Rhein Airtime (Germany Live) Trip reports!
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
I've got a bit of a cold too, perhapse it was somethign we all picked up from the plane?
I think Mamba was by far the best ride at Phantasialand. Winjas were good, but once you know about all the trick track and stuff, I feel it would loose its re-ride ability. I think this is the reason why everyone is saying Fear is better than Force, because we did Fear first, and hence everything was new and exciting.
It's difficult to say what is better, Mamba or Nemesis. I'll probably put Mamba first, since its newer, much smoother and more comfortable to ride. It has much better themeing and atmosphere around.
Anway, back onto my trip reports.
17th July – Holiday Park
The most anticipated coaster of the trip for me!
We all arrived at Holiday Park within 5 minutes of each other, which was a first, and as a result got parked close together. Over to the park entrance to claim our tickets and we were in.
Obviously the first place of call was GeForce, and since the queue was very short, the group chose to do a front row ride. The group was a reasonable size, and those of us at the back of the queue had to wait an extra 20 minutes or so, whilst those at the front could run around and get another ride, lucky buggers.
I thought the first ride of the day was a big let-down. All the hype and everything this ride has, I was expecting it to be outstanding, but the first ride of the day didn’t meet my expectations. It might have been because the ride was still cold, or that the front row isn’t the best seat in the house. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great ride, much better than most things, but as a world number 1? I’m not sure.
Quick mooch around the shop then it was onto the second credit here, Super Wirble, the crappy Vekoma Corkscrew thing. This one looked a lot nicer that Altons, but was just as bad, if not worse.
I think the idea next was to go on the log flume, since its supposed to be quite good, but as we walked past is was closed, so we carried on to the back of the park, where you had the giant chair swing ride. A lot of the group sat out of this (mainly the ones with a fear of heights) but I gave it a go, and you get some decent views of GeForce from the top.
We walked back to the main area of the park next, passing GeForce on the way, and obviously another re-ride was in need. The queue was much longer now, but they brought a second train out just before we joined the queue, so it moved pretty quickly.
This time it was back row, and it was so much better than the front! I could finally see why this ride was getting the reviews it does. That first drop in the back row is breathtaking, and takes my spot as the best drop I’ve been on. You get some nice ejector airtime over the hill in the back too. The ride seems to die out after the s-bend hill, where you get a dead spot as its lining up for the final bunny hops, and the trims were slightly annoying – you could really feel the deceleration as you hit one.
Around to the drop tower next, which gave some stunning views of GeForce, but other than that was rather crap, and then we decided to head around to the rapids. I think the time was approaching 1pm and we had the ERT at 1:45. The rapids had a queue of 30 minutes or so, and we wanted some lunch in between so we gave the rapids a miss and went back to GeForce for some bratwurst.
And then it rained, and rained, and got harder, and GeForce broke down, and our ERT was looking less and less likely. Whilst waiting I headed back to the shop and got myself a bit of GeForce lift hill cable, which would prove to be fun getting back through security at the airport the next day.
Bang on 1:45pm (that’s German efficiency for you) one of the parks staff (I forget her name) arrived, greeted the group and went to talk to the ride ops to see if our ERT was possible. They had just started to test trains again, and the rain had eased up, and CF was the first people back on the ride, for 3 goes of ERT, whilst the rest of the public were still waiting outside the queue entrance!
The ride had cooled down, and was probably running slower again, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. We were all on such a high it made the ride seem better than it probably was. I stand by my view that the back is much better than the front, and that it’s a very good ride, but I’m not sure if I’ll put it as my number one. It would be good to ride it when its really warmed up and running at its fastest.
Holiday Park is a nice park, but really needs more than just the 1 signature ride. I'd like to come back to experience GeForce again, but there really isn't enough there to keep you entertained for more than a few hours.
After the ERT, it was a quick rush back to the cars, for our second park of the day, Tripsdrill!
Ride Count
Expedition GeForce
Super Wirble
Chairplane thing
Expedition GeForce
Freefall Tower
Expedition GeForce
Expedition GeForce
Expedition GeForce
I think Mamba was by far the best ride at Phantasialand. Winjas were good, but once you know about all the trick track and stuff, I feel it would loose its re-ride ability. I think this is the reason why everyone is saying Fear is better than Force, because we did Fear first, and hence everything was new and exciting.
It's difficult to say what is better, Mamba or Nemesis. I'll probably put Mamba first, since its newer, much smoother and more comfortable to ride. It has much better themeing and atmosphere around.
Anway, back onto my trip reports.
17th July – Holiday Park
The most anticipated coaster of the trip for me!
We all arrived at Holiday Park within 5 minutes of each other, which was a first, and as a result got parked close together. Over to the park entrance to claim our tickets and we were in.
Obviously the first place of call was GeForce, and since the queue was very short, the group chose to do a front row ride. The group was a reasonable size, and those of us at the back of the queue had to wait an extra 20 minutes or so, whilst those at the front could run around and get another ride, lucky buggers.
I thought the first ride of the day was a big let-down. All the hype and everything this ride has, I was expecting it to be outstanding, but the first ride of the day didn’t meet my expectations. It might have been because the ride was still cold, or that the front row isn’t the best seat in the house. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great ride, much better than most things, but as a world number 1? I’m not sure.
Quick mooch around the shop then it was onto the second credit here, Super Wirble, the crappy Vekoma Corkscrew thing. This one looked a lot nicer that Altons, but was just as bad, if not worse.
I think the idea next was to go on the log flume, since its supposed to be quite good, but as we walked past is was closed, so we carried on to the back of the park, where you had the giant chair swing ride. A lot of the group sat out of this (mainly the ones with a fear of heights) but I gave it a go, and you get some decent views of GeForce from the top.
We walked back to the main area of the park next, passing GeForce on the way, and obviously another re-ride was in need. The queue was much longer now, but they brought a second train out just before we joined the queue, so it moved pretty quickly.
This time it was back row, and it was so much better than the front! I could finally see why this ride was getting the reviews it does. That first drop in the back row is breathtaking, and takes my spot as the best drop I’ve been on. You get some nice ejector airtime over the hill in the back too. The ride seems to die out after the s-bend hill, where you get a dead spot as its lining up for the final bunny hops, and the trims were slightly annoying – you could really feel the deceleration as you hit one.
Around to the drop tower next, which gave some stunning views of GeForce, but other than that was rather crap, and then we decided to head around to the rapids. I think the time was approaching 1pm and we had the ERT at 1:45. The rapids had a queue of 30 minutes or so, and we wanted some lunch in between so we gave the rapids a miss and went back to GeForce for some bratwurst.
And then it rained, and rained, and got harder, and GeForce broke down, and our ERT was looking less and less likely. Whilst waiting I headed back to the shop and got myself a bit of GeForce lift hill cable, which would prove to be fun getting back through security at the airport the next day.
Bang on 1:45pm (that’s German efficiency for you) one of the parks staff (I forget her name) arrived, greeted the group and went to talk to the ride ops to see if our ERT was possible. They had just started to test trains again, and the rain had eased up, and CF was the first people back on the ride, for 3 goes of ERT, whilst the rest of the public were still waiting outside the queue entrance!
The ride had cooled down, and was probably running slower again, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. We were all on such a high it made the ride seem better than it probably was. I stand by my view that the back is much better than the front, and that it’s a very good ride, but I’m not sure if I’ll put it as my number one. It would be good to ride it when its really warmed up and running at its fastest.
Holiday Park is a nice park, but really needs more than just the 1 signature ride. I'd like to come back to experience GeForce again, but there really isn't enough there to keep you entertained for more than a few hours.
After the ERT, it was a quick rush back to the cars, for our second park of the day, Tripsdrill!
Ride Count
Expedition GeForce
Super Wirble
Chairplane thing
Expedition GeForce
Freefall Tower
Expedition GeForce
Expedition GeForce
Expedition GeForce
Lain
Giga Poster
I was planning to do a video, but only ended up filming stuff at Movie Park, and didn't really get enough footage to make an epic video with, so I just stuck a bunch of the clips together.
Hopefully somebody will find some parts of it in some way entertaining.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMngoH1yW9Q[/youtube]
Hopefully somebody will find some parts of it in some way entertaining.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMngoH1yW9Q[/youtube]
Nemesis Inferno
Strata Poster
Lain's video, is quite awesome...
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
NAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Leighton
Mega Poster
Day 3 - Holiday Park
Holiday park is located in the middle of nowhere, despite this, we all arrived within a short time of one another due obligatory satnav ignorance.
The park reminded me of Oakwood around 6-7 years ago (before the construction of Hydro) boasting just one major ride and a few smaller attractions, despite this, the park had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere.
After a lot of faffing with the EGF pictures on the tickets, and who was going to get them :roll: we finally made our way into the park.
EGF was the first ride of the day, which was the most anticipated ride on the trip for me. It is beginning to show its age with a small amount of vibrations, but the ride was overall quite smooth.
I rode towards the front with Mark, Marc ect. I was amazed at how good the first drop was in the front row, and it seemed like the back row would be lethal!
The ride had some great airtime, and the overbanks were quite cool too.
The second ride of the day was the SuperGerbil Vekoma Corkscrew of Death, surprisingly it wasn’t death, it was definitely the best of the 3 I have ridden, and the interaction with the surronding trees is quite pleasant, and a lot better than the other models which are strategically ‘dumped’ onto concrete bases.
Many people opted out of the 200ft chair swing ride because they are pansies The ride was quite amazing! Even though there was a lot of faffing to get everyone secured into the seats.
The group decided to bypass the log flume since it was dead and head for the drop tower, I couldn’t be bothered and went to whore GeForce. At the time it was raining quite lightly. I managed 5-6 rides mostly back 2 cars, as I went for my last ride before the ERT (front row) the rain became really heavy, I was standing in the air gates waiting for my train to come in, the first train dispatched, got 10ft up the lift and stopped [/typical]
They were quite efficient removing the people from the train, took about 5 minutes, we stood there in the rain while the engineer faffed with it, the ride op shouted something over the PA, everyone in the station left, so I assume it meant the ride was closed.
I stayed in the shop since that was dry. I spotted some Cfers, so I went over to meet them, by this time the rain was easing off, and the crowd outside the EGF queue was quite substantial. Luckily we were greeted by a German lady who lead us up the ride exit queue for our 3 ERT test rides!
As the train entered the station, we frantically changed rows and went around again, by this time everyone had done front and back rows.
After the rain it seemed like they had slowed the lift hill down, since it was really sluggish over the S hill and the final 3 airtime hills, where it was running amazingly in the first few rides.
The trims are hardly noticeable in the front 2-3 rows, but you can really feel the at the back.
I still think EGF is good enough for my number 2 slot, purely because of that first drop!
After the ERT we quickly left Holiday park in search of more coasters…..
Holiday park is located in the middle of nowhere, despite this, we all arrived within a short time of one another due obligatory satnav ignorance.
The park reminded me of Oakwood around 6-7 years ago (before the construction of Hydro) boasting just one major ride and a few smaller attractions, despite this, the park had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere.
After a lot of faffing with the EGF pictures on the tickets, and who was going to get them :roll: we finally made our way into the park.
EGF was the first ride of the day, which was the most anticipated ride on the trip for me. It is beginning to show its age with a small amount of vibrations, but the ride was overall quite smooth.
I rode towards the front with Mark, Marc ect. I was amazed at how good the first drop was in the front row, and it seemed like the back row would be lethal!
The ride had some great airtime, and the overbanks were quite cool too.
The second ride of the day was the SuperGerbil Vekoma Corkscrew of Death, surprisingly it wasn’t death, it was definitely the best of the 3 I have ridden, and the interaction with the surronding trees is quite pleasant, and a lot better than the other models which are strategically ‘dumped’ onto concrete bases.
Many people opted out of the 200ft chair swing ride because they are pansies
The ride was quite amazing! Even though there was a lot of faffing to get everyone secured into the seats. The group decided to bypass the log flume since it was dead and head for the drop tower, I couldn’t be bothered and went to whore GeForce. At the time it was raining quite lightly. I managed 5-6 rides mostly back 2 cars, as I went for my last ride before the ERT (front row) the rain became really heavy, I was standing in the air gates waiting for my train to come in, the first train dispatched, got 10ft up the lift and stopped [/typical]
They were quite efficient removing the people from the train, took about 5 minutes, we stood there in the rain while the engineer faffed with it, the ride op shouted something over the PA, everyone in the station left, so I assume it meant the ride was closed.
I stayed in the shop since that was dry. I spotted some Cfers, so I went over to meet them, by this time the rain was easing off, and the crowd outside the EGF queue was quite substantial. Luckily we were greeted by a German lady who lead us up the ride exit queue for our 3 ERT test rides!
As the train entered the station, we frantically changed rows and went around again, by this time everyone had done front and back rows.
After the rain it seemed like they had slowed the lift hill down, since it was really sluggish over the S hill and the final 3 airtime hills, where it was running amazingly in the first few rides.
The trims are hardly noticeable in the front 2-3 rows, but you can really feel the at the back.
I still think EGF is good enough for my number 2 slot, purely because of that first drop!
After the ERT we quickly left Holiday park in search of more coasters…..
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
I'm really sorry that I suck at writting reports.
XD
I just find them no fun to read or write so I can't make them interesting.
So I say comment on how I want to go back to Tripsdrill and Phantasialand... And another German fair.
XD
I just find them no fun to read or write so I can't make them interesting.
So I say comment on how I want to go back to Tripsdrill and Phantasialand... And another German fair.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Nice video, Lain! Your voice is weird, but I agree with Snoo about the accents being super awesome.
Looks like a fun time, so sad I couldn't go, but with me being in Canada and everything, it might have been pretty pricey . Also, it seems you had a good time without me anyway.
Sad to hear that some of you were disappointed with Expedition GeForce, but I think I can understand that considering I don't think it looks as good as it's cracked up to be.
Looks like a fun time, so sad I couldn't go, but with me being in Canada and everything, it might have been pretty pricey
. Also, it seems you had a good time without me anyway. Sad to hear that some of you were disappointed with Expedition GeForce, but I think I can understand that considering I don't think it looks as good as it's cracked up to be.