Complimentary ice cream and long queues in Kalkar

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Wunderland Kalkar

How an amusement park became one of the biggest investment ruins of the last few years was impressively demonstrated at the Nürburgring with the Ring°Werk, but how an investment ruin became an amusement park resort can be seen in the development of Wunderland Kalkar. When the nuclear power plant Kalkar was finally shut down in 1991 due to political and safety concerns, a buyer was sought for the site, which was then sold for a bargain. The former administration buildings were turned into a larger hotel complex. Between the individual buildings, or on and in the buildings, the Wunderland Kalkar amusement park was built.

Without any major exception, the park’s offer consists of rides by the Italian manufacturer Zamperla, but the larger and more interesting rides by the manufacturer are completely missing, which is hardly significant in relation to the target group.

Disk’O and Vertical Swing

The most interesting rides are the Disk’O, located on the roof of a building, which scores with its intensive ride program and the Vertical Swing, located in the cooling tower, where the additional gondola carrier doesn’t fall off, as in the Polish amusement park Śląskie Wesołe Miasteczko, and thus instead of an interesting freefall only offers a boring panoramic ride. The American fans of Theme Park Review envy us for this ride.

Achterbahn and Wildwasserbahn

However, also normal roller coaster fans will get their money’s worth, because the park’s roller coaster named Achterbahn is a quite interesting example of a Powered Coaster, if only it weren’t for the dispatch, which destroys all fun. Unfortunately, there is hardly any interaction with the neighbouring Wildwasserbahn log flume, which offers much too steep slopes and is averagely wet.

Long queues and free fries

In general, the handling in the park is a bad joke and starts already at the entrance, where one can wait a little longer despite the printed tickets, as there were many ticket buyers through Groupon and Co. who wanted to finally redeem their vouchers before the end of the season. In the park itself, the crowd was divided relatively homogeneously across the park, but most of the visitors spent their day queuing for free fries at the central distribution points below the cooling tower. Here a decentralization, as is often the case, would be a solution, also an abolition of the all-you-can-eat offer for fries and ice cream would be an idea, but that would probably result in a lower entrance fee. For the portions at least, standing in line in long queues is hardly worth it, but hey it’s free after all.

Pictures Wunderland Kalkar

Conclusion Wunderland Kalkar

Wunderland Kalkar is one of the most interesting amusement parks in the world due to its location and its prehistory, which also attracted international attention with the original placement of its rides. Due to the abundance of the park, however, I spent much more time than planned in the park, so that one should not choose the sunniest weekend for weeks for a visit when various vouchers come up. Otherwise, the Wunderland Kalkar could surely be described as a quite solid amusement park, but due to the expensive entrance fee, despite the food policy of the park, the price-performance ratio is rather mediocre.

 

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Wunderland Kalkar

Magnus Colossus and other accidents

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Doubtful changes in Terra Mítica

When the Benidorm-based Aqualandia-Mundomar Group released the Terra Mitica theme park from its transitional society in 2012, hopes were high that the actually solid and rather less visited theme park with its wooden roller coaster Magnus Colossus, visible from afar, would be filled with new life. One year later the park’s offer was reduced to a minimum by combining some of the theme areas to form the brand new theme park Iberia Park. For the time being you could visit the park for free and pay for the rides via token, but this strategy was changed the following year, so that besides Terra Mitica you could visit a second full-price amusement park, without a roller coaster, but with a bigger spa area than the park next door.

While the amusement park was always well maintained by the transitional society and shone like no other Spanish amusement park because of all the new paint, the park is now quite run down and the paint has actually worn off in many places. The maintenance on the roller coasters in general leaves a lot to be desired, so a ride on Magnus Colossus with missing side padding for the knees is pretty brute, so it’s no wonder for me that the restraint of the Intamin ZacSpins Inferno failed in July this year.

A hint that the roller coaster is not in operation at the moment is missing on the park’s website, of course. Only from the final brake of the wooden roller coaster Magnus Colossus you can see the three cars in the station. Of course there are no signs of any work around the ride.

Magnus Colossus

During my last visit in 2011 I could only test the rearmost car for Magnus Colossus, one ride was enough for the rest of the accompanying group, and so I was only able to experience the strange phenomenon of the constant and quite painful interplay between bar and backrest. Admittedly it was also the reason for a second visit, because I was missing a final opinion about this wooden roller coaster. As it turned out, a ride in the last car is still not recommendable, but further to the front you at least saved yourself the swinging, but not the permanent hitting of the knees against the existing or not existing side paddings. With a length of more than 1100m this is by far not comfortable and even Lightwater Valleys Ultimate is a soft ride. If you still think that Bandit from Movie Park Germany is a horrible, even unrideable wooden roller coaster, you are welcome to experience your holiday including a visit to the park at the Costa Blanca.

Apart from the general disintegration of the rides and the elimination of several thematic areas, there are actually no major changes. In general, however, the Terra Mitica amusement park is only a shadow of its former self, so a visit is not advisable.

Pictures Terra Mítica

Closing Words

Fortunately, since my report in 2014, things have changed again. The Iberia Park only existed until 2016, after that the park was once again complete. It was a crazy idea from the beginning, which didn’t really work for anyone and probably cost a lot of visitors. With the opening of the Grand Luxor Hotel, from which you have a wonderful view down to the city of Benidorm, a resort was also created, so that one should not yet give up hope and actually pay the park a visit one more time.

 

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Terra Mítica

Aquopolis Torrevieja

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Water Park:Aquopolis Torrevieja (since 1987)
Address:Av. Delfina Viudes
03183 Torrevieja
https://torrevieja.aquopolis.es/en
Operated by:Parques Reunidos

Aquopolis Torrevieja is a water park of the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos. The water park on the Costa Blanca convinces with its two large water slides Kamikaze and Speed, which can be seen from far away.

Aquopolis Torrevieja

Zig-Zag, Mini Zig-Zag, Rapids and Black Hole

After the obligatory photo shoot, you will find a miniature golf course and a large number of rental loungers – also available in a luxury version – in the entrance area of Aquopolis Torrevieja. Past a small Polynesian lagoon landscape, followed by the medieval children’s area including Nessie, the paths all lead towards the only true sliding infrastructure in the park. Here you will find the two larger body slides called Zig-Zag, the smaller children’s slides Mini Zig-Zag, the broadband slide Speed Slide, and the two rather boring tyre slides Rapids and Black Hole.

While you hardly notice the ride on the Speed Slide because of all the water, at least the white Zig-Zag slide refreshes you to a very satisfactory degree. Due to the high speed you take off during the two jumps and get a good face wash due to a dammed up water front. Although the tight radii and the jumps are fun to do on the blue slide, it still lacks that certain something.

Boomerang

On the left side of the mountain in the Aquopolis Torrevieja there is a relatively small half-pipe slide called Boomerang. However, compared to the larger variants I know of, it has fairly high forces. This could be due to the very steep gradient, which is maintained for quite a long time. Due to the low water accumulation at the bottom, you are not slowed down as much, which on the other hand allows you to get very high on the other side. A few pendulum movements later you will be slowed down by the edge of the slide.

Speed and Kamikaze

On the other side of the mountain is the slide tower with the two kamikaze slides, which is clearly visible from the outside. The slide called Kamikaze masters a hill, while the slide called Speed goes straight to the ground. The yellow speed slide is quite comfortable and even the landing in the pool doesn’t end with an enema, whereas the red Kamikaze slide is much more exciting. Shortly after take-off you build up enough speed to spend some time in the air on the next descent. Due to the shortened run-out, landing in the pool is usually very turbulent, so it is not uncommon to be asked about your health condition after the slide.

Miscellaneous

The portfolio of the Aquopolis Torrevieja also includes a very small Lazy River, a small wave pool, where water gymnastics is also performed, and a small cable car, at the end of which the refreshing water inevitably awaits. All in all, the portfolio is very small to justify such an entrance fee at all – even the water parks in the Algarve were cheaper. The possibility of a queue skiping wristbands seems to me to be grossly exaggerated, but can be legitimate given the low capacity of all of the slides.

 

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Aquopolis Torrevieja