Having a weeks holiday I needed to take before end of the year, I thought wouldn't it be a good idea to visit Europa Park over the off peak season between Halloween and the Winter Season, aptly named HALLOWinter. So that is exactly what I did. Dave also tagged along for the ride too.
The journey began on Saturday afternoon of 23rd where we drove down to the delightful (?) Crawley and our Hotel for the evening, Premier Inn Crawley West. By the time we arrived around 20:00 the heavens had long since opened, and it was clear that any pub(s) for the evening would need to be close by. Opted for a delightful place called Goffs Manor, which was a 10 minute walk. Had a lovely meal and and had a decent selection of beers. With the weather looking ropey and next nearest pub being another 10 minutes away in the wrong direction, had another beer here before heading back to the hotel shortly after 23:00.
Our flight next day on 24th wasn't until 12 noon, and this would take us to the delightful Strasbourg, where we would spend our first evening. I was concerned about if we would ever actually get off the ground as it was blowing a gale by mid morning, and wind speed of 55mph were forecast for around noon.
Anyway, we set off to the car park, Purple Parking, just south of the runway, and then travelled to the terminal, to see our flight was scheduled as on time. We actually left around 10 minutes early, arriving in to Strasbourg 20 minutes early. With Passport check faff taking mere minutes, I purchased the 24 Hour Family Europass which allows 2 adults to travel together and is valid up to Europa Park. Luckily I did the searching for this a few days before, and it is quite well buried away on the DB App under Tickets & Offers /Transport Association Tickets/Ortenau Region, and the journey planner will not offer the ticket for the journeys I was inputting. Had I not of known better could of ended up spending €30 each, instead, with the Europass it cost us just €7.50 each and this allowed us travel next morning to Europa Park too.
After a short train ride to Strasbourg Gare, went and checked in to our hotel for the evening, which was Ibis Budget Centre Gare, which is directly opposite the main station. Also quite pleased to get an upgrade to a larger family room, given that the standard double/twin rooms are about the size of a broom cupboard, the additional space was much appreciated even if it was only for one night.
Having arrived about an hour earlier than I had planned, then 1st port of call was a beer somewhere, this was then followed up by a visit to Au Brasseur for the Happy Hour Beer and Happy Hour Tarte Flambee. So 4 500 ml beers and 5 Tarte Flambees between 2 of us came to the grand total of €32, which of course left plenty of change for more beers. We were good though, we were back at the hotel before midnight.
Next morning, Monday 25th, we made our way over to the station to catch the 08:50 train to Offenburg. I call this Strasbourg's dirty little secret as you have to tiny 2 carriage train(Well 2 * 1 carriage trains joined together) departing from a platform some way out of the main station. Luckily there was plenty of space on board, I have had many a previous journey on this service and it is usually crush loaded end to end. Even after arriving in to Offenburg there was still plenty of space free. Here there was time to grab a quick coffee and a snack before boarding the next train which will take us to Ringsheim. And in a first for DB it was actually On Time.
Arriving in to Ringsheim we noticed how grotty and run down the station is these days, as well as being adorned by lots of Graffiti. In fact I would say it was looking worse than Port Aventura Station which is an achievement in itself, though not one to be proud of. Given that it is the main station serving Europa Park, I would of thought a bit of TLC wouldn't go a miss. At least on this occasion the trains were graffiti free. Taking the bus to Europa, it currently drops off in centre of Rust as the road running past the main entrance is currently closed.
We were visiting the main park on Monday-Wednesday & also Friday until late afternoon before heading home. Thursday was Rulantica Day. Our hotel of choice for the 4 nights was Moxy which is a short walk from Bell Rock.
Park opening was 11am until at least 7pm (Spoiler, it was 7 every day!! as it wasn't busy at all). Won't give a day by day blow of things as it was pretty much the same, Mir;beer;Mir;Beer (you get the gist!!).
Weather, reasonably pleasant and warm during Monday-Wednesday, with some rain in the evening. Friday was freezing with a fog lingering around most of the day
During our stay, 3 of the resort hotels were closed, El Andaluz, Santa Isabel & Castillo Alcazar, which obviously meant that the evening bar choice was rather limited to St Louis and Commedia Del Arte on Monday night, with Bar Colosseo available from 20:00 Tuesday (With Commedia closing at 20:00). There was also Bar Eriksson a bus ride away. As it happened, the capacity on offer was fine. Had no issues with getting a seat and generally service was pretty good. Still not a big fan of Bar Colosseo though. Nor Bar Eriksson, which feels soulless still and our waiter here when we visited after waterpark on Thursday was miserable and grumpy as sin. So much so, left after one drink.
Food wise, first night was Club Sandwich, followed by Pizza 2nd Night and 3rd night was Silver Lake Saloon, where I just about managed 1/2 my meal was not feeling to great this night sadly.
On park, it was interesting to see the change from Halloween to Winter season. Wasn't expecting many pumpkins about but there were plenty dotted around still on Monday, but by Friday I didn't see a single one. The barrier blocking off the Christmas Markets was removed by Friday but only a couple of outlets open, but more importantly, these served food and alcoholic beverages. Christmas Music playing around the park, and most importantly, Euro Mir had its Jingle Mir Soundtrack playing. It was with great sadness though that it did cross our minds that this could be the last time we hear the Jingle Mir Soundtrack, and maybe never get to experience normal Mir again either. A tear was shed and some beers drunk afterwards.
Voltron, wow, what a ride. Had 16 goes over the 4 days on park. 11 of them managed to get back row. 2 front rows, 2 Row 2's and 1 Row 3, with a mixture of inside and outside seats. This thing is insane, and pretty brutal at times especially on outside seats. Luckily I didn't come across one of the ones with square wheels this time. It was running pretty slow on Friday, but it was rather nippy that day. Best thing, there was barely any queue, usually starting at the lockers. On Wednesday, for much of the day the queue was 1-10 minutes.
Blue Fire, on the Wednesday, was running really slow, barely making it over the hill after the launch. Also, even though there was no batcher, Single Rider Queue was still open so anyone coming up SRQ could just join any row. Not that it mattered as the people waiting at the air gates were the queue, even on 2 train operation. On Friday, still on 2 trains, had a 10 minute queue that didn't move so took more like 30, from just outside the building. Why, because everyone that day had cottoned on to using the SRQ to skip the queue. With it being busier than previous days, the SRQ was a nice little skip the line queue. Luckily they added a batcher then and things then moved pretty quickly after that. There was also no batcher on Wodan either, but SRQ was closed on Wodan.
Silver Star was running pretty well. Though, for the first time ever, we seen it operating on one train late on Monday afternoon. The plan was for a quick night ride on Silver Star then do some whoring of Voltron, however, this cost us at least one ride on Voltron due to the extortionately long 20 minute queue for Silver Star . Still moved faster than Smilers queue though.
Made a few visits to the Erdinger Hut where many a nice beer was had.
Operations wise. I can't really complain at all. The park was pretty quiet all days, with Wednesday being the quietest, and Friday busiest. Longest queues I noted were Voltron at 30 mins on Monday & Friday, Silver Star at 20 on Monday when on one train, and Wodan at 20 all days accept Wednesday when it was pretty much walk on. Whilst none of the coasters were at full capacity, operations were still top notch. Silver Star was on 2 trains except for the period late Monday when on one. Blue Fire was on 3 Mon & Tue, but 2 on Wednesday, and also Friday (Where a 3rd would of been nice I think). Wodan on 2. Not sure about Mir or Sat. Voltron on 4/5 depending on day. They did add an extra train on to Voltron on Monday afternoon even though queue was only 20 mins.
Despite it being fairly quiet, seemed plenty of people around. Lots of French school kids, could spot them a mile off, usually had a haze of cigarette/vape smoke hovering over head, and a distinct aroma of weed wafting around. Also, the atmosphere around park was great, with lots of Christmas Music, all the decorations looking fantastic and lets not forget those lovely log fires and the ability to feed your own flames.
Thursday was Rulantica Day. Having long since used our 2 visits with the annual pass, there was an offer where we could get a ticket for €22, so saving €22.50 on normal price. Place was pretty quiet, with max queue time of around 5 minutes. Decided on a more chilled day to previously, mainly because there was no way I was constantly walking up hundreds of stairs like I was in search of a Wetherspoons Toilet like I did back in June when it was equally as quiet. Some slides were slid still. Also a nice bonus of some Fireworks at 8:30pm to celebrate 5 years of Snori.
This Rulantica visit was my least spending visit ever. Even less than Junes €44, final bill was just €33. Why? Well I had a couple of beers, and a Pizza (which wasn't the best), and that was it. En route, we stopped at Edeka and brought a couple of snacks to munch on when relaxing on the lounger. Also brought a few pastries to scoff whilst walking over which counted for breakfast. Sadly no blank cheque for Roland on this day.
Another thing to note; It felt sooo cold inside. I have visited during cold weather and not had an issue. Plenty of places where felt really cold draughts blowing through and this wasn't near any outside doors.
Overall a pretty decent few days. It was nice to experience the park away from the peak times and peak prices. Also good to note, after some pretty hefty price rises around the resort over the last few years for food and beverage, prices look to of stabalised somewhat, with nothing to note increase rise for food and beverage compared to visits earlier this year.
Sadly of course, as with all good things comes the end, which for us was Friday 29th. Today was a bitterly cold day with a lingering fog. After a lunch stop and a ride on Mir, then retreated to Commedia Del Arte for some warmth, before leaving to get the bus to Ringsheim around 5pm. We could of stayed a bit later, but having been caught out by the Chocolate Tea Pot reliability of German Trains didn't want to take that risk again. Luckily everything was on time. Surprisingly, we even got a ticket check on the Offenburg to Strasbourg train. Looks like it surprised quite a few people by all accounts as it looked like quite a bit of 'paperwork' was being dished out.
Sadly Strasbourg Airport isn't great, with Airside being vending machines, of which the food machine as empty. (I was Hungry!!!). Flight back to Gatwick was slightly delayed by Fog, and once boarded and doors shut, told it would be another 45 minutes before we left due to Fog. Thankfully this reduced to 10 minutes and soon departed. Arriving back in Gatwick about 20 minutes late, retrieving the car shortly after 11 and arriving back in the leafy Cheshire Suburbs around 2:45 in the morning after a brief stop for a coffee fix and a Sandwich to satisfy my hunger.
Not sure when our next visit to Europa will be. Passes expire 28 December. There is no NYE party this year either. Have other plans in pipeline for next year that don't involve Europe. Though the August midnight close is appealing. Not the July one as that is just before Bastille Day and I have heard that weekend is pretty busy.
Now to shed a tear over Mir, then some Beer...
The journey began on Saturday afternoon of 23rd where we drove down to the delightful (?) Crawley and our Hotel for the evening, Premier Inn Crawley West. By the time we arrived around 20:00 the heavens had long since opened, and it was clear that any pub(s) for the evening would need to be close by. Opted for a delightful place called Goffs Manor, which was a 10 minute walk. Had a lovely meal and and had a decent selection of beers. With the weather looking ropey and next nearest pub being another 10 minutes away in the wrong direction, had another beer here before heading back to the hotel shortly after 23:00.
Our flight next day on 24th wasn't until 12 noon, and this would take us to the delightful Strasbourg, where we would spend our first evening. I was concerned about if we would ever actually get off the ground as it was blowing a gale by mid morning, and wind speed of 55mph were forecast for around noon.
Anyway, we set off to the car park, Purple Parking, just south of the runway, and then travelled to the terminal, to see our flight was scheduled as on time. We actually left around 10 minutes early, arriving in to Strasbourg 20 minutes early. With Passport check faff taking mere minutes, I purchased the 24 Hour Family Europass which allows 2 adults to travel together and is valid up to Europa Park. Luckily I did the searching for this a few days before, and it is quite well buried away on the DB App under Tickets & Offers /Transport Association Tickets/Ortenau Region, and the journey planner will not offer the ticket for the journeys I was inputting. Had I not of known better could of ended up spending €30 each, instead, with the Europass it cost us just €7.50 each and this allowed us travel next morning to Europa Park too.
After a short train ride to Strasbourg Gare, went and checked in to our hotel for the evening, which was Ibis Budget Centre Gare, which is directly opposite the main station. Also quite pleased to get an upgrade to a larger family room, given that the standard double/twin rooms are about the size of a broom cupboard, the additional space was much appreciated even if it was only for one night.
Having arrived about an hour earlier than I had planned, then 1st port of call was a beer somewhere, this was then followed up by a visit to Au Brasseur for the Happy Hour Beer and Happy Hour Tarte Flambee. So 4 500 ml beers and 5 Tarte Flambees between 2 of us came to the grand total of €32, which of course left plenty of change for more beers. We were good though, we were back at the hotel before midnight.
Next morning, Monday 25th, we made our way over to the station to catch the 08:50 train to Offenburg. I call this Strasbourg's dirty little secret as you have to tiny 2 carriage train(Well 2 * 1 carriage trains joined together) departing from a platform some way out of the main station. Luckily there was plenty of space on board, I have had many a previous journey on this service and it is usually crush loaded end to end. Even after arriving in to Offenburg there was still plenty of space free. Here there was time to grab a quick coffee and a snack before boarding the next train which will take us to Ringsheim. And in a first for DB it was actually On Time.
Arriving in to Ringsheim we noticed how grotty and run down the station is these days, as well as being adorned by lots of Graffiti. In fact I would say it was looking worse than Port Aventura Station which is an achievement in itself, though not one to be proud of. Given that it is the main station serving Europa Park, I would of thought a bit of TLC wouldn't go a miss. At least on this occasion the trains were graffiti free. Taking the bus to Europa, it currently drops off in centre of Rust as the road running past the main entrance is currently closed.
We were visiting the main park on Monday-Wednesday & also Friday until late afternoon before heading home. Thursday was Rulantica Day. Our hotel of choice for the 4 nights was Moxy which is a short walk from Bell Rock.
Park opening was 11am until at least 7pm (Spoiler, it was 7 every day!! as it wasn't busy at all). Won't give a day by day blow of things as it was pretty much the same, Mir;beer;Mir;Beer (you get the gist!!).
Weather, reasonably pleasant and warm during Monday-Wednesday, with some rain in the evening. Friday was freezing with a fog lingering around most of the day
During our stay, 3 of the resort hotels were closed, El Andaluz, Santa Isabel & Castillo Alcazar, which obviously meant that the evening bar choice was rather limited to St Louis and Commedia Del Arte on Monday night, with Bar Colosseo available from 20:00 Tuesday (With Commedia closing at 20:00). There was also Bar Eriksson a bus ride away. As it happened, the capacity on offer was fine. Had no issues with getting a seat and generally service was pretty good. Still not a big fan of Bar Colosseo though. Nor Bar Eriksson, which feels soulless still and our waiter here when we visited after waterpark on Thursday was miserable and grumpy as sin. So much so, left after one drink.
Food wise, first night was Club Sandwich, followed by Pizza 2nd Night and 3rd night was Silver Lake Saloon, where I just about managed 1/2 my meal was not feeling to great this night sadly.
On park, it was interesting to see the change from Halloween to Winter season. Wasn't expecting many pumpkins about but there were plenty dotted around still on Monday, but by Friday I didn't see a single one. The barrier blocking off the Christmas Markets was removed by Friday but only a couple of outlets open, but more importantly, these served food and alcoholic beverages. Christmas Music playing around the park, and most importantly, Euro Mir had its Jingle Mir Soundtrack playing. It was with great sadness though that it did cross our minds that this could be the last time we hear the Jingle Mir Soundtrack, and maybe never get to experience normal Mir again either. A tear was shed and some beers drunk afterwards.
Voltron, wow, what a ride. Had 16 goes over the 4 days on park. 11 of them managed to get back row. 2 front rows, 2 Row 2's and 1 Row 3, with a mixture of inside and outside seats. This thing is insane, and pretty brutal at times especially on outside seats. Luckily I didn't come across one of the ones with square wheels this time. It was running pretty slow on Friday, but it was rather nippy that day. Best thing, there was barely any queue, usually starting at the lockers. On Wednesday, for much of the day the queue was 1-10 minutes.
Blue Fire, on the Wednesday, was running really slow, barely making it over the hill after the launch. Also, even though there was no batcher, Single Rider Queue was still open so anyone coming up SRQ could just join any row. Not that it mattered as the people waiting at the air gates were the queue, even on 2 train operation. On Friday, still on 2 trains, had a 10 minute queue that didn't move so took more like 30, from just outside the building. Why, because everyone that day had cottoned on to using the SRQ to skip the queue. With it being busier than previous days, the SRQ was a nice little skip the line queue. Luckily they added a batcher then and things then moved pretty quickly after that. There was also no batcher on Wodan either, but SRQ was closed on Wodan.
Silver Star was running pretty well. Though, for the first time ever, we seen it operating on one train late on Monday afternoon. The plan was for a quick night ride on Silver Star then do some whoring of Voltron, however, this cost us at least one ride on Voltron due to the extortionately long 20 minute queue for Silver Star
. Still moved faster than Smilers queue though.Made a few visits to the Erdinger Hut where many a nice beer was had.
Operations wise. I can't really complain at all. The park was pretty quiet all days, with Wednesday being the quietest, and Friday busiest. Longest queues I noted were Voltron at 30 mins on Monday & Friday, Silver Star at 20 on Monday when on one train, and Wodan at 20 all days accept Wednesday when it was pretty much walk on. Whilst none of the coasters were at full capacity, operations were still top notch. Silver Star was on 2 trains except for the period late Monday when on one. Blue Fire was on 3 Mon & Tue, but 2 on Wednesday, and also Friday (Where a 3rd would of been nice I think). Wodan on 2. Not sure about Mir or Sat. Voltron on 4/5 depending on day. They did add an extra train on to Voltron on Monday afternoon even though queue was only 20 mins.
Despite it being fairly quiet, seemed plenty of people around. Lots of French school kids, could spot them a mile off, usually had a haze of cigarette/vape smoke hovering over head
, and a distinct aroma of weed wafting around. Also, the atmosphere around park was great, with lots of Christmas Music, all the decorations looking fantastic and lets not forget those lovely log fires and the ability to feed your own flames. Thursday was Rulantica Day. Having long since used our 2 visits with the annual pass, there was an offer where we could get a ticket for €22, so saving €22.50 on normal price. Place was pretty quiet, with max queue time of around 5 minutes. Decided on a more chilled day to previously, mainly because there was no way I was constantly walking up hundreds of stairs like I was in search of a Wetherspoons Toilet like I did back in June when it was equally as quiet. Some slides were slid still. Also a nice bonus of some Fireworks at 8:30pm to celebrate 5 years of Snori.
This Rulantica visit was my least spending visit ever. Even less than Junes €44, final bill was just €33. Why? Well I had a couple of beers, and a Pizza (which wasn't the best), and that was it. En route, we stopped at Edeka and brought a couple of snacks to munch on when relaxing on the lounger. Also brought a few pastries to scoff whilst walking over which counted for breakfast. Sadly no blank cheque for Roland on this day.
Another thing to note; It felt sooo cold inside. I have visited during cold weather and not had an issue. Plenty of places where felt really cold draughts blowing through and this wasn't near any outside doors.
Overall a pretty decent few days. It was nice to experience the park away from the peak times and peak prices. Also good to note, after some pretty hefty price rises around the resort over the last few years for food and beverage, prices look to of stabalised somewhat, with nothing to note increase rise for food and beverage compared to visits earlier this year.
Sadly of course, as with all good things comes the end, which for us was Friday 29th. Today was a bitterly cold day with a lingering fog. After a lunch stop and a ride on Mir, then retreated to Commedia Del Arte for some warmth, before leaving to get the bus to Ringsheim around 5pm. We could of stayed a bit later, but having been caught out by the Chocolate Tea Pot reliability of German Trains didn't want to take that risk again. Luckily everything was on time. Surprisingly, we even got a ticket check on the Offenburg to Strasbourg train. Looks like it surprised quite a few people by all accounts as it looked like quite a bit of 'paperwork' was being dished out.
Sadly Strasbourg Airport isn't great, with Airside being vending machines, of which the food machine as empty. (I was Hungry!!!). Flight back to Gatwick was slightly delayed by Fog, and once boarded and doors shut, told it would be another 45 minutes before we left due to Fog. Thankfully this reduced to 10 minutes and soon departed. Arriving back in Gatwick about 20 minutes late, retrieving the car shortly after 11 and arriving back in the leafy Cheshire Suburbs around 2:45 in the morning after a brief stop for a coffee fix and a Sandwich to satisfy my hunger.
Not sure when our next visit to Europa will be. Passes expire 28 December. There is no NYE party this year either. Have other plans in pipeline for next year that don't involve Europe. Though the August midnight close is appealing. Not the July one as that is just before Bastille Day and I have heard that weekend is pretty busy.
Now to shed a tear over Mir, then some Beer...
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