Shockwave

Part 3: Plopsa Indoor Coevorden As the rain got heavier, I was very grateful that my last park today would be indoors. On the way there, I turned the fans on to full to dry myself out, and listened to Dutch radio blasting out Roxette, Mr Mister, Katy Perry and adverts for Europa Park. For those who don't know, the Plopsa theme parks are all themed to characters created by a Belgian production company called Studio 100, and all their big characters appear in some form at the park. By this time my iPhone and I were slightly damp, so that's why some of the pictures are fuzzy Here is the entrance. It will set you free. (That's a 90's joke.) This is Samson and Gert. A talking dog and his owner. The "Sa" from Samson forms the "sa" in Plopsa. Wickiebahn (Pronounced Vickiebahn). It's about Vikings. This picture shows some of the extent of the theming in the building. It is amazing. And there's even a miniature version of your standard inverted spinning swinging pendulum thing. The photos are blurry here because it moves really fast. REALLY fast. It's pretty sickly, but still really good fun. There's also a stage near the back of the building for the daily shows. Boatiful. Restaurant was very well themed. It's a big slide with a big mural next to it. Told you the theming was great! The Indoor wave swinger was also pretty. And so was the carousel. Oh yeah, there is an outdoor bit, but it was too wet even for the Dutch. The fountains get better than the photo suggests, but I was short on time and patience standing in the rain. Mega Mindy is another character in the Studio 100 World. According to her Wikipedia page, "Mega Mindy has several superhero powers. she can breathe fire and has the ability to lift tents without touching anything." Thanks Mindy, but I can lift my own tent. But if I can have your gym membership and you can have one of my chins, that'll do nicely. Speaking of chins... this is Piet Piraat. Behind Piet's ship is everyone's favourite floating boat rope park attraction. Boot. Yes. Heels. No. Plopsaland also have their own Ice Cream for sale. Not only is this a good business move for being able to charge loads for a Calippo or Cornetto, but you have an immature sense of humour (i.e. you read the TPR forums) you can say you licked Plop's ice pop. There's a viking themed Rockin' Tug which also spins very fast. And some angry characters. Haven't got a clue what they're called. But they seem pretty angry. More anger. Except for this one. He seems happy enough. Plop came to have a dance before park closed. As did Maya and Flik. My first impressions of my first Plopsa park were very good. Even though this isn't their landmark attraction, the attention to detail is incredible and the staff are really friendly. I'm really looking forward to visiting the main park in Belgium in 10 days, but for now, it was time to go back to the hotel and get dry, in preparation for another wet day tomorrow.

^Yeah, in reality it's not a country defined trait, it's all down to operators and management to make the call and decide what's appropriate. Part 2 - De Waarbeek After a few hours at Hellendoorn, I drove 30 minutes to the next park of the day. It's full name is Familiepretpark De Waarbeek. Once in the park proper, the roller coaster is immediately on your right. It looks home made because the park built it themselves many years ago. This might be Holland's oldest coaster. It has lots of dips, a tiny amount of airtime and a fab stop at the end. There's lots of old school flat rides like this in the main park area. And this. And a Caterpillar like Southport Pleasureland used to have. And a duck ride that you operate yourself. At this point I was quite peckish, so I got some chips, frikandel and a can of Pepsi with a footballer on it. His name is Robin Van Persie, and he sued to play for my team Arsenal. But now he's gone, so I don't like him. On the plus side, his new team Manchester United are now rubbish. So I laughed. Nautic Jet was broken. No Jeff Johnson action for me today. Self-operated chairlift was also operating. After about 45 minutes in the park, it started chucking it down with rain, and most of the rides without a roof on them closed. De Waarbeek is a very quaint little park with some quirky rides. But not enough to keep you there more than an hour or so on a quiet day. And with the rain coming down, I left for the last park of the day.

So earlier this year, I got out of debt for the first time in about 8 years, so I could afford to finally treat myself to some European cred visits. Because I work shifts, it's a bit of a logistical battle to find the time to go away, and go away somewhere when there are theme parks open. So after doing my research and nabbing some cheap flights, I booked a few trips. The first of which was a two night jaunt over to the Netherlands to visit some small Dutch parks I hadn't been to yet. On Monday May 26, I flew out to Amsterdam, and the trip got off to a bad start. Despite doing loads of these trips before, Silly Bollocks here left the paper counterpart of his driving license at home, which normally would be game over. However, at the rental desk I got chatting to the cute girl behind the desk, and wooed my way around this potential balls-up. Note: this does not work for everyone, so the simple solution is DON'T LEAVE HALF YOUR LICENSE AT HOME. After an hour or so's drive in the dark, I arrived at my hotel, picked up my keys and slept. After a good night's sleep I hit the breakfast bar and went to the first park of my trip, Avonturepark Hellendoorn. The park was a 1 minute drive from my hotel, which was this lovely place. I got there just in time to see half of the primary schools in Holland pile out of the coach park. One undignified run later, I got the ticket booth before the masses, paid in and hit the creds. First one was Donderstenen. A Zierer Force 2, kinda their version of a Vekoma Rollerskater. I think it's themed to boulders. Speaking of which, just round the corner was an actual Roller Skater. It's themed to a sewer rat like Lightwater Valley's Schwarzkopf used to be. Except the queue is a lot darker and smokier. After some RCDBing I found out it replaced the old Flitzer ride of the same name that used to occupy the building, and is customised to fit the space. It's mostly pitch black, apart from one outdoor bit that lasts about a second. I forgot to take a picture of the train, so here's the Uitgang (that's Exit in Dutch) hole instead. Near the first two creds, I saw this building. Had no idea what was in it so I had a look. Turns out it was a shooting ride with nicely themed spinning cars, set around exploring tombs and Egypt and the like. After failing miserably at shooting the LEDs, I walked over the Vekoma Tornado to try and survive it. I love it when parks name their rides after the manufacturer's ride name. It was much better than the awful, awful one of these at Tusenfryd. By now the crowds were getting a bit obscene, so I did me some photo-taking. There's lots of cool things for 9 year olds (physical and mental age) to try. Standard pirate ship. Motorhome of love. And a picture of the floor because I cover all angles. At this point. the rapids was getting people through quick, so I obliged and joined the queue. There's not much actual rapid action, but there is a waterfall. And this amazing 'never in Britain or USA' queue line. You can pretty much touch the boats as they go by. Not that you would, because that's how stupid people end up suing theme parks. Station looks nice. As did the whole park. There's also a fab rainbow tunnel of mist at the end, but you'll have to use your imagination with that one. After not losing a limb or dying because I must have some sensible European blood in me, I went on the plastic animatronic boat ride. There's a hippo. A snake. A scorpion. And a big mammoth in the tunnel. But since it was out of time, it didn't photo very well. So here's a plastic croc instead. With most the school groups now going for lunch, I left the plastics to ride the log flume, with a much shorter queue than earlier in the day. There's a drop. With a monorail going across it. And a lift hill, naturally. And then, near the front of the queue, one of the boats got stuck. If this happened in a UK or US, the staff would read their ride manual, hand out hi-vis jackets and close the ride for the rest of the day while they evacuate it, investigate what went wrong and fill in 600 health and safety forms. But because this is Holland, and people are intelligent, the ride op asks a few of the kids in queue to help free up the boat. About a minute later, they had pushed the boats through. No one had to wear a hard hat or climbing gear to fix it. After no-one died or got maimed, I went on the ride and got a bit wet. After that, I was pretty much done, so headed to the shop to check out the souvenirs and head for the Uitgang (see above if you didn't get the translation first time). Hellendoorn is a lovely little park with something for most of the family. Was pleasantly surprised to have spent a couple of hours there before Park 2 of the day. PS - Apologies that the photos aren't hard uploaded to the site. The pictures are only cloud based, so I don't have a hard copy on my PC.

I'm actually more excited by this ride than Goliath at Six Flags for some reason! I always liked those CCI designs, and now that this is getting made even better by Rocky Mountain, I'm pricing up Mexico for a not-too distant trip.

Not with that attitude, you won't!

Great report Martin! It's quite a mission to get everything done along the South Coast in such a short space of time, but you did very well to get as much done as you did!

FAB! Any excuse to go back to Movieland and try not to die!

I've got the Merlin Premium Annual Pass, well worth it for the amount I use it visiting Alton Towers, Thorpe Park etc etc.

I've updated my defunct list as I've had far too much time on my hands today. Fuji-Q Highland Zola 7 Kurashiki Tivoli Park Odin Express Tivoli Railroad Mitsui Greenland Atomic Tobu Zoo Park Crazy Mouse Tokyo Dome City Geopanic Linear Gale Spinning Coaster Maihime Tokyo Joypolis Spin Bullet Uminonakamichi Seaside Park Jet Coaster Super Dolphin Yomiuriland SL Coaster White Canyon (Thank God) Everland Eagle Fortress Marine World Magic Space Fårup Sommerland Mini-Lynet Karolinelund Boomerang Kålormen Looping Sommerland Syd Kæmperutschebanen Tornado (relocated) Särkänniemi Amusement Park Jet Star Korkkiruuvi Mirabilandia Family Adventure Drievliet Family Park Xtreme (relocated) Walibi Holland Flying Dutchman Gold Mine (relocated) TusenFryd Dragon Tibidabo Montaña Rusa Liseberg Cirkusexpressen Adventure Island Space Chase Alton Towers Beastie Black Hole Corkscrew American Adventure Buffalo Ride Missile Runaway Train Twin Looper (all found new owners) Barry Island Pleasure Park Viper (relocated) Bayside Pleasure Park Runaway Train Billing Aquadrome Big Apple Caterpillar Botton's Pleasure Beach Storm Camelot Theme Park Caterpillar Capers Dragon Flyer Gauntlet Junior Dragon Coaster Knightmare Whirlwind (some relocated) Carousel Park Crazy Mouse Runaway Train Coney Beach Pleasure Park Mega Blitz (rusting probably) Happy Gater (never the same after June 2006) Craig Tara Holiday Park Wacky Worm Drayton Manor Klondike Gold Mine Super Dragon (both relocated) Dunes Leisure Runaway Train Flamingo Land Bullet (sadly relocated a long way away) Corkscrew Flying Trapeze Magnum Force (see Bullet) Thunder Mountain Wild Mouse Flamingo Park Big Apple Golden Palm Resort Strawberry Junior Coaster Gulliver's Warrington Runaway Train (relocated lots) Knowsley Safari Park Viper Legoland Windsor Jungle Coaster (too loud) Leisure Ranch Speedy Coaster (it wasn't) Lightwater Valley Batflyer Grizzly Bear Viper (relocated) Loudoun Castle Rat Twist N' Shout Wacky Worm New MetroLand New Roller Coaster Ocean Beach Amusement Park Jet Stream Log Ride Nessi Pepsi-Cola Loop Pleasure Beach Blackpool Circus Clown Space Invader 2 Vikingar Primrose Valley Holiday Park Crazy Caterpillar Sandham Raceway Mine Train Seaburn Fun Park Wacky Worm South Pier Blackpool Crazy Mouse Southport Pleasureland 2 Big Apples Cyclone (now firewood) Indiana's Lost World King Solomon's Mines Traumatizer (relocated) Dragon West Sands Fun Fair Roller Coaster Since totting these up, it's occured to me that nearly 1 in every 7 coasters I've been on has either bitten the dust or has been relocated somewhere.

This would mean the return of C'thulu and the beginning of the End Times! It's good to hear that people are enjoying Flying Turns. While it may not be "top ten" material, the ride is unique, and I'm glad the park finally got it going. My sentiments on both counts! It was a very brave project to resurrect a ride which hasn't existed for several decades, and I'm delighted that Knoebels' time and effort has been rewarded.

The colours look like a can of grape soda. Deliciously vile but amazing all at once.

Generic Merlin PR Stunt 101 - No animal print clothing at Chessington allowed! http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/24/chessington-world-of-adventures-bans-leopard-print-clothing-on-zufari-4100645/

I thought exactly this, there's no way the ride would be that rough unless the camera was mounted really poorly. A couple of friends of mine who do freelance camera work for a lot of media organisations such as BBC and ITV spoke to me about how badly the camera must have been mounted, which in turn ruins the picture, and the sound when the two are put together, and makes the whole experience presented very badly to the people that Alton Towers want to ride it. If I had just blown £18 million on a record breaker, I'd want any promo or media coverage to look damn good to make sure that my potential clientele don't get the wrong idea about the ride. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well. If it isn't, leave to the people who really know what they're doing!

Nice footage and nice 80's references! Keyholing has a different meaning for me, but I spend too much time on Urban Dictionary.

Yeah but it's not gonna be the end for them. Put it this way, they had a ship crash, fall over, then sink and people got killed. And they are still in business.

I'll have a bed check if the bed checker is fit.

That's the best part! Can't wait for this to open now, am clearly gonna have to book the day off work.

Saw this advert on prime time TV the other day, Judging by the experiences from this forum, the most realistic thing about it is the family being blown to oblivion through a solid wall.

Ex-British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One of the most iconic, divisive and charismatic leaders that Great Britain has ever had. She made a lot of enemies and still is somewhat of a hate figure amongst miners and trade unions, but she changed the landscape of politics in Britain forever. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

I went there 3 times in the space of a year, and it was dead every single time, even during hot summer evenings. I love the inner city parks you find in Scandinavian cities, and it's sad to see a place like this go, but out of all of them, this was probably the weakest. Not much to do, nothing exciting to keep you there and not pulling in the crowds as a result.

Great report Divv, that brought back some nice memories of our quick trip back in 2007!

If the tram tour made you feel how good it was to be alive, then this will make you take nothing for granted.

I'm gonna try and check out the Annual Passholder Preview day in a few weeks, looking foward to it!

^Consider yourself lucky! Martin's Fantasy Island is a 5-star resort compared to some of the places many of us have been. It's not the best park, but it had a nice vibe to it. Fantasy Island in Skegness is definitely up there for me, along with Uncle Bernie's which is so bad it's almost good. Oh, and Six Flags Magic Mountain, which I'm surprised no-one's mentioned yet. Knott's Berry farm gets an honourable mention because the day I went there everyone paid with coupons.

I've been umming and ahhing over doing a trip around the time of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but there's never been enough for me there to make me warrant it. But in the last couple of years, the latest additions have tempted me into thinking about seriously doing this.