Jonathan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Helix <3
As you will all know by now, I love Eurovision, to the extent that I've attended a live show for the last three Contests (Liverpool 2023, Malmö 2024, Basel 2025). It's been so much fun each time, and I attended the broadcast show of SF1 this year, even managing to get on the coverage for a few seconds! We also saw Conchita Wurst perform in the Eurovision Village on the Monday evening, and she was absolutely sublime. Also caught up with an old friend from school who I hadn't seen in about 15 years or so, which was lovely. Travel was all by rail, with us taking the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland (highly recommended), and we flew back from Düsseldorf to Heathrow on the Saturday (very smooth experience from end to end). We also had a two-hour delay on our train to Düsseldorf on the Friday, but for the first time in a while, I wasn't even bothered. Helped that the scenery along the Rhine was stunning, and also the staff on board were excellent.
Bertie was quite disappointed he couldn't get out for a swim.
However, given @Mike and I were in the area, it would've been rude for us to not make a visit to EP. And so we did...which I can inform you rather wound up @Sammy when he saw this photo.
The 50th Anniversary cocktails are so nice
Sitting in the Colosseo plaza while waiting to be able to get on park with the afternoon tickets was so nice. Eventually, we made our way onto the park, and instantly went straight for the park's newest rollercoaster. Voltron.
Voltron
The queue is a bit of a cattle pen at times, particularly when in the station building, but it moves at a good rate, which is as you'd expect from EP. The baggage system is the same as for Arthur, and it works well. As for the ride itself? Well, the wing seats are rough, but the middle ones are fine. The layout is excellent, and if EP can sort out the issue with the wing seats, this could well end up in my top 10.
It just looks so good!
Voletarium
This was Mike's first time on Voletarium, and we both really enjoyed it, though I wasn't a huge fan of the new bit they've tacked on the end as a promo for the new film. Just felt a bit unnecessary and out of place with the rest of the attraction.
Ed & Edda's Grand Prix Edventure
Somewhat controversially, I don't actually hate this. It's a good filler attraction, though I do miss Historama. The one criticism I have is that the firing mechanism for the guns is really not good - switching to something a bit more like Duel would arguably be better.
Piraten in Batavia
We got lucky enough to have time for a ride on Piraten in the limited time we had on park, and it was really nice as always. I still maintain that the revamped attraction is much better than what was there before the fire.
Blue Fire
We just had to take a ride on one of the Iceland coasters. Mike chose Blue Fire, as it's his favourite, and it was excellent as usual. Smooth, well-operated, and I think I can tell that the launch is slightly quicker.
After our time on park finished, we walked over to Silver Lake to see the ongoing work there, which will be great when it's all finished. Also, we had a dinner reservation at Silver Lake, so it made sense to head that way anyway. We ended up seated outside, which was a first for both of us, and it helped that it was a lovely evening.
Such a beautiful evening
I went for the Secreto Iberico with sweet potato fries and chimichurri. And a large white wine as well, because wine not? (We'll ignore the two I had from the serving hatch while waiting for our dinner reservation.) Simple, but delicious.
Why is food at Silver Lake always so good?
Dessert followed, with the chocolate crème brûlée being my choice. And a Lynchburg Lemonade, because no trip to Silver Lake is complete without one.
This always tastes so good!
On our way back to the hotels, I spotted something in Silver Lake which caused me to do a double-take. There was a desk there which looked very familiar. It was basically an exact replica (or near enough) of a desk that my grandparents owned for a very long time, and is now my dad's. Genuinely surprised to see such a thing all the way in Germany!
The resemblance is genuinely uncanny!
On the Thursday, we had a bit more of a chilled day at Rulantica with the Hyggedal supplement, which was well worth it. The slides were excellent once again, with the racing slides being a highlight once more. How many cocktails did we have in the swim-up bars? Erm...Pass. I'm also really glad that Tønnevirvel is now enclosed, which makes it a much nicer experience overall. Not really a huge amount more I can say, other than it's an excellent place to spend a day. Went back to the hotels for a couple of drinks, with the first being at Spirit of St Louis. Both Long Islands were purchased, and they were as strong as you'd expect from EP cocktails. We then popped back to Colosseo to try our luck, and...Bar Colosseo was open on a Thursday night, so of course we had to go in. A Zombie for me and a Piña Colada for Mike helped round off what had been a brief, but wonderful, trip to EP (though we still had breakfast the following day, and we lucked out by being seated on the Colosseo plaza). When we got upstairs, this is what greeted us, and I had to take a photo.
This might just be my new favourite-ever photo I've taken at EP.
It's such a shame that we were only at EP for two nights, but it was still a wonderful trip as always. It also got us thinking that we need to have a proper trip to EP at some point in the future so we can have a proper experience of the place once more. The time we spent there was, as the title says, a little slice of heaven.
Bertie was quite disappointed he couldn't get out for a swim.
However, given @Mike and I were in the area, it would've been rude for us to not make a visit to EP. And so we did...which I can inform you rather wound up @Sammy when he saw this photo.
The 50th Anniversary cocktails are so nice
Sitting in the Colosseo plaza while waiting to be able to get on park with the afternoon tickets was so nice. Eventually, we made our way onto the park, and instantly went straight for the park's newest rollercoaster. Voltron.
Voltron
The queue is a bit of a cattle pen at times, particularly when in the station building, but it moves at a good rate, which is as you'd expect from EP. The baggage system is the same as for Arthur, and it works well. As for the ride itself? Well, the wing seats are rough, but the middle ones are fine. The layout is excellent, and if EP can sort out the issue with the wing seats, this could well end up in my top 10.
It just looks so good!
Voletarium
This was Mike's first time on Voletarium, and we both really enjoyed it, though I wasn't a huge fan of the new bit they've tacked on the end as a promo for the new film. Just felt a bit unnecessary and out of place with the rest of the attraction.
Ed & Edda's Grand Prix Edventure
Somewhat controversially, I don't actually hate this. It's a good filler attraction, though I do miss Historama. The one criticism I have is that the firing mechanism for the guns is really not good - switching to something a bit more like Duel would arguably be better.
Piraten in Batavia
We got lucky enough to have time for a ride on Piraten in the limited time we had on park, and it was really nice as always. I still maintain that the revamped attraction is much better than what was there before the fire.
Blue Fire
We just had to take a ride on one of the Iceland coasters. Mike chose Blue Fire, as it's his favourite, and it was excellent as usual. Smooth, well-operated, and I think I can tell that the launch is slightly quicker.
After our time on park finished, we walked over to Silver Lake to see the ongoing work there, which will be great when it's all finished. Also, we had a dinner reservation at Silver Lake, so it made sense to head that way anyway. We ended up seated outside, which was a first for both of us, and it helped that it was a lovely evening.
Such a beautiful evening
I went for the Secreto Iberico with sweet potato fries and chimichurri. And a large white wine as well, because wine not? (We'll ignore the two I had from the serving hatch while waiting for our dinner reservation.) Simple, but delicious.
Why is food at Silver Lake always so good?
Dessert followed, with the chocolate crème brûlée being my choice. And a Lynchburg Lemonade, because no trip to Silver Lake is complete without one.
This always tastes so good!
On our way back to the hotels, I spotted something in Silver Lake which caused me to do a double-take. There was a desk there which looked very familiar. It was basically an exact replica (or near enough) of a desk that my grandparents owned for a very long time, and is now my dad's. Genuinely surprised to see such a thing all the way in Germany!
The resemblance is genuinely uncanny!
On the Thursday, we had a bit more of a chilled day at Rulantica with the Hyggedal supplement, which was well worth it. The slides were excellent once again, with the racing slides being a highlight once more. How many cocktails did we have in the swim-up bars? Erm...Pass.
I'm also really glad that Tønnevirvel is now enclosed, which makes it a much nicer experience overall. Not really a huge amount more I can say, other than it's an excellent place to spend a day. Went back to the hotels for a couple of drinks, with the first being at Spirit of St Louis. Both Long Islands were purchased, and they were as strong as you'd expect from EP cocktails. We then popped back to Colosseo to try our luck, and...Bar Colosseo was open on a Thursday night, so of course we had to go in. A Zombie for me and a Piña Colada for Mike helped round off what had been a brief, but wonderful, trip to EP (though we still had breakfast the following day, and we lucked out by being seated on the Colosseo plaza). When we got upstairs, this is what greeted us, and I had to take a photo.This might just be my new favourite-ever photo I've taken at EP.
It's such a shame that we were only at EP for two nights, but it was still a wonderful trip as always. It also got us thinking that we need to have a proper trip to EP at some point in the future so we can have a proper experience of the place once more. The time we spent there was, as the title says, a little slice of heaven.
