Climbing mountains in Fort Fun Abenteuerland

Preface

After the Sternrodler was tested, we went past the actual highlight of the trip, the Bruchhausen Stones, towards the village of Wasserfall to visit the local amusement park. The Fort Fun Abenteuerland was founded from the western city Fort Fun City and can still show this leading theme today, but also the ski lift and the two former summer toboggan runs led to the success of the park at that time.

After I informed the cashier about the 50% discount of the Movie Park Germany annual ticket, we went into the park. David was luckier than me concerning the staff, so that his first impression about the customer friendliness and motivation of the staff was still positive.

Tour of the park

Devil’s Mine

This should not change even at the first attraction visited, the Vekoma roller coaster Devil’s Mine. But first you have to pass the much too long, but worth seeing queue, even if it’s too dark in the first part. The ride itself is surprising and very fun due to the two airtime moments after the hills with the friction wheels. Unfortunately we could not make another ride in the afternoon because the ride had a defect.

Crazy Washhouse and Mystery Warehouse

Other attractions on the really beautiful top level of the amusement park Fort Fun Abenteuerland include a wave swinger, the Funhouse Crazy Washhouse, which lost all its charm due to empty rooms and offering just some mirrors, a Nauta Bussink Ferris wheel and the ghost train Mystery Warehouse. The latter ride was quite amusing and even thematically convincing due to individually placed theming elements.

Rio Grande

Probably the best themeing can be found at the small rafting ride Rio Grande from Bear Rides, which can score with its original cacti. Even if you look at the age of the ride and how wet it is, the ride is still one of the better rapid rivers.

Dark Raver

The path now led us further and further downhill and so directly to the next highlight in the Fort Fun Abenteuerland, the Indoor Round-Up Dark Raver. Even though the building is rather strange from the outside, the ride was really successful. The light effects and the music give the old Fähtz ride another live.

The show stage and the climbing structure next door don’t look very nice, even though the idea was not bad. We didn’t watch the show itself, because it seemed to be over by the time we arrived. Furthermore there is plenty of space for attractions on this level of the park, but the use of this area is rather sparse. Considering how many top-class rides have left the park in the course of time, I wonder why they did not find their place here, as attractions are generally missing in this park.

Trapper Slider

Our way leads us to the highlight par excellence of the amusement park Fort Fun Abenteuerland with a ride that changed my world view on alpine coasters in general, the Trapper Slider. The slogan “Feel the thrill – Rock the hill” basically says it all, because what the ride offers is outstanding. After a little longer time in the lift you reach the top of the lifthill and after a small 270° downhill helix the ride starts. After a very short time you reach your cruising speed of about 50 km/h and you are sent over elements that would virtually pull you out of your seat if the seatbelt was not so tight. The centrifugal brake has to work quite hard in the curves, provided there is no lurker in front of you. After a good 1300 m the ride is over and the only thing you can think of is the word brilliant.

Wildwasserbahn

Those who need something leisurely after the ride can get into the chair lift next door or go downhill for a few metres and take the Wildwasserbahn. This early log flume, from the cooperation of the manufacturers Mack and Arrow, has a considerable track length and a great setting. As with the log flume in Thorpe Park, England, there is a mixture of different styles, which unfortunately is not really convincing here. The degree of wetness of the ride was quite high, because the two passengers got really soaked.

Tomahawk

Next to a ship swing from the manufacturer Huss you can admire an exotic in the park: a Shake R5 from Mondial. The ride was long and balanced, but there were no rollovers. If you know the Commander von Hanstein or if you have done a round in Schäfer’s Shake & Roll, you will be a bit disappointed here, but if you know how awful sometimes the rides on Vorlops Shaker are, you will find the ride good. For a medium sized park the Tomahawk is a good investment.

Speed Snake

The roller coaster Speed Snake, a Vekoma Whirlind, was formerly known as the whirlwind. Since the original Arrow chaises unfortunately became too old, as in Heide-Park, a new train had to be brought in. This one is a first generation Vekoma train from the Prater in Vienna. If you have any bad suspicions now you will be disappointed, as it is usually the case with the Dutch manufacturer, because the train offers the same seating comfort as the old Arrow trains and this even with legroom in the second row. The ride itself is surprisingly intense in the corkscrews, as I previously only knew the identical specimen in the Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark Stukenbrock with an empty train, I was a bit surprised, and will pass through without any significant jerking or even hitting. The theming does not enhance the ride, but it is nicely placed and easy to look at, and the successful train does its best to do so.

Marienkäferbahn

Where the Fort Fun Abenteuerland on the top level could still create a harmonious picture, the design decreased more and more, which at first sight is not really disturbing, because the gardeners do a good job here. But there is a place in the park that really belongs to the worst what you can see in a park. The whole thing is declared as a children’s land and can be seen next to some cheap rides of Italian origin, the Zierer dragon train, which has been unused for some years, with an ugly blue facade and a Tivoli large. The Marienkäferbahn scores with its location in the middle of a forest, and the ride also offers a decent amount of speed – which is not always the case on such a roller coaster ride.

Beverly Hills Drive

At the lowest point of the park you will again find a well-designed attraction. The Monza track, known as Beverly Hills Drive, offers a long driving distance and a design that can be found in a similar form at Disney.  In any case, the ride is a ray of hope for the rather weak lowest part of the park.

Fun Xpress

Because we missed the Fun Xpress we went back up the mountain by foot. As the gastronomy in the lowest area of the park was more busy with itself than with the customers, we went to the gastronomy at the log flume. The offer here is decent, but also a bit expensive. After a while the staff noticed me and I ordered a portion of Pommes Spezial. The taste was great and I was satisfied.

Pictures Fort Fun Abenteuerland

 


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A thoroughly positive start to the season on Krake

The Kraken

Right to the start of the season, we lined up directly at the new roller coaster Krake. First we had to wait until something moved at all. After a certain time both trains in use were sent on the ride and the audience in the queue was very speechless of what was offered. Shortly before 10am the baggage claim opened, as one is used to from the English Merlin parks and so we didn’t have to queue up to the gates for long. Somewhat negatively is to be noted the division of the rows, since there is no separate queue, the crowds of visitors are slightly jammed.

As for the ride on the Krake, I can only say that it is very surprising. The layout is stunning and the airtime is terrific. The Immelmann can be considered as a good ride element (after all, this one is better than the ones on rides like Saw – the Ride and Anubis), the following airtime hill has wonderful floating airtime, even the curve is taken at a wonderful speed. The drop itself is of course the highlight for the outside spectators as well as for the passengers of the ride, thanks to the chain brake.

Less important from the actual ride is the splash of the roller coaster Krake. While the coaster silently completes its course, one doesn’t notice anything of the water fountains. But for the soaker among us there is a wonderful splash zone near the entrance of the roller coaster Big Loop.

 

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A day at Thorpe Park

Preface

Because of a wonderful cheap flight to London (with all fees 16€ for there and back) via Lübeck, I thought it would be time to visit Thorpe Park during the Fright Night event. Soon some more people were found who wanted to do this for a long time and so we could set off.

As with every proper tour, something had to happen and our Stefan, who practically defies all danger, had a small fracture five days before departure. In short: We were only two of us now and our luxury plane from Ryanair took off on schedule. Many thanks to Merlin Entertainments, who refunded our money at Madame Tussauds and sent us a ticket for the next season at Thorpe Park.

After we took the coach from London Stansted to Liverpool Street Station and made our way from there to Waterloo Station, we were already on the train to Staines, where we took the shuttle bus to the park at about 9 am. Quickly we picked up the prepaid Bloody Horrible tickets (Thorpe Park and London Dungeon) and we were ready to go.

Tour of the park

Colossus

The first ride of the day was Colossus. The ride is quite comfortable, but the one or other encounter of head and shoulder restraints in the first two inversion figures could not be avoided. I personally would consider the corkscrews and the last Heartlineroll as the highlight of the course, because the ride feeling of these two is much better than the rest of the course. Colossus is also very photogenic and due to its location wonderfully laid out.

Logger’s Leap

Roller coaster #2 was to become the nearby Eurofighter. Since it was supposed to open a little bit late, we decided to take a ride on the log flume Logger’s Leap. The ride has a pleasant level of wetness, whereas the drop in the dark is quite nasty and soaks you a bit. The double drop that follows later is not so wet, but offers a nice portion of airtime.

Slammer

For dry spinning we went to the nearby Sky Swat Slammer. S&S really did something massive with this machine. The ride is intense and very fun (I would not market this thing as a family ride).

Nemesis Inferno

This was followed by Nemesis Inferno, which alone is very convincing because of the part in front of the lift. But if the queue is empty, you have to zigzag a few times to get to the station (with Tidal Wave the longest queue to be crossed during the day). The ride is quite amusing from my point of view, which is why the ride became the first B&M Coaster that I enjoyed.

Stealth

St.Jimmy now saw the roller coaster of his desire, which is why we immediately set off in the direction of Stealth. Quickly we handed in our luggage and off we went. The launch was nice and the top hat afterwards too. Especially in the front part of the train it is very convincing. The descent is awesome, only the hill that follows is not very pleasant.

Tidal Wave

Since the weather was oddly good and therefore T-shirt weather prevailed, the Spillwater Tidal Wave had to be ridden as well (although it should be done in all weather conditions). The ride itself was great and with Slammer, X:\No Way Out and the new Coaster for the year 2012 the only reason for me to visit the park again.

X:\No Way Out

Let us now come to one of the highlights in the park: X:\No Way Out. You only hear mostly bad things about the ride, but it deserves the appreciation of some fans who enjoy the special. The ride is perfect in what it does, which is why I am so enthusiastic about it. All in all one of the best indoor coasters I ever had the pleasure to ride. Many thanks to Vekoma for this ride.

Saw – The Ride

Since meanwhile also Saw – The Ride ran, we joined the line. The queue was moving quite fast, so it didn’t take us long to get to the station. Again we had to hand in our bags and take a seat in one of the two trains, which are loaded at the same time.

We could experience our first ride in the first row and were immediately taken with the dark ride part. The first drop is pretty intense and the roll after the block brake has a nasty little extra, but I won’t tell you more. The outdoor part can be described very well by one word: fast. Not only does the lift run at top speed, but the car is also just racing down the track. On block brakes no consideration is taken into account, so that one experiences partly extremely positive and negative forces without braking.

Flying Fish

We almost forgot the Powered Coaster Flying Fish, but we still didn’t want to miss this roller coaster. I haven’t ridden the standard model from Mack Rides for a very long time, which made me very happy. Nevertheless I think that there is something missing at the coaster. A tunnel at the end would make the ride much more interesting, but the 4 laps are a lot of fun even without a tunnel. The beautifully designed train does its best for that.

Rush

Let us now come to the S&S Screamin’ Swing Rush. Praised by many we wanted to test this ride of course. It’s fun for a few seconds, but in general the ride is much too short and the rocking motion is not that special.

Samurai

Between Saw and Colossus there is the Mondial Top Scan Samurai. After many years, it was nice to see a Top Scan once again in person. The ride was okay, at least it was better than the rides on the other flat rides in the park.

Detonator

Very close to Nemesis Inferno is the Fabbri Tower Detonator. Like its 40m high brothers (to be found in Attractiepark Slagharen, BonBon-Land, …) this tower offers airtime in masses. The Humpty Dumpty rhyme before the fall is a really nice feature for Halloween.

The waiting times were generally between 0 and 20 minutes during the day. In the meantime it was also necessary to wait 50 minutes for Nemesis Inferno. Because of the Fright Nights, Thorpe Park was open until 8 pm, so some reruns could be done in the dark; after all, most of the English were waiting over 60 minutes for the Mazes.

Pictures Thorpe Park

 


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