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Most rides at this park are great in the dark, to be honest. Yes to Apollo and Verbolten but also Invadr and Alpengeist. The park is heavily wooded.

I also have to say that sitting by the fountains and watching the running of the rope drop bulls while you guys were in Starbucks, knowing we could saunter at leisure with the FL+ was really really pleasant.

There’s a booth for the VIP tours as soon as you enter the park through the tunnel. I would expect it to be open at that time but it might be worthwhile reaching out to the park directly via FB or Twitter directly to confirm. Lines for most rides are usually 20 - 45min on average days. Steel Curtain is usually the longest wait, sometimes exceeding 90 minutes depending on crowd size and number of trains.

Heyo! I work there, so let me see if I can answer some of these for you. My biggest advice, is if you're coming during the summer months, PLEAsE DRINK WATER!!! Hydrate before you come to the park. Hydrate while you are at the park. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate! Drink water drink water! It sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed at the amount of times we have to call safety to get help for someone who has heat exhaustion or passes out due to dehydration. I literally saw it happen in person yesterday. Also, if you're coming for summer, do make sure to check out your sweet summer nights show. Its definitely worth the wait, starts at 9:40 in Wildwood Grove. Most, if not all your coasters will have bins. I think they all do. A lot of our flat rides will have them as well. Please note, Daredevil Falls does NOT have bins. You must carry your items on that one. so if you got a phone you don't want getting wet, I'd recommend leaving it with a friend in the que line. I'm not sure about smoky mountain rampage. Might be the same there as Daredevil falls. Front Porch Cafe is ALWAYs packed. same goes for Aunt Granny's. If you're coming during a weekday during the summer, expect lines. They will be long. Weekends tend to be less packed as far as I can tell, but my work time with dollywood is short, and I'm sure that will change. You may want to check out TIll and Harvest over in wildwood grove as well. Also, the cinnamon bread, you can get that at the Grist mill yes, but a lot of people don't realize you can get that at the bakery right as you enter the park too. The upstairs level to the Grist Mill is CLOsED, so don't try to go up there to get it, you'll be sorely disappointed. As far as what order to get to things, I don't really have an answer for you on that. Refer to the guys above me. They may know better about that than I will.... single rider lines are good, but not all rides have them. I do suggest the timesaver, particularly if you're coming on weekdays during the summer. This past Tuesday and Wednesday have been the busiest days we've had since I started working here. It does save you a lot of time, particularly if you get to the park after the morning rush at the gates. Get there early, and make sure you have the dollywood app on your phone. It does come in handy, and we update wait times on the rides about every 15 minutes. Please note, if you want to ride Daredevil falls, That ride closes at 8. The website may say differently, but Daredevil falls is a special case in that the ride itself has no lights, which means it closes when the sun sets. Rides in general close, starting at 9 across the park from Country Fair towards Wildwood grove. All the rides over in Timber Canyon up to Wilderness pass will close at 9:30. As for Lightning Rod. Well. It's at least opening every day. It is still having issues with it's launch every now and then, but it hasn't closed for an entire day during the time I've worked here yet. Typically if it does, it's down for an hour or so, then they get it fired back up. Keep the dollywood app on your phone, and you'll know when it goes down and gets back up and running. I've had a chance to ride it multiple times with the Ibox track, and the air time is still very much there. In fact I got a night ride, last ride of the night, ride on it a couple weeks ago. That was an experience. lol. Let me know if you have any other questions.

I get why people say this but I've really evolved to the point where I think that if Lightning Rod is the big draw for you then that's where you should go first. It's not a reliable ride. If it opens for the first hour and then closes for the day and you miss it because you were at Mystery Mine you'll be kicking yourself. You should absolutely, 100% go to Lightning Rod first, then do Mystery Mine and Firechaser after that because of their low capacity. Lightning Rod is more reliable lately. You'll probably be fine but don't mess around either. If it's open, ride it.

I thought the very same. We don't like such ideas. But German laws require them. And yes, teperature inside was hot. At Colossus, the wind was able to go through, because all shields were in line. But at Flug der Dämonen you see, that at the end of the alleys were other shields perpendicularly placed what prevented any air circulation. Just dumb. Well, it was not comparable to, let's say, Tripsdrill. But it was way better then in 2017. Then, we had to search an open food place or an open toilet. And the park was more crowded than now. It was dirty and just ugly. Now, things got painted. We saw no litter anywhere. Food stalls were open all over the place. But this may be because of their COVID protocol. It was the first theme or amusement park to reopen in Germany and they sued their way to do so. So they had to everything right to maintain their right. What hasn't changed were the multiple downtimes and the bad operations on their big rides. With the exception of Colossus, every major rides ja multiple or long downtimes (what didn't affect us, because we did mostly kiddie things). Desert Race started around noon, Krake around 1 p.m., Big Loop was stuck at the lift hill one hour before park closing. Krake was running two trains, Flug der Dämonen and Desert Race only one. So automatically, lines got long. And the park was open just from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with line closing at 5 p.m. on a hot, sunny holiday day. Again, this didn't affect us much, because our kids were tired then. But for thrillseekers, it's just not great. So I'm really happy, that our goals were different so we had a great day! But, again and important: I was way better then in 2017! When they get their operations fixed and use their coasters to the max, it would be a superb park! Yes, kids are growing fast.. I'm glad you noticed! Emma started walking free in Holiday-Park two weeks ago (trip report coming..) after training with her walking cart since cristmas (!). At our last park trip to tripsdrill in August, she didn't even crawl..

I'm glad you thought the park was running a bit better. We were there in the more early days of Merlin taking over and not super impressed. Love the park though so hoping to check it out again soon. Also, I can't believe how big the kids are getting! Look what no TR's during a pandemic will do!!!

So we had to do a required update to the forum the other day which seemed to break our ranking system. I've been looking into it, but it's been a bit of a busy summer for us and I probably won't be able to fix it until we get back from our California trip mid-August.

Get there before gates open and you can get all coasters in a couple hours most days. I'd personally hit Lightning Rod, then go back across the entrance for Thunderhead, Dragonflier, MM, Firechaser, Eagle, TT, Blazing Fury. It's just a big circle. Firechaser is normally the longest line in the park. LR next. Single rider line can quick. Can't stress enough getting there early, but that's the same for any park. Bins at all rides. Ride ops normally will grab your stuff and put it away for you. They are very nice about this. LR has been running well lately. Odds are good (knock on wood) you'll get on it.

Yep you're right. The Orion definitely does not suck as much as your weird and endless attempts at haikus. The one almost rhymes, but not quite. But under no circumstances should you let that stop you.

that "Covid" queue line would concern me even more.. . the plastic panels will keep any particles within - by preventing the wind from blowing things outta there. .. all I can think is "hot box". . even without a roof on it nice pics, thanks for sharing!

I did some research into this ride, and I'm of the opinion that Adventureland was extremely neglectful of its operating condition and had established no procedures for a water rescue in the area where the raft overturned even though they knew rafts being stranded there after a ride stop was possible https://medium.com/@spennydc/lack-of-maintenance-and-disregard-for-industry-recommended-safety-procedures-may-have-contributed-bfe6a22cd232

Photo trip report from Heide-Park, June 1st 2021 We had a long hiatius from theme parks as Germany was completely shut down in the amusement sector from October 2020 to May/June 2021. As we heard that the state of Lower Saxony was opening up a bit we took our kids, booked a hotel and went to Hannover. After having three great days in Hannover, at the Steinhuder Meer and visiting friends we used our last day for Heide-Park. We've been there in 2017, when we had no kids and just started riding coasters. So this time, with two litte kids, our focus was mostly on the kiddie rides and on Colossus, which was closed for renovation four years ago. We would have done more coasters, but sadly express pass, baby switch and single rider lanes were closed due to their COVID protocol. But all in all the park was in a good shape, extremely better then in 2017. Merlin has done some good work here. But to be honest, the coasters could use some mmore love. Krake was more down then open, had a more then 60 minute wait when open because it ran only two trains. Flug der Dämonen ran one train all day with a 90 minute queue in the middle of the day. Same goes for Desert Race. From our view, attendance was perfect and the weather was legit, with a lot of sun and no rain. We came into the park right at opening and headed straight to Colossus to get this thing done. It was our first new coaster since Tripsdrill in August 2020 and the first really big new thing since Walygator Parc two years earlier. As you can imagine, we were a little bit nervous. Even without express pass and single rider lane I waited just 20 minutes for a front row ride, Sarah the same directly afterwards. After that, we went to the Peppa Pig Land to satisfy our little ones. The area was really pretty and both liked all the rides a lot. Same goes for the How to Train Your Dragon area with the exception that both kids were too small to ride some rides. After more than two hours there, we decided to walk back to Colossus and the slide tower, where Paul deperately wanted to challenge himself. On this way we stopped at Grottenblitz, the powered coaster, where Paul was allowed to ride. So he cleared off his second coaster in his life - not bad for a three year old in a pandemic in Germany! After two laps, one with Sarah and one with me each, we checked the app and saw that there was almost no line at Colossus, so Sarah did a second front row ride while the kids and me made a rest at the parks lake watching coasters and ducks befor we switched and Sarah went sliding with Paul while I did a back row ride. As the park was closing around 5:30 p.m., we didn't have much time left, so we went on a walk up the hill with the big rides looking for an evening snack. While eating a truly good pizza, we decided that we adults were almost done for the day. As all major rides had more than a 60 minute wait for each one of us, we decided to go on Flug der Dämonen as our last big ride. I went first on the back right outer seat while Sarah waited with the kids and afterwards we switched and while Sarah rode I went back to the two kids areas to do some rides with them. All in all it was a very satisfying day. It was our first thing we did after an eight month long lockdown in Germany where you could do almost nothing. For the most time, there was no dining option in your home city, only takeaway or delivery. While we were at Heide Park these rules still applied to our home city. Our kids were so happy and even Sarah shared some tears during the day because she was so relieved. Ride reviews: Colossus: It was our first time on any Intamin woodie. For me, it was one of the best coaster experiences I've ever had. We had already awesome airtime in the front in the morning - but after a long, sunny day the airtime in the last row was incredible! And it was butter smooth in all speeds and all rows. We had much bumpier and shakier rides on steel coasters in the last years. We also loved the layout and the wooden fire figure at the end was just more then a scenery object. In total, it's now one of our top wooden coasters and even one of our all time favourites. It reminded us much of a wooden mixture of Expedition GeForce and Millennium Force. And this is just great. Pappas Ballonfahrt: A slow ballon tower ride with a nice view over the kids area. Even one year old Emma enjoyed it. Worth a ride if your kids like it! Schorschs Dino-Abenteuer: A dinosaur ride. It's the same system as the Flip ride at Holiday-Park, if you know that. But different to Holiday-Park, Emma was not allowed to ride it. Pretty dumb, but it is as it is. The ride is nice, long and funny. Paul likes it! Peppas Bootsfahrt: A circular boat ride for pre school kids. Paul loves those rides. You even have some sound interaction. Opa Pigs Zugfahrt: A slow train ride for the whole family with animatronics and sound. Pretty slow, but enjoyable. Huge hit with Peppa Pig Fans. Grobians Wolkenspringer: The same ride as Holiday-Parks Red Baron. Pretty nice, Paul loves those rides where you can do something manually like going up or down. Pretty nicely themed! Drachengrotte: Maybe the biggest surprise in the kiddie areas! It's for all ages and starts slow, but then you enter a cave where the dragons live. You get covered in fog and the dragons roar. It's pretty challenging for small kids. Paul got frightened, but his little sister was pretty amused! Grottenblitz: Pauls second real coaster (okay: powered coaster)! It had no line, so Paul took Sarah for the first lap. He did it with hands up - we were so proud! In the dark indoor part, he got a bit frightened. But when they met with Emma and me again, he insisted to go back on the ride once more with me! Western-Riesenrad: It's basically a cowboy themed kiddie ferris wheel. It was okay. One and done. Even the kids didn't like it. Flug der Dämonen: It was the second "adult only" thing we rode for ourselves - and it was a good choice. After a roughly 40 minute wait I took the last row, right side, outside seat. My favourite place on this beast. And what can I say? The ride was even better then I remembered! No bouncing, fast pace, great inversions! Only bummer was, that there was only one train. I think, a second train would have decreased the waiting time a lot and we could have done more rides. But this one ride was truly amazing. I'm happy we chose this as our last ride! Sarah took the same row, but the inner seat for better comfort and was also amazed. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed our trip report. Here are some photos of our tour: Hannover City Hall Steinhuder Meer Colossos queue line Colossos station I can hear this photo Mmmmh, humans! The dragons in the circle go up and down, up and down, up and down... Happy waffle photo Captain Paul Peppa Pig Land was really good themed Sarah and Paul: Car three, row two! Mandatory Krake splash pic I'm a real fan of the demonic knot element! COVID correct queue lines One of the best park and coaster views I know... ... can you count all the coasters? Goose family Soon he will be allowed to ride!

Why would a park thats in the business to make money be attempting to keep the crowd down a bit? God, CF sucks so hard anymore.

if you're a history buff, or love "re-enactments".. we LOVED Colonial Williamsburg. we bought a combo ticket from Colonial Williamsburg online which got us multiple days at both there and at BGW (we ended up spending day and 1/2 at Colonial Williamsburg, and 2 1/2 days at BGW before moving on to King's Dominion & Washington DC to hit the Smithsonians. it was worth it to us, but not everyone's cup of tea, as it's mainly outside, and very "authentic" to the times in terms of food and atmosphere. https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/ here's the specific ticket we got: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/tickets/summer-bounce-ticket/ it's a steal at $148 a ticket, that includes parking at BGW & Water Country (that we didn't do, but it's included as well)

So a real estate developer bought the park and is clearing the prime real estate near the water so it's now just an empty lot with a nice boardwalk, slowly closing everything permanent and throwing up a few carnival rides that they can tow out of there in a few hours to reveal more empty, buildable lots? Sounds like the future of the park is looking bright! I'm sure Blue Streak will reopen in no-time.

Here's a few pics from my visit this past Sunday. The "new" Slide is located right inside the main entrance The Flying Scooters were missing a few things "New" Swings and Dizzy Dragons. A lot of thought and care went into the placement of these rides One of the Bug cars near the Cliffhanger Falls waterslide complex Another of the Bug cars near where the ride once stood. The "new" Octopus, which was down, can be seen in the background Blue Streak station area Bumper Car building Balloon Break game near the Carousel Devil's Den Midway "New" Tilt A Whirl Trabant cars await reassembly. Who knows if or when that will happen A "new" kiddie train ride placed in a beautifully maintained corner of Kiddieland Here's the former Midway area. It took me a while to fully comprehend what had happened here as I have been visiting this park since 1973. Being in a fenced in open area was just a very odd feeling And finally a look at the Boardwalk. The "Tiki Bar" is on the far left