Tag: ABC Rides

The perfect family park

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Familypark

At Lake Neusiedl, the largest lake in Austria – about 40 km from the capital Vienna –, you will find the Familypark, the largest amusement park in Austria. In the past few years the Familypark surprised everybody over and over again by its well-chosen novelties. With the new for 2015 ride Leonardos Flugmaschine a visit became obligatory.

Erlebnisburg

In the theme area “Erlebnisburg”, the entrance area of the Familypark, one already notices the high-quality design of the park. A large number of rides for the smaller park guests are located here, such as the children’s train Hans und die Bohnenranke, the monorail Drachenbahn or the carousel Entenparade, as well as the Heege Sunkid portfolio of the park. This includes a comet swing and a tower as well as a brand new Butterfly featuring an eagle design, but unfortunately the equipment here has to be paid for with a token and some Austrian children think that they have to ride continuously despite the queue in front of them.

Verrückte Vogelscheuche and Apfelflug

Following the paths to the right, you reach the most beautiful area of the park, which is dedicated entirely to a farm theme. Those who already appreciate the Mullewapp area in Hannover Erlebnis-Zoo will have their true pleasure here, as such a love of detail can rarely be found. Every ride seems to be perfectly integrated into the overall concept of the area, such as the abc Rides Tilt Tower Verrückte Vogelscheuche, which ran a very entertaining program, the Zierer Wave Swinger Apfelflug, which can also be found in this design in the French amusement park Nigloland, or the large tractor ride. In addition, there are some rides and play areas for the smaller park guests, as well as some animal enclosures.

Rattenmühle

In addition, the Rattenmühle is one of the park’s roller coasters to be found in this theme area. Opened in 2013, the Gerstlauer roller coaster shines above all through its successful adaptation to the terrain and the area itself, but also due to its photogenicity. The queue of the ride is neatly designed and even features a shortcut between the exit of the ride and its station, which nevertheless requires too much time for adults due to its narrow climbs.

After we boarded the car, the journey starts immediately. After a small descent we take a left turn towards the lift hill. As usual, we pass this hill in a fast way before we take a steep turn towards the ground. After a turnaround, we go ascent a hill in a left turn. At its highest point we pass a short distance without any inclination of the track, similar to a top hat element, before we rush towards the valley. In an oversized Bavarian curve, the track leads us up to the top where, after passing the first block brake, we take the only hairpin turn of the track. Going down a straight slope, we take another turn into a slightly steeper curve, which is followed by two smaller bends. After another turn, the second block brake is waitin’ for us. On the following meters two sweeping hills and a helix are on the way until the final brake is reached.

The Rattenmühle is a very satisfying roller coaster, even though it is very atypical compared to the other coasters of this type, as Gerstlauer Bobsled Coasters are usually characterised by their variety of helices, hairpin curves and camelbacks. At least this doesn’t detract from the fun of the ride and especially the audience of the Familypark likes the layout.

Fliegende Fische

Through the worth seeing fairytale forest we head towards the adventure island, the biggest theme area of the park, which seems to be a little mixed up. The area itself is quite coherent, but the Zierer Flying Fish Fliegende Fische – which unfortunately comes without a kitschy children’s song – created an area with a separate design. This wouldn’t be particularly awful, if this year’s novelty wouldn’t take up the theme of the rest of the section with it. Since there is still a lot of space available and the maritime design was also implemented beautifully, an independent area with a few smaller rides would be desirable.

Sumpfburg

Passing the Sumpfburg, where one would have spent some hours as a child, and the equally wet water playground, our way leads to the Mediterranean area, where on one hand the dinghy slide Tempelrutsche gets on one’s nerves because of its constant announcement, and on the other hand some other attractions are extremely satisfying.

Krokobahn

A very nerve-racking ride is the small abc Rides log flume Krokobahn, which does not seem to offer much except for a small double shot ride seen from the outside. As the channel was more than sufficiently filled with water, the boat tipped from one side to the other, despite desperate attempts to remain somehow in a straight position. Although a capsizing was not possible, the ride to the lift hill was more than adventurous, moreover we sat quite cramped and very uncomfortable in the boat. After climbing the aqueduct we went down the 4m high shot after a short left turn. The promise of the employee, according to which we will be properly soaked, is more than fulfilled.

Götterblitz

Within sight of the log flume there’ s the Götterblitz, a youngster coaster from Mack, similar to the roller coaster Pegasus at Europa Park. The ride begins, this time without music, with the ascent of the lift hill. After a small gradient we quickly take a turn before descending the big drop. With full speed we enter a horseshoe, which is rapidly passed through. In a right bend we go uphill again, whereupon a leftside helix with an adjacent slope is added. This is followed by an alternating uphill and downwards helix, which are carried out close to the ground. Another right turn leads up to the brake section before heading towards the station.

The Götterblitz, like its identical counterpart Correcaminos Bip, Bip from the Spanish Parque Warner, offers a wonderful ride that made you want to stay seated. The biggest roller coaster of the park fits perfectly into the general picture and perfectly matches the target group.

Herkules

Not quite as perfect, as it is no longer rideable for people who are halfway grown up, is the small soapbox roller coaster Herkules, the second novelty this year, which has been added to the Familypark portfolio. Like the Heege products, the Kiddy Racer has to be paid for with a token.

Leonardos Flugmaschine

The main reason for our visit this year is definitely the Gerstlauer SkyFly Leonardos Flugmaschine. Although the first laps surprisingly were without any rollovers, we were fascinated by the SkyFly after the third ride at the latest. As veterans of the interactive Gerstlauer rollover carousels we spent countless laps on the ride thanks to an average of 40 – 100 rollovers per ride – according to the RideOps counting even a little bit more – at the burden of both our shoulders. Unfortunately we were the only visitors who rolled over on this day, although some guests at least tried, but at the end they didn’t find out about how to change the position of the wings properly.

Pictures Familypark

Conclusion Familypark

The Familypark is, despite its trivial name, a really great amusement park. The overall design of the park is outstanding and the portfolio of rides has been very well aligned. It would be nice to see another water attraction coming into the park in the next few years, as the small crocodile ride alone does not do justice to the size of the park. A bigger white-water ride would be just as praiseworthy as a splash battle or even a roller coaster. Nevertheless, the Familypark is the best amusement park in the country.

 

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Familypark

About the Freischütz and other roller coasters

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Bayern Park

Bayern Park is one of the more highly praised amusement parks in Germany, and has attracted the attention of roller coaster enthusiasts since the construction of the Freischütz. We arrived at the park just in time for the opening, after all we only had about 6km to drive that day, and the first impressions were quite positive, although the weather wasn’t quite as good as the day before.

As most of the rides hadn’t opened by this time, we enjoyed the Heege Comet Swings, which offered plenty of airtime. Unfortunately we missed the whole upper part of the park where the wave swinger, an arcade with a butterfly in space optics and the second butterfly were located. So we did not visit this part of the park until the end of our visit.

Froschbahn

The main part of Bayern Park is located further down the hill anyway and can offer the first coaster ride of the day in the form of the Froschbahn. This small coaster from Zierer opened a little late, as it had to do some test rides. Thanks to a small group of young people, the train was packed and took a few laps around the small oval layout in a great atmosphere.

Achterbahn

Lovers of extra-long coasters trains will find something to their liking on Zierer’s New Tivoli roller coaster, with the incredibly original name of Achterbahn. This coaster is identical in construction to the Green Scream at Adventure Island in Southend-on-Sea.

After the train has left the station, it climbs the lift hill after a left turn and the train shows its full glory for the first time. The first descent is very flat, but quickly gains speed in a right turn. This is followed by a left helix, so that the layout becomes a figure of eight. Above the station building, the ride picks up speed again and the next valley is a powerful one. Another helix follows, this time clockwise, and circles the lift just before it takes the shortest route to the end of the ride.

The coaster has a very neat layout and makes a good impression due to the strong forces, if it weren’t for the totally incompetent staff. It’s a big mystery to me why, despite the covered station that the train was completely wet. The staff standing at the other end of the station did not even think to clean the train before the first guests arrived. Funnily enough, even Karlo’s taxi in Denmark’s Djurs Sommerland was cleaned by an elderly gentleman before our ride. But as the day went on, it became clear that this competence was lacking everywhere in the park.

Schmetterlingstanz and the luge of the game park

After a meandering ride on the HUSS Airboat Schmetterlingstanz, we crossed a bridge to a part of the park with little significance. Not every park can afford a completely filthy lake with a steamboat ride and an artificial Bavarian castle at its edge. A small boat ride through its visually appealing garden takes you to a grotto where a fountain of youth awaits – the hottest temptation for Americans since the dawn of Europe.

In this corner you will also find the entrance to Bayern Park’s game park, which is probably the only reason why it is worth making the long way round. Lovers of luges may disagree, but charging extra for compulsory rides in a theme park where even the Heege rides are free seems a bit cheeky. There is also another luge in the upper part of the park doing the same. 

Thalon

Back in civilisation, we were able to watch the first test runs of the Freischütz, but it didn’t look like the ride was going to open any time soon. So we climbed up the mountain parallel to the track, because at the top of this way is the indoor drop ride Thalon.

The ride inside the former observation tower is a Zierer Family Freefall Tower, the best examples of which are Tikal at Phantasialand or Majas Blumenturm at Holiday Park. In contrast to these ingenious rides, however, Bayern-Park has tried to enhance the ride with an irrelevant backstory and illuminated scenes at different heights without any animatronics. The concept itself could be good, but the ride should be more dynamic and not run in toddler mode. The interior scenes make no sense at all and could be omitted, which would make the ride even better and also improve the look of the tower, as the extensions for the interior scenes do not make the tower very attractive, even if the ugly colour scheme has already retouched some of it.

Next to the tower is a Zierer Kontiki with a stone-like appearance, which doesn’t really have much to offer apart from the queue, where you’d better watch your head if you’re an adult. But admittedly, it fits in nicely with the Thalonia theme.

Wildwasser-Rafting

Below these attractions is one of the highlights of Bayern Park: the abc rides Rapid River Splash Wildwasser-Rafting. At first glance, this beautifully designed ride does not look much different from the smaller rides from the same manufacturer, but the ride features a longer section before the lift hill and even a waterfall. Once you reach the top of the lift, the boat slowly but surely picks up speed and after the first combination of turns you will be spinning like crazy. The boats also have a very pronounced upswing, which makes the descent very entertaining. At the end of the slide, the obligatory splash awaits the passengers and, depending on the load of the boat, at least one person will get wet.

Freischütz

The second highlight of the park is right next to the rafting ride, but unfortunately the entrance is on the other side, so you have to walk a long way up and down again. Beautifully designed waiting areas have their charms, and the opera rollercoaster Der Freischütz certainly has one. A path under the inside tophat leads through two buildings with zigzagging paths to an open square before entering a maze. This is followed by a larger square before a series of smaller paths with various obstacles, but here only one path was open. At the end, visitors find themselves in a very modern station.

As soon as we board the train, the ride begins. After leaving the station we are launched into the first inversion. In the following valley we are pushed into the car with a lot of force, but we are also shaken quite a bit. The looping that follows is as intense as a looping can get. This is followed by an insanely intense bavarian curve with an equally intense heartline roll. This is followed by a more leisurely steep turn before the final inversion. Another right-hander later, we head through the station and, with a bit of luck, are sent on a second lap of the track. Most of the time the train is braked and brought back to its starting position.

The Freischütz is a very good roller coaster by the Munich coaster manufacturer Maurer Söhne, but it is notorious for its pronounced rocking of the cars, which is more pronounced at the front of the train than at the rear.

Pictures Bayern Park

Conclusion Bayern Park

Bayern Park is a well-kept amusement park with some good rides and good value for money, both in terms of admission and food. However, a park loses a lot of sympathy points if the staff turn out to be incompetent, unfriendly and, above all, unenthusiastic. Apparently this is quite normal in this area, as the staff at the premium partner hotel Schlappinger Hof were the same. Sure, Bayern-Park attracts tourists and you don’t have to like them, but elsewhere you’d at least get a smile or two on your face while serving your guests professionally and without grumbling – why they don’t do that here is highly questionable, even though it was only one day in the off-season.

 

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Bayern Park

A tale of a very wild Train

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Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen

The Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen is a small amusement park on the outskirts of Strasswalchen close to the city of Salzburg. Founded in 1996, the park mainly focuses on fairy tales, but also has some special rides, such as the Wild Train roller coaster, which is very popular with many amusement park enthusiasts.

If you enter the Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen you will immediately be greeted by an animatronic. In the same room there is a lovingly designed exhibition that recreates the story of Snow White with soft toys.

Schloß Drakula

Through a door the visitors get to the forecourt of Drakula’s Castle, one of the main attractions of the park, where a guided tour takes place at regular intervals. Due to the lack of abundance within the park and the alternating opening hours of the rides, we unfortunately had to miss out on a visit.

Sindbad’s Abenteuerreise

Starting from here, you can either go directly to the western section of the park or take the big tour around the lake. Within the fairy tale forest you can find some children’s rides, an antique car train, as well as a monorail pedalway without its pedal function. Following the ways through the forest we end up in a generously sized oriental theme area. The dark ride Sindbad’s Abenteuerreise and a 4D cinema are located here. Despite the advertised opening hours of the dark ride, there was no employee to be found nearby.

Mami Wata

If you continue along the path you will come across the pirate boat swing and the construction site of the Hafema log flume Mami Wata, which is this year’s novelty of the amusement park. On a small area you will soon find a splash ride with two drops, where the starting height of the bigger descent will be reached by a vertical lift.

Knights Ride Tower

Along the picturesque western section of the Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen, the path leads us straight to a building that seems rather inconspicuous from the outside. Inside there is the Knights Ride Tower, a small free-fall tower built by abc Rides. The queue of this tower is nicely designed and raises the expectations, as we already know comparable installations of the Merlin Entertainments Group Dungeons and amusement parks.

Strangely enough, you have to strap yourself to the ride before the ride can finally begin, which was not at all an easy task in a darkened room without my glasses. Now, we move up slowly and stop at different levels with different video projections and animatronics. On the first floor you can see a sleeping dragon and a knight galloping through the cave, on the second floor a mythical creature playing a musical instrument in front of a fire, on the third floor several awakened dragons in attacking mood, and on the final floor a fight between a horseman and a dragon. The free fall follows and a detached hand embedded in the ground is illuminated.

The Knights Ride Tower is what Thalon at Bayern Park would like to be, which is a rideable vertical ride with a good background story. Although the ride is a bit lengthy due to the many stopovers, the potential of the ride type is never missed and the scenes and projections are of the highest quality. The drop itself, similar to all the other abc towers, is very pleasing and shows once again that the height of a free Dfall tower is not the decisive argument.

Dino Adventure

In the back corner of the park – next to the park railway Dino Adventure, which leads along several prehistoric scenery pictures – you can find a ferris wheel, a wave slide, another bumper car and a racetrack, which is not included in the entrance fee.

Wild Train

Above the race track you find the highlight of the Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen: the roller coaster Wild Train. The roller coaster is highly exotic not only because of its support construction but also because of its Russian manufacturer called Pax. From the outside the layout seems to be quite normal for such a small ride and even the train seems to be only wild because of its design, but if you know the predominant opinions about the ride you already know that the roller coaster is much wilder than it seems.

When the train is ready to move, the wild ride can start. Slowly but steadily we climb the friction wheel lift. A small hill follows after the first steep turn, which lets the passengers fly off their seats immediately. This is followed by an uphill helix. Regardless of any losses, it is followed by a drop with immensely pronounced ejector airtime, similar to Piraten from the Danish amusement park Djurs Sommerland. A camelback repeats the previously experienced change between pressure and weightlessness. On a Bavarian curve you now circle around a small castle before it reaches the most insane point in the whole layout. With full force you are now being shot into your lap bar, only to be shaken through the next bend due to the missing ground contact. Another hill and yet another bavarian curve lead you back to the station.

The Wild Train is a crazy roller coaster and also one of the few roller coasters that leaves something lasting behind for its passengers. Be it the bruise on both thighs or the memory of a truly incomparable intensive family roller coaster. Unfortunately the ride closes immediately after the first raindrop, maybe it wasn’t the worst for our health.

Pictures Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen

Conclusion Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen

Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen is a small, friendly family park, which always distinguishes itself from similarly small parks by well-considered investments. The park is a great one and offers many surprises during your visit.

 

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Fantasiana Erlebnispark Strasswalchen