Huxwolds European Vacation - AKA Auf Wiedersehen Bab - Day 4 (Movie Park Germany)

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds European Vacation - AKA Auf Wiedersehen Bab (Oct 18)
Day 4 – Movie Park Germany (Thurs 1st Nov)

The Index is here
Day 3 is here

I think we were up at about 7:30am today, and we were all showered, packed and ready to check out by 8:45am.

Our view from the room...

No breakfast at the hotel this morning, as we'd thought that €46 wasn’t good value for money, so we just paid the €12 parking fee and headed for a local supermarket that Rich had found online to get some pastries, but when we arrived it was deserted…

It was just after 9am, so should have been open - Even the petrol forecourt was closed .

We decided to head towards Movie Park and see if we could find somewhere near the park. We drove for about half an hour and pulled into a Rewe, which was also closed, and Google said that the Aldi nearby was closed too.

I guessed that it might be some sort of public holiday, possibly linked to All Saints Day, and a quick Google confirmed that it was in certain areas of Germany. So, we Googled the nearest petrol station, where we got some cigarettes for Rich, a Coke for the boys to share and a Cappuccino for me (I didn’t make a note of the price). We made do with some cereal bars from our snacks bag to eat for now.

The only problem with DS3 cars, is that they don’t have cup holders, so Rich had to hold my drink whilst I was driving and I drank it on the walk from the carpark to the entrance plaza.

We arrived at just after 10:15am and used the eTickets that we'd bought last night and loaded into the Movie Park App. The park was open until 10pm for the Halloween mazes. The app was saying that Star Trek: Operation Enterprise (the park’s main Boomerang coaster) wasn’t operational and wouldn’t be for the rest of the season .

First impression of the park was good – the Streets of New York part reminded us a little bit of Universal & Studios (but not as good, obviously )…

We wandered around for a bit taking photos...

The Halloween theming was good…

We knew that Van Helsing’s Factory (indoor bob-sled coaster) was one of the most popular rides in the park...

It had a 45-minute queue, so we sucked it up and joined the line. There was a bit of theming in the queue, but it was dark and the photos didn't come out well .

The ride itself was ok, but not as good as we expected from the reviews.

We had a mooch in the Star Trek: Operation Enterprise gift shop and then headed to the Santa Monica Pier area – this whole area looked like it might have been nice once, but was quite dated and tired, with lots of cigarette butts on the floor ...

We queued about 20-minutes for Crazy Surfer (Zamperla disk-o) – it was ok, but not as good as Kong at West Midlands Safari Park, or even Airbender at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

We joined the Bandit (woodie) queue, but lots of guests were turning back, and when we saw the huge cattle-pen, we did the same .

It was freezing this morning, so we stopped for a few minutes whilst I put on an extra pair of socks as it was very cold and my toes were freezing, then we joined the queue for MP Express (Vekoma SLC)…

We queued for about 40-minutes, mostly in a very open cattle-pen and it was sooooo cold. The ride itself was one of the worst coasters I’ve ever been on – SLCs are notorious for being head-bangers, but on this one it felt like I was being kidney punched and my back really hurt for quite a while – I even had to take some paracetamol .

We pondered doing The High Fall, as we haven't done this style of titling gyro drop tower before, but didn't fancy another 40-minute+ queue...

We walked back around to the Streets of New York...

Time Riders (a simulator show with John Cleese in German) was only a 10-minute queue – it was a bit naff...

We were all peckish now – I was still freezing cold and wanted to eat somewhere inside, so we chose Yellow Cab, where we experienced some of the worst service and food we’ve ever had in a theme park .

There were only 2 lads serving (at 1:30pm, peak lunch time) and they were soooo slow (about half an hour) – even worse, the lad serving our queue was eating fries and having a drink in between each customer ! Me and Tom went for Nugget Meals and Rich had the Van Helsing’s Favourite Double meal, which was a spicy burger with chillis (€30). The fries were ok, but the nuggets were half hot and half lukewarm, and Rich said his burger was awful!...

(sorry, no pic of the awful burger)

It was nearly 2:30pm by the time we’d finished eating – it was then that we saw on the map that there was a Subway in the park – that would have been so much better!

We had a look in a few shops around the Streets of New York area – some sold some really random tat (like fluffy pillows) that really didn’t fit in a theme park. We did find a park logo magnet though and said we’d buy it later.

We went over to the Nickelodeon Land area next, and this was the park’s saving grace…

(NB - I didn't take many photos after this one, as it was raining most of the afternoon and I didn't want to get the camera wet).

Even though it was raining, the queues were long, and people were smoking in the queues, there were some good rides .

We did Ghost Chasers (a Wild Mouse), which was about a 30-minute queue – I made use of the time by e-mailing myself a list of all the rides we did yesterday at Toverland for my trippie notes. I do like a Wild Mouse and it was good…

We decided that we’d do Excalibur (rapids) even in the rain, as we were already damp – It was a 10/15-minute queue and had really good theming (although nothing at all to do with Nickelodeon) – It was a really great rapids and we didn’t get too wet …

It was properly raining now though, so we gave SpongeBob Splash Bash (splash battle) and Dora's Big River Adventure (log flume) a miss.

We queued about 15 minutes for Backyardigans Mission to Mars (kiddy coaster) – it was a 2-lap special. I got stuck in my seat restraint and had to slide out sideways ...

A quick loo break, where we all attempted to dry our gloves under the hand drier, then me and Tom went on Avatar Air Glider (Zamperla skychaser), which was almost a walk-on, but took ages to load – it looked good, but was quite boring .

We then queued about 45-minutes (still in the rain) for Jimmy Neutron’s Atomic Flyer (Vekoma suspended family coaster) - this is just like Freedom Flyer at Funspot, but without the VR option) - there were lots of people smoking in the queue, and one lady was on the phone trying to get her daughter to jump the queue . We filled the time by doing silly “magic” tricks .

The ride was good, but by the time we came off, we decided that we’d had enough and didn’t want to stay for the evening’s Halloween festivities, as we were all very cold and very wet. It was about 5pm.

We looked in more gift shops on the way out – one had loads of reduced Halloween tat, and we get a Ghost Face bottle opener (€3.90)…

We had a really long mooch in the main gift store – they had some great merchandise, including lots of cools mugs and a fab cookie jar, but we had to be conscious of our luggage weight.

I bought a magnet (not the one I’d spotted earlier) and Tom bought a Keyring (€9ish for the two)…

There were lots of guests coming in for the Halloween event, which started at 6pm.

Some girls asked me to take their photo by the fountain – it’s a shame it wasn’t lit up…

We got back to the car by 5:30pm, paying €6 to park.

It had been a bit of a mixed bag of a day. The weather really didn’t help, and I think it was busier than usual due to Halloween / the public holiday. As I said earlier, the park was a bit tired and lots of areas could do with a freshen up and some litter picking. Nickelodeon land was good, and would be even better in nicer weather, and Excalibur was the best rapids of the 3 parks we visited on this trip. I’m not sure we’d be in a hurry to return (and it wont be featuring in our May road-trip), but never say never .

I drove back Gelsenkirchen, getting to our hotel just after 6pm – we weren’t sure what to do about parking, so I left the boys at the car around the back of the hotel and went to check in and ask.

The receptionist was great and came outside with me to point out a parking space, explaining it was €5 for the night. I parked up and we all went in to check in. It was a boutique-style hotel and our room was lovely, plus the WiFi was good (and free)…

The view from our room...

We had a little rest (and dry-off) and at 7:45pm decided to walk 5-minutes into the town to the Subway Rich had found online…

We all had foot-long Hearty Italian meals – Tuna for Rich, a Turkey, ham & bacon melt for me and a, Turkey & ham melt for Tom. I had a Cappuccino and the boys had Cokes (€26.50)…

It was lovely, but mine was a bit too much, so I gave Rich the last ¼.

We walked back to the hotel just before 8pm...

We were all shattered, so settled into bed with our iPads – I put Netflix on, but think I fell asleep straight away .

Our step count for today was 25,705

Day 5 (Haribo Factory Shop) is here...

[WileyCoyote]

Oh that is a mixed day. Glad hotel rescued it . Shame about the weather and queues .