Attraction Review - Movie Park Germany


Yhhh I won't lie, when it was announced that Movie Park Germany were getting a custom Mack launch coaster for 2017 I didn't really bat an eyelid. In my opinion Helix works so well because of its location and I've never made too much of a fuss over Blue Fire. Yep, this announcement had a resounding 'meh' from me. But what I was interested in was visiting the park for their Halloween event, so seemed like a nice excuse to grab the cred along the way!


I actually really love Movie Park Germany. I think in a country like Germany where you've for the likes of Phantasialand and Europa Park, it's very easy for a park like Movie Park to become a little overshadowed. That and in the past I've never really heard people say many good things about the place - a fact that shocked me when I first visited the park back in 2015. I really loved the place - it's clean, it has a handful of great attractions and the staff are great. Sure, the 'movie studio' model of theme parks is a little dated nowadays but as a bit of a movie buff myself I'll take any excuse to geek out over films.




So yh, the park was all decked out in its Halloweeny best. The addition of Star Trek: Operation Enterprise changes the entrance dramatically and really breathes a new lease of life into what was a fairly dead area of the park. We hung out for a while being nerds and taking shots of the coaster trains before wandering down the main street of the park. This area has a super American vibe - it's what I imagine the Six Flags parks look and feel like at Halloween and that is by no means a bad thing!









As I was visiting the park with CoasterForce we had to make sure we visited every coaster in the park, so we decided to get the nasties out of the way first starting with the SLC. I chose not to ride, because I don't hate myself and instead stood outside smugly taking selfies. Much more fun!






Next up we jumped on Bandit, a wooden coaster manufactured by the notorious RCCA who're also responsible for such monstrosities as Coaster Express at Parque Warner Madrid and Magnus Colossus at Terra Mitica. This manufacturer are infamous for their ROUGH coasters, but Bandit has apparently been retracked so I was holding out for it not being too bad. The group adored it and I did too - that is until I was distracted by a rattling noise and realised that Conor had been a burden and dropped his phone, meaning I spent the majority of the coaster with my foot pinning it to the corner of the train. Urgh.










The sadists rode the Intamin drop tower which I'm told was very fun and I hung out admiring the Halloween theming in the surrounding Wild West area. Not gonna lie, I'm a bit basic in that I do love a traditional Wild West themed area and the version at Movie Park Germany is easily one of my favourites. It's the kind of thing you'd build in RollerCoaster Tycoon - Wild West themed area with wooden coaster and supporting flat ride. Standard theme park 101 - simple yet effective.





A few of us jumped on the DisKo coaster next. Secretly I always make a point of riding the versions that have humps because once I hit 1000 creds I'm going to add them all to my count. If Intamin Half-Pipe coasters count then these absolutely do, don't @ me.

Pretty much everything had been walk-on by now so it was only fair that we were in for a bit of a queuing sesh, and it's not as if you really care when it's for the new for 2017 ride! Yep, it was finally time for Star Trek: Operation Enterprise. I'm sure by the reaction of some of the group who are big Trekkies that the theming and detail in this queue was really spot on. Meant nothing to me sadly but then I'm the wrong target audience.







Conor and I chose to queue a few extra laps for front row which turned out to be a bit of a bad move on our part. My first ride on Star Trek: Operation Enterprise didn't fill me with joy - nice little shoves of airtime on the latter half of the layout but all in all way too much hangtime for my liking!








Next up an old favourite of mine - Van Helsing's Factory. Again, random theme in my opinion as the film isn't exactly a classic, but Gerstlauer Bobsled themed to hunting vampires? Sure, why not. Although I'm secretly still a little peeved at them for spiting the Gremlins dark ride for this, but it's a fair replacement so I'll let them off. Honestly, I'd forgotten how wild this ride was! The laterals on the crazy bobsled corners taken in the pitch dark really caught me off guard and I absolutely loved it. It was a shame that the park was starting to get a little busier now as I'd have loved a few rerides.









The rest of the group had some kiddie creds to nab at this point so we went to watch the cheesy cop car chase stunt show thing instead. I don't go in for stuff like this but he enjoys it. It was all in German and there were some explosions and cheesy stereotypes. Standard theme park stunt show stuff then!









Next up it was time for one of my favourite rides in the park: definitely-not-still-Never-Ending-Story-rapids ride! So yh, another IP that once was at the park but isn't anymore, the Never Ending Story rapids is now generic fantasy themed rapids, but the signs that it once was Never Ending Story are EVERYWHERE and given that its one of my favourite films of all time it's definitely something I can get into. The remaining theming is still stunning and magical too, it's fab.



Next up we did what is one of my favourite theme park attractions in Europe - Bermuda Triangle Alien Encounter! So this ride disguises itself as a straightforward shoot-the-chute/splashdown type ride themed to a volcano. Little do unsuspecting riders know, the volcano houses one of the most what-the-fuck dark rides in the world. And I mean, it's creepy as hell. There are long sections of silent track with creepy twitching alien animatronics staring at you menacingly. I'd love to see a Halloween upcharge version of this attraction where you have to ride it alone, I think I'd actually find that too scary. Pure nightmare fuel.


We ended the daytime section of our visit to Movie Park Germany with a reride on Star Trek: Operation Enterprise. This time Conor and I opted for a go in the back row and oh my god, it's tons better in the back. Loads of lovely floater during the initial shuttle launch section and then powerful kicks of ejector airtime in the second half. 100% recommend taking the back row when riding this bad boy!




And that's it for another visit to Movie Park Germany. I seriously love this park and anybody visiting Germany for Phantasialand or Europa Park should consider this as an add-on, it really is a fun place to visit. Especially at Halloween!

Talk later xoxo,


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