Groteslurf

Oh god. So we are going on a coastertrip in 2 weeks Just kiddin'. This is great. Please do something similar of our trip in 2 weeks

My daugther won a dayticket to DLP a while ago, and I had to chance to buy additional daytickets with 50% off, so because of our busy schedule the next few weeks, last Saturday was the only day which would work for us. The weather forecasts were excellent so DLP here we come. We left home shortly after 6 am. As told earlier, I suck at nightshots. But soon the sun was there If that sign would have shown Copenhagen, we definitely would have taken the wrong turn. Great !! We arrived. Lets start queueing. YAY !! Empty parking lot. Dammit. I was looking the wrong way. I love it when most people make the same plans as me .... NOT !! Oh god ... isn't anybody leaving yet ??? Hotel New York with a balloon ... and a LOT of cars. Since we held 1 voucher with which we still had to pass the ticketbooth, we decided to think different and visit Disney Village first. There was some kind of oldtimers event at Disney Village My youngest going cray I simply love shopping at Disney. Actually last year on the WCT, except for a few single ride attractions, I did nothing else than Disney shopping on the last day of the WCT. I love this. But nearly 800 euro was a bit out of my range. YAY. Starbucks ))) This is great too. Loved this. It just as in the movie. Balloon Crocs Disney magic WDS time Look happy !! That's better Great Everything ok so far. Cool down station Backlot tour New Generation land First new ride Loved this The new parkpart is great and the crowds were excellent Another new ride The theming is great. It's a simple fairground attraction but the theming is making the ride great. Although my youngest daughter wanted to ride, I don't wait more than 1 hour for a ride like that. Next new ride : 80 minutes Without a doubt best themed waiting row ever. Woody Darth Vader voice < Kids .... I am your father !!!> End of part 1

Crawl - Kings of Leon : what an amazing song

Love it. Sunday afternoon and I'm watching Piers' videos

Never thought I would say this, but I love you Piers

I guess everyone knows Gulliver's travels. It were by far my favorite stories when I was young, and though I should read the books again as I hardly remember anything about the stories, I think it are to date still my favorite stories I ever read. Well some weeks ago I had the chance to be a lilliputian for 3 days. I wasn't alone. Over those 3 days, almost 1 million people followed the 2 giants which stayed in the city of Antwerp over the weekend. There is no massive publicity campaign about it, no fixed schedule on beforehand. The locations where the giants will hang out are only announced a few hours earlier and still, it's like magic. Everybody is fascinated by the giants and a magical vibe is spread over the city. The 2 giants were called The Diver and the Giant Little Girl, performed by Royal de Luxe. Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company. They were founded in 1979 by Jean Luc Courcoult. Based in Nantes, the company has performed in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Chile and Australia. The weather was great during the 3 days and I'm proud having been a lilliputian for 3 days. Here some highlights. (I borrowed some pics from the official website because I wasn't able to follow the giants the complete 3 days) The diver's arrival in Antwerp And the Giant little girl Showering Peeing In front of the cathedral My first encounter with the diver. Impressive There was also a statue of my favorite Flemish artist on this plaza : Panamarenko. The guy is obsessed by humans being able to fly. No chance any of his work would be able to fly, but still I'm a fan of his work. The giant girl. This last pictures were take by me on Friday evening. At that time the giants were already sleeping. My daugthers were impressed big time by the giants so we decided to be ready to watch them waking up the next morning. So after checking the newspaper on Saturdaymorning, we knew the little giant girl would wake up at 10 am and look ... she's awake. I was really awesome to see the giant in operation. Especially how the Royal de Luxe guys get the giants moving. Watch above teaser video to have a real good impression. Actually the guys in red are officially called Lilliputians A weekend of following the giants just started. We drove to the place where the Diver slept and he would wake up at 11 am. We arrived just before the lilliputians operating the diver. Jean Luc Courcoult The Diver leaving for his exploration of the city of Antwerp Lilliputians have to work hard. Last giant day, Sunday. The giants invited Antwerp for a picnic at the park. In the meanwhile, nearly everybody living in Antwerp was following the giants We had a fun afternoon. About 2 hours before the giants would pass here, we took pole position to have a last look at the giants when they would pass here. It made me think of Mad Max for some reason. I love it when crowds take over control of a city. Borrowed picture again, but it gives an excellent overview of the giants leaving the city.

Hehe, what do you mean ? Antwerp overrules Paris in every way If I would have the time, I'd show you around the city of Antwerp or even would have driven and joined you to some themeparks. But I'm at work that week so visiting themeparks is no option for me. Meeting up and showing you around the city, might be possible depending on the exact date/time you will be in Antwerp. Where will you be staying in Antwerp ? And where will you be playing the 10th and what band are you in ? About the themeparks. I indeed doubt that the belgian themeparks will be open on weekdays that week (didn't have time to check that for you). And I'm not familiar with public transports out here, but the closest themepark to Antwerp that will definitely be open is De Efteling (40 minutes by car). If you're looking for rail connections, I guess you should look for railing to Tilburg which is the closest city to De Efteling and from there a bus. But that info will be on De Efteling website without a doubt. At 2 hours by car from Antwerp, there are Phantasialand (near Köln) which certainly is open and Moviepark Germany (near Oberhausen) which I believe is also still open daily till end of October. Not the slightest idea how railconnect friendly those parks are. In fact, I believe the park the easiest to reach by train out of Antwerp is in fact ....... Disneyland in Paris . While not really cheap, there is a TGV connection from Antwerp which brings you in approx 2 hours to the gates of DLP. Not sure about the departure hours nowadays, but I remember those to be quite terrible so that you had to combine it with an overnight stay. But it may have changed in the meanwhile so that a daytrip would be doable. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments. That's what I'll do. a brief overview. Hope to have the time for it during the weekend. For now, here already a teaser video of the diver giant : [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=giant_loih[/coastertube]

Loving the report Martin. Looking forward to the next parts as we are going to visit Hansa & Heide in 3 weeks.

Fight the power - Public Enemy

Voted again

Great report. As soon as 1 of the 2 parks opens up a big new ride, I will start planning a trip to Madrid again. I must say, PW is definitely one of my favorite parks in Europe. When we visited PW on a weekday early September some years ago, the park was death. No lines at all, all day long. So we didn't need the fastpasses, but I believe they weren't very expensive. What is the price nowadays ? And couldn't agree more about Coaster Express. This was the one coaster I was afraid during the ride that I wouldn't end the ride alive (I was suffering a back problem at that time without me knowing that I had a back problem and during the ride it felt like what I believe a heartattack would feel like).

I really enjoyed your pictures. Amazing.

Great report Hans. Did you put your car outside the parking lot ?

Ok, next update wouldn't be themepark related but is something very special. It has a lot to do with giants which invaded the city of Antwerp for 3 days last August. Nearly 1 million people followed the giants during those 3 days and so did I. I really felt like being in a Gulliver's Travels story. Now, I have a question for you all. I took lots of pictures during those 3 days and I can make a very extensive report about that weekend, or I can just make it a very brief overview. So post what you want on here.

Great pics Olivier. Great family too.

Rock'n'Roll Coaster @ WDS today

Hi Larry, just noticed you missed a (powered) credit in the Bobbejaanland indexpage : Bob Express. Hereby below the ride entrance. In my TR thread where I just posted my Bobbejaanland TR, you can find a overview shot from the ferris wheel. Sorry no other pictures of the ride.

2 days after Boudewijn Seapark, it was time for a revisit to Bobbejaanland. I think my last visit to Bobbejaanland was 3-4 years ago. Entrance Surfin' bird Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa- Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow Papa-ooma-mow-mow Well everybody's heard about the bird Bird bird bird Bird is the word That's were the new 4D theatre is. Overthemed entrance of the 4D theatre. Mariolaanland Parkshop Nice green place. 'The only good Indians are tame' First ride of the day.... Girls .... that's a picknickplace !!! El Paso Special. Indiana River Oki Doki Probably the junior coaster I like most. OH NO .... Kinderland That's not a ride either !!! Scary clown Nice carrousel Random theming Dreamcatcher Horse Pedalo Too bad Lifthill and track Still, most of us don't consider this a coaster. Pony ride And now an example of what I really hate at themeparks. The Speedy Bob. What would I hate a wild mouse ? Everything perfectly normal from a distance. But let's have closer look It used to be a double wild mouse. Never understood the point of having a double wild mouse at a park, so don't actually bother they took away 1 side and moved it to Madrid. But what annoys me is the fact that they took away the ride, but left EVERYTHING else just there : station, waitingrow, etc. It's all still there. It gives visitors the impression of a park being a dump. Throw the owners in prison Easy to miss, but an awesome ride : Desperado City General Store ... where one can get his/her arcade games supply. Hotel ... El Rio My daughter leading the fun brigade. Another ride removal. That building used to be the entrance and waiting row of the Bobby Drop. Ride station. Even the water is still there ((( Time for a ride on this. Oki Doki Dream Catcher Speedy Bob Bob Express Typhone Revolution Which is actually called Xrevolution nowadays. King Kong Great to view. It's not that great to ride. Banana Battle It only opened shortly after noon. This splash battle is VERY wet. We came out soaked. And then I wondered. WTH did they build that indoor. People are not going to ride something that wet if it's too cold/wet outdoors. Right ? Fly away Typhoon Sledgehammer Thanks for reading

Wow, usd 500 That is for 2 races for how many people ?

I guess that's the 'rebel' in me. I always do different than what everybody would expect. There are a lot of organised runs out here, I just don't like the idea of paying to run. I like the fact that I can start to run in front of my house. Nevertheless, I decided today, after having lunch with our CEO who is also a marathon runner (New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Boston, ..) , I not going to participate in the Antwerp 10 miles run next year April together with a lot of colleagues. In stead I'm going to run the same day the Antwerp Marathon. Next week Saturday, there is a 10K run out here in the village I live. Maybe I'll do that run too. So this is the plan now. One of these weeks, a marathon distance as a training. A faster training marathon afterwards. Antwerp Marathon April next year. TPR trip in August Building up the distances afterwards and hopefully being able to run the 100K Dodentocht in August 2012. Yes, ultra running really fascinates me.

^ & ^^ Thanks. No, I'm not training for a particular run. Just for fun. My first goal now is running a marathon distance. Next goal will be a marathon distance in under 3.5 hours, which should be possible if I keep my average pace at 5 minutes per km (approx 8 minutes per mile if I calculated correctly). During my 33 kms run, my average pace was 5'19"/km, about 2h56' in total for the 33 kms. Don't know yet what will be the next goal after I managed the above 2. Maybe the 100 km Dodentocht/March of Death and run the major part. I'm still very disappointed I gave up this year after 40K and I WILL ever finish the 100 km, I'm sure about that. But not next year, because during next year's edition I'll be at CP with TPR Ultra running is something which fascinates me big time. But I'm far from the ultra running stage for now. But you'll never now. Some months ago I would never had thought I'm flirting with running a marathon distance. And about being sore, to be honest I love it. It makes me feel that I'm developing my muscles. Yesterday, I was so feeling the 33 kms run I did 2 days before, but it really is making me feel good.

Great job Gregg !!! Btw, I managed to run 33 kms (approx 20.5 miles) last Saturday. My furthest run so far.

Hi Larry, new park for the index in my TR : Boudewijn Seapark Don't think the other park (Earth Explorer) in the same TR is to be considered as a real themepark, although there are a few rides there.

Time for the 3rd park of the day. After De Panne & Oostend, it was time for Bruges & Boudewijn Seapark. The park is named after our previous king : Boudewijn the Great or something. Yes, I live in a kingdom. It's like a fairy tale. We have a king, a queen (well actually 2 queens I think), princes, princesses, and their children etc. They are paid a LOT of money for doing absolutely nothing. Most of the time they are on their yacht somewhere in the Med, and if they are in the country, they open up exhibitions and schoolkids are forced to be present and wave with small paper belgian flags. Or in case there is one or the other disaster, they act as our national disaster tourists. Well, in case it wasn't clear yet, I really hate them because they are there in a totally undemocratic way and I'm totally in favor of having a president. I'll send our king, queen, etc to whomever who wants them. But yeah, there are a lot of brainwashed people out here, and higher lobby circles do whatever they can to keep the kingdom dream alive (because otherwise they'll loose their priviliges of course). And while not as obvious as like in North Korea, Saoudi Arabia or Italy, the media obviously is also deeply involved in promoting them for some reason. But they all are doing a great job unfortunately because there are actually still people in favor of the kingdom. Ok, end of the rant. Ventilating this won't give me a president but hey, it felt good So, the park is named after our previous king. My last visit to the park was long before his death which was some 10 years ago. And this is strange, because I remember riding a rollercoaster at the park and according to rcdb, the ride is only open since 2000. Well, I guess, this is one more mistery of life. Anyway, I was very surprised the parking lot was as good as full when we arrived at approx 3 pm. The park was really crowded, though except for the aquariums, nothing was renovated since my last visit. To be honest, it is the worst park I've visited after Gorky Park in Moscow. Let's move on to the pictures Entrance Map So Seapark, means they have birds. Of course, a seapark without birds ... that would suck. This bird looked a bit sad though. Since the park isn't yet in the index, I wanted to take pictures of all the ridesigns. But couldn't find this one's. Aha, ride sign. I think I prefer the one at Castle park. It was a photofinish though. The park being quite a dump ride-wise, I was very surprised of the huge crowds in the park. Yay, seawater !!!! Waterslides. The line was like an hour but probably more ! Steamboats. At first it reminded me of Disney. Till I saw the boats There is a miniature train in the park. But it's very small. I haven't seen the train during our visit. Guess it's very miniature. At least I have the ridesign. Playground OMG, there is something in the seawater. Horsetrail Ok, ok. This is actually nice. Storm Not sure whether the name Storm refers to the ride or to the weathertype which brought the supermarketcar at this location. In any case, the ride was SBNO. Bobo's Minifarm Inflatable attractions rock at themeparks. Blowing in the wind No ridesign found. Bumper cars Swing La Sancta Maria Wonder what this ride will be... Explorer II Orca So the park is ghetto, but there are onride cams on the coaster. Actually, the coaster wasn't that bad. Tunnels Time for the sealions show. The show wasn't bad either Birdshow Big Bird El Condor Pasa Indoor playground Dolfinarium Sha-mu, Sha-mu, Sha-mu, ... Bummer ! Only dolphins No splashzones, so as on coasters, we sat on the frontrow. We ended our full day in Elissa-style. Thanks for reading. Next update : another belgian themepark.