Take a front seat ride on Alpina Bahn, the huge travelling roller coaster
Alpina Bahn is a MASSIVE travelling roller coaster that travels in Germany. This Schwarzkopf ride was built in 1983 and still rides like a brand new coaster here in 2018.
Filmed at the Dusseldorf Rheinkirmes 2018 using GoPro mounted to the train. Alpina Bahn is owned and toured by Oscar Bruch.
Spinning Racer is really quite impressive for a travelling coaster
For those of us based in the UK, we’d perhaps be forgiven for assuming that the only type of rollercoaster that is able to be packed onto a lorry and travelled is a “Crazy Mouse”. So what if I told you it didn’t have to be this way?!
Well fear not, it only takes a short journey overseas before you come across some of the world’s most impressive and unique travelling fairground rides. Today we take a ride on Spinning Racer, a coaster built by Maurer Sohne – the company behind Spinball Whizzer and Dragon’s Fury in the UK.
This particular ride was built in 2001 and travels under the ownership of Inge and Angela Bruch. We found it at the Dusseldorf Rheinkirmes and took a ride with our GoPro mounted onto the car.
It’s absolutely brilliant! A very smooth example of this ride type and presented to an immaculate standard. But don’t take our word for it, take a ride yourself in the video below!
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!
Muntanya Russa – Coaster on the side of a Spanish mountain!
A stunning location for a roller coaster! Muntanya Russa is at Tibidabo Amusement Park in Barcelona, Spain. Includes onride and offride POV.
Lego Roller Coaster!
Look at this awesome new Lego set! This is the Creator Expert Roller Coaster 10261, released 1st June 2018.
The set features two roller coaster trains, working lift hill and station, and even a transfer/traverser track for adding and removing the second train.
RED FORCE insane launch coaster.. 0-112mph in 5 seconds!
Launch to 112mph and soar 367 feet into the air on Red Force at Ferrari Land, Port Aventura.
This Intamin launch coaster features a very intense LSM launch which continues to accelerate you for 5 seconds
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!
The Creepy Crawler (Flight of the Giant Peach) roller coaster, Oakwood Theme Park
Onride POV. Flight of the Giant Peach opened at Oakwood Theme Park in 2017 as part of a new area named ‘Dahland’. It was themed to Roald Dahl’s ‘James and the Giant Peach’.
As can be seen from this video, with the exception of the queue line the theming left much to be desired. So it is no surprise that the area has already been pulled and the coaster re-named for the 2018 season. Creepy Crawler is the ride’s current name. The coaster is a Pinfari RC40 and was originally located at M&D’s Scotland Theme Park.
The time has come for the Wicker Man to rise!
The Wicker Man is the first new wooden roller coaster to be built in the UK since Megafobia in 1996.
Built by Great Coasters International (GCI), it features over 2000ft of track during which riders burst through a flaming Wicker Man three times.
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.
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.
WILDFIRE is an incredible RMC hybrid coaster!
Some offride and aerial shots of the amazing Wildfire roller coaster at Kolmården, Sweden.
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.
2 days in Sweden in 56 seconds – Kolmården & Gröna Lund
A very quick look at our 2 day theme park trip to Kolmården & Gröna Lund in Sweden. More in depth videos are to follow!
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.
Drayton Manor’s re-themed Ben 10 rollercoaster, now ‘Accelerator’
Drayton Manor’s Ben 10 roller coaster has had a makeover! ‘New’ for 2017 comes Accelerator. Take a look at what’s changed.
On first glance you may think that not much has changed. And you’d be right. Externally the ride is pretty much identical to its former self, with the exception of a new name sign and a bit of graffiti artwork. The main change comes in the internal queue-line, which has had a complete overhaul to suit the Accelerator theme – racing cars and their parts.
It’s looking good!