European Coaster Trip May 2026

[johnjniehaus]

So my partner and I love Schwarzkopf rides and we have been doing some extensive research and discovered last year that a small theme park in the Netherlands called Slagharen has a total of 6 different Schwarzkopf rides. I personally do not know of any other park that has a larger collection of Anton's rides all in the same place. So the idea to visit Slagharen blossomed into a 10 day trip to the Netherlands and Belgium with a small jaunt into France and Germany covering 6 parks and a carnival. 

 

Foire de Mai in Metz, France: after landing in Brussels we drove about 3 hours through Luxembourg to the town of Metz, France where they were having a large kermis. There were some hard to find traveling rides that we wanted to get some rides on. We started with a wild ride on a Huss Breakdance that had approximately a 5 minute ride cycle and had much more spinning as it would speed up and slow down during the cycle to whip the cars around more than any of the other ones I've ever been on. Pair that with the incredible lighting package and lasers it was such an energetic start to the evening. Up next was a Tagada which I was told are illegal in the USA unless they have seatbelts which defeats the entire point of bouncing riders off the seats and into the floor. The family running the ride were having a great time manually controlling the spin and bouncing as they tried to pop people off the outer ring of seats and into the floor in the middle. I managed to lose my phone one this ride (first time I've ever lost a phone on a ride) thankfully they were able to spot it quickly and climb down under the ride and retrieve it without a scratch. We continued down the midway to the HUSS Magic flat ride. This was kind of like an inverted breakdance that was very unique albeit less intense. We then rode a Schwarzkopf Bayern Kurve which had water and fire effects as the bobsled raced around the track. It was great to actually ride one going at high speed as compared to the one at CGA which is pretty tame. Finally we rode a Mondial Move in Top which is probably one of the most intense flats I've ever done. 

 

So that I can include related photos of the parks, I will reply to this thread with the other parks and rides we rode while in Europe 

[johnjniehaus]

Our first amusement park was Walibi Belgium. This park has approximately ten coasters including the new Intimin Mega Coaster Kondaa which felt like a non-inverting velocicoaster. I do not think that this ride gets enough recognition because it is really good! Also we very much enjoyed the Vekoma wooden coaster Loup-Garou which it was announced a few days ago that it will be closing at the end of the year for an RMC conversion treatment. Tiki Waka is an odd wild mouse type coaster. Mecladon was a very solid family coaster. I think that two of the older more classic coasters would be Turbine which is an indoor Schwarzkopf shuttle loop (my first one of the model) and the Vekoma built Calamity Mine. Calamity Mine was arguably one of the best mine trains - definitely had to have been inspired by Big Thunder Mountain. The park also had a nice collection of dark rides including an interactive shooter called popcorn's revenge which was scream based and one that was animatronics based called the challenge of tukenhammen. This one, if you scored high enough the ride would take you on an extended version into additional rooms. Unfortunately we didn't get to see these additional rooms but it is still a cool feature of the ride. The park also has a Vekoma mad house themed to a Genie Palace. Overall I personally think that Walibi Belgium has better themeing while Walibi Holland has a strong ride collection 

[johnjniehaus]

Phantasialand near Cologne Germany is a park we had heard many good things about but it turned out to exceed even our best expectations! The park is relatively small but they maximize their land space to the max. We started the day with some rain when we did two rounds on FLY - the next Gen Vekoma flying coaster in the Rookwood Steampunk section. The ride was incredible as it dives in and out of the scenery and the land. We thought the coaster was amazing and the way it loads is much better than all the other flyers. We next proceeded to the fantasy world and rode the two spinners Winjas Fear and Winjas Force. They were both very fun spinners with various surprises. We also did a strange stand-up Drop Tower called the title tattle tree. Next we rode the wave swinger which actually has fountains and the Maus de Chocolate ride which has the same shooting ride system as Toy Story at Disney but in this case you are blasting mice with with pastry bags to clean out a bakery suffering from a rodent infestation. 

The other coasters in the park include Taron which is an Intimin launch coaster which reminded me of an extended version of velocicoaster. Raik was a Vekoma family boomerang and weaved in and around Taron. We also rode Black Mamba which was a great B&M invert in the African section. While not the most intense or forceful the way it ducks beneath cliffs, rides through tunnels, and flies over a waterfall was absolutely breathtaking and places it at the top of my invert ranking. Colorado Adventure (mine train my Vekoma) was definitely the most intense mine train we have done. It has to be pretty wild for me to hang onto the lapbar and this ride was running all over under the log Flume and around through the surrounding scenery and through tunnels throwing you around every different direction. It was absolutely fantastic! 

The park has too water rides. While River Quest looked like an amazing rapids it was too cold and rainy for us to brave that expedition. We did however do Chiapas which was a such a wonderful log flume including a backwards section into an underground dance party. This ride has a soundtrack that rivals Disney attractions. Talocan is the super intense Huss topspin that I assume would be the closest thing still out there to tomb raider with the fire and water effects. There is also a Vekoma mad house ride in the Chinese section called the Feng Ju Palace that was decent. 

So for the most overrated and underrated rides at the park I think that Crazy Bats is one that doesn't get enough appreciation. It is a 4 minute long Vekoma indoor coaster that has a VR headset. I immediately felt sick wearing the VR so I took it off and enjoyed a long breezy ride in the dark. It felt like a really long space mountain with three lift hills. I do hope the park keeps it around even though it no longer seems to fit their current vision or standard of thematic excellence. Mystery Castle (the indoor Drop Tower) had good theming but the ride we felt was overrated as it was more of a launch tower and the drop was very mild. The sleeper at the park is the old Schwarzkopf doom buggy style ghost train called Geister Rickshaw - easily one of the most memorable and bizarre rides of the trip. This ride is the oldest still in operation at the park and the entrance literally is a hole in the wall near a Chinese restaurant. You board a doom buggy and descend underground into the crypts of the Chinese ghosts and spirits. The ride honestly becomes more and more bizarre as it goes going from a journey to the dead to a dream like experience with mythical monsters and effects such as the hitch-hiking ghosts and peppers ghost effects near the end. The ride travels underground and beneath most of the Chinese section of the park and would be incredibly difficult for the park to remove or re-theme due to is location hence it is the sole survivor of a phantasialand of the past. Hopefully the park keeps it around as a testament to their history but there have been rumors for years of it closing so I guess we will see. 

Phantasialand was incredibly well staffed, had wonderful food and beverage options, and very clean restrooms. The one critique of the park was that they really don't have much in terms of merchandise other than one main shop in the Berlin section. We were hoping to find more ride specific t-shirts or other merch and there just was not much selection. We did however love the park and both say that it's basically Disney but for coaster enthusiasts and to be honest after the international flight it probably would cost us about the same amount or less to go to Phantasialand on vacation compared to a USA Disney park. 

[johnjniehaus]

Plopsaland de Panne was probably the worst park we visited - while we enjoyed our time there I do think that influencers have over hyped this park because of Ride to Happiness and fail to reflect that the rest of the attractions are definitely not up to par when it comes to European theme parks. So let's start with the positives - of course the park is clean and also has a couple unique attractions such as the Ride to Happiness. We did enjoy the coaster but I would say it's slightly overrated. I have not ridden Time Traveler so I cannot say which is better. Don't get me wrong it is a fine ride but not too 10 material or anything. The wooden coaster Heidi the Ride was definitely cute despite not being quite as intense as it looked. We also enjoyed the boat dark ride called Plops Woods which was a very cute journey that I imagine to be similar to the defunct Smurfs Enchanted Voyage at Kings Island. The park definitely leaned into having a lot of indoor buildings with flat rides inside them which was nice in case of rain. 

Now the cons - the park honestly had very expensive food and not great selections. Mostly sweet treats and no real food outside of one restaurant by the main entrance. Most of the flat rides and other coasters were nothing to write home about. My partner and I both said neither of us feels the need to return to the park unless they build another major coaster. Felt like a one and done park for us. 

[johnjniehaus]

Efteling wins the award for most beautiful park in my book. The Golden Ticket award has been trading back and forth between BGW and Dollywood the last few years and while both are nice parks Efteling looked like a botanical garden it was so well maintained and manicured! While the coaster lineup at Efteling was not quite as good as some other parks on the trip, they have a massive collection of wonderful dark rides that more than makes up for it. 

First let's start with the coasters - while Baron is easily the best themed dive coaster it was not our favorite coaster in the park, that goes to the Flying Dutchman water coaster which had themeing and a que that was absolutely incredible (like better than Pirates of the Caribbean). We rode this twice because it was amazing. Baron was of course good but had a very lengthy line. The dueling wooden coaster and Python were both average and the indoor coaster and power coaster were fairly tame. Now for the dark rides - 

The circus carnival one was literally their version of it's a small world with international themed singing dolls. The boat ride Fata Morgana was a journey through the tales of the Arabian Nights. Droomsvultch was a Peter Pan like suspended flight that had a surprising downward Helix section that got a pretty good speed. It was filled with fairies and woodland gnomes. Then Villa Volta was the old school classic madhouse with a great preshow and very beautiful interior. Symbolica is a trackless dark ride with incredible sets and three different journeys or tours of the castle. Dance Macabre was also such a great ride and is something I'd love to see inside the tomb raider building at Kings Island.

Eftling also is home to a unique observation tower that is akin to the defunct tower at Cypress Gardens. The Pagode lifts up on a giant arm as opposed to a vertical tower. Was a very cool experience

[johnjniehaus]

Walibi Holland was definitely more about the thrill rides as opposed to themeing. The entire park kinda had an apocalypse theme which I'm not sure if that was intentional or perhaps just leftover from their Halloween event? It was interesting anyway 

The coaster collection was great with the RMC Untamed which is probably near the top of my RMC ranking. Goliath was basically a mini milli so that was kinda fun. Walibi also has the original SLC and yes it definitely hurts! We also rode the Mack Big Dipper called lost Gravity which was a very unique experience. They also had a dueling RMC single rail which was a little  bit rattling but still a good ride. Express Platform 13 is interesting because it's a clone of rockin rollercoaster at Disney but entirely outdoor. It has a crazy indoor que line that is borderline haunted subway with jump scares. 

In terms of flats the park had the typical lineup but I did enjoy seeing they are still running their Huss Enterprise and the have a rare HUSS Magic ride. They also have my new favorite Vekoma mad house (Merlin's Magic Castle). It had a wonderful lighting and interior effects as well as a very fun preshow (albeit in Dutch). The soundtrack was also a mix of Gustav Holst Plants and the soundtrack from Willow. 

Overall we enjoyed the park but both Walibi parks do not have much in terms of food options. Most people we saw bring picnic lunches into the parks. 

[johnjniehaus]

Slagharen is a small wild West themed park in the north east Netherlands near the German boarder. This park (to my knowledge) has the largest collection of Anton Schwarzkopf rides in a single park with six different attractions - the Apollo, Enterprise, El Torito (polyp), monorail, observation tower, and Ferris Wheel. They also have a new gerstlaur coaster that replaced an old looping star as well as a Vekoma family coaster called mine train. Interestingly enough this park felt the most like a USA park in terms of the vibe but most signage and directions were not in English and some employees did not speak any English. In fact we had numerous employees tell us we were the first people from the USA they had met in the park. Slagharen had such a wonderful vibe and the rides were all running very well. They had an interesting Zierer carousel that was called gallopers (notice the top looks much like the well known wave swinger flat) The Enterprise has to be the most intense one we've ever done and the Apollo was relaxing and breezy. It was great to see some older Schwarzkopf rides still running well and looking well cared for. One final note is that El Torito was missing entirely from the park (see picture of the hole in the concrete). Turns out it is currently off site for a lengthy refurbishment and will hopefully be back later this year. Glad to see the park taking good care of it.