DerekRx

After being soaking wet already, we made our way into Lowenbrau's beer tent to dry off, drink, and warm up! Andy was awesome enough to get us table reservations right next to the oompah band. As cool as Busch Garden's fest haus is, it has NOTHING on this place! And there is nothing quite as cool as hearing an oompah band play Mama Mia! And I leave you with me being coherant enough the next morning to remember to take a Casey shower picture before heading back to the States. Thanks for reading! Magically, I made it back to my hotel room and could still make a signature move Thanks for the hospitality, showing us around, getting us into an awesome tent, and everything else Andy and friends (yes, even that extra beer!) Need...more...beer! BACT Attack! Andy and Tim felt the power of the pound too! But in reality, I just wanted Dave to pound it But after 3.5 liters, I couldn't really stand up on a tiny bench, and ended up doing a beautiful cartwheel over the table and into Dave, spilling my remaining beer in the process. Even Andy and the Coaster Friends did it, so I knew it was ok. Tradition calls for people to stand up on their seats for some songs and clap and sing Janna was gone after liter 1.5, Dave definitely after 2! As was everyone else, getting their third! But then captain went and bought everyone a round for hour 4. I was doomed! Hour 3 and liter 3 (I had to use Glutenfree's extra coupon) I should have stopped here Apparently my pretzel phone doesn't get very good coverage inside the tent Liter number 2 and still holding my own and happy Finally the chicken came out, and it was probably the best chicken I ever had. Perfectly cooked, nice and juicy, and really flavorful. Eat that Knotts! or even to tell someone you love them Or a halo... And could be used for other things, like a mask... With nothing to eat since breakfast, I decided it may be a good idea to get a pretzel. The thing was freaking huge! The Bavarian pro wants some to cheer! Tikka tokka tikka tokka, oy oy oy! They seriously did that here, it was awesome! Tim was representing his hometown team too (apparently he didn't know they lost to the Bengals!) My first liter of Lowenbrau Oktoberfest And everything was paid for in advance, even the tip! Very excited to be here, as it was a really surreal experience We had seats right near the oompah band, who played great sets of classic Bavarian stuff, as well as some world known round goodies The place is huge, holding over 10,000 people! But we were at Lowenbrau's Wally's choice in Beer Tents...

Final updates: Oktoberfest! Our plans for Oktoberfest didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. We were 15 minutes late arriving because of our train engineer not driving as fast as he could have. Another major problem was the weather, which was now cold and rainy, thus limiting our desired time actually at the fair, which was simply incredible. We managed to get on all 5 coasters and at least 1 insane flatride, but with the weather being so gloomy, we spent more time in the nice warm beer tent getting totally plastered, a decision I do not regret! When I go back though, I intend to go for 2 full days, just so I have enough time to ride all the insane flats, and the stupid Bret darkrides. Best capacity ever, and cool how they dispatched each side almost simultaneously without actually looking at each other The final coasters needed were the dueling/racing wild mice The Tacata, just like that thing at Blackpool at the end of Trauma Towers One final darkride I encountered The frisbee was running in insane mode I've had better rides on SLCs than on this thing! One coaster I was kinda looking forward to riding, but it was a big disappointment, Euro Star Here's the infamous Breakdance where there are no barracades or anything. Just vie for position and run when the ride slows down Oh yeah, and there's lasers, random 80s sci-fi creatures, music, and FIRE inside!! Star World was the next coaster on the list. Indoor/outdoor, spinning, and a pseudo Star Wars knockoff theme This slide starts out with a super fast escalator ramp before you take the stairs up! One of the new darkrides for the year Unlike Southport, Oktoberfest still has its wheel operating. Except here you are called out onto the wheel, moreso if you're drunk (I shoulda went back later!) In case you did bash your head though, there's Ellen friendly beer-y go rounds all over the fairgrounds But that was a ride on Joe-lympia Looping, the greatest 5 vertical loop coaster ever! (and a pretty good coaster overall, B+) Sadly, the rain kept it only a 1 train operation, so we only could ride it once After all the Laser-like goodness is gone, there's a few helices before the brakes Next is a little power boost up a 2nd lift before snaking back around for the final 2 loops Chock full of forces! After the black loop, the train makes a U turn and comes back for blue and red in succession Sadly the ride has they dreaded accordian restraints. They didn't bother me too much, but some of the party was hurting The first loop is more like that 4th inversion on Zonga (like a crazy corkscrew) only bigger! Going down the first drop into the first of 5 vertical loops!!! no caption needed =D But this we will not skip! One more flat that looked pretty cool, but we didn't ride it Another of the crazy flats I wanted to ride but the lack of time and weather prevented it from happening Skater, the Mondial Topscan was running pretty insane, well worth the ride we took on it for 3.00 Followed by another one Another stupid Bret darkride that I didn't have time to ride One of the random flats I can probably skip is the Top Spin, for my croch's sake And here's our native Munich host, captain Andy! Random dark rides are everywhere here. Next time I hope to have more time to do them all We entered Oktoberfest on the rides side. Here you see the Star Flyer which I still have not ridden one of! First stop after arriving was getting to our hotel and checking in. Here was my room for 155 Euros a night

LOL. No, I'm not like Ted! Monday nights drinks also from Phantasialand Followed by a bigger one at the Dragon bar (pay no attention to the label, they didn't have large glasses soley for the Gaffel, probably because Ted stole them all on his last visit!) First up, a Gaffel Kolsh with dinner

Finally, the thing you've all been waiting for, the reason I wanted to get back to Germany so badly.... The Koln Cathedral!! The shuttle driver from the hotel got us to the train station so early we managed to get an earlier train to Koln. Therefore, we had like 50 minutes to chill, and since the Dom was right outside the main train station, we figured "YOU DARN WELL KNOW WE'RE GOING HERE FOR LIKE 49 OF THOSE 50 MINUTES!!" Good-bye real Rhine River. See you in a few years! Tomorrow's update....Oktoberfest! Greg and I relax for our 4.5 hour journey to Munich The engineer dude gets everything situated for our journey Tim reserved us our own private car, and it was actually the front of the train for about half of the journey And let's hop an ICE train to Munich Grab a Paulaner for the road "THIS is more like it!" "This isn't what I came here for" It was nicer looking inside than the one in Frankfurt, but even still, it took like a minute to see Oh yeah, and the Cathedral was here too Derek and Dom beer, now this is cool! There it is, in the distance. I knew it was close to the train station since I wandered thru the station last time we were there instead of going into the church

More photos! With the flash off at night A few of the park at night, even though they're never opened in the summer past 6pm Finally, at the end of the night we kicked back a few up in the Dragon Bar on top of the hotel. Sadly, no German chicks were here looking for Joey this time. In fact, no one was here besides us! The indoor section of the pool. There's like a break in the wall if you want to swim outside too This hotel even has side boob and butt! My meal at the all you can eat Asian buffet! The pool, restaurant, and spa from my room One final view of the park from my hotel room Scariest thing about Black Mamba, this he-she, shim, heher thing Here I am hanging out with the mystery mutt guy mascot thing From the park entrance, you can see a bit of Black Mamba doing its waterfall turn. I think they hope to eventually connect the front of the park to Africa around here Since I'm so awesome, they knighted me at Mystery Castle I went with cinnamon sugar. And I totally balsamic chickened this thing in like 30 seconds No Gran Marnier here, only banana, nutella, or cinnamon sugar 2nd best thing about this park, CREPES! The inside of Feng Ju Palace, the haunted swing themed to a wedding (seriously!) Random scenery in the Asia section Here's River Quest, one freaking awesome rapids ride. Elevator lift, whirlpool, 3 levels and 3 drops = good stuff! The two log flumes are right next to each other, but both with a different layout, and lots of interaction with Colorado Adventure. Sadly, they only had 1 side opened at a time that day Here's the actual entrance plaza for the park, all European themed and stuff.

Just when you thought I couldn't have any more photos from Phantasialand, I went back on Monday for more! This time I was finally joined by the rest of the BACTers who were doing the original FULL Okcoasterfest, including Movie Park, Schloss Beck, Skyline Park, Europa, Holiday, and Prater in addition to what I did. And after Casa Magnetica, my kokosnuss was still good to eat! While this dude plays pool. (They picked me to do it, but I had no idea what they were saying. I would have ended up hitting the chick with the pool stick or something) And in this room, this volunteer does her best Smooth Criminal impression Inside there's not much more than 2 scenes, in this one you'll find water flowing uphill "We're good to go!" Since I can't savor my kokosnuss in the tilt house, I'll save it for later Time to go to Casa Magnetica, their tilt house, which only does a few shows a day I'm kookoo for kokosnuss Dude, best thing about this place! Fresh coconut! They're already setting up for their winter event, stringing up lights everywhere Coming Summer of '07, BrokeBACT Mountain ...all the while, only the Native American is actually mining stuff! ...and lighting things on fire while hanging out with a TPR donkey... ...and cock fighting... In the silver mine, you'll find Mexicans drinking... I'm excited for another darkride, Dave just wants me to stop taking pictures so he can make out with Janna Next up, another dark ride, the Silbermine (Silver Mine) Here's the team enjoying the monorail that Joe won't ride Joe, you see this awesome Aztec temple type building....its the station for the Schwarzkopf Monorail! Check it out, its Epcot Europe, or Eurocot, or Epcope or something Next up, a ride on the old double decker carousel Dave and Janna are excited to be on the spinny raft ride, but they really wished Elissa was there with them The rest of the team enjoyed the Schwarzkopf darkride that Joe hasn't been on With hardly any school kids in the park today, no one wanted to play with the Octowusy Also on the Tour was a scene from The Birds. Kinda creepy the way they attacked the boat too! Why, waterskiing Rosie O'Donnell, that's what! As was Tarzan and his monkey and elephant friend. What was so amusing to them?? Frankenstein and his monster were also on the Hollywood tour today "Old and stupid" Fisherman guy is falling in the water, that can only mean one thing.... Your guide for today is none other than Alfred Hitchcock. He's seen better days though! The Hollywood Tour, another 1980s dark ride It was cool that they were dueling them today too Totally 2 different layouts, each with unique things, but I think I like Fear better, with its 90 degree turn and all This here means one possible thing....Winjas Force is opened today! Score, both credits after all! Who needs to go to Berlin when its right at Phantasialand I found this random creepy snake charmer statue in the not yet fully completed walkway between Black Mamba's 2 halves First Southport Turtles, now Black Mamba turtles. Save them!! The group started off the day with a ride on Colorado Adventure since Black Mamba didn't open until 10am. They also enjoyed the mine train

Some of my tastings from last weekend. Sunday night at Hotel PhantASIA's restaurant: Next up, a Stauder Pilsener. It was pretty tasty, not weak, but also no Prima Pils First up, a Sanwald Weizen. Good stuff, no taste of hot dog water, but also no lemon.

Oh yeah, and if you didn't know, this year Phantasialand added Black Mamba to its Africa section of the park. The ride was really trenched out, much like Nemesis, making it pretty cool. Sadly, the ride wasn't nearly as forceful as Nemesis or Batman, but its unique layout, use of tunnels, trenches, and extensive theming make for a really cool coaster. Its better than the newer B&Ms like Talon, Great Bear, and Silver Bullet, probably up there with Top Gun at Carowinds. While not as intense as Nemesis, it still had some forces, with a really cool distorting layout and excellent theming. Go. Ride it! Especially with the great foot choppers! After this flatspin it was pretty much just a whole lotta turns and tunnels, but still fun So much theming in the queue that there was actually real vegetables growing in the gardens! Followed by a flat spin And this waterfall turnaround was very much a reminder of Nemesis Some nice whipping action in the roll More trenches, tunnels, and a zero G roll Nowhere else will you ever get a shot of the top of the loop from inside the loop!! Oh My God! Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But wait....does the walkway actually go THRU the loop!?!? Can't get enough of that vertical loop From here you can see not only my signature shot, but also some of the trenchyness Told ya! Soon the coaster will go thru the loop The coaster is pretty conceiled, but there's some good spots for shots Down the first drop (notice there's no nets here!) Hey look, its other members of BACT! Up the lift goes the train The station is themed to a cave, with sound effects like bats and stuff. Oh, there's also a giant snake splitting each row New for 2006, Black Mamba, the biting ride

and now for the random weird darkride segment: See, I told you it was an Intamin froghopper Once again, the queue is really nicely themed, and even had dudes jumping out at you Moving on, we get to Mystery Castle, home of an Intamin froghopper And then some other random giant with heads in his stomach finishes off the ride. WTF?! Ahhhh!!! He's going to follow me home And of course, hitchhiking Asian ghosts And there's a chick with 3 heads and huge hands?? Now the ghosts and the Asians are mingling together and Pirates of the Caribbean?? With a drunk monk?? and then there's Aligator wrestling??? and I have no idea whats going on and then more dead people And then another some dude slaying a dragon scene and then the next scene is of dead people First you see some giant Asian Caseyfish So here's Geister Riksha, some Asian themed haunted mansion

Now for some park photos. And new for 2007 will be another fun ride, Talocan! Hey, look Nicole, they have one of those rides that go in that motion As you can tell, its a really well kept park It didn't make me nautious! =P The main reason Elissa wants to go back to the park, spinny raft ride! And then you see some dude fighting a dragon And then you end up in Arabia The storyline is goofy. You get eaten by this dragon thing ooooh, Schwarzkopf dark ride that is also a Jeff Johnson credit! If you're into that sort of thing, the park has one of those living statue shows to watch from time to time Round and round we go I was fine though, because Fear was really awesome with some pretty unique things What a Winja is, I do not know. But this sign sadly told me I would be missing out on one credit this trip Finally I found Wuze Town, home of Winjas! Temple of the Night Hawk was one seriously screwed up indoor coaster. Random music, a laser bird, and a 3rd lift that wasn't really needed. The park contains a double decker steam powered carousel that used to operate in Munich at Oktoberfest This cool looking pagoda houses a Vekoma Haunted Swing, themed to a wedding??? The mortal kombatish preshow was pretty entertaining though Watersplash! The ride is like 20 helices all thrown together around a mountain, a fort, and some other random old west theming Probably Vekoma's best coaster ever, and the best mine train outside of Disney Behold, the ride that will allegedly grope and fondle you if you're a boy under the age of 10

If you're getting here from the main page, you can also find non-coaster siteseeing in Frankfurt on page 1, as well as more Phantasialand on pages 10 and 11, and all the Oktoberfest goodies can be found on page 11 as well. Phantasialand was simply awesome. With such elaborate theming, uniqueness to all the rides, and a pretty cool hotel, its definitely my kind of park and I really am looking forward to returning there in a few years. Onto the pictures which cannot do the park justice. First, getting to the park. At dusk, torches came on and the place looked pretty cool As well as some Slice by Slice, teriyakied beef At one of the hotel restaurants I tried the Crispy Experience, lobster soup Cool, glass bottles of Lift apple soda! The hotel even has a pool, both indoor and outdoor And Casey, save up your cash for the next TPR trip there, you'll be able to enjoy the shower The sink ruled! The bathroom was pretty posh too There's some coasters in there, and Epcot! The view of the park from my window My single room was pretty elaborately themed and spacious, and the bed was a lot bigger than expected and finally, here we are at Hotel PhantASIA From Koln I took another train to Bruhl. Here's its Schloss Mmmmm, brewery If Koln wants to put a boring coaster up there, I know of one OMG, there it is! The real reason I came to Germany. Maybe I should skip Phantasialand and just spend 2 days at the Dom Look, its the real Rhine, not that imposter in Frankfurt! (and we didn't go over the river like 19 times like last time!) Look at me, I'm having fun From Frankfurt I took an ICE train to Koln

Hey everyone, I made it home safely. Andy, thanks for posting those pictures, after the 3rd mug, I really can't remember what happened, how I got back to the hotel, or anything! Somehow I made it back though, and when I got there, my jacket and stuff was already there for me! As for why the beer hit me so hard, its probably the fact that besides some bread for Breakfast at Phantasialand, I hadn't eaten anything all day. Big mistake, but from what I can remember up until that 3rd mug, Oktoberfest was just simply awesome, despite the rain. 4 Mugs, 4 hours, 125lbs....today my liver is in pain. Oktoberfest pictures will be up by the weeks end, but for now you can enjoy these Phantasialand ones.

Whooops, I thought they called it the Main River for the same reasons they call stuff Platz and Strausse. I was wondering why the river looked so small Still doesn't make sense why my hotel travel card says I get free access to all U-bahn, S-bahn, and a cruise of the Rhein.

^Yes, but Germany is where it was determined what the 4 required ingredients were for beer to be beer. I've had some "ancient recipes" before, they were pretty much crap. My liver would be happy if that was all that was around, because it would never get used as I would never drink that stuff.

Guess who made it to Germany, Land where beer as we know it today was invented. Not too much drinking yet, but I'm jetlagged and trying to adjust. I'll probably go back out later tonight for more stuff (beer is very easy to find here, its pretty much on every street!) It tasted pretty much like apple cider, but with a little hint of alcohol. I think I'd crap myself after more than 3 though, so I stopped at 2. Something Glutenfree can enjoy, too bad he's not here with me Since I was in Frankfurt, I had to try the homebrewed Apple Ciders I start off the Germany trip with some Binding Romer Pilsener Spezial

More pics from Frankfurt But the IC has AC. Woot! More pics from Phantasialand and Oktoberfest next week! In England I'd have to open the window like this and hear all the noise outside Getting back to my hotel room, it was pretty warm out (close to 80F!) The subways (called U-bahn) are really easy to use in Frankfurt. In fact, all train service is Of course, I had to knock back an apple struddle too while I was here So good I had a second! (I'll be regular tomorrow) I was told it tasted like vinegar if you get it straight up, but it wasn't much different from beer, only with no carbonation and an apple flavor Frankfurt and its surrounding area is known for apples. This isn't a normal bar, its a apfelwien bar, known for its homemade alcoholic apple cider. If you see a wreath, they homebrew Christmas Tree guy works here too! In fact, since this is where Christmas Trees started, he probably IS German! mmmm, beer barge

So here I am in Germany. Originally I was going to do a big honkin trip, with loads of parks and beer, but because work wanted to send me to some conference, I had to cut the trip short to just Oktoberfest in Munich and a few days before. (of course, I ended up not going to said conference!) So, day 1 was just wandering around Frankfurt. Had I known that passport customs was so freaking easy here, I could have easily visited Holiday Park, but because I figured it was pure havok like in London, I figured I wouldn't be free until at least an hour later. Sadly, no Holiday Park this year for me So here's all the good cultural stuff that I took in while I roamed around Frankfurt today. Don't worry, Phantasialand is tomorrow! Day One - Arrival in Germany (see below) Day Two - Phantasialand and Black Mamba! Day Three - Even MORE Phantasialand! Day Four - Oktoberfest including Olympia Looping! City Center as seen from the Rhine So here's the Rhine, where's Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf?!?! Here's the Rhine River again, up close with the Eisenerner Steg pedestrian bridge going across to the Sachsenhausen area of Frankfurt One final shot of the Imperial Cathedral, its like totally Goth and doesn't care what you say about it Here's the remains of a Roman bath, and that weird skyscraper again Another shot of the Kaiserdom, otherwise known as St. Bartholomew's Cathedral This is where the Holy Roman Emperors were chosen and crowned from the 16th to 18th Centuries It was pretty cool looking inside, really high ceilings That's right, Cathedral credit! No wonder I didn't go to Holiday Park today! Most of Frankfurt was blown up in WWII, so most of the old stuff isn't really old. But OMG what is that in the background!??! Some old looking buildings in Romer Plaza that really aren't that old This is City Hall in the Romer Check me out, I'm in Germany! The blonde waitresses enjoyed my American stupidity and gave me some free fruit liquor for the road I haven't had this stuff since Heide Park when all the cheap ACErs waited around for the free cocktail weenies Of course I had to have a beer! It was a pretty cool looking place, all old looking I chose this place for lunch because it had Pils in the name. (and the menu had an English translation) Had I known it was this easy in Germany to get around, I could totally be there right now! Whoa! A store selling only Gummi stuff. Robb better stay away! mmmmm, gummi Venus di Milo "For the Block Test, let's put up German..." For some reason I got sad when I saw this sign Don't worry, Elissa, Frankfurt is approved for you A lot of Frankfurt is really modern because we blew up all their old stuff in WWII. Here's a weird skyscraper Here's a random clock tower thing, its telling me "dude, its like 12:30, not 6:30 like you think it is" Just in case you forgot who I was, or really miss me, heres a picture of me rocking out with some random European fountain Das Toiletten My single room, not too shabby. Nice sized bed My hotel for the stay, an InterCity Hotel right next to the central train station The outside of said station Frankfurt's Main train station. Tomorrow I'll use this to get to Koln And here's Germany, and a jet engine. That be the Rhine River down there! OK, this is the right plane

I'm leaving for Germany soon, but here's my final update from Philly! I went with the Yards IPA. Not too bad, even though its no HopDevil. :'( Have a great weekend everyone, filled with lots of beer!! What!? No HopDevil????!!!! The list on tap Lots of stuff on tap, now including some Troegs Nut Brown Once again, enough time to visit Independence for a final HopDevil

That's really strange that they're selling all the stuff. Sea Dragon was nothing special, but it was a nice little kiddie coaster, better than the Scoobys. The waterpark was pretty decent too. Oh well. I was glad I went this year while it was free with my SF pass. Now I'm just glad I went this year!

^Same here, Papa Hoffman. Oh well, at least we can afford to go, we just can't get the time to do it! Sure is better than the other scenario...

One of the BEST titles for the forum EVER!

Dude, send a box for me, I want a Southport Turtle too! I'll name him King Solomon!

Awesome stuff. Nothing says "realistic" and making you feel like you're "part of the action" quite like stick people hockey. Funny how we can now have all those games emulated on our cell phones! Thanks for sharing!

I don't think a lot of coasters (or even rides) makes for a good park. I think customer service, efficiency, friendly employees who enjoy their job is one of the reasons why my top parks are what they are. The place also needs to have a certain feeling to it, something that makes it unique. I used to think Knotts was one of the nicest parks out there. My opinion didn't change because I went to more and more places, it changed because the park changed. The employees didn't seem as friendly, the little things that set Knotts apart from other parks were removed and replaced with pretty much nothing. The family aspect was starting to be removed in hopes of drawing in more and more of SFMMs clientelle. Maybe its just me, but I seem to have a much better time at parks with famillies and little children than I do at places that act as babysitters for a bunch of teenagers. All Knotts needs is to go back to better operations, friendlier employees, and maybe a little more emphasis on the classic theming and charm that the place used to have, and less on concrete, trash cans, and bright obnoxious colors everywhere. An Intamin hyper would be nice too though

I'm not the Captain, Wally is. You can refer to me as the 2nd officer, Co-pilot, or Tenniel. I may drink more frequently than he does, but he's the founder of the thread, and he brews the stuff. I just drink it (and I can afford to gain more weight)