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Urgent EP advice

J

JoshuaWAH

TS Member
Hey there,
I am a EP lover who decided to do a last minute trip to EP today. It looks as though basically everything is gonna be down, barring Cancan, the dark rides, and Arthur. So none of the major stuff open really..

I love EP but this is depressing.. Should I hold out hope or just cut my losses with this one? And is there a return policy thing, I doubt it but everything is closed. Probably my fault for coming during the winter, but I thought things would be mostly open? Gone solo for some coasters from London and it's like.. Helppp
 
Looking at the forecast, I am guessing things are down due to high winds? They'll open things as soon as it is safe to do so, and it looks like the winds may die down a little as the day goes on, so if you're already there just stick it out.

I'm unsure what their policy is on such days, but there is never any harm in going to guest services and explaining your situation.
 
Not sure if it's the same situation but I was there on a day when it was too cold for most of the big coasters to operate. They ended up opening them for the last couple hours of the day once it had warmed up a bit, but from looking at the weather it seems like it will be bad all day

But hey, look on the bright side. You have plenty of options. Try to set a record for most rides on Madame Freudenreich Curiosités in one day
 
Forecast was to improve today, but the closures were unsurprising. You dropped really unlucky as everything has been open Saturday - Monday outside of expected closures like Atlantica.

Speak to customer services and see if they can help regarding VAFF if it exists? They're lovely people.
 
Thank you all, I'm just at ringsheim now. I left early as I was pretty frustrated. It was meant to be my like first solo trip and like marathon Voltron :(( I sent an email to Europa basically asking for help while equally telling them it's not their fault lol.

But yeah Silver Star, Voltron, Poseidon, Wodan, Blue Fire, Euro Mir and EuroTower were all closed. Matterhorn and Bob opened up luckily. I feel entitled for being kinda pissed off because it's the weather and I picked Winter 😄 equally I spent like £150 to ride Cancan and a few dark rides lol. Hopefully EP take pity on me 😂

Just a rant on here I guess. Like I love Europa but for some reason I just felt depressed there today, I think staring at the coasters wasn't the best. Maybe I'll take a break and come back in a few years, if they offer a ticket back obviously I'd take it. Idk this kind of thing is complete luck of the draw but I've been in public transport for like 8 hours to get here and gonna be doing the same back lol. Kind of feels like I came to Germany for no reason..EP with Portugal closed and the coasters closed at the back, I feel like a fair chunk of the park felt dead, as did Greece/Croatia. I usually find EP so like big and meaty in it's catalogue of rides but today I was trying to fill time for my original train, but I realized i was just bored.

Anyway for real less meaninglessly rant thoughts:

I like the Ghost Castle refurb. I didn't expect much but I liked the sets and found it a lot more coherent than it's predecessor. It also keeps a bite to it with the sometimes actually creepy sets. If I was a kid I'd cry.

The new Austria is pretty but honestly I think the diamond mine was a lot more grand and wow, I don't believe they chose to rebuild it? Alpen is a good mack powered coaster but I wouldn't say it's like something I would actively go out of my way to ride like the old version..The diamond mine section in the old version just was a lot cooler and I feel it felt a bit more punchy.

I find it impressive how quickly they rebuilt it but I have to be honest and say that I feel that area is pretty now but it's not like the "oh my God you need to see this area! It's beautiful!" Like it was. It feels a little more generic now to be brutally honest. The trolls being included also kind of irritated me.

Anyway thank you for reading :))
 
I can understand your view on the Austria rebuild. There is objectively more to do than what was previously there, but it’s also true to say you could consider it less charming than the old mine. Shoehorning the Yomis in doesn’t help either.

There are definitely bits and pieces being added and adjusted. I’m hoping that the totally unnecessary and incongruous opening through to Spain is closed up. That would benefit the atmosphere in both areas.
 
Bowser said:
Sadly the risk of a winter visit for most European parks outside of Disney.

Not to be unsympathetic but you said it was last minute so did you not check the forecast? Or was it non refundable either way?
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To be fair if parks are open during the winter you do expect that they’ve taken the measures to ensure that where possible rides will be running (unless they are specified to be not operating during this season), I think it’s just a case that OP was very unlucky to have visited EP might have been a sudden cold snap. Certainly parks like EP, Phantasialand, and Energylandia usually run rides in temperatures you wouldn’t see British rides operating in so I think there’s just an element of bad luck here rather than it being OP’s fault for booking it.

Hyperion in winter looks like it would be facenumbingly cold in the winter, I hope they give everyone goggles and not just the front row because you’d probably end up with icicles in your eyes if they started watering from the wind on that.
 
Bowser said:
Sadly the risk of a winter visit for most European parks outside of Disney.

Not to be unsympathetic but you said it was last minute so did you not check the forecast? Or was it non refundable either way?

Does remind me of Energylandia’s recent post boasting of their rides winter resilience:


From: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCQ6X_isKdp/?igsh=MTVuZzkydjJ0MzhxcQ==
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When I booked it, the weather didn't look too bad. Looking at the queue times today (a day after), the rides are all running fine again. They've probably ran all week just fine, I just happened to visit on like one very rare day of the season when everything is closed lol.

But yeah a lot of Mainland Parks have good measures for opening stuff, including EP. Yesterday was just so bad with the winds
 
They have run Saturday to Monday fine, we were there. It was specific conditions that day causing them to shut.
 
JoshuaWAH said:
When I booked it, the weather didn't look too bad. Looking at the queue times today (a day after), the rides are all running fine again. They've probably ran all week just fine, I just happened to visit on like one very rare day of the season when everything is closed lol.

But yeah a lot of Mainland Parks have good measures for opening stuff, including EP. Yesterday was just so bad with the winds
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I think you have been spectacularly unlucky. Having said that, I personally think it's a risk to plan a short trip with only one day at a park - especially when you could easily fill 2-3 days at EP or even longer. Especially as it's a relatively awkward park to get to from the UK. I would always recommend a reserve day!

Case in point: we visited Madrid for a weekend in March and the Saturday was completely washed out. Fortunately we'd arranged to fly back on Monday morning so managed to get round both parks in one day on Sunday. Not recommended but it definitely saved the trip!
 
We was also at Europa Park yesterday and although we were initially disappointed that the big rides were closed (down to the wind levels, it was pretty gusty all day and night) we took the opportunity to ride everything else that was open and take in the ice show.

Luckily for us we was back at the park today where there was blue skies and everything was open with minimal queues.
 
If I only I went a day after..
IDB said:
We was also at Europa Park yesterday and although we were initially disappointed that the big rides were closed (down to the wind levels, it was pretty gusty all day and night) we took the opportunity to ride everything else that was open and take in the ice show.

Luckily for us we was back at the park today where there was blue skies and everything was open with minimal queues.
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Unfortunately I didn't have the time to do more than a day trip, mostly as work and currently about to buy a flat. This trip was a quick pop in the park to amend my last trip, where I went a week before Voltron opened (that trip was planned a YEAR in advance with the intention of riding Voltron).

I did two days last time and rode every dark ride, so the supporting lineup was stuff I've already done multiple times. The queues were awful on my last visit too, ugh.

So Europa emailed me saying "tough luck but thanks for giving us money! We appreciate you having a terrible experience"

Meh even I'm unlucky or it's not the best theme park as I remembered.
 
It's just very unlucky. High winds are the enemy of any theme park, and EP have in the past pushed boundaries when it comes to wind more than any other park I know (I say this from experience having ridden Silver Star in high winds).
 
JoshuaWAH said:
So Europa emailed me saying "tough luck but thanks for giving us money! We appreciate you having a terrible experience"
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Wow that's really surprising that they don't at least offer a free return visit if ride availability is severely affected by weather. Even Merlin put their hands in their pockets and revalidate your ticket if they've not been able to get much open on such a day. Did you ask for revalidation or a refund?
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Wow that's really surprising that they don't at least offer a free return visit if ride availability is severely affected by weather. Even Merlin put their hands in their pockets and revalidate your ticket if they've not been able to get much open on such a day. Did you ask for revalidation or a refund?
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Yeah they refused a revalidation which kinda gives me a bad impression of the place to be honest. But yeah Merlin at least gives you another chance, Europa leave you in the cold.
 
Rob said:
It's just very unlucky. High winds are the enemy of any theme park, and EP have in the past pushed boundaries when it comes to wind more than any other park I know (I say this from experience having ridden Silver Star in high winds).
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They'd knocked the trims off on Monday and were speed testing the ride whilst it was really windy.
 
JoshuaWAH said:
So Europa emailed me saying "tough luck but thanks for giving us money! We appreciate you having a terrible experience"

Meh even I'm unlucky or it's not the best theme park as I remembered.
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Although not ideal I think the difference is although the 'big' rides were not open, there was still a full day of things to do that were open, through the indoor rides and the shows. Unlike a UK merlin park which is unmanageable in such conditions.
We have been fit unlucky too at Europa with snow wiping out all of the big rides. Yet we still have the most amazing and magical day doing everything else but the outdoor coasters.
 
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