GhosterForce 2017 | Trip Reports

[ATTACKHAMMER]

It was a really great trip!

I'm not going to include Phantasialand as I have already written about it this year.

Moviepark
Before going in we all got spited by Schloss Beck. Womp womp.

A park that most CFers who have previously visited had written off as poor, but with the new additions it is a nice park:

We started by getting the worst cred in the park, the SLC:

It smelt like how it rode, ****.

Then we did Bandit. The back row was closed off so second from back it was! Expecting the worst I was braced. However the coaster was pure fun and enjoyment. The roughness was the enjoyable kind as the train bounced along the track. The pacing was spot on and I was excited for a re-ride later. At night the coaster was even better!

@Chris Brown and I enjoyed it very much.

Next up:

Because, these will be added to coaster-count one day, so get the creds now!

Then we rode the ball busting stand up, flourless drop tower. The views were great, the near castration was not.

It was then time for:

In the POV it looks dreadful, in real life it looks as bad but to ride it is pretty good. I started back row where there is much airtime. Front row gives a hang time experience but it is not unpleasant. Back row better overall.


Then we did the vampire killer cred in the shed, which was also pretty good. It took a couple of rides to take in all of the theming.

Then it was lunch the ride:

Rachel and I went to a vampire themed place which had a big screen playing some form of human sacrifice rock opera and clips for the Adams Family.

Basic kiddy cred. After we did the wild mouse.

Some us rode, stare at the arse in front spinning attraction:

Cred with off board audio of a frankly embarrassing Spin Doctors cover.

Then we joined blue tunnel queue the ride, which led to a very long, mild wet and fun rapids experience!

Next up was an old, creepy but fab flume ride! The theme was slightly difficult to follow but it was good fun!


Skipping forward to night:

The park did a decent job but nothing on the scale of Walibi Holland.

I did two mazes:

Hospital one: Obviously I don't spend enough of my time in a hospital so it was great to pretend that I was at work, whilst on holiday. The maze itself was somewhat predictable but I still enjoyed it! Strobe lightning was used to good effect.

Hostal: To be honest I just joined the queue with the others not really knowing what to expect. What I got was my first 'extreme' maze. I have not watched the film that it was based upon but I loved it! Although the laptop scene was a bit too familiar for me.....


That was our fab day at MoviePark! I have most likely forgetting to include or talk about other things that happened.


In the next part:

I drive a Kia at 112 MPH (180km)
I tactically roll a Kia down a hill backwards
and a theme park is a thing!

 

[DelPiero]

Does the entrance to Star Trek really look like that? That's the spitting image of the local dole centre, complete with chavs.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

GF video is up. As always, apologies for the poor quality/crapness. I probably should stop but I do love looking back on a Live video.

My favourite bits are all of Rach.
Your face next to shipping containers in the Ghostbusters' queue and your reaction to the child running in front of your filming at Hasna's entrance - both are amazing!

 

[SilverArrow]

GF video is up. As always, apologies for the poor quality/crapness. I probably should stop but I do love looking back on a Live video.

My favourite bits are all of Rach. Your face next to shipping containers in the GhosterForce queue and your reaction to the child running in front of your filming at Hasna's entrance - both are amazing!

It says video not available but I assume it's because it's not finished uploading yet.#keenbean I just watched the plopsterix one again instead! A nice way to remember a trip!

Also, I will finish my trip reports soon.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Ahh, it was having copyright issues. I've edited with a new link, hopefully that'll work now

 

[SilverArrow]

Ahh, it was having copyright issues. I've edited with a new link, hopefully that'll work now

Yay it works now! It's fab, love it!

 

[SilverArrow]

Double post but thought i'd actually start my gf trip reports.
Phantasialand
Well, well, well. Where do I begin haha.
So i'll admit Taron had never been on my bucket list because in the past I have hated launch coasters (ok just stealth, rita and sort of rock n' rollercoaster, I liked cheetah hunt, anubis and karacho) so I had sort of been blanking it out in my mind. (It also turned out that I wasn't the only person to find a coaster scary before riding on this trip....but more of that in one of the next trip reports!) I wanted to visit the park and see what all the hype was about but by the time the day had come I had spent a few days with this very thought in my mind "oh poop I don't want to do Taron because it has two fast launches, if everyone loves it it must be super intense and I am about to do a Taron focused day on this trip where everyone is going to be drooling over it". Oh dear.
Coupled with this thought and my skepticism at the ridiculous amount of hype that surrounds phantasialand I entered the park on that fateful day. To begin with I wasn't blown away but the more I saw of the park I realised that yes, everyone had a point, this place was well themed and the rides were indeed unusual and excellent examples of their type.

Black Mamba- So many people I had spoken to didn't rate this coaster compared to other B&M inverts so I went in with low expectations. First of all the theming is great in this area and the station has a nice foreboding, dark feeling to it. The dispatch sequence also adds to the atmosphere. Now onto the ride! Wow, I loved this coaster! It was so so much better than I had imagined, it was forceful, intense, had loads of great footshoppers and tight gaps, great theming and it kept pace right until the end. I did the front row on my first go and I expect that this was the best row to ride because you really got to experience all the the footchoppers and theming. I would certainly say it rivals Nemesis, I might even prefer it to Nemesis and it is not far behind my all time favourite B&M invert and long term number 1 cred, Montu.
Winjas- These were both good rides. They mixed a lot of elements in and had an interested situation within a big building.

Temple of the Nighthawk- I actually loved this ride. There's something about ****ty vekomas in the dark that I like and this was the best of it's type that I had done. I was so pleased when I realised there was a third lift hill! Not even joking.
River Quest- This is an insane rapids ride, like Rachel said it was hard to concentrate on the ride rather than worrying about getting wet sometimes but the innovation in this ride made it very special (plus the number of drops!). I can imagine it being even better in the summer when you're not bothered about getting soaked!
Weird chinese ghost train- This ride was actually traumatising. It was freaky as hell and just downright odd. So odd we recommended everyone else to ride it later in the day so that could all be freaked out too. haha.
Colorado Adventure- This is now my favourite mine train ride! So long and so good! It has some sections where it seemed to be trying to buck you off like a bull or a horse and the indoor bit was awesome! 3 lift hills as well! This must have been my lucky day!

Raik- This was cool, the theming was fab but the ride was nothing super special. It was pleasant enough though.
Oh no, it was time for everyone to do Taron. Rachel had been holding off doing it so that it was her 300th coaster. I decided I was not mentally prepared yet for this ride so I sat out and became CF's designated photographer.
Here are some of the pics:
Chris and Philippe on the back row

Rachel getting her 300th credit with Ian himself

Daviddoc and Howie loving life


I think we went to do Talocan next? I think we had lunch around this time and then after did Chiapas and Talocan. I didn't do Talocan until later in the day.
Chiapas- This was a really good ride apart from one thing. The restraints. The forces of the ride had caused me to pull down on my lapbar as the ride went on (and it's a long one) to the point where I was nearly in pain from being squashed. The theming and drops were all fun aside from this though. The disco room was a nice touch and we had a rave as we went through!

I can't remember what else we did but I know we went back to Taron. It was time. I knew that I couldn't visit Phantasialand with a group of goons and not ride what is considered by many as the best rollercoaster in the world. After some persuasion from Chris (thanks) and basically everyone I decided I'd do it. So I got in the queue. To say I wasn't scared in the queue would be a lie. It was the second launch that looked and sounded terrifying. How could it possibly be fun?? My mind was formulating all these scary thoughts in my head.
Well.
I went on it....
....and it was basically a piece of cake! It wasn't scary at all! Ok, the first time I screamed a bit to distract myself but the launches were nothing like I had imagined. They're smooth and fun and just so good. The ride was so good!! Everyone was so nice afterwards, saying well done and congrats on doing Taron. Was really nice to have that support from everyone, so thanks guys! <3 I had to then admit that I loved it and that yes, phantasialand DID infact live up to the hype. haha. I also may or may not have rated Taron very highly. It was a competitor for the top tier now!

Talocan- I ran back later to do Talocan by myself. What a ride, again not as forceful or horrific as I had imagined (got to stop trusting my imagination). I am a fan of top spins and this has got to be one of the best for it's overall look and ride cycle. I loved it so much I ran round straight away to reride again. I didn't get the fire side either time but the ride was still great. Another win for me that day!

I think we did black mamba again and some other stuff, everything was a blur really. I think we tried to persuade Rachel to enjoy Black mamba with no luck!

Then the park closed and we went back to Hotel Matamba to get ready for out ERT session on Taron.

Night rides!!
It says hotel guests on the sign but you can't really see.

So by this point I was super hyped up for these night rides as I could relax and really enjoy Taron! And my goodness, was it a fab hour! We got so many rides in, tried so many rows, multiple front row, back row, you name it, everyone was so happy and into it and it was quiet enough to just run around again and again-and as the sun went down it got even better. Such a good ride. It was now time for me to admit to everyone that I might, possibly, potentially have a new number one coaster (if I hadn't already mentioned it already, quite likely!). The one I had been avoiding all morning! hahaha. WIN!

So I ended the day, hands up all the way round (launches included) on my new number one coaster, Taron!!! Woo!

We then opted for the hotel buffet in the themed restaurant which was cool, we tried ostrich and crocodile and various other exotic african foods.

Some of us then headed to the chinese hotel to visit the "Dragon Bar". This was a lovely bar at the top of the hotel which had nice views and great theming. Another win for the day and a fitting way to end it!

All in all, despite my shaky start to the day I ended up having such a fab day, it was so great! The company was fab, the park was fab, Taron was fab, the hotel was fab, it was just a fantastic, awesome day! So pleased that lots of people tagged this day onto the trip and that I finally got to see what all the hype was about!

 

[Ian]

I'm only going to briefly touch on Phantasialand because it wasn't part of the actual Live. It's my second visit to the park and, yes, I loved it just as much - if not more - than I did the first time around, Probably because I had no cred anxiety. Taron remains Top 10 and front row on Mamba blew me away - it was so forceful and full of choppers. I'd probably say it's my favourite invert if I wasn't so emotionally attached to Nemesis... One word sums up the day - Investment. (The investment being the good rides there and the poncho I bought to save myself from a soaking on River Quest.)

Anyway, on with my thoughts about Movie Park.

A new park for me! Tbh, I did not know what to expect. I knew there were seven creds there, but the only two I could name were Van Helsing and Star Trek. I went in with zero expectations due to the poor reviews I had read in the past. By "past", I mean 6-7 years ago when a load of CFers visited and had a substandard time. I expected a mix of Movieland Italy and Walibi Belgium. I was right. The park felt great all dressed up for Halloween and there seemed like there enough to keep me buzzing all day.

I'm glad we started with the SLC (name forgotten) because it meant a Plus 1 and everything else would be better regardless!

Bandit. I was dreading the woodie because I imagined it would ride like the two in Spain - uneventful, rough and a waste of time. But no. It was so shaky, it was actually fab. I enjoyed the layout and the speed and the pain wasn't too horrendous to be unpleasant, it was actually funny. All in, I did it twice, once in the back and once in the front. The back row ride was at night and it shock me like a British Nanny. I couldn't see where anything was so I just braced myself and hoped I would return spine-intacto at the end. And I did.

The Drop Tower. It crushed my balls on the decent and I loved it.

I'm not going to chat too much about the three kiddy creds because they were forgettable, but I did like the huge facade by the wild mouse. Large, flat facades look appalling and this did really look like ****e. So ****e, it looked great. The area with the three kiddy creds did look a bit pants compared to other sections of the park, but it served the purpose.

Van Helsing. I remember when this was being constructed and being slightly enamoured by it. I've a soft spot for Gerst Bobs and, coupled with the theming, this one was pretty "sick" (as the youngsters say). There's a nice transition moment where it goes into the area with no themeing that made me smile on both occasions. I enjoyed the theme and laughed at the rat anamatronic up the lift hill.

Star Trek. The queue line was so slow, but it gave enough opportunity to geek out at the different Star Trek stuff. I enjoyed the batching parts in the transporter rooms and on the bridge, but the actual station itself felt like a free for all and I found it quite claustrophobic. But that aside, soon enough I was sat back row in one of those gorgeous Mack seats and ready to take flight. The transfer track section is quite fab with the alarms and **** going off and I enjoyed the two launches. There is some gorgeous air to be had at the top of the reverse spike and it does throw itself elegantly through the inversions. There's a cracking airtime hill towards the end, too. These two moments alone made me fall in love with the coaster. Like Lost Gravity, it's a bit weird (but not as weird) and it's surprisingly good despite looking, both in the metal and on paper, to be a bit turd. It's a little gem and I look forward to seeing more Macks like this popping up because I think they'll surprise me every time. Although now I expect something good, I might end up being more critical. I call that the B&M Invert Theory. Front row later at night time was good fun, too, although not as beautiful as the back row ride earlier in the day.

The Log Flume. WTF? It was probably the eeriest and most bizzare log flume (shoot the chute) I've been on. The theme was so strange, with the aliens and creepy silent parts. The famous people from history in the chambers was weird. The 1970/80's Sci Fi theme was so good though, it was unlike anything I've ever been on. I also used my investment, so I was chuffed about that, too.

The Rapids. We did seem to spend a lot of the day queueing inside smelly, B) ridden corridors and this was probably the ultimate worst of the lot, but the end reward was fab. The station was great and the ride itself was nicely themed to Never Ending Story with cute scenes and some good thrill parts. The ride op made some joke, obviously in German, about me being bald, which I was a little taken aback by. I didn't care, obviously because I'm difficult to offend, but I found it a little unprofessional. That aside, it was a good ride just let down by the awful queue line.

The Immersive Tunnel. Again, the queue line took us through more smelly corridors but at least they were well themed. The tunnel ride itself is a bit poo because I could see the edges of the screen which is hardly immersive. But I did enjoy the storyline and the effects, it just needed to be tidied up a little.

I only did two of the Horror Mazes. If I had visited the park before, I would have tried to do them all, but re-riding creds is always more important to me. The Hospital was quite qood and the scene with the ends was spooky. Only drawback was the pre-queue to get to the next queue. It sort of built up anticipation but then killed it when I got to the second queue. I was also stuck towards the back of the group so I never got any benefit from the jump scares - the one aspect about these mazes that I really enjoy. The little highlights were ruined by the time I saw them and, to make matters worse, I was behind Caffeine Demon who is considerably taller than me and he spends time gormlessly standing looking at things so the flow was spoiled for me. That's not CD;s fault, it's mine for not pushing myself towards the front of the group. The second one, Hostel, was fab. I was better positioned in the group and I loved the different sets....although I didn't get any benefit from he freezer finale because I was standing next to the wall...although I did manage to scare Rachel with a loud "boo" so that was fun.

All in all, I enjoyed Movie Park Germany and would definitely go again for Van Helsing, Star Trek, the log flume and Bandit. I'd like to do it around Halloween again so I could do the mazes without trying to get rerides. I can see why people who visited it before Van Helsing had a negative opinion of the place. There would not have been much notable stuff to do pre Van Helsing, so I'm glad I went for the first time when I did. The queue to get out of the car park at the end of the day was terrible. They definitely should open the mazes earlier so people can fit everything in and maybe stagger their leaving times. But yes, a great way to kick off the first day of GhosterForce!

 

[SilverArrow]

Seeing as I'm on a roll with my trip reports I'll do my Movie Park one too.

Movie Park
I didn't really know much about this park apart from that they had a new star trek coaster. I visited Movieland Park in Italy earlier in the year so I was expecting something similar to that.

We arrived at the park to find that most people were faffing trying to get the cred at Schloss beck. Unfortunately for them they got spited so everyone soon turned up at the entrance where we all grouped together to comment on how slow operation enterprise looked. I'd never done a "big" mack coaster with those restraints so I was still excited to be doing something new for me.

We started off with the SLC. It was gross.
Here is a picture of some of the group enjoying this beautiful ride.

Then we did Bandit. This ride had a reputation and I wasn't sure what to expect....until we all spotted a section of the track from the station where the riders could clearly be seen to be getting thrown up out of their seats due to the roughness. Ok, so this was what we were dealing with. I like some rough woodies up to a point, I enjoy/enjoyed nash and gwazi mostly and Zeus was just about in the "fun-rough" section too. This coaster was the most polarised ride experience I've ever had on any coaster I've done!! Some parts were great, they'd been retracked and were smooth and the layout was fun but the bad bits, well, they were so so bad. We were coming up to the terrible rough part that we'd seen from the station and I was preparing myself for the worst. I didn't feel like I'd prepared myself enough. Our poor necks and backs. Talk about square wheels. It was as if the track had a 2ft hole in it at the bottom of this drop, maybe the wheels had turned square for a minute?? I wanted to love it but I couldn't ride it again purely because of that horrible couple of seconds at the bottom of one of the drops in the second half of the ride. I'm glad some people loved it because I wanted to but I really couldn't.
We then went around and did some other rides. Some people did the disk-o, others tried the surf rider thing, which was slightly less boring than I had remembered them as, but still felt equally a bit pointless.
Some people did the drop tower. Here they are going up.

I wish I had taken a recording of this ride purely to capture the ridiculous noise that all the males made as it hit the brakes. You didn't have to ask which part of their anatomy this ride had compromised!
I think next we did the ride we'd most been anticipating. Star trek: Operation Enterprise.

I must admit my knowledge of star trek is limited but the queueline theming made me want to watch it.
The ride itself was very enjoyable and rode so much better than it looked. The mack restraints didn't disappoint and I admired their clever loading system that allowed them to run more than one train (and add some more storyline) on what is essentially kind of a boomerang coaster. The launches were smooth and the backwards launch and spike gave you a forceful kind of ejector airtime feeling.

The whole coaster was full of floaty airtime and nice transitions and it made for a great ride. It's nice when a coaster surprises you and rides so much better than it looks. I feel like Mack has really put a lot of thought into how the inversions would feel and had put together something really enjoyable. It made me want to ride helix even more!
We did some kiddie creds and this weird flat ride where you had to stare at the people in front of you's asses while they loaded it that I kept feeling like I was going to slip out of. That was weird.
Then we did one of my favourite rides of the day! The not-so-neverending-story-rapids! (It's not got the IP anymore but anyone in the know would clearly see the links)! I loved this ride. It had an indoor station that was really cute and pretty-something unusual for a rapids ride and some equally unusual indoor sections complete with tonnes of fake rock work and fantasy creatures.
Here is the station:

Apart from the smelly blue corridor the whole ride just had a lovely blend of retro, magic and fantasy to it. The big rooms full of books at the beginning of the queueline were good (and an obvious throwback to anyone who has seen the film) and all the outdoor sections of the rides had high sided theming so that you really felt immersed into the story. I didn't really understand what the new theme was but it didn't matter. I am not sure they had even bothered with creating an alternate new story after they had lost the IP anyway. Thanks to chainedbanana I also found the "mystery river fanclub" page on facebook where you can look at how a bunch of fans restored one of the raft boats and put it in their garden.
(The link is here, because I know you were going to ask: https://www.facebook.com/mysteryriverfanclub/)
We also did the log flume/boat ride. What on earth actually was this it was so creepy. So it's themed to the bermuda triangle and a volcano so my first thought was it would just be some sort of disaster themed ride where you went past some lava and maybe some boats lost at sea or something before the drop. Oh no. This ride was so much more than that! Inside the volcano you're greeted by creepy animatronic aliens in massive eerie caverns full of missiles and old dead famous people in tubes. We all commented on how the lack of music made it even creepier and each scene just got weirder and weirder. I think there was a first drop at the beginning of the ride that got people quite wet as well. Apparently a clone of this attraction used to be in Australia but that has now gone, leaving one creepy alien volcano left.

In the evening I did two mazes: the hospital one and the indidious one. I'll admit I wasn't really in the zone for doing scare mazes that day (I was focused on rides) and I was pretty tired from Phantasialand (lots of mental exertion, see previous trip report haha) and the day at the park so I feel like maybe I didn't get into it or enjoy it as much as I could have. Both mazes were of good quality and I got a couple of jump scares in the hospital one, one from Jayjay for literally just standing there, so thanks. ha.

We did some more night rides of things including one on operation enterprise. That was fab! I think we did the back row but not completely sure but the backwards launch really packed some punch and the addition of darkness only added to the ride experience. Really fab.
We also did the pendulum thing which was a bit nausea-inducing. I normally like afterburners, gyro swings etc but after having done two of these now I can safely say they're the worst of the ones I've done. We also did the big wheel and got some nice night time views of the park.



We ran out of time to do any more mazes and I think if I had visited without having to get all of the creds I might have had more energy and focus to do more of them. All in all though it was a great day with the highlights being Operation Enterprise, Mystery River and the Bermuda Triangle thing.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Part 1: Movie Park Germany

Like many others, I did not have particularly high expectations for this park - especially visiting right after Phantasialand. For years, Movie Park stood out for the wrong reasons (a horrible SLC and Bandit), but at least Star Trek raised my curiosity.

Although the plaza features a bizarre sight mixing Star Trek with a volcano top, I actually liked the Main Street itself. Decent looking Hollywood pastiche stuff.

MP Xpress had a distinct nasty smell that joined the brutal headbanging usually found on most SLC. It's like the owners thought 'How can we make this worse?'

I actually had some fun moments on Bandit! It does have a very prominent rattle at many moments, but the pacing is good and the ride convey an exciting 'out-of-control' feel akin to the best woodies. Oh and the lift hill chain is so fast, you would think you're on an Intamin cable-thing (Also did the floorless drop tower nearby, which did hurt my nuts too)

Crazy Surfer has a nice theme idea - riding a wave and stuff - but there's not much actual scenery. I had luck with the seat choosing as I got to experience the spikes facing the disappearing track in front of me

Some parts feel empty, but overall Movie Park did a good job with the entrance, queue and station scenery work. Late in the day, the employee doing the animation in the command room before the station was awesome! Really charismatic and engaging. Wish I filmed the moment.

Same inversion - three different angles. Star Trek was in reality a lot of fun! Tame first launch for sure, but the backwards climb into the spike is quite forceful and provides some exciting weird laterals and floaty forces. Backseat is definitely better to experience that funky spike! The relatively slow pacing provides some good hangtime throughout the rest of the layout, and the bunny hops section is sketchy but quite exciting too. That part almost feels like a wooden coaster and delivers several good pops of ejector. Excellent addition to the park really!

I didn't even know Van Helsing existed. Cool Gerstlauer Bobsled with a fairly unusual layout Good thing that the best two coasters of the park are near each other, so you don't have to return to that dreadful SLC zone again.

Time to tick off the remaining 3 creds of the park. Not much to say about Mission to Mars (top), but Ghost Chasers did give me an exhilarating moment! Basically, I'm quite skinny, and was riding with @CSLKennyNI who is quite the opposite of skinny. That left me with a lot of space betweem my legs and the lap bar, which delivered a nice surprise float during the big drop! Awesome moment on a generic Wild Mouse

I was worried about Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer's transportable-style supports, but the ride was quite enjoyable family fun. Decent gliding sensation and speed.

It's quite hard to get decent pictures of Mystery River. The ride itself has surprising speed for a Rapids ride. Theming really feel cardboard-y however
The local Shoot-the-Chute is named Bermuda Triangle and is themed around... sci-fi volcano I guess? I got front seat and that was really wet... which sucks considering my aversion for water rides. I really wished I did make that poncho investment at Phantasialand ^^

The wait for the Hopital Scare Maze wait quite long, but thankfully I had a lollipop to open, courtesy of @caffeine_demon . The maze has an immersive and tense atmosphere, but overly relies on jumpscares in my opinion. It does keep you on your nerve all the way, but gets repetitive towards the end.

I, like some others, was quite excited for my night ride on Bandit. Some were even queuing for the second-to-last row with anticipation. The actual ride was even wilder, but it gave me substantial back pain for the rest of the night

At this point, some in the group went for more scare mazes, while I split off for more Star Trek goodness! Actually joined by chance @Mysterious Sue for a great backseat ride.

I had a fun day at Movie Park Germany really! I wasn't too bothered by the lacklustre stuff and enjoyed a lot Van Helsing and Star Trek. Having low expectations probably help, but this park really has some fun and nice bits

 

[Ian]

After a goods nights kip, and watching Chris sleep walk, we ate a moderately priced breakfast at a dingy services (imagine a Roadchef in Preston) and soon enough arrived at our next destination - Heide Park.

Our car load were staying at the resort hotel after the day, so we arrived slightly late due to checking in and ticket stuff, but all good things come to those who wait! More on the hotel later.

It's been a while since I last visited HP, which was back in 2009 (or was it '08?). There's something nice about leaving a big time gap between visits because the park can transform. I found, for most parts, the park to be completely unrecognisable from my first visit. For starters, the weather on this visit was more theme parky - decent temperature, no rain, grey sky. More rides had been built in the last eight years and the crowd I was with was majority different.

After a bit of faff, we made our way to the first ride of the day. Keeping with MovielandparkGermany tradition, we ticked off the SLC - Limit- first. I sat it out in 2009 so I needed to get the cred this time. I've not got this magical ability to hypnoise myself on SLCs. I just sit down and stop existing. My mind goes blank, my body braces itself and I travel uneventfully along the track.

After Limit, we minced to Bobbhan where I sat front row with Serena. The queue line inside the station is quite fab and the ride itself was better than what I remembered. Some nice turns and a length good enough to please the sluttiest of cred whores.

The Big Drop Tower was next on our list, which I really enjoyed. It's great to watch as well, and embrace the gust of wind as the gondola reaches the bottom of the drop. I opened my coat for a bit of gusty cape action, but that turned out to be a damp squib. The view was pretty decent and it gave me a chance to see the new additions, which made me excited to get round the park sooner rather than later. The drop felt good, but it didn't have the same thrill impact as the drop tower at Germany's Park of Movielands.

Flug der Demon was a new for me ride and, despite it being white, a cred colour I hate, I found it quite nice to look at because the queue line offered good views and helped to built anticipation. After about 30 mins, we got to the station and I was impressed with the rotating bag locker things next to the air gates. And that's where my good impressions ended. Despite the fabness of the extra steep lift hill, I felt like the ride farted in my face and then followed through. The drive drop at the start was unimpressive; it didn't seem to have the same excitable, slow turn as Swarm. The little airtime hill that followed was ok, but after that it sort of blurred into, literally, white noise. I felt nothing. Where were the near misses? Where were the forces? They were nowhere to be seen. To say I found it to be a disappointment is an understatement, but at least the bag lockers were cool. Worse B&M Flyer ever. And I've been on X-Flight.

I did Big Loop - cred in a greenhouse - before lunch with a few others. Despite doing it in 2009, I've a soft spot for this ride so I wanted to do it again. It's so formulaic and simplistic. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. Sometimes the simple things can be the most beautiful. I really like it and so far, for the sake of this report, it's the only ride at HP that I would be willing to ride again if there was no queue and others wanted to. IKR, weird.

For lunch I had a decent burger from the Pirate burger joint with a beer that was poured from beneath the cup. Weird. But best of all, the upstairs outside area gave great views of Krake. I've always had a bit of a hardon about the way Krake looks. I've watched the POVs and off ride videos, seen all the photos and have always been impressed with the theme. In real life, it looks even more incredible than I expected. But, alas, it would be a while until I finally got to ride it.

After lunch, we met at the Mine Train - Grottenblitz - which was as forgettable as the first time I rode it in 2009. Seriously, I can't remember anything about it except for Sue telling me how a Chinese person accepts a business card. The theme was good though.

Desert Storm was next up and I sort of queued up and went through the motions. "Meh, it's a Rita clone with a fab control booth." so I sort of sat down, sat in my usual nonchalant manner and continued chatting to Chris. WHOOOOOSH! Without warning, the train zipped out of the station, I didn't even feel the little rock as the catch car connects and cable tenses. This took me completely by surprise and I loved it! I found myself naturally reverting to natural Goon Position - arms up and screaming with joy! Yes, it might be Desert Rita but that was the best ride I've had on an accelerator coaster in years...simply because the launch shook the **** out of me.

All of queued up for Ghostbusters 5D, which meandered through some shipping containers and into a quite well themed station and internal queue. We discussed which Ghostbuster we'd be, but only the male ones. I liked the moving pictures in the station and, up to this point, I was quite pumped. I was even excited up the point when I got in Ecto 1 and took hold of my proton pack. But the ride itself was poor. Unlike other shooters, you can hold down the trigger and shoot a constant stream - like the real Ghostbusters - so I found it too much point and squirt. I prefer to pump a trigger because that feels satisfying in terms of accuracy and skill. The 3D worked well, but the sets were poor. I could easily see I was in a warehouse and by taking my eyes off the screen, the immersion was lost. And WTF was that stop and little judder all about? It ruined the flow even further for me. A pattern was emerging - everything so far was a one-ride-only attraction. (I'd be more prepared for Desert Storm's launch on a second ride, which would spoil it.)

I sat out of the Rapids and the Kiddy Coaster. Nobody came off either over-enthusiastic for a reride so I don't think I missed anything.

Finally, we queued for Krake. Thinking about it, it's probably the coaster I've most looked forward to riding since watching it during construction. Even more than Outlaw Run. When I entered the station/queue line, I was hooked. It felt so atmospheric and looked so good. A personal sign of a good coaster is that I notice the music, which I found myself humming along to. I was wrapped up in Krake. Surely this ride wouldn't disappoint like the others? Before I knew it, I was dangling above that famous drop looking the octopus directly in the mouth. I had finally seen this with my own eyes and I couldn't take it all in quick enough! The drop was great, with its brief bit of floatyness before it chews effortlessly through the splash and up through the immlemann. As the train left the immleman to correct itself, I experienced a sensational moment of weightlessness which was topped off by the fabulous airtime hill. Those three great moments - drop, immelann exit and airtime hill - so closely packed together made me groan with joy. It was incredible! BEST. DIVE MACHINE. EVER! It's got the ascetics, the theme, the atmosphere, the music, the layout...it's a perfectly packaged coaster. It was so good, there was only one ride I wanted to re-ride again before the park closed and that was, yep, KRAKE!

But our day didn't end there! My car load stayed at the resort hotel which was fab (thanks Jordan for sorting cc). The rooms had a fab rain forest theme and the bed was comfortable as you like! We ate (too much) at the buffet and made silly things with our food. It was great to chill out without going on a massive drive. Only drawback is that I ate far too much of the gorgeous buffet to sleep well, but it was a trade off with the wet dream I had about Krake.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my visit in 2009 (or '08), but this one was slightly better. It seemed to have extra sprinkles, be that Desert Storm' launch, the bearable weather, Krake, the hotel or the bants throughout the day, I drove out of the car park with a positive impression of HP and look forward to go back again in another decade. Fab!

 

[SilverArrow]

Heide Park

I think I was looking forward to the B&Ms (flug mostly) and the bobsled at Heide. I was obviously disappointed about Colossos but I hadn't visited before (like the rest of the parks on the trip) so I was still doing all new stuff anyway. This is the day that I think I have the least to say in a trip report but that's not to say I didn't enjoy the day, it was a fun part of the trip.

We arrived and saw the nice view over the lake. Krake and Big loop especially look nice here.

We found everyone and went to do the SLC. It was pants. Then we did the bobsled wooo. I love these and this one was one of the better ones. It even had an indoor section which I think took a lot of people by pleasant surprise! I'd say it was either the best i'd done of this type or joint best with Asterix's one. Nice!

Next I think was flug. This was the cred I had been most looking forward to for this day (along with Bobbahn). I enjoyed it. Around this time I think some people did the drop tower which had nice "winch theming" and looked very impressive. We decided to get Gluhwein while we waited for people to come off so that was a pretty good trade off.

The airtime hump was the best bit but wing coasters always lack a bit of force for me. I can't decide which is my favourite out of this, raptor and swarm. Raptor maybe? I know quite a few people weren't impressed with Flug though. After the ride we stopped to take a photo but a lady tried to usher us away saying "no photo, no photo!". We were confused so decided to carry on. It was quite funny because it was so random and unexpected. Here is my photo from said moment:

We split for lunch and some of us did Big Loop. I was secretly actually quite excited for this as I like old school vekoma loopers and was pleased to potentially be riding in corkscrew's old trains again. Got front row (yay) and it was a decent, enjoyable ride. Not as rough as it could have been so I'd give it a thumbs up.


We had lunch at the pirate place and the beer that filled from the bottom amazed me. We discussed it for a while and worked out that the button on the bottom of the beer is a magnet so it sticks back in place once the beer is full. Each magnet had a different cred on it so that was cool. Next we did the mine train which had a peculiar indoor section and interaction with a monorail and also the kiddie cred because desert race was down. We returned to desert race to find that it was open again, yay. After my awakening on Taron I was now a launch coaster pro so despite my previous fear of Rita, DR proved to be no match to me. It was fun and not scary. Win. They had some interesting halloween theming outside the ride as well.

We did the rapids (and laughed at shellfish jokes) and the ghostbusters ride- not sure which was first, possibly ghostbusters? The rapids were decent but nothing special and the ghostbusters ride was cool but I found the streams were hard to aim/it seemed like mine changed colour halfway through. Daviddoc got a ridiculous score and gloated to me about it for a while, much to my annoyance haha. We had a nice group photo outside the ride by the car, does anyone have a copy of this?? I haven't seen it posted anywhere yet.

We then rode Krake which was probably the better of the two B&Ms. I think Oblivion the Blackhole might be my favourite dive coaster but this one was certainly up there. It had some nice forces to it. One of my favourite things about OTBH is the airtime hump and Krake had one too so that was a nice bonus.
The park looked nice as the sun went down. There was also an abundance of monorail in this park.



Bremen Fair

After Heide Park Daviddoc and I decided to visit the fair in Bremen which was (sort of, almost, kind of) on the way to the next hotel. This was only because Teststrecke was there! After some faff with parking and some help from a friendly german family who luckily spoke great english, we got the tram into the city. This was a considerably sized fair with lots of rides, bars and eateries.
First up it was time to do our third travelling Schwarz of the last month (having done Olympia and Alphina Bahn at Oktoberfest in Sept)! This was also a new cred for me!

The coaster has newish trains on it that have lapbars so you get the looping without the crushing shoulder restraints that Olympia has.
It only cost 4 euros (it was cheaper than Wild Maus XXL without VR which was also at this fair).

As expected this was a solid coaster and you got quite a bit of force in the loops and turns, as you'd expect with a compact anton creation like this. Really enjoyed it.
We walked around a bit despite it being very busy and contemplated doing some other rides. In the end we decided to get some poutine and then did Daemonen.

This wasn't as good as the similar sized one we'd done at Oktoberfest and had some dead spaces in it but was still impressive because of it's size. They had a guy on the balcony dangling a fake spider onto unsuspecting people's heads outside (you can see in the photo) so that was amusing. You can also see how busy it was! We ended our brief visit with another ride on Teststrecke to confirm it's awesomeness and then got the tram back to the car.

All-in-all it was a great day.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Who's gonna go into detail about the Schloss Beck spite?

Seriously, I can't remember anything about it except for Sue telling me how a Chinese person accepts a business card. The theme was good though.

The 2 hands mine train. Is it the one with the horse and the lightning? There are quite a few of those powered ones that blend into one.

 

[Ian]

Who's gonna go into detail about the Schloss Beck spite?

We parked up at Movieworld Deutschland, met everybody at the entrance and then decided to walk to SB. It’s a short 10min hike across the car parks. When we arrived, there was nobody at the gates except a very barky dog. As none of us spoke Dog, let alone German Dog, we assumed it was closed. We tried to translate the signs on the pay booths to no avail and then Jayjay had a brainwave - check the website. Yep it was closed.

 

[davidm]

...check the website...

Oh dear. #goonfail

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Heide Park:

The previous evening I took full advantage of the autobahn and managed to get the Kia up to 112mph (180km). In the morning we needed to seek out a petrol station and were taken to the middle of no-where and presented with the largest and steepest hill I have ever attempted to climb in a car! Second gear wasn't going to well so we had a tactical roll back, followed by a Colin Mcrae way of going up a hill!

My car arrived first and we headed straight for some coffee and then I was on photo duties for @Rachel

Halloween theming:

We started on the SLC, which was an improvement on the previous day's SLC because this one did not smell of poo.

Then we rode the blobsled, which was pretty good!

Scream was awesome! The draft at the bottom of the drop was very refreshing!

I quite enjoyed Flug! I rode front row and thought it had a good mixture of elements and was glass smooth. I actually prefer it to Swarm.

We then broke for lunch and rode Big Loop, featuring the old Corkscrew trains. It was meh but not rough.

Then it was time for a tasty pirate burger, some pokemon go and a mine train cred, that I don't have a photo of.

On to the next cred!

Somehow @Coaster Hipster managed to trip and fall completely out of the cred!

We then rode Ghost Busters, which I really enjoyed! It is a very fun ride!

Desert Race was next. It's basically Rita but not completely ****.

At this point I must have stopped taking photos!

We did the rapids, which were good!

Krake was excellent! Rode both front and back!

We then headed for our hotel and walked through the local red light district car park to some fine quality dining:

In the next part:

I reluctantly take a selfie
Conor styles my hair
Chris makes a mess

 

[Howie]

... When we arrived, there was nobody at the gates except a very barky dog. As none of us spoke Dog, let alone German Dog, we assumed it was closed.

Beg to differ, I speak German Dog. This is my multilingual dog, Fritz. He taught me:

You are right about one thing though, the dog said 'We're closed'. Had we ventured further into the park, I'm sure a German John Candy would have shown up and said 'Park's closed. Dog out front shoulda told ya'.

Just because it's funny, here's another picture of a bunch of despondent looking goons outside a closed theme park:

But the day was not lost. Just a short stroll back across two car parks and through some woods, we find ourselves at Movie Park Germany. Again.
Entrance looks pretty decent, quite promising in fact, little did we know what horrors lurked within, and I'm not talking about the Halloween stuff:

Speaking of Halloween stuff:

Once through the gates you're presented with a nice-ish fountain, neatly framed by the new Star Trek coaster in the background:

Nobody else took photographs of this. Oh wait...:

The park's 'Main Street' actually looks ok in the photographs, but in the flesh most of it actually looks pretty grotty and run down. You can see they're going for a Universal Studios kinda vibe here, but it just looks a bit cheap and tacky to me:

The SLC first, then. Here is an exclusive, never-seen-before viewpoint of the SLC:

SLC's are like buses. In 20 years you only ride 3 of them, then you ride 2 new ones in the same season. One of the downsides of going full goon I guess - you end up having to ride a lot more crap. This one had the added bonus of Smelling Like Crap too. What is it with German parks and their funky odours? Is it a theming thing? Second park in 2 days to have an area that smells like sewage.

I forgot about it on the day, but during my time at Movie Park I bagged my 250th cred. As it turned out, that cred was Bandit. Bandit ffs!!
Truly, truly terrible coaster but... and this is a BIG but... one of the most hilarious rides I've ever been on. When a ride is so atrocious and appalling that it actually becomes a work of genius? That's Bandit. When you get more airtime off the bumps and bounces in the track than you do off the actual airtime hills? That's Bandit!
Along with Blitz Bahn and ERT on Taron, Bandit would become one of the highlights of the trip for me - it's hysterical.
This is the only picture I took that even has Bandit in it - it's that inoffensive looking woodie in the background. Now I know how ridiculous this ride is, I wish I'd taken more pictures of it, and got that all important golden handshake photo with Chief Ian, but it wasn't to be:

There was a Disk-O. Some of the group rode it. Fun new game - annotate this photo with the thoughts of the brave CFers riding it. Coaster Hipster be like 'Yeah I'm hip'. Maycock be like 'Arrgh my nads'. Chris be like 'Disk-O's are so awesome, I love Disk-O's' - that kind of thing.
Note the random German kid on the left flicking the v's. Think that may have been aimed at Conor:

Speaking of Conor, here he is gooning out in the Star Trek queue line:

During our wait we debated whether this guy got the Star Trek uniform as part of the job, or got the job because he already had the Star Trek uniform. I think we decided on the latter. Bit creepy.

Decent ride Trek, most of us liked it, at least to a certain degree. Don't think anyone was really blown away by it, but it's a fun little coaster with some unexpected moments and nice, quirky elements but overall it's just not fast enough to be a real thriller. Nice trains though:

The façade out front looks fairly decent at the moment, if a little on the cheap side, but you have to wonder how long it'll be before the grot sets in. My guess is not long:

They have a cred in a shed. Here is a picture of the shed that houses said cred. It's a Gerstlauer bobsled. The ride op's name was Fred:

The cred inside the shed is not actually a bobsled at all, more of a mouse type thing but without the hairpin bends. It was ok, arguably one of the better coasters at Movie Park. Which isn't saying much.

Wow, look at all that pink and blue awfulness:

With some dirty oranges and yellows thrown in too. This place has class:

Taking pictures in silhouette mode though manages to disguise some of the awful colour schemes:

As soon as I saw this, I recognised it from the 'Ugliest Coaster' thread. Or was it the 'Worst Colour Scheme' thread? Either way, a worthy contender I'm sure you'll agree:

Dave, Emily and Jayjay really liked it though:

Chris and Rachel, not so much:

At one point, I casually mentioned to Ian that I'd never seen one of these things before:

Next thing I know, the Chief loudly announces to the whole group; 'Howie wants to ride the crappy, kiddy flyer thing, anyone else?'
Expecting to be met with groans and moans from 20-odd goons, and having to ride the crappy, kiddy flyer thing on my own whilst everyone else looked on in disgust, imagine my delight when at least half the group said 'Woohoo, me too!' See, this is why I love CoasterForce - it's all so accommodating, so chilled, there's no shame. You wanna ride something, ride it! You might get a bit of grief off the rest of the group if it's something really embarrassing, but most of the time everyone else will ride it with you and share the humiliation. It's just so nice here. You guys rock.

There's a couple of water rides that are worth a mention, and worthy of a ride if you're ever here - but for mainly the wrong reasons. Firstly the rapids ride. It's really well hidden so you have to be careful not to overlook it, but it's very long, fairly erm... rapid, and you can see that in a former life it was extensively themed and detailed (to The Neverending Story, I believe?) The trouble is, it just looks very tatty and neglected. It's grimy, the fake rockwork is peeling off everywhere, it's full of weeds and there's no soundtrack but weirdly, it's these things that give the ride a creepy, unearthly quality and a strange, slightly unsettling atmosphere. What they should have done is turn this into one of their Halloween attractions and pimped it with coloured lights, smoke, extra scares and actors and stuff. That would be something really rather cool I reckon.
Same goes for the flume/chute ride, what kind of weird-ass theming they got going on there? There's a volcano, yeah ok, I get that, but then there's also some kinda strange, 70's sci-fi thing happening with dead people in tubes and it's quiet and it's creepy and did I mention the dead people in tubes?? Truly, truly bizarre stuff and for that reason alone, worth checking out, obvs.

For me and Sandman at least, the day was drawing to a close. The idiot who did all the booking (ie me) chose a 'friendly, family run guest house' for that night's accommodation which meant that final check-in was 10pm latest so we had to be on the road fairly soon. There was, however, time to squeeze in one of the scare mazes - Deathpital, and one more ride on the best cred of the day - the one and only Bandit! Which was even more hilarious in the dark. Loved it!
The maze was fairly good. Well... I thought it was fairly good, but then I'm a basic bitch when it comes to scare attractions and mazes. Not a big fan of all this Halloween malarkey to be honest. The few scare attractions I have done have been largely awful, and Halloween at theme parks typically involves massive, massive queues, hiked prices and lots of standing round in the freezing cold waiting for things that end up being not scary at all. Deathpital hasn't really done much to change my opinion on that - getting to the front of the first queue only to find the back of the second queue was a real downer - but I have to admit that once inside, it was better than most other walk-through scare attractions I've done.
Nope, it's gonna take something a lot more intense, creative and perverse than that to convert me into a scare-attraction freak (hint; tune into my post GF warm down report where I take on 'The Clinic' at Walibi Holland).

That pretty much concludes our involvement with the 'official' CF Live, seeing as me & Sandman weren't going on to Heide and Hansa. Kinda wish we did now though cos it looked like you guys had a great time - Hansa Park especially looked really lovely. Looking forward to reading the rest of the reports, if anyone's going to write any, that is....

I'll leave you with this incredibly artistic picture of a tree lit from underneath that I took while waiting for the scare maze. All you folks with your fancy cameras and your lenses and your 'processing' effects - Pah! Have some of this:

Vote me best CF photographer 2017

Thanks for reading.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Just because it's funny, here's another picture of a bunch of despondent looking goons outside a closed theme park:

Why does Dan look quite pleased about it?

There was a Disk-O. Some of the group rode it. Fun new game - annotate this photo with the thoughts of the brave CFers riding it. Coaster Hipster be like 'Yeah I'm hip'. Maycock be like 'Arrgh my nads'. Chris be like 'Disk-O's are so awesome, I love Disk-O's' - that kind of thing.
Note the random German kid on the left flicking the v's. Think that may have been aimed at Conor:

looks like Conor's holding it up!

 

[jayjay]

Trip report time, yay!

Day 1 (and day 0) - Movie Park Germany

I treated myself to a nice midday flight because I can't deal with mornings. FlyBe did well this time; we only took off about ten minutes late, and we were treated to good views over the hour and a half flight (I got to see Lowestoft).

Apologies to anybody who wanted a train-free report, because my first stop was Wuppertal. But to be fair, it's a very cool train. Wuppertal is home to the Schwebebahn, which is a century-old suspended monorail. It follows the course of the river and, despite being an utterly ludicrous idea, is incredibly cool.

I stopped the night in Essen, grabbing a couple of bakery items from a nearby Lidl for breakfast. Movie-Park Germany is literally about 5-10 minutes walk from Feldhausen station. Nice and straightforward. Being the whores we are, the first stop was to check whether Schloss Beck was open.

It was not.

So back to the park to start ticking off the coasters.

Obligatory Star Trek shot

RIP Skrat and friends, hanged at Movie Park

Straight to the back for MP Express, because nobody can resist that vintage Vekoma allure. I sat in the middle with Sue, who commented on how this one "wasn't too bad" right before the bludgeoning started.

Ow, ow, ow

The queue has a shipping container and I'm not even gonna say the joke, because you know it already

Bandit next, to get the pain out of the way early. Bandit is hilarious, for the same reasons Chris has it in his new top 10. Lots of good airtime and smooth turnarounds, then out of nowhere, a bout of violent shaking. I wanted a reride just a little bit because it's mad in its own unique way.

Movie Park has a Disko and a speedboat-spin-n-spew. I did the Disko, but left out the speedboat after being stranded on my own for the next cycle. I have pictures instead.

Throw out your hands, stick out your tush

Ey, I'm drivin ere

Something about this tickles me

Star Trek had a large queue, but had to be done at some point, so we dived in and euurrgh...

Nothing says thrilling like a large grey box

I'm told from the people who like Star Trek that this had lots of great stuff for the fans. And indeed, there were lots of props and mock-ups on display in the queueline. I'm not a fan, however, of queues that stay in one place for too long. But the ride itself was great fun. Some fun launches with lots of strong airtime in various places.

Somewhere in here (can't remember the order tbh) was the drop-tower. It's an Intamin rotor thing with stand-up floorless seats. As usual with the seating arrangement, the drop was decent, and the brakes hurt me in places. All it reminded me was that I need to go back to Drayton and do the stand-up side of Apocalypse again.

Transition shot

Nearby was the Van Helsing coaster. Not something I knew anything about, but looked intriguing. The queueline is foreboding and has intermittent screaming sound effects which get irritating almost immediately (trying to have a conversation here :C ). But as a ride, I approve. I love indoor dark ride coasters, and this had a load of great moments, like the wolves on the second lift hill and lots of enhanced near misses because of the darkness.

The pizza and pasta place in the middle of the park is a decent place to get food, with cheap-ish prices (€8 for a pizza, or €17 for a family size pizza). Three coasters left to complete in the corner of the park. Kiddie cred 1:

One member of the group did not wish to be identified

Kiddie cred 2:

Decent ride. Good job Vekoma!

And the Wild Mouse:

A Wild Mouse, but with added walls

Seven out of seven coasters ticked off, we headed off to tick the boat rides. First port of call, the rapids formerly known as Neverending Story but now called Mystery River. It has a strange queue.

We start by walking into a mystical library, with mood lighting and calmness

Then we walk into the endless blue tunnel of claustrophobia and blueness

It's a pretty good thing. Lots of high detail scenery and great outdoor rockwork. Next up, The Bermuda Triangle. What even is this ride? The station and videos trick you into thinking it's some army based thing, then in the volcano, a load of dead-eyed aliens appear. We hit the bottom of the first drop, and an almighty scream alerted to us that Sue at the back got wetter than anticipated. It's got no soundtrack. You don't realise how much ambient music takes the edge off until it's not there. Weird.

Lastly, a few of us did the simulator thing, which is eh. The exit has a dinosaur in a Merlin joke.

I only take these pictures out of obligation

rawr

Jordan and Serena making a friend

As the night drew in, the group transitioned onto scare mazes. As a group, DEATHpital (going all out on that title, there)! It's a hospital themed scare maze in a film studio, so felt really spacious and echoey between the closed off sections. I did my usual thing of walking into it with my "I hate horror stuff, why am I putting myself through this," attitude and walking out going "that was great, another!" Sadly, Walibi Holland last year was immense and the only thing I could really compare it to, so a bit of a losing battle. Still good all the same.

I'd prefer DeathKRANKENHAUS

We hopped over to do Insidious while in the mood. Liked this one a fair bit more for more variety in the scenes. There were a couple of memorable bits, like being greeted by a gas-masked person, the creepy living room, and a scene with veiled figures (because somebody saw the queueline of Hex and thought "yeah, those covered statues are really unnerving").

Rerides on Star Trek and Van Helsing before the day was up, and we dashed out. Overall, I'm never too hot on movie-themed parks, just because of the whole aesthetic. This place had a decent vibe overall and a decent number of unique and interesting rides though. Not an immediate revisit kind of place, but pleasant all the same. It was good to meet a couple of new faces too. Coaster Hipster, Christopher and Heartline Coaster were new to me - always good to match names with faces.

I slumped into Sue's car exhausted, and we sat in stationary traffic while the car park played a concerto for car horns, to our amusement. We headed off to find our hotel in Bielefeld, which, by the way, doesn't exist

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Coaster Hipster, Christopher and Heartline Coaster were new to me - always good to match names with faces.

Ummm... I do get around a lot, but not with you lot. Must have been an imposter!