Europa Park Discussion Thread

[euromir]

Something new at "Alpenexpress"!

[FilmoreISnAZN]

^That is awesome! I love when parks do little effects, such as that, that I believe make significant improvements in the theming. One of my favorites is the steam effect on the Expedition: Everest trains. It really is an insignificant effect, but it makes such a massive impact on immersing the riders into the theme. Just brilliant.

[DJeXeL]

Not a huge fan of powered coasters but Arthur does look really good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source

 

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/p180x540/1509002_624590437624090_3758282164167801312_n.jpg

[_koppen]

This thing just looks so great!

 

 

 

Source

[rcjp]

Looks good. And makes a kind of funny noise too.

[tooooobbe]

Im planning a trip for Europa park this year. We are currently choosing of going in july or late september.

 

How bad would the lines be during summer peak season? Does it change alot if we would go on a weekday?

 

How would the lines be in late september (both weekday and weekend)?

 

 

Edit: also wondering about the opening hours. At their homepage it says 09-18 but extenden during peak season. What weeks/days are considered peak season and how long does the park stay open during this days?

Edited April 23, 2014 by tooooobbe

[FreeFaller]

July would be one of the worst months to visit Europa Park, because all the schools have holidays. Late September should be way better and I would suggest to visit the park on a weekday!

[simon8899]

I visited on weekdays September two years ago and was a charm. Lines were below 20 mins generally, Single Rider on Blue Fire and Wodan around 0-5 mins. Last year I visited on a Sunday and was okay - maybe because was there on a slightly showery day - but EP offers enough shows and darkrides to keep one occupied even in inclement weather. If you are into food do not miss the Balthasar Castle.

 

I would recommend to stay in one of the great resort hotels which offer early entry to selected areas of the park. Alternatively I would recommend Freiburg which offers a historic postcard ready city center and enough for all wine, beer and schnaps enthusiasts - train from Freiburg to Ringsheim with synchronized Bus to EP is very easy.

 

EDIT: Even on the showery Sunday in September opening times were extended to 20:00, look out for signs "Closing Time" throughout the park around 14-15h. Extended times include most shows and restaurants.

[_koppen]

Interesting new video, where their is talks of a new thrill coaster (I hope for a Mack full scale inverted ride with inversions) as well as a free fall ride.

 

Any germans who can translate more specifically?

 

[simon8899]

On Freefall Tower: They have some design ideas and there will be ride in the future - but can take some years - "up to 10 years". They want to design a special tower that is unique from other manufacturers and caters a bigger audience as they think current towers are quite expensive and cater only a small audience.

 

Waterpark: Is in the paperwork process with German authorities. The plans are fixed and IF they get the GO it might be finished in 2016 - at latest 2017. It will be mostly indoor and a unique to Europe attraction.

 

On Mega-Coaster: No, this was an April Fools Day joke! There is new coaster in early planning stage - but no more information will be available in the near future.

[tooooobbe]

Thanks for the replies to my questions. If anyone been there during peak weeks please discribe the queques.

[Kooky]

^ EuropaPark is my homepark and in the past i was there in july, august and decided not to go there again... i think the baddest month is in august and till the 13th. of september, because at this time the state baden-württemberg has sommer-holidays, this normally the most crowded time... and because the rest of germany, swiss(ca. 1 hour driving distance) and france(border 20 minutes driving distance) have holidays in july this is a very crowded month, too. So if you have the possiblity, you should go after the 15th. of september.

Another hint is that often the mondays are not so packed, wednesday is the baddest day because many french people go there, too. So in the holidays it is often one of the most crowded days.

 

So normally on these days you will have a full day. Queing time will be between 30 mins on little rides and up to 1 and a half hour on the main attractions on really crowded days. On really extreme days you get queues up to 2-3 hours at wodan.

Bluefire has normally a very good capacity... So normally queues won´t go over more than one hour. The same for SilverStar.

Low Capacity rides that should ridden in the morning (after opening) are the wild mouse "Matterhorn Express" and the water coaster "Poseidon" which is especially on hot days a very famous ride and then maybe "Wodan".

 

I would suggest starting with them both and then walking straigtly to the back of the park to Wodan and BlueFire (if you are coming from the main entree). And then walk forward in the oposite direction of the masses coming from the front. EP really pushes the crowds into the attractions as no other park do that i know. So even on the fullest day i got all main attractions ridden and many of them even two times.

If the park is crowded they open normally at least till 8:00pm, if it is extremly crowded the sometimes open till 9:30pm.

 

And as a hint: if you have a cellphone with internet you can check the queue lines of the rides within the smartphone app. But it just works when you are inside the park. For example often the smaller coasters like EuroMir and EuroSat have short lines after 2:00-3 pm because they are more in the front. Hope that will help

[simon8899]

If you have to go in the heat of the holidays try single rider lines on Blue Fire and Wodan as EP manages them with high effeciency. As said get to the back of the park first - you can do that by boarding the Monorail over the main entrance and exit at the Spain station from which it is a short walk to iceland and its two coasters. As crowds kicked in I wlaked over doing Atlantica and then going to the front via Austria - ride the Powered Coaster - and then hit France with Silver Star. Walk from France to Greek and hit Poseidon at lunch time were crowds drop. At about 3pm when the major crowds hit the rides again go to lunch - if you like self-service hit the Bavarian Beer Garden, if full service Balthasar Castle. On my visists I also found that the Matterhorn Blitz had quite doable lines in the evening. Plan for last rides in Iceland - coasters operate up until closing time but many visitors head back to the entrance early.

 

And if you like beer order the Erdinger Urweisse - a wheat beer with traditional "in bottle fermentation".

[euromir]

2 days ago i filmed The final trains of Arthur. They're really nice!

[DanJB]

We're visiting Europa from June 21-23 and had expected it to be quiet, as it's just after the Whitsun holiday, but before the summer holidays. However, looking at the EP website, the hotels are fully booked on the monday night. Any thoughts on why this is, and how busy we can expect it to be?

[euromir]

-

Edited March 22, 2015 by euromir

[PVA62]

^That's terrible news. I wonder what exactly happened.

[simaticable]

Rough translation is that two workers were injured when one of the trains hit them while it was performing a test run. One worker is critically injured while the other has minor injuries. The park has not released any details on the accident.

[PVA62]

^The article is a little confusing (most likely just the translation) but the subtitle says that one of the injuries ended up being fatal? I hope that is wrong though.

[Hhappy]

^ not yet fatal, but more like critical injury and the person is in critical condition (but still alive at the time the article was published)

Edited May 28, 2014 by Hhappy

[linearinduction]

Sounds like another instance of a failure to Lock Out/Tag Out. Very sad.

[jray21]

That's too bad. Hopefully, the employee makes it out ok.

Edited May 28, 2014 by jray21

[DJeXeL]

^^While lock-out/tag-out procedures are critically important when working on an attraction, we can't assume that lack of this was the cause. Do we have any ride operators from the park on the boards that can elaborate on how the parks Ride Access procedures work?

[linearinduction]

^ If you are in an area where you can be struck by a train it is. The first thing I ever did when inspecting a ride was lock out the ride. It's still incredibly sad and another important reminder to always lock out/tag out. That's what I told my ops everyday single day, even the ones I worked with for many many years.

[DJeXeL]

^I agree, however keep in mind that there are some things that maintenance needs to do while the attraction is running. 2 parks that I've worked at call them "running repairs." Granted no running repairs should be within the ride envelope (In ride area? Yes. In actual ride path? No. ) however if he wandered (for whatever reason) into the ride path then he may be at fault. Until the findings of the investigation are released, we won't truly know.