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Any European parks open in February?

grrrr

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Vertigo, Tivoli Gardens
I've realised I need to take a week's holiday from work before the end of February, because I can't carry over the days.

So... are there any parks open in Europe in February?
 
Efteling is probably the best, but best to check their website and not everything will be open.

Of course Disney is open all year if you are a fan of Disney.
 
I am a fan of Disney, which is why I won't be visiting DLP ;)

Efteling looks like a good shout though - thanks for the suggestion!
 
Southend is very much in Europe and Adventure Island will be open from Feb Half term
 
I am a fan of Disney, which is why I won't be visiting DLP ;)

Efteling looks like a good shout though - thanks for the suggestion!
Just be warned that De Vliegende Hollander and Raveleijn are both closed for maintenance/weather throughout February and Joris en de Draak is currently closed and has been for a month now due to a technical issue which noone seems to know how long it will take to fix.

Over at DLP the Studios are basically a ghost town at the moment but the main park only has Buzz Lightyear closed so no big loss there.
 
This year, for the first time, Toverland will also be opening their full park on selected dates in February and March.

It’s advisable to check their website for the specific dates you wish to visit as many weekdays only include the indoor areas. But there’s a fair few weekends in Feb where everything is open and I imagine it’ll be fairly quiet.

On a side note, does anyone find it strange that more European theme parks don’t open year round?

This idea of a “closed season” seems to be a totally western idea. In Asian countries (including ones where they have cold winters), every theme park opens year round with a close to full ride line up. I really don’t buy the weather argument. In South Korea for example, temperatures are currently in the minus numbers and all their parks remain fully open.
 
This idea of a “closed season” seems to be a totally western idea. In Asian countries (including ones where they have cold winters), every theme park opens year round with a close to full ride line up. I really don’t buy the weather argument. In South Korea for example, temperatures are currently in the minus numbers and all their parks remain fully open.
I really cant imagine enough daily guests wanting to visit in the cold in the UK to make it affordable, and a heck of a lot of work gets done behind the scenes each winter. It's possible to phase all that work and remain open of course but together with the cold weather I think it makes sense
 
I really cant imagine enough daily guests wanting to visit in the cold in the UK to make it affordable, and a heck of a lot of work gets done behind the scenes each winter. It's possible to phase all that work and remain open of course but together with the cold weather I think it makes sense

There could be more demand than we think, I’m not too sure.

Look at how rammed all the mainland Europe parks are during their Christmas events. People no longer think of theme parks as just summer activities.

This is all speculation but parks across Europe do seem to be moving more towards shorter closed seasons and more winter events, so maybe our traditional notion of theme parks as summer activities could be changing.

I guess only time will tell.
 
Yeah can't see it working over here. We don't cope very well with the cold.

If Merlin thought there was even the slightest possibility of making decent money out of a proper winter event they would have done it by now.
 
BPB have tried, and failed, with winter opening for years.
Never made any money, apart from early years of the Big One.

Anybody who has stood on Blackpool front in the winter, when the wind is blowing seawater over the tramlines, will understand the issues BPB would have making it work.
I think AT could pull off a full on Christmas Season, like some of the European parks do. Open in the afternoon, put on European food and drink stalls, do group Xmas dos in the Corporate tent, reindeer, Santa M&G, festive decorations, ice skating, ice sculptures etc., and upcharge even annual pass holders as a special event.
 
But with all those season passes about, they would be massively increasing overheads for little increase in income.
Probably why they won't bother.
 
The Season pass T&Cs specifically state they exclude the Winter period, so they wouldn't be valid for the event.

You could bulk email expired season pass holders a 20% off link, to generate footfall.
Upcharge annual passes, with maybe a 2 for 1 website booking offer, not open to general attendance.
Everybody else, a fixed price event, to make it clear this isn't just AT open in winter, but a themed Xmas event that happens to be at AT.

You would end up with some disgruntled Cereal box voucher holders at the gate, refused a discount.... but make it clear on the advertising "seperately ticketed event, discount vouchers not valid" and they can't moan too much.
 
Anybody who has stood on Blackpool front in the winter, when the wind is blowing seawater over the tramlines, will understand the issues BPB would have making it work.
I think AT could pull off a full on Christmas Season, like some of the European parks do. Open in the afternoon, put on European food and drink stalls, do group Xmas dos in the Corporate tent, reindeer, Santa M&G, festive decorations, ice skating, ice sculptures etc., and upcharge even annual pass holders as a special event.

They almost do this with the Santa Sleepover events and feedback from guests is broadly good. Better to do a quality event for a small number of people paying a higher price for accommodation.

Chessington years ago had big problems at winter events as the number of Merlin passholders turning up caused a three hour queue to see Santa. Now I think the Santa visit has to be booked separately for everyone.

The parks make no money on passholders at these events, they are much better off keeping Christmas at AT as a hotel event.

If they wanted to start doing February half-term opening again then it would mean getting a lot more ride hardware that operates in the cold, the last few times AT opened for half-term they couldn't even get the mine train running.
 
I guess adapting your ride hardware to have the ability to run in colder conditions is one of the key factors here. I know that Phantasialand have done that with seemingly massive success.

I wonder though if it’s just that people in the UK think of theme parks as summer activities, whereas people who live in Asian countries view the parks differently. As I’ve already mentioned, closed season doesn’t exist in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea etc, and the climate of these countries can often be as varied and unpredictable as that of Europe. If this has always been the case, then it’s a fair assumption that people expect the parks to be open and plan their visits at times of year when visitors to UK theme parks would not.
 
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