scf

I just spend a lot of time watching ride videos and one question arised for which I couldn't find much info to answer. I saw lots of videos from coasters with vertical lift hills (90° up, you're laying on your back, feets up) and I wondered: what if someone gets sick during that stage of the ride? This probably won't happen very often (has it even happened yet at all?), especially not if the lift hill is at the beginning of the ride. But some rides, like Fluch von Novgorod, have this element in the middle of the track (at Novgorod, you will get launched first and pass some inversions before brakes slow you down and you're ascending the vertical lift hill) so you could potentially feel sick when you enter the lift hill. Since there are over the shoulder restrains, you could not do much to move your head if you'd have to vomit. I know that's probably an unappetizing question, but since the first thing we learned at first aid was "never put sick people on their backs to prevent suffocation if they spill" I worry a bit that this might pose some health risk. Has anyone more info on this? Are there security cams so that staff can see if this situation occurs (but what to do then?)? Has this topic ever been discussed by ride manufacturers with some public info available? Or is that not an issue at all for reasons I'm not aware of? Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

If you can reach Soltau, I'd recommend Heide Park as well. Hansa Park is also great (and at the sea!), but a bit smaller. Both take about 4,5 - 5 hours to reach if you take public transportation starting in Berlin, but both are worth the travel. There are busses ("Fernbus") travelling directly from Berlin to Soltau or Sierksdorf and are very cheap (e.g. Berlin -> Soltau: starts from 12,90€), especially if you book early. The busses are in good condition, have free WLAN, a toilet on board, lots of leg room and most of the time power outlets so you can charge your laptop/phone. If you go by Deutsche Bahn, you can book tickes from 29€ (up to 68€) and it will take about 3,5 hours. I would recommend to take the bus if you don't mind travelling the extra hour, since you'd have to change trains two times with a small amount of time to reach your connecting train. And since some trains (especially ICE/IC) are notoriously late a few minutes, you might miss the connecting one. On the other hand, you might travel more than the 4,5hours by bus if there are traffic jams. I'd recommend to plan to stay more than one day, so you reach the park at one day, sleep in the vicinity and have a whole day to spend before travelling back in the evening of the following day or morning thereafter. Otherwise you'd spend more time in the bus than at the park and probably feel stressed out since you can't possibly ride everything you want to. I can also recommend looking for airbnb or similar private/semi private offers - I just booked an appartment 65m from the Hansa Park for a week for a small fee. There are not many appartments in the Heide Park area, but if you have bikes or even drive there with a rented car, you could easily find some apartments ~ 5-10km near Heide Park.

Yes, you get the tickets at the booth that is located at the barrier to/from the parking lot. It is near the bottom of the stairs to the road bridge (but I think I've seen some ticket machines near the main entrance as well, iirc).

From my limited experience I'd recommend the following: If it's still reasonably warm, I'd suggest the log flume ride. It's nice and a historic part of the park (it's there since 1977) and also a short, fun ride. No big thrill factor compared to the coasters probably, but nice. There are also some dryers at the exit so you don't have to stay wet. If you'd like to get a good overview over the park, try the view tower, maybe early on, so you know where you'll find everything. Other than that, if you like popcorn, I'd strongly recommend to give the toffee popcorn a try. Oh, not a feature, but handy: if you arrive by car and the ticket booth is not crowded, pay your day ticket for parking right away. This way you won't have to get in line in the evening, when everyone wants to pay. Have fun, hope you have a great day!

Thank you for your opinion! That really encourages me to not to overthink it and give it a try. Of all coasters I've seen so far, Flug der Dämonen is the one that screams "ride me" the most. It just looks so awesome that I'd be disappointed in myself if I'd give it a pass when I'm there. I'm a bit afraid of the floorless seat, but I guess if I just try to imagine flying (instead of thinking "omgomg its high!"), maybe it will work. I hope so much that this indeed is the case. I thought so last time I tried it, but Big Loop was just too much for me and I did not like the corkscrews, I just wanted the ride to end. I'm really curious if riding a smoother coaster will do the trick. However, I will keep your words in mind, this will be my mantra on the lifthill and if I would indeed discover that I don't like it - at least I will know for sure then. Thank you!

Hey all, I'm planning to get to Heide Park in the next months, trying to tackle my fear of coasters there. I've been there several times but have not ridden any coasters besides Big Loop (and the Bobbahn, if that counts). I would really, really LOVE to try Flug der Dämonen - it really looks like it gives you the feeling of flying, judging from the POVs I've seen. However, I try to mentally prepare me for that by watching the POVs available and I can imagine myself sitting at the right side on the inside at the front row, but not in any other row as it seems you cannot see (and predict) the track from anywhere else (and the left side seems to feel more "free" since you go to the left and have no track in that direction). This might sound really silly and stupid to you pros, but I'm trying to overcome my fear of heights and thus mentally preparing seems important to me. So, my question: can you chose where you'd like to sit on the Flug der Dämonen? And does it really give the impression of flying? Do you have any recommendations for a first time rider to make it a fun experience? On my bucket list are Krake and Deser Race as well. Which one would you recommend to do first for someone who's afraid of heights (and a bit prone to motion sickness, apparently)? If compared to Big Loop, are Krake, Desert Race and Flug der Dämonen running more smoothly? I had a really negative experience on Big Loop several years ago (discovering my fear of heights on the lift hill (bad timing ) and hurting my head during the ride) and would refrain from coasters equally rough since it just felt so uncomfortable. I really hope I can learn to enjoy riding coasters as much as I love to read about them, so I'd try anything to make me lose my fear.

Yesterday was a really great day for me as I got to visit Hansa Park! I haven't had the opportunity to visit a theme park for about four years now and I am still beaming in memory of yesterday. I had not been to Hansa Park before, so it was even more great to explore. I took some pics and thought maybe you'd like to see some impressions. Unfortunately, we only had half a day there, since we were making a mini-roadtrip to the baltic sea and it took some time to convince my friend we decided spontaneously to make a detour to Sierksdorf. But better a half day than none and we managed to do pretty much in that 4,5 hours before the park closed! First thing we did was heading off to the water slide to get some refreshment. We didn't expect THAT much of a splash from that comparatively harmless looking log flume, but it got us pretty soaked. And by the way, I don't know anymore who of you did this annoying "we are on a log fluuume - we are on a log fluume"-song in one of your review videos, but I've had it playing non stop in my head since I ever entered the ride. And it hasn't ever stopped since. Thank you, tpr and unknown log flume bard as your song will live on in my memory for ever now. Me violating the no loose articles rule (due to forgetting having sunglasses on) and my friend violating the no thumps-up on photos-rule in the back with three random great people who were fun to share a log with. After that, we headed to some kiddiecoasters since I am a sissy a bit handicapped concerning my motion sickness. We rode the Rasender Roland and I guess my coaster credit got a huge boost since I've only ridden the Big Loop, the Grottenblitz and the Bobbahn in Heide Park before along with a minuscule mini-coaster in the Erse Park in my childhood. I guess over the years I acquired an unfortunate mix of fear of heights and motion sickness, at least this is what I told myself to excuse screaming like a Banshee the whole ride on an only 16m high family coaster for heavens sake. On the plus side, riding the Roland improved my relation to Vekoma coasters. After my Big Loop incidence of 2011 (my head hurt SO BAD for several days after riding it) I distrusted their coasters a bit, but Roland was pretty smooth and felt actually quite nice to ride. Had to convince my friend that the tracks aren't rusted through but themed. When we got off, I had to walk around for a bit to regain control over my legs (again, why don't you share my coaster love with me, body?) and admired Kärnan from the safe ground. It is really an impressive ride and I spent about 15 minutes just marveling at this construction. Marvel with me! Isn't it a beautiful coaster? Can you spot the train? The wait was temporarily only 30 minutes when we passed it. So sometimes you might get lucky if you're there in the afternoon, even when it's still summer break in several counties. By the way, I was really impressed how the amount of people diverged all over the park. It never felt full and we even found some cozy spots to enjoy some crêpes with apple sauce and cinnamon. We ate while watching some kids remote controlling miniature viking floats on a small pond with and around and through a sculpture of a water serpent. The amount of theming and the love of detail is so above and beyond everything I've seen so far! There are so many great areas and every doorknob is themed. If you enter the park, you are greeted with a huge clock made of flowers and everywhere you go there are lush greens and beautiful summer flowers. It is also exceptionally clean in the whole park. Even the signposts indicating the bathrooms are carved from wood and adapted to the theming of the region they are placed in (for example, you see little wiking women and wiking men instead of symbols or generic icons indicating the bathrooms). I also for some reason loved the fact that there are distorting mirrors in front of the bathrooms and spent some minutes hopping around grimacing there. And then there are details like this: Nessie! Or something norse? Beautiful anyway! After I once again was in charge of my motor control, we headed to the Rio Dorado (a spinning rapid ride) and I got to experience the strange feeling of getting chewed up by a rafting vehicle while trying to overcome my fear of heights. I sat in the seat facing the front while being transported upward on some sort of bumpy conveyor belt which made me constantly getting sucked into the cushioning and spit out again on the next bump. The ride afterwards was a bit slow (without much spinning, to my friend's relief), but nice, but I definitely enjoyed the weird lifthill the most. Following that, we decided to pass the Baracuda Slide since there were no possibilities to drop our bags somewhere. Maybe next time, big slide! Schlange von Midgard. Honestly, I nearly chickened out since I did not know how high it was and if it had any loopings (I wanted to avoid those and on the park map it looked like there was one). After I was convinced that it's really a tame coaster, I got on and was still a bit afraid. After the train made the first round, I remember thinking "phew ok, intense but short, feeling a bit sick, but I guess it was not so ba-" when the train the off to the second round, to my horror. I don't know, maybe it was the fact that it started in the dark, that I could not see what was coming or that I had a mindset of "omg I'm afraid", but I found it much more intense that the Roland. In my own "how do I even coaster" metric of intense, of course - I really hope I will be able one day to laugh about my tiny steps towards riding coasters without fear. Afterwards, I needed a break (bohoo) and my friend decided to ride either Kärnan or Novgorod and went with the latter. In the meantime, I got some nice popcorn. Honestly, the prices in the park are absolutely fine! And the staff is really friendly as well. I intended to buy some sweet popcorn, but they were out and the vendor offered me to get some toffee popcorn for the same price instead (only 1,20€). The popcorn really tasted great and the size was exactly right to get a nice energy boost without being to full afterwards. I then had a really great time and a moment of pure joy just sitting on one of the decorative rocks, munching away on my delicious popcorn and taking the scenery all in. I just love the atmosphere and the details of theme parks so much and Hansa Park has a huge lot to offer of those. Then it was picture time again, this time of the Fluch von Novgorod: Lush greenery everywhere! My friend got to the front of the queue pretty fast (in about 20 minutes, instead of the predicted 50) but then the ride was down due to some problems and no trains rode for about 15 to 20 minutes. Must have been pretty exciting/nerve wrecking/fun for the people that were already seated - getting stuck in the exact point short before departure that induces this "omg what am I doing, no turning back now"-feeling. Unfortunately, it was already 18h then and the park slowly closed. We wandered around a bit, not without me gleefully pushing the buttons on a sculpture of a ship furnace, simulating the honking of several sorts of ships. We departed around 18:30 with still lots of people in the park. I'd really like to know how the closing process is done - are they having some park patrol squads, looking behind every corner so no one can hide in the park? Can they finally close the gates at 19h? Or even later? I'd be really interested to get some more behind the scenes peek into the work behind all this. I really love the fact that the Hansa Park seems to have this extra bit of love for details, theming and making the visitor feel welcome. I really loved it there. Now I only have to train myself further to be able to ride the big coasters. I'm a bit sad that I cannot do that right now. I'm still overwhelmingly happy I got to see the park and ride some attractions, but it would be nice to do the thrill stuff and getting nervous in line with my friend/s and other riders, too.

Hey, I'm scf. I'm from Germany and currently living in Berlin. I use the TPR video channel for hardcore procrastination and as substitute coaster satisfaction since I'm actually afraid of heights and have ridden only ONE roller coaster (if you only count coasters with inversions) in.my.life. And I'm 30, so that means my credit / time ratio is probably the worst on the whole board. However, I'm currently actively trying to overcome at least the fear of heights by a) convincing people to come and join me for a TP day and b) increasing the ok-ish height of attractions I'm boarding by ..exposing me to aforementioned heights. But even if I don't ride many thrill rides (at least, until now), I just love theme parks. They give me such a fuzzy, warm feeling inside and I also enjoy reading about them, as well as reading about coasters and other rides. For this summer, I plan to visit Freizeitpark Plohn to ride El Toro, a wooden coaster by GCI and, hopefully, Heidepark. I grew up in lower saxony, about a 2-hours drive from Heidepark, so I have lots of fond memories of this park (except the one where some guy redecorated my shoes with some protein leakage as I was a child) and am also excited to see it undergo so many changes during the last years. It must have been a good 20 or 22 years since I visited the first time and I remember lots of stuff like a creepy stuffed parrot singing "Im Wald und auf der Heide" or some laser gun activated animatronics ..or the view tower 2 being an innocent view tower, before the remake as Scream. Love that park. If I'm really lucky, I could maybe make a trip to Europa Park - I have never visited this one before and I'd love to. But I should have a better grip on my fear of heights so I can actually ride the coasters there (Silver Star, you are my rite of passage).

I've somehow stumbled across this thread and all I can say is THANK YOU, Thad, for giving me hilarious after-work (and sometimes, instead of work) lecture during the last three days. Coasters, a non-european view on some European parks, lots of pics and random injuries, what else could I wish for? I don't know any of you guys, but just reading this report makes you all seem like such a great bunch to hang out with. I haven't read what stations the tour included, but I hope your Scandi trip was not over with the last park so you can keep on entertaining me.