Europa Park Terenzi Horror Nights 2010 vs WB Movie World Frights Nights 2011

Today marks one year since my visit to Terenzi Horror Nights at Europa Park in Rust Germany, and since I have recently visited the local equivalent, I thouhght it would be fun to Review the 2 experiences head to head. I've broken the events down into clean comparable parts, and for fairness I will treat each part equally when giving the final verdict.

Entrance/Opening
Movie world do a good job with redesigning the entrance of the park for Fright Nights. They cover the main gates, add lots of the smoke and add lights to the fountain. It is a good mood setter. At Europa Park, you enter through a side enterance of the park, which itself is not exciting at all. However, to get in to the main part of the event you MUST go through a maze. This works as the perfect mood setter for the night, as you are suddenly your scare cherry is popped without you getting a choice. It is the perfect way to start a night like this.
Verdict: Europa Park

Atmosphere
Movie world had a few good lighting effects, some smoke and some roaming scare actors. It didn't ever feel spooky and at times it almost felt family friendly. It did not help that the night we went was extremely busy. Europa Park had a lot more smoke, a lot less light and a lot more scare actors. This made for a much better experience in the park, because you could never relax. On the night we were there (which I would assume was a quiet night), there would have been 1 scare actor for every 10 guest roaming free in the park. When people were scared and "attacked" by actors, it wasn't just one, it was sometimes 3 or 4. They also had a better variety of roaming actor. Ghosts, zombies, chainsaw killers, crashed stunt drivers, trailer trash, clowns, etc. You couldn't wait to be left alone, but when you were left alone you were just as scared because you know it would be long before they were getting you. The low number the night improved the atmosphere greatly.
Verdict: Europa Park

Organisation 
When we went to Movie World, it was an incredibly busy. This meant that, we didn't get a map when we entered the event. Luckily (because I am a theme park nut) I had printed out maps for our group before we came, and boy were they useful. There were very very few signs at all with the location of the mazes. Because of this a couple of the mazes which were in unusual spots outside the normal park (Zombie Apocolypse and Saw), were almost empty at the start of the night. Europa park was better, but not much better. Getting into and out of the event was difficult and badly signed. Inside the venue, it was much better than Movie World. When we left, it took us 30 minutes to find the exit, and part of the way through the exit we took a wrong turn into the back stage area. Both needed more signs, and more maps.
Verdict: Draw

Rides
In terms of the rides running during the halloween events, Movie World wins hands down. Even though they shut the 3 major rides at 9 o'clock, which left only the Scooby Doo spooky coaster running for the last two hours, there was far more choice of rides at Movie World. Having said that because of the crowd, the lines for rides made them prohibitive. We waited for over an hour to ride the Scooby Doo spooky coaster, which we only wanted to do because it is so much better at night (I know that sounds stupid for an indoor coaster but it's true). The Superman Escape had much more than an hour wait when we arrived, and it wasn't worth waiting for. At Europa Park, there was only really one ride going which was Pegasus the smallest of their coasters. Having said that, we rode it twice with an total wait time of about 3 minutes. Is having 1 ride with no line better than having 4 rides with hour long waits?
Verdict: Movie World (Just)

Shows
The night that we went to Europa Park, there was not shows operating. When we went to Movie World there was two major shows, of which we only saw one. I must say from all reports, we made a mistake. We heard good things about the "Damned" aerial show, but we decided to make time for the Vampire Burlesque show. I can't say this strongly enough, it was dreadful. In a night which is so short, with such long lines it was a mistake to wait for this show. I am extremely tempted to give this section to Europa Park because this show was so terrible.
Verdict: Movie World (Just)

Mazes
This is where the two parks differentiate themselves. I want to be clear, this is not about quantity. Europa park had more mazes, and shorter lines for mazes. Forgetting all that, the mazes at Europa Park were better. Not just a little bit better, but a LOT better. Heart-poundingly, running for your life, terrifyingly better. The mazes we saw at Movie World were formulaic and recycled. They had good scares, but nothing beyond what you would get in a haunted house. The Europa Park mazes where almost dangerous at times. You could feel the tension in every room of every maze. So scary that you would choose to hang on to people that you didn't know for protection. We did run as if we were running for our lives. They also had very different structures from each other, you didn't feel like you were walking around a warehouse at any time. The maze in the specially grown corn field was the absolute highlight of the night. I still have nightmares about that.
Verdict: Europa Park (Easily)

Final verdict
I know that 3-2 looks incredibly close, but really it isn't. If I could choose between the two events, it would be Horror Nights 100 times out of 100. Movie World Fright Nights had it's plus's certainly, however the main advantage of it (the rides) is ruined by the fact that Movie World over sells tickets to this event. It has potential and I enjoyed myself, don't get me wrong, but I would say that it is half the attraction that Terenzi Horror Nights is. I wouldn't hesitate to go again, if I was even remotely close to Germany in october. I will probably go to Fright Nights again, but I will definitely try and find a quiet night.
Winner: Europa Park Terenzi Horror Nights 2010!!!!!

Legoland Florida

Earlier in the year I posted the Top 10 things going on in Theme Parks around the world at the moment, and this week marks the opening of number 3 on my list: Legoland Florida!! There are a lots of people on the web doing tours of the park for the Grand Opening which are awesome. The mix of "pink knuckle" rides and fun attractions mean that this will be a park to visit when visiting central Florida.

Here are a few good links:
http://www.screamscape.com/html/legoland_florida.htm
http://attractionsmagazine.com/blog/2011/10/08/full-tour-of-legoland-florida-a-look-at-all-the-attractions-stores-and-restaurants/
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-10-15/entertainment/os-legoland-florida-opens-20111015_1_legoland-florida-theme-park-universal-orlando
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/videogallery/65363981/Travel/Legoland-Florida-A-speedy-3-minute-tour
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/oct/17/legoland-florida-now-open-on-the-old-cypress/
http://florida.legoland.com/

Aussie World

A trip to Aussie World on Queensland's Sunshine Coast with the family gave ample opportunity to do a full report on this little park. Surprisingly, this was my first time to Aussie World. While it is not in the same league as Dreamworld and Movie World on the Gold Coast, this little park certainly hits above its weight. It is definitely children oriented, but with a couple of little rides to keep the parents entertained. Well maintained, friendly staff. A half day park that exceeded my expectations. Definitely check out the Wild Mouse Coaster, if you like rough rides!

Of most interest to me was the new ride, the Giant Redback.

 

A Standard Zamperla Disc-O coaster added earlier this year gives a fun thrill for those interested. Think of it as the little brother of the Shockwave at Dreamworld. Being constructed next to this ride is a new water ride to be called the Water Shed Plunge. Here are some shots of the progress.

Movie World Australia News

With a simple note on the website maintenance page (http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Attractions/Attractions-Maintenance.aspx), Batman Adventure - The Ride 2 is scheduled for termination. It is a shame, but such is life! I guess it is possible for it to be reboot in conjunction with the new Batman movie series or possibly the video game series. Could we see Batman The Ride 3?? The rides location is very close to the currently being constructed Green Lantern Coaster, could we see part of this ride being recycled for the new coaster??

Verbolten

People who know me, know I love all things European. Especially German. So good news that America's favourite european based theme park Busch Gardens Williamsburg is adding a Black Forest themed coaster called "Verbolten" in 2012. Strong theming and a good pun; this sounds like it will be a heavy hitter. Time will tell!I must admit I wasn't thrilled by the graphics in the release video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fVi3Az8ahcw), but I tend to be harsh on things like that. Still conceptually a great addition to the park!

Australian News

News on a couple of local parks who have been working over the last few months.

Dreamworld Australia has opened Buzzsaw. As expected, it is a ghost-town themed Skyloop. From the reviews, people have been enjoyed it. The recommendation is the theming is a little hit and miss (typical of Dreamworld) but if you read the back story on the website (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/Rides/Thrill-Rides/BuzzSaw/The-Ride.aspx) you should be able to see what they were aiming for! There have been some complaints of delays while staff get trained, but it is mostly a very positive opening for Dreamworld.

Movie World Australia have also announce their upcoming coaster. The Green Lantern Coaster (http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/Attractions/Rides/Green-Lantern.aspx)!!! Continuing in the superhero mould it promises to be a modified El Loco coaster with the "steepest drop in the southern hemisphere". As long as they do some good theming this will be an excellent edition to the 2 Batman rides and the Superman coaster at the front of the park.

WAR is coming!

Thorpe Park has announced the name of it's new coaster. THE SWARM!!! Check out a few little details about it at http://www.theswarm.co.uk/. Looks like some fun theme work here! See how they put the WAR in SWARM... nice work guys!