JoshC.
Strata Poster
Another year, another set of trip reports!
I revisited Efteling for the first time in 7 years back in January, but now was the first time this year I went to a new park.
As has become a tradition for me, I hit up 2 parks for my birthday. My original plan was to fly into Stuttgart, and go to Legoland Deutschland and Tripsdrill. Why only those two? Well, Holiday Park are planning a couple of new coasters and Schwaben Park wasn't open for another week.
In somewhat typical fashion for me though, the plan changed quite late on - with Holiday Park delaying the new major coaster until at least 2028, and with some nasty-looking roadworks and potential diversions between Legoland and Tripsdrill, I decided to do switch out Legoland for Holiday Park.
I flew to Stuttgart Saturday morning, picked up my hire car, and did the just-over-an-hour drive to Holiday Park, soon to be called Plopsaland Deutschland. As an aside, the drive was the first time I drove on parts of the Autobahn which have no speed limit, which was great fun. It also did include some roadworks (on some very steep hills), which was less fun.
Holiday Park
First thing to say, the Plopsaland Deutschland rename doesn't official start until June. But there's still some PD branding that's come into effect.
The entrance gate isn't quite de Panne sized. Will the park be a similarly shrunken quality?
I arrived just after 1pm, park was open till 6pm, and it was their first day of the season. Glorious sun and 20 degree heat was being served, and the park was pretty quiet to boot.
Naturally, I had to head to the park's headliner first: Expedition GeForce. This is a ride which is very mixed in reaction these days: go back 20 years and I think this was universally claimed to be one of the best coasters out there. These days, it divides opinion a lot more.
I got a back row ride for my first ride, and...it's a ride which is a testament to its time. The first drop does chuck you out your seat. The first airtime hill is glorious. The last airtime hills are fab. But the middle chunk of the ride simply exists. You turn around, zig zag and meander until you hit those last hills. Yes, you go at a decent speed, but you don't notice any force, and it's...boring.
I've found this with a couple of these early 00s Intamins. Great first drop. Great finale. But they don't know what to do with the middle. A more modern ride might do some quirky outerbanks, some stalls or some weird inversion-that's-not-an-inversion with an incredulously bad name (I'm sure a 2020s Expedition GeForce would feature an XpEdition Twirl). Things which simply were not / could not be done 20+ years ago.
Now don't get me wrong, the start and finish more than make this a good ride. But that middle third stops me rating it so highly. I can see why this was rated so highly back in the day though; I'm sure if I was who I am now 20 years ago and I rode it, I'd be throwing this in my Top 5%. Now though, it's a bit of a relic, and that's not a bad thing, it's just a thing.
I got plenty of rides on it, including front and back row. Back row is better, which is something I find myself saying less about coasters these days, so there's that. But the experience is pretty consistent wherever you are.
Next up was the other big thing, Sky Scream, the Premier Sky Rocket II. Haven't done one of these, and in fact until I was updating my Cred Sheet, I thought this was made by Maurer. I guess because the top twist is similar to the Maurer SkyLoops. Also turns out this is my first Premier Rides coaster!
Anyways, this feels somewhat out of place at what will be "Plopsaland Deutschland" due to it have a strong horror theme, with signs saying the queue line isn't suitable for those under the ages of 14.
I like how the smashed windows resemble a skull
That queue is well themed and done nicely tbf. Feels like it was designed to have actors in there all the time, but it works with all the effects too.
The station has an odd quirk with the airgate design. Due to the ride having a swing launch through the station, the airgates are positioned far enough away from the train/track for safety - sensible enough. But then, guests have to stand another foot or two behind the physical gates themselves, behind a line painted on the floor. Why? Seems unnecessary.
Anyways, the ride. I quite liked it. It's nothing special, but the launches are punchy, the hangtime is nice, and the drop after the inversion is great fun. The twist up to the high point of the ride is a bit too jerky, but the rest of the ride, good enough.
The design here felt slightly Walibi Holland / Movie Park Germany esque (said as a compliment!)
In terms of thrill rides, the only other one of note to me is their drop tower, Free Fall Tower. It is "themed" to the Studio 100 show House of Anubis (a la Anubis at Plopsaland de Panne). But that theming extends to some photos of the characters from the show stuck on the tin shed walls. Pop music plays in the queue, but that suits this as a ride.
The ride though is the absolute highlight of Holiday Park Plopsaland. The ride's height (about 70m) makes it the perfect length for a drop tower; giving enough intensity to be worthwhile, but not too long you adjust / get bored of it. And the climb up, which goes quick then seemingly gets slower and slower to the point you can't tell if you're still moving up or not, is perfect. Just brilliant all round.
And now, here is the main issue with Plopsaland Holiday Deutschland. They're in such a big identity crisis. They've focused heavily on the younger audience, with their indoor area (which featured a +1 cred I got). They've got outdoor Maya and Wickie Lands. And they've got the older thrill rides. But they seem to struggle in the mid-range line up. They've got a Gerstlauer Sky Fly, a Disko, a log flume (which was closed, annoyingly), a Rapids and a Splash Battle. That's good in fairness, but it didn't feel enough. And the rapids are a bit rubbish. And WickieLand felt very carbon copied from de Panne; admittedly a me-issue more than anything else.
The log flume was regularly testing, but the engineers who were kicking parts on the small lift hill were obviously not satisfied that they could open it
But yeah, the park needs more mid-range, family-thrill stuff. They've got a huge number of younger kid rides. But their 'legacy rides' appeal to a much more thrill-seeking audience. It's such a big divide, and they need some things to merge the two groups together. Their new Gerst coaster, 100% Wolf, will help with that. But they could really do with another family-thrill coaster (something like Heidi at de Panne), a dark ride and another one or two flats.
On top of this, the park feels like it's gearing up to it's rebrand a bit more, with a few shops / restaurants closed and opening later in spring, or in summer. Plus 100% Wolf opening in the autumn. So it's a weird phase to visit Holiday Plopsa right now. And what's more, I'm not totally sure what direction they want to go, given they're planning to also throw in a Mack Xtreme Spinner - at least de Panne felt significantly more established and set up when they introduced Ride to Happiness.
One thing I hope Plopsaland Haßloch doesn't inherit from Plopsaland de Panne is their ridiculous food prices and terrible food quality. This cone of chips and currywurst was pretty reasonably priced by European theme park standards (about £6.50), and also tasty. Please keep it that way.
In any case, I had a nice few hours at the park. It did get a bit busier, but the longest queue I saw was 30 minutes for the Splash Battle. GeForce never went above 15mins, and I never waited that long for my 5 rides, even for the front row. I'm not itching to return any time soon, and even the Xtreme Spinner (if it does happen) might not be enough to drag me back in 3 years' time.
Coming soon - a trip to Tripsdrill!
I revisited Efteling for the first time in 7 years back in January, but now was the first time this year I went to a new park.
As has become a tradition for me, I hit up 2 parks for my birthday. My original plan was to fly into Stuttgart, and go to Legoland Deutschland and Tripsdrill. Why only those two? Well, Holiday Park are planning a couple of new coasters and Schwaben Park wasn't open for another week.
In somewhat typical fashion for me though, the plan changed quite late on - with Holiday Park delaying the new major coaster until at least 2028, and with some nasty-looking roadworks and potential diversions between Legoland and Tripsdrill, I decided to do switch out Legoland for Holiday Park.
I flew to Stuttgart Saturday morning, picked up my hire car, and did the just-over-an-hour drive to Holiday Park, soon to be called Plopsaland Deutschland. As an aside, the drive was the first time I drove on parts of the Autobahn which have no speed limit, which was great fun. It also did include some roadworks (on some very steep hills), which was less fun.
Holiday Park
First thing to say, the Plopsaland Deutschland rename doesn't official start until June. But there's still some PD branding that's come into effect.
The entrance gate isn't quite de Panne sized. Will the park be a similarly shrunken quality?
I arrived just after 1pm, park was open till 6pm, and it was their first day of the season. Glorious sun and 20 degree heat was being served, and the park was pretty quiet to boot.
Naturally, I had to head to the park's headliner first: Expedition GeForce. This is a ride which is very mixed in reaction these days: go back 20 years and I think this was universally claimed to be one of the best coasters out there. These days, it divides opinion a lot more.
I got a back row ride for my first ride, and...it's a ride which is a testament to its time. The first drop does chuck you out your seat. The first airtime hill is glorious. The last airtime hills are fab. But the middle chunk of the ride simply exists. You turn around, zig zag and meander until you hit those last hills. Yes, you go at a decent speed, but you don't notice any force, and it's...boring.
I've found this with a couple of these early 00s Intamins. Great first drop. Great finale. But they don't know what to do with the middle. A more modern ride might do some quirky outerbanks, some stalls or some weird inversion-that's-not-an-inversion with an incredulously bad name (I'm sure a 2020s Expedition GeForce would feature an XpEdition Twirl). Things which simply were not / could not be done 20+ years ago.
Now don't get me wrong, the start and finish more than make this a good ride. But that middle third stops me rating it so highly. I can see why this was rated so highly back in the day though; I'm sure if I was who I am now 20 years ago and I rode it, I'd be throwing this in my Top 5%. Now though, it's a bit of a relic, and that's not a bad thing, it's just a thing.
I got plenty of rides on it, including front and back row. Back row is better, which is something I find myself saying less about coasters these days, so there's that. But the experience is pretty consistent wherever you are.
Next up was the other big thing, Sky Scream, the Premier Sky Rocket II. Haven't done one of these, and in fact until I was updating my Cred Sheet, I thought this was made by Maurer. I guess because the top twist is similar to the Maurer SkyLoops. Also turns out this is my first Premier Rides coaster!
Anyways, this feels somewhat out of place at what will be "Plopsaland Deutschland" due to it have a strong horror theme, with signs saying the queue line isn't suitable for those under the ages of 14.
I like how the smashed windows resemble a skull
That queue is well themed and done nicely tbf. Feels like it was designed to have actors in there all the time, but it works with all the effects too.
The station has an odd quirk with the airgate design. Due to the ride having a swing launch through the station, the airgates are positioned far enough away from the train/track for safety - sensible enough. But then, guests have to stand another foot or two behind the physical gates themselves, behind a line painted on the floor. Why? Seems unnecessary.
Anyways, the ride. I quite liked it. It's nothing special, but the launches are punchy, the hangtime is nice, and the drop after the inversion is great fun. The twist up to the high point of the ride is a bit too jerky, but the rest of the ride, good enough.
The design here felt slightly Walibi Holland / Movie Park Germany esque (said as a compliment!)
In terms of thrill rides, the only other one of note to me is their drop tower, Free Fall Tower. It is "themed" to the Studio 100 show House of Anubis (a la Anubis at Plopsaland de Panne). But that theming extends to some photos of the characters from the show stuck on the tin shed walls. Pop music plays in the queue, but that suits this as a ride.
The ride though is the absolute highlight of Holiday Park Plopsaland. The ride's height (about 70m) makes it the perfect length for a drop tower; giving enough intensity to be worthwhile, but not too long you adjust / get bored of it. And the climb up, which goes quick then seemingly gets slower and slower to the point you can't tell if you're still moving up or not, is perfect. Just brilliant all round.
And now, here is the main issue with Plopsaland Holiday Deutschland. They're in such a big identity crisis. They've focused heavily on the younger audience, with their indoor area (which featured a +1 cred I got). They've got outdoor Maya and Wickie Lands. And they've got the older thrill rides. But they seem to struggle in the mid-range line up. They've got a Gerstlauer Sky Fly, a Disko, a log flume (which was closed, annoyingly), a Rapids and a Splash Battle. That's good in fairness, but it didn't feel enough. And the rapids are a bit rubbish. And WickieLand felt very carbon copied from de Panne; admittedly a me-issue more than anything else.
The log flume was regularly testing, but the engineers who were kicking parts on the small lift hill were obviously not satisfied that they could open it
But yeah, the park needs more mid-range, family-thrill stuff. They've got a huge number of younger kid rides. But their 'legacy rides' appeal to a much more thrill-seeking audience. It's such a big divide, and they need some things to merge the two groups together. Their new Gerst coaster, 100% Wolf, will help with that. But they could really do with another family-thrill coaster (something like Heidi at de Panne), a dark ride and another one or two flats.
On top of this, the park feels like it's gearing up to it's rebrand a bit more, with a few shops / restaurants closed and opening later in spring, or in summer. Plus 100% Wolf opening in the autumn. So it's a weird phase to visit Holiday Plopsa right now. And what's more, I'm not totally sure what direction they want to go, given they're planning to also throw in a Mack Xtreme Spinner - at least de Panne felt significantly more established and set up when they introduced Ride to Happiness.
One thing I hope Plopsaland Haßloch doesn't inherit from Plopsaland de Panne is their ridiculous food prices and terrible food quality. This cone of chips and currywurst was pretty reasonably priced by European theme park standards (about £6.50), and also tasty. Please keep it that way.
In any case, I had a nice few hours at the park. It did get a bit busier, but the longest queue I saw was 30 minutes for the Splash Battle. GeForce never went above 15mins, and I never waited that long for my 5 rides, even for the front row. I'm not itching to return any time soon, and even the Xtreme Spinner (if it does happen) might not be enough to drag me back in 3 years' time.
Coming soon - a trip to Tripsdrill!
