Heide Park Discussion Thread

[cookiex]

Maybe they shouldn't have let it reach such a state that they had to close it down in the first place?

 

Therein lies the problem. Can these rides be as easily repaired or fixed as traditional wood coasters? The company that makes the track now works for Gerstlauer, so how does that affect the ability for Intamin to source replacement parts? Can they?

If that were the case Balder, El Toro and T-Express would all face similar problems either now or eventually. I kinda doubt that tbh.

[DirkFunk]

Maybe they shouldn't have let it reach such a state that they had to close it down in the first place?

 

Therein lies the problem. Can these rides be as easily repaired or fixed as traditional wood coasters? The company that makes the track now works for Gerstlauer, so how does that affect the ability for Intamin to source replacement parts? Can they?

If that were the case Balder, El Toro and T-Express would all face similar problems either now or eventually. I kinda doubt that tbh.

 

Colossos is the oldest of them all and thus it would be expected that if this was a condition that eventually came to bear, it would be there first. How can you be so certain that Merlin does a worse job maintaining rides than Six Flags?

[cookiex]

Colossos is the oldest of them all and thus it would be expected that if this was a condition that eventually came to bear, it would be there first. How can you be so certain that Merlin does a worse job maintaining rides than Six Flags?

What I've read is that Colossos didn't have these issues before last year, yet it was already in a horrid state when I rode it just two weeks into the season. I just have my doubts that this was an unavoidable issue.

 

If Balder suddenly starts running like garbage in a year or two there might be something to it.

[Garet]

Maybe they shouldn't have let it reach such a state that they had to close it down in the first place?

 

Therein lies the problem. Can these rides be as easily repaired or fixed as traditional wood coasters? The company that makes the track now works for Gerstlauer, so how does that affect the ability for Intamin to source replacement parts? Can they?

If that were the case Balder, El Toro and T-Express would all face similar problems either now or eventually. I kinda doubt that tbh.

 

Colossos is the oldest of them all and thus it would be expected that if this was a condition that eventually came to bear, it would be there first. How can you be so certain that Merlin does a worse job maintaining rides than Six Flags?

 

Colossos may be older and T Express may be the newest, but it runs almost 10 and a half months with 2-3 trains constantly in a 365 day a year park: one that is open for almost 12 hours a day and it's one of only 2 big coasters in a park that is one of the busiest non disney/universal parks in the world.Couple that with extremely hot humid summers and -20 winters as well. If there were conditions I'd expect it to hit them before Colossos or the other 3. Kind of like how Hulk got rebuilt due to running more than a lot of other B&M's. Granted they get the rehab done for 6 weeks during those too cold to run times so it could be a case of awesome maintenance teams but it's still running great. Not day 1 great but for all those things I just listed it's pretty damn good.

[coasterbill]

El Toro has begun to develop some rough spots as well, particularly in the turnaround and on the hill after the turnaround.

 

I've got to say, it's my home park so I ride that ride a ton and I feel like it's been running about the same for the last few seasons. If you sit in a wheel seat, you feel a shuffle at the bottom of the turnaround but this hasn't gotten any worse over the last few seasons and it's really a very minor complaint. The ride is in no way, shape or form a rough ride. I honestly think Six Flags has done a commendable job maintaining El Toro.

[boldikus]

^Agreed 1000%! Ive ridden Toro 100+ times over the last three years. The only noticeable issue is light jackhammering on the turnaround which I notice in a wheel or non-wheel seat. Anytime anyone says the thing has gotten rough I turn around like

We'll be riding it Saturday so we'll let you know how its holding up.

[b&mforever]

IDK why people have this notion that Six Flags doesn't maintain their rides well. Go to a park like Mt. Olympus if you wanna see what neglecting rides looks like. El Toro still runs great. Ride any random mid 90's B&M at a Six Flags park and they are all butter smooth still. Or Take a ride on the Wild One at SFA which is coming up on 100 years old sometime this year. Or another great oldie but goldie Comet at Great Escape. The ones that ride like crap like Texas Giant (pre refurb) are more the manufacturers fault. Every Dinn woodie from the 90's beat the crap out of themselves regardless of who owned them. I hope to see Colossos back up in the future. It would be a real loss to lose one of these rare intamin Prefabs. And as much as I love RMC's, the idea of RMCing an intamin prefab is complete blasphemy.

[cookiex]

Ghostbusters update

 

 

 

The new burger restaurant replacing Piratenburger

 

 

 

Source

[cookiex]

Ghostbusters will soft open on the 15th

 

[petestrash]

Is anyone aware of any coupons, codes or other discounts for single entry to Heide Park?

 

I'll be there May 12th.

 

Thanks,

Peter.

[cookiex]

Is anyone aware of any coupons, codes or other discounts for single entry to Heide Park?

 

I'll be there May 12th.

 

Thanks,

Peter.

You can get a reduced price on entry if you buy your tickets online in advance instead of at the gate. 5+ days in advance saves you €13.

 

https://www.heide-park.de/tickets/tages-tickets.html

 

Note that Express Butler won't be available since it's only available on weekends outside of summer.

[petestrash]

You can get a reduced price on entry if you buy your tickets online in advance instead of at the gate. 5+ days in advance saves you €13.

 

https://www.heide-park.de/tickets/tages-tickets.html

 

Thanks,

 

I have also since found Groupon are doing tickets for €29,50 at the moment.

www.groupon.de

[petestrash]

You can get a reduced price on entry if you buy your tickets online in advance instead of at the gate. 5+ days in advance saves you €13.

 

https://www.heide-park.de/tickets/tages-tickets.html

 

Thanks,

 

I have also since found Groupon are doing tickets for €29,50 at the moment.

www.groupon.de

 

And down to €23.60 using the code "5E8SUJZN" at Groupon.

[sodapop79]

Heide Park Resort from above / Flying over Heide Park Resort

[JordyC]

Future Europe's largest wooden rollercoaster very uncertain

 

The future of Europe's largest wooden roller coaster does not look bright. Colossos at Heide Park needs a very costly repair. Therefore, the park considers various scenarios, including the demolition of the iconic roller coaster. This is evidenced by an interview with a German fansite.

 

The largest wooden roller coaster in Europe has been SBNO since July 2016 for urgent maintenance and repair work. Earlier this year, Heide Park announced that Colossos will remain closed throughout the 2017 season. Any details could not be released, but a spokesman from the park said that "it's a replacement of the roller coaster track, which is a very difficult job. An opening date is not known yet, but we keep everyone informed as soon as there is more news," said the spokeswoman.

 

Last weekend, a conversation took place with the fansite "Freizeitpark-Welt" and some Heide Park managers. In addition, the park will come out with an official verdict regarding the future of Colossos at the end of this year. It was also said that the repair of the roller coaster is accompanied by a repaircost which is a two-digit million amount, so a very expensive repair.

 

The park is now looking with its investors and company Merlin Entertainments which decision they are going to make. There are currently different scenarios possible, including demolishing the roller coaster to replace it with a brand new attraction.

 

Source

[coasterbill]

This whole thing is just incredibly strange.

[Garet]

Yea, I mean Balder & El Toro doesn't seem to be having any problems and T Express that runs 10-11 months on average a year minus a month of maintenance and too cold to run days seems to be holding up almost as good as when I first rode it 6 years ago and that thing goes through an insane amount of cycles a year with 2-3 trains for 9-10 hours a day and an almost always busy queue and hauling crew.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Garet

[CSLKennyNI]

Honestly. Not that strange.

 

Merlin didn't spend money on maintaining the ride as other parks with prefab woodies do.

When it was deemed no longer safe to run they didn't fix it immediately they've left it for a year to 'decide' what to do. Meaning it has been left to rot.

So the fact that it is now really costly to repair is no surprise.

 

Real shame.

[KarlaKoaster]

Forgive my naivety, but I thought the idea of Intamin plug-and-play coasters was that track replacement was easy as they're just prefabricated pieces of track, hence 'plug and play'. Has winter maintenance and trackwork been neglected to the point it's beyond economical repair? As far as I'm concerned 'difficult' is just corporate BS for 'expensive' as I have seen plenty of coasters retracked in my lifetime.

[DJeXeL]

So I’ve been clearly living under a rock and had no idea it has been SBNO this long.

[cookiex]

Forgive my naivety, but I thought the idea of Intamin plug-and-play coasters was that track replacement was easy as they're just prefabricated pieces of track, hence 'plug and play'. Has winter maintenance and trackwork been neglected to the point it's beyond economical repair? As far as I'm concerned 'difficult' is just corporate BS for 'expensive' as I have seen plenty of coasters retracked in my lifetime.

All I've heard about plug-and-play is that they're cheaper to build because the prefabricated pieces are designed to easily snap together and would require less labor and faster construction, not that the track itself costs less to manufacture or maintain.

[Canobie Coaster]

I thought it was that bad sections of track could be removed and then replaced more easily. But if they never replaced any track sections and had to do it all at once, that could be very costly.

 

It's a shame that Colossos reached this state considering how well the other pre-fabs are running. I really hope they save the ride, but I have a bad feeling a new ride is more marketable than pumping $10+ million (if it is in fact double digit millions to correct the ride) into saving their previous star attraction.

[SharkTums]

Honestly. Not that strange.

 

Merlin didn't spend money on maintaining the ride as other parks with prefab woodies do.

When it was deemed no longer safe to run they didn't fix it immediately they've left it for a year to 'decide' what to do. Meaning it has been left to rot.

So the fact that it is now really costly to repair is no surprise.

 

Real shame.

 

This. Merlin is really starting to get to me. I'm just not happy with how they're running a lot of their "newer" acquired parks.

[cfc]

Terrible. Colossos was such a great coaster at one time.

[RyanTPM]

^^Yeah with Merlin they seem to do critical maintenance but forget about the upkeep of rides and they end up either in this situation here, or with rides just looking terrible. For example just look at the state Colossus is in at Thorpe, or Dragons Fury at Chessington.