The FirleFranz of Bayern-Park

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Prelude

A lot has changed since my last visit to Bayern Park. Not only is the theme park now much more impressive with a large and beautiful entrance area, there are also three attractions that are well worth seeing. The biggest of these is of course the Voltrum freefall tower, which is over 100 metres high and is intended for the more daring. For the whole family, there is the Duell der Adler and the crazy FirleFranz family rollercoaster.

Duell der Adler

As soon as you enter the theme park, you come across the Duell der Adler. The Gerstlauer Sky Fly is a great family carousel where you can customise your own ride. By adjusting the position of the wings on the gondola, you can experience a rather calm ride or a wild ride with lots of somersaults. A counter counts these and enables a final comparison.

FirleFranz

I like the new style at Bayern-Park, which really comes into its own on the new FirleFranz family rollercoaster. The open-ended coaster, with the train going both forwards and backwards, is an interesting feature.

The ride itself begins with a gentle friction wheel start backwards out of the station, climbing about halfway up the spiral. We accelerate forward once more, then cross the switch and enter a turn. This then takes us up a hill, which we ride a bit slowly. The big drop is followed by a Bavarian bend. Another bend leads us into the second launch area, which would serve as an additional braking zone if the switch had not been set correctly. However, we accelerate and enter a helix after a short climb. After going through the switch a second time, we travel forward through the station to the end of the spiral, which is an interesting experience, especially in the front part of the train. Now the switch is set a second time and we travel backwards a little faster through the section we have just experienced. A great feeling and my highlight of the ride.

FirleFranz is a really good family coaster with a clever layout that makes the supposedly short track seem like a much longer ride. Even though the ride forward is a bit smoother, the fast ride backwards is all the more impressive. All in all, a really great family coaster from Gerstlauer.

Voltrum

The large Voltrum drop tower is my favourite of the three new features. It offers a fantastic view of the area and an equally fantastic drop. The theming of the ride gives it a very special feeling, something that only Scream at Heide Park has achieved in Europe so far. It feels elaborate and not like a temporary addition like many other theme parks. In short, a really great ride.

Pictures Bayern-Park

Conclusion Bayern-Park

Bayern-Park is making really good progress. I can’t wait to see which attractions will fill the vacant areas in the park. I was also very pleased that my biggest criticism from my last visit no longer seems to apply. The staff here were very friendly, especially the nice employee who directed guests to the right ticket office in the morning. That’s great and gave me a very positive impression overall.

What do you think about the new additions at Bayern Park? Just write it here under the report in the comments field or in our social media channels:

TKathke March 31, 2024 April 7, 2024 Bayern Park

Dreamworld

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Theme Park:	Dreamworld (since 1974)

Address:	Dreamworld Pkwy
	Coomera QLD 4209
	https://www.dreamworld.com.au/

Operated by:	Ardent Leisure

Dreamworld in Coomera, Queensland is the largest animal and amusement park in Australia. The park was founded in 1974 and is currently being operated by the Ardent Leisure Group. The park offers a wide range of family-friendly rides and experiences, among them you can take a plunge on the Giant Drop – the Southern hemisphere largest drop tower.

Highlights of the Animal and Theme Park

Giant Drop

The very tall drop tower

Gold Coaster

The unique looping coaster through the water park

Pandamonium

The intense AirRace

Sky Voyager

Soarin’ over Australia

Tailspin

A daredevil flight

The Claw

An awesome swing

Past Highlights of the Animal and Theme Park

Buzzsaw

Loopin’ the sky

Tower of Terror II

The reverse free fall coaster

TKathke September 3, 2023 September 3, 2023 Dreamworld

An Icon of the Pleasure Beach

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My last visit to the Pleasure Beach was in 2016, so I was very excited to finally ride the park’s newest addition, the Mack Rides roller coaster Icon. For the 2022 season, the last car of one of the trains was replaced by a car offering a spinning pair of seats, thus creating the Ensō experience – a nice feature which comes with a heavy price tag.

The ride on Icon starts rather slowly as we are approaching the launch position. Starting from a standstill, we directly approach the lift hill support structure of the Big One roller coaster whilst racing over a huge camelback hill. After a steep curve resembling an inclided loop tilted to the left, we make our way towards the courtyard of the Steeplechase roller coaster. After diving under the old horse ride coaster, we take some quick near ground direction changes, before we finally gain a bit of altitude and cross the track. Right above the visitors, we now take a well ballanced heartline roll – something you would not expect from a Mack Rides roller coaster. After making our way below the huge camelback hill, we dive down into a tunnel which leads directly into the second launch.

After being accelerated the second time, we gain up some height in a non-inverting Immelmann turn. This element rides itself rather odd, yet if gives you some views onto the park. A very funny right-hand bend follows, which leads into a very hill and dale section of the layout. After going up and down for quite a while, we now race over a weirdly banked speed bump, leading into a sequence of very short swifts to the right and to the left, where one of them unnecessarily crosses the Big Dipper roller coaster. After that, we are done and quickly approach the station.

Icon has a very strong first act and a weaker second one. It’s funny that the ride is actually at its best, when the constrains due to the limited space were most severe. On the rather large plot of land where the second part of the roller coaster runs, the ride is quite repetitive. Especially the end of the ride is unfortunately not quite as successful. I would have liked to see a series of straight camelbacks here that would really knock your socks off, instead we swerve continuously from the right to the left and vice versa. Icon is therefore not my favourite ride at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, nor comes anywhere close to the first double launch coaster the Pleasure Beach is offering since 1979. Anyhow, it is still a fun ride and a nice addtion to the fantastic rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.