Hi all, so you may or may not remember me from a thread I posted in the main chat a few weeks back entitled "can you get me excited for Europa park"? WIth two weeks off work and literally everyone else I knew engaged, thought I'd sort myself a nice solo trip to Europa park.
Well safe to say, you all did indeed get me excited, and indeed I had a blast, so here is the report (Sorry, I can't promise on the quality of this compared to the other reports on here, but I've been writing for ages and really need to stop now)
Monday 27th March-arrival
Arrival into Basel airport circa 11am, perfect and plenty of time for the day ahead and to make my way on the short hop through to Germany. What an interesting place, talk about the absolute border of countries. So at this airport there is literally a French Exit and a Swiss exit-it's literally that on the border here. And bearing in mind that I was actually headed to Germany, I think the location for Europa as a kind of mish-mash of Europe may be almost perfect. Anyway, long story short after reaching the centre I soon found myself being totally stranded due to a totally unexpected train strike in Germany, which meant I was stuck in Switzerland for the whole day with no way to get to Germany.......oh dear. I could spend a long thread telling how I desperately tried to bribe a taxi driver, repeatedly tried different train options, and even considered the 4.5 hour bike ride (possibly on a hired bike?) to Rust from Basel, I eventually ended up en route, hours later on the sold out flixibus after much (and I really do mean MUCH) negotiation with the driver's assistant who did the tickets....I was finally en route after a horriically stressful day. I don't know exactly what the issue with the train drivers is in Germany, but frankly they don't have my sympathy right now.....
Monday evening: After a very relieving journey, the coach pulled into Europa Park and it was amazing to see the park gates and a truly ginormous coaster which was obviously Silver Star towering over the park. As the full coach pulled up, I was pleased if somewhat surprised to find myself literally the only passenger actually getting off the coach at Rust as promised, right next to Europa park. Me being the only guest suggested that, as predicted, things, would be quiet, fun times..... I couldn't wait for the day ahead after being dropped here...
Rust is BEAUTIFUL. I had a lovely impression of the place from the very beginning. I promptly checked myself into the 'family room with balcony' (despite being just me) and proceeded to enjoy the evening and head out for a beer.
I dropped my stuff at the hotel Pensio Mimosa, accessed bizarrely through an pizza restaurant below. You liteally check in with one of the waiters. Can't say I was thrilled by this but otherwise an enjoyable and relatively cheap place to stay...
One thing I remember from my visit to Berlin a few years back was just how difficult it can be to find just a bar and get a beer. There are tonnes of places offering beers but they’re almost universally restaurants and I’d already eaten so didn’t want to go for a sit-down meal. Anyway, in the end this turned out to be a blessing as it meant I had to find my way to the beautiful Europa park hotels, specifically Bell Rock, where I was able to enjoy a large Erdinger and watch the river show.
Tuesday 28th March-day one
Early start with breakfast on the balcony of my hotel:
Park opened at 8:30am which was great. Was good to see that crowds were quiet as predicted as there were only the 3 left turnstiles open:
Voletarium
Once in, I headed straight for this. I know previous advice had said not to do this due to crowds, but I knew it wouldn’t be a problem today. Sure enough got in line and the only queue formed was simply because the ride hadn’t opened yet. It was a wonderful way to start the park. You can actually feel and smell some of the things on screen as you fly all over Europe, eventually finishing right here in Europa park. I really enjoyed it and made a mental note to do it again before the end of the two day visit
Eurosat Can can coaster
Then it was into France, straight onto Eurosat Can can coaster, which was one of the rides I’d been most looking forward to (I LOVE DARKRIDES, I have great memories of The Black Hole at Alton Towers from my younger days, and was looking forward to a similar experience.). It didn’t disappoint, I loved every second. Loved the suspenseful music going up the lift hill and then the slow onslaught of the can-can at exactly the same time as you begin your (much faster) descent back down the coaster and through the dancer’s legs. Sure enough I was soon back in line, onto the main rider queue as, as I pointed out to a couple of my fellow park guests, it was so quiet the single rider queue was actually taking longer.
(the eagle-eyed may notice a change in light here. In trip report time this was like 09:20am but I stopped taking photos and returned later for these and the following)
Silver star
Now the time had come for the ride I’d been most looking forward to.....Silver Star........and.......well.......to be honest, all of my worst fears were realised. It went up in the air, ambled round the track, and I LITERALLY FELT NOTHING!!! Turns out all the critics were right, and worse still, I came off with a headache too. What a disappointment!!! Oh well, still plenty more fun to come...
I wanted to now take a bit of time to just stroll through the park and take in the beautiful morning so I slowly made my way over to Iceland via the Italy and Scandinavian areas. I enjoyed watching the river rapids go by and made a mental note to do it later that day. Eventually after lots of strolling through this beautiful park, before making my way through to Blue Fire
Blue fire
Once again, the park was so empty that I didn’t bother with single rider and headed straight for the main. I rode it and I can say considering all I’d heard I was very impressed with Blue Fire. I do love a good launch coaster, and the inversion at the very end was without doubt the single best I’ve experienced on a roller coaster. A great ride with some awesome views of the park.
Wodan
Next up, over to Wodan. Which I can safely say was fantastic. A great ride and probably the very best here so far. The only reason I can’t rank it higher is because I had the privilege of riding Zadra multiple times last year, which (whilst ironically not my personal favourite at Energylandia) I feel makes a very good case for the best coaster in Europe, and I found it hard not to compare. Yes I know one is a wooden coaster and one is RMC, but I still found it impossible not to compare the two. For this reason alone, I would have to say that Wodan would have ranked higher if I’d ridden it first, but a great ride it unquestionably is....
Anyway, after disappointedly finding the salmon skin roll stand was closed, more strolling around and taking in sights eventually led to me to lunch at the Three Pigs in the England area-currywurst and chips. Pretty nice but to be honest I did slightly rue the choice having so many different options, but I was very hungry at this point.
Euro Mir
Post lunch and it was time to make my way over to Arthur, but strolling through the Russia area what should I spot on the way but Euro Mir......I’d heard some rather negative things about this, but there was no way I wasn’t doing it.......and it was fun. I didn’t feel any great urge to do it again, but I loved the soundtrack and the lift hill, and didn’t find it as rough as I’d been told to expect. I made a point of avoiding the back car as advised by some online
Arthur
Outside of a rather irritating queue set up I found myself on it Arthur and I loved it to be honest. It’s a really fun ride and I actually found it a tad more thrilling/forceful than I thought, particularly the outside areas, than I thought it would be
Pirraten en Batavia
More strolling and up next, which was awesome. The only thing I felt was missing was maybe a little drop or something just to give a bit of a thrill. I know that’s not really the point but I remember the great Pirate Adventure at Drayton Manor and I loved it and was hoping this would be similar. Still a very good ride though, and I loved going through the Thai Restaurant Bamboo Baaee where I planned to eat the next day...(fwiw this never happened in the end due to time restraints)
Atlantica Super Splash
I absolutely adore water rides so all it needs to do is go up once, get me wet, and I’m happy. And that's exactly what it did.... Got rather wet though, both on and off ride (especially standing here)
Tiroli log flume:
Enjoyed this a lot, love a good log flume, nothing that overly stands out but then it doesn’t need to. It’s a log flume so it’s great, end of.
Silver star
Silver Star to give it a second chance, and all I can say is....I’m glad I did. I don’t know what happened on that first ride. I don’t know whether it was wrong seat, wrong time, wrong row, or what, but safe to say my second ride was much, much better and I quickly realised after 3 more rows that this had completely redeemed itself and was now my favourite ride in the park, as well as one of my favourites in Europe. There are a number of things I love about this ride:
1: The option to pick your own row. Why don’t more rides have this? You get to the front of the queue, and then head over to the row that you want, and queue for that. My favourite row was the back and it was great to be able to just pick this again and again, as well as varying the different rows each time
2. The crew-there’s something unique about the crew on Silver Star. The way they dress up in the Mercedes Benz outfits, they seem to have a unique sense of humour and love to wind up the guests (recall one guy making bird noises just before the train left on one visit). Awesome
3. The queue. Despite it being v quiet, Silver Star did appear to have a relatively long queue at one point, and some people were even turning back round. Remembering that this queue never stops moving, I decided to stay and sure enough was on it within ten minutes.
I haven’t decided for certain if it cracks my top 5 in Europe yet (Hyperion, Zadra, Shambhala, Nemesis and Taron if anyone’s interested), but I think if not it’s definitely #6, and there are things about this ride (e.g those written above) that I prefer to all of them. Shoutout for that wonderful airtime hill after the first breakrun too....took me by surprise even when I was expecting it.
After multiple re-rides it was time to head to the swiss area and (after much contemplation over which choccies to purchase from the Linddt shop), it was time for a ride on Schweisser Bobbhan which my friend had insisted on me doing and telling him all about for some reason. Anyway, it was nothing special and I enjoyed it more than I thought (like Euro Mir I’d heard bad things), though I had no great desire to do it again. Speaking of doing things again, back to Silver Star and Eurosat for the rest of the day........
And so concluded day 1, another nice evening drinking German beer by the water at Bell Rock and I love this place, it’s a great spot. For reference I got the EP express to here from the park which they say is only for hotel guests. I was worried about not being allowed off the thing, but didn't have any issues and walked straight out (for obvious reasons, I don't even need to check if this can be done in reverse)..
There’s a handy Lidl nearby too to purchase goods from and I got my dinner from there in the end. There’s a Chinese buffet with all you can eat for 33 euros which I did vey seriously contemplate, but decided I didn’t quite have the appetite for. Another one for the ‘next time’ pile
Day two-Wednesday (sorry less pics from today)
I’d gotten so many rides in the day before that I’d largely done what I wanted to by the end of day one so wanted to have a quieter day today and potentially get some of the kiddie creds in. I’d planned to get up early, go for a 5k run (I’m a keen runner and love a new venue) and then get to the park around 10. Well, after the alarm went off....only the second part happened sadly.....another one for the ‘Next time’ pile.
Anyway, ironically despite being IN Germany, the one place I hadn’t actually spent much time in was the Germany area, so I decided to spend the first part of my morning there. What I can say about this place is that I LOVED the boat rides here. I did both, one is a spinning boat, and the other is a kind of big boat that goes through a kind of magic kingdom full of wizards, frogs and charm(think perhaps Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory...sort of) and I LOVED both of these rides. One of them ( I think the spnning one?) had an awesome catchy soundtrack too which is still stuck in my head to this day. A lovely leisurely start to the day and a morning of my life I shall forever remember with much fondness. I think the Germany area as a whole is alittle underrated. Sure it’s eclipsed by France and Italy but I think it holds up very well on it’s own. Sorry I forgot the ride names but they're next to each other and both include Fahrt in the title I think...
Piccolo Mundo+dinosaurs
Speaking of Italy, off to Italy it was for Piccolo Mundo next, and another fun ride to enjoy. I liked the soundtrack and the theming. Also did the nearby dinosaur ride, which was also fun, before making my way over to the Greece area.
Kasandra
One thing I must say about Greece was that for me, more so than any other area, it actually felt like you were in the country itself. The flooring and the white buildings made it possible to do so. I did Kasandra which I thought was pretty cool but I was never quite sucked in by the illusion of being upside down for some reason. Still cool though.
Observation tower
I forgot to mention I also did the observation tower which was cool and gave great views of the park and was another one to return to later if time.
Anyway, the wonderful Blue fire and water rides done once more (again got too wet) and then the rest of the day was divided between Silver Star and Eurosat, my two favourites at the park and rather conveniently right next to one another. Managed to take the park train too at one point which was nice. There’s now a VR version of Eurosat which I actually REALLY wanted to do but didn’t get chance. Another one for the ‘next time’ pile.....
I can’t quite remember why, but later on I found myself in the Denmark area. There was a beautiful looking boat ride which I REALLY wanted to do but was unsure about time (I had to leave at 4 for the coach and it was around 3 when I joined the queue). In the end after dipping in and out the queue I decided I just couldn’t risk it and made my way back to Silver Star for one last ride, before bookending my trip with a final visit to the voletarium.
All in all I LOVED this park and will definitely return. Not least of all for:
A visit to some of the other hotel bars (in particular I really wanted to do Colloseu but just ran out of time
A revisit to Bell Rock bar J
A visit to food loop and Bamboo Baee ( I know I planned to do the latter on Wednesday but decided to prioritise rides and just bring my own lunch instead0
Denmark boat ride
Many, many re-rides on Silver Star and Eurosat (also VR)
A re-ride on pretty much everything above other than anywhere I wrote “I had no great desire to do it again”
RULANTICA-this was meant to be part of my Monday evening plans until the German train drivers put paid to that....
One thing I'd add is that I've done a park solo before but I felt much more comfortable at this one for some reason. I also noticed a lot of other solo visitors, and got chatting to one chap from France who'd travelled 9 hours on a coach with the same idea as myself. I don't know if it's just something I've gotten used to but I really felt totally at ease at this park, far more so than any other that I've done for some reason.....lovely place. I will DEFINITELY return next year....so onto the question
Is it my favourite in Europe? I don’t know, it’s certainly in the running........... (I’ve done Portaventura, Energylandia, Phantasialand and now this)......but then so are all the others I guess. In the end, I think it’s best not to compare and just enjoy each park for what it is. While I think coasters can definitely be compared, I think each park offers a unique experience and has a different intention from the others. Very much apples and oranges I feel, though I will say Europa wins hands down, perhaps if not on rides (though I think the 'lack of thrill rides' is overplayed I think it pretty much matches any park in my opinion) on operations and also generally feeling of being comfortable in the park.
Final ride counts (approximate)
Silver star x10
Eurosat x8
Blue firex5
Wodanx5
Every other credit of any significance (even the italian train) at least x1 except for Poseidon and Pegasus (just didn't get round), I did a few rides which i haven't included in here too...
Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'm running out of time and I'm not quite sure how to end this, so I'll finish with a swan I befriended in the Bell Rock grounds, who then decided he didn't want to be friends anymore....
J,
Well safe to say, you all did indeed get me excited, and indeed I had a blast, so here is the report (Sorry, I can't promise on the quality of this compared to the other reports on here, but I've been writing for ages and really need to stop now)
Monday 27th March-arrival
Arrival into Basel airport circa 11am, perfect and plenty of time for the day ahead and to make my way on the short hop through to Germany. What an interesting place, talk about the absolute border of countries. So at this airport there is literally a French Exit and a Swiss exit-it's literally that on the border here. And bearing in mind that I was actually headed to Germany, I think the location for Europa as a kind of mish-mash of Europe may be almost perfect. Anyway, long story short after reaching the centre I soon found myself being totally stranded due to a totally unexpected train strike in Germany, which meant I was stuck in Switzerland for the whole day with no way to get to Germany.......oh dear. I could spend a long thread telling how I desperately tried to bribe a taxi driver, repeatedly tried different train options, and even considered the 4.5 hour bike ride (possibly on a hired bike?) to Rust from Basel, I eventually ended up en route, hours later on the sold out flixibus after much (and I really do mean MUCH) negotiation with the driver's assistant who did the tickets....I was finally en route after a horriically stressful day. I don't know exactly what the issue with the train drivers is in Germany, but frankly they don't have my sympathy right now.....
Monday evening: After a very relieving journey, the coach pulled into Europa Park and it was amazing to see the park gates and a truly ginormous coaster which was obviously Silver Star towering over the park. As the full coach pulled up, I was pleased if somewhat surprised to find myself literally the only passenger actually getting off the coach at Rust as promised, right next to Europa park. Me being the only guest suggested that, as predicted, things, would be quiet, fun times..... I couldn't wait for the day ahead after being dropped here...
Rust is BEAUTIFUL. I had a lovely impression of the place from the very beginning. I promptly checked myself into the 'family room with balcony' (despite being just me) and proceeded to enjoy the evening and head out for a beer.
I dropped my stuff at the hotel Pensio Mimosa, accessed bizarrely through an pizza restaurant below. You liteally check in with one of the waiters. Can't say I was thrilled by this but otherwise an enjoyable and relatively cheap place to stay...
One thing I remember from my visit to Berlin a few years back was just how difficult it can be to find just a bar and get a beer. There are tonnes of places offering beers but they’re almost universally restaurants and I’d already eaten so didn’t want to go for a sit-down meal. Anyway, in the end this turned out to be a blessing as it meant I had to find my way to the beautiful Europa park hotels, specifically Bell Rock, where I was able to enjoy a large Erdinger and watch the river show.
Tuesday 28th March-day one
Early start with breakfast on the balcony of my hotel:
Park opened at 8:30am which was great. Was good to see that crowds were quiet as predicted as there were only the 3 left turnstiles open:
Voletarium
Once in, I headed straight for this. I know previous advice had said not to do this due to crowds, but I knew it wouldn’t be a problem today. Sure enough got in line and the only queue formed was simply because the ride hadn’t opened yet. It was a wonderful way to start the park. You can actually feel and smell some of the things on screen as you fly all over Europe, eventually finishing right here in Europa park. I really enjoyed it and made a mental note to do it again before the end of the two day visit
Eurosat Can can coaster
Then it was into France, straight onto Eurosat Can can coaster, which was one of the rides I’d been most looking forward to (I LOVE DARKRIDES, I have great memories of The Black Hole at Alton Towers from my younger days, and was looking forward to a similar experience.). It didn’t disappoint, I loved every second. Loved the suspenseful music going up the lift hill and then the slow onslaught of the can-can at exactly the same time as you begin your (much faster) descent back down the coaster and through the dancer’s legs. Sure enough I was soon back in line, onto the main rider queue as, as I pointed out to a couple of my fellow park guests, it was so quiet the single rider queue was actually taking longer.
(the eagle-eyed may notice a change in light here. In trip report time this was like 09:20am but I stopped taking photos and returned later for these and the following)
Silver star
Now the time had come for the ride I’d been most looking forward to.....Silver Star........and.......well.......to be honest, all of my worst fears were realised. It went up in the air, ambled round the track, and I LITERALLY FELT NOTHING!!! Turns out all the critics were right, and worse still, I came off with a headache too. What a disappointment!!! Oh well, still plenty more fun to come...
I wanted to now take a bit of time to just stroll through the park and take in the beautiful morning so I slowly made my way over to Iceland via the Italy and Scandinavian areas. I enjoyed watching the river rapids go by and made a mental note to do it later that day. Eventually after lots of strolling through this beautiful park, before making my way through to Blue Fire
Blue fire
Once again, the park was so empty that I didn’t bother with single rider and headed straight for the main. I rode it and I can say considering all I’d heard I was very impressed with Blue Fire. I do love a good launch coaster, and the inversion at the very end was without doubt the single best I’ve experienced on a roller coaster. A great ride with some awesome views of the park.
Wodan
Next up, over to Wodan. Which I can safely say was fantastic. A great ride and probably the very best here so far. The only reason I can’t rank it higher is because I had the privilege of riding Zadra multiple times last year, which (whilst ironically not my personal favourite at Energylandia) I feel makes a very good case for the best coaster in Europe, and I found it hard not to compare. Yes I know one is a wooden coaster and one is RMC, but I still found it impossible not to compare the two. For this reason alone, I would have to say that Wodan would have ranked higher if I’d ridden it first, but a great ride it unquestionably is....
Anyway, after disappointedly finding the salmon skin roll stand was closed, more strolling around and taking in sights eventually led to me to lunch at the Three Pigs in the England area-currywurst and chips. Pretty nice but to be honest I did slightly rue the choice having so many different options, but I was very hungry at this point.
Euro Mir
Post lunch and it was time to make my way over to Arthur, but strolling through the Russia area what should I spot on the way but Euro Mir......I’d heard some rather negative things about this, but there was no way I wasn’t doing it.......and it was fun. I didn’t feel any great urge to do it again, but I loved the soundtrack and the lift hill, and didn’t find it as rough as I’d been told to expect. I made a point of avoiding the back car as advised by some online
Arthur
Outside of a rather irritating queue set up I found myself on it Arthur and I loved it to be honest. It’s a really fun ride and I actually found it a tad more thrilling/forceful than I thought, particularly the outside areas, than I thought it would be
Pirraten en Batavia
More strolling and up next, which was awesome. The only thing I felt was missing was maybe a little drop or something just to give a bit of a thrill. I know that’s not really the point but I remember the great Pirate Adventure at Drayton Manor and I loved it and was hoping this would be similar. Still a very good ride though, and I loved going through the Thai Restaurant Bamboo Baaee where I planned to eat the next day...(fwiw this never happened in the end due to time restraints)
Atlantica Super Splash
I absolutely adore water rides so all it needs to do is go up once, get me wet, and I’m happy. And that's exactly what it did.... Got rather wet though, both on and off ride (especially standing here)
Tiroli log flume:
Enjoyed this a lot, love a good log flume, nothing that overly stands out but then it doesn’t need to. It’s a log flume so it’s great, end of.
Silver star
Silver Star to give it a second chance, and all I can say is....I’m glad I did. I don’t know what happened on that first ride. I don’t know whether it was wrong seat, wrong time, wrong row, or what, but safe to say my second ride was much, much better and I quickly realised after 3 more rows that this had completely redeemed itself and was now my favourite ride in the park, as well as one of my favourites in Europe. There are a number of things I love about this ride:
1: The option to pick your own row. Why don’t more rides have this? You get to the front of the queue, and then head over to the row that you want, and queue for that. My favourite row was the back and it was great to be able to just pick this again and again, as well as varying the different rows each time
2. The crew-there’s something unique about the crew on Silver Star. The way they dress up in the Mercedes Benz outfits, they seem to have a unique sense of humour and love to wind up the guests (recall one guy making bird noises just before the train left on one visit). Awesome
3. The queue. Despite it being v quiet, Silver Star did appear to have a relatively long queue at one point, and some people were even turning back round. Remembering that this queue never stops moving, I decided to stay and sure enough was on it within ten minutes.
I haven’t decided for certain if it cracks my top 5 in Europe yet (Hyperion, Zadra, Shambhala, Nemesis and Taron if anyone’s interested), but I think if not it’s definitely #6, and there are things about this ride (e.g those written above) that I prefer to all of them. Shoutout for that wonderful airtime hill after the first breakrun too....took me by surprise even when I was expecting it.
After multiple re-rides it was time to head to the swiss area and (after much contemplation over which choccies to purchase from the Linddt shop), it was time for a ride on Schweisser Bobbhan which my friend had insisted on me doing and telling him all about for some reason. Anyway, it was nothing special and I enjoyed it more than I thought (like Euro Mir I’d heard bad things), though I had no great desire to do it again. Speaking of doing things again, back to Silver Star and Eurosat for the rest of the day........
And so concluded day 1, another nice evening drinking German beer by the water at Bell Rock and I love this place, it’s a great spot. For reference I got the EP express to here from the park which they say is only for hotel guests. I was worried about not being allowed off the thing, but didn't have any issues and walked straight out (for obvious reasons, I don't even need to check if this can be done in reverse)..
There’s a handy Lidl nearby too to purchase goods from and I got my dinner from there in the end. There’s a Chinese buffet with all you can eat for 33 euros which I did vey seriously contemplate, but decided I didn’t quite have the appetite for. Another one for the ‘next time’ pile
Day two-Wednesday (sorry less pics from today)
I’d gotten so many rides in the day before that I’d largely done what I wanted to by the end of day one so wanted to have a quieter day today and potentially get some of the kiddie creds in. I’d planned to get up early, go for a 5k run (I’m a keen runner and love a new venue) and then get to the park around 10. Well, after the alarm went off....only the second part happened sadly.....another one for the ‘Next time’ pile.
Anyway, ironically despite being IN Germany, the one place I hadn’t actually spent much time in was the Germany area, so I decided to spend the first part of my morning there. What I can say about this place is that I LOVED the boat rides here. I did both, one is a spinning boat, and the other is a kind of big boat that goes through a kind of magic kingdom full of wizards, frogs and charm(think perhaps Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory...sort of) and I LOVED both of these rides. One of them ( I think the spnning one?) had an awesome catchy soundtrack too which is still stuck in my head to this day. A lovely leisurely start to the day and a morning of my life I shall forever remember with much fondness. I think the Germany area as a whole is alittle underrated. Sure it’s eclipsed by France and Italy but I think it holds up very well on it’s own. Sorry I forgot the ride names but they're next to each other and both include Fahrt in the title I think...
Piccolo Mundo+dinosaurs
Speaking of Italy, off to Italy it was for Piccolo Mundo next, and another fun ride to enjoy. I liked the soundtrack and the theming. Also did the nearby dinosaur ride, which was also fun, before making my way over to the Greece area.
Kasandra
One thing I must say about Greece was that for me, more so than any other area, it actually felt like you were in the country itself. The flooring and the white buildings made it possible to do so. I did Kasandra which I thought was pretty cool but I was never quite sucked in by the illusion of being upside down for some reason. Still cool though.
Observation tower
I forgot to mention I also did the observation tower which was cool and gave great views of the park and was another one to return to later if time.
Anyway, the wonderful Blue fire and water rides done once more (again got too wet) and then the rest of the day was divided between Silver Star and Eurosat, my two favourites at the park and rather conveniently right next to one another. Managed to take the park train too at one point which was nice. There’s now a VR version of Eurosat which I actually REALLY wanted to do but didn’t get chance. Another one for the ‘next time’ pile.....
I can’t quite remember why, but later on I found myself in the Denmark area. There was a beautiful looking boat ride which I REALLY wanted to do but was unsure about time (I had to leave at 4 for the coach and it was around 3 when I joined the queue). In the end after dipping in and out the queue I decided I just couldn’t risk it and made my way back to Silver Star for one last ride, before bookending my trip with a final visit to the voletarium.
All in all I LOVED this park and will definitely return. Not least of all for:
A visit to some of the other hotel bars (in particular I really wanted to do Colloseu but just ran out of time
A revisit to Bell Rock bar J
A visit to food loop and Bamboo Baee ( I know I planned to do the latter on Wednesday but decided to prioritise rides and just bring my own lunch instead0
Denmark boat ride
Many, many re-rides on Silver Star and Eurosat (also VR)
A re-ride on pretty much everything above other than anywhere I wrote “I had no great desire to do it again”
RULANTICA-this was meant to be part of my Monday evening plans until the German train drivers put paid to that....
One thing I'd add is that I've done a park solo before but I felt much more comfortable at this one for some reason. I also noticed a lot of other solo visitors, and got chatting to one chap from France who'd travelled 9 hours on a coach with the same idea as myself. I don't know if it's just something I've gotten used to but I really felt totally at ease at this park, far more so than any other that I've done for some reason.....lovely place. I will DEFINITELY return next year....so onto the question
Is it my favourite in Europe? I don’t know, it’s certainly in the running........... (I’ve done Portaventura, Energylandia, Phantasialand and now this)......but then so are all the others I guess. In the end, I think it’s best not to compare and just enjoy each park for what it is. While I think coasters can definitely be compared, I think each park offers a unique experience and has a different intention from the others. Very much apples and oranges I feel, though I will say Europa wins hands down, perhaps if not on rides (though I think the 'lack of thrill rides' is overplayed I think it pretty much matches any park in my opinion) on operations and also generally feeling of being comfortable in the park.
Final ride counts (approximate)
Silver star x10
Eurosat x8
Blue firex5
Wodanx5
Every other credit of any significance (even the italian train) at least x1 except for Poseidon and Pegasus (just didn't get round), I did a few rides which i haven't included in here too...
Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'm running out of time and I'm not quite sure how to end this, so I'll finish with a swan I befriended in the Bell Rock grounds, who then decided he didn't want to be friends anymore....
J,
