SWGaF - Day 1: Plopsaland Pfalz

[Rob Coasters]

I've known about Coaster Breaks ever since its conception - a small group of 7 coaster maniacs get driven around parks by a tour guide for a week or so, visiting many places in the process. Being a very "I love public transport!" guy, going on one of these trips sounded fun but was never really on my radar. However, as time passed, the idea of doing one sounded like a better and better idea. I spotted one trip that involved a few parks that seemed *really* inconvenient to get to by bus & train, and I was told that if you go on a coaster break you could be invited onto a USA tour, and I wanted to see how I would deal with being around more people that have my energy. And so the South West Germany and France tour was booked.

Day 0: Frankfurt Airport
Day 1: Holiday Park
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Day 3: ?????? ???? & ?????????
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The trip kicked off in some Holiday Inn Express near Frankfurt Airport, but we had to make our own way there as the tour guide was making his way from the UK in his multi-seater van. Finding out that he was making a stop at Bobbejaanland on the way there, I sent him a message asking him to pick up a Revolution shirt for me as they weren't in stock on my visit, he pulled through and I got it. Huge.

Unfortunately, Frankfurt Airport may very well be the worst airport I've ever been to. The place was incredibly linear, ExCeL London levels of straight line madness with incorrect signage (if it even existed) and literally nowhere pointing me in the direction of a taxi rank where I could get my Bolt. Eventually I found the taxi rank but my Bolt wasn't there, and after over half an hour on the phone to Mr Driver over where the f**k he was, I cut my losses and cancelled it before sending a "help me" message to the tour guide seeing if he can pick me up from the airport as I REALLY DO NOT LIKE DEALING WITH TAXIS. I am on my knees begging, BEGGING for these taxi apps to add a video calling feature. PLEASE.

Anyway, I ended up gaining the confidence to hail a normal taxi. Bolt man asked for 20 euros for the 9 minute drive to the hotel. Taxi man asked for 35. I just wanted to get to the hotel. I said ok. The whole ordeal dealing with the unbelievable faff of the straight line hell, getting food, and the taxi torment meant that I landed at 1pm and checked into the hotel at no earlier than about 6:30pm.

We met with the rest of the group before setting off for dinner where we got together, had some laughs about everything, and how we have shared experience with awful experiences of Frankfurt (and how one guy almost had his phone stolen). Dinner was good, then we saved a random car from being stuck on a dirt mound which required the pushing force of about 6 people (and the driver flooring it) to get unstuck. Fun.

An inconvenient start to the day, I've always always always hated taxis but if I really do want to be serious with this whole theme parking business, it's something I'm going to have to deal with and get used to, so I see it as more of a "stepping stone experience" rather than something negative.

Tomorrow - Premier Rides

 

[Rob Coasters]

Day 1: Holiday Park

We started with a swift drive to Holiday Park which went past like a breeze as we introduced ourselves properly and had interesting stuff to share, then suddenly we were there. Travel notes will probably not be as much of a thing as they are during my public transport endeavours as things really don't go much further than "we listened to funny music, we talked a bunch, the drive went well" which is honestly about all you could ask for with a drive.

Coming up to Expedition GeForce was pretty cool but didn't really give me the "after all this time I'm finally here!" that other people gain from seeing a world-class roller coaster like this, but to be frank I didn't really get this feeling across any of the parks - in my eyes, if I book a trip weeks in advance then spend all that time anticipating it, it eventually becomes no big surprise that I'm eventually here as it's something I've planned for so long.


So how was #296 Expedition GeForce? Well I'm pleased to say it surpassed all expectations. The back row provides some glorious moments of airtime and the insanity of the first drop lived up to its hype, having a level of peril that Kondaa lacked. The airtime was phenomenal but I was worried about the middle section, which people claimed was where the ride stepped back from intense thrills for a short amount of time.


Well they're wrong! I loved the sense of speed that you got through the overbanks, and it felt like the ride was just "having fun with itself" flying around wherever it wanted, with a sense of purpose too. The twisted hill going back into the hill-filled finale provided some great laterals, and from there it was ejector airtime after ejector airtime after ejector airtime to finish you off.


After 3 laps in the back row Expedition GeForce had solidified itself as an awesome roller coaster that deserves the praise it gets. A member of our group had recommended we try the front row, so that was put on the cards for later.


Wickie Splash was a rather unassuming log flume so went in not expecting much... drop 1 we were drowned immediately as a tidal wave of water demolished our entire group. The rest wasn't too bad, but it's always the tiny drops that obliterate everything about you and I loved it.


Disko time, Große Welle was decent for the first couple minutes but went on for FAR too long. I was very "I get the idea now" about 30% of the way through but it just kept going on and on and on to the point where it started to detract from the ride experience quite significantly.


Up next was my first ever roller coaster from Premier Rides, #297 Sky Scream. I've heard that these things are just 'alright' with people split down the middle of whether they prefer front or back, but people seemed to be in universal agreement that the trains kind of sucked - well I'm happy to report that after a back row ride, it's much better than what people made them out to be (but I guess these rides pale in comparison to the other rides in the parks that they usually reside in).


As there was no line we went immediately back around for another go in the front, and I have to say the front was much better. Guess I should talk about the ride then - the backwards launch is great but you are just kind of chilling at the top of that non-inverting loop for a while as it takes a while to lose speed on a slope that's levelling out, but that's a non-issue.

However my most interesting take is that the twisting drop out of the roll in the front feels exactly like the drop on Hyperia, just smaller and with more laterals (and arguably just as much airtime too). The rest of the ride is great, the launches hit, the airtime coming into the top of the ride is fun, the shinguards I didn't really care for.


My biggest issue with the ride is getting across the train and scraping your knee across everything as you embarrassingly stumble across them while on bag duty. That's something that I really think Premier needs to work on, but otherwise actually being in the trains is fine. This whole ride feels like something Flamingo Land would get.

Up next was Beach Rescue, a jet ski ride. There's generally not much to say about these but I appreciate how they feel like the Skids, one of my all-time favourite flat rides.


Lighthouse Tower was afterwards. I could've sworn this ride was much higher, am I forgetting something? Otherwise, the views were good but a bit of an odd location at the very edge of the park rather than in the middle of everything.


The final coaster in the park, #298 Tabalugas Achterbahn, was leagues ahead of the other two of this model I'd done. I'm not sure why but I just did not enjoy Rabalder and the chicken one as much as I did this one, but it was randomly a blast for no reason.


Also, side note - why does Tabaluga have his own roller coaster, but absolutely no merchandise?


Free Fall Tower provided some awesome views of the park, with an alright (for me) drop. It truly pains me how no drop tower "does it" for me anymore. I wish I still had that feeling of terror, peril and danger and I wish the drop still had the punch that they all used to have. I'll still do drop towers but it's not looking good for the future when I come off almost all of them thinking "the drop could've been better". When will I meet my match again? I also sure why the drop tower was playing pop music and Feel Good Inc. but it was funny.


Dino Splash was a surprisingly short rapids with a couple moments, not really a standout rapids but it was still alright.


And after that, we went for two more laps on Expedition GeForce where we snagged a ride in row 2 (close enough to the front, we didn't want to wait 2 extra cycles) and honestly if it wasn't for completely losing the masterful first drop it felt just as good as the back - the airtime hills are perfectly engineered to be fantastic on both ends of the train, something that won't be true for a future ride later down the line.

As good as front is, we still craved the feeling of the back row first drop so got our final ride in at the other end of the train. I love how a ride from 2001 can still hold up this much, it's truly deserving of it's world-class status.


But the actual final ride was another go in the front of Sky Scream, as our group wanted another go on the sky fly but a couple of us weren't feeling that. I'm still a fan and would be excited to get on another one.


That ended our day at Holiday Park, it feels great to have done The Ride and the park is so much more than "a place that happens to have Expedition GeForce". I can't wait to come back for their new big additions that they have in the pipeline.


Tomorrow - Basket Zodiac