Dublin Trip Report
This weekend brought what, thanks to budget airlines and “winter blues”, should become a regular feature of my coaster-riding calendar - an out of season trip to Dublin for the “Funderland” fair.
Of course, the fair is only part of the weekend, and this year around 20 of us (mostly ECC members) headed over to Dublin on various airlines for a weekend planned around an afternoon at the fair…
However we started with a morning Karting - a great deal of fun - and I was doing surprisingly well until I spun into the tyre wall, and couldn’t get out during my semi-final (at least I did a lot better than James - who I think managed to come last in every single heat he was in) - however it was an excellent way to start the day, before a brief break and the walk down to Funderland…
Funderland was simply top-notch - some of the best examples of travelling rides from all over Ireland and Germany (at least, some of the smaller ones) packed into a hall at an exhibition centre in Dublin was a treat to say the least. 4 larger rides were stationed outside, notably the “Jungle River” flume, the Wild Mouse (of the spinning variety) a huge observation wheel and the even bigger “Star Flyer”.
Both inside and out, the rides were, without exception well presented superbly, all looking like new. Clearly the owners of these machines know how to look after their attractions, keeping them in tip-top condition, both mechanically and visually, they also know how to run them to the best. It’s a treat to find a fair (sorry “Temporary Theme Park”) where rides are being run to the limits, with long, intense ride programmes for relatively low charges. I’m not going to describe every ride in detail, however there are a couple of “visitors” which deserve special mention.
The highlight of the fair for me was a machine which I first discovered at Bremen Fair in 1999 - “Booster” - now this is not to be confused with the ride from Fabbri, this is a spin ride from the masters - Huss of Bremen. Again, immaculate presentation, a ride that looks brand new - and is being run to it’s limit, but also the clear star of this years event - and it certainly seemed to be drawing the crowds!
A superb machine - and to look at it you’d never beleive it was 7 years old (I think it might actually be the same one that I rode in Bremen) described by one of the others in our group as “like being in a washing machine attached to a bungee cord”, a great example of a ride maintained and operated to European fair standards. No low-power, short and slow programmes here - this was around 5 minutes of full-blown spinning - breifly slowing down a couple of times to let riders catch their breath, but then it was back to the action. Simply Outstanding, and everything I remember it being.
This style of operation was typical right across the event, every ride I tried was a treat (with one exception that I’ll come to later) - I’ve never seen a Polyp (in this case named “Power Wave”) move so quickly, and the ZL42 (named “Speed Loop”) was a surprise in that again, it was not only well presented, but was running well, no head-banging here - this ride was running “like new” (rare indeed for this type of coaster)
The one disappointment was a ride that, frankly, terrified me - “Star Flyer” - now I’m not a fan of heights, and this hybrid of a Chair-o-plane and a Tower Ride just scared me. The disppoinment however was this was the most expensive ride at the whole fair, and yet was on the shortest programme. It barely got going before bringing the riders back to earth - but the view was amazing - if a little short - just as I’d gotten used to being up in the air, it was heading back to the ground.
On top of being probably the best fair I’ve been to outside Germany, and to be honest I can’t see Funderland bringing “Olympia Looping”, “Airwolf” or “Alpina Bahn” over (please feel free to prove me wrong!), the hospitality shown by the organsiers to our little band of enthusiasts was incredible - not content with giving us free admission, they proceeded to hand us enough complimentary ride tickets that we were able to ride everything we wanted!
A big “thank-you” to Richard for organising it, everyone who came along and made it such a fun weekend, and of course, the folks over at Funderland for their hospitality.
Roll on January 2007 - Funderland will be back in Dublin, and so will I…
