Attraction Review - Heide Park Resort


I'll be honest, I wasn't stoked at the idea of returning to Heide Park and had it not been on the Ghosterforce line-up and conveniently located between Movie Park and Hansa Park we probably wouldn't have bothered. I've visited twice before and never really rated the place and apart from the new Ghostbusters dark ride and being down one huge wooden coaster nothing much had really changed.




Despite my apathy for the visit, I did book us into the fabulous Heide Park Abenteurhotel for the night to have at least something to look forward to. When we'd stayed here previously when it was know at Hotel Port Royal we'd absolutely loved the place so I couldn't wait to get the day at the park over with to enjoy our night in!



What's fab about visiting a park where you have no overwhelming desire to ride anything is that you have zero anxiety that you're not going to tick everything off, meaning you're completely free to casually enjoy the day and just take everything in. I'd visited Heide Park in October before and was looking forward to enjoying the autumnal ambience and soaking in the atmosphere, so walking in and immediately seeing loads of pumpkins was the first in a line of goodness that contributed to actually, a pretty bloody good day at the park!





There were people in the group who hadn't visited before, so naturally creds were prioritised. We decided to just ride the SLC to get it out of the way first thing, and similarly to Movie Park, Conor and I sat smugly outside whilst the rest of the group were brutalised. One thing we noticed was that the park was actually pretty busy, especially compared to when we'd visited back in 2014 - might be a squeeze to get everything done!




We wandered uphill to the bobsled next, walking past several soon-to-be haunt locations on the way. One day I really would like to experience the scare attractions here but I always seem to visit a tad too early.





I remembered enjoying the bobsled last time and honestly was getting a little bored of hanging around, so we joined the queue with the others. OMG this coaster is amazing! It's so long and fast and forceful! The way it towers over the rest of the park in that top corner and cascades down the side and back in on itself is fabulous. If there hadn't been a queue I absolutely would have ran around for a reride, so much fun.






The drop tower lovers got their kicks on Scream next. I'm told it rides like Detonator, only three times the size, a description which is more than enough to put me off ever subjecting myself to the beast. It's just SO intimidating. The sound, the size, the way the cogs menacingly turn and crank as the gondola ascends. It does its job as a big scary thrill ride alright.








Time for a big boy next - the queue for Flug der Damonen boasted 60 minutes but glancing at it we decided to call its bluff. We only ended up waiting around half an hour and the queue moved quickly. Plus it's one of those great queues where you can enjoy watching the ride fly all around you whilst you're waiting for your turn - easy queueline entertainment!

As I usually do with wing coasters, I opted for the outer seat towards the back of the train. I don't know if we're spoiled with The Swarm or this has aged terribly but damn this thing just bounces along every inch of that track. It was just so bloody uncomfortable I was praying for it to be over immediately after its one redeeming feature which is the post first drop airtime hill. Proper motion-sickness inducing movement, I came off with my head absolutely swimming. Blergh.







Lunch for us, Vekoma Big Loop for the rest of the group who needed le cred. We opted for the Merlin staple Pizza Pasta buffet. But weirdly, in Germany this is just a lot...nicer? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a messy pizza/pasta buffet at Alton or Thorpe. I love those tasty deep pan pizzas swimming in cheese and giant bowlfuls of cheesy pasta. And the Heide Park version did have that to an extent, but everything just had a touch more elegance. People queued politely instead of hungrily diving in and fighting over a spatula. Quite nice really!







I also ditched the group for lunch because I wanted to squeeze in a mooch around the new-ish How To Train Your Dragon area. I love the movie and the characters and such. We had fun playing in the cute meet n greet with Toothless and was great to take a ride on the repurposed old boat ride - now with more dragons! It's not the biggest theme park area in the world but it is super cute, plus it has dragons and fire so it gets extra points. Loved it.



Of course, if there's a powered mine train, I absolutely HAVE to ride it. They're a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, especially when they're cute and quaint and old like the Heide Park one is. Honestly, I had forgotten about the weird horse diorama inside the tunnel so we did have a bit of a laugh at that on our way around.

Finally it was time to get stuck into the new-for-2017 dark ride attraction Ghostbusters 5D. Conor was super excited to ride this as he's a huge Ghostbusters fan and after riding Ninjago at LegoLand Windsor back in the summer I was keen to try out more of these new wave Merlin dark rides.








It was...fab. So, so fab. It's not all screens, there's a concerted effort to blend the action with proper theming and sets too. The shooting system is great (top tip - work together to gain more points!), the storyline is fun and sooooo suited to the Ghostbusters brand and the 5D effects are timed to perfection to bring the whole thing to life. Conor and I enjoyed it so much that we actually ran around for a second go whilst the rest of the group grabbed their Desert Race cred.


We grabbed a ride on the rapids next, mostly because they were there and had no queue. These are nothing to write home about really, but they do look pretty in the autumnal October sun, so I guess that's something.




By now the sun was setting and the cred anxiety had fully set in, so we spent the rest of our time at Heide Park riding their B&M dive machine Krake into the sunset. I'd forgotten how good this was an it really took me by surprise! The airtime on the first drop, especially in the back row, was absolutely fantastic and the added elements of the airtime hill and inversion bring it close to overtaking Oblivion for me. But not quite...






And that was our day at Heide Park! We spent the rest of the evening enjoy the pool at the resort hotel, relaxing in our themed hotel rooms and eating our body weight in beer and meat at the restaurant buffet.


Our visit to Heide Park Resort really took me by surprise. Because my favourite thing at the park, Collossos, was closed, I was expecting to have a pretty meh day but honestly it was the exact opposite. It was so autumnal and beautiful and I loved having the time to just relax and take in the atmosphere. The stay at the hotel (100% recommend by the way) was the cherry on top of a really excellent day!

Talk later xoxo,

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