Tag: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

Full Steam ahead on Hals-über-Kopf

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The novelties of Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

Erlebnispark Tripsdrill has once again built something new and presented it to the public half-finished – and thus not made with love at all. In the German amusement park scene, we only know this kind of behaviour from Hansa Park, but there they have to cover up a big tower every time. To be honest, I didn’t really understand why they had to open their two roller coasters, Volldampf and Hals-über-Kopf, during the Covid-19 pandemic; after all, they could have marketed the whole thing all the bigger when the pandemic was coming to an end.

Volldampf

Well, now the two roller coasters are here and can be tested. The smaller of the two Vekoma rides is the Family Boomerang Volldampf, which is already very impressive. Admittedly, the ride is basically finished; the only thing missing is the decoration at the reversal point of the ride.  Apart from the beautiful station, the cute and macabre train design, the foreign visitor gets acquainted with Swabian folk songs and before the ride starts, one sings along with Trulla-trulla-trullala of the song Auf de schwäbsche Eisebahne after the coaster has been designed.

The ride begins with the backward incline of the friction wheel lift. Once you have reached the top of the lift, you are first held in position while the friction wheels are pushed apart, thus clearing the way. Immediately the brakes are released and the descent begins. With momentum we now drive through the station and over a small hill to the right. Here we also avoid the threateningly close rail of Hals-über-Kopf. Close to the ground, we now whiz through a wide left turn before we cross a path on a hill. Now we make our way across the inside of the Suspended Thrill Coaster. After a slight turn to the right, a turn to the left follows. With momentum we then go through another right turn, whereupon we enter the station building of Hals-über-Kopf and change our direction above the station. A little more leisurely than before, we now go backwards through the already completed stretch.

Volldampf is fun! The ride across the big sister ride convinces with its curves close to the ground, the constant changes of direction and the mutual interaction. The long stretch of track also gives the passengers a lot to enjoy.

Hals-über-Kopf

Less is offered to park guests – at least in terms of design – on the Suspended Thrill Coaster Hals-über-Kopf. This is an iteration of the very common suspended looping coaster. The track profile, however, is based on that of the manufacturer’s new looping roller coasters.

The ride on the Hals-über-Kopf begins immediately with a short right turn, which soon leads us into the ride’s lift. Having reached a height of 30m, we immediately plunge straight down to the ground. Just above the roller coaster Volldampf we turn right. With momentum we now go through the first valley and immediately into the first inversion. We cross the station building of the family roller coaster in a long zero-G roll. Shortly afterwards, we turn around in an Immelmann Jr. Far above a pavement we now whiz over an airtime hill. After a short bend to the left, we plunge to the ground once more and immediately turn to the right and, poof, we see the world upside down a second time. Immediately we plunge into a 270° helix close to the ground and full of pressure, before we take off a little on a small hill. Another strongly inclined turn follows. Very close to the ground, there is a short bend to the right before we enter a dip to the left. This is followed by the last and final inversion of the ride. Shortly afterwards, we already hit the final brake.

Hals-über-Kopf is an extremely solid family roller coaster with a beautiful track layout and great pacing. The ride is only slightly stressful, which means that every member of the family should get their money’s worth. For us roller coaster fans, there is now an extremely exciting roller coaster in the Erlebnispark Tripsdrill that you could confidently ride for several hours at a time and that is an extremely nice thing per se.

Pictures Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

Conclusion Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

With the new roller coaster duo, Erlebnispark Tripsdrill has done a lot right. The new coasters enhance the front section of the park and, due to their location alone, ensure a better overall distribution of visitors in the park, who would otherwise mostly romp around in the back part of the park. Now there is something for the whole family in every area of the park and that is a very nice development for a family theme park like Erlebnispark Tripsdrill.

 

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Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

Alpina Blitz and Donjon de l’Extrême

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Nigloland

The last time I visited the Gélis family theme park, the Sky Fly Air Meeting was just one day old and caused quite a stir and enthusiasm among the park visitors. I also remember the huge bruises on my shoulders – but that’s nothing compared to the experiences of the User Bends on onride.de. Well, Jan and I were going wild on the ride at the time; my record was 96 rollovers at one time. In the meantime, many sister installations have been set up, some of them are even heavily throttled. The market seems to be saturated, but should one still look forward to a ride at the Air Meeting? Hell yeah, you should! And with that I welcome you to the fourth day of the Tron-Tron-Trône Tour. Once again we are in Nigloland and we have some novelties in front of us. The most striking and probably best known of these is the roller coaster Alpina-Blitz. Furthermore we drop down from a height of 100m on the freefall tower Donjon de l’Extrême and have a look at the construction sites of Les Zabeilles and Eden Palais, as well as the remains of the roller coaster Bobsleigh. Sounds good, n’est-ce pas?

Niglo Show

But before we look at something new, let’s first take a look at something old. Everybody who has visited Nigloland knows that the park has some very charming dark rides, and the numerous wonderfully presented rides also come to mind – but have any of you ever seen the Niglo Show? Well, I thought so.

Since 1992, the fifth season of the amusement park, this elaborate animatronics show exists in Nigloland. Based on the Country Bear Jamboree of selected Disney Parks, the park mascot Niglo presents a kind of hit parade. The show drifts quite quickly into a very comical and slightly strange direction with the appearance of Hans and Frieda from Bavaria. Marvellous! After about 15 minutes the show is over again. Combined with the cult status in Nigloland and the fact that it is the only show of this kind in France, it is really worth seeing.

Also worth seeing is the western area where the theatre is located. But you already know that. So, after a lap on the Gold Mine Train, as well as the log flume Rivière Canadienne and the Disk’o Coaster Grizzli, it’ s time to move on. After a few metres we reach a castle complex, in whose courtyard are the two free fall towers Donjon de l’Extrême and Tour des Petits Fantômes.

Donjon de l’Extrême

The entrances to the queues of both attractions are located on one side of the castle gates. So come in, be amazed, turn around and then line up accordingly. The queues then follow the course of the castle walls before they end at a turnstile. Theoretically, you are now let into an area where you can store your bags; always in groups, of course. This way both rides can have a very high capacity. On the day of the visit only one employee had the pleasure of operating both rides alternately and when there was a sufficient number of people waiting. Therefore the waiting time was quite long. Understandably, of course, as the Ride-Op in question also has to supervise the rides. So it took me almost 10 minutes until I sat in the gondola of the big freefall tower for the first time. The really well made film with safety instructions and storyline could shorten the waiting time a little.

The almost 100m high tower Dongon de l’Extrême offers its passengers a drop pleasure from 92m height. This makes it higher than the Gyro Drop Tower Scream from the Heide Park near Soltau, which also causes me a slight vertigo of height. Somehow it’s funny, if at a certain point you can say that the tower is now higher than the tower in the Lueneburg Heath. But most probably it is only the power of habit that makes you sit up and take notice as soon as things change. So far this has only happened to me with three towers, but this is not an indication of the quality of the subsequent fall. After all, and you have to admit this to the new restraint system of the Funtime towers, the feeling is enhanced by the freedom of your shoulders.

The free fall on Donjon de l’Extrême fits in perfectly with that of other rides from the manufacturer. That makes for a good mood. The fairly free seating position supports the ride overall, but is not a must-have compared to conventional restraint systems. What bothers me personally is that you let the gondola carrier rotate too fast, so you can see the whole of Nigloland for two laps in total. Somehow I miss the suspense. All in all, the Donjon de l’Extrême is an excellent freefall tower in a beautiful setting with a really good fall experience that you always enjoy getting back into.

All in all, everything has been done right. In principle, a review of the Tour de Petits Fantômes, the Zierer family freefall tower right next door, would now also take place. However, the waiting time was too long for me, especially since at a later point in time there was much more traffic than before at the Donjon de l’Extrême and the waiting time was much longer. But I was standing in line. At some point, however, the waiting time became too long for me, so I preferred to queue at the nearby Manoir Hanté, the magnificent self-built ghost train with carousel feeling. Huiiiiii!

Alpina Blitz

Now we come to the biggest roller coaster of Nigloland, the Mack Rides Mega Coaster Alpina Blitz. When in 2009 the current manager Rudolphe Gélis took a ride on the at that time still new Ferris wheel with his uncle and his father, they noticed a very large green area, on which ideally a large roller coaster could be placed. In the idea finding phase everything was still open. A water coaster was still as conceivable as a spinning coaster or a wooden roller coaster similar to Tripsdrill’s Mammut. But then came Piraten. The layout of the compact Mega Lite Coaster from Djurs Sommerland convinced the Gélis family right away, but the train did not suit the family. They rather wanted seats like the Bluefire roller coaster instead of camping chair-like seats with lap bars. Intamin was convinced of their generation of trains, and as a consequence they contacted the manufacturer Mack Rides.

Once you have taken a place in the comfortable seats, you are ready to go. Via chain lift you are now quickly transported to a height of 33m. As soon as you reach the top, you’ll be thrown into the valley, where you’ll be loaded with 4.3G for several seconds in a curve close to the ground. At the same time the bar is pushed down very far. As a result, the passenger is now pressed between the bar and the seat, which unfortunately does not benefit the following elements at all.

With pleasure you shoot up a hill, on the top of which you immediately change direction. At great speed you pass another valley before a classic Airtime hill follows. Normally it is a moment of complete joy, but on the Alpina Blitz you experience an unparalleled torture. After all, the train tries to throw you off quite powerfully – but it’s no fun without a little bit of space between you and the restraint. In the following curve close to the ground you can take a short break before a series of turns follows. Compared to the Mega Lite roller coasters these are a bit more moderate, which is very much in line with the general ride comfort (due to the closed position of the bars). After another curve close to the ground three classic bunny hops follow each other. At least in theory, these are also very funny. The end of the Alpina Blitz is a beautiful left turn with a Bayernkurve-style upward swing before reaching the braking distance.

The obligatory comparison of the two Mega Coaster variations is easy for me: Intamin wins. In this respect there is actually no room for great discussions, Kawasemi and the later Pirate are the better roller coasters. Of course it would be wrong to talk the Alpina Blitz smaller than it is. The ride can do a lot, but the restraint should be able to withstand the load of the first turn. I also don’t think that this is the norm for this ride, but at the start of this year’s season it was the same on every seat. So I left the ride after just a few laps and preferred to sit in the Spatiale Experience, the park’s magnificent indoor roller coaster, for continuous riding.

Bilder Nigloland

Fazit Nigloland

The Nigloland can continue to convince. The park is pleasant and offers an extraordinarily well coordinated portfolio. Even if I cannot enthuse about the roller coaster Alpina Blitz, the park offers enough other attractions where I like to do this without having to exaggerate. I’ll take a closer look at this year’s new attractions on my next visit, until then I’ll be curious to see what else Nigloland has to offer.

What are your thoughts about Alpina Blitz and Donjon de l’Extrême? Just write it here in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

          

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Nigloland / Tron-Tron-Trône Day 4

On a dinosaur hunt in the Peppa Pig World

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History of Paultons Park

Known nationally as Peppa Pig World, Paultons Park is located on the land of the former Paulton’s Estate near Southampton. In 1979, the Mancey family bought the land, cleared it of scrub and debris and built the gardens we see today, including a small bird park and adventure playground. In 1983 the park opened its doors to visitors for the first time as Paultons Park and Bird Gardens.

Three years later the first rides moved into the park. In 1993 the first roller coaster was added. Since the millennium the park has been growing steadily. But its most important investment was made in 2011 with the opening of the first Peppa Pig Land, the Peppa Pig World. Within a year, Paultons Park doubled its visitor numbers. An unparalleled success that has attracted a host of other toddler theme areas at various theme parks both within and outside the UK. However, it remains to be seen whether such brand loyalty outside the UK works at all.

Tour of the park

Upon entering the park, one immediately finds oneself in the beautiful gardens of the park. From here you can either turn right to the Peppa Pig World or left to the Lost Kingdom theme area. Basically a decision against or with the stream of visitors. As a roller coaster fan the choice is even easier, but for narrative reasons I start with the visitor booster.

Peppa Pig World

Passing a 3D cinema, where the film Sammy’s Great Adventure was shown, as well as an adventure golf course included in the admission price, the park railway, an rubber dinghy slide, a beautifully laid out tractor ride and a carousel, we head towards the Peppa Pig World theme area. Here you will find a number of rides from Metallbau Emmeln and Zamperla, including an electric horse-riding track in a toy dino design, a duck carousel in a boat design and a Flying Wheel (a kind of teacup ferris wheel). All this is complemented by figures familiar from the series, matching playgrounds and the house of the Pig family. In 2018, the themed area will also be expanded with a round boat trip and a sightseeing tour.

There is not really anything more to tell there. While the rest of the park was partly deserted, there was a lot of activity in this area. All this speaks for the series produced since 2004. I myself consider such branding to be questionable, as it has a major impact on small children. Unfortunately, it must be said that the time of generally designed toddler areas (e.g. a farm area) seems to be over.

Cat-o-pillar

Interestingly, Paultons Park itself offers the exception to the rule. Instead of just relying on Peppa Pig, the park does its own thing in the Critter Creek theme area. Besides the roller coaster Cat-o-pillar, a Zierer Tivoli in the medium sized version, the themed area convinces with its wacky design and the integration of an insect and amphibian house.

Little Africa

There are also several animal enclosures along the river, which were expanded in 2018 with the Little Africa theme area. There is also a large penguin enclosure where show feeding takes place several times a day.  Directly adjacent to it there are several smaller rides, including a boat swing, a teacup lift, a Kontiki, and two family free-fall towers of different heights, which were placed directly next to each other.

Lost Kingdom

On the other side of the gardens is the Lost Kingdom themed area, which has created a very special flair by cleverly expanding the portfolio and incorporating rides that were once only loosely themed. Here you can see how you can create an all-round coherent themed area with well-considered actions.

Flight of the Pterosaur

In order to get a better overview of the area we immediately board the roller coaster Flight of the Pterosaur. After a short curve out of the station we climb the 20m high lift hill. At the top we immediately fall down in a wide left turn towards the ground. Far above the adjacent Demolition Derby we climb up again in the same way. A straight hilltop follows. With momentum, we now pass through a short dip, whereupon a labyrinth of narrow helices follows. Alternating right and left helices, we pass a cave and get faster and faster before we shoot into the station at top speed. There we are gently slowed down and then come to a stop.

Flight of the Pterosaur is a top class ride. The layout is fun and can satisfy especially the young park guests. As the first big roller coaster I can hardly imagine a better ride, although Paultons Park can offer two similar calibres. The pacing and the ride characteristics of this modern family roller coaster classic are very convincing.

Velociraptor

Right next door is the small shuttle roller coaster Velociraptor. As the first rebound version of the Family Boomerang by Vekoma, the ride impresses with its curves close to the ground and the small hill above the station. The layout itself resembles an eight, with both ends running over the loops.

After you have been driven backwards up the lift hill, you immediately descend rapidly and then pass through the station at full speed. This is followed by a left-hand bend close to the ground, as well as the already mentioned hill above the station, where light airtime sets in. After a right-hand bend under the lift hill, a hill follows over the first bend, which has a small hump in the middle. Here one comes to a standstill, whereupon the backwards journey begins. A little more leisurely than before, you now make your way back to the station.

Compared to the standard model, this system is particularly impressive due to its distinctive speed profile. The curves close to the ground are convincing all along the line and even the hill in the middle of the track knows to please on the forward drive. Thanks to the generally lower visitor demands, it is possible to remain seated on the ride and thus dare one ride after the other. For the coaster fan this is an optimal roller coaster which really is a lot of fun, but probably keeps many children away from the ride because of its backward ride.

Temple Heigths, The Dinosaur Tour Co. and Dino Chase

The situation is different for the remaining rides in this area. The small flying carpet Temple Heights and the Jeep Safari The Dinosaur Tour Co. know how to please just as well as the children’s roller coaster Dino Chase, a Zierer Tivoli in the smallest version with an extremely cute train design and an all around successful appearance.

Magma

Passing a dragon carousel of the manufacturer Zierer, which offered both a forward and a backward ride, and a go-kart track, we now head towards the last roller coaster of the park. But first we queue up at the interesting free fall tower Magma and enjoy the elaborately designed queue, before we ride up and down the SBF Visa tower over and over again. If the park would offer a different hardware, the tower would probably be a good one.

Cobra

Arrived at the Cobra, the first thing to do is to leave the depressing and extremely sterile waiting area behind you. Once this is done, you have to get into the well-known Gerstlauer sleds, whereupon the journey is about to start. After the lift hill has brought you up to the initial height of 16.5 m, the sledge immediately plunges down in a very steep right turn, whereupon an upward helix is performed in the same direction. After a short block area, four hairpin bends follow in best wild mouse manner. In a racy combination of two helices, the descent becomes extremely fast before ascending again a few metres. Over several camelbacks you make your way to the other side of the course, but unfortunately there is no generous lift-off at all. After a further downward helix the brake run of the layout is reached.

Cobra is a good roller coaster, but it lags a little behind its sister coasters. The ride seems to be a little bit more powerless, at least in general, which is especially apparent in the very lax camelbacks. The layout itself differs only a little from the G’stengte Sau from the amusement park Tripsdrill or the great roller coaster Thor’s Hammer from the Danish amusement park Djurs Sommerland, but the fun doesn’t really come across during the ride. Maybe the ride is just missing an appealing design, I couldn’t really explain it to myself.

The Edge

Right behind the roller coaster Cobra is the disk’o coaster The Edge, which offered a rock solid ride. Due to the successful theming of the nearby Lost Kingdom theme area, however, the ride, just like the Cobra roller coaster, seems to have been put in place without any love. The area around the park’s Reverchon log flume has a similar effect. There is a need for action in this area, but it is only a matter of time until the park creates another great theme area. At least it is not unlikely.

Pictures Paultons Park

Conclusion Paultons Park

Paultons Park is an exceptionally pleasant amusement park, which rightly calls itself the UK’s number one family park. The park offers a wide range of family rides, including five family roller coasters, as well as numerous playgrounds. It also offers a truly beautiful garden landscape, as well as numerous animal enclosures and a miniature golf course included in the admission price. If there would be a water park available you could think you were in a Scandinavian sommerland theme park. This is quite appealing, if the common visitor would not only come because of Peppa Pig. The park offers more and might even be able to add even more to it. In this respect, one should look forward to the future.

 

What is your opinion about Paultons Park?  Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Paultons Park