From a small park to one of the big ones now and we were fortunate enough to stay in the Heide Park hotel for the night.
We'd heard that the hotel was so good in fact that you wouldn't want to leave, which perhaps explains these two tenants meeting us.
The night was a bit odd. We were told in advance that the hotel would open up the buffet for us and that would be the only food option for those that wanted it. That didn't seem right, when had a buffet ever been opened just for a group. It's just open all the time. Instead I chose to forego that and chance eating in the slightly more formal restaurant, which we'd been told wouldn't be available. When I got there it was open and was for the whole night. We did annoy the waiting staff a little bit by constantly adding more and more people to the table when their backs were turned.
Guests of the hotel are allowed to enter the park in advance of the public. Being in the group we were allowed to enter the park before them, which pissed them off no end.
Does this qualify for the theme park ducks flickr feed? Whatever happened to themeparkducks.com?
2011 is the 10th birthday of Colossus, the park's wooden coaster which when it opened was the world's steepest wooden coaster, something the park are still proud to display today. It's just a shame that it's been bettered by at least 5 other rollercoasters. The record, for those that care, is now held by T-Express in South Korea. I rode that in 2009 for an hour and it gave me a headache.
This on the other hand was a less aggressive ride but I only rode it a couple of times. Had I had the chance of riding this for an hour would I have been as positive about it?
After Colossus we headed around to Desert Race, a launched coaster very similar to Rita at Alton Towers. This however looked much more prominent, due in part to the lack of height restrictions that the towers has.
The rides was fine, and was being run well but I didn't come off wanting to run around and ride it again; I was quite content with the one go on it. Perhaps this was because I wanted to check out the rest of the park.
I last visited the park in 2004 and since then the park had invested significantly in rides and theming. This coaster sits within a new Western themed area and being a kiddy coaster I couldn't get too excited about riding it, much to the chagrin of the other members who insisted I smile more whilst riding it.
This theming reminds me of a Shaun White trip down a mountain or a master chef cutting some Wagyu beef. Great carving!
"Kat", I said "Come and pose by this photo. It would make a nice surprise photo for Bob" (who couldn't make the trip). Kat, next time you're asked to pose beside a poster, check the one you're in front of!
Here's the lake in the middle of the park. Still plenty of room for expansion.
This is the new ride Krake. It's a baby dive machine such as Oblivion, Sheikra and Griffon.
It's not much more than the drop, turnaround, hill and brakes but still manages to be an OK ride. The park were kind enough to let us ride this for a bit before everyone else.
The best bit about the ride is the splashdown and although other versions have the same splash effect the Krake one is different in that it doesn't have the scoops that move the water away from the back row of the train, so if you happen to get one of the rear end seats you are going to get wet.
This gives you an idea of just how wet you'd get. (apologies for the resolution but the camera sacrifices resolution for frame rate)
This is the splashdown area under Krake's turnaround section. The locals were gambling with the ride. These two didn't fair too well and got a thorough soaking as did Kat and I after I carried her under it, much to her protestation. This is good area to hang out and people watch.
I chose not to ride the mine train this time around, choosing instead to go and eat pancakes, which were very nice by the way even though I didn't get the filling I wanted.
I chose not to ride the corkscrew on this occasion either. Been there, done that, got the blunt force head trauma.
As much as I don't have as much of an issue with these rides as most, I can't remember if I rode the SLC or not. Must be the blunt force trauma.
I can't remember what this used to be but it was now home to some haunted noises and not much else. When is a haunted walkthrough not a haunted walkthrough? When you can't walk through it!
Scream is the aptly named rather wonderful drop tower attraction in the park. Or is this a rebel base on the forest moon of Endor?
You don't need to understand German to understand how fast this ridiculous drop tower Scream is. This ride has the best waiting area of any ride due to the rush of air that gets sent through it when the tower drops.One of the few attractions where loose items can get lost before you even get on the ride...I'm thinking wigs that haven't been glued down.
Patrick and Jeppe got themselves an up-for-it lady for some two-on-one action later in the day.
The bobsled ride here is run very well and is a pretty lengthy ride.
Whereas the theming in the park had improved somewhat, this shooting range was in need of some major work. That has to be the worst Arnold Schwarzenegger ever!
For those that wish to jump the queue legitimately (for a price of course) the park has introduced a Q-Bot system, which they've called Express Butler. I don't think it's quite clever enough to bring you tea though.
Last time I was here the Huss ride part of the park had been attacked by someone with a lot of Tippex at hand, everything was white. Now this little area has been given a Mayan makeover or is it Inca makeover? Must be the former as we know Tippex erases ink...a.
Our little nessie friend joins us from Plohn but gets a tiny piece of water in which to move around. Unfairness.
Now it was kind of hard to photograph this due to the spontaneous nature of it but Kat and Patrick decided to go all Pagan for no reason whatsoever and do some strange dance around the park. Delusion usually manifests itself in the latter leg of a club trip as the lack of sleep takes its toll, but here it was happening early.
Does this win the prize for best toilet sign? It's just a shame that it's one of Spinal Tap being picked up by his grandma.
Heide has a Splash Battle ride, and it's interesting how popular they've become with quite a lot of parks adding them. I guess the reasonably high throughput and the fun in getting soaked is the big attraction.
Patrick leaves Jeppe to the elderly woman they chatted up earlier and finds himself a younger model for the night.
A quick tour of the park. I was lucky I got most of the coasters, just a shame about the corkscrew and SLC that let me down :(
Heide Park is alright but as the country's second biggest park I expected more. Theming has improved, there's a good selection of rides but none of them are good enough to be the signature ride in the park. If your introduction to dive coasters was Krake you'd think it was alright, but as I've ridden nearly all the others prior to this I felt a bit short-changed by it.
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