Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!! Complete!

[Anonymous]

OK, so I just came back from one of the biggest trips I have ever undertaken, especially planned myself. The problem now is that we have been to all big parks in Denmark and Germany so that we are forced to go further away to new countries and on the way there visit small obscure parks to get new creds (meaning that we soon will have to go to parks with Butterflies to get something "new"). But we are not quite there yet...

Anyway back onto the trip itself...
So we decided that Italy would be a great goal for this year, especially since they have recently opened a new type of B&M, a brand new park and that Katun is a coaster that have been high on my list of coasters I have to ride for a long time. So with that in mind we started planning parks to do on the way there and back. It all ended up with a trip that is 17 days long and visit 28 places, we had some extra options of parks on some days to be able to get more credits if we felt like it or there were some other problems like certain coasters in some park would open or not (Freishütz)...

Anyway here is a small map that shows all the location we ended up visiting during this trip:

And now onto the report itself!!

Update:
Part 1 - Sommerdom
Part 2 - Krake
Part 3 - Potts Park
Part 4 - Flying Tiger...
Part 5 - ...Crouching Speed Snake
Part 6 - It's Vicky time!!
Part 7 - MONSTER!!!!
Part 8 - Wild Wild West
Part 9 - Eurosat <3
Part 10 - Bonus cred and Hixee's favourite palace
Part 11 - Cobra + Driving
Part 12 - Bonus Gerstlauer
Part 13 - Mini Rita
Part 14 - Miragica again??
Part 15 - Sweaty Italians...
Part 16 - The birth of American culture...
Part 17 - Fiabilandia with a bonus!!
Part 18 - 7200 days and iLike...
Part 19 - RAMBO and MAGMA!!
Part 20 - Raptor!!
Part 21 - More massive Alpine Coasters!!
Part 22 - Original X-car
Part 23 - Spite!!!?!
Part 23b - FREISCHÜTZ!!!!
Part 24 - Fire and Ice
Part 25 - Credit run!!
Part 26 - El Toro
Part 27 - Gerstlauer :angel: and :twisted:
Part 28 - Final Destination
Part 29 - Conclusion

 

[Hixee]

Re: Loefet goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Looks pretty epic. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 1 - Sommerdom

So the first day is as usual to get from Sweden and head south to continental Europe, it's such a drag, just some boring highway with nothing to see except endless fields. Thank god that they have recently increased the speed limit to 120 km/h most of the way so it goes by a bit quicker that it used to...
We really didn't plan to do anything special this day other than getting to northern Germany and Heide Park the day after, which meant that we could make a leisurely start in the morning rather than crazy o'clock at night because we needed the extra time in some park along the way because they close early. But since it's August I had a look at what Sommerdom in Hamburg offered in coaster wise and discovered that they had 2 coasters I hadn't ridden and since they close after midnight then it was a perfect way to start this trip!!

So after blasting through southern Sweden, over the bridge into Denmark, then with ferry to Germany and cruising the Autobahn for a few hours we finally arrived in Hamburg. We even found a better parking garage than last time, so we didn't have to walk as far to the Sommerdom, which is always a plus in my book, especially when there is rain hanging in the air...

Last piece of Sweden before Europe!!

We made quick progress of Sommerdom, grabbing an awesome Bratwurst to still our hunger along the way around the place.

Yay Sommerdom!!

First we headed in the direction of the Wild Mouse that seems to be abundant on the German fair circuit, this time it was one that is operated by Barth (the ones that also have Alpina Bahn). Nothing special about this ride, just like any other Wild Mouse...

Getting close

Just pay up for your ticket and off you go...

On the ride we spotted the main reason why we even decided to go here, even though my brother already have ridden it a few years ago. Not that I didn't care about that, especially since they have added some new trains onto the ride that are really great and is almost a must upgrade for anyone that is operating a Schwarzkopf looper today.

Mmmm, Test Schtrecke

Some of the most comfortable trains out there, and the restraint's are also pretty awesome

Just before we got on the ride it started pissing down rain, so we had a though if we should wait until it let up or just don't bother that it was raining since they were still running the coaster, well being true enthusiast we decided that rain is just water that will dry up when we get to the hotel later so we got in line...

The great double loops of this ride

Fortunately it stopped raining just before we got on the train, so we didn't have to do a repeat of our 2006 wet experience on Goliath at Walibi World, epic win!! The ride on any old Schwarzkopf is pretty awesome and this was no exception, especially with the new train which, as I said, are awesome!!

Let's see what else we can find here...

If you are on a German fair there must be a Break Dance, and Sommerdom is no exception

The mighty Konga, exactly the same as XXL, but green

Haven't seen any of these one for ages!!

This is such a cred, even more so than Fuga De Atlantide which some of us count...

Before we left we really had to stop by the last coaster for a quick ride, even though we rode it last year, but then again sho could say no to a coaster that have fireballs, lasers and water features...

<3

Then on the way back to the garage we stopped by the Russian Orthodox church to take some pictures, since it's just on the way and it looks pretty groovy for a church...

Pretty awesome building

Then a quick drive to the hotel for an early morning to get to Heide Park for another new B&M!!

New Credz so far, 2

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 2 - Krake

So Heide Park was a pretty obvious choice as a park that have to be on this tour, I mean, who could say no to a new B&M and a kick ass wooden coaster?? Well no one, which were the same conclusion we had, so we went there...
Since we have been to the park a couple of times before then we really only needed to ride Krake, and anything else than that is just a bonus really. We had scored some entry tickets before we got there so that saved us some € and made it easier to get into the park upon arriving. Still we got there early just to be sure to stand first in line at the gate. But as we got in we found out that Krake wouldn't open until an hour after the park, SPITE!!
Well, we just had to do something else for a while...

Empty Krake

Mouth of Fail!!

We decided to walk around the lake in the park while we were waiting and maybe snap a few photos here and there...

This looks a lot better than the Green/White crap they had before

Seems like the burger diet in the US have made an impression

Then we got back to Krake and got in line a few minutes before the ride opening, there were a few other people thinking the same thing which made us wait for about 20 minutes before we finally got on the ride.

Waiting in line

OK so I have heard some ambivalent review of this ride, some say it's good other it's not so. Which meant that I had put my expectations were pretty low (something I have learned after having had high expectations of rides which in my opinion suck when I ride them, Silver Star, EGF, to name a few...). But I was pleasantly surprised by Krake. We rode the back row on the first go, you get some nice ejector of the first drop, some great floater of the Immelmann and also on the hill afterwards, something you really don't in the front. Yes of course you get the full spectacular view in the front, but the back is way better. Sure it might not do the whole "intimidation" thing that Oblivion do, but that might change if they fix their mouth fail that they managed to do. But it's still a solid ride which we without any hesitation re-rode several times during the day.

This bit is really photogenic

Next up we really had to ride Big Loop to see if the "new trains" were any improvement, good timing really since it started to drizzle just after we got of Krake. Well, was it any better?? In a word, No...

Old Corkscrew trains

Next up we went to Colossos, why, well it's more or less the only other good ride in the park, that's why. It's still just as good as it were the first time we went here, sure still a bit bumpy in the helix, but it still have loads of massive airtime, and with some clever Balder riding techniques we got loads of extra space to ride standing up over the hills

Just massive

Desert Race decided to spite us all day, but since we already have the credit and g-log of it we didn't really care

Looking good

Damn duck not staying in one place, or I would have been better doing an Omnomnomnom picture than Heide Park were with Krake :x

On the way up towards the top of the hill to the Bob and Scream we passed the Vekoma death trap and decided not to do it since it's a death trap and the queue was massive for some reason. And no we are not Andrus who for some reason have this ride in his to 10...

Looks great though

SLC's are probable one of the most photogenic rides out there, too bad that they ride like **** though

Schweizer Bobbahn on the other hand is an excellent ride, rough and bumpy, but still great. It had a pretty massive line though, but who cares when the ride is this good.

Sexy curves

I spy Swedish train <3

Scream was up next, any drop tower is in my view worth riding (at least once) and Scream is still one of my favourite drop towers in the world, sure Atmosfear may be taller, but the early braking on it makes the ride worse.

It's a bit like Carlsberg, probably the best gyro drop in the world...

Nothing much to do than to go back and ride Krake again...

Just hanging around

Nice skull

They have an interesting way of operating this ride, once they have loaded one train there is a guy that is at the top of the queue that let people into the station, 18 people every time, no more no less. He was a bit of a dictator really, since once he forced people to split up to get 18, no if, and or buts there really. Kind of harsh really since there might be a couple on a date or whatever that would be forced to split up, not really a good thing to do by the park...

However you have the possibility to get some B&M up-skirt images while queuing

Also the new kind of brakes that B&M use for this ride

The station is pretty nice inside, and I really like the shaping of these gates

This must be one of the most stupid picture I have tried to take, I think you can guess what happens next...

We went to ride the centrifuge (or whatever it's called) and the Enterprise to get some of the wetness out of my trousers...


After I had dried for a bit, then we went to Colossos again...

Intamin fart noise <3

There are some new paths made in the lake since they opened Krake so you can get this image now...

After a day of several showers, most of them when we were on the rides, it finally started to break up and the sun decided to make an appearance...

Lovely

I really love this bit

Krake rainbow

As the day progressed the queue just got shorter and shorter <3

Some other people one the way of getting eaten

Final Krake

Thanks for this time, hopefully they will get the Giga coaster they have talked about for so long so I can get another reason to back here. Also I really hope that they manage to fix the theming at the bottom of the drop so that you will get the complete Krake effect...

Bring on the small obscure parks!!

New Credz so far, 3

 

[nadroJ]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Some really sexy photography going on here, awesome!

Can't wait to see some more reportage of all the other big European parks!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

^ Thanks and you will have to wait a few updates before that
Now is where the tiny ass parks starts...

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 3 - Potts Park

Another day, several new credz and more rain (the last day for a long time thankfully). After a pretty early start, due to us completely screwed up the calculation on when we needed to get up in terms of getting to the park at opening. Didn't really bothered us much since we spotted some other things to occupy our time with before the park opened anyway, so no big loss...

We found a closed Helicopter museum in the centre of a small town

And a monument to Kaiser Wilhelm, if anyone know who he is

But then we got to the park minutes before opening

Well Potts Park, what could I say about it really. It's a small family park with loads of strange stuff (self operated rides etc. they also have a big house where you can do simple science experiments and other stuff to educate children on technology. But we didn't really bother with those that much, we instead played around with the water games and other outdoor stuff instead.

Big playground where loads of CF:ers could hurt themselves on

Turbo Drachen was broken for a while , it wouldn't have opened when the park opened anyway so it's was no big loss

So we did the Nautical Jets for a while until something else opened

More non opened stuff

The most awesome toilet I have ever been inside

Some other self-operated ride, which I didn't get to do anything, it just went around once...

Other stuff

Then finally after keeping occupied riding pigs, wobbly bicycles, nautical jets, strange spinny thing, walking around in a giant house, the rides finally opened an we could get our first credit of the day. It's just a standard Zierer Force Two so nothing special, it were however better than the new one that Liseberg got recently which was a bit strange.

Potts Blitz

It was pretty awesome with a propeller at both ends

As you can see, there wasn't really anyone in the park...

Going back to Turbo Drachen, we noticed it was still broken , what to do....

Nautical Jets of course

And the miniature rail road had opened, AWESOME

Then after a while Turbo Drachen finally opened. It's a bit of a strange ride, it's a powered suspended coaster, where you have a lever to control the speed of the ride. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased that they have increased the speed of the thing since they opened it a couple of years ago since now it's pretty mental (for a kiddy ride). In some corners it even gave Eagle Fortress a run for it's money because of it's insane swings.

But of course it started to rain as we got onto the station...

Their faces says it all...

This thing shifts pretty good at times

Zoom

Next up, next park...

New Credz so far, 5

 

[Nicky]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

The way Krake was batched is different from when me and Benin went in May. Well to say that was batched is a stupid thing to say. It was just a free for all with only a staff member for the Express Butler line. The way you said it was batched seems a better solution than the free for fall even though he was being really strict with it.

 

[Ian]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Anyway here is a small map that shows all the location we ended up visiting during this trip:

People use the word "epic" far too often, but in this instance there is no other word to describe it!

Love it, can't wait to read more <3

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

^^ You mean like it were like every other coaster in the world then. I'm fine with the system, as long as they don't force groups to split up the way they do. Most parks in Italy have a similar system, but are more flexible about it, since it's no big deal if they don't fill every seat, or they call out in the back of the queue for people if the group up front are more than the number required.
Blue Fire have in a way an even more strict system where you are given a specific row to sit in, but on the other hand they have a single-rider queue to fill up the remaining places so everyone is happy.

^ Thanks!!

 

[Nicky]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

It was like every other coaster but with it being a dive machine and having three rows, there needs to be someone batching people into rows. What happened with us was that everyone wanted the front row which caused loads of congestion and we had to fight to get to the back row which was free. I know SheiKra at Tampa has a rule whereby you get whichever row you get with no waiting allowed to get a different row.

A middle ground between the two would be best. A batching system but without the splitting of groups.

 

[furie]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Brilliant stuff (as per).

Love the look of Turbo Drachen, why aren't there more of them???

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

^^ They had an extra guy in the station, some pensioner, that made sure that there were 6 people in each row, so that the station were empty before the next batch arrived. But since the back row offered the best ride of the three we didn't really care much that most of them were battling for the front...

^ Thanks!!
Turbo Drachen is pretty awesome, hopefully they have managed to iron out all the kinks by now so that they could sell more of them...

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 4 - Flying Tiger...

Next up for the day to credit whore were Zoo Safari- und Hollywoodpark Stukenbrock or Hollywood & Safaripark Stukenbrock, if you find that it sounds better OK, so it's a real dump, it really reminded me by the small parks in Sweden that I visited last time, loads of crap rides with no real theming and some animal enclosures with random stuff in. But hey, they have some credits for us to ride...
After entering the park we decided to skip the Safari bit, since they might have monkeys inside it, and we would like the car to survive more than just the first 3 days of this tour. So to get directly to the parking lot we had to drive straight through the attraction part of the park which felt kind of strange, we even wondered if we could just drive to the coasters park there for a few minutes while riding them, just like a drive-in theme park, that would have been awesome!! Anyway we found some parking space and decided to get riding...

Driving through a theme park

Safari bus

Playground of Death

Wonder if you could count it??

So first up we noticed that the tower actually were of the same design as Detonator which is pretty awesome with it's launched drop, so we just had to go. This one however were a lot scarier, especially for someone slightly acrophobic...
Instead of dropping after the usual 3 or so seconds, you were stuck up there for close to 5 minutes, and the fact that the whole tower was swaying quite a bit in the wind didn't really help either...
Great drop still!!

Giraffe tower

Better than most drop towers

Flume ride that goes into the animal enclosures

One of the few rides with some kind of theming, and it looks pretty good, broken but still...

OK, enough of the park...
Time to find the credits lurking here somewhere. First up was the Kiddy one, just a standard Large Zierer Tivoli one, so nothing special, but it's pretty long and you do get some nice ejector in the back down the first drop.

There is something hiding behind those trees

Seems like they have to dig this rid out of the ground on occasions

Next up was Super Tornado, or with it's new name "Flying Tiger". It's one of those small Vekoma things that are just crap, and this one was no exception...

Pain is coming your way, but it's still a credit that have to be ridden once

Mmmm, Arrow train of crap

Come on!! Get this show on the road so I can get out of this death trap already

The one at Tusenfryd that have a loop instead of the first corkscrew is a lot better in a way...

... this bit I mean, still crap though...

OK, so this was probably the worst park of the trip, I don't really recommend it to anyone unless you really need to get the credits and you have no other park to visit left in Germany...

Next up is a repeat, but much better...

New Credz so far, 7

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Nice! As I've said before, I love reading about parks that not many people have been to rather than the "same old" reports such as Thorpe and whatnot. The parks you went to look pretty nice, and I've always wanted to ride Colossos, so therefore I'm jealous!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Thanks for that, we try and do as many random parks as we can, since it's more fun that way. In Italy however there will be several parks that are going to be repeats of ptr's due to the recent live, but it seems like we had better weather than when you all went, but that's later on...

Now for the next place...

EDIT: v Thanks, Heide Park is pretty nice, but also not, some of it is really great, bot other things like the Vekomas aren't, at least they have been improving quite a bit since the first time we went there so there is hope still...

 

[Colossus]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Heide park looks the nuts!! I cant wait to go next year, awesome pictures also

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 5 - ...Crouching Speed Snake

The next place is called Fort Fun, and all I really knew about it was that it had the same coaster models as the previous park, plus one Vekoma roller-skater and that my big sister might have been here many years ago. So the expectations were pretty low.
But boy were we surprised when we got there, sure it had the same crappy Vekoma corkscrew and a Large Tivoli so nothing really special there, but the rest of the park was pretty ace, especially the roller-skater which is insane!!
The whole park is situated in a valley between some mountains and the whole thing is sloping down pretty hard to the bottom area which made this place almost worse than Tusenfryd in terms of walking up and down...

You really don't see much from the parking area next to the entrance

So first things first, after getting into the park we went directly towards Devils Mine which is located just inside the entrance. It's themed to as a mine-train (the whole park have a western kind of theme) which made it look pretty nice where it were. After finding the right entrance into the mountain that housed the queue then it really started to go out of control, no plain walking through caves here, it's more or less a big fun-house you have to get through before entering the station. And then there is the ride itself, I mean it's a roller-skater so you really don't expect anything special, but boy were we wrong...
We were lucky to get the back seats on our first go, which were a great thing, insane isn't enough to describe the ejector airtime of the lift...

Nothing special really, but inside you find:

Spinning tunnel,

Tilting room, etc...

Then you get on the train not knowing that you are going to be ejected

Here all hell breaks loose

Insane laterals through the corners

Looks so innocent

Devils Mine <3

Even the goats that live under the coaster approves

So we started our decent into the rest of the park...

The main area of the park with various diners and walk through attractions

After Devils Mine we had high hopes of their Fun House, but it seems like they have moved all the stuff up to the coaster and just left a dark maze you had to fumble through

Some Mexican themed rapids

Together with some political correct Mexicans

Pretty nice western train, that spent half the time going backwards

We have no idea on what's inside, but the music was LOUD!!

Play/Scene area

On the way towards the other coasters that were located at the bottom of the park we walked by their Alpine Coaster, and we just had to have at least one go, which we did before getting the other two coasters then we spent the rest of the time going between this and the Vekoma Devil-Skater, which meant that we had to walk up and down the damned slopes again and again and again... but who cares it was awesome!!

Trapper Slider

On the first go it rained, but it was the last rain we had for 2 weeks

Helix of DEATH!!

You got some good speed on this thing

Soon there

Then it was just down the hill to the bottom past the log flume

And there it was, Vekoma death trap no. 2 of the day, even with a newer generation train (on which the seat and restraint lined up) it was still crap...

Speed snake

Don't let the colour pattern fool you, this one is still deadly

My niece would kill to get on this ride

They had a car ride as well

I'm not going to write anything special about this one, since it was just the same as the last one

Only the trees were a bit closer to this one...

This would have been a pretty great park to have a CF live at, it even have a swinging ship to do a take over on

Some crazy zip-line thing, that seemed to go faster up the hill then back to the station

Taken on our way out, miss you already!!

In all, a little great place to spend a few hours at, some really great attractions and pretty nice atmosphere, Recommended!!

We had some spitage this day though, a few kilometres from out hotel (even within walking distance) there were a German fair, however it closed the day BEFORE we got there , it even had 3 coasters that we haven't ridden so double spite really...
We did however get one of the credz later on though due to some delays which forced us to change the travel plan a bit...

Next up a great Viking gal!!

New Credz so far, 10

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Part 6 - It's Vicky time!!

Day 4 of the trip and it's time to venture into the unknown for me, 2 new countries and 2 new parks but not all new coasters... :wink:
First up is Plopsa Coo and Vicky the Viking!! I have been to Belgium 2 years ago on a quick credit trip to Bobbejaanland, so nothing really new so far. For the first time this trip it was time to leave the rain-gear in the car which was the best thing about today...

Into Belgium!!

Why do I always miss to take pictures of the entry of all parks, well here is the Alpine Slides that are to the right after the entrance...

But it's really this that draws your attention when you enter, you really can't miss it

Since most parks around here open early before the rides we got some nice views of it testing

Nice water feature close by

The theming of the station is awesome

Now let's go ride Vicky!!

I really like most of Gerstlauers creations, this one is no exception. It didn't really spin that much to satisfy the adrenaline craving I have, but as a family ride in a family park then it's pretty spot on. Maybe it will get some better spin after it have been broken in properly and loosened up a bit. It did however scare the crap out of the little girl that rode in the car together with us, so it's plenty thrilling for the small ones

Cute Viking Longship's

Awesome building

Complete mess of track

Another batch of riders go for a spin

Vicky approved

Se really have nice curves

Mmmmm, Gerstlauer

Other rides in the park

Star Flyer

This is probably one of the worst of it's kind ever, didn't spin what so ever...

Next up we went to the back of the place to look for the illusive "Coaster", you really don't see much of it from the rest of the park. It's a Vekoma creation, but since it's based on their Enclosed rides which are pretty great, the same way that the one at Tibidabo is, meant that we had some hopes for this ride. It was pretty uneventful, but it did sport a few nice helices and a hill with better air than what Silver Star produce...

Good thing Vicky is around, or we would never have found it

More or less the only bit you can see of the ride..

Oh there is this turn as well, but that's it...

Fortunately they have cleared around the coaster pretty well so you can get a pretty decent overview of the ride from the lift

Too bad that they only ran one of the slides, so we only got half

These might be some park mascots or something, they creeped me out though, really scary stuff

So long Vicky, you are great

So Plopsa Coo, great little park really, but it became massively crowded just in time as we decided to leave. But both coasters were decent from a thrill seekers point of view...

Next up is a park in France, a new country for me as well, but to get there we decide on going through Luxembourg, mainly for their insanely cheap gas prices, but it meant that I were to get another country cred

Into the Douchy Luxembourg

Somehow we ended up in the centre of Luxembourg where we spotted some kind of fair, don't know if it were going to open or just closed, still SPITE!!

Mega Spite!!

Next up, a nice reunion!

New Credz so far, 12

 

[Hixee]

Re: Loefet and co. goes south, It's all about Credz!!

Been reading through this as you're posting it. You're posting so much I can't keep up, but it all looks/sounds great!

From the most recent update, I like the spinner trains, they look great.