A day in the world of adventure

Chessington World of Adventures

The day after Whit Monday we took the train to Chessington South and from there we walked about 1km to Chessington World of Adventures – a Merlin Entertainments theme park. There we immediately came across a wonderfully deserted animal and theme park. On the day we visited, all the rides were doing two laps in a row, which was quite amazing, especially on the roller coasters.

Dragon’s Fury

Passing the tigers and lions, which were still moderately active in the early morning, we made our way to the first object of desire, the Dragon’s Fury spinning coaster. This ride, built by Maurer Söhne, is relatively easy to describe as it is simply brilliant. The first drop ends in a crazy S-curve combo that leads into an Immelmann turn. This is followed by a couple of turns and helices, which then lead into another weirdness, the second fairly flat lift hill, which gives you the potential energy to complete the rest of the rather bizarre layout.

Dragon’s Fury is by far the best spinning coaster in the world, which is no mean feat with rides like Sonic Spinball at Alton Towers or Tarantula at Spain’s Parque de Atracciones de Madrid. The ride itself usually has a very good spin, which adds to the great layout of the ride.

Wild Asia

Next door, the newly designed Wild Asia area took us straight to Asia. The former Beanoland, which was dedicated to an English comic series, has been revamped for the 2010 season and now welcomes visitors with two new features.

Monkey Swinger

As well as a bumper car, a playhouse and a crazy bus by Zamperla, the area also boasts a very remarkable installation: A Zierer Wave Swinger. Normally found in almost every amusement park, Chessington World of Adventure manages to make the Monkey Swinger something very special by using water fountains. In contrast to the installation at Phantasialand, the fountains at the Monkey Swinger are not only an impressive decoration, but also serve as ice-cold refreshment. This is where you realise that the English are not really averse to water. It is not surprising, then, that you will find yourself running through the water fountains at least a dozen times during the ride. The outer seats, where you are already soaking wet, are still the driest seats.

Kobra

To get dry you can go to the body dryer or take a ride on the new Kobra ride, a Zamperla Disk’o Coaster. Unfortunately, the ride itself looks much more impressive from the outside than it is from the inside. Nevertheless, a ride on the Kobra is still a nice in-between ride.

Lorikeet Lagoon

The second new feature is the Lorikeet Lagoon, an attraction that is becoming increasingly common in zoos such as Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover and Weltvogelpark Walsrode. This is a walk-in aviary where lorikeets do their rounds and you can buy food for these birds for a small fee. The nature of these parrots is such that you can get into some pretty funny situations, as long as you have some nectar to attract them.

Dragon Falls

In the Chinese themed area of Mystic East you will find the log flume ride Dragon Falls next to the Peeking Heights Ferris Wheel, from which you can theoretically see all the way to Thorpe Park. This ride is beautifully designed but has a very low water level and a rather bizarre layout.

Rameses Revenge

Much to the surprise of the staff, we took a ride on the Top Spin Rameses Revenge. As the first guests of the day, we were surprised not only by the ride’s fountains, but also by the staff’s knowledge of German, who appropriately referred to the machine as a ‘Waschmaschine’.

Tomb Blaster

In the same themed area is the interactive dark ride Tomb Blaster, an attraction by Sally that is well worth seeing. A long train takes you through a series of breathtaking backdrops. Due to the yawning emptiness of the park and the resulting long pauses in the block areas, you could score a lot of points, but the ride also lacked some momentum.

Rattlesnake

Somewhat hidden in a pit like Top Spin, the cars of Rattlesnake – a Wild Mouse by Maurer Söhne – make their rounds. The waiting area in the middle of the layout alone deserves some attention, but the ride trumps that. Unlike the Crazy Mine at Germany’s Hansa Park, the original ambience has been preserved and not enhanced by functional additions.

Runaway Train

Slightly off to the side is the Powered Coaster Runaway Train – a Blauer Enzian model from Mack Rides. This standard model is perfectly suited to Chessington World of Adventures, as you can see from the queue that has somehow been inserted into the ride. The coaster itself is also much more harmonious than its sister ride Flying Fish at Thorpe Park, which is barely 15 miles away. The friendly staff also contribute to the great atmosphere.

Hocus Pocus Hall and Sea Life Centre

An interesting attraction is the passage through the Hocus Pocus Hall, where you can see some effects with special glasses. Another interesting walk is through the Sea Life Centre, which unfortunately has an ugly tent look from the outside. Inside, however, the aquarium is very impressive. The large variety of species and the elaborate design make for a high entertainment value. Thanks to the very low number of visitors, it was finally possible to take a closer look at the fish.

BubbleWorks

The Transylvanian themed area is home to the world’s most beautiful Burger King and a very special dark ride about squeaky ducks. The tour of the BubbleWorks bubble factory is quite amusing and has one of the most impressive finales as you literally take a bath. You won’t get wet, but the water jets you pass through are impressive.

Vampire

The last roller coaster in the park is an Arrow Dynamics and is a true suspended coaster. This rare type of coaster is mainly found in America and unfortunately the very few examples are getting rarer and rarer with time. So it’s good to know that there is one in Europe. The new Vekoma trains at least give hope for a long future.

The ride on Vampire starts out quite amusing with some combinations of curves where you are already swinging a bit to the side. Shortly after that the ride climbs the second lift hill, which completes the visible part of the ride. Passing the row of houses by the Burger King, you quickly reach the treetops where you continue to swing back and forth. The highlight of the ride comes shortly after when you exit a tunnel and swing out hard after a big drop. Unfortunately, you end up in the brake section, where you swing out a bit before returning to the station.

Vampire is a very surprising coaster, and the ride comfort for those who wear glasses is noticeably improved as soon as you take them off. Although Vampire is neither the tallest nor the fastest roller coaster in the park – mainly due to the local constraints of the park – Arrow Dynamics have managed to give the park an extremely entertaining ride that is definitely unique, at least in Europe.

Black Buccaneer

Next to it, in a very interesting location, you can admire the park’s boat swing, which, like all the other big rides, is located in a pit. Bizarrely, the entrance to Black Buccaneer is in a rather illogical position, so you might need to spend some time looking for it. Once you have made the impressive descent to the ship swing, you will be rewarded with a great ride with a rather large swing out.

Pictures Chessington World of Adventures

Conclusion about our first ever visit

Chessington World of Adventures is one of the most exciting animal and theme parks in Europe, with top quality rides, beautifully designed themed areas and a really good zoo. If you are in the London area and have to choose between Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland Windsor and neighbouring Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures is well worth a visit.

 

What is your opinion the theme park Chessington World of Adventures?  Just write it in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

     


Click here for the overview page of Chessington World of Adventures

Rocking and Rolling in the Studios of Paris

Walt Disney Studios Park

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

We started our expedition through the Walt Disney Studios Park with some music, which was rock to be exact. Until now, our group only knew the route of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster from the Flemish Walibi Holland; but what is happening in the Studios 8+9 of the Walt Disney Studios Park tops the Dutch outdoor ride by far. The layout, the launch, simply everything looks perfect when you are in a dark hall with great rock music by the band Aerosmith as well as terrific effects.

In the course of the day, we managed to test four different trains of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which means that we had four different experiences. This turned out to be quite difficult in the beginning, because we got the same train about 20 times in a row. But since the urge always pulls you into this concept roller coaster or better said concert roller coaster – which couldn’t be better from the overall experience – this was not reprehensible, because what Vekoma has designed here is more or less perfect!

Tower of Terror

Now it was time to leave the dimension and enter the Twilight Zone. The Hollywood Tower Hotel was waiting for us, as well as its friendly staff. Especially the cleaning staff did their best to let everything gather dust. Once you have entered the Tower of Terror, you soon realize that the conventional lifts are no longer sufficient to take you to your room. So you have to cross the library of the hotel and take one of the service lifts in the engine room.

Once you have found your place in the lift, it starts to move backwards. The story is told on several levels and the (freefall) effects are sometimes very frightening. The ride has a lot of airtime, unfortunately the last drop is a bit disappointing. All in all the ride is quite successful, even if one would have wished for a different storyline, especially for Europe, because nobody here is familiar with the Twilight Zone.

Crush’s Coaster

Australia is far away on the globe, but not at Disney. Therefore, in the studios you can quickly take a ride on the back of a turtle. Crush’s Coaster is the name of the ride from the Munich roller coaster manufacturer Maurer-Söhne. The ride is just like Crush appears in the movie: Simply ingenious! The only weak point of the coaster is the much too low capacity. On the first day we had to spend 70 minutes of waiting time on this roller coaster, on the following (not so sunny) days the average waiting time was 45 minutes. It is recommended to start the ride backwards, as this way the lift is much more surprising. The following ride should be familiar to everyone who has ever ridden an SC-2000 like the Spinning Racer at a fair at night, with the small but significant difference that the spin is not locked for that long.

Cars Quatre Roues Rallye

Right next door is the Cars Quatre Roues Rallye. The capacity is not really the problem here, only the absolutely lousy handling makes sure that the queuing time can quickly increase. The ride on the Zamperla Demolition Derby itself is quite amusing and nice for in between. It also looks quite appealing from the outside.

Les Tapis Volants – Flying Carpets Over Agrabah

The flying carpets Les Tapis Volants – Flying Carpets Over Agrabah can also be found in this area. One of the few fast pass attractions in the park, which suggests that this ride is very popular. If you catch a good time, you can do a lap without having to wait for the fast-pass. By the way, the ride is definitely worthwhile.

Armageddon

What would a studio park be without shows? Probably not much. So the time had come to test them bit by bit. We started with the special effects show Armageddon. A far too long, partly stupid preshow with film scenes, which I didn’t expect in such a park, introduces the upcoming room. There you can see yourself on a space station, which is damaged by an asteroid. A lot of fire makes the people feel a little warmer, the other effects are not really worth mentioning in contrast to Port Aventura’s Templo del Fuego.

Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular

One of the more popular shows at Walt Disney Studios Park is of course the stunt show with the very long name Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular. The scenery in which this show takes place is wonderful to watch, but the show itself is not as exciting. In the beginning there is a wonderful atmosphere, but somehow everything that makes this show spectacular was missing.

The Art of Disney Animation

The Art of Disney Animation is not to be missed. First of all you are shown a film that captures the magic of Disney by showing scenes from different Disney films and language versions. In the second show you are accompanied by the dragon Mushu, known from the film Mulan, where the story of how a cartoon character was created is explained. It is also advisable to follow this event in Dutch, thanks to the joke with the Frikandel.

Cinémagique

If you can’t get enough of the comfortable cinema seats, you should watch the half-hour film in the Cinémagique. I don’t want to give too much away, but one should take the mobile phone warning in cinemas seriously. Apart from that, the film is based on the Movie Switch principle, although it comes across much better here than at the show in Movie-Park Germany (which is by no means hard to do).

Stitch live

If you like interactivity and also like the devilishly evil experiment 626, you will love Stitch live. Whether active participation in the show changes the course of events I may doubt, in this respect I preferred the Movie Magic Show from the Bottrop Filmpark, as it was simply legendary for its flat humour and comical actions of the actors.

Thanks to the unfavourable times, we always missed the black light show Animagique. This will be tackled during the next visit, as well as the studio tour, which was closed at the time of the visit. Also, the Toy Story Land, which was still under construction at the time, needs to be examined more closely.

Pictures Walt Disney Studios Park

 


What are your thoughts about the indoor roller coaster Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster? Just write it here in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          


A great weekend at Europa-Park

My first visit to Europa Park

Blue Fire Megacoaster

As Blue Fire was new this year and the first roller coaster to open in Southern Germany, the ride was targeted right from the start. This approach was absolutely justified, because while the queue for Blue Fire was only about 20 minutes in the morning, it was much longer in the afternoon. Somehow everyone wanted to ride Blue Fire.

After taking your seat in the very comfortable trains of the Blue Fire roller coaster, you pass through a small, nonsensical dark ride section, where you are launched at a snail’s pace with all sorts of effects. This is followed by a very modest turn which, like the following element of a looping, is taken far too slowly. The steep turn before the climb up to the block brake can be seen as the highlight of the ride, as long as you don’t come to a stop in the block brake. The following corkscrew is a lot of fun at the right speed, but unfortunately you don’t get to enjoy it very often. The absolute outrage, which fans unfortunately call the highlight of a coaster par excellence, is the supposed and completely miscalculated heartline roll towards the end of the ride on Blue Fire.

Blue Fire is by far one of the most boring roller coasters around, nothing is right and one can only hope that Mack Rides will realise the potential of the following rides. Where the first part of the ride is far too slow, the second part on Blue Fire is unfortunately far too fast, leaving guests with a weak, boring and bad coaster that they will think is better due to their lack of experience with inversions and launches.

To wake up from this deep sleep, the café next to the ride was tested. The coffee served there is damn good and is the real highlight of the Icelandic themed area.

Atlantica Supersplash

After leaving Iceland and heading towards Portugal, you find yourself in front of the impressive structure of the Atlantica Supersplash. Unfortunately, like other rides of this type, it can’t do anything, but there’s a drench zone to get a little wet. The nonsensical backwards part of the ride can be complemented by an even more nonsensical 540° turn on the first turntable, as long as the capacity is not fully utilised.

Tiroler Wildwasserbahn

If you want to get really wet, make a pilgrimage to the Tiroler Wildwasserbahn, which lives up to its age. Especially on this ride you can see how much Europa Park takes care of its rides, as this log flume looks and rides like new, which is not the case in other parks. The level of wetness is excellent and the cave you go through is just great.

Alpenexpress Enzian

The Alpenexpress Enzian also makes its rounds through the same cave and is just as impressive as its slightly longer brother from Soltau Heide Park. But not only the Powered Coaster shows clear parallels to Soltau, you can also find a bigger version of the Seerestaurant in the Lüneburg Heath, as well as some smaller attractions that are more or less the same.

Fjord Rafting

Fjord rafting also looks like a small version of Mountain Rafting, but unfortunately the ride itself is not really exciting or even wet. The rapids, the waterfalls and the wave pool are particularly mild. The design is nice, but you can see the age of the Intamin ride.

Apart from the HUSS Pirate nearby, there are not many rides from other manufacturers in the park. Apart from the Zierer Wellenflug in Austria, the Zamperla attractions in the English themed area and the Chance C.P. Huntigton train, there is only the Intamin Gyro Tower in the French themed area and the biggest European roller coaster by B&M.

Silver Star

Silver Star is the quintessential car park roller coaster and makes perfect use of this fact with a fitting theme. The layout’s out & back design looks breathtaking due to the height, but the ride is relatively harmless. While in the front row you only get an unpleasant breeze during the ride, in the back row you get some nice floating airtime at its best. Unfortunately, the ride has the worst queue since the invention of the queue, so a 20-minute wait in the summer is definitely not worth it.

Eurosat

Not far from the steel giant is the dark roller coaster Eurosat, one of the best roller coasters of the park. Although the curves are sometimes quite borderline in complete darkness and the brakes are adjusted very strongly, but you wait no matter how long the queue is, at most 30 minutes, because it moves steadily forward.

Universum der Energien

Beneath the ride is one of the better attempts to copy Disney’s universe of energy. Even if very few people notice or even find it, this dark ride is definitely the most coherent one in the whole park. The dinosaur theme is a bit out of fashion, but should be back in fashion by the time the fourth Jurassic Park is released.

Schweizer Bobbahn

The Swiss themed area features the prototype of Mack’s bobsleigh run, which has nothing to offer other than an attractive design. The Swiss bobsleigh track is one of the most harmless and, unfortunately, boring rides of its kind. Unfortunately, the queue is usually the longest, as the capacity is not very exciting.

Matterhorn Blitz

Similarly boring is the second coaster in this area, the Wild Mouse with an extended layout and a lift instead of a lift. Matterhorn Blitz was my 100th roller coaster and unfortunately the ride and the longest queue in the whole park were not worth it. The extended Mice lack basically everything that makes the more compact and better standard Mice.

Jungfrau Gletscherflieger

Probably the best attraction in this area is the Jungfrau Gletscherflieger, a ride that is very reminiscent of a Zierer hang glider flight, but with the ground beneath your feet. Unfortunately, this very fast ride has never been widely available.

Fluch der Kasandra

In the Greek themed area there is a witches’ swing, which for once was not built by Vekoma. Unfortunately, The Fluch der Kasandra has no story to tell, and apart from the main room, there’s nothing more than some nice atmospheric music. The additional effect of the pop massage is a novelty, but completely unnecessary.

Poseidon

The nearby Poseidon water rollercoaster is a good example of how a water rollercoaster should be ridden, as if you are lucky you will get wet, or if you are unlucky it will happen before the ride as you wait under the Trojan Horse. The twisting rollercoaster section has some interesting strokes, but nothing to spoil the ride.

Pegasus

Pegasus is the most airtime-rich and family-friendly rollercoaster in the park. Named after the winged horse, the coaster offers a twisting track that finishes at a decent speed, perfect for young audiences.

Euro-Mir

In the Russian themed area you can visit the Russian space station Mir. Much quicker, though no less exciting, is the neighbouring Euro-Mir. One of the best soundtracks of all time plays as you climb up the harmonious lift. Once at the top, you take a few turns around the Mir towers as the gondola spins. Before the first descent, the gondolas lock into place, so that the next part of the ride is either forwards or backwards, until the gondolas turn 180° on the hill. The following part of the coaster is very intense and remains so as the radii get smaller and smaller. As on the Eurosat roller coaster, the brakes are very strong, but if you are lucky enough to hit them backwards, it is not too bad.

Schneeflöckchen Schlittenfahrt

Tucked away is the Schneeflöckchen Schlittenfahrt, a beautiful and harmonious dark ride with puppets and probably the most iconic car in the form of a sleigh with benches, hence the attraction’s nickname, Bench the Ride.

Piraten in Batavia

In the Netherlands you can visit the Piraten in Batavia dark ride. Like so many others, this dark ride tries to be like Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the ride does not succeed at all and for me it is one of the worst and most boring dark rides ever. Not only is it an unparalleled waste of time, but it is also the perfect attraction to put you to sleep.

Magia

The Variety Show in the Italian themed area was equally successful to put me into sleep at the time of my visit. I did not see much of the show called Magia, but the clown at the beginning of the show was quite original.

Geisterschloss

Nearby are the dark rides Ciao Bambini and Geisterschloss, both of which are more or less copies of well-known Disney attractions. While Ciao Bambini was not tested by me, the completely trivial Ghost Train enjoyed a visit from time to time, as the Geisterschloss is not so bad after all.

In the Spanish themed area, there are two other smaller attractions, including a sea storm ride with a decent enough ride that you can usually just get on without having to wait. There are also a number of show arenas scattered around the park. The ice skating show is one of the best, although the clown before the show is always the highlight.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Words Europa Park

In contrast to Heide-Park, Edeka Day at Europa Park is a very special day. Apart from free samples at every corner, there are many other activities. Strangely enough, this day was also much emptier than the day before and it was open longer. If you still have time in the evening, you can watch the latest films in the park’s own 4D cinema, which is mostly in 2D, but with the appropriate special effects.


What is your opinion of Blue Fire? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:

 

     


Click here for the overview page of Europa Park