Shindigging across the Channel [FINAL DAY]

[toofpikk]

Whilst seeing some old colleagues from my time working on the floor at a theme park, my road trip of last year came into conversation. This quickly grew into reminiscing of planning similar trips whilst working on the platform of some of the coasters we used to work on together. Next thing I know, we’re planning a sequel of my holiday in 2022.

Very quickly a really solid loop of parks we decided upon, and hotels, park tickets and ferry crossings were getting booked. Thankfully, this time, I wasn’t driving, and we weren’t travelling in a Ford Fiesta.
The parks included:

• Parc Asterix
• Walibi Belgium
• Efteling
• Phantasialand (x2)
• Plopsaland De Panne

As per my usual format, I’ll try to keep each parks commentary small, so you can just enjoy the pictures instead as I loosely describe my thoughts and experiences.

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After a nice, bright and early waking up of 2:30, we headed for Folkstone, before making our way to the outskirts of Paris to visit Parc Asterix, staying in the Les Quais De Lutece Hotel.

Parc Asterix really took me by surprise. It’s been on my to do list for a while but only recently with the addition of Toutatis has it become a must visit.

The park is super nice, has great theming, and a really strong ride lineup. Only real complaint is the food was pretty rubbish, but a backpack full of snacks and the parks charm more than made up for that.

Oziris is really seriously good. Probably my favourite B&M invert. Whippy, intense, loads of fun, and it looks great.

Pegase express was the sleeper for me. The ride is amazing. How are there not more of these in parks?! The interaction it has with the rapids (as well as itself) is genuinely super cool. Can we avoid talking about the temple? Should we avoid talking about the temple? Aight, I won't talk about the temple, but I'm just letting you know I definitely THOUGHT about talking about it.

Toutatis, of course, was great. For years, I’ve said neolithic theming would look great in a theme park setting, and Toutatis absolutely proves this. The ride experience is really intense, you spend very little of the ride with your butt touching the seat from the moment you leave the station. Unfortunately there is just something missing theming wise for me - the lack of spectating spots for the ride is a sore miss, and although the theming they have is superb, there just isn't enough of it in the queueline. Hopefully once all the planted bits and bobs grow a little it'll help beef up the theming that is there.

The one thing I’ll say is Parc Asterix very much feels like little pockets of theming all doing their own thing. Although there is the overarching theme of Asterix, the new areas feel very disconnected from the rest of the park. Oziris seems so lonely

Also, can we just appreciate discobelix. Definitely the coolest Disko I've seen, and the theming and art in the queue is just *chefs kiss*

The park was so quiet we ended up doing everything at least twice. I think we ended up getting 6 rides on Toutatis & Oziris? Seriously impressed with the whole park though, and a very strong start to the road trip. No awful experiences, just really great ones. The park is so silly but pleasant, if you haven't visited before, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?!?!!?!

We stayed in the village hotel thing and it was extremely comfortable. No complaints aside from the price of the beer (it was near 11 euros per half pint)!

It is noticable on days when the sun is beaming down on you, that Parc Asterix suffers from a lack of indoor attractions/dark rides. I was disappointed that I missed the news of their infamous ghost train being closed down, and their mad house wasn't running. Although we drenched ourselves on their several water rides which helped beat the heat, I couldn't help but think a couple more indoor attractions would really help the park, especially considering how the weather isn't particularly predictable in this region. Nonetheless, it was probably one of the most idyllic and least fussy days I've ever had at an international theme park. Credit to the ops and cleanliness of the park, it was really noticable how EVERY ride on the park was throwing trains out and there wasn't a single bit of litter to be seen. A really strong opening day on what would surely be a bucket list ticker of a trip.

 

[toofpikk]

We headed to Walibi Belgium for day 2, one of the parks that got the chop off my road trip last year. I visited Walibi Belgium a number of years ago so I was curious to see how the additions of Popcorn revenge, Kondaa and tiki-waka have transformed the park.

It was actually much more pleasant (word of the trip, surely) than I remember! We arrived a little after park opening and it was a weekend so the crowds were already inside - so we made a beeline towards psyche-underground and were gutted by the lack of iconic soundtrack. Watching the crowds grow we quickly moved onto Tiki-waka, which had a pretty long queue already, which wasn't helped by seemingly every exit pass user in the park that day getting to the station the same time as us.

A really fun ride, not really like any other wild mouse styled coaster I’ve done. The interactions with the climbing area and boat ride are really neat, and the theming looked really funky. Maybe it could’ve had a little more? I don’t know. I don’t care. It does it’s job, and it does it well.

After explaining the different endings of King Tut’s to my mates and inevitably not getting an interesting one, we moved round the park in a pretty linear fashion.

This meant Kondaa was first up. Kondaa is really fun. I don’t think I’ve ever been so aggressively undressed by a ride before; hitting the brake run with the bottom of my shirt around my tits. It really feels like a modern version of GeForce. I know that might put a few people off, but this thing absolutely hauls ass. Immediately our group descended into debates as to whether or not this beats Toutatis, Taron, Helix etc. as our top ride - a debate which would continue for the rest of the trip. Also - this ride has a near perfect station. Great levels of theming, extremely practical spaces, ugh, so good.

Loup Garou was a lot more menacing than I remember, and also a lot rougher. Still, a load of fun. RMC would have an absolute field day doing their thing on this one though. So much potential for new life in it. (I took no pictures of it tho so here's a pic of tiki waka instead )

We of course did Dalton Terror which as any drop tower above the height of 15 ft does, scared the crap out of me. The mine train wasn’t as fun as I remember though which was a shame, but paired with the amazing weather and new neighbour, its a looker.

After a sandwich and a beer we headed for Pulsar, which is still a fascinating piece of kit. Honestly we watched it go for 3 cycles just marvelling at the engineering going on.

We tidied up the rest of the rides, then spent the afternoon going from Kondaa to the water rides. Walibi Belgium was overall a really pleasant park for the day. Expecting it to be the Thorpe Park of the trip, considering the programme we had planned, and considering how busy it seemed - it totally blew away all of our expectations and was a really fun day. Even though the park was busy, Kondaa was 5 mins or less for the entire time, so we got close to a dozen laps on it.
I gotta say though, Popcorn revenge really isn't that mind blowing. It's fine. But it's not even the best shooter in the park!

Although less heavy on the theming than all the other parks on our trip, it was still a brilliant time. We continued on our pilgrimage, driving up to kaatsheuvel, where we found a nice restaurant and drank the night away, completely ignoring that Efteling is a big ol park which isn't particularly fun to navigate when hungover!

 

[EmmaUK]

Isn't across the pond America? Anyways, doesn't matter, great write up and I'm very jealous of your trip!

 

[toofpikk]

Isn't across the pond America? Anyways, doesn't matter, great write up and I'm very jealous of your trip!

Thanks for the correction!!

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After a pretty heavy evening on the beers and red wine in the town, we woke up with foggy minds before finding our way to a local supermarket. Honestly, the biggest dilemma of the trip was finding a place for cheap coffee that morning. We went to the supermarket under our hotel to pick up coffees, and erratically tried to work out how to pay for them before a shop attendant joked that it’s the Netherlands, so the coffee is free, of course.
British mugs trying to pay for their coffee?
Idiots.

Efteling was absolutely rammo. When I visited earlier in the year the park was busy (i understand the day I was there was the equivalent of the park’s blue lights day) but for whatever reason, this Sunday seemed to be the day half of Holland decided to join us in the fairytale forest.

Quickly sobering up to the thought of having to finally spend some time queuing, we headed for a quick ride on the seemingly quiet Baron, before beelining straight for the Flying Dutchman, the ride that was closed on my last visit, and have heard whispers about it's reliability.. Things weren't looking good with it still not open, but after chesting the queue that was outside the extension at this point, it thankfully opened pretty soon after our arrival.

God damn, this thing is a masterpiece. The queue is exceptional, so atmospheric, so quick moving, so much to look at. Perfect. And the ride itself? Even more so. Terrifying, thrilling, visceral. Chefs kiss x10.

We zoomed over to python afterwards, before making our way back round the park via the fairy tale forest.

Joris was running really well, Dream flight is really weird, Carnaval Festival might be more evil than bubbleworks or it’s a small world.

And let's talk about how the food is seriously amazing. Why dont more people talk about the food at efteling?? ITS SO GOOD (I strongly recommend ALL the food at the bakery by Max & Moritz. The cakes, the pizza, you honestly can't go wrong there, and it's pretty affordable too).

Because I had already visited earlier in the year I spent much of my time in the queue lines and operational areas appreciating the attention to detail the park has. The dispatching levers for Baron, for example, might be the single coolest bit of theme park machinery I’ve ever seen (yup, that's their dispatch button. Yup, they move it. Yup, Blackpools dispatch levers have absolutely NOTHING on these things).

We ended up, once again, getting everything we wanted to, done. Symbolica, the rapids, Max & Moritz, Fata Morgana, et al. A truly lovely, fantastic park with so much to see, and an impressive capability to deal with crowds that were difficult to even navigate your way through when on the main paths.

After a final re-ride on Joris, another successful theme park day had been had.

Efteling may not be my favourite park, but I can definitely see why it is for some. It does everything so fantastically, it's very difficult to ask for more from a theme park. The way the attractions pop out of hazes of thick forestry is dreamlike. The fairytale forest goes beyond the fairytale forest, it's truly a term that can be used to describe the entire park.

Back in the car we went, before taking the drive down to Bonn to stay in a Croat themed restaurant/hotel, where we were greeted with free beer and weird fruity shots?? God, this trip is looking more and more like a haze of hangovers rather than a pilgrimage to some of Europe's best themed attractions...

 

[OtherBen]

top class photos mate, got me more excited for my visits to efteling, walibi holland, toverland (all first time) and phantasialand (second time) in october!

 

[Howie]

Great set of trip reports .
Love that picture of Pulsar and the moon! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Rupert]

A really enjoyable set of reports to read! Looking forward to the Phantasia part - hopefully going in a few weeks after a 5-year absence so will be good to hear how it’s changed.

And I completely agree on Walibi Belgium expectation vs reality! I assumed it wouldn’t be that nice, a bit concretey with out-of-date bad theming and I was so wrong. A genuine nice place to be, really good upkeep (we saw TWO staff members cleaning the fencing of Stunt Pilot rail-by-rail, completely inefficient but very thorough), impressive gardening, vibrant modern theming, with decent coasters in the mix. The only thing letting it down I think is the food.

Coasterwise Kondaa is indeed amazing but I’d probably put it behind European coasters like Taron, Helix, RTH, Balder not to mention any American ones. I loved the lighting on Psyke Underground that for me at least gave the illusion when coming backwards out of the loop that the floor level/horizon was different to what it ended up being, a real mind****. And a bit gutted I didn’t try the King Tut dark ride - we were also a bit underwhelmed by Popcorn’s Revenge so opted for more Kondaa instead of the dark ride.

Great report, great photos. God the interior half of De Vliegende Hollander is incredible.

 

[toofpikk]

Thank you for the wonderful responses, folks. I don't think I've ever had a reply during an active trip report before, so it's really wonderful to read that others are reading along with what I have to show and say, and hopefully are picking up some interesting or useful nuggets of dribble.

Spoiler: Replies

top class photos mate, got me more excited for my visits to efteling, walibi holland, toverland (all first time) and phantasialand (second time) in october!

Thank you! I shoot on 3 cameras; a FujiFilm GA645Zi which uses medium format (the pulsar pic and some of the parc asteric pics use this camera). The image quality, for film, is absolutely insane. I also use a Canon AE-1, a 35mm film camera, and then my phone with an app called Dazz which does a great job of replicating the film kind of character you see on the real thing. Sounds like an ace trip you have planned!

Great set of trip reports .
Love that picture of Pulsar and the moon! Looking forward to the next installment.

Thank you! I was particularly proud of that one, although I may have had to blow the moon up a little more than how it appeared on the film for dramatic effect (or did I??)

A really enjoyable set of reports to read! Looking forward to the Phantasia part - hopefully going in a few weeks after a 5-year absence so will be good to hear how it’s changed.

And I completely agree on Walibi Belgium expectation vs reality! I assumed it wouldn’t be that nice, a bit concretey with out-of-date bad theming and I was so wrong. A genuine nice place to be, really good upkeep (we saw TWO staff members cleaning the fencing of Stunt Pilot rail-by-rail, completely inefficient but very thorough), impressive gardening, vibrant modern theming, with decent coasters in the mix. The only thing letting it down I think is the food.

Coasterwise Kondaa is indeed amazing but I’d probably put it behind European coasters like Taron, Helix, RTH, Balder not to mention any American ones. I loved the lighting on Psyke Underground that for me at least gave the illusion when coming backwards out of the loop that the floor level/horizon was different to what it ended up being, a real mind****. And a bit gutted I didn’t try the King Tut dark ride - we were also a bit underwhelmed by Popcorn’s Revenge so opted for more Kondaa instead of the dark ride.

Great report, great photos. God the interior half of De Vliegende Hollander is incredible.

Oh, I hope this addition to my report reassures you as much as one can be reassured on a goon website!! King tut's is a reason alone to visit Walibi, get back there ASAP!

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Phantasialand. In my opinion, the best theme park in the world.

Don’t really need to say much about this place, the pictures can do the talking.

This is my favourite vista of any theme park I’ve been to.

We didn't plan this part of the trip very well, as it was a local holiday, so even though we were at the park on a monday and tuesday, it was the busiest I’d ever seen the place.

With that said, we once again managed to somehow defeat the absolutely heaving mass of German folk to have a fantastic pair of days at the park.

Yes, we did everything.

Yes, we drunk plenty of beer and continued to soak up the magical weather we had been blessed with during this trip.

Yes, we managed to do all the major coasters at least twice, as well as 6(?) rides on Chiapas.

Phantasialand is just so easy. It's so perfect.

We even had time to bask in the sun in the middle square each day, drinking coffees in the morning, and beers in the afternoon.

I also decided if I were to ever get a theme park related tattoo, it would be a homage to screaming frog man just outside of wuze town.

Phantasialand is really special for me. The embodiment of the Daman's (the parks posthumus architect) ethos that attractions should be enjoyed by everyone, not just the riders, penetrates through everything in the park. Rides are shows. Theming is their stage. As a rider, you are part of the spectacle. The real audience are those who decide to simply observe.

What a beautiful understanding of making these magical places a space where everyone can enjoy a day out. Truly incredible, that Phantasialand's maintenance and execution of their attractions over the decades has been able to hold true to these ideologies.

I continue to emplore everyone who asks me about theme parks to visit Phantasialand. I protest to believe there's such thing as a bad day here. You could eat or ride or watch or do whatever you want at this place, and I guarantee, you will have a great time.

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So, after 2 sunny, busy, but buzzing days at Phantasialand, we started on our final leg of our pilgrimage, arriving in Brussels, where we decided to dabble in some of the local delicacies.

Yup.
You guessed it.
Beer.
If you ever find yourself around Brussels, and you happen to like the rotten bread drink that makes your head go brrr after a few, visit the delirium village. Over 2000 beers, like half a dozen pubs all back to back, fantastic staff and atmosphere. It's brilliant.

So after a few cactus and cherry beers, we spent our last night woozy in a hotel in Brussels, overflowing with mixed emotions. We were giddy from our time so far, exhausted from the relentlessness of the trip, but also sad it was coming to an end. Excited, however, for what fruits Plopsaland may gift us...

 

[davidm]

^ I was just at the Delirium Village (a couple of times) the other week

Was a bit of a party-pub place rather than the sophisticated beer culture I was expecting (been to other Delirium Cafes, including the one in Amiens just a few days earlier), but yes very nice beer, some I regretted in the morning. A La Mort Subite around the corner was a lot calmer (some lovely beer in there too).

 

[roomraider]

^ I was just at the Delirium Village (a couple of times) the other week

Was a bit of a party-pub place rather than the sophisticated beer culture I was expecting (been to other Delirium Cafes, including the one in Amiens just a few days earlier), but yes very nice beer, some I regretted in the morning. A La Mort Subite around the corner was a lot calmer (some lovely beer in there too).

Was also there a few weeks ago. Actually really like the feel of that alley way. Of you want a quiet beer there's places and nooks hidden away you can have one or you can find a more party like atmosphere in some of the more open areas. Definitely a goto place on Brussels for me.

 

[toofpikk]

Unfortunately, and to our fatigued dismay, Plopsaland marked the end of the good times on our trip. This calls for more talking on this post.

I had visited Plopsaland before, on a grey day some time years ago in June, the season Heidi opened. It was quiet, tranquil, and I had a pretty good day. This time, it was 25c, and although a Wednesday, was oddly quiet, yet rammed.

None of the food places were open. It was so desolate we actually left the park to go to the local supermarket to buy materials to make sandwiches with. No one was wondering around the park. A fair amount of the rides were closed, but the attractions that were open were absolutely chocca. It became clear that
disappointingly the park hadn't prepped well to deal with the influx of school kids, and other patrons on the day. The ops were completely rubbish, with a workforce who seemed far too stressed to do their job properly, or were just checked out all together.

I think the saddest thing is Plopsa genuinely is quite a pretty park with a good collection of attractions, but my god was it frustrating to be stuck in a queue for a tiny wooden rollercoaster surrounded by screaming school kids watching multiple empty rows go out on an already short, single train operation, pretty much every cycle, with 2 attendants looking like they wanted to end it all every time they had to move.

We had a quick go on their supersplash before we headed to the tomorrowland area, and during this time it broke down twice, we queued 40 minutes for a single boat operation, watched the attendant have a meltdown, and when we finally got on the ride, listened to a british family moan about it after the drop, yelling 'is that it then?!' for the rest of the ride.

Having said all that - Let's talk about the good bits.

Heidi is a wicked little woodie and is super duper pretty. We missed it by just a couple weeks last time I visited so it was very satisfying to get on it a couple times this time round.

Anubis was the highlight of my last visit here, and it's still a mean little coaster which really packs a punch...

And of course, RTH. The saving grace of this damn park. I really, really wanted to dislike this thing. The thinner, more airy Mack track with those huge, janky spinning trains on top looks so bizarre. The layout just sprawling out over the park. The spinning itself. The way it looks like it's about to shoot into space as it goes over it's stupid stupid top hat. I'll say it again. I wanted to hate this piece of kit. But it was honestly my favourite coaster of the entire trip, and in turn, probably my favourite coaster ever.

I hated the queue line. I hated the operations. I hated the people standing around my group. Hell, I hate how this thing looks as it goes round the track, it is surely one of the least elegant coasters ever made.

But

Oh.
My.
god.

It hauls ass.

Don't get me wrong - experience wise, it leaves a lot to be desired. The operations, general upkeep, quality of theming, narrative (even with the IP), all sub par. But the machinery is stupid good. There's a reason it looks so grotesque as it paces it's way around the track - it's the only thing I've ever seen to do anything like it.

So after some(how getting) 4 rides on RTH, and a couple on Heidi and Anubis, I came away from Plopsaland conflicted, especially considering RTH conveniently broke down 2 minutes before closing, as we were in the airgates...

I've just ridden the best damn coaster of my life.

But pretty much everything else about the park, sucked.

Thankfully, the guys I was with, the weather, and rides just about made up for it. Anubis still slapped, Heidi was a lot of fun, and RTH genuinely left me speechless.

Plopsaland is a weird park. It's theming isn't as high quality as you might be led to believe. Some of it is great, sure, but it's continued buy in - into cheap brand IPs, and the quality of the materials they actually use to pursue some of their more interesting themes isn't the strongest.
It's operations, are in one word; diabolical.
Maintenance is clearly an issue, with multiple rides going down over and over within the space of minutes throughout the day.
Decent food options were practically non-existent.
So we left Plopsaland in the dust, grateful to have experienced it, but in absolutely no rush to visit again any time soon.

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And so, the reality of how good our trip actually was finally sunk in, having sat down eating our only mcdonald's of the trip just before we reached Calais.
We had just visited some of the best theme parks in Europe, back to back.
Just ridden some of the best rides in the world, back to back.
We stayed in nice places, never had to worry about budgets for food, saw a bit of culture, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.
Despite my hang ups with Plopsa, every other park out-performed even my, often critical, expectations.
It was probably one of the most fun holidays I've ever had.

I've had a lot of personal things happen this year, and the timing of this trip was pretty much bang in the middle of the storm. Within a week of my return home, I was already pencilling up a similar trip for next year.

For us Brits, there is very little excuse to NOT do a trip like this. It wasn't expensive, and we got so much done, and had such a good time. Frankly, I think I'd have great difficulty in saying the same for a typical theme park experience in the UK.

Thanks for Reading!!
I may have one more update with a small way-over-edited video of my trip along with the formal reviews I conducted of each park if people are at all interested.