Europa Bark! - Tim's Trips

[Tim]

I've just got back from what could be my most incredible visit to Europa Park yet!

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I have an interesting story to tell but while I collect all the photos and work out the best way to tell it I wanted to talk about dogs. Because, for reasons I’ll later explain, on this trip we decided to try something different. We brought our dogs with us to Europa Park.

So I thought I’d start this trip report with a bit of a FYI. Even for those of you that have dogs I’m willing to bet taking them on a cross country journey to Europa wouldn’t have even crossed your minds. It sounded mad when it was first suggested to me. But that’s why I think it’s a side of Europa we don’t usually talk about, and one we had a lot of fun discovering. Here’s what we found:

How was traveling to Europa with dogs?
Honestly not too bad. We do a lot of traveling with them anyway. Of course we had to drive. The Eurotunnel is the only sensible way to travel out of the UK with dogs. Regrettably traveling with dogs has become a lot harder and more expensive in a post-Covid, Post-Brexit, broken economic world, but I won’t try explaining that here as the rules are ever changing.
The road to Rust split nicely into 3 sections. The 2ish hours from our house to Folkstone. 3 hours to reach Reims (our overnight stop off destination) and a final 4 hour section to Europa. Would definitely take this route again and would even stop at Parc Asterix, Disneyland Paris or Walygator on route if we don’t have the dogs with us.

Is EP dog friendly?
Absolutely!
There are rules of course. They can’t go on any rides and in some of the restaurants. Not that it caused us any issues as most restaurants had outdoor seating and they were always welcomed. We avoided shows as well, but now I’m checking the website I don’t see the show venues listed as a restricted area. So maybe we could have? Either way it’s clearly labelled where they can't go and there weren't many places they couldn't.
I’d never noticed it before, but most areas had at least one water bowl, and they were never hard to find. On flicking through my photos it's almost become a game to spot them all.

How about the Hotels?
Also incredibly accommodating! We let them know we were brining our dogs when we booked. At check-in they gave us this handy version of a “do not disturb" sign to let the staff know there were dogs in the room. And they were happy for us to leave them in the rooms while we had breakfast and dinner (we didn’t need to do that as we were traveling with friends, but we could have done).

We were staying at Bell Rock, which with hindsight was probably the best choice for dogs. The river behind Bell Rock is a perfect access route and there are dog bins at either end that were always well stocked with bags. I hadn't noticed this before but the rooms (at least the one we were in) are designed without gaps under the units and beds. So, we never had to worry about losing stuff in hard-to-reach places.
It was also nice that when we collected our park tickets they actively encouraged us to take the dogs in. It’s the little things that make you feel welcomed.

But what about my ride count!
Not going to lie, it did take a hit, but not a major one. On a good day I’ve previously managed about 20 rides. With the dogs we managed 10 and 17 on our full days at the park. Which by any other parks standard would be a good count anyway!
Key to this is that the parks Babyswap system (or Parent Swap as I’m used to calling it here) is valid for dogs. The systems not perfect, not all rides have it and where you collect the tokens and board varies per ride. But it was easy just to ask the staff at the entrance and they always pointed us in the right direction. They even let us queue in pairs so that 2 stayed with the dogs while the other 2 rode. Then we’d swap.
And what we lost in ride count was more than made up for while just walking around and enjoying the park. We were stopped plenty of times by people wanting to say hello. And EP is one of those amazing places that slowing down and spotting the little details lets you enjoy it so much more.

Honestly after this trip it makes me really hope we see the UK parks embrace dogs too. I haven’t visited many of our parks for a while now, and it’s only became harder since we got the dogs. But If I could take my dogs for a stroll around Alton’s gardens, I’d absolutely get a season pass and do just that. I saw first-hand that Gardaland allows it, so it’s not like Merlin are against it. And every year more places in the UK are becoming dog friendly, so who know, maybe it’s just a matter of time.

Anyway I have a trip report to write! No doubt I’ll try filling it with as many pictures of the dogs as I possibly can.
Sorry that for this small intro you've only got the backs of their heads. But it was our default POV.

 

[Rob]

More doggy pictures please!

Really interesting to read about someone who has taken their dogs to EP though, thank you and I look forward to the full trip report. Playing dog watch is always one of the more fun things to do at EP! But I had no idea that the baby swap was also valid as dog swap, that is amazing. I also did not realise that those with dogs can stay in the hotels, I wonder if each hotel does have specific dog friendly rooms!?

 

[Benzin]

The baby swap being valid for dogs won't be topped as the funniest thing I've seen today.

 

[Tim]

More doggy pictures please!

Really interesting to read about someone who has taken their dogs to EP though, thank you and I look forward to the full trip report. Playing dog watch is always one of the more fun things to do at EP! But I had no idea that the baby swap was also valid as dog swap, that is amazing. I also did not realise that those with dogs can stay in the hotels, I wonder if each hotel does have specific dog friendly rooms!?

As far as I'm aware it applies to all rooms. We did the whole booking process before adding the note about having dogs, giving us full choice of room options.
Actually that's another interesting story. Our friends live in Switzerland and they booked their rooms at exactly the same time. They had the option of standard, but we could only chose Deluxe. We decided to go with the Deluxe anyway but it was interesting to note the room availability is determined by where you live. They also had a ground floor which I suspect are usually where the Hotels try and put people with dogs. We were on the first floor, which did add a few complications when nature called.

We also kept checking the Babyswap rule every time we used it, as we couldn't quite belive it was a thing. No one ever said no!

There absolutely will be more dog pictures. We've all been working since we got back, so I'm holding off the full report until our groups had chance to share them.

 

[Llama]

Dogswap! I love it!

As a huge dog lover and theme park lover, I didn't know dogs could visit EP until I was there for the first time and saw a woman walking a dog through the Spanish section. It blew my mind. That the whole place is so dog friendly is high on the list of why I think it's such a world class park.

 

[rob666]

My lovely doggie only has three legs.
Do they have RAP for the babyswap?

 

[Skyscraper]

My lovely doggie only has three legs.
Do they have RAP for the babyswap?

The Rottweiler Access Pass?

 

[Graeme]

Around 2009 when I was there, someone was walking their pet pig through the park.

It wasn’t elaborate EP entertainment, just a regular day guest.

Not sure if pigs are still welcome though.

 

[Tim]

That's crazy. The rules on the website refer directly to dogs. But knowing EP if you contact them directly they'd probably extend that rule.

There are several dog breeds that are banned. Forget which of the top of my head but it's any with a reputation for being violent.
Kind of unfair as these breeds are only violent if their owners train them that way. And some seemingly harmless dog breeds can be as bad just through incorrect training.
But I wonder if the dogs on that list were put their by German legislation rather than the park themselves. Often when travelling with dogs we'll be asked if they are small/medium/large and what breed they are. Never been a problem for us as our dogs are small to medium but I imagine large dogs are often restricted to 1 per room ect. (Europa we just said we had 2 dogs, there were no further questions).

FYI, received the photos from this trip recently. Just finding time to sort through them and finish writing it.

 

[Tim]

Apologies for the long delay. The last two and a half months have been far busier than anticipated. Luckily I wrote all my notes for this trip down at the time, so It's still fresh in my mind and there shouldn't be any more big breaks.

Prologue:

This trip begins at the very place it is leading to, Europa Park. Not in 2022, but on the 13th of September 2018. The CanCan Coaster had just opened to the public, and I was sat at Basil Airport reading the reviews. I'd left the park earlier that morning, missing the opening by hours. That hadn’t stopped it from being a great trip, but had left me wondering how long it would be until I could make it back. Little did I know that as I sat waiting in the terminal I'd started down a path that was about to change my life forever.

2018 was a milestone year for me and my girlfriend. We'd both started new jobs. Had an amazing time in Iceland (The real one, although hold onto that thought for later). We were on our way back From Europa with a group of friends we’d promised to take for years. And we're about to see Hamilton, tickets for which were still really hard to get hold of at the time.
But most importantly we were in the process of buying our first house. The house was the first step of one of our major life goals, and importantly for this story it was critical for achieving step two:

My girlfriend had always wanted to have dogs. About 5 years earlier we'd started talking with breeders, but the shared maisonette we lived in simply wasn’t suitable.
We'd fallen in love with a lesser know dog breed, Swedish Vallhunds. Small cattle dogs that can be traced back to the Vikings. As there are only a few litters born in the UK each year we started getting involved with the breeds society, and by the time we moved into our new home (On bonfire night of all days) we were already well known within the group.

Early in 2019 my girlfriend approached me looking both excited and unsure. She'd been talking to the head of the breed society who knew of an amazing litter of pups, bred by a couple who were described as being very similar to us. There was a catch. They lived in Switzerland, just outside Basil. Would we be interested in seeing the puppies?
My immediate response was no. We couldn't go to Switzerland for a puppy! We'd waiting 5 years already, it wouldn't be many months until a litter was born in the UK. We could wait.
And that would have likely been the end of it. Except, thanks to Europa I now knew Basil. I had the trip plans still sitting on my desk. A return trip could give us chance to take in the city, make a nice weekend of it… Maybe even keep going onto Europa and get on CanCan (this last part never happened, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it crossed my mind). So it was agreed that we’d go to visit them, and a few weeks later we were flying back to Basil.

We had an amazing time in Switzerland. As predicted we immediately bonded with the breeders. Chatting late into the evening about films, TV and local politics. Crucially I told them the story I’m telling you now and we started discussing Europa. But I’m getting ahead of the most important detail, we met Oakley:

Oakley is everything we had been hoping for. And we left Switzerland knowing she was the dog for us. The next challenge was bringing Oakley back to the UK. I can't begin to explain how supportive her breeders were of the whole process (If you are getting a dog I can't overstate the importance of finding a good breeder). They handled most the legal requirements, leaving only the logistics of the move down to us. Our plan ended up sounding like something out of a heist movie:
Stage 1: My girlfriend flys out to Basil the night before.
Stage 2: She meets with Oakley and her breeder who's kindly offered to drive them to the train station in Strasbourg.
Stage 3: Meanwhile I set-off from the UK. Heading for the channel tunnel and Calais.
Stage 4: My girlfriend and the pup board a train
Stage 5: We meet at Calais and cross the boarder back to the UK.

The day finally came and it mostly panned out as described above, except for stage 3. It turned out there was a secret stage in the plan. They’d deliberately diverted on their way to Strasbourg, and taken the puppy past Europa! I got these picture from the local service station:

Naturally I decided to match them later that day and made a diversion by Thorpe Park. She was with us for less than 24 hours and she’d already seen 2 Theme Parks!
We had a good laugh about it over the following days and the idea was first proposed that we'd make the trip again a year later, and we'd all meet back at Europa.

Then of course 2020 happened. They visited Europa a number of times during that period and updated us on what was going on. Following our discussions they’d really taken to the park and had started to get really excited for when the boarders properly opened. 2022 rolled around and we were ready to commit, but there was one final twist in the story...

Meeting Marcey

I did say dogs (plural) at the start! Even when life feels like it's been put on hold it really hasn't, and so by the time we were back to organising the trip we were also organising the collection of a Clumber Spaniel puppy, Marcey. She was just over 6 months at the time of this trip, which given the popularity of Europa’s hotels meant we booked the room before we even had confirmation we’d be getting her.
Taking such a young puppy we didn’t know quite how she’d take it. In her case the breeder lives over 4 hours away (no crazy trip across Europe this time) which at least meant she was also taught how to travel well from a very young age. This would turn out to be good practice for the long drive ahead.

And that's how we finally found ourselves setting off to Europa. A full car with 2 dogs in the back traveling from the UK, and a van similarly loaded and heading from Switzerland. We were on our way to Europa Bark.

 

[Tim]

Europa Park - Day 2, 3 and 4

The drive to Europa turned out better than we could have hoped for. The weather was unexpectedly good for the time of year (and would remain so for the entire trip). As such we had a pleasant drive through France, with clear views and little traffic to distract from the regions we were passing through. The dogs slept through most of it, allowing us to complete even the 4 hour stretch without needing to stop. We arriving right on time for our 3pm check in.
As our friends from Switzerland had a shorter journey they were already there and opted for another day at the park. We planned to meet before our complimentary late entry tickets* gave us access to the park (5pm). Allowing us time to check in and unpack.

*We were surprised to get the late entry ticket as back in 2018 we hadn't been given them and assumed EP had scrapped the perk. Glad to find out this wasn’t the case.

As already established in my first post the hotel team were really accommodating to us and the dogs. The day of arrival was my girlfriends birthday (and a milestone one as well), so I'd emailed the hotel earlier in the week and ordered a few extras for the room. To our surprise they'd doubled up on what I'd asked for, with the flowers and larger champagne pictured below being from me and everything else (including the second bottle) being added by EP.

Our room overlooked the front entrance of Bell Rock. Shortly before our agreed meeting time we happened to spot our friends as they were going out to the car. Knowing they'd be back in a few moments my girlfriend rushed outside to head them off while I posed the dogs at the windows. It must have been quite the site for everyone entering the hotel at that time! Unfortunately we didn't manage to capture the moment of surprise as they returned.

We headed down to the bar and all 4 dogs met for the first time. We couldn’t be certain exactly how well they’d get on. Oakley and her sister hadn’t met since they were tiny puppies. But they immediately recognised each other, acting like no time had passed at all. Marcey was also quick to make friends with their golden retriever. A few drinks later, with the group* all caught up we headed into the park.

*Or should we be counted as a pack?

It's at this point I'm going to break from the normal trip report format. I could explain moment by moment what happened during our trip, but there's no real need. A lot of it is "you had to be there" stuff that probably doesn't translate well. And if you want my opinion on most of Europa's ride's I've already written about them extensively here:

Tim's Trips: Return to Europa Park

Instead I've broken this down into the interesting changes since my last visit, mixed in with some of the highlight moments with the dogs. Opening with this one when we first entered the park and Oakley was distracted; First by being able to walk alongside the train, then by that creepy looking fisherman over there:

Even by Europa’s standards I was impressed by how many great additions the park has made in just 4 years. The best place to start is right where I left off:

Eurosat CanCan Coaster
I'd already seen the refurbished French area and the adorable Madame Freudenreich Curiosités on my last trip. These changes really helped unify the french area into a consistent theme, and added a lot of great detail similar to the other more recent additions around the park. So it's no surprise to see the queue and station for Eurosat also delivered to that standard. It’s incredible how they’ve opened up a boxed in cattle-pen queue to allow for 3 distinct Parisian scenes. Each amazingly detailed.

We were using the Baby Dog Swap on this one so for the sake of seeing the whole queue I insisted on standing in line, allowing the others to take the dogs on a tour of the area. A good move as it turns out. Due to how little space is left in the dome the swap point uses an emergency fire exit, opposite Silver Star‘s entrance. It’s the one area that remains un-themed as It’s barley more than a narrow passageway weaving through the rides structure. It seemed strange that they didn’t use the virtual line for group swaps as well.
On a similar note I also hear that the addition of the VR station allowed disabled guests to the ride for the first time. The original station can’t accommodate lift/ramp access given its position in the dome.

Anyway, how would I compare the ride to the original?
I think it's an improvement, although I'm not sure if I'd still class Eurosat as one of my top tier rides. Old Sat was far more wild and in places scarier than a ride of its type should have been. New Sat feels like the same ride but inevitably with all the modernisation of the ride system it doesn't have that same edge Old Sat had. However as an experience there's so much more going on. I love the new style, and the set-pieces on ride are used really well. It’s also a better family attraction now, and I think it benefits from it. I know people that didn’t enjoy the Old Sat experience, but New Sat I could recommend to anyone looking for a stepping stone ride between the parks tamer coasters and the big 3.
Of course if like me you do miss the wild nature of Old Sat give it 10/20 years and I wouldn't be surprised if the wild side comes back. New rides don't stay glass smooth forever, and fundamentally it's the same layout as it was.
*****

I didn't manage to try the VR experience which I hear is really well executed. The rest of my group had either done it before or weren't interested. Something to look forward to another time.
~

Having finally had the chance to experience CanCan we were also looking forward to seeing what had become of the Dutch and Scandinavia areas. The last time we were at Europa was just after the fire that destroyed the Scandinavia Village and Piraten in Batavia. Having heard almost universal praise at the reopening of both I had high expectations.

The most impressive aspect of Scandinavia's reconstruction is how much they improved on the original without the changes being noticeable. Everything is just how I remember it. And yet the subtle reworking of paths push the crowds out of the narrow street, improving the crowd flow in the area. The buildings are in the same style but built to a higher quality. And there's a new ride in the basement that feels like it's always been there.

Snorri Touren
This could be my favourite Europa Park ride. Not the best ride at Europa but the ride that best encompasses everything I love about Europa. It's a filler ride, not a headline attraction, but still unmissable. It's hidden away and requires a little bit of exploration to find. It's overflowing with charm and character. It's also innovative and experiments with new concepts, without stealing the focus away from the core experience.
My only real criticism is that the simulator section is a little underwhelming. The projectors really need to be higher resolution. The car sits so close to the screen I could see every pixel, with or without my glasses, font and back seats. Also it feels a bit blink and you miss it. If given more space fitting in 4 simulators and doubling the length of time you spent in it could have given them chance to do more with the motion base.
But those are very minor gripes. Snorri Touren is a really great ride that other parks should absolutely be trying to emulate it.*
*****

Piraten in Batavia
Never have I been more excited to see a massive queue outside the entrance of a ride.

The old Batavia was a good ride, but also a bit of a mess. The problem with Europa's old dark rides is actually a reflection of what I love about the park; they are always adding content while continuing to maintain what they already have. It's why the park is huge and has rides spanning several decades.
Whilst this works great for the park, a dark ride needs to be selective in what it includes to make scenes stand out and the narrative progress.
Looking back 12 years to my first trip report I even acknowledged it then; The ride needed a complete overhaul to restructure the scenes and add a coherent story. And with new Batavia that's exactly what we've got.
It’s an incredibly well presented ride now. Even months after the trip I can clearly picture every scene. Each is distinct, yet fit an overall tone that holds the experience together. There’s a perfect blend between physical and projected effects. Playing to both their strengths of respectively adding life to each scene, and playing out story scenes at the right time for each boat to see them. The music is also incredible at immersing you into the experience.
I especially loved the set-up for the drop, although there was one gripe I had with the scene. Having the boats approach the drop in nothing but darkness and mist really sold the transportation from the Dutch to the Batavian scenes. Unfortunately the boat ahead would always illuminated the cave scene as your boat rounded the first corner. I can’t help but think that a roller door hiding the boat that’s about to drop would have completed this illusion.
But if that’s all I can fault it goes to show that this is a really well executed ride.

To compare it to other Pirate boat rides I’ve been on, I don’t think I can make the bold claim some have that this is the best. I’d class Disneyland Paris’s Pirates of the Caribbean above it for the pure scale of that ride and some truly impressive animatronics. I also suspect the same would be true for the original in California, although I’m yet to ride it.
However I’d ride this over Florida’s cut-down version any time, which means Europa finally have a dark ride that compares to Disneys quality! That’s an outstanding achievement.

Thinking back to the time that old Batavia was destroyed a part of me would have loved to have seen a brand new concept in its place. Like the Rocking Boat Ride, that could have offered a more dynamic riding experience. Having now experienced it I'm actually glad they decides to rebuild nearly like for like. They’ve given us an amazing example of what can be done when overhauling a classic ride.
*****

I don't know if this has always been the case but since the rebuild the area outside the exit to Batavia has had some crowd control boxes put in place to separate guests leaving from the queue to the restraint. This made it a perfect area to sit and wait with the dogs as the other half of our group rode. We had some of our best moments here talking to other guests, as I genuinely think some of them thought we were part of the post ride experience. We had similar moments all across the park, including this one caught by our friends as they left the Vintage Cars:

It was so much fun getting to meet people who we likely wouldn't have even talked to without the dogs.

Speaking of the Vintage Cars I can’t remember if I ever rode it before, but I certainly didn’t remember that the ride has functioning steering. It only lets you deviate by a few degrees but it made the ride worth a go. My girlfriend is still in the process of learning to drive so I gave her the wheel and played up every moment that the steering locked out. I hope I can play it quite as cool when she actually drives me for the first time.

Having the dogs we spent more time in this part of the park than we have on previous trips. It’s pleasant to explore the area’s alongside the river and it’s the little details here that add a lot to Europa Parks charm. We took a break in the gardens of Balthasar’s Castle*. The gardens were the perfect opportunity for a quick photo shoot of the dogs, with my favourite being this one of the two girls:

*I’m told the restaurant in Balthasar’s Castle is one of the best on park, but we somehow never got around to trying it this trip.

We also had a lot of fun with all the water features in these area’s. Leading the group through the really narrow paths just to see how each dog reacted to the different streams and surprise water sprays. Marcey in particular was fascinated with these stone behind Schweizer Bobbahn, that kept her occupied for at least 15 minutes.

Talking of water fountains there’s the parks latest new ride to talk about. Warning this might be about to get controversial.

Magical Boat Ride
Obviously I can't review this ride too critically because as of 2022 it's only half way through the full re-theme. However of all the parks redevelopments this felt like the biggest miss step. It's not worse than the ride it replaced, but neither is it even close to being as interesting or charming as Madame Freudenreich Curiosités or Snorri Touren (The 2 recent additions I’d expect this to be inline with). The direction they’ve taken just feels a bit bland. The fountains are nice to watch but not enough by themselves to hold the riders attention. There’s a hint towards a story about the Austrian royal family and these magical trolls but the narrative isn’t clear. This is especially true of the rides final scene. Taking place inside and being screen based they could have had scenes play out to show the relationship between the trolls and the humans. Instead all we get is people at court, standing still and looking regal. Very strange.

Ironically though my biggest issue with the ride is that it could be more problematic than the ride it replaced. As I’m sure most of you are aware the decision to re-theme the ride when they did was forced on the park due to its outdated depiction of African cultures. Personally I think the the old theme was outdated and needed replacing anyway, but as it clearly was an example of ignorance rather than trying to provoke intentional offence it didn’t need an immediate change. However the sudden re-theme from African village to Austrian royal palace could be the most blatant case of white washing history, intentionally or not.
It started off as a joke in our group, giving the ride the nickname; White Washed: The Ride. But the more we joked about it the more I started to notice an uncomfortable truth. The people represented in Europa and the guests that visit are predominantly white. When I consider the amount of different cultures I see just walking down my street, or going into town, the diversity at the park was nowhere close to that. Of course southern Germany is different to England. It’s quite likely the area around where most of Europa’s guests come from is less diverse anyway. However now I've noticed it I wonder if there is a bigger issue here that in years to come could need addressing. And if there is I don’t think choosing to replace a ride that misrepresented African culture, with one that celebrates the monarchy and European regality is necessarily the right choice.

Either way there's a lot to be critical of regarding this re-theme. I like the look of what they have planned going forward (assuming it's still actually happening) but I hope it isn't just the boats and the station getting extra work.
**

Wow, that was a bit of a heavy way to wrap up my thoughts for this section. And you probably came here just expecting dog photos!

By this point we had been in the park for 2 full days and a part day (including several late nights at the hotel bars). We were in desperate need of a break on the 4th day. Thankfully there was a new second gate we had yet to explore, which would offer just that.

 

[Benzin]

Needs more dog pics.

 

[rob666]

Sorry, didn't read the words....to busy drooling dogs in theme park pictures.

 

[Tim]

Ok, I get the message , I promise more dog photos are coming. But you'll have to wait just a bit longer...

Like a disgruntled Vallhund who's been told she's not having anymore beer...
FYI we don't give our dogs beer.
Intentionally

For this update I want to talk about our 5th day, in which we got to experience 2 sides of Europa we'd never had chance to before.

Rulantica:

I'd been anticipating Europa's waterpark ever since my first visit back in 2010. Back then it was nothing more than a few notes on the parks development plan. A blank canvas that could literally turnout to be anything. But given Europa's status that was enough to expect something spectacular.
The last time we’d visited the construction was well underway. Krønasår and the main hall had gone vertical and the massive entrance portal welcomed guests to the resort. Rulantica adverts were everywhere, and half the shows had taken on Rulantica themes.
The hype was incredible, but I was starting to get a little concerned that we wouldn't actually be able to visit. As I said in the prologue we knew we were close to getting our first dog and suspected that week long visits to Europa might be a thing of the past (or at least very infrequent). Even when we started planning this trip, having the dogs likely meant sacrificing Rulantica unless we were going to put them in kennels, something neither myself or my girlfriend wanted to do. Thankfully we were very lucky that our friends had annual passes and were more than happy to take the dogs back in for a bonus day in the park. This meant they had an extra day exploring the park* while we went to explore Rulatnica.

*I should have added in my intro that dogs don't need a ticket, just a responsible ticketed handler. So we were spared any additional expense letting our friends take them back in.

We dropped the dogs off before breakfast and the pair of us caught the bus from the entrance of Bell Rock. This wasn't actually our first time over at what I'd call the ”new resort”. Having the benefit of driving we'd been over to Krønasår for a meal in Bubba Svens 2 nights before.

On a future trip I’d love to stay at Krønasår. I love the Scandinavian theme and was incredibly excited to hear the hotel was designed as the museum of Rulantica. Walking in for the first time I was blown away by the scale. Pictures really don’t do it justice as to how massive the sea serpent is. The quality of everything in the new resort is on another scale, and it only continues to get better (with Eatrenalin opening a month after our visit).

The only downside is that it does feel disconnected from the bulk of the resort. If you stay at Krønasår you’ll likely spend most your evenings there and I don’t think there’s quite enough to put it on par with the convenience of the other hotels, for now at least. This was especially telling with the menu at Bubba Svens. For myself and my girlfriend we didn’t notice much difference, but our friends were quick to point out that the food on offer didn’t fit the Scandinavian style of the restaurant. Instead they were serving familiar dishes to please the local German guests. A fact we attributed to there being no other restaurant nearby the hotel. At the main resort this isn’t an issue as there are multiple other dinning options in Rust. Therefore get the chance to offer more unconventional dinning choices.
Long term better walking links with the town and the proposed monorail extension will help with this. Along with the resorts continued growth.

But I digress from the main attraction; Rulantica.

In absence of my normal photos (The water feature outside was under maintenance andd I didn't have my camera with me inside) enjoy the models on display in the admission hall.

Rulantica had a lot to live up to and it didn't disappoint. I'm not saying it's perfect, or that everyone will enjoy it as much as we did. However it managed to hit all that I was looking for;

• A good selection of water based activity’s
• Enough slides that we could always find one without a wait (I’ll take lots of good slides over several standout ones)
• Places to relax, and a really great themed environment.

I’ll run through the main attractions we did, roughly in the order we came across them:

Snorri's Saga
The Lazy River. I went onto this with relatively low expectations. From videos it looks fine, but nothing standout. As some of you know I've actually be involved with the development of a Lazy River. The one that is part of Gardaland's LEGOLAND Waterpark. Its USP was that we'd built it through Miniland, putting guests at eye level with the city. Also it had the giant LEGO bricks you could build with while floating around. By comparison this had... screens... so I didn't go in with high expectations.
But actually I really enjoyed it! There's a good balance between relaxation and areas with interactive features. I remember while riding Typhoon Lagoon’s lazy river getting board half-way around as it was just more of the same. But this one feels like you are traveling somewhere. Each "scene" lasts just long enough and the following one feels distinctly different. I especially liked the Snorri tipping buckets, sweet little animatronic.
We stayed on for a second lap, which was a good call as the queue got a bit ridicules later. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much if I’d had to wait beforehand.

Vildstrøm
Raging Rapids. Is it weird to say this was my most anticipated attraction? I've only been on one of these raging river pools/slides(?) before, at the Woburn Centre Parcs. And it instantly became my favourite waterpark attractions! I couldn’t believe something so chaotic was even allowed in this day and age. They are also great to do as a group, where you all race each other to the bottom.
So I was ecstatic to see that Rulantica was taking it a step further with a split route variant. No surprises here, I loved it. Lost count how many times the pair of us came back to re-ride. We got really competitive too, although I always seemed to arrive at the bottom last.

Odinrås
A fun pair of duelling water slides. Simple but a good length. We probably had the most fun on these of all the slides just because of the racing element. The new addition next door will compliment it quite nicely.

Talking of which when we were there the slides were about 80% Complet, with the top of the purple slide being lifted into place as we rode Vildstrøm

Svalgur Rytt
The large round raft slide. We accidentally went on this thinking it was Vinter Rytt (the half-pipe) and based on the other groups around us it was a common mistake. But it was good fun.
The slides in the Vinterhal area suffered the most from queues. And with its prominent position this one seemed more popular than the others. I can imagine that given a few years (based on the parks current rate of expansion) the queue will drop significant and I’d have a better opinion of it. But as of now it’s not worth hanging around for.

Vinter Rytt
The iconic half pipe around the Sea Serpents head. It's unfortunate that due to its very impressive themed centre piece this slide has taken on the headline status of the park. It's a good slide but a very basic one, existing just for the halfpipe element. Like Svalgur Rytt I’d rate it higher without the wait.
Also be warned that there is a strictly enforced weight limit. We saw some groups of 4 get rejected and none of them looked to be that heavy, so the limit can't be that high.

Skogbar
My second most anticipated attraction. A themed bar, in a hot pool, selling EP's custom cocktails. Enough said.
I think we got through half the specials list, trying both the alcoholic and alcohol free drinks. If we'd had longer we'd have spent most of our day here.

Svalgurok
Is an incredible water play area. I worked on Drench Towers (LEGOLAND Windsor) when it first opened so I'm used to these water play structures. Not only is this one huge, with 9 slides (I had to try them all) but it's incredibly well themed. When we were there it was starting to get a little nippy out, but because the water is heated this area was still a lot of fun. The challenge became staying wet to keep warm!

Tønnevirvel
Mack's Twist'N'Splash - an actual ride at a waterpark!
Whilst outside I wanted to try the parks latest addition, but it was nowhere to be seen. It should have been just to the left of Frigg Tempel, but all I could see were some half constructed tents. So I went to have a look, and there it was, hidden inside. No signs, no clear entrance but it was running.

I've always love the concept of the Twist'N'Splash but like the Splash Battles they are just too wet for most Theme Parks. Finally one of these has been installed at a waterpark and it absolutely works! All the fun of a water fight without having to worry about spending the day in wet clothes. We had a blast. It's only a shame that the ride was very quite, likely because very few people knew it was there. I imagine that with a fully loaded ride and all off-ride guns maned it would be absolutely insane.

Hoppablad
The water obstacle course. Was also quite excited to give this a go. Watching a few people fail before me I thought the best option was just to run at it and not stop moving. This didn't work. I fell flat on my face and slid in on the first step. Great amusement for my girlfriend. I at least managed to pull myself back on and drag myself across the rest, so I can sort of say I made it to the end.

Surf Fjørd
The wave pool. It was enjoyable but nothing spectacular like the incredible one at Typhoon Lagoon. The only thing I found noteworthy with it was the interaction with the screen when the waves first started.
Whilst we were there a kids show was taking place which seemed suspiciously well timed to get the younger children out of the water whilst the stronger waves were turned on. If so that’s a nice little trick.

Vildfål
The blue trapdoor slide. We left trying one of these until late into our visit as neither of us had done a trapdoor slide before and were a little nervous. Having seen but missed out on a few extreme ones I was glad to make this my first.
Initially we had intended to give it a pass until next time (aka. chicken out) but the queue was short and one of our friends kept telling us we had to try it*.
We chose the blue slide as it looked like the gentler of the two (the corners weren't quite as tight). But still, watching the riders ahead drop through the trapdoor was nearly enough to make us walk away. I did the “chivalrous” thing and let my girlfriend go first. Bit of a mistake as her reaction did more to scare anyone away than boost my own confidence. But I was committed now and had to give it a go.
I wouldn’t say I was keen on the initial shock of hitting the water, never been good with any slide that blasts water up your nostrils and pummels your back. But after the shock I quite enjoyed it. So had she, so we’ll probably end up trying more of these in the future…

*We later found out why our friend wanted us to ride. They'd chickened out themselves and wanted someone else to trial run it. I’ve given their partner strict instructions to force them on next time they are there

And that rounds up the attractions we did. There were a few we left because they’d built up a queue and we preferred to re-riding some of our favourites. Just gives us more to discover on a return trip.

There was one critique we had that wasn’t related to any attractions but the parks layout. As Hotel guests we entered through the upstairs lockers which for first impressions was great. Loved the view into the main hall and following the winding track down to the main level. But as our day progressed the location of the locker started to give us several issues. The general layout seemed to have taken inspiration from the main park. Lots of pathways that aren't necessarily clear where they are leading. I'm actually a big supporter of this kind of design as it promotes exploration. But the difference with a Waterpark is that some area's need to be easy to find, mainly the lockers and changing rooms.
The changing rooms are over 2 levels. The ground floor (designed for regular guests) and the upper floor (designed for hotel guests, although neither is exclusive, that's just the way the entrance you use naturally pushes you). However once you've chosen either the upper or ground floor and been through the changing area's there's no easy way to get between the two. The ground floor enters by Lumålunda (the main food court) while the upper floor enters directly above at a point that can only be reached by passing through Snekkjas (the other food court) on the complete opposite side of the building. Forget which changing room you're in and it's a long trek between the two, something a simple connecting staircase could have fixed.
Other oddities like this were Surf Fjørd (the wave pool). Given its location at the centre of the attraction you'd think it would be easy to find. But we only ever found one bridge over the lazy river, effectively isolating it, despite how accessible it appears.
Likewise the park-side shop is oddly placed, at effectively the furthest point away from the upstairs changing rooms. So when I decided to purchasing a few things at the end of the day I decided not to double back to it but instead use the exit gift shop. Only to discover once I was changed that the exit shop didn't have the full merchandise range. SO we went without. We later found some of the merch we were looking for in the parks Snorri Shop, but again it wasn’t the complete range.
Long term I also think Rulantica needs a couple of major expansions to improve capacity and round out the slides. Not because the current offering isn’t sufficient, but because that’s what guests have come to expect from Europa Park. I'd already say it's easily a full day park when you factor in relaxation time (presuming you've already had a few intense days in the main park). We were there from 10am until 5pm which was just enough time to do everything we wanted to but still left out several slides, the spa and general swimming time.
Thinking of how many Disney parks are still claimed as half day parks it was impressive to see Rulantica surpass that only 3 years after opening.

It would have been nice to stay longer and see the park at night. From pictures I’ve seen it looks beautiful. However we had plans for that evening that we didn't want to miss out on. Another experience we hadn’t tried before. Traumatica.

 

[Tim]

Traumatica

It's been a long time since our last scare event. I think the last was Universal's Halloween Horror Nights back in 2016. Controversial opinion; we didn't find Halloween Horror Nights that impressive. The mazes had ridiculously long waits (and that's with express pass). Once inside they were mainly walk throughs of famous movie scenes, resulting in quite predictable scares. 6 years on I can't even remember individual details from each of the mazes.
Give me the atmosphere of walking through Towers on a spooky autumn night any day! Creeping down the monks corridor, unsure which one might actually be alive. The warped stories of mazes like The Sanctuary, and creative mazes like Cabin in the Woods (with its scare control room). These are my type of scare attraction.

So I was very curious to see how I'd rate Traumatica.

After leaving Rulantica we met up with the rest of the group before taking the monorail to the Traumatica site. The dogs would be sitting out on this activity too. Presumably they wouldn’t have been allowed in, but they were to tired by this point anyway having spent another full day at the park.

Going in to the event we hadn't done much research, besides having people with us that had been in previous years. we weren't trying to get around all the mazes, we just wanted to see where the night would take us. Our aim was to start with the Petting Zoo so we could get a glimpse of the old animatronics before it got too dark. Then judge what we’d do next based on the length of the lines. We ended up doing the mazes that had the most extreme (the Petting Zoo) and lest extreme (The Wax Museum) ratings, according to the map. And funnily enough I'd actually flip the ratings.

The Petting Zoo was a good outdoor maze. Set back and above the other mazes it felt special, like it was something a bit different. Surprisingly it also started with the shortest queue, I don't think many people realised it was a maze until the queue started building up. Perfect for us.
This maze was home to Europa's famous chainsaw wielding actors, which I knew were visually and audibly terrifying but being there I realised it was the smell that made them feel real. Credit to all the actors in this maze as they made it a lot of fun. We'd brought our special alpaca bag with us (known affectionately as Bagpacker) and every time we got a unique reaction based on it. With some of my favourites being 'my baby', 'Oh, your hair's so pretty', 'bow down to our leader', 'fear it'. None of these were actually in English, but didn't need translating either.
This all played well into the petting zoo theme, which as far as I could tell was only really chosen to explain all the old Jungle Ride props. A little part of me hoped the old animatronics would actually be moving as well, but alas (and probably to be expected) they were just being used as static props.

We all came out buzzing, having not done a proper maze like this in such a long time. I was especially pleased when my girlfriend declared she was excited to be doing mazes again.

But for as good as the Petting Zoo was, the Wax Museum trumped it. Set in what I assume is a permanent building behind Poseidon’s Station we entered from the top floor. Surprisingly though the top floor was quite small* and we were directed almost immediately to a spiral staircase. This posed an unexpected problem. My girlfriend has trouble going down spiral stairs, meaning our decent took far longer than I'm sure the capacity proud EP would have liked. Once we reached the bottom all signs of any other group had gone. It was just the 4 of us, and this was a perfect maze for it! Every scene was filled with props that looked like they could move at any second and with no one ahead there was no giveaway.
My absolute favourite scene was an old fashion cinema room with a live feed of our progress shown on the screen. About halfway through it dawned on me that because the screen showed us the room from the screens perspective it highlighted the faceless forms of all the mannequins ahead. Why would they do that unless the real scare wasn't what we could see ahead, but what was coming from behind. On cue I look up at the screen and the actor is silently standing right behind us. This is the type of psychological creativity that we simply didn't see at Universal’s Horror Nights, so I was incredibly happy to see it embraced here.

After a length of time similar to the Petting Zoo’s duration we emerged out of the building but were surprised to be directed straight into another. This one was themed as the interior of a cave and looked way too permanent to be just for this event. Has this building ever been used for anything else? I'd have guessed an old part of Poseidon’s queue if that ride didn't already have a seriously big queue extension already.
The cave area had multiple corners that weren't immediately clear if they were part of the previous room or actual ways forward. This made the second half even more disorientating and gave the maze a nice 2nd to 3rd act structure as we tried to find our way out. Definitely one of my favourite scare mazes that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

*I'm guessing the building the Wax Museum was in is an old maintenance workshop, in which the first scene uses a former office before descending to the workshop floor? If so it matches a few workshops I've been in. Then again a quick google search shows that all the maze buildings have been around for years, so maybe they were built for Halloween events?

We took a break after getting out of the Wax Museum for a few drinks at the bar. This turned out to be quite the fascinating diversion that I wouldn’t have discovered If we weren’t visiting with friends who spoke German and had been before. The bar walls were covered with banners representing different factions. In previous years each maze represented a faction (and each faction was a type of monster) with clan wars taking place throughout the events. Sounded really cool and I was a little gutted that I didn’t experienced the event before Covid. With the restrictions lifted this year the event was mostly back to normal, but for reasons unknown it was still downscaled from when it used to cover the whole of Greece and Matterhorn Blitz. I image the new coasters construction site had effected things as well.

We were having such a good time chatting in the bar we spent far longer there than originally intended. Instead of heading to another maze we opted to get some food before going to see The Circus: Dystopia.
It’s worth noting there was some great entertainment going on at the stage around by the food wagons. A collection of variety acts, very funny, and all perfectly understandable without needing translation.

Dystopia would be our only show of the trip. It felt reminiscent of shows we'd seen at EP before but with no hold backs. A very high quality mix of great acts split up by comedy sketches. Having translators helped, although I think I'd have got the gist of the jokes even without the punchlines. The show started with a bang, literally setting off so many pyrotechnics there was a wall of fire, only dosed by a spray of water (4D theatre style across the crowds) as if they’d set off the buildings sprinkler system. This let everyone know they weren't messing about. Alongside the normal circus style routines a ball of death was brought into the arena, which as I had never witnessed one in person before was quite a spectacle. A joke in which the host rejected Netflix over his VeeJoy account was a particular highlight,

Dystopia would be our last event of the night as it finished alongside the closing of the queues for the other mazes. Happy with what we’d done we hung around for last drinks and to enjoy the ambiance:

Heading back we looked in on the Vampire Club, (a nightclub inside Poseidon’s Station) but didn't hang around as we had the long drive back the next day and needed a good nights sleep. But we weren't quite done yet.

 

[MattyH]

Vampire Club wasn't open when we visited Traumatica in 2021.

The psychological scares in the mazes were fantastic though. I remember the sheer detail that had been put into the mazes and the atmosphere was incredible.

Sounds like petting zoo utilised the building where we had the mannequin scare, bunch of lifeless mannequins which are already creepy followed by a scare actor disguised as a mannequin suddenly running towards you.

Incredibly simple but incredibly effective.

Loving the report and Rulantica sounds great

 

[Rob]

Glad to hear you enjoyed Rulantica! I agree about the upstairs changing rooms, they are a real pain to get back to. The downstairs ones are in a much better location.

Also next time you go, be sure to do Stormvind, it is the best slide there in my opinion!

 

[Tim]

Sounds like petting zoo utilised the building where we had the mannequin scare, bunch of lifeless mannequins which are already creepy followed by a scare actor disguised as a mannequin suddenly running towards you.

Incredibly simple but incredibly effective.

Loving the report and Rulantica sounds great

Glad you are enjoying it. I've just been looking up 2021's Traumatica and it does look quite different. I also see all the factions I was told about.

The Petting Zoo looks to be where the Wastelands scare zone was, which also might explain why at first people didn't think it was a maze. The description of Wastelands also matches the mostly outdoor setting.

Watching a few videos I have to give credit to EP for reworking all the costumes to use masks. But I'm glad that wasn't a requirement this year.

Glad to hear you enjoyed Rulantica! I agree about the upstairs changing rooms, they are a real pain to get back to. The downstairs ones are in a much better location.

Also next time you go, be sure to do Stormvind, it is the best slide there in my opinion!

Good recommendation Rob, thank you. I'm hoping next time we can make it in for EST and beat all the queues in the Vinterhal.

Bonus Story

There's an extra story I wanted to work into the main report. Rob just reminded me of it as it's partly why we arrived at Rulantica later than originally planned.

The evening before we'd planned a special meal at Mythos, a Greek restaurant in Rust. One of our friends had invited their Mum and Sister to come over from Switzerland, and they weren't travelling alone. They brought Oakley's Mum and Great-Grandma with them. 3 generations of Vallhunds all together
It was an amazing family reunion, and a definite highlight of the trip.

Only when we checked the photos none of them were especialy good. We probably should have expected 4 dogs playing in the dark wouldn’t capture well. This made it really hard to fit this little segment into the report, so I'm grateful for the excuse to squeeze it in now.

 

[Tim]

Europa Park - Day 6 - Extra Time

Traumatica was supposed to mark the end of our trip. But we were having too much fun. As we'd driven to the park we had the benefit of being flexible about timing. The original plan was to checkout at 11pm and head straight to our overnight stop In France. But the French hotel was happy for us to check-in anytime up until midnight, so we reasoned why not have an extra day in the park!

The joy of a bonus days is that with all the necessary rides of the trip checked off we didn’t have to worry about long queues (which being a Sunday there were). We put the dogs in their special Halloween jumpers, picked a direction and enjoyed being at Europa Park.

If we did have any goal it was to find as many great photo opportunities as we could:

Viking dogs on a Viking ride!

Can I count this as a credit?

If anyone's any good at Photoshop you absolutely have my permission to put these pictures on an actual train

and later when they'd had enough walking:

Dogs worn out we ended the day in Ireland. This was our first proper explore of the area, having only briefly passed through it back in 2018. It’s a really charming place with some of the most detailed kids rides. We took a ride on the Dancing Dingy, which was good fun although given how well themed it is I was kind of surprised that riding it was just like any standard Rockin’ Tug boat experience. I guess I expected something similar to Kolumbusjolle, a testiment to how good the filler rides at EP are.
Our final credit was the last coaster credit I’d avoided so far. I don’t tend to try getting every coaster credit that I can. In fact I’ve walked away from many legitimate credits, such as at Lotte World in Korea when I weighed up the waiting time against the ride and realised it really wasn't worth it. If that means I lose my enthusiast credibility then so be it as long as I'm maximising the fun I have each day.
Which is why I wasn’t really fussed on riding what some would say is Europa’s greatest coaster… Ba Ba Express. But I'd been somewhat surprised to hear the other half of our group had already been on this ride. Turns out it's not a bad stepping stone for anyone who’s completely anti-coasters. And so with a bit of encouragement I got on the first kids coaster I’d been on in years.
It was alright, well themed, bit slow.

We grabbed some food from the the not so subtly named O'Mackays Pub, before taking one final walk across the park. It would be 11:30pm before we arrived at our hotel, having made every last moment at Europa count.

But this report is not done just yet...

The Final Surprise:

Fittingly I decided to save my favourite part of this trip for the very end.
On the morning of our second full day at the park the dogs needed to be taken to a local vet in order to have them signed off to return to the UK. Fortunately for us this was an excellent opportunity for half the group to take the dogs on a little field trip (I mean that literally). Whilst myself and the other guy who wanted to tick off all the major rides headed into the park for some early ride time. Naturally we headed for Wodan first.
The two of us had been talking a lot over the last few days about different coaster stats, some of the best coasters in the world and some really specific technical details about Europa. I think he was quite enjoying hearing about the park through an enthusiast perspective and I was eagerly taking in all the local knowledge he had. Wanting to get the best ride possible on Wodan he asked the age old question,
“Which is the best seat?”
To which I responded,
”The front is the optimised experience, but the back is where the forces get the most wild. Although In Wodan's case you should try and ride it at night. It warms up over the day and runs significantly faster in the evening.”
So we headed to the back of the train and had a great and fairly wild experience.

Later that day we met back up with the rest of the group. I was hoping to split off at some point as I had my own little plan for something I wanted to do, but no real opportunity came up.
15 minutes before the end of the day we were over by Schweizer Bobbahn. We’d all been getting quite tired by this point but with renewed energy he turned to the group and said,
"I want to try an experiment. There's still time for us to get to Wodan, we can ride it now, back seat again, and compare it to this morning"
As we’d need to run across the park to make the last ride we agreed that only the two of us would go and we’d meet the others in Iceland. This worked perfectly for me, and also scored a bonus ride on Wodan.
I think we ended up on the second to last train of that day, once again on the back seat. No surprise the ride was insanely good, with wild forces and brutal speed. Easily the second biggest emotional high of the whole trip.

As we left Wodan we made a short diversion around the right hand side of Whale Adventures, toward the lighthouse that overlooked the Icelandic area. There weren’t many people around at this point and the sun had started to set. I asked him if he could get the others. "We could take the dogs up to the lighthouse for a great group photo". Finally alone I made my own way up the steps. As I did so, I opened the hidden compartment in my bag and slipped out a few choice items I had inside. A golden box, a small LEGO model I’d built many years earlier and sealed inside it a ring. I only had moments to prepare myself before my girlfriend, soon to be my fiancé, arrived. And the third step in our lives together would begin.

Spoiler: Read the above first

Thank you to everyone who's been following this trip

If you want to see any other adventures with our dogs we'll be uploading them to their Instagram account:
Oakley and Marcey's Instagram

 

[Skyscraper]

Europa Park - Day 6 - Extra Time

Traumatica was supposed to mark the end of our trip. But we were having too much fun. As we'd driven to the park we had the benefit of being flexible about timing. The original plan was to checkout at 11pm and head straight to our overnight stop In France. But the French hotel was happy for us to check-in anytime up until midnight, so we reasoned why not have an extra day in the park!

The joy of a bonus days is that with all the necessary rides of the trip checked off we didn’t have to worry about long queues (which being a Sunday there were). We put the dogs in their special Halloween jumpers, picked a direction and enjoyed being at Europa Park.

If we did have any goal it was to find as many great photo opportunities as we could:

Viking dogs on a Viking ride!

Can I count this as a credit?

If anyone's any good at Photoshop you absolutely have my permission to put these pictures on an actual train

and later when they'd had enough walking:

Dogs worn out we ended the day in Ireland. This was our first proper explore of the area, having only briefly passed through it back in 2018. It’s a really charming place with some of the most detailed kids rides. We took a ride on the Dancing Dingy, which was good fun although given how well themed it is I was kind of surprised that riding it was just like any standard Rockin’ Tug boat experience. I guess I expected something similar to Kolumbusjolle, a testiment to how good the filler rides at EP are.
Our final credit was the last coaster credit I’d avoided so far. I don’t tend to try getting every coaster credit that I can. In fact I’ve walked away from many legitimate credits, such as at Lotte World in Korea when I weighed up the waiting time against the ride and realised it really wasn't worth it. If that means I lose my enthusiast credibility then so be it as long as I'm maximising the fun I have each day.
Which is why I wasn’t really fussed on riding what some would say is Europa’s greatest coaster… Ba Ba Express. But I'd been somewhat surprised to hear the other half of our group had already been on this ride. Turns out it's not a bad stepping stone for anyone who’s completely anti-coasters. And so with a bit of encouragement I got on the first kids coaster I’d been on in years.
It was alright, well themed, bit slow.

We grabbed some food from the the not so subtly named O'Mackays Pub, before taking one final walk across the park. It would be 11:30pm before we arrived at our hotel, having made every last moment at Europa count.

But this report is not done just yet...

The Final Surprise:

Fittingly I decided to save my favourite part of this trip for the very end.
On the morning of our second full day at the park the dogs needed to be taken to a local vet in order to have them signed off to return to the UK. Fortunately for us this was an excellent opportunity for half the group to take the dogs on a little field trip (I mean that literally). Whilst myself and the other guy who wanted to tick off all the major rides headed into the park for some early ride time. Naturally we headed for Wodan first.
The two of us had been talking a lot over the last few days about different coaster stats, some of the best coasters in the world and some really specific technical details about Europa. I think he was quite enjoying hearing about the park through an enthusiast perspective and I was eagerly taking in all the local knowledge he had. Wanting to get the best ride possible on Wodan he asked the age old question,
“Which is the best seat?”
To which I responded,
”The front is the optimised experience, but the back is where the forces get the most wild. Although In Wodan's case you should try and ride it at night. It warms up over the day and runs significantly faster in the evening.”
So we headed to the back of the train and had a great and fairly wild experience.

Later that day we met back up with the rest of the group. I was hoping to split off at some point as I had my own little plan for something I wanted to do, but no real opportunity came up.
15 minutes before the end of the day we were over by Schweizer Bobbahn. We’d all been getting quite tired by this point but with renewed energy he turned to the group and said,
"I want to try an experiment. There's still time for us to get to Wodan, we can ride it now, back seat again, and compare it to this morning"
As we’d need to run across the park to make the last ride we agreed that only the two of us would go and we’d meet the others in Iceland. This worked perfectly for me, and also scored a bonus ride on Wodan.
I think we ended up on the second to last train of that day, once again on the back seat. No surprise the ride was insanely good, with wild forces and brutal speed. Easily the second biggest emotional high of the whole trip.

As we left Wodan we made a short diversion around the right hand side of Whale Adventures, toward the lighthouse that overlooked the Icelandic area. There weren’t many people around at this point and the sun had started to set. I asked him if he could get the others. "We could take the dogs up to the lighthouse for a great group photo". Finally alone I made my own way up the steps. As I did so, I opened the hidden compartment in my bag and slipped out a few choice items I had inside. A golden box, a small LEGO model I’d built many years earlier and sealed inside it a ring. I only had moments to prepare myself before my girlfriend, soon to be my fiancé, arrived. And the third step in our lives together would begin.

Spoiler: Read the above first

Thank you to everyone who's been following this trip

If you want to see any other adventures with our dogs we'll be uploading them to their Instagram account:
Oakley and Marcey's Instagram

Àww that's so nice! Congratulations!