Mushroom & 10WaTT's Vekoma of Death tour!

[Mushroom]

Lat year we decided to head over to Belgium and Holland, after a couple of pull outs, me and 10waTT still wanted to go. We selected a ton of parks, and planned it! So here is our report

Day 0, 30/6

I had finished work at 11:30pm the previous night, and had to be up at stupid o-clock to get the ferry from Dover at 11:10am. So the drive to Peterbrough services was plesent, nice sunrise, and by about 6am I was there. Dave arrived about 10 15mins later and thus the journey to Dover began. Nice and easy on a Sunday morning. Managed to get to Dover nice and early, and got let on a earlier ferry, bonus!

bye-bye England!

Un-eventful crossing, plus we got £20 to spend on board too. Since our hotel was in Gent, we decided to pop into somewhere...

Yup, Plopsaland. Well we were passing, and got to the continent early, would be rude not to! Got our tickets and entered. Just had to get a photo with the bumble bee

Since Maya land was fairly new, we headed in there to see what it is like

Impressive...

Our main reason for visiting is to get a ride on Anubis

Also we had a little walk around and found out they had a new land opening up called Wickieland. We were a day too early!

We spoke to a guy at the gate and they said they are having the grand opening that evening of Wickieland. Damn, nevermind! we walked around and saw a couple of people putting up signs for the VIP event. And saw they were marketing, just thought it would be cheeky to ask to get in to the VIP event, I explained who I was, and had my little business cards on me. Very nice people and they said they will get in touch if we can get into the event.

So a quick ride on Anubis was done. Not long after my phone starts ringing, it was Kim from marketing saying we can access the event that evening, and to go and get wristbands to get in. Epic win! I shall post more of the event in a separate topic.

It was soo busy, we tried the mack powered coaster.

But it broke down =[

Washing machine had a long queue too

We were both feeling tired and decided to ride the train

Got a quick peek at Wickieland

This was our next destination, and will be in a different topic.

Drive from there to Gent was nice and easy, beers were had at the hotel. Sleep was needed, day 1 begins tomorrow!

 

[furie]

That Disco coaster is epic!

 

[Mushroom]

Day 1 - Walibi Belgium

After about a hour drive from Gent, we arrived in Walibi Belgium. Looked quite quiet in all fairness. Went in, some of the characters were lurking about, be a bit rude not to!

We went over to the Walibi Gold pass desk to sort our passes as it was cheaper doing it that way than to pay for park tickets. And went in. We wanted the 2 annoying Vekoma's out the way first, so over to Cobra.

So yeah, Cobra done on the front row. That's one ticked off for Dave. We saw Psyké Underground from a distance, and it didn't look finished =[ Now over to the SLC, Vampire, thankfully it hardly had a queue, so on quite quickly compared to when I rode it in 2008.

We wanted to get the coasters done, so next on our hit list was Loup Garou

Brilliant ride, still aggressive in the dry as well as the wet. Awesome!

Since we were heading to Calamity Mine, we saw the drop tower, not much queue, so might as well ride it.

Nice intense drop.

Calamity Mine was up next, a vekoma mine train. Was great fun, 1st half certainly better than the 2nd. Since we were going anti-clockwise, we came across Tutankhanmon, the indoor dark shooty ride.

Great fun. Did tell Dave it has multiple endings, so we went on again just to see a different ending and enjoy it for what the ride is. (It is best to score points on it rather than lose!)

Now we came across Coccinelle.

Knowing we might get denied a ride, we tried our luck. The operator just let us on. I was like okay... Well it seems like they have changed their policy about adults on this ride and allow 2 adults per train.

YEAH! My first cred of the trip!

Now with all the coasters out the way, we decided to explore a little bit. Saw this funky looking train station for some of their mascots.

And Luckily enough, we got the cool looking Skunx train!

There is another train, but looked quite boring

got to the first stop. holy crap, smoke, strobe lights everything went off like a rock concert!

Awesome =D

We wanted a full lap of the train, saw a bit of Psyké Spiteful

Got back to the original station and took more photos of the train.

Now it was time to cool off a bit, so the log flume was the closest for it!

Neat little log flume with a backwards drop and double drop. Now onto the rapids. I had not done these before, so was quite looking forward to them.

Suitable amount of wetness occurred. We decided to walk past the rapids area up to the next train station. We saw a building and asked what the ride was, and found out is was a mad house. So yeah, did that and was worth the ride! Nice effects and really worked well.

Now for some re-rides on Calamity Mine

Also we rode Loup Garou a few more times. We had noticed the SLC had not been running, and as we were on the way out, we saw a staff member guarding the entrance to the area. Quite lucky we got that done. Got some merch, including a cushion for home in a W shape. Then it was for the long drive into Holland to Amersfoort for our hotel. Which we got a free upgrade, and the room was just sooo nice.

Next part, Walibi Holland!

 

[Mushroom]

Day 2 - Walibi Holland

So it was off for the 40 minute drive to Walibi Holland from Amersfoort via the shops near our hotel for some breakfast. We were shocked how out of the way the park is! Entering the car park, we saw a lot of coaches parking up. This didn't look good.

Got in, and decided to head to Speed of Sound first, the Vekoma Boomerang

It certainly looked good!

Got into the queue, and about 5 minutes later, it had doubled! We just thought we did the right decision coming to it first.
Got into the station, probably the best looking boomerang station ever.

Annoyingly the on-board audio wasn't working, so just felt like a boomerang.

We were going anti-clockwise around the park, and went on the Tivoli Medium coaster, Rattlesnake!

Now into Sherwood Forest...

Excalibur had a massive queue =/

Me and Dave were feeling hot, and wanted to ride the log flume. Same layout as the one in Belgium. Nice bit of wetness. Now time for Robin Hood

A long 1 hour queue for this, wasn't worth it in all honestly! Could of been better. Now it was over to Goliath. Saw the queue going out the entrance, which ment an hour queue. Not fun, and it was cattle pen queueing all the way. We looked at the fast pass thingy, €15 each for it to not queue, not too bad. Only catch is, you have to use mobile internet, there is no WiFi at the park at all. Also it did not work 100% of the time. Had problems all the time.

While we waited for our time for Goliath, we went round to take pictures of El Condor

During this time, we rode the dodgems, just a bit meh. Our time for Goliath was here! Managed to get front row for it, was certainly a good ride, but no EGF sadly. Plenty of airtime. Booked into Xpress while waiting for the front row. We just needed a break from the blistering heat. So relaxed near the Xpress entrance.

The time for us to ride came, we were thankful when we saw the queue for it, glad we were missing the whole cattlepen queue inside. Back row was obtained, and was a good ride, really enjoyed this Vekoma launched bowl. Actually seeing the layout was a bonus.

Now we needed our last coaster, El Condor. But that was about another hour wait. So a few photos of the ferris wheel.

Still waiting for our time, we watched the show, Rockstars: The Battle. It featured all of the main Walibi characters from both band WAB & Skunx. Was really enjoyable, and a great laugh.

They also break danced in the costumes!

Now time for a ride on El Condor, got another front row. Just a plain old Vekoma SLC, and rough. Booked in for more rides on Goliath. Got a front and back row, well worth it. On our way out, we had a chat with a game stalls person and was surprised what we had in store for the week.

Now back to the hotel, grabbed a few beers, hooked up the laptop to the TV and ended up playing RCT2 for most of the night.

So that's the end of day 2! Next up, double park day, Duinrell and Drievliet!

 

[Ian]

As far as Boomerangs go, Speed of Sound is the best imo. The theme, music, tunnel and the fact it's orange (orange <3) beef up up compared to most **** boomerangs.

 

[Mushroom]

Re: Mushroom & 10WaTT's Vekoma of Death tour!

Nothing was working. Just bland, was really looking forward to it arter reading your trip report.

Posting from a different place in the world

 

[Mushroom]

Day 3 - Duinrell & Drievliet

Woke up, grabbed some bits for breakfast again at the supermarket, then it was off to Duinrell. Nice plesent journey especially tackling the Amsterdam ring road at rush hour, well there was no queues really, got to Duinrell for opening. It was a bit of a rainy day today, but that wasn't going to put us off. We wanted to find the coasters and ride them knowing we didn't have long at the park.

So we just followed the crowd really to get to the back end of the park. First up, Falcon!

Falcon is a exact clone of Rage at Adventure Island, but in a wooden setting. I love Rage, and this got more love just due to it's setting.

Next up was the new for last year coaster, Dragon Fly

Wow., what a coaster! Intertwining with the trees. Great bits of intensity and just right for the park!

This point we needed the last coaster of this park, Kikkerachtbaan. Just your standard Tivoli Large coaster! Later this day, I had realised we had been on all 3 Tivoli type of coasters in order, Small (Coccinelle at Walibi Belgium), Medium (Rattlesnake at Walibi Holland) and now the large! Great little coaster, and we saw their photo booth where you could get your photo sent by e-mail for €2. Couldn't resit really!

Now for their splash boat ride.

You had the option of having a open boat (With rubber protection so you only got your head wet) or covered boat. Since we didn't want to get drenched, we went for the covered one. It was a strange experience. Now there was some viewing platforms for this ride. Some photos had to be acquired!

Rubber protection boat

No, you are not going to escape this one!

We decided for a couple more rides on Dragon Fly as Falcon had a big queue.

Here is a photo of Kikkerachtbaan

After a little photo session, we decided to leave to get to Drievliet. But couldn't resit to take a photo of the bin!

Before we left, we saw they had a tea tray type ride. Luckily you cannot fall into the water like Waterfall at Oakwood. Got slightly wet on them, but you got to see the speed you went on them. Can't remember what it was, but it was quick.

About 30 minutes later, we were at Drievliet.

Got to the cash desk, they said they do not accept either Visa or Mastercard as form of payments! Bugger. What kind of 3rd world park is this then??? Paid cash, then entered into the park.

Things looked promising to start with

First up was Twistrix, a Maurer Söhne spinning coaster...

Got a decent spin on it, and a POV to boot (will probably upload in a few days!). Now for the real reason we came here, Formule X!

Got some nice airtime, but I positioned myself wrong in the train and felt pinned in. Ugh! Now we needed to get the other 2 coasters, first, Dynamite Express, a Mack powered coaster

Nothing really to write home about here. Now onto the wild mouse.

Meh, just another wild mouse! Nothing special. We noted they had a Tristar ride, since they were quite rare, we decided to ride it.

Not too bad, probably the biggest flat ride in the park. Decided to take a quick trip on the monorail to see the park from above.

The ghost train was right next door to this, it was just laughable on how crap it was! Now for another ride on Formule X

Was so much more enjoyable this time. Grabbed a POV of it at the same time. Now we wanted another quick spin on Twistrix, not as good spin this time. We had done everything by this point and just wanted to leave. The staff at Drievliet just seemed depressed. And the atmosphere was crap. Not a park I will be visiting any time soon again. Only thing it has got going for it was Formule X.

I would quite happily spend a day at Duinrell. Such a nice park. Friendly staff, and all round better atmosphere. (Yes we did miss out on the bobsleigh there, but it was closed =[ ).

Next up, day 4, Efteling!

 

[Edward M]

^ good report. Look forward to Efteling.

 

[Mushroom]

Day 4 - Efteling

Our hotel the previous night was pretty much around the corner from Efteling, well 20 minutes away. Got to the park fairly open and saw the impressive entrance.

Unfortunately most of the gates were shut into the main part of the park as it did not open till 10. We managed to find somewhere that was open, a restaurant.

Erm... yeah, epicly themed!

Well it was about conservation of animals.

We just had to go on the slide that was here...

Our first port of call once the park opened was Bob!

Nice fun ride and different to the normal Mack ones =] We saw the queue for the rapids, it kinda looked big, so we went over to Jorris en Draak. But my main reason for coming again was for Vliegende Hollander. Saw a couple of guys outside the entrance of it saying it was having technical problems this morning. So my question was, will it open today, their reply was a yes. Thank you very much, you have made a one very happy Mushroom. Now for Jorris!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/192796_10151769097977780_1463864545_o.jpg[.img]

Got back row on the water side first, great fun, and a win for us! Since we were in the area, and there was no queue pretty much (around 15 to 20 minutes!) we decided to get the Fire side. And another win for us. By this point Vliegende Hollander had opened up. So now for a long queue!

We got through the queue, which was really well themed, and saw the station.
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/1053153_10151769098042780_1817693090_o.jpg

Very impressive. But for my views of this, you will have to wait for Roller Coaster Review Show episode of this

Now for Python.

Since my last visit they have changed the trains again! From Kumbak to Vekoma ones!

A lot nicer than before thank god! I do like these new Vekoma trains. Nice smooth-ish ride. Nothing really to shout about.

Now it was time to get over to Vogel Rock. But we could not ignore this big arse pirate ship!

Some nice views were seen

Now for the last coaster needed for the day!

Not much of a queue, nice WORKING sound system. The snake still surprised me. Nice and decent ride. Now with the coaster's done, Dave wanted to view the park from the sky. Only way to do it was on Pagdoe

Dave wanted to do their ghost attraction. It can easily be missed as it is inside this building.

We had to wait for a while in the dark before it was ready, so a nice night shot of Dave...

When we got in, I realised this was a crap attraction, yeah there is some nice affects, but mehhhh! Since we were nearby, the rapids had to be done this time!

They were ok, nothing too special about them. I wanted some videos and photos of Vliegende Hollander. Got them, and then it was time for another ride on Jorris, did both sides front, and both times we lost =[ Oh well! After riding we took some photos of Jorris

We checked the time and realised it was getting on a bit. And we thought we saw a ride on the map that might of been a mad house ride. Had to get to the other side of the park! But we got there in time, and we found out it was a mad house. Villa Volta was fun, lots of different effects, and well worth the ride. Now the park was shutting. Time to head off.

Simple enough drive to our hotel in Eindhoven for the evening, and we both decided we had done the next park before and didn't want to get to the park too early. Well Dave did some plotting!

Next up, Day 5, Toverland & Eindhoven area!

 

[Edward M]

Another good report. Troy should be a lot of fun tomorrow

 

[Mushroom]

Day 5 - Toverland and the Eindhoven parks!

As I said in the previous post, Dave cam up with a crazy plan which involved taking in DippieDoe and BillyBird before heading to Toverland. Luckily DippieDoe was only 20 minutes away, so we headed there first.

While waiting for the park to open, we heard the sound of a plane. Couldn't resit!

Yeah, we were fairly near Eindhoven airport. Kinda glad this was the only Ryanair plane I saw this week. Got in, there were few rides inside, but we wanted to ride the coasters. But there was something I saw something that was interesting to me....

Yup Angry Birds Activity Park. Since Lightwater Vallley got their one this year, it was in the up most interest to me.

They did have swings.

After a quick browse around that. We saw the mini golf and then the first coaster, Zeeslang.

Wasn't quite open just yet, nevermind! Now over to Tyfoon

It was testing.

It wasn't opening until 11am. Boo. But one of the operators saw us taking photos of the coaster. He actually got it open for us! Though some checks had to be made before hand and he showed us the maintenance area, what random features it has, the operators booth, and their fridge. I joked they need to put some beer in their fridge. Which he laughed.

Once the checks were done, it was time for us to ride. And got a mounted front row POV
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TVt8P7CxuM[/youtube]

Nice little fun ride. But since we were there, might as well get a 2nd go. This time back row. And the first ever backwards POV of this coaster!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-BFkf_s8M[/youtube]

So here is a picture of us and the operator, Timo after the ride. He wanted the photo =] He is a part of Themeparks.nl But big thanks to him getting the coaster open for us!

Now with Tyfoon done. Time to ride the other coaster. It seemed like the operator didn't want to let anyone off and kept sending it round and round. Ugh. Had to request to get off. Now that done, toilets needed, and a quick ride on the big slide, it was time to leave DippieDoe. When we did, we saw a lot of coaches just pulling up full of kids.

Now for a 40 minute drive up to BillyBird Park Hemelrijk. Got there, paid to get in. Once we had paid, the woman came running after us saying we can get a free on ride photo on their water slide. Wow. Cheap entrance and a free photo. They have a big climbing rock near the entrance.

But they also have a beach!

Also you can bring yourself barbecue food and cook it on site.

Now for our reason for being here

This coaster is interesting, you have to walk up to the station, and get off at the bottom. Bugger!

Now this is the station...

Ghetto coupling.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT3k3pp5Sik[/youtube]

It was a nice fun ride. Bit of airtime and some intensity.

We went over to the water slide for our ride on that before we headed off. Bugger me it was a trek up to the top. But it was a nice little ride. If it was my local 'park' I would be very happy to head there on a nice hot day and relax. Now it was time for our original destination, Toverland.

About 40 minutes later through the Holland countryside, we arrived.

As Dave didn't do the Bobsleigh ride on his last visit, we did that first. Nice and quick. But our priority after that was the new coaster.

The station was gorgeous!

Dwervewind was a fun coaster, defiantly what Toverland needed. Now for their new rapids ride, Djengu River

Was a good river rapids, nice wetness for the park. And great fun. Now onto Booster Bike. They have re-located the entrance and exit to the outside so it is in the same area as the new rapids and coaster.

We decided to ride Troy. Just glad it was in the dry this time as I had only done it in the wet. Back row had to be done. I had forgotten how relentless this coaster was. No wonder this got in my top 10 in the wet, but dry, whoa!

We wanted to do the Log Flume. Still like the unique turn table on the lift hill

We did the fun house and the magic wand house. Nice little bits of fun. Now for another ride on the spinning coaster

Now we wanted more Troy. But you can get some new shots of Booster Bike.

Another couple of rides on Troy. Then we were off. You cannot avoid the gift shop, as that is the way you exit. Picked up a copy of the new area sound track. And it is fab! But that was our crazy day =]

Next up, Day 6, Bobbejaanland!

 

[Mushroom]

Day 6 - Bobbejaanland

It was time to say goodbye to Holland and cross the border once again into Belgium. And a short drive to Bobbejaanland. There is something I have not mentioned in this trip report. We got a couple of bags of Croky crisps at Walibi Belgium, and if you collect 8 tokens you get a BOGOF voucher for various attractions. Bobbejaanland was one of them. So managed to get the print out for this and went off to pay.

We thought hit the lower through put rides first, so first up was Typhoon.

Good solid ride =] Had a girl screaming next to me the whole ride as I was doing a POV -_-

Obligatory shot of their wind turbine

Next up was the newish spinning coaster, Dizz

Yeah, good fun coaster. not much spin, but it was okay. Next up was this beast!

Oh my god, it was ****! So lame. Why did they get this ride?! Now time for (R)Evolution. Dave was surprised how huge the train was. But yeah, it was a good solid ride. Now for Speedy Bob.

I needed this side, as it was closed when I first went in 2008.

Such a shame there is nothing put in the old space =[

It was a warm day again. So the Rapids were needed

Meh, standard, whirlpool only. It looks like they are not using their ferris wheel drop thing anymore. Would of been soo much better. now for our next coaster Dream Catcher!

Quite a long queue in the heat. Managed to get a front row by chance. Winner =] It was ok, still prefer Vampire to this.

Next on our journey was Oki Doki

It was on 1 train operation, so this train couldn't bare to watch!

This is possibly my favorite Vekoma rollerskater, nice and quirky =]

Did the indoor log flume. Was pretty damn cool. Got fairly wet, and they actually have a weight limit on the boats which is different. Now for the last coaster of the day to be done.

Can get some interesting shots of the other coasters across the lake.

Bob Express was fun. Now with the coasters done, we decided to go on El Paso.

Not the best shooting dark ride out there, but really good. We wanted some lunch, but most of the stuff was too expensive. Picked up my souvenirs from the shop, and went to the car for lunch. To get a pass to get back in, you had to go to the information desk for it. The guy at the gate doesn't give them out. We were waiting for ages as a couple of guys were sorting their annual passes. Got to the car and some rolls for lunch.

Back into the park. Wanted another ride of Typhoon. Not too long of a wait.

Their Fly Away had opened up. Luckily it didn't go backwards like the one at Pleasure Island

Nice fun ride, don't see them often. Now the Banana battle was open. Erm... Possibly the best splash battle we had been on! SOAKED!

Just soo epic. now for a quick ride on their ferris wheel. Couldn't see too much. But never mind. Now it was back to Gent for the same hotel as the first night.

Next up, Day 7, Bellewaerde.

 

[CookieCoasters]

Nice report. I went to Bobbejaanland this thursday and my views on the rides were pretty much the same as yours. Indiana River is awesome, one of the best log flumes i have ridden and my fav ride at the park.

 

[Mushroom]

Day 7 - Bellewaerde

Another stupidly hot day. Got to the park, and we could see it was busy at it was hell getting into parking A. So we decided to go over parking C, which was at the right end of the park we wanted. Got in and bumped into their mascot and the divers from their show.

Though we went past Huracan, we decided to do that last. Well Dave wanted to do it last as it would be his 300th! So over to Keverbaan. Just another Tivoli Large in a wooded area. Now for the oldest operating Boomerang coaster, Boomerang.

Wasn't too bad. But it is a boomerang at the end of the day! They were doing some work on the topple tower.

Sadly that didn't open for the whole time we were there =[ Now for Huracan. The queue was out of the door. And in front of us for the whole queue was some Portuguese. Well one had a Portugal football shirt on. They were trying to compete to hear each other. The queue itself was cramped, not very nice, not much in the way of air con. Got to the station and was impressed with what they have done.

Now onto the ride. The first indoor section was good. Then up the lift hill to the outside, couple of drops, then back in. You could not see anything! Yes there was on board audio, but it was not worth it. Kinda reminded me of the spinning coaster at Rainbow Magic Land. Mehhh (I do have a review of it on RCRS coming up!

Now to explore the rest of the park. Got to see the monkeys

Got over to the other side of the park and saw the splash boat ride.

Decided to stand on the bridge and got soaked. Got some lunch nearby. Then it was time for the diving show. The mascot came out to warm up the crowd

Now the show started

They had some antics as well like smashing a egg on one of their heads.

Well he had to get her back...

No! Don't do it Stinky Feet!

Now for some proper fire dives!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1074325_10151774673017780_1993214279_o.jpg[/img
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/981740_10151774673037780_750068316_o.jpg

Getting near to end of this show

And obviously they were going to use the highest diving board to finish

So with that the show ended. We went off to find the rapids. They had over an hour queue in the blistering heat and cattle pens. Went over to see if the Topple Tower was in action. It wasn't. Luckily the queue for Huracan had gone down by a significant amount. So a quick ride on that. We just could not be bothered with the park any more.

So we headed out to Lille in France to Les Poissons. Grabbed the cred there. €2 for a big apple named Pomme. Can't go wrong really. That was our day. Done & dusted with Belgium.

Next up, The French adventure, Dennly's & Bagatelle!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Good report, but has anyone else notice that the number of pics just MURDER their pc..? Seriously - took about 5 minutes to load!

 

[Mushroom]

Well it finally got onto page 2. Shouldn't be a problem. If more people replied it wouldn't be so much of a problem =] Or you need better internet ;]

 

[Edward M]

^^ yeah, my computer wouldn't even load the pictures on the last report!