Euro Raves, Wodan and Blue Fire

[Nemesis Inferno]

Ahhhhh, now this I've been looking forward to for a while now, especially after the original date for this trip was cancelled due to my appendix deciding to commit suicide... So this trip was rebooked, and the excitement built up once again...

I vaguely remember my trip to Europa 4 years ago, when Silver Star was king, and a demonstration of the constantly moving (if maze-like) queues were abound on every single ride on park... Since then of course, Iceland and it's two coasters have appeared, so as such, it was time to revisit and do it properly... 3 days, on site... Hell yeah...

The plan for departure was simple, leave in the middle of the day, get to the hotel mid-afternoon, chill and prepare for the 3 long days ahead... The flight over went well, and we arrived at Euro Airport and it's confusing border situation... Nevertheless, we got out, and found our shuttle man awaiting us...

This is something that crops up with every Europa trip, how to get to the park from whatever airport you go to... The transport links are crap, there's no two ways about it, which is weird for such a big park in Germany where transport is usually pretty decent... So we were faced with the choice of the relatively burdenous looking route of public transport, or pay top dollar (€99 each way) for a shuttle car straight to the park... We took the latter option, and it was certainly worth it if only for the ease of which it worked... If in a bigger group of 4, it's even more worth it, and it negates the possible transport issue that can occur with trains/buses/etc.

Our driver was nice, and mentioned sights and other things on our trip (in German of course, my broken knowledge of which made for some fun), and an hour later I got my first glimpse of Blue Fire, and much like the sight of Katun in Italy last year, my excitement began to truly build...

So to the Colosseo, what an impressive sight it is, something that can be said for each of the hotels actually, and after a quick check in (where the European hotel tax rears its head, but you get a free guide book for your troubles), we entered a room that looked nothing short of amazing...

And then we looked out of the window, and knew that paying the extra for the room with a view of the piazza was sooooo worth it...

After some marvelling of the view we elected to explore our hotel and the others to boot, but not before grabbing some Smarties Ice Cream from the lobby to truly enjoy the sunshine Mainland Europe had kept to itself...

The hotel is stunning really, it certainly puts Towers to shame, and indeed the lower end Disney hotels too... Hell even Hotel New York at Paris looks crap in comparison to this effort... To see how constant this awesomeness was, we headed towards the trio of Spanish themed hotels via a tunnel...

Which decided to demonstrate how much effort Europa put into EVERYTHING... There is no need for them to theme the tunnel as such, but they did... Extremely well... Brilliant stuff...

Anyways, onto the Spanish hotels, pretty nice actually, each one seems to have a completely different atmosphere and it is brilliant, from the happy Andaluz to the silent and grand Santa Isabel, each hotel tells a different story and has just as much effort put into them all... Simply outstanding...

After sampling Spain, it was time to head to the brand new Bell Rock hotel, which has a path leading from the Colosseo to the back entrance with the lake (and World of Colour esque fountain show)... Again though, completely different atmosphere (that of a cosy family style thing), look, and approach... Each hotel made me want to stay in it, which can only be termed a good thing really...

We headed back to the Colosseo and chilled in the room for a bit, catching our own hotel's fountain show (the first of MANY)...

It then came to our dinner reservation back at the Bell Rock... We headed back and ventured into the restaurant, which they combine both the buffet and a la carte options together. We were doing a la carte, so ended up in a separate area which made us feel underdressed due to the poshness of it all...

The meal was nice though, and we even had a character interaction with some random sea-captain... Who got the couple on the next table to take a photo, which was awkward for everyone involved...

On our way back to the hotel we caught the Colosseo fountains at night, which made them look even more epic...

We then ventured up to the Colosseo Bar (which looks so weird due to the American theme, probably the only issue with the hotel thematically), got some drinks and took in the view of the park looking forward to some early morning Blue Fire...

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Day 1

An early morning and breakfast was to occur for the next 3 days, all because of the hotel ERT that starts from 8:30... Urgh, so damn early, but when there's Blue Fire awaiting, well, there's not much to actually complain about is there?

Blue Fire

Guess what, we rode this first... And what can really be said about it that many haven't before? It truly stands up to the hype and praise it has been given by enthusiasts, quite simply a brilliant ride, but why?

First of all, the Iceland area, in conjunction now with the Splash Battle and Wodan, looks amazingly good, like all the areas of Europa do, but Blue Fire's layout delivers well to area interactivity, as it dominates a fair amount (not as much as it used to with Wodan I fear, but there you go), and the pathway parallel and level to the launch is a genius bit of landscaping design...

The queue enters into the sponsors building... Gazprom made Oblivion's Fanta sponsor debacle look subtle... But it does fit (although I think my good view on this is because I didn't queue in the building, learning about Energy saving was already done at uni thanks)...

Led outside under some rocks and the end of the launch provides a great look at the overbank, before we headed straight back towards the station and into the front row queue for our first ride... The station is gorgeous as well, with the music being a great accompany to the build-up of the attraction... And what German coaster with dark ride portion wouldn't be complete without DOORS?!

Onto the train then, and good god it's comfy... The restraints as well, are simply great, being safe and secure yet free... Basically, Mack looked at the Intamin lap bars, and made them better and able to keep people from throwing themselves out of it... There's a lot of Intamin in this ride actually, but the trains go a long way to making Blue Fire better than the likes of Maverick and iSpeed... The Pulse monitors are a nice touch, if a bit tempermental...

Seated then, and through the doors we go into the mini dark section... Again, so much detail and theming where most parks wouldn't really care much... Then we stop, have someone blab German at us, the doors slide out showing us the launch track, and then BOOM...

It's not the most intense launch in the world, but it's soooo smooth yet carries a good bit of force on it... Then into the overbank, which causes a moment of "OMG I'M GONNA FALL OUT" for those sat on the left side of the train, which is a great element, before we dive towards the rocks and into the relatively forceful loop... The short overbank turn after is a lovely thing to follow, before the MCBR slows it down before giving us some amazing ejector into the next rock filled drop and first corkscrew... The terrain turn into the next one is quite good as well into the second corkscrew, with some tight turns and transitions leading into the defining element of the ride, the finale zero-g which is just as if not more intense than Swarm's finale... The final sweeping turn leads into the brakes and creates the perfect end to the ride...

So what makes Blue Fire so good? It's a combination of all the elements working together, and working together well... If we compare to the Intamin rides akin to it, they suffer from poor restraint design, Blue Fire doesn't, and does near enough the same things... It's truly a perfect family thrill ride, but it's thrilling enough to satisfy those who like thrill rides... Add in the theming, soundtrack, smoothness, transitions and it just results in a near perfect ride...

10/10

So as the exit for Blue Fire spat us out at the entrance to Wodan, we elected to join the building up queue and await it's opening for a quick ride on it...

Wodan

Well the award for most epic ride entrance goes to this, that structure is pretty fab and certainly sets the ride up very well... The queue inside is also very well themed, with plenty of models and stuff to look at... I felt that it was very maze-like and when it runs on two trains it can feel quite a slow queue... But when on 3 trains it constantly moves, it's brilliant when that happens, but it only happened once for us...

Regardless, we waited for the front, enjoying the atmosphere of the station, with the statues overlooking the trains departing and arriving, with the fly-through producing some interesting remarks from the crowd... Soon we were on and with a quick bar check (only the second ride that has physical checks at the park it seems) galloping off to the most epic dispatch music...

The lift is quick, but not as quick as that turnaround before the drop, no time to waste before the huge (or least it feels huge) steep drop back into the support structure and some rockwork, before we dive up into a small airtime hill and the ride's interactive corner with Blue Fire... Unfortunately we never got any interaction, but I'm sure it can work if the timings are right...

A slick drop under the entranceway is taken quickly up into the fly-through and the awkward bank it does (the second one in the ride, the first being the random outside bank that happens in the pre-lift section) with an interesting hop into an airtime hill, leading us into the second half of the ride, the twisty airtime section, a more traditional GCI thing here, with sudden directional changes and bumps... The Atlantica interaction is better than Blue Fire's, but again, never got to experience interaction, so disappoint

Before long we hit the brakes though, after a good bit of airtime and twisting... A fair finale to what is initially a large and dominating looking ride...

Overall, Wodan is a very solid and fun ride, which at times can be excessively wild (especially late in the day after heavy rain, as we discovered) and has a beautiful if sometimes burdenous feeling queue... It is a very re-rideable ride though, again a solid family coaster that suits the park down to the tee... Not as good as Blue Fire, but still a good ride...

8/10

 

[nadroJ]

Enjoying the in depth reviews of the coasters, seriously can't wait for next weekend now yaaay!

 

[peep]

Nice. I need to go back and experience Blue Fire again. It's still one of my fav rides, it just has everything and does it all so well. <3

Nice to hear you enjoyed Wodan too, I was hearing a lot of 'meh' after the others went for the CF Live.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

So that was the two new coasters since my last trip, now it was time to revisit the other nine and see if they've changed or if my opinion has, as it was nearby, we started with...

Atlantica Supersplash

The first thing you notice is the music here, how much did Europa pay for the rights of the Pirates of the Caribbean music (both film and original song appear) I wonder... The queue is still well themed and mazey, like all the newer rides really... Running 4 boats meant that if there had been a queue we would've moved fast, but since the weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worse and everyone was going to Blue Fire/Wodan we walked straight onto the back row...

Up the hill to the first turntable... WHY does it rotate 1 and a quarter times? So so pointless that is... The drop was quicker than I remember, providing some airtime, and the main drop is certainly accented with the addition of Wodan diving over the track... Fairly wet really, but it's a decent water ride really... Nothing spectacular, but like many big water rides, it's much more of a spectacle to non-riders and only exceptionally enjoyable when it's the middle of summer...

7/10

Rain was starting to fall, so we quickly ran back to the hotel to grab coats before heading towards the Austria area...

AlpenExpress

The classic example of Europa's operational policy here... Load train, visual check, dispatch, put down any bars that might still be up as the train leaves the station... Classic and it's so amazing to see some of the operational procedures over here when really, there is no need for them (aside from the fact that the Germans have tonnes of common sense)...

As for the ride, it's still one of the best Mack Mine Trains in my experience... Exceptionally themed cave section with random fire and a surprisingly big drop inside... Only 2 goes unfortunately but you don't feel too short-changed by that... Fab ride...

7/10

WildWasserBahn

Didn't go on this last visit, and since there was no queue, we elected to have a quick ride on it as we were there... It gives a nice relaxing view of the cave it shares with the Mine Train, and again gives some level of dampness... Kinda basic really for a Flume ride, meander in woods, first lift, small drop, meander in cave, second lift, big drop, meander to station... Done...


Next it was time to head towards the nearest coaster, the classic spinning rave machine that is...

Euro-Mir

Ahhhhh bless Euro-Mir, the classic track has made it somewhat of a cult ride amongst enthusiasts, especially when the layout itself isn't particularly inspiring or the spinning great due to the controlled element Mack put into it back when it opened... Of course modern Mack Spinners aren't controlled anymore, so it would be interesting to see if Euro-Mir would get a refurb with new trains (with on board music please) in the future...

Anyways, the ride's famous lift hill rave sequence is always fun, with the random pointless spinning and spaceship in the middle... I totally forgot it had a trommel as well, that's awesome and should happen more...

The layout as mentioned isn't fantastic, since half the ride is Wild Mouse esque with more controlled spinning, and then the actual coastery section is quite rough nowadays, although the finale helix is still pretty good, and rather intense when going backwards through it...

Like any cult ride, it's not for everyone, but I find it incredibly silly and fun, one day I'd love to get a load of glow-sticks and rave it up on a night ride...

7/10

We continued on our tour of Europe to Greece next, home of one of my favourite dark rides ever, a little hidden gem if it were...

Abenteur Atlantis

ABENTEUR! I don't really know why, but I really like this ride and just find it so fun... Even after the epicness of Huntik's visual and physical effects, even the simplicity of Atlantis works well into the theme, story and the park... It's a little hidden dark ride guilty pleasure...

It's like Duel in a way, because it has immense throughput and is relatively out the way, it never seems to get a queue, indeed, the numerous times we rode it, we walked on every single time... So fab... Shame they don't do the cuddly turtle anymore though

Just so much fun, it might look cheap in comparison to other shooters, but it just seems to work for me...

8/10

After 2 rides on Atlantis, the next creds were spotted, and so for the YoungStar/Water coasters of Greece...

Pegasus

You do have to feel sorry for Mack sometimes, no-one buys Blue Fire, and no-one buys Pegasus, which is a very fun 'kiddie' coaster and easily better than the Vekoma counterparts... The first drop is pretty intense considering the target audience, and the rest of the ride is all overbanks and relatively tight helices...

It's weird really, maybe parks don't wanna risk it with this coaster, with Vekomas being pretty well known about it... But considering the superiority, it's such a shame... Also, that lift hill music <3

7/10

Poseidon

Another ride type Mack have struggled to sell well, although sometimes you can see why with these, what with Journey to Atlantis and Poseidon, it's a weird niche ride that might not fit every park... And even slightly looks out of place at Europa...

It's one of the first rides on park that lacks a consistency of theme, purely because it is a tall ride compared to the rest of it, indeed, the coaster portions stick out like a relatively sore thumb, whilst the water sections and station/pre-lift are extremely well themed... It's jarring and inconsistent really, and a shame... Would've been interesting to see if they could've done sommat to make the coaster portions look more interesting, but with Pegasus underneath it now, that's not going to happen...

The ride then, well it's gained a bit of roughness since I last visited during the coaster section, but it's still reasonably fun and enjoyable... Doesn't seem to get you too wet either, but it's an alright ride... Don't think it's that amazing really, looks a lot better than it rides (aside from the coaster section doesn't look that good)...

6/10

At this point we were feeling pretty hungry so dashed past Switzerland to France and grabbed some chocolate Crepes... They were naturally delicious and full of chocolately goodness, wasn't sure if it was proper Nutella or not, but still, so fab...

We headed back to the Swiss area to grab the skipped creds...

Matterhorn Blitz

Mack Wild Mouses aren't that good are they? I think the layouts are a bit meh in comparison to the Maurer's, especially the finale section... However, the beginning of them are quite good, this one especially due to the elevator lift section of surprise if people don't know about it...

Interestingly it's being used for Halloween, so the final straight of the queue had been partially covered in black material for later use, a different finale for a scare maze, they'll have to hide the house theming too so it isn't tooooo jarring...

The ride was alright, kinda uses it's trick first off and then it's just a Wild Mouse... Oh wells...

6/10

Bobbahn

Yay Bobsleigh coaster... I dunno really, after doing Blackpool's version the other weekend, this felt a bit too smooth and lacking in picking up any form of speed really... The use of an actual drop is good, but it just was a bit meh in the end... Some decent interactions later on but it's probably Europa's worst coaster...

5/10

Back to France for the final two coasters then...

Eurosat

Horray for EuroRave, such an underrated ride this is really...Whilst 4 years ago I felt the lift was silly and burdenous, I found it to be awesome... Like Mir, would love to do a glowstick rave on this ride...

It feels like a Schwarzkopf really... The first drop is really good and the tight turns with the build up of speed all provide a surprising experience, very akin to Space Mountain really... Plus the retro Space theming and waving astronaut at the end are made of joy <3

7/10

Silver Star

The final coaster of the trip, and we headed for the front row again... The theme as well is slightly jarring in comparison to the rest of the park really, maybe because the rest of the park is so well themed, especially Wodan and Blue Fire, Silver Star just looks a bit sterile...

The ride however was much improved from my previous trip 4 years ago when the trims killed it completely, this trip, the ride was untrimmed and was a real indicator on how good B&M Hypers can be... Full of pure speed, floater AND ejector airtime, and just generally a fun and enjoyable ride... I adore the finale on this, the random tight turns providing a good balance to the airtime hills throughout the rest of the ride...

8/10

We found Silver Star so enjoyable and lacking in queue we rode it again, before we decided it was lunchtime and headed towards...

Foodloop

After last year's failure at visiting the original rollercoaster restaurant in Hamburg, I was happy to get the chance to experience the reasonably unique experience, with the added loop of course...

So after a brief queue to enter, we were given a card and led to one of the many circular tables on the ground floor, it's quite cool to see how it's all set up and how the tracks intertwine with each other... The loop is located in the middle of the bottom floor of the restaurant and is visible from near enough every table, although it only services one table, it's cool enough to watch and pass the time over...

Unfortunately the menu isn't particularly great, and still full from the earlier crepe, we only had chips and then some dessert, which was pretty good... Especially the dessert... Nom nom nom...

After some food and a quick go on the Football Dodgems (very good, responsive, quick, but not worthy of an actual full on discussion), we wandered back to the Italy area to begin meandering around the smaller rides, starting with...

Volo da Vinci

New last year, this is a weird variation on the suspended monorail attraction, it's got a well themed station, with lots of buttons for various models of some of da Vinci's inventions, my favourite being the turtle tank thing... It looks fab...

The ride itself is pretty basic, going over some of the other smaller rides, it's longer than you realise really, and with the whole extra pedal increasing the speed of it gives a weird sensation as you can certainly feel the speed change when pedalling...

A decent ride for the target market... Good atmosphere and just relaxing if you want it to be...

Piccolo Mondo

Random small dark ride number 2 here, with the nicely themed gondola cars into the relatively weird animal version of Italian only It's a Small World... Strange ride really, but it's quite cool that Europa have these hidden dark rides in their line up...

We then headed towards back towards the other side of the park, stopping off at Abenteur once again (a common theme throughout the trip upon every passing of the ride), before ending in the Dutch area...

Piraten in Batavia

Continuing the weird dark ride theme, here comes Europa's version of the Disney classic, indeed, it shares a fair few similarities with Drayton's Pirate Adventure in that sense, but actually has a whole load of working animatronics and actual fire coming out the cannons... Dunno if I would like to see them update the look of it, as for each bit that looks tatty (the animals) it looks just as good thematically... It's good really...

Continuing our journey back towards Blue Fire and Wodan, we went through the Scandinavia area and decided to ride...

Fjord Rafting

Wooo Rapids, especially European ones, they are always good really, and Fjord was no different really... Good mixture of rapid parts, well themed cave part and also burdenous geysers which cause much soaking... Actually really enjoyable and an amusing exit pathway with excessive mist confusing/scaring everyone...

We finally reached Blue Fire, and rode it once again, before following it in up with Wodan... This process was then repeated as we hit 6pm and the first day came to an end...

Back at the hotel and dinner abounded in the Medici Restaurant, unfortunately the dinner this night was not particularly great due to the poor service we received from the staff, taking forever to serve us drinks and take food away and give us the bill... Not great but the food was good on the other hand... Right shame though from the park that meal, as it kinda put a bad end to what was a very good and enjoyable day...

 

[furie]

Great report Benin, it's nice to see the inside of the hotels everyone always bangs on about. They look excellent. While I'd never head back to Europa for myself or on an "enthusiast trip", I'd love to take the family there. It's a fantastically vibrant park... Except where my opinion and yours differ :lol:

I think the "Iceland" area is pretty naf. It's not consistent and it's far too exposed. It's very "concrete" and the fact that it's so open means that you can see that Wodan (which is fantastically themed within itself) doesn't work with the horrid Mack Supersplash (and those structures are horrid) and the oddly blue tracking (in terms of theme) with Blue Fire.

The Splash Battle again looks nice, but only within itself, it just sits there surrounded by a sea of concrete between Wodan and the monorail station. It's all just very "Thorpe" :lol:

Also, I don't think Blue Fire is particularly well themed. A few rock tunnels and the odd rock formation here and there? It's not really theming. The station is a horrid cattle pen in a a shed that looks like a set from "The Thing". That's fine, but you've just entered there from a concrete floor with the sun blazing hot outside and a bright blue coaster. It's, well, it's just perfunctory theming. It's better than, say, Air's, but it's along the same lines (station is also better than say, Thirteen's, but again along the same lines).

Nice. I need to go back and experience Blue Fire again. It's still one of my fav rides, it just has everything and does it all so well. <3

Nice to hear you enjoyed Wodan too, I was hearing a lot of 'meh' after the others went for the CF Live.

We obviously didn't get a "blinding ride in the rain", and the front was significantly better than the back (did you get the hideous troll woman barking at you to sit in particular seats by the way? We wanted to queue from front to back to get a different ride from the first time, but she yelled at us something in German and turning us to stone if we didn't sit at the back) - but the ride was, it was like Blue Fire I guess.

See, Blue Fire is one of those enigmas in the coaster world. It's a fantastically re-ridable coaster. It's bags of fun. It's smooth and feels safe which makes it an absolutely ideal "first looping thrill" coaster for kids. It never really pushes hard because of it, yet it's still a brilliant ride.

It's not a brilliant coaster though because of all that - if that makes sense? It's not got the fantastic floater of Silver Star, the extreme ejector of Skyrush, the powerful launch of [insert Intamin Rocket here], or the intensity and madness of a B&M Invert or sit down like Kahn. It's just great fun which you can ride over and over again... It never blows you away though at any point - hence why it's such an enigma. It's the world's best family coaster. It fits the remit of: "launch and loop for the family whilst always remaining comfortable and fun" perfectly. So it's a 10 out of 10 for making a coaster that is perfect for what it was designed for. I hope I'm making that clear?

Wodan is very similar. It's a large, imposing looking woody. It's got a lot of speed and it never really lets up. For a "my first large wooden coaster" it's brilliant. It's fast, but never really dauntingly so. It's smooth, so you don't get kicked about. It's got some little pops of airtime (in the front, in the dry) that will make a new wooden coaster rider go "oooh". It's a perfectly fine family woody.

Where it's not like Blue Fire though is that it isn't "fun" for the jaded enthusiast. It's just "meh". So again it works perfectly well, but I expect more from a wooden coaster. Some battering to the side, points where you instinctively reach for the lap bar to hold in because you think a hill is going to through you out and a wild and out of control feeling. Mammut was also a family woody and while it was also quite "meh", it contained those elements scaled down. Wodan just didn't. I'll tell you what Wodan reminded me of, a powered Mack Mine Train coaster...

That doesn't make it an awful ride - if you like the speed and smoothness then it's got stuff to appeal, but it just didn't really do a great deal for me. I adored the queue though and the theme, the station especially. It was a glorious "attraction", but I preferred the queue to the actual ride

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Hmmm, I defo don't agree that Iceland is Thorpe like... Granted it has a fair bit of paving (but not concrete), it gives itself an open feel but uses the space well... The Splash Battle does look plonked in now Wodan exists though...

Yeah we had angry German batcher on Wodan... This is what single rider does to Europa Why they so poorly implemented it into the layout of Wodan I'll never know, it makes sense on Blue Fire but it blocks off the front row on Wodan... Just silly... We never got a back row ride on Wodan either so it's hard to judge, but it's certainly fun and was a hit with the public...

Anyways, back to the report...


Day 2

The second day started slightly too early at first, with a fire alarm blasting through the hotel at around 2am, causing many tired Germans to peek outside their doors... Nothing had happened, but it was pretty burdenous to occur at such an hour, so thankful for those times it happened at uni now...

We had breakfast after waking up properly and proceeded to ERT, again riding Blue Fire (twice this time) before Wodan once again...

We took to riding the Mini-Monorail from Iceland to the Historama station, which we then visited...

Historama

Interesting this, I remember on my last visit when all the models and stuff you see in the building were in the now Volo da Vinci station... Still this place looks really classy now compared to how it used to, and the models and other things are pretty fab...

Then the show part is a bit weird, with the rotating theatre and the going through the different aspects of the park, bit of them tooting their own horn really, but since they can actually back up their claims of being relatively fab, they get away with it... The show portion even included FOUNTAINS... Amanda would be proud...

S'alright thing really, pretty cool and worth a look in...

We then headed to Euro-Mir as it was next door, before hitting up the random dark ride...

Random Russian Bench Based Dark Ride

I can't be bothered to look up the name of this exceptionally random dark ride... It was just full of complete what the hell and stuff... It didn't do much and had a rather pointless photo... Complete meh...


We wanted to go and see the Ice Show and had a bit more time to spare, so quickly wandered over to Eurosat for a quick go, but not without noticing the Halloween theming had begun!

We headed back to the Ice Tent and realising we had more time before it started, went on Abenteur cos why not? It provided the sufficient faff time till opening...

Ice Show

The only reason I wanted to see this show was because of the story, and it centred around the stealing of Roland Mack's IAAPA President Gavel... I mean, seriously, that's pretty damn awesome for a park to just fully embrace that sort of thing, however the show was naturally overshadowed by the pre-show entertainment...

It was your atypical mute clown (seen in America and a few other places as well) who basically took the mick out of everyone and attempted to get the crowd going to hilarious results... It is very much a "had to be there" thing really, but the highlights of invisible drum kit and people failing to clap 'correctly' went to prove that the Germans do in fact have a sense of humour, and it made a change for something to be universally understood [/ignorant Brit]

The show started well then proceeded to lose the story, a shame, but was pretty good as Ice Shows go, with more than just skating and included a portion that I swear I saw at the Olympics this summer... Ah wells...

We then decided for lunch and some shopping in the main entrance area, but as we were feeling lazy, we caught the proper Monorail back to the entrance from Greece, and ate at the Rock Cafe, which was pretty damn nice with Chicken Wings, Wodan Burger and some decent music...

We decided to start shopping now as we would get everything sent back to the hotel for packing that night, as in the midst of our shopping, the rain decided to pelt it down upon the Germans (on holiday from flooding half of the UK I guess) and it lead us to ponder what to do next...

Indeed, what we did was purchase a €1 passport thingy, and entertain ourselves by jumping across the park and getting it filled in, a la Epcot... Easily entertained we are...

We went back to France via Italy (stamp cred) and then decided (for SOME reason) to ride Silver Star in the rain... In the back row... This was later labelled insanity because it was running super fast and not even trimmed... It also hurt and produced a fab on ride photo which I'll upload later...

Then we did another Disney rip off ride...

Universe of Energy/Dino Fahrt
This is a horrifying Omnimover Dark Ride, with some retro Dinosaur theming, we literally only did it because of the rain and it's so amusing how old some of the dark rides at Europa look... Especially this one... Wonder if they'll ever revamp them in the future...


We then went on the Matterhorn again, which was surprisingly smooth in the rain actually for a Mouse, before we continued our adventure around each area getting the Passport stamped...

Before long we had reached the England area, and it was decided we would investigate the Enchanted Forest area (the other new area since my last visit) and it was actually pretty cool overall, decent level of theming and plenty of things for kids to do (since it is an area designed for them), we also visited another indoor attraction to avoid the rain...

Brothers Grimm

This is SUCH a rip off of recent Disney Fantasyland attractions it's hilarious, it had some random interaction stuff as everyone in the room (about 7) had to go up to some mirror as we had to find the wizard (yeah, I dunno why either), and once we had done the multi-lingual clock/ravens said some things and we proceeded into a mini-theatre for the rest of the show... It was pretty cool actually, with some minor physical effects (not 4D show style leg ticklers, actual animatronics) and some sheer randomness... What I liked was that it was set in the park, giving that extra bit of escapism which is cooler than just a random area of trees (*cough*Charlie*cough*)...

Random and again, worth a look really...


We continued our adventure into the rain (the reaction to the Grimm attraction ending and the host opening the door to the rain was hilarious), and walked through the rest of the area, they're doing sommat to it next year, but I'll be damned if I could see where...

We ended up in Austria (or Switzerland? They are practically the same) and hit up the Diamond Mine walk through, which has epic smell of epicness and is quite a cool walkthrough thing, which is something Europa seems to do well, having random things tucked away that inquisitive people will find...

Next up was Spain and the two flat rides there... Seastorm and Feria Swing, both are pretty much basic stuff but with quite long sequences... Filler stuff and nothing more really...

We arrived just in time to catch the Three Muskateers stunt show, which was again very much worth visiting, as they used the relatively small arena to great advantage, as seen here...

Stampeding horse chases on the walkway... Pretty fab, they also had a few swordfights on there as well, inches away from actual people, H&S be damned! Easy to follow even with the language barrier, and the comic relief panto-dame was pretty fab as well... Impressive stuff, and you can see why Europa's shows get a fair bit of praise...

We completed the passport at this time through Holland, Norway before finishing at Iceland (again)... We were hungry, so elected to grab a Milka Donut (of nom) and drink from the Gazprom sponsorship station... Afterwards, we walked through the part-time queue of Blue Fire, which can be used as an alternative walkthrough to Wodan these days... Perfect for those who love taking photos... Like me...

This makes Fanta and Oblivion look subtle

We eventually arrived at Wodan and took a spin, before the exit plonked us at the Splash Battle...

Whale Adventures

This was cool actually, I really liked the theming of it (for example, each boat having a different model captain) and whilst it wasn't the weather for it, it was pretty decent really... It does feel slightly plonked in now with Wodan stood behind it though definitely, ah wells, I could think of worse examples...

We then had a hot dog for some dinner (spicy sauce is not my favourite) from the brilliantly named Moby Dick's before a quick go on Blue Fire to finish off the second day...

 

[peep]

Cool PTR. I need to go back, simply to see the shows it would appear. The Grimm show sounds fun too.

 

[TilenB]

Wow, ERT starting at 8:30, next time I go to Europa, I'll book their hotel for at least 1 night, and I have to make it a 2 day visit. Last time I've been we barely made it through all the rides, first time the park was fully packed, so... (I think it was the first nice day of the season, wheater wise)

 

[Smithy]

I don't mean to be HORRENDOUSLY crude, but how much did this cost all together?

 

[nadroJ]

^I can't speak for Benin, but even with the cheapo flights I got, it was a fairly pricey weekend away. I think in the end for me and Sam it was about £300 each.

 

[Nicky]

We stayed longer than Jordan did and in one of the hotels so it was pricey, I think it was easily over £400 each for the two of us.

 

[Smithy]

Ooooft. Still tempting though, cheers guys/girls/ladies/didntwanttooffend