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robbalvey

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Everything posted by robbalvey

  1. Guys, no offense but this is MY report. If you want to comment on stuff from MY report, that's great, but if you want to post your own report or have something to discuss about a specific park, please do it untie proper discussion thread. Thank you!
  2. Starting later this afternoon we will be live tweeting from Europa Park! Follow us: www.twitter.com/themeparkreview
  3. This is a perfect description of it! To me, there are three resorts in the world that are hard to top and set the bar for the rest of the parks around the planet.... Asia = Tokyo Disney Resort Europe = Europa Park USA = Walt Disney World IMO, those are the top three.
  4. After an amazing day at Holiday Park, we have checked into Bell Rock hotel at Europa Park. This hotel is simply amazing and our two-story room reminds us that Europa is the *REAL* Walt Disney World of Europe and is totally on par (and in some ways better) than our own Walt Disney World! We will be at Europa for the next three days! Remember to follow our live updates on Twitter:
  5. I am happy to report that Expedition GeForce @HolidayParkHP is still the best damn roller coaster in the world! Sky Scream is also an EXCELLENT ride! Awesome to see @HolidayParkHP have two great steel roller coasters! Some @HolidayParkHP friends came out to welcome our group! The new Gerstlauer Sky Fly is great! If you love spinning rides you HAVE to try one of these! I did 24 flips in a row! CRAZY! [twitter] [/twitter] Derek is "GeForce Bounding" today with his clothes selection! More of the crazy moments on Expedition GeForce! Gotta love a dark ride that is based around torture & sex! The Plopsa group have really done a nice job re-theming @HolidayParkHP! It looks nothing like it used to! They literally have "water cannons" on the Rapids ride! We are going to be riding Expedition GeForce @HolidayParkHP for the next hour or two... Highlight of the trip! [twitter] [/twitter] This has been some DAMN AWESOME riding on Expedition GeForce tonight!!! Just some of the cool Expedition GeForce coaster geek stuff you an get in the ride shop! So we rode Sky Scream today @HolidayParkHP and this happened to us! lol Expedition GeForce @HolidayParkHP makes you look like this! The first drop on Expedition GeForce @HolidayParkHP is just complete insanity! Just LOOK at that! I always love seeing how European parks view stereotypical America! I love that they kept one of the old corkscrews as part of the theming for this new area @HolidayParkHP! [twitter] [/twitter] Ascended into awesomeness! Always fun to run into TPR fans in Europe! Garbles quote of the day "that looks like my bed sheets..." Was seriously an amazing day @HolidayParkHP & AWESOME evening on Expedition GeForce! Thank you to the park!
  6. Mantamba is GREAT! It's really on par (maybe even slightly better since it's newer) than Ling Bao but both are amazing. Sadly, the Dragon Bar was closed during this visit.
  7. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter: Starting our day @Phantasialand with some random characters! Dan says this chair swings is NOT an "acceptable amount of wetness!" Yes!!! Maus au Chocolat is one of my favorite dark rides ever! The ride is basically Toy Story Mania but MUCH better! More mix of real sets and media! Black Mamba quite possibly may be the best themed B&M invert ever! First drop of Black Mamba! The area with Chiapas is new from our last visit to @Phantasialand and the new ride looks amazing! Winjas is one of those coasters that is impossible to describe but you just HAVE to experience! The theming around the new Chiapas area is just insane! And the ride was awesome too! OMG! Talocan is just nuts! Best Top Spin ride ever made! [twitter] /status/746375251823595520[/twitter] Temple of the Night Hawk was once again "Temple of the No Hawk!" lol Yes, hi... This is some of the best park ice cream we've ever had! The fresh crepes were insanely good and served to us hotter than the sun! Amazing! Just some more of the awesome themed areas of @Phantasialand! [twitter] /status/746413831094702081[/twitter] We are on a quest to find as many dragons as possible @Phantasialand! [twitter] /status/746423256517844992[/twitter] That's not just a giant penis, that's one hell of a cool indoor drop tower! The ice cream was so good we came back for more! We had to go back for more Maus au Chocolat! Such a great ride! Kristen's favorite! I'm not exactly sure what these dudes are... But here's a picture! lol [twitter] /status/746441805156093952[/twitter] A few more rides on Maus au Chocolat to finish off our day! What a great day @Phantasialand! We already have plans to make a return trip as soon as possible! Goodnight @Phantasialand! Here is the current view from our hotel room balcony! You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter:
  8. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter: Today we are hanging out at Movie Park Germany! I just want to say something real quick about this park - I know it gets a lot of crap from the European coaster and theme park groups, but I have to say this - Yes, they don't have the best collection of roller coasters, but IMO Van Helsing was a GREAT start to turning this park around, I'm hoping the next coaster coming in 2017 will continue that trend, and realistically, if this park gets 1 or 2 more GOOD rides over the next few years, I personally think it's better than a lot of the parks in the USA that are similar in style. I'm pretty sure @Movie_Park Germany's stand-up drop tower is in the top ten world's most terrifying rides! Van Helsing really is a great ride! Super fun and well themed! If this ride was at either of the Universal parks in the US, it would be a stand-out ride at both parks. It's certainly better than most of the "Here, put on some 3-D glasses and let's shake you around a bit" rides. I'd love to see this exact ride comes to the States! Hanging out in the kids area! (And not being creepy, we actually have kids!) Of course we may or may not have had some adults playing around in the kiddie area! Hey! Look what we found here @Movie_Park Germany! Yes, we rode! Yes the girls survived! Kristen was able to ride all the coasters @Movie_Park but Van Helsing was by far her favorite! 10+ times! The Speedy Pass worked GREAT @Movie_Park! I love that it's good on so many different rides! While different than other European parks, @Movie_Park still looks nicer than a lot of similar style US parks. Those of you who remember the Son of Beast trains may recognize the trains on Bandit! Check out the first drop on Bandit! Mystery River is actually a pretty cool themed Rapids ride! And you don't get that wet! We had lights on/lights off ERT on Van Helsing @Movie_Park Germany! Was a huge hit with the group! Great ride! Some of the themed elements in @Movie_Park Germany's Van Helsing coaster. Next year, the entrance of @Movie_Park Germany will look very different with a new coaster behind it! Seriously, though, let's just break this park down a bit. On the plus side they have: - A couple of good dark rides (Mystery River, Ice Age, Alien Encounter) - A good kids area (really, all three of the coasters and the log flume in this area are decent!) - A really REALLY good drop tower! - A decent "family" area that has the Disk-O Coaster and a few other flats. - A good themed coaster (Van Helsing) What they are missing is one or two more "signature" coasters/attractions. I'm not gonna lie, Bandit is one of the worst woodies I've been on and the SLC is just...well, "not good." But that doesn't mean this park doesn't have a TON of potential, and I really think it does and I look forward to seeing them grow over the years. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter:
  9. Longest line I saw posted was 35 minutes. But remember, we are also not visiting during a busy season as the European schools are not our for summer break yet.
  10. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter: I admit that I am a jaded "coaster fan" and it's rare that I get excited by new rides or find something that blows me away. Kärnan at Hansa Park did just that. It's so strange and messed up that I don't even know how to describe the ride. The park calls it a "hyper coaster" but that just makes you think of dull personality-less cookie-cutter B&M hypers but this is so much more. The ride is so screwed up and totally original! I can honestly say I've never been on anything like it before. It's sort of a cross between a hyper coaster, Euro-Fighter, Drop Tower, with airtime and insane crazy forces all over the place that I can't even begin to describe. It *feels* more like some crazy-mental ride that RMC or Intamin would come up with while drunk and angry at someone. Not to mention the amazing theming and the "Russian Roulette" room where you don't actually know what row you're going to be assigned to until your row lights up and the door pops open. WTF???? So weird but so much fun! This seriously is going to be the best coaster of the trip and quite possibly the best new ride I've ridden in a long time. Today we are at Hansa Park! Spending all day at one of our favorite German parks! So we just rode Karnan OMG what the hell just happened??? What an AMAZING ride!!! The airtime on Karnan is just bananas! You're out of your seat everywhere! I am not going to give away what happens in Karnan's tower but it will really mess with your head! The spinning swinging bell ride with fire & water is a pretty messed up ride! In a good way! We got some delicious freshly made crepes at Hansa Park! (Although Sarah was denied the eggnog crepe!) lol We took some... Umm... Very "interesting" onride photos today! lol (We also rode with a TPR fan that spotted us at Novrogod!) Our BBQ lunch was seriously one of the most fun meals we've ever had at a park! Have I mentioned just how nuts Karnan is? Incredible! Just had some ERT on Karnan! What a completely mental ride! Quite possibly the best coaster of the trip! Dear Efteling fanboys - This is how you do awesome theming AND a kick-ass ride! Just a few shots of Hansa Park from the observation tower. Nessie is a "SuperRollerCoaster" where you get eaten by an animal! I love Hansa Park's old west town! "Scrape shit from boots!" LOL! Noted Kinda bummed the old "Double Bayern Curve" is gone but rides don't last forever! Just so we can remember when we visited Hansa Park. Sarah totally controlled the frogs! If there is one consistent theme to all these European parks, it's the amazing landscaping! While the group had ERT on Karnan, Kristen opted for ERT on the "bouncy cushion!" lol Let's not forget they also had some amazing "slides of death" here too! Spinning raft ride... Didn't get very wet but at least it spun a lot! The ropes course is totally serious and insanely hard! We love it! These amazing German pretzels at the front of the park make for a great snack before heading home. Had a really nice visit to Hansa Park! This remains one of our favorite parks in Europe! You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter:
  11. The difference is that those other parks seem to target families for their campgrounds. Heide Park really seemed as though they were targeting young adults to come and have sex. There has always been a stigma of "getting it on in the backseat of the car" and this just seemed to embrace that. We saw several signs for advertising the VW's around the park, all of them had pictures of kids hooking up. None of them were all "bring your family to our nice campground." Not that I have a problem with this. Hell, in my younger years I'd be happy to rent one out, too. I'm just saying it's another example how Heide Park seems to be drifting away from being a family oriented park and becoming the "Thorpe Park of Germany."
  12. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter: Today was Heide Park. I'm going to rant for a little bit here... I wish I could report that we had an awesome day at this park as we have during several visit in the past. But it was really just "ok" today. The park most certainly seems to be shifting from a really nice family-oriented park to becoming the "Thorpe Park of Germany." First of all, the lack of use of their virtual queue system or any of the single rider lines saying their reasoning was "it's not a busy day" when lines for the major attractions were between 30-90 minutes all day today was just very annoying. Why would you NOT run your upcharge virtual queue system??? It makes the park money!!! The ops were also not amazing. We saw quite a bit of line jumping than in the past. And overall, it was just a day that wasn't without frustration. The park still looks really nice and they have a decent selection of rides, but it really *felt* like a very different park, and I'm not sure I like this new direction. Anyway, onto some photos... So today we visited @HeideParkResort. Beautifully landscaped park with some decent coasters. Rode Krake @HeideParkResort during hotel ERT and it's awesome! Yes it's short but it's a really good Dive Coaster! Love the theming on Krake! The water splash & airtime are great too! I'm all for rides where you get eaten by a sea monster! lol Love this theming! The wait time for Colossos @HeideParkResort is up to 60 minutes. Express & single rider lines closed. WHY???! Virtual queue @HeideParkResort was closed due to "low crowds" but major rides were 30-90 min. Park was packed. Colossos was a bit bumpier but still a great ride! Wish we didn't have to wait 60 min though. Limit was closed today @HeideParkResort. Not that some of us really minded. The "wurst station" is right in front of the SLC! How fitting! lol Line for Desert Race was insane. Shame the virtual queue was closed. I skipped this one. Kristen had fun on the driving school! There not a sign saying you can't go in the water so this is fine, right? Is this basically advertising "come bang your chick in a VW bus an the holiday camp???" They used to advertize the holiday came to families to come and "camp out" and now it seems like they are pushing it like a spring break-like teenage hook-up camp. We checked out the "shaggin wagons" @HeideParkResort holiday camp and it's just a bed in the back of the car! Rent by the hour? lol But seriously, this is a perfect example of the "new direction" the park feels like it's going in. The holiday camp was just filled with young people drinking and partying. It didn't seem "Family friendly" at all. The slides @HeideParkResort are still pretty awesome! The new ride/area @HeideParkResort this year was an existing boat ride re-themed to How to Train Your Dragon. Sarah got her pic with Toothless and these other dudes. Now she has German lice! lol Some views of @HeideParkResort from the sky tower! Now *THAT* is an awesomely themed B&M Dive Machine! OMNOMNOM!!! There's not a sign that says "no climbing on roller coaster" so according to Internet logic we can do it right? The park is very pretty & well landscaped. Again, I wish more US parks looked like this. We rode "Big Loop." We got line jumped by these two kids because the station is a confusing mess. And yes, that a picture showing how the loading gates don't match up with the train. People kept trying to get into wrong seats, etc. It was just a total mess. This is the shortest the Colossos line has been all day. 30 minutes. Why isn't @HeideParkResort using their Q-Bot? [twitter] /status/745345743985086466[/twitter] A few pics of the newish Wing Rider @HeideParkResort. It's on par with all the other B&M Wing Riders. Was an interesting visit to @HeideParkResort. Park seems to be catering less to families than in the past. Not sure I'm a huge fan of this new direction. You can follow our trip LIVE on Twitter:
  13. They relocated the loading platform to the old unloading platform, and added some new scenes before the lift. The lifthill itself is in the same place. Attractions Magazine posted a side-by-side comparison with the old ride. That's a really cool video. I thought from the initial video the ride seemed longer and they basically made the ride about 1:15 longer without actually changing the track length. I give Disney a lot of credit for being able to pull that off.
  14. Today we visited the cute "Potts Park" in Germany! Home to a bunch of funky awesome "operate it yourself" rides! Potts Park's star attraction was this interesting powered suspended "you control the speed" coaster. The "operate it yourself" Boat Jumping ride is always a popular attraction at these little German parks! [twitter] [/twitter] We of course had to do the Bunny Ride at Potts Park! [twitter] [/twitter] They had some pretty awesome "slides of death!" [twitter] [/twitter] German Currywurst and pretzels! I love being back in this country! [twitter] [/twitter] Oh yeah, there was also a full-sized junior coaster here, but this is a park where it's more than just a "credit!" Let's just say that "walking on stilts" didn't go over so well... A few of the other fun family rides at Potts Park. Most of them self-operated or self powered. [twitter] [/twitter] One of the bathrooms was some sort of "toilet museum" with all kinds of weird bathroom artwork & displays! There was an indoor science center filled with little hands-on displays for kids to play with. It was really cool! Playing around in the Water Garden at Potts Park. It's not warm outside but we didn't care! [twitter] [/twitter] What a great fun little family park! We love parks like this. Such a nice balance from bigger theme parks! [twitter] [/twitter]
  15. And here's why I don't give a crap about what a bunch of Dutch roller coaster nerds have to say...We posted that video just 4 hours ago and it already has 65,000 views with over 5,000 reactions only FOUR of them being negative. We simply do not cater to "coaster enthusiasts" as much as we cater to a general park-loving audience. If a bunch of die-hard coaster geeks love our videos, GREAT, but if they want to hate on our videos/opinions/whatever, we just do not care. They aren't our target audience.
  16. Very cool video. The little bump on the first airtime hill is clearly visible from the riders cam. But I hardly noticed it while riding. Still wondering if they'll go for a different fix eventually. I don't even know what "little bump" you are talking about. Do you mean the pop of airtime? It's amazing. Why would they want to "fix" that?
  17. I just want to make something perfectly clear. *I* did not start this whole "Lost Gravity/Baron" comparison - One of the Dutch fanboys did. I only responded to the question. IMO, those two rides SHOULDN'T be compared. I feel like the Dutch coaster geeks are only comparing the two because they are A. Roller Coasters and B. New I wouldn't compare those two rides like I wouldn't compare Expedition Everest to Incredible Hulk in my hometown of Orlando. One is a 'themed attraction" and one is a "kick ass roller coaster." I feel the same about these two rides. I would NOT compare them if it was me creating the topic. But I did respond to the question, so if they want to make a big deal because one guy asked me a question, meh, I don't really care. I liked both of the rides.
  18. Added our Lost Gravity video to the trip report:
  19. These people who are freaking out over my comments are f**king morons. Parks are meant to go to and have FUN and that's exactly what I did on BOTH Baron & Lost Gravity. Just because I happened to *like* Baron and *love* Lost Gravity doesn't mean I didn't have fun on both of them. I'm just so sick of stupid nerdy coaster dorks that sit around and obsesses over pointless things like one persons opinions. If you're going to freak out because I didn't happen to jizz all over Baron as much as some stupid Efteling fanboys then you're doing it wrong. Go to parks and have FUN! FFS Stop the complaining and start riding for fun! No one gives a crap if you like a ride more than I do or vice versa. I couldn't give a f**k what these dumb people think of my opinion.
  20. It was disappointing, yes. I don't think I've seen that many major rides closed in one park (or resort) at any given time. However, we had been to the park before so it didn't impact us THAT much. I would have liked to have gotten on Big Thunder Mountain again, but being that I live about 20 minutes away from Big Thunder Mountain and I probably ride it 2-3 times a week in my hometown, it wasn't a huge deal. But I can see why someone would delay a visit to the park until they get more of their rides back open again. Maybe for the anniversary next year? On another note, the Disney Dreams show totally makes up for any attractions not running!
  21. Queues were super short. Longest line ended up being about 20 minutes for Lost Gravity later in the day. We were pretty much "done" with the park (got all the coasters in) by about 12:30 and then we just hung out for a couple hours more and re-rode a bunch of other stuff. So no real problems at all.
  22. OMG, are you talking about the batshit crazy people on Twitter??? Yeah, IMO the Efteling fans are some of the worst European fanboys out there (maybe next to the crazy Alton Towers fanboys) where it's not good enough for me to say "I had a good day at Efteling and I liked the park." Noooooo! You need to be violently masturbating over everything the park does in order to please these people and not have them attack with you with crap like "WHY DON'T YOU THINK BARON IS THE GREATEST RIDE ON THE PLANET?!?!?!? HOW DARE YOU LIKE ANY OTHER RIDES!!!!" Ugh, I cannot stand them.
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