Mrenata

Fantasilandia - Santiago, Chile Santiago is Chile's capital, and one of the biggest cities in South America. It's architecture is a mix of new office buildings with some old colonial houses. There's a hop on, hop off bus that goes arount the whole city and it works pretty much the same way the other hop on/offs buses around the world do. The subway system ir really good, it takes you everywhere and it's easy to understand how the lines are combined. Fantasilandia is one of South America's biggest and most important parks. And is one of my favourites around here. It is located inside Parque O'Higgins, a local city park, and it's easily accessible by subway. The park even offers a shuttle from the subway station to the park gate, even though it's a 500m walk. The park area is not big, but they make the best out of it. Their flat ride collection is very good, and includes a Condor, Top Spin, Disk'o, Go Karts, Drop Tower, Wave Swinger, Tidal Wave, etc. They also have 5 roller coasters: A SLC, a Wild Mouse, A Boomerang, A dragon and a Galaxi. Their website is also very good and easy to navigate, even for non-spanish speakers. http://www.fantasilandia.cl/ The entrance fee is very cheap, around US$16.00! If you're flying from Brazil or Argentina to Santiago, the plane will cross the Andes, giving you a nice view of Aconcagua, South America's Highest point Santiago's achitecture is a mix of new and old This bus takes you from the subway station to the park entrance. There was a sign saying that it costs 100 pesos, but when I tried to pay for the ride, the bus driver told me it was free. Raptor, a Vekoma SLC Coaster Raptor, along with MP Express are the two smoothest SLC coasters I've ever ridden. And it also has a nice landscape! The park has a lot of gardens, benches and family rides. It looks like a cute RCT park. Fun South American fact: Both Fantasilandia and Parque de la Costa (Argentina) have a wild mouse coaster, but for some reason none of the brazilian parks have got one yet. It's a shame, since it is a nice adition to any small park. The lap bars were all tied toghether. Never seen that on a wild mouse before. The Top Spin that really makes evryone wet! They also have a Pirates of Caribbean ride that is actually good, even though the boats are really, really tiny! For some reason, this ride is very, very popular in South America! The Go Kart track goes under Boomerang A galaxi coaster, another VERY popular ride in South America This one has no lap bars, just a creepy car seatbelt The seatbelt is completely loose and one can easily take it off during the ride Ikarus was the newest addition for 2012 season And they also have this boat ride that is so rare to find nowadays. It's the only one of it's kind in South America.

Early this year I decided to explore those south american parks that are not well known and that barely no one talks about it. I left Rio de Janeiro towards Santiago, Chile in order to travel all the way to Buenos Aires by bus/plane. On my way I could visit six parks, including the most amazing abandoned park ever, Parque de la Ciudad! One thing you should know is that Chile and Argentina are pretty much "first world countries" in South America, so it's kind of easy to get around, even for a woman traveling by herself who didn't speak a fluent spanish. Both countries are very safe, have decent hotels and hostels, reasonable airports, good public transportation and most important, everything is cheap compared to USA or Europe, or even Brazil. So, those were the parks I visited: Fantasilandia - Santiago, Chile Super Park - Córdoba, Argentina Neverland - Buenos Aires, Argentina Argenpark and Parque Luján - Luján, Argentina Parque de La Ciudad - Buenos Aires, Argentina That was pretty much my itinerary

Day 14: Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen On my way back to AMS Airport, I stoped at two small parks along the route: Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen. Plopsa Coevorden is the smallest of the Plopsa's. The rides are pretty much the same ones found at Plopsa Hasselt but they also have a nice auditorium. I was surprised to see that many people on the park on a tuesday morning. I wonder if they ever thought about opening a Plopsa Indoor on a large city like Amsterdan, Paris or Frankfurt. It would be a huge success! Slagharen is a short drive from Plopsa, less than 15 minutes. I wasn't gonna visit it, since it's an almost unknown park, but thank god I did! What a nice park! I had no idea that Slagharen was that great. I mean, it's a small park, bigger than Klotten but smaller than Geiselwind, but there's something really special about it. They have a rare to find Fabbri drop tower, a even more rare Schwarzkopf Looping Star coaster plus a lot of interesting flat rides. I really felt in love with Slagharen, it became one of my favourite parks in Europe. Thank god I decided to visit it, it was the perfect end to this wonderful trip! This trip was one of the most special ones for me. Those 14 days in Europe were amazing and I got to know so many things that just a few people in the world are blessed to see. Plopsa Indoor Coevorden You gotta love Plopsa! They make the most out of everything! A cute water ride and the auditorium Slagharen! One of my favourites parks, for sure Everything was really nice and clean And well-themed Even though the park is not that small, all the rides operate in a rotation schedule The most unusual theme for a Wave Swinger A Vekoma mine train They also have the weirdest ride ever You enter that giant bubble and that's pretty much all you can see Something that you only see in Europe Fabbri Drop Tower, it really lives up to it's reputation The Cable Car ride is very cool. It soars over the main street Schwarzkopf Looping Star Another free ERT!!!!! The best end for this trip, for sure

Please, don't embarass us, brazilians, with annoying questions wtritten in a bad english! If something new comes up about the Chiller, eventually you'll find out, there's no need to ask the same questions again and again.

Day 13: Heide Park and Hamburg DOM Sorry for the delay on the last part of my report, my internet went down for a few days! My day at Heide-Park was, well, odd! I decided to visit the park on a monday, so the park wouldn't be crowded. Well, my plan worked so well that in fact there was absolutely no one there! Really, there were less than 1000 people there, witch means free ERT on every ride! Heide Park is huge, but it's easy to get around. If you just follow the path, you won't miss any ride. Krake was my first ride. It would have been just another ride on another diving machine if it wasn't for something really, really odd: It started snowing during the ride! Well, what happend was that I rode Krake once, and the operators let us stay on the train and ride again. On the second ride, it started raining, a very cold rain. On the third time, the rain became snow flakes, that droped from the sky for like 2 minutes, and then stoped. For someone who lives in Brazil, that was AMAZING. The ride itself was just ok, althought the Krake monster is really cool. I noticed a sign on my way to the Transylvania area advertising the new coaster for 2014! Later I was told that it is going to be a new B&M flying coaster. Even though I'm not a big fan of drop towers, Scream was really good. Way better than the regular towers with 4 or 5 sets of track. BCW in Brazil has a 90m Intamin drop tower, but it's not nearly as good as Scream. I think the single gongola makes the drop more intense due to it's weight. Too bad Scream doesn't tilt before the drop. Schweizer Bobbahn was the best bobsled coaster I've ever ridden. Really, really nice. Limit was one of the best SLC's too. On the other hand, Big Loop was very painful. Those old Vekoma coasters should be banned for life! Colossos was one of the most disappointing coasters ever! I was expecting something as good as El Toro since they are "sisters", but Colossos is a crapy ride! It's not fast enought, the layout is predictable and there's not even 1/3 of El Toro's airime. Very, very disappointing. My last hope to find another "El Toro" in the world is The Voyage, witch I'm going to ride for the first time in June. I left Heide-Park and drove back to Hamburg to visit one of Europe's biggest kermis, Hamburg DOM. There were 2 rides there that I was looking forward to ride for a long time: Olympia Looping and Konga I thought Konga and Artistico would be pretty much the same, the only difference being the seats facing inside or outside, but they're 2 completely different rides. Artistico is super fun, with lot's of airtime, and Konga is way more intense, you can feel the G forces on your body the whole time. If I had to choose, I would say Artistico is better. Olympia Looping was the other super disappointing moment of the trip. I always admired Olympia Looping. I even wrote an article about it for the brazilian rollercoaster club, with it's story and fun facts. I was so excited to finally ride it, but then, something happend: During the first loop, the shoulder harness came all the way down, trapping my body and crushing my spine like it has never been crushed. I don't even remember the rest of the ride. My only thought was that I needed to get out of this torture machine. I felt so bad about hating Olympia Looping that I came back the next day and decided to give it another try. This time I tried to sit in a different position and make sure there was room for my body to move if the same thing happened again. Well, the same thing happened again, the shoulder harness seems to go down and lock on the lowest position every time on the first loop. I don't know if it's supposed to be like that, but it makes the ride very, very painful. I hope they get new trains for Olympia Looping in the near future, like the ones that Teststrecke has now. Heide Park 13:00 on a monday Krake! Seriously. where did everyone go? It's big, it's fast, it's coming closer and closer (german friends, it that correct?) Painful Big Loop From another angle Scream + Best Bobsled Coaster in the world! Scream + Best Bobsled Coaster in the world! Limit! Top 3 SLC's in the World! ERT on Colossos!!! I told you, there was no one at the park! Noted! You gotta love free ERT! Y U So disappointing? Konga!!!! Nhammmm Olympia Looping, we finally meet!

Day 12: Hamburg Dungeon and Hansa Park First of all, I have to say that Hamburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! I'm so glad I could spend 3 days in Hamburg and get to know the city a little bit. Hamburg Dungeon is pretty much the same as Amsterdam Dungeon. The difference between them is that in Hamburg their english is not that good, so I could not understand what they were saying at times... And in Hamburg they have a small creepy boat ride and a 10m drop tower that scared the hell out of me! I was expecting an interactive drop tower, like the one they planned for Nemesis Sub-Terra, but the one at Hamburg Dungeon is just a regular drop tower with some Merlin effects. Hansa Park, on the other hand, was one of my favourite parks in Europe! What a nice park! Hansa is one of the forgotten parks in Europe that no one talks about. What a shame! Hansa is such a nice park and should be featured more on foruns and websites around the world. Everything at Hansa is really well planned, well executed and well taken care of, starting by the flowers at the entrance, showing the day, month and year. The colors at the park are all vivid and the landscape is really nice. It was one of the busiest parks of my whole trip. There was something special about my visit at Hansa. My 200th roller coaster would be either Crazy Mine, Die Schlange von Midgard, Fluch von Novgorod, Rasender Roland or Nessie. I chosed Nessie for 2 reasons: My 100th was Revoution at SFMM, a classic one, so I thought I should stick with the classics for the 200th. The other and most important reason was that in Argentina there's a "Nessie without the looping" coaster called Aconcágua, that was once South America's highest coaster and it's abandoned for 5 years now. I visited Aconcagua early this year when it was already abandoned for years, and it was very special. So, Nessie it is! I rode Crazy Mine and Rasender Roland, 198 and 199 and then, Nessie! You gotta love Schwarzkopf! Nessie is a classic! The only down point is that it gets reaaaaally noisy inside "Nessie's body", when the train hits the brakes. But it's a good coaster anyway! I'm happy I chosed Nessie to be my 200th! My next ride was the observation tower. I was told I could see the Baltic Sea from up there, and for someone who lives in Brazil, the Baltic Sea is something far far away! Nice! From the observation tower I could see Fluch. The only thing I knew about Fluch was that it was an Eurofighter, something that is hard to believe if you look at it's building. Fluch ended up being my favourite coaster in Europe, along with Blue Fire. Fluch is AMAZING! Something out of this world! There are no words I could use to describe how awesome Fluch is. It's really well themed, and there's a story along with the roller coaster. The train leaves the station and there's a small story before a sudden drop, a launch, a hill, some turns, a building, a vertical lift, more effects, a 97° drop in the dark, some nice turns and a surprise at the end that scared the hell out of me! OMG, Fluch is AWESOMAZING. How come no one ever talks about it? It made my top 10, with honnor! Die Schlange von Midgard deserves an A for effort. Even though it's a small family coaster, it has some effects that could make even Disney envy. The flat rides are also all very, very nice. They have a boad/river slide that it's so rare to see nowadays. I've only seen one in Fantasilandia, Chile, before Rio Dorado. The Bell ride is also something very, very unique. There's also a 50m very cool drop tower, a 85m Star Flyer and tons of other fun rides. I really hope people would pay more attention to Hansa Park in the near future, as it is one of the most interesting parks I've visited in the world! Beautiful Hamburg! You gotta love Hamburg! The Dungeon Hansa! I loved the flower/calendar detail Nessie! 200th! Fluch Fluch Von Novgorod Would you call this a coaster? Coaster-Count does, RCDB doesn't

No, I had a Fiat Panda that barely made 160km/h. In fact I got to Hamburg around 22:30, not bad considering all the road work and traffic jam around Heide-Park. Seriously, why do they close the roads like that?

Day 11: Freizeitland Geiselwind and Freizeipark Plohn That was one of the crazyest days of the trip. I left Frankfurt at 8:30am and drove 171km (about 2 hours) to Geiselwind. I entered the park right after the gates were open (10:15am), so there were just a few people there. Geiselwind is one of those parks that you have just a few information about it. It barely appears on the industry news or websites, but it is a park that is worth a visit. It's not a theme park, even thought it has some kind of dinosaur theme/rides. It's more like an amusement park, with a zoo. The rides are pretty much standard: kiddie rides, a wild mouse coaster, a boomerang coaster, a drop tower, observation tower, pirate ship, powered coaster and of course, the boat jump! It reminded me a lot of Fantasilandia (Chile). The boomerang coaster is an average boomerang. It's not as bad as the one in Argentina, but it's nearly as good as The Speed Of Sound. The wild mouse seems to be a traveling coaster that Geiselwind rented for one or more seasons. In fact, their wildwasser ride gave me the same impression. Does anyone know anything about those rides? Drehgondelbahn, the spinning coaster made by Zierer, is a little bit different from the other spinning coasters. It's one of the dinosaur-themed rides at the park, and has a fun small drop inside the "dinosaur cave". The drop tower is actually pretty good, probably the best one I've found on small parks around the world. Geiselwind is a cute small park. It's woth a visit, for sure. Had it been built in South/Central America, it would be one of the best parks here. This dino train takes passengers all the way to the zoo Really odd theme 56m shoot and drop tower! Boat jump! Bad ass birds Freizeitpark Plohn I left Geiselwind around noon and drove another 212km to Freizeitpark Plohn. Plohn is another park that you don't hear a lot about it, since it's almost on the Czech Republic. It's one of those small parks with an incredible rollercoaster. I think the word that better describes Plohn is "weird". Plohn was built on an area that looks like a national park. The layout is very, very confusing, since there are rides everywhere, most of them hidden by the trees. It's divided in a lot of areas, some of them very nice, some of them creepy as hell. The park has 4 coasters and a few flat rides. It also has an "enchanted forrest" attempt that looks nothing like Efteling's. And when you think it's over, you discover that they have a swamp area with a small free fall ride and a dinosaur/swamp ride that looks like "Malaria: the ride". Silver Mine is just ok, but Plohseidon is actually a nice junior coaster. But let's talk about El Toro! El Toro is great! It's fast, with a lot of unexpected turns and hills. It's not better than Joris, but it's definitely better than Troy and Wodan. And when I was leaving El Toro, I saw a newspaper hanging on the photo booth with Robb on it! Awesome! haha I left the park at 17:30 and drove another 511km (5 hour drive) to Hamburg, my last stop on this trip. In case you didn't keep track of the numbers, this day alone I drove about 900km (550miles) just to ride rollercoasters! The park is really weird, starting by it's entrance On the first level, you find a "lake" with paddleboats, this Buddha and a "surf" ride that looks creepier than the ones in Brazil That's the "surf" ride On the second level, you find most of the rides Plohseidon! El Toro! Look what/who I found! Silver Mine They also have an indoor western show On the third level, there are some playground rides and a family coaster The fourth level is some kind of enchanted forrest But it's more creepy than enchanted Last, but not least, Malaria Land Malaria, The Ride The free fall ride

Day 10: Tripsdrill and Holiday Park Tripsdrill is a two hour drive from Frankfut, so my plan was getting to Tripsdrill early in the morning and then after lunch drive another hour to Holiday Park. Due to some road work on my way to Tripsdrill, I parked my car at the park sometime around noon. Tripsdrill, along with Klotten, are the two parks in Germany that are located on a rural area. I thought Tripsdrill ticket price was a little bit high (24 Euros), specially because the park doesn't have a large number of rides and attractions. At least they have 4 very interesting rides. The first one is the drop tower. It's more like a frog hopper, with an extra something at the end. I didn't ride it, though, since there were only kids riding it. The second one is the bath tub water ride, Badwanna Sturzfahrt. The boats are themed as bath tubs and at some point you enter an ancient roman bath (or something like that) with half naked women on it and then you travel backwards for a while. That pretty much sums the ride. I was really looking forward to ride G'sengte Sau, since I had a nice time at Heisse Fahrt. G'sengte Sau's queue area is very nice, with a horse/saddlery theme. Once you get to the station you can see some newspapers hanging on the wall with the story of the guy who skated this coaster on the opening day. G'sengte Sau and Heisse Fahrt would be pretty much the same if it wasn't for a small detail that makes a lot of difference. G'sengte Sau hits the brake before going throught those airtime hills, while Heisse Fahrt speeds into them. Mammuth was one of the nice surprises I had on this trip. As I was watching it from the queue area, I thought "what a smooth ride, it barely makes any sound". My thoughts were proven correct when I rode it. What a good coaster! Fast, smooth, nice turns and banks. It made me think it was a pre-fabricated track, or even a hybrid structure. It's kinda funny that 2 of the best wooden coaster in Europe (Mammuth and El Toro) are "hidden" in small parks. I also rode the zierer coaster, but that was only for credit whoring reaons. One last thing I should mention about Tripsdrill is that they sell the best park souvenirs in the whole Europe. I could find pens, lighters, keychans, stickers and even a puzzle with Mammuth on it. Holiday Park I left Tripsdrill around 14:00 and Holiday Park was a 1 hour drive from there. At first I was worried that I would not have the time to visit Holiday Park properly, but as I got to the park I realized there were not much to see. Holiday Park's entrance is going throught some changes, since the park was bought by Plopsa. All the stores and restaurants at the entrance plaza were under some kind of work. There were only one store open, the Plopsa Store. Holiday Park's layout is a little bit odd. Expedition Geforce is isolated in the middle of the woods, and the rear part of the park, with the star flyer and the water boats was deserted. I was suuuuuper looking forward to ride Expedition Geforce, since the reviews are so great. I was expecting El Toro + Nitro + Magnum + Phantom's Revenge + Superman/Bizarro all on the same ride. And well, it was not even close. The first drop is really good, but that's about it. I rode it again and again, first row, back row... But it was just a good coaster. Holiday Park has a Condor ride. It is nice to see that there are still a few of them in the world. I got to see 3 of them in Europe (Holiday Park, Geiselwind and Slagharen). There's a condor here in South America at Fantasilandia (Chile). The funny thing is that in Chile they use a super fast program, with the cars spinning like crazy, making it a thrill ride while in Europe all the Condors have a slower program, more suitable for kids and families. Holiday Park also has a Super Wirbel Coaster just like the one at Beto Carrero (Star Mountain). While I was riding it, Super Wirbel stopped on the lift hill and started to roll back slowly, when it suddenly hit the anti-rollback system. At least now I know how those anti-rollback systems work. The ride itself is not that bad, but it is really bumpy. Holly's Wilde Autofahrt is actually cute, and the park has a lot of cute flat rides as well. My overall impression was that Holiday Park was more like a small park, such as Geiselwind, Slagharen, Plohn, etc, with one of Europe's best rollercoaster. Anubis, Europe's first free fall drop tower. Expedition Geforce, hidden in the woods

Please, don't get me wrong, Europa Park is a good park, one of the best parks in the world, if you look at its whole concept. My only concern about the park is that they do not have anything amazing or breathtaking. I live in Brazil, but I travel a lot. And there are some parks that I try to visit at least once a year, because they have that extra special something (SFGA - El Toro and Nitro, SFMM - Superman, X2 and Goliath, Cedar Point - Magnum XL, etc). If I had to choose only one park to visit again in Europe, it would probably be Phantasialand (Black Mamba, Winjas, Mystery Castle) or Hansa Park (Fluch!). That's why Europa-Park disappointed me. It didn't make me feel like coming back in the near future. But you are correct, I didn't have the time to ride the flat/dark rides or eat something special (I just had a spaghetti for lunch).

Day 9: Europa-Park Europa-Park was one of the most disappointing parks of this trip. If it wasn't for Blue Fire and Euro Mir, I would say they don't know how to make good rides. Phantasialand, for example, has less rides, but they have the best ones (best mine train, best inverted coaster, best drop tower...). Europa-Park managed to make crap rides out of big ones. Their first mistake: The park is too big, and getting around sometimes is a little bit confusing. It rained a lot that day, so you can imagine I had a hard time trying to open the park map to find my way. The park is really pretty, really wll taken care of, but sometimes I got the feeling that it had too much information. My first ride was Eurosat, as I was trying to get out of the rain. Another enclosed coaster with a neverending spiral lift, and a catchy eletronic music on the background. The ride os ok, but it's nothing like Disneyland's Space Mountain. Silver Star was the second ride of the day. I've ridden 4 B&M megas (Nitro, Apollo's Charriot, Diamondback and Silver Star), and Silver Star is for sure the most disappointing one. It has like 1/3 of Nitro's or Apollo's airtime, even thought it has the biggest drop of the four. At least it has a nice building and queue area, with all those race cars displayed. Matterhorn Blitz has one of the nicest theming on a wild mouse coaster and Schweizer Bobbahn was ok. Better than Efteling's, worst than Heide's bobsled coaster. Poseidon is probably the best water coaster I've ever ridden. But something just doesn't make sense to me: Why did they build another water coaster (Atlantica SuperSplash), if they already had Poseidon? Specially because Poseidon is better, in my opinion. It is weird a park with 2 water coaster, the newest one being worse than the oldest. Euromir was really fun, even though it had another neverending spiral lift with a eletronic catchy musinc playing on the backgroung. The ride can be rought sometimes, specially if you're traveling backwards (witch I did), but it's one of the best of it's kind, for sure. Blue Fire was AMAZING! Specially because I wasn't expecting much. I thought it would be another launched/multi inversion coaster, but it was AWESOME! Made my top 10, for sure. I had no idea that you could have that much of airtime on this kind of layout. And the use of lapbars instead of the otsr is just genius! Last but nos least, Wodan. I was expecting soooo much from Wodan. But it is just a nice wooden coaster. Not amazing, not awesome. I don't know if it was the weather, the lack of it's original wheels, but it was running slow. I could barely feel any airtime on it. I really hope it gets it's original wheels back, as it seems that Wodan ran 8 seconds faster with them. Any thoughts on that? On my way back to Frankfurt, I got stuck on a 3 hour trafic jam in the middle of nowhere. The odd thing is that it happened to me 3 times on this trip, all of them in Germany! It seems that they are doing some road work all over the country, and sometimes they just close the road and make you take an alternative route. My GPS didn't understand that and was unable to find me another route, witch made me go throught some scary moments, not knowing what to do. Thank god, it all ended up well! So much to do, so much to see The park is really nice, but walking around can be confusing Everybody was trying to get out of the rain Poseidon! Nice curves Euromir Euromir Awesome Blue Fire Coaster Construction Team Atlantica SuperSplash It really rained a lot that day Wodan!

Day 8: Wild und Freizeitpark Klotten and Frankfurt Dippemess Everytime TPR visits Klotten, I ask myself the same question: Why are they so excited about a 17m tall rollercoaster? I mean, this guys have traveled the world, have ridden the biggest and the fastest roller coasters. Why? Why does Heisse Fahrt makes TPR members so happy? When I told my friends that I was going to drive 168km (104 miles) to visit a park that has just ONE rollercoaster, they called me crazy. Specially because I was going to visit Tripsdrill later on the same trip, and tecnically Tripsdrill has a "Heisse Fahrt" coaster itself. But there had to be something special with Heisse Fahrt. And I had to find out what it was. Klotten is really in the middle of nowhere. At some point you leave the big roads and drive almost half an hour in some really small roads, with horses and tractors crossing your way. I don't mind that, but it is kinda weird to think that in just a few months that same park will have Germany's tallest water ride. Klotten was built at the top of a hill, so you have a nice view of villages and pastures that surround the area. The parking is free, they have a nice restaurant at the entrance and a lot of self-operate rides, like the Nautic Jet. They also have a fairly sized zoo. Heisse Fahrt is really good. On my first ride I was on the front row, so I didn't see anything special about this ride, but it is a complete different experience if you seat on the back row. That's where the fun happens! I took a lot of pictures of Big Splash's construction. The paint job on the elevator lift seems done and the boats are already there, and they seem ready to go. The boats are ready Heisse Fahrt Nice view Random cute animals Frankfurt Dippemess Best kermis I've ever been! I felt in love with Frankfurt and everything Frankfurt-related. The people are nice, the buildings are pieces of art and you can find a parking spot anywhere. Lovely, lovely city! I wish I have had more time to visit it. Frankfurt's Dippemess was special for me because it had 2 rides that were Brazil-related. The first one was TestStrecke, that once was at Playcenter (São Paulo) under the name of Colossus until 1986. The second one was The King, a loop fighter ride. A traveling brazilian park recently bought one of those and it is a HUGE success here in Brazil and I haven't had the chance to ride the brazilian one yet. The king is a very good ride. It's not Artistico/Konga/XXL material, but I can see why brazilians love it. It's probably the best flat ride we have in Brazil. Teststrecke was awesome. I've never seen those trains on a Schwarzkpof coaster, but they fit very well. There were also all the traditional rides and Wild Wasser, a huge, huge log flume. Too bad it was too cold to ride it. I really loved Frankfurt Dippemess, it was the best kermis of this trip, even better than Hamburg Dom. The view from the street The King, also named The King here in Brazil What the hell is that? Seriously, what is it? Teststrecke!!! Nice trains! Too bad it's not in Brazil anymore Wild Wasser Isn't that pretty????

I think Alpina Bahn is in Stuttgart right now. I'm not sure. But I remember that Stuttgart is getting one of the big ones this year, and it is either Alpina or Hollenblitz. I've ridden Olympia Looping on this trip. In fact, my hotel was like 200m from Hamburg DOM.

Day 7: Phantasialand and Aachen Ocher Bend Before visiting Phantasialand, I knew just a few things about this park: That they have the best well themed B&M in the world, two spinning coasters that Elissa liked a lot, even thought she's not found of spinning coasters, something Michael Jackson related, a 65m tall frog hopper and that they have one ride where you get to shoot some mice in a bakery store. Shame on me! Phantasialand is sooo much more than that! I parked my car in the Mystery Castle parking lot, but since drop towers scare the hell out of me, I decided to visit the park in a counter-clockwise direction, so Mystery Castle would be my last ride of the day. I didn't ride the River Quest,it was really cold that day. Now I regret it. I would probably freeze to death, but after reading some reviews here at TPR, It was a ride I couldn't have missed. Well, I'll have to go back during the summer! So I went directly to the end of the park to ride Temple of The Night Hawk. Again, it was... dark. A moving chair in the dark. Not Space Mountain, for sure. The next ride was Winjas! I loved the "Winjas building", where you can see the cars spinning throught the track, but you can't tell if they are on the Fear side or the Force side. Winjas Fear is AMAZING, specially if you go backwards in the first two drops. It is something very unique, different from all the spinning coasters I've ever ridden. It was a very pleasant surprise! Winjas Force is not that good, it is a little bit rougher, but the track "stop-incline-go" at the end is soooo funny. Two thumbs up for Winjas! Race for Atlantis is an Imax Ride very similar to Simpsons, the Ride at both Universal Studios. And I thought it was very, very good. Almost as good as The Simpsons. Place third on my list (1- Simpsons, the ride, 2- Back To The Future and 4- Spiderman). My next ride was Maus au Chocolat, the best shooting ride EVER. It is a little bit too long, at some point I couldn't feel my arms anymore, but it was worthed. I scored 140.000 points, witch I thought was an amazing score until I was told that the best score was something like 710.000. Asians, probably. After a brief lunch, Black Mamba! Before riding it, I thought "ok, it is just another B&M with a nice theme. I was wrong. Black Mamba is incredible! I had no idea that an inverted coaster could have so much air time! At one point my body was floating 2, 3 seconds in the air without touching the seat. I wanna say Black Mamba is the best inverted coaster ever built, but I have to ride Alpengheist once more before I make my final decision. And they say Nemesis is supposed to be even better (never ridden it). Anyway, Black Mamba makes the top 3 inverted coasters in the world, for sure! After riding what could be the best inverted coaster ever, I rode the best mine train ever! Colorado Adventure! OMG, amazing. I just didn't understand what Michael Jackson has to do with this ride. Phantasialand has a "Haunted Mansion" type of ride, but it is really bad. So, time to face Mystery Castle. I asked one good friend of mine what was inside Mystery Castle before visiting Phantasialand. His exact words were: "it's a giant frog hopper". "But it is Intamin's?" "Yes, but it's not just a drop tower". Well, drop towers scare the hell out of me, and I'm really not found of Intamin rides (chubby people + Intamin rides never got along with each other), but I decided to give it a try. Mystery Castle is very different, very unique, and I'm very inclined to say that it's better than Disney's Tower of Terror. The layout is very interesting, with 48 people sitting around a "crazy scientist's office". Then, they shoot you up, down, up again, down again - at some point I had no idea if my body was going up or down - and then it pulls you all the way to the top, and drops. AMAZING. I rode it again, and again, and again. Phantasialand is not a park with a lot of rides, but man, they really know how the make the best out of each one! So far in my trip I found: The Best Powered Coaster ever: Bob Express The Best Shooting Ride Ever: Maus au Chocolat The Best Spinning Coaster Ever: Winjas - Fear The Best Mine Train Ever: Colorado Adventure The Best GCI Ever: Joris en de Draak The Best Drop Tower Ever: Mystery Castle The Second Best Imax ride: Race to Atlantis Top 3 inverted Coaster: Black Mamba River Quest Winjas! Fear! Fear! Fear! Black Mamba! 5 minutes! That means: Ride again, and again, and again! Colorado Adventure! Seriously, why does it carries Michal Jackson's name? Their not-so-haunted mansion Mystery Castle! 6 x 8 people cars Amazing, just amazing! Aachen Ocher Bend: Aachen is located 71km (44miles) away from Phantasialand, and lucky me, there was a fairly sized kermis (Ocher Bend) in Aachen that week, with a special extra something: It was Artistico's premiere! Artistico is a 46m tall Mondial pendulum ride that looks like KMG's XXL, but with the seats facing outside. It is the first of it's king in the world, and it is very impressive. It's almost as good as MaxAir. Really. It is that good! Ocher Bend also had the Booster Maxx (55m tall booster) ride. I must say, european boosters and american boosters are very, very different. American boosters are a fun, enjoy the view, ride, and Booster Maxx is more like "I'm gonna die here" type of ride. At some point it speeds so much that the seats don't even spin anymore. I also rode a regular spinning coaster from Maurer, but after riding Winjas on the same day, it was just bleh. That ended the first half of my trip. It was time to travel to Frankfurt for a few days. Ocher Bend Artistico! It was really it's premiere! 5 Euros Awesome! 140° The "omg I'm gonna die" booster!

Day 6: Toverland and Bobbejaanland That was my least favourite park combo of the whole trip. Many, many people say that Troy is the best wooden coaster in Europe, so after having a blast riding Joris, I was expecting a lot from Troy. I arrived at Toverland around 10:15 (the park opened at 10:00), so I was among the first to enter the park. Troy was already running, so I went directly to that wooden beauty. There was just a few people ridding Troy again and again, so I joined them on this non-expected ERT. Troy was... well... not good. It was bumpy and I couldn't feel the air times at all. The entirely ride was rough. I changed seats, from the back to the front of the train, but it didn't get better. I tried the back seat once more, but it still felt the same. I must say, it was freezing cold that day, maybe that was the problem. I hope that was the problem and that Troy is amazing during warm days. But for now, it is the worst GCI I've ever ridden. The Booster Bike was my second credit that day. I've only ridden one motocoaster before, Pony Express at Knotts, and it is one of my favourite attractions there. The Booster Bike was a little bit rougher than Pony Express, althought it has a better layout. If I had to choose one, I would stick with the one at Knotts. I didn't try the water ride, it was really, really cold, specially for someone from Brazil. But I did try the alpine slide and even though the course is a lit bit short, I had a lot of fun. That was the first powered alpine slide I've ever seen. Boomerang was my last credit of the day and it really surprised me, in a good way. What a nice junior coaster! I tried to spot some construction signs of the new coaster, but couldn't find anything relevant. I must return to Toverland in the summer of 2013 to give Troy another chance, and to ride the new coaster. Toverland! Too cold for that! Troy! It might not be amazing, but at least is pretty! Pretty, indeed! ERT on Troy! Booster Bike powered alpine slide Boomerang! Bobbejaanland Bobbejaanland was an 1 hour drive from Toverland, and I got there by lunch time. I was a little bit surprised to see that the park is located on an urban area, since all the big parks were located more on the countryside. It reminded me of Kennywood and Waldameer. I entered the park for free, using my Movie Park Season Pass. I asked for a park map, and they told me it would cost 2 Euros! That's right! 2 Euros, or 2.6 Us Dollars, or 4.9 Reais for a park map! That really pissed me off! I bought one, for souvernir purposes, but never opened it. It was raining, and if the map got wet, I would have to spend another 2 Euros. The first ride was Typhoon, my first Eurofighter! It was nice, nothing amazing. Fluch (Hansa) was waaaaaay better. Right next to Typhoon was Sledge Hammer, Huss' Giant Frisbee. I'm a HUGE MaxAir fan, so I was very disapointed with the cycle chosen for Sledge Hammer. It was short and not even close to MaxAir's. Bob Express, on the other way, was AMAZING, The best powered coaster I've ever ridden. Really fast, nice turns, nice view. Oki Doki is cute, and The Dream Catcher is just wrong. I think it should have remained as The Air Race. Speedy Bob and Dizz were just average. Evolution is something really different, starting by it's train. I've never seen anything that big. It was so big that I couldn't spot where it beggins, where it ends. They play an eletronic music, while you go up on a neverending spiral lift, and then you enter a bulding full of psicodelic effects. Something you don't see very often, for sure! I don't know if I would ever return to Bobbejaanland. It was just an average park with a 2 Euro park map. Thank God the next day was Phantasialand day! Bobbejaanland put me in a very bad mood! Bobbejaanland Typhoon Not MaxAir Bob Express: Best powered coaster ever! Dizz Dream Catcher Oki Doki Indoor kid's area Dream Catcher Speedy Bob

That I would find pretty strange as Walibi Belgium does not have a Frisbee. The only Frisbee in Belgium (Sledge Hammer) resides in Bobbejaanland. Maybe that's the one you meant? Sorry, I meant Movie Park Germany!

Day 5: Walibi Holland and Wunderland Kalkar After visitirng Walibi Belgium (one of my favourite parks in Europe), I was expecting a lot from Walibi Holland. Afterall, they have the most well themed boomerang coaster in the world, an "outdoor" rock' n' roller coaster and Goliath. My first ride of the day was Speed Of Sound. A really, really, really well themed boomerang, with on-board audio system and the new Vekoma restraints that worked very well for this kind of ride. For sure, the best boomerang I've ever ridden. Next it was time for some credit whoring: Rattlesnake, a zierer tivoli coaster themed after a giant snake on the desert. The whole wild west area of the park was really nice, with a Huss frisbee that was not open that day (I read somewhere that Tomahawk struggles with a lot of technical problems, but the park still keeps the ride because it is very popular). By the way, the one at Walibi Belgium was working just fine on the day of my visit. After a brief lunch at the Mexican plaza, I decided to face another SLC: El Condor. What is wrong with painting the SLCs, for God's sake? This is the third green and white SLC I've seen. And the third worst one, too. It's not as bad as Firewhip or El Desafio, but it's not as good as Raptor, MP Express or Limit either. It's more like an average SLC, I guess. The last 3 credits were the ones I was most looking forward to: Robin Hood, Goliath and Xpress. Robin Hood is the second of the 3 wooden coasters Vekoma has ever built. And since I really liked Loup-Garou, I was expecting a good ride on Robin Hood. And it is, indeed, a nice wooden coaster. It was a little bit slow (probably because of the weather and the fact that it was it's first weekend after a long winter), but anyway, it is a good coaster. Goliath. What can I say about Goliath? First of all, when I hear the name Goliath, I think about SFMM's Goliath, something you can see from far far away, something that doesn't fit on your picture. That's not the case here. I was really disapointed when I saw Goliath. "Is that it? Where's the rest of it?". And the fact that it is hidden in an "alley" didn't help either. But Goliath proves the theory that size doesn't matter. I had a blast ridding Goliath. There are lots of air time and an incredible turn after the first two drops. Too bad it's too short. And since the waiting time was just about 5 minutes, I rode it again, and again, and again. The last ride of the day was Xpress. Someone told me it was SBNO. I checked RCDB and it was SBNO indeed. So I was really happy when I saw it open that day. I'm not sure what happened to it, or for how long it hasn't been running, but I was glad it's open again. It's cool to ride an outdoor Rock' n' Roller Coaster. Walibi Holland is not as beatiful as Walibi Belgium, but it has better rides, for sure. Speed of Sound! Best boomerang in the world The station Tomahawk Rattlesnake Mexican Plaza El Condor Another green and white SLC Robin Hood Nice wooden coaster Goliath Nice air time hills Xpress, open and running! The trains are painted in a purple sparkly color. Nice! One last shot of Xpress Wunderland Kalkar: Wunderland Kalkar is a one hour drive from Walibi Holland (about 110km or 68 miles). So i left Walibi around 15:00 and arrived at Wunderland at 16:00. Lucky me, the entrance fee after 16:00 is just 9 Euros, witch means free food + nice park for just 9 Euros! Wunderland Kalkar got a little bit famous in Brazil after it was featured on the 20:00 news here. (Link to that video: http://g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/noticia/2011/09/usina-nuclear-inacabada-e-transformada-em-parque-de-diversoes.html). That being said, I only knew 2 things about Wunderland Kalkar: It was built on an old nuclear power plant, and they offered free food! The park is built in a very nice, very calm neighborhood. The parking is free, and they offer free coffee, sodas, juice, french fries and Ice Cream. Amazing! The park is actually pretty nice. They have a powered coaster that wasn't open that day, a lot of nice rides like a disk'o and a water ride, and of course, the famous starfyer inside the cooling tower. As I entered the cooling tower I thought: "Nice, they have a drop tower and a star flyer on the same ride". It turns out that it is not a drop tower, just an wierd way of enjoying the view for the ones that are afraid of starflyers. The starflyer ride is amazing, you can see the park and the rivers that surround the area. It is a must go, even for the ones that are not really into theme parks. The park is very clean, very colorful and the french fries and the ice cream were not bad. I would definitely recommend Wunderland Kalkar for anyone visiting that part of Europe. Wunderland Kalkar The park where the food is free! See? It is really free! The park is really well taken care of A lot of kiddie rides They have a few rides on the first floor of the cooling tower And the star flyer/ not drop tower on the second The "doesn't drop" tower Disk'o RCT feelings It's a live RCT!!!!!

2 months ago I went to Argentina and visited Parque de La Ciudad, and abandoned park in Buenos Aires area. At that time, I got some pieces from Vertigorama, an Intamin steel racer coaster that never opened and from Aconcagua, a Schwarzkpof coaster that is closed since 2007.

I was there last week and got the same impression. Wodam is a good coaster? Of course. But it places 3rd on my top GCI coasters in Europe (1- Joris, 2- El Toro and 4 - Troy)

Are you sure you took your pills?? Felt as if it was gonna shake me into pieces! other than that - nice report!! Compared to Montezum, Bandit is almost a GCI coaster haha

Day 4: Efteling Despite the fact that I'm from Brazil, I get to travel a lot, and even though I've got my fare share of Disney Parks (Orlando, Paris, California) I must say, Efteling blew me away. That vision of Pagoda rising above the trees is just magical in so many ways. And the Enchanted Forrest made me feel like a child, I probably spent more than 2 hours just wandering around those fairy tale scenes. I know, I know, Phantasialand and Europa-Park are supposed to be as beautiful, as well themed, and indeed they are, in another way. Phantasialand and Europa-Park are spetacular, more like a Disney park. Efteling is just magical. After exploring every single corner of the Fairy Tale land, It was time to get some credits. The first was Vogel Rok, the indoor Vekoma coaster. What can I say? It was dark. Really dark. So dark that it didn't feel like a coaster at all, felt more like I was sitting on a chair, bouncing and shaking (and I discovered later that indoor coasters in Europe are all like that). Didn't like it, at all. The next ride was something I was really looking forward to: The Super Viking! If a regular Viking is cool, I thought the Super Viking would be Super Cool. But it is not, it felt exactly the same as the other not super vikings in the world. So it was time to face some more Vekoma coasters: Python. Python has the new Vekoma shoulder restraints (the old ones were Kumbak restraints, I guess) that are supposed to be more comfortable.They are, indeed, but not for this kind of coaster, in my opinion. This ride is a little bit rough, and the lack of a neck support where you can lean your head to made me feel very uncomfortable. Right next to Python, there she was: Joris en de Draak. I love GCI coasters and I was so excited to ride the GCI's Holy Quartet in Europe: Joris, Troy, Wodam and El Toro. And spoiler alert, Joris is the best one, by far! Joris is really, really cool. It's a genuine GCI coaster: It's fast, has amazing turns, lots of airtimes and gives you that feeling that you have no idea where you're going next. I think is the second best GCI coaster I've ever ridden, Ravine Flyer being the first. The only down point for Joris is that it doesn't actually race, since the red side always wins. It would be an extra cool feature if both sides could win, like Racer at Kennywood. The last two rides of the day were Vliegende Hollander, a Kumbak hybrid coaster that was just ok, and Bobbaan, the worst bobsled coaster of the whole trip. I really, really liked Efteling, and it is for sure on my top 10 parks in the world! When you travel by yourself, you learn how to ask people to take your picture in so many languages Could it be more magical? I'm I the only one who thinks it's more beautiful than the Disney parks? Ahhh, Pagoda! The most amazing observation tower, for sure! New attraction coming up? Not so popular Vogel Rok Not so super, Super Viking Python New Vekoma restraints Vliegende Hollander Amazing Joris en de Draak Awesome ATM machine! Next: Day 5: Walibi Holland and Wunderland Kalkar

The first thing I thought when I entered Walibi Belgium was "OMG, I'm at Six Flags". In a good way. Both Walibi Parks made me feel like I was in the US for a second. As soon as this wierd/coll feeling left my body, I started exploring the park. I thought I could start my day with a SLC, but Vampire was not open. First I thought it was down just for maintenance work, but as I could see from the top of Loup Garou, Vampire looked like it has been down for a while. A few days later, I was told that Walibi was replacing the old trains for new ones. Since Vampire was down, it was time to ride Loup-Garou, a Vekoma woden coaster that was really nice. The next ride was Calamity mine, a very, very cool Vekoma mine train with 2 lifts, one right next to the other, looking like a racer coaster at some points. The whole "wild west" area is really well themed. I walked around a little bit, and then I saw Turbine. I've only ridden 2 Shuttle Loops in my life, the one at Hopi Hari and the one at Gold Reef City. The one at Knotts is always down, and I already knew Turbine was going to get a makeover for 2013. I'm glad, I really like the Shuttle Loops. As I walked by, I noticed the signs anouncing that " The Legend is Back" and a lot of people taking pictures. My french is not that fluent, but for what I could hear, Turbine is/was the most popular ride at Walibi, and people are really looking forward to its return. The funny thing is that they still call it Sirocco. The last ride of the day was Cobra, a Vekoma Boomerang just like the ones we have here in South America. The one at Fantasilandia is ok, the one at Parque de La Costa was terrible, and the one at Playcenter (that is now going to Costa Rica) was really smooth. Cobra was smooth, even thought it still had the old Vekoma restraints. I really, really liked Walibi Belgium. They do not have amazing rides, but they have all the good ones a park need in order to it's visitors have a blast. Loup-Garou Vampire looks like it hasn't been running for a while Calamity Mine How cool is that? Two lifts! Cobra

Day 3: Plopsa Indoor Hasselt and Walibi Belgium Plopsa Indoor Hasselt is the second smallest park of the Plopsa Company (the smallest one is Plopsa Indoor Coevorden, but I'll get to that one later). It's a mostly indoor park in Hasselt, Belgium, and even though it is made for kids age 1-10, adults can have a lot of fun there too. Plopsa Indoor Hasselt Rides for kids that adults can enjoy as well Slides! You gotta love slides! Outdoor area Credit spotted! Zierer really knows how to build a junior coaster!

Hi everyone! Most of you probably don't know me, but I'm from Brazil (the far far away land) and I'm a huge coaster enthusiast. I usually travel the world to ride coasters, and this year I decided to do something crazy: Go to Europe by myself, rent a car in Amsterdam and drive 5800km (aprox 3600 miles) and visit 20 parks and 4 kermis in 14 days! Did I make it? Yes, I did, and it was amazing. I used old TPR trip reports as a guide to witch parks to visit, and ended up visiting the following: Amsterdam Dungeon, Movie Park Germany, Plopsa Indoor Hasselt, Walibi Belgium, Efteling, Walibi Holland, Wunderland Kalkar, Toverland, Bobbejaanland, Phantasialand, Klotten, Europa-Park, Tripsdrill, Holiday-Park, Hamburg Dungeon, Hansa Park, Heide Park, Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen. And I also visit 4 kermis: Amsterdam Ordorp, Aachen Ocher Bend, Frankfurt Dippemess and Hamburg DOM. Day 1: Amsterdam Dungeon and Amsterdam Osdorp Day 2: Movie Park Germany Day 3: Plopsa Indoor Hasselt and Walibi Belgium Day 4: Efteling Day 5: Walibi Holland and Wunderland Kalkar Day 6: Toverland and Bobbejaanland Day 7: Phantasialand and Aachen Ocher Bend Day 8: Wild und Freizeitpark Klotten and Frankfurt Dippemess Day 9: Europa-Park Day 10: Tripsdrill and Holiday Park Day 11: Freizeitland Geiselwind and Freizeipark Plohn Day 12: Hamburg Dungeon and Hansa Park Day 13: Heide Park and Hamburg DOM Day 14: Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and Slagharen Day 1: Amsterdam Dungeons and Amsterdam Osdorp My plane landed in Amsterdam at 13:30 and I drove directly to the Dungeon, as my english tour was scheduled to begin at 15:30. Driving and parking in Amsterdam was actually pretty easy, considering that everyone rides a bike. The tour started on time, and I had no idea of what to expect. The only thing I knew was that they had a credit (a Mack coaster) at the end. The whole tour was pretty good, I was really frighted at some points, but the coaster was a little bit disapointing. It's too short, and doesn't do anything different. At least I got a credit. I left the Dungeon and drove to Osdorp, where there was a small kermis going on. They only had a few rides, and It was raining, but I got some good pictures. Amsterdam Dungeon Amsterdam Dungeon's restrooms Amsterdam Osdorp Spinning Coaster! Booster Boobytrap You read it right: BOOBYtrap! Day 2: Movie Park Germany Lesson number one: Season Passes can save you a lot of money! So, the first thing I did when I arrived at Movie Park was to purchase my season pass. Not only I could enter for free in ALL Parques Reunidos' parks in Europe with the season pass, but I would also receive a 50% discount on Efteling, Holiday Park, all the Plopsas, Slagharen, Toverland and Walibi Holland. All for just 89 Euros! Movei Park is really cute. That's the word. Cute. Like a small, less crowded Universal Studios. First I headed to the "kiddies" area of the park and rode the small coasters. Everything is really well themed there, one of the cutest kiddies areas I visited in the whole world. Then I headed to the other side of the park, the one that locates Van Helsing's Factory (that I discovered later, was the least fun Gerstlauer bobsled in Europe), MP Express and Bandit. Bandit is a RCCA coaster, the same company that built Montezum at Hopi Hari (the worst woden coaster I've ever ridden), so I was expecting nothing but pain. But against all odds, Bandit was really good, wasn't bumpy at all and had some decent air times. The last coaster of the day was MP Express. Well, I live in South America, and we have 3 SLCs here: Raptor, the one at Fantasilandia, amazing for a SLC, really smooth. The one at Parque de La Costa (El Desafio) is the second worst SLC ever buit, and Firewhip, at BCW, is for sure a creation of the devil. So I had no idea if MP Express was more like Raptor, or more like Firewhip. Thank god, it was better than Raptor, and I can say now, after 7 SLCs, that MP Express is probably the best SLC ever built. Cute Movie Park Kiddies area Ghost Chasers (Mack - Wild Mouse) - Doesn't it look like Goofy's Sky School? Cute water ride Another really cute and well themed water ride Atomic Flyer (Vekoma's SF coaster) The rip your nuts off drop tower wasn't open Bandit (A really decent RCCA coaster) MP Express: Bad theming, good ride! Have you ever noticed all the information about the coaster on that sign? Disk'O Santa Monica Pier area of the park It is really themed after Santa Monica Pier

Just clear me out on something They test the rides with water dummies that have no legs, right? So why something like that have never occured before? Maybe they thought the guy would fit in the car just like a water dummie.