Oktoberfest 2007 9/23

Its just my luck that my other half (for this year atleast) is German. So I was persuaded to take a European trip to Oktoberfest and a side trip to Istanbul. This was my first trip outside the US and Canada, and that mean't I had to get a passport. (That was alot of drama, since it came one day before I was supposed to depart..I have no fingernails left)

Anyhow..I made it! Our side trip to Istanbul was breathtaking. Turkey has some gorgeous people, landmarks and scenery. But there were no coasters so I'll leave that part of the trip out :-).

We then returned to Munich where we stayed at the Arabella Sheraton. It was convenient since it was right next to the U-bahn (Subway) that took us right into the Oktoberfest celebration site (Theresienweise). I must say that their transportation system rivals that of New York. You can take the U or S bahn anywhere. It's a little bit pricey though. You have to pay almost 9 Euro for a one day pass ($13) whereas NY its only $4 for a fun pass. The train stations are very clean though (no huge rats like the ones found in NY) One thing I thought was funny was that you had to pay to use the restrooms. They were really clean though and there was always an attendant cleaning.

Anyhow, that Sunday we got up. My other half had the traditional bavarian attire (lederhosen I think) and I had my Bob Marley shirt (that was really popular for some reason) We got there around 10am....people EVERYWHERE. I looked across and saw Olympia looping (YES!!), to the left was Eurostar (double YES!) they had two vertical tower drop rides, and a host of some really interesting flat rides. This was the largest fair I have ever seen. My friend went to join the line at the beer tent while I walked around to and checked out some of the rides. That's when I came across the Topspin.

I wanted to ride before I got totally sh*t-faced...good choice. I have Never..ever....EVER been on a flat ride where I thought...oh crap...there is a malfunction and this thing is going to go forever. we just kept flipping and flipping....and when you thought it was over...it would start again. GREAT experience! Afterwards I was a little dizzy so I got some diet coke (or coca cola light as they say in munich :-)...) and chilled for a bit. I returned to the beer tent (11:30am) line and it looked like it was going to be another hour wait. My friend said I should go befriend the security guard so he could let us in. Way to pimp out the black man huh. I was a little apprehensive at first, but the sun was getting hot and I wanted some Weisbier. So I strolled up....and made up some story how I came all the way from Jamaica, showed him my Bob Marley shirt...and it worked! He was telling me how much he liked Bob Marley and blah blah blah. Whatever mister..I just wanna get in!! I dragged my friend in with me...and off we were to meet with some other friends.

I will skip the tent excitement and get to the coaster reviews. By this time (4pm) I have had 5 liters of beer and I stumbled out of the tent to go ride some rides. I always thought Eurostar was one of the more interesting inverted coaster designs. Even though I was in a drunken stupor I remembered being disappointed that the ride slowed so much at each of the block brakes. There was no line I and think it was 10 or 12 Euro that paid for one ride. The line for the frnt was horrendous...sike! We waited one cycle for the second row. I remember the drop and the vertical loop, but everything else was a little ho-hum. It was really rough, not in a headbang-y way, but really shaky. The last helix was Raptor tight, but since the train crawled through it I felt very little lateral g's.

We then decided that we wanted some more beer and french fries. We hopped on the little carousel restaurant and ordered some beer and fries. Me in my drunkeness dropped the plate of french fries. Everyone was cheering...great! We guzzled down the beer and skipped (literally) to Olympia looping. By this time we were so out of it that I don't really remember the ride. I know it had the Zonga-esque otsr's (boo!!!) but I don't remember any headbanging. After that we rode one of the drop towers (think this one is from Fabbri) I shot us up and down similar to the S&S towers. That was fun!

After that we went back to the tent (around 7pm) for some more drinking. I had three more liters before we decided to go home. I honestly have no recollection of the walk to the train station, the train ride back, how we got to the hotel. All I know this was probably the most inebriated I have ever been, and probably the most fun I have ever had. Remember kids, don't do this before you're 21, or while driving. Prost!

Good to hear that you had a great time. I hear that this years Okotoberfest is breaking new attendance records. It can become quite mad and the prices for beer and the rides are extremely high.

Eurostar was a very fast ride when it was new, but in order to keep the vibrations and headbanging down, they brake it down to a crawl in the block brakes. I stopped riding it years ago, its just not fun anymore.

Olympia Looping is still great though, and if you hadn´t been that drunk, you could have marvelled at the insane capacity they achieve with five trains running!

I guess that the drop ride was most likely a Huss Shot+Drop, as italian rides are still quite rare in Germany and i am not aware that a single italian drop tower is operating there.

Oh, and the legal age in Germany is 18, not that anyone would mind during Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest is just amazing. IMHO everyone needs to get there at least once -- it has to be seen to be believed.

Never been to Octoberfest but did go to Germany in Nov. 2003. Visited the DOM in Hamburg and rode Olympic which has five loops wich when viewed form the olympic rings and are painted that way. It was 4 euro (4.16 at the time) to ride. This is a fast and smooth coaster and I rode it 4 times. I also rode Mad Mouse wich is the same as MiA's. Note that these two coasters are not listed in the "Roller Coasters" section of this site.

When I was there the drinking age was 16 and 18 to get a driver's lic.

I agree about Eurostar, I think it could be an excellent ride, but maybe it is unfair to even compare it to the fixed installed ones -
I know when I last rode it it felt mostly like being in a car accident, but I know it was in rehab since then.
They had an accident with it on Oktoberfest once, and since then it is being run even more careful.
I do remember the last helix to pack a really surprising punch... I wonder what happened there.

Yeah, Olympialooping can be quite a blur..
I had different rides on it, and some them had headbangy moments, others didn't.
It's still amazing what this machine still delivers even after beeinh dragged around the fair circuit for over 18 years.

Man, sounds like a great time. I really want to go to Oktoberfest one of these days.

The Columbus Dispatch ran an aerial view of the midway last week. It was, oh, I don't know, a mile long with a million rides. You could see the coasters on the back end, and an enormous ferris wheel too. As a huge fan of flats, I hope someday to achieve my life-long goal of attending the Oktoberfest. I think I'll do two days, though. One for the rides and the other for the Weisbier!

I can only dream of making it to Germany for this before Olympia gets retired.

How much would a trip like that cost for say 2 people?

Olympia is one of my dream rides since I love Swarzkopf so much...but I can't imagine it staying around all that much longer.

Any thoughts? Pricing or how much life may be left in Olympia? And with Olympia being my main focus of a possible trip...would I end up dissapointed in the ride in the end? What with the OTSRs and what not. *** Edited 10/4/2007 12:52:49 AM UTC by scraperguy99***