Hold Tight Europe – our crazy Theme Park tour around Germany and Holland!
Join us for a mega roller coaster holiday through Germany and Holland! What an adventure this one was! Starting and ending in Cologne, the trip included 1570km of driving and 122km of walking. In 10 days we covered 7 theme parks, 1 funfair and 6 hotels.
We’ve done our best to cram it all into a 4 minute film, but there is plenty more to see over the coming months so please do subscribe to our YouTube channel if you like what you see!
Düsseldorf Rheinkirmes 2018 – AMAZING German Funfair!
One of the World’s BEST funfairs, and the largest on the Rhein, join us as we explore the 2018 Düsseldorf Rheinkirmes!
This year’s Kirmes saw a record attendance of around 4.2 million visitors during its 10 day run, from 13th – 22nd July 2018. Attractions include Alpina Bahn, Hangover, Chaos Pendel, Konga, Spinning Racer, Infinity, Mr Gravity, Hollenblitz and many more!
Trip video: Port Aventura, Ferrari Land and Tibidabo
3 days, 3 parks! We’re back with our first trip overseas of 2018. This time we visit Port Aventura, Ferrari Land and Tibidabo.
This 3 night trip is surprisingly affordable and a great way to get your fix on some truly excellent rides, with the promise of some sunshine thrown in. What’s your favourite ride at Port Aventura? Let us know down below!
A fart in paradise?
No, it’s not “Fart in Paradise”, although we wish it was! Fahrt ins paradies is actually German for “Trip to paradise”.
This is a classic vintage ride that can be seen travelling in Germany under ownership of Schleifer. It was built in 1939 but still pulls the crowds thanks to the excellent show that is put on. On this occasion (Duren Annakirmes), our ride token included a party hat, blower, and live music played by the operating team. Enjoy!
Drifting Coaster – The roller coaster with swinging seats!
This roller coaster is the first and only of its kind to be made by Reverchon. The Drifting Coaster is travelled by FTE Ahrend of Hannover, Germany. It first opened in 2016 and features 10 cars with swinging seats.
The awesome Octopussy ride!
This is Markmann’s “Octopussy” Polyp ride, filmed at the Düren Annakirmes. The ride is a Monster III built by Schwarzkopf.
Winter Wonderland Stoke-on-Trent 2017
Stoke’s Winter Wonderland returns for a second year in Hanley town centre. Plenty of rides and stalls for all the family to enjoy this festive season.
Winter Wonderland runs from 16th November 2017 – 2nd January 2018. You can find it in the Birch Terrace car park, Hanley.
Winter Wonderland ONRIDE FEATURE, mounted camera views!
You may have seen our Winter Wonderland music video a few days ago, well here’s a bit of bonus footage for you!
Check out some full length on ride footage of the biggest and best rides at the 2017 event.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2017
London’s Winter Wonderland is back and better than ever! Take a ride on the biggest attractions with us in this whistle stop tour of the UK’s best Christmas event.
Munich Looping (Olympia Looping), the world’s largest transportable roller coaster is back, along with some new additions – including the 80m tall “The View” Observation Tower. Winter Wonderland takes place in Hyde Park, London from 17th November – 1st January 2017. Video filmed during the Charity Preview evening.
Loughborough Fair 2017
Take a look around one of the biggest street fairs in the UK!
This year the fair featured multiple ride duplications – with a total of 4 jumping frog rides (3 standard and one suspended). The fair was however very busy which was good to see!
Loughborough Fair Model Show 2017
The 2017 Loughborough Fair Model Show. This show is special in that it is one of the only shows where models of different exhibitors are all combined into one big diorama display.
Nottingham Goose Fair 2017 in 3 minutes
Take a look around the 2017 Nottingham Goose Fair.
This is one of the largest funfairs in the UK and is held annually at the start of October. New rides for 2017 include the HUSS Frisbee and Magic rides from James Mellors, as well as the return of favourites such as Ice Jet and the Xtreme Top Scan. Filmed on Friday and Saturday 6th & 7th October 2017.
Folly Farm’s Vintage Fairground
Take a trip back in time and explore the traditional funfair at Folly Farm in Wales. This indoor fair includes a massive selection of working vintage rides.
Nottingham Riverside Festival 2017
Take a look around the funfair at the Nottingham Riverside Festival 2017.
Filmed on Sat 5th August. The event takes place every year, however this year’s funfair was slightly smaller than normal with no rides on the large field at the end of the event.
Ice Jet ride visits Northampton Town Festival
Arguably the best Matterhorn ride in the UK, ‘Ice Jet’ recently wowed punters at the Northampton Town Festival.
Now in its second year, the Northampton Town Festival featured an impressive line-up of big thrill rides. 2017 was the first time that Ice Jet has attended the event, and the festival-goers seemed to be loving it!
Meccano Wild Mouse – a huge working roller coaster model!
All the fun of the model fair! This is one miniature working roller coaster that you’re going to want to see.
This massive roller coaster model was built by John and Michael Molden. It is based on the travelling Reverchon spinning coasters that can be found all over the globe at funfairs and theme parks alike.
Filmed at the National Funfair Extravaganza, Churchdown (UK) 2017.
Big thrills at the Liverpool Pier Head Village
Thrill seekers are in for a treat this summer as three of the UK’s tallest thrill rides take residence at the Liverpool Pier Head Village.
Running from 30th June to 10th September, the Pier Head Village is dubbed as a “summer festival to remember”. Whilst we were naturally drawn in by the rides, the event also boasts live entertainment, food and drink, an urban beach and much more.
The event is beautifully located at the Pier Head, offering some incredible views to those brave enough to take on the tallest rides. These are the UK Power Tower, Around the World and Mach 5. Alongside these are a selection of family rides and inflatables, as well as the brilliant “Das Fun Schiff” pirate ship.
An event that is well worth a visit this summer. Rides are accessed via a token system, with the big rides costing between £5 and £10 a go. More information can be found on the Pier Head Village website.
UK’s only Alpine Coaster opens at Zip World Fforest
Thrill seekers are in for a treat as Zip World Fforest open the UK’s only Alpine Coaster.
It’s called the Fforest Coaster. And no, that’s not a typo. The one-of-a-kind downhill adventure is located in Wales, where one F just isn’t enough! Lets start by taking a ride.
Just like a traditional roller coaster, the Fforest Coaster starts with a powered lift hill which drags riders to the top of the course. The similarities end when the ‘sleds’ that the passengers sit in reach the peak and begin their downward decent. Unlike a normal rollercoaster where riders have no input, each sled on the Fforest coaster has its own manual braking system. This allows the rider to control the speed of the ride.
The Fforest coaster comes from German firm Wiegand, who’ve been responsible for many Alpine Coasters all over the world. You’ll notice that we’ve (awkwardly) worded the title of this post to state that Zip World’s ride is the UK’s only Alpine Coaster and not the UK’s first. This is because we did used to have a similar Alpine Coaster in Stoke-On-Trent. Located at Stoke Ski Slope, the ride operated between 2003 and 2007 and was around 425 meters long.
Zip World’s new coaster is over twice this length, featuring a 365 m upward lift (split into two sections) and a 710 m downhill slalom through the trees. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still pretty tiny when you compare it to some of the German alpine coasters located on the side of mountains, but it’s still long enough to pick up a bit of speed and feel like you’ve gone on a bit of an adventure. Take a look at the layout shown in the planning document below;
The ride lasts for around 6 minutes, during which riders can reach speeds of up to a limited 25mph.
What?!
You read that correctly. The FForest coaster’s top speed is restricted to 25mph. Not gunna lie, this came as a massive disappointment. After all, Alpine Coasters are known specifically for the fact that you can ride them without using the brakes, reaching blistering speeds, all the way down the hill, whilst recording an onride video for YouTube entitled “CRAZY alpine coaster with NO BRAKES! Absolutely INSANE!”, which will then go viral and make the poster thousands in Ad Revenue. Soz Theme Park Review.
Jokes aside, it is 2017 and Health & Safety is definitely “a thing” now, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise. In fact the way in which the speeds are monitored and controlled is actually surprisingly advanced and rather interesting. Allow this diagram to explain;
Named the “Driver’s Assistance system”, it relies on magnetic eddy-current technology working in harmony with electronic sensors and control system. When the sled reaches 25mph the system automatically kicks in to slow it down. As well as limiting speed, the system acts as a spacer and ensures that all of the sleds are at least 25meters apart from each other at all times during the decent. This does unfortunately mean that if the person in front of you is a pansy and braking all the way down your sled will automatically be slowed down too.
There’s no denying that it detracts from the overall ride experience, however the safety benefits probably outweigh the lack of speed. Coupled with this, the cost of maintenance is likely to be less as magnetic brakes are non-contact and require less maintaining than traditional friction brakes.
Our verdict
But lets not get bogged down by the speed, the Fforest coaster is awesome! We really are lucky to have an Alpine Coaster of this length and quality in the UK. The setting couldn’t really be any better, with the track weaving in and out of the trees throughout the ride – the only obvious comment to make is “can we have another one that’s even longer?!”. With Zip World growing as quickly as it is and with multiple sites in Snowdonia, maybe we’ll have an answer to that question in the next few years!
It’s also definitely worth mentioning how friendly and accommodating the Zip World staff were, so thanks!
The Fforest coaster opened on 10th May and is located at Zip World Fforest, LL24 OHA. Riders must be 9 years old and 1.35 m or taller to ride unaccompanied. More details can be found on the official website.