A.J.

And wonderful work they did. No I do not, but in my defense, I only ended up having the afternoon and evening at the park due to the plane snafu, and most of my time was spent checking out everything else. It's on the list for next time! Or... Was I smart enough to skip the scary face-down drop ride? You decide! Always a pleasure, Erik. That's gonna stick. I'm never going to be able to call that coaster by its regular name again. I refuse to call Shamburgerandcheese by its real name either.

Overly-long wait times aren't the best guest experience, you'll get no argument from me there! I also think that that's their plan but I'm leaning more toward a new dark ride than another roller coaster. I do speculate that the "new hotness" of Dragonflier -may- fade during the next operating season. Obviously you can't predict everything that transpires after a new ride opens (Lightning Rod, I'm looking at you), but I'd be surprised if Dollywood built Dragonflier without a long-term strategy in mind for Wildwood Grove or whatever new area they end up building up past it.

That particular Vekoma layout and its smaller sister (Kvasten, Freedom Flyer, et al) have only ever been designed to accommodate one train, as the only brake sections are in the station. A brake run before the station would really shorten the ride, those layouts don't last very long. I wouldn't consider Dragonflier a headliner though, on Disney's scale that's a D-ticket at best. Perhaps they're accepting that wait times for Dragonflier will be a bit unreasonable for a few seasons but, long-term, will eventually die down when another major family attraction opens.

You know, I was about to cheer for the bird queen in the end, but then she literally drowned the bad guy and I became unsure of who the villain in the story actually was. Can confirm, it is not worse than hitting yourself with a brick. Great commentary as usual Chuck!

I'm not one to gush over merchandise but I absolutely want stuff with the new EPCOT pavilion logos on it. EPCOT's new concept art looks fantastic and I wish that they would release some of it as desktop backgrounds.

Thanks for the good words everyone! I love writing these things... Symbolica was really good. I loved how nearly all of the ride was practical sets, and screens were only used when it made sense for the story (like the mirror scene). The musical score was really nice too, and the pre-show was one of those "you have to see it in person" moments. Thanks friend! I honestly felt myself getting better at it as the trip went along (except for the Energylandia day because reasons). Meh?! That’s some of the best almost airtime I’ve ever experienced!! Aha, there's one of the trip themes. I was wondering when that would come up again! The almost airtime on Flying Dutchman was pretty good but I also preferred the surprise in the indoor section. It actually makes me wonder how much of the ride is actually powered by that solar array. The roof is an interesting contrast to say, what we'll probably see of EPCOT's France pavilion show buildings while riding the Disney Skyliner.

In my opinion the turnstile countdown system worked well enough, but there was never any room for people to step aside to allow a smaller group ahead of them. The turnstiles are also awkwardly placed, like right at the tops of stairs. At Hyperion, it was also very confusing because they use two queues for "group 3" which is the rest of the train, and let ten people through on each queue. Then you get to the top and the doors open and everyone just cuts in front of each other anyway. Pulsing single riders like that (group 2?) without a real human grouper also pretty much ensures that every train will leave with a few empty seats. As for having bad luck - when you're on a trip and a park has a single day to make an impression on you, that impression sticks. They had one train on Hyperion and one train on Mayan, but they did have two on Formula. Mayan's wait time was significantly long and they actually ran two trains on it in the earlier morning only to drop to one in the later morning for what appeared to be no apparent reason. By the end of the day Hyperion's wait time was also very long, long enough that our group had to turn around at the turnstiles and exit because things just didn't appear to be moving. And as for the lockers? I'm completely fine with paying for one for my backpack (that's how things are here at SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa) but to force guests to pay to store their small items like hats, mobile phones, etc is (in my opinion) unacceptable in a 2019 theme park, especially when that other park in Poland lets you drop any item on the platform regardless of size.

Lech Coaster is phenomenal and I absolutely prefer it over Hyperion.

Episode 3 - "Is Efteling Really Better Than a Disney Park?", or, "Don't Take The Flying Dutchman's Dining Sock" The first official park on the trip was a good one - Efteling! As everyone with a pulse knows, the Disney parks are often labeled as the de facto standard for theme parks around the world. Every major theme park has probably been compared to a Disney park at least once by someone, somewhere. Throughout Europe there are a few that are compared to Disney most of all - those include Europa Park and Phantasialand in Germany, PortAventura in Spain... and of course, Efteling, in the Netherlands. Some people think it's better than any Disney park. Some people think it's better than every theme park. My take? Efteling is its own special place, and you should throw those comparisons out the window. Sure, Efteling follows a similar formula to theme parks worldwide - develop attractions based around well-known stories. But Efteling does everything in such a unique way that you can't fathom any other theme park trying to emulate their approach. Whether you believe that their approach works, or is deserving of the hype, well, that's completely up to you! Am I crazy? I sure am! But you should keep reading anyway. After my romp through the Vondelpark, I made it back to the hotel to join the rest of the group, and we headed out to Efteling for that afternoon and evening. We stayed at the on-site Efteling Hotel, which is designed to look like a floating castle. After dropping everything off we were set free into the park. I joined a group and we went straight into Vogel Rok, which I generally enjoyed. We then made our way around the park and paid our respects to Bob with a condolence ride, and I wish Bob a happy retirement. Next was a lap on Python, and then the final highlight of that evening was a first ride on Baron 1898, and I'll get to both of those later. We intended to get a ride on Joris en de Draak as well, but it went down and according to Andy, they were pounding on it all the way up to closing. After a hysterically long drinking game of guessing the capitals of world countries, we turned in, and the next morning, we began our Efteling visit in earnest. We had filming opportunities on four rides that morning! First up was Python. Originally, Efteling was made up completely of the Fairytale Forest walk-through area. But in the late 1970s, someone had the bright idea to turn Efteling into a true theme park, and they needed an attraction to put them on the map. They hired a then newly-independent Vekoma to build their first looping coaster, much to the kicking and screaming of the neighbors. Over the years Python has gotten improvements to its cars, and for last season (2018), Efteling hired Dutch company CSM to completely re-profile the ride from the bottom of the drop to the brake run. The result is... Fine! Python is pretty smooth, but kind of boring. Nevertheless, it is a significant historical coaster for the park and I'm glad they've kept it around. Python is certainly one of the best-LOOKING Vekoma coasters out there! You can see how Python still uses the original Vekoma track for the lift hill, turn, and first drop. Have I satisfied your craving for nerd shots now? After a few laps on Python, we were informed that Joris en de Draak was repaired and ready for us to ride on. Joris en de Draak is considered by some to be a "junior Lightning Racer" - a racing / dueling Great Coasters wooden coaster. Two dragons, Water and Fire (Vurr) face off, sometimes running side by side, sometimes crossing over each other, and sometimes coming at each other. The winner of each race gets fanfare at the end, including banners dropped in the station as the corresponding train pulls in. It's really neat! While I don't like Joris en de Draak as much as I do Lightning Racer, it's still near the top of my Great Coasters coaster list. The setting is wonderful, the racing and dueling moments are exciting, and the coasters themselves are just plain fun. Never once did I end up with a "wooden coaster headache" after riding. On a sentimental note, it also reminded me of East Coast Bash 2011 at Hersheypark, my first real Theme Park Review experience, when we had evening exclusive ride time on Lightning Racer. You see, the REAL question is... Which one is George and which one is the dragon? Third on our filming list was a surprise, the Vliegende Hollander, or Flying Dutchman. Flying Dutchman is a custom water coaster by KumbaK, the Dutch company that we know as providing trains for suspended looping coasters like T3 and Arkham Asylum Shock Therapy. To put it simply it's "scarier Pirates of the Caribbean in roller coaster form", but it's actually a bit different. Instead of bombarding you in the face with animatronic figures and grandiose settings, Flying Dutchman does a lot to establish a sense of creepy, scary ambiance. It also has a surprise before the outdoor coaster section that really caught myself and most others by surprise. Also, for a water ride, the splash doesn't get you all that wet so long as you're sitting in the back half of the boat. It was actually really good! Yo ho, a pirate's life for...wait a second. SKLOOOOOOOOSH! Our last filming coaster was to be Baron 1898, but it was down during the morning. Onto other things, we suppose! Let's talk about those dark rides... Fata Morgana is the park's Arabian-themed boat ride. For whatever reason someone (Barry) kept trying to convince me that there was a drop, but it never happened and the payback is later in this photo trip report. Carnival Festival is the park's (formerly more racist, apparently) knockoff of It's A Small World, with a thankfully less catchy tune. Colin and I enjoyed it enough. Villa Volta is one of the few operating Vekoma Mad House rides, and it was my first. It was too disorientating and while I didn't get sick, everyone else can ride those from now on. Dreamflight (Droomvlucht) was Efteling's signature dark ride up from the early 1990s up until 2017. It uses a suspended ride system to fly through some wonderful, completely practical show scenes, to a beautiful music score. I can't really figure out why, but I really, really liked Dreamflight and it still sticks with me. Some people also consider it a credit, too! Symbolica, now Efteling's signature ride, is a really cool trackless dark ride with three variants, and to get the credit, you have to ride all three. A lot of young people in my field gush over Symbolica and like to use it as an example of how Efteling is beginning to steal Disney's lunch money. I definitely think it's on the level of the best dark rides I've ridden at Disney parks, but I have yet to try their truly trackless rides like Mystic Manor and Pooh's Hunny Hunt, so I can't come to a conclusion either way. All I know is that I really liked it as well! Quick! Let's make up some magic words for the main character to say during the ride! Brilliant! Efteling's comparisons to Disney parks are even more relevant now, because there is now a distinct promenade that leads from the entrance right up to Symbolica, much like Main Street USA leads Disney guests up to their castles, but without the stores and buildings. A group of us also visited Efteling's headlining attraction, the Fairytale Forest. Let's take a look at some highlights... Hang on here, Monstro, I need to massage your tongue... Hang on here, mister giant, I just need to steal I MEAN SMELL your feet... Hang on here, children, I just need to look shocked until the Americans go away... Hang on here, everyone, I just need to make sure you all know that it's longer than average... And of course, the main event, the Magic Donkey! This brings a whole new meaning to, "put your quarter in and take your turn"... For the uninitiated, when you put fifty cents into the coin slot below the Magic Donkey, it hee-haws, raises its tail, and literally poops out a plastic souvenir coin. It was hilarious to see everyone attempt to grab their coins and I failed pretty spectacularly as well. Seriously though, the Fairytale Forest is awesome and is a HUGE contrast from shows and meet-and-greets at U.S. theme parks. While U.S. theme parks turn shows and experiences into long, drawn out narratives, the Fairytale Forest knows that your time is important. Each little setup is meant to only be seen for three or four minutes tops, before moving onto the next one. It keeps the mind moving and helps when children (and certain redheaded theme park enthusiasts) have the attention spans of rodents. There's really always something cool and interesting to see along every pathway. Plus, it's in a very logical loop so it's difficult to get lost - just keep moving forward and you'll find your way out! There's also a wonderful play area nearby, with an elevated monorail! This probably the most gorgeous play area I've ever seen and I just wanted to sit and relax for the entire day. It's so well-hidden, so secluded... It's really blink and you miss it. Daniel and Andy having a moment on the see-saw. I eventually broke off to take some more photos in the area around Joris en de Draak, the Gondoletta, and Baron 1898. As I was over on the opposite side of Baron 1898's layout, I saw the wheel at the top of the lift turn, and, sure enough, they had started cycling trains! I put on my best "man on the street" hat and kept watch, and sure enough, Baron 1898 opened back up to guests. The park's management was wonderful - they still let us film on the ride! They had a really great strategy of keeping two trains for guests and one for us, so that normal operations weren't disturbed from our filming session. So, which is the more appropriate caption? "DON'T LOOK DOWN" or "TAKE THE TUNNEL"? I really liked Baron 1898. The theming was wonderful. I understood the pre-show even without the language barrier. The first sequence where the ghost ladies get scary and possess the mine shaft lift to start the lift hill is probably the best single themed roller coaster moment I've ever experienced and it works SO well. You get some excellent hang-over while being held at the top of the drop, and the zero-G roll is really fun. It's in the top tier of my coaster rankings because it's such a good complete experience. After nearly a full day of exploring, we were corralled back toward Dreamflight and Villa Volta to see Efteling's stunt show, Raveleijn! Raveleijn (that's "rav-ell-ein") is a story-based stunt show that involves a group of kids turned knights who fight the bad guys to save the princess, who, in the end, turns out to not be the best person herself. Of course, throughout the show, there are crazy things that happen such as... HORSE! ON! FIIIEEEE-AAAAHHHHH! Dragon! On fire and steam and water and unicorn farts and and donkey coins! Later in the evening, we got to check out Aquanura, the park's fountain show, and unfortunately my camera battery ran out! Quite frankly though, I don't really see the appeal of Aquanura. The fountains look nice for sure, but the music they set the show to was a set of electronic dance remixes of the ride themes throughout the park. Now, I love EDM, but I did not like the Aquanura remix AT ALL. It reeked of the "bad" kind of EDM which doesn't really have anything other than a pulsing beat. It was okay though, because the show was still pretty decent and was a nice capstone to our day and a half at the park. Enjoy some more photos! Most of the trash bins at Efteling are actually characters, where you place your trash in a certain place, such as the cannon here or in a character's mouth. They basically shout at you to put trash in, and thank you when you eventually do. Here's another cool section of the park with some rides and the Efteling museum. If you look closely you'll see a fellow photography nerd in there somewhere, but I've heard he's a little more slick behind the camera than I am. So, remember when I said that Python had some trouble because of Efteling's neighbors? That's because Efteling is right up against the village of Kaatsheuvel and its surrounding areas. I've heard that potential noise pollution is a huge issue with these people whenever Efteling wants to build something new. You can choose the side you're on with THAT one. Baron 1898 looping and swooping. It IS really good. Here's something interesting. Efteling knew that people were going to be able to see the roof of the Symbolica show building from the Pagode observation tower, so they went through the extra effort to make the roof look nice. That sort of thing takes Efteling up a few more notches in my book and I can appreciate it as a designer in the theme park business. Once you go up, there's only one way down... One perfectly-framed promenade, and one perfectly-bored dad. I really do like this place. A whole lot. While I don't think that it's my favorite theme park in the world, I do get where the hype comes from and I certainly don't think it's overrated! It's wonderful, and special, and that's why it matters to me. Random thoughts and musings: Funny story, I know a lot of people just adore the park entrance and their trips to Efteling aren't complete without a photo of it from the parking lot, but I actually completely forgot about it! That last photo was the only one I took of the entrance. Stroopwafels and Pofferjes are AMAZING and I absolutely have to find somewhere near me that makes them even close to as well as the ones I had at Efteling. The Steam Carousel was...interesting. Certainly some historical value there, but it really didn't feel like a traditional carousel to me. Perhaps that's the point? Efteling is MASSIVE and the walk from our viewing location for Aquanura back to the Efteling Hotel rear park entrance is probably most difficult slog I've ever done at a theme park. The Raveleijn dinner after the show was absolutely delightful and really tasty. Bonus points to the chicken catchers. A lot of people like to call Baron 1898 the best themed roller coaster in the world. Going off of what I said before, I personally think it's one of the best complete experiences I've ever seen built around an outdoor roller coaster. There are some that may have better rockwork (like Taron) or a better queue (like Expedition Everest), but, in it's own way, it can go toe-to-toe with some of the best themed roller coasters out there. Apparently I was less than two seconds away from completely steamrolling a small child as I came down one of the slides at the playground. Also, apparently, Daniel and Andy found it hilarious. Thanks for reading! Next time - getting injured at Toverland!

There are certainly some nice garden areas, and most non-guest areas are covered in grass. There are trees, too, but they aren't grown in enough to make much of a difference yet. Here's a photo of a nicely-landscaped pathway near the terrible Viking Roller Coaster. But today, this is still the exception. Ten years from now, maybe things will look nicer throughout the park.

It's tough because there are some parts of the park that I think just weren't designed well enough. The park's layout is an example of this - there are so many pathways that look like they're going somewhere only to suddenly terminate in a dead end. I was running late meeting the group in the afternoon before we left, and I was over by Hyperion. I looked out to see, "oh, I can see the parking lot, I can get out" only to be met with, surprise, a fenced dead end, and I basically had to sprint around blindly trying to find the way out. Some of the queues have design problems too. Hyperion is particularly egregious - you have to climb two or three floors of gigantic spiral ramps only to then have to walk down three or four flights of spiral stairs. There are obvious exit doors that would allow for the queue to switch between "light" and "overflow" modes but they're not used, and even when the queue is only ten minutes long you have to make the entire walk. Plus, all of the thematic stuff, the stuff that would, you know, tell the story of the ride, is in the upward ramp section. That section is always empty and therefore you blow right past that stuff, defeating the purpose of going through all that effort to theme the ride!

This is also the park with so many little rides and attractions in so many places that not only do they number the rides on the park map, they also have physical signs with the number on every single ride. To be honest, I'm not sure the locals really care either. This is a clientele that's probably happy to have a huge theme park in their backyard in the first place. I'm not sure I was -completely- turned off by the park in the end after our visit, but I can definitely corroborate some of Robb's feelings. But Zadra's marketing scheme is just ridiculous. Those people in the image aren't riding Zadra, they appear to actually be riding Hyperion!

They may be using "#1" in their marketing with regard to the ride's records... tallest, fastest, etc hybrid and / or wooden coaster. It does look pretty phenomenal, and congrats to the park for persevering and getting it done even after the collapse. It's a huge accomplishment and they're obviously proud of it! However, it won't get me back to Energylandia on its own. I've been reading some comments about Zadra possibly being the best roller coaster in Europe. What is generally accepted as the best in Europe right now, anyway? Wildfire? Expedition GeForce? Helix? I haven't been on Expedition GeForce but Zadra does at least look like it's on the same level as Wildfire, at least, and perhaps a little bit better than Helix. You can't beat Wildfire's setting though which would give it the edge for me over Zadra... Just so our stance is clear, Zadra will be listed as a steel coaster on future TPR Coaster Polls, much like the other Rocky Mountain I-Box installations.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with the calculated approach and I think that Legendia's doing great in that regard. It was too bad about the flat rides though, I hope that they can at least get that Flic Flac running again because those things are insane. Plus, they probably spent a lot of money doing the landscaping around it...

Honestly? It was the background music (weird, I know), and that there were a bunch of rides just sitting there in pieces. The park itself has a wonderful setting, it still has that city park feel even though it's a theme park now, and the management were so good to us. For those reasons (and Lech Coaster because it's amazing), I would absolutely still go there again.

Three. Hyperion and Formula for sure, and I really liked the Dragon, the green / blue Vekoma suspended.

So did you actually try Mike Tyson's shady energy drink? The TPR-reading public wants to know! I found both Poland parks we visited to be a little "creepy" in this way, especially with the background music tracks (with the exception of Hyperion and Zadra). As a designer, Energylandia drove me nuts. I have so many "what's wrong with this picture?" photos to show my coworkers. Certainly some pretty good coasters though.

The Halloween events aren't really my thing but that's a ridiculously good deal, especially considering that Halloween starts in August now. If they also do this for the Christmas event I might spring on it!

There is no denying that swaths of people worldwide consider Steel Vengeance to be the #1 roller coaster in the world. However, Cedar Point received a larger percentage gain in attendance in 2016, the year that Valravn opened, than they did in 2018, when Steel Vengeance opened (2.8% in 2016 vs 2.0% in 2018, according to the TEA Theme Index). I don't think it's too far off for casual park-goers to think that A) Steel Vengeance is a little TOO crazy and B) it's in essence the new and improved version of Mean Streak, which some older people may "have ridden before". EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm NOT suggesting that Cedar Point shouldn't have built Steel Vengeance at all. I think some of us underestimate the appeal of a roller coaster that LOOKS imposing, and monstrous, and scary, to the general public. People dare their friends to ride the biggest and baddest coaster in the park. It's the stuff that casual YouTube viewers look for reactions to. If a scary-looking coaster that happens to be smooth and re-rideable is what the park wants, then that's what the park gets. They certainly know how to run their park better than most of us do.

You're acting like the park owes you something. Apart from the weird brake run (as usual with these), Orion looks pretty great. Also, one of "B&M's lackluster coasters" placed 13th overall in the TPR coaster poll last year, higher than DC Rivals (15th), Helix (17th), AND Taron (22nd).

Episode 2 - "A Quick Romp Through Amsterdam", or, "What I Thought Was A Quick Romp But Actually Wasn't" The official first day of this year's Europe trip was actually a half day, we didn't intend on departing for Efteling until the afternoon. That gave me the chance to experience a little slice of Amsterdam, having had to rush to the hotel the day before. First thing's first - Amsterdam's public transportation systems are ridiculously easy to navigate even as someone who has never had to really use public transportation before. You go up to the kiosk, you get your ticket, you scan to go through the gates, and you board. I've never seen such a seamless experience outside of MagicBands at Walt Disney World. It's too bad that no major cities in the United States seem to have it as good as Amsterdam - the tram cars are swipe in / swipe out, the metro trains are clean, the intercity trains are comfortable... It's like I had stepped foot into a first-world country. I took the train into the city, but sadly without the intention to try out one of the [apparently] amazing coffee shops. Instead, I went somewhere else. I saw some canals... ...and some architecture... ...and some tram cars! Watch the tram car please! After getting off of the tram car and snapping a few photos of the nearby canals, I began a hike that ended up being way longer than I intended it to be... Behold, the Vondelpark! The park is named after a Dutch playwright, Joost van den Vondel. It's pretty big, 47 hectares. One fun fact is that apparently, you are allowed to have sex in the park during evening hours, so long as it's not near the park's playground, for obvious reasons. If that, plus Amsterdam's red light district, don't convince you of Amsterdam's attitude toward the fun times, then, well, you should probably have your eyes examined. The park itself is just drop dead gorgeous everywhere. There are so many nice places where you can sit down in the shade, or you can take a walk in the rose garden, or just relax on the swaths of open lawns. After a hectic day on the plane to get to Amsterdam and the day at Bobbejaanland, it was nice to just sit down, breathe, and be grateful that I made it to the Netherlands in one piece in the first place. I expected to walk a lot - I probably walked over two and a half miles inside the park and still found new things to see! I was diligent on my time as I was there but there was just a little bit of dread when I realized that I was all the way at the west end of the park and had to make the trek all- the- way- back. It certainly made the bus ride to Efteling much more comfortable. Note: No cyclists, nor redheads, were harmed in the making of this trip report. I'll let the photos speak for themselves... Next time, is it really true that Efteling is better than a Disney park?

A few of us have been doing ongoing trip reports of TPR's recent Europe trip - chronologically, Grona Lund was the last park that most of us visited on the trip, so it'll be a while. That being said, I'll post one here. If I recall correctly, this is to be the end of the layout and transfer table. This is from July 28th.

What, no "Whirr, Whirr, Kerchunk" references? I believe it actually IS called the Rocket, and there is another one on the fair circuit where there are multiple rockets that go up a tower StarFlyer style (like you referenced). They're made by Funtime, the same people that do Sling Shots and the Snake chaos pendle ride that we had time on at Grona Lund.

I have exactly zero regrets from skipping the backwards rides.

I'm dying over here, help. Too hilarious. It seemed like it was dealing with pileups, I always saw two or three logs in line for that second lift. I honestly thought that I had "camera of doom"ed it the first time but then I saw it went down again later and felt better about my own existence.