Heide Park

Soltau, Germany

“From hero to zero, thanks to Merlin Entertainments”

Welcome to Heide Park, the largest amusement park in northern Germany. The park opened in 1978 with a rather limited range of attractions, but today Heide Park is known as one of the country’s major thrill destinations. This is partly due to the presence of no fewer than nine roller coasters, several of which were built under the management of the British Merlin Entertainments Group. This amusement park chain is known for its fascination for spectacular rides and dark themes. This seems a stark contrast to the cosy, typical German flair Heide Park once exuded. But how does the situation feel in real life? It’s time to find out.

ROLLER COASTERS

Heide Park’s biggest strength is definitely its roller coaster lineup. One of the more recent additions is Flug der Dämonen. You don’t have to be a polyglot to realise that this name translates to Flight of the Demons. This B&M Wing Coaster opened in 2014 and it became one of the most impressive installations of its kind. The ride is 131 feet (40 metres) tall and the trains traverse five inversions, including one unique combination that was named after this coaster: the Demonic Knot. After a backseat ride, I’m happy to announce that Flug der Dämonen delivers an excellent experience. It’s not the most intense Wing Coaster, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the unique layout and the smoothness. Besides, IMAscore delivered a stunningly spooky soundtrack that can be heard throughout the queue and inside the station.

IMAscore also created the music for Heide Park’s other B&M ride. I’m talking about a Dive Coaster with the name Krake. Many people consider this coaster type as a one-trick pony. Let passengers dangle above an abyss for a few seconds and then let them experience the thrills of a vertical descent. That’s it. A Dive Machine generally doesn’t do much more than that. You can call this a ridiculously simple concept, but I personally still think that it’s a great experience. The same goes for Krake: the layout may be short, but it feels very to-the-point and the 87° drop is excellent.

Be sure to ride Toxic Garden if you enjoy a good old Vekoma SLC, but beware for some serious headbanging. Then I actually prefer the park’s other classic Vekoma: Big Loop. This is the oldest roller coaster at Heide Park and it has no theming whatsoever, but its location near the park’s big lake makes it a photogenic ride nevertheless. And believe it or not… the actual ride experience was better than expected. I’m still wondering why this ride needed two pointless stretches of straight track, but at least the trains run smoothly and those loops are surprisingly intense. By the way: it’s no coincidence if Big Loop’s layout looks familiar, as this is a mirrored copy of Dragon Fyre at Canada’s Wonderland.

Heide Park is home to one of the world’s largest Mack bobsled coasters. Bobbahn is 3.250 feet long, 85 feet tall and the trains reach a top speed of 33 mph. This may not seem too extreme, but it’s actually quite a big deal when compared to similar coasters at Europa-Park, Pleasure Beach and Kings Dominion. The ride experience is pretty good, as well. Bobbahn makes perfect use of its hilly terrain, it features a surprising indoor section and it feels faster than most other bobsled coasters. Excellent family coaster, if you ask me.

Heide Park put itself on the map in 2001, when it opened the gigantic wooden roller coaster Colossos. The ride became famous for its steep drops and incredible airtime, which attracted coaster enthusiasts from all over the world. It was therefore a shock when Heide Park announced in 2016 that its signature roller coaster would be taken out of service indefinitely. Problems with the tracks meant that Colossos would ultimately remain closed for two and a half years. After an extensive refurbishment, the ride reopened in April 2019 under the name Colossos – Kampf der Giganten. Millions of euros were spent on new trains and retracking, and Heide Park also installed a giant statue of a fire monster near the end of the ride.

Colossos may be considered as a European version of El Toro. The Mexican bull is the largest airtime machine at Six Flags Great Adventure and Colossos plays a similar role at Heide Park. After climbing the 52-metre-tall lifthill, we are indeed treated to some of the best airtime you’ll find in Europe. But unfortunately, the incredible sense of weightlessness is probably Colossos’ only major strength. The layout contains no surprising elements and the curves seem to considerably slow down the train. In addition, I still feel the rhythmic rattle that characterized the original Colossos. Colossos still counts as the most thrilling coaster at Heide Park, but I’m actually not a huge fan.

Desert Race can be found right next to Colossos. This Intamin Accelerator is a near-exact copy of Rita at Alton Towers, which feels like an odd choice to me. In the British park, this simple layout was chosen because of the height restrictions that apply there. At Heide Park, though, I would have preferred a taller coaster with more variation and/or inversions. Despite its powerful launch, Desert Race just feels like a missed opportunity to me. This also applies to the theming, by the way. The station looks incredibly cheap and the coaster seriously lacks some near-misses.

Heide Park’s coaster lineup is quite thrill-focused, but families with young children aren’t completely forgotten. They should head to Indy-Blitz (a simple Zierer kiddie coaster) or Grottenblitz, a semi-indoor powered coaster manufactured by Mack Rides. The latter is a near-exact copy of Alpenexpress at Europa-Park, but Heide Park performed noticeably weaker when it comes to theming.

OTHER EXPERIENCES

Be sure to visit Wildwasserbahn and Mountain Rafting if you love water rides. We are talking about a super-old log flume and a surprisingly long, beautifully landscaped rapid river. Mountain Rafting takes us straight back to the glory days of Heide Park, when almost every attraction had a typical German theme. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that Merlin doesn’t give the older attractions much love. Rock formations around the ride are now supported by hideous steel constructions and the adjacent buildings desperately need a coat of paint. Don’t get me wrong; Mountain Rafting is still an excellent rapid river, but its visual appearance used to be so much better.

Heide Park offers a good amount of flat rides. The collection includes a swinging ship, a Break Dance, a wave swinger, a Magic and several family-friendly carousels. The most impressive flat ride, however, is Scream. This Gyro Drop towers over a hundred meters above the park and its height is even further emphasized due to its location on a hilltop. I’m not a huge fan of free fall attractions, but I should admit that Heide Park hit a home run with this one. The ride looks very impressive, the medieval theming is elaborate and the park even created a special soundtrack.

Heide Park isn’t exactly a dark ride haven, as they only have Ghost Busters 5D (a very mediocre shooter dark ride) and Drachengrotte, a boat ride themed to How To Train Your Dragon. Our expectations for this attraction were quite high, but the actual experience were a disappointment. After all, the dark ride section is extremely short and the scenes are filled with static puppets instead of animatronics. Come on Heide Park… this could have been so much better.

WORTH A VISIT?

The current version of Heide Park is rather focused on rides than on theming. And admittedly, the park performs well in the attraction segment. It offers some spectacular roller coasters, quite a few thrill rides and they also cater to families with young children. In other words: there’s much to do at Heide Park for every age group. Still, it’s sad to see that the park performed considerably better in the past than it does nowadays. Merlin has brought a good bunch of new attractions to Heide Park, but the park has lost much of its original charm.

If you’re searching for thrill rides and spectacular roller coasters, then Heide Park is one of Germany’s finest destinations. However, if you’re in need of an immersive theme park experience, you’d better find another place to go. Heide Park has a better atmosphere than most Cedar Fair or Six Flags parks, but this isn’t at the same level as Europa-Park or Phantasialand. Do you agree with me or am I being too negative about Heide Park? Do you think that this is Germany’s thrill capital? And did you enjoy your ride on Colossos? Share your opinion in the comments section at the bottom of this page.