Photo TR : Copenhagen, Bakken, Tivoli Gardens, Bon Bon Land

[Groteslurf]

After a short night at our magnificent hotel, it was time for the last park of our trip before our afternoon flight back home.

Leolandia Minitalia

Parkmap

The ticket booth plaza is really huge

Leolandia characters

Lots of random flats and kiddie rides

Love the kids table. But why is it so close to the garbage ??

Credit 1

but not open yet

Rapids

One of the best rapids ever

Official credit 1

Yay, credit 2 opened in the meanwhile

Logflume station

The park exists 40 years

There is a bird and small animal park too at Leolandia

And a huge miniature portion, Minitalia

Mini Jurassic Park

Since we didn't have time to visit the real stuff, it was nice to see Italy in miniature

Credit 3

Thanks for reading

[gisco]

Looks like they put a lot of work into the miniature section. Nice little park.

[Groteslurf]

Yeah, it's really nice.

And something we only noticed while sitting on the topfloor in the restaurant for lunch, Minitalia is shaped to the country Italy. You might be able to see that on the last pic.

[cfc]

Those miniatures are very impressive, and I like the rapids ride's twisting drop. Looks like a a nice family park. Are the costumed characters based on some Italian TV show?

[robinschroder]

It's like an Italian 'River Quest'! Great report! Looks like you all had a brilliant time!

[Groteslurf]

^Thanks Robin.

 

^^ It really is a nice family park. I have no clue about the characters so looked it up on wikipedia but could only find back info in italian. Got a shitty english version with google translate from which I understand it has nothing to do with a tv show or something. Although we didn't see them, they obviously also have Peter Pan characters running around the park

LeoMonster è la mascotte di Leolandia.

Creata nel 2008 per sostituire la mascotte di FantasyWorld-Minitalia, la tartaruga Gervasio, è in linea con l'attuale veste del parco e coi suoi colori ufficiali: il blu, che contraddistingue le aree dedicate alla cultura, e il rosso, che contraddistingue le aree dedicate al divertimento.

LeoMonster è un leone con il corpo blu, una folta chioma rossa, i denti aguzzi e lo sguardo strabico.

La mattina, in compagnia di Peter Pan, Wendy, Capitan Uncino ed i suoi pirati, LeoMonster aspetta gli ospiti all'ingresso del parco.

Durante il giorno è facile incontrarlo mentre passeggia per il parco. Alla sera, invece, insieme a Peter Pan e ad altri personaggi del mondo della fantasia (pirati, indiani...) saluta all'uscita le persone che escono dal parco.

 

Google translation

LeoMonster Leolandia is the mascot.

Created in 2008 to replace the mascot FantasyWorld-Minitalia, the turtle Gervasio, is in line with the current capacity of the park and with its official colors: blue, which marks the areas devoted to culture, and red, which distinguishes the areas dedicated to the fun.

LeoMonster is a lion with blue body, a thick red hair, sharp teeth and eyes squinting.

In the morning, in the company of Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook and his pirates, LeoMonster awaits guests at the park.

During the day it is easy to find him walking around the park. In the evening, along with Peter Pan and other characters from the world of fantasy (pirates, Indians ...) exit greets people leaving the park.

[rider-x]

damn Benny, shipping business must be banging with as many trips as you take. are yall hiring? lol

[Groteslurf]

^ Yep, I'm hiring

 

No really, we booked our flights well in advance at a very cheap fare, booked the hotels at a medium rate and even bought a membership card of an italian theme park fansite to get as many discounts as possible. All in all, the trip costed some money but it was well worth it.

[Groteslurf]

Octobre 30, last operating day of the season at WH, we went there for their Fright Nights. I didn't visit the Fright nights last year, so I had 3 new mazes to explore this year. 2 got replaced since my last visit and there was 1 additional maze this year. 4 in total.

We arrived by noon at the park. The fact that all maze tickets were sold out already, made me expect large crowds.

We headed directly to Goliath to avoid the really huge lines in the afternoon. At noon, the line was already 1 hour.

It was a cloudy day, and this must have been the first not sunny day to a park with my new camera this year. So all pics are quite dark.

Goliath is still a great coaster. I was the only one of our group ridden Goliath before. My friends really loved their ride on Goliath.

The men wanted to ride the SLC .... I waited with the 'wifies' in the arcade.

Speed of sound. I wanted to try out this reopened boomerang

But all lines in the park were in the meantime over 90 minutes. It's excellent for the park to have such a popular event and being able to make lots of money during the fright nights, but waiting over 90 minutes for crappy coasters, that's something I don't do.

Even this coaster had a 90 minutes line

In stead of waiting in the cold, we spent our afternoon at this place. The males went out to ride some more coasters and after 2 hours they came back and turned out they managed to ride ..... 1 flat ride during those 2 hours.

Yay, 6 pm, time for the fright nights

I just love parks in the dark

Of course we bought our RIP passes for the mazes.

Entrance to our first maze of the night

During halloween, all women are blue, all men are red

Maze keeper

I thought it was a pitty the Club Roxy waiting row wasn't there any longer, but this was a good replacement.

Watch the video in the next post

The scare zones were ok, but way too crowded to be scary

One of the mazes

Alice in Horrorland

The amazing exit of the maze

We all had an awesome day. Thanks for reading all my reports. This was probably the last one of this year, but I'll be back soon.

[Groteslurf]

Fright nights impression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE0ih038n58

[Groteslurf]

Hey everyone,

 

It's been about 6 months since my last theme park visit. so a long time since my last post here.

I survived wintertime and 2 days ago it was time for my first theme park this year.

 

A few years ago, I organized some events at work and one of the events was a day at Toverland.

 

Toverland did a presentation of their new events area and invited their business contacts for a presentation. Of course I signed up

 

In the meanwhile I also a proud owner of an iPhone and i discovered the possibilities of the iMovie app.

 

So less pics in this TR but on top of the few pics, I made a short movie of my evening at Toverland. I'm still exploring iMovie so the movie is not perfect, but even though not perfect, I like it.

 

If you like the movie, post your comments and I'll do my best to make more of those movies of my upcoming park visits. If you don't like it, post your comments too and I'll concentrate on only pictures again in future.

 

So here's the movie

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUdxQKIfH74

Great to be here again

hello Mr Troy

Hall 1 has been refurbished completely. The kiddie play area was removed and in stead there is this now.

I think it's really an improvement.

The noise in hall 1 used to be very disturbing. One of the improvements to hall 1 are the noise absorbing panels at the ceiling. It should be completely different now when you enter Toverland during operating hours.

Lots of business peeps for the presentation

The parks director revealed the new attractions for end this year and next year. But we of course already new all that.

The new events room is called 'Magische Medina'.

Presentation of all the possibilities for business (and other) events Toverland can offer

Belly dancing

We also had 1 hour ERT on 4 rides

See, I'm still alive

We got 1 ride on Boosterbike, 1 on the bobsled and 10 rides on Troy during the ERT hour

And 2 more indoor pics

Thanks for reading

[Nrthwnd]

I really miss Toverland, but have no idea

when I'd be able to get back there.

(Other TPR tours to do, hmm?)

 

All the new stuff and stuff-to-be looks great!

 

Thanks for sharing your first park visit of the year.

 

And the movie was fun too! Loved the end credits, lol.

[SharkTums]

Kind of a bummer about the children's play area, I mean, I know the whole place is a children's play area but that was awesome!

[hyyyper]

Kind of a bummer about the children's play area, I mean, I know the whole place is a children's play area but that was awesome!

 

No worries about that, it was not removed, just moved to the corner of the hall. The wooden plaything that occupied the corner is disassembled and might be rebuild somewhere else in the park in the future.

 

[SharkTums]

Oh good!

[Jeroen_twee]

Ive heard the wooden playground goes to the new outdoor land, near the rapids.

[Groteslurf]

Don't put this thread in the archive yet please. I know it's been more than a year since my last update but i intend to post some new updates soon.

[Groteslurf]

ok, it's been a while since my last update. Lots of exciting things happened the last year, so here's an update. Let's see whether i can make an update of 1 year in 1 update

spring last year, we threw a party for my youngest daughter

another party for my birthday and the birthday of my best friend

it was an amazing party

i've been in Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin

At the seaside for a COLD day

Olmense Zoo

visit to the port of Antwerp

Electronic music festival

Madonna concert

Aper'eau at the beginning of the summer

Tomorrowland, the best festival in the world

Dr Lektroluv at another festival

my youngest daughther and I at a local festival

pool party

Parc Asterix

Plopsacoo

Snowworld @ Landgraaf

Great alpine coaster @ Landgraaf

Houza Palooza festival

Europapark

Laundry day festival

10 days Orlando in 1 picture

winter in Belgium

Swedish House Mafia

my daugher on national TV

Ice queen

winter in Belgium

Sensation White

Phantasialand

shopping in Antwerp

Landgraaf again

Your shop @ Antwerp

Antwerp Tastes

Toverland

Extema Outdoor. More coming soon

[Groteslurf]

New year, new Toverland Event.

 

I was invited this time for the opening of their new park area.

Extremely well organised compared to last year. We visited every event area Toverland offers, which are 5 in the meanwhile.

Every area offered delicious snacks and an open bar. In between we had ERT on every big non-water related attraction.

Excellent event and the new area, WOW .... Toverland did a really great job. The expansion is quite large. My estimation is 20 maybe 25 % expansion and the area is really looking very nice with eye for detail. The new coaster : the preprogrammed spins, it makes me sick, so i only rode it once. My friend rode it 5 times and really love it.

On to the pics.

Troy was running faster than ever.

Keekeboo

New area impression

New raft river ride which wasn't operating during our visit but it looks like a really amazing ride

New coaster

There is an awesome fountain show which was just amazing after sunset

That's it for Toverland. I don't know why it took me so long to post updates here. If you want me to post some more themepark updates from the past year, just reply and let me know.

[Groteslurf]

a few more days and were off to Spain for some themeparks

 

For now, some pics of the past week

2 weekends ago we were at Feria Andaluz @ De Schorre. The magic grounds where Tomorrowland takes place in 7-8 weeks. There was a spanish festival that weekend. Great spanish food and drinks.

At Tomorrowland I will take a pic from exactly the same spot. It will be soooooooooo different.

It"s such an amazing spot

Last weekend we went to Strantwerpen : the city beach experience. They really did an awesome job creating the beach feeling in the city of Antwerp

wife and kids

yay, Buddha's here

4 euro for a beer though .... time to move on

1 mile north the yearly fun fair was opening

Another beach experience event in the city

Yesterday during lunch very near to my work space

And finally today on my way to work after a work lunch. Really, i'm starting to like the city I live in only recently. 2 more amazing evenings to come and Espagna por favor

[Groteslurf]

Almost end of summer and I have a lot of pictures to share with you. 2 nights before we travelled to spain for a few theme parks, we went out in the city of Antwerp with some friends.

Beautiful at night

If I remember well, it was 2 AM when we left the fairground

Make my day

The restaurant was next to the big annual fairground in the city

As we were going to Spain, what's better than a spanish dinner in Antwerp

I so love this artwork

Before we went out, another quick visit to my favorite park close to my work

I remember their names

New credit for me. I don't remember the coaster's name

And teleporting to Parque Warner Madrid was succesful

Upcharge maze. It's ok, not more than that.

Surprise, surprise, this one was closed.

This was my second visit to PW. My first visit was in 2006 or 2007 i think. At that time, I loved the park, the rides (except Coaster Express of course) and operations were ok.

Though i love the theming in the park, the park was quite a let down.

This year, I've witnessed really inefficient operations (La Ronde style), but also the coasters were far from what I remembered them being like during my first visit.

Overall, it was nice to be at this park again, we had a fun day, but it will take some time before I will be there again.

Even after eating some marinated .... pig ears. Still wonder whether this is a real local dish, or the pub owner served this as a joke to us because we were foreigners. Next up : our adventures in Benidorm

We spent the night in a village called Pinto, quite close the PW.

Not much is happening in this village, but we found a nice pub serving some good spanish food.

Me, Hans and Mike

First evening, still full of energy

In Pinto, also after school hours, the local government is learning the kids how to count to 6

[Groteslurf]

I've heard a lot of stories about Benidorm : there are only older people, all skyscraper hotels, very busy, more strollers than cars, ..... and it turned out to be all true. But there is a themepark which we didn't visit before, so because of Terra Mitica, 2 nights in the lovely Benidorm were scheduled. Just before the trip though, despite several earlier mails with them confirming the park would be open, we noticed on their website the park would be closed during our stay. A lot of new emails were sent, but even a simple sorry wasn't given to us. In fact, I'm still waiting for their press manager's reply on my last mail Oh well, TM will be forever on my to do list. I will never go there again (unless they decide to open one or the other huge new signature ride of course ). We visited the next door Zoo and had a fun 2 days (and nights).

And 1 nice nightclub called Penelope

Extremely good food in the Tapabars though

Aaaaah, Benidorm

On our way from Madrid to Benidorm

Yeah, you f***ers

And robo dude

Penelope was the only nightclub where there was some crowd at night. As from 1 AM that is. Why is everybody going out so late nowadays

At Penelope of course. Meet elephant guy

Ready for the night

The skyline is in fact quite ok from a distance

Probably my favorite picture of the year so far. I couldn't believe my eyes

After a lap in the zoo, we went for a cocktail and a beer at the beach

Benidorm downtown as could be seen from the zoo

Short visit to Greece

Mmmhh, first time I notice that thing there

Don\'t fall asleep Hans

No, not on the streets of Benidorm but in the Zoo

Really a nice zoo. Unfortunately a bit too hot during summer to attract larger crowds

Authentic Indian village

Yeah, closed gates .... you f***ers !

Late breakfast after very long nights. Next up : Port Aventura. By far the highlight of our trip.

Michael concentrated on taking pictures of the beach at night

Hans decided to be the bouncer

[Groteslurf]

The last 3 days of our Spain trip, we spent in Port Aventura and Salou.

 

We also visited their expanded waterpark and went to the themepark itself, 4 days in a row. Here's what i wrote in the PA discussion thread shortly after our visit about the waterpark and Shambhala.

 

After getting blue stained all over from the speedslide and Twin Peaks at the waterpark of Movieland in Italy 2 years ago, I didn't dare to ride the speedslide at Port Aventura. It 'looks' less brutal as the one at Movieland, but that's just my optical opinion. I rode the red slide though, and that was really enjoyable. Keep in mind, I'm really not a fan of waterpark slides because I'm afraid getting hurt, so me saying I thought the slide was enjoyable, probably means to most of you that it is a tame ride.

 

The waterpark more or less expanded by a 100 % with the new slides and pools, so that's certainly a good thing. The new slides are ok, and adverting they have the highest speed slide of Europe will attract some more visitors, but most Europeans have seen a speed slide by now, but what we don't see that much in Europe are the bowl slides or Tornado's or what are the names of all those huge slides in the US waterparks, or the giant master blaster things like in Holiday World, THOSE would attract people in my opinion.

 

Still, I like the expansion of the park, but it still needs at least one 'big' slide.

 

Shambhala : WOW what a coaster. I didn't know much about the coaster. i didn't even see a POV of the ride before. I was absolutely blown away by the ride. The first drop into the tunnel is really steep and gives already a lot of airtime. Every following hill gives airtime from the top till bottom. The speed hill in between is really good. The figure 8 turn is very original. Only point I think could have been better, is the water part. Sure, it's a nice photo point for non-riders, but it doesn't add anything to ride itself.

 

it's still very fresh, but being a fan of smooth rides, at this moment I'm placing Shambhala on the nr 1 position of all coasters I've ridden, in front of El Toro, The Voyage,... and the 7 steel coasters I've ridden in Mitch Hawker's steel poll top 10. As said, it's still fresh, maybe in a few weeks, I will be more down to earth again. I'm going to ride EGF during summer. We'll talk again after riding EGF.

 

I didn't make it up to Holidaypark yet so far, but I can say Shambhala is 2.5 months after riding it, still my favorite coaster

Salou sunset

Salou nightlife is just awesome

We stayed at the Caribe Resort Hotel of Port Aventura. It's the hotel the furthest from the park entrance but that's the only minus I can think of.

I love how DK is dwarfed by Shambhala.

Such an awesome ride

We arrived in the afternoon at PA, threw our stuff in the hotelroom, and headed up immediately to the back of the park to ride Shambhala

Nightlife time

Maybe I'm getting old, especially when I'm saying the following : why isn't going out anymore like in the 80s ? Full party at 9 pm, closing of the party at 2 am. Nowadays, the party starts at 2 am . I don't want to sleep till afternoon while outside one of favorite parks is opening in the morning.

Salou in the evening.

Salou sunset

Note the difference in Hans' eyes with earlier picture here above

Miniature of the waterpark

I so love the new skyline when you enter the park.

Dragon Khan WAS an impressive coaster but looks so tiny now.

Templo del Fuego still kicks ass

New skyline view from outside of the park

Biggest disco in Salou : Pacha. This is the original Pacha with which the worldwide Pacha franchise all started.

About 6000 persons fit inside so it's huge. Unfortunately, 5900 of them only arrive by 2 am and we had to check out at 11 the next day

Still, it was worthwhile the visit. I never heard such crystal clear music sounds in a big room disco

It also holds a deephouse outside part.

(sorry, but multipictures uploader is loading in reverse order, so we are going back in time). Earlier that night, we had the most excellent dinner nearby Pacha. I had the best Gazpacho soup ever.

Hans and i don't remember what he was eating

Michael and his fishsoup costing 5 euro. And that was for the complete bowl !!

Some more pictures taken from the backside of the park

One more picture of the Caribe Resort bar/lounge.

Still my favorite restaurant in PA

S E E ?? And this concludes our Spain trip. Next update coming soon.

SEE ?

See ?

See what parties as from 2 am is doing to us ?

The usual theme park food

A M A Z I N G first drop

Bye Shambalah. Hope to see you again soon

Last day at the park. (I changed the display order manually for this day, so they are in the correct order more or less)

Oh, i didn't tell you yet about our express pass. We stayed 3 nights/4 days at the resort. The express pass costed 54 euro ... for the 4 days, including 1 front row ride on DK, Baco and Shambalah; If you stay 1 week, the express pass is costing you ... 54 euro, if you stay 2 weeks .... 54 euro, and so on. It came in handy for our marathon rides on Shambalah

Btw, front row was not really enjoyable because of the wind in your face. Hardly possible to keep your eyes open. Any other row is amazing.

Edited September 1, 2013 by robbalvey

[TyRush]

Wow great TR! Looks like a lot of fun!

[appleboy007]

Amazing photos!! Port Aventura is a fantastic park. I'm just charmed by it. As for Shambala, I can't wait to ride it. What a fantastic holiday. Thank for sharing the photos.