Photo TR: Holiday Park and Erlebnispark Tripsdrill

[coaster1000]

Hey, guys!

 

So, a few weeks ago I reallyyyyy felt the coaster-cravings starting to set in, and I decided to spontaneously do a mini-trip to Holiday Park, which I hadn't visited yet. The idea was to take the night coach from Berlin to Mannheim, visit Holiday Park during the day, ride a certain orange coaster again and again till collapsing (either me or the ride), and take the night coach back again. About one minute after booking that I decided to add Tripsdrill as well since it wasn't far away, I never went before, heard nice things about it, and because, well, coasters.

 

This is going to be my first trip report by the way, so please bear with the cheesy captions and the apparently also quite cheesy camera lens of my iPhone...

The trip started with a 'nice' and very full 8 hour coach ride from Berlin. Well, at least it was cheap!

After a night with very little sleep (but plenty of nearby bodily odors to enjoy!) I arrived in Mannheim at 5 in the morning.

My home for the next 4 or so hours...

If you have extremely sharp eyes you might spot it.

"Oh, another stupid amusement park! But... wait... that girl looks kind of kinky, though. I wonder what kind of 'holiday' it is they offer......? I... I guess I'll give it a shot then....."

And after what felt like the longest 4 hours in my life, I was finally on my way. The park is just a very short train ride from Mannheim. It was supposed to rain all day...

Ohhhh... Take me already!!!

...annnnnd 12 hours after leaving Berlin, I'm finally here, right for the opening! (Yes, this was literally the entire crowd waiting to get into the park with one of the best coasters in the world 10 minutes before opening. NICE.)

After stuffing my belongings into a fluffy, fluffy hamster filled with pharmaceuticals and gravy it was time to head in! The entrance looks really nice.

Waiting for the rope to drop. That employee could hardly handle the massive crowds just DYING to get into the park.

Oh. My. God. It's time. The moment I have been waiting for.

I felt it calling me, felt its shining orange track attracting me to its grip like a magnet, my heart pounding faster for every inch closer I stepped.

PRAISE THE HEAVENS, I HAVE ARRIVED, AND HERE I STAND BEFORE THEE.

OK, I'll pull myself together for a moment now.

 

Expedition GeForce. I couldn't wait to ride that coaster, and lucky me had the ride pretty much to myself all day. There were always a few rows free. I was on the very first ride of the day, in the very front row. There I randomly met a really nice guy and fellow coaster nerd, Julian, and we stuck together for most of the day. Yay for not being sad and lonely!

The lift is fast and smooth as we know it from Intamin cable lifts, and if you're on the right side of the train it offers great views of the ride to come. And what a ride!

The first drop: In the front row you get nice hangtime to PERFECT floater, all while you feel your body being twisted around its own axis, the track is perfectly heartlined. It basically feels like flying. Now, in the back row, it's a completely different story... The best way to describe that is "HOLYYY SH*T!!!" You get yanked out of your seat and flung violently to the side, just crazy ejector air the whole way. Awesome!

The rest of the ride is all about airtime. The two initial hills after the first drop produce great, glued-to-the-restraint ejector...

...with a pretty forgettable overbank in between.

The next section is also nice, but probably the weakest part of the ride: Another overbank followed by a steep upward turn to a straight slope down, none of which really did much except offering some pretty cool perspectives. Luckily, this is followed by an AWESOME twisted airtime hill, snappy and full of ejector. Pure Stengel.

After another overbank, the ride's finale consists of four perfect bunny hops (with a 90 degree left turn between number 2 and 3), full of airtime.

All in all, Expedition GeForce is an amazing ride and lands solidly in my top 5.

After the initial 6 or 7 rides on EGF it was time to check out the rest of the park. First up was their log flume, Wickie Splash.

It's actually one of the better log flumes I've been on. Three drops, one backwards, and the last one a double down...

The theming was really cute, maybe a bit too "cartoonish" for my taste, though.

Also, I somehow failed to get a shot of the big drop. AWESOME JOB MAN :) :) :) :)

Next up was the Premier launcher Sky Scream.

The queue had great themiAAARGGHGHHHGHHHHHHHHHH

ARRRRGHHHHHHHHHGRRRRRWLLLL!!!!

AAAAHHHNOOOOOOOOO THE HORRORRRRRR :'( :'( :'( oh wait, that's me, tee hee

The ride was really good, but not great. The launches were a bit weak but fun, but the hangtime in the heartline roll was nice and the non-inverting loop was super, too. Definitely worth a few rerides. My only real complain are the annoying restraints with the shin guards, not terrible comfortable. But the ride is quite smooth, so it's ok.

Do you guys notice my captions get less and less funny? Yeah, I'm running out of ideas, so I'm gonna put some bad jokes through Google Translate and post them in Finnish for our Finnish readers.

Miksi kana ylitti tien?

Jos haluat päästä toiselle puolelle!

Mikä on vaarallinen ja keinut puista?

Apina moottorisahalla.

Vanha nainen ostaa pari papukaijat, mutta hän ei voi tunnistaa niiden sukupuolia. Hän viettää viikkoa tuijottaa niiden häkki ja lopulta hän saaliit ne tekevät mitä tulee luonnostaan. Varmistua, että hän ei saa niitä sekaisin uudelleen, hän asettaa hieman valkoinen kaulus ympärillä mies papukaija kaulaan. Myöhemmin, paikallinen pappi vierailee vanha rouva. Miespuolinen papukaija ottaa yhden tarkastella isän kaulus ja sanoo, "Näen hän tarttui sinut sen myös."

 

(By the way. Lovely theming. Must've been a bear sale.)

You're welcome.

 

Next up was this massive erection.

It took me on a nice ride.

They had a nice kiddy area, too, very cartoonish but cute.

The giant flowers kind of remind me of Arthur at Europa Park.

They had this cute little museum about the parks history, too.

The park's mascot, Holly. Look at that lil birdie dude. <3

They have a river rapids ride here as well. It's pretty mediocre, but really wet!

Ok, that's it for now! Check back soon for Holiday Park, part II and the AMAZING park Tripsdrill!!! Comments much appreciated

[Nrthwnd]

Great First Trip Report! You covered everything new, and everything I loved about Holiday park.

And think the theming in the queue for Sky Scream is great. I am definitely looking forward to your Part II.

[ejot]

Great pictures and report! Both of these parks I really want to visit, and cannot wait to see the rest.

 

Being both a coaster and vintage Volkswagen nerd, I can tell a little about that red and tan Beetle in the museum. It is a European-only "Standard" model (as opposed to the worldwide available "Deluxe"). Because that version had no body trim and simpler features, it is hard to tell the exact year from that picture. It's certainly older than 1958, making it a super collectible one! Very, very cool. I wonder it's connection to the park's history.

[BDG]

Being both a coaster and vintage Volkswagen nerd, I can tell a little about that red and tan Beetle in the museum. It is a European-only "Standard" model (as opposed to the worldwide available "Deluxe"). Because that version had no body trim and simpler features, it is hard to tell the exact year from that picture. It's certainly older than 1958, making it a super collectible one! Very, very cool. I wonder it's connection to the park's history.

 

It's a car that belonged to the founders of the park...

 

photo: twins-family, Holly-Info

 

It says "Schneider's City and Circus of the Lilliputians". For many generations, the Schneider-family toured the country with a circus with only little people as the performers. Clowns, magicians, animal handlers, they were all little people.

They continued to perform at the park, where they controversially lived in a small village where people could watch them in between shows. The village was removed about 20 years ago, but the last performer - stage name Goliath - still had a show as recently as 2010.