simon8899

Took my last turn of Sommerdom yesterday: 3x Olympia Looping 1x Wild Mouse XXL 2x Break Dancer 1x Take Off 1x Frisbee

Great pics! I love what they say about Mind Bender on the Six Flags site:

I had a small issue on Olympia this time: They first ran the blue train and after the ride my shoulder-clamp wasn't opening - So I had to worm out of it. The train was replaced with the pink one.

More Sommerdom impressions from last weekend... Cool ride attendants on the Schwarzkopf Walzerfahrt Veeery swingey! This time I saw a quite tricky situation when a french kid thought it was time to board the ride while it was only switching from forward to backward. The ride-attendant was just in time to hold it safely back. Hooray for warm sticky buns! Check it out next time in New York! Mechanical organ from 1911. SKLOOSH! The most beautiful maintained Musikexpress! New ferris wheel employee!

Can't accept the judgement that the Zamperla MotoCoaster is better than the Vekoma variant....

Those who complain about the Arrow/Vekoma coasters have never ridden a Zyklon Loop...

At some point during construction of the Looping Star and he "instructs" his co-workers he yells something like... "Wir müssen fertig sein wenn der Stengel kommt..." "We've to be finished till the Stengel comes..."

Ahhh.... Schwarzkopf Wildcat. Do you know why its sometimes signed "Rock & Roller Coaster" - like on this fair - and sometimes "Die Wilden 50er" like last year in Hannover?

Yes, might move up in my "travel the world to ride Schwarzkopf coasters" list. The others are... - Galaxyland, Edmonton - Parque de Atraciones, Mexico-City

Always great to read your trip reports! The Octopus ride looks like a Bakker Polyp - but guess it wasn't made by Bakker....

Being with him as he builds the Looping Star prototype and explains the heartline-principle - just priceless! Also some other great insights: As he inspects the trains wheels assemblies which if done properly likely would've saved people in Canada. Interesting fact that the rides are earthquake-proof as well as having a wide temperature operation range - from the heat of Texas to the frosty winters Germany. The best was his "hints" at MBB (Messerschmidt Bölkow Blohm) at how they spent years and millions of German Mark to built a coaster that was crap-metal within 16 days - while hinting that he and his team built the prototype Looping Star in just five months... @QueerRudie The Bayernkurve in the film came back to him after travelling on german fairs for 11 years. He complained about the lack the service the ride has received over the years - the cars weren't banking anymore - and strongly supported the idea that ride operators should have a kind of "Amusement Rides Drivers License".

Wets my apetite for my visit this september. Blue Fire has a high chance of becoming my 100th credit - as has Expedition GeForce...

The last parks for this year: - Holiday Park - Europa Park - Vienna Prater Carnivals: - Bremen Freimarkt - Hamburg Winterdom

I planned to do Fort Fun and nearby Stukenbrock in August - BUT as my 100th credit is coming up I didn't want it to be a Vekoma Whirlwind so I pushed these two to next summer. Now my 100th credit will be either Expedition GeForce or Blue Fire...

It's amazing that there're still carnivals around that look like those from my father's pictures from 40+ years ago....

Galaxyland is still tied with Parque de Attraciones in Mexico City for a single visit right from europe. While Galaxyland sports Mindbender the Mexico City park has the original german carnival Dreier-Looping (Triple Loop) plus a flywheel Shuttle Loop. A hard decision - but will observe the security in mexico for the upcoming years and make a practical decision based upon it... But the coming days are reserved to ride Olympia Looping during the time of the Olympic Games!

Wilde Maus XXL was stopped by an employee after he heard "weird noises". Two cars were stopped on the track. Two riders could leave the car without problems - even if not said in the article I do persume that the car was stuck on the lift so riders could go down the stairs next to it. The ride was closed by the fire-department until a TÜV engineer checked the ride and found no problems. Abendblatt - german article

High Gs - Five Loops - Schwarzkopf Engineering - After Work Coasting

Really good stuff. Many things gone due to political correctness and "über"-concern of guest safety. On the other hand due to Disney Imagineering and their well-done new rides one doesn't miss much.

For decades and decades this would've been true - but since Duckstein is made here we can finally relax....

Part 2/2 Laughing his ass off 24/7 Live-Bakery - offering an assortment of warm sticky buns... This music express is "Mr. T-Approved" Take-Off pulling Gs. This is photographed without panning. Onboard the surroundings blend into a wild blur... DOM of course offering tons of midway games, sweet- and foodshacks and multiple Biergarten The 2nd music express on the DOM... Showman Rasch is honouring his hometown: "Hamburg, my pearl" - while "pearl" is also a nickname here for a beautiful woman... In the "Pirate Canteen" you can get all the good stuff! Old ride - formerly known as "Bavarian Schunkler" - newly themed. I guess this kind of ride would get no permission in the US - people flying freely around, clinging at the bars... Nighttime PhotoTR coming hopefully soon...

Sommerdom 2012 - Part 1/2 Finally Sommderdom time is here and while the weather was mediocre at best in the last weeks it dried just in time and will be sunny at least for the coming week. This year saw of course the return of some rides like the Olympia Looping, Steiger 60m Ferris Wheel, Waveswinger and the musicexpress Action and Love Dream as well as the waterrides Atlantis Rafting and Wildwasser. Next to these some seldom seen rides attend this summer like the Take-Off and Transformer. New this year is the Wilde Maus XXL which runs ultra-smooth even in the refurbished old part of the mouse. With the added layout this ride now nearly has the dimensions of a Schwarzkopf Silverarrow. After years finally the Transformer came back. And despite being an older high-thrill ride it always ran packed to capacity with a very good 6+ minute program offering both - high Gs and insane inverted hangtime. Ghosthouse darkride with inverted cars. I spot a Wild Mouse very high up... nice ride ...with nice backwall painting... This italian machine is insane... Happy riders... The Take-Off with the best high-Gs program. Period! No carnival is complete without a Dancer! Huge portable log-flume ahead... Lots of water on all levels - sufficient to get really wet... Brandnew first drop. This old-style simulator was quite popular with families. More pictures from my second spin around the DOM coming soon...

Well done PhotoTR! One could however argue if Alt counts as beer....

One has to love Knoebels if only for putting the Android QR over the Apple QR - Way to go!!!

2 spins on Olympia Looping last evening... ...will also be my next coaster coming wednesday!