Holiday Park is a German theme park known primarily for one ride, Expedition GeForce.
This award-winning Intamin mega coaster is one of the best coasters in the world for
sustained ejector airtime.
While this coaster is as awesome as its reputation suggests, Holiday Park has so much more to
offer.
Find out why the park as a whole is underrated in this review.
This park has one of the weirder histories.
The park’s original owners operated a Liliputan Circus, which was a place to watch others
with dwarfism.
Wanting a permanent home for their circus, Pfalzer Marchenpark was founded in 1971.
And the park immediately began adding other attractions such as a fairytale village and
amusement rides.
Two years later, the park was renamed Holiday Park and it continued to grow at a steady
rate.
By the mid-1990s, the place was known primarily as an amusement park and the Liliputan Circus
was closed down.
Then in 2001, the park made international waves when they installed Expedition GeForce.
I still can’t believe a park of this size somehow paid for and installed an Intamin
mega coaster.
Usually this type of coaster is the finishing piece of a coaster collection, but it was
just Holiday Park’s second roller coaster and it’s still the park’s signature attraction
to this day.
Over the past decade, the park has been transformed into more of a theme park.
Plopsa purchased Holiday Park late in 2010 and they’ve been improving the park’s
aesthetics.
Holiday Park always looked good.
It’s one of the most shaded theme parks in the world thanks to its wonderfully wooded
setting.
And several buildings towards the front of the park embodied traditional German architecture.
But very few rides were actually themed.
All of Plopsa’s additions have featured the colorful theming the chain is known for.
This has included several family-friendly lands such as the Majaland kiddie area, the
Holiday Indoor area that can operate yearround, and the viking-themed Wickieland.
Not only has this brought an infusion of kiddie and family rides, but the park has also rethemed
and upgraded existing attractions such as the Wickie Splash log flume and Dino Splash
river rapids ride.
Plus the entry plaza was redesigned to be a near clone of Plopsaland de Panne’s with
the buildings and dancing fountains.
I really love how this park looks.
As of this recording, Holiday Park costs roughly 42 Euros for adults.
The park also offers an evening ticket valid for the final 3 hours for 10 Euros less.
I know a lot of coaster enthusiasts who have hit another local park such as Tripsdrill
in the morning and then gone to Holiday Park at night, especially on summer Wednesdays
and Saturdays when this park has extended hours.
However, those days may understandably have higher crowds.
Holiday Park’s rides do not have the best capacity.
Expedition GeForce and Sky Scream only run one train.
The thrilling flat rides like Free Fall Tower Anubis and Sky Fly only seat up to 12 riders
per cycle.
And then the water rides are popular, particularly in the summer.
Don’t be surprised if several of these rides have 30-60 minute waits when you visit.
Therefore, I would strongly consider purchasing an Express Pass.
This costs 30 Euros and it allows the user to skip 9 lines.
It’s offered on 7 of the park’s most popular attractions.
You’re free to experience all 7 attractions or you can keep reriding Expedition GeForce
over-and-over.
You are routed up the exit and can select any seat you’d like.
If you select the front, you need to use 2 punches.
But I preferred the back rows on the coasters anyway.
The park loads every other train with Express Pass users, which causes the standby waits
to move even slower.
Holiday Park only has 3 roller coasters, but one of them has a case as the best coaster
in Germany.
Expedition GeForce is a powerhouse.
The ride begins with one of the wildest drops in the world.
The demonically twisted, near vertical plunge offers a scary combination of ejector airtime
and violent laterals.
Then the rest of the layout is filled with camelbacks and bunny hills offering some of
the best sustained ejector airtime of any coaster.
The layout does have a bit of a lull in the middle with a series of overbanks and turns,
but the ride has one of the strongest starts and finishes of any coaster.
Plus, it’s super reridable and has a great setting in the woods.
I have a separate review going into more detail, but this ride should be on every coaster enthusiast’s
bucket list.
The newest major coaster is Sky Scream, arguably the best Premier Rides Sky Rocket II clone.
This one features the familiar layout with the ok launches, powerful ejector airtime,
and hangtime filled barrel roll.
But this one has just lap bars, so you’re more free during the experience.
It also features some horror theming in both the queue line and station during the launch
sequence.
The final coaster is Tabalugas Achterbahn.
This is a Zierer junior coaster in the Holiday Indoor section.
I liked how this coaster was incorporated into the area, but I skipped it due to its
line.
This park really could use another family coaster to bridge the gap between Tabalugas
and their two major coasters.
That’s especially the case given how the Studio 100 IPs attract kids and families.
However, the two additions they’re currently working on are a 15 million Euro Tomorrowland
area and an indoor water park, which unsurprisingly can also be found at Plopsaland.
The park offers a nice collection of water rides.
The best of the bunch is easily Wickie Splash.
This Mack log flume features 3 drops with the final two in particular standing out.
The second is an enclosed backwards drop with some zip with the final drop is a sizable
double down that offers some weightlessness.
Beyond these drops, you also have great visuals between the wooded setting and the themed
sections.
This ride really surprised me and it’s my second favorite ride in the park after GeForce.
DinoSplash is a fun Intamin river rapids ride.
The ride has an incredible atmosphere with the music, lush landscaping, and dinosaur
animatronics.
The rapids as a whole were weak, but I really liked the finale.
You have this turbulent wave machine underneath a t-rex that keeps bobbing the raft violently
until the raft is nailed by one of those giant waves, sending a soaking splash towards riders.
Another soaking one is the new Splash Battle in the Wickieland area.
The placement of this ride is interesting since riders can use the water guns to shoot
those on the adjacent Zamperla disko coaster in Grobe Welle, turning that ride into a water
ride as well.
For flat rides, you have a decent collection highlighted by three notable ones.
The most prominent of the bunch is Anubis Free Fall Tower.
This 23 story tall Intamin drop tower offers great views, particularly if you’re on the
side facing Expedition GeForce.
There’s no warning for the drop and it offers weak floater airtime the whole way down.
It’s a simple ride, but it’s a rush.
Lighthouse Tower is a Funtime star flyer that offers similarly awesome views while you spin
262 feet or 80 meters above the trees.
Then Sky Fly is a Gerstlauer sky roller where you manually rock your gondola, trying to
get it to invert.
And if you have proper technique, you can easily get 30-40 fast and furious flips on
this ride like I did.
I love how intense these flats are once you get that first inversion.
One of the most shocking rides at this park given the family-friendly Plopsa name is Burg
Falkenstein.
This is a dark ride with the emphasis on dark.
This ride has some shocking scenes between the torture and unwanted sexual advances.
You’d never see something like this in America and the sets were fully fleshed out with some
nice animatronics.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the kiddie rides.
There are two main areas, both near the main entrance.
Holiday Indoor is the enclosed section with the aforementioned junior coaster plus 6 other
rides.
Majaland is the outdoor area with some vibrant flower and bug-themed rides.
And what’s really cool about these two areas is that they can operate independently of
the rest of the park.
When the other sections are closed in the winter months, these two children’s areas
remain open and admission costs roughly half the summer rate.
So this is an awesome time to visit if you have young kids.
The one final thing I want to mention is the exit experience.
Like many European parks, you pay for parking as you exit.
Maybe it was less turnstiles being available, but this process was far more tedious at Holiday
Park.
Every time I’ve visited this park, there has been a massive back-up to get out.
Just keep that in mind if you’re in a rush.
So do I recommend Holiday Park?
Yes!
This is a well-rounded park with something for everyone.
It’s a must for coaster enthusiasts solely because of Expedition GeForce.
But the park has so much more to offer.
There are some other enjoyable thrill rides, plenty of family rides, and two fully fleshed
out kid’s areas.
And this park is just a joy to walk around.
It looks great and I have the utmost faith in Plopsa to continue blending greenery and
theming with their future additions.
I prefer the two biggest German parks in Europa Park and Phantasialand, but this park is in
that next tier and it’s conveniently located near several of the other theme parks in west
Germany if you’re on a coaster trip.
So those are my thoughts on Holiday Park, the home of Expedition GeForce.
What are your thoughts on this German theme park?
Do you agree Plopsa’s ownership has been a good thing for this park?
Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
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