Tag: Heide Park

A guest at Holly’s

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Preface

13 years after my first visit and only 4 years after my second visit I went back to the Holiday Park in Haßloch to see their last novelty before the takeover by the Studio 100 Group and to have a look at the recent developments of the park.

One of the most significant changes since Plopsa is the relocation of the entrance area directly adjacent to the car park. This means that you no longer have to walk along the main road running through the park to find your way through the eye of the needle of cash registers, as was the case all those years ago. Thereby, the whole place got quite big and for the first time, one finally notices the position of the park in the international park landscape.

Holiday Park

Anubis Free Fall Tower

When you enter the park, the first attraction you will meet is the redesigned freefall tower of the park. After the Tower of Olymp, the Anubis Free Fall Tower is now the second version I’ve seen and so it’s nice to see bigger changes than just irrelevant video clips and a new banner. The building has now been repainted, foils decorate the outer walls, in the waiting area an episode of the TV series Das Haus Anubis is shown, ugly picture frames decorate the walls and unfortunately the second title song of the series is played. The ride itself can still convince, but doesn’t offer the samefeeling of falling of La Lanzadera from the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid.

Donnerfluss

At the edge of the Palatinate village is the entrance to the Donnerfluss (named after the first ride of its kind, the almighty Thunder River of Astroworld), the first rapids ride in Germany.  The trip through the artificially rocked canal features some rapids, a cave passage with a waterfall and a large wave pool towards the end of the ride. As it is the case in all rafting rides in Germany, the degree of wetness is limited, but there is at least the possibility to get out a little wetter than expected.

Burg Falkenstein

Behind a beautiful merry-go-round, in an old-looking building, is the dark ride at Burg Falkenstein. Once you have overcome the far too long queue and taken a seat in the wagon, the journey through the Middle Ages can begin. Here even an attempt was made to follow a storyline; the plundering is endless, but not without creating a lot of distraction. The best part of the ride, however, is aimed at the male passengers: an animatronic which is clearly very open-minded about sexuality. Even though the animatronic could be a bit nicer, it can still cause some surprised faces.

Hollys Wilde Autofahrt

The park’s newest roller coaster is found in Holly’s Cartoon Town and is a Wild Mouse by Maurer Söhne. As a used ride, Hollys Wilde Autofahrt was taken over by the Bemboom family, who operated it in two of their amusement parks at the time. Completely renovated and equipped with fancy new cars it now presents itself as the only real family roller coaster of the park and is very convincing. Typical for a ride built by Maurer Söhne is the ingenious handling in the hairpin curves, as they are not as shallow as Mack’s. The rest of the track is also ridden through at a constant high speed, even if the brakes are once again on a borderline level.

Superwirbel

Due to the drizzle the roller coaster Superwirbel from Vekoma unfortunately didn’t run. In a way I was really looking forward to a ride, because the compact ride is the epitome of a well designed layout. Even though the Bayernkurve was quite borderline four years ago, the ride surprised me with its high speed. Since my friends Hauke and David could only report positively about the ride during their visits last year, it would have been nice to verify their opinions.

Lighthouse Tower

Due to a lack of passengers, the Lighthouse Tower, probably the most beautiful Star Flyer in the world, did not run either. The rear area at the lake is not worth the trip due to the few passengers, especially since I was almost kicked out of the park four years ago, because I raised my hands in the ship swing, which is completely normal elsewhere.

Balloon Race

Since the City Jet has been sent into well-deserved retirement, a quite central place has become available, which will soon be filled by the Balloon Race from Zamperla. On the one hand, it’s a pity about the torn down carousel, which I loved to ride as a child, but on the other hand it’s a much better place for the Balloon Race.

Bounty Tower

At the time of my first visit, the HUSS Condor Bounty Tower was unfortunately broken. Since I was very impressed by the aesthetics of the ride, I found it especially tragic. Even years later, I still find the construction and the ride of a condor simply beautiful from the outside, but in the Holiday Park, the design of the gondolas is simply outstanding. However, most of the times, the ride sequence is simply boring, strangely enough, the ride program in Haßloch is quite balanced, fast and does not only resemble a simple panorama ride.

Teufelsfässer

The Teufelsfässer, together with Tripsdrills Badewannen-Fahrt zum Jungbrunnen, are the most modern log flumes in Germany. The special feature of the Teufelsfässer are the elaborately designed turntables during the ride, which initiate and terminate the reverse passage with drop. A smaller shot at the beginning of the ride and the double drop at the end round off the experience, but unfortunately do not ensure that the passenger gets out halfway soaked, as is the case with Flashback from Walibi Belgium.

Expedition GeForce

For almost 11 years the main reason to go to the Holiday Park is the Intamin roller coaster Expedition GeForce. Since then the ride, which was often in the media because of some incidents, is a guarantee for a good roller coaster ride, but also for an extremely slow dispatch. Funnily enough, even under the direction of Plopsa absolutely nothing has changed in this circumstance.

After you have completed this time-consuming ritual, the journey can already begin. Through the cable lift you will be released into the magnificent first-drop quite quickly, followed by airtime hills with an airtime similar to Colossos from Heide-Park Soltau, some nice turns and a missing first trimbreak. The experience in the following part is now outstanding and not as before slow and relatively dull as before. The turnaround is now genuinely ingenious due to the increased speed and therefore no longer the worst part of the course. The hills after the second reduction brake form a great finale, although the braking section is clumsily placed.

The Expedition GeForce is certainly one of the better roller coasters in Germany and a pretty good roller coaster in worldwide comparison, but it could be a lot better. If you look at the second mega coaster of Europe, Goliath from Walibi Holland, the Holiday Park clearly lacks the staff of this ride and the outstanding Stengel Dive to really call itself the best roller coaster in the world again.

Closing Words

Since the takeover by Studio 100, a lot has happened in the Palatinate, many things have changed for the better, but there are also some things that should be viewed critically. Due to the sale of the Dancing Pavilion to the Leipzig amusement park Belantis, another family rides is missing, which all the children’s rides in Majaland can not yet compensate for. In general, there is simply a lack of rides in Haßloch, nevertheless I like the park.

Specially worth mentioning is the possibility of the afternoon ticket, which we also used for our visit, as a whole day in the Holiday Park gets too long at some point. Surprisingly, it was even decided to have the cash desks staffed with people so that this offer could actually be taken advantage of. Unfortunately, this is rather seldom the case in the leisure parks that offer this offer, specially as the rush on the day of the visit was very low.

 

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Holiday Park

A positive surprise at Europa Park

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Europa Park

As expected, Europa Park was a bit fuller on this holiday. Stupidly enough, this already turned out at the cash desks, so that I could not enter the park before 10 o’clock. After I had overcome the first hurdle in the middle of the path of standing French people the way to the big roller coaster novelty of the year Wodan – Timbur Coaster could be taken.

Past the topic areas Switzerland and England I went immediately to Russia and Luxembourg, where besides the advantageous monorail, at least this one has a station in the theme area Iceland, the revolving theatre show Historama, the small dark ride Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen, as well as the revolving gondola roller coaster Euromir are located.

Historama

The Historama is actually a great attraction, after all, you can learn a lot about the founding family Mack and their history. But the first room is simply – like many things at Europa Park – much too cluttered. The last room, however, is very naked and shows the self-congratulation of the family. Of course, you can be proud of your own lobbying, but it leaves a very bland aftertaste, which is why you should avoid this attraction at all costs.

Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen

The Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen, on the other hand, is an absolute must. Although Bench – The Ride is actually very well visible, it is unfortunately a bit lost in the Russian themed area. The ride itself is one of the best dark rides in the park, despite its inconspicuous appearance, and should therefore be tested by every visitor. The soundtrack is suitable for the ear and effectively underlines the cheerful atmosphere of the ride.

Euro-Mir

A similar catchy tune can be found on the prototype of Mack’s spinning coaster, the Euro-Mir roller coaster. This roller coaster is a remarkable ride, because thanks to a drum lift and some blocks the capacity is high enough to keep the queue constantly moving, at least it does, if there aren’t any problems in the meantime. The ride is powerful and if you are lucky enough to ride the second part backwards, it’s really awesome. The curves tapering steadily towards the end form a racy finale, which you can unfortunately only find very rarely.

Whale Adventures

With the monorail arrived in Iceland you can see one of the biggest misdeeds of the park. How one can get the idea to remove the outer cannons of the interactive water ride Whale Adventures remains one of the biggest mysteries of all; after all, as a passenger one wants to get wet. The popularity of the attraction has at least suffered a big slump, after all, the ride is now only interesting for the smallest park guests.

Wodan – Timbur Coaster

In the background you can see a coaster that unfortunately hasn’t been awarded the title again until this year, because actually there should have been a wooden coaster at Europa Park long ago. Wodan – Timbur Coaster is the name of this gem from GCI, whereby the subtitle Timbur Coaster is of course absolute nonsense. Despite the fact that I didn’t really have any expectations of Wodan, I was positively surprised by the ride.

Wodan is, in contrast to most other GCI tracks, not a real Twister, but a mixture of Out & Back Coaster (straight course with several hills) and Twister (curves, baby!) and thus a mixture that doesn’t appeal to everyone and will disappoint especially the Twister fan fraction. Fans of the neat Out & Back layout will definitely find their fun on Wodan, though.

Walking through the queue of the wooden roller coaster Wodan you will be surprised at first how professionally everything has been laid out, after all you are not standing on uneven terrain somewhere between the wooden roller coasters like at Eftelings Joris en de Draak, but on a well constructed wooden path, pass some beautiful caves dedicated to various themes of Nordic mythology and march below the big helix at the beginning of the ride. Quite strange is the circumstance that nothing has been scribbled yet.

After finally being divided into the rows, the trip on Wodan can already start, but the trip to the lift alone is a real highlight. After climbing it, after an unexpectedly high drop, the ride continues with full force into the first curve only to be released quite steeply into the actual first drop. The following curves, tunnels, hills and valleys on Wodan are a dream, but the driving fun is interrupted by a rather unsuccessful part of the layout, only to be released into the last curve combinations. The whole thing is laid down on Wodan with a brute force I didn’t expect in Europa Park anymore, the constant high speed does its best.

Wodan is not a perfect wooden roller coaster, but it is one of the better ones I have come across from time to time. It beats the often highly praised twister Troy in his sleep, but can’t hold a candle to Joris en de Draak Water. Also in national comparison Wodan lags behind the colossus of the Lüneburger Heide, but in southern Germany it is the first choice, which is also a rather easy game with its one competitor.

Blue Fire Megacoaster

Since I criticized the neighboring Blue Fire Megacoaster three years ago too deeply, another ride had to be dared to update this criticism if necessary. As always, pure chance wanted me to take a seat in the second row and thus find an optimal basis for comparison, and to my surprise a lot has happened.

The dark ride part is still absolutely nonsense, after all there is now an animatronics that tells you that something is going wrong. The launch has increased in intensity and is now similar to the launch of a Vekoma Launched Coaster and not the Dutch company’s Motocoaster. Therefore the following part is not driven through so slowly anymore and you can finally guess that the looping is a looping. The part after the block brake is still not very exhilarating. The corkscrews are still going too fast, at least hangtime would be an advantage here, the curves that lead into the still failed roll are somehow stupid and so one is happy to be back at the station again.

Blue Fire is a nice roller coaster for in between, but that’s it, I still can’t understand the hype about the ride and probably never will. The real attraction next to Wodan in this area is and will be the coffee house in close proximity to Blue Fire.

Tiroler Wildwasserbahn

Passing Portugal with his wannabe Spillwater imitation Atlantika Supersplash, where I had to give up a ride due to time reasons and listlessness, I went to Austria to finally get wet. The Tiroler Wildwasserbahn is one of the best in Europe and due to its first shot it is definitely a very wet log flume. You won’t notice the age of the ride at all, so you can literally race through the canal, just like on the Wildwasser 1 in Heide-Park. It is nice to see parks taking care of their rides and renewing them if necessary.

Alpenexpress Enzian

The Powered Coaster Alpenexpress Enzian shares a grotto with the log flume and a walk through the magical world of diamonds. The ride itself has quite a bit of speed and, like the other attractions that share the grotto, is worth a ride just for the scent in it. The wave swinger next door shows that the park also knows a thing or two about rides and runs it, untypically, not on a low flame.

Jungfrau Gletscherflieger

Speaking of rides, the best flat ride Europa Park is in the Swiss themed area and is called the Jungfrau Gletscherflieger. This unique ride is not dissimilar to a Zierer hang-glider, but it offers much better comfort and more fun and can show a high degree of swing, especially when riding at ground level. Since the waiting time at most roundabout rides is close to zero, you should definitely try a ride or two on this ride.

Schweizer Bobbahn

The Schweizer Bobbahn in the same theme area is not really a good roller coaster despite its idiosyncratic layout, which you can somehow understand on a prototype. However, for the family audience of Europa Park, which certainly didn’t come in contact with any other bobsleigh coaster, this is certainly sufficient. But the beautifully designed inner courtyard and the general design of the coaster can convince.

Matterhorn Blitz

Three years ago, the extended Wild Mouse with vertical lift Matterhorn Blitz was my 100th roller coaster, a fact I was not very satisfied with. However, as my reputation against Wild Mice grew from year to year and I got to know the dead-braked X-treme racer from Legoland Billund, I have to admit that the ride is definitely worth a ride. Unfortunately the layout does not correspond to the standard layout and a certain madness as you can find on a Wild Mouse by Gerstlauer or Maurer Söhne is missing, but you can take a ride without hesitation, even if you should reconsider this at a certain queue length.

Eurosat

In the French themed area you can find by far the best roller coaster of Europa Park, the dark roller coaster Eurosat. Due to the immense capacity, one never really queues for a long time, even if the queue is full. The ride itself is very powerful, although slightly jerky and equipped with some strong jolts. The curve combinations are sometimes so bumpy that it can only be good. The biggest innovation are the magnetic brakes which bring the train to a halt with such a force and without any acoustic warning that it borders on sheer madness and underlines the characteristics of the track.

Universum der Energien

The ride Universum der Energien hidden under the roller coaster is the best dark ride in Europa Park. Some would say it’s the sleepy, boring boat ride Pirates in Batavia, but such a ride has to be consistent and not overloaded and that’s the ride through the land of the dinosaurs.

Silver Star

One of the novelties for this year can be found in the Mercedes Benz exhibition, where they have fortunately decided to decorate the walls with new motifs. To make the whole theme more French, the racing driver Michel Vaillant is now decorating the hall. Unfortunately, the cult intro song for the cartoon series was not included, which would have been good for Silver Star.

The ride, built by Bollinger & Mabillard, looks quite good from the outside, scores with its height and its speed, but apart from that the ride can’t do much. Unfortunately the ride comfort is not equal to any ride built by Intamin of this height and so there are annoying vibrations in the valleys. The floating airtime is unfortunately on a very low level, at least I remember it a bit more pronounced and the last curves don’t make the ride any better, so that the ride is the worst coaster of this manufacturer in Germany, even if the Black Mamba from Brühl is only a touch better.

Magic Cinema

At Magic Cinema you can watch a new film this year, which is a daring self-production. The story is suitable for children and seems to have been made perfect for the French audience by the well-rehearsed effects, after all I have never seen so many people being scared by such predictable things.

The animation of the film surprised me in a positive way, I only expect such a detail accuracy from a few companies, only at one point I would have wished for something more, because at least I could hardly make out a difference between before and after immersion in the water, and at the same time animals in particular should just drip with water. The 3D effects are offered in a purity that I have never seen before in a theme park. The child-friendly humor is very similar to the humour you are confronted with, especially in Denmark, which is a pity. There was a part with a flat joke that only I could laugh about, which, like in the new Muppet movies, speaks rather against the audience and not against the kind of humour. Here I would have wished for more in this respect. One part that could have been better avoided is the part with the Euromausi and the commentary about the men, in general you could have avoided the Euromausi in the film, because apart from the fact that she is there she makes no difference. Apart from the dubbing voice of Euromaus, it has to be pointed out that Böckli is one of the leading roles in the film, after all the best mascot of Europa Park, as well as the commentary with the wooden roller coaster Wodan.

Piccolo Mondo and Geisterschloss

In the Italian themed area you will find last year’s novelty, but also two dark rides. The short ride in Piccolo Mondo through Italy is well done, due to the high kitsch content again a bit too kitschy, for in between the ride is at least quite nice. The big dark ride Geisterschloss right next door offered a live assassin in the queue but otherwise the creepiness was gone. The ride is neither convincing as a dark ride nor as a ghost train, everything is mercilessly overloaded and simply not nice to look at. The fact that you leave the ride through the little horror shop doesn’t make the ride any better, but it gives you an idea for the redesign of the ride, because Audrey II would surely be happy about food on the assembly line.

Pegasus, Poseidon and Fluch der Kassandra

One area that is best visited late in the afternoon is the area of the EU’s problem child: Greece. Here you can find the witches swing Curse of Cassandra, the darkride expedition Atlantis, as well as the two roller coasters Pegasus and Poseidon.

Pegasus itself used to be the most airtime-rich roller coaster at Europa-Park, three years later I was surprised not to feel it anymore. In general, the ride did not stay in the same condition as before, so in contrast to the newer Carrecaminos Bip Bip from the Spanish Parque Warner, the ride was even slightly jerky.

Poseidon is still the epitome of a water coaster. A great, although at some points borderline, track and shot rides where you can also get wet with a little luck complete the experience. The setting of the ride and the possibility, like on Atlantika Supersplash, to get into a soak zone is still exemplary.

The fact that Spaniards babbling from all sides can spoil a ride in a witches’ swing was shown in Parque Warner, but that three prepubescent girls are enough is a pity and shows once again that the youth is absolutely spoiled. Such a type of attraction is only visited for one thing: the story and the music. Since the story is unfortunately lost in the Fluch der Kassandra anyway, you should at least be able to let the music take effect on you.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Worlds

The Europa Park is and remains one of the best European theme parks, the fact that I didn’t watch any show this year was only because the only show I was interested in premiered at the end of the month with Ornella de Santi. Especially worth mentioning is the way the park’s opening hours are handled, so far no visitor has to leave the park before one hour after the original closing time, which is neither possible nor common practice at most other amusement parks.

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Europa Park

Pre-Opening with obstructions and Krake lebt!

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Preface

Where the REWE Family Days took place last year, this year it should be a little more exclusive, at least for the annual ticket holders of Heide Park. Thanks to an action of the radio station FFN where their listeners could come to the park for only 25€, a Shitstorm was ignited by the fans, whereby an ERT of 3 hours at the Krake and the maze Krake lebt! was initiated to keep the fans happy.

First of all, this ERT would not have been necessary and so it turned out that the two attractions were comparatively full between 10 – 13 o’clock, while the rest of the park was as if extinct. As there were only annual ticket holders in the park, the queues for renewal or (re)application were the longest during the day, especially after closing time.

Heide park and its kraken

The fully themed Krake roller coaster

After the gate was opened shortly before 10 o’clock, most fans ran to the object they had missed so longingly the previous year, the Kraken’s Mouth. A few minutes later Hauke and I were able to take a closer look at it, after all we wanted to profit from the ERT, which as mentioned above turned out to be unnecessary. After a ride in the third row, where we didn’t really notice the octopus mouth, we planned to ride in the first row. The experience in the first row is now massively clouded by the visible. Where last year there was a clear view and you could develop a certain feeling of height, today you stare at an ugly mouth.

Also from the outside the mouth looks completely out of place and so it would have been better if it had never been attached. However, one must admit that Heide Park has managed to get rid of all its critics during the winter break. In the various forums it was quite a funny picture to suddenly hear even the biggest critics saying how great it is that Heide park has created something so fast and so good. The shipwreck on the other hand is well done and equipped with all kinds of details, also the tentacles that try to pull it into the depths look very good. Unfortunately the ship is not flooded by the water fountains, also the clearance gauge is much too generous, so that no head chopper effect could be created.

Krake lebt!

The follow-up story of the Krake is told at Krake lebt!, the first all-year-round maze in Germany. In a relatively large group you are taken to the chamber of horrors and are allowed to be scanned to prove your “deep vision”. The data recorded during the process can be viewed later, if you don’t just walk past it. In the following pre-show room you will be well prepared for the story, after which you should take a closer look at the wreck of the sunken ship. The fact that the crew went a little bit crazy during the process serves as an ideal model for what follows.

After leaving the dive capsule, you will find yourself in a room that should look familiar to every dungeon visitor, the Labyrinth of the Forgotten. Depending on how much buffer you need for the opening act you can spend some time here, but the effect is better than in the dungeons in Hamburg, London or other cities. Shortly afterwards you are picked up and basically feel like in a mini dungeon, which would have been quite original, but no, you are in a Maze. In the following rooms the actors try to be somehow creepy, but banging on pots and giving you a nasty look is not enough. There was only one person who was halfway convincing and brought the mania of the crew closer. It would have been better if the people would have said more, would have portrayed their roles and their fate better and would have described the fate of the group as relatively hopeless.

The rooms in Krake lebt! are quite neat, but in total a bit too darkly lit, or as in the case of the second queue room (room consisting of simple zigzags) simply not lit at all. So it doesn’t help much if you are told that you can orientate yourself at the left wall. Especially worth mentioning and to be positively emphasized is the room in which one is confronted with the octopus and is well humidified. You can also marvel at what the Maze has made of you. In contrast to other Mazes you are not chased out with a chain saw, which is quite appropriate.

The way the Maze Krake lebt! is currently operated in Soltau is absolutely ridiculous, just like in the Italian Gardaland or the English Thorpe Park. The potential of stringing together confusing corridors is not exploited and it would be better to really make a kind of mini dungeon out of it and thus at least increase the entertainment value considerably, even if the creepy factor, which is currently not available anyway, would probably suffer. Since it was basically the first day for the crew, things can still change for the better, but I advise everyone to visit the Maze, if at all, only when the queue is relatively empty. I myself will give the Maze another chance towards the end of the season with the hope that things have changed a bit.

 

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Heide Park