Rachel
Coaster MILF
Day 1 - Tripsdrill & Holiday Park
Decided earlier in the year that it was about time I got some German creds, so Frank and I booked up a little 3 day trip to hit some parks. On the agenda were Tripsdrill, Holiday Park and a park which I’d wanted to visit since I really started getting into coasters – Europa Park.
The 1st day started disgustingly early with a 7am flight to Stuttgart. We reached our destination hassle free and picked up our hire car – a Seat Leon for anyone interested, it was so smooth and smart looking. A short drive later and we were at our first destination– Tripsdrill.
The first thing that struck me was the gorgeous location of the park. It’s fairly isolated in between some sprawling green countryside and hills and the landscaping of the park itself integrates perfectly with this. We made our way in, and after some initial confusion as we couldn’t work out what pathway to take to the coasters, we finally found ourselves at Karacho.
The queue was short, so we decided to go front row. I had no idea what would happen once we went into the pitch black, so the drop and heartline roll were a surprise for me. The launch was much more powerful than I expected and the speed is maintained throughout the entire ride, it really hurtles through some of the inversions and has some strong pops of airtime. It was great. I loved the puking man at the exit as well.
Went over to Mammut after this which had about a half hour queue. The station had really awesome music every time a train left. Unfortunately the ride was not awesome and was merely average. Nothing wrong with it, it just does nothing. No airtime. Moving on.
Next we went to G'sengte Sau, the Gerst Wild Mouse type thing. The ride was alright, just a +1 really, but the building it’s housed in is really cool and so was the queue.
I wanted to go on the log flume but Frank was in a “No water rides” mood and I didn’t fancy it alone, so on we went.
We were hungry so grabbed a bit to eat, just a quick slice of pizza. Frank was getting restless as we’d done all the main stuff and wanted to get on with our drive to Holiday Park. I wanted another go on Karacho, so we joined the queue, he decided to give it a miss as it looked really long. It was only 20 minutes. Idiot. I did back row this time and maintained my opinion that it’s a great ride, it officially claims the spot as my favourite Gerstlauer.
We had a wander around and took some pictures. Last ride of the park was the family cred, which was pleasant enough.
I liked Tripsdrill, but nothing really made it a stand out park for me. I would have liked to have had a bit more time to explore, but in all honesty I’m not really sure it would have changed my opinion that much. It’s a stunning park, sure, but other than Karacho it doesn’t really offer that much more to me, but it’s a great family park and caters perfectly to that, as it should do.
The drive to Holiday Park was nice and traffic free, I think it took around an hour. We arrived around 4pm and headed straight to the parks star attraction – Expedition GeForce. I’ve heard soo many mixed things about EGF, from it’s the best thing since sliced bread to it’s the most overrated piece of crap going. It was walk on so we went straight to the back row for our first ride. Wow, that first drop is intense, I swear I was literally standing through the entire drop. The airtime throughout the ride is so aggressive and intense, it was amazing. Yea it dithers a bit in the middle, but there’s this fantastic section with what I call “sideways airtime” and then the bunny hops at the end are so good.
We ran straight round for another go, this time deciding to try it out at the front. This was a slightly longer queue, at around 20 minutes, and sods law the minute we sat down on the ride the heavens decided to open. Imagine being pricked all over your face with tiny little pins over and over again, that’s what it was like. I think I had my hands over my face for 90% of the ride, and the experience of being thrown about in your seat and not really being able to see was so odd, one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had on a coaster. I think the picture speaks for itself.
Moving on to explore some more of the park – we made our way to Sky Scream which was closed because of the storm. We took shelter by the entrance and once the rain had cleared made our way inside – the queue is themed to a haunted house, it’s pretty cool, although I find the pairing really odd with the coaster, like it doesn’t quite fit. Anyway I’d never ridden anything like this, and was slightly bricking it over the hangtime. The first launch is a bit weak, but once it goes back through the station it picks up some speed like crazy, and there’s this really odd bit where you are hanging facing forwards for what feels like a few seconds. The rest of the ride wasn’t too bad actually, its over pretty quickly but its enjoyable. Definitely better than I expected.
One of about 3 pictures I took at Holiday Park, the weather was really grey and everything just looked so bland in photos.
We had a look at the selection of flat rides which Frank wanted to give a miss – tiredness was really kicking in for him and I knew he was ready to call it a day. In all fairness, the rest of the park seemed a bit sparse and there was nothing that I was really keen to go on. So last cred of the day it was, a crappy wild mouse which was merely a plus 1. We decided to have 1 more go on EGF as we made our way to the exit, this time 2nd row and this was for sure the best ride of the day. Was nice to be able to open my eyes this time as we went down the first drop. At the front I felt that approaching the bunny hills you felt a slight drag from the rest of the train, but once it all catches up you are really pushed out of your seat. Definitely a ride deserving of a place in my top 10.
We drove to our hotel, which was an Ibis Styles just outside of Karlsruhe. It was fab, so clean and modern and randomly the shower was in the actual room. We had a bite to eat and then had an early night, ready for the next day.
Apart from one amazing coaster, Holiday Park didn’t impress me. It feel’s half done, with rides just scattered randomly here and there and lots of dead space. Perhaps with Plopsa now in charge they may start to change things up, but there’s nothing about the park that would have me rushing back.
Part 2 -Europa Park coming up soon
Decided earlier in the year that it was about time I got some German creds, so Frank and I booked up a little 3 day trip to hit some parks. On the agenda were Tripsdrill, Holiday Park and a park which I’d wanted to visit since I really started getting into coasters – Europa Park.
The 1st day started disgustingly early with a 7am flight to Stuttgart. We reached our destination hassle free and picked up our hire car – a Seat Leon for anyone interested, it was so smooth and smart looking. A short drive later and we were at our first destination– Tripsdrill.
The first thing that struck me was the gorgeous location of the park. It’s fairly isolated in between some sprawling green countryside and hills and the landscaping of the park itself integrates perfectly with this. We made our way in, and after some initial confusion as we couldn’t work out what pathway to take to the coasters, we finally found ourselves at Karacho.
The queue was short, so we decided to go front row. I had no idea what would happen once we went into the pitch black, so the drop and heartline roll were a surprise for me. The launch was much more powerful than I expected and the speed is maintained throughout the entire ride, it really hurtles through some of the inversions and has some strong pops of airtime. It was great. I loved the puking man at the exit as well.
Went over to Mammut after this which had about a half hour queue. The station had really awesome music every time a train left. Unfortunately the ride was not awesome and was merely average. Nothing wrong with it, it just does nothing. No airtime. Moving on.
Next we went to G'sengte Sau, the Gerst Wild Mouse type thing. The ride was alright, just a +1 really, but the building it’s housed in is really cool and so was the queue.
I wanted to go on the log flume but Frank was in a “No water rides” mood and I didn’t fancy it alone, so on we went.
We were hungry so grabbed a bit to eat, just a quick slice of pizza. Frank was getting restless as we’d done all the main stuff and wanted to get on with our drive to Holiday Park. I wanted another go on Karacho, so we joined the queue, he decided to give it a miss as it looked really long. It was only 20 minutes. Idiot. I did back row this time and maintained my opinion that it’s a great ride, it officially claims the spot as my favourite Gerstlauer.
We had a wander around and took some pictures. Last ride of the park was the family cred, which was pleasant enough.
I liked Tripsdrill, but nothing really made it a stand out park for me. I would have liked to have had a bit more time to explore, but in all honesty I’m not really sure it would have changed my opinion that much. It’s a stunning park, sure, but other than Karacho it doesn’t really offer that much more to me, but it’s a great family park and caters perfectly to that, as it should do.
The drive to Holiday Park was nice and traffic free, I think it took around an hour. We arrived around 4pm and headed straight to the parks star attraction – Expedition GeForce. I’ve heard soo many mixed things about EGF, from it’s the best thing since sliced bread to it’s the most overrated piece of crap going. It was walk on so we went straight to the back row for our first ride. Wow, that first drop is intense, I swear I was literally standing through the entire drop. The airtime throughout the ride is so aggressive and intense, it was amazing. Yea it dithers a bit in the middle, but there’s this fantastic section with what I call “sideways airtime” and then the bunny hops at the end are so good.
We ran straight round for another go, this time deciding to try it out at the front. This was a slightly longer queue, at around 20 minutes, and sods law the minute we sat down on the ride the heavens decided to open. Imagine being pricked all over your face with tiny little pins over and over again, that’s what it was like. I think I had my hands over my face for 90% of the ride, and the experience of being thrown about in your seat and not really being able to see was so odd, one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had on a coaster. I think the picture speaks for itself.
Moving on to explore some more of the park – we made our way to Sky Scream which was closed because of the storm. We took shelter by the entrance and once the rain had cleared made our way inside – the queue is themed to a haunted house, it’s pretty cool, although I find the pairing really odd with the coaster, like it doesn’t quite fit. Anyway I’d never ridden anything like this, and was slightly bricking it over the hangtime. The first launch is a bit weak, but once it goes back through the station it picks up some speed like crazy, and there’s this really odd bit where you are hanging facing forwards for what feels like a few seconds. The rest of the ride wasn’t too bad actually, its over pretty quickly but its enjoyable. Definitely better than I expected.
One of about 3 pictures I took at Holiday Park, the weather was really grey and everything just looked so bland in photos.
We had a look at the selection of flat rides which Frank wanted to give a miss – tiredness was really kicking in for him and I knew he was ready to call it a day. In all fairness, the rest of the park seemed a bit sparse and there was nothing that I was really keen to go on. So last cred of the day it was, a crappy wild mouse which was merely a plus 1. We decided to have 1 more go on EGF as we made our way to the exit, this time 2nd row and this was for sure the best ride of the day. Was nice to be able to open my eyes this time as we went down the first drop. At the front I felt that approaching the bunny hills you felt a slight drag from the rest of the train, but once it all catches up you are really pushed out of your seat. Definitely a ride deserving of a place in my top 10.
We drove to our hotel, which was an Ibis Styles just outside of Karlsruhe. It was fab, so clean and modern and randomly the shower was in the actual room. We had a bite to eat and then had an early night, ready for the next day.
Apart from one amazing coaster, Holiday Park didn’t impress me. It feel’s half done, with rides just scattered randomly here and there and lots of dead space. Perhaps with Plopsa now in charge they may start to change things up, but there’s nothing about the park that would have me rushing back.
Part 2 -Europa Park coming up soon
