Tag: Sky Scream

The oath of Kärnan

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Preface

Four years have passed since the last half-finished roller coaster, the Schlange von Midgard, was opened at Hansa Park, four long years in which surprisingly little has changed at the park, except for the demolition of the vertical ride prototype by Maurer Söhne. In the course of financing the planning and realisation of this year’s project understandable, on the other hand the time could have been used for a renewal of the existing installations, or at least try to reduce the number of parents pushing in front of the above mentioned children’s roller coaster. But when Hansa Park published the plan to build a Hyper Coaster, I had high hopes that the park would follow the example of the English amusement park Pleasure Beach Blackpool, which is also located at the sea and has a very limited area at its disposal. As a big fan of the Big One, at least an almost two-kilometer long roller coaster by Chance Morgan or similar, which runs through the whole park, would be a reason to visit Hansa Park more often. Instead, the project suddenly became uninteresting by announcing a roller coaster with a vertical lift in a tower and a role as an inversion figure, as the roller coaster Der Schwur des Kärnan could now be classified as Fluch des Novgorod II.

The construction progressed and the bloody ugly concrete block, which you can probably still see in the next few years, grew in height. Some externally visible distance meters followed, but the interest was in other projects. At the beginning of this month the opening of the now third roller coaster from Gerstlauer followed, and of course, as it should be, it was half finished. Despite this, the Schwur des Kärnan was able to win the favour of its riders quite fast, because Kärnan is a lot of things, but above all it is mega extreme, powerful, super smooth and, so on and so on.

Der Schwur des Kärnan

The outer appearance

In Hansa Park, The Schwur des Kärnan is only negatively noticeable during the transition to the Spanische Glocke and the Rio Dorado, as the access to both rides seems to be slightly hidden now, otherwise, the tower is indeed unsightly but impressive. The flat layout above the meadow in front of the Barracuda Slide is quite respectable and because of the almost non-existent running noises of the cars one hardly notices how fast the trains are actually running here.

The queue

The queue generally seems very provisional, but offers a lot of potential due to the existing quite large rooms in the building. The baggage drop is the same as on the roller coaster Blue Fire from the Europa Park near Rust, but in a separate room. After that one enters the queuing area, where the four rows of four people each have to be filled. The gates are a little bit pulled forward and open synchronously to one of the doors behind which rows 1 – 4 are located. By chance the train is filled row by row, a very interesting and praiseworthy idea, which can be adopted by other amusement parks.

The ride

The ride on the Schwur des Kärnan begins with a small gradient, followed by a left-hand bend, sloping outwards. Before the vertical lift, the train waits for a short time until the preceding train has left it. As usual, the train goes uphill quickly, before it makes a stop shortly before the end of the vertical lift. The train is held in position while the driver of the chain is moved into position. Shortly afterwards the brake is released and as it must come, the train falls down backwards. By using brake swords at the lower end of the freefall section integrated in the lift, the magnetic brakes react and the speed of the train is reduced. Mechanical brakes stop the train completely, the chain engages once more and carries the train over the top of the lift.

In a vertical gradient with an additional turn of 90°, one now leaves the building, whereupon a section of track, which is reminiscent of a heart, appears on the outside. Basically, one performs a Non Inverting Butterfly, whereby the lateral inclinations of the track are skilfully interrupted by the horizontal crests. With renewed momentum, the track turns into a slightly higher banked right turn, where the first turn takes place. A small hill in the manner of a Bavarian curve initiates the second turn. Very close to the ground you make a wide right turn, followed by a nice zigzag combination leading slightly upwards. In another right turn you approach an Airtime hill, where you also take off wonderfully. Another generously designed Bavarian curve leads into the last curve combination on the way back to the station. A small hill later the brakes are taken and the ride seems to be over for the time being.

The gate opens and an inversion, which is very reminiscent of the last role of the smiler from the English amusement park Alton Towers, comes to light. Thanks to the almost non-existent speed, one drives through it with a decent hangtime. A last right turn with a small dip before the station brake follows, and strangely enough, this is the first place where the pictures are taken.

Conclusion

The Schwur des Kärnan is a thoroughly nice roller coaster, but definitely not the best roller coaster in Germany, nor is it the most intense roller coaster in this country. The backwards freefall is a nice feature, which, if you were the park, you would have to advertise great, as well as the whole ride. However, this element is at the same time very capacity-reducing and actually unnecessary for the overall experience. The real drop on the other hand is absolutely brilliant and the heart element is also convincing. During the following part of the track, which is close to the ground, one quickly loses the overview and except for the hill and the subsequent meters, it hardly remained in my memory. The part at the end is quite good, except that a ride like this doesn’t really need it.  The smoothness during the ride corresponds to the typical ride behaviour of the manufacturer and is quite good for a roller coaster of this height, but far away from smooth.

Pictures Hansa Park

Crazy Mine • Maurer Wild Mouse
Crazy Mine • Maurer Wild Mouse
El Paso Express • BHS Metroliner
El Paso Express • BHS Metroliner
Fliegender Hai • HUSS Ranger
Fluch von Novgorod • Gerstlauer Eurofighter
Fluch von Novgorod • Gerstlauer Eurofighter
Fluch von Novgorod • Gerstlauer Eurofighter
Rasender Roland • Vekoma Family Coaster
Rio Dorado • Whitewater Spinning Rapids Ride
Rio Dorado • Whitewater Spinning Rapids Ride
Rio Dorado • Whitewater Spinning Rapids Ride
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Schwur des Kärnan • Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster
Spanische Glocke • Funtime Bell
Super Splash • Intamin Flume Ride

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Closing Words

One thing is completely incomprehensible to me, as why does one open a half-finished roller coaster for the third time in a row at the beginning of the main season? Even The Smiler, a roller coaster that was affected by breakdowns and a very hard winter, opened in the off-season, whereas other half-finished coasters like the Sky Scream from the Holiday Park even opened at the beginning of the season, whereupon they were even finished during the season, at least externally. I understand if you don’t want to take an example from your closest competitor, but in the Lüneburg heath, roller coasters are now finished the season before, tested in time and opened on time. The Schwur des Kärnan at least would be better off with a finished design, because although it is a lot of fun, it is not really earth-shattering.

 

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Hansa Park

In search of Dr. Carter

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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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Movie Park Germany

When the sky screamed for the first time

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Preface

If the day begins suboptimally it can only be good, at least that’s what I thought when I woke up early in the morning at Jan’s home in Weiterstadt, saw my glasses in pieces and spontaneously had to plan a visit to Fielmann in Haßloch. On the way we picked up Martin, so we got there on time and after about ten minutes of waiting we could take the way to the neighbouring Holiday Park. Despite these circumstances we waited super punctual on the forecourt for the others and then awaited the opening of the roller coaster Sky Scream together with them.

As I myself was not in possession of a valid season ticket, I joined the queue and waited surprisingly long. Since Julian now also joined the group and made significantly faster progress in the line next to mine, I joined him in order to extend the queue with a funny action by using our Fort Fun season tickets. Since the group was still not complete we decided to repeat the whole game with Jan’s annual ticket at another ticket office, after all, a ticket was still missing. Last but not least Martin surprised us with an expired season ticket, which blocked his entrance and led to some nice hours in the season ticket queue, while we enjoyed ourselves in the park.

Holiday Park

Majas Blütensplash

Meanwhile it was already clearly after 10 o’clock and thus our lively troop with the urge to ride something moved into the Majaland to pay a visit to the Blütensplash. Well entertained, a little wet and with a kitschy children’s song in our ears, we were now attracted to the actual reason for the visit, as a high structure surrounded by a lot of naked concrete radiated a certain end-time mood from which we did not want to resist.

Sky Scream

An old, dirty Vekoma track showed us the way to the roller coaster Sky Scream and shortly after we made ourselves comfortable between the concrete walls. Up and down a short steel staircase we waited now with a little more people on the way up to the station. Certainly most of the people willing to ride waited there and due to the narrowness of the station there was also a little chaos, because although the first row obviously had the most people, some of the other rows had a much longer wait. Especially when the station is a bit narrower, it would have been useful to set up a turnstile and let a maximum of 2-3 car loads into it. Certainly the Holiday Park is seldom as full as on the day of the visit, but a little more order could lead to more rides, which I actually regretted by a small mistake towards the end of the day, when all the others rode three laps in a row.

Finally taken a seat in the, at least in the last rows very narrowly laid out, cars of the roller coaster Sky Scream and pushed down the unfavourably shaped bar, the ride could begin. The first launch resembles in large parts the initial acceleration of a boat swing. After the change of the running direction the ride is much more powerful and so you almost reach the apex of the Non-Inverted Looping, from there you have a wonderful view to the Wild Mouse roller coaster and other areas of the park. With a lot of momentum you accelerate a third time and after a 180° turn around the axis of the track you reach the uppermost level without any effort, where you are torn out of your seat. After a very short breather, the immense airtime is followed by a strong hangtime in a roll that could not be placed better. Now follows the immersion into the Non-Inverted Loop, where you are physically stressed, especially in the rear part of the train. The rotation around the axis of the rail is so brutal that you hardly notice the following valley. Another reunion with the apex of the element initiates the final of the ride, whereupon you come to a precise stop in the station after another ride through it.

The Sky Scream is a truly outstanding ride – it does what the Superwirbel hasn’t been able to do for years, if the ride was running at all, and that is to be a noteworthy internal competition to the Expedition GeForce. It draws people away from the park’s everlasting main attraction. Although the ride built by Premier Rides is not the best German roller coaster novelty this year, which is without question the Flug der Dämonen in the Lueneburg Heath due to its rounder overall package, it is definitely one of the better roller coasters in the country. Holiday Park has done everything right by its risky choice.

Lighthouse Tower and Expedition GeForce

An attempt to get a backwards ride on the Palatine Lighthouse Tower by intensive rocking later our group increased to its full bloom. Martin’s request to get something to eat was skillfully ignored and accordingly the Expedition GeForce was given its long-awaited tribute. Since the ride has always been going well, another ride followed later in the day, but this time in the first row of the train. Interestingly enough, we then rode in the same trains as the group members who had broken away since the water ski show and had been waiting much longer for the last row of the train.

In the Pfalzgraf we tried out the entire range of products on offer, in my case it was a well cooked, but unfortunately quite sweet goulash of inferior quality. For the high costs one can actually expect something better, especially since the drinks were unfortunately not included, but it was still better than the iterative approach to a goulash meal of the Studierendenwerk in Hamburg, so you were able to eat it.

Burg Falkenstein

Well filled we decided to go to Burg Falkenstein, where apparently frighteners were waiting inside from 13 o’clock on. The park was really trying to upgrade its dark ride, inside the dark ride you were sprayed with water and got caught by the only active actor.

Wickie Splash

While one novelty this year is of a consistently positive nature, the disfigurement of the great Mack log flume Teufelsfässer with the now trivial name Wickie Splash is definitely not. The ride is now designed in the style of the new animated edition of the series Vicky the Viking and features a colourful look, which is not yet matching with the overall style of the ride. In addition, the lighting of the newly equipped turntables is completely missing, which makes the ride much worse. The degree of wetness of the ride would have remained the same, had it not been for the constant efforts of the other passengers to shovel water into the back of the boat.

Pictures Holiday Park

Closing Words

The meeting in the Holiday Park turned out to be absolutely great, especially since the group created a proper atmosphere here, which somehow couldn’t really be heard from the small splinter groups of the other forums visiting the park at the same day. Although we didn’t really manage to ride much during the visit, except for some permanent riders at Sky Scream at the end of the day, we visited every relevant ride that was on the way. At least I didn’t regret the long way to Palatinate at all and would not be averse to other meetings of this kind in the future.

 

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Holiday Park