Goats Zero!
France & Germany Tour Review!
The first France and Germany tour of the 2025 season is complete – and what a fantastic week it was with the group now known as Goats Zero!
The group name “Goats Zero” was born out of two running themes: the frequent encounters with goats at parks like Tripsdrill and Parc Saint Paul, and the group's near-exclusive choice of drink – Coke Zero. In fact, one night they even drank a bar completely dry of it. A decent effort.
This tour brought together returning Coaster Breaks guests including the full "Up, Up, Ups" crew from last year, now joined with Chris, Janet and Van who all also completed their own tours in 2024.
At Holiday Park, we were lucky to experience a technical rehearsal of the brand-new Smurfs Dark Ride. While soft openings come with a few hiccups (some of the Smurfs had hauntingly empty eyes – a bit unsettling!), it was great to see a new family attraction being tested.
Holiday Park is in the midst of a major transformation as it becomes Plopsaland Deutschland, aligning with the brand behind Belgium's famous Plopsaland De Panne. Two new coasters are on the way, including:
100% Wolf – a Gerstlauer family coaster with track already in place.
A Mack Xtreme Spinner, a sister ride to Ride to Happiness in Belgium, but with a custom layout.
Once complete, these additions will join Expedition GeForce to form one of the strongest coaster lineups in Europe. Speaking of GeForce – it was flying on this trip, and we made sure to ride it well into the double digits!
Next, we visited Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, Germany’s oldest theme park and one that remains proudly family-owned. Its charm is unmatched, and rides like Hals-über-Kopf (the suspended coaster) continue to surprise and delight. Add in goats and unique theming, and you’ve got one of the most character-filled parks in the country.
Having won multiple awards including the prestigious Golden Ticket Award for World’s Best Theme Park multiple times, you can see why Europa Park is the highlight of the week! Having built Voltron Nevera in 2024, this has only cemented this place as one of the bucket list locations in the world!
We also got a look at the newly soft-opened Ed & Eddas Grand Prix EDventure, a new Mack Rides attraction featuring a circular shooting ride system. While innovative in concept, the execution felt rough – unresponsive guns, laggy screens, and a confusing storyline. Although this attraction is still in technical rehearsals, it hasn’t given us much hope on the product. A new version of the ride type is about to open at Paultons Park in the UK titled Ghostly Manor which we are hoping will be a huge improvement on the Europa Park Attraction.
Luckily Europa Park has some other very good dark rides including Piraten in Batavia, Madame Freudenreich Curiosites (Dinosaur Birthday Party!) and the Italian Ghost Train – Castello Dei Medici!
We were also joined at Europa-Park by Tom and Liam, long-time Coaster Breaks friends, making the visit even more memorable.
Back to France – Nigloland, Parc Astérix & Parc Saint Paul
Although we started this tour at Walygator due to the parks operating calendar, we returned after Europa Park to visit Nigloland, another charming, family-run park. The highlight of course being the whimsical Niglo Show, and for our Canadian guests, a full-on Canada-themed area, complete with maple leaves galore.
Then came Parc Astérix, arguably France’s best park. The trio of Toutatis, OzIris, and Tonnerre 2 Zeus is a coaster lineup hard to beat. Meanwhile, Goudurix continues to be a rough ride despite new vest restraints – it’s a beautiful layout, but your neck will almost snap on every corner and inversion throughout the ride.
We also got a glimpse of the upcoming Cetautomatix, a new Gerstlauer spinning coaster set to debut this summer – always exciting to see future attractions testing!
We wrapped up at Parc Saint Paul, home to the underrated Wood Express and, of course, more goats. Now under the ownership of Looping Group (owners of Drayton Manor and Pleasurewood Hills), we’re excited to see what’s in store for this park in the coming years.
Another Memorable Tour in the Books
It was an incredible week filled with amazing rides, great laughs, and a few very specific catchphrases – “Good Job, Gang!” being the unofficial motto, shouted anytime someone was congratulated for something they didn’t actually do.
A massive thank you to Angela, Alice, Sean, Michael, Janet, Katy, Van, and Chris – you made Goats Zero a truly special group. We can't wait to see you all again on a future tour.
Stay tuned for 2026 tours to be announced soon, with more places and opportunities to visit some of the worlds best theme parks and roller coasters!
