What's new

Halloween magic at Toverland

ThomVD

Giga Poster
So last year I had a small sneak peak of the halloween event of Toverland. I was quite impressed so I wanted to come back and visit it properly. This year my cousin (who is totally a goon-in-the-making), wanted to get some Toverland creds, so I decided to take him with me to this year's halloween. I'm not going to do a trip report of the full day as I've been to Toverland enough times and I didn't take any photos. Instead I'll just post my thoughts of all the rides and halloween scare zones.

Rides

Troy
Troy is a tough one for me to rate. I rode it during the day and while it's a very good and fun woodie, it never leaves me satisfied. It just feels a tad too slow through the layout, with multiple dead spots. At night it's a whole different beast. It is so RELENTLESS. Go to youtube, play a Troy POV and then put it on 1.25x speed. That is exactly how Troy feels in the evening. It was also running smoother than ever, but it was so crazy intense and wild that my hips did really hurt even after two rides. The whole thing is just one big blur of awesomeness and joy.

When halloween starts (at 7 pm), it gets even better. The music changes into something super epic which really enhances the presentation of the coaster. It's amazingly imposing. The entire coaster is lit up in different colours, which changes every once in a while. My favourite new thing is the station flythrough. That entire piece of track fills up with smoke and red lighting. When you are in the back seat, you don't see anything while you suddenly drop out of the station while flying out of your seat. It's a proper "holy sh*t" moment.

Dwervelwind
Why do I always forget how great this coaster is? We only rode it once in the dark before halloween started because it had a queue and Toverland refused to add the second train. From the moment I entered the queue up until we left the exit I just felt so happy. The theming is absolutely wonderful and magical. The station building is gorgeous, and the music <3 God, any music that plays around (or on) Dwervelwind is simply amazing. The little touches in the station when it dispatches and the lovely trains as well. One of the highlights of the day was being at the top of the lifthill and that little turnaround before the drop, with the magical music playing and seeing the entire park in the dark filled with mist and lighting. The ride itself is super smooth, varied and good fun. It's not a world class coaster but as a whole experience it's LOVELY. I will see if I can shove it up my ranking a bit because I'm truly in love with it. My fave spinner for sure.

Boosterbike
During the day it was very dull. At night it's slightly faster and the mist all around the park makes it a better experience, but still unremarkable. I think the launch is pretty decent and I like the different seating position, but meh.

Blitzbahn
THE QUEUE! It's fantastic. I had to queue 45 mins which sucks, but with so much to look at in the queue it is bearable. So gutted that the onboard audio didn't work on my car. It's still a fun ride but it shows how much the new music adds to the ride.

Halloween Scare Zones

DesTroy
We just came off Troy when halloween was about to start. There is a little 'build-up show' outside of the Troy station building which is filled with fire, lasers, lights and music that really builds to a climax. The entire area is filled up with mist and suddenly you see silhouettes looming in the distance. It's such an eerie start of the event. In this scare zone there are undead Trojan soldiers that came back to life for revenge and other Greek Mythical creatures such as Medusa, Minotaurs, etc. Great atmosphere! 8/10

Geisterhaus Müller
The first haunted house that we did was the one with the lowest scare rating (3 out of 5). It was a good warm-up but not really that remarkable. It is set in the fun house (Villa Fiasco) and I do like how most of the obstacles are still on. In terms of scares there wasn't too much. There were a couple of actors hiding in the corners but I missed most of the scare moments due to bad luck I guess. It did have creepy music. The characters roaming in the house are the family members of the Blitzbahn star Maximus Müller, who have died by testing their own experiments. They still haunt the villa and don't allow any unwanted visitors to enter the building. 5/10

Frozen Fears
We made our way outside to the Magische Vallei, which has a completely different ambience than during the day. It's reeeally creepy yet gorgeous. There are all kinds of mysterious characters running around, including undead Dwervels and some really awesome 'frozen zombies'. One of my favourite things about Toverland halloween is how creative and original the characters are. Not the typical standard zombie, clown, chainsaw dude, demon, etc. They have really given their own twist to all of the scare zones. This area is one of my fave scare zones because of how utterly atmospheric and eerie it is. 8/10

Black Widows
The area around Dwervelwind is transformed into a graveyard which have black widows wandering around. Not the spiders, but just widows dressed in black clothing. They are mentally insane deceased women who are crying and mourning over the loss of their loved ones (which they have murdered themselves) and are looking for more victims. So basically they walk around while sobbing and then suddenly scaring the living hell out of people passing by. It has a really depressing atmosphere. There is also random fire shooting out some of the graves. 7/10

Fiesta de los Muertos
This is a place to catch your breath from all the creepiness. It has a dj set where beautifully dressed and decorated skeletons play music and there are some places to eat by the torchlight. When we passed by they were playing Thriller. The DJ part reminded me the most of the Walibi Holland event because it felt a bit more tacky and teenager focussed, and less magical. It was a nice change of pace though. The rest of the area had some beautiful decoration with flowers, colourful fountains, candles and decorated altars. 7/10

Labyrinth of Hell
Time for another scare maze, this time a 5 out of 5 rated one. It is set in the hedge maze of the park, and my favourite scare attraction that I've done so far. For the first time I actually felt really uneasy and tense. It is quite dark in the maze, with sometimes some lighting and mist here and there, and there was scary music playing all around it. It had scare actors hiding in the corners, sudden loud noises and strobe effects and some actors sending you the wrong way through the maze only to stalk you around afterwards. For the first time there were also actors that actually managed to make me jump. It doesn't have the production and budget of the Walibi mazes, but it had the most effect on me. It felt like a scene from the Shining, and I loved it. 8.5/10

Whispering Woods
The last scare maze was the most interesting one. You have to go through blindfolded and with a headset on. Once you get in you have to follow a rope to get through the maze. The headset has surround sound audio filled with voices whispering in your ear, sound effects and creepy music. Actors were allowed to touch you as well, and it had water sprays and all sorts of other effects. What you miss out on with the lack of sight is made up for through the other senses. It was an interesting experience, though it still didn't quite manage to scare me. 7.5/10

Overall it's a really great halloween event. It's probably my favourite. It isn't nearly as massive as Walibi's and doesn't have the huge budget and production, but it's far more atmospheric and magical, which is exactly what I want from a Halloween event. Couple that with some of the best night rides and you get an amazing event. All of that without paying a single cent more than a regular day at the park. All the scare zones are included in the price and you don't need a separate halloween ticket.
 

peep

CF Legend
ThomVD said:
My favourite new thing is the station flythrough. That entire piece of track fills up with smoke and red lighting. When you are in the back seat, you don't see anything while you suddenly drop out of the station while flying out of your seat. It's a proper "holy sh*t" moment.

That sounds incredible. I find Troy tends to rattle my brain but I would totally re-ride it for that sort of moment.

Their event does look and sound fantastic. Maybe I'll have to try and get over to do it next year.


How long were the queues for the mazes?
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
The queues for the mazes weren't really that bad. It's probably worse on a friday or saturday evening (I went on a sunday). Most of the rides had like a 20ish min queue for most of the day, while the mazes were around 15 mins I guess. Only Blitzbahn has a long queue all day.
 
Top