Heute gibt es eine ganz spezielle Freizeitparkstory – nämlich auf Englisch! 🙂 Die liebe Marie kommt aus Frankreich und erzählt uns ihre Story und was ihre Highlights beim Rollercoastergirl Casting 2018 waren.
Hej Marie! Thank you for telling us your story! 🙂 Then we start with the first question: Tell us your freizeitparkstory! How did your love for theme parks and rollercoasters come about?
My freizeitparkstory started a long time ago, when I was just a little kid. I was living 5 minutes away from a local theme park named Walibi Schtroumpf (now known as Walygator Grand-Est in France Lothringen). So my parents used to walk me there all the time.
I think this was the trigger for my passion for amusement parks. Growing up in the middle of all of these attractions has definitely contribute to my love for them. This is where I had my first roller coaster ride too. I always loved riding sensational rides ever since I reached the minimum height requirement. I was never afraid of anything, not even from the parc’s B&M inverted coaster called « The Monster ».
I continued to go there very regularly over the years. In fact, as I was a seasonal pass holder for so many years, the park was literally like my second home. I was there all the time, like almost every weekend and during the holidays.
Since then, I have visited many parks across Europe and ridden a lot of roller coasters, each more incredible than the others.
As I grew up, my love for parks and coasters only continued to grow from year to year. This is mainly due to the fact that amusement parks allow me to disconnect from my everyday life and spend a wonderful day rich in emotion and sensation with the people I love. It’s such a magical feeling!
What does a perfect day at an amusement park look like for you?
When I visit an amusement park, especially one I never went before, I like to do, see and experiment as much as I can. (In practice, it means me running in the aisles between attractions out of excitement just as a kid.) However I do not hesitate to slow down the pace to take some pictures and videos because I love to share my passion with the world on my Instagram page and on my YouTube channel. I prefer visiting theme parks on hot sunny days to fully enjoy the water attractions.
I like to begin the day with big attractions because I need my adrenaline rush right from the beginning. During lunch time, I really don’t like wasting my time sitting at a lunch table, so I prefer to bring my food and eat it while waiting in line for an attraction. It allows me to save time so I can ride as many attractions as possible during the day. It also allows to save money that I rather spend on a tasty dessert (like a delicious waffle, churros or ice cream if it’s hot) and on souvenirs from the park shops.
I am not so much into shows and parades. I only attend to big show if it is a must-see or if I have already rode every attraction multiple times.
At the end of the day, I like to stay in the park till its closure because it gets empty and the lines are shorter. Moreover I need my last adrenaline shoot before going back home. This means riding one last time the attraction that I liked the most. Finally, when all the attractions are closed, I like to eat a snack and do my shopping before leaving.
Is there something that you never ride or only ride with great effort?
When it comes to rollercoasters, I am afraid of nothing. No matter how high, how steep or how fast, I would always ride every attraction with a lot of fun and my hands up in the air.
However, I appreciate funfair attractions less and less. In fact, I often find them brutal, uncomfortable and they often make me sick when they spin around nonstop. I also have a lot of trouble with top spin attractions. Even if they are fun, they make me sick. But for Talocan I make an exception and ride it anyway because it’s so intense and spectacular so it’s definitely worthing it.
Your favorite rollercoaster and why?
Oh my god, that’s a really hard question!
For sentimental reasons, I would say Blue Fire because I have so many great memories related to it (especially linked to the RollerCoasterGirl casting day). However Black Mamba is my favorite coaster in terms of sensations because it is so intense and surprising. Even just looking at it from the outside gives me some goosebumps.
Your funniest experience in an amusement park?
I celebrated the New Year eve 2020 in Disneyland Paris and my ultimate goal was to start the year in the Twilight Zone and I made it! It was so much fun, because it is supposed to be a creepy attraction and instead we made it fun by doing the countdown to the new year right in the middle of the ride. And when the doors open and you have this magnificent view over the park at the top of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, I started shouting „happy new year“! It was so funny especially at this particular moment when the anxiety of the highest fall of the ride is at its climax.When the ride was over, we were greeted by the grooms and everyone wished each other a happy new year. After that, everyone danced together with Mickey and Minnie.
It was such a memorable moment!
Your homepark and where do you prefer to relax there?
Now that I moved to Alsace for my studies, literally on the border with Germany, Europa-Park became my new homepark. My favorite spot to relax there is at the Asgard viking village. I could spend hours there just looking at the Blue Fire trains which pass just a few meters above my head. It feels like I can almost touch it!
Which amusement parks are still on your bucket list?
So far I have visited a lot of European parks.
One of my biggest project for the years to come is to go to the United States to make a big amusement parks tour. Cedar Point, Universal Studio, Six flags Magic Mountain and Great Adventure, Bush Gardens, Sea World and Silver Dollar City are among others at the top of my bucket list.
My other dream is to visit every Disney parks of the world. They are all so different from each other and I would love to be able to test them all. I am particularly excited about Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, Radiator Springs Racers, Expedition Everest, the world of color show and the Shanghai Disneyland’s castle.<
If you could work at an amusement park for a day, what job would you most like to do there?
My dream job in a theme park, apart from rollercoaster tester, would be to work in the Social Media Team. Indeed communication is a field that fascinates me and my artistic vision would be very useful for this profession. Moreover I get in touch easily with people. Being able to walk around the park everyday and even during the off season to film and take some pictures, attend important events and doing interviews would definitely be my dream job.
And now two more questions …
You took part in the Rollercoastergirl casting in 2018 and even made it into the top 10. First of all, congratulations for that. 🙂 Tell us a little bit about the casting and what was your personal highlight?
(Thanks for your nice words)
In 2018, I took part in the RollerCoasterGirl casting organized by Mack Rides. I already had a plan to participate in 2017 for the first edition but I preferred to focus on the end of my studies and wait until I graduated from high school before doing it. So I joined the casting the following year.
In the meantime I prepared my application carefully, in particular my presentation video and sent it as soon as the 2018 campaign opened. A few weeks later, I get an incredible email informing me that my application was selected from over 200 applicants from across Europe and that I was one of the 20 lucky girls who were going to attend the casting day at Europa-Park. I was so excited and happy about it and was very impatient for the big day to come. The casting took place at the end of January, during the off season time.
In the morning we were greeted at the hotel Colosseo. We had a debriefing on the course of the day and on the competition. Then we all introduce ourselves in order to get to know each others. All the girls were so nice and excited to be part of this incredible journey. We all get along well and laugh a lot together. Afterwards, we had our hair done by a hairstylist, had a photoshoot on the hotel’s upper balcony with the park in the background and shot the interviews for the Internet voting campaign. It was my first photoshoot but I feel like I did a pretty good job. Then we had an individual interview with Miriam Mack (Michaels wife) and Julia (the 2017 winner). Finally, we were interviewed for the TV show. Julia also told us about her amazing year as RollerCoasterGirl 2017. At the beginning, it was a little intimidating to have some cameras around us all day long.
It was a bit complicated to act naturally and not looking in their direction while every of our move was filmed. We were even filmed when we were eating and on the dance floor in the night club (it was funny because people were looking at us like « who are these girls to be surrounded by cameras? »). But at some point I wasn’t even paying attention to the cameras anymore. After a delicious lunch, we went to the park and rode Blue Fire. It was definitely my favorite time of day. It was such a special feeling to walk in the empty and quiet park. We attended the start of Blue Fire. As it was a cold day, it took a little time before the train manages to complete the full track. We were therefore fortunate to be spectators of multiple rollbacks. It was just like a show!
We then all had a solo ride on Blue Fire to shoot some footages. After that, we rode Blue Fire several times a row all together. It was so much fun! Later, we had a backstage tour where we saw the cockpit and the technical hangar of Blue Fire. It was very interesting to be able to see behind the scenes. And as a coaster fan, I was so excited to learn how Blue Fire is working and how to pilot it. I felt privileged to be able to live this exclusive moment.
After dinner, we had a drink in the hotel bar and then, we went to night club to celebrate and end perfectly this amazing day. It was such a great experience because it gave me the opportunity to do a lot of exciting new things such as radio and TV interviews. Some articles have even been written about me and my passion for theme parks and roller coasters in regional newspapers and on the internet. It was such a special feeling to receive calls from journalists and to be in the spotlight during the month of the voting phase.
I feel so proud and lucky to to have been able to live this extraordinary experience and to have even reached the Top10!
Do you have an amusement park buddy or do you like to go to an amusement park alone?
I like to visit theme parks with my friends to have a lot of fun, laugh a lot and spend a great day. My motto is the more we are, the funniest it is !
When I go on a trip, I usually go with my coaster fan friends. My best friend is definitely my amusement park buddy. It’s always cool to go with people I share the same beautiful passion with, so they are not afraid to chain ride with me and understand my craziness for a roller coaster ride and even feel the same « before the day » excitement.
But sometimes I appreciate a family day at theme park too in order to bond with my loved ones.
Und das war auch leider schon wieder die ganz besondere Freizeitparkstory-Ausgabe auf Englisch. 🙂 Wer noch mehr ĂĽber die liebe Marie erfahren möchte, sollte unbedingt mal ihren Instagram-Account (@maries_journeys) besuchen und fĂĽr Freizeitparkvlogs könnt ihr euch durch ihren YoutubeChannel (Marie’s Journeys) klicken. 🙂