Schwaben Park in the small community of Kaisersbach near Stuttgart is a medium-sized amusement park in Germany. Opened in 1972, the amusement park was known for many years for its chimpanzee shows. Nowadays, the park hosts a solid selection of interesting and exceedingly unusual rides.
In recent years, Legoland Germany, like no other Merlin Entertainments park, has seen some great additions to its offering. The park finally became a full day destination. Since my last visit in October 2015, the park added the themed area Lego Ninjago World, two new rides to the Land der Pharaonen area and added a new B&M wing coaster to its line-up, as part of the Lego Mythica themed area.
Lego Ninjago World
Lego Ninjago World is so far the biggest extension Legoland Deutschland ever experienced. The themed area is based on the popular Lego Ninjago brand, famous for its well made TV show Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. Back in 2017, it was the most expensive expansion of the park to date. The area offered a unique interactive dark ride experience that you could only experience at Legoland parks.
Lego Ninjago The Ride
Lego Ninjago The Ride is the first interactive dark ride where the passengers are using their hands only to target. The ride system is using an array of sensors to catch the movement of the hand. Depending mainly on the height of your hands and the angle to the sensor, your hand movement input is interpreted and a colour dot appears on the sensor so that you know where you are actually aiming. The whole process is not that intuitive and so confused hand waving actually is a good way to score quite a lot of points. The movements can be refined on the many screens the riders pass-by or stop right in front for a longer film sequence.
Overall, Lego Ninjago The ride is a very solid dark ride. Sure, the technology is not as sophisticated as the Web Slingers at Disneyland Paris, but for a worlds first, this ride system is actually quite alright.
Lloyd’s Spinjitsu Spinner
The newest addition to the Lego Ninjago World is Lloyd’s Spinjitsu Spinner, a Sunkid Loopster. This ride basically takes the old Luna Loop concept by Heege to a new level and is one of the hidden gems at the park. As you control the rotation of your ride vehicle, you can have a rather gentle ride, a ride full of backflips or you could try to take the whole ride in an upside-down position; albeit this is not that easy, as the ride vehicle will rotate back into its starting position after a while and you have to adjust the rotation quite often.
Land der Pharaonen
The Land der Pharaonen themed area was once created to house the interactive dark ride The Temple as its standalone attraction right next to the entrance to the Legoland Feriendorf resort. In 2019, the area was expanded with the interactive rides Pyramiden Rallye and Wüsten X-kursion.
Pyramiden Rallye
The Pyramiden Rallye is one of the classic rides from Metallbau Emmeln that you would like to see more often in family theme parks around the globe. The interactive ride is a nice work out for the whole family trying to extinguish fire in a pyramid located in the middle of the desert. While the story of this ride does not make a lot of sense, it still is one of the nicest additions we saw in Legoland Deutschland in recent years.
Wüsten X-kursion
The Wüsten X-kursion by RES is an interesting tower ride: the passengers can control the rotation of the gondolas, as well as their ride height by pulling a rope inside the gondola. Overall, rides can have a nice gentle observation ride towering the Land der Pharaonen section of the park and get a nice view onto the new themed area Lego Mythica right next door.
Lego Mythica
Lego Mythica is the newest area at Legoland Deutschland. It is based on the Legoland own IP. Its centrepiece is the Maximus roller coaster by B&M. The two family drop tower Fire & Ice Tower by Zierer and a small playground supplement the area. Lego Mythica is the most expensive expansion so far for the theme park.
Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters
When thinking about a roller coaster at Legoland, nobody ever would come up with the idea of creating a B&M wing coaster featuring two inversions, but somehow this project came true with Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters. The statics of the ride speak for a very family friendly ride, which we now want to have a closer look onto.
After we have finally left the extremely trivial queue behind us, the ride can already begin. Following a left-hand bend, we immediately reach the lift of the ride. Having reached the top of the lift hill at 17 m, we immediately drop down towards the ground. In an upward helix we experience a little pressure before flying over a small hill. In the following valley we experience the highest forces of the ride, before going straight into the first inversion of the ride. After the corkscrew, we continue our way to the left, before we change direction in order to prepare for the grand finale of the ride: a roll above the entrance portal. Shortly thereafter, we find ourselves in the brake section of the ride.
Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters is a fine ride for what it is: a nice family ride and the first one to feature an inversion for many of the park guests. The ride on the left side of the tracks is the overall better ride experience, while the right side offers a more pronounce ride through the first helix.
What is your opinion about the recent novelties and the B&M wing coaster Maximus – der Flug des Wächters? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:
During my last visits to the Wiener Prater, the world-famous Hochschaubahn was closed each time. This time, however, I planned my visit much earlier so that I could take a ride on the classic Scenic Railway. The ride, which is still traditionally controlled by a brakeman who rides along with the train, impresses with its gradients and the quite distinctive curves. It is the most family-friendly of all scenic railways, but a ride on this 70-year-old roller coaster is a must for every theme park and roller coaster enthusiast.
Rollerball
Another novelty for me is the Rollerball. This utterly imposing roller coaster from RES is an extremely fun family roller coaster with one small problem: it’s a one-trick pony. The roller coaster, which runs vertically, convinces with its rocking moments initiated by the bizarre drops – but that’s about it. The very family-friendly ride is very enjoyable for a single ride, but the very repetitive course of the track does not awaken the desire to ride it again straight away. In addition, the ride is simply not accepted by the visitors and therefore you never know whether it is running or not.
King Size Turbo Booster
Also new to me is the King Size Turbo Booster – the second iteration of Funtime’s Vomitron, which is very popular in the Prater. However, instead of just doing its flips straight on a circle path, the King Size Turbo Booster takes it up a notch. The seats are now all separate from each other and can each rotate around their own axis. The gondola carrier itself also rotates and is driven by a motor. The superimposition of all the rotational movements creates an extremely fast ride in which you can experience all kinds of crazy moments. Interestingly, the ride is still quite stomach-friendly, although it doesn’t look like it from the outside.
Gesengte Sau
The biggest novelty of the past years is the roller coaster Die G’gengte Sau. This is a bobsled coaster from Gerstlauer, but here it is primarily built up high and takes an absolutely wild route back to the station.
The start is made by classic hairpin bends, as you would find them on a Wild Mouse. After a total of three, we race down a big drop. Just past the Black Mamba, the path leads us back up a little and immediately into two more hairpin bends. Straight away we are pulled down a steep bend. After another valley, we climb a small straight section before leaning further and further to the right and plunging towards the ground one more time. After another climb, we race through a block brake and into another hairpin. Once again narrowly missing the Black Mamba, we go down the biggest drop of the ride. On the other side of the ride, the facade of the Funhouse Funball awaits us, which we also narrowly miss. Three tight turns follow, which lead us to the other side of the ride. We then repeat the whole thing in a small steep curve and several bunny hops. For the finale, a downward curve and several swerves to the right and left await us before we find ourselves in the brake and the absolutely brilliant roller coaster comes to an end.
The Gesengte Sau is an outstanding novelty and one of the best bobsled coasters from Gerstlauer. The extremely compact ride convinces with its multitude of drops and breathtaking curves.
Bilder Wiener Prater
What is your opinion about the novelties in the Wiener Prater? Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:
Schwaben Park in the small community of Kaisersbach near Stuttgart is a medium-sized amusement park in Germany. Opened in 1972, the amusement park was known for many years for its chimpanzee shows. Nowadays, the park hosts a solid selection of interesting and exceedingly unusual rides.
When thinking about a roller coaster at Legoland, nobody ever would come up with the idea of creating a B&M wing coaster featuring two inversions, but somehow this project came true with Maximus – Der Flug des Wächters. The statics of the ride speak for a very family friendly ride, which we now want to have a closer look onto. 
