MrMorgan's P/VTR of Kernie's Wunderland and D'Efteling!

[MrMorgan]

Guten Tag. Last weekend, I continued my "Summer of Credit Collecting and Whoring" with a weekend trip to Kernie's Wunderland and D'Efteling.

 

Kernie's Wunderland

 

This is it folks, the real life "park at a nuclear power plant". You've heard the rumors, now see it for yourself. This plant was never actually in operation, and in 1995 it was turned into a resort destination with rides, hotels, nightclubs, sport facilities, and so on.

 

At the amusement park, you pay one price at the gate, and you gain entrance to all the rides, PLUS FREE soft drinks, french fries, and ICE CREAM. I'm not kidding, free ice cream, all day long, throughout the park. It's like a fatty's dream or a diabetics nightmare. We only visited the amusement park part of it. Here's some pics and videos.

Free Ice Cream.wmv

Here's a video of how the free ice cream machine works.

And last but by no means least, did I mention that they have free ice cream?

They had a small museum where you could learn about the history of the park, and how nuclear power plants work.

Yes, you can play tennis at Kernie's, too. Imagine being at a park with some friends and the plan being "OK, while you guys ride the flume, we're going to go play some mixed doubles."

They had several upcharge attractions in the park part, including these dragsters. I really wanted to try it, but A) they were closed because of the rain, and 2) I also thought, "why pay 12Euros for basically the first 4 seconds of Desert Race or Rita or Xcellerator without the coaster afterwards?"

Echo_0001.wmv

Inside the coolant tower is a huge echo chamber. Check it out.

In the "basement" of the tower, (where the nuclear stuff was to be cooled), is now a giant playground and a lazy river like attraction thru which you ride bumber boats.

See, look! Climbing stuff.

This is the old coolant tower. You can climb all the way up to the top for a small extra fee. It's really REALLY tall!

...and a carousel.

More flat rides...

One of the 2,000 kiddie falt rides at Kernie's.

What's up, Bruno!

Achterbah at Kernie's.wmv

POV of one circuit on the Kernie's Achterbahn.

Achterbahn thru the trees... bushes... whatever.

The 2 most thrilling attractions: Wildwasserbahn flume ride and the third railer coaster Achterbahn. They're not very creative with names at Kernie's. Translated, those names are basically "log flume" and "rollercoaster".

Here's a list of all the rides and upcharge attractions.

They had a character show in this huge theater. We didn't get the chance to see it, but the kids sure seemed to love it.

The entrance sign in the parking lot.

Here's the remains of the actual power plant building. It's been gutted for all the valuable parts.

[Ed]

That's very very creepy.... Did you grow any extra limbs where you were there?

[cfc]

"Lick, smile, then repeat" can be applied to so many other activities.

 

The echo chamber is pretty cool. Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland used to have a "bottomless pit" echo chamber, but they took it out when they upgraded the now-closed walkthrough, which might be reopening, if Miceage is correct.

[MrMorgan]

Next stop

 

D'Efteling

 

Let me start by saying, I really love this park. It matches BGW for beautiful gardens and landscaping, and the themeing is overall pretty fantastic. Vliegende Hollander is EXTREMELY cool, as are all the other themed dark rides and coasters. MY only beefs (2) about the park would be 1) it's sooo spread out, it takes forever to get from one area to the next. Luckily, you're walking through beautiful gardens, over bridges, and through dense forests to get there, and B) the food service was overall extremely slow. We waited almost 20 minutes for a slice of pizza when there were only 2 people in front of us in the line. No joke.

 

On to the pics and video.

VH_0001.wmv

This is the outside part of Vliegende Hollander. Like I said, as a coaster it's just so so, but the whole thing alltogether is fantasticcissimo. I didn't take my camera in the ride because the inside part is really dark, (and just in case I didn't mention it, really cool and suprising).

And for the last pic, me and Markus and the pretty Dutch sunset. By the way, for anyone on the Mini-Europe Trip, Markus is the guy that donated the rain ponchos. If you want to send him a thank you email, PM me and I'll give you his address:)

Perty.

Here's the camelback on the outside coaster portion. Now, don't get me wrong, Vliegende Hollander is not an extreme thrill ride. The coastery part itself is only so-so, but the overall package with the theming and the indoor dark part is at least Disney level. Seriously.

Giggety, it says zit. Teetle heheee.

This room of the que was themed like a pub. Too bad they weren't serving because we would have been loyal customers.

In this underground passageway, you hear the pirates pillaging the town above you and see the flames pass down the street. It's even in smellovision!

Here's some theming in the que.

And here it is, the aqua coaster dark ride 2 years in the making; Vleigende Hollander. I have to say, we were completely blown away by this ride! The theming is amazing!

For you vertical loop fanboys, (you know who you are).

First drop.

They also have the Python; a Vekoma double loop and corkscrew coaster with the fancy schmancy trains from Kumbak.

If you don't want to wait 20 minutes for a piece of pizza, you can always get food from one of these traditional gigantic vending machines. It's filled with fried sausages and cheezy things and stuff. This random Dutch guy just burned his fingers going for a Mexico Roll.

Beleive it or not, there IS a coaster in this shot. It's the Bobbaan; a single car bob coaster. It's so surrounded by trees that this is seriously the best shot I could get.

Behind this giant bird is a kick-ass indoor coaster called Vogel Rok. It was one of the first coasters, (if not THE first), with an onboard soundsystem and it's own soundtrack. It's pretty short, but way more intense than Space Mountain at WDW. We loved it.

More Festival freakiness.

They have a "Small World" type dark ride called Karnaval Festival. Here is one of the trippy scenes inside. It's too bad you can't hear the extremely annoying song that runs throughout the ride continuously.

See at night?

See again?

See?

p.s. Is it just me, or is that statue in the foreground somewhat erotically strange?

This is the parks only woodie. It's basically an overgrown junior woodie with full-size trains. The lapbars are T-bars, and because the trains shimmy and fishtail so much during the ride, you bruise the inside of your legs and knees. I couldn't beleive that such a small coaster with drops at 15 degree angles could be so unpleasant. Too bad, cuz it's really pretty to look at.

The trademark lookout tower.

Stinky, non appetite making fish.

Pretty, non passing boats

The Piranha is a great old school raft ride. How many boats can fit into one area? We got passed on our ride!

Next to Droomflucht is the Villa Volta. It's a "witches swing" (or whatever the generic name for that is) ride with a long; double room pre-show complete with animatronics and projections and stuff.

Inside here is the world renowned Droomvlucht dark ride. It ends with a 3 story downward helix into a swamp filled with half naked elfs. Yes, you read that right.

This is the entrance plaza to the Fata Morgana boat ride. It's cool to have a fun dark ride almost named after me. The ride itself has some great effects, but you don't really "float" thru it like you do on Pirates, for example.

This is the amazing entrance building. I'm not a Trekkie, but I swear something about it looks very "Klingon" like, doesn't it?

[Canadmos]

Efteling looks like an awesome park, I wish there were more photo trip reports of it. Thanks for the pictures and video!

[Homer]

Great TR, Morgan!

 

I've been looking all over for the name of the park built out of a nuclear power plant. I saw it once when I was 12 in an issue of Nickelodeon magazine and I forgot the name of it! Still an interesting "WTF" park. Also, did you see any 3-eyed fish?

[Buddy johnson]

Ooooo

Thanks for sharing the great TR! Nice photos and video clips.

Anyway, the watercoaster looks really great...

I'm also jealous of Free icee HAHA

[verticalzero]

Nice Pic's: How far is the Nukie Power Station Theme Park from

Efteling. Did you try the cooling tower climbing walls.

 

I also love Efteling, as soon as you walk through the gates you feel like you are in another world.

 

Doomsflight is so amazing, one of the best dark rides in the world. I thought the woodie would be a good ride but it is not.

 

The Park should re-track it so there is some along it's course.

[Bruno Lancetti]

Kernie's Wunderland!!! Eheheh... The powered coaster is a Zamperla's "Super Express", the log flume is a Zamperla's "2D Cross Flumer Ride", and... etc...!!! So there are tons of Zamperla's credits there!!! Eheheh...!!!

 

Thank you MrMorgan for sharing your pics with us!!! This park is small but awesome and very nice!!! Maybe we could suggest to Robb & Elissa an extra stop for the 2008 TPR European Trip (here there is also a nice hotel with good prices... and free icecream!!!)

[Groteslurf]

Great TR of a great park.

I especially love Droomvlucht, Vogel Rok and Vliegende Hollander in De Efteling.

[MrMorgan]

That's very very creepy.... Did you grow any extra limbs where you were there?

 

Hi Ed! No, I didn't grow any extra limbs, but I did grow a few extra pounds on my gut after eating free fries with mayo and ice cream all day long. Does that count?

 

"Lick, smile, then repeat" can be applied to so many other activities.

 

The echo chamber is pretty cool. Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland used to have a "bottomless pit" echo chamber, but they took it out when they upgraded the now-closed walkthrough, which might be reopening, if Miceage is correct.

 

First off, you're so nasty, but I love it.

 

And B, I've never heard any mention of that echo chamber at Disneyland. Are we talking like, original attraction, or how old is this? Sounds like a great idea. How did it work?

 

Great TR, Morgan!

 

I've been looking all over for the name of the park built out of a nuclear power plant. I saw it once when I was 12 in an issue of Nickelodeon magazine and I forgot the name of it! Still an interesting "WTF" park. Also, did you see any 3-eyed fish?

 

Thanks! Yes, it's really real and I've seen it with my own eyes. I remember reading about it in ACE news or something several years ago, too, and I had completely forgotten about it.

 

And no, we saw no 3 eyed fish. But, we weren't looking so that doesn't rule out the possibility of there actual presence.

 

Nice Pic's: How far is the Nukie Power Station Theme Park from

Efteling. Did you try the cooling tower climbing walls.

 

I also love Efteling, as soon as you walk through the gates you feel like you are in another world.

 

Doomsflight is so amazing, one of the best dark rides in the world. I thought the woodie would be a good ride but it is not.

 

The Park should re-track it so there is some along it's course.

 

Kernie's is about 2 hours from D'Efteling. It's not that far on a map, but you have to go thru small winding dorf roads to get there.

 

We didn't climb the reactor because it was an upcharge AND it was basically pouring rain the whole day, which I would assume would make it somewhat diffucult!

 

Yes, and Pegasus is not very good at D'Efteling, I agree. But I don't think re-tracking it would add any airtime. The design is not built for airtime. It's supposed to be a light-hearted family ride with not very steep drops and not much speed, which I guess it pretty much is. It's just too bad it's so shaky and fish-taily.

 

Kernie's Wunderland!!! Eheheh... The powered coaster is a Zamperla's "Super Express", the log flume is a Zamperla's "2D Cross Flumer Ride", and... etc...!!! So there are tons of Zamperla's credits there!!! Eheheh...!!!

 

Thank you MrMorgan for sharing your pics with us!!! This park is small but awesome and very nice!!! Maybe we could suggest to Robb & Elissa an extra stop for the 2008 TPR European Trip (here there is also a nice hotel with good prices... and free icecream!!!)

 

Broo-chey! I had to think of you while seeing the Zamperla signs everywhere. That coaster is fast for a 3rd-railer, but I was suprised; it's also very rough! We kept getting slammed from side to side in the transitions.

 

I don't know if it would be worth it to stop there on the trip in 2008. Except for the free food and the fact to be able to say "I was at that park in a nuclear power plant", there's no real coaster or dark-ride worth noting and it's kind of far out of the way. We'll see what they decide!?!

[Bruno Lancetti]

I know the coaster is rough!!! "Side to side dance" is a Zamperla's invention... ahahahah!!! I'm joking of course!!! Unfortunately this coaster was probably designed by a not very experienced team...!!!

[Skyscraper]

Wow excellent and interesting trip report ! I never saw pictures of those parks !

 

The nuclear plant redo into a theme park is really interesting. I would love to sing a song with that echo

 

I loved the ice machine instructions

[hyyyper]

Thank you MrMorgan for sharing your pics with us!!! This park is small but awesome and very nice!!! Maybe we could suggest to Robb & Elissa an extra stop for the 2008 TPR European Trip (here there is also a nice hotel with good prices... and free icecream!!!)

 

it is not. I hated the park, it's an outdoor version of Toverland without coasters...(and i'm not saying this because i work at toverland)

[Bruno Lancetti]

It's just a point of view...!!! There are a lot of small parks without big coaster... where TPR crew could find something to do for a funny day all together...!!! The essence of TRP trip is probably made by ERT but not only...!!! So I think Robb or Elissa could help me for explain this!!! Staying together and having fun is quite cool like riding a coaster...!!!

[hyyyper]

i get that, but why not both. spend your money on a park where you can have fun on the rides/coaster and with each other...

[robinschroder]

Wunderland Kalkar was in the news today in the UK...

 

Today some friends at work said - ah, Robin, I'm sure you've heard about the German theme park in an old nuclear powerstation that was in the paper today! To which I had to reply 'Er... no! But I'll find out more!' When I came and searched on TPR, I found your report Morgan!

 

Here's the news article. Not particularly news-worthy apart from 'OMG there's a park in a nuclear powerstation in Germany!!!'

 

P.S. Found this 'Starflyer-type ride' video online - quite a unique setup inside that tower!

 

[gisco]

Wow, I was reading this report and didn't realize it was 4 years old. Great report and I wonder how it got missed being put into the archives?

[MrMorgan]

Hey guys,

 

To tell you the truth, I had also totally forgotten I had WRITTEN this report! Thanks for bumping it up! Kernie's is quite an unusual place, but add free ice cream and french fries to unusual and you've got yourself a winner in my book!

[Groteslurf]

Kernie's is on my to-do-list-within-short. I wanted to go there in spring and stay at their hotel but didn't find any suitable weekend. Maybe in fall it will work out.