If there’s an amusement park half an hour from home where you haven’t completed your coaster bingo yet, something’s not right. With a visit to Phantasialand just behind me, going to Toverland wasn’t actually in the plans. A small group of ACE members were going to visit a few more parks before flying back to the other side of the ocean. Toverland was scheduled for Wednesday, which made it a good moment to join them for a day and head to Sevenum.
After quickly requesting and getting approved leave for today last Monday, I was waiting just outside the gate a little before half past ten. After a few minutes, the rest came strolling up, suspecting nothing. And soon there were a few “huh, what are you doing here, how nice!“s. With the park now open, it was off to Troy to wake up properly. Given that it was still early in the day, and definitely not the warmest day, Troy wasn’t running its best laps yet. The ride had been hyped up to me quite a bit as the best wooden coaster in the Benelux. Early in the morning, I wasn’t so sure about that. But how that opinion would be refined later in the day…
From there it was straight on to Maximus Blitz Bahn. Some of the group hadn’t ticked this one off yet, and now was probably the last chance to do so. I’m very curious what Toverland is going to build in its place. After that, it was on to the next credit with a ride on Toos-Express. And it turned out to be a pretty fun family coaster with actually a bit of bite.
Photo Award#
Enough time spent indoors. It was time to head back outside for the very last credit of the day: the spinner Dwervelwind. What a super cool and smooth ride this is. Although I liked the two Winja’s from a few days ago better, the difference in ride experience was very clear. As rough and slightly rattly as the Winja’s are, this one glides over the track like it’s gliding through a pat of butter. But who on earth came up with placing the on-ride photo in the curve between the station and the lift hill? Let’s just say the end result is an award for the most useless on-ride photo ever… Two coaster nuts who don’t even notice a photo is being taken and are both looking back over the other shoulder… Hilarious.
From there it was on to Fēnix to pick up the remaining credit. And this most recent addition to Toverland’s coaster lineup is impressive. Beforehand I had read that the left side has the best ride experience, so the first ride was taken on that side. Especially the first airtime hop over the water, packed with airtime, was fantastic. Lovely and smooth through the curves. Definitely a top-tier coaster, although there is one point of criticism. The shame about the layout is that both “close to the ground” turns are taken in the same direction. So the left side never skims just above the ground during the ride, while the right side gets to experience this twice. A bit of an imbalance in the experience. But that’s also reason enough to ride the coaster on both sides multiple times. And that’s exactly what we did.
It was now well into the afternoon and everyone was getting a little woozy with hunger. But before satisfying our hunger, we first took a rest on a boat at Merlin’s Quest. Normally I would skip something like that, but the dark ride section was enough compensation for floating around on the water. What must be said is how good the theming and finishing are in the new area. From the queues to the atmospheric little gnome village. Toverland can be proud of what they’ve managed to create in Avalon. Hopefully they can carry this quality over into new additions. But will they also manage, in time, to bring the older areas up to this level?
Right, time for lunch. And since we were in the neighborhood anyway, we stopped by The Flaming Feather for a delicious “12-uurtje” (Dutch lunch). And here too, thanks to the excellent theming, a particularly atmospheric restaurant.
Streaks#
With lunch behind us, we hesitated a bit over how to continue the day. We ended up at the mill Pixarus. Unfortunately, once again I didn’t manage to flip over even a single time during the ride. By now I wonder whether a workshop for those things could be organized somewhere. Once we had our feet back on the ground, it was back inside. And there I made, one after another, the dumbest choices I possibly could. The first was to get into the teacup mill with Jo at the helm. Too bad there’s no counter here like at Pixarus. Although I actually don’t want to know how many rotations we made during the ride at the murderous pace the cup was spun. Only a good while after the ride had ended did we ourselves finally come to a standstill as well. To the amusement of some bystanders, after a moment to recover, with broad smiles and tears of laughter in our eyes, we were finally able to climb out.
Then came the second “mistake”. Right next to the teacups is the little Ferris wheel Wirbelbaum. And without thinking, I got into one of the gondolas with Jeroen. In all fairness, Jeroen held back at first, but I soon discovered that these gondolas could be spun around as well. And so followed the demonstration, even faster than the teacups. And not long after, the world was once again one big streaky mess. Lovely!
Winning Rematch#
After all that spinning and a short break, the time had come to give Troy a rematch. It had slowly started getting dark, so the end of the day was in sight. Thanks to the short queues, we managed about five more rides before the park closed. And what a difference from this morning’s ride! Troy was clearly warmed up and was blasting through the track. Nice little pops of airtime here and there. Wind in the beard. What a coaster, and just half an hour’s drive from home.
And with that, coaster season 2025 was truly over. We said our goodbyes and exchanged the necessary hugs. And then you realize again how dear everyone has become over the past few years. The motto that Jo often repeats is therefore one hundred percent true: “Come for the coasters, stay for the friendships!”
New Credits#
169 - Troy
170 - Toos-Express
171 - Dwervelwind
172 - Fēnix