Inverse
Hyper Poster
My girlfriend and I took our main holiday this year in The Black Forest. As enthusiasts we try to take holiday's near parks, but we're also very keen to see the area and have a proper holiday too.
I'll keep most of the report down to the park, don't worry, but we stayed in a town called Todtmoos, that looked like this:
It's about an hour and a quarter's drive from Europa Park. For people unwilling to stay so far, I'd strongly recommend staying the stunning city of Freiburg about 20 minutes south of Rust. (again, by car)
This was our first trip to Europa Park and we spent two great days in this wonderful park. It feels like the owners really care for the quality of the park and are willing to spend when needed. The park was kept clean by hordes of litter pickers and trim by teams of gardeners.
The themeing was something else, as I've never been to a Disney I can comfortably say I've never seen anything better. I particually liked Greece and Switzerland.
Greece
The Swiss street
Although it was all great the older areas seemed more bedded in and therefore more realistic.
Even though it was a school holiday the park wasn't too busy. Especially on the Monday, the Wednesday was busier. But the park handles it's guest numbers extremely well, and this is one of the most impressive things about Europa Park. All rides operated all trains at all times and the loading was the quickest I've ever experienced. With 3 trains running the queues are kept moving. We queued from outside the Silver Star line, along it's entire length with extension and were on the ride in 30 minutes, the board outside claimed 40. It's very efficient and very impressive. The slowest loading rides were Matterhorn-Blitz and Poisidon, but don't be put off if the queues look long, they'll move it quickly.
Now onto the coasters:
Silver Star
I didn't know what to make of comments from members before I'd left for Germany. Many claimed it was boring with no air-time and that it was killed by trims. I can honestly say this was not my experience of the ride. I first rode it on the front row as I'd heard it was the place to get air-time and I found it, but I also found decent amounts of similar air on the 3rd row. Later I rode it towards the back of the train, not expecting much, however I thought it got better. The whip over the first drop lifts you violently from your seat and is extremely thrilling at that hight. I also found great lift from the hills and leaving the MCBR. There was an operating trim on the top of the hill after the turn around, but it was subtle, and if I'm honest, probably needed at that point. I genuinely thought this was a fantastic coaster, smooth and thrilling from every seat I rode.
Blue Fire
This was really cool. Again, we experienced the front row first (as the queue was so quick). But, again, I don't think it was the best place to experience the ride. It felt much quicker through the inversions towards the back and was more thrilling for it. The launch was a little slow, I felt, and the first large banked hill not great. I'm not a coaster designer, not even on No Limits, but I felt a top-hat would have made the ride that bit more hardcore with the vertical element. The views weren't badly restricted from further back, and I'm short at 5'7", so back is better. (IMO and all that).
I won't go into the other rides in detail but all were excellently themed and had custom music, even if it was only an 8-bar loop (I'm looking at you Euro Mir!!). On the topic of Mir, it's surprisingly high. Swiss Bob is pretty cool at the front.
We were also keen to experience the smaller rides that I feel give a park character. There were plenty of sit down and float/ride around animatronic scene rides... loads in fact. The best of them was Pirates in Bratavia in Holland, a boat one. It had this awesome swooping drop from the station into the area of the scenes from darkness. Really cool.
Thanks to ECG for recommending the Atlantis dark-ride shooter, which was great (shows up Legoland's poor attempt!), I'm sure I would have missed it if he hadn't mentioned it on my Q&A topic earlier. And many people recommended the Diamond Mine walk-through, which was cool because of the ride interaction, but I wasn't a fan of the smell.
The ride interaction was really cool throughout the park. For instance Silverstone shares a location with a kiddies version, there are many examples of this. Pirates goes through a restaurant and the flume and mine train go through the Diamond mine. And several of the shows happen within the ride areas, high diving in Atlantica Supersplash, and something, once again, in Pirates. This really made you feel involved with the park as a whole, not just the section your in.
As for food there was a "New for 2010" Pizzaria in Italy (with an entrance in France too) that was fantasic and only 6 euros for a large personal pizza. We also enjoyed the Boulangerie (bakery) in France. I found the park to be very reasonably priced inside. My only critisim of the park is that the ORPs are small and seem to use older technology, not great but also priced quite well at 5.90.
Anyway, if you've read down to here I'm impressed! I know it's a bit waffley, but I hope I've been able to give people an idea of the park if they're going soon or given others encouragement to go!
I'll end my reports with a few snaps we took, remember Europa Park are celebrating their 35 birthday this year.
OH! P.S:
Anyone remember, a year or so ago there was a is-this-a-cred topic on this [Website],[Thread]? Amusingly it was about 15 minutes from our flat in Todtnau and it was great! 8.50 euro for the chairlift up and ride down. Quality. If it is a coaster it'd be worlds longest, but it's not a cred for me.
I'll keep most of the report down to the park, don't worry, but we stayed in a town called Todtmoos, that looked like this:
It's about an hour and a quarter's drive from Europa Park. For people unwilling to stay so far, I'd strongly recommend staying the stunning city of Freiburg about 20 minutes south of Rust. (again, by car)
This was our first trip to Europa Park and we spent two great days in this wonderful park. It feels like the owners really care for the quality of the park and are willing to spend when needed. The park was kept clean by hordes of litter pickers and trim by teams of gardeners.
The themeing was something else, as I've never been to a Disney I can comfortably say I've never seen anything better. I particually liked Greece and Switzerland.
Greece
The Swiss street
Although it was all great the older areas seemed more bedded in and therefore more realistic.
Even though it was a school holiday the park wasn't too busy. Especially on the Monday, the Wednesday was busier. But the park handles it's guest numbers extremely well, and this is one of the most impressive things about Europa Park. All rides operated all trains at all times and the loading was the quickest I've ever experienced. With 3 trains running the queues are kept moving. We queued from outside the Silver Star line, along it's entire length with extension and were on the ride in 30 minutes, the board outside claimed 40. It's very efficient and very impressive. The slowest loading rides were Matterhorn-Blitz and Poisidon, but don't be put off if the queues look long, they'll move it quickly.
Now onto the coasters:
Silver Star
I didn't know what to make of comments from members before I'd left for Germany. Many claimed it was boring with no air-time and that it was killed by trims. I can honestly say this was not my experience of the ride. I first rode it on the front row as I'd heard it was the place to get air-time and I found it, but I also found decent amounts of similar air on the 3rd row. Later I rode it towards the back of the train, not expecting much, however I thought it got better. The whip over the first drop lifts you violently from your seat and is extremely thrilling at that hight. I also found great lift from the hills and leaving the MCBR. There was an operating trim on the top of the hill after the turn around, but it was subtle, and if I'm honest, probably needed at that point. I genuinely thought this was a fantastic coaster, smooth and thrilling from every seat I rode.
Blue Fire
This was really cool. Again, we experienced the front row first (as the queue was so quick). But, again, I don't think it was the best place to experience the ride. It felt much quicker through the inversions towards the back and was more thrilling for it. The launch was a little slow, I felt, and the first large banked hill not great. I'm not a coaster designer, not even on No Limits, but I felt a top-hat would have made the ride that bit more hardcore with the vertical element. The views weren't badly restricted from further back, and I'm short at 5'7", so back is better. (IMO and all that).
I won't go into the other rides in detail but all were excellently themed and had custom music, even if it was only an 8-bar loop (I'm looking at you Euro Mir!!). On the topic of Mir, it's surprisingly high. Swiss Bob is pretty cool at the front.
We were also keen to experience the smaller rides that I feel give a park character. There were plenty of sit down and float/ride around animatronic scene rides... loads in fact. The best of them was Pirates in Bratavia in Holland, a boat one. It had this awesome swooping drop from the station into the area of the scenes from darkness. Really cool.
Thanks to ECG for recommending the Atlantis dark-ride shooter, which was great (shows up Legoland's poor attempt!), I'm sure I would have missed it if he hadn't mentioned it on my Q&A topic earlier. And many people recommended the Diamond Mine walk-through, which was cool because of the ride interaction, but I wasn't a fan of the smell.
The ride interaction was really cool throughout the park. For instance Silverstone shares a location with a kiddies version, there are many examples of this. Pirates goes through a restaurant and the flume and mine train go through the Diamond mine. And several of the shows happen within the ride areas, high diving in Atlantica Supersplash, and something, once again, in Pirates. This really made you feel involved with the park as a whole, not just the section your in.
As for food there was a "New for 2010" Pizzaria in Italy (with an entrance in France too) that was fantasic and only 6 euros for a large personal pizza. We also enjoyed the Boulangerie (bakery) in France. I found the park to be very reasonably priced inside. My only critisim of the park is that the ORPs are small and seem to use older technology, not great but also priced quite well at 5.90.
Anyway, if you've read down to here I'm impressed! I know it's a bit waffley, but I hope I've been able to give people an idea of the park if they're going soon or given others encouragement to go!
I'll end my reports with a few snaps we took, remember Europa Park are celebrating their 35 birthday this year.
OH! P.S:
Anyone remember, a year or so ago there was a is-this-a-cred topic on this [Website],[Thread]? Amusingly it was about 15 minutes from our flat in Todtnau and it was great! 8.50 euro for the chairlift up and ride down. Quality. If it is a coaster it'd be worlds longest, but it's not a cred for me.
I found it to bee a great coaster in the front, not so good in the back though.. Loveley park, lovely photos and a great trip report! I'll probably add my own trip report soon when I'm finished with school (which will be next week) :wink: