Heide Park

[Islander]

We need a topic on Heide Park, Merlin's park in Germany!

Here's some (kinda sad) news from the park: a competition has been started to win one of three boats from the now-closed Wildwasserbahn II.

Tell us what you would do with a boat of our original log flume II!

The three best ideas will each win an original boat as a personal memento from the Heide Park Resort.

Send us an email with your creative or funny idea:

until 30.09.2012
of action (at) heide-park.de
with the following information: name, age, home address
The boat (about 3,20 m x 1,18 m x 1,15 m, approximately 360 kg) we deliver direct to your home. The e-mail address is used for the announcement of the winner and sending the used Heide Park Resort newsletter and not forwarded to third parties.

The flume II was in 1990 one of the most popular attractions at Heide Park and Resort was acquired from the Eulenspiegel Park near Hanover. During the warm summer months, the attraction caused a slowdown {?} in our beautiful park visitors. Last year, the flume has gone into their well-deserved retirement in 2014 and all Heide Park fans can at this point expect a major new attraction.

We want to give 3-flume fans the opportunity to enjoy this mementos day. For example, one could use the boat as a flower pot for your own home.

We knew already that this, the far, far, far superior log flume at Heide, was on its way out, but still sad to be reminded of it. Still, I quite like this competition - a really lovely idea that, instead of being permanently stored out of sight, or even being scrapped, old mementos like this are being offered to fans of the park via a competition

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

I am so glad I rode this. It was ever so much fun! The theming too.

Their other log flume is PANTS.

 

[Pedro]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Something Big, Something fast is coming for 2014 in heide Park.

And According to Trip's N Pics, the new coaster 2014 for Heide Park is going to be a B&M Wingrider. The first one in germany!

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

More Merlin Wingriders? Haha!

Still - another reason to get back to Heide Park!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Rocket]

Heide Park, Germany

As its Transylvania, a wingrider or flyer would make sense eg vampires and flying. You get the idea

 

[Sam]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Wingriders are one the most overrated rides in history. Both the current European 'riders are regarded as distinctly average at best. Wild Eagle and X-Flight aren't exactly setting the world alight.

I don't see why you'd get one of these if you don't already have the much superior B&M Invert, or a Hyper or Flyer.

 

[Fredward]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Opinion Sam, I very much like wingriders, they are great fun.

I much prefer Swarm to anything else at Thorpe.

Ofcourse everyone has different taste, but making a comment that appears as if it relates to everyone when its just your opinion just comes across as ignorant.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[Sam]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Opinion Sam, I very much like wingriders, they are great fun.

I much prefer Swarm to anything else at Thorpe.

Ofcourse everyone has different taste, but making a comment that appears as if it relates to everyone when its just your opinion just comes across as ignorant.

Given that a forum is defined as "A meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged", I kinda take it as red that people realise that what I post is my opinion. Unless you want me to start each post with "WARNING! What follows is my opinion only! Do not take as statement of empirical truth!"

Swarm only looks good at Thorpe because most of their rides are such a poor example of their type. Thorpe's invert is the worst in Europe without a doubt, and Stealth and Colossus aren't exactly shining beacons of quality. Quite a few of the worldwide inverts are ranked on Hawker amongst the greatest steel coasters in the world, whereas none of the reviews I've heard of the non-UK wingriders have been particularly exceptional. I just worry it's a bit of a gimmick like the Dive Machine, that doesn't have the potential to create truly great coasters.

Give me Tatsu/Alpengeist/Diamondback over one of these anyday!

 

[CGM]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Wingriders are one the most overrated rides in history. Both the current European 'riders are regarded as distinctly average at best. Wild Eagle and X-Flight aren't exactly setting the world alight.

I don't see why you'd get one of these if you don't already have the much superior B&M Invert, or a Hyper or Flyer.

I'd say that a wingrider makes perfect sense for Heide Park. They already have an inverted coaster and a swap for a B&M invert just wouldn't make sense from a marketing perspective. A Hyper isn't really necessary as the park has Colossos and Flyers seem to be a bit hit and miss. They're either amazing in the case of Tatsu and Manta or they're a bit dull in the case of the rest of them.

Wingriders are very marketable as they look so different to most rollercoasters and I think that Merlin has exclusive rights to the design in Europe so no other park in Germany can build one right now. They may not be topping the Mitch Hawker poll (although we don't know for sure yet because there was no poll for 2011) but the average park goer doesn't know that and will see an unusual and exciting design.

Having recently ridden The Swarm, it's a lot more thrilling than it appears from off the ride and far exceeded my expectations. I think it's fair to say that a wingrider is a much better bet than anything Gerstlauer can produce.

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

The problem is - you already know what you're going to get with a Wing Rider.

It'll be:

Fairly low in positive G's
Swoopy
Comfortable

The days of B&M taking risks with layouts seem to be totally over - even Oz'Iris, which has quite a unique layout for the modern B&M, is very low on positive G force.

I guess it's going to be great for the park, as it'll be reliable and big - but it probably won't offer much that isn't already offered by Swarm and Raptor.

A Gerstlauer, Mack or Intamin would be far more innovative in terms of layouts.

 

[Benzin]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

OzIris is low on G's? What is this madness I'm hearing... Also Tatsu is one of my least favourite B&Ms because it tries to rip your legs off...

Considering the park has one of the most overrated wooden coasters in Europe, 2 god-awful Vekomas and a cute B&M, it needs something big and smooth... Considering the reaction of the guests to Krake, I don't think they would care if it's another B&M (probably the reaction would be "THIS IS AMAZING!")...

Looking at the ride list, can ignore an Invert (until the day they remove Limit) and a Hyper (due to the ride similarity to Colossos, although a B&M Hyper might ride rougher), so we're left with a Flyer (hit and miss), Floorless/Multilooper (why not?) or Wingrider (arguably one of the most successful modern B&M designs)...

Personally another Wingrider would be great, especially if it was very different to Swarm or Raptor... Those two are really quality rides, with a good mixture of intensity (Swarm's final inline), easy to variate layouts (as proven by most of the already built times being rather different) and re-rideability... Something Heide would benefit greatly from...

 

[Pedro]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Der Heide Park wird 2014 seine eigene Interpretation der "geflügelten" Achterbahn im Themenbereich Transsilvanien eröffnen. Dabei wird die Anlage eine ähnliche Größe wie der Prototyp im Gardaland erreichen. Die Bauarbeiten auf einem Gelände nahe der Bobbahn haben bereits begonnen.

http://www.coastersandmore.de/rides/achterbahnneuheiten2012/achterbahnneuheiten2012.shtml

According to coaster and more, it is not going to be similar to The Swarm, but something close to Raptor at Gardaland.

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

OzIris is low on G's? What is this madness I'm hearing...

I rode Oz'Iris early in August, and the wheels on the ride were changed since it opened in April.

I found it to be fairly forceless, although there were a few nice pops. The recent TPR trip to the park also found the same... It was fun but not as intense as I had expected.

If this Wing Rider has lots of near misses and interaction with theming - we're onto a winner, as that was the saving grace of Raptor. If, like Swarm, it doesn't have this, then I am fairly disinterested in the project.

 

[CGM]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Considering the park has one of the most overrated wooden coasters in Europe, 2 god-awful Vekomas and a cute B&M, it needs something big and smooth... Considering the reaction of the guests to Krake, I don't think they would care if it's another B&M (probably the reaction would be "THIS IS AMAZING!")...

Looking at the ride list, can ignore an Invert (until the day they remove Limit) and a Hyper (due to the ride similarity to Colossos, although a B&M Hyper might ride rougher),

I might be interpreting this wrongly but are you saying that you don't like Colossos because you find it to be too smooth?

 

[Benzin]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

I might be interpreting this wrongly but are you saying that you don't like Colossos because you find it to be too smooth?

The term from me regarding Collosos was soulless... It was about as smooth as a B&M Hyper, and it didn't really do anything else... It suffered (as many Intamins do) from having a great first drop yet after that not doing anything worthwhile afterwards... It bored me really...

The recent TPR trip to the park also found the same...

The same TPR group who said it wasn't well themed (because they used fastrack on the ride rather than queue normally), makes me not really pay attention to that website's opinion (as I do on a regular basis, as there is usually only the one opinion on that site)...

When DID they change the wheels? I rode it beginning of June and it ran awesomely morning till afternoon...

 

[AstroDan]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Well I have no idea what TPR did, but that's my opinion - and most people in the group agreed it was fairly lacking in forces... that isn't to say everyone found that as a negative.

I was told Oz'Iris was "up there with Nemesis" in terms of forcefulness and general intensity, based on peoples rides earlier in the season - but it was anything but.

Oz'Iris is beautiful, well themed and will probably do wonders for Parc Astérix but it was not as good as I expected and following my visit to a lot of different parks through August, Katun and Batman made Oz'Iris look almost like a kiddie coaster.

 

[Pedro]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Oz'Iris wheels where changed in June, can't tell you exactly when. Change was needed because the coaster was too fast.
Maybe you were lucky enough to ride the original version in june.

 

[CGM]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

Oz'Iris wheels where changed in June, can't tell you exactly when. Change was needed because the coaster was too fast.
Maybe you were lucky enough to ride the original version in june.

Too fast is highly subjective. Unless it was having adverse effects on the structure which I doubt, I see no real reason to change them. This is what annoys me with modern day B&M, if they're not lacing their coasters with trims, they're changing the wheels to slow them down. If real life physics don't match up with their calculations, they throw a tantrum and start changing the coaster so it does. This sort of thing wouldn't bother Intamin, in fact they'd be down there trying to find ways of making it run faster!

This is why I think a wingrider would be best for Heide. B&M just don't do properly forceful, intense coasters anymore and if they do, it's by accident. These days, they're good at big, smooth, floaty coasters. Some of them such as Shambhala are excellent and wingriders are much more in this vein than their older inverts.

 

[Benzin]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

This sort of thing wouldn't bother Intamin, in fact they'd be down there trying to find ways of making it run faster!

Nope, instead they end up having to remove elements (Maverick), reprofile a drop a year after opening (Intimidator 305), replace the restraints because they're poorly designed (Skyrush) or just not sell a type of ride because it's THAT awful (Furius Baco)...

For the record, most B&M trims nowadays don't even get turned on, so they are literally just part of the safety procautions that B&M power through the industry with, leading them to get an extremely good business really... Parks go with B&M because they know what they're going to get, a well thought out, well designed, reliable machine that will provide a solid (if for some people, boring) ride experience that the majority will enjoy...

Intamin are a bit mental, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't... If they could design some restraints that could handle the madness, then I'd probably think a lot higher of them than I do, because a lot of their exceptional rides are quite frankly ruined by it trying to decapitate me...

For the record, both have overrated rides, but Intamin seem to have the majority (and also rides which are deemed over the limit of decent intensity, least many B&Ms are rerideable)...

 

[CGM]

Re: Heide Park, Germany

The thing is though, in the case of Maverick, I305 and Skyrush, Intamin acknowledged the problems and fixed them without sacrificing the ride experience.

I do admire Intamin for continuing to push the boundaries as with their past record of modifications, it would be so easy for them to play it safe and create an average coaster. The fact that they regularly work with the parks to improve the coaster shows that they do care a great deal about the ride experience.

B&M of late seem to be more concerned with spangly new trains and water splashes. I do still like B&M and they along with Intamin are leagues ahead of the rest but when they first came on the scene, they completely rewrote the rule book. The problem is that they've been following that rule book to the letter ever since.

As for overated rides, well that's up to you really and I don't see that as a valid argument.

This seems to have stopped being about Heide Park. Maybe a B&M vs Intamin topic is in order.