Season Kick-off at Fort Fun: “Great Eagle” Takes First Flights

(eap) Fort Fun Abenteuerland in Germany’s Sauerland region is opening its doors to visitors again. Visitors can look forward in particular to the new “Great Eagle’s Big Flight” ride located in the “Yakari Adventure World”. After welcoming around 300,000 visitors last year, the park operated by the Looping Group aims to attract even more guests this year – the target is 325,000 visitors and an annual turnover of ten million euros.

Big Eagle is a “Wild Swing” from German manufacturer Art Engineering without any rollovers, and thus suitable for the whole family. Themed as an eagle bird, it fits into the storyline surrounding the young Indian boy “Yakari”, as the majestic animal is one of his best friends alongside the horse “Little Thunder”. Up to 16 people can ride the large swing at the same time. To optimise the use of energy for operation, the ride, which was built on an artificial island in the park, is equipped with a smart weight detection system.

In preparation for the new season, Fort Fun has also made an investment in greater sustainability and therefore also economic efficiency in its popular vintage car ride attraction, which is now fully utilised with electric cars under the name “Rocky Mountain Rally – Relaunch”.

In addition, more vehicles will be used to further increase capacity. According to Managing Director Andreas Sievering, the most popular attraction at Fort Fun is still the “Trapper Slider” summer toboggan run (an attraction from manufacturer Wiegand Slides), for which an “Early Slider” ticket option is on offer now. “This additional product is a test balloon with which we want to optimise the capacity utilisation of Trapper Slider. We can handle a maximum of 120 bobsleighs per hour. The vehicles are often only loaded with one person instead of two, as it sometimes seems more exciting for children and more comfortable for adults. We have now considered the early slider option to give visitors the opportunity to ride the sledges an hour before the park opens,” says Sievering.

Also, some of the F&B stations in the park will be offering new items this year: for example, there will be “croffels” (a kind of combination of croissant and waffle), trendy Mexican tacos and – for the first time in an amusement park, as Sievering explains – a “shrimp burger” (Tip: don’t miss our F&B trend special in the upcoming EAP May/June issue!).

The western-theme park in the Sauerland region plans to continue investing in its visitor offer in the future. Specifically, a plan for the next five years is now being drawn up together with owner Looping Group. A new main attraction, which could come in the next three years, is also on the “wish list”. Looping Group COO Frédéric Boulva confirms the willingness to move forward with future development plans: “Fort Fun has great potential to become a real destination!” ■