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2014: Arthur in the Minimoys kingdom

As usual, the world's greatest theme park has undertaken an enormous range of little projects, improvements and constructions over the closed season to improve the park aesthetically, as well as to upgrade the infrastructure for the ever-increasing number of guests. :)

The park's been open for a corporate hire-out day, and someone from ep-fans.ch blagged their way in to take some photos...

Info Centre

Basically complete, though it seems to be a lot more small-scale than I initially thought. I thought it'd be all inside, but half the construction seems to have been to create a nice little courtyard with benches and a fountain. Clearly the main purpose of this development was to create a lift up to the EP-Express. :)

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See-Restaurant

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See-Restaurant gets a new terrace, as part of EP's ABTOR™ (Adding Balconies To Old Restaurants) scheme. It's also been refurbished inside, with a brand new menu.

Mercedes-Benz Hall: Into Extremes

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New cars. Not much to say! :p

Wildwasserbahn

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Apparently looks fab. :)

Holland construction

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No idea what this is for, but it's probably just an aesthetic improvement. I think there used to just be a blank concrete wall on the side of that ramp up to Scandinavia, so this rockwork is definitely an improvement.

ARTHUR

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Doesn't this belong in Efteling...?

New Austrian playground

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Had no idea about this one until today - a complete surprise little project. :)

Geisterschloss

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New 'speaking' portrait.

Atlantica SuperSplash

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Freshly cleaned lake looks magnificent.

Enchanted Forest

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Fairytales, which were previously just in French and German, are now in English as well. :)

Spanish construction

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Fjord Rafting

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As is now seemingly a yearly tradition, more theming has been added to the parks near-25 year old rapids ride, this year just before Roland's Folly that was built last year. :p

Other things

  • BODEGA in Spain (no, I don't know either) has apparently been refurbished (is this the thing above?)
  • There is an exhibition of dolls in the German Alley
  • The Arena of Football has been redecorated for the upcoming World Cup
  • A new Camp David shop is being constructed (again, no idea)

:)
 
It is great to see English added to the Enchanted Forest options.

It seems incredulous they'd actually spend time, effort and money on it - but they have and I am thankful!
 
Found these fascinating photos taken inside the Historama at ep-fans.ch, that show plans to build a Chinese area in what is now Spain. :)

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Also, according to ep-fans.ch, the construction work in Holland seen in my post above is for the Camp David shop, which will be going into the space previously used by the Tortuga scaremaze. :)
 
Just a minor thing, but Spencer Kelly, presenter of the BBC News show Click, has tweeted the following.
spenley said:
It's funny where the job takes you sometimes. To a theme park in Germany - which is closed.
BkIw-laIgAAjvcm.jpg:large
Click to expand...

I'm mildly surprised that they've chosen to go to EP to do something, but I think it may be to do with Arthur and the technology used in it.
(For those who don't know, Click is a show covering developments in consumer technology.)

EDIT: Actually, scratch that. Turns out he's only there for a conference.
 
I think that the Bodega development is in the area previously used as an entrance to the park from El Andaluz? It makes sense to have just the one hotel entrance to be honest - I always felt that the El Andaluz entrance was the worst of them and didn't like the glass roof or general look it gave.

I am looking forward to trying Bodega out though - wine and tapas? Yes please! Another evening dining option at the resort to add to the wide choice already is superb.

Summer, sun and Spanish-Iberian specialties is the motto of the newly renovated BODEGA in the Spanish theme. A selection of cold and hot tapas, fresh sandwiches, Montaditos (Spanish Röstbrotschnitte) BODEGA specialties, crisp salads and delicious desserts awaits you. Viva España!

Opening times:

11:00am to 6:00pm (self-service)
6:00pm to 10:00pm (à la carte)

Please note, a reservation is only possible in the evening.
Click to expand...
 
ep-fans.info have had an interesting webchat with head of park operations Miro and architect of Arthur (and barnes) Frederic. Some of the main points:

  • The strips of land under the powerlines in the waterpark development will be left empty as a protective measure (easily seen on Google Maps.)
  • Around 50 companies have been involved in the production of Arthur.
  • The Eurosat rework has been pushed back a little but is still planned.
  • Arthur will have single rider.
  • The park are opening Arthur theme rooms in one of the hotels (probably Andaluz).
  • There will be a range of new Arthur themed dishes and sandwiches, as well as a 'Jack Fire' cocktail.
  • Arthur will open for the winter season.
  • The excavated pile of earth behind Greece is not for new construction there but for landscaping the waterpark. Mystery solved.
  • The park are looking at combining the annual pass and the E-Motions spend card
  • The park continues to reject any sort of Fastpass system. :D
  • It's confirmed that the Info-Centre includes new external access to the EP-Express, but this will not be used in the morning (so presumably it is for post-close shuttles between the two halves of the resort).
  • The next country added will be in the large area behind Greece.
  • Portugal is not yet "complete" and there is a plan for the area.
  • The hated Portuguese playbarn has been expanded slightly this season. :mad:
  • Management will not "neglect" the theme park during waterpark construction.
  • The previously poor park Wi-Fi service has been improved over winter.
  • The Arthur preview tent has gone and the Arthur preview scene in the Historama has been removed.
  • The park have trialled a single rider queue on Silver Star multiple times but it operates too quickly for an SR queue to not hold up operations.
  • The park continue to develop the idea of a 3-star hotel, possible incorporated with the waterpark.
  • Miro finds the idea of reversing a train on Silver Star interesting but he has not been convinced.

For some reason there were also quite a lot of questions about why the staff on Silver Star are so rude, and Miro basically said that they can't work that fast and be friendly. :p
 
If EP ever end up reversing a train on Silver Star then I will lose faith in all theme parks! :p

That all sounds good though. Hopefully the completion of Portugal involves the demolition of that play barn thing. I wonder what the next area will be themed as though, and how far down the pipeline it is? You can imagine that they've got loads of big things in the pipeline, what with park expansions, waterpark and hotel additions! ;D

:)
 
Sam said:
For some reason there were also quite a lot of questions about why the staff on Silver Star are so rude, and Miro basically said that they can't work that fast and be friendly. :p
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That's such utter balls! The only park that could get away with a rubbish excuse like that... :p
 
It's also the only park that drives throughput in this way.

You could end up with the Chessington situation of masses of guest natter with low throughput or a middle ground like Alton Towers.

Europa's main big rides operate like the military - the smaller rides, retail and F&B are different. But they also don't have fastrack. They just want queues as short as possible. We're not talking a negligible difference either... we're talking something like Alpenexpress getting 50% more per hour than something like Scorpion Express or RMT.

If they get away with it but get more and more guests, it's not going to change. And let's be honest here - amazing throughput is one of the reasons we all love the place.
 
It's good to hear that EP are wanting to put more areas into the park, but they've covered most of Europe by now, so there aren't many more countries they can choose to theme new areas around. Probably the best one to choose from is Turkey, and seeing as any new areas would be in land behind Greece, this could be the perfect choice.
 
I'd say the most common thing that people dislike about theme parks is queues. People do not want to be spending all of their day standing in long queues. Increasing throughputs and driving down queue times should be a priority for all theme parks, it is guaranteed to improve guest satisfaction. However most parks are more interested in doing this by proving various different fastrack options so those that don't want to wait don't have to wait. It's refreshing to see a park like EP take a different standpoint. Their throughputs are outstanding.

:)
 
Here is the annual "show off how much better we are than every other theme park" video:

http://youtu.be/o5Isq9ppVAo

Shows the Arthur themed rooms in El Andaluz. This video really makes me excited to return in a couple of weeks! ;D

:)
 
Love the annual video. They should just call it 'FTW'!

They've done a LOT of refurbishment for 2014 across the resort!

Air Conditioning now in rooms at El Andaluz and Castillo Alcazar is also a significant upgrade!
 
AstroDan said:
It's also the only park that drives throughput in this way.

You could end up with the Chessington situation of masses of guest natter with low throughput or a middle ground like Alton Towers.

Europa's main big rides operate like the military - the smaller rides, retail and F&B are different. But they also don't have fastrack. They just want queues as short as possible. We're not talking a negligible difference either... we're talking something like Alpenexpress getting 50% more per hour than something like Scorpion Express or RMT.

If they get away with it but get more and more guests, it's not going to change. And let's be honest here - amazing throughput is one of the reasons we all love the place.
Click to expand...

You can work fast and smile, no one is expecting the red carpet rolled out but smiling and not being rude don't slow anyone down.

I like the rude staff though, makes for a good laugh
 
They're not all rude! It's only the odd one on bigger rides. I think it's more guest interaction that doesn't exist on the major rides rather than actual rudeness.

Some staff are lovely like that amazing woman on Dino-Karrussell.
 
I saw them laugh last year when some kids started a fight on the station offload and one of them tried to hit an op. They got bundled away and security called. :p

AstroDan said:
They're not all rude! It's only the odd one on bigger rides.

Some staff are lovely like that amazing woman on Dino-Karrussell.
Click to expand...

The staff on the smaller, less intense rides are very friendly I find. Things like African Queen and the like.
 
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