The First Tour of 2023
The first tour of 2023 has completed. Everyone has now returned home after a fantastic first week away. Thank you to David, Dan, Paul, Connor, Michael, and Craig for a brilliant start of the year to Coaster Breaks.
The tour started by collecting Paul, David and Daniel at Ashford International before driving over to Brussels to meet Craig who was celebrating his birthday, Michael and our token American flying in from Chicago, Connor. As always, we spend the evening getting to know one another followed by an early night as we get ready for Walibi Belgium.
Day 1 – Walibi Belgium
We arrive nice and early, mostly due to myself needing to pick up the season pass so I am ready for the year. The queue was huge in 2022 and so I expected much of the same again in 2023 which turned out to be correct. So far, everyone is trusting me as we head straight to Tiki-Waka and not Kondaa. This is tour guides top tip as this Gerstlauer family coaster brings in the biggest queues in the park.
Luckily the day was very quiet, and we stormed through the park hitting up the other low-capacity coasters first thing including Pyske Underground and the very temperamental Pulsar. Pulsar has been struggling in 2022 with single train ops even on busy days in 2022 due to issues with the second boat, however I am happy to report that both boats were fully operational, and we were on the coaster in less than 10 minutes.
To the main event Kondaa which as always is so much fun. Everyone leaves this coaster with a huge smile as the airtime just keeps going until the brake run. I have talked about Kondaa a million times, and my latest review can be found on my other blogging site Extended Tour Here.
As always, the group was surprised with Popcorn Revenge which is one of my favourite dark rides of the entire week and mixed opinions on Loup Garou even though I still love this coaster. We got all credits very easily and plenty of time for many re-rides, lost count the number of times we rode Kondaa which always means a good day when we get to this point.
The surprise shock for the day was when Connor who has never experienced a Vekoma Mad House before getting off Le Palais Du Genie… and loving it!
All in all, Walibi Belgium was running brilliantly, everything was working and the operations were top. We finish the day as I take the group to the best McDonalds in the world for dinner – German McDonalds!
Day 2 – Toverland
This tour was slightly different as Toverland was placed in second due to Movie Park being closed on this day. Unfortunately, the big miss of the trip happened when we found out Fenix was closed due to the construction taking pace in Avalon with the new Gerstlauer flat ride Pixarus. This was a shame as when getting the tickets online, it did say Avalon was open and now it had changed without much notice.
This did not stop our day as we continued to explore what is one of my favourite parks in the world. I love the attention to detail at Toverland and the atmosphere that ignites from every corner of the park. The staff are always some of the friendliest and the park helps to turn us all into big children again, which was especially needed today as Connor turned 27 for our second birthday of the week.
Booster Bikes, Dwervelwind and to one of my favourites, Maximus Blitz Bahn. The times were not being recorded correctly as 3 guests had 1 minute 56 seconds for their times, but we think Craig took the win for this one with a 46 second lap around the powered toboggan coaster.
A run through the Fun House, over to the family indoor coaster, Toos Express and outside to the play park. It amazes me every time we visit Toverland, you can be playing in the park and yet you still have one of the best wooden coasters in Europe yet to ride.
So now it was time. The park was extremely quiet this day and so 3 back-to-back rides before lunch was the correct move. The temperatures began to rise and so I went back to the vehicle to drop off a layer and get some images of Troy from the car park.
Toverland has many gems from the awesome water rides including their rapids and log flume, to the surprise hit of Merlin’s Quest and the awesome coasters, it was such a shame the group could not experience Fenix but this of course has given them all the reason to return in the future.
Cheeky Bonus - Vekoma Factory
As a very awesome and new to me experience on the way to the hotel that night, we drove past the Vekoma factory in the Netherlands. Just a very short 10 minute detour and we even saw the tilt coaster model prototype outside. This was only possible due to moving Toverland in to day two and so will not be repeated again this year.
Day 3 – Phantasialand
Okay, this is the big one, game face on, get to the park pre 9am and straight over to the F.L.Y queue.
Phantasialand opens at 9am and the rides open at 10am, however you need to get there on time to join one of the queues. I have always gone to F.L.Y as there are no quick queues available for this attraction and if things go very wrong on your visit, this is the best way to secure your ride.
While walking to Rookburgh, everyone is darting from left to right, taking photos, being amazed at the extreme attention to detail. I always have the rule, walk into Rookburgh in silence and take it in. once we get into the queue, two guests at a time take it in turns walking around the area so that everyone has seen it in more detail before getting on the very impressive attraction.
The morning was getting difficult at Phantasialand. We got on F.L.Y and our usual second ride of Black Mamba was currently down so we skipped straight Talocan and the surprisingly open Chiapas which I have seen closed oh so often and I am happy to report was operating all day.
Taron queues will keep going down throughout the day and so the best option is always to get over to the Winjas which was advertised as only a 10-minute queue, 50 minutes later we get on as Force was experiencing difficulties. Crazy bats only 15 minutes, this one was 30 in the end. Normally Phantasialand are very good and so this is a rare occurrence.
Things greatly improved with the first ride, front row on Taron which no matter how many times I ride the coaster, this moment I look so forward to on every tour. We smashed through the afternoon with a front row re-ride on F.L.Y, Black Mamba opening and all 6 towers on Mystery Castle with the longer cycle, we obviously had to do that twice with at least 4 more goes on Taron sprinkled in throughout.
I could spend the entire blog writing about this park, although there is never many stories, this is always the best day of the week that everyone looks forward to the most.
In the evening we stopped at a nice Italian Pizza and Pasta restaurant on the way back up to our hotel in Dusseldorf.
Day 4 – Movie Park Germany
Oh dear, it’s a milestone day for Connor, the big 300 and… we’re at Movie Park. This park is perfect to go and chill after a day at Phantasialand, there are no really big stand out attractions and you wouldn’t rush back to this place in a hurry, but there are quite a few gems that can be found, and Star Trek is a good fun coaster.
New for 2023 – Electronic Time Boards! This is amazing for me; the past has always been a join the queue and hope for the best situation so now being able to see how long everything was going to be for the day has been great. Today though, the answer was less than 5 minutes for everything!
295 - Star Trek
296 - SLC which used to be called MP-Express but is now getting a retheme next
297 - Bandit, the horrible RCCA wooden coaster
298 - Van Helsing the fun indoor Gerstlauer
299 - Ghost Chasers, the wild mouse coaster.
Okay, what has Connor picked for 300, it’s only…
Backyardigans: Mission to Mars! 300 Baby!
The day was overall very chilled, just what we needed, and the water rides as always was the surprise hits of the park. In the evening we visited one of my favourite restaurants on tour, the Woodpecker’s Roadhouse situated in the
German woodlands with a very cool biker bar feel to it.
Day 5 – Walibi Holland
It’s an RMC kind of day! Checking online the night before it was seen that ticket prices for the day has fluctuated to their highest price point before selling out, this means only one thing to me… School trip day!
It’s a busy one but as always, I am prepared and silver fast passes at the bargain price of €30 and the day was instantly saved, especially with starting with back-to-back rides on Lost Gravity so that everyone can experience a wing seat.
Untamed… what has happened, it felt incredibly slow, even for a morning ride. We will come back later. A few people were underwhelmed with this coaster, so I was hoping for it to speed up in the afternoon.
We went round the park multiple times getting on everything with thanks to the Silver Pass. All the kids as always disappear by 4pm, but the park is open until only 5pm, at least we were all clear for the last hour lapping Untamed which had warmed up, just not to the levels I was hoping for.
It did impress the group in the end, but I feel like after my day at Walibi Holland that I have to drop Untamed out of my top 10 and bring two other RMC coasters ahead of it with Iron Rattler and Arie Force One now in front. Number one will always be Steel Vengeance followed by Zadra and Iron Gwazi for me.
The drive back consisted of Daniel and David working out their coaster credits, an unfortunate tale for Daniel who found out he hit 100 on the mismatched SLC at Movie Park, Iron Claw but as for David…
Day 6 – Efteling
The day starts with the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Season Holders picking up their free ticket for entry to the park, a perk that many independent European parks have and as such, I get free entry to Blackpool Pleasure Beach with my Efteling pass which always comes in handy. There is a discount on my tours if you have one, just let me know when booking.
We have Polles Kitchen booked in at midday for pancakes, watch Ravjelijn at 13:30 and Aquanura at 19:15. We start off by keeping ahead of the wave to get on Baron 1898, credit 200 for David! Next was Flying Dutchman before heading to Carnival Festival and Vogel Rok. George and the Dragon has been down most of the morning and I am yet to experience the new Titan Track which was being install during my last 6 visits to the park.
Flying Dutchman has had a new scene added to replace the raining and lightning effects indoors which was the most unreliable aspect of the ride. The new scene consists of a ship graveyard and that is all I will say. You must experience this yourselves; I wouldn’t say it is better nor worse than the original scene. A few bits I preferred, a few I did not.
Dream Flight was also renovated since my last visit and is looking fresher with all the effects now back on and working.
George and the Dragon opened approximately 14:30 which was not great, but we managed to get both the credits for the water and fire side. The Titan Track is a steel part of track that has been added to the coaster to increase reliability and down time. I think it is a good thing to add for Efteling as the target market is the family market, it just looks so ugly on site and really takes away that wooden coaster look of the track. Plus, water always wins, justice for fire!
Before we headed over to the GCI wooden racers, we made our way to the other duelling coasters, Max + Moritz. A short queue that was extended from the vomiting of the kid in front over the train and throughout the platform. Apparently, this is the coaster that kids throw up most on so please be careful! You need that Poncho Protection, the name of the group who were dodging sick rather than the obvious water on rides.
We ended the day with a re-ride on Baron before the thunder and lightning kicks in. I joked with Connor’s expense that we don’t need to shut the rides down in Europe for a little rain, laughing at the annoyance of American parks always shutting down for weather!
We get about halfway in with Aquanura, enjoying the Carnival Festival part until the show stops, no music and the water fountains are turned off… due to weather. I spoke too soon and was now paying the price as we had an awkward walk to the vehicle with our American friend and to the final hotel of the trip.
Day – 7 Plopsaland de Panne
Final day of the trip, we leave a world class coaster for an always amazing end. Top tip with Plopsaland is to not panic! Go straight to Heide due to the capacity of that coaster and work your way around the park completely ignoring the giant Mack Xtreme Spinner. Dragon Coaster, K3 Roller Skater and Like Me Coaster all next on the list as we mop up those credits.
Anubis the fun little Gerstlauer is great next and always catches people off guard. It felt like it was running so well and it may have gone up my rankings slightly after this trip. Then we spot people of The Ride to Happiness! Go time.
The only reason I started the day sceptical was as we arrived early due to me getting my season pass renewed, Michael and Paul both purchased a Ride to Happiness hoodie before even riding the coaster but alas, we were not cursed.
3 laps later, front car, back car and front car again. It is such a world class experience coaster that I love. I always make sure to get a ride with everyone on the last day. We maxed out with 9 rides on this throughout the day and the coaster went to the number one spot for quite a few of the guests.
Before leaving, David, Daniel and Connor all purchase an over-the-top expensive hoodie which saw 6 out of 7 of us wearing the same clothing as we left Plopsaland de Panne. Craig was the only person who remained original in his Walibi Holland attire.
We leave the park at 15:30 and head back home. I drop everyone off at Ashford International station and that’s the first tour of 2023 complete!
Conclusion
This was the 18th tour completed and every tour is unique and special to me. I will always remember the extreme laughing on Paul’s face as we sit through a John Cleese led simulator at Movie Park Germany, Connor’s and I over the top examining off all coasters we have been on during our drives and late night bar talk, the up beat tempo from David and Daniel, Craig’s amazing positivity loving nearly every ride we went on and Michael’s love of coke zero but more importantly, his excellent choice in t-shirts as we share the same artistic Cedar Point top, luckily not worn on the same day. Unfortunately I smashed my camera at Hershey Park the week before this tour but my new one has arrived so I am looking forward to the shots I will get next week.
A huge thank you to Craig, Michael, Daniel, David, Connor and Paul - The Poncho Protection Society.
Places are now very limited for the remainder of the year. If you are thinking about joining us for a future tour, check out our departure dates and availability HERE.
