davidm
Strata Poster
So those who pay any attention to my random waffling TRs might recall that around June last year I had a big trip around Germany.
Those with a particularly keen mind might recall that I had managed to turn up at Phantasialand before they went and opened that
stupid Taron coaster and that had vexed me a little.
So when it came to booking time off from work this year I booked a few random days in July with the tentative plan of a quick trip back
to have a look at stupid Taron and maybe get a bit of other goonery done too.
Well this is that then...
Wednesday 26th July - Movie Park
Goon o'clock alarm set, 7am flight from Manchester (was delayed a bit which was annoying), pick up hire car in Dusseldorf, find the GPS
on the phone will not lock in so guess at a general direction of travel by aiming for Oberhausen, spot some signs for Movie Park exits
off themotorway autobahn and find a car park.
Only as you can tell its a bloomin' overflow car park - this does not bode well does it. And so its a bit of a trek from there to the
park itself, but I get into Movie Park Germany around noon.
Have been here before, in 2006. Have been near here since then, but never felt the need to come back as I thought it was a bit rubbish
before.
However, they had only gone and built some interesting looking new Mack this season hadn't they, so seemed like the time to give it another
go.
Park was pretty busy (hence the overflow car park), but was open until 8pm so I figured I had enough time, in hindsight however I would
definitely have got a quickpass of some sort...
Obviously headed straight for the new Mack, Star Trek: Operation Enterprise (snappy name huh?) first thing.
And joined a burdenous Q.
Q moved pretty slowly unfortunately, so spend a good deal of time in the main cattle-pen Q room, done up with a few Star Trek prop
things and a big video-screen thing - was pretty well done to be fair.
Eventually you get to the first batching point, there was a crew member standing here normally all dressed up in Trekkie-gear and so
on (but had wandered off when I took this snap)
(note the "entrance to holodeck" stuff on the wall - subtly done as they don't ever mention it but you enter a "holodeck" here and
there is similar after the ride exit - so the whole ride is "really" on a holodeck rather than the "adventure" that they are pretending
you are taking part in. Nicely done anyway.)
Once let in there is a short video ("welcome to the star ship" type thing). And then they let you thru to a transporter room
where there is another video ("oh no something has gone wrong, you are our only hope" type thing)
Then they "transport" you up to the bridge of the Enterprise for pre-show part 3 ("blah blah Borg, blah blah energy shield" type thing)
then they ruin all that pre-show pretence by wandering over a little bridge thing (mixing with those exiting the ride) and into the
ride station.
At which point I realise why the Q has been so slow because they are only running one train - pathetic on such a busy day really (its
taken me 45 minutes to get thru the Q and preshows).
You enter the station at the back and the Q for front row isn't too many cycles so wait that out for my first go.
Ride is pretty interesting mechanically ; screen drops, train rolls forward (into a kinda shuttle-bay area), track then moves sideways
to line you up with the launch track. Lock and load and we are off ; forwards a bit backwards a lot, forwards a lot more and off
into a top hat, funny immelmann/roll/dive loop thingy then the building ride thru (and the building is made up like a Borg cube - great
stuff) and another roll before you hit the brakes and its all "well done, you've saved the Enterprise" or something like that.
Not the longest, nor the fastest, nor the highest, nor the most exciting thing, but actually really great fun. I liked it!
There were actually a few more +1s for me here today too - firstly the family suspended Vekoma Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer
which has been built since my previous visit. Was a bit different (smaller?) that the 'usual' family inverts and also had a horrible
Q for it (another 45 minutes or so, ugh)
Moving on to another long Q, Backyardigans: Mission to Mars, this was here as the Rocket Rider Rollercoaster when I had been
before, but for some reason I didn't ride it then. Anyway it has been renamed (and a load of rock themeing removed too) and I Q'd for
this for another far-too-long time.
Two laps though ; whoo.
Needed some lunch by then, so wandered around looking for something sustaining - ended up near the (as I remembered it) horrible
painful wooden coaster, but there was a sign outside saying "not working" so thought I'd be saved Q-ing for an hour just for PAIN.
(had interpreted that "technical overhaul" message as meaning it was out for the count to be honest)
Next door to the woody was their Walking Dead maze - looked OK from the outside but I wasn't planning to do it unless I had a lot of
spare time, and I didn't so I didn't. (Have done plenty of WD mazes at various HHNs so the novelty factor wasn't working for me)
So grabbed some food there. Just as I finished stuffing my face with a big slice of pizza, some locals nearby stood up and got all
agitated and rushed off. Odd I thought, then I noticed that they had rushed off towards the woody, which had now has that sign removed
and had opened!
Headed in then, and found myself on the first train with no Q at all - result. Picked a non-wheel seat out of fear of roughness
and was soon riding Bandit. And it was fine. Really quite enjoyed it. Maybe the last 1/4 was pretty rough but the majority of
it was just fine - lots of evidence of retracking on it too, so well done Movie Park for that.
Emboldened by my Bandit experience I thought "why not give the other horrible coaster a second chance" and headed into MP-Xpress.
Awesome themeing;
Back to the long Qs though - probably 30+ minutes again. 2 train ops though, but that just meant one train was sitting on the brake
run for a while really.
Anyway that was still horrible. What was I thinking. I know how to ride these so my ears don't get smashed by the awful restraints that
seem designed specifically to smash your ears, but still managed to exit with a reasonable headache. Ugh.
I recall not long after I was here before that they ripped out a coaster (in fact 2) and replaced it with a disk-o and a Santa Monica
themed area. Had a quick look at it, looked a bit rubbish really (mind you the coaster they removed wasn't great)
Bit of "Jaws" going on?
I still had a +1 to get, had earlier noticed the Q sign for this saying "90 minutes" so was putting it off but felt the time had come.
In the end it was nothing like 90 minutes, probably 30 - which was fine. Van Helsing's Factory is an indoor Gerstlauer bobsled
and lived in a building that formerly housed a Gremlins dark ride which I feel I must have ridden years before but can recall nothing
about - how odd.
Really quite like the themeing on this - all 1930s cars stocked up with gatling guns (to go off killing the vampires apparently) and
the coaster was fun too - not very big, but nicely done.
Obviously it being an indoor ride, theres not many good pics!
I had "done" all the coasters bar the mouse by then, was heading towards it when they were announcing the stunt show starting soon
as I passed the entrance, so diverted in there for a sit down for a while.
Was ok, not a patch on Disney/Mirabilandia's shows but still a lot of skill involved I reckon.
The Q for the mouse had died down a lot by now - had been into overflow Q-ing earlier, so had a spin on that with 15 mins wait - I
can live with that. Its called Ghost Chasers now, had been Mad Manor before. Do they think if they rename something then the GP
will think its a new ride perhaps?
Rode the rapids after that - they are actually pretty good, all themed to a mystery, in the past they used to be themed to Neverending
story but that was all ripped out before even my previous visit. The rapids themselves are hidden from the rest of the park which is
quite novel - and a fair amount of them take place indoors (well in a big shed anyway).
Next door to the rapids used to be a big Ice Age dark ride that I did remember - but this has vanished from the map - its all still
there it seems though, just shuttered. Entrance way pretending its just some random seating area;
Worryingly I seem to be more fascinated by disused theme park rides than running ones?
There was one more ride I fancied doing before I went off to get some coaster rerides, and that was the immersive tunnel thing
"Lost Temple". Not heard great things about this, but was curious to see if it was as bad as the one at Cinecitta that I had ridden
the previous month?
The preshow/Q-area was all pretty good though
There was some fake-lift then some underground caverns then you get on the ride vehicle (which actually moves forward into the
show area unlike in Italy) then some dino-video runs for a while. The film isn't great, the animation is a bit rubbish but the whole
thing is a LOT better than the Italian one - not a patch on the Kong ride at Universal though which is pretty similar technology
and story. Wasn't rubbish, wasn't great.
They did have a pet dino at the exit.
Right then, 18:30 by now, only 90 operating minutes left in the day - needed to reride Star Trek as much as possible then. Q was
still filling the main Q room so I wasn't too hopeful I'd get more than 1 ride in before they shut the Q (they have an annoying habit
of shutting Qs early in Germany it seems). Luckily they had switched to 2 train ops at some point in the afternoon though so the Q
ran a lot quicker (twice as quick in fact - d'oh) and despite a minor breakdown (stuck in the transporter room for far too long, god
knows what that was doing to my DNA) and having to endure the by now burdenous preshows again and again, managed a couple more rides.
Didn't get the very back but rode near the back - the reverse spike much better there than the front. Good fun ride though overall.
Tried to get another ride on Van Helsing too, but they had shot that Q at 1930. Bastards.
MUCH better day than my previous visit here (when I borderline hated the place I think) but still a bit of a burdenous day. Enjoyed
bits of it but having to Q hugely for crappy coasters was not fun at all - as I said earlier, in hindsight should have fast passed it
in some manner (not many peeps seemed to be using the fast pass either).
Was staying in Oberhausen that night (same place I stayed at 11 years earlier - hows that for a lack of imagination?) but I knew I
could get some decent food options nearby (was next to the big Centro shopping center).
Opted for a "brewhaus", where they brewed on site and served traditional German food.
Place was empty, still took far too long to get served though - not German efficiency I feel.
Got there in the end though ; this was a "Mulvany's" Dunkel (dark) beer - was quite nice, like a dark tasty lager really.
And the traditional scran
Bit knackered by now - long day and reasonably early start the next morning too...
Those with a particularly keen mind might recall that I had managed to turn up at Phantasialand before they went and opened that
stupid Taron coaster and that had vexed me a little.
So when it came to booking time off from work this year I booked a few random days in July with the tentative plan of a quick trip back
to have a look at stupid Taron and maybe get a bit of other goonery done too.
Well this is that then...
Wednesday 26th July - Movie Park
Goon o'clock alarm set, 7am flight from Manchester (was delayed a bit which was annoying), pick up hire car in Dusseldorf, find the GPS
on the phone will not lock in so guess at a general direction of travel by aiming for Oberhausen, spot some signs for Movie Park exits
off the
Only as you can tell its a bloomin' overflow car park - this does not bode well does it. And so its a bit of a trek from there to the
park itself, but I get into Movie Park Germany around noon.
Have been here before, in 2006. Have been near here since then, but never felt the need to come back as I thought it was a bit rubbish
before.
However, they had only gone and built some interesting looking new Mack this season hadn't they, so seemed like the time to give it another
go.
Park was pretty busy (hence the overflow car park), but was open until 8pm so I figured I had enough time, in hindsight however I would
definitely have got a quickpass of some sort...
Obviously headed straight for the new Mack, Star Trek: Operation Enterprise (snappy name huh?) first thing.
And joined a burdenous Q.
Q moved pretty slowly unfortunately, so spend a good deal of time in the main cattle-pen Q room, done up with a few Star Trek prop
things and a big video-screen thing - was pretty well done to be fair.
Eventually you get to the first batching point, there was a crew member standing here normally all dressed up in Trekkie-gear and so
on (but had wandered off when I took this snap)
(note the "entrance to holodeck" stuff on the wall - subtly done as they don't ever mention it but you enter a "holodeck" here and
there is similar after the ride exit - so the whole ride is "really" on a holodeck rather than the "adventure" that they are pretending
you are taking part in. Nicely done anyway.)
Once let in there is a short video ("welcome to the star ship" type thing). And then they let you thru to a transporter room
where there is another video ("oh no something has gone wrong, you are our only hope" type thing)
Then they "transport" you up to the bridge of the Enterprise for pre-show part 3 ("blah blah Borg, blah blah energy shield" type thing)
then they ruin all that pre-show pretence by wandering over a little bridge thing (mixing with those exiting the ride) and into the
ride station.
At which point I realise why the Q has been so slow because they are only running one train - pathetic on such a busy day really (its
taken me 45 minutes to get thru the Q and preshows).
You enter the station at the back and the Q for front row isn't too many cycles so wait that out for my first go.
Ride is pretty interesting mechanically ; screen drops, train rolls forward (into a kinda shuttle-bay area), track then moves sideways
to line you up with the launch track. Lock and load and we are off ; forwards a bit backwards a lot, forwards a lot more and off
into a top hat, funny immelmann/roll/dive loop thingy then the building ride thru (and the building is made up like a Borg cube - great
stuff) and another roll before you hit the brakes and its all "well done, you've saved the Enterprise" or something like that.
Not the longest, nor the fastest, nor the highest, nor the most exciting thing, but actually really great fun. I liked it!
There were actually a few more +1s for me here today too - firstly the family suspended Vekoma Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer
which has been built since my previous visit. Was a bit different (smaller?) that the 'usual' family inverts and also had a horrible
Q for it (another 45 minutes or so, ugh)
Moving on to another long Q, Backyardigans: Mission to Mars, this was here as the Rocket Rider Rollercoaster when I had been
before, but for some reason I didn't ride it then. Anyway it has been renamed (and a load of rock themeing removed too) and I Q'd for
this for another far-too-long time.
Two laps though ; whoo.
Needed some lunch by then, so wandered around looking for something sustaining - ended up near the (as I remembered it) horrible
painful wooden coaster, but there was a sign outside saying "not working" so thought I'd be saved Q-ing for an hour just for PAIN.
(had interpreted that "technical overhaul" message as meaning it was out for the count to be honest)
Next door to the woody was their Walking Dead maze - looked OK from the outside but I wasn't planning to do it unless I had a lot of
spare time, and I didn't so I didn't. (Have done plenty of WD mazes at various HHNs so the novelty factor wasn't working for me)
So grabbed some food there. Just as I finished stuffing my face with a big slice of pizza, some locals nearby stood up and got all
agitated and rushed off. Odd I thought, then I noticed that they had rushed off towards the woody, which had now has that sign removed
and had opened!
Headed in then, and found myself on the first train with no Q at all - result. Picked a non-wheel seat out of fear of roughness
and was soon riding Bandit. And it was fine. Really quite enjoyed it. Maybe the last 1/4 was pretty rough but the majority of
it was just fine - lots of evidence of retracking on it too, so well done Movie Park for that.
Emboldened by my Bandit experience I thought "why not give the other horrible coaster a second chance" and headed into MP-Xpress.
Awesome themeing;
Back to the long Qs though - probably 30+ minutes again. 2 train ops though, but that just meant one train was sitting on the brake
run for a while really.
Anyway that was still horrible. What was I thinking. I know how to ride these so my ears don't get smashed by the awful restraints that
seem designed specifically to smash your ears, but still managed to exit with a reasonable headache. Ugh.
I recall not long after I was here before that they ripped out a coaster (in fact 2) and replaced it with a disk-o and a Santa Monica
themed area. Had a quick look at it, looked a bit rubbish really (mind you the coaster they removed wasn't great)
Bit of "Jaws" going on?
I still had a +1 to get, had earlier noticed the Q sign for this saying "90 minutes" so was putting it off but felt the time had come.
In the end it was nothing like 90 minutes, probably 30 - which was fine. Van Helsing's Factory is an indoor Gerstlauer bobsled
and lived in a building that formerly housed a Gremlins dark ride which I feel I must have ridden years before but can recall nothing
about - how odd.
Really quite like the themeing on this - all 1930s cars stocked up with gatling guns (to go off killing the vampires apparently) and
the coaster was fun too - not very big, but nicely done.
Obviously it being an indoor ride, theres not many good pics!
I had "done" all the coasters bar the mouse by then, was heading towards it when they were announcing the stunt show starting soon
as I passed the entrance, so diverted in there for a sit down for a while.
Was ok, not a patch on Disney/Mirabilandia's shows but still a lot of skill involved I reckon.
The Q for the mouse had died down a lot by now - had been into overflow Q-ing earlier, so had a spin on that with 15 mins wait - I
can live with that. Its called Ghost Chasers now, had been Mad Manor before. Do they think if they rename something then the GP
will think its a new ride perhaps?
Rode the rapids after that - they are actually pretty good, all themed to a mystery, in the past they used to be themed to Neverending
story but that was all ripped out before even my previous visit. The rapids themselves are hidden from the rest of the park which is
quite novel - and a fair amount of them take place indoors (well in a big shed anyway).
Next door to the rapids used to be a big Ice Age dark ride that I did remember - but this has vanished from the map - its all still
there it seems though, just shuttered. Entrance way pretending its just some random seating area;
Worryingly I seem to be more fascinated by disused theme park rides than running ones?
There was one more ride I fancied doing before I went off to get some coaster rerides, and that was the immersive tunnel thing
"Lost Temple". Not heard great things about this, but was curious to see if it was as bad as the one at Cinecitta that I had ridden
the previous month?
The preshow/Q-area was all pretty good though
There was some fake-lift then some underground caverns then you get on the ride vehicle (which actually moves forward into the
show area unlike in Italy) then some dino-video runs for a while. The film isn't great, the animation is a bit rubbish but the whole
thing is a LOT better than the Italian one - not a patch on the Kong ride at Universal though which is pretty similar technology
and story. Wasn't rubbish, wasn't great.
They did have a pet dino at the exit.
Right then, 18:30 by now, only 90 operating minutes left in the day - needed to reride Star Trek as much as possible then. Q was
still filling the main Q room so I wasn't too hopeful I'd get more than 1 ride in before they shut the Q (they have an annoying habit
of shutting Qs early in Germany it seems). Luckily they had switched to 2 train ops at some point in the afternoon though so the Q
ran a lot quicker (twice as quick in fact - d'oh) and despite a minor breakdown (stuck in the transporter room for far too long, god
knows what that was doing to my DNA) and having to endure the by now burdenous preshows again and again, managed a couple more rides.
Didn't get the very back but rode near the back - the reverse spike much better there than the front. Good fun ride though overall.
Tried to get another ride on Van Helsing too, but they had shot that Q at 1930. Bastards.
MUCH better day than my previous visit here (when I borderline hated the place I think) but still a bit of a burdenous day. Enjoyed
bits of it but having to Q hugely for crappy coasters was not fun at all - as I said earlier, in hindsight should have fast passed it
in some manner (not many peeps seemed to be using the fast pass either).
Was staying in Oberhausen that night (same place I stayed at 11 years earlier - hows that for a lack of imagination?) but I knew I
could get some decent food options nearby (was next to the big Centro shopping center).
Opted for a "brewhaus", where they brewed on site and served traditional German food.
Place was empty, still took far too long to get served though - not German efficiency I feel.
Got there in the end though ; this was a "Mulvany's" Dunkel (dark) beer - was quite nice, like a dark tasty lager really.
And the traditional scran
Bit knackered by now - long day and reasonably early start the next morning too...
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So that was going to be Taron, so I needed to ride Raik first. Goon.
