Traveling the Globe for the Best Coasters and Theme Parks
The pandemic has been a blow for everyone. Horrorland, Spain’s main scream park, was ready to open but had to cancel their 2020 edition a week before opening due to then-new restrictions. Now they raised like a phoenix, and the team is back for another year of screams and scares!
Continue reading “Horrorland Preview 2021”
Shortly before most borders (and theme parks) closed, Alex and I traveled to Disneyland Paris for a few days at one of our favorite parks. At the time we did not realize we’d cancel our next several international trips. This summer we finally were able to leave the US again, and the first park we visited was Disneyland Paris of course. Let’s take a look at the French Disney destination, without the usual crowd!
Continue reading “Disneyland Paris: Our Last International Park Before – and Our First International Park Since – the Pandemic Started.”
The UK’s got several famous coaster-parks, perhaps the favorite among enthusiasts is Alton Towers. Let’s see how this landmark-turned-theme park destination holds up in this Coaster Kings Crown Ratings.
Continue reading “Alton Towers – Crown Rating”
We ventured back to what’s perhaps Germany’s most impressive theme park: Phantasialand. Home to highly-detailed multi-level themed worlds in a rather small concise park. Let’s take a tour around Phantasialand and see how our impressions have changed since our previous visits.
Continue reading “Best of the Best at Phantasialand”
Welcome to Bellewaerde! Opened in 1954, this quaint Companies des Alpes park started as a zoo – it still hosts many exotic animals to this day.
Continue reading “Bellewaerde: Belgium’s Oldest Park”
Just outside of Paris is one of Europe’s biggest regional parks: Parc Astérix! While the destination comes from an ambition to build a major park in Paris before Disney could come in and do it, the 1989 theme park is very much different than Disney and offers some fun alternative themes and experiences. Do you still want to go for a resort visit? Parc Astérix has you covered with several onsite resort hotels!
Continue reading “Paris’ Regional Destination: Parc Astérix!”
Located near the dunes of the North Sea in Belgium is Plopsaland De Panne, a theme park resort that’s home to an indoor water park, a resort hotel, a theme park, and as of 2021: one of the World’s most notable coasters. Let’s take a closer look at all that this resort has to offer!
Continue reading “Plopsaland De Panne and The Ride to Happiness by Tomorrowland!”
Last week we visited Bobbejaanland in Belgium, a park with a fun collection of classics and modern thrill rides. Like many European parks, Bobbejaanland has a well-rounded lineup offering standout attractions in each category. Let’s take a look at what this charming Belgian park has to offer!
Continue reading “Bobbejaanland”
This week’s Crown Rating discusses our first European park of the series – none other than a World of Wonders (Wereld Vol Wonderen in Dutch): Efteling! Efteling is known for its dedication to storytelling in their fairytale forest, which has since extended to the park’s notable dark rides and coasters.
Continue reading “Efteling – Crown Rating”
Today, with the eighth article, our Spanish Theme Park History series comes to an end. During five months we’ve dived into the history of thirteen Spanish amusement and theme parks, some of which no longer exist, and some others are still operating and receiving guests nowadays. We’ve traveled in time through 168 years in theme park history, starting in 1853, to our days in 2021. In this last article of the series, we’ll focus on four different theme parks: Siam Park, Ferrari Land, Horrorland, and Puy du Fou. It has been a pleasure to travel in the Spanish Theme Park History with all of you!
Continue reading “Spanish Theme Park History – Part 8: Siam Park, Ferrari Land, Horrorland & Puy du Fou”
This week we got the chance to visit what is my childhood theme park, where my love of all things thrilling began, Paultons Park. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited we were to be back at the park after nearly 15 years and to experience Tornado Springs. In this update I will take an in depth look at this latest expansion and what else you can get up to throughout the park.
Continue reading “Paultons Park, UK – Park Visit April 2021”
Today we’ll continue our series about the Spanish Theme Park History with the fourth article. Every two weeks we’re publishing one of eight articles about the history of thirteen Spanish amusement and theme parks. Some of them no longer exist, but some others are still operating and receiving guests nowadays. In this series, we travel in time through 168 years in theme park history, starting in 1853, to our days in 2021. In this article we’ll focus on Parque de Atracciones de Madrid, a park with lots of history, an interesting variety of rides and attractions, that is constantly evolving to offer the best experiences to its guests.
Continue reading “Spanish Theme Park History – Part 4: Parque de Atracciones de Madrid”
Today we’re starting a new series about Spanish Theme Park History. This eight part series will be released bi-weekly. Come back every other week for another article! We’ll be covering the history of thirteen Spanish amusement and theme parks. Some of them no longer exist and others are still operating and receiving guests. In this series, we’ll travel through 168 years of theme park history, starting in 1853, to our days in 2021. Today we’ll focus on Camps Elisis, the first Spanish amusement park.
Continue reading “Spanish Theme Park History – Part 1: Camps Elisis”
Here in the UK we are lucky to have a great selection of rollercoasters dotted all over the country. We wanted to get a list together of our favourites and also yours too. We asked you our readers to suggest your favourites and why and combined it with my personal favourites to make this article. A special thanks to Alex from the Coaster Kings for his help with this article.
We’re all so used to exploring different theme parks around the world and riding loads of different rollercoasters and rides beyond our imagination. We often forget to appreciate how advanced and state-of-the-art a lot of the modern technology which allows rollercoasters to be manufactured, built and operated really is. So I thought to myself, let’s go back to the roots of the amusement park industry. What was the inspiration for theme parks in general and what were the first designs for rollercoasters, the materials used and the elements and experiences created by these historic and revolutionary ideas. We’re taking you over 100 years back and some of the oldest rollercoasters in Europe are still operating today. So join us as we take an exciting and historical adventure across Europe!
Continue reading “A Look at the Oldest Rollercoasters in Europe”
Walibi Belgium has been working on their new Intamin Mega Coaster, which has been confirmed to be named Kondaa, during the whole winter season. So, it was long overdue for us to take another visit and show their progress to the world. We mainly got some shots of the new area around Kondaa which will be heavily themed and we got some looks at the station area.
Continue reading “Kondaa Construction Update – February 2021”
With the theme park season drawing to a close in many countries and people forced to stay home again, we thought we’d bring you a brand new article series. Expect regular updates from myself as we explore one of the most beautiful, cultural and historical regions of Europe: Scandinavia!
We’ll be taking you from Norway across to Finland, through Sweden and then down to Denmark. We’ll be providing you with detailed insights and top tips into the theme parks each of these countries has to offer. We will also be diving into which rollercoasters and attractions you aren’t going to want to miss out on. So grab a cup of coffee, a slice of cake and enjoy!
Continue reading “Scandinavia Series- Part 11: Tivoli Gardens, Denmark”
With the theme park season drawing to a close in many countries and people forced to stay home again, we thought we’d bring you a brand new article series. Expect regular updates from myself as we explore one of the most beautiful, cultural and historical regions of Europe: Scandinavia!
We’ll be taking you from Norway across to Finland, through Sweden and then down to Denmark. We’ll be providing you with detailed insights and top tips into the theme parks each of these countries has to offer. We will also be diving into which rollercoasters and attractions you aren’t going to want to miss out on. So grab a cup of coffee, a slice of cake and enjoy!
Continue reading “Scandinavia Series- Part 9: Legoland Billund, Denmark”
During a trip in the east of France, we thought: “Why not go back to Walygator to see if it is as bad as it used to be.” So we did! We went back in July of 2020 to the infamous Walygator (now Walygator Grand-Est) mostly to get some rides on the B&M Monster Invert and to check if the park has gotten worse or better. Is Walygator a failed project that was too ambitious at the beginning? Let’s take a look and try to answer this question!
Continue reading “Walygator Grand Est : Is This Project Too Ambitious?”
We’ve already published quite a few top rankings this month but this one could of course not be excluded. After our Top 10 of 2018, the coaster landscape in Europe has changed quite a bit. That’s why we expanded to a Top 20 instead! Continue reading “Europe Top 20 Coasters – 2020”