Ryancrash

I thought Le Comet Space was surprisingly decent, and I had fun on the drop tower as well. I'd have to rank both these higher than the Wacky Worm (although the Wacky Worm certainly had its charms).

Where were the waffles? We somehow missed these during our search for food. I ended up getting a hot dog - but I could sure have gone for a waffle. (I ate delicious waffles at many of the parks on our trip... I think my favorite was the one I ate at Walibi Belgium.)

The Terror House was a lot of fun! The upstairs portion of the attraction was a bit of a head-scratcher - I think it was supposed to simulate the experience of going to a nightclub and having someone slip something into your drink. Then you go down into the basement and the real fun begins - lots of blood-and-guts mayhem! It was a bit Hostel-esque. It was SO dark. And then from out of the blackness, someone would grab you. And then we got chased by a guy with a chainsaw - FUN! Fortunately Stefan was wearing a bright shirt that showed up in the darkness, so we were able to follow him through the basement - otherwise, maybe we never would have made it out! We'd still be stuck down there now... BWAH HA HAH!!! Really, more parks need to hire live (or undead) actors to lurk inside their haunted house attractions...

Thanks for the teaser poster! Looks great (looks like Intamin track... mmm, I'm drooling already...) Iceland would definitely be a great theme for a new area of the park.

I think the land we saw being cleared was a road being re-routed to make room for the new coaster (rather than land being cleared for the coaster itself). But you could see this from the top of Atlantica Supersplash, if you looked off to the side before going down the drop. So perhaps the new coaster will go in Scandinavia land?

I absolutely loved Europa Park - it was my favorite park of the entire trip (which is saying a lot, considering some of the amazing parks we visited). Gorgeous theming - great collection of rides and coasters. (Now if they'd just do something about those pesky trim brakes on Silver Star...) Good food too - the fish sandwiches in Scandinavia land were delicious. I'm so glad we got to spend two days (and two nites) here! Hotel Colosseo was breath-taking, one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. Everything was great - the theming, the coliseum seating with the torch fires, the food, the ice cream, the fountain, the delicious drinks at the bar - and a special thanks to our lovely waitress Katja for taking such good care of us all! I noticed Europa Park was clearing ground for a new coaster (2009?) All the more reason to go back! I could seriously spend a week at this place.

Erik, could this have been part of why people thought the trims on EGF seemed more forceful last year? It was apparently a colder day than this year. I thought the trims seemed to have very little effect on the speed of the train this year. Yes, the outside temperature has a very very big influence. While the temperature has also negative influence on the coaster speed while the internal bearing friction on the roadwheels increase at lower temperatures. So the train is slower, and the brakes generate more brake force... Interesting. I rode GeForce in 2007, not with TPR, but on my own visit. The general TPR consensus was that GeForce was not up to its usual standards in 2007. I went to Holiday Park on Aug 1, 2007 (which I believe was shortly before or after the TPR visit) - the day I visited was warm and sunny (once again, I was wishing for sunglasses on the loading platform and lifthill). On Aug 1, 2007 GeForce was running GREAT - it instantly became my number one favorite. Personally, I didn't see too much difference between the way GeForce was running on my 2007 visit and the way it ran for us this year.

Okay, sunglasses on EGF would have helped a lot - usually being blinded on a coaster will take the overall experience down a notch for me. But even with the sun right in my eyes, EGF was still far and away the best ride experience of the entire tour. One more credit for Silver Star - it had a catchy theme song. (Chuck - we wrote the same comment at the same time! But it was "RIDE on (Silver Star)")

What's my favorite band IMMORTAL doing on a coaster site? Is it because Piers did "the claw"? Or a prelude to Scandi '09? Hails to the mighty kings of the ravenrealm! Forever damned in black... \m/ \m/ (Now, back to the coasters...)

Hey Joe, "locked in" implies a lack of consent, and we were all SO asking for it!! You can't imprison the willing! And Mark - I don't know if I'd go quite so far as to call Tour des Flours "insanely good" - but it was definitely insane! Hell, I was feeling a little insane myself after riding that one...

Holiday Park was another place that really rolled out the red carpet for us. Delicious beer, delicious hot dogs... and extra extra extra EXTRA ride time on GeForce! Running back to the bus after ERT was the second greatest workout I got on the trip (after the ropes course in Belgium). Thanks Elissa for not killing us all! (Damn, I have GOT to get in better shape...) Holiday Park had some other fun treats as well - the Teufelsfässer log flume, Burg Falkenstein, Donnerfluss, the Free Fall Tower... and the Tour des Flours monorail ride was apparently designed by someone under the influence of some serious psychedelic drugs! What a head trip... And the park also had Waldmeister slushees - YUM!! All in all, a truly wonderful visit, and I believe my favorite ERT session of the entire tour (if I had to pick just one). Thank you Holiday Park!! Expedition GeForce still reigns supreme as my number one favorite coaster on Earth - can't wait to go back and ride it some more!

Yes, I think we do need to do a TPR Oktoberfest trip! I would totally sign up for that. Not just for the amazing beer, but for the food as well. (Are any parks in Germany still open at this time of year?) Norman - Thanks for all your hard work on Mammut! I absolutely loved Tripsdrill. I look forward to returning in the future and once again riding Mammut and all the other delightful rides this park has to offer.

Tripsdrill was indeed a beautiful park - some of the best landscaping / scenery of the entire trip I thought. That log flume was a hoot! (Rub-a-dub-dub, SIX men in a tub!) The tree drop tower actually surprised the hell out of me (in a good way). I even enjoyed Mammut. As a coaster enthusiast, I think it's real easy to get spoiled on coasters like "Kentucky Rumbler", for example - we see other new woodies of a similar size, and expect them to deliver the same kind of thrills. And I don't think that's really what Tripsdrill was going for with Mammut. Mammut was certainly a more family-oriented ride, but what it does, I think it does quite well. It's certainly smooth, which is always good in my book (let's not forget this was the first woodie we rode after Bandit!) - and I thought the tunnel was great. A bit more speed would have been nice, but just the same, I liked Mammut for what it was. I should also note this was the day Ivan bought the water pistol! That ended up providing quite a bit of unexpected entertainment. I'll never forget coming down the "giant slide of death inside the windmill" and getting a faceful of water at the bottom! Too damn funny... And Robb - thanks for not killing or maiming any of us on G'sengte Sau! You are now hereby promoted to operate a bigger coaster... Tripsdrill was great, yet another gem of a park from Germany. I seriously need to spend more time in this country!!

Hey Mark - lucky some coasters were down at Walibi Belgium and Walibi World - otherwise, for your Big. No. 500 you might have had Schloß Beck's Familien-Achterbahn! Or even worse - Bandit! Whew, close call... congrats on having Black Mamba for yer 500th! That was one great ride.

Yeah, I don't throw metal horns either. Mine are DEVIL HORNS. ("Metal horns" just doesn't have the right sinister ring...)

Um, for all of you non-metalheads, this has been MY signature move since the 80's! I'm not sure who this "Hot Fuzz Rick" character is, but apparently he owes ME fifty dollars!

PLUS - the rafts had a VAMPIRE BAT THEME!! Seriously, how cool is that?! And like Mystery Castle, River Quest had a bit of a Hammer Horror film vibe, traveling through a creepy old "castle" (or whatever it was supposed to be). Really, what's not to love?! I think River Quest was the only raft ride of the trip that I ended up riding twice. FUN!!

Phantasialand was one of my favorite parks of the whole trip (along with Heide Park and Europa Park). Nice theming, great rides! Mystery Castle was the best drop tower I've ridden - it was like a drop tower inside of a Hammer Horror film! Black Mamba and Winjas were excellent, even better than expected. "The Michael Jackson Thrill Ride" was a surprise - this was the best mine train I've ever been on! I loved the dark rides, even the Hollywood-Tour (with Jaws and King Kong each in serious need of some TLC). Geister-Rikscha was fun. Talocan was great - even if it was a bit of a ball-smasher. And unlike Robb, I totally loved River Quest, even if it lacked true rapids (guess I don't scrutinize water rides as closely as I might scrutinize coasters). I think we used both of our VIP passes on this ride. The park had some good food - hot dog spezials (topped with onions and pickles). I got called up in front of the group for the demonstration inside Casa Magnetica, and had to try to put my limited German skills to use. I also managed to get lassoed and spanked by cowboys near the "Michael Jackson Ride".... WTF?!?! All in all, Phantasialand rocked!

First off - Schloß Beck! What an absolutely delightful park, I think this place really surprised a lot of us. So many fun little rides - the boat drop was just incredible. Rides where you actually felt that you were taking your life in your hands a bit. Stefan got us some truly amazing airtime on that swing (the one where you had to pull the cord) - I seriously thought the entire contraption was gonna fall over! I loved the TPR takeover of the slide. I loved the castle, and all the cheesy haunted house attractions in the basement (yes, I paid € 0.50 for each one of them). I loved searching for Becki the ghost (what a fun mascot). Did anyone get pictures of the water slide? That was another fun one, for those of us who braved the line for it. I liked the self-service ice cream machine, but that was definitely a case of "buyer beware" - the machine gave Ivan a broken cone, and then we had to hunt down a park employee for another one. I don't think it's been mentioned yet - but this was the night of the big Germany-Spain football match, which we watched at Phantasialand. That was a lot of fun! Hotel Ling Bao was one of the nicest places we stayed (along with Port Royal and Colosseo), truly another highlight of the trip. Guess I didn't notice the high food prices (I think I only ate there for breakfast, which was included). I guess I was a little underwhelmed by the Dragon Bar - I don't think it quite lived up to the hype that had been built up around it. Not a bad place, but the service was really slow, and did they have to insist on playing Will Smith? Seriously?! How the hell does Will Smith fit in with supposed Chinese theming? Really, that's some music best forgotten! Just the same, I liked the large dragon hanging from the ceiling. Phantasialand was one of my favorite parks of the whole trip (along with Heide Park and Europa Park). Nice theming, great rides! Mystery Castle was the best drop tower I've ridden - it was like a drop tower inside of a Hammer Horror film! Black Mamba and Winjas were excellent, even better than expected. "The Michael Jackson Thrill Ride" was a surprise - this was the best mine train I've ever been on! I loved the dark rides, even the Hollywood-Tour (with Jaws and King Kong each in serious need of some TLC). Geister-Rikscha was fun. Talocan was great - even if it was a bit of a ball-smasher. And unlike Robb, I totally loved River Quest, even if it lacked true rapids (guess I don't scrutinize water rides as closely as I might scrutinize coasters). I think we used both of our VIP passes on this ride. The park had some good food - hot dog spezials (topped with onions and pickles). I got called up in front of the group for the demonstration inside Casa Magnetica, and had to try to put my limited German skills to use. I also managed to get lassoed and spanked by cowboys near the "Michael Jackson Ride".... WTF?!?! All in all, Phantasialand rocked!

Wow, Bandit was SO painful, even riding in the front seat - a coaster in need of some serious track work (thank god we didn't have to wait in line for it!) MP-Xpress was also painful. The High Fall was painful and almost necessitated a change of underwear. And yet, for some reason, I REALLY enjoyed this park!! I'm not sure just why I had so much fun here, but I did. Even before that amazing meal they served us. Movie Park Germany rocked! On a side note, how cool was the human body dryer at the exit of Bermuda Triangle Alien Encounter?

I thought that was the Novotel in Amsterdam, which was a really nice non-themed hotel. Joe - I think you're right, I might be mixing up my hotels at this point (at least I got the country right). And yes, Novotel Amsterdam was indeed another nice one!

Really though, I absolutely loved the showers at Port Royal. I wish I had a pirate shower in my bathroom!

OUCH! How about those showers at Efteling, with the signs instructing guests to shower IN the tub, rather than on the bathroom floor?

Seriously! Heide Park was one of my absolute favorites on the tour (along with Europa and Phantasialand) - I could easily have spent another day there. Great rides, gorgeous landscaping and scenery, fun slides, delicious schnitzel... and Wumbo is such a delightful park mascot. Colossos was my favorite woodie of the entire trip (edging out even Troy!) Desert Race was a blast, and I love the long scenic rides down the hillside on Schweizer Bobbahn and Wildwasserbahn II. And Scream is one of the best drop towers I've been on. I even have to say a few words in defense of Limit. I usuallly hate SLCs, and when I visited Heide Park in 2007 I was happy to see it down for maintenance. I was kinda hoping it would be closed again this year. But much to my surprise, this was the one SLC on the trip that didn't beat the crap out of me! I actually enjoyed Limit quite a bit - Ivan and I rode it three times! Robb - thanks also for including some pictures of Hotel Port Royal (the late nite "snack", the sexy pirate bathrooms...) This was our first night in Germany, the first night I started drinking that delicious German Weissbier. Port Royal was my favorite hotel of the entire trip (though Colosseo and Ling Bao were also breath-taking). Ryan

Toverland really hooked us up - one of my favorite ERT sessions on the whole trip. Troy was so amazing, I rode it 26 times - it was even better than Thunderhead I thought, which is saying a lot in my book. THANK YOU TOVERLAND!! "TROY!... de sensatie... la la la la la..." Ryan