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Melody's Europe Trips


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Hi All, I just signed up to the forum.

 

My first trip to an amusement park that I actually remember was July 14th 2011, and I went to Alton Towers. Sadly, I was a bit too naive back then, and didn't plan to arrive as early as possible to take queues and the driving time into consideration, and only managed to ride 2 roller coasters that day (and 4 flat rides):

 

I rode Sonic Spinball once (currently known as Spinball Whizzer if I'm not mistaken) which was my absolute favorite of the trip. I loved everything about it, but especially spinning on the overbanked turns. I rated it a full 10 and still recall it fondly to this day.

 

And I rode Oblivion once, which was both exhilarating and underwhelming at the same time, mostly due to the long wait in the queue (I think it was well over an hour, but it's been too long ago to be sure) and the extremely short ride duration. I rated it a 6, and it in fact led me to worry that 'extreme' thrill rides are not for me. Fortunately, I managed to put that worry to bed fully on my last trip to Europe.

 

I also got on Enterprise, which was a great thrill that I loved (also rated it a 10 at the time),

 

Nearby was Submission, a Chance Rides Double Inverter, which was also a great ride. I rated it an 8 at the time.

 

And on Marauder's Mayhem (basic Teacups style carousel) which was a decent way to start the day there. Rating it a 3.

 

The last ride of the day was on Hex, and I kinda resented that we went on that instead of on another coaster. I honestly can't say I appreciated that ride at all, but I hardly remember it either.

 

 

in 2015 I went to my 'local' amusement park. Luna Park Tel Aviv. It's an hour's drive, but I'm sure that's well within the range of what you folks in the States consider a home park. I rode Anaconda, their Vekoma Boomerang 2 or 3 times, and I hardly remember it. It wasn't dreadful, and it wasn't great either. I did get on the chair swing as well and a few other flat rides I don't remember at all.

 

 

About a year ago I started planning a trip to Europe with my girlfriend at the time. We bought flight tickets and booked our hostels/airbnb's and train tickets over a period of three months, with a plan of two weeks spent between Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands, including 2 days at Energylandia and 1 day at Phantasialand, but then... we broke up.

It was up to me whether we'd go together still (we stayed friends), and I agreed we will, under the condition I get to change the itinerary to add more amusement parks.

 

The final plan ended up being a week in Poland (including 2 days at Energylandia), 3 days in Cologne (including 1 night at Aqualand Koln and 2 days at Phantasialand), 1 day in Rust (for Europa Park, obviously), 1 day in France for a photoshoot I had, and lastly 2 days in Amsterdam (I really wanted to include a visit to Toverland too, but no matter how I tried to shift things around, I couldn't make that work).

 

My choice of parks was mainly guided by wanting to try different spinning coasters, cause that was the kind of coaster I knew for sure I would love (remember, I was a bit worried extreme coasters weren't for me thanks to Oblivion).

 

Energylandia has a kiddie spinning coaster (Happy Loops) and a spinning wild mouse (Viking) I was looking forward to, in addition to a very nice array of other coasters and thrill rides (and a very nice waterpark too, but it turned out to be too early in the season for it, so I didn't get to enjoy it, hence why I added Aqualand Koln to the itinerary later).

Phantasialand has a pair of Maurer spinning coasters, so that obviously would be awesome too.

And I could try Mack's brand of it over at their home park, Europa Park.

 

Nevermind that I regretted going with my ex on this trip (who wouldn't go on anything thrilling, btw) , I really enjoyed the parks.

 

 

We got to Katowice Airport around 2am on a Wednsday, went to sleep the night at a nearby airbnb, spent the day in Katowice, and spent the evening getting to Zator. Now, unless you rent a car, that's easier said than done. Even when I was planning the trip, it was hard to find information I could 100% rely on as to how to get there with public transportation, but I researched it pretty thoroughly before we actually flew and had some idea. Including the information here because it might be helpful:

 

We took a bus to Krakow, that part's easy enough, but then at Krakow you have to find the right platform to take a minibus to Zator, and not many of the other drivers or even the information booth were super helpful, until we got closer to the right bay at the right platform, and even there, only about a quarter of the minibuses are the ones that go to Zator.

 

Anyway, we got to our airbnb there, about a mile walk away from the main entrance, and I headed to the park at their opening time the next day.

 

 

First ride of the day? Hyperion? Nope. Formula? Speed? Nope, not those either. I started the day with a ride on Happy Loops, the junior spinning coaster, lol. It was a fun little ride, but of course nowhere near as good as Spinball.

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I rate it a 2.

 

Now the second ride of the day was a totally different matter. I went on the Space Booster, because I knew it has a long cycle with small capacity, so would predictably have very long waits later in the day, and I abso-freaking-lutely loved it. Way more than I would have expected. I don't know why you people don't rave about these! It's a perfect 10 for me.

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The Space booster ended up being my 3rd favorite attraction in the park, and 8th favorite overall ride of the entire trip, and I rode it a total of 4 times.

 

Third ride of the day was Space Gun right beside the Booster, and it was fun, but nothing mindblowing, especially not right after the Booster. I give it a 6.

 

Next up was Speed, the Intamin Water coaster. First up, that elevator lift is a joy to behold, the first drop is very exhilarating, the few curves after it are alright, and the splash at the end is fun. But the operations were fantastic. Like every 15-20 seconds they'd let another car worth of people get on, with no stopping of the cars or anything. Oh, and it's probably the hardest ride to find the entrance to in the whole park.

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I rate Speed a 6/10. It was my 8th favorite in Energylandia, and 20th overall in the trip. I rode it about 8 times.

 

Next was Jungle Adventure, a river rapids ride. I recall being on river rapids and lazy rivers in waterparks here in Israel decades ago and really enjoying them, but Jungle Adventure was pretty boring. Not to the extent that I regretted getting on it, but one ride was enough for me. I rate it a 2.

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Though I did love this themeing they had there (not that it made sense or anything, it's just a wonderful sculpture)

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Same goes for Atlantis Adventure which I did a little later in the day (and didn't take a picture of).

 

And then it was on to Hyperion. The comment I made after the ride: "It's official. Hyperion is the best coaster ever. Funnest ride I've been on. Amazing." Of course I gave it a perfect 10, but I have to retract the comment of it being the best ever, as there were 2 more coasters later in the trip that I loved even more, but it was very hard to rank them, the differences in how much I loved them were minute.

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I rode Hyperion once in the back, twice in the front (right front was the most intense visually, as it seemed like I was riding on air there) and 3 more times in various middle rows. I couldn't tell a big difference between the places in the forces, it was great in every single ride. It was obviously my favorite ride at Energylandia, but less obviously only my 3rd favorite for the whole trip.

 

After that I got on the chair swing to relax from Hyperion. Nothing special to report, enjoyable little thing. 3/10

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Then came Energus - Energylandia's Vekoma Junior - and it was a great ride, I enjoyed it a lot and rode it 4 times total. Of course it has no business being in anyone's top 10 or anything like that, being a junior coaster, but it's perfect for what it tries to be. You should add it to the selection on Coasterpoll.

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I rate it a 9/10, and it was my 7th favorite in the park, and 12th overall in the trip. How can it be that I rate this over Speed? Being that Energus is lower to the ground and more twisty, it just felt more exciting (though Speed definitely gave me a bigger 'Wow' the first time I rode it. No question there.) It uses its limited height and speed better than Speed uses its height and speed, I guess.

 

And then to another nifty ride - RMF Dragon, a Vekoma Suspended Family coaster.

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That was great. Best family coaster of the trip. I gave it a 9/10, ranked it as my 6th favorite in Energylandia, and 11th favorite of the trip overall.

 

Next was the Vekoma Family Boomerang - Bat. Fun, but not enough fun to justify riding it more than once. But it's purple, and that warrants extra points.

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I rated it a 6, and 10th favorite at Energylandia.

 

Then came the horror. Viking. An SBF Visa Group Spinning wild mouse. Without a doubt, the worst ride in the park. It had bulky restraints, tossed you around against them painfully (And I'm usually a fan of pain - definitely not on this coaster though), and you could hear screams from every car on it, screams of pain, not of joy/fear/excitement. My comments after getting off that ride were "This thing shouldn't be here. It ruins the park. Worst ride ever." And I still stand by that. They should tear it down.

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I rate Viking -2/10.

 

After Viking, I got on the Tsunami Drop. Energylandia's humble drop tower.

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As I got off from it, my thoughts were that maybe drop towers aren't for me, and I was considering just skipping the rest of the drop towers on my trip (I'm glad I didn't, though). I rated it 4/10. It made me queasy. Still was exciting and fun, but I didn't wanna get more queasy.

 

So naturally my next ride was the Vekoma SLC.

I was well read and informed on SLCs at this point, so my expectations of Mayan were pretty low (though I also knew Energylandia's SLC is probably one of the best of the SLC's). And it was an awesome ride! So much so that I had a hard time understanding why everyone gives Vekoma so much shit about them (though I believe you guys when you say they're terrible, I bet they weaer with time, plus you probably experienced it with terrible restraints. Like, if I imagine Viking crossed with an SLC I can get the picture of how terrible that would be.)

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I loved Mayan, and I rode it some 6 or 7 times. I rated it a 10, and ranked it as my 2nd favorite in the park, and 5th favorite overall of the trip.

 

From Mayan, it was on to the Aztec Swing. Energylandia's frisbee type ride. Good stuff. I rode it 3 times, but the 3rd time it was starting to make me queasy, so that was enough for me.

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I rated Aztec Swing 7/10 and ranked it 9th in Energylandia.

 

And then I went on Apocalipto, Energylandia's tiny Top Spin, and it was a pure laugh machine. Great cycle, and I laughed for every second of it (all 3 times I rode it). Awesome ride, and currently my favorite top spin (out of only 2, but still, given what the other one was, I'm surprised by this). I think the fact that it's tiny somehow makes it even more fun.

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I rate Apocalpito 9/10 and rank it 7th best in Energylandia, and 17th best ride of the trip overall.

 

The last coaster I rode the first day was Formula, the Vekoma Space Warp. I was worried it would be too short of a ride from having watched POVs of it beforehand, but in actuality it didn't feel too short, it felt just right. It too was an awesome ride.

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I rode it 7 times, gave it a 10/10, 4th favorite in Energylandia, and 9th favorite overall.

 

The first day was a warm day and crowded, but operations were great. The longest wait I had for any ride was probably no more than 15 minutes. The second day was much colder and the park was mostly empty, and it was all about re-rides for the most part. Except for checking out a few things I skipped on the first day, namely:

Tofiffee Gold Mine, a log flume type ride that had me soaked, and was a very wise choice on how to start a cold day. 6/10

4D Magic Cinema, which was underwhelming for me, but my ex absolutely loved it, and until EuroSat and Arthur later in the trip was her favorite ride. 2/10

Mars - a kiddy coaster that was a bit cramped for me, but had really nice theming and statues. 2/10

Frutti Loop - Another kiddy coaster, just as cramped, less wonderful theming. 2/10

Monster Attack - Shooting dark ride, nice statues inside, but boring otherwise. 2/10

Swiss Water Cups - very laid back, cool atmosphere, also happens to be a very long ride. 4/10

Anaconda (another log flume type ride) wasn't running either day.

 

On the first day, they had a malfunction with the lockers, so everyone got to go on all the rides with their bags and put them in the bins (or just ride bags on, depending on the ride). They sorted that malfunction the second day, and were annoyingly trying to require us to buy lockers for every ride (walking around with big headphones on helped with avoiding that a couple of times, but only a couple). On a much less crowded day they were trying to require us to buy lockers under the pretense that it's necessary to speed up operations. Operations were great regardless.

Until my ex arrived in the afternoon of the second day, I was about ready to leave because I didn't want to spend my budget on lockers repeatedly, but when she showed up I could leave my bag with her when going on the thrill rides again, so I stayed till closing again.

 

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I don't know who or what that statue is supposed to be, but it's both cute and imposing. I like it.

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Me after one of the rides on Space Booster.

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Ex trying to make a mess.

 

Lastly, they had some great actors, and this guy in particular was the MVP. The first day he was costumed as a pirate near Speed, swashbuckling with the crowds.

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The second day he was in tribal garb, dancing and interacting with folks near Mayan.

 

I thought I'd write up the whole trip in one post, but this is wayyyy long as it is. The rest will be in a reply.

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Don't worry about your posts being too long. This size post is not excessive for a Trip Report. Energylandia has matured enough that many people (including myself) are visiting Poland this summer. You are doing a good job, keep up the good work. Yes, it does take more time that anticipated to tell a good story.

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Thanks for the replies and the appreciation, folks. Just what I needed to write the rest of the report.

 

After the two days at Energylandia, we spent another night in Zator before continuing on to Krakow (which was absolutely gorgeous, btw. Most beautiful city I've seen in my life so far), and we stayed there for two days, including a night at Harris Piano Jazz Bar for a great jazz jam. From there on we went to Warsaw, but because of my ex's utter lack of a sense of direction (she went to the center of town to buy some stuff and got lost on the way back) we missed the train, I had to books us a later train, and it turned out we barely got to see any of Warsaw, unfortunately. Next day we caught our flight to Cologne.

 

As soon as we checked in at the hostel (which was around 7pm), I was eager to go to Aqualand Koln and try out all those nifty slides that I've never had the chance to before, especially the one with the trapdoor and loop - From POV's of all the thrill rides in all of these parks, I knew that would be the scariest one for me, and indeed I screamed my damn head off the first time I went down that one.

 

I went on each slide at least 3 times. Surprisingly the water coaster was less thrilling than I expected it to be. Still good fun, but not even close to being my favorite of the bunch they have there. The boomerang slide was my least favorite and scariest to repeat, as I felt I was sliding off the tube in the beginning each time.

 

I loved the tube slides that had multiple colors and dark sections. That also surprised me, as I didn't figure the aesthetics of the slides would have that big of a bearing on my enjoyment of them. And I loved the trapdoor+loop slide, but the reason I stopped after 4 goes on it was that it was a bit of a headbanger at the end. The flow of the water and my momentum throwing me up a bit against the top of the slide at its end, and I didn't wanna get too much of a headache.

I very much wanted to be filmed on that slide, especially on my first time, but they didn't allow it unfortunately.

 

Anyway, I spent 2 hours at the park nonstop climbing up and sliding down. I must've waited a total of 5 minutes in that duration combined, but I had my fill by then, and was kinda tired from the endless climbing.

I didn't rate or rank the slides, but none of them would've made my top 20 overall attractions anyway.

 

Next day was the time for Phantasialand.

I didn't take as many photos there as I did in Energylandia, mostly because I got to film myself on all of the rides (I didn't want to record POV's, as they wouldn't be anywhere near as good as what's already available on youtube, but I did want selfie videos as memorabilia from the trip, and I'm happy to say I got plenty of that.

 

First ride of the day was Wellenflug, which was a great chair swing, much better than the one at Energylandia, thanks to being slightly higher and having great water jets below the chairs.

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I rated it a 6, and 10th favorite at the park.

 

And the next one after that was Black Mamba. I thought I went into the single rider line, but figured out a little after that it was actually the line for a front row seat, oh well. It was a pretty long wait, around 30 minutes or so, but well worth it. It's pretty cool to have my first experience it be on the front row, and it was a hell of an experience. Amazing and intense ride, I absolutely loved it. It instantly jumped to being my favorite ride of the trip, but of course that was soon going to change.

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I rated it 10/10, and ranked it 2nd favorite in the park, and 4th favorite overall. I rode it 8 times if not more.

 

Next I walked through Hotel Tartuff, which was about as fun as I expected. I rated it 4/10, and ranked it 14th at the park.

 

After that, I went on Talocan, with pretty high expectations. I thought it's probably the best Top Spin in the world, but actually, despite the size and the great spectacle, it turns out I found Apocalipto at Energylandia just much more fun.

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I rode it 3 times total. Once in the back and twice in the front, and I rated it 7/10, and ranked it 8th favorite in the park.

 

Next came Colorado Adventure, and damn, that was one great ride, well beyond what I expected. Another great Vekoma, and much more thrilling than I thought before getting on it. I didn't take a picture of the ride itself unfortunately, but I did snap one from an early part of the queue (which was moving really fast, btw, well done on them for those operations).

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I rode it twice (the queue was too long to do it more, and I prefered to ride other rides more), rated it 9/10, ranked it 3rd in the park, and 10th overall.

 

And next was...

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That handsome devil. That was the first picture I took of Taron. An absolutely amazing coaster. I must've rode it at least 10 times, and loved every second of it. Favorite moment? The second launch. ♥

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Gorgeous. Obviously it got 10/10, and easily my absolute favorite at the park, but... only #2 overall (I remind you, the differences between how much I loved each in my top 3 were practically nothing).

 

After that it was time to cool down (in the freezing weather) on Chiapas. (such a fine name to say)

I'm sure I would've liked it more if it hasn't been freezing cold, but it was fun enough even like that. It's a great layout, with some fun little sections and great drops.

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Oh, and the second day at Phantasialand, I got on it again (despite it being even colder that day!) because I knew I would've scolded myself later for skipping out on it. I would've regretted not getting on it that second time more than I regretted catching a cold.

I rated Chiapas 7/10 and ranked it 7th in the park.

 

Can I reiterate just how breathtakingly gorgeous Taron is?

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I hit up Raik after that, and actually found that I enjoyed Boomerang at Energylandia more, surprisingly. 1 ride was enough, I rated it 5/10, and ranked it 12th in Phantasialand.

 

Anyways, next I finally got to the Winja's, which if you recall my love for Spinball - were my biggest reason for coming to Phantasialand. 2 spinning Maurers for the price of one amusement park? Deal.

But in reality, after amazing coasters such as Taron, Hyperion, and Black Mamba... I wasn't as wowed by the Winja's. I loved their trick tracks, awesome little additions to the layout, but I wonder. Is it possible Spinball has a better layout? Or is it just nostalgia glasses+the benefit of the new perspective now that I've ridden much greater coasters?

Sadly I only got to ride Winja's Fear once, the line for it was much longer than for Force, and the second day (where I meant to ride it a few more times) it was down for maintenance the whole day. I did ride WInja's Force 5 times though.

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I rated them both 9/10, ranked them 4th and 5th in the park, and 14th and 15th overall (with Winja's Fear getting the edge).

 

That was it for day 1 at Phantasialand.

On day 2 I caught up with the few rides I didn't do the first day and did re-ridese the rest of the day, but after the first hour in the park, I told myself "Just 2-3 more rides and I'll go home to rest." The funny thing is I kept repeating that to myself the entire day. Ended up leaving only when they closed at 6pm.

 

The rides I did only on the second day:

Mystery Castle. Wow, so much more awesome than I thought it'd be, especially given my poor reaction to the drop tower at Energylandia, I was so glad I tried it that I ran right back to ride it again (and rode it 2 more times later in the day). Loved the airtime on it, and was so unprepared to being lifted up so quickly. The preshow was nifty too, including scare actors who were brilliant early in the queue, and an animatronic that looks a bit like Einstein rambling on and on (in German though, so I couldn't tell what any of it was about), but really, that animatronic went on and on for what felt like 5 minutes. I would've preferred to get straight to the ride.

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I rated Mystery Castle 8/10 and ranked it 6th at the park.

 

River Quest: Got totally drenched, great ride, and again brilliant of me to go on a wet ride on a freezing day. Would do it again.

Rode it once, rated it 6/10, ranked it 9th in the park.

 

Feng Ju Palace: Same kinda ride as Hex at Alton Towers, but at least now I wasn't biased against it. It had a very nifty preshow with a mystic martial art performance (pretty long one at that) with no dialogue, and the ride itself was fun.

I rated it 5/10 and ranked it 11th at the park.

 

Wakobato: Near the end of the day, despite having walked the entire day and my legs being half dead by then, I went for a little spin on the pedal boat among the ducks. Enjoyed the atmosphere, and I was happy that ride was there, but really, it's not the best kind of ride when you're on your own.

I rated it 4/10 and ranked it 13th at the park.

 

Lastly, I went on Maus Au Chocolat. A shooty dark ride which was not my kinda thing at all. Still, rated it 3/10, but ranked it 15th (last) in the park.

 

And just another photo of Taron, because... well, just because.

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Great report, Melody.. really enjoyed reading it.

 

LOL. . you wouldn't have worried if yours was too long, if you've read some of my past TRs. . LOL

 

(tho I will say that I would guess lots of folks skip the type in my long ones, and just look at the pics. . so maybe long does work against others "reading" a TR, but I'm sure everyone enjoys looking at the pictures regardless).

 

and as noted, I've loved reading and looking at the pics you've posted, so thanks for sharing!

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Thanks bert.

 

And now for the last leg of my April-May trip, at least as far as amusement parks go:

 

After the second day at Phantasialand we had to wake up really early to catch the train to Rust, like around 4am early, and it was a Saturday. We made it into the park fine and not long after it opened for the day. Unfortunately it was a really crowded day, but what can you expect on a Saturday. The Germans obviously really don't give a crap how cold it is (same goes for Phantasialand). The temperature that day was 1 degree celsius all day, including quite a bit of rain.

 

I made a beeline straight to Wodan, eager to ride my first wooden coaster ever. I expected it to feel vastly different to all of the other coasters I've ridden, but was surprised it didn't feel all that different at all. I was lucky to get a front seat despite coming from the single rider line.

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I enjoyed the ride. On its own merits, I loved it, and it's easily another one of the best rides of the trip, but I was still a little underwhelmed not to have felt it be that hugely different to steel coasters. I rated it 10/10, ranked it 2nd in the park, and 6th overall.

 

And then it was on to Blue Fire right next to it.

Blue Fire was pure distilled fun. I loved every second of it, and just had to get another ride on it right afterwards, and it became my favorite ride of the trip, and so far, my favorite coaster ever. I don't know exactly what it is about it, I just think the layout is perfect. Fantastic elements and exactly the right amount of spacing between elements.

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So as I said: 10/10, best in park, and best overall.

 

After that I got back towards the main entrance plaza to join up with my ex and ride some things together.

Volo Da Vinci - I liked the ride vehicles and the atmosphere, but of course it's not thrilling at all. 2/10, 11th at the park.

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Flying Dutchman - I can barely recall it. Wasn't really noteworthy or particularly fun. 2/10, 12th (last place) in the park.

 

EuroSat CanCan - I enjoyed it, but it doesn't rush back to mind as a favorite. My Ex absolutely loved it and had 3 or 4 rerides on it (I rode it twice). I rated it 9/10, ranked it 6th at the park and 18th overall.

 

Then I went off on my own just for one ride on Silver Star. Unfortunately, the rain was disrupting operations, and by the time I was 2-3 trains away from getting on, they shut it down. That was after about 40 minutes of waiting. No one at that part of the queue was budging to turn back though. 5 minute passed and they sent 2 more trains, so yay, I'm next in line (for a last row seat, btw), but... they shut it down again. I waited 10 minutes and was about to give up (not for lack of patience, but who knows how long it'd take them to send more trains, and I'd rather ride than stand in line), but as I said, no one in the queue behind me was turning back, and I definitely didn't want to wade my way back through all of those crowds. I asked the ride ops if they can at least let me through to the ride exit, and they checked with their supervisor, and the answer was no. So I waited more. The line behind me finally started to turn back slowly, and then Silver Star was ready for another train, so I got on.

It was heavily raining during that ride, and I had to hide under my coat's hat, because the rain was quite painful at those speeds. I don't recall the ride fondly because of the long wait and the rain, but watching my selfie POV I can see I still had a great time on it.

I rated Silver Star 10/10, ranked it 3rd in the park and 7th overall. It might have gotten better in my mind if it wasn't for the wait and the rain.

 

Matterhorn Blitz - Sadly I have neither pics nor videos from it. I recall it being fun, but not noteworthy enough, I hardly remember the ride. I rated it 9/10, ranked it 5th at the park, and 16th overall.

 

Soccer Bumper Cars - Fun, but not as fun as I expected it to be. It's been ages since I rode any bumper cars, and I expected them to be more controllable than they are. 4/10, 9th at the park.

 

Euro Mir - I enjoyed it, but my ex took most of my attention during the ride, having nearly a panic attack on it (but she was fine as soon as we got off).

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I rated it 9/10, ranked it 4th in the park, and 13th overall.

 

Pegasus - We rode Pegasus a bunch of times. Ex loved it, I liked it. I rated it 9/10, ranked it 7th in the park, and 19th overall.

 

Schweizer Bobbahn - We looked for this one for so long. We must've sunk at least half an hour trying to find it (and getting sidetracked to some of the others I've written about above). It's another one I was very much looking forward to feel how different it is. It didn't really meet my expectations, being too slow for my taste and maybe too short a layout as well, but I did like the general idea of the coaster type and how the feeling on it differs from others. I rated it 8/10 and ranked it 8th in the park.

 

Lastly, Arthur. It looks great, and I can understand why that ride system won awards, but I actually only enjoyed one or two short parts of the ride where it is outside and travelling a little faster than it does the rest of the ride. My ex absolutely loved it on the other hand, and it was hands down her favorite attraction of the entire trip.

IMG-20190504-162123.jpg

I rated it 4/10 and ranked it 10th in the park.

 

It was too cold for me to do any of the water rides. I would've loved more re-rides on Blue Fire, Wodan, and Silver Star, but the queues were too long. I got on to one last ride on Blue Fire, and then we left (an hour before the minimum closing time, because my ex has been begging for nearly an hour that we'll leave to get away from the cold).

 

 

Overall ranking:

1. Blue Fire (Europa Park)

2. Taron (Phantasialand)

3. Hyperion (Energylandia)

4. Black Mamba (Phantasialand)

5. Mayan (Energylandia)

6. Wodan (Europa Park)

7. Silver Star (Europa Park)

8. Space Booster (Enrgylandia)

9. Formula (Energylandia)

10. Colorado Adventure (Phantasialand)

11. RMF Dragon (Energylandia)

12. Energus (Energylandia)

13. Euro Mir (Europa Park)

14. Winja's Fear (Phantasialand)

15. Winja's Force (Phantasialand)

16. Matterhorn Blitz (Europa Park)

17. Apocalipto (tiny Top Spin, Energylandia)

18. Eurosat (Europa Park)

19. Pegasus (Europa Park)

20. Speed (Energylandia)

 

Based on recollections alone, Sonic Spinball would've made the #10 spot there. Oblivion wouldn't have made the top 20.

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That's the end of the Trip Report for now, but... I did Phantasialand and Europa Park on a yearly ticket (to Phantasialand), having considered in advance that if I enjoy the trip, I might return to Germany in October for Essen Spiel (board game convention) and more rides...

 

And yeah, I did enjoy it enough to return. I've just finished planning my trip for October.

Now to be honest I wanted to go to the States more, but I can't save up enough money for that to be realistic (damn your lack of public transport. If that were available at a realistic price, I might've been able to make it). But just in case you're curious, if I would've been able to make it to the States in October, my plan would've been to hit up: SFFT (2 days), SFOT (2 days), Cedar Point (3 days), SFMM (4 days), Knott's (2 days), SFDK, and CGA.

Total bucket list. Maybe next year or in 2 years time, in which case I'll probably manage to shove more awesome parks to the itinerary somehow.

 

Instead, here's the plan for October, which I'll start buying the tickets for next month:

Land in Cologne on the evening of the 21st, enjoy Phantasialand on the 22nd and 23rd, visit Essen on the 24th and 25th, spent the 26th at Toverland (which will be open 10:00-23:00 thanks to Halloween and it being a Saturday, but I hope it won't be packed to the brim and lines will be managable), and the 27th at Walibi Holland especially for their RMC. They'll also be open till late for Halloween.

 

If it wasn't for Walibi Holland's new RMC, I wouldn't do this trip.

I also had some alternative itineraries that included Liseberg (my Phantasialand yearly ticket grants me a one time visit there too) and Tivoli Gardens in addition, but they turned out too expensive for me at the moment. Maybe some time in the future, like, perhaps in conjunction with my next visit to Energylandia? (sometime after Zadra opens. )

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