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Day two of the trip! Full day at a park that moved to #1 on my "Bucket List" - after I was able to go to Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea (and Fuji Q) in 2019. Part 1 of 2 (or maybe 3) of DAY ONE at Europa Park. . and spoiler. . it still was not enough! Holy Crap I loved this place. Peeking out our window, to remind myself that we're right next to the park entrance! but first, we headed down to the lobby restaurant for breakfast. without even meaning to, I ended up having my morning Meal in Germany being VERY Jewish (LOL) with lox/capers on bread, pickled Herring, and an apricot tartlett. . . you can take the Jew to Germany, but he's still gonna eat a Jewish breakfast and look! an extra napkin to put in my bag. . . (a napkin advertising Rulantica, Europa Park's gigantic indoor waterpark - attached to one of the resorts - that we were invited to check out later tonight after park close) after a filling breakfast, we headed to the lobby to meet up so we could enter into the park with a guide and head over to some morning ERT before the park opened to guests. this painting is hanging in the lobby of our hotel. . it's the Park's founder: Franz Mack (yup. . of Mack rides fame, which is why the park has so many Mack created (and high capacity) Mack rides) then we followed our guide out the main lobby and around the corner to the Resort entrance. look. .there's our room on the 2nd floor corner right there! walking into the park is a truly immersive experience. .it's SO well themed. I mean. . EVERYWHERE. and there are rides/attractions everywhere too. like this indoor Music Express type ride, that went crazy fast! and right next to it? I full size Indoors SeaStorm. . themed to . . Christopher Columbus! but we bypassed all these as we wormed our way towards the center of the park. . passing really nicely themed attractions on the way to our goal. . . ERT on EroSat: CanCan Coaster! what a lovely park! and we weren't even very far into it! (this was a slow moving "boat ride around the lagoon" that many parks had. . . this was on my list for tomorrow, as well as the slow moving overhead monorail inside the park). this is the "fairytale section". . . it was a large, very well themed section with TONS of interactive scenes to explore. actually, most of the rides had either a "Dark Ride" section, or an interactive element. Something very cool to see in unexpected places. As well as the CRAP-TON of Dark Rides that Europa Park has scattered all over the layout. I loved this park. tho the Fairytale Section not so much. . as on this first day, we hadn't quite figured out the layout (Maps are for wusses apparently, so we ended up wandering thru this section multiple times in error. . . tho always found something interesting to look at/interact with) even the toilets are well themed! oooo.. "Arthur". .I've heard stories about this WTF ride. . and it was absolutely on my list. . but for now, we just passed by the entrance on the way to Eurosat: CanCan coaster. oooo. . . dang it. .i *was* going to ride this Carousel. . it's been days since I'd been on one would come back to this. I couldn't tell you the "Countries" in this park if you paid me (there was just too much, and rides/attractions *everywhere*) . . . but everything was so well identified, even with the manhole covers. giant sneakers. for some reason? and blue sheep. . . by the train. . . again, for some reason? but look how lovely this park is! rounding the corner tho? yes. .here it is. . .a view I'd only seen in photos, and other's trip reports. blown. away. and we hadn't even gone on it yet! test vehicle. . .I hadn't realized this was a "coaster" with a full train. For some reason, I always thought it was little 4 seat trains. . I was really pleasantly surprised when we hit the station, and realized it was a regular coaster. tons of theming as we breezed thru the empty queue. ERT - baby! and the park (and Robb & Elissa) surprised us by announcing we'd get a couple of rides on it, and then the park would turn on the lights, so we could ride it seeing the track! I have to say. . I LOVED it with the lights on - I have no idea how they crammed that much track inside that ball. But holy hell. . with the lights off? this coaster is stupendous. the blasting loud CanCan music, and the black-light reflective props you zoom by (and thru. . and under - those kicking legs!!). a top 10 coaster on this trip for me. . loved it. sitting behind David in Row two is our Bus Driver. . a very, very cool dude (Franklin is cool too. . but this guy was cool, and European!) I even got to share a bunch of rides with him thruout the trip. such a great start to the day! it was starting to get overcast, and there was some rain coming in (Andy !!!!!!). . . . so we quickly moved on to the other coaster on our Morning ERT: Silverstar (a B&M Hypercoaster). . which for some reason has the Mercedes Benz logo on the side of it? yeah. . I still don't quite get that, unless "Silver Star" is some nickname for Mercedes? it was good, tho not my favorite, and we got a few rides on it before the rain started pelting us on our ride (the queue started to fill up with the park guests while we were riding, but they kindly kept one of the 3 trains running just for TPR, so we got to move around and ride in different spots every time we came back around the station). such a great experience, and one of the many reasons TPR trips are so much fun. Not to mention the incredibly fun, no-drama, folks that are on the trips! three out of 4 TPR trip participants give SilverStar two thumbs up! after our rides, the rain really started to come back in, so the group headed up to CanCan Coaster to meet up with our guide. They wanted to do a special presentation on the park, the new rides coming, and Rulantica, for those of us on the trip who were interested. of course I was interested (as were a bunch of the folks on the trip), and so after meeting up, we went into a conference room, where we listened to a pretty neat presentation about the park, and Mack Rides. added bonus, it POURED while we were in this room for about an hour, so tho it would have been awesome to spend that time in the park? this was a way better choice, as it was dry, we got snacks/drinks, and for this gay man? Eye candy to look at as the rain stopped, and the presentation ended, we dispersed into the park for the rest of the day . . but first, potty break in the conference room area, where it was quiet (general guests not allowed up here). I loved this poster hanging over the toilet in the men's room, so snapped a pic. a bit risque (and a bit racist). . but it certainly was eye catching! peeking out the window to confirm the rain had stopped.. and yep, good to go. again, can you believe this is a Theme Park??? we were close by, and we knew capacity was not fantastic (tho it really was very high capacity. . everything is relative in a park where every ride is very high capacity). . . so we headed to Matterhorn Blitz, the Mack Wild Mouse. that is hidden deeply among the trees, so much you can't really see the layout it hand't really opened yet due to the rain, so the line was a little misleading. . but it did move pretty fast once they started sending trains. and yes, there's lots of stuff to look at in the queue as well. . animatronics, and all kinds of cool stuff it's SO fast in this section, I couldn't get a clear picture. . LOL. . .trust me, I tried! oh..and there's a "Dark Ride" section of the queue. . LOL. . lots of moving figures! after we knocked out the Wild Mouse, it was time to use our first quick queue, that we had booked for Arthur. are those the trains? yup. . . three "cars" of 4 seats across, that spin and move in different directions during the ride. and it's got a dark section, as well as an outdoor section. ok then. . . this way! those blurs are the trains spiraling over the center of the entrance/exit section of the ride. . . this ride lived up to EVERY "WTF" review it's ever gotten. If Wodan wasn't in the same park? this easily would have been my #1 here at Europa. I absolutely adore this ride, and I think I rode it 8 or 9 times during our two days at Europa Park -- giggling like a loon every time. it took me a few rides to sorta figure out the story: you're shrunk down, and befriend bees. . and fairies (?) and fight spiders, and an alien guy, that you push the interactive buttons on the trains to blow up his mirrors, and if you do, your row of seats spin around and you face other riders. . . or something like that. as I said. . . WTF, and absolutely BRILLIANT. and it's got fairies . . . this was a kiddie powered car ride, that there was absolutely no way an adult could ride (sadly). . but look at the amount of detail in this thing. . wowza! and yes. . back thru Fairytale section. . again. . .as Arthur is at one end of it. Snow White. . even the train crossings are themed to flowers over here. . . and here comes the train! NEVER in America. . the train just goes thru the park, and they expect people to just *not* get hit by it. . because they dont' expect people to be morons and to pay attention. very pretty train too. the slow moving boat ride around the lagoon doesn't seem super popular. . but the water effects are pretty neat, and as noted, was on my list to do tomorrow. back in Fairytale land. . .Hansel and Gretel vs the Witch poor Hansel. . . how are these German Children running thru the scenes/houses not traumatized. The interactive stuff was so cool, but it's basically all "Haunts for kids". did they just kill the witch? yes, yes the did! (and she screams in agony when you push the button as she's burned alive). . LOL But really, why am I making this face? Yup. .this is why. FINALLY: even got my Roomie James to share a rocking gondola with me actually, the whole group I was with rode the Carousel. . and right next door was the powered cars, which we all lined up to ride next! you can see the remnants of the rain from earlier, but it never really rained again today, and it ended up being a perfect day. (the operator saw me take this pic, and encouraged me to film/take pics while driving) again.. this is in the middle of a theme park! I had to keep telling myself that, as it seemed so unreal. this is the infamous "Roller Coaster Restaurant". .where the food is delivered to your table by swirling tracks. we had heard the reviews that it's way more spectacle than "good food". .and besides, it was booked SOLID. . . so didnt' get a chance to eat there (besides, was saving room for Raclette instead) . . tho did get to see inside while on the in-park monorail the next day. a random gate in the park, between "lands". . I think this was going into "Russia" (over by Euro Mir) but before we went into EuroMir - which had a bit of a line anyways, some coffee was wanted/needed. So while some of the guys did that? I convinced James to go with me to knock another "Bucket List" attraction at Europa Park off my list: BENCH- the RIDE: ok. .I don't know what it's really called. . but might as well be called that. No line either very icy, and "cold" themed, but the a/c was not on in here. . LOL . we sweat a lot on this first ride (tho when I did ride it again the next day, the A/C was blasting cold). . . still. . lovely, and as noted, bucket list ride for me: Celine Dion ??? just LOOK how thrilled we are. . . . by the time we finished. . EuroMir was calling to us. we had ERT on it tomorrow morning, but why wait? it's mighty "Disco-y" in here. . . and *everything* you've ever heard about the Disco Lift Hill is true! a wonderful ride, it starts off a bit meandering, but then it really gets going - especially if you end up going down the big drop backwards, and there's no way to really know which way you'll end up facing, as the cars spin while it travels! not sure what this was advertising, other than build your own car (must be based on a cartoon in Germany?) . .but a cut out photo op? Of course! such cool manhole covers all over the park we then headed into the Netherlands, for this specifically. you would NEVER know it burned down recently, and they completely rebuilt it. Its truly an amazing feat. yup. . lots of animatronics again. . . and a hell of a long queue. . but lots to look at as moving/waiting. such as bewbs. not just any bewbs tho. MERMAID bewbs hmm. . I approve. again. .this all burned down! how the heck did it come back so brilliantly? with some really great lighting effects too. . very, VERY Disney-esque. . but different. oh. . ok, not SO different. . but the restaurant is at the END of the ride. . so there. and right outside? another SeaStorm. yes, we rode it. . tho this one was a Junior Version. .that didn't have the spinning boats. It still was fun tho. as were the waffles and donuts we got over here for a snack after Pirates. and that's a LOT of pictures.. so will try to come back in the next day or so and finish off day one at Europa Park. lots lots, more to do still on this first day! Hope you've enjoyed following along! to be continued. . . .

Annual passes are gone again and season passes are back. They now have more new names. These are season passes instead of annual passes/memberships--Instead of expiring 12 months from date of purchase, Gold expires on Labor Day 2023, but Platinum and Diamond expire 1//2/2024. This is for Great Adventure. Other parks are probably different for maximum confusion. This brings the number of annual pass types currently outstanding to 34. Source

Kennywood has announced some changes to their security protocols in the wake of this past weekend's incident.

I really think Europa is such a great resort. What a wonderful TR!!! And yes, the management was very nice to us (and nice to look at!) We bought a stuffed version of the pirate otter from the ride and he now happily lives in our bedroom.

You have Fright Lane. You'll be able to hit all of them with minimal wait, and time to spare. If anything, just stay on the rides for a couple hours when the Haunt starts. 1) The ride lines will die, because everyone will rush to the haunts. 2) By the time you get to the haunts, you'll have no wait with Fright Lane.

That must be the "situation" that Claire keeps referring to on the VelociCoaster brake run...

They can just reroute the boats through Hadrosaur Cove.

Yes! It’s not the best case scenario but if they’re gonna give us a bunch of credits to come on board for 2 days we’ll just hang out and drink and eat and watch football, which is what we would normally do anyways, so why not? Maybe we’ll get a room upgrade.

Just got back from Europa Park last week. Reliving the awesomeness through your photos (as I didn't take many). Now excuse me while I turn on the can can music and ride through some legs (lol). Thanks for the report, looking forward to more!

Hey a two day cruise with a bunch of onboard credit is better than no cruise!!! https://www.royalcaribbean.com/notices/travel-updates

^Spectrum is a nice ship but cruising in Asia is VERY different from the rest of the world. If you're looking for that stereotypical cruise experience for your first time then I would absolutely jump on one after a Florida trip! Then if you like it, grab a cheap asian cruise once back home as an easier getaway. And yes, gratuities are added to all purchases onboard as well as a standard tip amount to select positions on the ship like your cabin steward, waiter, etc.

^Robb said he loved that flume AND rode it, that should have been all the warning you needed!