Tag: Water Park

Going down the Summit Plummit

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Disney’s Blizzard Beach

Opened in 1995, Blizzard Beach is the newest water park at the Walt Disney World Resort. The theme of the park is based on a Disney legend. After a heavy snowstorm in the area, a businessman wanted to open Florida’s first ski resort. However, the snow did not last long. What remained was a mountain with water-filled ski jumps and a chairlift. The ride was about to close when an alligator was seen sliding down a ski jump and landing in a pool of water. The ski area was then reopened as a water park.

Melt Away Bay, Cross Country Creek, Tike’s Peak and Sky Patrol Training Camp

At the base of Mount Gushmore, we can find most of the family friendly offering. The toddler pool Tike’s Peak is slightly off the mountain and hence a good area to let your kids play safely. The Sky Patrol Training Camp on the other hand snugs neatly onto the mountain and offers a variety of fun activities for older kids. Surrounding the mountain is the Cross Country Creek offering a relaxing journey throughout the park. Finally, the family can come together to experience Melt Away Bay, the park’s large wave pool.  

Downhill Double Dipper

Probably the most fun slide at Disney’s Blizzard Beach is the Downhill Double Dipper tube slide. Here we race down a series of steep drops and experience a very fine airtime on the crest of the second downwards chute. It is also a very good slide to race against friends and family.  

Snow Stormers and Toboggan Racers

Snow Stormers and Toboggan Racers are the two mat slides of Disney’s Blizzard Beach. While Toboggan Racers is a mat racer slide, where you race against your fellow sliders down a chute with multiple waves, Snow Stormers is a more classic slide guiding us through seven serpentines on our way down.

Runoff Rapids 

Runoff Rapids are the park’s classic tube slides located at the back of the artificial mountain. While two of the slides offer a very chilling slide down a course with multiple serpentines and a few jumps, the third of the pack does it in pitch blackness.  

Slush Gusher and Summit Plummit

Slush Gusher and Summit Plummit are the park’s two kamikaze style bodyslides. While Slush Gusher offers a pleasant slide down multiple hills next to the ski jump tower, Summit Plummit takes it one step further and lets you go down the sky jump. These huge kamikaze slides always require a lot of courage and Summit Plummit – although you are not actually taking the jump – is a very breathtaking experience. Thankfully, you don’t have to walk all the way back up to go again, as the run off ends nearby the park’s chairlift.  

Teamboat Springs

Teamboat Springs is the large family raft slide and starts on top of the mountain. The slide goes down a very gentle slope at the back of the back. The slide consists of alternating left and right turns, sparkled with an occasional jump in between and topped off with a nice double drop finale. It is a very family friendly ride, but a very fine experience too.  

Pictures Disney’s Blizzard Beach

Conclusion Disney’s Blizzard Beach

I had a blast at Disney’s Blizzard Beach. Due to the “cold” weather – at least for the locals –, there was basically no one else in the water park, hence I could experience all of the slides in a very timely matter. I truly love the theme this water park is going for and I’m quite excited to come back one day.

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Disney's Blizzard Beach

The additions of the Caribe Aquatic Park

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Sesamo Aventura

In 2013, the water park received a massive expansion which finally enhanced the small-scale attraction to one of the best water parks in the country. The biggest addition to the park is the area Sesamo Beach, where the Sesame Street characters found a new home within Port Aventura World. The area features a small collection of slides at El Galéon Pirata.

Rapid Race

While Sesamo Beach mainly focuses on the needs of smaller kids, Rapid Race is a true family classic. The mat racer features a nice chute down the hills while racing against five other park guests.

Ciclon Tropical and King Khajuna

Ciclon Tropical and King Khajuna are the two large scale water slides of Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park. The two kamikaze slides sure take a punch and are an experience for the bravest of the park guest. While the yellow slide King Khajuna is intimidating due to its 30m alone, the ride down the red slide Ciclon Tropical should not be underestimated as it is the most intense one of the two slides. Both slides are awesome to experience at least once and they serve well as giant adverts for the water park.

Pictures Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park

Conclusion

Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park is probably Spain’s best water park. The high level of details combined with the awesome water slides by Proslide and WhiteWaterWest sure is something you should not miss when being at Port Aventura World; interestingly that’s something a lot of people do. Compared to the overcrowded theme parks Ferrari Land and Port Aventura Park next door, the water park was not that busy. One of the reasons for that is that Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park is always an upcharge attraction, being included only in the 3 days, 3 parks ticket bundle.

 

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Port Aventura Caribe Aquatic Park

Batavia is burning – and you want to go there?

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Preface

Who would have thought that Batavia would actually burn down one day? Two years after the disaster at Europa Park, we were determined not to miss the new iteration of the Piraten in Batavia dark ride, as well as some of the other novelties of the last three years.

The Novelties of Europa Park

Voletarium

The Voletarium in the entrance area of the park marks the beginning of our little tour. The ride is the first project under the guise of the Adventure Club of Europe, a fictional adventurer’s club that brings together the innovations of recent years and is intended to be a trademark of Europa Park. As with the new Rulantica water park, this is taken ad absurdum by various novels, making it difficult to follow the plot.

However, to cut a long story short, the Voletarium is a flying theatre made by Brogent Technologies. The flight simulator offers a breathtaking but very family-friendly flight over Europe. However, not all the transitions between the different scenes are successful or logical, so the film is a little weak compared to the really well done film of Fuji Airlines in Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland or that of Sky Voyager in Australia’s Dreamworld.

Nevertheless, the location of the Voletarium improves the front section of the park. Overall, the ride is coherent and ideal as an in-between ride.

Jim Knopf – Reise durch Lummerland

It’s the same with Jim Knopf – Reise durch Lummerland. In true Europa Park style, another licence has been integrated into the park – this time one that is mainly known in German-speaking countries. The children’s locomotive Old’99, which previously had a circus theme, was redesigned for this purpose. It’s old decoration has found a new home in a small pavilion of the neighbouring Marionetten-Bootsfahrt. You can now travel through Lummerland with Emma, the locomotive from Michael Ende’s book, which is a great experience, especially for younger children.

Snorri Touren

It’s a similar story with the hugely popular Snorri Touren dark ride, which was installed in the basement of the Scandinavian themed area when it was rebuilt. On this tour, Snorri – the mascot of the Rulantica water park – leads us through the legendary water world just outside the gates of Rust. The ride gets a lot of things right, thanks to its vibrant design and largely successful media integration – only the short slide sequence, in which the car hits a moving platform, is reminiscent of early PlayStation 2 titles in its spongy graphics, which detracts from the otherwise cohesive overall impression.

Madame Freudenreich

Although you can somehow forgive Snorri, you can’t forgive Madame Freudenreich – after all, the Energy Universe was once the most coherent dark ride in the whole park. Now it is a shadow of its former self, an attraction to be avoided at all costs. Younger children might still enjoy the Alsatian Gugelhupf Dinosaur Mash, but I can’t imagine anyone else being able to put up with this nonsense.

Eurosat CanCan Coaster

It’s a good thing the Green Fairy moved in right above it. Since its redesign, the Eurosat CanCan Coaster indoor roller coaster has been taking us on a sensory high. Driven by absinthe and the familiar sounds of In A Second Orbit, we climb up the drum lift in the familiar way before the Galop Infernal kicks in and we find ourselves on what is essentially a brand new coaster.

Like a cancan, we swing through the turns. Past huge black light backdrops, we race through the dome at an ever increasing speed and are even lifted out of our seats at times. The fact that the experience is absolutely smooth makes the ride all the better.

Eurosat has always been a good indoor coaster. A bit rough on the ride, but quite entertaining. The Eurosat CanCan Coaster on the other hand is one of the best roller coasters in Europe. Perfectly balanced, atmospheric and with great show value. Everything about this ride is perfect.

Eurosat Coastiality

But that only applies to the CanCan Coaster. There is also the Eurosat Coastiality. While one of them has been able to reach new heights thanks to its collaboration with the Moulin Rouge Variety Theatre, the other is betting on a VR experience based on Luc Besson’s Valerian – City of a Thousand Planets.

In principle, I think VR coasters are fun, and Europa Park has already shown what can be squeezed out of a rollercoaster with the Alpenexpress Enzian. Despite the outdated graphics, the first film was an unparalleled revelation. After that, many parks jumped on the VR bandwagon and there seemed to be no stopping them. Fortunately, the trend disappeared as quickly as it came, so it’s a little surprising that Europa Park is the only park in the world that continues to promote the technology. However, thanks to the resort’s own attraction, Yullbe, this is no longer actively happening in the parks.

Eurosat Coastiality is, at least in theory, a very passable upcharge attraction that, thanks to a separate station, has little or no impact on the capacity of the Eurosat CanCan Coaster, eliminating one of the main criticisms of VR coasters. However, the ride is tiring and the outdated graphics make it less than impressive. The show value of the coaster is completely lost, which is why there is no incentive to repeat the ride.

Piraten in Batavia

The Piraten in Batavia dark ride, which has been completely revamped thanks to the new construction, offers plenty of reasons to go on a ride. What used to be a lengthy rip-off of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean is now much more independent, thanks to a consistent storyline around the adventurer Bartholomeus van Robbemond and his otter Jopie. The Pirates of Batavia ride is thoroughly entertaining and has a high overall show value, which is why it is not to be missed.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Words

As you can see, Europa Park has been on a remodelling spree over the past few years. Some of the projects were long overdue, and some of the park’s attractions would actually like to see some changes. Not every upgrade is a success and not every licence is a plus for the park, but in general the Mack family’s drive is positive. They are trying to present a world-class theme park to an ever-increasing number of visitors, but unfortunately they often forget that great attractions do not need additional media integration.

 

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Europa Park