January Japes 'n' Scrapes 2023

[Burbs]

I have just today returned from my first winter trip abroad since New Years 2019/20, and thought I'd get straight on with the trip report, to avoid procrastinating for so long that I forget half the details!

Originally the plan was to visit Phantasialand and Efteling, which we eventually knocked on the head due to financial reasons for part of the group and general apathy towards the seemingly awkward journey between the two parks. Realising that I may as well do something with my annual leave, I eventually decided to try a solo trip over a week, with the following plan:

Day 1: Travel out / Paris
Day 2: Disneyland Paris
Day 3: Cologne
Day 4: Phantasialand
Day 5: Berlin
Day 6: Tropical Islands
Day 7: Travel home

2 nights per city, with hotels very nearby to the main central stations in each, which turned out to work really nicely.

After chatting to various non-theme park friends about my plans in the couple of months beforehand, a handful decided that they wanted a slice of what we do and eventually settled on joining me for parts of it. So in the end I had company for the vast majority, which was really nice and preferably over doing the whole thing alone. Another time for that then!

I live in London, so it made sense to take the Eurostar across to Paris. This method of transportation I would always recommend if the price is right, mostly due to how much less of a faff it is passing through security et al. With an early train, I thought it would be best to stay locally to avoid having to use any public transport early on a Sunday morning, so decided to stop overnight at Travelodge Kings Cross Royal Scot. It's certainly one of the worst presented Travelodges going, but for location and price, you won't find much better.

I'll be using this thread to document my thoughts on the trip! I hope you enjoy.

 

[Burbs]

Day 1: Paris

As aforementioned, I was on the first Eurostar train of the day, which was out to Paris Gare du Nord. I'd booked into the ibis Gare du Nord La Fayette 10th, which is just around the corner from the station. Check in wasn't for another 4 hours, so I took advantage of the free luggage storage on offer and set out for a jaunt around gay paree!

First stop of the day was a shameless cred-grab at the Jardin d'Acclimatation. Situated roughly half way between La Défense and Arc de Triomphe, this is a very quaint, small amusement park as part of a much larger park, all down the west side of Paris. I'd been here before but was spited by the two Soquet coasters. Transport here was using the M7 and M1 Paris Metro lines. You can buy an all-day ticket for zones 1 and 2 for around 8,€, for which I certainly got my value for money's worth over the course of the day.

Fancying my chances, I paid my 7,€ entry fee (baring in mind this is literally just for entry, rides are an upcharge) and discovered that Machine à Vapeur didn't even have a train on the track! Fortunately, Dragon Chinois was operating so I had a go on that while I could. Following this, a short walk around the park with a stop at the impressive Louis Vuitton Foundation building, before finishing off with an obligatory ride on the rather fun Gerst Bob: Speed Rockets.



Louis Vuitton foundation


Dragon Chinois


Les Speed Rockets
(It was also around here that I discovered my phone can indeed take photos in 16:9 ratio)

I'd allotted just over an hour to spend at the Jd'A, but with faster transfers than anticipated, I was done fairly quickly, so grabbed some lunch from a nearby supermarket which I sat and ate at Pl. Winston Churchill just down the road. (It's what he would have wanted xx.) Now, I've been to Paris 3 times in the past, but decided this time to actually make an effort to see the sights! So using a combination of walking, the metro and buses, I spent the afternoon visiting the following locations in this order.

• Arc de Triomphe (via Metro M1 - was almost more exciting seeing the absolute chaos that is the roundabout around it)
• Pl. Victor Hugo (walking)
• Jardins du Trocadero (walking - offering some of the best views of the Eiffel Tower)
• Eiffel Tower (walking)
• Concorde (via Metro M8)
• Louvre Museum (walking, which happened to be via a temporary fun fair all along the northern edge of Jardin des Tuileries. No creds or anything of any interest apart from a booster for 15,€... which makes Hyde Park Winter Wonderland look like a bargain!)
• Notre Dame (via Metro M1 - quite a sad sight with all the hoarding up)
• Maison de Victor Hugo (walking - I used to work on a certain musical based on a certain lengthy novel of his, so I had perhaps more interest in this place than others might)
• Bastille (walking)

These were all purely sightseeing opportunities as a bit of a Paris speed-run, so apart from the Maison de Victor Hugo (as it's small and free of charge) I didn't go into/up any of the other attractions. The weather ended up being a lot nicer than anticipated too, so I enjoyed the walks between locations when it wasn't too far. I decided to get the bus back to the hotel as I had a fair amount of time to kill before my friends were to arrive.


#nofilter #camwhore


View across the Seine river to the Île Saint-Louis


Notre Dame - quite a bit smaller than how I'd imagined

After meeting up with my friends in the evening, we had dinner at the Brasserie Riviera next door to our hotel. An Apérol Spritz, a wonderful steak with mashed potato, followed by an authentic Crème Brûlée rounded off a fantastic first day.

 

[Burbs]

Day 2: Disneyland Paris

I was about due another visit to DLP, having been twice before in 2019 and 2015. I'd never been particularly struck by the place, but having visited Orlando's Disney offering last year (and absolutely loving it), I immediately wanted to revisit the Paris resort to see if my opinion on the place had changed. Has it? Well, let's find out.

We started the day with breakfast from a nearby bakery to our hotel, and took the Metro line M7 a few stops down the line before changing to the RER line A, which whisked us to Marne-La-Vallée Chessy station for the princely sum of 5,€. For the uninformed, this is the station right outside Disney Village and the two parks. The parks were open for day guests from 9.30am - 7pm (WDS) and 8pm (DLP), so the plan was to start in Studios with a hit list of about 5 main attractions, before hoping to be done by around midday, enabling us to spend the rest of the day in the main park.

The best laid plans of mice and men, however, often go awry. We were stood in the queue to get into WDS for around half an hour, witnessing a constant stream of hotel guests entering from 8.30am for their extra magic hour, so we could already tell it was going to be a bit of a struggle to get everything done. First port of call was Tower of Terror, for which we only had to wait about 20 minutes. A true win considering we noticed that later in the day it had shot right up to 150 minutes!! Insane. Next was RC Racer for me as I needed the credit, but my friends weren't bothered by it (who'd blame them?) so decided to do Ratatouille and Cars Road Trip - the latter of which by all accounts was abysmal. Despite a posted 35 minute queue, I ended up waiting over an hour for RC Racer due to a break down (it looked like a parking issue), so afterwards I tried my luck with SRQ Ratatouille which I immediately bailed on as it was completely full to the front door.

Considering Flight Force was also down all morning, we threw in the towel with the ever-frustrating Walt Disney Studios and headed over to a place of slightly more reasonable wait times: Disneyland Park. Unfortunately we already knew that Space Mountain and Small World were going to be down for maintenance, but managed to tick off the following rides: Phantom Manor, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Le Pays des Contes de Fées, Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (une POMME?!), Star Tours : L'Aventure Continue.


BLUNDERRRRRRR


Paying our fees


Possibly the best queue line at DLP?

We went to have a look at PhilharMagic, but after discovering in the queue that it was only running in 2D, we decided to give it a miss and head back over to WDS, as Flight Force had reopened. We joined the advertised 45 minute queue, but as was the running theme for that day, it ended up being quite a bit longer following yet another break down. Eventually getting on it, we collectively decided that it was utter crap, besides the semi-passable pre-show which is clearly where all the budget went. The whole experience is like a poor man's Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind.

Following this, I decided to disappoint myself even further by going on Spider Man WEB Adventures, which was absolutely not worth what ended up being a 60 minute SRQ despite being advertised 30. Hooray. Ratatouille was back down to a respectable 25 minute main queue at this point, with walk-on SRQ, so I nipped on this before taking a stroll back to the main park to join up with the rest of the group. It's quite amusing to me how Ratatouille is perhaps the most sought-after and impressive ride at DLP. Meanwhile, its clone at EPCOT falls almost completely under the radar considering the much higher quality of rides over in Florida.


ToT looks great at night

We had about an hour left at this point, and with practically no wait for Phantom and Pirates we had another ride on each, followed by a last ride of the day on the back row of Big Thunder Mountain. Walking back out the park, we caught the majority of Disney Illuminations, which was... adequate.

After the park closed, we did the obligatory Disney Village Lamp Round, which was surprisingly successful as there were no broken signs for the first time... ever?! We had an evening meal booked at The Steakhouse in Disney Village, which was really tasty and not as expensive as I'd imagined. 45,€ for the 3 course set menu seemed pretty reasonable. I had the chicken caesar salad to start, followed by the rack of ribs and then the chocolate fudge cake. If you like what's on offer on the set menu, definitely go for it as choosing from the main menu seems to incur considerably higher costs. It was then time for the RER and Metro back to the hotel, ahead of another long day.

So, my thoughts. My third visit to DLP and I'm yet to come away saying that I've had a "good day" there. In fact, I've had far better days at worse parks, which is a problem for me considering the extortionate entry fee in comparison to every other European theme park. That being said, the layout of the main park is by and large much better than Magic Kingdom for instance - it just flows much nicer and doesn't have any real dead ends. Also, the equivalent rides are, mostly, much better than Florida's offering. Blunder, Pirates and Phantom in particular. ToT is obviously different but I think Hollywood Studios' version just edges it for me. WDS remains the black sheep of Disney theme parks.

 

[MattyH]

DLP seems to have a lot of issues for the price they charge to enter. It's a big factor putting off a return visit.

 

[Burbs]

DLP seems to have a lot of issues for the price they charge to enter. It's a big factor putting off a return visit.

I think this is my issue with it. For the price and status of the brand, you rightfully expect a fantastic, dare I say near-perfect experience, yet it never for me feels like value for money.

 

[Llama]

Nice report, looking forward to the rest.

Agreed on DLP. I plan visits there every few years because it's the only Disney park in Europe, but for someone who didn't particularly care about the Disney aspect of it, I couldn't recommend it above Europa Park. DLP itself is great, if you like Disney castle parks, but the Studios park... perhaps the worst park I've ever been to. The overall theming is terrible. Ratatouille is decent, Tower of Terror is good, Crush's Coaster is good, and the rest ranges from just fine to truly abysmal. I've seen the video of Cars Road Trip and this has to be a case where seeing the video is as good or better than actually experiencing the attraction.

 

[Burbs]

Day 3: Cologne

On Tuesday morning I grabbed breakfast and a snack from the bakery before heading back to Paris GDN station. My transport to Cologne was to be a 3.5 hour Thalys service via Brussels, which ended up being far more pleasant than originally anticipated. I remember the last time I got on a long distance train in Europe (Milan to Freiburg with a number of others from here in 2019), and the boarding process was really faffy with people trying to stow luggage all over the place. However no such chaos ensued here, and it was all pretty civilised and prompt. I travelled in 2nd class for 27,€.

In order to reduce connections and added travel, all my hotels on this trip were situated right next to main central stations. The perfectly palatable Wyndham Köln was the hotel of choice here, on the opposite side of the station to the cathedral. Talking of which, the cathedral was my first stop of the day. Despite having visited once before, it remains truly breath taking and looks even bigger on the inside than it does on the outside, with its gothic architecture making it a defining landmark in the city. I also decided, begrudgingly, to do the Tower Ascent - a ~550 step climb to the very top of one of the building's two iconic towers. It's one hell of a workout, but for 6,€ an experience not to miss out on. Unfortunately it was quite a dull day so the views weren't amazing, but it was cool to have done it regardless. The bell room around 2/3 of the way up provides some very welcome respite and a great 360° view of the bells.


It's very intimidating


It's also absolutely stunning


The bell room included in the Tower Ascent


A somewhat murky view from the top

After this I nipped over to the EL-DE Haus - a former Gestapo HQ and prison, now an exhibition documenting the Third Reich. However I didn't have any cash on me so couldn't pay for a ticket and I couldn't find any cash machines nearby. Ah well, one to do another time. Instead I had a wander around the main shopping centre and across the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge over the Rhine River. How that thing hasn't collapsed under the weight of all the padlocks I've no idea.


Thousands upon thousands of padlocks

A new group of friends then arrived in Cologne and we went for some delicious food and copious drinks throughout the evening! Beginning with a meal at Hänneschen und die Pfeffermühle (the mixed grill ftw), followed by traditional Kölsch at Gilden im Zims opposite. The concept is really cool here - you rock up and are seated (often at a table with strangers) and they keep bringing you out 200ml shots of the locally brewed lager, marking how many you had on your coaster for an accurate payment at the end.


HudP mixed grill

After a couple here, we headed to a highly-rated themed cocktail bar called Woods. It's one of these where you have to ring a doorbell to be let in and could probably hold no more than 15 people or so. Some really odd options (gin, apple and goats milk cocktail?!) but all equally lovely! We had two here before a stumble back to the hotel, and the 4th theme park of the trip.

 

[IDB]

It's quite amusing to me how Ratatouille is perhaps the most sought-after and impressive ride at DLP. Meanwhile, its clone at EPCOT falls almost completely under the radar considering the much higher quality of rides over in Florida.

Enjoying reading the report. On a recent visit to Epcot we found Ratatouille to be one of the most popular rides with the queue never below an hour all the time we was there. So unfortunately only got to ride it once.

 

[Burbs]

Enjoying reading the report. On a recent visit to Epcot we found Ratatouille to be one of the most popular rides with the queue never below an hour all the time we was there. So unfortunately only got to ride it once.

Maybe it’s because I’ve ridden it before in Paris that I just kept forgetting about its existence.

 

[Burbs]

Day 4: Phantasialand

Given that DLP was rather busier than expected for a week day in January, it was hard to tell what Phantasialand was going to be like. The crowd calendar on Queue-Times was suggesting a very quiet day, however when we eventually arrived at Brühl station and the shuttle bus was completely packed, I was beginning to fear the worst. The worrying was all rather unnecessary however, as we discovered on arrival that there were barely any queues for anything - result!

This was my fourth visit to Phantasialand but my first to Wintertraum. My friends who joined me were also Phantasialand virgins at this point, and I was really excited to show them the park for the first time! Upon entering the park, pretty much everything had a 0-10 minute wait except for F.L.Y. on 25 mins and Taron at 40. We headed straight for F.L.Y. and ended up walking straight on to the ride, although in fairness it did seem to take about 25 minutes to walk through the queue line! I've not been as happy in a theme park as I was when walking through the tunnel from Berlin to Rookburgh for the first time, in a long time - it feels as though we've been waiting years for this to open in the first place, not helped by the fact it eventually opened just after my last visit to the park which was 2.5 years ago.

My thoughts on Rookburgh are as follows. The area is incredibly well designed from a thematic perspective and is truly immersive, especially at night. We were fortunate enough to be in the area as the show lighting ceremony was taking place, which was really spectacular seeing it all turning on around you. It could certainly use another attraction though, and the bar and restaurant seemed a little exclusive, which is not what you want from a theme park. The queue line for F.L.Y. I thought was really cool, how it takes you all around the area and offers you views of the ride from all different angles. That being said, some of the sections with long metal walls seem like they'd be rather claustrophobic if you had to queue through them. Also, why on earth they didn't build a cut through from the entrance to the last bit of the outside queue line is beyond me, considering you literally cross over the damn thing. The indoor section of queue, the station and the indoor bit of the ride was not as impressive as I had imagined, but still cool nonetheless. I did find the station lighting fun though how it follows the train.

I won't spoil anything about the attraction as that really would be illegal, but I will say that I found the ride very very good indeed. The forces and sensations feel completely out of place and take you very much by surprise, but just sort of... work. Feeling strong air time in that prone position is just weird, but great! I also didn't experience any discomfort from the train's restraints which others had previously reported on, but maybe that's just different from person to person.


A not great photo of F.L.Y. at dusk

After one ride on F.L.Y. (because we couldn't be arsed walking through the queue line again), we proceeded around the park and did the following rides over the course of the day.

• F.L.Y. x3
• Taron x2 (sometimes I forget just how good this thing is, and my back car ride at night was insane)
• Colorado Adventure x2 (never fails to deliver)
• Black Mamba x2 (not that highly rated over all and I admit it does peter out towards the end, but I really love this ride)
• Raik x2 (actually really intense on the forwards section once warmed up, a shame the backwards bit is a bit crap)
• Maus au Chocolat (bored barnes)
• Winja's Fear (still don't fully trust Maurer's brakes... also way better than Force)
• Winjas's Force (Winja's ForceLESS)
• Crazy Bats (first time doing VR on this as for once it didn't have an hour's wait. It was adequate)
• Chiapas (whoever says it doesn't get you as wet during Wintertraum is lying. Soaked through for most of the day!)
• Feng Ju Palace (for the comedy value)
• Geister-Rikscha (for a nap)
• Mystery Castle (WHY do they insist on running MISERY Castle when it's completely walk-on and the middle of the afternoon?!)
• Deep in Africa - Adventure Trail (actually really good fun with re-rideability due to the different paths)
• Pferdekarussell (starting to run out of things to do)
• Das Verrückte Hotel Tartüff (I walked head first at full pelt into a glass wall in the labyrinth section thinking it was the way out... a week on and I can still feel it)
• Talocan (a ride I always underestimate the intensity of... Jeeeeeeze)

Berlin street


Taron by night

I never realised before this trip how beautiful the park looks at night. For lunch that day, I was insistent on eating at Rutmor's Taverne - another somewhat exclusive F&B option which has always been really busy on previous visits and difficult to get in without banging on the door at 12pm sharp. A rather dead park seemed like the best opportunity to experience the culinary delights on offer. Not being able to decide between the cheese board and sausage platter, my friend Ben and I decided to share one of each. See below our shock and amazement of what was presented to us.


Ohhhh my gawwddddd fatty!

We headed back to Cologne using the PL shuttle bus and a tram from Brühl Mitte as there were lots of cancelled and delayed trains from Brühl station, and had a wander back into the centre of Cologne for some tea. As if we'd not had enough sausage (ooerr missus), we decided to get a Bratwurst to round off the day.

 

[Burbs]

Day 5: Berlin

Cologne and Berlin are actually nowhere near each other, so obviously it was a sensible idea to include them both on this trip! Another long-distance rail journey was involved from Köln Hbf to Berlin Hbf on an ICE service, which took just shy of 4.5 hours. Due to how long the journey was going to take, we decided to upgrade to 1st class when booking our tickets, which brought the total cost to the extraordinary price of 33,90€! You don't actually get anything in 1st class apart from wider and comfier seats, a near guarantee of a quieter coach and table service if you'd like it, but for the sake of 10,€ extra it was absolutely worth it and I'd upgrade again in a heartbeat. It's worth noting if anyone's looking at doing a similar journey not to book ICE travel last minute - I checked my travel times the morning of the journey and they were selling tickets for literally 17 times the price of what I paid, and that was for 2nd class!

On arrival in Berlin, we checked in to our hotel - the new-ish ibis Berlin Hbf which, as the name suggests, is again just across the road from the central station. This was the nicest hotel of the trip, with spacious rooms, modern bathrooms, a fresh feel and wooden key cards!

Our first port of call was the government Reichstag building across the river from the station. The building has the iconic glass dome on top which acts as a sky light in to the main government chamber, but also as a (admittedly low-level) viewing platform across Berlin. It's free to do, but you have to submit a request to the German Government in advance to book a slot, then they will assign you one of a few time slots via email as your invitation to attend. Very weird, but not difficult to get your head around. Upon entry there are passport/ID checks and airport-style security before being escorted into the building. Once inside you're free to wander about the dome as you like. As you can see in the images below, the architecture is super cool.


Looking down into the chamber (you can't really see much)


Looking out and across Berlin


Another shameless selfie looking up the central column of the dome

We spent about 20 minutes or so once up in the dome before carrying on with our day. Much like Paris, I had a list of destinations around the city in mind which we set out to see before it got too dark. A day pass for travel in Berlin zones A+B cost 8,80€, which we got our money's worth out of travelling around by foot, U-Bahn (underground metro) and S-Bahn (overground trains). We started at the Brandenburg Gate, then on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, before the lesser-spotted Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism just across the road. It was then a wander up to the Topography of Terror via Potsdamer Platz.


Brandenburg Gate

The Topography is a somewhat harrowing experience, documenting the facts of the Nazi regime in Germany and Berlin. It's an outdoor gallery with text and images, which you could easily spend a good couple of hours at reading through it all. The horrors are uncensored and pronounced, stunning many visitors quite visually into shock - you can practically hear a pin drop. We only spent 45 minutes or so as we only had the 1 day to explore the city, but it's somewhere I'd really like to come back to on my own one day.


Topography of Terror

Following this, we stopped by the tourist trap that is Checkpoint Charlie before getting the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz. We rested here for a few moments with a coffee, in awe of the sheer scale of the iconic TV tower. We then took the S-Bahn over to the East Side Gallery - an artistic "graffiti" (it's much more tasteful than that) installation on the east side of the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall. We decided to walk the entire length of it and enjoyed the imagery on display. The plan was then to get the S-Bahn back to the hotel to chill for an hour or so, but considering the rain was holding off, Ben twisted my arm in to taking the 4-mile, 1.5-hour walk back instead. This was actually more pleasant than anticipated and we got some good views of the cathedral from the Spree River.


Checkpoint Charlie


Berlin Cathedral

Our evening meal that day was the highly-praised and somewhat-distanced The BIRD. It's an American-style joint specialising in burgers, situated a short tram ride away from the main touristy areas of Berlin, but this was included in our day passes. I'd had recommendations from @Sammy for anything with blue cheese and mushroom, and from @Craig for anything with cheese and bacon. The "Da Woik" burger had all of these things and more, so seemed like the most appropriate option. It was the busiest restaurant I'd seen throughout the entire trip, and it was not without good reason, because Jesus CHRIST this food is good.


No, I did not order extra chips

Rolling out of the restaurant, we stopped off at a cocktail bar next door to our hotel for a liquid dessert (because I could not face any more food at this point), where it happened to be happy hour... result! At this point we were in a food coma so hit the sack before the next day, and possibly my most anticipated day of the trip as we were to visit Tropical Islands!

 

[Burbs]

Day 6: Tropical Islands

The last full day of the trip was centred around a visit to the elusive Tropical Islands water park resort, about an hour away from Berlin. This is a destination that it seems like no one in these circles ever really goes to, despite the sheer scale and uniqueness of the place. I'd seen videos and photos of it before (those with a similar YouTube subscriptions list to me will be aware that Tom Scott did a video there a few years back) and have wanted to visit ever since. For the uninformed, it's basically a massive water park, hotel resort and rainforest in a disused aircraft hangar!

To get there, we took the RE from Berlin Hbf to Brand Tropical Islands for 18,€pp return. It really does feel like you're in the middle of nowhere when travelling and arriving, and the station isn't particularly close to the attraction anyway, but there is a free shuttle bus from the station for all to use. Our tickets cost us 39,50€ each, which seems about on par with other water parks in Germany during off-peak periods, although I did find it quite difficult to work out which tickets we needed and even how to book for this current year. I think the confusion comes from the place being a 24-hour operation, as the hotel rooms are basically dotted all around the water park and rain forest (rather than a hotel bolted on to the outside which is what I thought it was going to be), yet you can buy a ticket as a day guest too.

It's really impressive approaching the attraction, seeing nothing around you but this huge hangar, which looks even bigger on the inside than it does out. After nearly getting off at the wrong bus stop, we arrived at the somewhat low-key main entrance, scanned our tickets and got our locker wrist bands before getting changed and exploring the place. For those who've been to Rulantica, the wrist bands are exactly the same as Rula Bands - being used for opening lockers and making purchases throughout the day - although it's worth noting that at Tropical Islands they actually have self-serve payment machines to exit that work!


Blink and you miss it


Walking through the rainforest

Already overwhelmed by the impressiveness of the place, we headed through the rainforest to the Südsee pool for all of about 5 minutes - it seems a bit uninspired and the painted sky blue wall doesn't do it for me... so much so that apparently I didn't even take a picture! It was here that we discovered that the main slide tower was SBNO due to it having cranes around it and works going on, seemingly to add a couple more on to it, but they have definitely removed the really steep blue one unfortunately. They have in the last couple of years installed a family slide and play tower (think a budget Svalgurok/Paradise Plumbers with a couple of slides), which to be fair did have a fun bowl slide. This, however, was also all blocked off with ropes across the steps up to all the slides, but the water was still running, which seemed odd.

We decided to head out to the Amazonia outdoor area where I knew there was a heated pool and a Vildstrøm-esque rapids ride. What looked like the entrance to the rapids was also blocked off with a staff-only sign on the door, so at this point I thought that literally every slide was shut on this day that we visited. We spent 20 minutes or so in the outdoor pool which was lovely and warm (Rulantica needs this level of heat outdoors, especially during winter), and enjoyed the jacuzzi elements and the steady flow of the sort-of-lazy-river around the outside of it. Deciding to head back indoors, we discovered the somewhat-hidden entrance to the rapids, completely un-signposted and randomly at the exit to the outdoor pool. We had 2 laps on this as there are different routes you can take, before heading back indoors where we discovered the family slide tower to have reopened, so spent another few moments ticking them all off as well.


The outdoor pool in the Amazonia area


The family slide tower behind yet another shameless selfie

After this it was time for a drink! For some reason there are no swim-up bars, so we went to the Lagoon Bar for what turned out to be very strong cocktails for about 8,€! Slightly drunk, we headed towards the Mondial Food Court for lunch, offering a very similar selection to what you'll find in Rulantica, just all in one place. Poke bowls, burgers, pasta and pizza are all up for grabs, of which we opted for pasta. It was nothing amazing, but the stodginess was much needed. Afterwards we went for a proper wander around the rainforest, before coming across the lagoon swimming pool areas, which are a bit tucked away. It's like a larger Skog Lagune but without the alcohol, and it had a couple of unassuming slides which were actually half decent. We then headed back outside to spend some more time in the outdoor pool and another couple of laps on the rapids, before getting changed and having a final wander to take some photos of the place.


The hangar


Amazonia area from indoors


Rainforest inc flamingos


The Lagoon pool


Lagoon pool waterfalls


Balloon flight across the hall, and some new slides being built behind it

We spent a total of just under 6 hours in Tropical Islands, which isn't bad going considering there's not actually that much to do, and we only had a couple of drinks throughout the day. After getting the train back to Berlin, we went for a wander around the evidently lesser-visited parts, ending up wandering past the intimidating Moabit Prison, and having our final meal at a cheap-and-cheerful Italian restaurant.

Day 7: Travel home

Our flight home was with Ryanair (operated by Lauda) from the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, although it seems so new that it's hardly finished on the inside. A very weird terminal with quite a few flights going from there yet it seemed like there were hardly any people in the main concourse area. We flew back to Stansted where we had lots and lots and lots of fun waiting for a National Express coach home as the Stansted Express rail service was experiencing disruption. We eventually got back after queuing for over an hour for a bus and treated ourselves to a Wendy's for tea.

This was an absolutely fantastic holiday, which I wasn't actually expecting to be as good as it ended up being, but thoroughly enjoyed almost every moment of the trip! I hope you've enjoyed reading this trip report, if indeed you have been, and I'm more than happy to advise on travel/accommodation questions if anyone's planning anything at all similar.

 

[Burbs]

It wouldn’t really be a Burbs trip report without an accompanying video montage! All taken with my iPhone 14 and I’m actually so impressed with how all the clips turned out.

Enjoy!


From: https://youtu.be/iUuvsTNNk28

 

[Zeock]

It wouldn’t really be a Burbs trip report without an accompanying video montage! All taken with my iPhone 14 and I’m actually so impressed with how all the clips turned out.

Enjoy!


From: https://youtu.be/iUuvsTNNk28

Nice footage! You can see how the image quality that a mobile phone is able to produce has really improved over the years!

 

[Poisson]

Great report. Regarding the DLP part, it is a reason why I am hesitant to go. I have had good days at utter dumps or technically massively inferior parks (really enjoyed Coney Beach in Wales despite it having nothing of note) but DLP always seems to get panned for one thing or another

 

[Burbs]

Great report. Regarding the DLP part, it is a reason why I am hesitant to go. I have had good days at utter dumps or technically massively inferior parks (really enjoyed Coney Beach in Wales despite it having nothing of note) but DLP always seems to get panned for one thing or another

For the price they charge you quite rightfully expect near perfection. That’s my main issue.