Howie
Donkey in a hat
It all started with a cheap flight to Eindhoven. 18 quid it was. Boom, I'll have me one o' them, I thought.
Originally, before you-know-what happened, the plan would have been to shimmy on down to Phantasialand to check out that new flying contraption. I forget what it's called, but you know the one I mean. The one with the walls.
But without a new cred, is Phantasialand even worth revisiting?
Nah. Sh*thole.
Besides, flight didn't land til 4pm so getting any creds in on the first day was gonna be a challenge anyway.
But wait, what's this? Toverland open til 9pm? With a cheap, evening-only ticket option? That'll do nicely then. ?
Been to Toverland twice in the past couple of years so didn't need any of creds, just a nice relaxed, summer evening whoring Fenix and Troy, few beers, sumat to eat, soak up the atmosphere and generally just enjoy that feeling of being in a theme park again.
It was lovely!
We whored Fenix:
Still looks gorgeous. Still rides good too, short but oh so very sweet.
And we whored Troy:
^photo by daviddoc.
Still an amazing ride, such relentless pace and energy. Is it getting rougher, though? Well, maybe 'rough' is the wrong word, more 'aggresive', shall we say? I've got a feeling it might be.
And that was all we did. Fenix, Troy, food and beer. Nice way to kick things off.
Covid measures, then.
Quite chilled, the Dutch, it would seem. Few people wearing masks, but not many and no enforcement. Distancing I'd say was 'casually' observed. Sanitizer stations at ride entry points. Empty row between groups on Troy, seemingly full trains on everything else. All very relaxed n'all, very nice to be able to forget about the C word for a few hours, but I can't help thinking it was perhaps a little too relaxed.
We stayed the night at a faceless, corporate hotel in Maastricht with nothing of interest nearby, so a few more beers from an all night garage finished off day 1.
Oh yes, when I say 'we', I mean me and @daviddoc . Hence the title.
@Coaster Hipster would join us at a later point in the trip.
So where next then? Walygator, that's where, a couple of hours directly south in Northern France, sliding through Belgium along the way. We absolutely, positively did not set foot in Luxembourg.
Walygator then. Not the most highly rated gaff among goons, but a new park for both of us, massive B&M invert, decent sized wooden coaster, maybe a few other bits and bobs too. Gotta be worth half a day, surely?
It was alright.
Massive queue at the bag check and entry points implied it was gonna be quite busy, but once inside the crowds dispersed fairly rapidly.
Everybody wore a mask. And staff were enforcing it. ?
Straight to Monster, then, obvs. It's a Raptor clone don't you know. The Cedar Point one. Amazing to think that an (almost) clone of a Cedar Point ride exists just a short hop across the Channel. Yukky paint job, and not quite the sense of occasion that Raptor has, but still a damn solid coaster. Plus, it doesn't have a mid course brake run. Well, it has that flat bit where the brake run should be, but there ain't no brakes there and the train just flies through at full speed making the second half really rather snappy, especially the helix of death towards the end. Lovely, feet tingling stuff.
It was a station wait, 1 or 2 trains, no biggie, so we had a couple of laps.
We minced over to the woodie next. Anaconda it's called. Decent enough piece of theming at the entrance:
30 min wait tho, boo!
It was alright, mostly inoffensive, no real forces or airtime to speak of but a pleasant enough meander through the woods. Not many places to get a picture of the ride though, just this view of the turnaround from Monster's queueline:
They've got a wacky worm, didn't ride it.
They've got a few other bits and bobs, nothing particularly unique or exciting. A Zamperla Air Race, for example...
...that wasn't running.
Dinosaurs and fountains, gotta have 'em:
They've got a flume:
They've got an old 3 loop Vekoma. It was alright. Mostly inoffensive, bit short, but alright.
Gotta get that perfect shot:
Aaaand that's about it. Didn't do much else. We ate some churros, had a beer, had another go on Monster and hit the road again. That's about all Walygator requires really. It's not really a destination, it's a half day park, a stop-off on the way to somewhere else, a cheeky lil +3 if you happen to be in the area (+4 if you're filthy enough to ride the wacky worm which, let's face it, is most of you). Not exactly bad, just... not good. Reminded me a little bit of Movie Park Germany sooo, take that as you will.
Onwards then, to a much more interesting park, Fraispertuis City.
First of all, it's not pronounced 'Frass-per-tee-us' City, as we've all been doing for years. It's French, you gotta make it sound sexy and continental - it's pronounced 'Fre-par-twee'.
There, don't ever say my trip reports aren't educational.
I'll be honest, it's not a park that had cropped up on my radar at all, this was all Dr Dave's idea, mainly because it lay about half way between Walygator and Europa Park.
Oh my god, I'm so glad he suggested it. What a delightful little place! Nice one, Doc!
It's one of those small, family owned, family friendly places that the owners clearly love and care about. Even the locals are proud of it, no Ropers here.
Lots of thought has gone into everything, lots of humour and attention to detail, a surprisingly large selection of well themed rides and everything geared towards guest experience rather than profit, profit, profit.
All in a stunningly beautiful location too, a wooded valley in the middle of French vineyard country.
Yeah man, we liked this park very much.
But all the roads that lead you there are winding:
Where the hell is this place, Doc?
But we got there in the end. Is that a 2nd gen Intamin drop tower I see before me? It sure is ? :
Cred wise, they've got an S&S El Loco, called Timber Drop. Might even have been the very first S&S El Loco, and it held the record for the world's steepest rollercoaster when it opened.... for about a week.
It was alright. Rides just like the other El Locos, but it's very nicely themed:
They've also got a Soquet mine train coaster. I think this is my first Soquet cred. Not bad, again very nicely themed:
And they've got a kiddy cred too, which we didn't ride:
They've got some other stuff too... but I've used up my 30-picture limit for this post, so I'll be back in a bit with some more photos of the awesomeness that is 'Fre-par-twee City'.
Stay tuned...
Originally, before you-know-what happened, the plan would have been to shimmy on down to Phantasialand to check out that new flying contraption. I forget what it's called, but you know the one I mean. The one with the walls.
But without a new cred, is Phantasialand even worth revisiting?
Nah. Sh*thole.
Besides, flight didn't land til 4pm so getting any creds in on the first day was gonna be a challenge anyway.
But wait, what's this? Toverland open til 9pm? With a cheap, evening-only ticket option? That'll do nicely then. ?
Been to Toverland twice in the past couple of years so didn't need any of creds, just a nice relaxed, summer evening whoring Fenix and Troy, few beers, sumat to eat, soak up the atmosphere and generally just enjoy that feeling of being in a theme park again.
It was lovely!
We whored Fenix:
Still looks gorgeous. Still rides good too, short but oh so very sweet.
And we whored Troy:
^photo by daviddoc.
Still an amazing ride, such relentless pace and energy. Is it getting rougher, though? Well, maybe 'rough' is the wrong word, more 'aggresive', shall we say? I've got a feeling it might be.
And that was all we did. Fenix, Troy, food and beer. Nice way to kick things off.
Covid measures, then.
Quite chilled, the Dutch, it would seem. Few people wearing masks, but not many and no enforcement. Distancing I'd say was 'casually' observed. Sanitizer stations at ride entry points. Empty row between groups on Troy, seemingly full trains on everything else. All very relaxed n'all, very nice to be able to forget about the C word for a few hours, but I can't help thinking it was perhaps a little too relaxed.
We stayed the night at a faceless, corporate hotel in Maastricht with nothing of interest nearby, so a few more beers from an all night garage finished off day 1.
Oh yes, when I say 'we', I mean me and @daviddoc . Hence the title.
@Coaster Hipster would join us at a later point in the trip.
So where next then? Walygator, that's where, a couple of hours directly south in Northern France, sliding through Belgium along the way. We absolutely, positively did not set foot in Luxembourg.
Walygator then. Not the most highly rated gaff among goons, but a new park for both of us, massive B&M invert, decent sized wooden coaster, maybe a few other bits and bobs too. Gotta be worth half a day, surely?
It was alright.
Massive queue at the bag check and entry points implied it was gonna be quite busy, but once inside the crowds dispersed fairly rapidly.
Everybody wore a mask. And staff were enforcing it. ?
Straight to Monster, then, obvs. It's a Raptor clone don't you know. The Cedar Point one. Amazing to think that an (almost) clone of a Cedar Point ride exists just a short hop across the Channel. Yukky paint job, and not quite the sense of occasion that Raptor has, but still a damn solid coaster. Plus, it doesn't have a mid course brake run. Well, it has that flat bit where the brake run should be, but there ain't no brakes there and the train just flies through at full speed making the second half really rather snappy, especially the helix of death towards the end. Lovely, feet tingling stuff.
It was a station wait, 1 or 2 trains, no biggie, so we had a couple of laps.
We minced over to the woodie next. Anaconda it's called. Decent enough piece of theming at the entrance:
30 min wait tho, boo!
It was alright, mostly inoffensive, no real forces or airtime to speak of but a pleasant enough meander through the woods. Not many places to get a picture of the ride though, just this view of the turnaround from Monster's queueline:
They've got a wacky worm, didn't ride it.
They've got a few other bits and bobs, nothing particularly unique or exciting. A Zamperla Air Race, for example...
...that wasn't running.
Dinosaurs and fountains, gotta have 'em:
They've got a flume:
They've got an old 3 loop Vekoma. It was alright. Mostly inoffensive, bit short, but alright.
Gotta get that perfect shot:
Aaaand that's about it. Didn't do much else. We ate some churros, had a beer, had another go on Monster and hit the road again. That's about all Walygator requires really. It's not really a destination, it's a half day park, a stop-off on the way to somewhere else, a cheeky lil +3 if you happen to be in the area (+4 if you're filthy enough to ride the wacky worm which, let's face it, is most of you). Not exactly bad, just... not good. Reminded me a little bit of Movie Park Germany sooo, take that as you will.
Onwards then, to a much more interesting park, Fraispertuis City.
First of all, it's not pronounced 'Frass-per-tee-us' City, as we've all been doing for years. It's French, you gotta make it sound sexy and continental - it's pronounced 'Fre-par-twee'.
There, don't ever say my trip reports aren't educational.
I'll be honest, it's not a park that had cropped up on my radar at all, this was all Dr Dave's idea, mainly because it lay about half way between Walygator and Europa Park.
Oh my god, I'm so glad he suggested it. What a delightful little place! Nice one, Doc!
It's one of those small, family owned, family friendly places that the owners clearly love and care about. Even the locals are proud of it, no Ropers here.
Lots of thought has gone into everything, lots of humour and attention to detail, a surprisingly large selection of well themed rides and everything geared towards guest experience rather than profit, profit, profit.
All in a stunningly beautiful location too, a wooded valley in the middle of French vineyard country.
Yeah man, we liked this park very much.
But all the roads that lead you there are winding:
Where the hell is this place, Doc?
But we got there in the end. Is that a 2nd gen Intamin drop tower I see before me? It sure is ? :
Cred wise, they've got an S&S El Loco, called Timber Drop. Might even have been the very first S&S El Loco, and it held the record for the world's steepest rollercoaster when it opened.... for about a week.
It was alright. Rides just like the other El Locos, but it's very nicely themed:
They've also got a Soquet mine train coaster. I think this is my first Soquet cred. Not bad, again very nicely themed:
And they've got a kiddy cred too, which we didn't ride:
They've got some other stuff too... but I've used up my 30-picture limit for this post, so I'll be back in a bit with some more photos of the awesomeness that is 'Fre-par-twee City'.
Stay tuned...
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