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TPR's EPIC Oktoberfest Trip Report!


robbalvey

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A little teaser from our next update (which probably won't be posted until Monday or Tuesday), but here is a roller coaster POV of El Toro, the GCI woodie at Freizeitpark Plohn:

 

 

I know, I know...it's not a drunk Piers video...but there is more to this trip than drunk Piers!

 

Hope you all enjoy the video! Post your comments below!

 

--Robb

Edited by robbalvey
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This thing looks AWESOME!

 

Robb - Where do you think this sits with all the other GCI's?

While I think that GCI builds a pretty consistent ride in a lot of their woodies, I'd say this is certainly one of their best!

 

--Robb

 

That's what I got from the video. I know that I haven't ridden it, but it looks to be more intense and fun than any of the 10 that I've ridden.

 

P.S. I LOVE GCI!

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While I hope everyone has loved our Oktoberfest trip report so far, the drunken madness has sort of come to an end (but there will be more insanity...trust me on this), and now we are on to the "weird parks" part of the trip report...

 

Today started the part of the trip where we ventured out to parks around the Munich area. Our first stop was Freizeitpark Plohn which was a few hours outside of Munich, through the corn fields, and around a mountain or two.

 

But when we got here we found El Toro!

 

It's sort of looks like Raging Bull had a few too many litre beers at Oktoberfest!

 

Same with the rest of us!

 

El Toro is a "new for 2009" GCI woodie that not too many people have probably heard of or seen much of since it's so far out of the way. The ride is awesome. And here is a video to prove it!

 

 

Big Mike says hello to all his fans from the far-off land of Germany!

 

First drop.

 

It's CURVEY!!!!

 

This coaster seems like it was built on a very small footprint and proves that GCI can do a LOT with a little amount of room to work with.

 

NERD SHOT!

 

Unlike most American parks, Plohn let us walk the lift hill, mount cameras on the ride, and do all the cool things we need to do in order to produce a great update and video to really showcase their ride. Why more American parks don't understand this concept is beyond me.

 

The ride was awesome...and as you can see...the park was empty!

 

Clever!

 

It looks pretty close to NINETY DEGREES!!!

 

TWISTY!!!!

 

El Toro had lots of little GCI airtime pops.

 

In this picture there is a cool guy and a little bitch. Which one is which? To answer...

EMAIL DAN!!! And you may win a TPR Bag-O-Crap!

 

Sexy...

 

TAKE THE TUNNEL!!!! (sort of...)

 

Watch your head!

 

Plohn also had a few other credits that we needed to get.

 

This was probably the most themed Flitzer I've ever seen!

 

That's a lot of track packed into a small space...seems to be the theme with their coasters here.

 

I'M GOING TO EAT YOU!!!

 

The whole park had nice theming. This was the western town.

 

TPR Mascot...the ASS!

 

Something for the kiddies and the credit whores.

 

Hi Larry.

 

"Please sit down on our rape bench."

 

KidTums loves Germany! Tons of parks built just for her!

 

Two of these four enjoy hot angry sex with men. Which ones could they be? To answer the question...

EMAIL DAN!!! And you may win a TPR Bag-O-Crap!

 

I'm not sure what this is...but it looks cool!

 

Yes! It's another one of those "never-in-America" fun house, ropes course, slides of death complex!

 

OMG!!!!

 

"Something terrible happened!"

 

We could spend hours here.

 

Slide of death!

 

This slides launches you at about 80MPH into a wall...it's amazing!!!

 

Yet another volcano slide of possible injury and enjoyment can be found here.

 

KidTums has possible enjoyment.

 

More random theming.

 

El Toro can be found this way...

 

Seriously, this little park was really, really awesome! We all loved it.

 

The train ride had cool theming.

 

Nicely landscaped vintage cars.

 

These were supposed to be a nice boat ride on the lake, but we managed to have a bit of fun...

 

Everybody get Jon!

 

Just a few more El Toro shots for you coaster fans.

 

Control Panel POV!

 

A view of the lift and the back half of the ride.

 

You can get some REALLY PISSED OFF PIZZA here!

 

Another reason why I love Europe. In America, you flash your boobs and you're thrown out of the park. In Europe...boobies are on display! Hooray for Boobies! If you like boobies...

EMAIL DAN!!! and tell him HOORAY FOR BOOBIES!!!

 

Hell yeah!

 

Wow, I could pretty much stare at this photo for hours!

 

Om Nom Nom!

 

Looks like the boobies are making this dude a little erect!

 

Thank you Plohn! We had a great day! See you again soon!

 

We then went from a park we all really liked with a coaster that was awesome...to a park that really wasn't great with a coaster that was awful.

 

Our next park was Belantis. We don't have many pictures of this park because they had very odd camera policies. Some rides they didn't seem to mind you taking pictures, other areas if you had a camera out and were within 50 feet of a ride, it was taken away from you! Very strange.

 

I'm going to be up front about Belantis - I didn't like this park. At all. It seemed to want so badly to be a "big corporate park" and compete with the likes of Phantasialand or Heide Park, but really lacked quality rides, suffered from a horrible park layout, had no shade at all, and overall operations leaved a lot to be desired. In short, this park had very few redeeming qualities. It looked nice...that was about it.

 

Oh, and random people were roller blading around the parking lot! Not sure why...but they were there.

 

Huracan was a "new for 2010" Gerstlauer Euro Fighter. Normally, I love these coasters. But I'm not sure what happened here. Huracan was basically 45 seconds of getting the crap beat out of you.

 

The ride looked impressive, and featured the new V-Shaped trains. The layout was great, but it was rough as hell.

 

Even the straight parts of this ride seemed to hurt.

 

The new "beefier" Euro-Fighter tower!

 

Belantis' other coaster, Drachenritt, a Gerstlauer bobsled, was much, much better!

 

The theming around this ride was great, the layout was awesome...

 

This one resembled the Klotten coaster a lot more than some of the other installments like the one at Djurs, Paultons, or Tripsdrill.

 

In fact this is our 2nd favorite Gerstlauer bobsled behind Klottens. The airtime hills absolutely DELIVERED!

 

Om! Nom! Nom!

 

I had very mixed feelings about Gotterflug, a Gerstlauer flight-trainer style of ride.

 

You control the ride by moving the wings, and much like the classic Flying Scooters ride, the wind helps to move the car, and if you're good at it, you can spin upside down REALLY fast!

 

Unfortunately, many people had trouble getting it to spin. You spent most of your ride cycle trying to figure out what to do, and by the time you figure out the "gimmick" of going upside down the ride is over. I was lucky enough to get 7 barrel rolls in a row...by accident, but I couldn't for the life of me get it to do it again.

 

The ride really was a lot of fun, but I don't like rides where the main gimmick is so difficult to do, you might end up missing out after waiting in line a long time to ride.

 

I think this was the park mascot...I'm not sure. The park was just very strange in that there wasn't really anything that tied it all together.

 

There was this Indian area that actually was a complete dead end. At this point we had gone like 3/4 of the way around the park only to find out we had to walk ALL THE WAY AROUND to get to the pirate area that was like 200 meters in front of us. Really poor planning.

 

"It's a make it yourself Segway!"

 

Fluch des Pharao was certainly the best ride in the park...and mostly because it was REALLY bizarre.

 

OMG! There is a whirlpool on this ride! I have never. ever. ever. ever seen this before. This must be the BEST water ride in the WORLD...because there is a whirlpool. Wow. /end sarcasm.

 

The whole ride was just really strange. The boats were "inflatable", the drop was steep, and most of the theming was on the outside of the ride...

 

"I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous about this..."

 

Clever!

 

Oh sheesh! Those boats are filled with air!

 

"Have fun guys on your inflatable boat, river rapids log flume bizarre-o ride!"

 

The ride started out with rapids as you enter the pyramid...oddly enough, though, these rapids don't actually get you wet.

 

This pictures shows off a couple of things. The lift to the top of the pyramid was part traditional lift hill, then an elevator, then this section here where your boat moves horizontally from the elevator to the next part of the track. Note the theming on the walls...this was pretty much it inside of the pyramid.

 

The drop was pretty cool. You could feel the flume on your butt and feet through the inflatable boat! (We see you Piers and Joe!)

 

OMG! OMG! it's the whirlpool part! Ohhh! Emmm! Geeee!!!

 

Boat comes back in the station and the ride op fills it back up with air! Weird!

 

I think the reason we liked this ride so much is because it was just really, REALLY odd. I've never seen a flume quite like it, and to be honest, it would probably be less memorable if there was more theming or a point to the area inside the pyramid.

 

The rest of the park had these nice little themed areas...but they were all like a million miles away from each other, and seemed really random.

 

This is the worst tow-boat ride ever. First off all, it took like 25 minutes as the boats were so slow. There was nothing to look at. Kids were bored... at least up until this tunnel section where this HUGE MONSTER was shouting and yelling at you which scared the crap out of kids! WTF!!!

 

"This is the most fun I've had at Belantis!"

 

"Good! Maybe we should just leave him up there!"

 

On our long drive back to Munich we made a stop at Burger King...which is apparently VERY different in Germany!

 

And now it's time to do your part... POST YOUR COMMENTS PLEASE!!!

 

--Robb

Edited by SharkTums
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Your update made me laugh... again.

That's really a shame about Huracan. I thought the layout was really cool and it had a lot of potential.

The European El Toro really looks great. A small, compact coaster that really packs a punch. The airtime looks great.

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Why more American parks don't understand this concept is beyond me.

 

Lawyers?

 

As I was reading the update and got to the pic with you on the lift hill, I was thinking, THAT would never happen here. Same with the slides, etc, as you said, never in America.

 

Great update. Will there be more TPR Octoberfest trips?

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Great update. Will there be more TPR Octoberfest trips?

I would say this is a trip we would do every 5-6 years.

 

I will say that after this year, having now done two German fairs it is something we would try to incorporate into future Europe trips.

 

My only complaint about Oktoberfest is that it's very commercial and touristy. I heard more English and American bring spoken than I did German. Whereas at the Wurzburg fair and beer tent earlier this year, it was clear we were the only people there NOT from the local area. I think that fair actually felt more like the "real deal" in many was than Oktoberfest did.

 

And not to say that Oktoberfest wasn't a completely awesome experience, because it was the highlight TPR trip of the year for us. Just something I noticed.

 

--Robb

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Freizeitpark Plohn looks like a great candidate for a "Weird Parks of Europe" trip. It's nice being surprised with a really nice park when you just expected a credit or two.

 

Yeah, the European attitude towards nudity is so much better than the American attitude. I noticed earlier this year in Italy that they had ads featuring a completely naked woman in several train stations. It wasn't even a sideboob shot. You could see everything. Was it a big deal? No.

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