Wunderland Kalkar


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Theme Park:Wunderland Kalkar (since 2011)
Kernie's Familienpark (2000 - 2010)
Address:Griether Straße 110 - 120
47546 Kalkar
https://www.wunderlandkalkar.eu/de
Operated by:Han Groot Obbink

Wunderland Kalkar is an all-inclusive amusement park and resort on the site of the former nuclear power plant Kalkar in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was sold long before its opening due to political and security concerns in 1991. From the former administration buildings, a larger hotel complex was developed, between the individual buildings, or on and in the buildings, the amusement park Wunderland Kalkar.

The park is known for its wide range of rides made by Zamperla, including the Vertical Swing ride, which makes its rounds in the former cooling tower of the nuclear power plant.

 
 
 

Highlights of the Theme Park

 




 

Achterbahn

A long powered coaster

 

 

Vertical Swing

Probably the most famous swing ride

 

 

Wildwasserbahn

Steep drops and a wet encounter

 

In search of Dr. Carter

Preface

Due to long queues in and especially in front of the Wunderland Kalkar I had to drop an intended trip to some Dutch parks at short notice, but since the Lost Temple, the last untested German novelty of this year, was waiting within a radius of about 70 km, it was quite bearable. To my own surprise, I got a free ticket instead of the 50% discount I had hoped for with my Fort Fun annual ticket, so that the way to the Movie Park Germany was already worthwhile at that time, although it was unexpectedly full thanks to the first sunny weekend in weeks (but unfortunately Kalkar was also).

Movie Park Germany – The lost Temple

The Queue

Arriving at Movie Park Germany, I first concentrated on the compulsory program, so that the way led directly to this year’s novelty, the Simworx Immersive Tunnel Lost Temple. Fortunately, the waiting time was limited, so that I only had to wait a few minutes for the elevator. The safety instructions, held in three languages, were very annoying, especially since they were sufficient for every second load. Finally arriving in the elevator, after another speech, the descent is relatively slow and with rather simple effects, even the elevator at the traveling haunted house Psycho with the asynchronously running rollers seems more convincing. To my own astonishment, the elevator actually was a real one, and thus, after leaving the gondola, one got out in a different environment that is thematically very outstanding. Relatively quickly, one went through the empty queue that could show a hot surprise right in the first room until one was stopped by a chain. Now for minutes absolutely nothing happened, which is to be called negative, after all there were not even signs of a co-worker. By means of simple possibilities, one could make the waiting time in this part of the queue more pleasant, even if it was only due to an expiring timer. After the now already longer waiting time, one got some 3D glasses in one’ s hand, whereupon one could listen to a safety instruction in three languages again. In the following room one was finally divided into the rows of seats and a preshow was held. When you could finally board into the train, the departure was delayed only by the slow handling.

The ride

Shortly after the sides of the car were folded down, the car started to move and so we drove into the Lost Temple. Shortly after that the film was started and despite the static position it always felt like accelerating forward. This is where the strength of the system becomes apparent, because there is absolutely nothing to criticise about the actual technology of this large capacity simulator. The movements are all smooth and well coordinated, so fortunately you don’t get sick as quickly as with the simpler 4D simulators in various theme parks. The film is partly sharp, but mostly very spongy, the 3D effect can hardly score any points, it rather worsens the picture massively. The actual story is free of meaning and can be compared to the story of the computer game classic Tomb Raider II, after all, they had a temple-like environment with dinos in it.

Conclusion

Although dinosaurs have become extinct since the end of the 1990s, at the latest shortly after the third Jurassic Park film, some small parks, such as Erse Park or the Tolk-Schau, have kept the dinosaurs alive. That a big park like Movie Park Germany is trying to jump on the dinosaur direction is strange, but it makes sense considering a fourth part of the Jurassic Park series. At least you can still revise the film quality of your own attraction until the movie release next year, so that you can enthuse some visitors for the topic as a pioneer and at the same time as a free rider.

At least from a technical point of view the Lost Temple is a very interesting ride, which only suffers from the lack of quality of its movie. But since this is a problem that is quite easy to handle, I’m sure that the attraction will be able to make a significant quality leap in a few years (if not already next year). Most visitors already leave the ride satisfied, only one little boy was disappointed, after all the dinosaurs were not real. Beside all the bigger novelties this year, the Lost Temple can at least hold its own against Arthur – the Ride from Europa Park, the competition this year was also very strong with Flug der Dämonen, Chiapas and Sky Scream.

Pictures Movie Park Germany 2008 – 2016

 


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Complimentary ice cream and long queues in Kalkar

Wunderland Kalkar

How an amusement park became one of the biggest investment ruins of the last few years was impressively demonstrated at the Nürburgring with the Ring°Werk, but how an investment ruin became an amusement park resort can be seen in the development of Wunderland Kalkar. When the nuclear power plant Kalkar was finally shut down in 1991 due to political and safety concerns, a buyer was sought for the site, which was then sold for a bargain. The former administration buildings were turned into a larger hotel complex. Between the individual buildings, or on and in the buildings, the Wunderland Kalkar amusement park was built.

Without any major exception, the park’s offer consists of rides by the Italian manufacturer Zamperla, but the larger and more interesting rides by the manufacturer are completely missing, which is hardly significant in relation to the target group.

Disk’O and Vertical Swing

The most interesting rides are the Disk’O, located on the roof of a building, which scores with its intensive ride program and the Vertical Swing, located in the cooling tower, where the additional gondola carrier doesn’t fall off, as in the Polish amusement park Śląskie Wesołe Miasteczko, and thus instead of an interesting freefall only offers a boring panoramic ride. The American fans of Theme Park Review envy us for this ride.

Achterbahn and Wildwasserbahn

However, also normal roller coaster fans will get their money’s worth, because the park’s roller coaster named Achterbahn is a quite interesting example of a Powered Coaster, if only it weren’t for the dispatch, which destroys all fun. Unfortunately, there is hardly any interaction with the neighbouring Wildwasserbahn log flume, which offers much too steep slopes and is averagely wet.

Long queues and free fries

In general, the handling in the park is a bad joke and starts already at the entrance, where one can wait a little longer despite the printed tickets, as there were many ticket buyers through Groupon and Co. who wanted to finally redeem their vouchers before the end of the season. In the park itself, the crowd was divided relatively homogeneously across the park, but most of the visitors spent their day queuing for free fries at the central distribution points below the cooling tower. Here a decentralization, as is often the case, would be a solution, also an abolition of the all-you-can-eat offer for fries and ice cream would be an idea, but that would probably result in a lower entrance fee. For the portions at least, standing in line in long queues is hardly worth it, but hey it’s free after all.

Pictures Wunderland Kalkar

Conclusion Wunderland Kalkar

Wunderland Kalkar is one of the most interesting amusement parks in the world due to its location and its prehistory, which also attracted international attention with the original placement of its rides. Due to the abundance of the park, however, I spent much more time than planned in the park, so that one should not choose the sunniest weekend for weeks for a visit when various vouchers come up. Otherwise, the Wunderland Kalkar could surely be described as a quite solid amusement park, but due to the expensive entrance fee, despite the food policy of the park, the price-performance ratio is rather mediocre.

 

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