PTR: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE/Versailles/Asterix/Paris

[davidm]

Right then; been back from a Euro-trip for a little while now, need to TR it!

--

I'm a bad coaster enthusiast. I go to these far flung places and have a nice time,
totally ignoring all the places nearby. For crying out loud I've been to
Tokyo Disneyland on 2 seperate trips, LA a couple of times and yet I'd never been to
the "local" one even once. Useless.

Lets rectify that shall we?

--

Two weeks booked off work, wondering where to go, fancy a trip back to Europa Park
to ride their new rides - I plan in a trip around euro-land and then spot that I'm
only a week off Ian's Germany live plans so I shift my time off by a week and thats
a good enough plan then.

Day 1 : Saturday : Disneyland

Fly out from Manchester Saturday morning at a fairly friendly time in the morning,
somewhat tedious amount of time later I'm in my crappy little Nissan Micra hire car
from CDG towards EuroDisney.

Find my hotel, dump the car, dump my stuff and try to walk up to the resort - get
a bit lost in the scrubland between the hotel and Disney (idiot) and find myself
in a car park full of caravans - how strange. The car park is right next to the
Marketplace and I nip through a hole in a fence back to civilisation and the mouse.

Must say, first impressions of the resort are NOT good - partly my own muppet-ness
in walking down the wrong road to get there, party because the Marketplace area
outside the parks is a bit grotty - building boards up all over the place, dodgy
types selling knock off crap on the walkways etc - you don't get this at Downtown
Disney now do you!

However walking into the main park perks me up a bit - that Disneyland Hotel over
the entrance is rather splendid and the way into Disneyland is rather nice.

...

Plan for the rest of the day was just to "do" the main park (having "done" various
other "Disneylands" there wasn't too much that was new to me, perhaps just some
geeky curiosity about how this one differs to the others was my main challenge
for the day...

Main street pretty similar (although I did like the covered arcades that run
parallel to the street - even found they served beer in some of the eateries down
there, didn't think that Disney allowed that sort of thing in their Disneyland
parks!

Castle is pretty good (considering the last one I saw was LA's a few months ago
which is tiny in comparison!)

I was actually really impressed with a lot of the architecture and themeing of the
park, loads of nice touches

This is a good view ; it means you are LEAVING Its a Small World... good, horrible
ride.

Big Thunder looks just great (even if the wate is a bit green)

Lots of things are rather familiar from the other parks; only not quite in all
the same places - somewhat disconcerting

Moon shot;

As dark was falling (I'd got into the park sometime after 3pm), people start to
gather in the main bit for Dreams ; but thats not on for a couple of hours - d'oh.

Seriously, 2 hours to go;

Anyway I'm not standing around for 2 hours so try to take some pics in the dark
in Tomorrowland - not great;

But the area is very nice in the dusk, all lit up in neon and stuff

Didn't rate Space Mountain much when I rode it earlier, rough and just a bit
"so what" ; shame as it looks good from the outside and the launch looks cool.

Closing time approached, so that meant Dreams was showing on the castle ; I didn't
attempt to take any pics of it with my little camera (was never going to work),
but I did enjoy the show to be fair (and big shows ain't my sort of thing really)

Final shot wandering out of the park close, I chose not to walk through the dodgy
caravan park on my way back to the hotel and just took the main road.

Back tomorrow then to have a looksee at the park next door.

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney to start

Day 2 : Sunday : Walt Disney Studios

Bit of a short report from today I think, since I was planning to wander around
both parks the next day with a proper camera, so I didn't take many pics.

View from hotel room - can see the ToT - cool!

As with the main park the previous day, the place was really busy (but I had
expected that) so it was a bit of a slow day ride-wise too, used a few fast passes
to get ToT and RockNRoller done (RnR much better than Space Mountain, bit odd that
they have 2 similar big rides in the adjacent parks though?)

The back stage tour was OK I guess

Not sure how much relevant sets from Reign of Fire have these days though

Anyway, there is the one absolutley stand out ride of course

Thats it; have all the ToT credits now (geek!)

The car show is good; so good it has been exported to Orlando now, but that
means I've seen it before - never mind its still good.

Place was so busy I didn't even get all the creds, 2 hour Qs for Crush and the new
Toy Story RC Racer didn't appeal to me, so wandered around the marketplace after
the park closed and got some food

So my impressions on the whole place; strange to be honest. Some bits I really
liked, some not so much. generally the buildings/architecture in the parks was
great, in the Marketplace less so. But the place just doesn't have the atmosphere
of the US parks I think? Maybe its down to euro-staff rather than US-staff, maybe
it was just me?

Anyway, I'll be back the next day with a real camera to take lots of pics...

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney to start

Whats this market place you're on about? I've been to DLP countless times and I never come across a dumpy market?

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney to start

Disney Village/Festival Disney then (my confusion, so many Disneyplaces!)

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney to start

Oh right, I did wonder if it was some dig towards the Village! :lol:

Its not that bad, in fact, I do like it, never seen dodgy traders in there though.

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney to start

Day 3 : Monday : Walt Disney Studios & Disneyland

(with camera, but these pics aren't properly processed any yet)

So checkout of hotel, dump the car in the multistorey at the marketplace (cheaper
than the main Disney car parks and closer to the parks - whats that all about?).
Noticed that the travellers have all vanished from the one car park overnight and
its back to being caravan free - most odd.

--

Plan was to get the missing creds and then take some pics, however even getting
there as early as I could, there was still an advertised 1.5 hour Q for Crush.
Ended up being an hour, but still. Nice enough coaster but daft addition of
a low capacity ride to a park with not enough to do and vast crowds.

Speaking of which, same for the even newer RC Racer, you'd think they'd have learnt!
Waited in the SRQ for this for about 40mins.

Bit of a lame ride to be honest, nothing great about this apart from the themeing
of it and the general Toy Story area (which was abit on the small side too).

(Processed version : previously posted in the photo thread)


Tower of Terror

Armageddon, still, really?

Good ride, best coaster at the resort;

Waste of space;

Despite this shot, the park WAS busy again - public holiday on the Monday

Didn't relise that this bit of the coaster is just after the start;

Right thats it for the studios - odd place really, couple of good rides and shows, but a lot of "meh".

--

Across to the other place now, via that nice looking hotel again

I remember the opening week 20 years ago, the travel agent I walked past on the
way to work was running trips there for the opening day. 20 years later the travel
agent is now a bar.

Think that Thunder Mesa was my favourite bit of the park, they were playing the
theme from the Magnificent Seven when I was taking this - it should be a law that
any park with a western themed area should have that playing. I have it playing
now while I type this.

Didn't realise that Tokyo's version of this is a mirror image ; was quite glad
that this one has reverted to riding forwards though

Pirates was OK, but has not been Johnny Depp-ified (yet)...

This is cool though

Spot the geek with a camera

Bit spoiled by doing the new version several times last year, but still fun

X Wing looks nice

Aaaah

Tomorrowland is well done, even in the daylight

That was it for EuroDisney then, couldn't wait around for dark since I had a bit
of a drive to do that evening (and a huge traffic jam caused by some work on a toll
booth didn't help that drive go any quicker).

Overall impressions of the place were that I had a nice time, a lot of the buildings
and stuff was good in the parks, but there was soemthing lacking somewhere that
I can't quite fathom. I recognise that I'm NOT the target market for a lot of this,
but I felt that the same amount of time I had at the LA parks not so long ago was
better atmosphere-wise. Anyway, can't moan that I've not been to the "local" Disney
anymore can I?

--

Drove to Antwerp then, pretty simple, if a little bit of a long drive.

 

[davidm]

now with added .... Belgium

Day 4 : Tuesday : Bobbejaanland

You'll notice that my intinerary is a bit messed up, and I've had to drive to
the far side of Belgium (OK Belgium ain't THAT big, but this does involve a bit
of back tracking later in the week) since the other parks can't even be bothered
to open today, so Bobbejaanland it is today (since they ARE open, the nice people
that they are).

1/2 hour outside of Antwerp is Bobbejaanland then, hidden away in the Belgian
countryside is this rather nice little park.

And here is today's plan

...only "Revolution" is closed - no signs to tell me this, but the entrance was all
fenced off and the signs covered up - boo!

First up (and probably the best coaster there) is their Eurofighter, "Typhoon";

Which I did enjoy.

After that I work my around the lake that the park sits on, the place isn't busy;
there are a few school parties in whihc makes some queues take a little while (but
later in the day the same Qs are walk on). Anyway I'm not in a rush so have a
nice leisurely day playing on the big toys.

For some reason they had two mice, now they have only one (sensible!)

Missing mouse (just one "Speedy Bob" left then);

Rapids look interesting from the exit path of the mouse,

but quickly spot that the drop bit isn't running :-( , but the whirlpool bit
still is

The place has a few attempts at themeing, but not too much;

Powered coaster "Bob Express";

Shot I take on all the wave swingers (geek);

I guess the other main coaster is their newish spinner "Dizz"

Nice lttle layout, over the paths

and out over the lake a bit

Thought that this (King Kong) ride was cool to watch

Think by my reckoning, this was #500 "Dreamcatcher"

Apparently used to be airplane style trains and called Air Race (as seen in RCT
I think?), but replaced with more standard invert seats. Quite fun, lots of
helixes;

Overview of the park

Rollerskater type coaster;

Basically a nice family park. Well worthy of a visit, few nice coasters
and a nice atmosphere. Keep it up chaps!

--

After the park I drive across Belgium (yes., mostly back in the direction I came
and stop on the outskirts of Brugges for the night)

Have a wander through the city centre for a while, since its meant to be
nice. It is. Suspect I'll process some of the images I took there properly
in the fullness of time.

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Day 5 : Wednesday : Plopsaland De Panne

Half an hour from Brugges, back towards the coast and the French border (you see
my comment about backtracking across Belgium now) is a little seaside resort and
the family park Plopsaland De Panne.

Initial impressions were good, nice entrance and main square, but when they open
up the park proper its a bit of a maze to work out how to get around... by the end
of the day I'd worked out where the paths were, but for a noob there it was a bit
confusing first thing!

A map would've helped!

Right so I work out where the rides are and head on upto the main event, "Anubis"
the launched Gerstaluer - pretty similar to Lynet which I rode last year, but
actually a really good little ride.

Theres no queue at all, in fact theres only 3 people on the ride, so the operator
sends us around a few times (nice one) ; he's a bit of a geek so we have a little
chat about varous parks for a while.

Turns out the other 2 people on the ride are geeks too, specifcally Nicky & Benin
on a little trip of their own (SEE HERE) - small world eh!

Rest of the park is nicely done, well themed, really kid friendly.

Splash ride (surely this is a cred; if the one at Europa is a cred then whats the
difference?)

Washing machine themed "Rollerskater";

Whole park was full of these oversized props ; quite cool actually

They have an old school Zierer "Dongo's Race" hidden away at the top of the park

and a pretty good powered coaster "Draak" that winds around part of the park
and their log flume

and a rather stupid super low capacity batflyer "Vleermuis"

and at the back of the park a StarFlyer

Wouldn't be trip to Plopsaland without a picture of their "big door" entrance,
only slightly spoiled by the Belgian chav lighting a fag by it

The place isn't that big and it wasn't that busy, so by 2 I've had enough (few
more rides on Anubis to finish) and off back across Belgium ago to find another
park for tomorrow (which has been closed today)...

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Day 6 : Thursday : Walibi Belgium

So Walibi finally opens for the week and I hop over from my hotel across the road
to this ex-Six Flags park.

Immediate 6F influence can be seen in the typical duo of a boomerang and an SLC
(no idea whether it was 6F who added these, but they do appear together all over
the not-so-major 6F parks it seems).

For some bizarre reason I decide that the SLC "Vampire" should be first up,
its tucked away in the woods a bit and suprisingly it isn't too bad, so I have
another go straight away; thats optimism for you.

Next to the SLC is my first woody of the trip; the rather large and impressive
looking "Loup-Garou" one of the few Vekoma woodys out there. Actually quite like
this one and its worth a few rerides.

This place is another park set around a lake (apparently it started off life as
a bit of a water-ski show place back in the day) so it makes for a fairly
obvious "work your way around the lake" sort of a day.

Next coaster up is at the back of the park in the western area (sadly no Magnificent
Seven music playing - so they not know its the LAW?).

The "Calamity Mine" Vekoma mine train is OK too, two lift hills, quite a long
ride. Fun enough!

Theres a nice big drop tower up here too (not quite sure what relevance Dalton
is, but the tower is named after him/it)

But the Western area is OK (apart from the lack of approprite tunes that is!)

Carrying on around the lake, theres a dark ride/shooty thing themed around Tutankhamen, and interestingly it has trackless vehicles - you don't see that often
do you!

Theres a haunted swing (what did this place do, just buy up Vekomas catalogue?)
which is OK if you like that sort of thing (I do).

A couple of wet rides - a modern looking flume

Which was good enough, but the now seemingly standard suprise reverse drop is
no longer such a suprise I think.

And a well themed rapids (seem to have no pics of that :-( ).

Also on this side of the lake is the SBNO shuttle loop

Which are reviving for next season it seems, but there wasn't any activity that
I could see going on (and the temprary walls they put up kinda got in the way
of the paths around the park a bit).

One last coaster to get then (didn't lower myself to the kiddie credit today),
just the boomer "Cobra";

It was not the best, but over quickly.

Park "done", wander around again for the afternoon with a few rerides and a trip
on the ferris wheel of course!

--

After the park, I drive onto another country and fail to find my hotel in Eindhoven
that evening - OK I do FIND it, I just struggle to get to it because of stupid
roadworks blocking off an entire roundabout that I need to get past. Turns out
theres something like a 3 mile detour to get there which is even stupider when I
want to get to the McDonalds that I could SEE from my hotel room yet still needed
to negotiate that detour instead of walking across the road/roadworks to do so.
Daft that.


(anyway, thats it for the TR for a little while, more later...)

 

[ECG]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Great report David. Can't wait to see your "properly processed" photos.

 

[peep]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Cool PTR so far David, very interesting read.

Is it sad that I know exactly what hotel you stayed in at Disney just from a pic from your room? It's a lovely hotel though, what did you think of it?

Sounds like you had a good time at Disney though, shame the Studios was busy when you went, they really do need more attractions with better throughputs to deal with the crowds.

Lol at you bumping into Benin and Nicky on Anubis though, that must have been quite surreal. Supersplash totally counts as a cred too.

Can't believe you stopped off in Bruges though, I really want to go there. Mainly so I can stand around and quote the film but that is besides the point

Look forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

^ actually I had read your TR from a month or so before and when I was scouting for a nearby hotel that came up - done deal. Right about the lightswitches, bloomin' millions of them.

 

[peep]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Lol, glad I inspire where people stay on their holidays

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

^ After reading your TR on Paris, I went a booked a trip! :lol:

Anyway, great report so far, I love following little adventures like this, cant wait for the next update. Quick question though, you were down by Paris, but you opted out of Asterix?

 

[furie]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Excellent so far cheers Dave. How do you manage to make photos of ferris wheel struts look interesting though??? It's a rare skill m'lord.

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip : Disney/Belgium

Day 7 : Friday : Toverland

So I was sat in this (hard to locate) hotel in Eindhoven, and rather randomly on
Dutch TV that night was a 2 hour live TV special of the opening ceremony for the
new water show at Efteling. All in Dutch naturally (apart from a brief period when
the park CEO was thanking IAAPA people in English and then promising NOT to have a
load of long boring speaches in Dutch. So after all the long boring speaches in
Dutch and some "variety entertainment" (euro-singer and various dancers and stuff)
they showed the water show. And very impressive it was too, looked more interesting
than World of Color anyway.

I was in two minds whther to go to Efteling actually - it being about 20 miles West
of where I was (Toverland being about 20 miles East) - I was wondering whether I
could do both parks in the same day, then drive down through Germany. In the end
I thought that it'd be a bit of a rush and I should just concentrate on the new
(to me) park (have not done the new woodies at Efteling or the water coaster thing
so there was a reason to go there).

And actually I was glad I didn't try to credit-run Toverland; 'cos it was great*!

(* - specifically Troy of course, but the rest was pretty good too).

Made my way through the two big sheds that make up the indoor part
of Toverland, pausing only to ride the odd indoor coaster called "Boomerang", which
of course is NOT a boomerand at all, but just a little Vekoma - interesting I
guess because its indoors so there is some novelty in rushing around inside like
that - be faily uneventful if it was outside in a field.

Grab a quick go on the bobkarts - I like these and this was quite a fun course.

And have a go on the "Booster Bike";

EXCLUSIVE coaster-construction shot (not a lot to see mind);

Nicely warmed up, its off to the main event I go. The park had quite a few
school groups in, all semmingly of the same age and approximate height. I had
a day of the vast majority of the rest of the park patrons being about 2 foot
shorter than me only interupted by the odd tall person.

Couple of taller perople in Troy's station

and after a little wait, on we get - first ride was at the front of course, then
quickly round for a reride or two.

GREAT stuff then - nice comfy trains, great drop, lots of speed, chunks of air,
top top ride... almost the best ride of the holiday. (almost )

First drop

Flythru (not a huge fan of these, bit of a gimmick IMHO)

Oh and a nice wooden horse too - the theming was good all over the place actually.

Tried to take a few panaoramas of the thing;

Didn't ride the log flume thing, but was interested to see one of its turntables
is part of the lift hill;

Looks like a cred?

Amuse myself for a little while with the indoor wave swinger

Theres that photo again;

So bye bye Toverland, very nice you are too

(Ambulances were there to show to the kids I think, rather for some horrible
coaster related accident or anything)

Final shot of Troy from the car park

After Toverland, I drive off to somewhere random in Germany, just off the
autobahn on the way to Tripsdrill.... since next up is the Germany LIVE...

(and for that see here;

DAY 1 : viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34356&start=29

DAY 2 : viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34356&start=30

DAY 3 : viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34356&start=39

DAY 4 : viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34356&start=40

)

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE

I guess as you didn't say much about it, you didn't like the Booster Bike?

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE

It was OK, it just wasn't TROY. ;-)

 

[davidm]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE

Right then, after we all departed at the end of the LIVE, some went to one
airport, others to another and I went to Metz.

Why Metz? Well originally when I looked at this trip I spotted that Walygator
was about half way between Europa and Paris, so that would be a good route to
take (B&M and all!)... only a little bit later I realised that Walygator was not
open on any of the days that I needed me ; spited by an entire park!

Anyway I need to get back to Paris and Metz was en-route so I ended up stopping
there anyway, with Walygator just down the road gloating at me. I didn't get to
Metz until~9pm and had left by 7am so its possible that I snuck by without the
park even noticing.

Bereft of a convenient park to visit (and its still a 4 hour drive to Paris) I
had decided to visit somewhere that had always interested me a bit (mainly
because it features heavily in a favourite series of novels of mine, rather than
any great memories from history lessons of my youth) - points given for anyone
who can name the novels, I'll give one clue out somewhere amongst the pictures.

Day 12: Wednesday : Versailles

So after that said 4 hour drive, and after fighting the Parisan suburb's traffic
for a while I park up outside the gates of the Palace of Versailles - warning
culture alerts, and no coasters in this bit at all (one Disney reference though).

There are quite a few other tourists here too - big Q for the entrance ticket
and then a big Q to get through the gates;

But I get in eventually,

And right posh it is too (apart from that bit on the right that is SBNO under the
green building cover thingy)

Your classic tour of the place covers the palace rooms of Louis XIV and co, the
gardens are free to enter and there are some other mansions in the gardens that
I didn't have the effort/time to explore - give me something to look at if I ever
come back.

So off on the palace tour we go...

Cool corridors

This is Leroy's personal chapel (hint: that was my clue), couldn't
have been too personal because all the court could come in to see him do his
prayers apparently.

the rest of the rooms all had "themes" and splendid ceilings (and vast
amounts of tourists).

Bits of art lying around too

More ceilings/tourists

The war room at the end, which leads to...

...the famous bit ; The Hall of Mirrors

Processed shot;


Hall of Mirrors

Nice view out over the back garden

Downstairs was a seperate suits of rooms that were the Dauphin's, amonst these
rooms was a globe (Disney reference coming up...)

Supported by these dolphins (fish dolphins not mammal ones), which Disneyphiles
should recognise?

Not too shabby outside either

Processed shot;


In the Palace Courtyard

and round the back (the top floor of this bit is the Hall of Mirrors)

Its a big place - I only went around a bit of the middle bit here)

and the back garden is a bit VAST too;

Nice fountains (switched off though :-( )

Anyway, all rather posh and spectacular, took lots of pics which I'll get
around to processing eventually I guess.

After leaving Versailles, I was travelling up to North of Paris and so I set
off to brave the Paris traffic again.

But enroute, my satnav took me via this absolutley awesome bit of road. Turns
out the cunning French road planners were struggling to get their motorway
around the West of Paris, so they just built a tunnel. A bloomin long tunnel
at that. Even cooler (I find when Googling it later) is that the two carriages
are on top of each other and there is a strict height limit on the lower carriage.

So what you end up doing, is driving down this low-height tunnel at motorway
speeds for about 10km. Its like a game of Wipeout or something. It was totally
unexpected to me, I was just trundling along following the satnav which took me
off on a slip road then under something that looked like a low bridge (which was
the tunnel entrance) and then it just kept going, mile after mile. I was rather
stunned, took me a little while to realise that there were only cars in there
(no lorries 'cos of the height) - cool but of motorway then!

Heres someone's youtube vid for an idea, just look at that (lack of) head room!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiSjvCvY5hc[/youtube]

--

OK after that geeky tunnel excitement, I end up near Chantilly - chose there to
stop because I'd been to my companies training facility near there (its in a old
French chateau, clearly we made too much money a few years ago) a few years back
and had briefly seen Chantilly Chateau from the back of a taxi from the airport, so I
thought I'd stop near there and maybe take some nice pictures of that.

Only it was raining by then, so I didn't bother.

(Theres another good reason to be staying in that part of France, but I'll come
onto that on the next day)

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR : Eurotrip: Disney/Belgium/Toverland/LIVE/Versailles

My word, that roof is low... and that palace is stunning!