Phill Pritchard

I can't believe this company/ park can constantly get so many things just right!

Last month my Wife and I took a four day trip to Europa Park, Rust in Germany. It was our first time to the park, to Germany and this is my first ever trip report so please be kind To start off I thought I would quickly summarize our trip in numbers.Days away: 4 Days, 3 NightsDays in Park: 3 DaysNew Rides & Attractions Ridden: 38Shows seen: 3 ShowsHighest number of re-rides: 8 rides on Schweizer Bobbahn (Swiss Bob Run) coaster over the 3 daysTotal number of photos taken: 653Day OneThe JourneyWhen we first started planning the trip we realised that Europa Park did not seem to be the easiest of places to get to if you didn’t already know where you were going. Thanks to advice on this and other forums though, this task was not as bad as it first seemed. In the end we flew with Easyjet from Gatwick to Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (also known as EuroAirport). This airport is one of the only airports in the world operated by two countries, in this case the airport has been built in France but the airport has both French and Swiss sectors. We were staying at the Hotel Colosseo on the Europa Park resort so we decided to arrange a shuttle service through the hotel. The airport was about an hour away from the resort and the transfer cost €130 each way, the vehicles can seat up to 8 passengers so if you were going as a larger group the cost per head would make this even more economical, for the two of us it worked out around the same cost as hiring a car to only make the same two journeys so we opted for the easier option and let someone else do the driving. We were landing in the Swiss sector and expected to be collected for the Swiss arrivals hall, however after not being able to find our driver we found out from a very helpful taxi driver that apparently you cannot get to Germany from the Swiss sector and that we would have to go to the French sector. One quick trip in a nearby lift up to the next level, a short walk to get into the French sector and another lift back down to French arrivals we found our driver and she helped us out to the car with our bags. We were very impressed with our driver, she was dressed in smart Europa Park uniform, made us feel very welcome and chatted to us in English on our way to the park. These were our first view of the park and our hotel from the transfer car.After checking in we went on a walk around the hotel resort grounds, discovering many of the restaurants on the way. We eventually ended up back at the courtyard cafe area at the Hotel Colosseo with our Merlin Top Trumps and a pack of German coaster Top Trumps we had bought from the hotel gift shop. After many games, drinks and cheese & salami toasted sandwiches we went back to reception to get our room keys. Our room was on the third floor of this beautifully themed hotel, and we were pleasantly surprised that it was as nice and quiet inside the room despite being an on resort hotel.That evening we checked out the Resort’s many restaurants before deciding to eat at Restaurant Don Quichotte. We were feeling rather hungry from all our travelling and I am quite a fussy eater so we decided to go for the Don Quichottes family pan, which seemed to have a taste of nearly everything off the menu. According to the menu this meal is intended for 2 adults and 2 children and we received some slightly strange looks from the waiting staff as they delivered it over to our table of two. What followed was a “Man v Food” feast of epic proportions, the likes of which we had never attempted before. The meal arrived on a two-tier stand packed full of food, including: 2 beef steaks, 2 pork steaks, 4 chicken skewers, 2 beef skewers, 4 grilled chorizo sausages, 4 chicken drumsticks, 2 turkey piccatas, served with Andalusian vegetables, chips, wrinkled potatoes and pasta paella. Needless to say the dish did beat us in the end but we definitely gave it our all and think that for the amount of good, quality food you get it is definitely worth the €49.50 price. However you just might not fancy eating too much meat for the next week.Every night the circular fountains in the centre of the hotels courtyard would come alive with specially designed shows set to music. During the day and in between the shows some parents allowed their children to run through the middle of these fountains but when the shows started you saw some of them grab a hold of their kids, which was definitely understandable as part of shows involved the middle fountain jet shooting up over 6 stories high. There was always a nice atmosphere around the hotel and it was never really busy while we were there.Day 2 to follow soon...

Thanks for all that info, we have never been before but we are really looking forward to visiting later this year.

Thanks Mark for a great series of Trip Reports. We went to Orlando for our Honeymoon last year and it was amazing. Reading your stories and seeing your photos have brought back some great memories. It looks like you had a great time. I have never seen that shot before, it is amazing to think they went to all that trouble with the design of the tower and yes imo it is a perfect example of how Disney really do it best!

Personally I would prefer it to be techno, not that I am a fan but after visiting Europa Park I can see how that style of music could fit the ride.

I really can't wait to return to Universal Orlando now, I think it will have to be put on hold until these beauties open though.

We went to Europa Park last week and what can I say, the park was amazing, just wow! We will definitely be recommending it to friends & family and can't wait to go back.Planning to do a trip report soon, complete with Food Loop pictures!

Yes it made a nice change to see some more of the TARDIS but I personally think it would probably be best not to go there too often as you could kinda see they were using the same set and I think I prefer to imagine what the rest may look like. It was great to see the old control room though. Oh and... "Did you wish really hard?" Best line of the new series so far!

^ Yes, I couldn't agree more. I need another 5th Dimension fix *50th post *

^ Proves a lot about Lee Ryan lol

Thanks Mark, from that image it looks like his name was Livingstone.

Good luck.

I've just had a look at your profile and yes there is only a few years difference, even the same month. And you just had to love the toys for Ghostbusters and TMNT, they were great!

As we are talking about Chessington's customed characters, can anybody remember the name of the Park's old Lion mascot from the late 80's - 90's?

I am baffled by all the Physics I have tried to take in today, firstly on Absolute Radio this morning and now LC12!

Thanks AstroDan, I thought you might be able to help. Thanks for all the info, we may need to buy a few photos when we are over there then. The rides with On Ride Video seem quite random, what is Dwarf City? I don't think I have heard of that one before?

Looks great!

With not long now till our trip I was just wondering if anybody knew which rides have On-Ride photos and videos on them?

That's really cool! So did you play Gavroche?

I was a big fan of The Ghostbusters, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was really little.Other great cartoons I wish they would repeat include Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and some of the great Disney saturday morning shows like Darkwing Duck, DuckTales and Tailspin.

Thanks for tweeting about the videos. They entertained me at work today.

My all time favourite is Les Mis.But I have seen many other great musicals live too including The Rocky Horror Show, Jerry Springer the Opera, Wicked, Oliver.

I love Roller Coaster Junkie, I think it is a great song and video.That video combines three of my greatest loves Music, Animation and Coasters!

I know this may prove very unpopular on here as I know alot of members are fans... But personally I really can't understand what all the fuss about Lady GaGa is about.

I am a huge fan of David Ford, a really talented English singer songwriter (not to be confused with the likes of J Blunt etc.).I saw him live again last Monday night in London and he was on top form.Here is the video he recorded a few years back for his signature song "State of the Union".This video was recorded live in one take! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1884245285097018421#