New Rides and Areas at Toverland: Fenix, Avalon & Port Laguna - English

This is my first english Blog for a international audience, I apologize in advance if there are various mistakes in pronouncing or spelling of the Text. I hope I'll improve on that over time.

Introduction

Since the opening in 2001, the Toverland has done an impressive fast expansion. In just about 17 years, the small indoor park has become a mature theme park. It was just in 2004, when they got a prototype of Vekoma’s Motorbike Coaster called „Booster Bike“. In 2007, they expanded the park with “Troy” and the surrounding theme area. The first European GCI woody gets still ranked very high in various polls. Just 5 years we’re gone, when they added the „Magic Valley“ area with fantastic theme and detail work. This included a rafting ride, a Mack Rides Spinning Coaster and various family and child rides. They’ve also added playgrounds with surprising good theming .

Now, 6 years later, the park expands again with the biggest investment they have ever made. With a new entrance area and a second new themed land, they grown up to a serious middle class theme park. Now we are checking in detail, what Toverland has to offer for the summer season 2018.
In this review, we will cover all of the new areas and not just the major ride addition “Fenix”.

Port Laguna – Entrance Area with a magical and Mediterranean flair

After all those years of expansion and growing, the Toverland has finally build an entrance area, that fits the capacity needs of the park. They even opened an entrance plaza that is able to set the guests immediately into a new magic world and welcomes the visitors very well.

Port Laguna is presented with a high amount of fantasy and detail. In every corner sits a touch of magic. From this point, you have the ability to get to every themed area which is surrounding the entrance. This leads to better traffic and visitor flow on the paths and gets rid of some dead ends in the park. The design of the building facades in this area and the landscaping around them is beautifully done and well thought out. Just image how all this will look, when all the plants and foliage is growing over the years. It has the potential to grow up to one of the most beautiful entrance areas I’ve seen so far in theme parks. Even the not too big scale of the plaza gives you a very calm and holiday like feeling. I’ve just got a big smile on my face, all the time I walked around at Port Laguna.
Mainly shops and restaurants can be found here. Even in the large lighthouse "Solaris" they are offering fine treats to the audience. Near the cashier area, they build a large beautiful new merchandise shop. In between there are some game stalls waiting for some fun with the guests. They styled them that well, that they do not extract from the overall theme and feel and they left nothing of the typical “fun fair” vibe, that these stalls usually have. Thumbs up for this so far. The same goes for the soundtracks of the new areas. They are supporting the atmosphere of the park very well.

Avalon – In the Magical Kingdom of Merlin and Fenix

The second new themed area, which features more than just Fenix, but also the Boat Ride “Merlin’s Quest” comes with the same attention to detail like Port Laguna. The path circles through and around the area are offering many great sightlines. The view sweeps over hills and valleys and you can really lose yourself in the great surroundings. Constantly accompanied by Fenix and Merlin’s Quest, we are passing by on Rock Formations, waterfalls and lakes until we arrive at a restaurant building, which could be directly brought there out of mixed worlds from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. With the “Flaming Feather” the Park finally got a really beautiful sit-down restaurant in addition to the existing self-service venues. But there is also the possibility to get some snacks to go at the snack shops they have sneaked on to the facades.

Even the toilets in the new theme lands are very well decorated, that may sound trivial, but also provides for a coherent overall picture.

Again, everything will be beautified once the many set plants sprout properly. In Avalon, there are also 1-2 corners, where you can see on closer look that the Park either not quite finished everything in time, or the budget was a little short. But you have to be aware of that and look for it closely.

For the rather calm minds, there is the very good boat ride. With "Merlin's Quest" the Toverland not only lets you sail through Avalon outdoors, but also sends us through a fantastically themed cave. I do not want to spoil the dark ride part here, but simply express an absolute recommendation, to not pass this ride. For anyone who is still too curious, you can find a complete on-ride POV Video from Merlin’s Quest on my YouTube channel.

But now on to the Highlight…

Fenix – A flight above Avalon on the Wings of the Firebird

The new flagship attraction is without any doubt the new B&M Wing Coaster Fenix. But at first, some technical specifications:

Up to 40 meters, the Mystic Bird rises in the sky. Fenix takes you with up to 95km / h on the 813m and 1 minute and 45 seconds long flight over Merlin's kingdom. On the journey, the beautifully designed train winds through 3 inversions. The 17-million-euro ride takes every hour up to 1000 passengers on the reconnaissance flight.

The Theming:

For a roller coaster of this size and design, as "Bolliger & Mabillard" put it here, the layout has been integrated very well into the park's line of sight. Although Fenix is present from almost everywhere you can be at Toverland, the ride never seems intrusive.

Once again they have done a particularly good job where everything starts. In the waiting area.
The caves are not only beautifully lit and decorated, but also got some projections that tunes you to the right mood for the flight with the Phoenix and tell a beautiful story. The mystic atmosphere and strong magic of Merlin and its Firebird are omnipresent in these caves. A great work by the designers and creative minds of Toverland. The station itself is in no way inferior. Again, much effort has been made in the design of the interior.

Unfortunately, the journey begins with the passage through a dark hall without any theming. However, there are some statements from the park, that they are aware and will change this in the future.
Also a bit disturbing is the unthemed hall side when you reach the final brake. Since you face the bare metal wall directly in front of you. In the overall result, the integration and design for a roller coaster of this size is very well done. The many interactions with the terrain and the paths give a very coherent overall picture.

The Layout:

After the station exit, it goes through a right turn directly to the lift hill. Gently, the chain takes over the train and carries it quickly to the highest point of the track. At this point, Fenix deviates for the first time from the typical Wing-Coaster design and sets a 90 degree curve in front of the well-known Dive Drop. This also gives the train a moment to take up some speed, making the following inversion and fall into the depth very dynamic. The train dives under the path and rises into a wide airtime hill. This offers quite strong floating airtime which throws the passengers into the next underpass.

This is followed by the Immelmann Loop. Leaving this behind quickly, Fenix performs the next unusual maneuver. It goes into the ground level helix, which distributes strong positive forces for a very long time. Such an intense element should be a novelty at a Wing Coaster. After the helix, the train turns abruptly but smoothly into a Zero-G-Roll turned to the left. This rotation is flowing through another tunnel in an ascending left turn just to throw right back to the right, for the final curve combination that sends the riders gently in the final brake run. The phoenix has landed.

The Ride Feeling:

The rider experience surprised me a lot in the case of Fenix. In a very positive way. The ride stands out quite clearly from the ranks of the previous European Wing Coaster’s and goes a little more intense way. So far, by this type of roller coaster made sense more of sublime dodging. But Fenix does not limit itself there, but grabs in many places properly and does not hesitate to burden the passengers sometimes with proper forces. In particular, the long strong helix after the Immelmann really pushes you strong and a long time in the comfortable seats. The rolling behavior of the massive B & M train always remains in pleasant areas. Depending on the seating position you also have very different riding experiences, like its known from these wing coasters. For example, in the Zero G-Roll on the right side of the train, it pushes you into the seat while the left side lifts you in to the west of the safety bars. This is common on these coaster type and Fenix makes this a little more apparent due to the higher intensity. Only on the outer seats of the back rows, it gets a bit bumpy from time to time. However, in a manner that will not tarnish the riding pleasure by far. In addition, in these rows, the intensity increases so much that many repeat rides on very warm days can actually be exhausting.
Disadvantage of this dynamic and intense roller coaster is the ride time. Fenix seems relatively short, although the 813 meter long coaster is the longest of its type in Europe. This is due to the consistently high speed, because the version of the Toverland leaves from the dive drop to the final brake no respite and pulls the flight with all maneuvers mercilessly.
Thumbs up for a Wing Coaster, with which the Toverland really proves courage to build a unusually creative and uncompromising flagship Thrill ride.

Conclusion:

With Port Laguna, with Avalon and Merlin's Quest and also with "The Flaming Feather", Fenix and the shops as well as thematizations. The Toverland has reached a whole new level. They do not shy away from high-quality family entertainment and benefit the Thrill Junkies in one hit. Overall, this results in a very healthy mixture, which also applies to the older areas of the park. With this expansion, Toverland has finally convinced me that they have a hell of a lot of potential to belong to the very, very big ones very soon. Some parks in the catchment area should be aware of this.
I wish the Toverland on this great way that you can do everything possible. For me, the concept works very well and I hope that they will be able to present many more such great additions in the future.

This Blog is a transcript from my Video review. If you like to see the new additions in action, there’s the Video:

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