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Photo TR: Canobie Coaster's 2017 Foreign Adventures


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Good to know. I'm officially adding Chessington to my UK itinerary, though we'll see what happens between now and then. That's a trip for when the kids are out of the house, and our youngest is in kindergarten.

 

It's definitely behind the other 3 I visited, but still worth visiting if you have time.

 

Another great chapter! Too bad Vampire isn't as good as it should be. Such a unique ride but it never seemed like it could hold a candle to Bat/Top Gun/Vortex.

 

Thanks! If the lifts were just a bit higher to actually get speed through the layout, it has the right setting to be as good as those two.

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I've been to Phantasialand three times over the years, and Geister Rickshaw looks a bit more moth-eaten each time. I wonder how much longer they plan to keep it. I haven't been to Chessington since 2006, but I liked Vampire back then.

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You did indeed take a photo of Vampire's old entrance. A lot of the original, beautiful theming has been removed - especially when they added the floorless trains.

 

It has always been more of a majestic ride compared to the likes of Big Bad Wolf, Ninja etc - but was smoother with the original Arrow trains. It used to run three trains and dispatch every 40 seconds or so - a far cry from what it will do now.

 

I wish Chessington would take a leaf out of Phantasialand's book - they are similar size parks, both have tough restrictions in place with the neighbours, and generally both attract a wide audience. The quality of your day out must have been very different.

 

Great report!

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^It has some pretty cool scenes, but I noticed they're a bit uptight about taking photos on the ride now (didn't used to be).

 

I didn't see signs saying you couldn't but I also didn't try on that one.

 

You did indeed take a photo of Vampire's old entrance. A lot of the original, beautiful theming has been removed - especially when they added the floorless trains.

 

It has always been more of a majestic ride compared to the likes of Big Bad Wolf, Ninja etc - but was smoother with the original Arrow trains. It used to run three trains and dispatch every 40 seconds or so - a far cry from what it will do now.

 

I wish Chessington would take a leaf out of Phantasialand's book - they are similar size parks, both have tough restrictions in place with the neighbours, and generally both attract a wide audience. The quality of your day out must have been very different.

 

Great report!

 

Thanks! Do you know why they moved away from that beautiful entrance? It looks so odd just remaining there all boarded up.

 

Back then, to me the ride was great, but it was always the loading area

that got to me - total immersion into the Vampire's "Lair". A nice Disney style touch.

 

Nice TR of Chessington!

 

Thanks! It's a shame most of the wait takes place outside instead of inside Dracula's castle, but at least it affords good views of the coaster.

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^It has some pretty cool scenes, but I noticed they're a bit uptight about taking photos on the ride now (didn't used to be).

 

I didn't see signs saying you couldn't but I also didn't try on that one.

 

 

Yep, no signs, but I was asked to put my camera away.

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Hopefully you will be able to come back to ride Taron with better weather. Your whole group seems to have a slightly below expectations experience with the ride and I think it has to do with the weather (a bit). When it's warm it can go from nice to amazing.

 

Nice report.

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NICE TR. Oktoberfest was a great trip and I'm so glad I did it. I couldn't get as high as you or complete full rotations on those self-powered swinging cage rides at Oktoberfest, but I sure tried.

 

When I do a full UK trip (which I eventually will do) I'll definitely do Chessington World Adventures and Thrope Park along with Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but if I were doing a day trip from London I'd pick Thrope Park over Chessington (although I did sightseeing when I ended off my trip in London).

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btw since you asked why they named Colorado the Michael Jackson Thrill Ride.

Michael was a big fan of Phantasialand so they hooked him up to name the upcoming coaster after him if he comes to the opening.

 

Here is some footage of it, pretty funny: [youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]
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  • 3 weeks later...

Crazy Mountain Coaster/Culture Day

 

Being a resident of New England, I have my fair share of mountain coasters in New England. I've also ridden the many down in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg as well as a few others in my travels. But nothing could prepare me for what was hiding in Bavaria. What if I told you there was an Alpine Coaster longer than the Beast?

 

"Well of course it's longer, all alpine slides have those ridiculously long lift hills."

 

Except this one doesn't have a lift hill. The track length and ride time is longer than the Beast and it doesn't even have a lift hill. Let that sink in for a minute. It's mind-boggling.

 

Where is this 8000 foot long mountain coaster? Somewhere in Bavaria at a place called Kolbensattel. I only know that because of the park's billboard. I had zero cell service leading up to the park, but that was perfectly fine by me since the drive was scenic. At one point we pulled over and had this view waiting for us!

 

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How could you focus on Facebook or Snapchat when this was outside your window?

Back to the coaster (to me it's one but to each their own) before I lose everyone. So if there's no lift, how do you get to the top? It was coasterbill's dream. The only way to access the station is a 10 minute long sky ride up the mountain. Sky rides up mountains are amazing. If only a certain regional park in New England had one... Oh wait, the park closed it because people find it difficult to sit in a seat and not try to kill themselves.

 

While the sky ride didn't get more than 20-25 feet above the ground at any point, I knew we getting higher than James Franco. About halfway up, my ears popped. I don't quite know what this coaster's elevation is, but I'd be willing to bet it's technically taller than Top Thrill Dragster or Kingda Ka.

 

Another cool tidbit about this coaster is that you aren't the only one who gets to enjoy the sky ride; the sleds get to enjoy it as well. It's similar to the system mountain resorts use to return the sleds on their alpine slides.

 

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Flashbacks to Lake Compounce.

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Those sleds got ERT in the morning and were already waiting for us when we reached the top.

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And in case the epic mountain coaster isn't enough, they also have a ropes course and ziplines.

The descent took four minutes and that was without me touching the brake once. If you went slow to admire the views (which you could easily do on this thing thanks to its amazing location), I honestly have no clue how long it could take to reach the bottom. But I much prefer to take in my views going 30 miles per hour testing the engineering behind those tiny little sleds.

 

Not only is it insanely long, but it's incredibly thrilling as well. Prior to riding this one, my favorite mountain coaster was the one at Attitash. I still think Attitash's is just a hair more intense, but this one is about four times longer. I kept thinking each turn would be the last, but then I'd peer down the mountain and see just how tiny that Bavarian village still looked.

 

A few of the turns in particular were pretty aggressive. I distinctly remember one about halfway through the ride that was an S-bend with a pretty steep angle of descent. I thought for a second about hitting the brakes, but thought better. If I was going to go out, that honestly wouldn't be a bad way to do so. But I survived and was treated to some insane laterals. There was also another really tall drop earlier in the ride that dropped into a tunnel. That's something I don't necessarily expect on a normal coaster, let alone a mountain coaster.

 

It's off the beaten path for many, but if you find yourself in Bavaria, do not miss this mountain coaster. I was interested to see how it would rank when I compared it to other coasters I've ridden. When I asked myself the question would I rather ride this insane mountain coaster or Coaster X, I found the mountain coaster won more often than not. Honestly, it's probably better than 90% of the coasters I've ridden. This mountain coaster is the whole package. 10 out of 10

 

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It looks so unassuming.

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But then it takes 4 minutes to reach this point, assuming you don't touch the brakes once.

I could have ridden the mountain coaster alone and had a marvelous day, but we also got to see two palaces/castles. The first was Linderhof Palace. The palace was beautiful, but our tour guide (not Robb and Elissa) made it a point to mention just how fantastic the fountains were. Maybe fountains are rarer than unicorns in Germany because that's the only possibly explanation why our tour guide was so madly in love with this fountain. To me, it looked no different than a geyser on a lazy river or river rapids ride.

 

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I'd say Yellowstone's Old Faithful is better, but that's a bit ominous now that there's the supervolcano cooking beneath it.

From a cultural standpoint, the highlight of the day was Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle was the inspiration for Disneyland's castle, except this one is actually tall. The castle really needs to be seen to believed. Pictures do not do it justice. The castle looks straight out of a movie and it looks so grandiose that it doesn't even look real.

 

I wish I could say the inside was as impressive, but it was like opening a bag of oreos and only finding one on the inside. The castle was being built by King Ludwig, a king with a fetish for swans and a disdain for people. He hated people so much that he didn't want to interact with people. Just how far did he go to avoid talking to the servants? Instead of setting the table for him, they raised the table from the floor below via a pulley system.

 

But back to King Ludwig. You could say he was an odd duck. People back in his day clearly thought so too as he was declared insane and deemed unfit to rule. He mysteriously died shortly thereafter, but his castle was never finished. The tour goes through maybe 4-5 finished rooms (with a ton of swans), but the rest of the castle is unfinished and abandoned.

 

I'd say it was like the American Dream mall though that project has miraculously seen the light of day. I'd definitely go look at Neuschwanstein Castle again, but I probably would skip out on the tour in favor of admiring it from the outside. Oh and the best place to see the bridge is on a very narrow suspension bridge a good 200-300 feet above a gorge. You could say the view was gorgeous.

 

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The perfect screensaver/desktop background.

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