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I'm gonna die laughing if they start taking down the tower next, and destroy every fanboys/fangirls convoluted theory about what's happening.

^YAAASSSSS!!!! We all kept doing laps on that outdoor river rapid attraction. It would last one hour at a US park before it was shut down due to lawsuits but man I'm going to go enjoy it in Europe every time we go now!!!!

Unfortunately Steel Curtain isn’t nearly as smooth as Maxx Force. There’s noticeable vibration throughout the circuit but it’s stronger in certain sections. I’m unsure if S&S used the same fabricator for both projects but it’s my opinion that the vibrations are due to the track.

Europa Park, Day 1, part III (Rulantica!) so after getting back to the room, and changing to swimwear. . we headed out to the shuttle bus stop, and took the short ride over to Hotel KRØNASÅR - which is themed to a Museum of Natural History (and also contains the connected "Rulantica" - a HUGE indoor/outdoor waterpark that Europa Park is continuing to add on to. it's also very heavily themed. I wasn't sure I was going to actually swim, as I'm not a waterpark fan. . and once I saw the actual inside of the park? yeah, I kept my phone/camera with me, and decided to just take pics rather than get wet. enjoy: the lobby here is quite impressive! and this sea-creature skeleton? really cool. up the stairs and across the bridgeway gets you into the main Rulantica lobby. But before we head down to the entry booths, let's check out the really neat models they have on display here. . . (honestly worth the trip over here just to look at these, even if not a waterpark fan) I believe this is a model for the reimagined Pirates a peek inside EuroSat (pre CanCan coaster overlay) a super cool model of Wodan. . . with Blue Fire cutting thru it on the end there! Atlantica Supersplash. . and how it interacts with Wodan at the turnaround. after drooling over the models, we went thru entrance, and down into the locker rooms - you walk thru the locker rooms (which are huge. . and turns out there are two completely separate ones, so really pay attention where you put your clothes, or good luck finding your locker after a few cocktails (as I found out later.. . LOL). then you pass thru the shower rooms, and bathroom areas. . and you come out into the main atrium of Rulantica. STUNNING: a photo op? where I can put my face in Snorri? don't mind if I do! the main Wave Pool which is the center of the indoor section of the waterpark. big ol Dragon-slide on the left. . along with one of those "we're gonna fly off it!" triangle shaped tornado type slides. outside is a whole other section with a play area - and they are building more slides over there too. and on the right are the big bars/food areas. . as well as the lazy river, a "rapids" river, and more super steep hidden slides. and just beyond the wave pool (between the wave pool and the outside sections). . . water obstacle course. That many on the TPR trip braved (Robb put up footage on their insta) . .but only the super light (ie: skinny) folks made it across the floating islands easily. as I was nursing a bad ankle on this trip (injured it ~1 month prior to going and still had a brace on the entire trip). . I didnt' even attempt. but was fun to watch others wipe out. stepping out back - as it was SUPER humid in there, as one would expect an indoor water park to be. . what's this? oooo. . they are smart! big outdoor bar by the kids play area outside. the options all look pretty good. . and they were. Tho all came from a machine, that seemed to mix all from the same spout (so I do wonder if some of them might taste off if it "bleeds" some of the other mixed drinks coming thru). still. . what I got (and I can't recall. . tho I had 3 of them, and yep, was feeling it by the time I left. .LOL), but it was GOOOD. drinks in hand, started to explore the outdoor area.. . here's the map . . everything in the "triangle" is indoors. and they are adding new stuff both to the left and the right of the outdoors area at the bottom of the map. as you can tell, they have a lot of room for expansion and new attractions here. yeah.. you are gonna get WET at Rulantica. . .everything sprays and shoots water! something new that was just about to open. . .as super splash battle crossed with a Tilt a Whirl looked like to me. huge, and looks like it's a TON of fun. pretty close to being open, but wasn't open yet on our visit. new concept from Mack rides: sand volleyball, and more room for expansion. (it was already close to 9pm I think, and just look how light it still is.) back inside, to meet up with some TPR folks, and James and Ryan wanted to ride the Dragon Slide theming everywhere. . and so well done. .this was over the lazy river. and just to the right here, was a lagoon you could leave the lazy river to hang out in. . as it had a swim up bar with in-pool seating. if you went up a few levels, was a large restaurant/bar that overlooked the entire indoors area. and also had these really rather cool "clear sections" of the steepest "drop" flumes. . so you could watch the riders zoom by while you relaxed with your drink or food. yeah. .it was a hell of a climb on the stairs to get up to these flumes. . but those that rode them said it was well worth the treck up there. the bottom of the steepest "tube" slides skloosh! James and Jon enjoying the slides. . . and a blurry pic. . but probably THE most thankless job in Rulantica. She stood at the end of the slide catch pool. . and squeegied back in all the water that sklooshed out all over the area after every batch of tubes cam crashing down. she looked miserable. . but repeated this every 15 seconds or so. . . a peek at the indoors kiddie section that's to the right of the lazy river entrance. which is this middle ramp down. yeah. .it can get a bit confusing. . especially after a few drinks! LOL this seemed to be the entrance to a great hall / party room that can be rented. . . loved the design here. the giant screens behind the eating area (connected to the "fast food" option. . pizza/italian stuff. rather soothing. and occasionally an octopus (or Snorri) or some Mermaids would swim by and stop to interact with those sitting at the tables and eating. at the top of the wave pool.. looking out. I was getting tired - it had been a full day, and was ready to head back to our hotel, so started making my way back to the dressing rooms. . tho I hadn't realized there was more than one. and it took me an EMBARRASSINGLY long time to figure out how to get back to the level of dressing rooms that we had come in at, and where my locker was so I could get my shoes and shorts back on over my swimsuit (that I had put on just in case I decided to swim). Eventually tho.. I did find the locker, got changed, and visited the gift shop (which is where I bought the pregnant mermaid dolls, after eyballing them a few hours earlier in the gift shop from the Rulantica ride in Europa Park itself). I wandered around the hotel a bit, and had an offer to join Jon and Ian for burgers, but I really wasnt' that hungry (still very full from the awesomeness that is Raclette). . so decided to head back to our hotel. this statue is out front of the Hotel KRØNASÅR why is the naked woman carrying a horse on her back? I dunno. . . oh. .this explains it. tho I was a bit too buzzed to really understand it.. reading it now from the pic is the first time it makes sense! LOL it started to drizzle a bit again, while waiting for the shuttle. . but eventually it came, and I snapped this pic from where it dropped me off at our Hotel Andaluz. exhausted. . I went up to the room and took a shower (that humidity in Rulantica really did a number on me. . stinky!). . and decided I did want to eat some of the snacks I had packed, before turning in to bed. it was close to 10pm, and I had an exhausting, fun filled day. And tomorrow was gonna be day two at Europa - with still a TON of things I hadn't done yet. James came in around this time, and I climbed into bed while he was in the shower. it wasn't too late, but we had a full day tomorrow, and i wanted to be refreshed and ready! to be continued with Europa Park day 2 (sometime next week).

Europa Park, Day 1 continued . . . after snacks at pirates. . we headed over to the Greece section. I had no interest in the Atlantica Supersplash over in the Portugal section, as that is the exact same design as the Journey To Atlantis ride at SeaWorld San Antonio, so i've ridden that tons of time (and honestly don't think it's worth the line, just for that short backwards "coaster" section). I don't think anyone in the group I was hanging around with wanted to ride it anyways. but we all were interested in what was over here in Greece: Poseidon: the Water Coaster: (and oh, look, I actually did get a picture of Sliver Star - in the back on the right. Funny. . thought I had missed it). saving the best for last tho, we went to hit the other attractions in this section before heading to Poseidon (and they have construction walls over here, for the new coaster being built that was part of the presentation, but I dont' think I actually did get pics of those). 1st stop was "Curse of Cassandra" - a really cool Madhouse. before this trip, I never had ridden any type of Madhouse, and this being the first one, I was really super impressed with it. But like SeaStorms, and slow boat rides around lagoons, it seemed that *every* park had it's own Madhouse.. so I ended up riding 7 or 8 of them during the trip. Curse of Cassandra was a pretty good one, and if I'm recalling correctly, the "benches" had moving parts in them to indicate creatures/bugs moving beneath you as the whole room spun. I enjoyed it. but only got a picture of a statue outside it. we then walked around the Poseidon lagoon area to head to Pegasus - a powered junior coaster. but managed to perfectly capture the big monorail passing by (reminding me that I hadn't ridden it yet, and sadly never got to it on this trip. . . even tho it passed right in front of our hotel room!). as noted, Pegasus is a junior powered coaster. it reminded me a lot of the Flight of the Hippogriff, tho maybe slightly more exciting in the layout. the entrance certainly is more interesting. not just a horse's ass. . you enter under a Trojan Horse's ass. . . and the train certainly is pretty exciting. . .at least the front car. for some reason, the queue is themed around an Archeological Dig. . .complete with animatronics. . . and holding up of Medusa's head (ok ???). . . LOL but yeah, the trains sure are pretty! tho I had to laugh, in that the kids who were lined up to ride in the Pegasus front car? yeah. .they can't see ANYTHING. . . LOL great view of the "coaster section" of Poseidon next door from Pegasus' loading area tho again. . as with every other section of this park, the theming is pretty immersive. this was the way to get to the Poseidon queue. . .I don't have any decent pics, so won't share, but we did get more than a little "moist" on the splashdown section. and tho I bought the picture and we're mostly smiling (this is the presplashdown), I must admit that the coaster part of the ride, was quite a bit jerky. it wrenched my back a good bit, and I did have to get into my travel medical kit to take some Aleve after. . . . but overall it was fun, if a bit painful. (so no, didn't ride it again on this visit) good pic tho. clockwork from front left: Andrew (happy Bday! today), Ian, John, Ryan, Jon, and me. (and two other folks park visitors in the back seat) we had another pass for Arthur, so we headed back thru fairytale land. . but first we had to move out of the way for some street entertainment rolling thru (I believe this was passing thru the England section)? she comes out and fluffs a pillow. .that fills the air with foam. the kiddos were having a BALL underneath playing in the foam coming down. back to the weirdness that is Arthur. WTF are these? I dunno. . but I like them. I really, really like them. a little blurry, but coming into the loading platform from the dark section. and the folks pushing the buttons and discussing why they didn't turn around as the other cars did (I'm assuming that's what they were discussing, and the answer is that you have to all hit the buttons to break the alien's mirrors if you want the car to flip around backwards. . I think? who knows! but it's brilliant). exiting the ride, there were lifesize fairies !! OMG. . am I gonna pose with them? what do you think?? (as Elissa put it when i shared this pic: "Nightmare fuel" a Rastafarian bee. why? Arthur !!! we were starting to get a little hungry, so we headed over to Switezerland (just LOOK how lovely) .. . but first, stopping in France to get a fresh Baguette. why? RACLETTE of course! yep, it was time to finally try the famous Europa Park Raclette. mmmmmmmmmm OMG. . looks amazing. oooy, and gooey, and so, so good. . slurp!!! the view we had while eating. the Swiss Bob Run - a bobsled coaster, that actually has a pretty steep "roller coaster" style drop, hadn't been running all day. . but while we were eating, we heard the unmistakable noises of a chain lift. So after we finished our Raclette, we headed down the street to check out if it was open. But first. . . . yes! not only was it open, but it had *just* opened. . whatever they had been working on (we saw guys on the chain lift earlier) they had gotten it going. So the line wasn't bad at all..maybe 10 minutes. lots of interesting wood carvings in this queue: yeah. . I took this picture for the uniform. (I'll be honest. . .we all have our types, and this is one of mine. . so yes, this counts as eye candy too.. . tho the uniform IS rather cute) Ian and I actually spent a lot of the trip sending each other pictures of "interesting" things we saw in the parks. . . but I won't share most of those. . LOL Naughty Naughty, but still. . just some clean fun for the most part. I actually thought this was a real guy in the operating booth. . but when we got closer? nope, Europa Park found a way to squeeze an animatronic in, even in THIS open queue. . James got to ride without someone sitting in his lap! so did Ian and John. . .tho I think that Andrew and Ryan had to share one, if I'm recalling? (I know we teased them about having to share on one ride. . was it this park guys?) after a GREAT ride on the Bobsleds, we made our way back to France for quick queue on EuroSat: CanCan Coaster - yes, we liked it so much, the rides this morning weren't enough, and we used quick queue to ride it again. after our ride, it was noticed that there was . . . SOMETHING. . . right next door. We weren't sure what it was, but it seemed to be a dark ride with really no line, so we hopped in the queue. HA! this made me laugh. . . . and it gave a clue that this ride had *something* to do with Dinosaurs. maybe? ok.. yes. it's a WTF animatronic Dinosaur ride.. that seemed to be about a little old lady who collects dinosaurs, and is throwing a birthday party for one of them yeah. . that really is what it seemed to be about. it was so messed up. . and OMG. . so amazing. Absolutely loved it. . think I rode this stupid thing 4-5 times as well. . it was so good! and the section with the bees? has pumped in Honey smells! are those little dinos using a litter box? (complete with dino poop in it)? why yes, yes they are told you. . amazeballs! what's this? a kitchen. oh my. .they are baking a cake for the dino birthday party! and you can see the vehicles here too.. . omnimover, like Haunted Mansion. . . it was so great after a ride (or maybe two?) on the Dino Birthday ride, that I never got the name of, but per Wiki is called: Madame Freudenreich Curiosités we headed over to Silver Star, to attempt to get a ride or two more on it (if I recall, it wasn't an option on the Quick Queue choices, so we were going to just wait in line). . but as we got in line, it promptly went down for mechanical issue. we waited a little bit to see, as B&M typically come back up pretty fast . . but when they started to flush out the queue, we decided to instead head over to the Italy Section to try and ride Ghost Castle - a dark ride "inspired by" the Haunted Mansion (as you can see, the sky had started darkening again.. so perhaps Silver Star went down for lightning in the area?) we didn't do the 4d theater here, but there was a nice little back alley shortcut we took near it to get to Italy. ok. . it's an arcade. . with 3 games in it. but how cool that two of them are Pinball Machines. . and the third is a PacMan that plays all versions of the PacMan games? and you come out from the alleyway right next to Ghost Castle . and the store sold a lot of really cool stuff. But I was determined not to fill up my suitcase completely on the 1st big park of the trip (tho I couldn't help myself later). .so passed on much of the "horror" merch. .even tho I liked a lot of it. wow. .the Italy section is really lovely too! That shouldn't surprise me. . but every section of this park being so gorgeous continued to surprise me over and over. and of course. . there were bewbs. ok.. time for Ghost Castle. with Pirates! see. .there's pirates. . it's not too much like Haunted Mansion oh. nevermind. although there are some very obvious "lifts" from the classic Disney Ride (something true in almost every "haunted" attraction at any park we went to). .there was actually a lot of really unique set pieces in here, and I really enjoyed the ride. This is another Dark Ride at Europa that I went on multiple times. and damn, if this isn't really well done. Even if a heavily "inspired" by bit? SO well done. Italy has another Dark Ride: PIccolo Mondo . . . Sadly, this was by far, the worst ride in the park. And it was slightly racist. . I mean, think of the most stereotypical "Italian" things you can think of. . now put them all into one ride. yup. .they made Pizza. Yup. .they twirled big Mario-mustaches. . Gelato. Gondolas. just awful. . . and boring. but at least the gondola you ride in has a parrot on the back "steering" you. they're happy because it's over. . .LOL yeah, this is, I think, the only Dark Ride in the park that was one and done. It was getting late with the park only being open about an hour more, and we hadn't even made it over to Iceland yet. . the whole section that has Blue Fire , and Wodan. . so we headed over that way, determined to use up our remaining quick queues on those rides. so we headed that way. . and found ourselves in. . . Amity ? (new England)? no idea.. LOL. .this section isn't even listed on Wiki entry, so can't even look it up. There was a giant shark hanging for photo ops (that I think I took a pic with the 2nd day) . . it was beautiful tho. . and we discovered a little restaurant "hidden" behind a quick serve counter that we utilized for lunch the next day to get away from the crowds and have a relaxing meal. this is over the rapids ride. . . which we'd ride the next day. and yup. .it's an animatronic! HAHAHAHA. . . We rode Blue Fire with the quick queue. . I liked it for the most part. the dark ride section prior to the launch is really fun, and unexpected (tho it shouldn't have been. . EVERYTHING seems to have a dark ride section here). . .and it has a bunch of really fun airtime, in particular that spectacular loop. But it also has a heartline-roll type of hangtime element 2/3rds of the way thru that I absolutely *hated* I know you aren't going to fall out of the restraints, but it takes that roll with so much hangtime, it's just not my cuppa tea. . . sorry. so Blue Fire was good. . but not in my top coasters here. unlike: holy hell, I loved this coaster. I think I rode it easily 10-12 times during our visit (including many rides during ERT on the 2nd night). SUCH a good coaster, and way way up on my top 10 (probably ranked around #2 or #3). So much airtime, and laterals, and so smooth. . just brilliant. and the theming. . wowza Wodan and Blue Fire are so close to each other. . you're able to get lots of pics with trains on both from the exit platform. . so if you'll indulge me here: after a couple of rides on Wodan (I think we used our last two quick queues there), we headed back across to the "New England" section. .as we had heard there was something there not to miss. coming back from the Iceland side over the rapids, I spotted another fun animatronic. There's cool stuff all over this park. ohhhh. .the inpark monorail comes over here too? yeah, *definitely* riding this tomorrow. and here's what we came back for. Robb had told the group that there was a hidden dark ride that we should not miss. I was convinced he was just messing with everyone, to try and get us to go on something awful. . but you know what? he was 100% correct. .this was SO good. Yeah, it was basically just an advertisement for Rulantica masquerading as a dark ride, but it pulled out some really neat tricks, and made it well worth the while to ride on (think i rode it three times?). As Albert put it: "that's the best commercial I've ever ridden!" "Snorri" is the baby octopus mascot of Rulantica. . hence what I assume this ride is called: "Snorri's Tours" I won't spoil the surprises.. but will just say. If you get a chance? ride this thing. it really is "hidden" in a basement, and I'm glad Robb flagged it for the group, otherwise would have missed it! and the gift shop at the end? O. M. G. pregnant "Barbie" mermaid? you bet your sweet ass I bought this and hauled it home. (I sent this pic to Nick and told him I bought it. .and his response was "of course you did" that's a fond memory of my Husband. . and it made me smile to type this) and yes.. her stomach DOES come off, and there's a baby mermaid doll in there! the park was starting to shut down as it was close to 6:30 pm, so we headed towards the resort gate. . stopping to snap a few pics of Blue Fire's loop as we passed by it: and Wodan's quick queue entrance as we passed and the Splash Battle ride - that I never bothered to go on (not a fan of these, and these too were in most of the European parks). they sure are photogenic tho. but we had to make our way out to the Hotel. . as we had to go back to the room to change - most of the TPR group was headed over to Rulantica to check it out, as the indoor waterpark was open until (I think) 11pm. so. . . looks like there is going to be a Part III (tho shorter than parts 1 and 2) as I took pics at Rulantica too. so see you real soon to complete day 1 (really? this is only day 1????).

I'm at least happy that the bag limit includes purses that actually exist.