Hamburger Dom and Heide Park

[Peter]

Whilst the rest of CF were getting credits in Madrid, me and Rach had already booked a long weekend in Hamburg for Heide Park and Hamburger Dom spring fair! We managed to snag a great "buy one night get a second night free" deal on Heide Parks Port Royal hotel, meaning that 2 nights, breakfast and 2 day park tickets cost us about £110 each! Bargain!

Very early Saturday morning we were on our way to London Heathrow for our 7am flight. Weatherspoons breakfast happened followed by an uneventful flight, getting us into a rather miserable and damp Hamburg.

Having booked the cheapest and hence smallest hire car Hamburg had to offer, we were then greeted by a massive Peugeot for the two of us!

As it was still mid-morning and the Dom fair didn't open until 3pm, we had to waste some time. I was very keen to check out Miniatur Wunderland, one of the most popular attractions in Hamburg. Its probably the largest model railway in the world and it was absolutely stunning, attention to detail was fantastic and 3pm soon passed but we hadn't taken it all in yet! For anyone visiting Hamburg this really is a must do attraction, even if you have little to no interest in models - just make sure you pre-book tickets in advance like we did, as queues to get in can get quite long! Pictures really don't do it justice.

You'll have to put up with this trip report starting with a whole load of pictures of trains and planes, but it really was stunning!

There was even a fully functional airport - complete with departure and arrival boards. Planes would take off, land and be handled on the ground all automatically.

The control panel was just as complex as any major railway.

They even had a Wild Mouse credit!

Both shattered after a very early start (Rach had been up all night!) we walked back to the car for a 30 min rest, where I discovered the hire car came with a HUD! I squeed at the unnecessary features it had.

The car was parked about halway between Miniatur Wunderland and Hamburger Dom Fair, so we walked a further 10 mins to the Dom. This was to be Rach's first "large" German fair, however we knew before we went that there would be no Schwarzkopf visitors this year. Instead, we were treated to Wild Maus XXL (a common visitor to Winter Wonderland in the UK), a big apple shark coaster and a rather unique, death looking thing from Interpark.

We started by walking a lap of the fair. It was pretty standard with the usual line up of flat rides, ghost trains and fun houses - quite a few I recognised from the last few years at Winter Wonderland! The fair was a good size, but not on the scale of the others I had been to - Dussledorf and Oktoberfest. Having realised that the only things we really wanted to ride were the two credits, we got started!

This rapids ride has an amazing themed station.

Hamburger Dom is right next to a WWII Flak Tower, to defend and also act as an air-raid shelter.

It was late afternoon and the fair was pretty busy.

You can just about see the Hamburg tower through the cloud.

Epic three story ghost train.

First up was Cobra - Lost Kingdom Coaster by Interpark.

This thing looks vile! Its tiny and watching the train barrel through that immelman loop does not fill one with hope. Still, it was a +1 so needed to be done. We paid the €4 each, walked onto the ride and took the front row. To our surprise, this thing wasn't actually all that bad! The seats and restraints were comfy enough and the ride generally quite smooth and very intense! No major roughness or head-banging. We got two laps and I was actually looking forward to experiencing it again as we crested the lift hill for the second time!

Next up came the "big apple" which was actually themed to a sharks and pirates. Paid €2.50 for it, got the credit, nothing more to mention on this one really!

We both had Wild Maus XXL so skipped riding it again here. We'd only been at the fair for about an hour but felt we were done with it as we didn't want to spent a load of money on generic flat rides. Hamburger Dom was certainly worth the visit, but didn't feel as complete as some of the other German fairs. Maybe it was due to the lack of the large travelling credits or the fact that we visited it during daylight (sunset being 8pm, it was a long time to wait until dark!) On the way out we purchased one of those gingerbread heart things that you see everywhere in Germany, snacks for the drive and made our way over to Heide Park!

An hour later we pulled up into Port Royal hotel at Heide, checked in and made our way up to the room. The hotel was quite fab and the room cleverly themed to pirates, with a barrel bath located in the corner of the room!

Knowing that the only food option at the hotel was the buffet at a whopping €34 each, we saved this until the second night and headed out into Soltau for a cheaper McDonalds dinner! It was incredibly foggy and visibility was reduced to only a few meters which made the drive much more interesting!

 

[ECG]

Kind of strange to read a report about a German fair without a stop in a beer tent.
First time I've heard of no Schwarzkopf at the Dom. They usually have Teststrecke there when either of the other big boys have different engagements. At least now I know that there's still one German fair cred I haven't got since I've never seen Cobra - Lost Kingdom Coaster before.
The Dom isn't the biggest German fair by any means, but since it takes place for three weeks, three times a year it does offer the locals quite a bit over the course of the year.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

Great Trip Report!

Miniature Wunderland! I always wanted to go there for the airport!

I thought that was a retreat. :shock:


Pinfari looper looks deadly. Was it rough?

 

[ECG]

^It would help if you actually read the report instead of just looking at the photos. :wink:

...we were treated to Wild Maus XXL (a common visitor to Winter Wonderland in the UK), a big apple shark coaster and a rather unique, death looking thing from Interpark...

First up was Cobra - Lost Kingdom Coaster by Interpark...

To our surprise, this thing wasn't actually all that bad! The seats and restraints were comfy enough and the ride generally quite smooth and very intense! No major roughness or head-banging.

 

[Peter]

^ I will add that the last corner has quite a bump and the brakes were very sharp, but otherwise perfectly fine!

...and ECG, beer tents were very dissapointing, the few that were there were small and empty. Given that I had to drive and Rach doesn't drink beer we didn't stop.

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[ECG]

I know what you mean about the tents at the Dom. I was really surprised by that the first time I visited the fair. Of course I'm used to the huge ones in Munich at the Oktoberfest and the Volksfest in Stuttgart, but even much smaller fairs that I've been to have bigger tents than the Dom.

 

[caffeine_demon]

how was the ghost train then?

"Hamburger dom" makes me hungry!

 

[Mysterious Sue]

When I saw the wild mouse photo I was wondering why you'd go that far for a cred you already had...but then you mentioned Cobra. Such a cute looking ride. It must be quite intense considering it's size.

Did you like the huge Peugeot? I've just been car shopping with my parents and advised them to get one. Bit of a beast but the gizmos are fab. Alright for two retired peeps. I'm driving it to Italy later in the year with them.

 

[Peter]

how was the ghost train then?

"Hamburger dom" makes me hungry!

We didn't ride the ghost train. I looked decent enough from the outside and also had a very long queue (~10 mins?) - given that all the other rides were walk on, I suspect thats a sign its a popular choice!

When I saw the wild mouse photo I was wondering why you'd go that far for a cred you already had...but then you mentioned Cobra. Such a cute looking ride. It must be quite intense considering it's size.

Did you like the huge Peugeot? I've just been car shopping with my parents and advised them to get one. Bit of a beast but the gizmos are fab. Alright for two retired peeps. I'm driving it to Italy later in the year with them.

The trip was based around Heide Park, but we thought we might as well go when Hamburger Dom is happening for a few bonus credits. I was really hoping we'd get Teststrecke as its a common visitor to the Dom and is the last big German travelling credit I need.

The car was a Pug 3008 diesel. It was comfy enough and filled with little features. I don't know which model and engine size we had, but put your foot down and I was very surprised with the power and pull that it had, although it maxed out at only 121mph on the autobahn :lol: Couldn't really get a feel of the handling as most of the driving was on autobahns, no complains about it really.

I'll hopefully get around to writing up Heide and Flug der Damonen tonight.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

The car was a Pug 3008 diesel. It was comfy enough and filled with little features. I don't know which model and engine size we had, but put your foot down and I was very surprised with the power and pull that it had, although it maxed out at only 121mph on the autobahn :lol: Couldn't really get a feel of the handling as most of the driving was on autobahns, no complains about it really..

I won't go off on a tangent (might talk about it in the car topic later) but I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously it's not a 'drivers car' but I do like gadgets!

 

[Peter]

We awoke to a still very foggy morning and slightly concerned that it may cause a late opening for some rides. Still, we went down for breakfast, mainly consisting of bacon, after which the fog cleared and we headed into the park.

You can enter the park before opening but are held in a batching area right next to Krake before they open some more gates to let you loose. There is a small monorail which hotel guests can enjoy pre-opening, which we didn't bother with.

Given that the hotel entrance was very near to the brand new Flug der Damonen, we thought this would give us a good head start to get into the queue before it built up.

The queue starts off in some tunnels which I am lead to believe is part of the old queue-line for the log flume that they merged. This leads around the now-boarded up log flume station into two cattle pens, which when empty there is no direct path, so you have to duck under 2 fences to take the short cut! The queue then winds up and into the station, where it splits into the two sides just before you enter the building itself. We opted for the left side first and were held just outside the station meaning we'd get first train of the day. Unfortunately, just as they were testing, it broken down with an empty train stuck at the very bottom of the lift hill.

10 mins later and to a rising cheer from the slowly building queue, it was on its way and the ride was open! There is a member of staff batching where the queue splits and will only let one train load of people into the station at a time, meaning that you don't really get a choice of row to sit on. Once in, the station is massive and feels very empty given that most people are held outside. Bags deposited into a bag drop between each row, that then rotates around so no one can access it once the train has dispatched - think similar to Skyrush for those who have been, except this one works well!

We ended up on back row of the first train of the day. From reading other reviews, we were not expecting much as most reviews had said its disappointing and for the first ride of the day I could see why. The first half was great fun with the inverted drop and airtime hill giving some good forces and near miss action. The ride then slowed down a bit and was quite bumpy on the outside seats. Mixed with the new B&M restraints crushing your shoulders, we came off with a very average review of it.

The queue for Damonen had build up a bit, so we carried on around the park to Scream. We missed this on the CF Live back in '09, so I was looking forward to riding. It was walk-on and I was surprised by just how good it is. Definitely one of the better drop towers out there.

We carried on around the park next to the bobsled, which is still my favourite bobsled out of the ones I've ridden.

It was then around the park further to the SLC, which the less said about the better!

Heide Park have a little land of Huss, which has 6 different Huss attractions in a circle. We started on the enterprise wheel followed by the break dance, but soon sick of spinney rides we continued our way onto Colossos.

I had head that IMAscore had written a new soundtrack for Colossus this year, however I was disappointed to hear it was still playing the Thorpe Park version. Still, we walked straight onto the front row (take note UK parks - Heide still runs 2 trains even on empty days). Colossus is really starting to show its age now. Whereas it once was the tallest and steepest out there, the first drop feels shallow and the ride is starting to get a little bumpy, especially around the helix. It still delivers some great airtime and is one of the best coasters at the park, but compared to large modern rides its really struggling to compete.

We wandered back in the opposite direction to Krake, passing Big Loop for some photos.

Krake was near enough walk on, so we deposited our bags at the bag drop and took up back row. This little coaster is fantastic, with the drop being similar to Oblivion and I think that the mouth is much more intimidating. Its short but sweet and really good fun.

I think we walked straight onto Big Loop next - this poor thing has no love from the public any more and was empty all weekend! A quick stop for lunch at a greasy Pirate Burger place (meh) and we then walked back to the entrance to have a goon in the tat-shop. Being a Merlin park, there is a huge selection of mugs and resins, t-shirts and hoodies, but otherwise not much else. A little let down as the merchandise use to be much better, we made note of what we wanted and let lunch go down on the observation tower.

Everything is white!

Indy Blitz was the one credit we didn't both with as we both already had it.

Wanting to ride something that Fahrted, we took to Marchenfahrt. It started off relaxing:

...but soon got boring

Next up was a random little flat ride. It started off quite gentle, until the op turned it up to 11 and you ended up sitting on the opposite side of the car!

As it was sunny and quite warm, the rapids happen. These are pretty decent, choppy but not to wet - plus no annoying water guns!

We did the mine train around this point, it was unexciting. Next up came Colossos again. I'd only ever ridden it in front row, so it was time for a back row ride! Still walk on, the back row was much better than the front and gave a fair bit more force over the drops and airtime hills. Still quite bumpy with detracted from the experience.

I'd forgotten what an amazing Intamin fart noise Colossos makes <3

We did a couple more of the Huss flat rides next. First was "Lady Moon" - I'd only ever ridden one of these at Port Aventura and its incredibly dull there. Here it runs much faster and actually proves that they can be quite fun!

We had a go on "Magic" next...I wouldn't rush back either...

We went to get a waffel, but the German woman didn't seem to understand waffel WITH ice cream, so we got a waffel and an ice cream. I improvised to improve the situation.

Nom!

I forget exactly what happened next, but we spend most of the remainder of the afternoon re-riding a mix of Krake (every time seemed to confirm that its a great little fun ride), Scream, Bobbahn and Flug der Damonen.

Damonen had a short queue of around 5 mins (everything else in the park was walk on) and now that the coaster had warmed up, it was running so much better than the morning.

We tried out various seats across the train, although because of the way they batch the ride you cannot choose which row you ride (only which side.) We were desperate to try and get a front row but it wasn't to happen, so we had to try the next day.

The first half of the ride is really forceful and a great near miss as you speed over the airtime hill and under the little tunnel full of spikes.

You can see here the old log flume station and how the queue wraps around it.

The second half of the layout is much more gentle, with some great swooping turns and zero-g/hang time through the inversions. Its not intense, just good fun, and both of us were coming off with big grins on our face each time.

There are not many near missed in the second half of the layout, although you do skim the ground quite often between inversions.

Its the best wing rider I have ridden and I think Rach puts it second behind Raptor. If you go expecting an intense thrilling experience you'll be disappointed, but IMO doesn't deserve the mediocre reviews that it has been receiving so far - its a very good ride.

Light was fading fast as it clouded over and ended the day with a bit of rain, so unfortunately most of the photos came out very dark.

We rode the bobsled one last time and had a poke around the area for different angles to look at Damonen. There are lots of little paths that seem to head into the ride area but then just end - I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually add more and open the area up so you can walk across the bridge between first drop/airtime hill.

We also discovered the remains of the log flume!

We rounded off the day with a quick dash to Desert Race as we hadn't ridden it yet and a stop at the tat shop to pick some stuff up.

We opted for the €34 hotel buffet for the evening as this is the only catering option in the hotel. Good news is that it includes unlimited food and drink (including wine and beer!) however as the hotel was very quiet they only had about 1/3 of the food available so options were quite limited. The food was reasonable but not outstanding given the price you pay. I imagine it would be significantly better on a busier night when they might put a bit more effort into it!

Suitably stuffed, we rounded off the evening by watching a bit of the live music in the bar downstairs.

 

[Peter]

The next morning was much the same. We checked out of the hotel and dumped our stuff in the car and then entered the park for the second day.

As the hotel was even quieter this morning (looking at the list at breakfast, there can't have been more than 20 rooms in use) we thought we stood a good chance of getting front row on Damonen if we were goons and first into the queue. We promptly walked and were the first two into the queueline for the day, however has massive spite when a staff member stole the front row for the first train!

Eventually, after asking 3 different staff members if we could wait over multiple rides, we got a front row!

Similar to the end of the day before, most of Monday morning was spent riding Scream, Damonen, Krake, Colossos and the bobsled. We tried Krake Lebt, the live action horror maze. We had no idea what was going on as it was all in German and seemed to mainly involve walking through pitch black corridors. It might have been worth it if we could speak German, lol.

We finished up by a few more rides on Damonen, before leaving the park at 1pm.

Having been keeping an eye on the other Heide Park trip that Darren had posted, we also planned to hit Serengeti Park for the +2 credits. It was supposed to be just a short drive down the road, but due to roadworks the autobahn exit we wanted was shut and we had to go through a 10 mile detour stuck in roadwork traffic - It added about 30 mins on to the journey time!

Serengeti Park is a safari park with bonus credits (like West Midlands Safari Park) so you pay for the occupants of the car as you drive in. Fortunately we had a voucher where the driver gets in free, so it was only €14 each. Not realising quite how long it took to get back to the airport from here, we only had about an hour to get the credits, which was fine, however the safari park looked really good and if you're into that sort of thing, you could easily spend most of a day there.

The first credit here was a Tivoli Large, +1 achieved.

We then realised just how massive the ride section of the park was. There are loads of generic flat rides, but they're spread over a large area a long way from each other. It was a 5 min walk over to the other credit:

I've no idea what this really is - but it had a very similar layout to a big apple with a bonus helix.

As we missed lunch, we grabbed some chips and an ice cream and had just enough time left to look at some lemurs which were on the walk back to the car.

I would have loved to have spent a bit more time here as the safari area was huge, but time was against us so we headed back to Hamburg for the flight home. It was supposed to be about a 1 hour 30 drive, but we got stuck in another traffic jam going through the tunnels in Hamburg.

Whilst bored in the traffic, Rach got out a flight tracking app and she realised that the Airbus Beluga was flying just ahead at low altitude about to land at another Hamburg airport. We turned a corner and it was right in front of us - the plane goon inside us squeed at such a unique and interesting aircraft.

For those that don't know, the Airbus Beluga is specifically designed to transport aircraft parts, but is also used to transport other large goods. Airbus have a base in Hamburg so they can often be seen flying out of there. Only 5 have ever been made.

We arrived at the airport with enough time to get some dinner before our flight home.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Miniatur Wunderland is just <3 One of the main reasons I'm going back to Hamburg this year (plus of course, Flug)...

Sounds like it's a typical Wing-Rider tbh...

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Wow what an odd looking plane.

Glad that you gave Flug a more positive review than I've been reading so far. Also you photos of Krake are lovely.

 

[Jordanovichy]

I meant to say last night, Rach's facial expressions (on the boat thing and when eating the waffle especially) are exceptional. Cracked me up XD

Great report! Brown nosing now but the quality of the photos is brilliant too.

 

[nadroJ]

Ha, I saw the photo before I read and thought that that plane looks like a beluga whale!

Looks like you guys had fun, love a cheeky cred run alongside an actually good park, best way to do it in my opinion.


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