[2024] Europa-Park General Discussion

[Rowe]

Currently at Europa Park and a small section of the park is closed off with a heavy police and ambulance presence. Hope everyone is safe and ok.

Oh dear Would you mind saying which section's been closed off, please?

 

[DiogoJ42]

As long as there aren't fire engines...

 

[siralgenon]

That's Geisterschloss gone

 

[DiogoJ42]

(For the record, I hope no one is hurt too badly).

Any further news yet?

 

[Rob]

I've not been able to find anything on social media or the EP fan forums, and all rides appear to be operational.

Hopefully whatever happened is not too serious and everyone is ok!

 

[CoasterBoy]

It was on the train tracks that cross at the Bobsleigh ride. Ambulance, police and a tent was up for a few hours. It’s all clear now.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Oh dear. Please don't tell me someone got hit by the train? The tent covering the scene doesn't sound good.

 

[Graeme]

I’ve just seen a vlog where they appear to be using the original blue fire queueline instead of queuing in the old gazprom hall.

Has this been the case all season? What are they using the hall for instead? Just VR I would assume.

 

[John]

Yullbe Go is in the hall, if the park is busy enough they'll use parts of the original Blue Fire queue as the extended queue line.

TBH the layout isn't great nowadays, the change from Gazprom to Nord Stream 2 felt like a step backwards at the time and it's got worse since then. They now have the entire middle of the building for Yullbe with long corridors down either side leading to the cafe and toilets. It just feels like a very underutilised space.

 

[Graeme]

This season you don’t enter the hall at all though. The entrance was opposite Wodan on the vlog I watched.

So I’m assuming you don’t enter the hall at all this year for Bluefire.

 

[Squiggs]

When we were there over Easter, the queue entrance was in the hall as per (what I'm assuming is) normal since the sponsorship changes.

The three queues all wrapped around the Yullbe arena and then out into the outdoor queue at the back and into the outdoor queue line like normal.

 

[Poisson]

Can the next fire be arranged for the service station in the usual Blue Fire queue?

It was in use fully as mentioned before, maybe they're going to reconfigure it for full YullBe use?

 

[Dan]

This season you don’t enter the hall at all though. The entrance was opposite Wodan on the vlog I watched.

So I’m assuming you don’t enter the hall at all this year for Bluefire.

It’s is a temporary change for some filming taking place. It does mean the single rider queue is also closed. I’m not sure if it’s changed back or when it’s due to change back

 

[venny]

The entrance has been in the normal place ( slightly to the right as you enter the hall) every visit for us (both this season and last). Entry to Yullbe is immediately next to the Blue Fire entrance and Yullbe itself is in the hall, which the Blue Fire queue passes.

 

[EuroSatch]

The hall is currently closed for filming Deutschland Sucht den Superstar apparently

 

[Bowser]

Just a general question as i don't know much about the history of the park but seeing as Mack own it, is it a bit strange they have major coasters from other manufacturers? Do those rides pre-date ownership?

 

[Skyscraper]

Just a general question as i don't know much about the history of the park but seeing as Mack own it, is it a bit strange they have major coasters from other manufacturers? Do those rides pre-date ownership?

Nope the Macks' worked with B&M and GCI for Silver Star and Wodan.

@Bowser I highly recommend you watch The Europa Park Story on Veejoy, it is excellent and explains in depth how the park started.

VEEJOY - The Europa-Park Story

Exclusive pictures, first-hand video material, newspaper articles from back then, previously unpublished sketches and architectural drawings - unpublished insights.

www.veejoy.de

 

[Dave]

Just a general question as i don't know much about the history of the park but seeing as Mack own it, is it a bit strange they have major coasters from other manufacturers? Do those rides pre-date ownership?

At the time they built silverstar Mack Rides didn’t have the capability to build a hyper coaster (I suspect if they were doing so today they would have used Mack rides). They also don’t make wooden coasters.

Basically the park will use another manufacturer if they want to do something and Mack rides can’t offer the product.

 

[Rowe]

It does seem odd at first, yes, but as Dave says, Mack Rides didn't start manufacturing Hyper Coasters until the mid 2010s post-Silver Star (2002) and hadn't manufactured a wooden rollercoaster since at least the 1950s pre-Wodan (2012). Ba-a-a Coaster was from outsourced manufacturer ART Engineering, and at least 16 other attractions ranging from Fjord Rafting (Intamin) to the Panoramabahn (Chance Morgan) have also been installed in the park by outside manufacturers. As for the ownership question, Europa-Park has always been owned and operated by the Mack family since inception and opening in 1975.

 

[Martin]

As much as it serves as a showroom for MACK, it still needs to make business sense as a theme park, so they'll still use other manufacturers where they can't provide the desired ride themselves. That's probably going to happen less and less now though, like with Silver Star having to be a B&M 20 years ago, and now MACK happily build rides of that scale.