2017: Voletarium

Unsure exactly when but recently, you can see on EP's website.

Some more news on 2017 from Looopings:

Looopings said:

A big new attraction is surrounded by mystery in the German Europa-Park. It involves "a ride for the whole family" in a building of fifteen meters high. The first operations have already begun. But what exactly is built, remains unclear.

In 2017, the opening takes place. The addition, located near the main entrance would be "unique in Europe". There are rumors about a panoramic flight simulator, similar to Soarin 'in the US Disney parks Epcot and California Adventure.

The building has been given the working title 'Das Rathaus. Local media write that the attraction parts are eventually lifted in through the roof. It would not go to a roller coaster. Because of the advent of the novelty is moved orbit monorail EP Express part.

The last major new attraction was the darkride Arthur (2014) at Europa-Park. There are also concrete plans for a giant water park.

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If these rumours really do turn out to be true then EP are going to have to work very hard to convince me on this one. I can imagine what it would be like, Soarin' around Europe, showing off all of the lovely sights and sounds. It fits in with the parks image and would probably be popular. It would also ensure that Mack Media have a large role to play in the attraction.

But such a ride right at the park entrance? Surely EP are not stupid enough to make this classic theme park mistake. Any new ride place right at the entrance is sure to attract massive queues.

EP is of course the true meaning of a family park but assuming that 2018 will not bring a major ride to the park, this will mean that there is to be at least a 7 year gap between more thrilling attractions at EP. I suppose we were spoilt with Wodan and EP in the space of 3 years.

Rob said:

But such a ride right at the park entrance? Surely EP are not stupid enough to make this classic theme park mistake. Any new ride place right at the entrance is sure to attract massive queues.

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I don't think that the query and entrance will be located in the German Alley. Maybe it will be located in the back of the Balthasar Gardens.

I think the Beautiful Europe dome has been more popular than expected, so now they want something permanent like this.

It is a pity in some respects, as it will be a long time since Wodan - but they focus on different things I guess.

Rob said:

But such a ride right at the park entrance? Surely EP are not stupid enough to make this classic theme park mistake. Any new ride place right at the entrance is sure to attract massive queues.

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For most parks I'd agree but at Europa Park maybe not. While it is the main entrance the German section of the park is quite far away from all the major rides and attractions. Heck as a hotel guest I've barely been in the German section and when I have it's always been relatively quite outside of the morning and evening rush.

There's only one other park I can think of with a similar layout and that's Legoland in Windsor. Now I happen to know Legoland quite well and if you've ever watched the queue times for Viking River Splash you'll notice something quite fascinating. At opening the queue jumps straight to 1 hour as every guest runs past it on their way into the park. But within half an hour that queue time will have halved. The ride then sits at a 15 minute queue for the rest of the day (regardless how busy the park is) as most the guests are stuck in queues further down the park. Come the last hour the queue builds back up again as people leave.

Of course for Europa Park the German area is not as cut off as Legoland's massive hill, but given the shear size of the park and how Italy almost blocks it off from the main midways I can foresee a similar effect. As long as Europa build something with a high enough capacity to churn through queues when they do appear, and maybe only open it after the main surge of guests have gone past I think it will do fine.

Bring on a reason to spend more time in Germany!

Hey guys !
Had a nice day in Rust, a cold Weizen at the Collosseo and brought some photos...the first ones from the site behind Euro Mir...the others showing that the new route of the monorail has been closed now ! Hope you enjoy

I haven't been on Soarin' so I don't know fully what the experience is like?

Isn't the technology behind it quite old? What sort of prices are we looking at?

I only ask as maybe this could be 1 of 2 new attractions for the park?

You know...some things EP gives away early...while other things are kept as a secret as long as possible. For example: Just a few days before Wodan was officially announced, they stated in a press conference, that there will be no wooden coaster at Europa Park. To me it looks as if there will be more than just the new "Rathaus" in 2017. I wouldn`t be surprised if the new thrill coaster that Miro Gronau was talking about some time ago will also open in 2017...but maybe that`s just wishful thinking...

Well there is also a pretty huge space cleared behind Blue Fire!

A third coaster behind blue fire would give Europa their own "coaster corner". Imagine if they added a new one that interacted with Blue fire too. Wishful thinking I reckon.

I thought that was just for a warehouse?

Dar said:

I thought that was just for a warehouse?

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I heard about that, too. But that space is huge ! Maybe there`s space for more that just that warehouse ?

Let's get some 2017 speculation going! So it is sounding like some sort of dark ride in the German area, probably a simulator. I've seen in numerous places that a building with a height of around 15m is to be constructed (but not actually seen this officially)?

Got to admit that I got this first idea from someone over on CoasterForce. What about a Dome Ride Theatre 80 from Intamin?



The total height of the ride is 16.6m but if built slightly into the ground it could fit into a 15m building. It would obviously depend on film length but it can apparently acheive up to 1300pph which would be suitable for EP. Also with it being a dome it would tie in somewhat with the Dream Dome they installed in 2015, maybe that may have been a trial in producing a film for a dome theatre so that they can implement it more fully in this 2017 attraction?

From the concept images it would appear that the ride uses OTSRs for the seating, but I'm sure if EP were to get it they would negotiate around this.

It seems to be a good shout to me!

Well it's certainly a plausible possibility, and I always thought the dome was a bit of a precursor to something bigger. The concept has been around since around 2014, with Shaanxi LEWA City getting the first one installed this year. Certainly seems like an interesting attraction, and would also fit with the rumours of a Soarin' style ride.

Ahh, interesting to know that a Chinese park is getting one this year, makes this seem even more likely seeing as EP have said that the 2017 attraction will be a first in Europe (but not the world).

It doesn't seem to have been updated recently, but there's a dedicated site to the ride type too if anyone fancies a look.

It is being reported that this attraction will have a budget of €25 million, which I believe is the same as Arthur's. In my opinion they got a lot for their money with the whole Arthur area and attractions (helped by the main product being a coaster from Mack I'm sure) so it will be interesting to see how the money stretches this time. It should all for a very good single attraction.

I also think that 25 Milion Euros is a lot of money. Is a system like soarin really that expensive...or is the money going into the production of a movie like that ?

EP posted this over the weekend:



"Project V begins.. —

feeling curious in Creil, Flevoland, Netherlands."

Filming in the Netherlands for the 2017 attraction? More than likely!

I wonder if they popped into Biddinghuizen for some inspiration while they were there