GCI

On Street Mission at Port Aventura Park

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A few years have passed since my last visit to Port Aventura Park. Apart from the two new attractions Angkor and Street Mission, nothing has greatly changed in the park since then, but a lot has changed in the resort. For example, the new Ferrari Land amusement park with Europe’s highest and fastest roller coaster was built right next door.

Anyone planning to travel to Salou by train in the near future should reconsider. Although the Salou – Port Aventura station still exists, it is only very rarely used. It is also the current terminus and is therefore only an alternative to the car for resort guests. I had planned to reach the park around noon, but thanks to numerous train cancellations it turned out to be much later. So I basically only had one evening and one afternoon to experience the park in all its fullness.

As you might expect in peak season, the park was extremely busy. Since I was still without the Express Pass on the first evening, I concentrated on some beloved classics, such as El Diablo – Tren de la Mina, before I headed to the Far West area. This area, like the Mediterrània area, had much longer opening hours, but here too the offer was very limited. Basically, until closure of the park, you could only ride the Stampida wooden roller coaster, the carousel, the break dance Crazy Barrels, the Rapid River Gran Canyon Rapids and the launch coaster Furios Baco.

While the crowds were still okay on the first evening, the second day of the visit took the cake. After my flying visit to the Ferrari Land theme park, I first went to an Express Pass sales point, only to find out that buying the €65 upgrade to Express Premium Gold was not really a good idea. Since the amusement park does not limit the upcharge offer, almost every visitor had the Express Pass, so that even with the pass, you still had to wait at least half an hour everywhere.

Angkor

Interestingly, during my visit, the Splash Battle Angkor had the longest waiting time in the entire park – even with the priority ticket, you easily had to wait 90 minutes here. The water ride is by no means exciting or remarkable in any way. The leisurely river ride is quite nicely presented, but the consistent use of static figures makes it not really interesting. Thanks to the limited number of boats, there were never any of the water battles for which this concept is actually known, which meant that the ride ended on a very dry note.   

Street Mission

The nearby Street Mission dark ride was also new to me. Set in the Sesame Street universe, we go with Detective Grover in search of the world’s biggest cookie, which went missing shortly before the Cookie Day Parade. Now the search for clues takes us through all the well-known Sesame Street locations. In the process, you meet familiar figures, as well as some that might be unfamiliar to me. The successful mix of screen sequences and three-dimensional scenes creates an astonishingly high level of immersion, which I had not expected. Coupled with the long ride time, it’s quite enjoyable and encourages repeat journeys. Well done, Sally!

Pictures Port Aventura Park

Conclusion Port Aventura Park

Port Aventura Park could not really convince during my last visit. Limited opening hours and a greatly reduced capacity in all rides despite the very large crowd in the park do not cast a good light on the park. While elsewhere in the country the parks were back to pre-crisis levels, at Port Aventura the Corona-related cost-cutting measures were particularly noticeable. This in turn meant that even the priority queues reached extreme lengths. This is a pity and therefore I have no other choice but to advise against a visit during the high season in August for the time being.

 

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Port Aventura

Having a blast on Dynamite

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Preface

The last time, I have visited Freizeitpark Plohn, I was not at all impressed by its missing professionalism in some points. I had never issues paying with my Girocard (a German Debit Card) before and since there was not an ATM nearby, I had to drive to the nearby town of Lengenfeld just to get some cash and stand one more time in the queue before finally being able to pay my entrance ticket. This time, I tried to pay online and due to the system in use, it was not at all easy to do so on the phone. It took me several attempts – yet at the end, it worked.

Freizeitpark Plohn

With a good mood, I started my day at the new entrance area to the park, which is now situated right next to the water ride Fluch des Teutates. The Rafting by abc rides gets a good crowd during the first hours of operation, while the area close to the original entrance stays deserted for the most part of the day.

Drachenwirbel

Here we find the small SBF Visa spinning coaster Drachenwirbel. Like most of the installations in Germany, this also comes in the three-loop design, whereby upwards leading righthand curves always change into a downwards leading lefthand curve. Due to the change of direction, the cars quickly get into a rotation. After several laps the ride on the Drachenwirbel comes to an stop and we can exit the ride.

Dynamite

The second and largest addition to the park Freizeitpark Plohn in recent years is the Mack Rides Big Dipper Coaster Dynamite. The ride is situated for most part on the land of the former Silver Mine roller coaster and reuses parts of the queue. The coaster itself is a lot bigger and offers an interesting layout.

After climbing the ride’s lift, the coaster starts with a Dive Drop, whereby the car is slowly rotated around its own axis before it plunges to the ground. At full speed we now pass through a building which gives a great near miss and race over a bunny hop shortly thereafter. A steep curve now leads us upwards. After a more conventional drop, we then enter a righthand curve close to the ground. On a small hill we rapidly change direction before entering Dynamite’s loop. We then pass the ride’s entrance in a Zero-G Roll. Finally, we now circle around the HUSS Break Dance Westernrodeo before hitting the brakes.

Dynamite is a nice addition to the park. The Big Dipper offers a great, albeit short layout which offers a well-defined play of forces. There is only one issue: It does not have a good capacity. With a total of just two cars for up to eight people, the queue can get quite long. Especially, when only one of them is in operation and can only be loaded by a maximum of 4 people due to the Covid-19 regulations. Therefore, I only rode this Mack product once.

Pictures Freizeitpark Plohn

Closing Words

As the Saxonians did not really care about Covid and only a few respected the rules, I left the park early. Overall, I had a good visit to Freizeitpark Plohn. Yet, I was not overly impressed on how El Toro developed in recent years. This coaster is by far one of the roughest wooden coasters, I have been on and to my luck, I had to ride it twice in a row as the ride operation gave an encore. Apart of that, the park’s operations were good, and I am willing to come back once everything is back to normal.

 

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Freizeitpark Plohn

Batavia is burning – and you want to go there?

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Preface

Who would have thought that Batavia would actually burn down one day? Two years after the disaster at Europa Park, we were determined not to miss the new iteration of the Piraten in Batavia dark ride, as well as some of the other novelties of the last three years.

The Novelties of Europa Park

Voletarium

The Voletarium in the entrance area of the park marks the beginning of our little tour. The ride is the first project under the guise of the Adventure Club of Europe, a fictional adventurer’s club that brings together the innovations of recent years and is intended to be a trademark of Europa Park. As with the new Rulantica water park, this is taken ad absurdum by various novels, making it difficult to follow the plot.

However, to cut a long story short, the Voletarium is a flying theatre made by Brogent Technologies. The flight simulator offers a breathtaking but very family-friendly flight over Europe. However, not all the transitions between the different scenes are successful or logical, so the film is a little weak compared to the really well done film of Fuji Airlines in Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland or that of Sky Voyager in Australia’s Dreamworld.

Nevertheless, the location of the Voletarium improves the front section of the park. Overall, the ride is coherent and ideal as an in-between ride.

Jim Knopf – Reise durch Lummerland

It’s the same with Jim Knopf – Reise durch Lummerland. In true Europa Park style, another licence has been integrated into the park – this time one that is mainly known in German-speaking countries. The children’s locomotive Old’99, which previously had a circus theme, was redesigned for this purpose. It’s old decoration has found a new home in a small pavilion of the neighbouring Marionetten-Bootsfahrt. You can now travel through Lummerland with Emma, the locomotive from Michael Ende’s book, which is a great experience, especially for younger children.

Snorri Touren

It’s a similar story with the hugely popular Snorri Touren dark ride, which was installed in the basement of the Scandinavian themed area when it was rebuilt. On this tour, Snorri – the mascot of the Rulantica water park – leads us through the legendary water world just outside the gates of Rust. The ride gets a lot of things right, thanks to its vibrant design and largely successful media integration – only the short slide sequence, in which the car hits a moving platform, is reminiscent of early PlayStation 2 titles in its spongy graphics, which detracts from the otherwise cohesive overall impression.

Madame Freudenreich

Although you can somehow forgive Snorri, you can’t forgive Madame Freudenreich – after all, the Energy Universe was once the most coherent dark ride in the whole park. Now it is a shadow of its former self, an attraction to be avoided at all costs. Younger children might still enjoy the Alsatian Gugelhupf Dinosaur Mash, but I can’t imagine anyone else being able to put up with this nonsense.

Eurosat CanCan Coaster

It’s a good thing the Green Fairy moved in right above it. Since its redesign, the Eurosat CanCan Coaster indoor roller coaster has been taking us on a sensory high. Driven by absinthe and the familiar sounds of In A Second Orbit, we climb up the drum lift in the familiar way before the Galop Infernal kicks in and we find ourselves on what is essentially a brand new coaster.

Like a cancan, we swing through the turns. Past huge black light backdrops, we race through the dome at an ever increasing speed and are even lifted out of our seats at times. The fact that the experience is absolutely smooth makes the ride all the better.

Eurosat has always been a good indoor coaster. A bit rough on the ride, but quite entertaining. The Eurosat CanCan Coaster on the other hand is one of the best roller coasters in Europe. Perfectly balanced, atmospheric and with great show value. Everything about this ride is perfect.

Eurosat Coastiality

But that only applies to the CanCan Coaster. There is also the Eurosat Coastiality. While one of them has been able to reach new heights thanks to its collaboration with the Moulin Rouge Variety Theatre, the other is betting on a VR experience based on Luc Besson’s Valerian – City of a Thousand Planets.

In principle, I think VR coasters are fun, and Europa Park has already shown what can be squeezed out of a rollercoaster with the Alpenexpress Enzian. Despite the outdated graphics, the first film was an unparalleled revelation. After that, many parks jumped on the VR bandwagon and there seemed to be no stopping them. Fortunately, the trend disappeared as quickly as it came, so it’s a little surprising that Europa Park is the only park in the world that continues to promote the technology. However, thanks to the resort’s own attraction, Yullbe, this is no longer actively happening in the parks.

Eurosat Coastiality is, at least in theory, a very passable upcharge attraction that, thanks to a separate station, has little or no impact on the capacity of the Eurosat CanCan Coaster, eliminating one of the main criticisms of VR coasters. However, the ride is tiring and the outdated graphics make it less than impressive. The show value of the coaster is completely lost, which is why there is no incentive to repeat the ride.

Piraten in Batavia

The Piraten in Batavia dark ride, which has been completely revamped thanks to the new construction, offers plenty of reasons to go on a ride. What used to be a lengthy rip-off of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean is now much more independent, thanks to a consistent storyline around the adventurer Bartholomeus van Robbemond and his otter Jopie. The Pirates of Batavia ride is thoroughly entertaining and has a high overall show value, which is why it is not to be missed.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Words

As you can see, Europa Park has been on a remodelling spree over the past few years. Some of the projects were long overdue, and some of the park’s attractions would actually like to see some changes. Not every upgrade is a success and not every licence is a plus for the park, but in general the Mack family’s drive is positive. They are trying to present a world-class theme park to an ever-increasing number of visitors, but unfortunately they often forget that great attractions do not need additional media integration.

 

What is your opinion about Eurosat CanCan Coaster, Piraten in Batavia and the other Novelties? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:

 

      

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Europa Park