Photo TR: Hansa Heide Hoedown!

[milst1]

First Up: Horing in Holland [sic]

Of course I know that "Whoring" is spelled with a "W", and of course I know that the the provinces of Friesland and Drenthe in the Netherlands are not the Holland part!

 

What am I blabbering about? Cheryl and I rented a vehicle and drove to the great Hansa and Heide Parks in northern Germany (thus the clever Hansa Heide Hoedown name), but not before we did some Credit Whoring in the northern part of The Netherlands, at three tiny parks: Duinen Zathe in Appelscha, Speelstad Oranje in Oranje, and Drouwenerzand in Drouwen. Yes, I know that Hanno gets to all of these parks before I do, to my never-ending frustration. Nonetheless, check it out and enjoy!

Here's our rental car, a VW minivan. We never get the car we ask for! But check out the parking lot: Empty. We were the only people at the park!

It's Speelpark Duinen Zathe.

In Friesland, one of the northern provinces in The Netherlands.

The place was completely deserted. The lady at the entrance booth told us to find one of the workers if we wanted to ride something.

Giant inflatable.

Giant pirate ship, not inflatable.

Weird flat.

Look what we found! First credit after TPR Middle America Tour. We had to go find an op in order to ride.

Let me say that these people were incredibly nice. I bought some stuff in their shop, then when Cheryl found a nice mug afterwards, they didn't charge us for it! We told them how we were enthusiasts and showed them our shirts (and TPR hoodie). Then when we were leaving, they ran out to get us in the parking lot to give us free pants!!!! Free Duinen Zathe pants!!!!! Apparently the old uniforms had been retired and were sitting collecting dust. Score.

Next stop was Speelstad Oranje in the town of Oranje, which means "Orange". Speelstad means "Play Town". Or "Play City"? Not sure.

This is an indoor park that is in what appears to have once been a factory. It was a slow day so the rides were on a schedule while the ops went from ride to ride.

Unfortunately this schedule meant that that we missed the dark ride, which I had heard was great. Still kicking myself that we didn't figure out the schedule earlier. We just couldn't wait 45 minutes for the next opening.

Of course we did get "the credit".

And we saw this maintenance guy try to eat this train.

Again, the dark ride credit that we missed.

Sad to be leaving Speelstad Oranje. It's a nice little park!

Welcome to Drouwenerzand in Drouwen. The tree-guy's name is Danny.

Drouwenerzand actually had a beautiful wooden carousel. I asked about it because it's carved in the classical European tradition and looked to be maintained beautifully. Apparently it's only 10 years old and was built in The Netherlands. I was impressed. Ops manager was very proud of it. I forgot to ask how much it cost.

Danny's all over the place.

See what I mean? THis carousel was gorgeous.

Yes, we had to buy the Danny doll. It went well with the Duinen Zathe mascot doll.

Oh yeah, here's the credit. Kind of a weird spinning coaster thing, 2 seconds long. Okay, I'm exhausted. I hope you enjoyed. The Hansa Heide part of the Hansa Heide Hoedown is coming up!

Edited December 6, 2010 by milst1

[Groteslurf]

Loving the report Martin.

 

Looking forward to the next parts as we are going to visit Hansa & Heide in 3 weeks.

[milst1]

Thanks for the kind words Groteslurf! I'm hoping to put Part II up over the weekend.

[milst1]

Part II Hansa Park

Pressing on in spite of anemic response. After driving from the Dutch parks to Lübeck in Germany, we stayed overnight and found ourselves a half hour later at Hansa Park!

Big castle at Hansa Park entrance. See the ship in the logo? The park is on the sea and there's a nautical theme.

I am uncooperative when the camera is turned on me.

Rasender Roland, a Vekoma Junior, was the first credit of the day.

Nessie SuperRollerCoaster is a Schwarzkopf looper that had several good airtime kicks.

The two tracks are a bit intertwined. The Nessie coaster goes right into Nessie's mouth! Don't confuse this Nessie with the one in Williamsburg.

As I said, there's a nautical theme.

Crazy mine is a Maurer Söhne Wild Mouse. An animatronic jug band plays "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain" and other great hits incessantly while you wait in the queue.

I really liked the Blumenmeer-Bootsfahrt Boat Ride. Peaceful and fragrant.

Fluch Von Novogorod (Curse of Novogorod) is the park's premiere attraction, a heavily themed Gerstlauer EuroFighter with indoor and outdoor sections.

Cool animatronics in the queue. This was a great ride, even though we didn't quite understand the story line in German. Still, the marriage of dark ride and coaster seems to work out rather well.

Indoor section of Fluch von Novogorod.

Outdoor section of Fluch von Novogorod. Not super high capacity, so our wait was close to an hour. We opted to not wait again for a second ride.

Nice long ride on the back-most rear-facing seat of the railroad.

Completely bizarre parade.

There was a walkway out of the park to some rental bungalows and you could see the Baltic.

You could also get great views of the sea at the Observation Tower, named after the Duchy of Holstein, now part of Germany's northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein. Their flag is just he Dutch flag turned upside-down. Alas, I was mostly in video mode during the tower ride.

There's also a star flyer and a drop tower.

Indoor bumper cars.

Cheryl approves. Decent restaurant in the background, but they sure are slow. In general, we saw not a lot of walkaround food in Germany, and long lines when there was a stand.

Here's another look at the nice boat ride. Hope you've enjoyed. Next and final part will be the Port Royal Pirate Hotel and Hansa Park!

[larrygator]

Martin - I would have responded sooner, but you failed me.

[milst1]

^^^Larry, let me make it up to you! Anything you missed at Wiener Prater or Vidampark? I know, it's a longshot.

[Dragon Khan]

Thx for the report and pics, Martin. MAkes me realise how much I visit US parks and tend to neglect Europe nowadays. I absolutely have to visit Germany again. Haven't been to this country since the opening of Black Mamba...

[Hhappy]

Yes, I know that Hanno gets to all of these parks before I do, to my never-ending frustration.

 

Just noticed this (i need to read stuff a bit better )

anyway.. i have not been to those dutch parks yet, so score for you

[larrygator]

^^^Larry, let me make it up to you! Anything you missed at Wiener Prater or Vidampark? I know, it's a longshot.

 

 

I'm good with Wiener Prater and VidamPark pictures, I hope you enjoy Wiener Prater as much as I did.

FYI - The JetStar at Vidam that was listed as under construction all summer is no longer listed on rcdb

[milst1]

Hanno, I'm shocked to hear that! But you have the prize park scoop: Plopsa Coe, so I'll always be jealous.

 

Olivier, we loved Phantasialand. We've also really enjoyed our visits to Europa Park and Holiday Park. Movie Park Germany not as much, but we need to go back for the Bandit credit, and there's a new owner, so we'll give it another chance. The other German parks on my to-do list include Freizetpark Plohn and Belantis. Have you been to either of these? I want to ride "the other El Toro"!

 

Next segment coming up tonight hopefully!

 

-Martin

[milst1]

I offer you the third installment, much later than planned, of the Hansa Heide Hoedown. After a nice day at Hansa Park, Cheryl and I got in the car and drove to Soltau to check into the...

Hotel Port Royal! It's a pirate-themed hotel and has it's own entrance to Heide Park.

The hotel looks like sort of a pirate castle or fort from the outside, complete with moat. Here's what happens to guests who can't pay the bill.

Pirate art and chewy chocoate dubloons on the pillow. Port Royal was a Jamaican port for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the 17th Century where it was known as a kind of modern Sodom.

Bizarre little broadside cannon in the room that fortunately did not fire at us.

Gilt frame around the TV.

Pirate ship commode. There was a lot of great detail all over the room.

Dinner time! That dessert was pretty awesome, as weird as it sounds.

Cheryl meets Wumbo at dinner. A visit to Heide Park coming up.

[milst1]

Every time I try to post this final installment, something goes wrong. But here we go again, the final chapter, Heide Park.

There's a direct gate from the Port Royal Hotel to Heide Park.

Wumbo points the way...

Not surprsingly, the pirate-themed hotel leads to a pirate-themed area in the park.

First credit of the day was Schweizer Bobbahn, a Mack bobsled. It's a bit of a walk up a hill to get there.

Next stop was Limit, the 1999 Vekoma SLC.

Big Loop was next, and the view is so great that you can see all the way to New York.

The trees are still green. This was our late summer, early fall weekend trip.

Apparently Colossos was down for a number of weeks during the late season and our credit was not to be, which gives us a double reason to visit next year for Krake.

Indy-Blitz, a Zierer Force.

In the morning, the raging river rapids raft ride course was hosting kayak races.

Without Colossos, this Intamin offering, the launched Desert Race would have to serve as the adult-serving coaster of the park.

There seemed to be a plethora of boat rides at Heide Park.

This was the theming around the park's new Pirate area splash battle-type ride.

Alas, many a longing glance toward Colossos was made.

The ride is quite humongous. Compare the size of the roundup on the left with Colossos to the right!

It was time for our long drive back to Holland. But there was time for some goofing around with Kapitän Schwarzbart (Blackbeard), who hangs around the hotel. You can find him on Facebook!

A quick plug for Heide Park's on-ride photo solution, which includes a yellow wristband a la Livestrong, but it contains a USB stick built in! It comes with a picture too. Go Merlin, if you're behind this. You can see the band on my wrist.

Hey thanks for checking out our trip report!

[Hattuchili]

Looks like you guys had a good time at Heide Park. How was the Port Royal? I never considered sleeping there, since I am only living 1 hour away from the Park. The theming looks great and maybe I should stay there one day. The menu from the restaurant dosn´t sound overwhelming, is that all they are offering?

Thanks for posting the pictures.

[milst1]

Looks like you guys had a good time at Heide Park. How was the Port Royal? I never considered sleeping there, since I am only living 1 hour away from the Park. The theming looks great and maybe I should stay there one day. The menu from the restaurant dosn´t sound overwhelming, is that all they are offering?

Thanks for posting the pictures.

 

Thanks for checking out the report.

 

We did have a pretty decent meal at the restaurant (actually that red fruits dessert was amazing), but they definitely had a lot more stuff that wasn't on the menu. This was because we had opted for the sit-down service, but there was a huge buffet in another section that had a lot more choices. The same buffet area was used for breakfast and it had everything you could think of.

[Looty]

Nice photos!

 

I definitely wanted to visit Heide when I was in Europe but it was quite expensive to get to without a car.

[milst1]

Nice photos!

 

I definitely wanted to visit Heide when I was in Europe but it was quite expensive to get to without a car.

 

We rented a car in Holland and hit 5 parks in 4 days, base rate was about $200. Not a bargain, but doable. There is definitely rail service to Soltau.

 

Were you somewhere so far that you'd have had to fly? I guess Hamburg is the closest major airport.

[Looty]

^I actually studied in Arnhem for 6 months (I love your country very much, by the way). Whenever I looked for train tickets to Soltau, they were always 60+ euros each way. I'm not too bummed though because I was fortunate enough to visit many other parks in Europe.

[gisco]

I can't believe I missed this thread. Good thing it took you a while to post the final segment or I would have missed it all together. Awesome trip report by the way Martin. I can't wait to get back to Europe and see some of those parks. Big Europe trip for TPR in the near future?

[milst1]

^I actually studied in Arnhem for 6 months (I love your country very much, by the way). Whenever I looked for train tickets to Soltau, they were always 60+ euros each way. I'm not too bummed though because I was fortunate enough to visit many other parks in Europe.

 

LOL! I'm American, actually, from New Jersey. I just work here. Coincidentally, I actually studied at the University of Minnesota for three years! I love your state very much too. I guess you're right, the longer distance train rides can run into the big euros, especially on student budgets. I sometimes hear my German students complaining about the expense of going home for a weekend.

 

Bob H, great to hear from you! I appreciate the kind words and thanks for checking out my report!