milst1 Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Saturday morning, Cheryl, Lauren, and I drove down to Limburg, the southernmost province in the Netherlands to do some credit whoring and to make a return trip to a park we hadn't been to in a few years, Phantasialand in Bruhl, Germany. After some additional whoring, we also hit the touristy town of Valkenburg for their Christmas spread. One can't be too choosy regarding coasters in December in Northern Europe, but we were pleasantly surprised. First stop, Kinderstad Heerlen, in...well, Heerlen. It's deceptively small-looking from the parking lot. This is the scene when you walk in. It doesn't look like much, but the space goes back for another mile. Kiddy flat. Of course we're there close to opening, so not a lot of people around. Bizarrely we run into a bunch of Canadian expats preparing a Christmas party for 100 Canadian expat kids. Ask me sometime about the secret evil relationship between Canada and the Netherlands. These big trampolines are fun. Double-decker carousel. This place went on forever. F&B seating area and play structure. Wee bumper cars. Water bikes. See how big it is? Climbing thing. I can never get to the top of these things. It just goes on forever. Little log flume. *Another* bumper cars. Less wee. Finally, the credit, a 2011 Pinfari Wacky Worm. And finally, the back wall. The best attraction park in Europe. Who knew? Watch out Europa Park and Paris Disney! And PortAventura, Efteling, and many others. Watch out. The Dutch love a good automat. Credit obtained. On to Phantasialand, about an hour away. Winter Phantasialand has little snowmobiles for kids! I'm ready for some hot sisters-on-theming action. Oooh, Maus au Chocolat merchandise! I am very psyched to ride Maus au Chocolat. But first Lauren needs the credits. Big ugly construction area. I believe that they were tearing out the log flumes. Anyone know what's going in here? Silbermine is an incredibly boring and slow dark ride, with many scenes like this. It's like a Mexican Pirates. But you're not in a boat. You're in a silbermine. Nice, green eye shadow. More flume destruction, it seems. Hooray for parks that expose guests to open flame! Each section of Phantasialand has its own dragon. Seriously. The amazingly themed top-spin, Talocan. Yes, Black Mamba. And they've added digital wait times. I don't remember those from January '09. I didn't really take any pictures of Black Mamba as most of it's hidden. Check out mrtickles report from June for some great pics. Yay, Maus au Chocolat! The new ride! Long queue with extensive confectionary theming. I knew it was a shooting dark ride, but when I saw this, my jaw dropped open...same ride system as Toy Story Mania???!!!??? Plus,, see the hidden Mickey, um, mouse, hanging out on top of the car! Apparently mice have overtaken this confectionary, and you must shoot them down with chocolate icing! Love the little touches on the ride vehicles. And it's a great fun ride. Try to the hit the 5,000 point mice. On to Wuze Town and some awesome coasters... Winja's Fear and Force are the surprising spinning coasters with a surprise! Apologies for lack of pics. mrtickles has some good ones. Great theming in Wuze Town. Temple of the Night Hawk is a long (4:00) boring Vekoma in the dark. All of the effects I remember from 2009 were turned off. But there is a Temple of the Night Hawk Fan Site. The Fantasy section of the park where Wuze Town is has great theming, sort of a cross between Steampunk and Roger Dean. The splash battle Wakobato was of course closed for Winter. At dusk, the winter displays came on. Oooh, aahh. Colorado Adventure was actually pretty thrilling in the dark. More extreme than I remembered. This dragon breathed fire every few minutes. I screwed up the photo, but Ghost Rickshaw was an amusing dark ride in this section, China Town. Loved the digital tip board. Last ride at Phantasialand was the great indoor Intamin drop tower, Mystery Tower, which was a walk-on. Then we drove to Venlo in NL, gambled at Holland Casino, and crashed at our hotel. The next morning found us whoring this credit at Mondo Verde, a strange nature park of some size, also in Heerlen, or nearby. This coaster used to be at Liseberg, called Circusexpressen or something like that. Now it is called Wild Tiger Roller Coaster. There was a huge indoor greenhouse full of tropical birds flying around, even a gator. These porcupines were huge. And disturbing. They had two white lions, a female and a male (off camera). The classic self-operated zip line with safety bar that had no lock! Not one, but two Nautic Jets! And two camels! (one camel is off camera) Some monkeys that you could feed. Then it was on to Valkenburg. We found the theme park closed, due to an electricity outage. I wasn't buying it. Valkenburg is a old fortified city with ruins dating to the 12th C. There are ancient caves in the hills. They have a huge sand sculpture display of the Christmas story in these caves. This was the big finale sculpture. We rode up the chair lift to ride the alpine slide! You get one ride down on the right slide... Then you ride up and get another run on the left slide! Fun! Then we checked out the Christmas markets in the caves. There are several of these. It was interesting to shop in a cave, but not really our thing. We were tired and still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home. Tons of tourists. Thank you for sharing our weekend and checking out our report! Happy Holidays! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hhappy Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Looks like you had a lot of fun. Thanks for the report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I knew it was a shooting dark ride, but when I saw this, my jaw dropped open...same ride system as Toy Story Mania???!!!??? Plus,, see the hidden Mickey, um, mouse, hanging out on top of the car! I think almost everyone on the site was caught off guard by this. Christmas shopping in a cave? Well, why not? Looks like a great trip, Martin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy T. Koepp Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Nice TR! All of these parks look beautiful in the winter. It's good to see so many parks having a Christmas opening schedule. Even in Europe! I wish more would do that here in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I'm going to go ahead and call an Aquatrax at Phantasialand replacing the log flumes! Seriously though, I don't think anything has been announced other than they're completely redoing the entire Mexico area of the park including the Log Flumes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginny Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Great report Martin. My first visit to Europe was in the winter and it was a wonderful experience. Since then I've only visited in the summer. I hope to get to Europe in the winter sometime soon, and I especially want to see the Christmas markets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I've always wanted to try food from an automat! It really just seems like an awesome European concept that America has yet to accept over here! Thank you for sharing these great photos with us! I still am dying to get over to Phantasialand, mainly because of the many great things I've heard about Winjas, but the theming looks incredible too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Actually Adam, the US used to have tonnes of automats in the early part of the last century. I believe there's one still in New York. Also, being a fan of William Burroughs, he's mentioned the automats a bit too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 ^I used to go to the one in NYC all the time! Pretty sure these have actually had a resurgence of popularity lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 ^Is the old "Horn & Hardart" still in business? Martin, I kind of like Silbermine, but I share you opinion that it's "PIrates of the Caribbean" with Mexicans. The "haunted ricksaw" is definitely the better of the two dark rides--but did you not ride the classic Hollywood Tour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 Thanks for checking out the report and thanks for the comments everyone! Chuck, no, we missed Hollywood Tour on this trip, and I can't remember if we hit it in '09. I'm blanking. I did enjoy Ghost Rickshaw. Silbermine...I don't know. I guess it just seems old and crappy next to the cool stuff they've built in the last 10 years. If that were my home park growing up I'd probably be swearing by it. Yes, Horn & Hardart was the old automat in NYC. My dad took me when I was a kid but I only remember a display, not working windows. But they're in practically every decent-sized train station in the Netherlands. Regarding winter park visits, hey, wintertime is the best time for airfares to Europe. They just about double in the summer. I didn't know about the refurb for Mexico. I like that the owners of this park are finding it worthwhile to keep throwing money into it. It's already a full-day park and it's great that they've set their own bar so high. I know TPR has visited the hotels but the rates were just too high for us...to me that's more evidence that high quality parks can do better with their own hotels than letting hotel chains feed at the edges of the parking lot. Aquatrax! EMWA, Maus au Chocolat was built with you in mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran1962 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Thanks for the Great TR. I love seeing the European Parks, especially Phantasialand, open in the winter, NOW there's a concept that has yet to catch on here in the states. I would LOVE to ride coasters with winter clothes on, they would give a little extra padding for some of the rought ones, ie Coney Island Cyclone. Sad to say there ar no more Automats in NYC, Horn & Hardart held on as long as they could but they went out of business in the early '90's if not before. There was a new concept one on St. Mark's Place for a short time that sold snacks and finger food but even that didn't last long. I also remember visiting the Old Skool type when I was a kid, they had a wonderful beverage dispensor with a Dolphin head spigot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedmetal Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Great TR. I love seeing the parks that are over seas. The Maus au Chocolat sounds like it has a really cute theme, I love theming. Thank you for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kooky Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I'm going to go ahead and call an Aquatrax at Phantasialand replacing the log flumes! Seriously though, I don't think anything has been announced other than they're completely redoing the entire Mexico area of the park including the Log Flumes. seriously, this what all german coaster enthusiast are waiting for.... the rumors have started to grow, what will come in the huge area were the both logflumes where located. They even are going to destroy the old western city,too, this will lead to a really big new free space in the middle of the park. So because now the park has just mystery river as water ride, this is why many rumors point on a water coaster or a aquatrax ride... but nothing is really known about it, just complete rumors but we all started praying now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Once again, thanks to everyone for the comments. I've learned from Jakob Wahl at IAAPA Europe that Maus au Chocolat was done by the Dutch company ETF and the Belgian company Alterface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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