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Europa Park Discussion Thread


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On 11/20/2020 at 12:42 PM, Nrthwnd said:

Interesting that they've put some English dialogue here and there. Very lush sets, too.

Isn't it, though? We're lucky to speak such a common international language. I'm still apprehensive of traveling overseas, because even though English is so common, I still worry about the language barrier or if it's perceived as rude to not speak the language. I haven't had the balls to make the trek, yet.

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^ Don't worry too much, about overseas traveling. The years I spent doing TPR tours overseas (thank you Robb & Elissa!), I found that if you were just polite, learned a few phrases (like "please" and "thank you"?)  it all works out. Also, having a few actual phrases you might use more often ("where is the bathroom?" for example) helps, too.

If you're going to spend a lot of time (and money) on an overseas trip with park tickets, hotels, transport.... learning a bit of the language will go a long way for you. 😀

But rest assured, in all the countries I have been to, there is usually somebody who speaks enough English, to help you out.

 

P.S. ...... See Below V ...... (She does, she really does!)

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15 hours ago, prozach626 said:

Isn't it, though? We're lucky to speak such a common international language. I'm still apprehensive of traveling overseas, because even though English is so common, I still worry about the language barrier or if it's perceived as rude to not speak the language. I haven't had the balls to make the trek, yet.

Don't worry about it seeming rude to not know the language, nobody in Europe thinks that. We have so many different languages here in Europe so nobody can expect everyone to know all of them ;) I for example do not expect anyone speaking Norwegian when they come to Norway, English is fine :) 

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20 hours ago, Norwegian coasterfan said:

Don't worry about it seeming rude to not know the language, nobody in Europe thinks that. We have so many different languages here in Europe so nobody can expect everyone to know all of them ;) I for example do not expect anyone speaking Norwegian when they come to Norway, English is fine :) 

Funny story. I once bought a book called "Just enough Scandinavian" which was basically a travel language book for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The intro to the book stated "Most people in these countries speak really good English so don't worry about the rest of the book!"

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  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello all!

Visiting Europa Park on a Sunday in early October. Still on fence about staying on property, but issue is that my sister and her husband will be joining us and they don't want to stay on property, so we'd be by ourselves for first hour and the three rides that we want to ride that open early (Blue Fire, Pirates in Batavia, and Alpene Express)... they'll likely want to enjoy later on in day anyway.

So, our plan is to have one day in the park (I wish we could have more, just the way the trip is shaping up). I looked through all of the attractions and bolded the ones I would consider must-rides and left un-bolded the rides that would be nice to experience, as well. Looking for opinions on this plan, whether it's feasible to enjoy these rides. Suggested strategies are much appreciated. We can move quickly in the AM and try to knock out some of the big hitters if that makes sense and then retrace our steps and hopefully hit up most of the major areas.

Adventure Land –

·         Jungle Rafts /African Queen (pick one if at all)

Germany –

·         Jim Button Journey

·         Voletarium

·         Elf Ride / Puppet Boat Ride (do one, if at all)

England –

France –

·         Eurosat (with / without VR) - ride if not long wait

·         Madame Freudenreich Curiosites

·         Tower

·         Silver Star

Greece –

·         Poseidon Coaster

·         Atlantis Adventure

·         Pegasus - ride if short wait

·         Cassandra’s Curse

Grimm’s Fairy Tale Forest –

·         Walkthrough area, no rides

Netherlands –

·         Pirates in Batavia

Ireland –

·         Ba ba Express

Iceland –

·         Wodan

·         Blue Fire

Italy –

·         Ghost Castle -

·         Piccolo Monod – dark ride

·         Volo da Vinci – pedal monorail

Minimoys Kingdom –

·         Arthur

Luxembourg -

Austria –

·         Log Flume

·         Alpine Coaster Enzian

·         Vienna Wave Swing

Portugal –

·         Atlantica Water Coaster - if not long line

Russia

·         Euro Mir

·         Sleigh Ride Snowflake – dark ride ; if walk on

Switzerland –

·         Swiss Bob Run

·         Matterhorn Blitz

Scandinavia –

·         Fjord – Rafting

·         Snorri Touren – dark ride

Spain –

·         Jolumbusjolle

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1 hour ago, Taylor Finn said:

Hello all!

Visiting Europa Park on a Sunday in early October. Still on fence about staying on property, but issue is that my sister and her husband will be joining us and they don't want to stay on property, so we'd be by ourselves for first hour and the three rides that we want to ride that open early (Blue Fire, Pirates in Batavia, and Alpene Express)... they'll likely want to enjoy later on in day anyway.

I cannot possibly overstate how much better your experience will be if you stay onsite.  They have so many options and they run the gamut of price ranges, IIRC..  It looks like all of the local hotels stick in the same price point, as well, so why bother staying off-site?

I've stayed in two of the hotels (Colosseo and Bell Rock) and I've explored each one (pre-2017).  They're all extremely well-themed with tons of amenities. Go for it, you won't regret it.

Here's your ride list with my notes in green -

Quote

Adventure Land –

·         Jungle Rafts /African Queen (pick one if at all) - Skip them both unless you have time and you're bored.

Germany –

·         Jim Button Journey - Skip unless you've got a toddler or you're bored.

·         Voletarium - Didn't exist last time I was there.  It's a flying theatre, use your judgement.

·         Elf Ride / Puppet Boat Ride (do one, if at all) - Both are cute but they're both slow boat rides, so I'd say skip unless you've got the time.

France –

·         Eurosat (with / without VR) - ride if not long wait - Don't you dare skip EuroSAT.

·         Madame Freudenreich Curiosites - It's a slow moving dark ride, Haunted Mansion-style, with dinosaurs and grandmas.  If you're a dark ride fan then definitely hit it, otherwise save it in case you have time.

·         Tower - It's an observation tower.  Personally it's a skip unless I'm very bored and hot.

·         Silver Star - Silver Star sucks and should be blown to smithereens.  I stand by my opinion and it will never change.  It's easily one of B&M's worst rides.

Greece –

·         Poseidon Coaster - You have a strong chance of getting drenched but if you're a fan of this type of ride then don't skip it.

·         Atlantis Adventure - It's a shooting dark ride that felt pretty half-baked.  Meh.

·         Pegasus - ride if short wait - Kicks the crap out of every other kiddie coaster.  Mack designed it to be a Vekoma Roller Skater killer and it is SO MUCH better but never caught on with other parks, unfortunately.  Ride in the back for some surprising forces and airtime.

·         Cassandra’s Curse - It's a mad house.  Great for a hot day but not much else.

Netherlands –

·         Pirates in Batavia - Duh.  Ride it.

Ireland –

·         Ba ba Express - Under construction last time I was there, but it's a kiddie coaster that's like five feet off the ground and goes in an oval.  Pass.

Iceland –

·         Wodan - Solid wooden coaster with great queue theming and fire, ride in front or back.

·         Blue Fire - The best reason to stay on-site.  Who needs coffee when you can ride this five minutes after getting out of bed with zero wait?  It's one of my fave coasters and the final inline twist attempts to eject everyone from the train.  Best ride in the park?  No, but it's in the top two.

Italy –

·         Ghost Castle - It's a great dark ride.  If you're a dark ride fan don't miss it.

·         Piccolo Monod – dark ride - It's cute but not a must-ride.

·         Volo da Vinci – pedal monorail - Pass.

Minimoys Kingdom –

·         Arthur - Without question one of the best dark rides I've been on.  It rivals Disney's best dark rides.

Austria –

·         Log Flume - Great log flume that has a dark ride portion that also interacts with the powered coaster.

·         Alpine Coaster Enzian - Powered coaster with an indoor section, oldest coaster in the park.  Hit or miss, up to you.

·         Vienna Wave Swing - Have you been on a Wave Swinger before?  Cool, no reason to waste your time here.

Portugal –

·         Atlantica Water Coaster - if not long line - One trick pony.  Poseidon is so much better.  Skip this.

Russia

·         Euro Mir - My favorite attraction at the park.  It is delightfully weird and goes completely bugnuts insane in the last half of the ride.  Back row is best, hopefully you end up facing backwards after the final spin.  That last portion full of helices and directional changes is intense as hell.  If I could ride one coaster for the rest of my life, I would ask for it to be Karnan but this would be a close second.

·         Sleigh Ride Snowflake – dark ride ; if walk on - Bench: The Ride.  I'm not kidding.  Skip it unless you want to laugh at your own desicions.

Switzerland –

·         Swiss Bob Run - Smaller bobsled coaster that uses a full train instead of solo cars.  It's fun enough but not worth a line.

·         Matterhorn Blitz - Wild Mouse with an elevator lift.  Skip.

Scandinavia –

·         Fjord – Rafting - Even if you're not a fan of river rapid rides I say give this one a shot.  Hell, any rapids ride in Europe should be ridden because the continent does them correctly.  Germany is just an outlier with this, Phantasialand, and Heide Park.

·         Snorri Touren – dark ride - Didn't exist last time I was there.

Spain –

·         Jolumbusjolle - It's Kolumbusjolle and make sure you ride it.  I skipped it my first visit because it looked like the same Jolly Roger I rode at Six Flags and other parks, but Europa made it so the vehicles spin 180 degrees and shoot cannons, plus projection mapping all around you.  It's way more fun than you'd think!

Here's two more noteworthy rides you didn't mention -

Arena Of Football - Bumper Car Soccer.  Give it a shot, it's a hoot.

Whale Adventures - The best-themed Splash Battle you'll ever see.  I hate Splash Battles but I made sure I rode this one before a crowd showed up so I was able to enjoy the theming without the constant water in the face.

Also here's a video of Kolumbusjolle that proves how awesome it is:

 

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I agree, for me Europa Park is best if you totally immerse yourself in it. The hotel resort is amazing if you stay at Bell Rock or Colosseo because you have four or five of the resort hotels within walking distance so you can walk around in the evening and enjoy everything they have to offer. They're just lovely places to walk around and chill in in the evening.

Why do your sister and her husband not want to stay on site? If they're worried about spending too much time in a theme park, I would say they shouldn't worry, and by trying to cram everything into a day it will actually be less enjoyable for them because you'll just have to rush everything and it will be ride-after-ride and you'll miss out on all the things that make EP special.

My last visit was with 'normal people' and they were worried about 3 days in a theme park, but it wasn't until we got there that they 'got it' and realised the rides were only part of it. Our evenings in the hotels, taking time with lunch, enjoying all the distractions and entertainment elsewhere in the park were among our favourite memories.

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On 6/24/2021 at 4:43 PM, KBrylczyk said:

I cannot possibly overstate how much better your experience will be if you stay onsite.  They have so many options and they run the gamut of price ranges, IIRC..  It looks like all of the local hotels stick in the same price point, as well, so why bother staying off-site?

I've stayed in two of the hotels (Colosseo and Bell Rock) and I've explored each one (pre-2017).  They're all extremely well-themed with tons of amenities. Go for it, you won't regret it.

Here's your ride list with my notes in green -

Here's two more noteworthy rides you didn't mention -

Arena Of Football - Bumper Car Soccer.  Give it a shot, it's a hoot.

Whale Adventures - The best-themed Splash Battle you'll ever see.  I hate Splash Battles but I made sure I rode this one before a crowd showed up so I was able to enjoy the theming without the constant water in the face.

Also here's a video of Kolumbusjolle that proves how awesome it is:

 

 

Thanks for the help here! Wondering what crowds might be like early October on a Sunday? Is it possible to manage rides on all of the rides that are worth riding from your list above? How likely is it that closing time will be pushed back past 6:00? VirtualLine seems like something we definitely want to take advantage of. How many of the six rides offered do you think we could actually get reserved times for during the day?

 

On 6/24/2021 at 7:19 PM, KarlaKoaster said:

I agree, for me Europa Park is best if you totally immerse yourself in it. The hotel resort is amazing if you stay at Bell Rock or Colosseo because you have four or five of the resort hotels within walking distance so you can walk around in the evening and enjoy everything they have to offer. They're just lovely places to walk around and chill in in the evening.

Why do your sister and her husband not want to stay on site? If they're worried about spending too much time in a theme park, I would say they shouldn't worry, and by trying to cram everything into a day it will actually be less enjoyable for them because you'll just have to rush everything and it will be ride-after-ride and you'll miss out on all the things that make EP special.

My last visit was with 'normal people' and they were worried about 3 days in a theme park, but it wasn't until we got there that they 'got it' and realised the rides were only part of it. Our evenings in the hotels, taking time with lunch, enjoying all the distractions and entertainment elsewhere in the park were among our favourite memories.

The trouble is that we are flying into Frankfurt Saturday AM and they are flying into Basel Friday evening. They planned to stay (and we may end up following) in Freiburg im Breisgau because Saturday we planned to explore that town. To stay on property, we would need to either store our luggage somewhere in Freiburg and pick it up Saturday once we're done exploring and bring it up to the on property resort. Or we can just stay in Freiburg and drop our stuff off, sleep there that night and then leave it with them Sunday morning to pick back up on way back from Europa park (looks like my public transit down to Basel needs to go through Freiburg anyway). I would love to have time to do a couple days but we just have a lot on the schedule and amusement parks are definitely primarily a "me" thing. Know we will be there from open to close and will make the most of the one day we have. Any tips or tricks on strategy are much appreciated. VirtualLine?

Thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

As reported by the "Schwarzwälder Bote", there are now concrete indications of the new coaster. According to the report, the local council of Rust has plans of the new ride. These show that it is to be a further developed version of "Big Dipper". The first ride of this type was opened at the Walibi Holland theme park in March 2016 under the name "Lost Gravity".

On this ride, the short trains will use LSM to reach speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour. They said that it will have nearly the same capacity as Silver Star and be shorter than Blue Fire which leads me to believe that the next generation of Big Dipper actually will feature trains instead of the single cars. 

Also, Mack had announced that a new themed area would also be built with the new roller coaster. This is to be built near Greece and Russia (behind Euro-Mir, next to Poseidon). The theme is currently unknown but the rumors have it that it will be themed to Croatia. 

We'll have to wait and see as there's no build permit as by now. 

Nevertheless, I'm excited for what's to come. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know what the park's rain policy is (if coasters stay open or not)?

Cause me and some friends have been trying to go there for quite a bit but the weather forecasts (although they might change very close to the day) are always terrible. Now one of them is leaving and we are thinking of going ahead anyway.

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Some news from the new themed land at Europa-Park: https://www.parkerlebnis.de/europa-park-neue-big-dipper-achterbahn-bauflaeche-bekannt_123430.html

It will be located int he area behind Russia, maybe the radio telescope has to go (according to a tweet from Michael Mack saying that "there could be built better looking things with that steel").
The article says, that it will indeed be a Big Dipper model with an 80 km/h (50 mph) launch.
Throughput should be the same as SIlver Star.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello! One more follow-up question for our visit on Sunday 10/10. Park is due to close at 6:00. How typical is it that they stay open beyond that this time of year? Just trying to see whether I should plan to be in there until 7:00 instead or? Looking at trains that night, is all. Thanks!

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15 hours ago, Taylor Finn said:

Hello! One more follow-up question for our visit on Sunday 10/10. Park is due to close at 6:00. How typical is it that they stay open beyond that this time of year? Just trying to see whether I should plan to be in there until 7:00 instead or? Looking at trains that night, is all. Thanks!

It's all depending on weather and crowds. If it is a sunny day with a lot of people in the park, the park hours may be extended up to two hours.

The park closing time for each day is visible at every ride booth after 2 pm the latest. 

Please note: I heven't been to the park since Covid. German Covid rules vary from town to town and are a lot dumber then in other parts of the world. I'm not sure park hours are extended at the moment.

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^

Okay, interesting. I think I had them extending my park time every visit except days with inclement weather. If there was a rain period throughout the day and a sunny afternoon, they extended it also.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, SharkTums said:

^Lucky! I'm sure it could also do with the fact that we always try to go when it's much less busy so they don't need to extend. 

For sure. We mostly go during weekdays in holidays. That means the minimum hours are rather shortly planned and the park is likely to be cramped. So if the weather is good, it may be prone to get a longer park day.

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  • 6 months later...

I'm looking to go to Germany/Netherlands/Sweden this summer, Europa Park is the main reason for going. Currently I am looking at June 3-20. Is there a best time to visit Europa Park in that timeframe? It looks like June 6th is a national holiday, is that correct? Would I be wise to stay out of the parks that day? I am also planning to go to Phantasialand, Efteling, Toverland, Gothenburg and Stockholm. Any advice is appreciated, thank you!

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On 2/20/2022 at 6:27 PM, jimmiemac02 said:

I'm looking to go to Germany/Netherlands/Sweden this summer, Europa Park is the main reason for going. Currently I am looking at June 3-20. Is there a best time to visit Europa Park in that timeframe? It looks like June 6th is a national holiday, is that correct? Would I be wise to stay out of the parks that day? I am also planning to go to Phantasialand, Efteling, Toverland, Gothenburg and Stockholm. Any advice is appreciated, thank you!

I would definitely recommend visiting the park on two days during the week to be able to ride everything you want. One day - especially if it is a weekend - will never be enough. Please Note: There is no skip the line system at the park and queues will even on a non-busy weekday be 30-90 minutes for the major rides. If you will only do one day, there's no way to do all major rides in June, predicting weather is great. But even in thunderstorms, the park will be half full during a weekday.

Yes, June 6th is Pentecost, on of the major holidays in the religious part of the area.

I would recommend to plan half a day at Holiday Park when you drive from Europa Park to your next destination, as it will be directly on your road, to get a couple of laps on Expedition GeForce. Here is a skip the line system available. It's two and a half hours north of Europa Park, roughly in the middle between Europa Park and Phantasialand.

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