What does Bart say? – A Theme Park blog!

This is my second visit to Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, my first visit to this park was back 2 years ago, in 2023 (to keep things simple, I will only use “Tripsdrill” in the rest of this blog). This blog will be specifically about the theme park, if you’re interested to learn more about the Wildlife Park & resort; click here: What does Bart say about.. the Tripsdrill Wildlifepark & Resort . I’m probably not the only one, but when I visit a new (theme) park, I try to ride the coasters, and get as many rides in as possible. I managed to get all the coaster credits on my first visit, which has resulted in a perfect second visit. No rush to get the coaster credits, just a relaxed day in the park revisiting the attractions that I liked the most during my previous visit. My opinion on Tripsdrill has changed positively since my previous visit. Curious to find out why? I’ll tell you all about it in.. What does Bart say about.. Erlebnispark Tripsdrill 🍇

Tripsdrill is a small, charming theme park located in Cleebronn, southern Germany. Tripsdrill opened its doors in 1929 and is Germany’s oldest amusement/theme park, with the “Altweibermühle” as its main attraction at the time. If you’re planning on visiting Tripsdrill, I definitely recommend visiting this mill. Unfortunately, it isn’t the original mill that opened back in 1929 (the mill was struck by lightning and was rebuilt after the Second World War), I can hear you thinking, a mill? Is that worth my time at Tripsdrill? And I can assure you that it’s definitely worth your time; in fact, it only takes a few minutes. Inside the mill you will find a slide, young and old alike, everyone came down that slide. I couldn’t hold back my laughter while sliding down, and for a few seconds I didn’t feel 30, but 3 again, haha.

Tripsdrill is a park with separate scenes and attractions, and to understand them better, it is useful to know about some of the history of Tripsdrill (I must admit that I didn’t know this until I started writing this blog, which made it even more interesting for me to write this), I would like to briefly take you through the most important points in the history of Tripsdrill. In 1976, the wine museum “Vinarium” was opened. Even till today it’s possible to visit the “Vinarium”. I found it an interesting place to walk through. If you don’t have the time or inclination to visit here, it’s still worth going to the “Vinarium” because that’s where you can pick up your free wine glass. Please note: the only way to collect this glass is by scanning your admission ticket. Don’t throw this away after entering the park!

Shortly after opening the “Vinarium”, construction began on the “Katharinenmarkt”, or the wedding market, as it is popularly known. This tradition is depicted in a few minutes of spectacle. If, like me, you enjoy unique/weird animatronic shows, you should definitely stop here for a few minutes and watch the ceremony go by. The story is told in German, but with the sounds and the scene playing out in front of you, you don’t need to understand German, to understand what is happening here. After a few years Tripsdrill expanded the area with an open-air museum, and the attractions: the Fröhlicher Weinberg, the Wiegen-Hochbahn and the Kaffeetassen Fahrt. I hope you’re ready to be spun around a few times, because there’s no escaping spinning around on these attractions!

Tripsdrill has six different roller coasters, including the “Rasender Tausendfüßler”, a Zierer Large (with a custom layout) that opened back in 1986. This type of roller coaster isn’t usually very interesting, especially when there is a long queue, but this is one you will want to ride! Are you ready to clap and cheer? The louder, the better! During both of my visits, the operator clearly enjoyed his work. After checking the safety bars, he grabbed the microphone, shouted “is everybody ready”, started clapping, and began the ride. Probably the best thing about this was that everyone(!), in our train, and waiting in the station, started clapping and cheering. And when we came back to the station for our second round everyone started clapping and cheering again! But Bart.. why did you ask me if I’m ready to clap and cheer? I’ll tell you why! If everyone is enthusiastic enough, the operator (provided the queue allows it) will send the train for a third round, and let’s be honest.. with the enthusiasm of the operator, the train and the people in the station, wouldn’t you want that too?

Another roller coaster in the park that’s worth mentioning is the “G’sengte Sau”. This roller coaster was opened back in 1998 and was built by Gerstlauer. Gerstlauer is known for roller coasters such as Schwur des Kärnan, Tiki-Waka or Karacho, or the Euro-Fighter type that can be found in several amusement parks. But did you know that the “G’sengte Sau” in Tripsdrill was Gerstlauer’s first roller coaster built? With this information in mind, and knowing that the “G’sengte Sau” opened back in 1998, I had a different view on this roller coaster. It’s interesting to ride a piece of history, so I am curious to know what would have happened to Gerstlauer if they had not been able to install their first roller coaster at Tripsdrill (Tripsdrill is relatively close to Gerstlauer’s head office). And for a 27-year-old roller coaster, it still runs surprisingly smoothly, and for a first roller coaster, Gerstlauer has really created something beautiful.

After a few years, in 2000, Tripsdrill expanded the area around the “G’sengte Sau” with a log flume: the “Badenwadden-Fahrt”, one of the wettest log flume attractions I have ever ridden. And if you’re unlucky, not only the ride will get you wet, even in the queue you can get soaked! The queue runs right past the last drop of the attraction, when you’re queuing at that point it’s possible to catch a good load of water. You can see the wet spots in the queue, it’s up to you if you wait in the splashzone, or a few meters before it. Everyone will understand if you wait a few metres ahead. With three drops, two small ones and one big one, you are guaranteed to leave the ride soaked. Fortunately, a drying machine is waiting for you at the end of the ride (you can use this for a fee, and will go on for a couple of minutes). This is a ride not to miss, even when the weather is not favourable. Believe me, it’s worth it! It has quite a long layout, and a surprising indoor scene halfway through, which you have to see for yourself. I’m not going to spoil this for you.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s my second visit to Tripsdrill. For what I can remember from my last previous visit, is that Mammut was one of the lesser roller coasters in the park. For what I can remember, Mammut was very rough and certainly not a pleasant experience. Let’s be honest, Mammut is a wooden coaster. We can’t expect a wooden roller coaster to be smooth, but at least it should be a pleasant ride to give it a re-ride. When I saw the track re-railed in several places, I said to myself, let’s give it another chance. And I’m glad I did! There was a world of difference since my first experience  (rough and unpleasant), to surprisingly smooth, and actually enjoyable to ride. You could definitely tell that the track re-railed in several places, and in fact Mammut ran so well that I gave it another ride later that day, both of my rides were fairly close to the front (one ride even front row!), it might still be a rough and unpleasant experience further to the back of the train.

Another roller coaster in the park that I wasn’t very excited about during my previous visit is Karacho. Could this have something to do with the unexpected movements in Karacho? IYKYK. Or perhaps because I’m not a fan of “Infinity Coasters” (Schwur des Kärnan is an exception); with a 10-minute wait, I joined the queue anyway, and once again I was pleasantly surprised. Both roller coasters that disappointed me during my previous visit (Karacho and Mammut) surprised me in a positive way. The operators were working hard, it was a 3 train service and knowing what was coming made me ready for a re-ride on Karacho. The elements flow over each other nicely, including the four inversion the ride has. Because of the perfectly placed elements and inversions it doesn’t make you feel sick or dizzy (although the animatronic at the end of the attraction thinks otherwise). One point of criticism is the “dead spot” halfway through the layout. At this point the train loses a lot of speed, which in my opinion, should not be necessary.. and the capacity. In theory, 960 people per hour can take a ride, but in most cases this number is not reached, which means you have to queue here for a while on a busy day.

A side note, this part of the park sometimes opens later, if this is the case you will find the information at the entrance of the park.

One of the latest new additions to Tripsdrill are the roller coasters “Hals-über-Kopf” and “Volldampf”, both of which opened in 2020. As a relatively “unknown” park, opening two roller coasters during the COVID-19 pandemic is quite a bold move. This project was probably already underway and could not be cancelled at that point, but it could have turned out differently for Tripsdrill (although I expect Tripsdrill is financially stable). Volldampf is a family boomerang coaster that runs under, alongside and above the supports of Hals-über-Kopf, which creates the perfect interaction with Hals-über-Kopf, and it’s a great coaster to see go by. Since it’s a new, and low capacity roller coaster I suggest heading here first thing when you arrive in the park. It can get a bit of a queue and the one-man operations don’t help with the capacity. And.. I hope you can handle a good earworm, because this song is going to be stuck in your head for the next few hours. I’m still singing it in the shower.. trulla.. trulla.. trulla-la.. ♫

From family to thrill.. Hals-über-Kopf! Hals-über-Kopf might not be  a roller coaster that’s in my top 10, but it’s definitely one that deserves a place in my top 25. It was the first ride I rode during my visit, and I managed to get the first public ride of the day. And as the first public ride of the day  you’d expect the track to still need to warm up, but I was wrong. The train raced through the layout as if it had been running for half a day already. What an experience! After my first ride, and a queue of 10 minutes I had to give Hals-über-Kopf another ride (the few rides I had later that day were even more perfect). Where an SLC is anything but smooth, an STC is, we can only hope that Vekoma sells more of this model,  or a combination of STC and family boomerang, to more parks. I can easily see this combination go to any family park, with the boomerang as a first coaster, and the STC when you’re ready for the thrill!

A little further on, Tripsdrill installed a wild swing. I have never seen this flat ride in any other park before, so I was curious and had to give it a ride. Tripsdrill didn’t really need a capacity flat ride, but this is a welcome addition to the park. Besides “Hals-über-Kopf” and “Volldampf” this part of the park was quite dead. Adding the wild swing here makes this park more alive, and makes it fit better with the rest of the park. With reasonable capacity the queue moved quickly. And the wait was later softened by one of the most cheerful pre-shows I have seen in an amusement park. I won’t reveal what happens inside, but it is somewhat similar to the pre-show of “The Haunted House Monster Party” at LEGOLAND Windsor. The wild swing itself was a fun experience (unfortunately, I wasn’t looking at the park, but at the car park), and I have to say, it’s a “one and done” for me. I could really enjoy a flat ride, but this one isn’t made for me. If the queue is reasonable I’ll probably go for another go, but it’s not an attraction I’ll wait a long time for.

Now that I’ve been able to visit Tripsdrill for the second time, with the idea that everything is possible and nothing is mandatory, I can safely say that this is one of the parks that ranks high on my list of favourite parks. The park is very neat, the greenery is beautifully maintained, the staff are super friendly and I didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes for most of the attractions. I am surprised that Tripsdrill has been around for almost 100 years and still has fewer than 900,000 visitors each year. On the one hand, I would like to see this park attract many more visitors, but on the other hand, Tripsdrill has its charm now, and I am afraid that it might lose this if visitor numbers increase significantly.

I am curious to see what Tripsdrill has in store for its 100th anniversary. Looking at the park’s developments in recent years, they are doing very well for a small park. Will we see a dark ride open for Tripsdrill’s 100th anniversary, or will the park opt for a new thrill ride? We’ll see! 2029 is still a few years away, but I expect that developments for a new attraction will not be long in coming.

And that’s what I had to say about.. Erlebnispark Tripsdrill!
Bart