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[Complete!] SWGaF - Day 8: The Gangnam Style Room

Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
I've known about Coaster Breaks ever since its conception - a small group of 7 coaster maniacs get driven around parks by a tour guide for a week or so, visiting many places in the process. Being a very "I love public transport!" guy, going on one of these trips sounded fun but was never really on my radar. However, as time passed, the idea of doing one sounded like a better and better idea. I spotted one trip that involved a few parks that seemed *really* inconvenient to get to by bus & train, and I was told that if you go on a coaster break you could be invited onto a USA tour, and I wanted to see how I would deal with being around more people that have my energy. And so the South West Germany and France tour was booked.

Day 0: Frankfurt Airport
"I hate Frankfurt Airport"

Day 1: Holiday Park
"Not just Expedition GeForce!"

Day 2: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
"Does anyone want cheese?"

Day 3: Europa Park
"The Endless Struggle Against Dark Rides"

Day 4: Europa Park again
"Unfinished Business"

Day 5: Walygator Grand Est
"Dumpster Fire Lizard Bathroom"

Day 6: Nigloland
"A Reminder To Notify Your Group Before Going Elsewhere"

Day 7: Parc Astérix
"The 1-Member Goudurix Fan Club"

Day 8: Parc Saint Paul
"The Gangnam Style Room"

The trip kicked off in some Holiday Inn Express near Frankfurt Airport, but we had to make our own way there as the tour guide was making his way from the UK in his multi-seater van. Finding out that he was making a stop at Bobbejaanland on the way there, I sent him a message asking him to pick up a Revolution shirt for me as they weren't in stock on my visit, he pulled through and I got it. Huge.

Unfortunately, Frankfurt Airport may very well be the worst airport I've ever been to. The place was incredibly linear, ExCeL London levels of straight line madness with incorrect signage (if it even existed) and literally nowhere pointing me in the direction of a taxi rank where I could get my Bolt. Eventually I found the taxi rank but my Bolt wasn't there, and after over half an hour on the phone to Mr Driver over where the f**k he was, I cut my losses and cancelled it before sending a "help me" message to the tour guide seeing if he can pick me up from the airport as I REALLY DO NOT LIKE DEALING WITH TAXIS. I am on my knees begging, BEGGING for these taxi apps to add a video calling feature. PLEASE.

Anyway, I ended up gaining the confidence to hail a normal taxi. Bolt man asked for 20 euros for the 9 minute drive to the hotel. Taxi man asked for 35. I just wanted to get to the hotel. I said ok. The whole ordeal dealing with the unbelievable faff of the straight line hell, getting food, and the taxi torment meant that I landed at 1pm and checked into the hotel at no earlier than about 6:30pm.

We met with the rest of the group before setting off for dinner where we got together, had some laughs about everything, and how we have shared experience with awful experiences of Frankfurt (and how one guy almost had his phone stolen). Dinner was good, then we saved a random car from being stuck on a dirt mound which required the pushing force of about 6 people (and the driver flooring it) to get unstuck. Fun.

An inconvenient start to the day, I've always always always hated taxis but if I really do want to be serious with this whole theme parking business, it's something I'm going to have to deal with and get used to, so I see it as more of a "stepping stone experience" rather than something negative.

Tomorrow - Premier Rides
 
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Day 1: Holiday Park

We started with a swift drive to Holiday Park which went past like a breeze as we introduced ourselves properly and had interesting stuff to share, then suddenly we were there. Travel notes will probably not be as much of a thing as they are during my public transport endeavours as things really don't go much further than "we listened to funny music, we talked a bunch, the drive went well" which is honestly about all you could ask for with a drive.

Coming up to Expedition GeForce was pretty cool but didn't really give me the "after all this time I'm finally here!" that other people gain from seeing a world-class roller coaster like this, but to be frank I didn't really get this feeling across any of the parks - in my eyes, if I book a trip weeks in advance then spend all that time anticipating it, it eventually becomes no big surprise that I'm eventually here as it's something I've planned for so long.
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So how was #296 Expedition GeForce? Well I'm pleased to say it surpassed all expectations. The back row provides some glorious moments of airtime and the insanity of the first drop lived up to its hype, having a level of peril that Kondaa lacked. The airtime was phenomenal but I was worried about the middle section, which people claimed was where the ride stepped back from intense thrills for a short amount of time.
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Well they're wrong! I loved the sense of speed that you got through the overbanks, and it felt like the ride was just "having fun with itself" flying around wherever it wanted, with a sense of purpose too. The twisted hill going back into the hill-filled finale provided some great laterals, and from there it was ejector airtime after ejector airtime after ejector airtime to finish you off.
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After 3 laps in the back row Expedition GeForce had solidified itself as an awesome roller coaster that deserves the praise it gets. A member of our group had recommended we try the front row, so that was put on the cards for later.
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Wickie Splash was a rather unassuming log flume so went in not expecting much... drop 1 we were drowned immediately as a tidal wave of water demolished our entire group. The rest wasn't too bad, but it's always the tiny drops that obliterate everything about you and I loved it.
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Disko time, Große Welle was decent for the first couple minutes but went on for FAR too long. I was very "I get the idea now" about 30% of the way through but it just kept going on and on and on to the point where it started to detract from the ride experience quite significantly.
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Up next was my first ever roller coaster from Premier Rides, #297 Sky Scream. I've heard that these things are just 'alright' with people split down the middle of whether they prefer front or back, but people seemed to be in universal agreement that the trains kind of sucked - well I'm happy to report that after a back row ride, it's much better than what people made them out to be (but I guess these rides pale in comparison to the other rides in the parks that they usually reside in).
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As there was no line we went immediately back around for another go in the front, and I have to say the front was much better. Guess I should talk about the ride then - the backwards launch is great but you are just kind of chilling at the top of that non-inverting loop for a while as it takes a while to lose speed on a slope that's levelling out, but that's a non-issue.

However my most interesting take is that the twisting drop out of the roll in the front feels exactly like the drop on Hyperia, just smaller and with more laterals (and arguably just as much airtime too). The rest of the ride is great, the launches hit, the airtime coming into the top of the ride is fun, the shinguards I didn't really care for.
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My biggest issue with the ride is getting across the train and scraping your knee across everything as you embarrassingly stumble across them while on bag duty. That's something that I really think Premier needs to work on, but otherwise actually being in the trains is fine. This whole ride feels like something Flamingo Land would get.

Up next was Beach Rescue, a jet ski ride. There's generally not much to say about these but I appreciate how they feel like the Skids, one of my all-time favourite flat rides.
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Lighthouse Tower was afterwards. I could've sworn this ride was much higher, am I forgetting something? Otherwise, the views were good but a bit of an odd location at the very edge of the park rather than in the middle of everything.
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The final coaster in the park, #298 Tabalugas Achterbahn, was leagues ahead of the other two of this model I'd done. I'm not sure why but I just did not enjoy Rabalder and the chicken one as much as I did this one, but it was randomly a blast for no reason.
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Also, side note - why does Tabaluga have his own roller coaster, but absolutely no merchandise?
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Free Fall Tower provided some awesome views of the park, with an alright (for me) drop. It truly pains me how no drop tower "does it" for me anymore. I wish I still had that feeling of terror, peril and danger and I wish the drop still had the punch that they all used to have. I'll still do drop towers but it's not looking good for the future when I come off almost all of them thinking "the drop could've been better". When will I meet my match again? I also sure why the drop tower was playing pop music and Feel Good Inc. but it was funny.
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Dino Splash
was a surprisingly short rapids with a couple moments, not really a standout rapids but it was still alright.
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And after that, we went for two more laps on Expedition GeForce where we snagged a ride in row 2 (close enough to the front, we didn't want to wait 2 extra cycles) and honestly if it wasn't for completely losing the masterful first drop it felt just as good as the back - the airtime hills are perfectly engineered to be fantastic on both ends of the train, something that won't be true for a future ride later down the line.

As good as front is, we still craved the feeling of the back row first drop so got our final ride in at the other end of the train. I love how a ride from 2001 can still hold up this much, it's truly deserving of it's world-class status.
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But the actual final ride was another go in the front of Sky Scream, as our group wanted another go on the sky fly but a couple of us weren't feeling that. I'm still a fan and would be excited to get on another one.
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That ended our day at Holiday Park, it feels great to have done The Ride and the park is so much more than "a place that happens to have Expedition GeForce". I can't wait to come back for their new big additions that they have in the pipeline.
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Tomorrow - Basket Zodiac
 
Day 2: Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

It's going to be weird having no travel notes - all of our drives have been "it went smoothly, we drove from A to B in relatively quick time with no issues". So with nothing to say on that behalf, may as well get straight into the meat of the day.

Today was a big milestone day, hitting my 300th different roller coaster, so naturally we started with #299 Volldampf. Was already a big fan of its catchy trula-trula-trula-la theme tune, and also instantly fell in love with how the train vehicle has actual steam coming out of it. The layout takes a linear path, like Saven & Luna, which I generally prefer over the more compact twisty ones. This one is no different, does the job well with great interactions with the suspended thrill coaster too.
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The big milestone is #300 Hals-über-Kopf, my first Suspended Thrill Coaster. Think Orkanen at Fårup Sommerland but it goes upside down basically, and that is exactly what it is. This is actually a criticism of the ride for some, in that it doesn't quite go far enough with the 'thrill' aspect but I wasn't too bothered - Hals is a fantastic ride that was very deserving of its place as my 300th roller coaster.
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While honestly it's one of the lesser smooth nu-Vekomas I've done, I did note a bit of a rattle in the back, it wasn't enough to negatively affect the ride for me. I loved the flow of the layout and how it provided actually decent force plus a restraint that you could actually move around in, cough cough. The rolls were great, the turns were great, the interactions were great, the fact that the far spike for Volldampf is in the station is great, these are the ingredients for a generally... great ride.
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We went around for a lap two, again in the back, before setting off elsewhere. While not as forceful as the B&M inverted coasters, their variety & lap bar is quite an advantage which actually puts it a cut above one (soon to be two) of the inverts that I've done.
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I also absolutely loved the presentation of the area. In a time & age where new coasters with this level of path interaction are increasingly becoming extremely rare, it felt great to see a (fairly) new ride with this level of interaction. It felt like it fit absolutely seamlessly into the park too - one of my favourite aspects of parks is when it's difficult for the average eye to tell what the new thing is, a very underrated thing that doesn't get discussed enough at all.

Moving on to #301 Mammut, my first (and I believe last?) wooden coaster manufactured by Gerstlauer. I'd heard bad things about this so hopped in a non-wheel seat and braced for the worst, and while a very notable vibration was felt throughout the whole ride, I came off thinking that was a very fun ride that had decent length to it. While the shuffle was very much a thing, I didn't care for it at all really - I was fully able to enjoy the ride and that's all that mattered.
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#302 G'sengte Sau had one of the longest queues of the entire trip (a four or five-way tie at 40 minutes, I think) and was my third example of this ride layout. Being the first coaster by Gerstlauer it ran surprisingly decent, had excellent theming, and the iconic "Wetten dass...?" sign. I think it's a potential contender for my favourite bobsled.
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Continuing onwards to #303 Karacho, an awesome infinity coaster (and my third consecutive Gerstlauer roller coaster). I wasn't a huge fan of the uncomfortable lurch downwards into the launch, but everything that followed was incredible. The launch had a punch that few LSMs bring these days, the top hat was fantastic, the inverting top hat hit in a way that Helix's didn't.
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The following turns are cool & fun, and I find it funny how Gerstlauer coasters have a general trend of "hey, let's funny around for a bit, give you a nice tour of the area :)" and then suddenly out of nowhere "haha f**k you, die" in their rides - here, it's represented by a pleasant helix after the midcourse brake run followed by an abrupt & intense dive loop into a tunnel followed by a hangtime-fuelled corkscrew into the brakes. These moments are a staple of Gerstlauer, and I like them.
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On the brakes I was taking issue with the lap bars digging into a place where I would really rather they didn't, and sitting on the brakes kind of really sucked for that very reason. Despite this, Karacho is easily my favourite roller coaster in the park, has a brilliant station & train design & goofy soundtrack to go with it - I rate it highly.
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Up next was Badewannenfahrt zum Jungbrunnen, a bathtub-themed log flume. I was told about one of the scenes of the ride and how it left a few parkgoers shocked, but nobody told me about how the splash absolutely soaks the queue line. This photo I took from the danger zone perfectly illustrates just how clueless I really was - I wish this was a video, but at the same time, I had no clue what was about to happen.
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Absolutely waterbombed before the ride even started, I found it hilarious. Before long we boarded, and it's an excellent flume. The scene in question that I was warned about was very inoffensive, just a fountain of youth scene with a nude woman in it - the way they were describing it made it sound like the entire room was filled with extreme adult content with pickles as far as the eye could see, but no none of that. It was a nice ride.
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We then did the Hängebrücke which was good fun.

Then got food before proceeding to #304 Rasender Tausendfüßler, one of the absolute funniest rides of the entire trip. I had a massive restraint gap, stood up on the way down, grabbed leaves, it was fantastic and utter hilarity the whole way through. I love these rides forever and always.
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The group decided to ride a sky fly, so in the meantime, we saw the first of two animatronic bands of the trip, Musik-Pavillon "Die Fidelen Tripsdriller",
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Suppenschüsselfahrt is a tea cups ride on the track, reminded me of the fantastic Tyrolean Tubtwist but with a little less violence. Fun way to pass time.
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Kaffeetassen-Fahrt is a tea cups ride, reminded me of normal tea cups rides as it was one. We span, it was a fun way to pass time.
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Wäschekorb-Rundflug is a paratrooper but you sit in washing baskets instead of parachutes. We span, was fun, nice little variant of a common ride.
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Quickfire round done, the rest of the group was done with the sky fly, so we went to Karacho for a reride. I had mostly the same opinion, still comfortably one of my favourite coasters only brought down by the pre-launch lurch and the crushing brakes.
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Then we did the Vinarium, a winery where you can get a free shot glass by scanning your park ticket then fill it up with some delicious drinks for cheap. We went for the non-alcoholic options, which were great.
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This is the place where a running joke spawned within the group, after a couple members spotted a pot of cheese cubes for sale. It started off with "these cheese cubes are really tasty" before very quickly turning into "...does anyone want cheese?" They were pretty good, but now they had a lot of cheese on them. It quickly started into a round of challenges through the rest of the tour where "the winner gets cheese", but you guessed it, everyone was too full of cheese to want more cheese.

Vinarium done, and an unholy amount of cheese in our possession, it was time for Altmännermühle, the park's outdoor funhouse, where things immediately went wrong when one member instantly lost their footing in a large rotating drum. Unable to get up, the guide tried to rescue them before also succumbing to the wrath of the wheel, before it was stopped presumably by a staff member overlooking the parkour courses. The rest of the obstacles were just as if not more perilous, with some sliding floors that got you going extremely quick. Overall it was a hilarious experience that everyone saw the funny side of.

Then started a mini log flume takeover on Mühlbach-Fahrt where I did a solo participation in a "loudest scream on the drop competition" which turned more than a few heads!
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The thing that started Tripsdrill's life as a theme park was Altweibermühle, the windmill slide. This was remarkably perilous and landed me with quite a friction burn which had me disposing some of my water onto it, but was absolutely worth the chaos.

Beginning to wind things down we hit up Wilde Gautsche, my first Wild Swing. This was a pretty fun family ride that was great fun for what it was.
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Then ended it with two more rides on Hals, where opinions remained relatively unchanged (solid ride).
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Tripsdrill was a brilliant park with truly no bad rides, it's impressive to see quality this consistent across the board.
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Tomorrow - Piccolo Mondo
 

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Day 3: Europa Park and Rulantica

Part 1: Europa Park


I've heard excellent things about Voltron, let's figure out what we're doing then.
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Obviously it was the first ride we went to. Located in the new Croatia themed area, #305 Voltron Nevera is about Nikola Tesla, Mr. John Electricity himself, and a fictional device built to teleport people I think. Presented incredibly well, and perhaps the most impressive area presentation of a new for 2024 roller coaster (clearing a very low bar), I was supremely excited to ride. I will say that it does suffer a little from not having a terrible amount of good angles as most of the ride travels outside of the park, the angles you can get are still pretty awesome. Couple that with being one of the most addictive rides to watch that I've seen in a good while, and we're instantly onto a winner.
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The queue line features some neat water features and our introduction to electricity in the outdoor section, with the unique beyond vertical launch dominating your sightlines. Here I get my introduction to the iconic capacity monsters that are these rides, with a full train of 16 riders being loaded and sent almost every 35 seconds, which is simply incredible work. And as a result the queue absolutely moves so quickly, and before long we're in the indoor section which is perhaps one of the most impressive queue lines I've ever been in (if not ever).
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On one side you see Mr. Electricity giving a speech, with a train entering the preshow in the background. Some shutters close before you see the room absolutely dominate with fluttering purple currents going manic, the shutters reopen, the train is gone. Turn 180, a second set of closed shutters opens before the train reveals itself - you've teleported, nice. Above is a group of tesla coils that sing the ride's theme which is... wow. The first time I saw it happen, I was blown away in every sense of the word. You put your stuff in a locker, then board the front(!) row.
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I haven't been this excited to be on a roller coaster in a very, very, very long time. Hype levels were absolutely off the charts when we sped up into the preshow, vibrated to intense moving, jumped, then launched into the heavens. An extremely intense layout follows with inversion after insane ejector after incredible inversion - there are absolutely no misses in the entire layout. The sequential immelmann loops are an... interesting layout decision, but I liked it. I experienced my first ever "real" stall inversion which was fantastic hangtime, twisty, dive loop into a pop of ejector into the brakes.
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Unfortunately the turntable that sends you into the second half is unfinished, with quite a bit of work still left to do, but hopefully it gets completed for next year - I hold high hope that it'll look brilliant once done. A punchy backwards launch into an admittedly kind of lackluster spike before sending you hurtling towards an awesome top hat similar to Karacho, before sprinting towards an ascension-worthy outerbank followed by a ridiculous double-up into the midcourse brakes. But there's no breaks here, you're sent immediately into a glorious roll before a low turn which is by far the most positive-heavy moment in the ride before an overbank into a final inversion before the end.
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Overall Voltron Nevera is a masterpiece of a roller coaster, obviously. It's a perfect mix of airtime, hangtime & inversions, with a sprinkle of positives in it too. But it's time to move, there's a f**kload of s**t that needs doing.

Such as Piraten in Batavia. I tried so, so hard to like you. I tried so hard to love this ride, I wanted to so badly, but I left feeling unsatisfied. It felt like it ended too soon, and failed to immerse myself into the worlds. However I think I've finally realised why most dark rides aren't doing it for me anymore, especially international ones - it's because I don't understand the storyline, and as a result of not knowing what the storyline is, it just becomes "look at these physical sets we made and we hope you get feelings for them". Although that doesn't explain my love for Phantom Manor, I guess it clears at least some things up. Droomvlucht didn't even really have a story, I guess that makes sense.
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With this knowledge I think you can gain some intel on what my opinions will be for every other dark ride on this trip, unfortunately, it pains me to say it.

Koffiekopjes was next, a fun tea cups ride.
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Then we found #306 blue fire Megacoaster, which we had a virtual line slot for and so boarded immediately. The audio was on for this lap, but unfortunately was completely unsynced horribly which this ride is infamous for. A surprisingly decent launch sends you into a weird overbank thing before a loop and a nice pop into the midcourse (already?), before two sequential and punchy zero G rolls. Apparently two zero G rolls warrants a completely new name, the "twisted horseshoe roll", and I have no idea why coaster enthusiasts are so... okay with these stupid and unreasonable element names. It's not a twisted horseshoe roll, it's a Zero G Roll followed by another Zero G Roll. Please.
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A slow twisted hill threading through the loop leads into by far the most intense moment of the ride, a comically tight roll into the brakes. I thought Blue Fire was a fantastic ride personally, found it to be very underrated as a lot of people don't really discuss or rate this ride as highly as I do.
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#307 Wodan Timbur Coaster gained the crown of becoming my new favourite wooden coaster, barely beating out Balder. While it ends a bit soon, its insanely fast paced layouts has not a single dead moment in it and is GO GO GO from start to finish without a second to breathe which is a little rare for me especially with wooden coasters. The ride suffers a little from having very few decent photo angles though.
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Snorri Touren was next, their advertisement for Rulantica which we'd be heading to later today. I also didn't get it, but liked the good vibes that the attraction had. There was a nice surprise with the section where the car tilted a little, but the ride left little impression on me although it's pretty clear that I wasn't the target audience. Maybe I didn't get the storyline.
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Tiroler Wildwasserbahn was the most recent ride at the park to get decimated by fire, and the whole area really feels like it used to be something much bigger and better. It badly lacks... buildings, and is just some rocks everywhere. It's a fun log flume though, but nothing standout.
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#308 EuroSat - CanCan Coaster had a pretty miserable queue, but I survived through it with the amusing background music and the fact that this might, MIGHT just be an indoor coaster with things that happen inside the building. Well we'll get to that, but first I loved the lift hill of this thing, the suspenseful music as you spiral upwards and view the iconic French landmarks was so memorable. And when the coaster got going, the way the music built up from the lift of suspense to breaking into the CanCan was great, and the satisfaction I felt experiencing an indoor coaster that isn't just pitch black the whole way through was simply put immense. The coaster section itself was a load of fun too, and got off satisfied.
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Our next ride was a virtual queue slot for Voletarium which we got straight onto. Out of the three flying theatres I've done this fits snugly in second place although I did want to like it more than Sky Lion. Sitting nearer the edge I tried pretty hard to block out the edges to immerse myself into the world, but the awkward and abrupt Movie Maker fades between the blurry scenes kept taking me right out of it. I didn't really feel anything, and left Voletarium slightly disappointed. Oh well... ugh. Why can't I enjoy dark rides more?
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Speaking of dark rides, let's try again, hello #309 Arthur. And instead of leaving straight faced, again, this was possibly the biggest emotional reaction I've had to an amusement park ride in a long time. While yes I've also had utterly zero context on what the ride was about, I once again wasn't really getting it when the ride started but when it sped up... I was in hysterics until the brakes.
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The janky shunty way those trains funny around the track is unforgettably funny, and the Snoop Dogg scene is possibly one of the most surprising moments I've ever experienced on a coaster. My face coming off the ride was something not to be forgotten, and simply lost it when I met back up with my group (we all went for single rider). After a few minutes of being unable to control my laughter on what the hell Arthur is, I accepted that I still like dark rides even when I can't quite follow the story. All you need is a little jankiness and shock factor, and you're cool.
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But there is still an overwhelming amount of things on the to-do list, we've barely broken a dent into it and very soon we have to consider leaving for our evening slot at Rulantica.
You know, sometimes I wonder if I have my priorities straight in this whole coaster thing, because how did it take me 310 credits before ever stepping foot on a B&M hyper? Is there genuinely, unironically, anyone else who took a longer time to get on one? Because I'm not sure. Well, it's finally time though, for #310 Silver Star. Some would say it would feel incredible to finally be on one after all this time, some would say it would feel nice but wonder why they took so long. Well I'm in the latter - going up the lift was a euphoric milestone, and going down the drop was that only tenfold. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I haven't been on a B&M hyper after all this time as I, you know, haven't booked trips to places that have them despite having every opportunity to do so. Whatever.
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Past the first hill however I instantly noticed a bit of an issue - while being yanked over the tops of the hills and being out of your seat for the rest of it was amazing, going up the hills felt like a big dud; it's the epitome of waiting, for the top of the hill to come, before that magnificent float downwards and the trouble is is that happens for every big straight hill on the ride. I wish I could do something about that. Also, on the first and second valleys I lost pretty much all of the gap between myself and the lap bar which also hindered some airtime I would've gotten. And speaking of the valleys, the rattle at the bottom of the first drop was definitely a thing that happened but was absolutely nowhere near the car crash that people described it as being.
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The second half is where things start getting really good though, even if the ride has lost a lot of its height by now, as the drops off the midcourse and the following turnaround provide some shocking ejector airtime that the ride was definitely not designed to handle, and they're hilarious moments of the ride that really wowed me. A quick S-bend into the brakes finishes off a simply splendid ride. While my criticisms of the "going up the hill" sensation are still there, I'm able to see that at the end of the day it's a) 11:59pm and b) still an awesome roller coaster that thoroughly deserves its very high placement in my rankings. However, I hope that this experience isn't shared across all of the B&M hypers although I've heard Silver Star is one of the best ones so... yeah.
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#311 Poseidon was next, a water coaster that essentially combines Skatteøen and SuperSplash Tusenfryd. While there was a big jolt at the bottom of the first drop, the roughness of this ride was pretty overstated and overall wasn't too bad. I think this is my new favourite non-launched water coaster actually, but just barely, as Skatteøen sits just one spot below.
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So when the fire happened that destroyed Alpenexpress & Tiroler Wildwasserbahn, Europa Park's insurance company got very pissed off at the state of their Geisterschloss dark ride and said "these fire codes are not up to scratch, this will be the next ride to go, and if it goes, this entire area will be razed to the ground." Europa got SO scared of a fire at Geisterschloss that they stationed firefighters inside the building to watch the ride as it went...

So soon the ride closed for a major refurbishment, and as a result we got Castello dei Medici. Once again it's a dark ride that I don't understand the story of and so it becomes "look at these set pieces that are somehow connected" and as a result, again, I didn't leave thoroughly impressed. I understood that it was basically mini Phantom Manor though, but one thing I wish I never found out was how they did the spinning ghost effects. Not only do I not get storylines, I also look at the things happening and my only thought in my head becomes "I wonder how they did that?" and so the whole thing becomes me thinking about how an effect was done instead of being, you know, immersed into the worldbuilding. But the thing is, if I went into a dark ride knowing the storyline, then that's a major spoiler that ruins any surprises the ride might have. So it's a lose-lose-lose-lose situation that benefits nobody. But I did really like the preshow. It obviously took multiple chapters from Phantom Manor, it's still an excellently fun concept that I enjoy no matter what.
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We had time for one more ride, Piccolo Mondo, I didn't even know what that name meant at the time. It was short and sweet, and that's about all I got from it. One thing I do enjoy in this park is how you can walk straight onto a tiny ride that lasts two minutes, not everything has to be massive and big.
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And with that we had to leave for our evening slot at Rulantica, with multiple unchecked boxes. The park is teetering on the side of too big, with a f**kload of s**t to do. Our day involved strategising rides to pick up when the queues were at their shortest, and strategically picking which rides to use our virtual queue slots on. I was thankful that we had two days here, one absolutely was not enough. Although I do see the light, I loved the park, but I will admit it has been a little stressful with honest doubts that we'd be leaving with everything done even after two days. I can see the park being a whale of a time and one of the best theme parks in the world once you've done everything though and can just focus on rerides of the good stuff and taking in the atmosphere. But not yet.


Later today - some roks
 
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Great report @Rob Coasters; I’m glad you seemed to enjoy Europa Park!

With regard to your critique about it possibly being too big, I think Europa Park, if you are wanting to do absolutely everything, is possibly a 3 day park. You could probably do everything major in 2 days, but if you want to experience a lot of the dark rides, smaller rides and such as well and leave wiggle room for plenty of rerides, I think 3 days is optimal. I stayed for 3 days on my visit there 2 years ago, and I found that to be just right.

It’s interesting that you say about Silver Star having poor hill shaping that only gives airtime going down the hill. I don’t remember thinking this myself, but I will say that it’s an older B&M Hyper Coaster, and I think they’ve improved their hill shaping since. Having ridden both, I would certainly say that Mako, a newer B&M hyper, seems to have slightly differently shaped airtime hills that give marginally stronger airtime over the entire hill, and for what it’s worth, I actually found Mako better in the front whereas I found Silver Star better in the back. You get really pushed up into the hills in the front of Mako! You do on Silver Star as well, but to a slightly lesser extent; I found the back to be the somewhat more impactful row on Silver Star, likely for the reason you suggest as well as the brilliance of that post-MCBR ejector!

I’ll have to report back further findings once I’ve ridden Shambhala in 3 weeks’ time…
 
With regard to your critique about it possibly being too big, I think Europa Park, if you are wanting to do absolutely everything, is possibly a 3 day park. You could probably do everything major in 2 days, but if you want to experience a lot of the dark rides, smaller rides and such as well and leave wiggle room for plenty of rerides, I think 3 days is optimal. I stayed for 3 days on my visit there 2 years ago, and I found that to be just right.
There was a full second day (report to come) where we stayed from open to close, and we did eventually get everything on the to-do list (including the silly dark rides) with about three or four hours to spare for rerides. During this time for rerides I was able to enjoy the park far more and take it in so much more. We strategically picked out spots for the virtual queue and hit most rides when they had a short queue, and my tour guide said that "if you wanted to do absolutely everything but hit the wrong rides at the wrong times and didn't use virtual queue, Europa could easily be a 4 day park" which I fully believe.

I believe that on a future visit to Europa I will spend just as long if not longer, and as I wouldn't be spending my time riding the lackluster stuff as I've already done them before, I can spend more time on my favourite stuff and maybe even taking more time to soak in the atmosphere of the park. And as a result I'll enjoy it much, much more.
It’s interesting that you say about Silver Star having poor hill shaping that only gives airtime going down the hill. I don’t remember thinking this myself, but I will say that it’s an older B&M Hyper Coaster, and I think they’ve improved their hill shaping since. Having ridden both, I would certainly say that Mako, a newer B&M hyper, seems to have slightly differently shaped airtime hills that give marginally stronger airtime over the entire hill, and for what it’s worth, I actually found Mako better in the front whereas I found Silver Star better in the back. You get really pushed up into the hills in the front of Mako! You do on Silver Star as well, but to a slightly lesser extent; I found the back to be the somewhat more impactful row on Silver Star, likely for the reason you suggest as well as the brilliance of that post-MCBR ejector!

I’ll have to report back further findings once I’ve ridden Shambhala in 3 weeks’ time…
I hope this is the case with Mako, and I hotly anticipate your Shambhala opinion!
 
@Rob Coasters To further evidence what I was talking about earlier, it does definitely look as though B&M altered their airtime hill shape slightly between Silver Star and Mako if you compare pictures of the two side by side:
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(Source: Coasterpedia)
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(Source: AllEars.net)

It’s not a perfect comparison photos-wise, admittedly, but to me, it looks as though B&M have steepened the angle of the hills on Mako compared to Silver Star and also made the parabolic curve a bit sharper with less straightening out. On Silver Star, it straightens out more in the middle, whereas on Mako it’s a more pronounced curve.

I didn’t hear you talk about Silver Star’s first drop, but another thing I found with Mako versus Silver Star in that sense is that Mako’s first drop is notably more aggressive. On Silver Star, the first drop is quite gentle and you float quite gently down it regardless of what row you’re sat in, whereas on Mako you get a lot more of a strong pull over the first drop with much stronger airtime, particularly towards the back of the train. B&M definitely improved their first drop game between the two coasters for me; the first drop was probably one of Silver Star’s weaker moments for me, whereas on Mako, it’s one of my highlights of the ride!

They’re both sublime rides, though; Mako just pips Silver Star to the post for me, but they’re both rides I absolutely love and there’s not a lot in it, in my view!

Sorry to derail your thread… on a more topical note, I’m interested to see what you thought to Rulantica! I wasn’t able to fit it in on my 2022 visit, unfortunately… am I correct in thinking that this was your first waterpark? I don’t seem to remember you doing any waterpark reports previously.
 
@Rob Coasters To further evidence what I was talking about earlier, it does definitely look as though B&M altered their airtime hill shape slightly between Silver Star and Mako if you compare pictures of the two side by side:


It’s not a perfect comparison photos-wise, admittedly, but to me, it looks as though B&M have steepened the angle of the hills on Mako compared to Silver Star and also made the parabolic curve a bit sharper with less straightening out. On Silver Star, it straightens out more in the middle, whereas on Mako it’s a more pronounced curve.
I agree there - the Mako hills look extremely promising, I've actually forgotten just how much SiSta straightens out which is definitely a big contributor to my issue. Mako looks to rectify that issue perfectly, and suddenly I have a lot more excitement for it!
I didn’t hear you talk about Silver Star’s first drop, but another thing I found with Mako versus Silver Star in that sense is that Mako’s first drop is notably more aggressive. On Silver Star, the first drop is quite gentle and you float quite gently down it regardless of what row you’re sat in, whereas on Mako you get a lot more of a strong pull over the first drop with much stronger airtime, particularly towards the back of the train. B&M definitely improved their first drop game between the two coasters for me; the first drop was probably one of Silver Star’s weaker moments for me, whereas on Mako, it’s one of my highlights of the ride!
Yeah, I did neglect to mention the first drop a little - I only very briefly touched on it where I said it felt good going down it, but it was a pretty good moment of the ride. It's honestly one of the moments that I didn't have that many mental notes of, so as a result I don't have much to say about it, but I do remember floating down it and coming out of my seat a little. I remember enjoying it quite a lot, but braced for the rattle on my first ride which ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be. It's cool to hear that Mako's is much better, I'm excited to get on that!
They’re both sublime rides, though; Mako just pips Silver Star to the post for me, but they’re both rides I absolutely love and there’s not a lot in it, in my view!

Sorry to derail your thread… on a more topical note, I’m interested to see what you thought to Rulantica! I wasn’t able to fit it in on my 2022 visit, unfortunately… am I correct in thinking that this was your first waterpark? I don’t seem to remember you doing any waterpark reports previously.
No need to apologise - these trip reports are not only to be read, but to also generate discussion! I enjoy talking about my experiences just as much as I do writing about them. Also, defending my opinion and explaining extensively why I think something is a core part of it all for me too. I remember in my shambles of a Liseberg trip report where I was asked about why I felt the way I did about Helix, and it got me thinking deeply about what I said about the ride and honestly changed quite largely how I approached large-scale parks and roller coasters. The same thing happened with my week in Belgium which also changed how I approached parks and rides in general. So feel free to converse as much as you want without worry of derailing the topic - the next part is going to come no matter what, so may as well voice your input if you have any!

And I've never written a water park trip report before, but the ones I have visited are:
-Siam Park, Tenerife
-Aqua Land, Corfu
-the indoor one near Southport Pleasureland
-Subtropical Swimming Paradise, Center Parcs Whinfell Forest
-and the defunct indoor one that was at Hemel Hempstead.

I'm sure I've been to a couple more, but that's all that's coming to mind right now!
 
The decision is being made not to go forwards with the Rulantica trip report - apologies. However, if you have any burning questions (such as my favourite slides or how the park works or what happens in Rulantica) then feel free to ask stuff and I'll answer to the best of my ability.
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Day 4: Europa Park, again

We restart our Europa experience with bagging a Voltron virtual queue slot while in the queue for #312 Euro-Mir, one of my most anticipated rides of the whole trip for some reason. Hearing the iconic soundtrack for the first time in person hit exactly as much as I hoped it would, making it impossible to stand still while in the queue (looks at Helix, shakes head slightly, turns back). Climbing the lift hill was brilliant too as the music continues to play as you go up while spinning around too. The wild mouse section at the top is, uhhh, definitely a decision that they made when building this ride, but the mirrors that the buildings are made of is a nice and funny touch as you can just watch yourself hopelessly rotating. The spinning stops completely by the time the actual coaster section starts happening, the layout of which heavily reminds me of a Schwarzkopf Jet Star with the way the helices move.
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I'm not sure why the spinning coaster doesn't spin for half the layout, but one look at this whole ride will bring more than a few questions into the design process of this ride. The tracking is exactly as flawed as expected which added to the unending hilarity of Euro-Mir, and the violent slam into the brakes finishes you off in an incredibly funny way. I love Euro-Mir and I wish they sold merch of it.

Voltron Nevera proved to be just as good as the first time, with another front row ride solidifying its remarkably high ranking. All of the words I said on the previous day apply here too, so I have nothing more to add.
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#313 Pegasus is a very standard family coaster without much else going for it, and serves as the park's "normal roller coaster".
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While half of the group separated for a Voletarium virtual queue slot, the other half including me went for the Eurotower, which provided some excellent views of the park.
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An attempt was made at riding the other water coaster, but unfortunately a breakdown while we were in the queue denied us from doing it, so while in the area we looked for other things. Not quite ready to suck up a 40 minute line for the powered coaster, we rode some flats instead, one of which being Feria Swing, which was a quite standard but not-as-fast-as-the-fairground-counterparts Matterhorn.
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Kolumbusjolle I was expecting to be exactly the same thing but to my surprise ended up being one of the most fun flat rides of the entire trip (which was an admittedly low bar). The steering wheel that occupies the front of the boat can actually be spun around to rotate the direction of your car which resulted in a hilarious experience that I rate highly.
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Atlantica still dead in the water, it was time for #314 Alpenexpress Enzian. This was a fairly standard powered coaster that suffers from a lot of the same issues as its log flume friend in that it feels empty with its lack of buildings or indoor section.
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Atlantica still dead. Continuing with the "dark rides that I don't get", we went to Madame Freudenreich Curiosités instead. Going into the ride I had no idea what to expect, turns out there's an old woman who hides the fact that she owns some friendly dinosaurs. It's... nice and pleasant.
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#315 Matterhorn Blitz is the only wild mouse coaster with an elevator lift, and was a pretty fun little ride, but my mental notes don't go much further than that.
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And right next to that is #316 Schweizer Bobbahn, a bobsleigh coaster, big white track made by Mack. While on the very short side with funny vibrations, I almost enjoyed it more than the disaster that is Avalanche.
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Then most outdoor rides closed due to rain, so we mopped up some more dark rides. Abenteuer Atlantis is the resident shooting dark ride of the park which I scored terribly on.
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Fluch Der Kassandra is possibly my new favourite madhouse, even if it lacks a preshow, because of some physical effects that happen that I'd rather not spoil that left all of us laughing our heads off.
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#317 Ba-a-a Express was open so that was picked up.
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And, finally, the final new-to-me coaster in the park, #318 Atlantica SuperSplash, which really wasn't anything special in the slightest and probably the worst major coaster of the trip.
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But there's still more. Fjord Rafting was one of my new favourite rapids rides, and while I can't remember much of it, it was awesomely great fun.
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And now it was time for rerides, starting with a lap of Wodan, the fast-paced relentless chaos machine that is fantastic from start to finish. I also found a decent camera angle of the ride.
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Got my reride on blue fire, and was so relieved to have a lap where the coaster (which is infamous for having broken audio) have working audio and it felt so good. And it's a shame because the audio elevates the ride experience in ways I never even thought were possible and the fact that it's apparently so rare honestly makes me worried to get back on it in case the audio breaks again.
I came off my working audio ride a new person, Blue Fire is a truly underrated roller coaster that deserves so much more appreciation than what it gets.
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Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen, is, bench. It literally lasts two minutes, but has its charm.
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And obviously got my reride in on Euro-Mir, which unfortunately wasn't as funny as my first ride, but maybe that's because I went for the front this time instead of the back, but I still highly appreciate it.
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Got my reride on Silver Star, taking advice from some friends to hold the restraint up in order to maintain a gap through the whole ride as it has a tendency to lower during the valleys of the hills. And this ride was far better than my first. While my airtime was significantly more prominent over the hills as a direct result, unfortunately holding the restraints amplifies the ride's rattle quite badly. And this begs the question as a result, if I want substantially better airtime, would I be willing to suffer from more shaking for it? And with that I'm not sure. I think both cancel each other out quite evenly, but however I would need even more rides in order to make a more well-informed opinion.
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The day ended with a lap of Voltron during the sunset to end things out and it could not have been more perfect. A queue that flew past like it was nothing, incredible atmosphere in the queue, and the f**king tesla coils going off while we were in the pre-launch chaos room while I was in the back row. Oh it was simply magical - an experience that left me simply speechless, it didn't feel normal to just come off the ride and continue with the rest of the day like nothing happened. The ride is so intense and I struggle to find positive words that I haven't already used five hundred times so far to describe the coaster. The back row provided some unseen power to the already insane elements, it's a coaster experience that stomps on anything else that's opened this year and it's not even close.
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When we hit the brakes I knew this ride was special. It's a top 10.
A top 5.
A top 3.
A top 2.

But Taron remains unbeaten.
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Europa Park was great but a little overwhelming for a first visit due to how much was on the to-do list. I struggle to find the words of what I think of this park, it's objectively a beautiful place with literally zero low points (except for maybe the Alpenexpress bit) and a top quality ride selection. Even if I'm not keen on many of the dark rides, I understand that not everyone might think this and I can maybe come back to them with a more fresh & open mind in trying to understand the storylines behind them (or doing some research beforehand) as they have the bones to all be really heartwarming rides that I could grow several soft spots for.

Well, now I just have to go back. Oh no! At least next time I can take a slightly slower pace and spend more time just chilling in the park and taking in more of its atmosphere. It truly deserves its spot as one of the most favoured parks in the world.

Tomorrow - uhhhhh
 

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From one of my favourite parks to one of my least favourites.
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Day 5: Walygator Grand Est

#319 Monster
is a relocated inverted coaster from Japan, and what I believe is the largest roller coaster that's ever been relocated. Starting life at Expoland, it was closed with the park in 2007 after a fatal accident on one of the park's other roller coasters due to negligence from maintenance. Attendance tanked instantly and was a major player in why so many Japanese amusement parks struggle to get paying customers through the gates these days, as public trust in roller coasters was unsalvagably broken and remains that way even to this day. So Walygator bought this ride as it was still doing fine, and wins the award for the possibly world's ugliest major roller coaster.
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Being a clone of Raptor at Cedar Point in Ohio it was cool to finally be on an actually large-scale B&M roller coaster (I still respect you, OzIris) but unfortunately I left not having terribly high praise of the ride. It's intense, yes, but it's filled with moments where you really do sit in your seat waiting for something to happen and that's prevalent on multiple occasions within the ride layout. It's a light switch between heavy intense positive Gs and nothing going on and the ride can't decide what to do, so it's a pretty even spread between the two and makes the ride quite uncomfortable as a result.
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My first ride in the front row left me not terribly impressed, but I would still rank it as "pretty alright". We went immediately back around for a back row ride, and while this was more intense than the front, unfortunately we made the discovery that the ride has a pretty noticeable shuffle through the course with an especially unpleasant pothole coming out of the cobra roll. The general forces across the inversions are strong, but not exactly what I'd call 'fun'. I left this ride a little more underwhelmed, so we decided to move on.
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#320 Family Coaster was the first wacky worm of the trip, and a blast to ride.
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#321 Anaconda, the park's wooden coaster, was quite the nothing burger of a ride. While much smoother than I thought it would be, the force department was more-or-less zero and the whole ride felt like Big One if the drop was just as much of a monorail as the rest of the ride. At least I can have more fun on Big One. While not bad, Anaconda was simply just uneventful and nothing special.
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After ducking out of a two hour queue that my group got into for the rapids, I decided to try out the other rides. #322 Comet was on my radar and I was slightly interested in how it would ride. While smoother than I thought it would be, Comet provided a remarkably uneventful and nothing special experience.
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There wasn't much else I was interested in, so even though I didn't like it that much, I went for four more rides on Monster - it had a one train wait anyway. All of the rides solidified my current thoughts.
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I went for one more ride on Anaconda. So 4/10 that someone in front of me with their phone out didn't bother or concern me in the slightest.
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I found toilets. None of them had seats. Ew. Then my group rode the rapids. Then we went to Comet. It was closed. They rode Space Shoot, I didn't, Comet reopened, we rode it. Thoughts solidified.
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We went to the Terror House walkthrough thing. It wasn't very good.
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Then we rode the Krinoline which was a silly spinning bench thing (the image is the extent of what it does). It was a ride.
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Then I saw a lizard in the seatless bathrooms.
Then we left.
The music is forgettable, the presentation is dreadful, the ride lineup is sub-par, the seatless bathrooms are hellish, the park is doing literally nothing to improve any of this. Go ahead and sit yourself on p**s-soaked porcelain or go home. Truly a park that cares. But at least I have +4 now.
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Tomorrow - hedgehogs
 
Day 6: Nigloland
We parked, I forgot where we parked, and set off.
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#323 Descente en Schlitt' is a pleasantly smooth wild mouse and was pretty decent for what it was. The brakes didn't try to kill me, the corners were manageable, the hills were fun. Noice.
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I forgot most of what happened with #324 Krampus Expédition as we spent the coaster ranking the days of the week rather than acknowledging the forces of the ride. It was a fairly standard water coaster that didn't do anything standout, but wasn't bad by any means.
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#325 Noisette Express was a fairly standard family coaster, but it did end up convincing me that a fake tree was real because it looked so much like a real one.
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And the main man, #326 Alpina Blitz which is a near-clone of Piraten at Djurs Sommerland. But why? Allegedly Nigloland wanted the original manufacturer of Piraten, Intamin, to build the ride but the park wanted their new modern train design. Intamin said "no negotiations, if you buy this ride you also buy the gardening chair seat trains that come with it". So Nigloland said no, shooed them off, and consulted Mack who did the trains that they wanted. Mack said yes, and so here we are. Boarding the front, off we go.
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The experience is, obviously, similar to Piraten but with slight changes in profiling and the different trains. So why do I have Piraten about 30 spots above this in the ranking? Because this one felt like a slightly neutered version of Piraten.
I've discussed this gripe with the Mack trains before in my Hyperia reviews, but I don't like how I'm not able to fling myself from side to side and become a right angle in these seats. The protection on the sides doesn't allow for much lateral upper body movement where with the Piraten seats you could do, well, exactly that. For that reason the twisted airtime triple threat, which on Piraten is one of my favourite moments on any coaster ever, is simply "a really good bit" on Alpina.
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The airtime however is excellent but sadly the restraint comes down quite a lot during the ride. I didn't do the "push it up" strategy that I did with Silver Star for reasons unknown but it was still good. Complaints aside it's an excellent and well-rounded coaster with plenty moments of strong sustained positives and airtime, but I can't help but compare it to its older half-brother that simply does everything better.
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This time I went for the back, where the airtime was much worse. It felt like the hills were designed for maximum airtime in the front, where getting pulled over the hills in the back felt a little lackluster in comparison. I actually think I had this same issue with Piraten, so for that reason I just ignored the back and went all-in on the front. After three rides I was satisfied.
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#327 Spatiale Expérience, mini Eurosat, was a rough and uncomfortable disaster of a ride. It has the bones of a fun ride, and could be if it wasn't so unbelievably rough & jolty, but I left with negative impressions of the ride.
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Next was Jukebox, unfortunately the weakest Polyp-type ride I've done. It ran comparatively slow to the others I've done, and was disappointing considering how fun these rides can be on a dialled up speed.
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Quickfire round now.
Manoir Hanté was a silly bench ghost train that span a lot.
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Donjon de l'Extrême continues the trend of drop towers not hitting like they used to, while also simultaneously being the new tallest one I've done.
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#328 Gold Mine Train was a fun powered coaster through the trees. I grabbed leaves!
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And Rivière Canadienne was a fairly standard log flume. I took the leaf on this ride, it survived.
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We had a bit of time before an attraction that had a timed window, so I went back to Spatiale Experience to give it a second chance.
I... loved it? I'm not sure what changed. But the jolts of pain turned into jolts of joy, laughter & excitement. The bass-y "BOOOOOOOM" and the aggressive flashing at the top of the lift, the imperfections in the tracking, the countdown, the groovy techno music, the breaking back into the groovy techno at the brakes after having calm orchestral strings during the gravity section... the whole combination was something I slowly came to really appreciate.
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Spatiale Experience was growing me in ways I didn't ever imagine, but it was time for Niglo Show.

I have heard about Niglo Show. Apparently our tour guide was not requested, but TOLD that he HAD to take us to Niglo Show. I'm going to be boring and not spoil anything. This is something that you have to see for yourself and go in blind. Please, I beg you, I was questioning reality itself by the end of it. Niglo Show is incredible, Niglo, Niglo, Niglo Niglo Shoooooow.
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The rest of the day was spent sitting on Alpina Blitz a couple more times before deciding that I wanted to sit on Spatiale Experience more. By the end of it I had ridden Spatiale more than Alpina, with zero regrets - I had trouble pulling myself away from that ride when my group said they were ready and waiting for me at the entrance.
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Then it took 20 minutes to find the park exit, wandering down wrong paths, before immediately losing them AGAIN due to my own fault of a) forgetting where we parked and b) ducking off to the toilets without telling anyone. This resulted in me getting extremely lost, and after not being able to find the tour van, went into full panic mode as the park has no free WiFi and my phone decided to lose all data signal so I had absolutely zero means of contacting them.

I went to a security dude at the entrance and after realising there was a language barrier, whipped out Google Translate to communicate my issue (I have lost my tour guide and have no signal).
Was brought to an indoor office type room with a phone - I had my guide's contact number, so tried to dial it.
No success.
Did the +44 thing at the start.
No success and no use in the phone now. Security dudes told me to go to the park entrance and talk to the park entrance dudes, reassuring me not to panic and to relax as I was visibly s**tting myself. Props to them, very helpful through the situation.

Went to the park entrance dudes. Explained the situation through google translate. Entrance dude gave me his personal phone.
Same situation. No working.

Get an idea. Last-ditch effort to check for a WiFi network, and if all fails, I'll have to connect to a private one.
Check WiFi network.
Free-access WiFi for the ticket booth area (the only free WiFi I've ever seen at this park).
Connect.
3 WhatsApp notifications, immediately call the group who with immaculate patience has told me exactly where they're parked.
Run.
Arrive, exhausted from my marathon I've just done.
"Yeah, fine, that's cool", seems like this isn't the first time this has happened.

"I tried calling you with +44 but it didn't work"
"Oh, you have to do 0044 instead"
Solved for next time then. The data issue was also a recurring problem for all of us it turns out, and I've finally held a conversation through a translator which is a semi-decent experience stepping stone with these travels. The staff were extremely happy to help with my problems, reassuring my "if there's an issue there will be a solution" mindset when it comes to these things.

The trip continues.

Tomorrow - touts & gouds
 
Day 7: Parc Astérix

Haven't been here in a decade - let's see what changed.
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#329 Toutatis was the first ride of the day - despite being at the front of the park it was a wise decision to rope-drop it. The ride is an interesting specimen being an 'unconnected' multi-launch layout where the track switches while the train is in motion to perform a swing launch. It's pretty cool to watch, but doesn't really have many decent views of it.

Themed to some Irish warrior who defends a tribe, it's in the new 'Festival Toutatis' area which was an incredible good-vibes area. Loading up Meta Toutatis on Roblox so I could play a game on the coaster while I queued for the real thing, soon we were on.

The ride starts with a dip out of the station immediately into the first launch into a strange stall-type inversion before a couple quick outerbanks into the ride's main event which was the switch track into the swing launch. You pass across this straight section of launch track three times with two shocking moments of violent ejector both forwards and backwards. The backwards spike was crazy, and the sense of speed going through the final launch is insanity.
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The top hat is by far the weakest moment of the ride, with a strong trim brake sapping all excitement out of the first drop but is the only weak point of the ride as when you're past that moment you zip right back into the action.
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A wonderful stall inversion before a whippy turnaround sends you into a powerful hill that hits in a way that Kondaa doesn't, before a twist to the right that sends you left into a fast-paced roll before two more moments of violent ejector to close out the ride. Toutatis is, obviously, brilliant but I knew I'd have to come back later for a little more. Being Parc Astérix, the queue at this point had built up to a stupid level so we moved onwards.
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SOS Tournevis was the kiddie coaster of the park. Nice first drop in the back, as always with these models, but nothing else happened, as always with these models.
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Then we went to Chaudrons, another tea cups and unfortunately the final ones of the trip.
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Before our virtual line spot for #330 Pégase Express opened, a coaster that opened one year after my initial visit. We got front row, and it's a generally fun family coaster. Unfortunately the lap bar felt excessive and came down pretty tight which resulted in the amount of airtime experienced being literally zero. Otherwise it's got its highlights with a great backwards section and a neat little launch out of the station. The Medusa head thing in the middle to initiate the backwards section reminds me of Hollander, except this one is on a better ride. Sorry, not sorry.
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Up next was Menhir Express, which I fondly remembered as one of my top log flumes, and I'm so thankful that not only does it still hold up, but it's even better than I remembered it being. The airtime hill into the drop, and the size of the second drop really makes it something special. Genuinely, Flumeride levels of love for this one - this is how you do a log flume, but I'm not exactly sure what it does differently that makes me like this one so much more other than the airtime hill.
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Our next virtual queue was for OzIris, I guess it's finally time for me to find out how this was. It's a commonly known fact with me that I rode this seven times and don't recall a single lick of what happened, so time to dive into the deep end.
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It's a pretty strong invert with some decent force to it, less so than Monster, but far more comfortable and rerideable as a direct result. The loop-y inversions have some good punch to them, but starting with the dive under the tunnel the intensity also takes a dive with both zero G rolls after being taken unnaturally slowly for the ride model. Despite this, I still think it's a solid coaster that actually was deserving of all my rides on it.
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Does Goudurix hold up too? I hoped so - I loved it before, but I was worried that it might be bad now. Heading down the first drop expecting the worst, we hit the butterfly and all worries were washed away - I still love it. The realisation that the ride was still here in terms of quality after all this time while going through the elements was one of the best feelings I'd had on a coaster in a while, with a huge grin on my face the whole time that could never be wiped off. Being one of the most hated roller coasters in the world, I thought it deserved none of the flak that it got. The inversions are excellent, the intensity is epic, the ride goes on forever and it doesn't let up ever with not a single break until the brakes. I came off raving, with a couple others saying it was awesome too.
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And then it drew blood on a group member who rode in the back.

Galère was the park's pirate ship, which was good and nice. It's common sense for either side of a pirate ship to do a "who can scream the loudest on the apex of their swing" contest, and I shut the other side up by releasing a death metal scream out of nowhere that my group found pretty funny.
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Trace du Hourra was next as it was next in the virtual queue. While a little vibratey as is the case with all bobsleigh coasters it seems like, it still holds up as by far my favourite one.
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Romus et Rapidus continues to be one of the weakest rapids rides I've ever done with nothing interesting happening until a fountain at the end that soaked all of us.
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A virtual line for the Grand Splatch was next, my first splash boats ride in a very long time. It was hilarious with multiple moments of "OH S**T!" as the most random water jet you've ever seen comes out of nowhere and drowns you clean in the face. Really fun.
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The wooden coaster had finally opened, so we booked a virtual queue for that, but before it was time for #331 Vol d'Icare. It was alright, but gets a lot more hate than I think it deserves.
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And then #332 Tonnerre 2 Zeus which I was slightly concerned about as my previous experience with a Gravity Group overhaul of a woodie that wasn't theirs was uhhhhh, not good. And this too was filled to the brim with violent shaking but I didn't despise it as much as I did Thundercoaster. While one of the roughest wooden coasters I've ever done, I still kind of liked it? Kind of a Megafobia syndrome where it does everything in its power to make me rank it as low as possible, but I can't. Its horrible awful tracking was saved by an admittedly super fun layout that kept its speed and doing interesting things the whole way through. I hesitantly give a thumbs up towards Tonnerre 2 Zeus, but I don't have the slightest doubt that the original must have been far better.
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Up next was L'Oxygenarium which we had a virtual queue for, the last of the rides that I'd done before. While not as crazy as I remember, I still really liked it. I never ride Storm Surge because it gets horrible lines, so it was nice to get back on a ride of this type.
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I went for two more laps on Goudurix, one nearer the front and another nearer the back. As a back row ride drew blood on one of our group (the roughness aggravated a problematic spot on his arm) I couldn't help but wonder what it was like in that row. And it was fine. I literally cannot dislike this ride - I like it far too much, and I'm happy that I do. Would it be too far if I said I almost enjoy this more than I do OzIris?
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I went for one more lap on Tonnerre 2 Zeus which was pretty much exactly the same as lap one. While the shaking is undeniably strong, I still can't bring myself to dislike the ride despite its glaring flaws.
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Then went for a second lap of OzIris in the sunset. I'm not sure what I think of the entire second half with the drop-off in intensity from the dive under the pool onwards, I still like it but the first half is leagues more fun. I still think it's better than Nemesis Inferno, but nowadays that feels like a low bar, and obviously Monster. If anything I'm still not sure what my full thoughts on this ride are, after now nine rides on it.
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Oh yeah, Toutatis. While thoughts on the coaster didn't change (everything I said before applies here) it's nice to have these extensively positive thoughts outside of the drop off the top hat solidified even further.
Then we ran around to get the second to last train of the night, and the atmosphere was something else. I've never... not minded people freaking out to no end being as loud as possible. People were cheering on the brakes, people were shouting down the queue line, I surprisingly didn't care in the slightest at the loudest possible people being directly next to me in the queue... everyone had an inescapable excitement to get on. The station had football stadium levels of chanting in it.
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And then the ride happened.
The vibes and atmosphere of the Toutatis night rides singlehandedly raised the ride up a spot in the rankings, as crazy as it sounds. It was incredible. Not much else to say, I was truly left speechles.
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Fantastic park.

Tomorrow - doorknobs
 
Time to lock in and finish this off.

Day 8: Parc Saint Paul

#333 Aérotrain
is what convinced me that these types of junior coasters also classify as kiddie coasters instead of family coasters. It was an oddly slow version of the classic roller skater that really didn't achieve all that much. Researching the coaster makes me find out that this used to actually be indoors which explains its odd layout and silly supports.
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#334 Pomme is the mandatory wacky worm. Has smoke effects which was awesome and automatically puts it into the upper percentile of worms I've been on.
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New manufacturer cred, about time I got Pax Company ticked off. #335 Wild Train was, uhh, wild in the back row with some concerningly strong pulls of ejector airtime around every corner. A family coaster that punches above its level and almost teeters into family-thrill, I really enjoyed this ride and wish Pax Company coasters were easier to find and get to. I've heard that they're more common in eastern Europe which is a place I wish to get to (I've ridden countless trip reports in here about them as that part of the world intrigues me so much) but unfortunately it's not on the cards as of right now. I largely wish to get to Fantasiana to ride their Wild Train before it closes forever at the end of October, although I've been saying this for months now with no trip booked.
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Another Pax! Tour Descente Extrême had a hopeful-looking drop with how strong it looked, but unfortunately there was too little room between me and the restraint for it to really have an impact on me. However I felt similarly on Jolly Roger, a ride that I've ridden more than once, and my first ride on it had a substantial gap between me and the restraint which caused me to immediately think it was one of the best examples of its kind. My second ride I had a similar situation to this, where the drop lacked substance due to the restraint being too tight.
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We balanced out the car of #336 Souris Verte a little too well, resulting in around two rotations across the entire layout.
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#337 Wood Express I have a little more to say about. My first of these types of mini modern wooden coasters (with a second to come very shortly) and it sure packs a punch with countless airtime moments and not a dead spot to be seen. It truly does as much as it can considering the tiny space that it has, and only has one rattly moment being a low corner somewhere in the second half of the ride.
While the presentation of the coaster is a little lackluster and doesn't really hold up to the rest of the park, Wood Express is a great and quality standout of the park. I stayed to sit on this ride for a little longer while the group went to ride the park's disko, and after four laps I was satisfied but also dying of thirst due to a lack of open drinks stalls in the park.
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Between Wood Express and the next attraction on the trip was the funniest area of the park, a giant empty tent that plays random pop tracks with dance routines to go with them. When we passed by it it was playing Gangnam Style which I found quite funny.

The next attraction being Tobogliss, a mat slide that provided some nice views of Wood Express.
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Dino Splash followed, despite the fact that this is no Studio 100 park. My favourite part was how this was the second log flume queue line of the trip to have a water feature that splashes onto the queue line; in this case it was a waterfall.
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And the final ride of the trip, the legendary #338 Mini Mouse Cartoon. Okay not that legendary.
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And with that, the trip was done. We got food, and I mention this because they had an incredible technology known as a "bipper". Being a tiny family park I was taken slightly aback to see that they had a touchscreen ordering system for their main food joint. After ordering your food you take a "bipper", you enter on the touchscreen the number that your "bipper" has, and you sit nicely with your "bipper" maybe having a nice conversation with it before he starts bipping excitedly at you where you take it to the counter and you trade the little guy for your food which was pretty decent.
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And that was the park, where we drove to the Calais eurotunnel before saying our goodbyes at Folkestone (I think).
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I massively recommend Coaster Breaks to anyone who can do it. It was an amazing trip that completely eliminated any and all of my worries with things such as potential language barriers as this was literally never an issue across the entire trip. It all comes round to "if there's a problem, there's a solution". If there's a barrier, you can a) show the person a photo or b) use a translator. There is absolutely no issue and it's nothing to be concerned about. Everyone is out to help each other and that's not something to be underestimated.
There were a few hotel hiccups (which were faults of the hotels themselves rather than the faults of Coaster Breaks) but everything went pretty much as smoothly as possible - I will definitely return to them in the future.
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Credit increase: 43 (295 -> 338)
Park increase: 6 (65 -> 71)
Best park: Europa-Park
Best coaster: Voltron Nevera
Best flat ride: Tripsdrill tea cups, maybe
Best water ride: Menhir Express
Best dark ride: Fluch der Kassandra
Best park food: The petit cafe thing at Europa with the schnitzel wiener
Best show: Niglo Show
Best moment of the whole trip: Toutatis night rides
Worst moment of the whole trip: Finding the exit of Nigloland
Trains: 1 (Calais eurotunnel)
Buses: 0
Trams: 0
Cabs: 1
Planes: 1

Thank you for reading.
 
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