Leaderboard

I need to relive this in person because it's just so satisfying. Glad you had a great trip Mark! I'm hoping to go back maybe this year or 2021 but guess we'll see...

Went two days ago, vastly different trip to other parks I've been to this year. I'll start with the negatives. - Park reliability. Deary me. Closed all day were Scorpion Express, Seastorm and Jungle Rangers (what was Toadies). Add in that Dragons Fury opened at 12. - Couple that last point with the fact that Wild Asia and Tiger Rock opened at 1pm. Not even 12pm but 1pm. Tiger Rock didn't open at that time either. I'm not that plugged into the matrix anymore so I didn't know that a quarter of the park doesn't open till further into the day. There was no signage to indicate that at the park entrances, only once you get to the areas themselves. - There was some kind of gathering today because there was thousands of Jewish kids on park. - No social distancing whatsoever. By far the worst park for it that I've visited this year. I genuinely find it astounding that after the year its been, the park has such huge reliability issues, that they open 5 of their rides half way into park opening and that based on pre-book numbers (after all you can't get in unless you book so they know numbers) that there was no foresight to have everything open at 10. With Fury having a moment, there was no fallback, with no Scorpion or Seastorm, there was no support rides. I've just come from Europa Park where without fail, rides are either open on time or open earlier. I will hold them to the same standard because the on the door price is only £7 more expensive. And breathe. Positives are:- - The rides are looking the best they have done in years. I genuinely feel happy that all of these 30 year old rides are getting the attention they deserve. Vampire station was lovely with disco organist and the new music mix they're using. Really really nice to see. - I liked the new Tomb Blaster. Even with the cheesy factor of the radio, I think they've done a good job with lighting and a lot to the scenes were very dark with only the lasers from the gun creating lights, particularly in the sphinx room. - Gruffalo is my favourite ride in the park. It's got so much charm and you can tell that it is really looked after with all effects working. - Love the Zoo. Two tortoises were having the slowest time of their lives.. So all in all, a mixed bag

Taken me a week to process my thoughts on my trip. As it was supposed to be my honey moon, we decided to make money no object and just kind of went for it. - Virtual queuing. I guess they must have changed it as both virtual queuing and stand by queues were in use. I can see this being a precursor to some kind of fastrack system becoming permanent as that is essentially what we used it for. The numbers using the system were incredibly low though, the only ride it went quickly for is Wodan. Wodan in particular was the busiest ride on park everyday with 40 minute queues a regular feature. - Blue Fire and its new sponsor are fine. I can see why they altered the queue completely although it seems rather more permanent then a social distancing measure. The new Blue Fire cafe area had its own separate queue although wasn't open at all on our visit. - Snorri Tourren is incredible. How this little dark ride must have had, what a year in development for them to build this charming little ride into a previously vacant area is amazing. The work they've done with Scandanavia is also top notch. - Pirates in Batavia was great. It was the busiest I've ever seen it, fair enough as its the new ride. They've done a great job and if I was fluent in German, I bet all the animatronics and dialogue is top notch too. Over the three days we were there, Koffie Koppies went from being the normal teacup attraction, to its halloween equivalent. - Silver Star. I didn't use to be the biggest fan of Silver Star. I don't know if its because I'm getting older or if Silver Star has fundamentally changed (it does have magnetic breaks now for example) but I'm getting more and more out of it. It has so much air time through-out its course and it caught me by surprise several times. Part of me wants to go and get back on Shambhala. - Social Distancing. Ok the big one. Germans are excellent at social distancing. They are also excellent at wearing masks. This is true across the theme park and on their train networks where no one was wearing face masks incorrectly or deliberately getting close to others. The only thing that felt weird in this pandemic world is that they load full trains on Silver Star, Atlantica Supersplash and Arthur. I felt uneasy at first on Silver Star in particular as there's not much room between the person next to you and yourself. After a few rides I was over it. It's just weird as I've been riding Nemesis half empty for all my visits and yet every train in Europa Park is at maximum capacity. It's one to look out for if you feel uneasy. - I really enjoyed Rulantica and I traditionally dislike water parks. It has a lot to do and variation which is key. Also appreciated the pool side bars. - Stayed at Bell Rock and Kronosar. I love Kronosar and its setting. it's only drawback being so far away from Europa Park. It has that fun theme park hotel feel that I absolutely adore. I would much rather stay at official hotels these days than drive around to random hotel in the middle of nowhere. Over the three days we got on over 100 rides. There are just so many attractions in the place that its hard not to rack up high ride counts, even without really trying.

I personally would also love to see something replace the beach as it is a sizeable area with some potential but I agree that the whole old town section needs some serious action. Two rides just sat there dead when that whole area could easily fit a much overdue new coaster. Far as I'm concerned, everything from slammer all the way through to the back end of loggers leap represents a massive space to develop so I'd rather see that action happen than the beach go at the moment. Walking through the old town area was just getting borderline soul crushing last season.