Photo TR: Dons Epic Europe Trip

[Real]

The smurfs and doritos are great. Thats classic.

[Wes]

 

Someone steal this for me!!! Oh god, I want that.

 

wes (going to go modify my parking pass to look like that)

[kenshinmac]

 

OMG can you say shoddiest track ever... Does that thing look safe? Seriously is it just me or does the track seem to sag between the supports?

[SLUSHIE]

Is Pepsi Max actualy the name of a drink over there?

[kenshinmac]

Is Pepsi Max actualy the name of a drink over there?

I believe Pepsi Max is/was the equivalent of Diet Pepsi.

[Wes]

Pepsi Max = Pepsi One

[robbalvey]

OMG can you say shoddiest track ever... Does that thing look safe? Seriously is it just me or does the track seem to sag between the supports?

That is a feature on ALL Wacky Worms:

 

 

 

[kenshinmac]

Ah ok... As you can tell I have never been on one or near one...

 

(still a wacky worm virgin... or something like that...)

[Yeah 7]

Hey Don,

 

Glad you got back safe and well, and its good to see your photos and reports going up Keep them coming!

 

Phil (the guy who gave you a lift to your Luton hotel)

[Mind Eraser]

I fell in love with the Pepsi Max drink when I was over in the UK. I didn't believe it was diet because it was really sweet; but, apparently, it has no sugar? Yum.

 

 

-kip-

[Jeezus Juice]

Hey Phil! Thanks again for the ride, it was fun to cruise around in a car again after a week stuck in a coach!

 

We ended up going to Chessington and had a blast. That park was much better than I thought it would be. I think I actually had more fun there than we did at Thorpe!

 

Back to the TR's...

 

Day 6 Weiner Prater, Vienna Austria:

 

OK, let me tell you guys about the Prater. We had a guided tour when we first got there that really gave us the history of the park.

Back in the 1500's a plot of land was given to the Royal family of Vienna for their private use and for a long while it served as their private hunting grounds.

Somewhere along the line the park was given over to the people of Austria as a public park and entertainment facility for the city.

 

Now the Prater is a huge funfair with more rides than I ever seen at one park. The park is public land I believe and each ride is owned and operated by independent vendors. What this means is that there is no central GM who gets to say what ride opens in the park and what does not.

So if someone wants to open their own Tilt-o-whirl directly across from someone else Tilt than thats fair competion.

 

I've never been to a park with more than one Mad Mouse coaster before! The park is also home to a metric ton of darkrides, walkthroughs, funhouses, trampolines, and whatever anyone decided to pick up at IAAPA and charge admission to.

 

The park is home to 8 coasters including a boomerang with a TUNNEL and lighting package, and the scariest flat I've ever been on, Starflyer.

 

I'll just show you the pictures.

Heres a shot of the most famous ride, the older than dirt Eli Wheel from one of the old worlds fairs.

The piss clown tells you where the bathroom are

We decided to skip this, we heard it was overrated

This is the elaborate Jack the Ripper walkthrough

It wasn't even a super durable chair. It was plastic and kept changing shape and flexing with the G-forces. And the chains were so tiny.

I decided to risk my life for the sake of starflyer

It was rather creepy

They had some walkthroughs i had never seen before. This one was some kind of lazerlight effects show. The weirdest thing was how the ride kept refering to itself in the 3rd person in german talking about how great it was.

I suppose I should include a picture of an actual coaster, Here is Praters senic railway Hochschaubahn

The name of this ride translates into "Splinters in the ass"

Some of the themeing made me feel right at home

I got to meet alot of celebrities in the park today

Yes, this is a Horse-drawn carousel!

Home of the worlds larges permanent funfair!

Welkommen dur Austria

[Jeezus Juice]

I've got some more.

I caught this show at night back in our hotel. It stars a loaf of bread who seems to get repeatedly crushed and maimed. It was a good way to learn german.

I love trampolines

Here is a close up of one of the starflyer chairs, essentially a flying carseat/lawn chair

Monica tried to walk off with some of the strange art. this is a cross between a centepede shaped giraffe and a briefcase, right out of Beatlejuice

No matter how many times I see these I'm amazed

This was a new ride being set up that I have never seen before. It is a small pendulum set up inside a giant bell. Evidently it swings back and forth with the bell and emits bell noises and lights. I would have loved to try it but we were about 2 week ear

A cross between a zamperla hawk and X at SFMM. The seats actually go through a controlled rotation as part of the ride program

5 story funhouses? yeah, we got those.

Almost as scary as the Starflyer

The tunnel is pretty cool, but its still a boomerang

Here is their boomerang with the tunnel

[robbalvey]

^ Dude!!!! We saw the load of bread show while we were in Europe! It kept getting lit on fire by something.

 

"Older than dirt ferris wheel" I love it!!!!

 

--Robb "Great TR's - keep em coming!!!" Alvey

[Jeezus Juice]

After Prater we headed east toward the Alps for our next Hotel in Innsbruck. Midway though was a small park that got a Pax wild train coaster a few years back. We stopped there and had the best time.

Parts of Austria look like texas

This was one of the best parks on the trip

I'm really not sure what this guy is trying to do to this horse

Mike really enjoyed the super snail pedal monorail ride

The park also had a very large storybook forest.

I had to put in another picture of the monkey.

...and interracial dioramas. The person lying on the floor was dead or really sick. Uncle Remus seemed to be haveing a good time reguardless

With Hippos

They even had a jungle cruise

This park is awesome by the way

One of the many airhills

The real reason were here. This coaster is really compact but really delivers on the airtime over every hill. Imagine a chance little dipper just hauling ass in every crazy direction at once. Please Pax, bring some of your stuff over here!

So thats where the Country Bears went!

The America theming reminded me of Knotts (only better ;P)

The park owner was very generous with us today. We were greeted with free Weinersnitzel

We finally arrived at Elebnispark Strasswalchen

[Token Yankee Guy]

Just finished reading the TR's so far, looks like you guys had a great time over in Europe.

 

Craiggers "really wants to do a big trip, but doesn't have the money for it" K.

[Jeezus Juice]

I just edited the last picture post so be sure to check it out. Anyway the park owner was totally awesome and he gave us an hour of ERT after the park closed and narrerated the Magic show in english for us.

 

ERT consisted of the Wild Train, Super Slide (which I got about 4 feet of air on), bumper cars, and the trampolines.

 

heres some more pix:

Another train of happy riders. Notice a few of us they let climb the lift hill to take pictures.

Look at that mangle of track!

This is me JUST landing from the previous hill. I got going so fast that I actually bottomed out a few times!

Charecter dance in western town. (Notice the Noose and Confederate flag in the background!)

A very floral Mick and the park owner next to him in the blue shirt.

The one HUGE air hill

I remember seeing construction pics on screamscape about this coaster, It was cool to actually go and see it

Monica and some guy enjoy the ERT/ERS

Yes! More trampolines!!

I haven't been in a ball pit in like 10 years

[Jeezus Juice]

The next day was for Alpine Coasters. Now I've been to Gatlinberg but I didn't get a chace to do their alpine slide so this was going to be brand new to me.

We left Innsbruck and headed even deeper into the alps to the town of Imst where our first coaster was.

 

We had an hour of ERT inwhich I managed to get three rides in before we had to go. Luckily there was a suprise second alpine coaster we were able to stop at that was even more wild than the first!

 

Check out these pictures!

Nothing like barreling down a hillside in a small plastic cart. Well, untill we saw where we were going next...

We both agreed that this was the best thing we've ever done. Control your own speed. Go down as fast or as slow as you want. No brakes for me thanks!

Tell me that doesn't look like the coolest thing ever.

There is a seperate lift for the carts

It's a long way to the top

This is the worlds longest Alpine Coaster at around 3km in length =-0

You have to ride a lift to the top, it takes about 14 minutes

Finally we arrived

At our hotel in Innsbruck

I met this guy named Sven, he gave me a Red Bull

We head into the Alps!

[Jeezus Juice]

Next up was a coaster that I'd seen online that lookedlike the craziest thing I'd ever seen. It is similer to the last one only you ride on a single rail on a one person cart.

 

Why don't they have these in the states?

As you can see I conquered it in style.

This is apperently the highest bridge in Europe

"The hills are alive with the smell of McDonalds!"

One last shot of the coolest coaster on the trip

They built these foot bridges because they have hiking trails that cross the path of the coaster several times. note the lack of any kind of pedestrian deterrment system.

cruising through the woods

this is just after that last picture, tunnels!

You better obey these signs if you want to live (whatever they say)

OMG Dude Mach 5!

This gives new meaning to the term "terrain coaster"

The course is shorter but much much steeper

This one has a similer layout but is about 10 times more insane

I think this was the name of the second place we went.

One of the pics double posted. heres a pic going up the lift of the first coaster.

[Cerberus]

Great trip report!

I can't imagine how odd all this stuff would appear to all you Americans

 

About the plastic-sled-on-a-pipe-down-a-mountain coaster things- in all these alpine countries these are actually pretty common!

I must have come across about ten different ones in Switzerland alone. Pretty much every mountain nature trail or hilltop restaurant had it's own!

 

The pipe ones are fairly new. The more common type are like tiny Bobsled coaster with little stainless steel troughs where the sled banks higher depending on your speed. All made by Weigand, or something. A specialist slide company.

 

SOOOOO dangerous. You'll fly around a corner and suddenly come across someone's granny using the brake too much in order to creep along. CRACK! A friend of mine actually fell off the sled and out the channel as a result of one crash.

 

This one looks great though. Blair Witch Project: the ride!

 

Lookin' forwards to more updates!

 

Cerberus

[Jeezus Juice]

I hope you guys are enjoying these. Let me know if you want more detailed written TR or just more photos.

 

Next up we arrived in Italy and we had a day break from parks to go and check out Venice. It was one of those places that i'd always wanted to go and check out so It was pretty cool having it on the trip.

 

Up until we had been at parks mostly full of locals. This was going to be our first pickpocket loaded GP infested tourist trap stop, but we had a really great time exploring the city.

 

If your really only interested in parks and coasters you might want to scroll down to my next entry. For everyone else:

Here they had drained one of the canals to work on it. They really aren't that deep. I'll have some more pictures a little later.

Gansta'!

We were trying to find that spot where madonna filmed her "Like a Virgin" video

I'm really not too sure what this little sculpture is supposed to be. It was pretty expensive so I bought a pornographic tie instead.

We ate at this canalside cafe with the red drapery on the right

They were selling these Salvadore Dali clocks form around 200 euros. I bought more gelato.

Anymore americans and that bridge will collapse

What isn't water is tight narrow passages.

Not even the streets of Venice are McSafe.

Check out this Jesus fresco. Looks much better on ancient plaster than black velvet.

"If you whomp me so help me I'll eat you."

"Unhand my book of spells! This staff is +10 against mystical beasts!"

These guys are afraid that wizard in the background is going to anger that griffin by whomping it with that staff.

This is St. Marks square. Apperently its a famous Church and Tower area. We thought it was pretty cool.

This was my first time seeing roads made out of water.

The gondola rides ran from 80-100 euros so we decided to take pictures of them and buy Gelato and pizza instead

We took a water taxi up the grand canal to start our tour of the city.

[Jeezus Juice]

Incidentaly the canals wern't smelly at all and the water looked pretty clean. I didn't swim in it or anything but It did look pretty inviting in the Italian heat.

 

The part where they had drained was pretty bad smelling though. the mud at the bottom was really rank.

 

I have a few more pictures of Venice before I get to the next park. Beware that some of the images are a little, well...European. Caio'

The churches here were really ornate.

And then one thats just "in your face"

And here are the aprons they sell everywhere. One subtle and one no so subtle.

Heres me being all artistic.

For the Women:Enjoy the romantic postcard shot of this Italian plaza in the midafternoon sun.

For the guys: I totally kicked this bucket and these birds across the square just after I took this shot.

Here is the Rialto Bridge. Apperently its pretty famous too. It's got shops along one side and looks pretty old.

These Gondola look like they were upholstered in Tijuana.

Heres a shot of the cash and prizes.

Shopping in Venice can be a bit of an adventure. Note the Cock Coat. Also these manniquins had breasts and high heels on.

More ornate Jesus stuff. I tell you if people in the south would put up this kind of stuff instead of garish billboards and haystack crosses they might do a bit better recruiting.

I had to give monica my shirt because your not allowed in with tanktops. Yeah, topless in venice!

[Not For Sale]

What did the warning signs say on the alpine slides? If they're on a track what's the need? BTW, great TRs!

[Jeezus Juice]

The day after Venice we went to Canevaworld which consist of a Movie Studios park and a water park, Aqua Paradise.

 

The movie park was pretty interesting. I believe Robb covered it pretty well in his TR last month. We really enjoyed this park, the pace was a bit slower which gave us a nice break. Most of the day was spent waiting for the next attraction to open.

 

We saw all the shows and rides and broke over to the waterpark after the Rambo stunt show (which was awesome!)

 

I don't have any pictures of the waterpark because I had my camera in a locker but I'll go ahead and compare it to the run of the mill US parks.

 

First off on innertube slides I'm used to waiting for a green light or a lifeguard signal. Here they just put people trough as fast as they could which really helped capacity.

 

The body slides were one at a time but you were signaled by a whistle when to go by a lifeguard who was watching the splashdown pool.

 

The wave pool was really cool. They let you walk along anywhere and just jump in! Even from the very back of the pool. The pool was about 1.8 meters deep and they would let you DIVE in!?

 

The best parts though were the 2 "never in america" slides. The first was called "the water jump" and consisted of a short 15foot near verticle enclosed bodyslide that emptyed onto a large ramp that launched you into the air and into about 4 feet of water. Insane.

 

The next one was a sort of watercoaster. You rode in 2 person tubes down a very steep drop down to where the slide would valley and then have another huge hill into a slashdown area. Thing is weather or not you made it over depended on your weight! If you were too light you just rolled back into a valley area and got off there.

 

Me and this other guy were about 380lbs together and we went FLYING over the second hill. Holy crap it was scary!

 

On to the pics:

Movie studios park doesn't appear to have a single movie studio supporting it. They had all kinds of stuff.

Luckily the waterpark was right next door. The watercoaster slide is the one on the left.

We actually had a pretty good day at the Movie Studios Park. Even without major studio support they did pretty good.

Luckily there were plenty of explosions to keep me happy.

I was suprised at how much I look like the Rambo stunt show guy.

This is Italian fo "Duke Boys"

It had some good effects even if it seemed a bit short

Magma is their ride through disaster jeep ride.

The green hulk colored logs on X-Splash

I told you not to stand up Mick!

Yngve seemed to enjoy the coaster a little too much.

This is the X-sector area with 3 rides, X-Speed the small powered coaster, X-Splash a small lof flume, and X-Spin a large octopus flatride (in the green tent)

Really though their just 3 rides in a parking lot.

These houses a right up next to the park. Thats lake Garda in the distance. Supposedly George Clooney has a house out here.

I was accosted by italian border control.

Oh yeah.

I liked their "Backdraft" inspired T2 better than hollywoods.

Uma and I got off to a great start.

Oh sweet!!

[PhishyBrewer]

Don, this is insane! Enjoy the photos very much. Karen and I are heading to Europe next year, and we totally have to check out the coaster up in the Alps.

 

Keep the pictures coming. 8)

[Meteornotes]

Cool TRs. I was not much of a fan of Italy (mostly due to the horrible customer service at Garadaland), but that Movie Park was way cool.

 

There used to be an alpine slide in PA that I rode over 20 years ago. That's the only one I've ever been on. That single rail one looked insane...

 

dt