Germany Oct. 17' with CoasterForce! Phanta, MPG, Heide & Hansa

[Coaster Hipster]

I've had a nice and cheerful experience with the guys at CoasterForce at Parc Astérix, so I decided to join them for another, bigger trip! This time I would also discover 3 new parks in Germany, in addition to a return to Phantasialand...


Summary

Part 0: Phantasialand - Return of Taron
Part 1: Movie Park Germany - Star Trek is actually underrated!
Part 2: Heide Park - My first Wing Coaster
Part 3: Hansa Park - Lovely management and stunning Kärnan

Part 0: Phantasialand

Although not an official part of GhosterForce, many people from CF added a stop to Phanta before the main event. The temptation to return there and get more night Taron craze was too much!

One of my car-mates was Rachel, who was visiting the park for her first time, and her excitement was infectious! It's always a special feeling for me to return there and enjoy unique creative theming and rides, but to share the experience with someone who's never visited before added to my joy and certainly made me proud of my favourite park We also met CSLKennyNI, which was a real pleasure. Really cool guy with great insights on the park and the German coasters in general

Starting with Maus au Chocolat allowed us to avoid long lines there, and therefore the high-pitch mice noises didn't get too annoying. I find this shooter dark-ride to be a lot of fun, despite the shoulder pain it indulges and despite my actually terrible aiming skills!

 

The walk to Wuze Town includes a stopover near the much-discussed F.L.Y. sign. Winjas was good family fun as usual. It has a lot of gimmicks, but it truly adds to the experience instead of being a marketing overhype. Only complaint is that the cars are really narrow, even for a skinny dude like me :eek:

We cleared off this side of the park with two of its more dated rides: Temple of the Night Hawk and Hollywood Tour. I suppose that, along the Berlin entrance, Phantasialand will work on refurbishing this zone to bring it to the standards of the park. Temple is actually fairly smooth and has some decent pace, but its family-ish layout calls for much more theming than a ride in the complete dark with no effects whatsoever.

Chiapas is for me what a flume ride should be. Gorgeous, immersive theming and music that keeps you entertaining throughout. The disco part never ceases to keep me excited!

After that, I split a while from the group to take more pictures and off-ride videos, we rejoined for Mystery Castle. The launch took me by surprise as I was expecting some more wait before the boost kicks off. I know it's part of the theming, but I wish it weren't so dark during the actual ride experience, so you could see the others as you drop and launch up again during the short program. Still a creative and exciting take on the usual drop tower/space shot type of attraction!

 

We walked through the Klugheim zone but did not ride the gem Intamin yet. Not exactly sure how we resisted the temptation with so many breathtaking interactions with the ride, but I also remember Rachel really really wanted to make Taron her #300!

Colorado Adventure was I believe her final stepping stone before reaching 300. I still like this Mine Train very much, the long layout provides a enjoyable ride. However, Big Thunder Mountain in Paris did have more of a wild out-of-control feel since its rehab. The banking on Colorado is funky at times. You have some wonky laterals which gets really fun during the dark section. Not having hard OTSR on an old Vekoma (and no inversions either) really helps I suppose!

Can we ride Taron now then? Yessss!!!

After that exhilarating Night ERT last April, I was curious to ride again the much-praised Intamin Blitz. Predictably, it wasn't as intense at noon, but Taron still surprises me, notably with the wicked change of direction right after the first airtime hill! Really snappy twist coming after a dive under some building so you can't really see it coming if you're not familiar with the layout.

I split again from the group for the launch break. I was planning to shoot more videos of Taron, but a 5 minutes wait for single riders decided otherwise... Not gonna refuse such a treat! Did 3 more solo rides then, and also grabbed a front row ride on Raik, which does have a twisty bit of its own. It's a cool extra really

Black Mamba at the front was still remarkably forceful. The layout is kinda generic, but very enjoyable nonetheless. The drum beat playing as the train exits the station always makes me more excited! Did a couple more re-rides later in the day which confirmed my positive thoughts about the Invert.

I somehow forgot to take a picture of Talocan on fire. Such a spectacular thrill ride and once again, the scenery and atmosphere really enhance the experience there!

Onto the final "new" attraction of the day: I never did Hotel Tartuff in 7 previous visits to Phantasialand. :eek: It's very easy to miss it and mistake it for yet another merch store in the Main Street. The CF lively atmosphere made the Fun House quite fun actually!

The rest of the day was re-rides so let's skip to the most exciting part...

Exclusive rides on Taron for the hotel guests, yay! I have to say, while the coaster does feel less borderline insane than before, I still get the adrenaline rush that makes me run in excitement from the station exit to the ride's gates all across the empty line again and again. The epic fanfare, the magnetic roars, and a twisty fast-paced layout really kept me excited during the whole hour. I ended up riding Taron 10 times during that session, and 15 times the day overall. Phantasialand really had a superb idea to make this hotel ERT, that's a brilliant piece of marketing there!

 

[Guest 239]

Great pictures Hipster! Phantasialand is up there on my theme park bucket list. It seems like one of the few parks that has fully embraced themeing and high intensity thrills.

Looking forward to the rest!

[Coaster Hipster]

On 19/10/2017 at 3:14 AM, CaptainLazerGuns said:

Great pictures Hipster! Phantasialand is up there on my theme park bucket list. It seems like one of the few parks that has fully embraced themeing and high intensity thrills.

Looking forward to the rest!

Thanks I agree about Phanta, the mix of exciting coasters/flat rides and theming is truly unique and breathtaking. Really looking forward to F.L.Y. too, Vekoma is doing great things at the moment and a collab with Phantasialand could do fireworks!
 

Part 1: Movie Park Germany

Like many others, I did not have particularly high expectations for this park - especially visiting right after Phantasialand. For years, Movie Park stood out for the wrong reasons (a horrible SLC and Bandit), but at least Star Trek raised my curiosity.

Although the plaza features a bizarre sight mixing Star Trek with a volcano top, I actually liked the Main Street itself. Decent looking Hollywood pastiche stuff.

MP Xpress had a distinct nasty smell that joined the brutal headbanging usually found on most SLC. It's like the owners thought 'How can we make this worse?'

I actually had some fun moments on Bandit! It does have a very prominent rattle at many moments, but the pacing is good and the ride convey an exciting 'out-of-control' feel akin to the best woodies. Oh and the lift hill chain is so fast, you would think you're on an Intamin cable-thing :eek: (Also did the floorless drop tower nearby, which did hurt my nuts too)

Crazy Surfer has a nice theme idea - riding a wave and stuff - but there's not much actual scenery. I had luck with the seat choosing as I got to experience the spikes facing the disappearing track in front of me

Some parts feel empty, but overall Movie Park did a good job with the entrance, queue and station scenery work. Late in the day, the employee doing the animation in the command room before the station was awesome! Really charismatic and engaging. Wish I filmed the moment.

Same inversion - three different angles. Star Trek was in reality a lot of fun! Tame first launch for sure, but the backwards climb into the spike is quite forceful and provides some exciting weird laterals and floaty forces. Backseat is definitely better to experience that funky spike! The relatively slow pacing provides some good hangtime throughout the rest of the layout, and the bunny hops section is sketchy but quite exciting too. That part almost feels like a wooden coaster and delivers several good pops of ejector. Excellent addition to the park really!

 

I didn't even know Van Helsing existed. Cool Gerstlauer Bobsled with a fairly unusual layout Good thing that the best two coasters of the park are near each other, so you don't have to return to that dreadful SLC zone again.

Time to tick off the remaining 3 creds of the park. Not much to say about Mission to Mars (top), but Ghost Chasers did give me an exhilarating moment! Basically, I'm quite skinny, and was riding with CoasterForce legend Kenny - who is quite the opposite of skinny. That left me with a lot of space betweem my legs and the lap bar, which delivered a nice surprise float during the big drop! Awesome moment on a generic Wild Mouse :eek:

I was worried about Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer's transportable-style supports, but the ride was quite enjoyable family fun. Decent gliding sensation and speed.

It's quite hard to get decent pictures of Mystery River. The ride itself has surprising speed for a Rapids ride. Theming really feel cardboard-y however
The local Shoot-the-Chute is named Bermuda Triangle and is themed around... sci-fi volcano I guess? I got front seat and that was really wet... which sucks considering my aversion for water rides. I really wished I did make that poncho investment at Phantasialand ^^

The Halloween Horror maze has an immersive and tense atmosphere, but overly relies on jumpscares in my opinion. It does keep you on your nerve all the way, but gets repetitive towards the end.

I, like some others, was quite excited for my night ride on Bandit. Some were even queuing for the second-to-last row with anticipation. The actual ride was even wilder, but it gave me substantial back pain for the rest of the night :eek:

At this point, some in the group went for more scare mazes, while I split off for more Star Trek goodness!

I had a fun day at Movie Park Germany really! I wasn't too bothered by the lacklustre stuff and enjoyed a lot Van Helsing and Star Trek. I think some of the negative image around the park is due to having such impressive competition around. Having low expectations probably help, but this park really has some fun and nice bits

[Wil_i_am_not]

We actually had a Bermuda Triangle ride here in Australia at Sea World! Keen to know how the Movie Park version rode, how the theming was, etc.