Dusseldorf Show - how we found it this year

[Mel B]

Hi gang Just thought I'd tell you lot what a great show it was again, we only went in for one day but stayed for 2 nights free camping though - you just pay for 1 day's parking if you arrive on site after 4.00 pm, ie you pay for the following day, which means you get 2 nights camping. Be warned though, it took us an hour to get on to the parking/camping area as the queues were bad, they were last year as well. They had good toilet and shower blocks - so long as you don't mind communal changing in the shower block you're okay, they were nice and hot and lovely after a long day at the show. One other warning, if you do only buy tickets to go into the show for one day, which is what we did this year (we bought them in advance at the info point near the toilet blocks the previous evening to save having to queue in the morning), they only allow ONE ENTRY into the show, ie you can't go in, come out back to your van for lunch/see to the dogs, and then go back in again as we found out the hard way! Once the ticket has been through the electronic entry control once to let you in and then once to let you out (similar to those on the tube), it won't let you go back in. We managed to persuade a nice lady to let us back in. I assume it's to stop people passing them to others to use but it's a shame they don't tell you when you buy them, when we bought a 2-day ticket last year it didn't stop us going in and out as many times as we wanted on both days so it must be something that is either just for the one day ticket or they altered it this year. We did see some new makes of motorhomes which we'd not heard of and that aren't available here but the biggest 'surprise' was the new Hymer Exsis I, it's no longer like a van conversion, but a proper 'A' class with one major exception - no drop down bed! It has a front lounge, centre kitchen with shower room opposite and rear transverse bed with storage underneath. It looks nice but I can't understand why there's no drop down bed! Part of the point of the original Exsis was to have a small sized van with the luxury of an 'A' class-esq body and a drop down bed, now you've got a larger motorhome, can't remember if it was just 6m or just over 6m, without the one thing that in my opinion would be it's main selling point. Whilst it's nice to have the lounging space up front in the new one, there's no real benefit to getting a low profile from one of the other manufacturers, of the same quality but at a lot less cost. Am I missing something?

[Lizzy]

I find the transverse beds too high generally to climb into :-D so would prefer the other fixed bed design. Hymer appeal generally but are a bit higher than we want to pay out ......... however we did see an Eriba at the Bath and West which we would like to have another look at. Did you see the new Rapido 999M with end washroom as well as fixed bed? That's what I want to sit in when we go to the NEC :->

[johnsandywhite]

8-) I feel people must lead really sad lives that the only thing they have to look forward to in life is walking around Shows, looking at Motorhomes and items they would like to buy or intend to buy in the future. :-S B-) Get a life people. Get out and enjoy the world. ;-)

[carolh]

Aw come on John, some of us have to work (blast it)! I only work now to fuel my habit (lol) (lol) motor home of course *-) It's nice to go and look and touch and dream, verbally rip apart the ones you don't like :D and drool over the ones you do, and hope the lottery comes up trumps - I WISH :-S Carol - taking a 5 min break to read the forum ;-)

[Mel B]

John It's a good job we're all different otherwise there wouldn't be anywhere for us to be able to view lots of vans at the same time if no one visited shows! We're not sad, we're happy, having a look at what we might hopefully have one day is very enjoyable, everyone needs a goal, a dream or whatever, without them we certainly would be sad!!! We like to have a nosey every now and then, but we also like to see the other bits and pieces like the accessories - going to the show got us on the right track for our drive down through Germany, it gave us a good base for our first night's camping and a day to indulge in day-dreaming and got us into the holiday mood proper, the show also had some water sports bits which we were also interested in. It was also nice to meet up with other motorhome owners for a chat. Some of us unfortunately can't just "get out and enjoy the world" as we are at work all day so going to shows is a bit of light relief and lets us see a lot off stuff at the same time/place. Those of you who can just tootle around doing what you feel all of the time are extremely fortunate and I can't wait until I am able to join your ranks!

[johnsandywhite]

8-) But surely? IF you didn't spend so much time and money on visiting these shows? You could be OUT there doing it for REAL? ;-)

[Mel B]

John We visit the shows as part of a holiday as a general rule, or make a long weekend of it, so the cost is not massive for the show itself and we are out enjoying ourselves as much as we can - we actually do enjoy the shows .. so we are OUT ENJOYING OURSELVES and doing it for REAL! Just because you like to be out enjoying yourself in a different way doesn't make your way of doing things better than ours, or make it wrong either - I wont' criticise the way you like to spend your time, that's up to you, so please don't criticise the way I and others like to spend our time and call us 'sad' people.

[trigrem]

We also went to the show, 2 days at the show, 3 nights camping but paid for 2 as we arrivedafter16 00 as Mel B mentioned. Also agree with Mel B, cannot see the point of the new Exsis. Spent a lot of time looking for under 6M vans with decent lounges, not much to see, they all seem to be fixed bed arrangements with half dinette, & over 6M, where do you put your feet up after a good days walking? So now we have been, will not go again, but it did not matter as we took the long route via Luxembourg and then up the Mosselle, ( plenty of signposted Stellplatz to stay on ), then up the Rhine, made for a nice 10 days holiday, except it rained most days, but we have a nice lounge to relax in during wet weather.

[Mel B]

trigrem We saw some weird and wonderful motorhomes in the camping area, a couple looked like grafted caravans and one 'A' class was completely covered in wonderful graphics/painted with Indian murals complete with a large metal 'tiara'! We've got a fixed bed model with half dinette and we use either the swivelled cab seats with feet on dinette base or best of all the fixed bed as our relaxing area at the end of the day, lovely to slob out on whilst watching a video or reading and then you just have to snuggle into bed when you're tired.

[mobile-freedom]

It's 6.15m See http://mobile-freedom.com/ I'm swithering about an I or just an old Exsis after selling up to be a full timer or a boat. Decision, decisions.....

[Burstner620]

[QUOTE]johnsandywhite - 2006-09-19 12:49 PM 8-) But surely? IF you didn't spend so much time and money on visiting these shows? You could be OUT there doing it for REAL? ;-)[/QUOTE] We DID ! Just back home after six weeks, spent three days at the show. What I saved buying the bits that I wanted (satellite, motorcycle carrier, air suspension, solar panel, re-fillable gas bottle and rear view camera) at Dusseldorf probably covered my costs.