hansrubens

PortAventura next weekend. ----Hans

Last october during Halloween.... Still the good Goliath!

Great report Marcel! Still need to visit Oktoberfest one day! ----Hans

^ Speaking about the next update.... I finally found some time to post the PortAventura pictures. PortAventura is such an amazing park. They may not have the best coaster selection in the world but now with Shambhala which is probably my new #1 steel coaster. I still need to ride Geforce this year and who knows what the TPR Texas/Midwest trip may bring. Being such a great park it's a shame to see that the operations aren't always that fast. Luckily for us the park offered a quickpass for only 54 euro's per person for the whole stay. So for us that was three days. Quickpass included front of the line for most of the big rides except the droptower and 1 frontseat ride on the three big coasters. I really do think that PA has a winner in their park now. When the temp is 30+ degrees Shambhala really rules. I never experienced so much ejector airtime on a B&M before. So when you do plan to go to this park pick a very hot day to fully enjoy the Shambhalalalala experience. Dragon Khan is still ok but now with Shambhala over shadowing him.... well. Let go to the pictures!! On arrival at the park. It was Saturday so the park was packed. Hey Woody! Yes that's right... The parkmap. The new lake view. Q-ing times. It was really busy this day but no queues for us. First of to Baco! What a disappointment. I tried several seats. Outside front, inside second and yes outside last row. I guess there isn't a good seat on this one. Don't get me wrong the launch is very, very, very good after that it just tries to kill you. Barrel rolling all the way. Entering Polynesia. A very well themed part of the park. Our destination. More Polynesia. There is a new pathway to China through the sesamestreet. More people found out about it! Made it to heaven. Learn more about the story behind it. Sationbuilding. First read the safety regulations. This was our line. The grouper system might work if the ride operators were quick. Going out for some bliss. Going up and over Khan. Coming down the first drop. Airtime from top till bottom. Going up the second hill. Again massive airtime going down. Going through the massive turnaround. That little speed bump after the turnaround produced massive airtime too. Yup. Going down the hill that leads into the splash down. And again massive airtime. The splash down. More water! It's everywhere. I bet you gonna get wet. and going up again. Going into the airtime filled grande finale. After the brake run. This part leads into the final breakrun. SO first some random park pictures before some Khan love. A flowering cactus. The old west. Betty Boop!! Good old Khan. It's still good only a bit of a rattle. Bit of headbanging. Little loop. And to conclude some love between them. Looking pretty together. Thanks for reading and make sure to visit this place some day.

I was there last weekend during the F1 event. No sign of RingRacer running though but I heard from an empolyee of Eifeldorf that it failed a test the week before. Hope it will be up and running the first weekend of september. ---Hans

Hi everyone, Last week Benny (groteslurf), Michael and me made a trip to spain. Our original itinerary contained the both Madrid parks, Terra Mitica and PortAventura. Unexpected the both Madrid parks and Terra Mitica seemed to be closed on the beginning of the week. So our park visits were shortened to only Parque Warner and PortAventura. We had a great time though in Pinto, Benidorm (It was Bennydorm during our stay) and Salou. I forgot to bring my camera to Parque Warner so no pictures from that place. The park was a bit of a let down. There are two good coasters but park operations were really bad. Luckily it was not too busy. Oh and surprisingly Stunt Fall was down for the day. Actually this report is all about PortAventura! We arrived on wednesday june 12th and we stayed on property at Hotel Caribe. The Hotel is awesome, really a great atmosphere. Will post Hotel Caribe pictures first. This is the main building. With the restaurant building next to it. It has two swimming pools. The pools are divided by this water. This was our building. What do I spot over there? More in next update.

^ This definitaly counts. Thanks for posting. -----Hans

Another video.... Vogel Rok at the Efteling. You are eaten by a giant snake. It's very hard to see while riding but I've found a video with the lights on. Video at 0:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS1wtgcV1Ng

On Winjas Fear you go through a strange kind of animal. See the video at 1:10. Couldn't find a picture. Great thread Robin thanks!

Yes the new screens are awesome. Despite the park being packed the lines of all the major lines moved really fast. That may be the reason why they consider 35 minutes as unacceptable. ---Hans

Hi everyone!!! It was time for my first park visit of 2013. Phantasialand offered a great deal... visiting before april 30th will give you a free ticket for the summer season! Hooray. Too bad many more people had the same idea. The park was packed but Phantasialand was kind enough to extend the opening hours till 19:00. So we still mananged to do all the rides. I also shot some pictures of the new waterride Chiapas an amazing project! Anyway let's just go to the pictures.... The first thing when entering the main entrance. Finally flowers are starting to bloom. Walking down Alt Berlin. and looking back. Am platz. Some action. Already 55 minutes for Mamba. but we waited 35 minutes maximum. Such a great ride. Walking down Wuze town. and meeting Wang.... I think. Inside the building. Ultra sonic Winjas speed. The live queue times are great and the extended opening hours are anounced too. The queue of Michael Jackson started all the way back here. and all the back there. The queue moved fast though. Great job Phantasialand. and a great ride too. pretty busy. This picture is really about a great german beer. The announcement of Chiapas. Overview of the construction site. A drop or a lift? Station building. Drop going down there? Looking forward for the final result. Can't have a report without a Geldautomat! Thanks for reading.

^ Negative I never had that problem and I don't have that on other Intamin coasters. It's been since they renewed the trains. The padding on the lapbar is a lot firmer. It stays the best coaster on the planet though! ---Hans

They always seem to staple me in. ----Hans

Thanks for posting. Never get tired of EGF pictures!!! Were the lapbars on EGF still bearable after 10+ rides? ------Hans

20/26 Pretty satisfied with that score. ---Hans

14/20 pretty good.

It must be Python at De Efteling. --Hans

15/21 A few unlucky guesses. ----Hans

Yes and a nice one too!

So it's been a while since my last update..... This next park on our trip was Plopsa Germany Holidaypark. This park is also known as Geforceland. This trip was the quest for the best train and seat on Geforce. I think our final choise was the non X train left backseat. Or maybe it was the X train. Can't remember anymore... Well maybe it's not that important. Just go and ride Geforce you will like it anyway. I think it's about time to go to the pictures..... The new entrance area. Robin was afraid he couldn't make the height requirements. After all that excitement he had to text home. But first the celebration of Super Wirbel!! It was it's third consecutive season without derailing. I think this is the most important rule... Hinter die rote linien. I don't know what happens if you cross the rote linien? Did somebody already tried? I see pain. They even have a Super Wirbel museum. Now check out the new Plopsa area. Hi there mr. bug. Please don't eat our children It wasn't fully finished on our visit. Maya und Wicky! This is what once the path was from the entrance to Geforce. Yay for Expedition Geforce. Still going strong. This is the X train. This way you can recognise the good train. The problem is.. I can't remember which the better one is. Well I gues it's great anyway. X or non X. uh oh Robin will you make it? Mmmmm The first drop is the first element.... Great!! Different riding styles part 1. and part two. part III. Looking cool rolling back into the station. From the parking. I'm sure they do something about this. Two dorks and Holly. Thanks for reading!!!

19/30 Guessed wrong a few times! ----Hans

Only 7/21. At least I'm not an Arrow nerd! ----Hans

This will be a mission impossible for me! ----Hans

What a great "nerdy"video! It maked me laugh in a good way. Thanks for sharing. ----Hans

^ Sorry Larry. Luckily I still got my memories! Europapark self was quite busy but still got plenty of rides in thank to the single rider lines at Wodan and Blue Fire. Wodan is a good fun GCI coaster with great interaction with Blue Fire and Atlantica maybe not the best GCI but that area of the park is now just amazing. It broke down quite a few times during the day but they still were able to keep open the ride. Europapark is the best themepark in the word, let's go to the pictures! Our ride!! No seriously it's the new theming of the Silverstar station. This happened quite a few times. But this happened also a quite few times! The drop is really good. Interaction. This whole area is great! Station building. Happy faces. We also used the normal queue which was a mistake. The line was about 2 hours while the single rider line only was about 20 minutes. Hey! At least we could see all the theming and understand the story of the ride. and take some more pictures of the ride. Airtime hill. Looking upskirt. Some more theming inside of the structure. And we we're able to pick the backseat which is prpbably the best seat on the train. We love row 12. Oh wait the park is more than just Wodan! Pretty busy I spot two little duckies! Water, water everywhere we're gonna get wet! We witnessed a three boat overtaking maneuver. Unique We did ride this one too. This ride is great. Highly recommanded Thanks for reading once again! Bonus picture!