Richard Bannister

For my birthday present this year my partner agreed that she’d look after our five-month-old daughter for a few days so that I could enjoy some theme parks and roller coasters. The approved window was long enough for me to head to Florida, and that was certainly a tempting option, but I decided on balance that it would be wiser to stay in Europe so that I could be home in a few hours if the miniature scream factory should demand it. I wasn't sure that I would be able to travel at all until a few days before; those with infants at home will no doubt be able to relate.

I’d been somewhat behind on theme park news for obvious reasons, so rather than miss something important I turned to RCDB, sorting the output by length in order to identify the most worthwhile targets. There were a dozen or so rides that caught my eye on the list of new-for-2024 coasters in Europe, and once I excluded those that would be closed for the season in late October I was left with six main possibilities: Choco Chip Creek, Gold Rush, Hyperia, Mahuka, Voltron, and Ziegelblitz. It wasn't possible to get to them all, but after a few hours of work I managed to come up with a route that would take in five. I then used Coaster-Count to identify whether I’d be driving past anything else of interest, revealing a 2023 B&M I’d forgotten about (baby brain!) as well as a handful of smaller ticks.

My travel began with an early morning flight to Munich aboard Aer Lingus. I was expecting the usual ironing board seating and cattle class service, and thus was very pleasantly surprised to find that my flight was being operated by a 321LR with seat back TV screens – a luxury that has almost completely disappeared from European skies. The result was comfortable and, dare I say it, enjoyable; were this interior standard across the fleet I’d probably travel with Aer Lingus more often. Sadly the vast majority of airlines servicing Ireland have no interest in differentiating themselves on product, ensuring that the inexorable enshittification of the passenger experience will continue. And yes, that is an extremely cromulent word.

My initial plan for today featured two parks (Peppa Pig Park and Legoland Deutschland) followed by an evening at the Freiburger Mess. That would have been a perfectly respectable day, but I realised during a review that there was enough time to shoehorn in a quick visit to Skyline Park as long as I could clear Munich Airport no later than 11:30am. The extra stop wasn’t particularly sensible, as with a depressingly large number of my trip plans, but as usual the prospect of a few additional coasters was too much of a temptation to resist.

The delays at Paris CDG back in April were fresh in my mind as I approached passport control after landing in Germany, but I need not have worried; self-service clearance took a grand total of fifteen seconds. There was a bit of a walk to the car rental desk, but no queue on arrival, and as the paperwork had already been completed I just had to show my passport and driving license to get the keys. The end result was that I was driving away from the airport a full seventeen minutes before my cut-off, meaning that it was time to go credit whoring.

Skyline Park is owned by Joachim Löwenthal, a semi-retired showman best known for touring the enormous Wildwasser III flume around Germany between 1992-2016. This ride has now been permanently installed at the eastern end of Skyline Park, alongside a number of other portable attractions whose time on the road has come to an end. Its former pay box has been repurposed as a secondary park entrance from an overflow area located around two hundred metres north of the main gate. I'm sorry to say that I completely forgot to take a photograph of this in situ; the reader will need to imagine it for themselves.

The park has been home to many interesting coasters over the years, including two Schwarzkopf machines: a 65m Wildcat and a Katapult, the latter running between 1997-2001 under the name Silberpfeil. Both rides were acquired on the second hand market and have since been moved on. The former was sold to Norbert Witte at the end of 2022 and has not been heard of since, while the latter is still reportedly in storage somewhere near Bremen. Other attractions of interest include the world’s only Caripro Gyroflyer, as well as the first Maurer Rides Skyloop and the first Maurer Rides Spike. (A second Maurer Rides Spike was set up at the park for a while, though only for test purposes; following commissioning it was moved to the Carnival Celebration where it can be enjoyed experienced for just $15 per person on top of your cruise fare.)

I was operating on a strict time limit today, and given that I made my way directly from the entrance to my first target. Flotter Otto (#3133) is one of five examples of the SBF Rides "Double Mine Train Extended", a design that made its debut in 2021 at Freizeitpark Familienland. Today it was walk-on, and the experience was exactly as anticipated: a pleasant if not particularly memorable family coaster. The three lap cycle was about right; I certainly didn't need more.

Readers of this diary will be very familiar with SBF Rides, but perhaps may not have realised just how prolific the Italian company has become over the last few years. Their current reference list includes 422 different roller coasters, roughly two thirds of which have been built in the last decade. Some of their designs have been wildly successful, such as the figure eight spinning coaster that has seen more than one hundred installations and counting. Others have died on the drawing board, such as the MX618 Mustache Coaster.

The Family Launch Coaster initially looked to have landed in the latter category, having been first promoted in mid-2022 with no immediate sales. For better or worse however two versions have premiered this year: the smaller MX623 layout at Churpfalzpark, followed a month later by the larger MX624 at Skyline Park. Both parks already had a selection of SBF attractions, suggesting rather strongly that they may have been offered as part of a package deal.

While it's always interesting to see a manufacturer attempt something different, Berg- und Tal Hetz (#3134) is not a good ride. It has a footprint similar to the Galaxi and Zyklon coasters of times past, but the track quality isn't on the same level. This is obvious more or less everywhere, but particularly on straight sections of rail where the train suffers from inexplicable forward/backward oscillations that really don't feel good. The cornering is awkward, and the fast tyre-driven lift – using the word "launch" is a stretch – is engaged with a horrendous thump when half the train is still in the station ninety degrees from the direction of travel.

That being said, it would be remiss of me not to note that SBF has clearly made a step forward with their design capability, most obviously with their new trains, which have comfortable seating and overhead lap bar restraints that are in a completely different league to the abominations found on some of their older installations. They need to sort out their track production though. I found myself thinking about Vekoma, a company that re-invented its build process fifteen years ago with spectacular results. Only time will tell if SBF can do the same.

I had time for just one more attraction on the way back to my car. Sky Rider was my first choice, but the queue was too long. Instead, I ended up at what I thought to be a temporary addition for the season: Geisterbahn, a portable ghost train with a prominent brand on the side for the showman Emil Lehmann. I’ve since learned that the ride has been a fixture at Skyline Park since 2019 after its owner retired. As portable attractions go this was respectable enough; a huge monster tilting from above was the only effect on the top floor, but the bottom floor was filled out with high quality scenery that I very much enjoyed.

Peppa Pig Park is a small amusement park for children that opened earlier this year adjacent to Legoland Deutschland. The gates are around two hundred metres apart as the crow flies, so rather than pay for parking twice I decided to leave my car in the Legoland lot and walk across the road.

This was much harder than it should have been, as the footpaths on both sides were protected by fencing. In a sane world there'd have been a level crossing, or at least signage pointing towards an approved route, but if it was there I couldn't find it. After a few minutes of wandering I gave up and vaulted across, bracing myself for a flood of irate German that I'm relieved to say never came. It was only on leaving Peppa Pig Park half an hour later that I discovered a completely unmarked underpass at the rear of the Legoland car park; readers retracing my steps should take note.

I’ll admit to feeling a little bit weird walking into Peppa Pig Park as a lone adult on the wrong side of 40, but the staff member at the gate didn’t bat an eyelid, perhaps reasoning that a fool and his money are soon parted. A quick walk around the facilities made it clear that there was only one attraction of any interest to me, namely Papa Wutz’ Achterbahn (#3135). This was the second of what has already become five installations of Zamperla’s “Lift & Launch” family coaster, currently marketed under the far less interesting 155m label. It is probably best described as an extended version of the 92m design (and its predecessor 80STD), with an extra turn and a mid-course boost that provides enough of a kick for the train to negotiate a second helix.

In times past Zamperla family coasters were not known for their comfort, but those days are long gone. It’s no exaggeration to say that Papa Wutz’ Achterbahn was great. I’d go so far as to describe it as the perfect coaster for children; it tracks well and delivers some pleasing forces, yet it isn’t tall enough to scare. I very much enjoyed my two lap cycle, and hope that I’ll be able to enjoy a few more rounds at some point when my daughter is old enough to appreciate such things.

Merlin Entertainments purchased two B&M Wing Coasters for the 2023 season. A launched shuttle went to Chessington World of Adventures, while a more traditional full-circuit design with a chain lift went to Legoland Deutschland. Maximus - Der Flug des Wächters (#3136) is a small ride, with the lowest top speed of any B&M product from outside of their Family Coaster model line, but despite its diminutive measurements it still features two inversions and an interesting layout that routes around and above the Mythica section of the park.

I'd planned to spend up to three hours at the ride, with the option of extending to five if I was prepared to miss the Freiburger Mess. My assumption was that the shorter window would be enough to do two or three laps, but it was immediately evident on arrival that this had been hopelessly optimistic. The park was extremely busy, as one might expect on a holiday weekend, and while wait times on most rides were below an hour, my target was posted at ninety minutes. This was inaccurate; I waited just shy of two hours for my first and only lap.

The ride begins with a brief left turn from the station on to a 17m high lift hill. A shallow drop at the apex prefixes a climbing helix, a turn, and a corkscrew negotiated at what cannot be much more than walking pace. Two more gentle turns lead to a heart line roll directly above a walkway that concludes on the brake run. The total ride duration is just thirty seconds from the top of the lift, yet despite the brevity I found myself thinking that this was exactly the sort of coaster I really enjoy; a fun ride that I could happily sit on all afternoon. There was a little bit of shuddering in places but nothing unmanageable and honestly I doubt anyone other than a coaster enthusiast would even notice. More track would have been nice of course, but that would have needed more height or a second lift, neither of which would have been appropriate for the target market.

The only bad news was as I’ve already noted: the lengthy queue. While demand will always be high for a major coaster in any park, it would be remiss of me not to note that only one of the two trains was on track today, and operations were about as inefficient as it is possible to be. Would it be awfully cynical of me to think that having the second train out of service on a peak Saturday might be a deliberate ploy to sell more express passes?

I decided against waiting for a second ride in Legoland Deutschland and instead returned to my car for the three hour drive to Freiburg im Breisgau, a city the south-western corner of Germany located close to both the French and the Swiss borders. My target was the Freiburger Mess, a giant funfair set up at the local exhibition centre.

The event today was home to two coasters, the larger of the two being the Wilde Maus (Eberhard & Gobel) that I'd first experienced on a day trip to Hamburg back in 2005. It was tempting to take a lap for old times sake, but it was almost sixteen hours after I'd gotten out of bed on not enough sleep, and I just didn't have enough motivation left in me.

Instead, I climbed aboard Verruckte Baustelle (#3137), an oval-shaped family coaster built by SBF Rides (who else?) and owned by Tanja Luxem. Crazy Construction Site was new on the German fair circuit in July 2023, yet despite its short existence over four hundred enthusiasts have already claimed it on Coaster-Count. The onboard experience was fine if not even remotely memorable; those after a good oval coaster fix should continue to seek out something from Yamasakutalab.