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[2024] Europa-Park General Discussion

Booked a trip to Europa Park for the 20th and 21st of October, and can see now that it'll be a school holiday in France and half of Germany (not the region Europa Park is located in). Are these two days (it's a Sunday and Monday) likely to be incredibly busy, and if so what is the park like on a busy day?
 
It's the busiest time of the season, so it will probably be pretty jammed. Nonetheless, you'll probably get two long days, opening times wise, and as is often said in this thread, there's no park in the world that deals with crowds better than EP. Get into the park at opening, keep refreshing VirtualLine (especially for Voltron) and eat lunch before noon. The atmosphere in October is really something. :)
 
Plastic Person said:
It's the busiest time of the season, so it will probably be pretty jammed. Nonetheless, you'll probably get two long days, opening times wise, and as is often said in this thread, there's no park in the world that deals with crowds better than EP. Get into the park at opening, keep refreshing VirtualLine (especially for Voltron) and eat lunch before noon. The atmosphere in October is really something. :)
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Thanks for the tips! Hopefully with all the ride capacity and quality of operations it isn't just two days of queuing, then.
 
If there’s ever a park I’d want to be in on an abnormally busy day, it’s Europa Park!

Lines may end up being long, but their operations are so fast that they’ll at least move quickly and shouldn’t get obscene, and there is also quite a considerable plethora of filler attractions that should almost guaranteeably have a short to walk on wait!
 
benpicko said:
Booked a trip to Europa Park for the 20th and 21st of October, and can see now that it'll be a school holiday in France and half of Germany (not the region Europa Park is located in). Are these two days (it's a Sunday and Monday) likely to be incredibly busy, and if so what is the park like on a busy day?
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You'll be ok.

As posted, get in early.

Be at the main entrance for 8.15am. Voletarium will open shortly thereafter. You'll get on Castello dei Medici too. At the 9am full park rope drop, I'd recommend heading to Matterhorn Blitz, Schweizer Bob Bahn then Pegasus and Poseidon first. You could easily do all that before 10am by which time rides like Silver Star will have stabilised.

Unless you're a hotel guest in which case you can be in the hotel entrance at 8.15am.
 
AstroDan said:
You'll be ok.

As posted, get in early.

Be at the main entrance for 8.15am. Voletarium will open shortly thereafter. You'll get on Castello dei Medici too. At the 9am full park rope drop, I'd recommend heading to Matterhorn Blitz, Schweizer Bob Bahn then Pegasus and Poseidon first. You could easily do all that before 10am by which time rides like Silver Star will have stabilised.

Unless you're a hotel guest in which case you can be in the hotel entrance at 8.15am.
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Amazing, great tips — will try to do exactly that. I'm staying in Freiburg but I'll set off early to get there for 8.
 
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Managed this in one day on Tuesday which I thought I did really well, it was my first time at Europa park and I was there solo but I did make friends along the way and met some other Brits who were there solo too.
Beautiful park, top notch operations I was struggling to find dispatches taking more than the 30 second mark and over the 2 days never got bored would have even stayed another day if I could have.
Food as a whole was good but I was fancying a Bratwurst and couldn't find one, not sure if I just missed it?

Anyways it's a top tier park that I'll definitely return to at some point and thanks to everyone on here always holding it to such high regards that definitely swayed me to squeeze in another European park this year.
 
I spent 3 full days at Europa last week as well as a separate evening at Rulantica and I'd say it's probably the best all round theme park in the world!

My biggest takeaways from my Europa experience were...

Voltron on a smooth train is arguably the best coaster in the world! Fantastic all round package with relentless pacing (was thankful for the short pause at the turntable!) and great ejector.

Wodan is best ridden late in the day when its fully warmed up it's easily the best woodie I've ridden.

Bluefire is better than Icon and Silverstar is a very solid hyper coaster (but not quite as good as Shambhala!) with decent floater.

Arthur, Piraten and Volertarium are all elite dark rides that are easily "disney standard". Snorri, Castello and the curiosities dinosaur ride shouldn't be slept on either very enjoyable.

The food was some of the best I've eaten in a park. Fantastic vegetarian options everywhere with the Croatian food stand and French bakery shop being highlights. The food area in Arthur also had very good vegetarian/vegan options. Reasonable prices as well why can't UK parks have nice fresh food stands!?

Amazing ride operations and dispatches the queue lines never really stop moving.

Beautiful theming throughout the park and its hotels. There wasn't really a particular area that hit like stepping in to Rookburgh or Diagon Alley does but the park was immaculate throughout and very pretty.

Rulantica was magical on an evening. Outdoor swim up bar with jacuzzi seats and music cranking what a vibe. Outdoor rapids was so fun too!

With all that said there was a couple small negatives...

Merchandise wasn't great. I snagged a Voltron t shirt but it has no reference of Europa park or that it's even a rollercoaster on it. Very odd and whats with all the camp David stuff everywhere haha.

Virtual line was hit and miss. Would sometimes give you a time slot confirmation and then disappear off the app altogether or change your slot time. However as a free service it was a nice bonus getting some line skips.

I'd also give the Phantom coastiality VR experience a miss too. 45 minute wait in a cramped corridor and then the headset didn't really work with visuals and sound cutting out at random times.

So all in all Europa is a fantastic themepark and a must visit. Not the most accessible theme park in the world but well worth the trek and definitely a place I'll potentially return to annually. Hats off to the Mack Mafia 👏
 
velocikieran said:
Merchandise wasn't great. I snagged a Voltron t shirt but it has no reference of Europa park or that it's even a rollercoaster on it. Very odd and whats with all the camp David stuff everywhere haha
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Nah see this is absolutely the best sort of theme park merch - merch that references a ride or attraction, which to you and fellow enthusiasts means a lot, but to a casual onlooker looks good and is without meaning, ie not screaming "THEME PARK NERD!!!"

Also, Camp David FTFW. Love that stuff.
 
Knowing EP, they'll probably install one as an over-engineered transport system between the waterpark and main hotels....

... Driving down the normal roads.
 
Tim said:
What is the point of a trackless ride if you are wearing a VR headset... I'd take the opportunity of blindfolded guests to add as many tracks as I can!
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Suppose in theory it means you could have multiple ride vehicles in a smaller building all moving and turning independently and the passengers not realising how close they are to each vehicle.

Still rather wish they'd knock the continuous attempts to stick VR into theme parks on the head though
 
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John_P said:
Suppose in theory it means you could have multiple ride vehicles in a smaller building all moving and turning independently and the passengers not realising how close they are to each vehicle.

Still rather wish they'd knock the continuous attempts to stick VR into theme parks though.
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Mack/Europa seem particularly keen on VR.

I don't understand it at all, it's a logistical nightmare and defeats the very purpose of a theme park.

The AR on the Mario Kart ride is very well done and they do about as good a job as possible with the throughputs via several pre-shows to get you ready but i'd still prefer the ride without it.
 
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