My dad shipped me off to the Austrian Alps for 2 weeks to learn German, and while I was there, I got to attend this small park I didn't even know existed. For all of you ride op haters, you'd love this park. There is one ride op in the entire park. He's about 14, and runs the Kinder achterbahn. (kiddie coaster)
The park is kind of like a carnival, but with rides that normally don't run on the American circuit. You see, in the winter, the place is a ski resort, and about half of the rides/buildings are removed in winter to make room for the "brake run" of the skiiers. To save money, the park uses only the one ride op stated above. The rest of the rides are run by coins. Yes, you heard right. Coins. Insert 1 or 2 "Jetons" into the slot, have another person close the gates, and enjoy. I would guess there were only about 200 people in the park, so line jumping (no line) wasn't a problem. Now to the rides.
The first ride of the day was to be the Butterfly, a shuttle "rollercoaster". A 2 person car sits in a valley (station) until you shut the gates. The car (face-off by the way) goes up a lift hill at a 45 degree angle until it reaches the top, where it lets go and you slide down, to go up another 45 degree ramp, where you slow down and go back and forth. The coin got stuck and we couldn't go on. But later in the day we did get on. The first drop was fun, but it was boring after that. World's shortest rollercoaster at under 50 feet.
The first ride we went on was the Luna Loop. You sit in a circular car and it'll travel along the track in a circle. You control if it flips forward or backward.
The Kiddie Achterbahn was a portable kiddie coaster, powered up the first turn, into a downward helix (which caught me by surprise with a couple of lateral G's) Back into the station for another 3 goes.
Other rides included:
A reverse incline log flume, in which after going through the station, you fly off the track into the pool of water, and are dragged back by a cable.
A cross between the bicycle ride in RCT and the single rail coaster. You ride on a horse along a flat track through a native American villiage.
The water carousel, like a carousel, but instead of a platform with horses, there is a pool of water with a car to stand up in. There's a steering wheel on it, and when it builds up speed, you turn the wheel, and the car (which is much longer front to back than side to side and connected to the center at the front) will swing out making a splash in the water.
Mini putt holes.
A big open air room with 8 trampolines. This ride put a downer on the rest of my day, as I jumped too high and my left foot landed on the pads (1 millimeter thick) and nearly broke on the steel support below it.
The last ride of the day, the Rolba Run, was the very best by far. It's an Alpind bobsled ride. You take the ski lift up to the very top of the hill, where you get a little blue plastic sled. You step into a cement bobsled trough, maybe 1.5 feet wide. Equipped with a brake and accelerator, you zoom down the mountain. Most of the turns were steeply banked, but those occasional 20 degree unbanked turns were enough to nearly spill my sled over over the little 10 foot cliff to the left of me. The second time I went I was a little more careful.
Overall, despite having no major coasters and few conventional thrill rides, this park was very enjoyable, especially with it's scenic location among the Alps. Not exactly the park to plan a trip around, but a pleasant surprise none the less.
Wow! SOunds like they had some interesting rides! Next time I go to Europe I definately want to hit a park or two over there just to check out all of the different rides. Have you been to any other European parks? Seems like we don't get many trip reports from Europe (and other places) on Coasterbuzz so it was ncie to read yours :)
This is the only park in Europe I've been to. Based on that, I wouldn't know if most parks there have different rides vs. America.
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"We are no longer the knights who say Ni! We are now the knights who say eckyeckyeckyeckypakungloopoingengzourjin." "Ni"
That bobsled ride sounds exactly like the ride in Collingwood, Ontario(About 2 hrs from my house..) It's tons of fun!! It even better when you go full throttle, and fly over a few bunny hops near the end of the ride :)
