Re: Germany & Belgium: Part 6 (Klotten)
Part 6.2: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
A park that I was anticipating quite a bit; Tripsdrill always looked like a park made for me. It's in a forest, full of nature, flowers and colour. There are many little secrets, quirky rides and animatronics scattered throughout the park. It has awesomely themed rides with some interacting, and it has a Gerstlauer launched coaster. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this park.
First we arrived at the wrong parking lot, which was actually for staff members. It did look really unusual for a park entrance, with a big mess of stuff laying around. Carrousel spare parts, etc. After we were directed to the actual parking lot, we finally arrived at the park early in the morning. The entrance looks really cute, but I immediately noticed the lack of music. I'm so used to beautiful magical music when you enter a park, even in places like Bobbejaanland. Missed chance. The weather was just absolutely perfect from start to finish. Both in the sun and shade it was just lovely and the right temp for a theme park day.
Much like Phantasialand, I fell in love with the park as soon as I got in. You enter a little traditional German 'main street' village. It was just so beautiful and full of atmosphere. We entered one of the buildings which led to a massive indoor kiddie play area with a Moser drop tower. Then we left again and tried one of the other buildings in the street, which turned out to be the tat shop. It had animatronic shopkeepers as well as an actual human one <3
At the end of the street was the first ride we rode. It's basically some kind of chairswing with seats themed to washing baskets and had a lever which you can change your altitude with. It provided lovely views of the main street and some other parts of the park. It was both fab and boring.
Moving on, we came across more animatronics. One was in a small toilet cabin, and sometimes came out to say something in German and spit on guests passing by. Children seemed to love it. There was also one in a phone booth making a call. I just love the idea of how the park is a little village/garden with animatronics leading their normal daily life. It's the best.
We then made our way to the weird ass drop tower. I'd heard it would do some sort of gimmick, but wasn't familiar with it. Sadly I was just spited of walking straight on, so I got the secret spoiled for me. The tower itself was just weird and a bit terrifying. You really bounce around in your seat, and the final drop was the only one with at least some force to it. I do love the theme of it a lot.
Right next to it was the park's splash battle. It probably had the longest queue of the day, about 15 minutes. There were just enough people in the park to give a nice atmosphere, but nearly all of the rides were a walk on. Perfect circumstances for a day in a park. I loved the theme of the boats. One person had to steer and the other three could shoot water with a wine bottle, tea cup and a watering can. As a splash battle it sucked, but the theming made it fab.
The funhouse was close, so we went in there next. The name translates to Old Man's Mill, and it was interesting to say the least. It starts off indoor, but then later on continues outdoors, which was really cool. It had the usual stuff; spinning tunnel, rollers, moving bridges, mirrors, etc. Loved it. I also loved the little stream that was flowing through half of the park.
We went to explore more of the park. Many little houses, walkthrough areas with animatronics and adorable kiddie rides. We walked past the kiddie flume towards one of the many car rides in the park. Before we arrived there we saw an egg hatching and a little baby chicken coming out! There was also a couple of other baby chickens that were just cuddling in a small bowl. It was so cute. The car ride was nothing special though. Steering had literally no effect whatsoever. I did like the surroundings though.
Now it was time for creds! There was still much more to explore, but I did want to get the coasters over with first. Getting to the cred part was a bit confusing though. There is only one path at the very side of the park that led to them. We came across tons of animatronics on the way. While the first half is amazingly landscaped with many flowers and trees everywhere, the back third of the park is a lot more open. I heard some awful things about that, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Really just the part with Karacho and Mammut looks really bland, the rest is still gorgeous and just a nice change of surroundings. My mom sat out on pretty much all of the big rides there.
Karacho was up first. For some reason I never found it that great looking. I mean, it does look fun, but I found it to be the weakest looking Gerst launch coaster. The test seat is amazing! Sadly the rest of the area was a bit blegh. Not the most inviting welcome to a coaster. The queue had some theming but it was nothing special. I went for front row on my first ride, which had a very short queue. The trains look awesome and are quite comfy, even though I got slightly stapled. Off we went.
Me with the white shirt in the front row putting my hands up 
It starts off with an indoor drop into a heartline roll. That roll provided quite a lot of hangtime, but while I'm usually not a fan of hangtime, this was the good kind of hangtime. It's the same kind of hangtime that you get on Mack mega coasters. What an awesome way to kick off the ride. Then a little dip into a good forceful launch followed. It's not quite as sudden and powerful as Anubis' launch, but still loads of fun. The top hat gives some really good floater airtime, and the inversion feels very similar to the corkscrews on Helix and Blue Fire with some nice hangtime. Between the elements there was plenty of positive Gs. Then there was a fun stengel dive-ish turn and the MCBR. This is probably the weakest part of the ride. The MCBR, a hill with only a bit of floater and a relatively slow turn. BUT THEN. The dive into the tunnel was just amazing. You really get thrown out of your seat with such force on the sides of the train, and then drop down right away. It was incredible. Then another awesome twist to finish off the ride.
It was an instant top 10 ride for me. It's not glass smooth, especially the turn into the MCBR has a bit of a rattle, but it's still very comfortable and the restraints provide a lot of freedom. The inversions, launch and top hat are all awesome. Such a good coaster. When I got off I immediately ran back into the queue and re-rode twice. It's not perfect, but just a brilliantly fun coaster to ride
9/10.
On the opposite side, just separated by a vile gravel path, was
Mammut. Mammut was quite the opposite of Karacho. It had fab theming, dispatch music, a really awesome pre-lift-show and lifthill music. The entire section from the dispatch until the drop was sadly the best part of the ride. I've rarely ridden such a dull forceless crap coaster. It literally does nothing, feels even less like a woodie than Balder and still had an annoying judder at some places that made riding it uncomfortable. I'm all for family coasters, but this one was just awful.
4/10.
Getting back to the beautiful parts of Tripsdrill, the next stop was an amazing looking castle building which had both the flume and the park's Gerstlauer Bobsled,
G'Sengte Sau. I just adored the drawbridge entrance with the flume going underneath it acting like a ditch. Like literally every queue, this one had great theming too. Still not sure what the ride is themed to, but I thought the theming of the entire thing was amazing. The ride was just lovely as well. It interacted with the flume at multiple places, had a helix through the castle and it was just a fantastic family coaster with a great atmosphere.
7,5/10.
From the Gerstlauer Bobsleds I've ridden, I remember liking Vilda Musen the most for its unique layout, location and interaction. I will have to see how it holds up when I re-ride it next month. It's closely followed by this one, then Van Helsing and lastly Heiße Fahrt, but I really enjoyed them all!
Obviously the flume,
Jungbrunnen was next. The queue was basically a museum! It was so good. The flume itself is one of the best log flumes I've ridden. The bathtub boat is original and looks awesome, the indoor bath part with naked ladies was so weird it was fab, and the rest of the ride was just so well themed. Even the big drop was excellent with just the right amount of wetness. I'd rank it on par with Liseberg's flume ride only below Chiapas.
7,5/10.
We then ate some of the sandwiches we brought, and then my mom went to the toilet so I just quickly got another go on the log flume. After that we (my mom joined me on this one) did the rapids. Once again, quirky and detailed queue-line theming; the ride was themed to washing clothes. The rapids itself was decent. It didn't get me that wet, but it was a good laugh.
Then we went back to the forest-y part of Tripsdrill with many small rides to be ridden. We first did the kiddie coaster, a standard Zierer Tivoli (large). I've ridden quite a few now, but this one was easily the best. It seemed smoother than the others, and the landscaping was just beautiful, hidden away within the trees, and with a fountain helix at the end <3 Such a good kiddie coaster.
We came across a ride with circular cars that seemed to be spinning surrounded by tons of flowers, so we gave it a try. It started off gentle, so my mom wanted to take some photos, but then the car suddenly started spinning like crazy! It was so weird. It spun so much that I even started to feel a little sick towards the end, which rarely happens. It was good fun though, and so unexpected.
Next, we did the mushroom chairswing, tea cups, some spinning roundabout themed after baking cupcakes, another spinning ride and more. They were obviously nothing amazing, but all of them were just silly fun with really original theming, with beautiful surroundings. Time just passed so quickly in the park; it was amazing.
I wanted to get some more rides on Karacho now though, so we went back to that area. I rode Karacho nine times in the end because it was a complete walk-on <3 I re-rode Mammut towards the back now (first ride was in the front), but it was just as boring as before. We also had a couple more goes on the rapids, and I could just stay on G'Sengte Sau a couple of times without getting off. It was such a perfect day.
Then that part of the park was closed off, so we went back and did some other small things we missed. One of them being an indoor cellar full of animatronics that all came to life when you inserted €1 somewhere. It also had an animatronic band playing music, which was fab. We did one of the monorail thingies, and got some currywurst. It was time to leave then, unfortunately. Definitely one of my favourite theme park days with the perfect mix of an amazing park and flawless circumstances.
Tripsdrill is wonderful. It's definitely one of the most gorgeous parks I've visited with a couple of excellent rides, and tons of quirky family stuff and outstanding theming. The only downsides are the vileness of the exit area of Karacho/area in front of Mammut, lack of music (Mammut excluded) and maybe the low quantity of big rides. Aside from that, it's just a brilliant park that I can't wait to revisit at some point. I recommend it to anyone.
Park score:
9/10
Thanks for reading!
