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Europa Park


MikeC

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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. 

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No other park out there that I know of handles queues and operations as efficient yet immaculate as Europa Park. Some come close but none properly match this.

 

When you walk into full looking queue, you would expect to wait over an hour whereas in Europa it is more like 30 minutes with almost constant moving lines and trains heading out of the station in as quick as 20 seconds. 
 

That’s before mentioning just how many attractions this place has which is probably more than any other park worldwide with such variety and sometimes mystery.

 

It’s also just a lovely place to be in anyway, even just having a beverage in one of their outlets is such a lovely experience!

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Honestly can't wait for the next area. I think the park has really done well in bringing some of their existing rides into these times in the past few years. Kolombusjolle, Cancan Coaster, Whale Tours, and that Dinosaur dark ride. I hope they get round to Bobbahn soon though.

 

A new coaster would make this park even more stupidly huge. I hope Mack introduce something completely new, though basically any of their large scale models would be lush (besides the Big Dipper, which probably won't happen due to capacity).

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7 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

Honestly can't wait for the next area. I think the park has really done well in bringing some of their existing rides into these times in the past few years. Kolombusjolle, Cancan Coaster, Whale Tours, and that Dinosaur dark ride. I hope they get round to Bobbahn soon though.

 

A new coaster would make this park even more stupidly huge. I hope Mack introduce something completely new, though basically any of their large scale models would be lush (besides the Big Dipper, which probably won't happen due to capacity).

A coster is one thing but the park are planning 2 new areas and 5 new attractions at the moment ....

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22 hours ago, Ivsetti said:

https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/coronavirus-impact-on-theme-parks.44142/post-1099892

 

Europa Park realising a 3-DIGIT MILLION euro loss due to the pandemic (I.e. 100mil+). The local municipality is also upset for the park's losses as their usual 10mil tax revenue has been cut to only 1mil for this year.

It sadly makes a lot of sense. I'm guessing travel being hard at the moment also being a major problem. Europa Park is not just a park that appeals to people nearby, its a destination that you go to (like DLP). I really hope the park rebounds. I also feel bad for the town of Rust, as Europa creates so much business for nearby family run hotels and eateries. I hope next year proves a better year.

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Exciting times for the park. And that teaser video is fantastic!

 

There's been lots of rumours about what this will be. It's long be thought that it will be a Big Dipper, like Lost Gravity at Walibi Holland (where the cars have the winged seats). That visual pretty much confirms it, although it will have cars of 4 rows, rather than 2 like the other Big Dippers. That teaser video also shows Lost Gravity's layout too.

 

There have been lots of rumours of this investment being a duelling coaster (in part because Big Dippers have low throughputs), but that's still not confirmed. More recent rumours have suggested that this will be a multi launch coaster, featuring a vertical launch. 

 

The theme is expected to be in some way connected to Nikola Tesla, who was Croatian, as well as electricity in general (which fits with the video too). 

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40 minutes ago, TPGG said:

Hi guyyys,

 

I'm planning a 3 or 4 day trip to Europa in April and wanted to see what the best options were from people's experience in terms of accom and ticketing options. The on site hotels look very expensive from what I've seen so far - are they worth it?

I’ve only ever stayed off-site, but there are plenty of options throughout the village of Rust. Ranging from hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses. Most of which are 15 minutes or less walking distance from the park. Sites like booking.com and Expedia are worth looking at. 
 

M with tickets they usually sell them as one or two day tickets. 

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Stayed on site and the hotels are of good quality. Actually pay for what you get (though it is annoying that you have to add tickets on top of it as well). They are popular too but might be that the cheaper one (El Anduluz) is sold out.

 

Depends what you're after end of day. But as mentioned there are lots of b&bs around. 

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Not gonna lie, training it to the park is not as straight forward as some places such as Efteling and Phantasialand. But it is doable if you know what you’re doing and don’t go on the express. 
 

You can get a bus to Basel railway station and then get connecting trains to Offenbach, then Ringsheim. Then get the park shuttle bus from there. But that may have changed from when I did it a few years ago. 
 

 

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