DJKostya

So I have just returned from a trip to Europe where I was able to sneak in 3 parks, Europa Park, Phantasialand and Legoland Billund. I was able to spend 2 days at each park. I'm going to start off however with something that really really p*ssed me off on this trip at the parks. I travelled on my own for this portion of the trip so of course was going to use Single Rider lines. Europa Park has about 6 rides and Phantasialand has 2 that have a Single Rider line. I have absolutely nothing against single rider lines, you run the risk of waiting long to get onto a ride as they're only used to fill empty seats, all good I accept that. What really p*ssed me off however was at both parks a staff member stood at the entrance to these rides and, as a single rider, I was forced to use them, which meant I couldn't queue for the front seat if I wanted to but also the staff member wasn't stopping groups from using the single rider line, which they did. A LOT. Now in credit to the loaders I saw none of them allow groups to be seated from the single rider line, even when asked they held firm and detailed the rules for the Single Rider line, but as stated above I was p*ssed that I was forced to use the line when groups could choose to use it. OK end of rant, onto the TR! Europa Park I wanna start by saying that this park is absolutely massive, I honestly think it would have to be one of the biggest parks out there. Themed around European countries overall the park is really well done. The theming is great, it's clean, their app works well (except for directions) and there is plenty of free wifi. The food at Europa is also top notch and cheap. Currywurst or Bratwurst in a roll for under $10 for example. Europa was also fairly easy to get to by train and when you get to Rust there is a free bus you can use to get around. Unfortunately when I was there it was the middle of Europe's summer holidays however operations at Europa are on point. I don't think I waited more than 30 minutes for any rides. Voltron This is the newest coaster in the park from MACK. This thing GOES. From start to finish it just does not let up. 4 launches, 7 inversions and some epic airtime later and you'll be running to reride it. 10/10 would definitely ride again. Being a single rider I was lucky to get rides in the front and back and it just slaps wherever you are. My only complaint with this was that by the end of the ride my thighs were a bit sore from being thrown into the lap bar so much. I really liked the operations on this ride. First off in the main queue hall if you have loose items you are given a keycard for a FREE locker for all loose items before you head to the station, interestingly if they catch you with anything after this point they will make you go back, put it in a locker, and go back to the end of the queue. When you get to the station the trains don't stop, the station is in constant motion and is loaded quickly row by row. The only time I saw the station stop was when a disabled person needed assistance, and even then the stop was minimal. Arthur OK this was an interesting ride. It's a family suspended coaster and its got some decent g-forces associated with it. Operations were similar to Voltron above with free lcokers and a constantly moving station. What struck me as really surprising however was 1 section of the ride, where you go through a bug city section indoors. The ride has onboard sound and during this section they've selected a portion of a Hip Hop track, not my cup of tea, but it fits with the section of ride. Now on my first ride I thought I'd heard something, second ride I specifically listened for it and by the 3rd ride I confirmed it. Now call me an old man but choosing a section of Hip Hop song that contains 2 racial slurs (N word) and the F word may not be appropriate for a kids ride, but that's just me. blue fire Megacoaster The OG Steel Taipan. Now I haven't ridden ST yet (I've been to Europe twice in 6 months, so haven't been able to afford to go to the Gold Coast), but I was pretty impressed by this. Lots of great speed and force along with some good airtime. I can see why it is so popular. Euro Mir This coaster was an interesting one. I've wanted to ride it since I first saw pictures of it way back in the 90s not long after it was built. When I finally got to ride it? Hated it. Hated it with an absolute passion. Typical of wild mouse lots of force going round tight bends at heights in front of mirrors and yeah, definitely not my cup of tea. Hated, hated, hated it. Wodan A fairly standard woodie, but was an awesome ride. Eurostat - Cancan Coaster Europa's golfball coaster. Pic above is of the model. I don't know why but I really liked this one. Really smooth, dark coaster. Silver Star This is a fairly standard B&M Hyper. Good speed and some great airtime, but nothing I haven't ridden before. There is a bunch of other smaller coasters like Pegasus, Schweizer Bobbahn, Matterhorn Blitz, Poseidon and Atlantica Splash which were all fun as well. Phantasialand OMG I wanna start by saying that this park is absolutely beautiful, I honestly think it would have to be one of the best themed parks out there, even as a former Mouse House employee, this place beats it hands down. The theming is out of this world, it's clean, their app works well but there is a real lack of free wifi. The food at Phantasialand is also top notch and cheap like Europa. Interestingly though it was cheaper to buy beer here than a coke. Phantasialand was also fairly easy to get to by train. Operations were also on point again never longer than about 30 minutes. Black Mamba No picture of this one, it is so super well hidden through theming but also it is mostly a ground hugging suspended coaster from B&M. Again this was on my list from very early on as it looked amazing and it lived up to the hype, unlike Euro Mir. Most of the course is through canyons and tunnels and it's a great ride. F.L.Y This is a flying coaster from Vekoma and damn it is amazing. Interesting operations as you load into a seated position and are then turned into a flying posting just before the launch. There are 2 launches and both pack a great punch. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. Taron Another launched coaster, this time from Intamin. As with everything at Phantasialand this is themed to the eyeballs and it's great. Lots of great airtime and some great forces. Raik Raik is a family boomerang that weaves in and out of Taron. Not a bad little ride. Colorado Adventure A family mine train roller coaster this could have been great. Great length, speed and layout but this has got to have the most uncomfortable seats on a roller coaster ever. And I've ridden Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland. Crazy Bats An indoor VR family coaster. The coaster itself wasn't bad, but when I rode it my VR was off and I had to turn my head to the side to make it look like I was going forward which was disappointing. Winjas OK this was interesting. 2 tracks, Force and Fear, and you can choose which one to go on, in a mass of people however this was difficult. Spinning Wild mouse coaster with some great drops and theming. Was also, for a wild mouse, surprisingly smooth. Talocan Not a coaster, but most people will recognise this Top pin after it went viral when it was built. This thing was amazing. Legoland Billund No pics for this one at the moment. This was a fairly standard Legoland. My biggest complaint however about this park was definitely the cleanliness. This park was filthy. Everything was dusty/grimy. For a park that closes for a few months each year it definitely needs some TLC. The park is of course aimed at families so there aren't many major thrill rides. It does however have 4 family coasters, 2 of which are mild thrill being X-Treme Racers (Standard Wild Mouse) and Polar X-Plorer (Which had a nice little drop surprise at the end). The food at Legoland wasn't bad, though expensive, but then again everything in Denmark is. I can recommend the ribs at Legoredo as they were pretty amazing. As an AFOL I really enjoyed all the builds and how they incorporated Lego into the park, just disappointed with how it was maintained. If you are in Billund you also can't miss the Lego House, this is more like a discovery centre/museum of Lego, but with lots of opportunities to build things and interact with them. You can also watch bricks being made and even eat in their robotic Mini Chef minifigure restaurant which was a bit of a novelty, but the food was pretty good. Overall across the 3 parks I got a really good mix of everything and was really pretty happy with my choices overall. I would definitely recommend Phantasialand if you get the chance, it was really so far out of this world with the theming and the rides were top notch.

Oh will definitely do a trip report

I am doing Europa and Phantasialand next month while I'm in Germany (Also hitting up Legoland in Denmark). So if you're not going before than I can let you know how things go when I'm back. Luckily I have time to be able to spend 2 days in each. Thanks to @mba2012 for the advice for Europa above

Is it just me or have they used the signs in Roller Coaster Tycoon for the ENTRY and EXIT signs on the new map?

Yeah Big Splash is closed this summer, since it was last sold they haven't kept up the maintenance as @themagician said. While they did write to the local government saying that they would reopen after repairs have been competed I will believe it when I see it. I can definitely see sometime next winter that it will quietly be announced that the required maintenance and repairs is just not cost effective and Canberra will lose another summer activity. Canberra currently has 5 outdoor pools, Big Splash being closed brings it down to 4, Phillip pool has also been announced as going as part of another apartment development so we'll have 3 outdoor pools left, 1 of which is very old and not very big

I'll add my 2 cents in LOL Admittedly I haven't worked in the industry for quite some time, but it used to be a legal requirement to know how many people were in a hotel room. This is usually to do with emergency situations where they need to confirm that everyone has been safely evacuated. Hotels also use the numbers to make sure that people are only sleeping in the beds and not camping out on floors etc. For example the policy the hotel chain I worked for had was that the maximum occupancy of a room was 2 per double/queen bed, 1 per single and 1 adult/2 children per sofa bed (We didn't have rollaways). It also helps in determining that the room hasn't been booked for a party for example (Though people would always lie and say it was just them in the room).

Living in Canberra we get advertisements for Jamberoo and the Gold Coast parks (When it existed also Wonderland). I have never seen an advertisement for WnW/Raging Waters since it commenced operations, it's an easy day trip from Canberra so it does make me wonder why they don't bother advertising.

I tend to agree with what others are saying above, Intamin is not likely to be announcing something minor such as a MC refit, unless it is with some massive new innovation that they have come up with or if it was massively changing a la TTD. To me this reads as either a completely new flat ride not seen before or it's a new coaster, be it a record breaker or again something completely new. With regards to a new water ride, i'm sceptical of this only because Intamin lists a number of water ride models on their website, some of which haven't been built yet (that i'm aware of) like the Giga and Mega Splash models. I don't think they'd waste a press conference on announcing that someone has final bought a model they've had available. If it were to be a water ride my thoughts looking at the Intamin website would be perhaps a Slow Boat ride using the old Murrissippi river and themed around the new area, though how this is worthy of a press conference I have no idea LOL

That's very cool. Looking at the map though, would I be right in thinking that none of the rides that are on that map are in the park today? I'm not super familiar with Dreamworld pre about 2010 as I only visited once before then way back in about 1992.

Excusing my ignorance here but I'm assuming the sign we're talking about is the one next to the 3 white umbrellas casting a shadow? Perhaps the removal might be part of planning for things happening in that space? Maybe around DD? Make the Wild West area smaller to expand the DD area for the whatever replacement they may be planning? I have absolutely no insights, just spitballing here LOL

As @aaronm stated above light rain seems to be OK, but heavy rain or lightning and they stop. I visited Happy Valley in Beijing in 2010 on a miserable day and the coaster operations were sporadic depending on how heavy the rain was. Additionally (Not sure if Happy Valley Guangzhou does the same) the coasters were on a rotating schedule, some opened with the park, others opened later in the day while the early opening ones closed.

I'm no WHS expert, but surely some of those things above clearly don't meet WHS standards, especially some of the electrical things. Being a theme park with lots of families I would be deeply concerned about some of those and what would happen if small hands got hold of them. To me it looks like MW is 1 accident away from another major disaster.

I haven't done the daytrip from Canberra for a while, might be worthwhile next summer to grab a ride

If things are getting this bad I don't understand why the parks don't just move to seasonal operations like many overseas parks, then do all of their maintenance on rides/shops etc. during the off season.

The most important line of the trip report 🙃