After winning [collecting, picking up, whatever you want to call it] a three night stay at Europa Park, I was pretty excited about going to a proper theme park for once, and after visiting, I saw that Europa Park is probably one of the best theme Parks in the world, up there with Islands of Adventure. The day I arrived [saturday] was the Midnight closing, and to be quite honest, it wasn't very different from the later 2 days spent at the park, and it was a bit over hyped. I was really annoyed at Silver Star closing at 10pm on a midnight closing, and after asking a staff member about it, he just shrugged, laughed and walked off. All rides in the park where lit up beautifully, and dark rides where very much fun, and the queues where 1 1/2 hours long maximum, which was great change to the 3 hour queues for a short Intamin Launcher. The amount of detail paid to the night, such as the thousands and thousands of small tea candles around the park where amazingly well done. Silver Star looked beautiful with it's lighting up the lift hill. On my first full day in the park, I rode nearly everything, and thought of lot more of the rides and their outstanding theming, and for once, I felt as if I was actually in the area it was themed to, especially Greece, [even if I got lost in their various times!] Such rides as Abenteur Atlantis are really fun, and felt more interactive than rides such as Duel and TB. I also thought a lot of Tirol Log Flume, and Alpine Coaster Enzian, binded together with the Diamond Mind walk through, where again amazingly cleverly themed. Euro Sat was a very fast and intense ride, and the use of lasers are very clever. Mir is very intimidating, especially when spinning round the towers! I rode Swiss Bob Run twice, even though the ride experience was a bit bland, the theming was on top form.On the Third and Last day I rode small rides that I hadn't discovered yet such as Pegasus which is a very fun and surprisingly airtime filled ride, as is Poseidon, which may be slightly rough at some times! Monday was also the second time I had ridden Atlantica Super Splash, and to be quite honest, it does it's business all over Tidal Wave, in theming and ride experience, with the backwards drop to the second turntable, and the very well thought out bought of airtime on the camel back at the bottom of the drop, and it was the same for Poseidon. Silver Star was a great ride, albeit it's non existent theming in comparison to other Europa rides. The large mid way banked turn was intense, but it was no way near my favourite Beemer.Staff efficiency was amazing. If you understand blocking systems on a ride such as Nemesis Inferno, the second train can only be dispatched after the first has cleared the second inversion [first barrel roll], and if you beat this, you have beaten the block. I am not going to compare the UK and Germany, as the two have totally different H+S systems, such as in UK bars need to be checked, whereas in Germany you don't, but 9/10 times the operator had 'beaten the block' dispatching the ride, and because of this, the queue was always moving. Thumbs up to the ride teams, they are great.Staying in El Andaluz was Ok-ish, and the staff where top notch, but it's a real pity none of the food in any of the hotels could be as great as the staff where. We ate in Castillo, Don Quichotte and Colosseo, and to be quite honest, the food was abysmal. It really was the main let down of my holiday.Shows I Saw:-'Helena's Traum' or 'Eis Show' as it is called, which was very well choreographed, and lights looked beautiful. -'Emozione', which may have been the funniest show I have ever seen, especially with the comedian, who cracked everybody in the theatre up so much, and in turn the comedian, who was a magician and juggler at the same time. I won't say much else, but if you’re going this year, I beg you to go watch it!Hotel room was impeccable, and it was themed right down to the W/C's having fake roman basins!Positives:-Theming-Ride Experience-Hotel Service-Having a B&M-TOTAL Roland Mack whoring in 'Circo' Bar in El Andaluz [seriously, I may have seen a good 1000 photos of him in there and the surrounding area]-Cheapness of things?-Abantuer Atlantis-Smell of Diamond Mine [best ev0r!]Negatives:-Silver Star closing earlys-Food-Two medium waters cost 6 euro! That is seriously a joke.-Smell of Diamond Mine giving me a headache =[[-Non existent Silver Star Theming!Ride Count:Silver Star x3Abentuer Atlantis x4 [Top Score: 410,700]Euro Mir x5Euro Sat x3Atlantica Super Splash x2Poseidon x1Pegasus x2Euro Tower x1 Alpine Coaster 'Enzian' x6Tirol Log Flume x4Matterhorn Blitz x1Swiss Bob Run x2What a legendary holiday, cheers to Tom/Dan/whoever!!
