ThomVD
Giga Poster
I'm doing many small trips to nearby parks in the near future, so I decided to just make a topic for all of them. These are the parks I'm planning to do soon/have already done:
-Movie Park Germany
-Bellewaerde
-Plopsaland De Panne
-Bobbejaanland
-Walibi Belgium
-Tripsdrill
-Rheinkirmes
Not sure which order these will be in, but I'll start with the park I visited yesterday.
Part 1: Movie Park Germany
I've been wanting to do this park for a while but never got around to actually going. I suggested to my sister that we should go to Germany so that she can go shopping with her friend, and my best friend and I could visit Movie Park. She loved the idea so we set the date to 10th of April. After a 1,5 hour drive we arrived at the park. The weather forecast said it would be amazing weather all day, but I did not expect so many crowds. It's a school day right? Wrong. It was actually spring break in Germany, which in combination with the weather led to immense crowds.
The day started awful. It was 10:00 when we arrived so the park had already opened. We both had free access once with our Efteling pass, so we joined the long queue to get the free tickets. After 25 minutes we finally got to the ticket booth but then they said we should actually go to the info desk. That one had an even longer queue so it was already 11:00 when we finally got our tickets and entered the park. The main street had a Hollywood-ish theme which isn't really my kind of theming. I felt uncomfortable walking on the road and I even caught myself looking left and right for cars when crossing it. I wanted to take photos but realised I forgot to put my memory card back into my camera, so enjoy my crappy phone photos
.
First up was Lost Temple, but it had a 45 minute queue so we decided to skip it for now. Van Helsing's Factory was further down the road, with a board saying 60 minutes. We did not fancy waiting for that so long either just yet, so we moved on to the dreaded coaster corner of doom. Bandit said 30 minutes so we did that first. It was one of the ugliest queue areas I've seen and it moved slowly which was really frustrating. I couldn't get a much worse first impression than this. The ride itself was okay. Not nearly as rough as I was expecting, but a bit unexciting as well. It was pretty lengthy which I enjoyed. Don't see why it is hated so much to be honest. 6/10.
Next was the other beauty. The park's parking lot SLC called MP Xpress. I had heard it's one of the worst SLCs so it took me a while to convince my friend to go on it with me. Thankfully the queue was relatively short; we went on the third row after 20 minutes or so. Obviously it wasn't fun. It rides the same as El Condor, which means it's a bit jerky but not brutal. I still rank it lower than El Condor because it feels more plonked. 4,5/10.
It was around 13:00 so far. Two mediocre coasters done in 3 hours after the opening time. I tried to keep an open mind about the park though. I wanted to do Van Helsing next to finally do a quality ride. We walked past the Disk-o coaster and I realised I've never ridden that model. I've only done the small version at Liseberg. It didn't have much of a queue so we gave it a go. The hill in the middle adds so much to the ride type! It was much more interesting than the Liseberg version, and I really liked it. We skipped the frisbee. The entire Santa Monica pier felt very plonked and didn't have any proper theming.
Then it was finally time for Van Helsing's Factory. I heard really good things about that so I was excited. The queue had some cool effects that I eventually got sick of because we had to queue 50 minutes for it. After waiting so long, a ride often disappoints, this was no exception. While the coaster itself was wilder and more fun than I thought it would be, I found the theming to be lacking mostly. During the first half the theming felt very cheap-ish, and the second half barely even had any theming. It also wasn't dark enough which killed a bit of the immersion. Still a very fun ride though. If the queue was shorter I would've re-ridden. It had a couple of nice turns, twists and drops. 7/10.
We decided to skip the drop tower, which had a long queue, until we've done at least the creds and other must-rides in the park. I don't really like drop towers anyway unless they have a special twist to it (Mystery Castle) or if the view is great (Katapulten). We got a delicious pizza and then moved on to the other half of the park. I'm not a big fan of the look of the Nickelodeon area. I'm not too keen on overly colourful cartoony looking areas in theme parks so far and this one in particular felt very cheap.
First we wanted to do the river rapids because it was very warm. Mystery River is the name, a name that would fit well for the rapids in Phantasialand to go along with Mystery Castle in the Mystery area :wink: . Queue time was only 20ish minutes thankfully. These rapids seriously came out of nowhere! I barely knew it existed until a week or so ago, but they're AMAZING. What it lacks in the rapids effects department, it makes up for with excellent theming all around the ride. It started indoor with some cool light effects and environments, then it went outside where everybody except for me got quite soaked because of many big splashes. After that it went indoors again and it was pitch black at parts, which made it feel quite out of control because you didn't see all the water coming. At this point it was my turn to get wet, and I loved it. Some parts were quite speedy as well! Everybody got off with a smile and it was just a beautiful ride overall. It feels more like a dark ride with rapids elements than a river rapids though. Up there with River Quest as my fave rapids <3 8,5/10.
Back in Nickelodeon land, we wanted to do the creds now. First up was Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer, a Vekoma SFC. While this one was very short and small, I really like these SFCs. They are some of the most comfortable and enjoyable family coasters around in my opinion. Obviously this one was dull, but I loved Kvasten and I'm sure I'd love Orkanen even more. I wish parks would build bigger versions of these, with multiple trains. While Vekoma's thrill rides are mostly crap, I find that they build the best family coasters of all manufacturers so far. With their mine trains, SFCs, indoor coasters, family boomerangs, motorbike coasters and more, they have a wide variety of solid family rides. 6/10.
The other two creds were a +1 kiddie coaster called Backyardigans: Mission to Mars and a standard wild mouse. For some reason we got a lot of airtime down the drops in the wild mouse, which made it more enjoyable as my friend and I laughed all the way through. Our lap bar was very loose as well. We skipped the log flume because it was just a standard model with a cheap looking Dora theme. With the creds done, we checked the map to see which other rides had to be done. We realised we still had two big rides we missed near the entrance, so we went there next.
First one we rode was The Lost Temple, which is one of those simulator tunnel rides that Bobbejaanland is getting for this season. The queue line was well themed and immersive, so I actually got really excited. The ride itself was really good. I still can't get in simulators though. While this was the best one I've ridden so far, I still very much felt like I was looking at screens instead of actually being part of the ride. I just can't get immersed into simulators, and I'm not sure if that will ever change. I will keep an open mind though, and it was still a fun ride. Give me a good classic dark ride over something like this any day. 7/10.
Also near the entrance was Alien Encounter, a splash boat ride. I liked it. It had a couple of good splashes and some decent yet very random theming. The first drop into darkness seemed to take forever and was quite wet. 6,5/10. With only an hour left we rushed to the Ice Age Adventure dark ride. It was nothing special to be honest. I didn't really understand much of the story, if it even had one. The sets weren't all that good either.
Lastly we went to the Time Riders simulator. Same story as what I said above about Lost Temple, except that this is much older and of lower quality. It literally felt like watching a film while being shaken around in your seat. It hurt more than the two big coasters to be honest. The best thing about the ride was the exterior of the building. It looked pretty cool. 5/10.
We walked back through the main street towards the entrance and noticed a building which used the BioShock font <3
That concludes the day. Despite being very flawed, I still liked Movie Park. The positives first. It has a couple of really interesting rides with Van Helsing, Lost Temple and Alien Encounter. They also have those amazing rapids. The quality of theming is very inconsistent throughout the park. They have rides with great theming like Mystery River, Lost Temple and Alien Encounter, but the entire MP Xpress half of the park is very plonked and bland, and the Nickelodeon part is very cheap looking. They also lack a true signature coaster like EGF, Black Mamba, Blue Fire/Silver Star, Colossos, etc. Still had a great day, and I will probably go back next year to get some re-rides and to ride the stuff that I missed. Out of the four German parks I've visited, I'd rank this the lowest.
Park score: 6,5/10.
Thank you so much for reading!
Next up is probably Bellewaerde and Plopsa.
-Movie Park Germany
-Bellewaerde
-Plopsaland De Panne
-Bobbejaanland
-Walibi Belgium
-Tripsdrill
-Rheinkirmes
Not sure which order these will be in, but I'll start with the park I visited yesterday.
Part 1: Movie Park Germany
I've been wanting to do this park for a while but never got around to actually going. I suggested to my sister that we should go to Germany so that she can go shopping with her friend, and my best friend and I could visit Movie Park. She loved the idea so we set the date to 10th of April. After a 1,5 hour drive we arrived at the park. The weather forecast said it would be amazing weather all day, but I did not expect so many crowds. It's a school day right? Wrong. It was actually spring break in Germany, which in combination with the weather led to immense crowds.
The day started awful. It was 10:00 when we arrived so the park had already opened. We both had free access once with our Efteling pass, so we joined the long queue to get the free tickets. After 25 minutes we finally got to the ticket booth but then they said we should actually go to the info desk. That one had an even longer queue so it was already 11:00 when we finally got our tickets and entered the park. The main street had a Hollywood-ish theme which isn't really my kind of theming. I felt uncomfortable walking on the road and I even caught myself looking left and right for cars when crossing it. I wanted to take photos but realised I forgot to put my memory card back into my camera, so enjoy my crappy phone photos
.
First up was Lost Temple, but it had a 45 minute queue so we decided to skip it for now. Van Helsing's Factory was further down the road, with a board saying 60 minutes. We did not fancy waiting for that so long either just yet, so we moved on to the dreaded coaster corner of doom. Bandit said 30 minutes so we did that first. It was one of the ugliest queue areas I've seen and it moved slowly which was really frustrating. I couldn't get a much worse first impression than this. The ride itself was okay. Not nearly as rough as I was expecting, but a bit unexciting as well. It was pretty lengthy which I enjoyed. Don't see why it is hated so much to be honest. 6/10.
Next was the other beauty. The park's parking lot SLC called MP Xpress. I had heard it's one of the worst SLCs so it took me a while to convince my friend to go on it with me. Thankfully the queue was relatively short; we went on the third row after 20 minutes or so. Obviously it wasn't fun. It rides the same as El Condor, which means it's a bit jerky but not brutal. I still rank it lower than El Condor because it feels more plonked. 4,5/10.
It was around 13:00 so far. Two mediocre coasters done in 3 hours after the opening time. I tried to keep an open mind about the park though. I wanted to do Van Helsing next to finally do a quality ride. We walked past the Disk-o coaster and I realised I've never ridden that model. I've only done the small version at Liseberg. It didn't have much of a queue so we gave it a go. The hill in the middle adds so much to the ride type! It was much more interesting than the Liseberg version, and I really liked it. We skipped the frisbee. The entire Santa Monica pier felt very plonked and didn't have any proper theming.
Then it was finally time for Van Helsing's Factory. I heard really good things about that so I was excited. The queue had some cool effects that I eventually got sick of because we had to queue 50 minutes for it. After waiting so long, a ride often disappoints, this was no exception. While the coaster itself was wilder and more fun than I thought it would be, I found the theming to be lacking mostly. During the first half the theming felt very cheap-ish, and the second half barely even had any theming. It also wasn't dark enough which killed a bit of the immersion. Still a very fun ride though. If the queue was shorter I would've re-ridden. It had a couple of nice turns, twists and drops. 7/10.
We decided to skip the drop tower, which had a long queue, until we've done at least the creds and other must-rides in the park. I don't really like drop towers anyway unless they have a special twist to it (Mystery Castle) or if the view is great (Katapulten). We got a delicious pizza and then moved on to the other half of the park. I'm not a big fan of the look of the Nickelodeon area. I'm not too keen on overly colourful cartoony looking areas in theme parks so far and this one in particular felt very cheap.
First we wanted to do the river rapids because it was very warm. Mystery River is the name, a name that would fit well for the rapids in Phantasialand to go along with Mystery Castle in the Mystery area :wink: . Queue time was only 20ish minutes thankfully. These rapids seriously came out of nowhere! I barely knew it existed until a week or so ago, but they're AMAZING. What it lacks in the rapids effects department, it makes up for with excellent theming all around the ride. It started indoor with some cool light effects and environments, then it went outside where everybody except for me got quite soaked because of many big splashes. After that it went indoors again and it was pitch black at parts, which made it feel quite out of control because you didn't see all the water coming. At this point it was my turn to get wet, and I loved it. Some parts were quite speedy as well! Everybody got off with a smile and it was just a beautiful ride overall. It feels more like a dark ride with rapids elements than a river rapids though. Up there with River Quest as my fave rapids <3 8,5/10.
Back in Nickelodeon land, we wanted to do the creds now. First up was Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer, a Vekoma SFC. While this one was very short and small, I really like these SFCs. They are some of the most comfortable and enjoyable family coasters around in my opinion. Obviously this one was dull, but I loved Kvasten and I'm sure I'd love Orkanen even more. I wish parks would build bigger versions of these, with multiple trains. While Vekoma's thrill rides are mostly crap, I find that they build the best family coasters of all manufacturers so far. With their mine trains, SFCs, indoor coasters, family boomerangs, motorbike coasters and more, they have a wide variety of solid family rides. 6/10.
The other two creds were a +1 kiddie coaster called Backyardigans: Mission to Mars and a standard wild mouse. For some reason we got a lot of airtime down the drops in the wild mouse, which made it more enjoyable as my friend and I laughed all the way through. Our lap bar was very loose as well. We skipped the log flume because it was just a standard model with a cheap looking Dora theme. With the creds done, we checked the map to see which other rides had to be done. We realised we still had two big rides we missed near the entrance, so we went there next.
First one we rode was The Lost Temple, which is one of those simulator tunnel rides that Bobbejaanland is getting for this season. The queue line was well themed and immersive, so I actually got really excited. The ride itself was really good. I still can't get in simulators though. While this was the best one I've ridden so far, I still very much felt like I was looking at screens instead of actually being part of the ride. I just can't get immersed into simulators, and I'm not sure if that will ever change. I will keep an open mind though, and it was still a fun ride. Give me a good classic dark ride over something like this any day. 7/10.
Also near the entrance was Alien Encounter, a splash boat ride. I liked it. It had a couple of good splashes and some decent yet very random theming. The first drop into darkness seemed to take forever and was quite wet. 6,5/10. With only an hour left we rushed to the Ice Age Adventure dark ride. It was nothing special to be honest. I didn't really understand much of the story, if it even had one. The sets weren't all that good either.
Lastly we went to the Time Riders simulator. Same story as what I said above about Lost Temple, except that this is much older and of lower quality. It literally felt like watching a film while being shaken around in your seat. It hurt more than the two big coasters to be honest. The best thing about the ride was the exterior of the building. It looked pretty cool. 5/10.
We walked back through the main street towards the entrance and noticed a building which used the BioShock font <3
That concludes the day. Despite being very flawed, I still liked Movie Park. The positives first. It has a couple of really interesting rides with Van Helsing, Lost Temple and Alien Encounter. They also have those amazing rapids. The quality of theming is very inconsistent throughout the park. They have rides with great theming like Mystery River, Lost Temple and Alien Encounter, but the entire MP Xpress half of the park is very plonked and bland, and the Nickelodeon part is very cheap looking. They also lack a true signature coaster like EGF, Black Mamba, Blue Fire/Silver Star, Colossos, etc. Still had a great day, and I will probably go back next year to get some re-rides and to ride the stuff that I missed. Out of the four German parks I've visited, I'd rank this the lowest.
Park score: 6,5/10.
Thank you so much for reading!
Next up is probably Bellewaerde and Plopsa.
