TPJames

Currently the government has banned all free time activities (including amusement attractions) in the state of Baden-Württemberg until 15th june, however this will be brought forward if the situation improves before then. I find it strange Europa park have only announced that they are pushing back to the 19th April as with current guidelines they will prohibited from opening on this date and won’t be able to open until June 15th unless the government restrictions are alleviated before then

Baden Württemberg, Germany, goes into lockdown until 15th June. Expect Rulantica and Europa Park to be closed until that date for the time being https://www.regioactive.de/news/2020/03/16/baden-wuerttemberg-verbietet-veranstaltungen-bis-voraussichtlich-mitte-juni-Gp9wYDtPGW

When I visited Chessington years ago we waited about 2.5 hours for vampire (was on a two train operation) but every other train was being loaded with RAP holders, therefore the ride was essentially on one train for the main queue. Seems to me the problem of too many RAP holders and carers in ratio to the main queue has been around for a long time now in merlin parks. Bear in mind this was maybe like 8-10 years ago.

Completely agree on this. And I actually think at the moment the chances of the UK Government closing them down is quite low. I saw a photo fo the 60 min cattlepen queueline for the new duplo coaster at legoland and it just looked like an infection outbreak waiting to happen. People weren’t particularly spread out, even though there are supposedly markers to keep social distancing. Wouldn’t personally be visiting right now think it’s all just a bit risky going to crowded places regardless of where.

Just heard Phantasialand are phoning up all guests who have bookings to inform them that the hotels, park and all events will be cancelled indefinitely.

I phoned them because I have a booking and she said it was unlikely they will be open (so I’ve cancelled it which is what she recommended). There isn’t an official announcement as they are still coordinating with the government and Brühl city council but it seems extremely unlikely at this point, hence why I didn’t say 100% I'm actually supposed to be going for fantissima this coming week and it’s currently on as currently in NRW only gatherings over 1000 are prohibited, however if/when this changes to 50 people, then fantissima and the hotel resort will close.

I didn’t say Rookburgh was not opening this year, I said that the park will not be opening on the 4th April. Cologne will be enforcing bans on gatherings above 50 people, following Berlin putting in these measures and rulantica and hansa park are now closed/have delayed openings. I said I wouldn’t be surprised if rookburgh would be pushed back til next season. Please can you read properly before making snarky comments 😐 I am just putting my opinion across I never said I was an expert.

I think it's looking likely they will push back Rookburgh opening until next season now, the park is 99% not opening on the 4th April, as cologne city council are about to follow up on Berlin's measures to limit gatherings over 50 people (which will force the park and hotel to shut down)

Toverland closed now too.

I’ve never had any issues at Efteling before, infact their park closing time is earlier than the park actually closes. I visited in October when the park was open until 8pm, and they still run Aquanura at about 8:15 and some of the restaurants(notably the pancake house) were open until 9pm. Maybe you were on an off-peak day, because I’ve only ever visited Efteling on peak days before and have had no problem getting on all the rides as I’ve found normally the queuelines shut at the advertised park close time(managed to just squeeze a ride on python at the end of the day before park close) - maybe I just got lucky though?

I completely understand your point, however I think living in the UK it just appears we don't really have any stand-out competition to icon, nothing with a double launch, lots of airtime, hang time and a long, decent layout. I was just grouping all of Europe in my head because that's usually where I head out on my theme park holidays, but I completely understand the geography and helix is a unique coaster for Sweden and to be honest the whole of Europe as well, as it is the best mack launch out there. Just to clarify, helix is in my top 10(just); I did have a positive reaction for the coaster, I thought it had great landscaping, amazing airtime and great hang time moments, it just was no where near as "WOW!" as I expected it to be. I'd heard so many amazing reviews for the coaster before riding it that I don't really felt it met my expectations when I actually rode the coaster (whereas things like shambhala, Taron, taiga left me with that WOW feeling afterwards). Maybe had I not read lots of reviews before actually getting on the coaster, then I would have enjoyed it way more than I did. I do prefer helix to icon it's just I've never seen anything like icon in the UK before and it's nice to have such a unique coaster so close to home. --- And regarding the closing times, I completely understand closing the queue line earlier than the park closing time, I have no issue with it; Phantasialand do it too. However, what I do have the issue with at Liseberg is the queue closing times were not advertised the staff just shut the queues randomly and if you then came along 30 seconds later after they'd shut the queue they wouldn't let you in, even though the closing time for that queue wasn't advertised. Whereas at Phantasialand they have queue boards around the park advertising what time each of the queues for the respective rides shut, I wish they did similar at Liseberg because that did aggravate me a little bit.

I personally found helix extremely overrated and actually a bit boring compared to modern launch coasters (notably Intamin; Taron, taiga etc). I enjoy icon because I think it's really the best of a bad bunch in the UK, it has a pretty weak layout but small pops of airtime and hang time make for a fun ride if you sit at the back. So yeah, whilst I find both helix and icon fun, I think icon is more of a novelty because its in the UK where we don't really have anything like it, whereas Helix is out in Europe with the big players and doesn't really compare IMO to other coasters out there in Europe. To be honest I wasn't the biggest fan of the park either as a whole(the best thing about it is the chocolate tombolas everywhere!). I much preferred the atmosphere at Grona Lund, Grona Lund felt much more quirky and vibrant whereas Liseberg just felt a bit dead in terms of atmosphere.... I much preferred my second day at Liseberg to my first though as spent pretty much the whole of the first day queueing whereas on the second day I could appreciate the beauty of the gardens and detail within the park (really wanted to ride the big wheel but queue was too long and operations were also slow which was another gripe). My other main issue with Liseberg was they advertised a closing time but the actual ride queue lines didn't have a particular closing time, they just seemed to close whenever the staff felt like it, so wanted to do a night ride on Helix but missed out because the queue line was shut way before park close...

They had a stool at vortex and samurai about 4 years ago when I last visited the park, so assume it’s still the same now

They are zeppelins

Can I also just put out there that most of the time park's social media teams have no clue what is going on behind the scenes at the park, or even within the park itself (in terms of ride availability etc). At the beginning of Phantasialand wintertraum talocan was closed for about a week due to having its control box changed yet the social media team decided to post on instagram advertising riding talocan during the winter season... they later then took this down after a number of people (including me) commented that talocan wasn't actually open and therefore was misleading to advertise it on instagram. The reply from Thorpe's social media team means nothing. There's no point poking around at what big development is going to be new because when a big new development comes through(if ever), then planning permission will be submitted, otherwise there's absolutely no point getting your hopes up. Their 5 year plan is probably to try and survive on the low budgets that merlin have given them by bringing in new temporary attractions to try and save as much of their falling visitor rates at possible. It's such a shame as I used to enjoy Thorpe a few years back but now I'm honestly waiting until Merlin sell the place off and hopefully someone who actually cares about the place can do something to bring it back up to a reasonable standard again. Merlin's focus clearly no longer lies with Thorpe anymore because they don't have the secured market that chessington, Alton Towers and Legoland do. Unfortunately they have built themselves up a reputation of being a place for "local teenagers" to hangout and that's unfortunately not a market that can be relied upon for a sustainable future of the park.

The train from Cologne to Brühl is maybe 4 euros (maximum) each way, and then 3 euros return for the shuttle bus, so to travel in and out of cologne each day would cost you 11 euros return. However, I personally wouldn't suggest this unless you are planning on doing extensive sight seeing in cologne (which there isn't much of; the chocolate museum and the cathedral are the only two main draws IMO). The "Six!" Boutique hotel is located in the centre of Brühl and near to lots of supermarkets, clothes shops, bakeries, and restaurants (which would give you plenty of dinner options as the park closes before dinner time really, unless you want to eat in the park hotels, however that's quite expensive). The six hotel is a 5 min walk from brühl train station where the shuttle bus departs from. The hotel h+ (from researching now) is a 25min walk from Brühl train station and then you can ride the 985 bus from the hotel to the park which takes under 10 minutes. Theres also a bus connection from the train station to the hotel but still requires 10 or so minutes of walking out of your way to the hotel. H+ would likely be equipped with its own onsite restaurant etc. Your other choices are looking on booking.com to see if there are any other good value hotels in Brühl town centre, but from my research I didn't really find anything stand out. There are often lots of cheap Airbnbs available around Brühl near to the train station, and hence the shuttle bus, which you could look at renting out for a cheaper price than a hotel.

Six! Eat work sleep is located in the centre of Brühl and has pretty competitive rates. It’s got good reviews but I’ve never actually stayed in it myself. It’s not a commercial hotel either so you might have to be careful with check in, out and breakfast times. It’s located in Brühl town centre so you can ride the shuttle bus to and from Phantasialand each day for €3 return. It’s probably where I would consider staying when my hotel discount runs out because hotel h+, whilst having a 4* rating for a cheap price, is a long walk from both Brühl town centre and the park itself, however public buses do run around Brühl so might be worth researching them to help you get around if you choose to stay there. https://www.booking.com/hotel/de/six-eat-work-sleep.en-gb.html?aid=356983;label=gog235jc-1DCAsoO0ISc2l4LWVhdC13b3JrLXNsZWVwSDNYA2hQiAECmAEJuAEHyAEN2AED6AEBiAIBqAIDuAKni9vxBcACAQ;sid=3c5a0849fe08220499018c669040251e;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;type=total&

Amity Beach (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (8) Quantum (6) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (2) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) Walking dead - inferno +

I actually really liked Bellewaerde as a park. The theming throughout the whole park (especially at halloween) was exceptional. The operations, however, were terrible... The coaster has quite an odd layout and a strange colour scheme but good to see the park are investing in a new coaster. Interestingly, the concept art above seems to display three different coloured trains, however I would be surprised if they were ever running it on all three trains, partly due to the short layout, however also due to their terrible operations.

Hope you aren’t being serious... 😩

The crowd calendar on that website is based on previous dates, however it doesn’t have any data from last January so the predictions are likely to be very inaccurate. I’ll also be there Wednesday-Friday and we booked those dates as was expecting it to be quiet, but the park has been getting progressively busier towards the end of wintertraum so may be busier than normally a midweek school day would be. If last thursday and friday are anything to go by though, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Definite: Phantasialand wintertraum (2 weeks to go yay!) Phantasialand summer season Blackpool pleasure beach Likely: Hoping to do a tour around German theme parks so: Holiday park, movie park, Serengeti park, Tripsdrill, Belantis, Bayern Park Vienna Prater Maybe: Europa Park(hoping to work there on the ESP!) Toverland halloween nights Portaventura christmas season Longshot: Orlando parks, might try this September but more likely looking at 2021.

The website is pretty confusing so that’s why I wanted to double check, but from what I can see on the website all the coasters, hurakan and street mission are all open as well as the whole of Ferrari world. I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to go this Christmas or save it til next year though as I’m doing Phantasialand already this christmas

Does anyone know which rides/attractions are available for the Christmas event in both the main PortAventura Park and also in Ferrari Land? Thinking about visiting early January as have heard queues during winter season aren't too bad there.

Olympia Looping, Blizzard, Sling shot, Dr Archibald- £9 pp Hangover, XXL, air, Wild Maus XXL- £8pp Other cossters are normally £6 pp and smaller flat rides are £4 or £5 pp.