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2018: Eurosat Can Can Coaster / Madame Freudenreich Curiosités

I emailed Europa-Park to thank them for the wonderful tour we received last week. I also mentioned some of our general thoughts on the 2018 developments in the French area. They replied and said they are aware there is a lot to do with Eurosat and will do their best in the closed season.

:)
 
I forgot to mention one thing in my post, Eurosat Coastiality (Valerian). I've made my views of VR on coasters pretty clear in the past - I do not like it. It can cripple capacity, the quality isn't that great and it results in a ride experience that you have to enjoy on your own rather than with others which goes against everything a theme park should be. However I had heard good things about Eurosat Coastiality so was more than happy to hand my €6 over to Roland.

The Coastiality building/station is hidden away around the back of Eurosat and takes on a very generic theme on the exterior that fits in well with Silver Star. Inside you purchase your ticket and join the short queue line to wait for your turn. Once this comes, you deposit your bags and watch a briefing video on a massive TV, before heading upstairs to the Valerian themed pre-boarding room. It is here that you are given your VR headset, or should that be helmet, and put it on.

Things start getting really clever now. You see all of your fellow riders in VR form as well as the room that you are in. Arrows appear on your display that help to lead you to the ride vehicle, and it highlights which is your seat on the train. I did not imagine that getting in to a real coaster train but in a VR world would actually work so well!

Apart from a bit of faffing whilst the train sits in a waiting area before heading through the main Sat station and to the lift, the VR ride works very well. The graphics are pretty decent and the ride seems much more thrilling with VR than without it.

It is a full 10 minute experience and I was very impressed. If you are visiting the park in 2019 then I really do recommend that you give it a go!
 
Until amendments have been made to Can Can Coaster, Valerian Coastiality is undoubtedly the most enjoyable (but also the most costly) method of riding Sat. Yes there were a few minor technical niggles along the way, but the implementation is such a remarkable achievement when you look at what has been deployed on other rides thus far. I absolutely love the way the putting on of VR headsets has been integrated into the whole experience, particularly with the VR pre-show prior to boarding. It's great you get to see everyone else as well particularly when it comes to making fun of their fashion choices or the fact they've seemingly aged backwards into a child.

Boarding the train was such a bizarre sensation but it worked so well. Yes there's faff getting the train onto the main circuit, but once it's on everything flows seamlessly. I think it could be an extensive period of time (or even if ever) that we see such a VR project incorporated into another coaster or ride, particularly at the cost it inevitably comes with. Something tells me if Disney got their hands on something like this however we could be onto a winner.
 
Rob said:
Things start getting really clever now. You see all of your fellow riders in VR form as well as the room that you are in. Arrows appear on your display that help to lead you to the ride vehicle, and it highlights which is your seat on the train. I did not imagine that getting in to a real coaster train but in a VR world would actually work so well!
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Danny said:
I absolutely love the way the putting on of VR headsets has been integrated into the whole experience, particularly with the VR pre-show prior to boarding. It's great you get to see everyone else as well particularly when it comes to making fun of their fashion choices or the fact they've seemingly aged backwards into a child.
Click to expand...

This sounds absolutely amazing! My only experience of VR on a coaster is Galactica, which is, let's be honest, rubbish. I'd therefore binned off the whole concept as a passing fad but it sounds like Valerian changes the game somewhat.
 
Wait, so they give you your VR headset in a pre-show room and you board the train in VR? Now that's a cool innovation; well done EP! Definitely sorts out many people's complaints about dispatch times being slower on VR coasters!
 
The beauty of this system @Matt N is that the main queue is not impacted as Eurosat has a seperate VR Queue and station. The main queue keeps going, barring a small gap to allow the VR train to pass through the station and up the lift hill/spiral.
 
I actually felt the queue of Can Can moved better than I expected. Valerian was low throughput but that was to be expected.

Generally, capacity across either attraction is not an issue.

:)

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I do think the way forward for VR is not retro fitting, but starting from scratch. We know it doesn’t work on Galactica and other rides, but it clearly works better on this.

Be interesting to see where EP goes next, and with their next major coaster of VR will form part of it.


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djtruefitt said:
I do think the way forward for VR is not retro fitting, but starting from scratch. We know it doesn’t work on Galactica and other rides, but it clearly works better on this.
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Sounds like it’s been a success really... when I first heard about the refurb, I thought what’s the point. But normal, Europa exceed expectations.

It obviously not like a X:\ walking dead kinda project! I can’t get to Europa this year but can’t wait to see it
 
I like MFC, but I think people are getting a little carried away. It is not the best dark ride on park, and won't be seen as such once it's newness has worn off.

For all it's faults, Arthur is a more dynamic dark ride, Schloss is more visually engaging, and Batavia is/was more ambitious. MFC is a substantial improvement over UoE, though.
 
Arthur is most certainly a better ride than MFC. I was never a huge fan of Pirates, yes it was big and somewhat impressive but I just always found it a tad boring. So for me MFC is the best out and out dark ride at Europa-Park (excluding Arthur as an out and out dark ride).

I expect the new and updated Pirates to change this come 2020.
 
Yeah. And of course it doesn't matter which is "objectively" better anyway, since theyre all very entertaining and different from each other, something for everyone to enjoy. MF was never meant to be "the best" in the park, it just entertains and is very good at that!
 
It's quite staggering that EP have 8 dark rides, really I know Arthur is questionable but I think it's fair to regard it as such.
 
Furthermore, he also said they are able to use 7 trains on the ride and that they can now dispatch it quicker.

Hopefully it'll have much better queue times throughout the season now.
 
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