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The power of Claus compels you! The power of Clause compels you! Merry Christmas Town 2025! It's time for our annual stroll through Christmas Town at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. There's every thing you'd expect: "millions" of Christmas lights, lots of festive decorations and music, different types of holiday grog and goodies, and, of course, Santa's Workshop. In fact, this event is much the same as last year, only with some minor changes in decorations and two new holiday shows: Christmas Town Live in the Festhaus and the Merry Misfits trio in France. Returning for this season are Scrooge No More, the park's popular version of A Christmas Carol, in England's Globe Theatre; Gloria, a retelling of the Christ story, in Ireland; Wiseman, a singing trio in Italy (I think their stage got an upgrade for this season, though); O'Tannenbaum, a synchronized music-and-light show outside the Festhaus in Germany; the Polar Pathway Spectacle of Lights in the Escape from Pompeii area; Elmo's Christmas Wish in the Sesame Street Forest of Fun; and 'Twas that Night, an ice-skating show in France's Palace Theatre. The park is running a few coasters, weather permitting, during Christmas Town: Pantheon, Verbolten, Invadr, and DarKoaster (not affected by weather, of course). Most of the flat rides are running, along with the Christmas Town Express (round trips only starting at Caribou Station) and the Skyride. Let's take it in, shall we? Bundle up--it's a chilly winter's night. The Giant Snowman bids you welcome to Christmas Town--unless you use VIP parking, which means you won't lay eyes on him. The Tree with the Big Balls is back! Carolers greet you in England with traditional Christmas songs, but don't expect to hear "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" or "Christmas at Ground Zero." In Ireland, you can pray for the immortal souls of those who decided to stop at Grogan's Pub for a pint of Christmas Town Stout. You can see Gloria in the Abbeystone Theatre, too. You can also partake of Santa's Fireside Feast, where you will be under the protection of the Great Stone Fist of the Elves. Oh, you also get cookies from Mrs. Claus. The path between Ireland and France is very peaceful--one of my favorite spots during Christmas Town. This peaceful setting brought to you by Coca Cola. In France, all will make merry, or they will taunt you with hearty laughter. "You are impressed by our enormous Christmas lights, n'est-ce pas?" They're a bit more laid back in Canada. But you do have to watch out for frolicking caribou. In Germany, gingerbread men and gum drops reach unnatural sizes. I found this in one of Oktoberfest's gift shops. Nothing says "German Christmas" more than a Scottish Highland Cow on a t-shirt. Santa's Workshop is in Germany, so suck it North Pole! Why is the very tall wooden soldier trying to choke herself? The Festhaus looks even more festive than usual during Christmas Town. The O'Tannenbaum show is always a crowd pleaser. Christmas Town Live harkens back to the Christmas TV specials of the past. The timing was wrong for me to catch the show that night. The stage is decorated like an old-time TV studio. Peace out on the bridge between Germany and Italy. It looks like the Wiseman show was upgraded a bit from last year's version. This year's version looks a lot like one of those Hallmark movies. This is my single favorite tree at Christmas Town--beautiful in its dignity and simplicity. Meanwhile, across the bridge from that same tree, Christmas is going completely nuts at Holiday Hills (aka Festa Italia). I like the Polar Pathway by Escape from Pompei, too. They have another synchronized music-and-light extravaganza on the Pompei show building. "Hmm--Cookie Monster wish for more bourbon in his hot chocolate." It's getting pretty cold. In fact, it's snowing in Williamsburg as I write this today. Time to head out via Scotland. A Merry Christmas Town to all, and to all, a good night!

Part 3: Europa Park day 2 Continued: with less of a crowd up here, as it wasn't opening time now, I was able to get closer to the Berlin Wall pieces and read the history of the display and snap a couple more pics of Silver Star doing it's thing although I didn't go out the main gate completely, I believe that's the Monorail station there on the left. I absolutely adore this statue. . . Viewed from the front: but if you look at it the other direction? I need to find a small model of this, as I'd love to have it. headed back towards the gardens/restaurant, as we had to meet in about 20 minutes, I stumbled across this behind a "storefront" on the main street. the Mack museum! with all kinds of history of the park, awards they've won, patents, and design concepts for the park. very, very interesting, and I was the only one in there! (as I had been in the mask museum too) as I was about to head out, I heard some commotion from outside. so stepped out and was treated to: the clock going off, and doing a presentation, that I hadn't even realized was an option here back inside for a couple more pics then on my way back over to the restaurant here's the full menu I ended up having the "Baden" set menu, and it was all excellent (tho the service was kind of a mess. (I think we confused them since we all ordered separately) cream of pumpkin soup (so good) pork shoulder and potatoes and apple bread pudding with black forest cherries. after our meal, I took a quick look around the rest of the restaurant, as it really was in theme as a Medieval home after finishing up eating, it was getting pretty late in the day, and we decided to head back to the hotel to change for Traumatica - which happened starting at 7pm since we hadn't yet taken the "big" monrail, we headed up to that station near Germany and hopped on to head back to Colosseo to change clothes for something warmer pretty cool station. map showing where the Monorail went from and to, that gives a good overview of just how large this park is. changed and back into the park, this was outfit for Traumatica the lady in Spain seemed to like it. we had some skip the lines for Wodan from earlier in the day, so we had all decided to meet up at that entrance, but first I decided to climb this lookout tower section that overlooked the splash battle ride really nice views from up here too. . . and even slightly higher than that other monorail we had ridden earlier in the day even tho it had gotten cooler? tonight, the splash battle WAS running, and had takers. great view of Blue Fire from here too and of course, Wodan. and even lots of theming up here - on a lookout that wasn't gonna get many folks bothering to go up to. I love this park. met up and rode Wodan (it was fantastic as always, and yes, my headgear stayed on as it has a chin strap) this is the skip the line entrance for virtual queue and then we headed over to the main Wodan entrance, as we wanted to check out that free haunt they had over here it was mainly just lots of smoke and a few scare actors. . but for a free house? it was ok. it wasn't quite time for Traumatica yet, so we decided to head over to the Arthur area to grab some single rider rides. passing thru Fairy Tale land stopping to use the restroom over here, I just about pissed myself laughing. there was a gnome urinal in these toilets over here. and yes, it actually "peed". . . hysterical. using single rider is the way to go on Arthur, we were on it in moments. and then started heading towards the direction of the Traumatica entrance. we knew it was over near Croatia (by Voltron), so we went over that way. and once it starts to get dark? it comes quickly. this was when we started walking. and this is when we got to Voltron. and the temps started to drop too. I caught part of this "Animatronic" show, it was about Nikola Tesla. to be concluded in part 4: Traumatica !!!

Part 2: Europa Park day 2 Continued: a peek inside the Roller Coaster restaurant (it opened later in the day and was booked solid. not a great loss, as I find the RCR food to be a bit "meh". . but it very cool to experience if you've never done one before). Then we continued on up to the loading platform for the other monorail. this one goes over an entirely different area of the park than any of the other "elevated" rides, and so gives different views. the carousel here (which I love). . and in the foreground are the racecars, that ride on a track similar to the old taxis in the other section. I say again, a slow moving, silly/stupid ride is what I love to do. Coasters and Carousels too, but I just love these type of things paddle boats, and a balloon ride. this is such a big park. a view from across the way of where we came from - that's the Roller Coaster restaurant under the blue top hat (which is the monorail station) the slow moving "Princess" boat ride. another of my favorites here. and those docks across the way in the back? that's where the larger splashboats come from that share this lagoon and you can spray the princess boats with handle powered spinning. (the splashboats were not operating today, probably because it was a little chilly, or perhaps being refurbed) That's not Amity down there, but there is a big hanging shark photo op and over here are the river rapids, that we'll pass over twice on this monorail yeah. . you'll get wet. you also pass right over Atlantica Supersplash the river rapids load station and Wodan. and if you're lucky with the timing, even get a train zooming by the park also has a swinging ship and lots of other rides tucked away in nooks and crannies. better view of the shark photo op that pirate is on the top of one of the park's TWO SeaStorm rides (one indoors in Spain, and this one outdoors) more characters just out and about. . TPR in a fairy tale village yurt because of course, I wanted to ride the princess boat ride next. first there is a photo op that both I (and Christopher) wanted the storyline on this had changed a little since my last visit. . oh, it still had a Princess marrying storyline, but they had shoehorned in troll type characters (I guess to make it fit in better with the fairytale village section on the other side of the lake). but the ride is basically the same, so I enjoyed. and there are still ducks in the lake that swim along side the princess boats we got divided among a couple of boats tho, as we were too heavy to all go in one. the monorail we had just ridden passes over us. lots of fountains and "squirting" things on this ride too and of COURSE it has an "indoor" section she has found her prince wheee! dogs are welcome in this park, and there were some really nice doggos here today. we were getting hungry, and looking at the park info, it appeared there was a park restaurant off to the left of the main entrance - I hadn't even realized there was anything over there. so we headed back towards the front gates, and passed by a popular show going on "Scary Movie Hits" with characters from horror films singing. apparently "Cruella DeVille" is a horror film icon? wow. . . it's just lovely over here!! a giant gardens area with fountains, walking paths. . and an old villa that housed the restaurant the menu looked really good, so we decided we'd check it out. I couldn't believe I had no idea this was even over here! we went in and asked and they had no seating available, but told us if we came back in an hour, we could make a reservation. so of those I was hanging with had wanted to shop, and we were right near the front gate shops, so we went ahead and made a reservation and then all split off, to meet back up in an hour. i had done all my shopping already, so I decided to explore the area over here. lots of cool art and installations over in these gardens a passerby offered to take this pic. I think it came out lovely. lots of pumpkins over here in these gardens too. these tree sculptures are QUITE judgemental! after wandering the area for 20 or so minutes, I decided to check out what else was near the main entrance. and I stumbled across this interesting Museum tucked away in a corner. there were some folks having a meeting inside, but when they saw me looking thru the window, they welcomed me in to look around and told me all about the masks and the traditions behind them. turns out this is actually listed as an "attraction" but it does appear that not many really realize it's there, as the folks in the meeting were VERY excited that I expressed interest. apparently it's not always open, and some of the masks on display are quite valuable. https://www.europapark.de/en/theme-park/attractions/carnival-barn The world of fools Carnival fans young and old can marvel at the precious and extensive collection of Carnival masks in the Carnival Barn. Over 150 Swabian-Alemanic masks have found a unique home in the rustic barn in the German themed area, heralding in the so called fifth time of the year. As well as the wide collection of Swabian-Alemanic masks, you will also find particularly unusual and rare samples from the south-west German Carnival clubs, like the yellow-blue Jokili of the ‘Krakeelia’ Waldkirch or the Balthasar Witch from Rust. Each area of the exhibition is organised by region, with pieces identifiable by a small sign containing names and origins. I ended up going into at least one gift shop, to check out the designs on the ceiling, but then headed back down the main street. to be continued in part 3. . .

Day 8: Europa Park day 2 what's crazy, is after a full day in the park yesterday? there was SO MUCH MORE that we hadn't even gotten to yet. in fact, I had made a point the prior day of telling the folks I had been hanging around with that "tomorrow I was gonna do a lot of the slow moving/stupid stuff that I love" and that they were welcome to come along with me to "enjoy" as well. So a lot of that will be in this update. a quick breakfast, and at the Resort Entrance gate before they even opened, as TPR had some ERT this morning before the park opened to the public. we passed Eurosat Can-Can coaster (for the moment), as our first ERT today was: Silver Star! the park's B&M Hyper thanks to Elissa for this pic then we headed right next door for some ERT on EuroSat: the Can Can Coaster TPR Morning ERT complete, we were let loose in the park, and since we were so close to Italy? I headed directly to Ghost Castle - as noted, one of my favorite dark rides in the park. Tho today, I had my phone out to snap some pics while riding. a great queue line. .. before you get into your "ghost cart" that rides you along thru the haunted castle. (I know this pic is a bit blurry, but the best I could get to grab the effect of the skeletons projected on top of the figures. . a fantastic surprise) "Ma-damn that's not Leota" and exit thru the gift shop. . which had this wonderful section dedicated to Traumatica. We'd experience Traumatica later that night, and I'd buy a BUNCH of merch. but no way could I fit this umbrella in my luggage, so had to just settle for a pic of it. next up was the first of many slow/silly rides that I love. this one is a suspended monorail that goes over a portion of the park, and is themed to Leonardo Da Vinci's "flying machine" sketches we flew over the boat ride we'd go to next. . the ride vehicles have pedals, but you do not HAVE to pedal, it's electric. an antique car ride we'd get to later one of THE most WTF rides in the park, that's also terrifying: the marionette / clown boat ride. and this was new since my last visit: the Jim Knopf train ride (that appeared to be based on a television show over here) the load station of that terrifying marionette / clown ride yes, it's called: marionetten bootsfahrt the observation tower (ridden yesterday) and a haunt meet and greet that was set up for later it is such a lovely park hi TPR, in the vehicle behind me. and then it was onto one of multiple "slow moving boat rides" that Europa has. all of them pretty long, all of them pretty bizarre, and all of them right up my alley. this one was themed to fairly land. NOTED! Fun TPR selfie on the fairly boat the other half of "our" TPR gang that were hanging out with me today. Christopher took a selfie on this too that he shared with me. . his is a bit crisper. . at least I think we look happier in this one. and then it was across to that new "train" ride the operator had absolutely no qualms about putting us one each in the train, as the line was so short. I guess this is the guy who's show it is. they were screening clips in the queue and it seemed to be an adventure type show with dragons and mystical village. the ride vehicle. . . but I think I probably snapped this pic for that sign that says a person is not allowed to ride in underwear. . .LOL you could pull that cord and blow the horn and make the stack smoke! pretty long ride, with indoor section (as many things here at Europa seem to have) Jonathan enjoying the ride Christopher Jon oooo. . .a train!!! know where I'm going shortly Nick Wilfried Hans and one of me to close it out. walking over to the WTF marionette ride, got a great view of the suspended Da Vinci ride that goes overhead in this area, along with some more pumpkin theming on marionetten bootsfahrt, the rafts are TINY. . . so we split up into groups of 2 or 3. Myself and Jonathan rode together it really is very creepy, and kinda charming but mostly? it's WTF??????? the Monorail passes thru the park as well (going between the Hotels, and the front gate, as well as a stop over by Greece). there are LOTS of ways to get great views of this park. more bewbs aha!. . here's one of the train stations, close to where we'd gotten off the prior ride. yes please. TPR tiny train takeover! this train really does loop around a very large portion of the park. not all of it, but a lot of it, and is well worth the time spent to ride. It has multiple stops thruout the park, but you don't have to exit unless you want to. a great way to see the park as well. wait. . the taxis are called "Oltimer Fahrt" ?? Oh, I'd ABSOLUTELY be coming back to ride this then. and offride view of marionetten bootsfahrt coming into the England section, you can see how this would NEVER go in USA. there are no track guards, and no crossing signals other than just a sign. They just expect people to not be stupid and be aware of a train coming as it crosses walking paths. a replica of the Globe theater. sadly in two days here, I never managed to catch the show in here. Paddington statue at the England station. ooooo. . ANOTHER elevated monorail? ok then, that's on my list too now. over by the Arthur section now, and a better view of that adorable kiddie mine cart ride I saw yesterday. you can see from the size of the child riding, that this one was a "don't even try to ride it" situation. but it was so cute! more people stopping because they are smart and know a train will hurt them. runes in the Arthur section, by the suspended track for the ride. there is a ton of theming for the train. .even when passing by areas that you can ONLY see from the train. hard to see here, but the swings are themed to a giant Mushroom again, theming just for the train riders passing by the rebuilt log flume / mine train area the "Spain" train station a great view from the train, showing how the flume interacts with the mine train and the walking paths there's also a great river rapids ride here in the park. lots of ways to get soaked here. while on the train, I spotted that the 2nd monorail station was above the Roller Coaster restaurant, near the station in Russia. So we exited the train there, and walked over to the monorail, stopping to get a couple of pics of Euro Mir as we passed it. To be continued in part 2

pics from yesterday's visit for "Feliz Fiesta" during Holiday in the Park. (and yes, they got TONS of lights from SFA - I asked and was confirmed that the Texas parks got things from several other parks as well that were no longer doing Holiday in the Park) the park is looking amazing, and the shows remain top notch! Majesty of Christmas, and the Dickens shows alone are worth price of admission, tho all the other shows are great as well. because of Texas Department of Transportation sending out a crapload of warnings about how I10 & Loop 1604 (ie: right were the park is) being closed all weekend for construction, we allowed just over 2 hours for the trip to the park from Austin today. so of course, we were so early that even tho the cones were up, they hadn't started any work yet, and traffic flowed - resulting in us being the first ones at the park, and stopped at the entrance gate. so we took advantage to get out of the car, and snap this pic which typically you only can get while driving by. but after about 15 minutes, the parking gates opened and we headed in (with all the other folks that had backed up behind us). of COURSE, this was right when the Six Flags app decided to update, and that made getting thru the toll booths a nightmare - how nice Six Flags stopped handing out physical (hard card) passes JUST before they updated the app and made it a huge mess to access your digital stuff. note: we did chat with mgmt about this during the day as lots of folks had issues, so it came up. they are aware of issues, and are working on solutions, so "please stand by" anyways, the park looks great. the Day ended up being PERFECT (low 70s after a week of temps in the 40s and 50s), and the construction kept many away from the area, resulting in a very crowd comfortable day. lots and lots of photo ops thru the park. as mentioned, I'm guessing some of them came from other parks no longer doing HitP and no trip to SFFT is complete without a stop in to say hi to "miss Connie" in Sangerfest halle. she's a celebrity, and my friends all know I tend to go there first to get a pic. after 1st rides of the day on Chubacabra, those of us attending Feliz Fiesta got to go backstage for a tour of the construction site that I posted yesterday. as part of that tour, we also got to go down into the Gully Washer reservoir (drained during the off season upkeep) for some fantastic shots of Iron Rattler's drops. and then it was time to eat something for lunch (as our dinner wasn't until almost 5). we headed into Blues BBQ, where here at Fiesta Texas, the Turkey Leg with stuffing is still included on the meal plan. and as it's Holiday in the Park? Santa was out all day, so we had to pop in and say hello. naughty bert! (and how fantastic that Santa played along) one of the shows in the main square. . I believe this was the Tinker-Belles and the wooden soldiers one of 3 large trees SFFT has on display. this one is at the end of the main avenue into the park (and the tinkerbelles stage is at the bottom) many, many characters were available today for Meet and Greets. not just the Looney Tunes in Holiday garb, but also multiple DC Heroes, and tons of Holiday themed characters. and the "handlers" are happy to take your phone to snap pics for you. this makes me laugh - this is what happens when they start snapping before you're ready for the picture. . . LOL durrrrrrrr. . . . . but we did get some great pics regardless another throne. .and I do love my thrones more characters. . a bit horrifying, I thought, but happy to take pics after this great meet and greet in DCU, I asked them how about an "action pose". .and that's the 2nd pic. they understood the assignment - particularly Flash walking back to the front for dinner in the picnic grove, caught the end of a Tinkerbelles & soldiers performance, and they were hanging around for pictures. and yet, ANOTHER throne. they must have gotten these from other parks. a night time shot of the tree at the end of the main corridor. here's the MAIN tree in the park, in Rockville, during the Tree Lighting ceremony (that includes fireworks, Looney Tunes characters, dancers, and Santa on the stage in front of it) .. oh, and "snow" Jim and I in front of the main tree, before heading into the Rockville High Theater to see the Dicken's show - one of the parks two signature HitP shows didnt' take any pics of the 1st part of the show, but it's a full on production with sets, dancing, and very good singing. the camera came out during Ghost of Christmas Future, as I love the design of it. ltr: Scrooge, Ghost of Christmas Present, Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Marley, and Ghost of Christmas future. Scrooge seeing the error of his ways before he gets tossed into his own grave by Marley (oh. . "spoilers". . . LOL) after the show (and a few rides) we made our way up to the "big" theater in the park, for the amazing "Majesty of Christmas" - which, yes, includes live animals on stage in a wonderful production. after this show, the park was about to shut down, but attendees of Feliz Fiesta get some ERT on the CrackAxle coasters (Iron Rattler, Roadrunner Express, and Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger). . so we took the "Holiday Express" which is what they transform the train into, for a full loop around the park complete with Holiday songs and tons and tons of lights. including new this year, lights representing the 12 days of Christmas. . . that you pass on the train, AS the song is playing synched to what you are passing. so simple, but so effective and impressive. another photo op in front of Hurricane Harbor area and the 3rd and final tree, in Crackaxle, which I was told came from another park that is no longer doing HitP. it's a great event, and well worth going to.

Sad to see Jet Star II leave. I applaud the park for keeping it around much longer than most other parks would have. The ride certainly made the park feel a little frozen in time. Nutcracker also looks great. I think these S&S swings are wonderful additions to basically any park that does not already have one. I am a little surprised it took the park this long to work with S&S again given their proximity.

Europa Park, Day one, concluded. Atlantica Supersplash (with the mini monorail behind it) wet TPR folks, giving the thumbs down. . .LOL while we hadn't done the whole park - there were still quite a bit of attractions we hadn't made it to - Austria was back over by Spain (and resort entrance/exit), so we made a point of stopping by there to take a look. Alpine Express and the Log Flume - which had been in one big adventure mountain area, had been lost in a massive fire in 2023, and they had rebuilt it, and opened it back up in 2024. we we really wanted to get a look at it. the coaster is now called Alpenexpress Enzian, and seems to have a VR option (don't recall seeing that when there, so maybe it's new? or an upcharge?). anyways, the line was a bit too long to make it before park close (and it was too cool to ride the flume, so I'd ride that tomorrow). So instead we checked out the rebuilt area via the new adventure trails, that replaced the caves that had burnt down. it's a powered coaster, but it's a good one. theming! and when walking the "trail" it interacts with both the coaster, and the log flume. which has squirt guns rigged along the trail, so you can squirt the folks riding the flume. there's a bunch of interactive stuff along the way too. . .like this "fireplace" that changes color based on touch. a great example of the coaster track and flume, and trail, interaction I asked about this, and was told that they kept the lead car from the prior ride (that had burned down) and put it on display as a memorial. very cool of them to do this, I think. I really liked the redone versions.. great job by the park rebuilding! and when we left the trail, we noticed that tho the park was only open for another 10 minutes, the line for the Alpenexpress Enzian had dropped to 5 minutes. so we ended up hopping on to end our first day in the park on this coaster! even tho Nick is blinking, we look so happy goodnight Europa Park! will see you again tomorrow for a full day 2. including Traumatica!

Europa Park Day one continued: it was time to head over to Greece, and Atlantis Adventure, the park's shooting dark ride. Cassandra's Curse - a fantastic Madhouse (that is included in Traumatica, but with a much more gory overlay): Poseidon - the park's watercoaster. . that not only soaks, but I always find very rough on the coaster sections: that's Matterhorn Blitz doing it's thing across the lake in the background. whee! We're on a Log Flume! (sorta/kinda) a closer zoom on Matterhorn Blitz as we walked around the lake to get to the last coaster in this section Pegasus. . a jr coaster. which is also included in the Traumatica event (it takes place just outside the main gates, and in the 2024 event, opened up into the Greek section of the park for some rides) it had one of my favorite pumpkins I saw at the park. I never got a chance to ask who made it, but I assume a child visitor. Love it ! walk around spooky cast members were out in force on this day. loved her "ghost dog" the park is SO well decorated. some of the folks I was hanging out with really wanted ALL the coasters. . . so we headed to Ireland. so they could ride Ba-a-a-Express - the park's kiddie coaster. i didn't ride, and just took pictures no shame, at all. . . LOL and since we were over on this side of the park now. . . I was ready to ride Arthur, the Mack powered inverted coaster that is just amazingly WTF. to get there, we took the back way across the "obstacle course" Paddington Bear! I think we were behind the England section over here. and some appropriately spooky Halloween stuff. the entrance gate into Fairy-Tale land. I don't understand it at all. . even after riding it more than a dozen times. But I so enjoy the Arthur coaster. luckily, they have a GREAT skip the line system here, as well as a single rider line on this coaster. . so never really had to wait in the lengthy lines for this one. awww. . a bear. a bear or a throne. . . a sure way to guarantee I'll stop for a pic we decided to go ride EuroSat - Can-Can coaster again, so headed back that way, passing this adorable kiddie car ride. but before we got to EuroSat, it was remembered that there's another amazing dark ride right next to it - that again, is always walk on, because folks just don't realize there is a ride there. not sure what the "real" name is, but I call this the Dinosaur Birthday Party ride. . .and I rode this at least 5 times too this visit. notice the dino poop in the cat box! details and they pump the smell of honey into this scene. . along with the sound of beez awwww. .they are making a cake! it's a Dinosaur Birthday Party! and then next door onto EuroSat Can-Can coaster again. . tho this time I took some actual pics in the queue line. it was starting to get late in the afternoon, and I believe they had announced the park was closing at 7 instead of at 6 . . so we headed back towards the resort gate hitting stuff along the way. no "parade" per se, but lots of characters out and about. I discovered this visit, that Europa has a Church on site. and apparently? one can get married there! a MUST stop was another "hidden" dark ride that so many don't even realize is there! it's down some stairs next to a shop. it was built as a fun "advertisement" for the waterpark, but proved so popular, they have kept it. "Snorri Touren" (Snorri is the octopus mascot of the waterpark) I ended up buying this hat in the gift shop. and this is also a picture framed on our wall. . as this is when I KNEW I had found the right person again. I had sent this home, and instead of saying, "what the F do you have on your head?". . the response was: "you go, Hilda!" so yeah. . right then I completely fell in love. it was cold-ish today, but we had been told about this particular opportunity at the park, and no way in heck was I (or others) passing this up. so time for some custom ice cream! so good! some folks wanted to ride the Atlantica Supersplash (over in the Portuguese area) that was on the way back to the hotel. I wasn't wanting to get wet, and have ridden this Mack Supersplash at SWSA, so I passed and just took pics. day 1 to be concluded. . .

Day 7 - 1st full day at Europa Park this is a wonderful park, and I seem have over 700 pics from the two days we spent there (!) But I'll severely edit down in hopes of quicker updates today we started out the day with some ERT on Euro Mir (which sadly the park has announced they will be removing to make way for a new coaster in this spot). I love this coaster, as it's a spinner with a super unique layout . . and the "disco lifthill" that plays funky techno the whole way up (tho for our visit, they had already switched the music over to Halloween music, so it was odd to ride it without hearing the blasting tchno). I love that you never know for sure if you're going down the first drop forwards or backwards. . it's just luck of the draw on your ride. I just love the way it winds among the glass towers (one of which hides the spiral lift hill) before the drop. and the space themed station is great too. after rides on Euro-Mir, the group backtracked to get some ERT on Blue Fire before the park opened to the public. love how Wodan looks in the morning fog. since I'm on this train, thanks for this pic go to Elissa. and since Elissa is IN this one? thanks to either Andy or Robb after a few rides on Blue Fire, the park opened for general guests, and we were cut lose for the day. tho a good number of TPR trip folks stuck together as a group of 8-10 to hit things up together. Voltron was first up, to grab in the morning before lines got too long. since it's a launch, it was running just as great first thing in the morning as it had at end of day yesterday. I believe we next headed towards the front gate, to grab a ride on Silver Star (the park's B&M Hyper), passing a bunch of rides on the way including Matterhorn Blitz (the Wild Mouse with the elevator lift hill). . but we'd come back for that. and Euro Sat (the Can-Can coaster) very cool they had the original trains from Euro Sat (before it converted to Can-Can coaster) on display outside the ride. monorail notes Oktoberfest as it passes overhead. noted! if I'm recalling correctly (it's been over a year!), Silver Star was having some issues this morning and hadn't quite opened yet. So we went next door to ride Can-Can Coaster it's such a good ride. Myself, Nick and Andrew walking the empty queue (everyone was at Voltron. . LOL) since we were near the front gate, we decided to go ahead and knock out this park's version of Soarin, that flies over Europe. . it's really well themed, but if you've been on Soarin? you've been on it. tons of cool stuff and photo ops in this front area of the park tho by the main gate. Such as this: and the Italy Section. . which houses one of my favorite rides in the park. but we'd come back to this area, as we wanted to head up to the front gate as I'd never come in that entrance and wanted some pics the park's mascot was out doing meet and greets and some street entertainment welcoming guests to the park. Silver Star was now starting to cycle. . so we'd head to that shortly . . . but first stepping out front for a picture! also on display near the main entrance to the park? an original part of the Berlin Wall. very neat to see, and counts as "culture" in my book! going up the steps in the Voletarium (the Soarin ride) - yeah, pic is a little out of order, sorry. stilt walkers greeting park guests these guys seemed to be local celebrities, as there was quite the queue to take pics with this scene, where you could pic a song, and the projected guys in the car would sing along to it. a quick ride on Silver Star (great as always) and we headed back over to Italy. . . for Europa's version of the Haunted Mansion. Europa has a LOT of dark rides. many of them extremely silly/bizarre, and slow moving. . and they are "hidden" just everywhere. Silly / bizarre / stupid is right up my alley, so of COURSE i love this park. . . but this Horror dark ride is among my favorites here. it's NOT the "haunted mansion". . but is very inspired by it in places. Particularly the queue, where you go into a trick room that has a hanged man in it. the Italy section also has bewbs. (tho it's Europe, so there are multiple places in this park with bewbs). another slow / silly dark ride I love: Piccolo Mondo - think of the very basic things you would boil down to "Italian". . and put them all into one ride. is it racist? slightly. but is it amazing and makes me laugh? yup! and the ride vehicle is a Gondola.. paddled by a Parrot. what's not to love? Pizza and Breadsticks. . . Italian! Leonardo Da Vinci / Mona Lisa . . . Italian! Gelato . . Italian! Canals and gondolas . . . Italian! it really is so much fun. after these dark rides, it was time for the observation tower to get some great views of the park and the surrounding area. there are lots of walk around characters too.. .not sure if all the "Country" sections have their royalty represented, but I met this Queen over by Norway. a "haunted tunnel" set up for Halloween activities within the park (Traumatica - the big Fright party is a separately ticketed event and does not include most of the park) Europa is one of those parks that's so lovely, it's easy to forget you're actually in a theme park. I'd held it off long enough. . so I noodged the group I was with to ride my *favorite* dark ride at Europa, it's over in Russia, and it's lovingly called by fans "Bench: the ride" the operator is giving me that look because we were literally the only ones in the queue for it, and it was walk on every time I rode it. but I love it so, and i hope they never get rid of this stupid ride. whee! frozen / dead king of the north? Never quite figured it out, but I love it. Russia is kinda close to Holland. . so next stop HAD to be Piraten in Batavia - the park's Pirates of the Caribbean style ride. It had completely burned down in 2018. and was rebuilt from the ground up to reopen in 2020. and it's still amazing. this is all in the queue line! bewbs. and a wonderful photo op outside too. Arrrrghh! a pirate themed Stilt walker was over here. and tho i tend not to ride Teacups rides? they had wrapped their Koffiekopjes ride completely and made it "spooky". . so we had to check it out. TPR Ready to ride. looked like they had just hung some spooky pics on the walls. but once the ride started? lasers, fog, some lights - it was really a lot of fun. and an easy thing to do for Halloween by any park. starting to get hungry, so we decided to head to find some food. . . but found a food fight instead, with the angry corn display in one of the nice grassy areas. with Schweizer Bobbahn just above us? of course we ended up going to the Swiss area. it was time for Raclette! one of the very best reasons to visit this park. yummmmmmmmm pumpkin bug has got back! and since right here? of course gonna ride Schweizer Bobbahn before leaving. It's a Mack Bobsled, and is a lot of fun, tho my favorite part are the wood carvings in the station. and sorta next door to it? the Matterhorn Blitz wild mouse, that also has a wonderful queue with some really basic but great animatronics in the queue. whee!!! to be continued. . .

dinner was in the Colosseo buffet - basically all you can eat Brazillian style, as well as a la carte items a peek at the menu after dinner, it was time for the TPR snack exchange! we took over a hallway in the hotel for the Speed Puzzle contest, and set up favorite snacks that folks bring to share with the rest of the group. and then it was time for the puzzle challenge. we worked in teams (I teamed with Chris), and we had to solve a puzzle that was created for the contest by William for us. of course he kept it themed, and the puzzle was Olympia Looping. it was so much harder than it looked like it would be - especially when competing against others. here's what our puzzle looked like when the winner was called. and a pic of the winner's complete puzzle. sorry I can't recall who the winners were - was it Hans' team? Someone speak up and remind me they got a cool trophy tho. and then it was time to clean up and hit the bed. it had been a long day, and tomorrow was our first (of two) full days at Europa Park.

after a bit of a break. . continuing on with last year's Oktoberfest trip! (i know, I know. . . but whattayagonnado???) Day 6: Leaving Munich and headed to Europa Park! not too early of a check out, but up and out early, saying goodbye to Munich and climbing aboard the buss for the drive to Europa Park (about a 3 1/2 hour drive) Elissa surprised us during the drive with everyone getting a gingerbread cookie medallion to congratulate us on surviving Oktoberfest looking out the window and enjoying the beautiful German countryside these tiny tractors on a transport next to us were adorable! we made a pit stop at a roadside rest area for a lunch break and were rewarded with some beautiful views from the back patio of the Burger King there: and if this hadn't freaked me out so much, I would have bought it. . . FASHION!!! very soon tho, we were arriving at Europa Park! this trip we were staying at the Coloseo - the Roman themed resort . . and it, like the park, was all done up for Halloween. the view out of the front of the hotel, looking at the resort across the street (where I had stayed my prior visit to Europa with TPR), and the back of the Water/coaster ride from Mack. getting to my room. . the view out the window. not of the park this time, but it was really quite lovely, and that street was not noisy at all. simple, but very heavily themed rooms here. I'd expect no less from Europa Park, and they exceeded my expectation. solo room this trip, so no need for the bunk beds. . . but loved the design of them. BRILLIANT placement of Vitruvian Man, making use of the mirror to complete the image. it was around this time that we got a message from Robb - the park (and Robb/Elissa) were surprising us with admittance to the park for the last hour of operation (if we wanted) and some ERT on Voltron, the newest coaster. of course, I think pretty much everyone wanted, and we all met in the lobby and headed over to the resort entrance to go into the park. the park is HEAVILY decorated with over 1 million pumpkins (I recall them telling me) - and after Halloween, guests are encouraged to take pumpkins home with them! it was chilly, but that didn't stop people from riding the flume - newly open and rebuilt after a fairly recent fire took out almost the whole ride the prior summer. where would we head? we had just under an hour before we were supposed to meet up at Voltron. so many of us headed towards Wodan (one of the best wooden coasters in the world) and Blue Fire. Splash battle wasn't popular this late in the day - and at this temp.. but still get some great pics of the park's incredible theming. the main entrance to Wodan (and there is a free haunt back there too, for those that don't want to pay the upcharge for Traumatica - which was worth EVERY PENNY by the way). But that's what that smoke is from, the free haunt. it really is such an amazing coaster, and the theming in the queue is great as well. happy TPR folks, about to ride Wodan! Christopher loved it! so did I ! following the arc of the park, to head to Voltron, we had to pass Blue Fire. so of COURSE! again, happy TPR folks about to go on Blue Fire I do like this coaster a lot. . that last heartline roll tho? that part I don't care for. having just ridden a clone of it in China, can confirm, yeah, I don't like that last heartline roll. LOL passing by the Blue Fire entrance again after riding. . yeah, they have blue sheep on the roof. why? Europa Park! that's why theming *everywhere* and shortly, we were standing in front of Voltron. . . it's quite intimidating right out front. it was right near closing time for the park, hence why not a lot of folks around in these pics. and you really can't tell how long it is. . it is a long ride capturing Euro Mir and Voltron trains in the same pic. Sadly, I think I just saw something about Europa will be removing Euro Mir to replace it with a new coaster. gahhh!!! TPR is ready to ride Voltron! Yay!!! after our rides, the park allowed us to peek into the main queue line and snap some pics, and observe the "singing" Tesla Coils that trigger while folks wait in line. it was so cool to have this opportunity. what did I think of Voltron ? it's really intense. . . I liked it a lot, but I wasn't able to ride every train during our surprise ERT. . .I did every 3rd train. in particular, the "wing" seats were the most intense. . .it's good tho! especially that "turntable / launch" section that is hidden, and then you realize the ride isn't over and you haven't returned to the station. after our rides, we headed back to the hotel, as we had a buffet dinner planned, and a 1st - a TPR speed puzzling competition, organized by William. loved the theming in the park tho, and kept stopping for pics. "Angry Corn" more angry corn!