Hey y'all. :}
Is everyone having a good time?! It's been a long time since we left home! And there's still amazing park shenanigans to be had! Woohoo!
First up is Heide-Park Soltau. It's one of Germany's most prominent parks & belongs to the prestigious Tussaud's Group! This is evidenced by great ride merchandise and higher-than-average food prices! :P
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| The way to ERT is through the hotel's entrance to Heide-Park! |
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| Like Europa Park, we find ourselves entering at the back of the park. |
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| There's a beautiful hotel-guest-only courtyard inside of Heide-Park. |
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| First stop: The infamous Intamin Colossos! |
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| Colossos is a member of Intamin's elite class of 4 prefabricated wooden coasters. |
Intamin's prefab woodies (also known as plug-and-play woodies) are odd creatures. Unlike traditional wooden coasters that use track made of cut pieces of lumber, prefab woodies use pieces of track made of several thin slices of lumber laminated together & capped with puzzle-like end pieces (hence the plug-and-play name). The result is an ultra smooth and fast wooden coaster. While effective and sturdy, plug-and-play track is expensive, and the recent boom in Rocky Mountain wood/steel hybrid coasters seems to have monopolized the mega-woodie market. These and other reasons contribute to why there are only 4 of these brilliant beasts.
Colossos's popular sibling, El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure, was on most everyone's minds when approaching Colossos. I, however, was among the small fraction of people who haven't ridden El Toro. My mind was on a lesser-known member of the elite 4, Balder at Liseberg: My #2 wooden coaster!
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| My hopes were high for Colossos, but unfortunately it didn't quite reach expectations. |
Colossos is the first of the 4 Intamin prefabs. I would guess that they got progressively better, with most people ranking El Toro above Balder and Balder above Colossos. Though an excellent ride in its own right, Colossos had some big shoes to fill. In the end, the compact and petit Balder definitely outranks its colossal German sibling. Still, it's a great 108th credit of my Year of 100 ??? Coasters!
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| Switching gears a little bit, now. |
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| Enter: Krake, a very special B&M Dive Machine. |
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| For the 2nd time today, I find myself with an uncommon perspective when compared to the other ACErs on the tour. |
Due to the fact that I have never been to Great Britain, China, Taiwan, or either of the Busch Gardens parks, Krake would end up being my first B&M Dive Machine! Once again I find myself among a small fraction of ACErs, but this time it's because I've ridden neither SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa nor Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (both of which are basically much larger versions of Krake). As a result, while most ACErs' responses to Krake had something to do with its inferiority to SheiKra and/or Griffon, my response was more along the lines of
"OMIGOSHDIVEMCHINEWOOOOOOAMAZEBALLSOCTOPUSHOLYSH*TFIRSTDROPYES."
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| My only complaint would be that, from first drop to final breaks, Krake's ride duration is probably shorter than that of a Wacky Worm. |
I've wanted to ride a Dive Machine since I was 7. Hooray for dreams coming true on credit #109 of the year! :}
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| And now we're kickin' it old school! |
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| Damn monorail track ruining the view. |
Big Loop is the name of this "custom" (probably the least custom-looking custom coaster) Vekoma looper. We were pleasantly surprised; the ride was quite fun! The not-so-Big Loop is actually a solid little ride. Go figure. #110.
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| Oddly enough, the coaster that looms above all others in Heide's back bowl is Schweizer Bobbahn, the park's Mack Bobsled. |
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| Although now, the new wing coaster (seen here in early stages of vertical construction) probably engulfs the bobsled despite its high elevation. |
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| We waited for the front seat, to insure that we got the most out of this impressive ride. |
While Schweizer Bobbahn's layout is totally inspired, the ride vibrated like a mofo. It's really unfortunate because, had that not been the case, the ride would have been superb. I wish this bobsled (#112) was as smooth as the ones at Europa Park and Kings Dominion.
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| While not the ideal ride experience, Schweizer Bobbahn afforded some great photo opportunities! |
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| Oh, yeah. They have a Vekoma SLC here too. It's called Limit. We actually rode it after Big Loop but I didn't take any pictures of it while we were in the general area. The ride sucked. Surprised? Me neither. |
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| XTREME SCHWEIZER BOBBAHN POV SHENANIGANS. |
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| I hope that Schweizer Bobbahn's smoothness problem can be solved with just a little TLC. The ride has so much potential. |
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| Despite being in a park full of impressive coasters, the park's Intamin gyro-drop really stole the show! |
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| This ride is the exact same model as the one at Kings Island. I was expecting a fairly tame drop like the one at KI, but Scream was quite intense. This lead me to the conclusion that Kings Island decided at some point to make their drop tower suck. |
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The adjacent kiddie drop tower is called "Screamie".
*cuteness overload*
*dies* |
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| Speaking of cuteness, we've recently made friends with a cute new octopus pal. |
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| Krake really oozes that B&M sexiness. I just wanted to take pictures of it constantly. |
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| At some point it occurred to me that by connecting the dots & going from coaster to coaster (we were somewhat strapped for time), we would probably be missing out on Heide-Park's allegedly more-charming front entrance area. Alas, it was not meant to be. |
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| We figured it wouldn't be too much of a loss. We know perfectly well that the strengths of a park like this are in its coasters. On that note, Heide-Park was the only park on the trip that, for better or worse, reminded me of a Six Flags park. |
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| A large German park wouldn't be complete without a "Cowboys & Indians Land"! |
Hooray for Indy-Blitz, Heide-Park's delightfully politically-incorrect kiddie coaster! Hooray for credit #113!
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| A large German park also would not be complete without NUTELLA! |
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| BEHOLD! A Nutella Belgian Waffle & blue raspberry slushie yard! |
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| By mid-day, any traces of precipitation had subsided. |
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| We wanted to ride Colossos again, but a 1+ hour line quickly snuffed out that idea. |
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| Besides, we stil have one more credit to get! We're actually in line for it right now. |
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| It's Desert Race! |
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Literally the coolest ride control booth ever:
The cockpit of a reclaimed helicopter! |
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| Desert Race ran like clockwork, but we still waited almost an hour. |
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| Fortunately, the view was quite good from the queue. |
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Desert Race was a surprise. It's better than it looks.
Having said that, the ride still is sort of conceptually bland. Just a big figure-8. |
I'm a sucker for a launch coaster, and Desert Race was indeed satisfactory. It has a pretty sharp launch & achieves a good speed despite its short runway. The layout does sort of leave something to be desired, however.......I mean, there is a ton of room back there. They could have done a lot more. Still, a satisfying credit #114.
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| We kept finding ourselves crossing this same thoroughfare that is adjacent to the lake. |
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| We stopped for a picture with Krake. :} |
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| Then we stopped Krake for another one. :} |
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| And another. |
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| And another! I just love these trains. :} |
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| I have decided that Krake is officially the cutest thing ever. |
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| We snagged a quick ride on Grottenblitz, the park's powered mine train! |
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| Then we went to Maya-Tal! Time for a flat ride! |
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| Look, it's Lady Moon! A classic Huss Flipper! |
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| Lady Moon is great for families. Entertaining, but not too intense. |
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| It's almost time to go! Let's take in a few more sights before we get back on the bus. |
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| Here's one of Heide's two spinning boat rides. Yes, two. |
Heide-Park Soltau has an interesting history. It's long been called "The Park With Two of Everything". Two spinner rafts rides, two log flumes, two observation towers, two monorails, and so on. The reason for this is quite remarkable: When the Berlin Wall fell, Heide-Park experienced a massive influx of new guests. Heide isn't particularly close to Berlin, but it happens to be the nearest large park to the capital city. The impact of the Berlin Wall falling was so great that Heide-Park quickly built duplicates of their most popular rides to boost capacity.
Like most parks with duplicate rides, decisions were eventually made to retire most duplicates in favor of newer, more unique rides. Most of Heide-Park's doubles no longer exist; the park's 2nd log flume was just recently retired for the construction of the new wing coaster. The 2nd observation tower was re-purposed into Scream. The park's two Schwarzkopf Polyp rides both seem to have been retired.
ZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz
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| *yawn*. Good morning Hotel Ling Bao. :} |
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| Time for a well-balanced breakfast. |
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| ACERS: ASSEMBLE! |
Our morning ERT at Phantasialand was scheduled to start with the park's Colorado Adventure mine train coaster.
I'm sure you can imagine our confusion when the park guide had us walk right past Colorado Adventure.
I just so happened to be near the front of the pack, just behind the tour guide. We pass through the Old West and into Africa. He looks over at me and asks,
"You want to ride this?"
And points to the fabulous-looking Black Mamba, a sub-terrain B&M invert.
Of course I was like "YUSSSSSSSS!!!"
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| And so, the ERT was changed from the mine train to this. :} |
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| "Everybody smile for SURPRISE BLACK MAMBA ERT!!!" |
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| We pretty much had a field day with this coaster. |
All I can say about Black Mamba is WOW.
New favorite invert. Bam.
#115.
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| The way this ride is built into the surroundings is almost unreal. |
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| It was one "OH SH*T" moment after another. Every turn was a near-miss with the scenery. |
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| Black Mamba is Dave Altman-approved! |
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| I can say with confidence that Phantasialand's Africa is now one of my favorite environments created by a theme park. |
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| The only comparison I heard anyone make to this ride was to fellow sub-terrainian B&M invert Nemesis at Alton Towers. Nowhere in the United States is there a ride like this. |
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| The scenery alone was enough to take your breath away. |
After a superb hour on Black Mamba, we moved on to part 2 of our ERT: WINJAS!
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| Like Africa, Phantasialand's "Land of the Wuze" is a feast for the eyes. |
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| The Land of the Wuze is stuffed with the spaghetti-like trackwork of the sensational Winjas spinning coasters! |
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| The Maurer Söhne Winjas (Wind + Ninjas) are two very distinct personalities: Winjas Fear and Winjas Force. |
Now, I had heard some things about this ride. I've heard:
-This is the best coaster at Phantasialand.
-This is the best dueling coaster ever.
-This is the best spinning coaster ever.
-This is the best indoor coaster ever.
-This is the best coaster. Ever.
Now, doing the math in my head, I tried to figure out what could possibly be so special about Winjas to garner such an overwhelmingly positive reception.
I found out.
SPOILER ALERT.
Phantasialand is not interested in going through the motions. They have no use for garden-variety spinning coasters (or an invert that sits on a flat piece of ground, for that matter). The Winjas are so remarkable that I'm going to have to make a list for you of all the reasons why.
1. They traverse multiple environments inside the ride building. Though much of Winjas is visible to guests, a great deal of it is hidden & parts are in total darkness.
2. There's two of them. The only thing better than having one remarkable coaster is having two. There's no substitute for the interactivity that comes with a dueling coaster. And, unlike some dueling/racing coasters, Fear and Force are fiercely independent. In essence, Fear focuses more on drops and velocity while Force focuses more on laterals and transitions.
3. They have elevator lift hills. More importantly, they have elevator lifts that tilt.The mobile piece of track slowly tilts forward (or backward, depending on where you sit) during its ascent, making the piece of track flush with the the first drop's grade of descent. It then proceeds to FIRE you out of the elevator & down the first drop.
4. They have rubber track. Seriously. The Winjas have rubber track.
(Ok, not really)
At one point, you slide into a block break of some sort. If you're facing forward, you might notice that the track ends right the eff there. After a few seconds, the track jumps or shifts or whatever and fires you (once again) through the rest of the course.
AND.
AND AND AND!!!!
At the end of the ride, right after the breaks, the track literally jumps. Like a damn spring board. An entire section of break run spontaneously bounces.
After 14 rides on the Winjas (credits #116 & #117, respectively), it occurred to me that I might be participating in the single-greatest ERT session ever.
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| This bizarre image capture from one of the darker portions of Winjas Force is a fairly adequate representation of the chaos that occurs on this magical attraction. |
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| Eat your heart out, Disney. And Universal. You're looking at the single-greatest indoor amusement ride ever created. |
The center of the "Land of the Wuze" is inhabited by the "Tittle-Tattle Tree". You can't make this stuff up.
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| Ken and Joel are ready for Exclusive Tittle-Tattle Time! |
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| So are Leo, Bill, and Daniel! |
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| The Tittle-Tattle Tree felt like a throwback to those Intamin parachute towers with the stand-up cars. |
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| Smile for the camera! |
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| Goodbye, Land of Wuze! The park is open now & we've got stuff to ride! Thank you for existing and being amazing. |
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| Next up is Temple of the Night Hawk! Here is where new Phantasialand and old Phantasialand collide. |
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| Joel is totally ready to face the Night Hawk! |
Temple of the Night Hawk had potential, but it was actually kind of a snooze. Totally dark & not very intense. Probably great for kiddos, though. A mellow #118 indeed!
(Oh, and it went on FOR EVER.........when we got back in the station, I felt like we'd ridden it 3 times.)
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| The Land of the Wuze is a sub-section of the larger Fantasy area. The giant gold ball is a cheesy Atlantis-themed dark ride that uses the same ride system as Back To The Future. |
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| The Fantasy area is a bit of a hodge-podge. As you can see, there's lots of pretty flowers & a steam-punk chicken monorail thing. And the gold ball Atlantis thing. Plus the Land of the Wuze and the Temple of the Nighthawk. And some other stuff. |
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| The sheer volume of exotic flowers in the Fantasy Area stopped us in our tracks. |
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| I lost count how many flowers I saw that I'd never seen before. |
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| Look at this black lily! Are black lilies even a thing?! |
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| I don't even know what to make of this thing. It didn't even look real! |
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| Also in the Fantasy area: A Hollywood-themed boat ride. It pushed the boundary from "cheesy" to "creepy". I have pictures, but I'll spare you. |
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| Now for a superb dark ride. I think if Phantasialand continues this trend of replacing their cheesy old stuff with fabulous new stuff, they'll be giving Europa Park a run for its money! |
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| Waiting for Maus au Chocolat (or Chocolate Mouse, as I called it) involves taking a tour of a rather large bakery! |
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| If you're familiar with Toy Story Mania, Chocolate Mouse uses the same ride system. However, instead of a giant virtual carnival midway, it's a massive mouse-infested cake shop! GREAT ride! |
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| Lots of parks these days love to syphon exiting riders into gift shops. Chocolate Mouse takes that concept in a different direction by sending people straight to the ice cream shop! Brilliant. |
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| Phantasialand is a very cramped park. The benefit of this is we can see everything in a timely manner. Here we are in Berlin, the park's entrance plaza! |
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| Berlin's centerpiece is their watery chair swing. |
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| Lunch time! |
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| SPAGHETTI BAR! |
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| I ate lunch pretty quickly. I decided to run off and take more pictures of Black Mamba while everyone else was eating. |
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| I am madly in love with this ride. |
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| *swoon* |
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| Behind Black Mamba is the park's other onsite resort, Hotel Matamba! |
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| While looking for more vantage points, I stumble upon some more exotic foliage! |
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| "The wild B&M invert in its natural habitat." |
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| You can't really see it behind the rock, but what you're looking at is the only example of a B&M "Half Immelmann". Rather than flip riders a full 180 degrees, the half Immelmann only flips 90 degrees & is therefore not a true inversion. |
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Also, the vertical loop leans forward just a little bit.
This ride is full of interesting little design features. :} |
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| Big stone face says "BLACK MAMBA IS AWESOME!" |
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| Bordering Black Mamba is fellow sub-terrain badass thrill ride, Talocan! |
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| Talocan is the centerpiece of the Mexico area. It's quite the spectator attraction! |
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| Talocan's placement and level of theme intricacy is mind-blowing. |
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| Behind Talocan is the under-construction Chiapas log flume! It's going to be so great when it's finished! |
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| Though small, the Mexico area is full of character and color! |
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| An excellent feature of Talocan is being able to go directly behind the ride and peer through the windows in the façade! |
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| Being this close to the ride in motion was quite cool. |
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| FIRE! |
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| Now for the TOWER OF MYSTERY! |
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| What mysteries lurk inside Mystery Castle?? |
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Mystery solved! It's a 6-sided, inward-facing Intamin Bungee Drop! Wicked cool!
The ride cycle, however, was only about .7456 seconds long. It was over in a flash! |
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| More Intamin drop towers should have stained glass. Can we make this a thing? |
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Next up is River Quest!
Not just another rapids ride! |
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| You can add "Transylvanian Rapids Rides" to that list of things that there should be more of. |
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River Quest is a THREE STORY RAPIDS RIDE.
The ride is concurrently above, below, and around us.
Mind = Blown |
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| As you might have guessed, an elevator lift hill is employed here. :} |
River Quest sits on a plot of land that was once home to a custom Schwarzkopf coaster & a Schwarzkopf Alpenblitz powered coaster. Both rides were housed in an enormous mountain façade. The two coasters and the mountain burned to the ground in 2001. The cause was determined to be old, faulty wiring. The park re-opened 2 weeks later, but they'd sustained a loss of over $15 million. Winjas and the Land of the Wuze opened the following year, which helped resuscitate the park's morale. :}
Whew! That was another big one, y'all! Lots of great coasters! Tomorrow we're totally switching gears with our visit to one of those most beautiful & most visited amusement parks in the world: De Efteling! There won't be as many coasters at Efteling, but there'll be plenty to see!! Stay tuned! :}
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