live2tell75 Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 (edited) Through a wonderful surprise turn of events this last spring at work I was able to sign up for the recent Europe 2010 TPR trip. My 10 day trip consisted of travel through 5 different European countries including the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and The Neitherlands. We visited 7 beautiful theme parks, a tradional German Fair, rode over 35 new roller coasters and most importantly got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new fun-fantastic ones. The trip was an absolute blast! Thanks again to Robb & Elissa for organizing another memorable trip! Here is part one of my trip. I met up on the last day of the UK TPR tour at Thorpe Park. Had a fantastic day that included ERT on Saw: The Ride and Nemesis Inferno. Onto the photos. Enjoy! Day 1: London Day 2: Thorpe Park Day 3: Gardaland Day 4: Gardaland & Mirabilandia Day 5: Movieland Studios & A Drive Through The Swiss Alps Day 6 & 7: Hotel Colosseo at the Europa Resort & Europa Park Day 7: The Wurzburg Fair Day 7 & 8: Hotel Matamba at Phantasialand & Phantasialand Day 9: Efteling Day 9: Farewell Dinner & Final Trip Thoughts! Arrival day in London. It was a lot warmer in London than I had expected. Trafalgar Square and The National Gallery. I took in a matinee show in Leicester Square. I love London, it was good to visit again. The next day, I joined up with the TPR UK tour at Thorpe Park. First ride of the day: Saw: The Ride, a new credit for me since visiting the park on the TPR UK tour in 2006. I'm not a big fan of the Saw movies, but this ride was doe well. Good theming and a few unexpected surprises. The second part of the ride was a little rough, but I find that most of the Eurofighters I have ridden in the past are kind of rough. More of Saw: The Ride. The theming continued through the exit. Disturbing, but keeping with the theme. The park's new haunted house, Saw: Alive! I thought was a very well done haunted house. I didn't expect the actors to actually touch you! One of my favorite rides in the park, Vortex. I could ride this all day! Teacup ride. Jon and Ben on Nemesis Inferno. Nemesis Inferno to me is a pretty good inverted coaster. Since it was pretty hot out, we wished the rapids ride had gotten us wet. Colossus, the park's 10 looper coaster. I must be getting old, but Colossus felt a little rougher than I remember when riding in 2006. Slammer. Slammer. Stealth, the park's rocket coaster. Stealth's coaster cars are pretty cool looking. Our fun Thorpe Park group for the day. After our day at Thorpe, we headed to dinner at Wagamama in Windsor. We were able to get a culture credit since Windsor Castle was located across the street from the restaurant. It was great to see old friends and make new ones. That's it for tonight. Next up: Day 1 of the Europe Tour in Italy. Stay tuned! Edited October 17, 2010 by live2tell75 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 (edited) After 2 fun days in London, I joined the group flight to Milan, Italy to start the official Europe tour. After a early morning of travel we arrived in Italy and headed over to the Gardaland Resort. Once arriving to our gorgeous hotel, we were treated to a fantastic reception hosted by fellow TPR member, Bruno. It was a great way to start the trip, a big thanks Bruno! After the reception we headed out to the park. I really enjoyed our day and half at Gardaland. The theming was a lot more extensive than I had thought it would be. Other than the park's very themed mine train coaster Mammut, the coasters were pretty average. But I was surprised how smooth the corkscrew was, which was a plus. The dark rides were great. The shooting dark ride was Universal quality themed. The Pirate Adventure boat ride was a fantastic way to cool off. I think this was our group's favorite attraction in the park. The park had a great mad house. I can't get enough of these type of rides. I just wish we had more of them in the states. Fuga Da Atlantide was highly themed water flume, that was fun. Another highlight was the Flying Island. I forgot how nice these type of rides are. We got some fantastic views of the Lake Garda region. Overall I was really impressed with the park. Onto the photos! Enjoy! We made it to Italy and The Gardaland Resort! Welcome to the first of many gorgeous hotels of the trip, The Gardaland Hotel. Gardaland Hotel. The surrounding area was beautiful! Gardaland Hotel, home to the park's mascot, Prezzemolo. Gardaland Hotel. Gardaland Hotel. Gardaland Hotel. A view from our patio outside of our room. Prezzemolo and a princess were in the hotel to meet guests. A welcome reception for our group, organized by fellow TPR member, Bruno. After some snacks and a complimentary drink, Robb and Bruno go over the great perks that we had in-store at the park including front-of-the- line passes! On our walk to the park from the hotel. Main entrance plaza. The entrance was kind of a walk, but was very pretty. Gardaland entrance. The park was very well themed. I believe a magic show was housed in this castle. The Magic House, was a pretty good Mad House attraction. I think it was my favorite mad house on the trip. Ramses, a pretty elaborate shooting dark ride. The theming inside was top notch. Reminded me of Universal quality theming. Sequoia Adventure and Magic Mountain coasters. Sequoia Adventure wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it doesn't really leave any kind of a good impression either. Joey enjoys a soft served gelato cone. I had to try one too. It was super yum-o! The pirate themed area of the park. Inside and below this ship lies a pretty cool pirate boat ride. It was so good our group road it 3 times! Our awesome group for the week. More top-notch pirate theming. The pirate themed restaurant was well done. The pirate themed restaurant was even home to this half naked guy! This has to be the longest wacky worm coaster in the world! Melissa and Renee enjoying the ride on the monorail. The log ride with the Sequoia Adventure and Magic Mountain coasters in the back round. The boys on the Colorado Boat Flume. The space-aged themed drop tower. A highlight of the park, the Flying Island ride. On the Flying Island we got some fantastic views of the park. And great views of Lake Garda and the surrounding area. Beautiful views. Awesome peeps. More park views. I really hope when Legoland Florida opens next year, the park will keep Cypress Garden's old Island in the Sky ride. Alfredo, Amy and Andrew are excited for the haunted house, Inferis. Too bad it wasn't that great. More theming. Dinner was a lot better than the traditional State's standard fried foods and burgers. Mammut was a fun mine train coaster. Once again another attraction with great theming. The Fuga Da Atlantide water ride was very Disney/Universal/Busch quality in theming. I present you "The Real World TPR Europe" season. More of Fuga Da Atlantide. On the ride you float between this sexy guy's legs! Fuga Da Atlantide Splash! The ride was great, just to bad you didn't get that wet. =( Fuga Da Atlantide does come to life at night. Fuga Da Atlantide at night. This area reminded me of Islands of Adventure. We spent the last few hours in the Fantasy Kingdom area. This area had a fun car ride that was themed through a farm. More of the Doremifarm car ride. Good times. The cute plane/monorail ride. Fantasy Kingdom theming. The Magic House. We ended the night with a surprise, the park's version of a night parade. It was a great way to end the night. On the way out of the park we saw these two royal figures. Next up Mirabilandia - stay tuned! Edited July 9, 2010 by live2tell75 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyBo Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Great photos so far Eric! I can't wait to see more. You are extremely lucky to be able to attend that trip. Keep the report coming and I can't wait to see your pictures. Jimmy "Eric always has great Trip Reports" Bo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nursemelis374 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I feel like I am reliving the trip through your report and I love it! Awesome job and I can't wait for our Real World Reunion Special! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMorgan Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I'm looking forward to more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woogle Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 I really like this different take on the update. Different views. Luv it. Keep it coming!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 Great photos so far Eric! I can't wait to see more. You are extremely lucky to be able to attend that trip. Keep the report coming and I can't wait to see your pictures. Jimmy "Eric always has great Trip Reports" Bo Thanks Jimmy! I really didn't think I was going to be able to do this trip, so I am truly grateful for the opportunity to attend. I feel like I am reliving the trip through your report and I love it! Awesome job and I can't wait for our Real World Reunion Special! Thanks Melissa - the reunion will be epic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nay Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 What a fun week - great TR! I've been a fan of the Houdini mad house at Six Flags and really enjoyed checking out the various mad houses in Europe. Too bad there aren't more here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Great job of showing how nice Gardaland is, Eric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeT Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 I didn`t know that Gardaland is soooo beautiful...one of the best places I`ve seen themingwise. Too bad they chose an SLC for being their "main" coaster. Would LOVE to visit the place though... GeorgeT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Too bad they chose an SLC for being their "main" coaster. If the rumors are accurate, they're going to fix that very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkon Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 From Freiburg to Gardaland isn´t such a long way. Just 5-6 hours drive. It´s totaly worth it The park was very well themed. I believe a magic show was housed in this castle. Kind of... It´s a comedy & magic show for the kids. Since it is in italien language i didn´t understand anything at all, but the combination beetwen slapstick and smaller magic tricks was done very well and i did find it amusing. To be honest, the show was much more entertaining than the real magic-show in Gardaland-Theatre... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCalCoasters Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 B & M is supposedly working on a new prototype for this park...dunno what it will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 Continuing with my Europe tour, on our second day in Italy we visited Miabilanda. The day started out great with ERT on Katun, the park's awesome inverted roller coaster. After about a dozen rides on Katun our group then explored the park's other signature attractions including one of my favorite coasters of the entire trip, iSpeed, a pretty intense launching coaster. Along with the park's 2 main coasters, a pretty good dark ride named Ghostville complete with unexpected live actors gave us a good scare. The shooting dark ride "Reset", themed to a post apocalyptic New York City, was interesting. But the theming was pretty good. I think I should have riden it one more time, but not pay attention to the shooting aspect, just take in the theme of the ride itself. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how great this park actually was. Onto the photos! On our way to Mirabilandia, we drove through more gorgeous European countryside. Our second park of the trip, Mirabilandia. Like all the parks on our tour, Mirabilandia was highly themed. Inside the entrance of the park. This area kind of reminded me of IOA. Gorgeous. ERT on Katun was fantastic! I think I must have gotten about 10 rides on Katun! Katun is a great invert. Once again, the park was pretty. Even the kiddie coaster was themed pretty good. One of my favorite coasters of the trip, iSpeed. What a great ride! iSpeed really lives up to it's name. Ghostville is a haunted house ride complete with a few live actors that scared the crap out of us! Some of the group got a little wet on the splash battle ride. Main difference between Italy and the U.S. At parks in the U.S. the basketball midway games are always popular. Not so much in Italy. As you can see the soccer simulator game was the crowd pleaser. I wonder if it has something to do with a little game called the World Cup? Monosaurous was a pretty well done themed dino ride. You even ride in cool dino-egg cars! Another dino. This should be interesting, visiting New York via Italy. The entrance area to Reset, the park's shooting dark ride. The park probably had a lot of fun theming this area. Pretty elaborate. Our awesome group survived post- apocalyptic New York! Next up Movieland Studios and a ride through the Alps - stay tuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moose Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 What a beautiful looking park. I think I would have loved Reset, but probably would have missed a ton while shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 (edited) I am glad other people enjoyed iSpeed besides me, I thought it was fantastic! I totally forgot about the ghostville dark ride! I think every person got spooked at someone actually jumping out at you, loved it. Anyways, great report and I look forward to the rest of it! Edited January 20, 2011 by themeparkman25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 16, 2010 Author Share Posted July 16, 2010 ^Thanks! Our last day in Italy consisted of a visit to Movieland Studios theme park. As people had warned us, Movieland Studios was like Universal Studios without any type of rules. I don't think movie licensing was a real issue to the park. They seemed to have attractions based on whatever movie they wanted. Even though the park was kind of small and the operations on a few of the attractions were kind of bad, it is a cool little park. Next to the Studios, was home to Aqua Studios water park, which we didn't have time to check out. From the people that did do the water park, they said it was a lot of fun. I think Movieland Studios has a lot of potential. Onto the photos! On our way to Movieland Studios. More of the Italian countryside. Movieland Studios entrance, looks kind of familiar. The park had some nice movie theming. These type of rides are fun except this particular one scared the crap out of me since my shoulder restraint moved about 2 inches during the ride. I guess it was a true thrill ride! The Bedrock area of the park. Even though the flume was compact, it was a lot of fun! An interesting ride. Christine and I enjoyed, Shag: The Ride! As did Alfredo and Drew. The Magma attraction had fire so it was awesome! And lots of water too! We checked out the park's Terminator 2: 5D End Game attraction. Too bad it wasn't as awesome as we had hoped it would be. But at least 3D glasses were involved! Time to head out and leave beautiful Italy! The countryside was gorgeous. Next stop, a dinner stop in the Alps! Switzerland is next, stay tuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 18, 2010 Author Share Posted July 18, 2010 After leaving Italy we took a long, but beautiful drive through the Swiss Alps to get to our next stop in Germany. We enjoyed a long dinner rest stop in Switzerland. All I can say is that the Alps are amazing. Leaving Italy. During the bus ride, Fran won his very own Prezzemolo! Gorgeous! At the Swiss border. Yeah, new another new country credit! I felt like I was looking at a model railroad train set. We stopped for a long nice dinner. Enjoying dinner with Renee in the Swiss Alps! The air was so crisp and clean up here. With the lovely Melissa and Christine enjoying the beautiful Alps! Back on the road. Breathtaking. Another amazing view! That's it for now. Next stop: Europa Park! Stay tuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumple Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Wow, amazing! Sure would be nice to live in the Alps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groteslurf Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Great report and pictures. Those front of line passes you got at Gardaland, can those passes be bought by everyone ? I don't find anything about it back on their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Great report and pictures. Those front of line passes you got at Gardaland, can those passes be bought by everyone ? I don't find anything about it back on their website. I think Robb or Bruno mentioned that those Gift Passes are only for special guests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 The front of the line passes good for all the roller coasters was something special Bruno and the park set up for TPR. However, the park does sell front of the line passes that are good for some of the coasters and several other rides including the dark rides and water rides. I believe they were 10 Euros each and there were 2 different types, family, and adventurer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smells_like_team_disney Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Beautiful pictures, Eric! I believe you were able to capture less obstructions than I did, even though we were sitting in the same area of the bus. Good job! Driving through the Swiss Alps was one of the many highlights of this trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XLRBR Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Wow Eric, you really do take some really beautiful pictures! Compared to all of the other Europe trip reports (including mine), you really capture the beauty of the continent and its countries. Also, I'm totally ruining the picture of the fire on Magma! (hahah) That ride was seriously awesome, though! I like this PTR so far, so I'm looking forward to more! ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 19, 2010 Author Share Posted July 19, 2010 ^ & ^^ Thanks Alfredo and Davon! You guys are too kind. Davon - lol- You didn't ruin the Magma fire photo, actually it looks like your chin is going to catch on fire! And I loved your Europe trip report - keep up the good work! Alfredo - I'm loving your Europe trip report on Facebook! You got some great pictures of the Alps too. I took agazillion photos of the Alps, out of about 100 photos, the 20 I posted of the Alps in this thread are the only ones that kind of came out ok! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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