Tripsdrill: General Discussion

[AstroDan]

There is clearly a lot of work to be done here - Tripsdrill is a park associated with flower displays and quaint architecture.

Karacho's current look reminds me of the somewhat barren Desert Race at Heide-Park at present!

Will be good to see it complete.

 

[Anonymous]

Tripsdrill build rides in phases. They invest in the hardware one year, and then invest in more rides and theming the next. They spent a lot of money this year on Karacho and their new indoor play area / frog hopper.

They did it with G Sengte' Sau. They opened it with a host of concrete towers nearby and a couple of years later opened the best Log Flume in Europe. It's just how they roll.

 

[AstroDan]

Tripsdrill build rides in phases. They invest in the hardware one year, and then invest in more rides and theming the next. They spent a lot of money this year on Karacho and their new indoor play area / frog hopper.

They did it with G Sengte' Sau. They opened it with a host of concrete towers nearby and a couple of years later opened the best Log Flume in Europe. It's just how they roll.

Fair enough, EP sometimes do this too - so it's presumably just a German thing or a way of spreading costs out.

I am glad I am visiting Tripsdrill in 2014, then!

 

[Tim]

Mammut also had a pre-show added several years after it opened

I think most visitors are happy to accept this work in progress state as long as nothing is lost from the rides experience and it's clearly temporary. I know I'd much rather see something that looks like it will be improved rather than a rushed finished product, even if I didn't have plans to return once it is finished.

 

[BigAl]

Gerstlauer have uploaded their own video of Karacho to Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvi350I3Z90#ws

 

[Pedro]

Making Of Construction!
Interesting Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUXnON0_yA#ws

 

[PeteA]

I went on this on Saturday. First things first, the queueline, area and exit path are not finished which really detracts from the experience. For the full experience, this will need to be ridden next year.

As for the ride. Brill. Great cars with fantastic lighting, add to the ride, especially as they have lap bars which allow total upper body freedon.

The launch is punchy, the ride is fast and paced to perfection. The inversions are handled well with fab hang time

For me, this was a far better ride than The Smiler which is just inversion after inversion AND no lap bars.

 

[Alastair]

For me, this was a far better ride than The Smiler which is just inversion after inversion AND no lap bars.

Aside from Maurer's, pretty much any coasters with lapbars and inversions are better than The Smiler.

 

[Rob]

Apologies for randomly brining this topic up again. I've just randomly watched a POV of Karacho and it got me thinking, is there any update of the theming for this ride? I know it is meant to be themed for the 2014 season but do we know for sure if anything has happened or is happening?

 

[AstroDan]

I've been monitoring this too.

I'll be surprised if they don't do it as TD always do this.

 

[Sam]

First update on the theming, from coasterfriends.de

Looks like some sort of living roof...?

Pictures are a month old now, so hopefully work will have progressed substantially.

 

[Rob]

An update on the theming and landscaping work:

Rest of the photos can be seen here.

It's looking significantly better than it did last year. It should look really good once all the planting is complete.

 

[Sam]

Tripsdrill is an interesting park. It has the rustic sensibility of a country park or outdoor museum, but with the yearning to be something bigger than that. It is a lopsided park. On one side is the hardware - the launch coaster, the woodie, the bobsled, the Mack flume and the Hafema rapids. On the other is the heart of the park, all the old farmhouses, restaurants and 'magic woman slides', chilling in the sun without a care in the world.

While I can't imagine myself going to these sort of parks regularly, they do offer a nice break from your Phantasialands, Europa Parks and Disneys. Those parks have been so successful that they've been able to expand to the point where every square inch inside their perimeters is part of a designed and master planned built environment. That's fantastic of course and often works to great effect, but coming to a park where huge swathes of it genuinely look like they've been barely touched since the place opened in the 1920s is a great experience in a very different way.

But a cluster of restaurants and shops does not a theme park make, so how do the rides stack up? They're best described as a mixed bag. Let's tackle the double first - the Mack flume and Gerstlauer Bob that are both impressively intertwined inside a massive theming structure. After going on Chiapas a few days before, the ride system of the flume felt glaringly clunky, but it's still a great ride, with a hilariously abstract dark ride section involving elderly women flashing their boobs followed by beautiful young maidens. The indoor drop is unexpected if you hadn't bothered doing any research like me, and the considerable final drop packed a punch. The boats also give a hint into an alternative reality where Towers had stumped up the cash to get the Flume boats remodelled as bathtubs properly, in Waldkirch.

Karacho, backstage.

The ride tucked around the back is even better though. Consenting Sow, the first ever coaster from Gerstlauer (why aren't geeks flocking here like its rollercoaster Mecca, one wonders?) isn't going to smash your brain out, but it's immensely fun from beginning to end. It starts off with a few of the regulation Wild Mouse switchbacks (yawn) before a few great swoopy drops, and then the ride pulls its best trick from up its sleeve - a straight line of giggly little airtime humps that will reduce even the toughest grown man to little girl-like shrieks of joy.

You can get a depressingly accurate impression of what Mammut, the woodie from Gerst, will ride like before you board. The funky dark ride scene at the beginning is cool (but very much Blue Fire's on a budget) but the coaster itself is the definition of tedium. It lumbers around (excuse the pun) showing off just how goddamn glass-smooth it is, while forgetting to actually do anything approaching exciting. It's a pity, because a woodie this smooth with a good layout would be great. But this ride feels like a Kings of Leon song - it might have started out interesting but it's since been sent along a production line which ensures that every edge has been sandpapered off and every thrill rounded out until it becomes the coaster equivalent of a lukewarm microwavable lasagne.

#BeneathKarachosStationSelfie

Karacho... Karacho... you want to love it desperately. But anyone looking for a Smiler beater in this... it just ain't. It should be a nippy and forceful little Gerst in the line of Anubis and The Smiler, with intense inversions and whipcrack transitions. But it feels like a thrilling Gerst turned down to 80%. The first bit is great, with the indoor inversion and the 'hump' before the rolling launch. That launch is great too - rolling launches always are - but doesn't quite have the earthy kick of Anubis. The layout is OK, but just feels a little lacking somehow. It's quite long, but doesn't accomplish all that much. The inversion into the 'Oblivion-style' mist hole adds an unexpected reprise of intensity towards the end of the ride, and this is probably the highlight. A good ride, but not a great one.

So its up to the Hafema rapids to save the day which, as usual, they do splendidly. Weird, badly engineered and seemingly barely watertight, these rides shouldn't work but somehow always do. Just its sheer bloodymindedness wins your heart over. It's like every boat is trying its hardest to navigate a course that it's never been down before, and doesn't really understand the basic principles of staying afloat. All in all, a lovely park, though not one I'd rush back to until they get something new. They haven't yet got that coaster with the elusive 'x-factor' that makes you want to ride more than two or three times, but I have faith. They clearly know what they're doing, and it'd be nice to see them grow without losing touch with their roots.

 

[Anonymous]

You do realise Mammut isn't Gerstlauer right?

Designed by Stengel.
Built by Holzbau Cordes (Build the Intamin Woodies)
Trains and hardware by Gerstlauer.

So for all intents and purpose, the smooth part want built by Gerst.

 

[Sam]

A case of too many cooks spoiling the broth...?

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'd agreed with that. Nice coaster, smooth, but rather bland other than the turn into the brake run (back row).

 

[Sam]

So Tripsdrill has the hottest manager in the entire industry... (though he gets very, very cold in this clip!)

 

[Russ]

So Tripsdrill has the hottest manager in the entire industry... (though he gets very, very cold in this clip!)

Good to see that they are keeping Uli busy.

 

[Sam]

Posted on Facebook!

In addition to the tree houses, there is currently still a second construction site, with us at Tripsdrill:

I remember Uli telling us about this restaurant.

I hope they know what they're doing, digging so close to the footers of an operating ride!

 

[Rob]

Don't worry Sam, TG Cruise are not involved!