I use the Griswold system to rate parks and rides. This ranges from +5 for good to -3 for bad. 0 means I liked a ride, but only barely.
The Park
Pay-One-Price: +2
This small park, situated a stone's throw from the Hockenheim motor racing circuit, would barely be worth a visit but for the one singular attraction, the new hyper-coaster Expedition Ge Force. The park only possesses one other coaster, and whilst most of the other rides are not necessarily bad, there are not really enough of them to justify a full day. Unless the park is crowded, half a day should suffice to see all the attractions, but this is not really reflected in the quite high entry price of DM37.
It was also interesting to compare this park to Europa Park. Seeing barren stretches of path and parts of unkempt landscaping made Europa's cleanliness all the more impressive. There are some pleasant areas in Holiday Park; the area by the entrance is nice enough, and as the park is rather spread out the walks to some of the more out-of-the-way rides are reasonably pleasant too, through trees or along the side of a lake. All Holiday Park now needs are more rides, and to be fair we were told by the park's
PR representative that that is exactly what they intend to do in the coming years. This could also include more roller coasters!
The Coasters
Expedition Ge Force
Type: Steel, Hyper-Coaster
Features: N/A
Manufacturer: Intamin AG
Opened: 2001
Inversions: 0
Ride Time: 1m 50s
Max Speed: 75 mph/ 122 kph
Highest Drop: 179 ft/ 55m
Rating: +5
This garishly-coloured bright orange coaster became the park's signature ride on opening earlier this year. The lift hill uses the new clamp system, where instead of a chain-lift a clamp attaches itself to the front of the train and hauls it up the lift hill. This makes for a smoother, faster and quieter trip to the top. The first drop is stunning, everything that the Big One at Blackpool Plasure Beach should be but isn't. Set at a very steep 82 degrees, you can't even see the track below you when sat in the front, and when in the back you're pulled over the crest with a smoothness that is akin to riding on velvet.
The first camelback gives great airtime; this is even more sustained when in the back, and the two subsequent overbanked turns, separated by a dive which gives great positive G's, are as smooth and fast as the track prior to it. A trim brake exists on the next section of track, but it is barely noticeable and the rest of the ride does not suffer one iota because of it. The smoothness of the ride is emphasised again during a twist from right to left that is taken at such high speed, yet there is absolutely no roughness or jarring at all. A couple of bunny hops, complete with some good head-chopping through the supports, a second un-noticeable trim and then two more bunny hops send a fantastic ride into the brakes.
It is not the highest steel coaster, the longest, or the fastest. But it demonstrates, much as Megafobia did for wooden coasters, that it is not height and length that counts, it's what you do with what you've got, and designer Werner Stengel has nailed it perfectly. Expedition Ge Force delivers exactly what it's name describes - the base of every hill gives great positive G's, whilst the crests give stand-up airtime in every seat. The coaster has head-chopping, laterals, twists, fly-by's with surrounding trees, and is so smooth and quiet it would be easy to forget that the train is attached to the track at all. I simply cannot pick a fault with the ride; I rode it nine times and couldn't find a thing wrong with it.
The only fault that could be found was with the ride operators; they are very slow, as they check the seat belt first, then the lap bar, instead of the two together. This means despatch times are slower than they could be, and queues longer. However, this is by far the park's largest coaster, and the first ride of this magnitude they have possessed, so I'm sure that with time they will improve things.
Early reports about this ride were extremely positive, and I was worried that after so much hype the ride would be a disappointment. I'm happy to say that this wasn't the case, as Expedition Ge Force deserves it's place as one of the world's most thrilling roller coasters.
Super Wirbel
Type: Steel, Double Out & Back
Features: Corkscrew
Manufacturer: Vekoma
Opened: 1979
Inversions: 2 - 2 corkscrews
Ride Time: 1m 30s
Max Speed: 40 mph/ 65 kph
Highest Drop: 68 ft/ 20 m
Rating: 0
This was a rarity; a Vekoma corkscrew that wasn't too rough. The ride of this type at Alton Towers is practically unrideable due to it's headbanging nature, but this model, whilst not smooth by any standards, especially after riding the velvet-like Expedition Ge Force, wasn't bad. The corkscrews were OK, and the final helixes were almost pleasurable. This ride is always let down by the boring section of track immediately before the brake run; a bunny hop or dip just to break up what is several seconds of travelling dead straight and level would be welcome. However, considering it was the first ride in Germany with inversions, it is holding up to aging rather well.
Other Rides
A I've mentioned above, there are few other worthy rides at the park. The Donnerfluss river rapids (+1) is OK, as is the park's log flume, the Teufelswasser (+1), which gains points for a short but novel backwards section, and a double drop at the end that actually delivered a spot of airtime! The Burg Falkenstein(+1) haunted house ride through a castle dungeon is disturbing at the start, with images of people imprisoned in crates and dungeons, chained to walls and having their fingers cut off with a red-hot iron. Ouch. You were also reminded that you were in Germany, however, when you went past a bedroom scene complete with a woman periodically flashing her breasts. Reports of several people staying on this ride all day proved to be unfounded.
I didn't like the City Jet (-1) ride, which took you up high up a tower and spun around; it was a touch nauseous. We also saw a couple of shows, which were hit & miss. The Parrot Show (-3) was diabolical, 20 minutes of my life completely wasted. If the parrots had talked or walked then at least there would have been evidence of talent (though I wouldn't have agreed with exploiting animals in such a fashion anyway). However, it was 20 minutes of parrots sitting, being placed on, and carrying various objects, but instead of doing anything with them, they just sat there, as they probably do all day long on branches in the wild. This seemed to amuse an extremely dim-witted audience, but left me with an urgent wish to go and lie down on the nearest motorway. A second show, Show Explosion (+1), featuring more conventional magic tricks, acrobatics and dancing, was far better.
Holiday Park was previously a small place, but has since entered the big league with the addition of Expedition Ge Force, and is now a must-visit on any enthusiasts list. It will be interesting what rides the park adds in the near future as it competes in the coaster-building frenzy that has broken out in Germany.
Linear Mode
