When Theme Park Trips Go Wrong!
So it is obvious that things have not got to plan this year with international travel still being difficult to navigate. Although we continue to remain very hopeful for our remaining tours it has become a good time to reflect on personal past trips where things did not go to plan. These are 3 trips that stand out and will always be remembered, for the wrong reasons.
Leaving out the obvious for corona virus, my trip to Cedar Point and Canada’s Wonderland were both cancelled, however this has been rescheduled for next year as I will be over that way as best man for a friend’s wedding.
Six Flags Great Adventure – Kingda Ka SBNO
I have stood next to the world’s largest roller coaster! Standing at 456ft tall, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure went down for approximately 3 months about 10 years ago when I visited. All ready to go with a platinum fast pass to guarantee my ride, I kept an eye on this coaster nearly every day similar to checking corona virus cases in this modern world.
It is still unclear what happened to the ride and I still do not know with a lightning strike floating around on some forums, but I did have a very relieved friend who was petrified from just looking at the huge structure. Instead we rode all the other coasters including Nitro, Bizarro and some wooden ride that I never paid any attention too, feels like a British thing that wood coasters were not that exciting although this has changed over the recent years. Hitting the break run on El Toro, I couldn’t believe what I experienced having known nothing in advance and this world class Intamin pre fab wooden coaster more than made up for missing out on the world’s largest coaster and jumped right into my top 5.
Europa Park – Missed Flight
Ok, this was probably my fault for being a bit risky, but the plan was flawless!
Having booked midweek trip to Europa Park, another friend asked if I was about the weekend before, and so another plan came into motion. Fly to Prague Friday night, pick up rental car and drive south to Cesky Krumlov (A beautiful town in southern Czech Republic) for site seeing on Saturday, drive back north Sunday and catch a flight home, will be back by 10pm ready for midday flight on Monday.
Get to the airport on Sunday, flight delayed. Ok not the end of the world, will be home by midnight. There was only one EasyJet flight due into Prague airport for the remainder of the night and this was coming from London. A quick check and that plane has just diverted and landed in Dresden, Germany. It’s obvious now, our flight will be cancelled. No announcements from EasyJet but knowing travelling as I do, even if the flight was to get back in the air, the crew would be out of hours for our journey.
It’s getting to 11pm, midnight back home and I have to make the awkward call to my friend and explain that I am stuck in Prague. Finally approximately 3am the flight was cancelled. They have managed to get a new flight for 11am the next day and this is no good as my London flight would be taking off before we even land. Planning on how I can get half way across from Czech Republic and pretty much the entirety of Germany as we were staying in Strasbourg France, this was a difficult process… at 3am!
First, my car was at Gatwick, my flight to Germany was at Stansted. My friend in Prague still had to get home so temporary insurance on my car had to be purchased.
Flights to Baden-Baden from Prague do not exist and can’t rent a car in Prague as cross country drop off fees were approximately an extra £500, but I can get a 6 hour coach at 6am from Prague to Munich. Halfway there. Now I am in Germany at least, I can rent a car and drop off at Baden-Baden airport, which is only another 6 hour drive! It is 4am when we got to the complimentary hotel in Prague and I had to leave at 5:30am.
It’s Oktoberfest in Munich! Never been so after buying a ticket, a 5 minute walk around the site including seeing but not riding the famous travelling coaster of Olympia Looping, I got my little Ford Ka and set off on the second half of my journey.
Eventually I arrived at Baden-Baden airport at 7pm with an angry looking friend sat on a bench outside reading a book. Got rid of one rental car, picked up the other, brought my friend a load of apology beers that evening and Europa Park followed the next day!
Europa Park / Holiday Park
Is Europa Park cursed for me?
16 years back and 1 week before I turned 18, I broke both my wrists falling on a rope swing. Friends of course found this hilarious as approximately 12 of us went to A&E with jokes at my expense. Rushed in and put on morphine, I was having the time of my life as I tried to eat imaginary chocolate stars flying towards me.
Parents arrived at the hospital and the following conversation between my dad and friends followed:
Dad: “He has broken BOTH his wrists and BOTH his Legs?!?”
Friends: “No his legs are fine”
Dad: “Not after I’m F*****g done with him!”
This is my family’s sense of humour but it turns out my surprise birthday trip the following weekend was a trip to Holiday Park and Europa Park, which I just ruined.
The following day, friends all visited due to curiosity on how I would be going to the toilet on my own, luckily the right hand was in a splinter so I still had full control of my fingers.
Eventually a few months later than planned we headed to Baden-Baden ready for a couple days of coaster riding… at my parent’s expense!
Round Up
Things go wrong all the time and this is just life. What we have to do is make the best of it. Kingda Ka was down, El Toro was up, cancelled flight in Prague, exciting solo road trip throughout Germany, broke my wrists, but got awesome on Roller Coaster Tycoon!
The last couple years have seen many trips cancelled for a lot of people, but when we finally get to go to our destinations, theme parks, visiting family or any other trip that you have delayed, it will all be worth it and the appreciation will be higher than ever.
Stay safe and make the best of it!
Marcus
El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure
