MK1200

Wild eagles and fog-shrouded tracks

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Preface

It was crazy to go back home one day after driving 500km to the south, only to drift off towards the Netherlands. On the other hand, the trip to the Fort Fun Abenteuerland in Sauerland to test the new attractions, including the Top Spin Yukan Raft, was a necessary part of our plan, which no minefield in Hesse could stop us from doing. Our trip was unforeseenly made more expensive by the community of Wetter and their hilarious and unfortunately very modern photo equipment by 25€. Therefore, it is no wonder that the more beautiful part of the Sauerland makes fun of the neighboring Hesse by a mercilessly oversized number of speed cameras, namely a single one (even with a warning when entering the state).

Arrived at the cash desk of the Fort Fun Abenteurland we first got ourselves the annual passes which are very important for us to mercilessly and honestly raid the service station. On the question if we are only here for the vouchers we got the tip that you don’t even have to come to Fort Fun, after all the annual tickets including the vouchers can be sent by mail. A great offer for the coming years, of course, but on the other hand, the park under the guidance of the Companie des Alpes is definitely worth a visit.

Tour of the park

Wild Eagle

At the time of the visit, not too many people saw this, so that the rush was very limited and apart from a company meeting, hardly any other guests got lost in the foggy abysses of the park. For this reason Jan, Julian and I dared to take a ride on the Wild Eagle, which is an upcharge attraction for only 1€ p.p. and really doesn’t matter to anyone. The Wild Eagle is a suspended ride. Lying on your stomach, it is pulled backwards up the mountain to reach its maximum flying height about halfway down the Alpine Coaster Trapper Slider. Shortly after that it goes flying downhill, whereby the actual ride pleasure is very limited in order to be braked very early. All in all, the whole thing was an action you should do once if there is a reasonable waiting time at the ride, but you can also do without it.

Speed Snake

So early in the morning there was a wonderful atmosphere at the Vekoma roller coaster Speed Snake. The undeniable photogenicity of the Arrow’s rail profile and the all around existing infrastructure made for countless photos, even though most of them could be taken without a train. In order to make this possible for Jan and Julian, I decided to take a ride in the second car, which strangely enough just hopped over the rail, while all the other cars offered a smooth and rock solid ride.

Rocky Mountain Rallye

Further down in the valley and past the still closed Marienkäferbahn (ladybird coaster), which was still closed due to the cold, and the luckily removed children’s parking area, we made our way to the Rocky Mountain Rallye, the newly designed Monza track. Although the changes were really only made on a small scale, the ride now appears coherent in the overall concept of the park.

Yukan Raft

The second innovation this year, Yukan Raft, is similarly coherent. As with the Indoor Round Up Dark Raver, Fort Fun has proven that they have a knack for designing used rides appropriately and making them interesting. The fact that the ride on the Yukan Raft turns out to be outstanding is something you can be very happy about with a permanently installed Top Spins, because such an exciting ride as well as an intensive ride has rarely been offered by the showman Plaenert, who previously owned this ride, although he could be taken as a benchmark for a good ride.

Secret Stage of Horror

On the top level of the park, the last novelty since my last visit is revealed to the visitors. This is the newly designed and highly praised ghost train Secret Stage of Horror, which did not really surprise us. Where the ride was a very bizarre but good ghost train before, it is now a good ghost train with really good ideas, but somehow nothing more. The video projections are all good, the house in general is really well darkened, but during the ride nothing happens and the rest of the ride is not enough to really get you into the story line.

Pictures Fort Fun Abenteuerland

Conclusion Fort Fun Abenteuerland

Although I considered Fort Fun a good park on my last visit, this visit helped me to see it as one of the better parks in Germany. The Companie des Alpes is doing a lot of work here, although they wanted to sell the park. The existing territory leaves room for more and so one can only hope that in the future more people will make their way to Fort Fun Abenteuerland to make room for further investments.

 

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Fort Fun Abenteuerland

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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Plopsaland Deutschland

A few hours on the unmagical island

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Isla Mágica

Located in the centre of the city of Seville, on a large part of the former 1992 World Exposition site, is the Isla Mágica theme park. This park, existing since 1997, offers a few rides, but a lot of shows, food stalls and a lot of vegetation combined with many thematic elements.

The first impression you get in this park is quite positive, but this changes relatively quickly when you take a closer look at the park’s manageable rides portfolio.

The park itself is built around a lake, on which there are two attractions, a boat ride and a self-built splash battle, probably one of the newer rides in the park. Similarly cheap is the boat swing, which was apparently lovelessly smacked onto the lake.

Anaconda

The first big attraction you will come across is the log flume Anaconda from Mack Rides. It has three shots of not exactly low altitude and has been wonderfully integrated with the park area and the waiting areas of the log flume. The wetness level seemed to be quite dry from the outside, we unfortunately did without a ride at the beginning of the day, a few hours later we stood here for half an eternity.

Tren de Potosi

A few metres further on you will find the park’s first roller coaster, the Tren de Potosi. This roller coaster of the company C&S is quite close to a Big Apple, but has a downward helix after the, here at least, funny hills. The ride itself is a lot of fun and is not only an enrichment for the small kids.

Llamas

It takes quite a long walk until you reach the next attraction, the more disappointed you are that the Llamas are only allowed to be ridden by children, after all, this ride is quite original for an electronic horse track.

Iguazú

Right next to it, you will find Iguazú, a spillwater of Intamin, which makes very good use of its surroundings, but does absolutely nothing at all. From the water, which the boat (by the way the same construction as already known from the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid) diverts to the side, you will only get drops inside the boat.

Jaguar

Located in a dead-end street you can ride the second roller coaster of the park. The ride, named Jaguar, has not only a surprisingly open area below the roller coaster, but also the latest generation of trains by Vekoma. Although the ride is absolutely no good and the bonus helix just deserves the label “nice”, the train is simply ingenious. It is not only absolutely comfortable, but can also keep its head from all side blows thanks to the new brackets. The waistcoats themselves are a little more comfortable than on the MK1200 trains, as used for example in Gardaland and Walibi Holland. At least the trains are a worthwhile investment for any reasonable park, only here in Isla Mágica they are a complete waste.

Capitán Balas

Passing the tea cups, we go to some ugly concrete buildings that date back to 1992. In the basement of one of the buildings is the pirate darkride Capitán Balas. This is an interactive ride by Mack, which can also be found in a similar form in the Avonturenpark Hellendoorn. The scenes themselves are beautiful and detailed, moreover, you can get your inmates wet at the right moment, unfortunately only yourself at the wrong moment.

Rapidos del Orinoco

Back out of this concrete complex, where there are also two cinemas, we now enter an area where the vegetation seems to have taken over. Here you will find the Rapidos del Orinoco, the last major attraction of the park and one of the most beautiful rapid rides in Europe. The beauty of the park is not necessarily wet, as is often the case in Europe, despite the waterfalls that are still sticking out into the boat. The curve around the wave flyer is particularly worth mentioning.

El Desafío and Ciklón

Apart from a children’s land, a merry-go-round and the Power Tower El Desafío by Maurer Söhne – which has different programmes running at different times, but even in the most intensive version can do less than the prototype in Hansa-Park -, as well as the beautiful Giant Disk’o Ciklón by Zamperla, there is basically nothing left here. The only, more or less, traditional dark ride of the park has been replaced by a Maze that costs 5€ entrance fee and is probably not worth the extra charge, even if you get a voucher at the park entrance.

Pictures Isla Mágica

Conclusion Isla Mágica

For those who love a theme park for its shows and theming, Isla Mágica is certainly a really good and successful park. For all the other park guests the offer of the park is simply too low and the price compared to the other Spanish parks is simply too high, even though you don’t even have to pay the full entrance fee until the age of 25. In my ranking of the worst amusement parks Jaderpark was knocked from its throne, because I don’t want to go here a second time voluntarily.

 

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Isla Mágica