Kooky
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European Trip Planning
Kooky replied to abovethesink's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Trip One: South-Germany First day: Arrival at Swiss Zurich or Basel Airport, drive between 1,5-2,5h to Europa Park and check in a hotel there. Second day: Enjoy "EuropaPark", at the evening after park clöosing, drive about 2h to the Park "Tripsdrill" and stay at a hotel nearby. Third day: Two smaller but nice parks - visit Tripsdrill for half a day, to do the main attractions and than make an one hour drive to "Holiday park" and ride the main attractions there. At evening take take a two hour drive to Phantasialand and book there a hotel. Fourth day: Visit "Phantasia Land" and enjoy the day. On the evening take the car on a 2h drive to a hotel near "Walibi Belgium", book it for maybe two days. Fifth day: Enjoy your stay at Walibi Belgium nd your second night in the Hotel. Sixth day: Drive to the airport in Brussels (30min) or enjoy Brussels for the morning before doing this and than fly home Here is the link to drive on maps in a hol ( so all stations) on maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vd57NmjUU2gGbrgTA If Splitflight is to expensive may landing in Frankfurt, could the trick, too. But this will add a longer drive at the first day (about 3,5 hours) and the last day, about 3 hours Positive: - A lot of nice parks with nice attractions. -Everyday about 2 hour drives to the next park. negative: - Split flight: You land in Swiss and fly back from Brussels, most times this is more expensive. - You need to rent the car from a company that operates in all 3 countries ( i think "sixt" and "hertz" are the biggest ones) - it will be kind a of exhausting trip. No time to handle the Jetlag, a lot of 2 hour drives. Another Trip could be one that some above suggested: Landung in Cologne: Visit Phantasia Land and than maybe Walibi Belgieum and 1-2 Park in the Netherlands (Toverland, Plopsaland dePanne, Walibi Holland, Efteling etc.) and maybe on the return Trip visit another German Park like (Hansa or HeidePark) before flying back from Cologne. The third and maybe most relaxing and sightseeing trip would be: Fly to Paris- France, take the bus from the Airport to Park Asterix, Book a hotel there and stay there for 1-2 daysand enjoy the park. Than take public transport or rent a car to go to Disneyland Paris and maybe book a hotel there or in the city and visit 2-3 days the DisneyParks there. Maybe enjoy the city a bit, but not go to the most touristy places. Or if you really have to visit the Eiffel-Tower, be prepared for touristy hell. I would suggest enjoying a smaller city near Paris the get something from France. This is most chilling Trip but you will only visit two Parks, which are High Quality ones, but France is quiet expensive (but i think still cheaper than the US). But be aware that Paris tourists areas are full of scams and overpriced everything.... -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Hey guys, just had a nice day at the park and want to share my pictures with you... And it even includes some pictures from their new baby. Have fun! -
TPR at Jardin d'Acclimatation and Paris!
Kooky replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Can't wait for your reports of my home park EuropaPark. I am often there these days... So maybe I am lucky to meet you. -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Coasters: as others mentioned before, go to Wodan first (has the slowest queues since it has no block section mid track). But Wodan is getting a little rough and sometimes gives me headaches (like EuroMir). So take some headache medicine with you is my advice. Blue fire next, because it is nearby, but it has a fast moving queues and should stay at about 20 minutes wait time on Sun-/Mondays. Next one I would visit Arthur, since this has quite a low capacity, too. And it's a family ride, so more people go there and the lines come rarely under 20 Minutes till the park closes. Between 10:30-12 am is good time than to go to Silver star and CanCan-Coaster, since the crowds which enter through the entrance move to the back of the park. The other coasters normally have waiting times between 5-15 minutes, if you do not walk with the main crowds in which their waiting time will spike up. If you quickly want to check the queues, i use this homepage, because it shows waiting times better than the parks app and you don't need gps: https://www.wartezeiten.app/europapark/ - you can even look at the waiting times if the last days/weeks/ months, if you want to get a better knowing if the rides queuing times. About Virtual queues: you can queue at one ride, but you have to scan your ticket in the app. You should do this in the morning, since they are gone quickly... Don't waste it for "Piraten von Battavia" since it normally has no or short lines. I closed my gps and the app to save the battery of my phone, when I reopened the app without GPS on, my virtual queue was cancelled - be aware of this. For food: there is the castle near the entrance, which is a nice and more quiet area - good for relaxing and get some good food. The Biergarten is there to, but it has not much variety, but it will stay open one hour, after the park closes and sometimes has a German Volks band performing there, so if you want some beer this could be the place. I think the entrance area stays open till later in the evening too. Hotel guest can take the monorail above the entrance back to the hotels in evening (the entrance of the monorail is closed but hotel guest can enter the monorail through the exit). I think the 4D cinema there is open in the evening, too. Playing some normal movies. But if you want to try some other food, nearly every country of the park has a (mostly good) restaurant with the countries typical food. So in Switzerland you can eat "Raclette Cheese", inside the swiss village. Near Poseidon/Greek they have a Greek restaurant, Spain (Spanish), Finnland if remember correctly, is good for fish and so on... But be aware, like others mention they always have a fast food restaurant with burgers in each area,too. The restaurants are often a little bit more hidden inside a building, while the fast food stands are always in sight. Most people i know loved the Fish-Burgers/Sandwich in Finland. Another nice to try, is the "Food-Loop" Restaurant, where your food is delivered through small rollercoasters-style cars to your table. Food is just okay, but it is a interesting concept... It is in the glas-pyramid near EuroMir. Overall, EuropaPark has a lot of little small hidden dark rides, but most of them like "SnoriTouren" are made for kids, but they still can be fun. I liked the small laser maze in England, there is not much - just a themed room with smoke and some laser beams... They count the time and how often you touched a Lazer... But is very small, not await to much. At the exit of Poseidon is a nice mad house "Fluch der Kassandra" which is easy to miss. I don't know much about the shows, but when I was younger I enjoyed the show in the Italian area very much. It had kind of mixture of artist, art, magician and dancing. It is near the haunted house "Geisterschloss", in the building to right of it. The 4D cinema is ok, depends on the movie which is shown. The others shows I never visited. I think the show in the Spanish area, a kind of rodeo stadium, is mainly a horse/action show. Than they have a ice skating show near Poseidon. In England there is a theater style show. If I want to relax, i always do the small monorail, or one of the smaller boat rides. Or take the train to the front of the park and relax in the castle park. About the wet-rides: Atlantica and Poseidon are quiet tame, you most times don't get really wet. But in the rafting ride and the log flume "Tiroller Wildwasserbahn" you can get quiet wet, if you are unlucky - but there are always human-dryers outside the rides, were you can get dried for 1-2€. But now it starts to get hot here in Germany, and normally you will dry in minutes. I forgot the name of the hotel, but I had a good "all you can eat" buffet, which was 2 years ago about 30-35€ (before COVID, war and inflation) for a person. It was the hotel with the lighthouse. And I had a good cocktail at the Coloseo-Hotel Bar. In the evening they have a nice show in Coloseo, too. And if you like water parks, don't forget Europe Park just has build the big water park "Rulantica" nearby, maybe a good possiblity for relaxing in the evening or check out the slides. Maybe they a have Combi-Ticket for hotel guest. The VR-experience "Yullbe" is not worth the money... They have a small experience for 12€ which is like 5 minutes with a oculus quest and another for 35€ which is like 20 minutes and a walking adventure. But if you know/tried VR before or if you have an OculusQuest, you experienced most it offers. If they would price it fair 3-5€ for the small experience and 8-12€ for the long, it would be just okay - but still not a must do. Before spending 35€ in Yullbe, visit Rulantica which costs about the same. But I never tried the VR-coaster, maybe they are better. But if you get VR-sick not suggest riding them, but I think they are priced more reasonable. Good to know: In the main-season (June to mid Sept. & during the German Autumn holidays around Halloween) the Park decides how long it is opened after the length of the queues of the park... So for example today most of the major rides had 20 minutes wait or less and was quiet full - so between 3-4 pm they will place signs at the rides when the park closes. Today they opened 1 hour longer, to 19:00(7pm)... So between 20-30 minutes, it mostly opens 1 hour longer, 30-40 minutes queues - 2 hours, above 40 (only in holidays) 3-4 hours. So the park really makes sure, you have enough time. One time i was on the most crowded day of the year, with a huge traffic jam in front of the park and some coaster had waiting times between 40-50 minutes... Even than we could ride all major rides and many even two times. And the park opened till 10pm, so we could do some night rides. They really know how to push the people through the rides - really great operation. If you see signs with times showing up in the ride stations, they are the closing times of the queues. So the queues/entrances of the rides will be closed at this time everywhere in the park. Another tip: Tiroler Wildwasserbahn, Atlantica, Alpenexpress and the other smaller rides, most times have 1Minute lines in the evening 40-30 Minutes before closing, because everyone wants to ride the bigger rides before the park closes. This i use to get the smaller rides done I missed or i enjoy. Another tip, check everything: in every building or pathway which is open to enter is something: most times it is a shop or restaurant, sometimes there are exhibitions, small animatronics or little (animatronic-)shows. Some pathways lead to nice point of views - for example in the swiss village you can walk on some balconies from which you get a nice view on the "Schweizer Bobbahn" coaster, or you can walk under the tracks of BlueFire near the Wodan entrance. When no people walk somewhere (empty stairs/walkways), it is often a good possibility to check out what is inside and get some relaxing times from the crowds. -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
The first beautiful train for the new Eurosat "Cancan Coaster" arrived: Source: https://epfans.info/?id=4919&lang=&PHPSESSID=17406022e83306729edbd18810ee5859 -
Energylandia Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to BDG's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Official video from testing: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Please do not post things on our forum unless you actually know what you are talking about. Last time I checked, the coaster at Margate in the UK looks NOTHING like Wodan. Don't be like Trump and spread Fake News. We are better than that. Sorry, I should check that before posting, you are right. I life in a city close to the park and had a barbecue when all of our towns firefighters drive by in direction to the park. A friend just said that there are pictures of Wodan burning too. I already wondered how this could happen because Wodan is a good amount away of the pirates ride. I should have taken a good look at the picture than would have seen it is not Wodan. So sorry for that overhasty post. Just sad to see a part of my childhood in my home park burning down. But glad no one got serious injuries. -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
On Twitter are pictures from Wodan wooden coaster burning too.... Sad day -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
The black track you see in the picture is indeed the old track. They mentioned that they need to replace small parts of the track at one time to maintain the static of the the construction. But they will replace all the track piece by piece. And yes it was necessary because the ride was planned for about 20 years of lifetime and I think some track parts needed to get refurbished. And they add a second station for VR rides, so they have now two rides in one. They will use most of the original layout but they said they will add two new elements. In one interview one of the Mack's even mentioned one thing will be worls first. But not sure if he means an element on the ride or something about the theming (maybe an 360 degree projection). -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
There is a nice german report of visiting the construction area of the eurosat with nice pictures from inside: https://ep-board.de/viewtopic.php?p=185394#p185394 -
My latest latest workshop item. Enjoy! SkyRipper - this extreme coaster is high adreline rush for crazy people. A complete coaster around a huge tower. It is inspired by the SkyScrapper Tower Coasters which are planned to be build in the US. But i decided it to create it as workshop-item. So there is very little theming, cause i needed all parts to get it running. Most of the supports from the Tower are completly hand placed. So have fun riding it and rate if you like it (or maybe dislike it)! Steam-Link: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858735799 Here is the Video: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] and some pics:
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Thx... i tried to get as much as possible into this ride with the 2000 pieces blueprint limit. Still hoping that they will make this limit higher (at least 3000 pieces would be great ). And i really hope they are adding more theming parts and animatronics... they are really limited at the moment. Or maybe SDK-Tools for modders would be great
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My first full dark ride for Planet Coaster. Worked hard to get it done with the 2000 pieces limit (we need more..... PLEEEEASSE [haha] ) . But i got it work to get a good amount of triggered scenes into the ride. So while i tried to get a good amount of detail inside, i had nearly no pieces left to do some outside theming... so it looks a bit ugly on the outside but i think it will spare a lot of work to get a cool dark ride in the park and just need to theme it on the outside so that it fits nicely.... have fun trying it: UPDATE: Fixed the bug that caused the workshop item to be "obstructed" all the time when you try to place it. Should work now fine Feedback is always appreciated Onride: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] Steam-Workshop Link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=821772360 Some pics: and some pics from the early stage to take a look an the track layout and on some scenes before the roof was put on the building:
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^ that is right! It will be a kind of self controllable powered motorbike coaster with fast acceleration (up to 1.2gs) and can reach a top speed of 60 km/h (ca.38 miles per hour). It has a new developed system which controlles speeds via gears and a gear rack on the rails. The gear rack is designed to has low attrition and to be easy replaceable. And the system is even usable as transport system for factories. If you want to see the prototyp of the factory version take a look into this PDF from the manufacturer... It will help to understand how this will work (trains on page 1, gear rack on rails on page 2): www.hebezeuge-foerdermittel.de/sites/dev.hebezeuge-foerdermittel.de/files/HF0415_Foerdersystem-fuer-schwere-Lasten_web_0.pdf
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Great pics and report as always... nice to know that you are still like our European Parks so much. And little fun fact about River Quest: Did you know that it had a kind of Freefall/DROP-Element in it, but it was deactivated because of some safety reasons from the German-TÜV. It was the last drop... this one was contructed to stop the boat and then fall down, but if i remember right the missing safety belts in the boats made it to risky that someone could get hurt. Here is one pic i found which shows the mechanism: pic source: https://www.phantafriends.de/topic/15-mystery-river-quest/
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Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
If you are looking into the picture gallery of the source, than you will realize, that the last picture shows a water park four times as big at it is now. The original plan was to build it with two more outdoor and two more indoor areas. They announced first that it is planned to build the world biggest water park, but later they changed the plans to start with a smaller sized Park and expand it over the years. -
Thanks. Yeah i got it enclosed allready... was a lot of rock work. But it still need some details on it. And i ran into the problem that the supports run trough everything. So it wasn`t possible to build rides on top of it. Still some work needs to be done on some details, but when it is ready, i will upload a video maybe this weekend. But till then i can add some project photos from working on it some times last week. But it still missing details on the mountain and maybe some rides around the mountain... so here are some more pics: A little bit of details added: in this one i added a smoke effect in the curve before the treasure cave. But cause you don`t can´t controll speed in a good amount of the alpha you are racing a bit fast in this part. So it will be hardly to realize that it is there. In this pic i started adding rocks for closing the main-lifthill. It really looks great during night time. Another small detail added in that pic. I decided that the area in the lower left corner of the image was a bit empty. So i added this small red mini-vulcano thingy to that sceneand it has a bit of smoke effect, too. Another detail that will be hidden and which is just barely visible during the ride... cause you are a bit fast at that part. What can´t be seen in this pic is that i moved it back a bit some time later, because it was to close for a headchopper. Two lights giving it the right ambient look. So here the rock-work is one quarter done. Still a lot work to do. The next day i nearly finished to completly enclose the ride, but still some wholes in there. But it is starting to look really nice... even on daylight! This is the next screenshot i`ve done... it some time after completing it. And started to build a vulcano on top if it. This is why it maybe get a name change for final ride on the weekend. Will end this short update with this detail of the vulcano... hope you had some fun.
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Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
From a local newspaper: EuropaPark has started to build a new main attraction for 2017. The building will rise directly next to the entrance, next to the german street area. It will be 15m high and the building will be build first. The parts for the attraction will be added later through the opened roof. The attraction will be suitable for the whole family. What exactly they are going to build in this is not known. source: http://www.bo.de/nachrichten/nachrichten-regional/europa-park-startet-bauarbeiten-grossattraktion-fuer-2017 Let`s start speculating -
I just worked two days on a darkride with the working title "Return to the Mystery Cave". Now the foundation is layed, all darkride-scenes are set up and i want to show you some pics before i am going to put the whole thing into a mountain. I tried to get a bit away from the pirate theme and wanted it to look more like a jungle/mayan-theme. But cause of the limited props i had to use what is there at the moment. The pics were showing the actual state: - track is layed completly. - darkride scenes are nearly final, just some minor glitches. - surrounding theming is nearly completed what is left to do: - finish theming - fixing some onride headbangers - enclose the ride (build a full mountain/mine out of rocks) - adding more/other rides So here my pics of the project: It all starts here... Entrance and station, still missing a lit bit on extra detail I tried to cover up the whole entrance in a fitting way I wanted the queue to look like a real one. Station... this i were the ride starts. It has a nice little drop with a little headchopper effect Pre-Lift section with some theming A look back from the first block-section in front of the lift. A bit theming and with a small passthrough behind the station This is the lifthill... it will be fully covered up in a mountain/mine-like thingy. It will have some nice lights on the side and a big bell at the end which got some red lights to get a bit more atmosphere in there. At the top of the lift will be the first animatronic scene... this is were mine stuff is happening and barrels are rolling The secound scene is the musicians scene... maybe this is how they stayed in a good mood during the difficult treasure search Tried to get some extra lightning in there and a few extra details in form of props After this scene you drop into a cave with a nice headchopper effects in from of hanging plants (forget to bring it into the photo) and start to climb the second little lifthill Shortly after the short outdoor part/curve, you are driving through this tunnel to a destroyed ship-wreck... this is tease what is comming Closer look on wreck with some creepy lightning Time for the big scene... first what you will see when you enter the big cave is a scene with tentacles fighting a boat. It will have some water effects and canons shooting. to whole part of the scene from a top view. Had a hard time to cover up the border of the fountain to let it look like water... but found this solution working quite nice Another POV Then your travel continous directly in the front of a big monster living in that cave... guarding the treasures hidden in the mountain. Added some lightning here to, to get a better effect. Just looking grandios... (like how the lights look in this game, really awesome) At the end of the scene, some tentacles nearly miss your vehicle. After these frightening scenes you end up in the family friendly coaster outdoor part. You travel through the jungle around an old mayan temple which seems to leay next to the mine. Some random jungle theming from this part. And another view. Did i mention that you can buy great mayan food in the temple? Shop on Top... there is no better place to eat than next to some track where a coaster train passes. Time for the third last short lifthill with a nice drop into the treasure cave entrance. It passes under the first lifthill and will get a littlebit of outdoor view in the future, while the rest will be mostly covered with rocks when finished And the final part. You will end up in a treasure cave, with all the glamour you ever looking for. Still some amount of theming missing here... but think it will look fine when its en-caved The final helix end directly into the brake-run into the station... Hope you enjoyed the sneak peak. Finishing some nice aerial pics to get a be knowledge of the whole ride. So PlanetCoaster Alpha is really, really great, alot of fun allready and has a lot of potential.... ....can´t wait to get more stuff. And graphics in the night with lights are superb What a wonderful piece of software
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Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
thought the same... i knew about the spinning looping coaster in japan, but i thought a full looping coaster with spinning effect is crazy or impossible. But it seems an "eyeopener" . Here is what Mack wrote in the description of the video on their youtube-channel: -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
here is a video of Mack testing the new spinning prototyp car on BlueFire, seems to be a lot of fun: -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I tried a lot of VR and like everyone says, you have to try it by yourself. It doesn't just show a video. It is an 3D-Environment that gives you the feeling that you are in there. The best way to explain is if you are high up on a tower and look down - the feeling you get is the same you get when you look in a virtual abyss. You get that weird feeling that you could drop there. So with this coaster for example: They put you in a fantasy world with a wild turbulent ride... and because of the virtual reality you can change the heights, were in the real world the coaster just drops some meters in the virtual reality you can make the drop much higher and faster... 50m for example. And you are feeling like you are in there... together with dragons and other stuff. That will open possibilities like Special-Effects in movies - but they are not on a screen, they are around you... just everywhere (imagine a car flying over your head after an explosion). And you can even fake much more: For example they used a banking change from left to right to simulate a barrel-roll. Your inner sensors won´t realize that you haven't made a full overhead. Or they used some bumps in the track to simulate a slight jump in the scenes. You really have to try it by yourself... it really is a game changer for themeparks About that: I work a lot with VR and it is normal.... When you play or try something that is moving in VR most people will get sick - this is why i don`t think it will work with most of the games and why VR is more made for Experiences. Because when the camera isn't moving you won't get sick. But it is different if you are on a moving chair... or a coaster you are moving like the virtual world that you see, so there is no problem for the brain. Because when you see the world banking sideways, your body does this,too. And this is the reason why most people get sick: if you see a virtual moving and banking sideways but your inner sensors think that you don´t move - it will make people dizzy -
Europa Park Discussion Thread
Kooky replied to Ultracoasters's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
i haven´t found a thread about VR-coasters, but i think it is really too intresting tohide it from the community. So cause of Europa Park and Mack rides supported the students by researching and building a company, think this will be the best place to post it! Since some students and Mack tested VR on a BlueFire they started testing more different experiences on most of their coasters... and it seems to be awesome. So they now seem to have build a company which creates ride VR experiences: So in the mean time, it seems they reached the point were the figured out most problems like safety, synchronization and a lot more to get a great experience... And so they showed a lot more videos from their first tests: - their first experience, fantasy-scenario on BlueFire: - a flying islands experience on Pegasus: - an underwater experience on BlueFire: - a space mine ride on BlueFire: - and a cartoonish lokking eastern/asian town flyby on BlueFire: Like seen in the first video, they seemed to have already tested it a on some more coasters like EuropaParks powered coaster "Alpenexpress" and on your beloved "EuroMir". And there are a lot of pics from other projects like a "Tron"-like ride, a fruity experience and even an interactive space battle: It is really interesting and i can´t wait to test it in real life since i am huge coaster fan and i am working with the oculus rift dk2 on my own at my university. And now i just read some rumors that they maybe will renew their coaster "EuroSat" (which was often said since years on fan meetings) but then with a VR-experience! That really would be great because EuroSat was my first big Coaster as child in my home Park "Europa Park" and i really hope that this will be true. So can´t wait what we will see with VR "mixed Reality rides" (as i call it) in the future If you want to know more about the project there are a lot more pictures and infomations about it on their homepage. All the videos and images are from the same source: www.vr-coaster.com EDIT: There is one more short video from their powered coaster on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/europapark/videos/10152803396336440/