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[2024] Europa-Park General Discussion

Donkey said:
Just saw them manage to crash the Matterhorn Blitz in the final brake run with riders in both cars.

It looked like they were having issues with the sensors or the block system because one of the ride operators kept on walking up to check something in the brake run area. The cars didn't seem to be stopping in the right section. The cars all stacked up in the brake run and the ride went down for a few minutes. They started it up again but only one of the trains moved into the station (they usually come into the station in pairs). I could see some drive wheels still spinning in the section of track nearest the station but the car in the rear brake run position stayed there. Suddenly one of the cars which was on the track failed to stop at the previous brakes and hit it the stationery car at full speed.

Not great. The cars have full bumpers but it was probably a 20+ mph crash that the riders in the front car wouldn't have seen coming. The riders seemed ok and they then sent empty cars around which stopped at the block brakes in the switchbacks but the last I saw those two cars were still stuck together. Definitely a whiplash claim if I ever saw one...could be worse but was slightly surprised that the ride ops could send trains round when the system was obviously confused about where the cars were.

Edit: And then after an hour or so of testing with empty cars and doing e-stops to make sure that it definitely won't crash again, it looks like it is back open for the brief 45 minute period before park close. I know that EP is renowned for their operations and ride uptime, but it does give a bit of an air of them being a bit blasé about the fact that they let a rollercoaster crash.
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If a car was stopped at the block section prior to final brakes, was released, it wouldn't be doing 20mph into final brakes. I've been on that ride after stopping half way round and the lack of speed is hilarious.

Sounds like manual override error.

If serious injury occurred there's no way the ride would have reopened.

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Off to Europa park for the first time later this month. I have a very important question first though: What's the best bar in Europa park/ the hotels/ Rust?
 
hogofwar said:
Off to Europa park for the first time later this month. I have a very important question first though: What's the best bar in Europa park/ the hotels/ Rust?
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My personal favourite is Spirit of St Louis in Bell Rock - the atmosphere is lovely and there’s often a pianist playing away in the background. Bar Buena Vista Club in Alcazar is really cool too and feels rather exclusive, however its operating hours are extremely limited and capacity is small.
 
Is there a time when German school holidays deviate from the UK and thus the park is quiet?

Have tried looking online but there seem to be a lot of regional variations. Summer is mostly the same but Spring options are more confusing.

Or are queues and operations generally good enough that it’s not much of an issue? Tentatively looking around May or June.
 
Bowser said:
Is there a time when German school holidays deviate from the UK and thus the park is quiet?

Have tried looking online but there seem to be a lot of regional variations. Summer is mostly the same but Spring options are more confusing.

Or are queues and operations generally good enough that it’s not much of an issue? Tentatively looking around May or June.
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I've been looking at May, there are only two German hols at both the start and end of that month. UK airports could be packed in the May half term though.
 
Skyscraper said:
I've been looking at May, there are only two German hols at both the start and end of that month. UK airports could be packed in the May half term though.
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Yeah, there are so many States and i don't know German geography well enough to know which are close by. Skimming through the majority seem to have half term early June whilst UK is late May so in theory seems good.

Queue Time site says this year had half term as one week in May and they were the busiest days at the park all year (might have coincided with Voltron, can't quite remember) but the following weeks were much quieter.

Travel is a whole other ball game but will get into that nightmare another time!
 
Europa-Park is generally fine even in holiday times.

The main dates to really avoid are bank holidays and bridge days whether in Germany or France, such as the pentecost one in may. Saturdays in late October, the very end of August and first week in September can also be very busy.
 
Burbs said:
My personal favourite is Spirit of St Louis in Bell Rock - the atmosphere is lovely and there’s often a pianist playing away in the background. Bar Buena Vista Club in Alcazar is really cool too and feels rather exclusive, however its operating hours are extremely limited and capacity is small.
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Thanks for the recommendations! Can you access the hotel bars from inside the park or do you have to leave Europa park first? We won't be hotel guests, we just have a cheap place in Rust.
 
hogofwar said:
Thanks for the recommendations! Can you access the hotel bars from inside the park or do you have to leave Europa park first? We won't be hotel guests, we just have a cheap place in Rust.
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You have to leave the park, but you can exit the park at the hotel entrance as a normal guest at the end of the day (located in Spain).

You can also access the bars and restaurants as a non resident in the evening.
 
Yep, and in true EP fashion was back open again a few hours later! Looks like they managed to give it a push back down from where it came from. Must have been a very unique combination of events for it to actually stop there.
 
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