Mysterio Ka

Woah Woah Woah there friends!
 
Put down your pitchforks! Extinguish your flaming torches and disband that mob!
 
That title is what we call in the industry as "clickbait". A very clever way of getting people into a boring article with something shocking at face value,
Now where as most people include an image of female speed bumps to get peoples attention, I thought I would offer a thought provoking question...
 
How do you solve a problem like enthusiasts?
 
We are a great burden / privilege to theme parks. We think we know best, If a park does something right, we commend them and cheer them on!
However, this is the real world and quite a lot of the time choices made by other people are wrong! Horribly Horribly Wrong!
 
*Cough Cough*
 
Where was I...

Ah yes...
 
This thought of how do we solve this problem became more prominent after the recent news of certain enthusiasts behaving atrociously at the Bubbleworks Goodbye Party.
 

 
Enthusiasts shouting at staff to be on the last ride before it closes forever.
 
Now at first glance this just seems like some people wanting the bragging rights, "Guess who was the last on Bubbleworks!" sort of how we do it for ride openings, (3rd Public train of The Smiler and first public train of Galactica... Just saying )
But unlike ride openings, we don't have to put in effort to be the last to ride something, just turn up last and on you go rather than ride openings where those committed enough will be at the park before the staff, run to the ride as soon as the gates open and be prepared to live with the blood on your hands from those who stood before you!
 
However, there is a more personal connection to being the last on something, people who have grown up with Bubbleworks will have a very strong bond with the attraction, it still doesn't accuse the behavior but that behavior comes as a side effect of passion... And we are not the only ones!
 
Take football fans, we constantly hear of fights starting against team fans due to one beating another, and again I don't condone these actions but this again comes out of passion, they obviously want the team they support to win and unfortunately when they don't they behave in unusual ways as some don't really know how to react.
 
So what is my point? Enthusiasts want to be the last to complete there special bond with the ride, the be the last to share a memory with something so special to them. Now a morbid warning... the closing of a ride is a bit like the passing of a family member or relative. (Where am I going with this...) Some people feel more comforted being there in that persons last moment as that then means that there last moment with them was the last moment they had with that person. As weird as it may sound with rides, some people don't feel as connected if there last ride was a month before it closed, as it would have given a lot more memories out after you. It's pretty petty... but it's human nature.
 
Conclusion: How do you solve a problem like enthusiasts? You don't as they are what make theme parks great, and terrible and... what was my point again?

Paris! Because mini breaks are awesome!

With ghostly looking lighting

This is the church in Madeline. Although the outside doesn't look as spectacular as St Augustin or Notre Dame, it is much grander on the inside

View to the Concorde

St Augustin

With a mini version of the tower roof inside the tower roof. ROOFCEPTION

Arc De Triomphe 

Was a long way to the top

Worth it for the views though! And, like many things in Paris, free for 18-24 year olds! 


Because Mickey is everywhere

IT's just a gorgeous place to walk about

Army museum 

The Grand Palais plus crazy french junctions!

2nd floor of the Tower

Oh yay. The Euros are on. So planned that...

Let's look this way instead then.

Just love the structure of it!

And the football, obviously.


Bridge of padlocks.

New addition!

Louvre

Another free attraction for 18-24s

The shpinx. Yup, THE sphinx. He's the one

Thought Milo might have been bigger.

Woo Mona Lisa. This is the pure definition of overrated.

The opposite painting was quite spectacular though

Notre Dame

And the hunchback!

Iron Man is also everywhere

The very odd Grand Arch

This view was amazing though! Perfectly straight down to the Arc De Triomphe!


Trying to be artsy at the Louis Vuitton Foundation!
Now no mini break would be complete without some cred hunting!

Hello Asterix!

This was really good fun!

Wacky lift hill

And dual load and offload! This is what these rides can be like. Not Storm Surge.

Surprisingly this purple monster isn't the entrance to the ghost train but more the exit. The ride itself is good fun, some decent scare tactics but nothing to shout home about.

This however was an excellent Mad House. The preshows were fun and the water one was fab. The mad house itself was like others, but cleverly used screens with the motion to make it feel like you were going sideways on a boat at points.

It's Europe so there was of course a boat ride which was one of the better ones I've done

Little Monorail type ride. This village bit you can see here has no rides. A few shops, a meet and greet but it was a lovely little walk through. As were two other sections of the park. It's a real shame Merlin and other parks want to cram rides in everywhere instead of having these little sections. It's nice to just wander about in a well themed area. Makes me sad Haunting in the Hollows isn't better. 

Another example here.

With an indoor bit that they used during one of the kids shows as part of the story.

It's the little things that I love about European parks.

Little things.

Moving on. Goudrix. Not great, not bad.

Looks filthy. Clean it up ta.

Or scrap it.

New for this year is another well themed Disko that can so easily be produced. 

Throw in some pyro and water effects and boom.

Nice themed entrance

And you get yourself a relatively cheap but good investment! 

There's also a huge Bobsleigh, a bumpy splash thing that just looked painful

A log flume and a rapids which seem mediocre till cray cray tunnel

This pure cred with a good themed queue

This really ugly out of place flat

And the two shout home about rides.

Really hard to photograph as it's hidden, Zuess is a superb woodie. Proper old school with speed, rattle, harsh turns and ridiculous speed throughout.

And then this. Oz'iris! In this photo you can see a little fountain show taking place which had some score from HTTYD playing alongside. 

It really is a baby Montu, but better.

It's stunningly beautiful


The station building is amazing

The first drop without the predrop is crazy in back row.

The pacing is superb!

Length brilliant! Forces on point

Indoor queue gorgeous! There's so much more to it than this photo.

The elements of the ride portrayed on this wall for you geeks (not the best photo ever)

And this guy in the middles. Sums the ride up brilliantly. Well themed, but with a sense of humour and fun about it. 
 
Oz'iris, people said when it was being built could it beat Nemesis. Unsure, but it's possibly the closest thing I've ridden that could. I don't think I've quite loved a ride this much in a long time. Definitely my favourite new ride since Manta, and it could beat that. I will have to seriously rethink my top 10 later this year.
 
Parc Asterix overall is a well themed park with a sense of humour and fun about it. All the staff seemed lovely, efficient, and happy to help. On Oz'iris they were running around unbuckling seatbelts before the train had fully stopped so when the bars were released all belts were undone. I've never seen anything like it. There are a few areas of the park that need work, but that's the case with many parks. Recent investments show they're heading the right way and will no doubt sort out other areas in need. My only real niggle with the park, where's the ride merch??? Loads of Asterix stuff, but no seperate ride merch  Park rating: 8.5/10
 
Oz'iris: 9.5/10

Next trip: Belgerand Part2
 

I'm not gonna drown you with words, or pictures either. I just want to demonstrate how I fell in love with Wodan.
 
From the entrance, Wodan sits on the far right hand side of the park. you have to walk through most areas to get there, and the pathways there are limited, but stunningly themed, however when you emerge in Iceland you are treated to this gem of a view.
 

 
The ride casts an intimidating shadow over the rest of Iceland, and it's thunderous roar is well reserved until you arrive in this area. 
 
It's 2 neighbours, Atlantica Super Splash and Blue Fire dance around the far ends of Wodan, creating some stunning pirouetting like synchronization if you're lucky. (I was not)
 

 

 
Wodan alone is a reason to visit Europa Park. Hel(l), it's queue alone is a reason to visit.

 

 

 

 
There was a certain, euphoric satisfaction I got from this ride that has only been achieved once before. As an experience, this is entirely complete. It submerges the rider, right from the entrance, in another world. The queue never stopped moving, the ride roared past you regularly building up a sense of enigmatic tension, and the sights you bare witness to in this queue are unmatched by anything I have ever experienced in a theme park. 
 

 
Wodan is a truly complete ride, with a perfect amount of theming, unique character and intensity. Whilst I feel like Europa as a whole was overhyped during my visit; this ride certainly wasn't. It sits timidly at the back of the park, enticing you in. 
 

 
And when you do come off of it, you just want to ride it again.
 
If you want to see more, I made a music video of our trip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9_EaSXENjs