up before a jam-packed few days...
Day 1: Toverland
Toverland is surprisingly well-connected by public transport – a 25-minute hop on the train from Eindhoven Centraal to Horst-Sevenum, then a short local bus took me to near the park. Unfortunately, the park’s main entrance was not fantastically signed, so I confidently followed 2 staff members to the wrong one before I realised my folly. In spite of my poor direction skills, I was comfortably at the gates for the 10am opening, and ready to go.
I find the history of Toverland fascinating. It is arguably the most successful “self-made” theme park to open in Europe in the 2000s, starting as a large indoor play area in 2001 then gradually expanding to capitalise on its growing success. After the success of Troy in 2006, the park seemed to shift gear, moving towards elaborately themed areas of the quality one might expect from industry titans like Europa Park. This is made more impressive by the fact it remains a family business without major corporate or government backing; the folks at Toverland should be very proud of what they’ve achieved.
I visited on the first standard day following Toverland’s “Summer Feelings”, with beautiful weather and the park operating a 10-6pm day. Crowd levels were low to modest, with most queues sitting comfortably below 15 minutes all day despite one train operations.
The main entry, Port Laguna, doesn’t really have any rides per se, instead seeking to serve primarily as a gateway comparable to something like Islands of Adventure’s Port of Entry. Its charmingly detailed buildings and vibrant colours are a statement of intent: “yes, we’re a proper theme park, and we’re playing in the big leagues now”. The park’s main shop can also be found here, offering a surprisingly great selection of merch.
The indoor area at Toverland was my first stop. My research had revealed that Maximus’ Blitz Bahn was the optimal place to start my day, given its terrible capacity and tendency to amass long queues. Luckily, there is an appealingly detailed queueline going through Maximus’ house to entertain you whilst you wait, added as part of a retheme from the original Woudracer identity. Blitz Bahn was the best coaster (?) of this type I’ve ridden, taking off abruptly into the darkness then whizzing through the track at amusing speed. The nearby Zork Expedition has also benefited from a recent-ish overhaul, importantly including the installation of a large goblin head doing a pouty face. Compared to most flumes it has minimal filler, incorporating both a backwards and a forwards drop in its short ride time. It’s no Chiapas, but I found it better than the average flume.
Crossing through a small, themed passage leads you to the second part of the indoor area. Admittedly, I didn’t spend much time investigating here as there were plenty of more exciting things still left for me to do in the park and it is a bit out of the way. Sadly, as the oldest section of Toverland, I think it is arguably the weakest, feeling more like a big warehouse than part of a genuinely world class theme park. It’s also home to Toos-Express, a mostly forgettable Vekoma family +1. I genuinely think the ride itself was less memorable than the faff to find it’s unintuitively situated entrance.
Emerging back into the daylight, it was time to go racing! Or something like that, the ride’s theme is a bit non-existent. Booster Bike, Vekoma’s prototype motorbike coaster, has an odd restraint system best compared to a Zamperla Disko. Whilst the restraints have more flex than the former, the seating position is a bit compromising, feeling a lot less glamorous than Intamin’s motorbike-styled straddle coasters. Luckily, the layout is good fun for a family coaster, with a reasonably punchy launch, some swoopy low-to-the-ground sections and decent airtime hills. Nothing mind-blowing, but better than I expected.
The fantasy themed Magische Vallei, to me, best underlines the turning point where Toverland really began to up their game in regard to themed area design. There are cute play areas, hidden pathways to explore, and a small fountain show at Katara Plaza. Later in the day I got lunch at the restaurant here, getting a Turkish kebab meal for a very reasonable £10. The main coaster of the land, Dwervelwind, is a fantastic family ride. I was impressed by how it offered a much more comfortable experience than the Maurer models whilst still offering enough excitement and force to entertain a thrill-seeker like me. When the cars are off-balance, you can get a great spin going! Venturing further into the valley, the Djengu River Rapids includes a lot of pretty rockwork but was definitely on the tamer side for a rapids, offering little more than a gentle misting.
OK, time for the big boys. Avalon was definitely what put Toverland on the map for me personally – as a Flug Der Daemonen enjoyer with a historic soft spot for wing coasters, Fenix looked like precisely my kind of ride. However, even with these reasonably high expectations, this area blew me away. It would not feel out of place in somewhere like Europa Park, which is frankly astounding considering Toverland’s age and humble roots. Fenix looks fantastic, with its shiny golden trains zipping around on the royal blue track. The location of the Pixarus skyfly, nestled in the bird’s main helix, is an inspired choice that creates some neat interactions. The presentation allows even non-riders to feel involved in the action and enjoy all the area’s rides in motion.
As for Fenix, I personally think this is a clear winner for the best wing coaster in Europe. It’s very much a full package, combining detailed theming and solid ride hardware. The queue is exquisite, perfectly setting the tone for the ride ahead, although it was so dark that I nearly got lost on my first journey through. After choosing your wing (I slightly preferred the right), you enter the similarly lush station and get ready to board. The pre-lift even has a cool animatronic dragon, which definitely earns it a few bonus points. A panoramic turn after the lift leads into the opening dive drop, which is strong but not the best in its class. B&M’s wing coasters with longer trains like The Swarm seem to be profiled slightly differently to offer a more suspenseful and hangtime-y drop, in my view. This is then followed by an exceptional airtime hill, offering sustained airtime that I thought previously impossible on a wing coaster. Diving under a pathway, Fenix charges through an Immelmann and into the helix, which offers a near grey-out moment of intensity. The wonderfully floaty zero-g roll brings back your vision, before a couple more rapid twists and turns bring you back to the station. Despite being on the shorter side for a wing coaster, it is entirely satisfying, and extra length could easily have diluted the breakneck pace. 10 laps solidified this as a definite top 25 ride for me.
Avalon is not just about Fenix, however. Pixarus, whilst visually fantastic, is one of the weaker skyflys I have ridden. I found it very hard to get spinning properly, which lead to a lot of time being hung almost upside down in various compromising positions. Merlin’s Quest is thankfully more enjoyable, offering a chilled sail through the area and an absolutely gorgeous, albeit brief, dark ride section. I ultimately skipped the Dragonwatch family drop tower to focus on reriding Fenix more, but it also looked good fun.
Toverland’s original headlining thrill coaster is much less of a whole package than Fenix, but offers a raucously fun experience. The Ithaka area is comparatively plain, and Troy’s twister layout is very self-contained, making photographing it tricky. It does have a little theatrical flair though, notably including a station fly-through which will leave your ears in pain as riders go shrieking through. Troy mostly consists of rapid-fire banked turns and violent airtime pops, but also throws in some more varied manoeuvres like the sustained floater hill. Despite feeling like quite a long coaster, it hauls through the layout with plenty of speed right until the brakes. Troy is just about the upper limit of characterful roughness for me, in no small part rescued by the comfy Millenium Flyer trains. Some of the initial valleys, particularly going into the first turnaround, would definitely benefit from retracking to tone the shakiness down a little; I finished the day with bruised hips and would have struggled to properly lap the coaster without getting a headache. Equally, I absolutely want a GCI like Troy to have some rough and tumble, and it’s certainly far less painful than a ride like Thundercoaster or Tonnerre 2 Zeus. I found myself preferring the front row on the ride, as it offered stronger airtime and a smoother experience, but any seat offered a good time. Whilst I think Fenix just barely edges out Troy for me, Toverland have a deceptively strong 1-2 punch here.
Whilst I would have happily stayed for a nineth lap on Troy, I had a bus to catch, and so left the park at 6pm. Toverland left me thoroughly charmed – the park is fun to just exist in, with wonderfully themed areas, a great lineup of family attractions and two really good thrill coasters. Whilst I cred ran the place in under 3 hours, it would be a disservice not to give it a full day to enjoy. Toverland’s recent additions seem to have only increased in quality, so I will be watching the park with great interest as they push to become a multi-day destination.
Next up: speedrunning the World of Wonders.
