What's new

Better Late than Netherlands

Peet

Giga Poster
I finally made it abroad and got my first international creds in 2 years, and I'm so chuffed I'm writing a trip report!

The Netherlands has been top of my list to visit since Untamed opened, and having never visited Toverland, it was impossible to resist. So I waved farewell to my (extremely understanding and supportive) wife and baby for a 4 day European dash with my trusty riding buddy.

The Netherlands requires proof of vaccination plus a certified lat flow test to enter, so we stopped off in the car park of Heathrow Terminal 4 to get tested (Expresstest, £35) then hit the road to Harwich to get the overnight Stena Line ferry to Hook of Holland.

The ferry was great, I love travelling while sleeping, and it's a pretty good price considering it saves on hotel and car hire costs (£314 return for car +2 passengers in basic cabins).

On arrival we got absolutely grilled by the Dutch passport control, felt thoroughly told off for... I'm not sure what. Got my first ever EU stamp in my passport and we were eventually allowed in.

From there it was a pleasant 2 hour drive to Walibi Holland where we got another grilling since we weren't able to show a QR code from the "Corona Check" app, which does not work if you've been vaccinated in the UK. Eventually they reluctantly accepted our NHS vaccination certificates and we were in. Despite all the faff it was still only about 45 mins after opening time, so not too bad.

So, straight to the Main Event:

20211026_113515.jpg

Yeah this thing didn't disappoint, what an amazing ride. The best moment is probably the 270 DICS, but I love how it just gets more and more frantic as the ride goes on. I'm a bit confused by the theming, the word "LOVE" everywhere, and the fly thing on the front of the train, but I'm sure it made sense to somebody.

I rode Robin Hood back in 2014 and needless to say there is absolutely no comparison.

Lost Gravity was also a new cred for me, it's a really fun ride, I'm surprised we haven't seen more like it being built.
20211026_152529.jpg
I got an absolutely cracking ride on the front left, and the fireball went off inches away from me. Great stuff.

Aside from that there's not a huge amount to say about this park's coasters:
- Goliath has changed colour since I last rode it. It is still really good but spends too long going round helixes, and not a patch on EGF of course.
- Platform 13 has an amazing queue line and station, a surprisingly decent launch for an old Vekoma LSM, but the ride itself is pretty dull and uncomfortable.
- Condor is not quite as bad as it was due to the new trains, but still needs scrapping.
- Speed of Sound - yuck.
- Drako, +1 as I didn't ride it last time. Yay.

The quality of Untamed really shows up just how bad the 3 Vekomas are in this park, which must now be obvious even to the average punter.

Got some great views from the big wheel:
20211026_151655.jpg

20211026_151725.jpg

The park closed at 6 so we didn't get any night rides but racked up 7 on Untamed, 4 on Lost Gravity and 4 on Goliath, so the painfully slow start to the day was a distant memory by the time we left.

On the way out we spotted this thing in a nearby field which was pretty interesting:
20211026_175912.jpg

Screenshot_20211108-175839_Gallery.jpg
It's a sculpture with steps up the middle which was weird but well worth a 5 minute stop off.

Next up, the unusual same-day combination of Slagharen and Toverland!
 
Last edited:

Peet

Giga Poster
Day 2 - Slagharen and Toverland. These parks are 2.5 hours drive apart so not a natural pair do do in 1 day but with Toverland being open till 11pm there was a 13-hour operating window so it was pretty doable on paper. We got to Slagharen before opening time, despite driving straight past the car park on the first attempt (it's on the other side of the road to the park and I was looking the wrong way!).

20211027_094441.jpg

We headed straight to Gold Rush and had a look at the nice old windmill while we waited for the rides to open which is a great little treasure, although I do wish you could go inside.

Screenshot_20211109-213813_Gallery.jpg

Before long we heard that humming and swooshing noise of an LSM swing launch and got in the queue. This is a really great little ride, the swing launch through the station is lots of fun, and the circuit delivers plenty of good moments in its short track.

Screenshot_20211109-214100_Gallery.jpg

I noticed it was running without the cow catcher on the front of the train for some reason, but it still looks great.

Screenshot_20211109-214437_Gallery.jpg

Cow catcher pic from rcdb:
Screenshot_20211109-214204_Chrome.jpg

Better hope they don't get any cows on the track now.

Next on to the park's other cred, imaginitevly called "Mine Train" (see earlier park entrance pic). Considering Mine Trains are usually quite well themed, and the rest of the park is immaculately themed, it was a real surprise to find this coaster completely bare of any theming outside of the station. All it needs is a couple of piles of coal and a rusty bit of scrap metal or something, but it's just barren. The cred was a standard Vekoma layout which is alright I guess.

I was also keen to get on Apollo, just because it's so odd looking and - let's be honest - ugly.

20211027_110431.jpg

This was built by Schwarzkopf in the 1970s and there used to be 2 of them side-by-side at Slagharen, as if one isn't enough:

Slagharen-Apollo-14-Zweefapollo.jpg
(Picture from https://www.pretparknostalgie.nl/apollo-ponypark-slagharen/amp/)

The other got sold and went to Dreamland Margate and finally Loudoun Castle where it seems to have been scrapped. It was quite good as far as chair swings go, no lifting or tipping motion but it's big, and you fly low, so you get a good sensation of speed as your toes clip the tops of the hedges as you go round. It really is a monstrosity though, especially as it's completely out of keeping with the park's Wild West theme.

Finally we had a go on the chairlift which gives good views of Gold Rush.

20211027_113132.jpg

By about 12:30 we were on our way. I paid €8 for parking only to find the barrier let us out automatically (presumably because we were leaving so early) so could have saved our cash!

It felt odd to be arriving at Toverland at 3pm, but that still gave us 8 hours of riding which is more than you usually get at Alton Towers and it proved to be just about enough.

20211027_144455.jpg

We hadn't even had lunch but couldn't wait any longer to get on Troy so we got 1 lap of that under our belts before pausing for food. Yeah this is everything I love about wooden coasters - it's wild, unpredictable, and relentless. It has floater, it has ejector, it probably even has flojector (who knows?).

Next up was Fenix, which is visually stunning, in fact the whole Avalon area is beautiful.

20211027_154753.jpg

20211027_170838.jpg

20211027_160459.jpg

The queue line for Fenix continues the theme, and even includes a spiral staircase. However, when you get on the ride and roll out of the station you enter a sort of featureless corrugated metal box, with no hint of theming until you have gone around the first 180 degree bend and encounter a phoenix (which is pretty good). This is really weird - did they forget this bit? Or run out of time/money? It's like a curtain has fallen down at the theatre and revealed a bit of the backstage area that you weren't supposed to see. The ride itself was good, not great; the stand-out moment is the airtime hill after the first drop, but aside from that it's not got much to offer and is over very quickly.

Dwervelwind wins the prize for hardest coaster to spell. It was really good, probably slightly better than the Sierra Sidewinder layout but there's not much in it.

Screenshot_20211109-215658_Gallery.jpg
I challenge you to name a prettier station than this:
20211027_172850.jpg

Next we did Maximus' Blitz Bahn. The queue line is full of funny details and interactive elements, so we barely noticed the slow throughput. The ride is absolutely great - quicker than I'd expected and lots of fun.

IMG-20211030-WA0072.jpg

The booster bike had an hour's queue thanks to its 1 train operation, and unlike every other ride in the park it had a boring cattle-grid queue. Overall this ride feels a cut below everything else around it. It was dark by the time we got on and they had tried their best by putting small fire effects in the centre of each helix, but it didn't really bring the ride to life.

20211027_184412.jpg

Almost forgot Toos Express, which was surprisingly fun and almost threw me out of the train on the final brakes.
20211027_193232.jpg

Then it was time to head back to Troy to experience it in the dark.
20211027_194415.jpg
Screenshot_20211109-220254_Gallery.jpg
20211027_220635.jpg
20211027_200612.jpg
This was simply amazing. The lights, the sounds, the actors, and the numerous fire effects lifted the already excellent ride to another level. The four laps we got on this in the dark are without doubt one of my all time best coaster experiences.

Oh, and we also did Fenix in the dark. It was pretty good.

One thing I have to mention is the amazing efficiency of the staff at Toverland, they were really committed to churning the people through. Combined with the fact that there doesn't seem to be any fast track system slowing the main queue down, it meant that despite it being super busy, the queues were never more than an hour, and always moved quickly. The whole park just feels lovingly designed, and properly run.

Next up, we cross the border and head to Rookburgh.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Loving the report so far. Never would have thought to do Slagharen and Toverland in the same day.. but with those operating hours, it definitely makes sense!

I'm a bit confused by the theming, the word "LOVE" everywhere, and the fly thing on the front of the train, but I'm sure it made sense to somebody.
I expect that whoever designed it, and whoever it does make sense to, were/are on some rather hard-core drugs..!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I think It's theme is supposed to give you music festival vibes... Going on some of the merch that was initially in the shop... And I love it, very Glastonbury!!!
 

Peet

Giga Poster
Day 3 - a little park near Cologne that some CF members may have heard of. I'd been to Phantasialand once before while Rookburgh was under construction (a pretty broad time band!) but it was rammed so I didn't get many rides. On this trip we'd stayed in budget hotels for the first 2 nights, but I couldn't resist booking the Hotel Charles Lindbergh for this one. We set off after a rather short night's sleep and crossed the border into Germany (there are no border checks). After a bit of parking confusion stemming from the fact that "Lindbergh" and "Ling Bao" sound very similar, we were allowed into the Berlin car park, and crossed the bridge to the hotel.

There was a man outside the main entrance to the Hotel to tell us that the floor had been painted so we had to use a side entrance, which took us directly into reception.

Wow. I'll gush about Rookburgh later, for now I'll just say that crappy little side entrance door off the pavement of an unremarkable looking road in Brühl was a portal to another World. We had to show proof of vaccination for the first time since Walibi Holland but no issues this time and the room was already ready for us (at 10am) which was a great bonus.

20211029_090400.jpg

It was quite an effort to drag ourselves away from the views of FLY from the hotel in order to actually go and ride the thing.

20211028_102107.jpg

It's impossible not to take great pictures in this place (all right the blue sky helps), just point your camera in any direction at any time and boom - beautiful photo. From the hotel you can go down some steps directly into Rookburgh which saves having to see the terrible main entrance to the park. We got straight into the queue for FLY and after a bit of a technical delay we were on.

20211028_144625.jpg

20211028_144356.jpg

This is a truly magnificent ride; definitely the best flying coaster I've done; very different to Tatsu, but better IMO. I love the feeling of the twist from sitting to flying, and there are lots of great near misses, swooshy bits, inversions and interactions. I think it will always be a little under-rated for 2 main reasons:
1) We waited sooo long for it - the construction thread ran to (checks construction thread) 4,326 messages over 5 years - starting before I even joined CF.
2) It's a low-profile, immersively themed, double launch coaster. There are not many of those around but this happens to only be the second best low-profile, immersively themed, double launch coaster in the park.

Part of me does feel that the flying position doesn't add much and it might have been better as an invert to save craning your neck all the time just to look forward, but I suppose the flying element does suit the theme perfectly.

So anyway, after that we proceeded to the best low-profile, immersively themed, double launch coaster in the park.

20211028_114636.jpg

I think everyone here has either ridden this or heard enough about it that you don't need me to tell you just what an amazing ride it is. The second launch has to be the most powerful rolling launch in the World (right?), and the close encounter with the waterfall immediately afterwards is brilliant.

Next onto Black Mamba, or Nemesis 2 as you might call it. It's a fantastic ride but having such a similar ride back home which is just slightly better, we were satisfied after just a couple of rides.

Quick summary of the other creds:
- Colorado Express - what a phenomenal mine train this is, the 3 parts are all distinct and quite different, and the dark section is brilliant.
- Raik - it's a bit short and doesn't do much, even by family boomerang standards, but it's impressive they fitted it in. Plus they were giving everyone 2 goes before letting you off.
- Crazy Bats - now the VR is gone it's just a roller coaster in the pitch black with no lights or special effects of any sort, which really didn't do much for me - is that what it was like when it was TOTNH? I only ever rode it with the VR before.
Winjas - both sides are brilliant fun. I'm still amazed that the track at the end moves down and up again while the car is rolling along it - that must be technically very difficult and complex to achieve without actually adding much to the ride experience!

We had some time for some other rides too including Chipas, Geister Rikscha, Maus au Chocolat, and River Quest, which got us so wet we went back to the hotel room to get changed (nice bonus of having a hotel room literally inside the park). After getting changed we tried to go to the hotel observation deck to get some action shots of FLY but apparently they had just painted the floor (heard that one before).

At the end of the day we had a really good 3-course meal at Uhrwerk (included in the hotel price) where the menu is small but good. Then we headed up to the newly dry floor of the observation deck for some night time shots of Rookburgh.

20211028_200822.jpg

Spotting some people down below, we realised that we were able to head down into Rookburgh and freely wander around the area, which was a great little unexpected bonus and gave us a bit more time to appreciate some of the wonderfully mad scenery.

20211028_204044.jpg

IMG-20211030-WA0087.jpg
Screenshot_20211111-222238_Gallery.jpg
20211028_205047.jpg

I promised I'd gush about Rookburgh, so here we go. This area is just unreal. It's completely immersive, the attention to detail is out of this world, and everywhere you look you'll spot new touches that make it by far the most comprehensively themed area I've ever visited. The walls mean you can't see out, which just makes it feel more real. Unbelievable.

In the morning we wanted to go back to the observation deck but apparently the floor had been painted (!?), but we could visit a lower deck for some daytime shots, although the ride hadn't started running yet.

20211029_084655.jpg

I adore how the ride and the hotel are completely entangled.

Screenshot_20211111-222329_Gallery.jpg
(Note the immaculately painted floor!).


We then reluctantly left the hotel and trudged back to our car to begin the homeward leg of our road trip, which would include a stop off at one last park.

As a footnote, it's interesting how Phantasialand have resisted doing anything for halloween, other parks' halloween events seem to be getting bigger and bigger. That didn't bother us, we were in it for the coasters!
 

Peet

Giga Poster
Day 4 - Bobbejaanland

It might have been slightly more logical to stop off at Efteling on the way home, but I visited a couple of years ago and 2 small Mack powered creds would not be enough to tempt me back. Instead we headed to Bobbejaanland which is a new park for both of us, and with its 8 creds, this was the best day of the trip in terms of adding to my count. We inadvertently crossed from Germany back into the Netherlands, then over into Belgium, but it seems the Schengen area is back to normal with no need to stop at the borders.

Screenshot_20211114-213332_Gallery.jpg
They charge for park maps so everyone was taking a picture of the one on the wall.

The park's Gerst Eurofighter named Typhoon is the first coaster you reach, but surprisingly it had an enormous queue so we skipped straight through to the park's headline act - the World's most Democratic roller coaster - which was pretty much a walk on.
Screenshot_20211114-213123_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20211114-213141_Gallery.jpg
For those who don't know, Fury has 2 turntables on the track and has a "voting" system where (theoretically) you press a button to vote for whether you go forwards or backwards. Sounds fun in theory but it does have some issues in reality. Like, what if you'd be willing to brave it forwards but the idea of going backwards terrifies you? Or what if you've ridden it forwards several times and really want to go backwards? Well their way of solving this appears to be splitting the queue into 2 at the station - turn left if you want to go forwards, and turn right if you want to do the voting thing. They alternate sides when loading. Sounds reasonable - except that everyone who wants to go forwards turns left, meaning that the "voting train" literally always goes backwards. So really the choosing happens in the station, not on the ride itself. Democracy - it seems - doesn't work!

Screenshot_20211114-213309_Gallery.jpg

We turned right and voted forwards just to test the theory, and sure enough we went backwards. This is a really good ride - the launches are very punchy, the spikes are really enjoyable, it's fast, intense and smooth. Quite short of course, but the staff were very efficient and one train was always already being dispatched before the other arrived back at the station. It's quite different forwards and backwards; I always prefer to ride forwards but it is really good that you can try both. The ride experience is a notch above Gold Rush (the other Gerst Infinity coaster of the trip), although the theming and general character of Gold Rush is better.

Having had our fill of Fury we set off around the park, which is all set around a lake. The next ride we reached was the Maurer Spinner Naga Bay, but it had a huge queue so we carried on to Speedy Bob which was only about 10 mins. This is more or less the same ride as Rattlesnake at Chessington, but with no theming at all it wasn't great. There used 2 of these side-by-side (mirrored) which must have been quite fun if the cars set off together. Parques Reunidos moved the other to Parque de Atracciones de Madrid where it spited me a few years ago.

Screenshot_20211114-213153_Gallery.jpg

Next we got to Dreamcatcher which is a rare Vekoma Swinging Turns (ie. a knock-off of Arrow's suspended coaster model). It's a decent size at 82 feet so should have been a decent ride. It wasn't. This coaster does nothing - the entire layout is just a long series of curves gently sloping downwards until it gets back down to the level of the station and hits the brakes. Without doubt the most boring 80ft+ coaster I've been on.

Screenshot_20211114-213221_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20211114-213211_Gallery.jpg
Continuing around the lake we rode Oki Doki (Vekoma family coaster), which was oki doki, and Bob Express (Mack powered coaster) which felt more like a transit system than a roller coaster. Then paused for lunch and to complete our Passenger Locator forms which was a pain since we'd visited 3 different countries which all had to be added.

Screenshot_20211114-213248_Gallery.jpg

Typhoon's huge queue had disappeared completely so we jumped on that. This is one of the worst coasters I've ridden - the loop is blackout inducing and the rest of the layout is rough, jerky, and not enjoyable in any way. I had looked at it and wondered why they never sold any more of this layout - it's compact and packs a lot in, so you might expect it to be very popular with smaller parks, but it wasn't. Now we know why. Scrap it please. It seems I didn't even take a picture of it so here's one from rcdb:
Screenshot_20211114-214415_Chrome.jpg

Back to Naga Bay which also had no queue now (not sure where everyone had gone...?). I really like Maurer spinners but this is one of the weaker ones I have done with not much spinning going on.

Screenshot_20211114-214615_Gallery.jpg

We still needed to track down the park's final cred, the enclosed coaster Revolution. They seem to have moved the entrance without changing any signage so it took a while to find but we got there in the end. The train for this coaster is ridiculously long - you can't see it all at once in the station as it goes around 2 corners. That means it's not really capable of any manoeuvres, so it spirals up the middle of the building (quite a wide spiral with a huge empty space in the middle) and then spirals back down the outside with some little drops and hills. It's actually not terrible, but very odd.

Screenshot_20211114-213302_Gallery.jpg

We rode Sledge Hammer which was pretty good (gyroswings are by far my favourite flat ride), and a final go on Fury, and headed out mid-afternoon.

I don't think we'll be revisiting Bobbejaanland for a very long time; 7 out of 8 creds are "once and done" rides, and maybe we'd been spoiled by visiting Toverland and Phantasialand immediately before, but this park really lacks that magic that makes you want to go back.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Just catching up on this - nothing much to say other thank thanks for writing it and sharing the pictures. Looks/sounds like you had a great time and I've enjoyed reading through it. :)
 

Peet

Giga Poster
One final post on this report - since we left Bobbejaanland fairly early we had time to slot in a token effort of Culture on the way back to the ferry port. Now back in the Netherlands, we stopped at the famous Kinderdijk in time to see the sun set over this amazing collection of 19 vintage windmills.

20211029_181510.jpg
20211029_181623.jpg
20211029_182347.jpg
20211029_182323.jpg
20211029_182652.jpg
There was a visitor centre and some windmills are open to visitors but we were too late in the day. It was still well worth the visit just to walk along the dijk, surprisingly some of the mills were even turning.

From there it was back to the ferry port at Hook of Holland, where I got hopelessly lost at this roundabou/junction (not quite sure how to decribe it):
Screenshot_20211116-181759_Maps.jpg

In the end it was an extremely successful trip:
Parks visited: 5 (3 of them new to me)
Coasters: 30
New creds for me: 19
Spites: Zero!

It's actually an amazing quality and quantity of coasters that can be reached in a fairly modest road trip; the longest leg was only 2.5 hours. Here's the map of our journey:
Screenshot_20211030-195019_Maps.jpg

Thank you for reading!
 
Top