simon8899

I haven't found an Intamin Mega that isn't fun....

This looks totally AMAZING!!! Beeing to Liseberg and Europa-Park this year I think this could become one of the best coasters in europe. And that I'll visit Gothenburg again in 2014...

Germany: Next to the entrance area and EP-Express (Monorail) station the german part consists of the newly added Balthasar Castle and of course a german beer garden. The back part around the castle is a lushly landscaped garden complete with the "german fountain" sporting the crests of all german federal states. Austria: This is one of the oldest parts of the park and therefor it's overflowing with greenery. Here you find the original MACK Powered Coaster "Alpenblitz" as well as a Zierer Waveswinger and MACK/Arrow logflume. Finally I can say that I had 2 great days in Europa Park with Blue Fire beeing by far the best coaster and Euro-SAT the worst. View over Balthasar gardens with the memorial of park founder Franz Mack in the front and Balthasar Castle in the back German Fountain with sparsly clad nymphs Like a good german I've located the place were the beer is... EP-Express Station Alexanderplatz at the main entry. No pics of the main entry as construction was going on Waveswinger in Austria themed as a mushroom The original MACK Powered Coaster delivering after all the years still a god ride Best part is the darkride section through the Diamond Grotto

Another place to visit if I'll likely return to NYC in 2015. And for all non-US visitors: The wheel will top at an amazing 190 meters!

France: The french part is nicely themed and home to two of Europa Parks coasters. The major attraction is of course Silver Star which station is housed in a building offering a Mercedes-Benz exhibit, currently centering around french comic Michel Valiant - a french race driver preferring Mercedes race cars. Silver Star itself is a quite tame huge coaster - the fact that the looping coaster Blue Fire has far more airtime tells it all - Silver Star offers only small pops of airtime with a mostly harmless B&M-smooth ride. The other coaster in this section is the darkcoaster Euro-SAT which is showing age - I got one bang into the kidney so it hurt for two hours, except for an old Pinfari looper this was my second-painful coaster experience. IMO they should refurbish this coaster soon. Next to that you can get a nice view over the park on the parks gyro observation tower. Switzerland: This part is also well themed including a small alpine stream running trough the village streets. Switzerland hosts the wild mouse Matterhorn Blitz with is a standard large park model with a tilting vertical lift. If you come for credits I'd recommend doing this coaster first as with all wild mice the capacity is quite low. The other coaster is a classic MACK bobsled coaster which is a short but fun ride - even alittle more forceful than the Heide-Park installation. Another unique ride here is a MACK-devised Polyp variant using small planes which sadly always look forward and are not freely spinning. Queue-line through the Mercedes-Benz exhibit. As you can see this pic was taken before Michael Schumacher decided to leave the Mercedes F1 team Going up... Tame ride on a huge coaster France with the Euro-SAT globe looming over it Crowds were solid both days with many swiss visitors Welcome to the swiss village of Zermat MACKs unique polyp Boblsled! - Disclaimer: It's allowed to bring all bags and cameras onto the ride

Even if Beijing in one day is bad I always chuckle about the chinese groups here that do "Europe in 7 days". They get hauled out of the bus, next you hear the electronic buzzing and clicking of cameras and 5 minutes later they're hauled back into the bus. Most don't even need hotels as they sleep in the bus driving overnight...

Maybe they should ask the guys at Nürnburgring to make it ready...

Also loved the Orbiter/Helios on the carnival circuit in the 80s/90s - was like a Himlaya on steriods as those cars could swing high up. Specially when were alone sitting on the inner side it easily swung up to 100 degrees or more while beeing only protected by a lapbar. As far as I know there's only one left in europe in some french park. Orbiter from when it was on the german carnival circuit

Holland: Holland features the MACK flats Peter Pan and spinning Teacups plus the good darkride "Pirates in Batavia" offering an inddor boatride with a small splashdowm. Greece: This area features the not-so-wet water coaster Poseidon which also gets a little bumpy in the coasterpart of the ride, the new kiddie-coaster Pegasus which offers a swift ride en par with the Gerstlauer family coasters and the Madouse Fluch der Kassandra which story is quite short but MACK has added some unique features to spice up the ride. Also here the laser-shooting darkride "Adventure in Atlantis". Next to the ride the greek area also features the Ice-Show "SurprICE at the museum" which is centered around the IAAPA gavel which Roland Mack is holding this year as chairman of IAAPA - there nothing better than self-promotion... Russia: Russia is mostly about the spinning coaster Euro-MIR which features a dark-ride spirallift before in spins the mirrored towers and finally heads down the first drop at nice speeds. Over the queue is scale-mockup of the former russian space station MIR. View over Holland from the Monorail Extensive darkride ahead Poseidon isn't very wet and already gets a little shaky in the coaster part Looks wetter than it is EuroMaus is taking a ride through Greek Hidden behind Poseidon is MACKs new YoungSTAR coaster Pegasus Euro-MIR greets as you enter Russia Spacestation MIR over the queue of the coaster First drop

The newer Monsters by Gerstlauer have individual hydraulic lapbars instead of one ratcheting lapbar for both riders. The latter can be a security problem if a big person rides together with a smaller person. Attendants at carnivals normally have an eye on this but in parks the not fully emloyed students are normally blind to this problem. It's also difficult here to order new security measures to old rides or for examle cars. Each ride only has to abide the laws and regulations which were imposed when the ride was first sanctioned. Therefor there are still Musik-Express from the 30s with no lapbars at all or VW Beetles from the 40s with no seatbelts - cause they were not law at the time. The principle is called "Right to Prevail" here. A current example: As of 2008 all new flats have to be fenced in like in the US - but all older can continue as they are no matter how long into the future they are operated. As a side-effect nearly no new flats go into operation now as showmen fear losses if rides are fenced in.

It was waiting times 40-vs-5 minutes...

This looks like some kind of knock-off - never seen this kind of Polyp before. Nevertheless there was years age an accident with the Schwarzkopf Monster at Heide-Park were a kid - persumably too small to be properly hold by the lapbar - was ejected from the ride and heavily injured. The ride was inspected and as the safety systems were working according to TÜV regulations it was deduced to be a rider error and the ride returned to operation without changes.

Spain, Portugal, Iceland and Norway Spain: Leaving the hotel and entering the park using the entry for resort guests only one finds oneself right in the spain section. Spain is mostly a showy part with the horse and stunt show "Das Collier der Königin" and frequent Flamenco shows. The only rides are a Himalaya which is on very slow program and a Peter Pan with spinning boats. Portugal: Turning left one leaves Spain and enters Portugal. Portugal is next to some kiddie and game areas all about the huge Watercoaster Atlantica SuperSplash. The best watercoaster in the park with turntables, backward ride and wet splash. If you're still hot there's a very wet splash zone. Iceland: Moving on trough Portugal you land in Iceland. Iceland holds two of the major coasters: Blue Fire, world-class accelerator Mega-Loopingcoaster easily the best coaster in the park with 0-62 mph in 1,5 seconds plus ejector air in the last rollover - and the not so world-class woodie Wodan, which IMO runs better when degrees are on the cooler end. In Iceland you'll also find very good danish Hot-Dogs. Norway: Turning right at the Blue Fire entry one goes under a small tunnel to reach Norway. Norway consists of two parts. First you enter the ride section with the Intamin Rafting and the Huss Pirate. Moving on you enter a small scandinavian city complete with SHØPs, fishbuns and very sweet cakes. Atlantica SuperSplash doing its thing View from the Atlantica SuperSplash turntable over Iceland SKLOOOSH What I will know splitseconds later that I'm standing in the splash zone... New woodie Wodan Riders enjoy OTSR-less looping The last rollover provides amazing ejector-air!!! All over Blue Fire provides far more air than the Silver Star! Off it goes! Wodan entry looks bombastic. As I always used the single rider line I've no pics of the queue. Iceland also has a splash battle. On to Norway with the nicely themed Rafting. Scandinavian city One last view over Norway before heading on to Holland, Greek and Russia!

As long as they don't tamper the first drop I'm game - as it's the part that makes GeForce unique. The rest of the ride is also very good - but en par with other Intamin Megas like the Goliath at Walibi Holland.

There can only be ONE answer to this question: THRILLER!!!

@rollin_n_coastin The Polyp-viariant you posted is called Sombrero and produced by Italian manufacturer Sorani&Moser. Also a cool ride - did it last week at the Vienna Prater. There are also Polyps with fixed gondolas by Klaus (germany) and Bakker (netherlands) - but IMO the Schwarzkopf version is still the best which concept is still built first by Wieland Schwarzkopf and today by Gerstlauer.

I arrived at Europa-Park in the late afternoon to get to my room at the AlCazar 4* hotel. The resort is reachable by public transport: Head towards Offenbach or Freiburg using the highspeed ICE-trains, from there take the regional express train to Ringsheim, at the Ringsheim station an hourly bus service is synchronized with train arrivals and departures. The resort consist of 5 hotels - including the brand new Bell Rock hotel themed to a New England setting. The other hotels have a spanish or italian setting. The resort area consists of multiple pools, bars and restaurants - hotel guests also enjoy 2 Spa's and a new fitness- and sauna-center in the Bell Rock area. Hotel guests also enjoy early entry into the park with monthly changing attractions open up to 60 minutes earlier - this September early-entry highlight was the looping-coaster Blue Fire. The only negative point I have is that air-conditioning is not standard in any resort hotel which IMO is quite weak for 4* or better hotels. View from my room over the hotel resort All furniture made from solid wood, great bed - for families the washrrom door can be opened from the outside Knight's Walk to the hotel lobby Outside view of the AlCazar The hotel bar features a top Scotch Single Malt collection plus multiple beers on tap Walkway to the New England area A swan in the shallow waters, the park takes all its water from a small local river New Bell Rock hotel Nightime view from my room - going to bed early with 2 days of Europa Park ahead!

I also noticed 2 trims two weeks ago. While the first didn't affect thge ride much the second quite slowed the ride down. Basically trims/blockbrakes are not a bad thing. On Schwarzkopf's Alpina Bahn the speed is also adjusted depending on the number of riders and therefore weight of the whole train. On GeForce I think the 1st trim is okay while the 2nd trim should be reduced in strength.

With the addition of the B&M Hong Kong is moving up on my radar for city-trip someday...

On my current PTR from Holiday Park, Hassloch I've included some pics of the new kiddie area "Biene Maja Land". Feel free to use them if you find them useful.

For me it will always be the Monster! No better Schwarzkopf flat than the Monster! Another portable monster Stationary Monster at Heide-Park Older 70s Monster in Slagharen - with Schwarzkopf Monorail

Next to the iconic coasters Schwarzkopf KG also created flats - most aimed at german carnivals but many still found in parks.

Slagharen has many former carnival rides from the 70s and 80s Schwarzkopf Enterprise in full swing in Slagharen Classic 70s design and unique entry - the roofs are magnetically locked during the ride

Cool to see the scans from the Heinz Fähtz brochure. There're still some Fähtz music-express around here on the carnival circuit. The Fähtz Round-Up was IMO the most forceful - there's still one at Heide-Park, now in the former HUSS-Land - it's there since the opening in 1978 so I guess they produced some quality rides...

Visited it last year and liked Goliath and the new Boomerang trains. Gladly you missed out the choppy woodie - but they've a nice Vekoma Madhouse and HUSS Magic when I was there. I never had problems with the maximum hight restriction with my 1,96 meters plus shoes - even on the maximum 1,95 meters Schwarzkopf loopers. I guess the point is that you've to fit into the seat - and I know how to fold up my legs... On the Enterprise: I've never heard or seen one that has seatbelts - what for??? The older Schwarzkopf variant is even a little more "open" - and at Slagharen I was even allowed to bring my camera onboard and film during the ride!