PTR: Europe 2010, with TPR.

[Cameron]

I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with trip-reports. I used to (like 10 years ago) love typing up long and detailed reports after a really great trip; these were 99% text. Then came photos, and the reports suddenly exploded with piles of pictures; but sadly (for me anyway), the text started to drop off. Furthermore, I found myself becoming less and less motivated to do sort through and process hundreds of photos - resize, rotate, etc.

 

Then came technology!

 

When I went to Florida with TPR in October 2008, I had this new-fangled iPhone and I could post photos as I took them (to Flickr). This was great for two reasons (1) it meant I then didn't have to process all the photos after the trip and (2) my friends and family could see what was happening in real-time. It was fantastic to post a pic of Space Mountain while waiting in line, and then receive a text message from my brother (in Australia) while still waiting in the same line! However great this was, it further reduced the amount of text, to almost zero - I was just left with a stream of photos.

 

Technology to the rescue yet again, for now I have an iPad! First of all let's not make this a discussion about whether the iPad is a good or bad product, bla bla bla .. but it was a great platform for for me for quick-processing pictures, typing up reports, and posting them (3G). This was precisely how I used the device while on the trip: taking photos with my "real" camera (not the phone), dump them onto the iPad, then a bit of typing and - BAM - report is done! The bus trips were great for this, and where there wasn't WiFi, I could use 3G (I had pre-bought 50MB of international data - and it was the perfect amount, I reached the limit when I sent the final report from Amsterdam airport).

 

What you will see here are basically reproductions of my posts from the trip (which went to my Posterous blog - TPR doesn't support posting via e-mail). Remember that most of these were typed up while on a bus so there will be typos; however I have intentionally not corrected them in order to preserve the reports in their original form.

 

Here we go...

Edited November 17, 2010 by Cameron

[Cameron]

Park 1 - Gardaland

 

 

The first park day on these coaster trips is always a little overwhelming. You're visiting a new and unfamiliar park, there are loads of people you don't know, and you haven't quite fallen into rhythm yet. All of that today was magnified by the fact that it was also pretty hot. However Gardaland was fabulous! I knew very little about this park, and so I was really presently surprised. I will come right out and say that the coasters weren't terribly amazing, but the park is beautiful and has a fun selection of other rides.

For many years now the actual coasters have been immaterial for me, and it's the people who I really love. Lou and I have been friends since the UK trip in 2006, and even though we've seen each other a few times since, the last time was October 2008. It has been just too long. Waiting at the hotel to head to Gardaland, a nice Dodge Challenger pulled up - and I believe Lou's comment was "someone needs to buy that for me, and then propose"

Gardaland sits in a really picturesque area, near a large lake. This was taken from the freaky observation deck ride.

As I mentioned, it was hot. We spent a fair amount of time today looking for fountains and had a few spontaneous water-fights.

Gardaland has one of these insane little torture devices called a "screaming squirrel". I'd seen pictures and video of one of these, and for a while there was a rumor that Indiana Beach would be installing one (we got the second generation instead, which is a much much better ride). The Screaming Squirrel was so awful that if the US were to make prisoners of war ride it, the UN would have to step in and stop them.

This little drop tower was so cute - it's only about 150 feet tall, but was still great fun. The funky dome is on the top because I believe there used to be some sort of show up there. This photo is taken with the cars at the top, about to drop.

Mammut (Magic Mountain) is a seriously fun mine train coaster, which I enjoyed a lot. This was the standout coaster at the park, and I hope to get a chance to ride it again tomorrow evening when we return to the park. The ride features a lot of great turns and helixes, and it feels quite out of control without being rough or painful.

Divv, Jes, James, Lou, Larry and Dave all on the rapids ride. The sun was already setting which is why it's a tad blurry, but trust me they are there!

Theming at this park is really fantastic - way more than I was expecting. This is just the entrance to the viewing area for the boat splash-down ride .. It's just the viewing area, not even the main entrance for the ride itself! The whole park looked like this, with great theming and beautiful gardens. It was also spotless - the Italians treat it very well (I didn't spot a single gum-wall).

Parks really come to life at night, and it's something I always love to see. Gardaland certainly isn't an overload of colour, but it is very tastefully lit.

[Cameron]

Gardaland also has a great pirate themed dark ride, a walk-through haunted maze, and something called a Magic House - which is just impossible to describe in words. It does feel like your going upside down several times, even though you're only swinging side to side. It's really cool, and I wish there were more in the US. Overall it was a really good first day .. With a great park and awesome people. Somehow a game has started such that any time I say "beer" with an American accent, then I owe a beer to whomever catches me. So far I owe three people ... stay tuned. But now I am heading down to the bar for a drink or two, en straight to bed to prepare for a very early start tomorrow.

 

 

In a few days I'll continue, with Mirabilandia. Enjoy!

[robinschroder]

You invented the "beer"/accent thing on the night we met at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Milan! Steve was also a witness! Good to meet you, and looking forward to the rest of your report.

[LoopLover]

The "Screaming Squirrel" looks painful. I found Mumbo Jumbo (S&S El Loco) painfull so would be curious as to what a ride on this thing would be like! The drop tower looks quite fun too.

 

Nice TR,Stephen

[larrygator]

Cameron - good to see you back on the boards with a Europe PTR. I remember you downloading the photos on your iPad and putting them on your blog during the trip.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

I was so sad to miss this trip with all of you.

 

The update is awesome Cameron, cant wait to see more.

[cobra_roll06]

YAY! Awesome start Cameron! I remember this day as probably the hottest day and thought I was actually melting while queuing for one of the water rides...

 

I still miss this trip! It was really was fantastic.

 

Looking forward to the rest!

[Cameron]

Park 2 - Mirabalandia

 

 

We all bounded out of bed this morning bright and early to board ..... Wait a minute, that's not quite how it happened.

 

[Take 2]

 

We all dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, bleary-eyed and half-asleep, to board the bus at 6:15am. Actually it really wasn't that bad since (a) it's just the second morning of the trip, and (b), the hotel bar closed last night at midnight. Plus we are staying at this same hotel tonight so we didn't even need to pack and schlep bags. We even got some delicious "breakfast in a bag" to enjoy on the bus. It was a tad under three hours from the hotel to Mirabilandia, and most of us spent that time sleeping (after we had breakfast, of course).

 

 

 

Once we got to the park, we were greeted by the staff, and led inside. Being Italy, things here all run on "Italian Time", which means that ERT (exclusive ride time) won't necessarily begin exactly when planned - but that's really all just part of the charm of this fabulous country. It's ok when there are delays if the people are cool and the food is good! In all seriousness, the park staff was wonderful; opening up the Katun roller-coaster for our group a full 30 minutes before the park opened to the public. We all got numerous rides on this beast (and all went back for more during the day). Katun is without question, an A+ coaster. Now this might get a bit nerdy, so some of you can please skip to the next paragraph - it has Renee in it! This B&M coaster is smooth, fast and has terrific forces. The location and layout are both fantastic too, with great flow between the elements and no dead spots. I have been consistently disappointed by other large B&M inverts (namely Alpengeist and Montu, and even Raptor isn't amazing), but Katun easily beats them all. The group all loved it, and while some people preferred iSpeed, everyone agreed that Katun is just fabulous.

 

 

 

Once ERT ended, and the park opened for the peasants - err, the general public - we all were handed Gold QBots! These amazing little devices can turn a crappy day into a fantastic day - and they really did their job well today as the park was packed. A QBot (which is the trade name - each park brands them differently) is a small electronic device with a multi-line display and just four buttons. The user (that's us) can scroll through all the attractions, and reserve any one. The QBot will then tell you at what time you can ride. We had "Gold" QBots, which meant that our reservation times were never more than a couple of minutes. When your reservation is up (actually, any time AFTER - which is key), you just stroll up to that attraction and hop on board. You can only reserve a single ride at a time ... but with the reservation times in the minutes, we were never short of stuff to do. These obviously cost extra, but are completely worth-it when visiting a park for the first (and likely only) time, as they eliminate pretty much all delays. The system is extremely well implemented at Mirabikandia too, with QBot available on nearly all the rides in the park. After you've used a QBot once or twice, you begin to develop a strange connection to it. It's always so exciting to be handed one at a new park, and then a little bit sad to have to return it when the day is done. Renee is particularly fond of this little technical marvel...

 

 

 

Once we got the QBots we all headed over for a few rides on iSpeed, which is a seriously fun Intamin not-Rocket coaster. I admit that I've not been all that impressed with any of the Intamin rockets I've ridden (Rita at Alton Towers, Dragster at Cedar Point, Stealth at Thorp Park, and Storm Runner at Hersheypark). However iSpeed is great great great! Another A+ ride, and a serious surprise for me. Like Katun, the speed and pacing is wonderful on this ride .. And the setting and theming is similarly great. Turns out that this isn't truly a rocket coaster, as it actually uses magnets for the launch.

 

 

The Brits were thrilled to learn that at Mirabilandia the beer costs the same as the soda (soft-drinks)! This is either a very good deal for the beer drinkers, or a very bad one for the soda-drinkers.

 

Lou and I actually took this photo in the morning before ERT, but it would have ruined the flow of this report to include it up there! Each QBot was setup for a single group of four; we had a group of 12 (which means 3 QBots) and would constantly meet up with with other groups for a few rides here and there. It was a wonderful day.

 

The parks in Italy have mostly similar sorts of rides as American parks do, but you know Europe : it's the little differences. This "antique car" ride is themed to Ferrari.

 

 

I love Music Express rides, and this one is unique in that it still has the cover which unfolds during the ride. It doesn't seem like much, but it's so cool when it's spinning around, and suddenly this cover comes out and over your head. It's not dark, but really does change how the ride feels. This was a really long program too (both forwards and backwards), and my arms were quite tired by the end - I was desperately holding on, trying not to crush Derek!

 

 

Lou and Dave .. Dave is a really great guy, and has a whole plethora of faces he makes in photos. This is apparently his "I'm about to get crushed by Lou on the Music Express" face. Good times..

 

 

As day turns to evening after the second park on the trip, I'm thrilled to report that that both Gardaland and Mirabilandia were awesome. I tend to intentionally not research parks and coasters before trips like this, as it leaves me so much more to discover while here. This strategy really paid off for these parks, and I would rank them both very highly (if I ranked parks, which I don't because I'm not a giant dork ). Tomorrow will be my last day in Italy, and I must say that over the past week this country has put on a spectacularly great show for me. I've been wanting to visit Italy for most of my life, and even though it wasn't my dream Italian vacation (spending a month driving around), I honestly couldn't have planned a better visit.

 

 

Stay tuned for the next update: Movieland Studios - where two of the rides bordered upon being traumatic experiences!

[ginzo]

Nice to see a TR from you, Cameron. I was also pleasantly surprised at how good the Italian parks are.

[Cameron]

Park 3 - Movieland Studios

 

 

 

I have already commented several times that I genuinely like the social aspect of these trips more than the actual rides. A big part of that is just hanging out, usually in drinking establishments, and usually until the whee hours if the morning. After returning from Mirabilandia on Tuesday night, we ended up getting together in the hotel bar; and when I say "we", I actually mean that more than half the trip was there. It really was a fun time, and I got to finally try some Grappa (I mean, when in Rome ).

 

 

Neither Derek or I had tried Grappa, and we were both anxious to do so before leaving Italy. We'd both heard the horror stories about how it tastes and how strong it is, so we were eager to see if it could actually live up to it's reputation. Well no, it didn't. At least as far as I was concerned ... Maybe I simply have no taste, but I thought it tasted like a mix of tequila and sake and honestly enjoyed it. I also didn't find it particularly strong, certainly not 50% alcohol; I had already enjoyed a Lemoncello (spelling??), and even went on to have several glasses of beer. Derek didn't agree with me though, and really didn't like it ...

 

 

Later that evening Dave showed off some of his mad juggling skillz.

 

But enough shameless alcohol consumption (until Germany at least), and let's go to Movieland Studios!

 

 

This is an odd odd park .. Like very odd. They are currently building a new coaster, and it was supposed to be open for us, but I guess there were delays in construction. No big deal though, because I honestly did not think about roller coasters at all today. Movieland Studios is nuts, totally out of control; and I know I say that a lot, but I was genuinely terrified on two of their rides - it was totally great! As the name suggests, the rides in this park are all themed around movies, and film making etc. A question remains as to whether these are official licenses, but really who cares?? We had so much fun here, I could have easily filled a whole other day - and we didn't even venture into the watermark, which I hear is similarly insane.

 

It was a hot day, like seriously hot, so right from the start we made heavy use of the misters. Thankfully a lot of the rides also include water .. Ranging from a light mist, to almost drowning. Lou, Renee and Divv are cooling off.

 

 

The park started weirding us out almost immediately with this strange "parade". The stage is built using construction scaffolding on top of a really dodgy looking pickup truck. It was like the Pide Piper, with a trail of kids running behind, screaming out in Italian. It was a bit surreal, but just such a thing will seem perfectly normal by the end of the day.

 

 

The park typically opens up in sections, and one of our perks for the day was being let into one section about half an hour early. One ride in this section was a simulator themed to ... the "Police Academy" movies. The pre-show movie had such amazing production values that it could have been shot by high-school kids for YouTube. It was just unbelievable (in a good way). But the ride itself...! We were all in these little motion cabinets, watching a projected video. It's odd because the story of the ride is such that we were new cadets being trained, but for some reason this training begins in the middle of a car-chase. Production values of this movie were slightly better than the pre-show, and there was even a 4D element (we were sprayed with water). However the truly bizarre thing is that halfway through the movie suddenly stops, and we see some of the characters showing different clips, playing music, and other hi-jinks. You can't believe what it's like to be in a motion simulator that is dancing to the "chicken dance". Then after a few minutes we're back to "training". It was all quite odd, very fun, and just the tip of the iceberg. Next up we hit the log flume, which is in the "stone age" section of the park. Now there wasn't a single mention of the Flintstones, but it was very obviously inspired by it. It was a great flume ride, and despite the small drops we got significantly wet. (Remember, it was *hot*!)

 

 

 

One of my all-time favorite rides is the Tower Of Terror (a Disney masterpiece):

 

Well fortunately for me, Movieland Studios has their own version! This is actually nothing like the Disney version ... Well it is a free-fall ride. Ok so like the Disney version, this is a free-fall ride ... And I guess the logo is very similar too. Ok so like the Disney version, this has the same logo, and is also a free-fall ride ... But this is themed to Twilight Zone and uses the theme tune. Ok so this is nothing like Disney version except that it is also themed to the Twilight Zone, uses the same theme music, has the same logo and is also a free-fall ride

 

 

In all seriousness, this version is special in that it's a first generation free-fall ride - and these are getting harder and harder to find. I had never ridden one, but have heard some horror stories that they can be really painful. I like to give rides at least a chance, and since these are becoming so rare (they used to be everywhere), I took the risk and tried it out. It was awesome! Really a great drop, and not even slightly painful (others said that it was running really really well, so I'm fortunate for that). Very different from the second generation drop towers (typically known as "Giant Drop" rides). Really glad I got to ride it..

 

 

Like any good park themed around movies and Hollywood, there is of course the "Studio Tour" attraction. At other parks this is typically a calm tram ride through movie sets, and back-stage areas. Informative? Absolutely! Fun? I guess. Terrifying to the point of needing a stiff drink? No. Well not unless you're at Movieland Studios! Passengers are driven through the backlot on these giant trucks - I guess that should have been my first clue. Second clue should have been all the signs warning about getting wet - although you can get wet from Jaws at Universal Studios in LA, so what's the big deal right?

 

 

Now before meeting up with TPR I spent some time in Rome, and took part in an insanity taxi ride where the driver was racing through the streets while thumbing through the street directory. Picture that same guy driving a giant truck full of park guests .. Except over collapsing bridges, through flaming lakes, and exploding rooms. There were two truly white-knuckle sections ... The first was when going down a steep, narrow, twisting road, the driver put the pedal to the floor and we must have hit 50MPH- with tree branches hitting the truck (and people on the sides ducking for cover). The second moment was climbing up a similarly steep hill, out of a significantly deep pool of water and fire. Half way up the driver just throws the truck into neutral and we roll backwards (completely out of control) back into the water. Madness, I tell you! All of us needed a rest after that, so we grabbed some lunch. While the previous two parks had amazing food, Movieland Studios absolutely did not. No more really needs to be said, other that it made me just a shade homesick for my local parks.

 

Moving on to another insanity "never in America" ride, we come to U571. This is another simulator, but calling it that really doesn't do it justice. The rules claimed (again) that we'd get wet, and kids under 14 were not even allowed to ride. A group of about 40 we are led into the first room, which is a grated walkway around some water, and the submarine on the far side. As we wait there, some planes and helicopters approach and start shooting/bombing us. Not real planes of course (just sound effects), but each "bomb" caused a large geyser of water, and the "bullets" from the machine guns caused long lines of small geysers to fire. In the middle of all this we are commanded to start running (along the wet and slippery grated walkways), while the sound and water insanity is literally exploding all around us. The pathway leads to a metal (wet!) ladder into the submarine, and we all take our seats. This was a very well done set; it was extremely cramped in there, and felt a lot like what you'd imagine a sub to be like (complete with red alert lights, etc), it was cool. The seats didn't have backs, they didn't even have proper bases, we were just sitting on a large pipe that ran the length of the room.

 

We sat through a short schpiel in Italian, which was fortunately translated for us: "prepare for your shower". Lovely! Actually I was expecting that we'd get pretty wet, but what I wasn't expecting was that the whole sub was itself a motion cabinet. You can feel it raise up, and start tilting heavily to one side ... Now please remember that we're just sitting on some piping, with no setback, no restraints, and no windows. Then the water started, which was basically like being inside a dish washer. So the whole room is tilting heavily side to side (length-wise), and rolling slightly side-side, you're hanging on to stop from sliding off the "seat", there's water spraying everywhere, and lots of noise, and then they kill the lights so that it's pitch black too. The whole thing lasted several minutes, and I admit it was borderline traumatic!

 

Lou, Larry and I actually ended up not getting terribly wet, but Divv and Renee were soaked.

 

 

Finally we ended the day at this utterly madhouse of a park with a relaxing ride on the "Back To The Backstage" monorail. Yes, this is a scenic monorail themed to "Back To The Future". We enjoyed clips from the movies while in line, and a great view of the cool looking new coaster (still under construction):

 

 

Renee and Divv on the monorail. It was Divv's birthday today (yay!), but unfortunately he's heading back to to the UK tonight (boo).

 

 

All in all this was a fabulous park, and I'm so sad that it's not closer. You'd never see anything even remotely like this in the US, and it's yet other reason why I love the Theme Park Review trips so much.

 

As I type this we are driving through Switzerland on our way to Germany .. Europa park, Olympia Looping and other amazing attractions. So to recap: I woke up this morning in Italy, had the shit scared out of me at Movieland Studios, and am now posting a report from a bus driving through Switzerland on the way to Germany. And this was just the third day of the trip!

 

Up next: Europa Park!

[Hhappy]

Loving this report so far, Lovely stories and comments all around. It's always fun to hear other people's perspective to things/rides.

I guess i'll have to check out Italy next year (yeah new country credit)

 

By the way.. loved this part...

nice Dodge Challenger pulled up - and I believe Lou's comment was "someone needs to buy that for me, and then propose"

 

...now where was that lotery winning ticket...

 

Looking forward to the following updates.

[nay]

Between this and Joey's PTR, I'm loving reliving the memories from the Europe trip!

 

Movieland Studios was such a crazy park! Months later, I think my clothes have finally dried off from U-571. But I'm still traumatized.

[Cameron]

^ Every time it rains, I have flash-backs to U571 .. scary stuff

 

 

Park 4 - Europa Park (part 1)

 

 

The drive through Switzerland yesterday evening was stunning (seriously, mind meltingly stunning). Mountains giving away to beautiful lakes, surrounded by small villages ... All with the sun setting as a backdrop. It was quite the amazing drive, and ended up with us arriving at the Hotel Colosseo in Germany. I have spent the last week in Italy, and now just arrived in Germany. It takes a little mental adjustment to make that switch, but it's quite a bit more weird because I'm staying in an Italian themed hotel! No worries though, this hotel is fabulous...

 

 

After arriving on Wednesday night we sat outside for a while and had some drinks, then went to the upstairs bar for some more. This bar is curious in that the mens bathroom has a recording of a Ferrari which plays every few minutes. I'm not complaining though, Ferraris are awesome!

 

This morning (after only about 3 hours sleep), it was time to hit Europa Park. This is the park I was most looking forward to on the whole trip (second are Phantasialand on Saturday, and the German fair tomorrow). I have heard only extremely positive things about this park, so it had much to live up to. Well, it succeeded. Not only that, but I think it's safe to say that I want to marry Europa Park and have its babies! The park is divided up into thirteen sections, and even after being there all day there were still a few whole sections we didn't even step foot into. The map is so big that it requires two people to hold it:

 

 

We started the day with an entire hour of Exclusive Ride Time on the new coaster Blue Fire. A+ all the way, baby .. In fact I think I might have to reorder all my other rides! This coaster is really odd in that it's not super fast, nor does it pull particularly high forces, but OMFG is it fun. So much fun! The layout and theming is brilliant, and the way it interacts with everything around is perfect. Plus it flips you upside-down 4 times, yet there's only a lap-bar. It's just so awesome!

 

 

I kept having to fight the urge to buy it ice-cream. Renee and I are right up front on Blue Fire.

 

 

Eric joined us for several spins, and agrees that it is one terrific ride.

 

 

With three trains running, our Exclusive Ride Time was very very exclusive. Be very envious!

 

 

Here are some general pictures of Blue Fire awesomeness...

 

 

 

After ERT a few if us were lucky enough to get a backstage tour of the park. This was great, I love seeing how these parks are run, and Europa seems quite like the Chocolate Factory. Backstage was BUSY, with people running around like very busy little bees. Europa was spectacularly clean and well run, and it all starts with a super efficient backstage area. Along the way we passed some beer kegs, which Derek and Piers enjoyed..

 

 

Europa is run by the Mack corporation (they make rides) and many Mack ride systems are showcased here. The rides are run at maximum capacity, and even though it was a very crowded day, and a few lines approached 45 minutes, the waits were not bad at all. The coasters dispatch on remarkable 20-30 second intervals (basically that's unheard of on the US), so while you're waiting in line, you're pretty much never stopped. Seriously, sometimes it was tough to take photos because the lines just kept moving so much!

 

One of the great Mack ride systems is this cross between a coaster and a boat ride. You are in fact sitting in a boat, that ascends a lift-hill, runs along some coaster track with hills and turns and such; but then it can suddenly splash down into water. Very very cool stuff.

 

 

Our group was pretty big, and fortunately there were always a few people with bags. On the water rides these bags were used to protect phones, cameras and even smokes.

 

 

And if someone decides that they don't want to ride, well then they become "Bag Bitch" for everyone else. The irony of this photo is that I was in-fact going to ride, but I had opted to sit in one if the seats which doesn't get very wet. I tells ya, I get no respect! That's Ryan on the right, and Jon Locke behind.

 

 

 

Euro-Mir!! If there ever was an award for the most awesome coaster just for then sake of being amazingly awesome, then Euro-Mir would be the undisputed champion. You sit back-to back in these four-person cars, which make up a small train. One pair faces forwards, and the other backwards (so you face the people in the next/previous car). It's all themed to the Russian space race, and for some reason there is this kick ass techno tune thumping in line and in the station ... And also all the way up the entire lift-hill .. Which takes about 5 minutes! Seriously the lift is this loooooong spiral (which can handle like 5 trains at once), its in the dark, with disco lights, and the techno track. Oh and the cars are motorized, so that they spin around (not very fast) at specific points, so you're always seeing different passengers. It's insanely fun, and we danced and raved our way all the way along this bad-boy. The last time Theme Park Review was at this park (2008, I believe), they actually got Exclusive Ride Time on Euro-Mir ... And more envious, I could not be.

 

 

Yes, the building is mirrored, so aside from the neighboring riders, you can also see yourself.

 

Lou and Scottish Steve are getting ready to rave while waiting for Euro-Mir. Absolute fun!

 

 

It's not Spaceship Earth, it's an indoor coaster called Euro-Sat. This was much weaker than Blue Fire and Euro-Mir, but still fun. We have ERT on this tomorrow morning (with the lights on). I'm looking forward do it because it uses the same lifting system as Euro-Mir and I'm curious to see it with the lights on. Oh and note the climbers on there - not sure what they are up to.

 

 

The other stand-out coaster is Silver Star, which was greatly better than people had lead me to believe; and a mad-mouse that uses an elevator style lift-hill. There are also about a zillion flat-rides, and some great dark rides. We'll have some more time there tomorrow morning before heading to the German Fair, and OLYMPIA LOOPING!!

 

 

Stay tuned....

[larrygator]

Nice it only took until the 4th day of the trip for your roommate to appear in your PTR. Actually, since he avoids the camera he doesn't mind.

[Cameron]

As an avoider of the camera myself, I'm very mindful of others like me. No reason to force people to be in pictures

[Cameron]

In an effort to stop my last few readers from falling asleep, I thought it would be fun to do today's reports in the form of "a day in the life". Today is a very full and immensely exciting day, so this format should work well.

 

6:50am : I woke up a full ten minutes before my alarm, and after a thoroughly luxurious 5.5 hours sleep. I really needed it too, after three nights in a row where we only got like 4 hours, last night I was trying to hold a conversation with Lou, Renee and Derek but I started nodding off mid-sentence. After a shower and packing, I felt refreshed and ready to take on this monster of a day.

 

7:30am : Larry and I heading down to breakfast, which is included at the hotel. The breakfast is a massive buffet, with potatoes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, about 43 different types of juices, cereal, yogurt, etc. It's a spectacular display, and the food is really good. We were fortunate enough to have two nights at this hotel, so this was the second morning with such great food.

 

8:00am : The entire group met in the lobby to prepare to head to the park. By 8:15 we were on the monorail (which the park ran just for us). The monorail is fun, and you get a great view of all the rides and gardens. The music is unbelievably sad though, and we talked about a movie scene for which it might be more fitting; the an old man is sitting by his wife's bed, moments after she passes away. As the music plays, the man sees flashbacks of their life: things like their first date (a picnic in a park), wedding scenes, holding first baby, and finding a precious nicknack in a store, etc. It was a short ride, but by the time we got off we were all quite emotional.

 

8:30am : Exclusive Ride Time begins on EuroSat, the crazy indoor coaster that also has techno. As a special treat for ERT, the park turned on all the lights for us. Really fun riding these dark coasters with the lights on, and I got to checkout the crazy spinning lift-hill (the same system that is used on Euro Mir). It's a remarkably simple and very elegant system, plus it can really turn the lift into an actively fun part of the ride (as is done on this and especially Euro Mir). Dave and Hans, with Ryan in row two.

 

 

Derek, Piers, and Lou are taking a quick rest while we wait for the last few people to finish their final rides in EuroSat.

 

 

8:50am : The park, obviously not content with being utterly amazing, walks us all over to Silver Star so we can get a few rinds in before the unwashed masses arrive. As I mentioned yesterday, I had not heard good things about this ride; but it was fabulous. Even first thing in the morning it was running insanely well, and we even got one ride that was completely brakeless! At the exit for Silver Star are these entertaining "spinning things", which Dave is enjoying far too much..

 

 

9:00am : the park is now open to the public, and we are all relegated back to just being normal boring members of the public. Oh the horror! Actually that's not quite true because while every guest is running to their favorite coaster, we went straight for the Circus Parade car ride. This ride is made for kids, and is adorably cute; you sit in these little cars and are ridden past various circus scenes. Despite the fact that the tiny cars are made for little kids, we still managed to cram four adults in there.. (From top left: Lou, Larry, Cameron and Renee)

 

 

Europa Park strives to make their rides a little different. I have already gone on and on about Euro Mir, Blue Fire and the water rides, but here they have some bumper cars with a giant ball (it's in an area themed to soccer).

 

 

Blue Fire was amazing, as was Silver Star and most if the rest of the attractions at the park, but there will always be a very special place in my sentimental little heart for Euro Mir. We of course ride it again this morning and it was just as amazing as ever .. As I type this up it's been over 2 hours since we rode, yet the music is still stuck in my head: Dada Da DAH!

 

 

Our on-ride photo from Euro Mir, apparently I was very surprised to see Lou sitting there next to me!

 

 

An impromptu game of tag broke out between Lou and Steve .. I will leave out the gory details behind it as it is slightly gross (it does involves pus)..

 

 

 

10:30am : back at the hotel to checkout and board the busses. We have new busses and drivers starting today, and the checkout process always takes a while, but by 11am we were on the road.

 

 

12:30pm : as I type this, Renee just handed me one of her headphones. I admit that I was a bit hesitant to listen as it could be some crappy "young person" music, but no .. It was better than I could have ever imagined ... It was the Euro Mir song!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

 

This last day and a half at Europa Park has been so great. Even hearing nothing but awesome comments about the park, there is no way I could have imagined just how good it would be. The range and quality of rides is un-matched, even by Disney; and things like Euro Mir and Blue Fire just make it all that much more special. Even though I literally can't contain my excitement for the German Fair, I am really sad to leave Europa. I'll be back .. 40th birthday perhaps??

 

1:30pm : The bus is racing down the autobahn, and Lou and I are watching "The IT Crowd". Technology is so awesome! We are traveling though some fantastic little German towns, and the countryside is really pretty; there are even some wind turbines <3

 

2:30pm : Morgan does an amazing TPR rap, which had us all laughing hysterically. He first did a song on the 2007 mini-Europe trip, which I wasn't on, but I have heard very good things about it. This new one lived up to the hype of the original, and was extremely enjoyable (especially since we hit traffic, and were all a little grumpy).

 

3:15pm : We arrive in the awesome little town of Würzburg, and the amazing looking German fair. TPR organized an entire hour exclusive ride time on the legendary Olympia Looping:

 

 

This *portable* roller coaster has been thrilling people at fairs all over Germany for over 20 years. Having this fair coincide with our trip is like falling back in time to the 70s and seeing the Rolling Stones play in a small pub in the UK. Calling this legendary is a complete understatement, it's an utter masterpiece. Designed by the genius Anton Schwarzkopf, this coaster is super smooth, extremely fast, and brain-meltingly intense - I loved it! I'm not ashamed to admit that I fell right back into my extreme coaster-nerd persona, and rode over and over and over again - at least 10 rides, probably close to 15. It absolutely lived up to the hype. The amazing coasters I've ridden in the last two days (even just today) is staggering.

 

This coaster truly is portable too, and it has spent it's life traveling the German fairs. Every piece is numbered, and it takes several days to construct and dismantle. There have been many traveling coasters before and since, but this one is the undisputed king. If all that isn't enough, while riding we got a view of a stunning medieval German town:

 

 

5:00pm : ERT ends and we walk over to the Biergarten for liter mugs of Würzburger Hofbräu, which has been especially brewed just for the fair and isn't available anywhere else. It was great, complete with the beer wenches delving armloads of mugs to the table. I also ordered Festwursts with sauerkraut; Guten Appetit and Prosit!

 

Myself, Renee and Larry all enjoy a mug of beer..

 

 

6:00pm : If riding the absolutely amazing Schwarzkopf coaster in the German fair in the picturesque town isn't enough, it was also the opening day! As a result we were privileged to see the ceremonious tapping of the first keg - even the mayor of the town showed up for the festivities. This was simply an unbelievable spectacle to witness in person..

 

 

Once tapped, you could line up for a mug poured from this very special keg. Not a whole liter of course, but it is free! Brad is very proud of it..

 

 

A game was set up where you could attempt to ring a bell at the top of this pole, and win a free liter of beer. This was fantastic to watch, and I wonder how The Climbers would do with such a challenge?! No holds obviously, but there was belay. A few people in our group attempted this, including Larry.

 

 

I saw two people succeed at ringing this bell, this is one of them. He scaled the pole insanely quickly, the entire place was stunned and then applauded loudly.

 

 

I mentioned earlier that it was mohawk day, and Lou was our Mohawk Queen. She did around 12 mohawks after dinner, including this weird Australian guy... (before and after - neither look too good)

 

 

7:00pm : The madness continued in the food tent, with a band playing such greats as Blues Brothers, Cotton Eyed Joe, Ring Of Fire and the Benny Hill theme (I wanted to chase Lou around the tent in fast-motion, but her bikini was locked in the bus.. Boo!) However it was time to explore the fair (which had since opened). Since there is no notion of a wristband at these fairs, we were each given €20 to spend however we wanted. First up was the Ghost Train .. This was awesome! The lady collecting tickets was dressed as a which, and aside from the usual fun ghost-train tricks they also had two live actors! It really was unbelievable fun.

 

 

Just down the way was the Psychedelic House, which was also seriously fun. They hand you funky glasses (which make the light sparkle), and you walk though this maze full of flashing lights, YMCA, and a rolling room. We were laughing and dancing and just having such a good time

 

 

Myself, Renee and Larry after the Psychedelic House:

 

 

We also played many games, including the horse racing game and this fantastic thing called "time bingo". It's very similar to Fascination at Indiana Beach (and other parks) where you roll a ball into holes in an attempt to light a line of 5 lights (vertical, horizontal or diagonal). You only have about two minutes though! If you succeed, then a bunch of plastic tokens come rolling down the glass (like the Safe Cracker pinball machine!).

 

 

Larry won some bubbles, Renee a cute stuffed giraffe, and myself a wristband in the colours of the German flag. Hot stuff!

 

 

This report doesn't even come close to describing the awesomeness that was today. We had Europa Park in the morning, and the fair in the evening. I've been really interested in these fairs, and especially Olympia Looping, for close to 10 years; and I'm just so thrilled to have had chance to experience it - on opening day no-less!

 

 

9:00pm : But unfortunately time passes, and we had to return to the bus. We have a three hour drive to the next hotel, but spirits are high (liter mugs of beer tend to do that!). I woke up this morning before 7am, and will not sleep until at least 1am; but close to every minute of today was more full of fun and laughter than a pomegranate is of pits.

 

 

Up next: Phantasialand!

[Mr. Starr]

Awesome report Cam! I really liked the whole "Day in the Life" aspect

[SharkTums]

Aww man I totally missed 'Time Bingo' that looked awesome!!!

[larrygator]

Time Bingo was interesting. We thought we were competing against each other like Fascination but when the machine started spitting out tokens to multiple people at the same time we still didn't know what was happening then by the 2nd or 3rd game we realized it was a timed game.

[SharkTums]

^I think that's some of the best fun you can have when playing random games like this in other countries. You try a few times and eventually catch on!

 

Japan will have a lot of this!

[nay]

That day at the German fair was the best, and I almost forgot that we spent extra time in the morning at Europa Park (and Euro Mir!!).

 

WTF is that awful looking bruise on my leg on the Circus Parade ride?? I always end up with weird injuries on TPR trips and I never know where they come from!

[Cameron]

It's funny because I never really pay much attention to those games before (at US parks), but the ones at the fair looked great. It seemed like every second booth had some weird/interesting looking game to play. I wonder why there isn't more variety in the US? Are the games unpopular? Anyway, on with the show!

 

Park 6 - Phantasialand.

 

Yesterday was amazing in absolutely every respect, so Phantasia Land really had it's work cut out for it ... Well it obviously didn't out-do yesterday, but it was still a really awesome day. On the UK trip in 2006 I remember two distinct (but separate) valleys in the day-to-day excitement, and I was fully expecting today to be just that. Not at all though, Phantasia Land was really enjoyable. It is smaller than Europa Park, and has less attractions, but it is exceptionally well themed and has some wonderful, very unique and awesome rides. The atmosphere here actually feels a bit like Indiana Beach of old, it's just such an adorable park; and (like Indiana Beach) focuses so much on a wide range of fun. If I was local to Phantasia Land and Europa, I suspect that I would actually visit Phantasia Land more often. We were eating breakfast by 7:30am, and at 8:00am were met by some park staff who walked us into the park for ERT on Winja. This is a pair of dueling spinning coasters, with many fun surprises. Highly and very well themed, each coaster has a unique layout. Each car holds four people (two pairs, sitting back to back), and a clutch is released after the first drop which allows the cars to spin. I'm not a huge fan of spinning rides, but the spinning really wasn't very strong on all but one of my rides (I did each side 5 times).

 

 

Lou and Larry take a spin during Exclusive Ride time..

 

 

Lou also scores a ride with Steve - she certainly is a popular one!

 

 

Some of the twisted track on Winja. There are great pathways all around the atrium, so you can get very close to the action.

 

 

Following on from the insanely fun Ride Time on Winja, we got insanely fun Ride Time on Black Mamba. Now one of my top, all-time favorite coasters is Nemesis at Alton Towers in the UK. Black Mamba is similar in that it's an inverted coaster, and it is built in and around a lot of theming. The train is constantly diving in and out of trenches, and skimming over rocks and other stuff. It is such a great feeling to ride these, and I was seriously looking forward to Mamba. There has been a great deal of discussion online about whether or not it's better than Nemesis, and indeed I was frequently asked my opinion. Well sorry to say this to the Germans, but I do prefer Nemesis. Mamba was indeed awesome (an A ride, for sure), but I found it lacking a lot of Nemesis' intensity, and it isn't over rivers of blood

 

 

Exclusive Ride Time was an absolute blast on Mamba, with Robb in the station creating a real party atmosphere. Speaking of which, in the station when a train is dispatched, all the lights dim and African tribal music starts playing. Even the ride-ops are African! I re-rode non-stop for probably close to 15 rides, and had some trouble walking when it was all done! However off-ride Lou and Renee were having some fun with my camera..

 

 

They snapped this great one with Erik too

 

 

ERT ended at 10am when the park opened, and we very much wanted to ride Talocan, which is a Top Spin ride featuring not only water, but FIRE too! They say that everything is better with fire, and I have not come across anything in my life that would suggested they are wrong (whoever they are, anyway). I'm not normally the biggest fan of Top Spins, but I'd heard very good things about this one ... Plus, as I've already mentioned, it uses fire! The whole ride is very highly themed (of course), and the ride program wasn't too intense; I did lose count of the number of times we flipped, but it wasn't so much that I started to feel sick. The fire was awesome

 

 

Renee took these photos which my camera (after a brilliant effort from Steve and I to communicate with her while we were on the ride). The smoke in the air is from the fire .. This ride uses fire, and it's awesome

 

 

To cool down from all that awesome fire, it was necessary to indulge in an ice-cream. I haven't had vanilla dipped soft-serve for probably more than 10 years, and it was Nomalicious!

 

 

Phantasia Land also has an extremely fun "mine train" coaster which is for some reason named "Michael Jackson". It is named after the singer, but thankfully there is no MJ theming or music playing. The mining theming is really fantastic, and the ride is terrific ... But really? Michael Jackson? Apparently he was present when the park opened the ride, and even took part in the ceremonies.

 

Lunch was a bit of a debacle, since it was about six thousand million degrees in the restaurant; however the food really was very good and that more than made up for it. It was over 90 degrees today, with probably close to 100% humidity, and we're sitting outside here to cool off after being in the restaurant for lunch. These times of just hanging out are typically some of my favorite moments on these trips.

 

 

While waiting for everyone to finish eating, Larry, Renee and I went down to some gift shops and did the obligatory hat parade

 

 

Mystery Castle is not just an Alvin G pinball game, it's also one of the most insanely awesome drop ride I've been on (beaten only slightly by Disney's Tower Of Terror rides). I had been told that it was just an enclosed Intamin drop tower (like Giant Drop), but boy oh boy. I mean holy cow is this thing insane! I don't want to spoil the surprises, but on my first ride I think I screamed more than on anything I've ever ridden .. The theming all over this ride is amazing, and the theatrics during the ride are stunningly effective. Funny how so many of the ride highlights on this trip aren't coasters, that speaks volumes about the European parks we have visited.

 

 

I don't actually remember the story behind this photo, but I do think it's pretty nice. From left to right we have Brad, Russ, Lou and myself.

 

 

If Mystery Castle is a drop ride gone insane, then River Quest is a rapids ride that's gone insane. I had heard stories about this thing, and am well aware of the arguments about whether or not one can even call it a rapids ride; but who gives a crap what you call it, it's insane insane insane! Even the rafts themselves are curious, where each pair of seats can actually articulate around the center .. It's tough to explain, but the goofy raft design is just the beginning. Another elevator lift here, but this is more like being in the luggage transport system at the airport! At the top of the lift the doors open, the raft is pushed down this loooong ramp into deep water. The impact causes a wall of water at least 7 feet high, and the people sitting on that side of the raft suddenly very soaked! But that's not all, there's also a whirlpool and several more crazy-steep drops. Pretty much the only thing it doesn't have is actual rapids

 

 

American parks are really lacking in little side things to do just while walking around. In a quiet and very picturesque section we found this fun little obstacle course. I'm happy to report that no-one fell in the water, despite the look on Renee's face.

 

 

A brief rain-storm rolled through at about 4pm, so we took shelter in the lobby at the entrance of Mystery Castle ... Which of course meant that we got to ride it again . All up I think we did this 4 times and I screamed on every one.

 

 

We had expected the park to be pretty busy today, and we had been given some "front of the line passes" which are good on all the major rides. I guess the fact that Germany was playing in the World Cup, combined with the brutally hot weather, had kept a lot of people away. We really didn't have to wait for anything, so we had several free rides available by the end of the day. We decided to hit up Winja some more. Check out this awesome on-ride photo with me and Renee (this is on the first drop).

 

 

Phantasia Land is just such a sweet little park. After using up the last of our free rides on Winja, we watched their big show featuring the 5 mascot dragons (Phenie, Wang, Drago, Kroka, Quetzal and Schneck). It was a good show, although I wasn't 100% sure what was going on the whole time . And finally as we headed back to meet the buses we just had to get one final ice-cream..

 

 

Now we're back on the bus and just crossed over into The Netherlands. This isn't one of the monster drives of the trip, but we're all pretty tired so it's a bit subdued. I was so tired today that I actually started nodding off on the Night Hawk roller coaster (which was a very odd thing, indoors and pitch-black darkness). Tonight we are at another resort hotel, and tomorrow we'll be at Eftling which also looks like a great park.

 

Now it's nap-time..

[gisco]

I have two good memories from this park. The first was the bar didn't have a TV so Steph and I walked across the street to a little outdoor snack place to watch the German's in a World Cup match. The second was looking for Steph during ERT and finding out she was riding Black Mamba over and over and over ....

[Cameron]

^ Oh man - I bet that watching the Germans play in that little outdoor place would have been really fantastic!

 

 

Park 7 - Efteling

 

We had a really terrific time on Saturday night at the beautiful Efteling hotel. It was a cool night, so we spent much of it sitting outside in the bar.. Hanno was buying shots of some really thick and sweet orange stuff which I didn't care too much for, but Steve then showed up with a round of "Baby Guinesses" which are basically B52s - yum

 

After a short nap we were all boarding the bus for Efteling, a massively spread-out park with some really odd character theming. First up for the day was Exclusive Ride Time on their "Flying Dutchmen" water coaster .. This was really really fun. All the effects were working, and it's just just a very cool ride. Part dark-ride, part coaster, part flume, I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting; however this was overshadowed by the fact that we also had ERT on George And The Dragon.

 

With all the amazing things we did on this trip, we ended it with ERT on pair of amazing racing/dueling wooden coasters which had just opened 3 days earlier! Of the world-wide coaster community, we were among the first to ride it - very cool. This coaster was designed and built by my favorite wood-coaster design firm: Great Coasters International (GCI). Simply put, I am a total and complete GCI fanboy, so I was in utter GCI heaven

 

The coaster is really awesome, with each side offering a unique layout, with patented GCI curves and pops of air. The theming is of course stunning, and the ride makes a big deal of which side wins (Fire or Water) with a banners in the station. This was another insane ERT session (following Black Mamba the day before), and we were all quite exhausted by the end. Why is ERT so tiring? You're really just sitting in a chair?!

 

 

By 10am the park opened and ERT was over - Awww. The last ERT of the trip, too. Sadness. However next to Dragons was the horrible Vekoma torture device called "we hate humans and will hurt them all". Actually I don't recall what this ride was called, but it wasn't great. Steph, Bob, Ben and Doug return to the station after a particularly painful ride. We actually had a Vekoma engineer on the trip with us, and we constantly gave him a very hard time about how rough those rides are - don't worry though, Erik is a very good sport!

 

 

We were a bit of a smaller group today (probably smallest of the whole trip), and some times we were down in the single digits; however we still had enough people to fill an entire rapids boat. I didn't ride of course, because I didn't want to spend the rest of the day squelching around the park, but most of the group did.

 

 

"Bag Bitch" duties fell upon Renee and Lou, while everyone was on the rapids and I was taking photos. Turns out it was a fun ride and not even terribly wet.

 

 

There were some very strange, interesting and often creepy characters wandering around Efteling, and Lou got a full dose of this when they decided to completely surround her.

 

 

Europeans have very different standards than the US, as evident by the tea-cups ride that is themed to cannibals!

 

 

Sexy Lou poses with sexy Larry's sexy hat.

 

 

At the German fair on Friday, Larry won some bubble mixture. He had actually forgotten about them on Saturday, but today he and Lou had hours and hours of fun with them. Seriously, I will try to bring bubbles with me on all park visits from now on, as you have no idea the utter filth that a purely children's toy can bring out in people ... Most of my photos from today were actually from the Hot Bubble Action, however I will limit the ones I post..

 

 

Renee was pretty much a walking zombie all day, much like I had been the day before. When we stopped to checkout the "Water Organ", she took the advantage to have a small nap. And why not? I mean it was cool in there, dark, with music, and the sound of running water..

 

 

There were several carousels at Efteling, but this is the main one. It is actually in-doors, and has a working pneumatic band organ. Many of us like carousels, and this was in fantastic condition, so we decided to take it for a spin. We were still climbing around around and taking photos when it started up, but that's ok because it's just a carousel right? WRONG! This thing hauled ass! It reach full speed quickly, and by the end of the first revolution we were all scrambling to secure our cameras and really hold on. Action on the horses was fantastic, with a lot of movement and vying for position.

 

Corey, Russ and Steve..

 

 

Lou and Corey..

 

 

Anth and Russ. (Russ is very tall.. )

 

 

Remember when I said that European parks have different standards to the US ones? Well Efteling has a sh*tting donkey. Seriously. You put money in a coin-slot, then the tail raises and a prize (a souvenir token) literally shoots out of his butt. The kids were in hysterics, as were the TPR members, and I bet that the sh*tting donkey made a fortune today. (How often do you get ton say THAT?!)

 

 

More Hot Bubble Action .. Steve was really getting into it!

 

 

Ice-cream gluttony continued as Larry and I each picked one up. The entire group followed and it turned into a delightful ice-cream eating break, in the shade of some beautiful trees. Those chocolate "sprinkles" were weird, they seemed more like Rice Crispies and were quite good (although I preferred the chocolate dipped ice-cream at Phantasia land on Saturday). Also Larry had been my room-mate on the trip, and he was just awesome.

 

 

Larry gets some lovin' from Lou on the swinging ship ride. This was quite amusing because Larry said (upon seeing the ship) "I wish more people liked swinging ship", well I said that I love them, then Lou said the same thing, then the Brits etc .. For some reason we all thought that no-else likes those rides, so none of us even suggested riding it! Well we were on that ship on the very next cycle, and it was of course super great.

 

 

I know it's all out of focus and stuff, but I still really like the expressions on both Lou's and Steve's face.

 

 

The final park on the trip is always bitter-sweet. We had a great time, and spent most of the day laughing. Efteling is really a beautiful beautiful park, stunning, but *massive* - everything is so spread out. However there was a dark cloud hanging over-head as we knew that soon we'd all be going home, and plunged back into the "real" world. It was a fantastic group of people, and I feel privileged that I could hang out with them all. I'll miss them terribly and already can't wait to see some of them when I hang out with the Mid-America trip in august.

 

There will be one more update, with photos from the final night...