Blimey, it’s been a while since I’ve written one of these! What with visiting parks and doing the videos for them as well as having to change video editor, I have been putting off writing these for far too long!
So, Movie Park Germany then! This was the first stop on our European road trip for 2024, we visited way back in June during the school trip period, something we’ll try to book around next time!
The park is certainly a unique one when compared to others we’ve visited due to it’s film making nature. Tracy has visited Hollywood Studios in Orlando and she said it reminded her a lot of MGM when she visited a few years ago.
The park certainly looks the part and opens up into a large plaza area with a lovely fountain with the parks name, a few buildings dotted about and a skyline that is dominated by Star Trek: Operation Enterprise just behind, which I’ll talk about later.
Moving through the park, you’ll head down a main street where the main shop is located, and then the path branches, you can either go right and into Nickelodeon Land, or left towards Van Helsings Factory and the rest of the park. I do feel the layout coul be improved a little to allow for a full circuit of the park so you don’t miss anything, but that’s a small point.
Nickelodeon Land
Very similar to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Movie Park has a whole area themed around Nickelodeon’s IPs such as SpongeBob and Jimmy Neutron, though this area is substantially larger than Blackpool’s is.
There are a good variety of rides here too, Jimmy Neutrons Atomic Flyer is a very tame but fun Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster. Dora has a log flume which we didn’t try due to getting wet, but it looked good!
The Fairly Odd Parents have a tea cups ride which was fine, if a little under themed to the IP. There’s also an Aviator ride called Splat-o-Sphere, which is themed around the Nickelodeon logo and has very tight restraint tolerances so we couldn’t ride that unfortunately!
Then there’s Ghost Chasers, which is a SpongeBob themed Mack Wild Mouse and was perfectly fine for a wild mouse, not too thrilling but didn’t try to pull your head off either.
Finally there is probably my favourite ride at the park, Movie Park Studio Tour. As a roller coaster, it’s not the fastest or tallest at the park but it’s almost entirely indoors, so great when the weather turns bad, and it is very well themed throughout! You’ll go through 12 different film sets including a Twister knockoff, a race with a car not too dissimilar to Fast and Furious, as well as a King Kong set too. It is very reridable as there is so much to take in! This is definitely my favourite ride at the park as it’s great to ride, plenty to see and the ride has some nice engineering elements too such as a turntable, switch tracks and tyre propelled launches too!
Federation Plaza
Coming just behind Studio Tour, is Star Trek Operation Enterprise. This is a Mack multi launch coaster, similar to Icon but much more entertaining in my opinion!
This one is a great ride for Star Trek fans as the queueline takes you passed a lot of authentic Star Trek props and costumes and onto the bridge of the Enterprise too!
The ride itself is great fun. It has a swing launch, vertical spike, top hat and 3 inversions too. The trains have a nice design to them and the whole area is pleasant, if a little lacking in support rides for the coaster.
The only negative I have here is to do with the on ride videos. I bought our first ride’s video and was disappointed to find that it had only taken 40 seconds of the ride itself. I thought the app was showing me a preview of it and buying it would unlock the whole thing but it didn’t. My second ride was even worse as it didn’t show anything but I didn’t buy that one after being a bit stung with the first! I hope that gets sorted out as I’d have loved to have had our full ride in video as the cameras are 360 so its a POV and a rider cam all in one!
Streets of New York and The Old West
There are 3 big attractions to talk about here, firstly is Iron Claw. This is a standard layout Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC) that does all the things you’d expect of an SLC. It rattled around it’s layout as per the norm and I’m really starting to warm up to these things.
A lot of people give them so much hate due to their rough and ready nature but I’ll be honest, I can remember every single ride on these things. Same with Bandit too. Yeah it’s a daft thing for them to stand out over but they are at least memorable and I respect that, especially when I’m now into 220+ coasters, remembering anything but the cream of the crop is a good thing in my opinion.
Speaking of Bandit, that’s next. It’s a Rollercoaster Corporation of America wooden coaster, one of only 3 currently operating of the 5 that were ever built. It is Germany’s oldest wooden coaster and it feels like it too!
It does rattle and rumble around the layout and it is very rough but we found it enjoyable. It’s not Grand National levels but I think in a few years it may get to that point, however as it rides now, it’s good enough to satisfy that wooden coaster itch. Thrilling, but also rickety and rough!
Finally there’s Van Helsings Factory which was a massive suprise to the both of us. We knew going into it that was was a decently themed indoor coaster and yeah, it’s a decently themed indoor coaster! Some of the elements do look a bit dated but it’s perfectly serviceable, a little better than The Walking Dead: The Rides theming but a much better ride overall.
One of the corner is taken at pretty much full speed and it isn’t banked at all, giving the ride a sense of urgency that is in keeping with the theme and it’s bloody good fun for it!
This is certainly a highlight of the park, and one that shouldn’t be missed. Yet another example of one of Gerstlauer’s fine bobsled models.
Food offerings were good but what we ended up having was quite pricey and didn’t feel good value for money. We had dirty fries from a place we thought sold Mexican food and chicken but it sold neither and we were already there so took them up on what they were selling.
Portions were a bit on the smaller side and they didn’t have much topping but it tasted just fine. We just felt that for the price, we’d have liked a bit more.
There were a few of the newer (and pricier) restaurants open, but not so many grab and go/fast food options that took our fancy though. Hardly a big issue but it might be worth noting!
The rest of the park
There is a decent looking Huss Top Spin called NYC Transformer that seems to run a good intense cycle. I didn’t ride it as we were running low on time and it would have only been me, so definitely next time!
We did have a go on Time Riders which is a simulator but we weren’t entirely sure what was the ride and what was preshow as there are 2 preshows before the ride! We honestly thought we were going into a ride similar to Del Fuego at Portaventura rather than Star Tours at Disneyland Paris, but we got the latter and I loved it.
It is very intense for a simulator and it could really do with a bit more to hold onto as it does throw you about a bit but it was fun nonetheless! And it had John Cleese speaking German which was a bonus!
There was also Santa Monica Pier which is an area set around a boardwalk and this did look a little tired in comparison to the other parts of the park but it did have a few rides here and there such as a Disk’o coaster and a Ferris wheel. We didn’t end up spending much time here as there were other areas that interested us more and we just ran out of time to see more of it!
The merchandise was good but could be better. There was a lot more than I was expecting but there wasn’t much in the way of ride specific merchandise such Bandit or Operation Enterprise. There were some bits here and there but I do think Merlin has spoiled us when going to other parks and hoping for a range as extensive as theirs! Still good but room for improvement!
So that about wraps up what we thought and saw at Movie Park Germany. A great day out with something for everyone, from younger kids, to older thrill seekers, definitely worth the 9 hour drive it took for us to get there!
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