Toverland is excellent.
I could leave it there, but I’m going to elaborate, in detail, why Toverland is excellent.
Our day started at Troy and though it was delayed a little in opening, we eventually got into the queue line and already there’s things to point out. Firstly the queue line is tidy and looked after, but also very pleasant to look at. Though there isn’t much in the way of theming besides some stakes and such, the way the queue is separated using water for parts of it looks great!
Then there’s the ride itself. This is one of the taller wooden coasters in Europe, standing around 8th at the time of writing, at a height of 104.5ft (31.9 meters), dropping near enough 100 ft (30.7 meters) and reaching speeds of 54 mph (86.8km/h) over its 3534ft (1077.2 meter) length. It passes through the station (above and behind as the second train loads) and makes a phenomenal noise as it does so.
The ride is just rough enough to be enjoyable but not too smooth to make it bland and it does have at least 2 jarring transitions that really make it feel like it has a bit of a mind of its own and I love it all the more for that. Troy is a fantastic coaster with plenty to love.
The station is very basic and not much to write about and leads out into the gift shop where there are plenty of themed merchandise on offer, as well as ride photos.
Our next stop was Skorpius, a pirate thip themed to a Trojan ship and it looks good. After that was Paarden Van Ithaka, a horse ride very similar to Sleipnier at Drayton Manor, only this is themed around Greece and Ithaca. Both rides were good fun and did their jobs as intended.
After we’d finished on Paarden Van Ithaka, we wandered around for a bit, looking in the indoor section of the park and a few of the restaurants before heading to Dwervelwind, the parks Mack Spinning Coaster.
Dwervelwind is a lovely little ride, very smooth and just intense enough without being over bearing for the height restriction is requires. The ride features on board audio and it syncs up nicely with the lift hill and first drop, a lovely little addition. I feel it wasn’t quite as good as Storm Chaser at Paultons Park, but it was still better than a lot of junior coasters we have, at least in my opinion! The station was a nice place to be too.
Next up we headed into Avalon to be greated with one of the better views in any park I’ve ever been to. As you walk in, you’ll see the lake that sits nicely in the middle of the area, with Merlin’s Quest, a boat ride sailing around it. There’s construction work going on at the very back of the area as they build a tower ride that adds to sight line. Finally, there’s Fenix, which has a large airtime hill crossing from left to right of the area and then a zero-g roll on the way back and couple it all together and it just looks magnificent!
As for Fenix, we ended up getting two rides on it during the day (I’ll talk about both here) as we wanted to try both sides. We first tried the front left and then the rear most seats on the right hand side. I don’t think there was a lot to choose between them, but I think the back row was better than the front, the left hand side better than right so maybe we’ll need more rides to completely decide!
Anyway the ride itself is very smooth and thrilling, incredibly comfortable too. After the first dive drop, you head into the airtime hill I mentioned before and this is excellent. You get a good amount of airtime before it barrels into an immelmann and a large helix that surround Pixarus, a new attraction still under construction. After the helix is the zero-g roll and under the main path way where the cameras for the on ride photo sit. These are in a great position as they get great shots of the ride, and don’t look like an after thought too. A few twists and turns and you’ll be back on the breakrun ready to get off.
This is another ride I really enjoyed too. It’s very similar to The Swarm, but has a theme I much prefer with it being more magical in nature. The queue line is very pretty and the station is vast, though not quite as well themed as others are, but it’s still a pleasant place to be.
After we’d finished on Fenix, we headed to Merlin’s Quest, which is a lengthy boat ride. Merlin’s Quest is for the most part, quite slow and not much happens, but there is an indoor section that I won’t spoil and needless to say, it was very surprising!
With all the rides in Avalon (currently) finished, we moved indoors to see what we could find in the Land Van Toos and Wunder Wald areas. We had a look at the food offerings in Wunder Wald first and decided on pasta for Tracy and a pizza for me. It was reasonably priced and very tasty too.
After we’d finished our food, we moved onto the rides and first had a go on Villa Fiasko, which is a fun house and we had a good laugh navigating the moving walkways and slides. I wouldn’t say fun houses are my kind of thing but they are growing on me as they’re daft and just plain fun! Next we had a go on Karussell (which is a carousel) and the parks Rockin’ Tug, Alpenrutsche (which means Alpine Slide). These were exactly as you’d expect them to be, though nicely themed as all the other attractions have been.
We were intending to have a go on Maximus’ Blitz Bahn, a powered toboggan run, but the queue never seemed to drop below 60 minutes, so something for another visit! As we were doing Expedition Zork later, we headed into Land Van Toos. The first ride we went on, teacups, were well, teacups but one of the standout attractions in here, beside Toos-Express, is the Toverhaus. This is a peculiar attraction that you need a wand (whichis provided) and it allows you to activate things within the attraction. Almost like a shooting dark ride, without the ride or scoring elements, a good bit of fun and something different, though we found our wand didn’t work but we got enough out of the attraction by seeing others activating things.
As mentioned before, we had a go on Toos-Express which is a junior mine train coaster. It’s pretty much as you’d expect, a few helixes here and a hill or two there. Very comfortable and not too thrilling which is perfect for kids.
There were a few other small attractions that we skipped, such as a chair swing and playground so we headed outside and had a go on Wunderball. You pay €6 at a vending machine to get a wooden ball that is used in the attraction and all this equates to, is a marble run but bigger.
We both thought it was a really nice way to reuse and recycle some old props, as well as offer something that is unlike anything else we’ve seen in a theme park. There are two runs for you to put the ball onto and both are different in the effects and parts they use, but ultimately, the balls start and end at the same location. Some will see this as a bit of a rip off or a waste of time, but we enjoyed it, and you get to keep the ball as a souvenir!
By the time we’d finished on Wunderball, we’d been on most of the major attractions, leaving only Booster Bike, Djengu River, Expedition Zork and a few re-rides so we headed back to Troy. Back row this time and I can’t really decide whether front or back is better, but no matter where you sit, the ride is a beast.
Our next stop was Djengu River, a rapids ride that has a very nice indoor queue line but was quite slow to load as the boats kept stopping on the conveyor belt in the station. As for the ride itself, it was quite a pleasant little attraction. It was certainly one of the more tame rapids rides, especially when compared with another we’ve yet to talk about, but it was perfectly fine as a ride. Though there were plenty of waterfalls around the area that made up for the tame ride I’d say.
Booster Bike was next and much like Velocity at Flamingo Land, it only runs one train and made this a longer queue but it was something I wanted to do as this is the original model of Vekoma’s Motorbike coaster. When compared with Velocity, it is a bit slower and shorter, but this is the prototype so the evidently made changes to improve it with subsequent installations!
That’s not to say that Booster Bike was bad or anything, far from it! It was thrilling and smooth and the launch is nice and punchy, but not quite as violent as Rita, Stealth or even Anubis at Plopsaland. Great ride nonetheless!
Back into Wunder Wald to have a go on Expedition Zork, the parks log flume. You start off inside the Wunder Wald building and even have a backwards drop indoors, before the large lift hill takes you outside for a decent drop into a nice refreshing splashdown. This is a somewhat unique version of a log flume in that it uses a lot of turn tables. First to turn you backwards, then forwards part of the way up the large lift hill, then again at the top so you’re facing the drop.
You don’t get too wet on the ride and besides the two drops, there is a nice amount of scenery to look at and the free flowing sections and very pleasant and relaxing.
As the day started to wind down, we had another ride on Dwervelwind and Fenix, before heading back to the Port Laguna entrance plaza for merchandise and something to eat (fish and chips which were excellent!)
Merchandise was extensive and covered a couple of the rides, Fenix and Troy in particular, and you could get the usual staple of T shirts and clothing, but they also did wristbands, posters and little models themed around the two bigger rides. I ended up with a cup, some wrist bands, a poster and photos, where Tracy did a lot better picking up 2 of the models as well. I would have bought all the T shirts, but I was a little worried they might not fit and as I didn’t thy them on, so they’re still there for our next visit!
Overall, Toverland is arguably the park that has impressed me most so far. I went in expecting something around the Flamingo Land/Drayton Manor sort of level and found it to be more like and adult version of Paultons Park. The theming in the areas is lovely, the food was good and not too expensive, there was plenty of merchandise and rides that catered for everyone! Troy was definitely a standout, as was Fenix. Both are now my favourite of their ride types, though Dwervelwind and Booster Bike were still great rides too! I have absolutely no criticism what so ever of Toverland and I wish them the best of luck with the future and can’t wait to get back to see how Avalon expands, and to see what the park does next!
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