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Why is Holiday Park so odd?

Chris Brown

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Why does Holiday Park in Germany only have 2 creds?
  • It attracts over 1 million visitors annually.
  • It has one of the highest ranking coasters in the world.
  • Its owned by Plopsa so the potential for investment is there.
  • It has the infrastructure to be a big park.
  • It removed the wild mouse coaster after only 6 years of operation.
Is it a kids park?
Is it a thrill park?
Is it really ****?
Was Expedition G force an accident?
Who knows.

To me it seems like it wants to be a big park but then it just bumbles along for 15 years doing nothing, then it decides to add a decent cred then it just bumbles along again.

Anyone know what the deal is?
 
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Chris Brown said:
It removed the wild mouse coaster after only 6 years of operation.
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The mouse was poor, so it's a good thing they've removed that. As for the park, I liked it, but it is indeed weird there are only two coasters in there. I don't think they are particularly lacking in any other department, though.
 
Sky Scream was fairly recent and seems like decent enough coaster, so they haven't stood completely still the last few years. Plopsa have provided a fair bit of investment, improving theming and other aspects. It does seem like a bit of an awkward park though, possibly due to GeForce being such a major coaster and the rest of the park not living up the hype provided by the ride. It is a small park, so maybe there isn't much space for any new major investments? I guess its just not one of Plopsa's main priorities at the moment.
 
Well, Studios 100 did install Heidi: The Ride at PDP. I have a feeling that HP will get more in the upcoming future.
 
Ive been to Europa numerous times and have never felt the need to go to Holiday Park (despite GF) because it just looks like a crap park and I’d rather be in Europa...
 
I went last year during those few weeks Geforce was spiting and still had a decent day. I loved Sky Scream, it definitely felt like a headline coaster for a park of that size with Geforce closed but a few more coasters than just one would have been nice. The Intamin drop tower and Sky Fly are quality flats, the sex and torture dungeon dark ride is hilariously dark and weird and the water rides are solid. We left at about 3:00 having also watched the water sport show and felt it had been an above average theme park day. If you're at Europa and have hired a car it's certainly worth adding Holiday Park on.
 
It's a strange park - it feels like there's absolutely **** all there apart from GeForce and Sky Scream? It just has an absolutely dead atmosphere, but isn't actively bad?
 
Lofty said:
It's a strange park - it feels like there's absolutely :emoji_zipper_mouth: all there apart from GeForce and Sky Scream? It just has an absolutely dead atmosphere, but isn't actively bad?
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This, but I went before the Sky Fly... Didn't care as I was only there for the +2 and whoring EGF at night.
 
Who else has actually been to Holiday Park? I went yesterday for the first time and loved the place. Really, if you exclude Geforce the park looks like a small regional park similar to many across Europe and America. There's a kids area (a pretty big one, with the indoor warehouse thing opening soon), a log flume, a rather good rapids ride, a drop tower, a dark ride, some flat rides and a stunt show. For many years the other coaster was a Corkscrew, recently replaced with Sky Scream. Sky Scream feels like the main thrill coaster that a park that size would have.

It's just that somewhere along the line they went mental and built Expedition Geforce which skews it slightly.

On a similar note: I think they are struggling financially. Sky Fly was missing a seat/plane thingy. About half of the omnimover pods for FALKENSTEIN CASTLE was removed and it was juddering and squealing in parts. Most worryingly the second train for Expedition Geforce was nowhere to be seen, just a spare nosecone in the maintenance bay. The park wasn't dirty but it wasn't Disney or Europa clean either. Probably better than the UK Merlin Parks.

Honestly, I would say it's worth a visit as an addon to either Europa or Phantasialand. Tickets are cheap, the bus is frequent (and unofficially free) and the park itself is beautiful. The waterskiing/stunt show is the most bonkers thing I've seen in a theme park and I had a smile for hours afterwards. I've heard good things about their Halloween event too.
 
streetmagix said:
Really, if you exclude Geforce the park looks like a small regional park similar to many across Europe and America. There's a kids area (a pretty big one, with the indoor warehouse thing opening soon), a log flume, a rather good rapids ride, a drop tower, a dark ride, some flat rides and a stunt show. For many years the other coaster was a Corkscrew, recently replaced with Sky Scream. Sky Scream feels like the main thrill coaster that a park that size would have.

It's just that somewhere along the line they went mental and built Expedition Geforce which skews it slightly.
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I think that's basically the summary. Ignore EGF for a moment, and you have a fairly good idea of what level the park is operating at. EGF was just an unusually large, one-off investment.

I'm fairly sure someone (Jared perhaps?) once told me that the park had been able to get EGF at a substantial discount, as Intamin were essentially selling a prototype - apparently the twist in the first drop was them testing the concept which would later be used on the top hats of the accelerators. It certainly sounds plausible.
 
^ Spot on. That’s what I was told by the parks technical director. They got a huge discount on it as Intamin were really worried about the forces it might exert on riders. Obviously we like the forces now!

The park has a lot of plans, but Plopsa are in no rush to invest quickly as their slow / steady approach is working for the parks attendance figures.
 
I did notice that EGE operates different to other Intamin coasters, the biggest difference is that the catch car comes all the way into the station . On Goliath at Walibi it's on the lift hill and requires the drive tyres to push the train up a few meters before it catches. It also has a remote go/estop control panel. It's exactly like the normal one on the platform but handheld, I'm amazed more parks don't have it. It does certainly feel like a bit of a prototype ride, but then again so do most Intamins!
 
I've been to Holiday Park three times. I like EGF, though I'll agree it's not world-beating these days. Other than that, I struggle to fill a whole day there, but there's been some steady development in the last ten years and it has a pleasant enough atmosphere :)

Not visited since 2014, mind, but when I have the chance to do a long trip to Europa, I make sure I drop in as it's just up the road :)
 
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