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^This time I only used my Note2 with HDR photo software - which makes even better night photos than my Panasonic FZ-8 which tend to have too much graining on the "Easy Night" setting - all pro night settings need a tripod which is hard to handle on a carnival as you mostly do not have a clear path of vision from the low tripod height to the ride. For summer daylight picutres the FZ-8 "Sports" setting of course is far superior to catch fast moving objects without blur.

Is interesting to compare two Schwarzkopf coasters with 15 years of development between them. The old Wildcat still packs a punch in the helices and the final helic is nearly identical to those on the later looping coasters. Also the Wildcat features the small pre-drop before the real first drop - a feature you also find on Alpina-Bahn and Thriller. We caught the 10 beers for €20 bargain with 5 guys and took 2 each immediatly and 2 each on our second round around the fair...

If you do not want Scorpion anymore we will take it back....

And some more DOM goodness... Love "3 rides for €5" offerings! Girls wanna have fun... Unique Double-Tagada "Double-Jump" Nerd-shot of the heavy hydraulics Artisitico soarin high above the midway Beautifully lit Wild Mouse Also love "20 beers for €10!" offerings And another darkride by Mack Classic kiddie Carousell Love how Vorlop mantained this next year 50 year old coaster In case one wonders who built this... Mondial Shaker always packs good fun Random walktrough funhouse Finally a view of the 55 meter ferris wheel. Thats all folks for this season - next PhotoTR SpringDOM late march.

As every year the Hamburg Winterdom rounds up the carnival season of 2013. This year featuring 3 coasters. Next to a Mack standard Wild Mouse there are 2 Schwarzkopf coasters: The 1964 Wildcat No.1 "Rock'N'Roller Coaster" all the years owned by the Vorlop family and the Double-Loop "Teststrecke". Other highlights include the Mondial Mistral "Artistico" - an XXL-Afterburner with outward-facing seating - the KMG Inversion "Avenger" plus 2 Huss Dancers, a SDC "Double-Tagada" and the home-in-Hamburg 1950s Siemens "Rotor" owned by showmen Pluschies. Last Wednesday featured the first chill but dry day of the year View over the fairground from the ferris wheel. The new - 2013 freefall Skyfall - and the old - 1964 Wildcat - standing nearly side-by-side. Welcome to Hamburg - this homne-proud showmen has nicely themed his/hers gaming arcade Teststrecke running great today Loopin' into the sunset... Break Dancers always big fun - in lights and sounds and fog-machines Skyfall standing 80 meters tall with a falling height of 70 meters First spin on the 50s themed 60s coaster This Wave Swinger got a splendid new paint And another classic flat - a Mack Walzerfahrt/Tilt-A-Whirl Random colorful kiddie-ride Huge 4-level darkride by Mack Lots of Mack rides around this winter View from the Rotor's upper level down the midway "Poeple sticking to the wall like flies!" Teststrecke all lit up at night

What special effect can one do with a tower? A vertical drop like Polar-Express or something like the Vekoma Tilt-Coaster in the dark... I hope Hansa-Park and Gerstlauer come up with something great for this....

^And in Germany kids may even be allowed to climb it! Looks to me like it have been cut and not deconstructed - well IMO not a big loss. Hope to see the new coaster going up soon....

Schwarzkopf 1964 Wildcat "Rock'N'Roller Coaster" at Hamburg Winterdom two days ago Still a great ride - turns 50 next year!

I got this yesterday on Twitter while visiting the Winterdom in Hamburg with friends. Some enthusiast sites like parkerlebnis.de posted about Hansa-Parks new €25 million - USD 33,5 million coaster - sadly as I was about to post here this morning the pricetag was removed everywhere. Luckily at coasterfriends.de someone made a screenshot. On the same site a Gerstlauer fan posted an image from a proposed Gerstlauer Mega-Coaster which closely matches Hansa-Parks released conceptual art. As Hansa-Park already built the first Launched Eurofighter with Gerstlauer I can see it happening this way. Overall I would love to see a Gestlauer Mega/Hyper. Would have readily settled for an Intamin or Mack - but take this anytime... Gerstlauer Mega design compared to Hansa-Parks art

- Log Flume - Zierer Wave Swinger Aside from that it gets more basic like a good coaster selection - kiddie, wild mouse or spinner, steel looper preferably Schwarzkopf, Intamin or Gerstlauer - family flats - Pirate, Teacups preferably Zamperla - and somne high thrill rides like a Loop Fighter, TopSpin or MegaDance. I am not so much for dark rides but a park should have at least two good ones.

Even if they did not do an interview: Anything new to see at Gerstlauer? Would like to see more lapbar Eurofighters like Karacho coming...

I liked the idea Vekoma posted for doing a Flying Dutchman that sounds a little like Expedition Everest on steroids. Would love if this will happen someday - maybe even at Disney. Also have to agree that Mack Watercoaster and SuperSplash are amazing water rides - every major park should get one!

Big thanks to our Swedish members to give us all this great photo updates on the construction of this ride.

^^I have noticed that some parks do not run their flats to maximum speeds. On Huss I can name the Take Off at Särkeniemmi and the MegaDance at Tivoli which run on our carnivals at higher speed settings, longer duration - simply more insane programs. Maybe because parks mostly have families on their minds while German showmen tune their programs to teens/twens. ^This said maybe CP runs their Giant Frisbee at a good program while many other parks run it on slower more boring programs to cater also non-Top-Thrill riders.

^^The Take Off can produce insane Gs if they run it with main plate and compartments spinning the same direction making both roations add up. Plus running full speed only a carnivals - the Särkeniemmi Take Off does for example not reach full speed. Also cool to hang upside down inside a Ranger...

In Germany there are still tons of Huss rides around on carnivals and parks alike. Most however are still from the "old" Huss. Leading the numbers are 30+ Break Dancer. My favs include the classic Frisbee, Magic as well as the Flic-Flac/MegaDance. Older rides are still around but one should ride them while they last like Troika, Ranger - both Hansa-Park - or Flipper of which two are on the carnival circuit and one at Heide-Park. Thinking of it the TopSpin - also the inverted variant at Phantasialand, the Condor and UFO are also cool. They made more iconic flats than any other ride manufacturer. Hope they will show something new soon... Some of rides seem to be licensed (???) to Technical Park - there called Baseball (Flipper) and Shake Off (Take Off). Oh yes love the Take Off - at least 3 still on the German carnival circuit.

^I would also prefer Manhattan Express right now if only for the location. I am still sad I missed Speed by a month...

Thanks for the photos! I am really looking forward to visit this park as it is still having its classic Schwarzkopf coaster and they also have a decent flat collection which many other Six Flags - and other - parks in the US lack.

I think no showmen here could do a whole carnival by itself. Most own only one ride - rides like Happy Traveller or Octopussy are family businesses. Some bigger showmen own 2-3 rides plus one or two sweets or beer joints like Barth, Bruch, Vespermann or Steiger. But a carnival set up only with Vespermann rides would be quite redundant - with 2 Break Dancers. And even those who own more than one ride you seldom see them at the same carnival. While the Steiger ferris wheel was in Bremen the Steiger Double-Loop will be in Hamburg. Germany also has the advantage of being a small country. Even rides considered small here need 4-6 40ton trailers to move around. Bigger rides are moved from city to city by train as some need 20+ 40ton trailers. This does not include the caravans and service trucks for the bigger rides.

I sometimes see that parks still have Schwarzkopf or Huss flats from the 70s and 80s - but on selling/scrapping them they don't buy new ones... Having been at Orlando I think - how great those parks are - they totally lack flats. They mostly only have Dumbo-clones of all variants and a teacup ride here and there. Clearly nothing in the high thrill sector - so far Busch Gardens with Phoenix honorably excluded... As I say: US parks for theming (Disney and Universal) and coasters (all other) only - German carnivals for the flats!

Can already see the long waits to get both coasters into one picture...

I still remember the old Schwarzkopf documentary from German TV in the 70s were the master himself thought that the limits were soon to be reached - and then new developments happen. Lately I think the recurring of lapbars and ideas like the SkyLoop by Maurer-Söhne or the inverting woodies by RMC are examples how you can still make new coaster designs. I however agree on the idea of shuttle or switchback coasters - the former having always the capacity problem. But I can imagine a switchback coaster like Expedition Everest with a layout similar to Helix...

One of those pieces looks like forcibly ripped apart. Anyone know what material those parts in the net are made of?

Some more to come... One of the many watering holes on the carnival Big Break Dancer No.2 Giant swinging ride Konga high over the midway Kiddie pony riding And another watering hole: The Beer Windmill Hustle and bustle at the OL station Final ride of the night with great music and tons of lasers. Next week starts the final major carnival of this season: Winterdom in my hometown Hamburg.

^^^German carnivals go from north to south and back again: Starting with Frühlingsdom (Hamburg) and Osterwiese (Bremen) in march/april, following with Rheinkirmes (Duesseldorf), Annakirmes (Düren) and Pützchen's Markt (Bonn) in summer, going deep south in september with Oktoberfest (Munich) and Cannstatter Wasn (Stuttgart) and the season ends in october/november in the north with Freimarkt (Bremen) and Winterdom (Hamburg). ^New rides need to be fenced in according to a new EU law, like you can see on the Zamperla Kangaroo Jumper. On busy nights ride attendants are posted on the entries facing the major crowd but generally ride operators are not liable for anyone "walking in". Folowwing some photos I made with a HDR camera. The general idea is to automatically make a series of pictures at different exposure settings which are combined into a high contrast picture. Alpen-Hotel is one of that wacky walk-trough fun houses which offer many "Never in the USA" ways to hurt youself in funny ways. OL starting to get a line... Random kiddie ride Small kiddie Waveswinger They put tons of water into this logflume Taking a close look on Octopussy one can find many kinky things like the Octopus molesting a woman plus many kinky mermaids... Octopus holding on to the vitals: The gold and the booze. And the band played on... Not the kind of mermaids you may find in Disney movies... View down the packed midway Always some fun at midway games No German carnival without a Zierer Waveswinger Colorful portal of the 1954 Rotor