toofpikk
Hyper Poster
so I just spent 3 months of my life working at Europa Park and I'd go as far to say it's probably the best 3 months I've ever had.
I worked as part of the European Summer Programme and was placed on the Arthur attraction for my duration, where I essentially just worked the same as any other employee.. only I couldn't really speak German. This wasn't a problem come the end of the 3 months though, I'd picked up phrases that I'd needed and learnt the basic 'whats the queue time' 'wheres the exit' phrases when they were being said to me.. As well as some fantastic work experience, I also managed to go on a lot of trips during my visit.
Phantasialand
Phantasialand is mine (and I'm fairly sure most other peoples) favourite park I've visited. The theming and ride balance is perfect, unmatched, and unprecedented leaving such a unique mark on the beholding guest. I don't really need to say anymore, as you can find my trip report from last year here
Basel
Here's a lovely fountain found in Basel.
The city itself is... pretty... meh? There's very little to do here and not very many things to see. As I went with a group I also had a time limit which meant I couldn't stray too far from the city centre, however we did manage to find a very nice area at the top of the cities hill... It just was very small and surrounded with a sprawling concrete mess. Unless you want cheese, there's very little reason to visit basel besides business.
Strasbourg
Next, we visited Strasbourg
Quite to the contrary to Basel, Strasbourg was a very nice city to spend a day in, with sprawling cobblestone market squares, masses of green areas and a river that seems to split a thousand times throughout the city, matched with its period architecture made quite the pretty fit. Plus, there were better shops
The cities cathedral is also massive. And stunning. And so are all the areas around it. Very quaint.
I also made trips to Lahr, Stuttgart, and some other city with loads of trams... none of them are particularly memorable.
So, after settling down and doing a massive amount of rides on all the rides in Europa Park, we headed to a couple other theme parks near by!
Tripsdrill
Is probably the most quaint park I've visited. Situated neatly in the vineyards of southern Germany, the park has a very good selection of family rides. The park layout however is very bad, and could use some work, as it takes a very long time to get from one end of the park to the other, when considering its size, should not be the case.
Karacho (prounounced kah-ra-cow) is sublime. The lapbars leave you with umphs amount of freedom and are very comfortable, and the ride itself really chucks you all over the place. A bummer for the mcbr but this ride alone is worth the visit.
Mammut rides okayish... its the smoothest woodie I've been on and is phenomenally quiet, however with one or maybe 2 pops of airtime its a bit lack luster.. the preshow is fab though, and I'm in awe gerst are responsible for something with wood being quite that smooth. I can only imagine NTG!
Of course, the log flume and the gerst bob were both good fun too, and with the addition of the new sky fly, I can see Tripsdrill is taking the park in a very good direction. It's goofiness and very German vibes make it a very enjoyable park, along with it's general beauty, and good ride line up. Their food is on point too, with Karacho burgers being your average priced burgers, only gourmet, customised, and cooked in front of you, quickly too. Beautiful stuff. Not to mention, their staff are the best theme park workers ever. Guest interaction is fluent here, with gardeners spraying kids with their hoses, absolutely chilled ops (literally dipping their feet in ponds and streams whilst rides are in operation) and not to mention Gustov, operator of the caterpillar (not actually his name). What. A. Hero.
The park is beautiful, and if you ever consider Europa for more then 3 days, at least spend one of them here. Well worth it.
In June Europa hosted a car show, and being a little bit of a car guy, I had to nab some pictures too. I think it's fab how the park is able to host all these events and get such a big draw.
As well as this event, they hosted other little nights at the camp resort, night beat angels, club nights in the Colosseo, Miss Germany, and a Maypole festival.
Holiday Park
was my final trip whilst I was in Germany, and my, what an odd park?! I found it very reminiscent of an old Thorpe park, with a decent rapids, and an incredible, massive, very good rollercoaster. And the rest were just sort of side acts. (I only took one picture here as the rest were videos, sorry!)
Expedition GeForce is incredible. I had it over hyped, underhyped, side hyped, you name it, before I rode it, so I went on it expecting nothing out of the ordinary, and boy did it deliver. The ejector and floatiness on this thing is superb, and the first drop is immense. There's little more to say about it really, but it's extremely reridable and each seat has a different positive about it. Sitting at the front means more airtime over the hills, but at the back the drop and overbanks are much more forceful. Very fun.
Sky Skream was closed on our trip and this was unadvertised before we got to the gates which was.. disappointing. We did most of the other rides in the park which simply highlighted how broken it is in it's current state. The park really needs another massive attraction to match GeForce, and it could use one that would be good for a broader market as well. A Heidi here for example would be perfect, weaving through the trees and around the other rides and whatnot. A lot of investment is needed in this place, and whilst plopsa's market is very different from Holiday's, I trust they will do the right thing, or they simply risk the park going under.
As well as these trips, our work group on the programme went go karting, paintballing, bowling, laser tag(ging), tree climbing, and weather watching. And a lot of drinking. I was surprised by the amount of things there are to do in the black forest nearby Europa, but if you fancy a day of activities, all listed above were within a 40 minute car journey.
And of course, I couldn't work at the worlds greatest theme park without spending countless days there.
My Passion for Wodan & Silver star has grown, and Blue fire has sunk. I now find blue fire dull and tame, whereas the others, the opposite, the more I rode them.
Poseidon and Atlantica are both fantastic water rides, and old timer fahrt is grossly underrated and should not be missed by any park goer.
I absolutely love my colleagues on arthur, they are all a really good bunch, and I'm already dying to go back and visit them, and my housemates again.
PS good job if you made it this far..
It was a pleasure and fantastic fun to work at such a good workplace, however I do feel like I've done the impossible and ridden the worth out of Europa.
For now.
Here's a video.
PS, I am open to any questions you like about working at Europa, I'm sure some of you are curious about it.
Also, don't forget to look at other videos on my channel, you may get a better in depth look at what we did. I'm sure I'll be posting more goofy videos there from my trip soon.
Cheers!
I worked as part of the European Summer Programme and was placed on the Arthur attraction for my duration, where I essentially just worked the same as any other employee.. only I couldn't really speak German. This wasn't a problem come the end of the 3 months though, I'd picked up phrases that I'd needed and learnt the basic 'whats the queue time' 'wheres the exit' phrases when they were being said to me.. As well as some fantastic work experience, I also managed to go on a lot of trips during my visit.
Phantasialand
Phantasialand is mine (and I'm fairly sure most other peoples) favourite park I've visited. The theming and ride balance is perfect, unmatched, and unprecedented leaving such a unique mark on the beholding guest. I don't really need to say anymore, as you can find my trip report from last year here
Basel
Here's a lovely fountain found in Basel.
The city itself is... pretty... meh? There's very little to do here and not very many things to see. As I went with a group I also had a time limit which meant I couldn't stray too far from the city centre, however we did manage to find a very nice area at the top of the cities hill... It just was very small and surrounded with a sprawling concrete mess. Unless you want cheese, there's very little reason to visit basel besides business.
Strasbourg
Next, we visited Strasbourg
Quite to the contrary to Basel, Strasbourg was a very nice city to spend a day in, with sprawling cobblestone market squares, masses of green areas and a river that seems to split a thousand times throughout the city, matched with its period architecture made quite the pretty fit. Plus, there were better shops
The cities cathedral is also massive. And stunning. And so are all the areas around it. Very quaint.
I also made trips to Lahr, Stuttgart, and some other city with loads of trams... none of them are particularly memorable.
So, after settling down and doing a massive amount of rides on all the rides in Europa Park, we headed to a couple other theme parks near by!
Tripsdrill
Is probably the most quaint park I've visited. Situated neatly in the vineyards of southern Germany, the park has a very good selection of family rides. The park layout however is very bad, and could use some work, as it takes a very long time to get from one end of the park to the other, when considering its size, should not be the case.
Karacho (prounounced kah-ra-cow) is sublime. The lapbars leave you with umphs amount of freedom and are very comfortable, and the ride itself really chucks you all over the place. A bummer for the mcbr but this ride alone is worth the visit.
Mammut rides okayish... its the smoothest woodie I've been on and is phenomenally quiet, however with one or maybe 2 pops of airtime its a bit lack luster.. the preshow is fab though, and I'm in awe gerst are responsible for something with wood being quite that smooth. I can only imagine NTG!
Of course, the log flume and the gerst bob were both good fun too, and with the addition of the new sky fly, I can see Tripsdrill is taking the park in a very good direction. It's goofiness and very German vibes make it a very enjoyable park, along with it's general beauty, and good ride line up. Their food is on point too, with Karacho burgers being your average priced burgers, only gourmet, customised, and cooked in front of you, quickly too. Beautiful stuff. Not to mention, their staff are the best theme park workers ever. Guest interaction is fluent here, with gardeners spraying kids with their hoses, absolutely chilled ops (literally dipping their feet in ponds and streams whilst rides are in operation) and not to mention Gustov, operator of the caterpillar (not actually his name). What. A. Hero.
The park is beautiful, and if you ever consider Europa for more then 3 days, at least spend one of them here. Well worth it.
In June Europa hosted a car show, and being a little bit of a car guy, I had to nab some pictures too. I think it's fab how the park is able to host all these events and get such a big draw.
As well as this event, they hosted other little nights at the camp resort, night beat angels, club nights in the Colosseo, Miss Germany, and a Maypole festival.
Holiday Park
was my final trip whilst I was in Germany, and my, what an odd park?! I found it very reminiscent of an old Thorpe park, with a decent rapids, and an incredible, massive, very good rollercoaster. And the rest were just sort of side acts. (I only took one picture here as the rest were videos, sorry!)
Expedition GeForce is incredible. I had it over hyped, underhyped, side hyped, you name it, before I rode it, so I went on it expecting nothing out of the ordinary, and boy did it deliver. The ejector and floatiness on this thing is superb, and the first drop is immense. There's little more to say about it really, but it's extremely reridable and each seat has a different positive about it. Sitting at the front means more airtime over the hills, but at the back the drop and overbanks are much more forceful. Very fun.
Sky Skream was closed on our trip and this was unadvertised before we got to the gates which was.. disappointing. We did most of the other rides in the park which simply highlighted how broken it is in it's current state. The park really needs another massive attraction to match GeForce, and it could use one that would be good for a broader market as well. A Heidi here for example would be perfect, weaving through the trees and around the other rides and whatnot. A lot of investment is needed in this place, and whilst plopsa's market is very different from Holiday's, I trust they will do the right thing, or they simply risk the park going under.
As well as these trips, our work group on the programme went go karting, paintballing, bowling, laser tag(ging), tree climbing, and weather watching. And a lot of drinking. I was surprised by the amount of things there are to do in the black forest nearby Europa, but if you fancy a day of activities, all listed above were within a 40 minute car journey.
And of course, I couldn't work at the worlds greatest theme park without spending countless days there.
My Passion for Wodan & Silver star has grown, and Blue fire has sunk. I now find blue fire dull and tame, whereas the others, the opposite, the more I rode them.
Poseidon and Atlantica are both fantastic water rides, and old timer fahrt is grossly underrated and should not be missed by any park goer.
I absolutely love my colleagues on arthur, they are all a really good bunch, and I'm already dying to go back and visit them, and my housemates again.
PS good job if you made it this far..
It was a pleasure and fantastic fun to work at such a good workplace, however I do feel like I've done the impossible and ridden the worth out of Europa.
For now.
Here's a video.
PS, I am open to any questions you like about working at Europa, I'm sure some of you are curious about it.
Also, don't forget to look at other videos on my channel, you may get a better in depth look at what we did. I'm sure I'll be posting more goofy videos there from my trip soon.
Cheers!
