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Europa Park | Piraten in Batavia Rebuild | 2020

Tulum said:
The park is open today. Even the show "Immer wieder Sonntags" broadcasted from the Greek Area, is going as scheduled.

The arial footage might come from a helicopter? Radio mentioned yesterday that they were above the park during the fire.
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Look closely to the camera movements and the quality, clearly a drone.
 
It's all so, so sad. That was probably the prettiest single part of the park, and really not a theme you see done too well. Pirates was an absolute classic and one of the best Pirates knock offs around - and the Chinese fast food place in there was fab!

But, looking on the bright side - if there's any park in the World that'll clean this up and replace it with something even better, it's Europa. If this was a Merlin park they'd leave the smouldering embers for the next ten years and then replace it with something no-one asked for - Europa will take it as an opportunity to do something insane.

But still, horrific.
 
Ben said:
Pirates was an absolute classic and one of the best Pirates knock offs around....
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Agreed. It's been 12 years since I was last there, but I do have fond memories of the pirate ride and still rate it as the best one I've done.

Ben said:
If this was a Merlin park they'd leave the smouldering embers for the next ten years and then replace it with something no-one asked for.
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:D :D
 
:( Sad.

You can see in the monorail footage that it’s quite a large area affected.

I was planning to go for the first time next season, now I’ll have to wait and see.
 
Hello all, CoasterFan from Luxembourg. (new here)

Here is what it looks today:

(could someone send me a chat , and explain how i insert pics in full size, ty)
 

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Ben said:
If this was a Merlin park they'd leave the smouldering embers for the next ten years and then replace it with something no-one asked for - Europa will take it as an opportunity to do something insane.
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Merlin would try and pass it off as a new themed area,

NEW FOR 2019 WORLDS FIRST FIRE RAVAGED WALK THROUGH ATTRACTION
 
Quote from the EuropaStreet forum.
There's still issues across the resort caused by the fire including:
  • Water is off/limited in some locations. For example FoodLoop is serving via paper plates at present
  • Card payments can't be accepted across the resort so cash only at the moment
  • E-Mails can't be replied to at present
  • Queue boards at ride entrances are off
The buildings and offices behind Pirates are pretty much the nerve centre of the park, so it would seem a lot of their IT operation has been badly affected.
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Still shocked by all this. Can't imagine how devastated the Mack family and park staff must be.
Will be interesting to see how the park rebuild. Will they build a new Pirates or something different?
 
CSLKennyNI said:
Quote from the EuropaStreet forum.


Still shocked by all this. Can't imagine how devastated the Mack family and park staff must be.
Will be interesting to see how the park rebuild. Will they build a new Pirates or something different?
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I do actually think that they will stick with Norway and Holland, and that they're not "pulling a River Quest". However, even though it would just be a replacement, another family-darkride, may it even be waterbased, kind of doesn't fit at this exact point of time, considering they have already improved consiberably on the darkride-front during the past years, while also the jungle-area with the boat tour would have been next for a refurbishment. I'm conviced that they will go all out on replacing Batavia and that the results will outclass the original ride easily, but I wouldn't be surprised if they went for just a little bit different of a "ride style", just so that they don't end up building 2 large darkrides and 2 boat tours over a span of 6 years. But I might be wrong about that and they ultimately don't care about that.
 
How little remains of Pirates. In this section only the framework of an animatronic is left standing and some rockwork quayside has partially survived.
DeRqAb1W4AAKqI5.jpg

The figure can be seen here ramming a cannon at the end of the battle scene after the first drop.
https://imgur.com/CKwc0pu

In Norway the Vineta rockwork survived but the animatronic did not. From: https://twitter.com/daphnexuria

Interview about the fire, translated by a EuropaStreet forum user.
https://www.lahrer-zeitung.de/inhal...nnt.bfcf1aba-8d61-4fb3-964e-bd043327b396.html
Mr. Gabriel, are there any findings on the cause of the fire?

No, the experts are still investigating the site.This will certainly take a few more days, you can not say anything about it before.

After all, can one exclude causes, arson?

Personally, I absolutely exclude arson, but we wait for the analysis.

Supposedly there was a loud bang as the fire spread.

I was in person at this time. I did not notice an explosion or a bang that some people have heard. Only in the course of the fire there were loud noises. But they exist just when building parts collapse.

What is the damage?

That's not clear yet. We assume a double-digit million amount. We are fully insured against the fire damage.

What's next?

When the experts are done, we want to clear the debris as quickly as possible in the next few days. Then we can share more routes and attractions, such as the Koffiekopjes, the rotating coffee cups, in the Dutch theme area.

Could anything be saved at the main attraction, the pirates in Batavia?

No, the facades of the Dutch theme are still largely preserved, but unfortunately much has been destroyed behind them.

Many park guests associate childhood memories with the pirates. Will the ride be rebuilt true to the original?

It's too early to say anything. I think the topics Holland and Scandinavia will keep their character. The pirates in Batavia were a wonderful family attraction from the 1980s. I can imagine that it will go in a similar direction again.

When firefighting sued the fire brigade partly about too little available extinguishing water.Was there a gap in the rescue concept?

There were no bottlenecks in the water supply.The concept clearly states that when all the hydrants are occupied, the natural resources in the park, ie the river Elz and ponds, will be tapped next. That happened, there was always enough water there, at most it was about where to take what and when.

The warehouse burnt down completely - was there no sprinkler system there that would have been able to fight the fire right away?

No. But the hall complied with the latest fire regulations, so we are on the safe side.

What was in the hall?

Our fund, the garments that our employees wear at attractions or shows. Replacing these will be the biggest task of the next few days. Also offices and event technology are burned.

Have fewer visitors since the fire?

On Sunday, 20,000 people were in the park, as many as we would have expected without fire.This shows that our decision to open was right.And we get a lot of popularity from guests, partners and other parks.

Why did you decide to reopen the park the very next day without discount on entry?

Because only a small part of the park is affected. We have over 100 attractions, very few of which are restricted or not. That's why we still offer guests the offer they expect from us.

Why is not there much to hear from the owner family Mack since the fire except via Twitter?

For one, they are very emotionally affected. For Roland Mack, a part of his life's work has burned down, where we all very much hang with our hearts. On the other hand, the Mack family is already in talks and working on plans for the future of the spent area. This is currently happening and takes a lot of time. Questions from Dominik Dose
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Good to hear that they had their insurance in order. I know a fire is a tragedy and all, but part of me can't help but think that a sizable chunk of real estate has been opened up in the middle of the park. Granted, because of the need for offices to be nearby I don't think it'll be filled by a coaster, but there is room for something large there, and the insurance payout has to be spent on something....
 
Pokemaniac said:
Good to hear that they had their insurance in order. I know a fire is a tragedy and all, but part of me can't help but think that a sizable chunk of real estate has been opened up in the middle of the park. Granted, because of the need for offices to be nearby I don't think it'll be filled by a coaster, but there is room for something large there, and the insurance payout has to be spent on something....
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Indeed. I would expect for them to rebuild what they have lost in a very similar manner to how it was before. Planning for reconstruction is already underway!

:)
 
I highly doubt they're going to rebuild it as it was - this is their opportunity to make something so much better than a general 'pirate' boat ride. As Ben said above, this is their excuse to build a Shanghai style pirate boat ride, and frankly, they have no excuse not to. They have the means and money to build something spectacular and seeing what they did with Voletarium just reiterates the fact that it is highly possible.
 
I agree that Pirates will very likely be improved and modernised, there's a good chance that they already had plans to update it at some point in the future. I'd imagine that Scandinavia will be reconstructed in a very similar manner to how it was before, Holland facades will be rebuilt in a similar manner also and Pirates will return with the same theme but new technology.

Of course all of this could impact on other plans for 2019 and/or 2020.

:)
 
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