Myself, @Danza91 & @pritchardavid decided on a jolly to the ever delightful Europa Park, arriving on 1st June and departing on 5th June. At some point during the planning, someone came up with the idea of throwing Thorpe Park in to the mix on 31st May, what with the chance (Ha!!) that Hyperia may be open. 
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Dave and I departed a not so rural part of Cheshire around 7pm on the Thursday and travelled down to St Albans, which is where we will be meeting Dan the following morning. Sadly, arriving a little after 10:30, and getting to Hotel an checked in being close to 11pm, this limited our nightcap options to Wetherspoons. Still, it was a nice Wetherspoons...
Friday 31 May. Thorpe Park
Having met Dan, grabbed some breakfast and a coffee, we then headed off to Thorpe Park around 8:30AM. Was expecting the usual carnage on the M25, however there wasn't much in the way of traffic and we were at Thorpe by around 9:20AM. To note, this visit was decided on before Hyperia opening day was announced, so when it was announced, whilst good to hear, we kind of figured that by the time we visit the following Friday it will probably be broke by then anyway; And of course, it was. Was at least expecting it to last until at least the Wednesday though.
Thorpe, was, well, Thorpe. At some points there were many many rides showing as closed. Some long queues for others. But on the whole, we actually had a decent day. Got on all the rides we wanted too (Except Hyperia of course!), never waited an excessive amount of time (times seem to be massively over estimated. 70 Mins for Swarm actually being around 20 for example). Will say though, many parts of Thorpe look really tired and run down. Rapids for one looks an utter state, and rest of the park really doesn't look much better for the best part. Food in VIBES (or whatever name it was called that day), was decent and service quick.
At some point during the afternoon, there was a small spanner thrown in to the works regarding my car parking for the following day. I have used Park on my drive a number of occasions over the last couple of years without issue, and always substantially cheaper than normal airport parking. I had realised I hadn't been in touch with the owner of the space to inform them of our arrival time following morning, something I usually do a week or so before. Anyway, the message back informed me that they cancelled the space weeks ago and I should of been informed, which I wasn't. So of course a mad dash to find somewhere else quickly which ended up costing an additional £30 from what I initially paid, but at least all sorted.
After an ever enjoyable day at Thorpe, headed to our next destination which was Horsham, and a reasonably short distance to Gatwick. Thankfully with us arriving around 7:30pm there were plenty of none Wetherspoons options available, which was lucky as the one in Horsham looked an absolute dive.
Saturday 1 June Travel to Europa and the joys of DB Regio...
Reasonable early start, arriving at Terminal around 9:15, with flight to Basel around 11AM. Arriving in Basel a little after 1:30PM, we all got herded on to the bus which drove us the 50 metres or so to the terminal (Yes, it really was that short of a distance). Being last on and stood by the doors meant being almost first off. Not a massive wait at Passport control as near front, then it was time to make our way in to Basel, firstly by bus, then tram to the 'German' train station. Lucky for us, our train was already there. Plenty of seats available at this point. Unluckily this was the all stops train to Freiburg, which seem to trundle along slowly, consuming more and more people as time passes slowly, to the point where all the aisles were full of people.
Our second train from Freiburg was a regional express, so at least less stops. Was very busy though, being just 4 carriages (only 2 of which have an upper deck). We finally alighted at Herbolzheim, with about a minute to spare to get our connecting bus (Yep, the 10 minute connection we initially had was reduced to 1 as train was 9 minutes late by that point). This is a new station to alight from for me, as it is usually Ringsheim, but this train did not stop there. It also appeared to be the first day of the summer timetable for the Europa Park bus, as this was not originally an option. For reference, Herbolzheim is as much of a dump of a station than Ringsheim, but at least Ringsheim has a nice bus shelter.
Arrived in rust around 5:30pm. Our accommodation for tonight was Moxy, with the following 3 nights in Alcazar. Quick freshen up, Pizza, then to Bar of Last Resort to watch Champions league final.
Sunday 2nd June. Day 1 on park and the disrespecting of Euromir.
The weather forecast for today was pretty horrific, which no doubt put a lot of people off visiting. Never seen such a quiet park. Other than Voltron, which seemed to max out at about 45 minutes. Everything else was 10 mins or less. Indeed, it was raining heavily first thing, with a mad dash over to Alcazar to check in, dump bags and run down road to Bakery to get breakfast. However, rain stopped an hour or so later, and then turned in to a nice, reasonably sunny day. ride close was 7pm
During the rainy period, took advantage and went on some of the dark rides. When it seemed like rain had cleared up, braved Silver Star before heading to Voltron. Lunch was in Bier Garten. Oh, and Boat Bar was open too....
Late on, after riding Blue Fire, Dave decided to make a bolt for Voltron to do single rider. Dan and I did single rider on Wodan (I got front row), and with 10 minutes of the day day left, took a slow (fast) walk over to Voltron. Sadly, this meant passing Euromir, which had no queue. I would usually dive on at this point. Sadly, Voltron was calling and only a few minutes left. Sadly Mir had to sit this one out.
Food for evening was the fairly new Chicken place in Rust (Sadly prices on resort have become stupidly expensive to eat there every night, so had to break out of the shackles and venture out). Fairly decent overall, reasonably priced too. Spent rest of evening then in Bar St louis. There was a singer, it wasn't the same singer as my previous visit back in April. It was OK, just OK.
Monday 3 June Rulantica; Where is everyone?
Now on resort, we had a hearty breakfast then caught the bus over to Kronasar for a day of splashing and surfing at Rulantica. This must be the quietest I have ever seen the place. All queues for slides 1-5 mins, maxing out at 10 minutes for short periods. One downside to this? You realise how many stairs you need to climb to get to the top. Felt worse than going to a Wetherspoons toilet. Pretty much had all slides boxed off after an hour.
Food options were really lacking with only 2 places open. Did venture outdoors briefly, but it was way too cold, so outdoor slides remained a no go. The swim up bar was utilised though. Sadly just beer now as cocktail prices have risen quite a lot. Dan left around 6pm, with Dave and I following on around 8pm, meeting up for some evening beverages in El Circo a short while later, moving on to Bar St Louis later.
Tuesday 4 June Day 2 on park and the Square wheels on Voltron, and what time ride close again???
Weather finally improved, nice sunny day. Dave and I took advantage of the 30 minutes ERT, taking a ride on Blue Fire before heading to Voltron SRQ and again ignoring a 0 minute Mir queue.
The park was feeling much busier today. However, nothing seem to go above 25 minutes wait time other than Voltron. Still based on looking at queue times during the week previous and seeing similar wait times, I was expecting to see 7pm ride close. Though quell surprise when at 2pm we find it to be 6pm. Probably for the first time ever at Europa, I actually felt 'rushed' to get stuff done.
Tried to new Alpen Express and came off very disappointed. Not a patch on the original. Waited a while for this too due to a breakdown. Didn't venture in to the new area that replaced the charred Diamond Mine but from a distance looks pretty decent.
Voltron was performing pretty well. I did manage to get a rough train early in the day, but that was nothing compared to my last ride of the day, which was probably the most brutal ride I think I have ever had on a coaster. It was a different train for the square wheel train I had previously. I was on outside right seat. The first 1/2 was generally ok, a bit bumpy, but 2nd 1/2 was brutal. I felt like I was being violently tossed up and down at a rapid pace, feeling every single bang a jolt, not to mention being thrown from side to side by the ride anyway, which on every other ride outside seat had been fine as it wasn't rough. I came off with a thumping headache and a rather painful back. I almost thought to myself 'never again' but being silly as I am, this didn't happen of course.
Our evening food and drink option was Silver Lake Saloon. initially booked for 8:30pm assuming a possible late ride close, this was amended to 7:30 on confirmation of a ride close of 6pm and a last ride of the day on Voltron.
As with last year, we got to sit outside again, with a nice view over to Tipidorf. Service was fairly slow here, and they mixed up our drinks order. I guess a language barrier issue. We ordered a 3L beer, but on top of that there was also a water and a coke, but instead of a 3L beer we just got a 330ml beer. It did get sorted eventually, but took a while. meanwhile, the extra beer was consumed and thus charged for. Despite the fairly slow service and the beer mix up overall was a pleasant evening. After Silver Lake, headed back over to main hotels and to St louis, as other than El Circo and Bar of Last resort, there wasn't anything else open on the main resort, and wasn't going over to Bar Ericson as way too far away to be worth the effort for a bar that has the atmosphere of a morgue.
Wednesday 5 June. day 3 Part Day, DB Regio trying their best to spoil things and Easyjet say Hold my Beer I can do it better
Initially this would simply of been a day of breakfast, chill then head back to Basel for flight home, which was booked for 18:30. However, Easyjet had long since cancelled that flight and we rebooked on the 21:30 instead. Not ideal when needing to drive back from Gatwick back to North West but at least it meant we could spend some time throwing more blank cheques at Roland.
Dan skipped breakfast, Dave and I stuffed our faces. After checking out of room, headed back on park, with a departure time of around 4pm. With Wodan & Blue Fire out of the way it was back to Voltron. Had many rides on Voltron today, especially afternoon. Noted that SRQ was moving stupidly fast. basically when the batcher needed 2 people, rather than ask in main queue behind a bigger group she simply batched 2 single riders instead. Great for SRQ, probably not so much for main queue. Had 4 goes during our last hour.
Leaving park about 4, headed back to hotel. Quick Coffee, then bus back to Herbolzheim, again as the train we needed to catch was not stopping at Ringsheim. Luckily for us, this train was going direct to basel SBB main station. It did mean we had an hour spare, so at least we could take anything DB could through at us. (I once had 5 hours at Stuttgart reduced to 0 minutes thanks to DB cancellations and late trains, so anything is possible). Of course, a signal failure at Offenburg meant our train we were waiting was running 15 minutes late by the time it rocked up, and then picked up further delays due to overhead wire problems and waiting for a very very late ICE train (I think +2 hours) pass us. But thanks to plenty of padding in the timetable (Its like they know it will just be late!!) we arrived in Basel just 5 minutes late, which was a result. Also, this time our train was 8 carriages, with 4 having upper deck, so much more pleasant experience overall, despite the delays.
Had an hour to kill in Basel before heading to Airport, so coffee and cake in Starbucks. Already knew our flight was on the late side, and it continued to get later. It was eventually 1hr 20 late, arriving in Gatwick just over an hour late. Finally arrived home at 4:20AM. Lucky for me I didn't have work. Unlucky for Dave, he did.
All in all a great trip again to Europa. Operations were fantastic as always. Ride close of 6pm on Tuesday was a bit disappointing, but still, given that we did ERT, 8:30AM to 6PM really isn't that bad in the great big scheme of things.
Voltron is a fantastic coaster. Seemingly ran faultlessly most of the time. Noted very few stoppages. Just need to sort out those rough trains. it almost (But not quite) put me off riding it again. Thankfully I did ride again. Back row also alluded me, but Dave and Dan both had back row rides. Had front a few times. Middle seats seem tame. Outside is bonkers. Right side seems craziest. After my first ride (where I had inside seat), I would of still but Wodan above it ride wise at EP, but after experiencing outside seat, it is now certainly number 1, and that's after the brutal ride I had on Tuesday evening.
On the downside, quite a few outlets closed for food and drink, very limited in Waterpark, but I got cake (and beer), so was happy. Prices have seemingly jumped quite a bit, even since my last visit back at end of March. Feeling the need to go off resort to eat now. Luckily plenty of places in Rust now.
Travel wise. Whilst it is easy to plan, it always seems to be time consuming using public transport to get to EP from any of the main airports. In March we used Eurobus coach from Basel which took an hour, but given our arrival time this time it was not an option. The journey from Basel Airport to Rust took almost 3 hours thanks to the only option that day between Basel and Freiburg was the train calling at all stops. The new timetable for the bus between Ringsheim/Herbolzheim needs to be uploaded online as it still shows the very poor winter timetable. Had I of followed that, and indeed our initial research was using this timetable, the total journey time would of been almost 4 hours, which is bonkers when it takes 60 mins by road. There are options of using ICE or EC trains which knock off a little time, but if you're flight is delayed and you have an advance ticket, kind of screwed so are stuck with the slower regional trains for flexibility/cost.
It would also be nice to give Ringsheim & Herbolzheim a bit of TLC as they are covered in Graffiti. Not a great 1st impression, though this is obvious not down to EP to sort out. Also, graffiti covered stations, station approaches and also trains seem to be pretty common in many parts of Europe, even Swiss trains have their fair share. Anyone who has had the misfortune of travelling by train in Italy will know what I mean.
Thorpe Park wise. Decent day and good operations. Seemed to suffer from a lot of breakdowns but other than Inferno breaking down twice whilst waiting for it, managed to avoid it.
.Dave and I departed a not so rural part of Cheshire around 7pm on the Thursday and travelled down to St Albans, which is where we will be meeting Dan the following morning. Sadly, arriving a little after 10:30, and getting to Hotel an checked in being close to 11pm, this limited our nightcap options to Wetherspoons. Still, it was a nice Wetherspoons...
Friday 31 May. Thorpe Park
Having met Dan, grabbed some breakfast and a coffee, we then headed off to Thorpe Park around 8:30AM. Was expecting the usual carnage on the M25, however there wasn't much in the way of traffic and we were at Thorpe by around 9:20AM. To note, this visit was decided on before Hyperia opening day was announced, so when it was announced, whilst good to hear, we kind of figured that by the time we visit the following Friday it will probably be broke by then anyway; And of course, it was. Was at least expecting it to last until at least the Wednesday though.
Thorpe, was, well, Thorpe. At some points there were many many rides showing as closed. Some long queues for others. But on the whole, we actually had a decent day. Got on all the rides we wanted too (Except Hyperia of course!), never waited an excessive amount of time (times seem to be massively over estimated. 70 Mins for Swarm actually being around 20 for example). Will say though, many parts of Thorpe look really tired and run down. Rapids for one looks an utter state, and rest of the park really doesn't look much better for the best part. Food in VIBES (or whatever name it was called that day), was decent and service quick.
At some point during the afternoon, there was a small spanner thrown in to the works regarding my car parking for the following day. I have used Park on my drive a number of occasions over the last couple of years without issue, and always substantially cheaper than normal airport parking. I had realised I hadn't been in touch with the owner of the space to inform them of our arrival time following morning, something I usually do a week or so before. Anyway, the message back informed me that they cancelled the space weeks ago and I should of been informed, which I wasn't. So of course a mad dash to find somewhere else quickly which ended up costing an additional £30 from what I initially paid, but at least all sorted.
After an ever enjoyable day at Thorpe, headed to our next destination which was Horsham, and a reasonably short distance to Gatwick. Thankfully with us arriving around 7:30pm there were plenty of none Wetherspoons options available, which was lucky as the one in Horsham looked an absolute dive.
Saturday 1 June Travel to Europa and the joys of DB Regio...
Reasonable early start, arriving at Terminal around 9:15, with flight to Basel around 11AM. Arriving in Basel a little after 1:30PM, we all got herded on to the bus which drove us the 50 metres or so to the terminal (Yes, it really was that short of a distance). Being last on and stood by the doors meant being almost first off. Not a massive wait at Passport control as near front, then it was time to make our way in to Basel, firstly by bus, then tram to the 'German' train station. Lucky for us, our train was already there. Plenty of seats available at this point. Unluckily this was the all stops train to Freiburg, which seem to trundle along slowly, consuming more and more people as time passes slowly, to the point where all the aisles were full of people.
Our second train from Freiburg was a regional express, so at least less stops. Was very busy though, being just 4 carriages (only 2 of which have an upper deck). We finally alighted at Herbolzheim, with about a minute to spare to get our connecting bus (Yep, the 10 minute connection we initially had was reduced to 1 as train was 9 minutes late by that point). This is a new station to alight from for me, as it is usually Ringsheim, but this train did not stop there. It also appeared to be the first day of the summer timetable for the Europa Park bus, as this was not originally an option. For reference, Herbolzheim is as much of a dump of a station than Ringsheim, but at least Ringsheim has a nice bus shelter.
Arrived in rust around 5:30pm. Our accommodation for tonight was Moxy, with the following 3 nights in Alcazar. Quick freshen up, Pizza, then to Bar of Last Resort to watch Champions league final.
Sunday 2nd June. Day 1 on park and the disrespecting of Euromir.
The weather forecast for today was pretty horrific, which no doubt put a lot of people off visiting. Never seen such a quiet park. Other than Voltron, which seemed to max out at about 45 minutes. Everything else was 10 mins or less. Indeed, it was raining heavily first thing, with a mad dash over to Alcazar to check in, dump bags and run down road to Bakery to get breakfast. However, rain stopped an hour or so later, and then turned in to a nice, reasonably sunny day. ride close was 7pm
During the rainy period, took advantage and went on some of the dark rides. When it seemed like rain had cleared up, braved Silver Star before heading to Voltron. Lunch was in Bier Garten. Oh, and Boat Bar was open too....
Late on, after riding Blue Fire, Dave decided to make a bolt for Voltron to do single rider. Dan and I did single rider on Wodan (I got front row), and with 10 minutes of the day day left, took a slow (fast) walk over to Voltron. Sadly, this meant passing Euromir, which had no queue. I would usually dive on at this point. Sadly, Voltron was calling and only a few minutes left. Sadly Mir had to sit this one out.
Food for evening was the fairly new Chicken place in Rust (Sadly prices on resort have become stupidly expensive to eat there every night, so had to break out of the shackles and venture out). Fairly decent overall, reasonably priced too. Spent rest of evening then in Bar St louis. There was a singer, it wasn't the same singer as my previous visit back in April. It was OK, just OK.
Monday 3 June Rulantica; Where is everyone?
Now on resort, we had a hearty breakfast then caught the bus over to Kronasar for a day of splashing and surfing at Rulantica. This must be the quietest I have ever seen the place. All queues for slides 1-5 mins, maxing out at 10 minutes for short periods. One downside to this? You realise how many stairs you need to climb to get to the top. Felt worse than going to a Wetherspoons toilet. Pretty much had all slides boxed off after an hour.
Food options were really lacking with only 2 places open. Did venture outdoors briefly, but it was way too cold, so outdoor slides remained a no go. The swim up bar was utilised though. Sadly just beer now as cocktail prices have risen quite a lot. Dan left around 6pm, with Dave and I following on around 8pm, meeting up for some evening beverages in El Circo a short while later, moving on to Bar St Louis later.
Tuesday 4 June Day 2 on park and the Square wheels on Voltron, and what time ride close again???
Weather finally improved, nice sunny day. Dave and I took advantage of the 30 minutes ERT, taking a ride on Blue Fire before heading to Voltron SRQ and again ignoring a 0 minute Mir queue.
The park was feeling much busier today. However, nothing seem to go above 25 minutes wait time other than Voltron. Still based on looking at queue times during the week previous and seeing similar wait times, I was expecting to see 7pm ride close. Though quell surprise when at 2pm we find it to be 6pm. Probably for the first time ever at Europa, I actually felt 'rushed' to get stuff done.
Tried to new Alpen Express and came off very disappointed. Not a patch on the original. Waited a while for this too due to a breakdown. Didn't venture in to the new area that replaced the charred Diamond Mine but from a distance looks pretty decent.
Voltron was performing pretty well. I did manage to get a rough train early in the day, but that was nothing compared to my last ride of the day, which was probably the most brutal ride I think I have ever had on a coaster. It was a different train for the square wheel train I had previously. I was on outside right seat. The first 1/2 was generally ok, a bit bumpy, but 2nd 1/2 was brutal. I felt like I was being violently tossed up and down at a rapid pace, feeling every single bang a jolt, not to mention being thrown from side to side by the ride anyway, which on every other ride outside seat had been fine as it wasn't rough. I came off with a thumping headache and a rather painful back. I almost thought to myself 'never again' but being silly as I am, this didn't happen of course.
Our evening food and drink option was Silver Lake Saloon. initially booked for 8:30pm assuming a possible late ride close, this was amended to 7:30 on confirmation of a ride close of 6pm and a last ride of the day on Voltron.
As with last year, we got to sit outside again, with a nice view over to Tipidorf. Service was fairly slow here, and they mixed up our drinks order. I guess a language barrier issue. We ordered a 3L beer, but on top of that there was also a water and a coke, but instead of a 3L beer we just got a 330ml beer. It did get sorted eventually, but took a while. meanwhile, the extra beer was consumed and thus charged for. Despite the fairly slow service and the beer mix up overall was a pleasant evening. After Silver Lake, headed back over to main hotels and to St louis, as other than El Circo and Bar of Last resort, there wasn't anything else open on the main resort, and wasn't going over to Bar Ericson as way too far away to be worth the effort for a bar that has the atmosphere of a morgue.
Wednesday 5 June. day 3 Part Day, DB Regio trying their best to spoil things and Easyjet say Hold my Beer I can do it better
Initially this would simply of been a day of breakfast, chill then head back to Basel for flight home, which was booked for 18:30. However, Easyjet had long since cancelled that flight and we rebooked on the 21:30 instead. Not ideal when needing to drive back from Gatwick back to North West but at least it meant we could spend some time throwing more blank cheques at Roland.
Dan skipped breakfast, Dave and I stuffed our faces. After checking out of room, headed back on park, with a departure time of around 4pm. With Wodan & Blue Fire out of the way it was back to Voltron. Had many rides on Voltron today, especially afternoon. Noted that SRQ was moving stupidly fast. basically when the batcher needed 2 people, rather than ask in main queue behind a bigger group she simply batched 2 single riders instead. Great for SRQ, probably not so much for main queue. Had 4 goes during our last hour.
Leaving park about 4, headed back to hotel. Quick Coffee, then bus back to Herbolzheim, again as the train we needed to catch was not stopping at Ringsheim. Luckily for us, this train was going direct to basel SBB main station. It did mean we had an hour spare, so at least we could take anything DB could through at us. (I once had 5 hours at Stuttgart reduced to 0 minutes thanks to DB cancellations and late trains, so anything is possible). Of course, a signal failure at Offenburg meant our train we were waiting was running 15 minutes late by the time it rocked up, and then picked up further delays due to overhead wire problems and waiting for a very very late ICE train (I think +2 hours) pass us. But thanks to plenty of padding in the timetable (Its like they know it will just be late!!) we arrived in Basel just 5 minutes late, which was a result. Also, this time our train was 8 carriages, with 4 having upper deck, so much more pleasant experience overall, despite the delays.
Had an hour to kill in Basel before heading to Airport, so coffee and cake in Starbucks. Already knew our flight was on the late side, and it continued to get later. It was eventually 1hr 20 late, arriving in Gatwick just over an hour late. Finally arrived home at 4:20AM. Lucky for me I didn't have work. Unlucky for Dave, he did.
All in all a great trip again to Europa. Operations were fantastic as always. Ride close of 6pm on Tuesday was a bit disappointing, but still, given that we did ERT, 8:30AM to 6PM really isn't that bad in the great big scheme of things.
Voltron is a fantastic coaster. Seemingly ran faultlessly most of the time. Noted very few stoppages. Just need to sort out those rough trains. it almost (But not quite) put me off riding it again. Thankfully I did ride again. Back row also alluded me, but Dave and Dan both had back row rides. Had front a few times. Middle seats seem tame. Outside is bonkers. Right side seems craziest. After my first ride (where I had inside seat), I would of still but Wodan above it ride wise at EP, but after experiencing outside seat, it is now certainly number 1, and that's after the brutal ride I had on Tuesday evening.
On the downside, quite a few outlets closed for food and drink, very limited in Waterpark, but I got cake (and beer), so was happy. Prices have seemingly jumped quite a bit, even since my last visit back at end of March. Feeling the need to go off resort to eat now. Luckily plenty of places in Rust now.
Travel wise. Whilst it is easy to plan, it always seems to be time consuming using public transport to get to EP from any of the main airports. In March we used Eurobus coach from Basel which took an hour, but given our arrival time this time it was not an option. The journey from Basel Airport to Rust took almost 3 hours thanks to the only option that day between Basel and Freiburg was the train calling at all stops. The new timetable for the bus between Ringsheim/Herbolzheim needs to be uploaded online as it still shows the very poor winter timetable. Had I of followed that, and indeed our initial research was using this timetable, the total journey time would of been almost 4 hours, which is bonkers when it takes 60 mins by road. There are options of using ICE or EC trains which knock off a little time, but if you're flight is delayed and you have an advance ticket, kind of screwed so are stuck with the slower regional trains for flexibility/cost.
It would also be nice to give Ringsheim & Herbolzheim a bit of TLC as they are covered in Graffiti. Not a great 1st impression, though this is obvious not down to EP to sort out. Also, graffiti covered stations, station approaches and also trains seem to be pretty common in many parts of Europe, even Swiss trains have their fair share. Anyone who has had the misfortune of travelling by train in Italy will know what I mean.
Thorpe Park wise. Decent day and good operations. Seemed to suffer from a lot of breakdowns but other than Inferno breaking down twice whilst waiting for it, managed to avoid it.
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