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[2024] Europa-Park General Discussion

See I don't agree with that being a good idea, not least because it would result in rather large delays to the new coaster as all the theming is re-designed.
 
Not a bad idea to get a Ukraine area into the park asap though. Put aside the current conflict it is pretty much one of the largest countries in Europe so worthy of representation in its own right.
 
Not a bad idea to get a Ukraine area into the park asap though. Put aside the current conflict it is pretty much one of the largest countries in Europe so worthy of representation in its own right.
I've long felt that an eastwards expansion for EP in terms of countries to use for areas is overdue. At least they've chosen something from the Balkans (Croatia) for their next area, and I wouldn't be opposed to another area being something like Poland or Ukraine.
 
My post was quite clearly in response to people saying they should remove the Russian area.
Sorry Alsty – I misread your post and thought you were saying the calls to remove the Russian area were wokeness / cancel culture.
 
The covid regulations in Baden-Württemberg are changing from Sunday, resulting in the following for visitors to Europa-Park:

From 03.04.2022 onwards, you will only need a valid admission ticket or a valid reservation confirmation for your visit to Europa-Park Resort. Due to the current Corona strategy of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, the obligation to provide proof (recovered / vaccinated / tested) as well as the requirement to wear a mask for almost all areas of Europa-Park Resort will be waived. Only during the use of the shuttle bus (between Rulantica, YULLBE and the Europa-Park hotels) and the stay in the Europa-Park first-aid station the mask requirement (medical mask or FFP2 mask) remains.
So I take it this means that I won’t need an NHS COVID Pass to get into Europa Park when I go at the end of April, then? And my current fabric mask will suffice in mask terms?

That’s convenient; certainly reduces the amount that needs to be done before the trip, if that’s the case!
 
Think it's still FFP2 masks on public transport and you might need proof of vaccination for flights.
 
Think it's still FFP2 masks on public transport and you might need proof of vaccination for flights.
We’re not likely to be using public transport, as far as I can tell, although I’m not sure what Ryanair’s vaccination policy is, admittedly.
 
@Matt N it's worth having a read through the gov Germany travel advice page, and also subscribing to email alerts when anything changes. You're still a month away from travel so things could easily change again (either way). Take note of local/state wide restrictions for Baden Württemburg as well. :)
 
Not 2022 relevant but I thought I'd share this 2015 360° Monorail-Bahn video where, if you swivel the camera, you'll find some lovely critters along for the ride. A delight.

 
Article about the works to reduce the noise from Wodan. Following the sound barrier wall added to the turnaround through Atlantica this year; next year that wall will be reinforced with foam and another wall added on the coaster's highest point.
The Mack family takes the complaints from the people of Rust that the wooden roller coaster Wodan is getting louder and louder, at least what it feels like, very seriously, explained Volker Klaiber, who is responsible for the technology and day-to-day operations in the park. "We will fight for every technically feasible decibel," he promised the Rust municipal council and the citizens present. The "Wodan action plan" has been in the works for almost four years.

The problem the park say: Rainwater and UV rays have damaged the wood of the roller coaster, which opened in 2012, and caused unrest in the run. The pressure of the three trains on the roller coaster, which together transport around 10,000 people a day, had also caused wear and tear.
To counteract this, 1,000 running meters of rails have already been replaced on eight layers of wood and a top layer of steel, using particularly hard tree species such as Ipe. In addition, Europa-Park has already erected a noise protection wall, which has reduced the noise of the roller coaster by four to eight decibels, depending on the measuring point.

"And we still have a few trump cards up our sleeves," promised Klaiber. For example, they want to successively clad the inside of the wall with additional acoustic noise protection panels made of hard foam. During the coming season break from January to March 2023, an additional noise protection wall made of wood and hard foam is to be erected at the highest point of the roller coaster - the roundabout with chain lift. In total, more than one million euros have already been spent on protecting the Wodan from noise, explained Klaiber.

Municipal councilor Karl-Heinz Debacher (SPD), who addressed the noise problem of the Wodan at the citizens' information on the new roller coaster (we reported), acknowledged that something was being done. Like his council colleague Jörg Herdrich (ABFR) and Klaiber, he hoped that in the end they would return to the original volume of the Wodan.
Source
 
Wodan recently turned 10 years old, and EP posted this video on Facebook today revealing some fun facts about it:
The facts were:
  • The ride was originally going to be built in Russia, alongside Euro-Mir.
  • The ride was originally going to be a dueling coaster.
  • The engineers couldn't agree on what kind of turn the ride should do when crossing Blue Fire, so they settled it over bowling.
  • Blue Fire was originally supposed to be closer to Atlantica SuperSplash and cross over it. This idea was adopted for Wodan.
  • The ride is made up of 2 million nails in total.
 
Wonder if it'll be this busy next week?

I did look, and the German Easter holidays apparently end this week, but I do wonder...
 
Very much looking forward to getting back to EP in a couple of weeks for the first time in 28 months, especially now that more at the park is getting back to normal.

I do hope we see F&B getting back to normal at some point this season. There are still a fair amout of outlets showing closed or partially closed on the website. I know at off-peak times some outlets do remain closed, but there do appear to be more than normal. I would assume the main factors have been staffing issues and restrictions on park capacity. The latter seems to no longer apply based on yesterday's queues and extension to ride close, so let's hope they can get more staff in for the main summer season!
 
F&B was much better on my trip the other week than it was last year, and that was very much off-peak. Was good to see the likes of Fjord Restaurant and Spices back open with a full service, and even Raclette was open on one of the days! Some smaller outlets remained shut (Walters Wurst 😭 and Melusina to note) but it's been a vast improvement on 2021.
 
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That is good to hear! But one is rather keen for an award winning Wurst, it must re-open!!
 
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