SWGaF - Day 2: This Is Sparta

[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
Day 2: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
Day 3: ?????? ???? & ?????????
Day 4: ?????? ????
Day 5: ????????? ????? ???
Day 6: ?????????
Day 7: ???? ???????
Day 8: ???? ????? ????

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

 

[Rob Coasters]

Day 2: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

It's going to be weird having no travel notes - all of our drives have been "it went smoothly, we drove from A to B in relatively quick time with no issues". So with nothing to say on that behalf, may as well get straight into the meat of the day.

Today was a big milestone day, hitting my 300th different roller coaster, so naturally we started with #299 Volldampf. Was already a big fan of its catchy trula-trula-trula-la theme tune, and also instantly fell in love with how the train vehicle has actual steam coming out of it. The layout takes a linear path, like Saven & Luna, which I generally prefer over the more compact twisty ones. This one is no different, does the job well with great interactions with the suspended thrill coaster too.



The big milestone is #300 Hals-über-Kopf, my first Suspended Thrill Coaster. Think Orkanen at Fårup Sommerland but it goes upside down basically, and that is exactly what it is. This is actually a criticism of the ride for some, in that it doesn't quite go far enough with the 'thrill' aspect but I wasn't too bothered - Hals is a fantastic ride that was very deserving of its place as my 300th roller coaster.


While honestly it's one of the lesser smooth nu-Vekomas I've done, I did note a bit of a rattle in the back, it wasn't enough to negatively affect the ride for me. I loved the flow of the layout and how it provided actually decent force plus a restraint that you could actually move around in, cough cough. The rolls were great, the turns were great, the interactions were great, the fact that the far spike for Volldampf is in the station is great, these are the ingredients for a generally... great ride.


We went around for a lap two, again in the back, before setting off elsewhere. While not as forceful as the B&M inverted coasters, their variety & lap bar is quite an advantage which actually puts it a cut above one (soon to be two) of the inverts that I've done.


I also absolutely loved the presentation of the area. In a time & age where new coasters with this level of path interaction are increasingly becoming extremely rare, it felt great to see a (fairly) new ride with this level of interaction. It felt like it fit absolutely seamlessly into the park too - one of my favourite aspects of parks is when it's difficult for the average eye to tell what the new thing is, a very underrated thing that doesn't get discussed enough at all.


Moving on to #301 Mammut, my first (and I believe last?) wooden coaster manufactured by Gerstlauer. I'd heard bad things about this so hopped in a non-wheel seat and braced for the worst, and while a very notable vibration was felt throughout the whole ride, I came off thinking that was a very fun ride that had decent length to it. While the shuffle was very much a thing, I didn't care for it at all really - I was fully able to enjoy the ride and that's all that mattered.



#302 G'sengte Sau had one of the longest queues of the entire trip (a four or five-way tie at 40 minutes, I think) and was my third example of this ride layout. Being the first coaster by Gerstlauer it ran surprisingly decent, had excellent theming, and the iconic "Wetten dass...?" sign. I think it's a potential contender for my favourite bobsled.


Continuing onwards to #303 Karacho, an awesome infinity coaster (and my third consecutive Gerstlauer roller coaster). I wasn't a huge fan of the uncomfortable lurch downwards into the launch, but everything that followed was incredible. The launch had a punch that few LSMs bring these days, the top hat was fantastic, the inverting top hat hit in a way that Helix's didn't.


The following turns are cool & fun, and I find it funny how Gerstlauer coasters have a general trend of "hey, let's funny around for a bit, give you a nice tour of the area " and then suddenly out of nowhere "haha f**k you, die" in their rides - here, it's represented by a pleasant helix after the midcourse brake run followed by an abrupt & intense dive loop into a tunnel followed by a hangtime-fuelled corkscrew into the brakes. These moments are a staple of Gerstlauer, and I like them.


On the brakes I was taking issue with the lap bars digging into a place where I would really rather they didn't, and sitting on the brakes kind of really sucked for that very reason. Despite this, Karacho is easily my favourite roller coaster in the park, has a brilliant station & train design & goofy soundtrack to go with it - I rate it highly.


Up next was Badewannenfahrt zum Jungbrunnen, a bathtub-themed log flume. I was told about one of the scenes of the ride and how it left a few parkgoers shocked, but nobody told me about how the splash absolutely soaks the queue line. This photo I took from the danger zone perfectly illustrates just how clueless I really was - I wish this was a video, but at the same time, I had no clue what was about to happen.



Absolutely waterbombed before the ride even started, I found it hilarious. Before long we boarded, and it's an excellent flume. The scene in question that I was warned about was very inoffensive, just a fountain of youth scene with a nude woman in it - the way they were describing it made it sound like the entire room was filled with extreme adult content with pickles as far as the eye could see, but no none of that. It was a nice ride.


We then did the Hängebrücke which was good fun.

Then got food before proceeding to #304 Rasender Tausendfüßler, one of the absolute funniest rides of the entire trip. I had a massive restraint gap, stood up on the way down, grabbed leaves, it was fantastic and utter hilarity the whole way through. I love these rides forever and always.


The group decided to ride a sky fly, so in the meantime, we saw the first of two animatronic bands of the trip, Musik-Pavillon "Die Fidelen Tripsdriller",


Suppenschüsselfahrt is a tea cups ride on the track, reminded me of the fantastic Tyrolean Tubtwist but with a little less violence. Fun way to pass time.


Kaffeetassen-Fahrt is a tea cups ride, reminded me of normal tea cups rides as it was one. We span, it was a fun way to pass time.


Wäschekorb-Rundflug is a paratrooper but you sit in washing baskets instead of parachutes. We span, was fun, nice little variant of a common ride.


Quickfire round done, the rest of the group was done with the sky fly, so we went to Karacho for a reride. I had mostly the same opinion, still comfortably one of my favourite coasters only brought down by the pre-launch lurch and the crushing brakes.


Then we did the Vinarium, a winery where you can get a free shot glass by scanning your park ticket then fill it up with some delicious drinks for cheap. We went for the non-alcoholic options, which were great.


This is the place where a running joke spawned within the group, after a couple members spotted a pot of cheese cubes for sale. It started off with "these cheese cubes are really tasty" before very quickly turning into "...does anyone want cheese?" They were pretty good, but now they had a lot of cheese on them. It quickly started into a round of challenges through the rest of the tour where "the winner gets cheese", but you guessed it, everyone was too full of cheese to want more cheese.

Vinarium done, and an unholy amount of cheese in our possession, it was time for Altmännermühle, the park's outdoor funhouse, where things immediately went wrong when one member instantly lost their footing in a large rotating drum. Unable to get up, the guide tried to rescue them before also succumbing to the wrath of the wheel, before it was stopped presumably by a staff member overlooking the parkour courses. The rest of the obstacles were just as if not more perilous, with some sliding floors that got you going extremely quick. Overall it was a hilarious experience that everyone saw the funny side of.

Then started a mini log flume takeover on Mühlbach-Fahrt where I did a solo participation in a "loudest scream on the drop competition" which turned more than a few heads!


The thing that started Tripsdrill's life as a theme park was Altweibermühle, the windmill slide. This was remarkably perilous and landed me with quite a friction burn which had me disposing some of my water onto it, but was absolutely worth the chaos.

https://imgur.com/a/Uu8vfNf

Beginning to wind things down we hit up Wilde Gautsche, my first Wild Swing. This was a pretty fun family ride that was great fun for what it was.


Then ended it with two more rides on Hals, where opinions remained relatively unchanged (solid ride).


Tripsdrill was a brilliant park with truly no bad rides, it's impressive to see quality this consistent across the board.


Tomorrow - Piccolo Mondo