Zamperla

Complimentary ice cream and long queues in Kalkar

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Wunderland Kalkar

How an amusement park became one of the biggest investment ruins of the last few years was impressively demonstrated at the Nürburgring with the Ring°Werk, but how an investment ruin became an amusement park resort can be seen in the development of Wunderland Kalkar. When the nuclear power plant Kalkar was finally shut down in 1991 due to political and safety concerns, a buyer was sought for the site, which was then sold for a bargain. The former administration buildings were turned into a larger hotel complex. Between the individual buildings, or on and in the buildings, the Wunderland Kalkar amusement park was built.

Without any major exception, the park’s offer consists of rides by the Italian manufacturer Zamperla, but the larger and more interesting rides by the manufacturer are completely missing, which is hardly significant in relation to the target group.

Disk’O and Vertical Swing

The most interesting rides are the Disk’O, located on the roof of a building, which scores with its intensive ride program and the Vertical Swing, located in the cooling tower, where the additional gondola carrier doesn’t fall off, as in the Polish amusement park Śląskie Wesołe Miasteczko, and thus instead of an interesting freefall only offers a boring panoramic ride. The American fans of Theme Park Review envy us for this ride.

Achterbahn and Wildwasserbahn

However, also normal roller coaster fans will get their money’s worth, because the park’s roller coaster named Achterbahn is a quite interesting example of a Powered Coaster, if only it weren’t for the dispatch, which destroys all fun. Unfortunately, there is hardly any interaction with the neighbouring Wildwasserbahn log flume, which offers much too steep slopes and is averagely wet.

Long queues and free fries

In general, the handling in the park is a bad joke and starts already at the entrance, where one can wait a little longer despite the printed tickets, as there were many ticket buyers through Groupon and Co. who wanted to finally redeem their vouchers before the end of the season. In the park itself, the crowd was divided relatively homogeneously across the park, but most of the visitors spent their day queuing for free fries at the central distribution points below the cooling tower. Here a decentralization, as is often the case, would be a solution, also an abolition of the all-you-can-eat offer for fries and ice cream would be an idea, but that would probably result in a lower entrance fee. For the portions at least, standing in line in long queues is hardly worth it, but hey it’s free after all.

Pictures Wunderland Kalkar

Conclusion Wunderland Kalkar

Wunderland Kalkar is one of the most interesting amusement parks in the world due to its location and its prehistory, which also attracted international attention with the original placement of its rides. Due to the abundance of the park, however, I spent much more time than planned in the park, so that one should not choose the sunniest weekend for weeks for a visit when various vouchers come up. Otherwise, the Wunderland Kalkar could surely be described as a quite solid amusement park, but due to the expensive entrance fee, despite the food policy of the park, the price-performance ratio is rather mediocre.

 

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Wunderland Kalkar

Magnus Colossus and other accidents

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Doubtful changes in Terra Mítica

When the Benidorm-based Aqualandia-Mundomar Group released the Terra Mitica theme park from its transitional society in 2012, hopes were high that the actually solid and rather less visited theme park with its wooden roller coaster Magnus Colossus, visible from afar, would be filled with new life. One year later the park’s offer was reduced to a minimum by combining some of the theme areas to form the brand new theme park Iberia Park. For the time being you could visit the park for free and pay for the rides via token, but this strategy was changed the following year, so that besides Terra Mitica you could visit a second full-price amusement park, without a roller coaster, but with a bigger spa area than the park next door.

While the amusement park was always well maintained by the transitional society and shone like no other Spanish amusement park because of all the new paint, the park is now quite run down and the paint has actually worn off in many places. The maintenance on the roller coasters in general leaves a lot to be desired, so a ride on Magnus Colossus with missing side padding for the knees is pretty brute, so it’s no wonder for me that the restraint of the Intamin ZacSpins Inferno failed in July this year.

A hint that the roller coaster is not in operation at the moment is missing on the park’s website, of course. Only from the final brake of the wooden roller coaster Magnus Colossus you can see the three cars in the station. Of course there are no signs of any work around the ride.

Magnus Colossus

During my last visit in 2011 I could only test the rearmost car for Magnus Colossus, one ride was enough for the rest of the accompanying group, and so I was only able to experience the strange phenomenon of the constant and quite painful interplay between bar and backrest. Admittedly it was also the reason for a second visit, because I was missing a final opinion about this wooden roller coaster. As it turned out, a ride in the last car is still not recommendable, but further to the front you at least saved yourself the swinging, but not the permanent hitting of the knees against the existing or not existing side paddings. With a length of more than 1100m this is by far not comfortable and even Lightwater Valleys Ultimate is a soft ride. If you still think that Bandit from Movie Park Germany is a horrible, even unrideable wooden roller coaster, you are welcome to experience your holiday including a visit to the park at the Costa Blanca.

Apart from the general disintegration of the rides and the elimination of several thematic areas, there are actually no major changes. In general, however, the Terra Mitica amusement park is only a shadow of its former self, so a visit is not advisable.

Pictures Terra Mítica

Closing Words

Fortunately, since my report in 2014, things have changed again. The Iberia Park only existed until 2016, after that the park was once again complete. It was a crazy idea from the beginning, which didn’t really work for anyone and probably cost a lot of visitors. With the opening of the Grand Luxor Hotel, from which you have a wonderful view down to the city of Benidorm, a resort was also created, so that one should not yet give up hope and actually pay the park a visit one more time.

 

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Terra Mítica

French lobby work at Europa Park

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Preface

It’s interesting to see that in a year when every major theme park in Germany has a new attraction, Europa-Park has been left out of the media hype. Fortunately, the situation was different for the park in France, so at least there is some interest in Arthur. In France, Luc Besson’s animated film series has always been very successful, whereas in Germany, Arthur and the Kingdom of the Minimoys has only been successful in the media thanks to the voice of Tokyo Hotel singer Bill Kaulitz.

Since nobody in Germany actually knows the films, it’s hard to understand why they decided to apply for these licences, because even without the film reference and the rather modest name of the actual ride, the ride could work. On the other hand, a lot of French people visit the park, and as has been shown all too often in English theme parks, you need themed areas licensed from popular children’s series to successfully attract the masses these days.

The new ride at Europa Park

Arthur

French Lobby – The ride is located in the Kingdom of the Minimoys themed area, a very compact hall similar to the Wuze Town themed area at Phantasialand, with some slides, a beautifully designed Zamperla Jump Around and a Zierer Family Freefall Tower. The coaster’s ride along the ceiling of the hall is the highlight of the public area.

As the ride is still ‘new’ this year, be sure to get on at the start of the day, although technical difficulties can delay the opening by a few minutes. You won’t have to wait that long during the day and you can queue for Arthur straight away. As the single rider queue is not visible until you pass through the entrance portal to the ride, it can be worth at least stopping there and not being distracted by the regular queue.

The Ride

Once you have passed through the well-designed waiting area, you take your seat in the appropriately designed vehicle, which is transported on a conveyor belt. One turn and a simultaneous film sequence later, you find yourself in the realm of the Minimoys and at the same time confronted with a new addition to Europa Park, but more about that later.

Surprisingly fast, the track climbs up the hill before passing some dark ride scenes at the right speed. Shortly after, the first real roller coaster section follows, where you leave the hall for a moment. One turn later and you are back in the hall, where ‘Paradise Alley’ shows its best side – an admittedly very original set. A few metres of track later, you escape from a rat and find yourself under the roof of the hall, whereupon the next scene involves a boss fight. The Mack company are demonstrating all sorts of features on their car, and the button on the bar, which seemed pointless at first, is used. This is followed by the second rollercoaster section of the ride, where a short combination of downhill and uphill curves provides some speed, but the following uphill helix slows things down massively, and the ride comes to an end.

The farewell of the protagonists, known and unknown from the film, shows a certain consistency that is lacking in many other themed rides at Europa Park, and Arthur also lacks the typical overloaded scenes. So it’s no wonder that Arthur – the Ride, which I had previously, and not jokingly, described as French lobbying work, is a very convincing dark ride. The ride is well made and has a certain symbiosis of well-designed scenes and almost old-fashioned animatronics, while modern design and a certain, but fortunately subtle, interaction is not missing.

Conclusion Arthur

However, as a coaster, Arthur is only a prototype and there is still a lot to be improved, such as the general smoothness of the ride, which is not very satisfying, and the way the gondolas turn. Still, there is a lot of potential in this system, so we will probably see more units in the coming years.

More important than the attraction itself, however, is its location. The Fairytale Forest, which has been less visited, will benefit greatly.

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Click here for the overview page of Europa Park

Europa Park