StajBeetle
TS Member
Was at EP last week for my second visit, and my first visit to both Rulantica and Traumatica. Never been quite as nervous for a scare event as I was going into Traumatica as beforehand I'd never done a scare event that wasn't the relatively safe Merlin events or Tulley's, so I didn't really know what to expect. We had wanted to stay onsite but booked the trip a little late so not many hotels were available without paying a lot of money, so we stayed in two onsite hotels and the Moxy in Rust to make it a bit more cost efficient.
Rulantica & Krønasar
One of the available hotels was Krønasar, which was handy as we didn't do Rulantica on our last visit. The only previous EP hotel I'd stayed in was Colosseo, where we unknowingly booked a suite thinking it was just an expensive stay because we were there for a few nights and there wasn't much availability. I very much wish we had more time to explore the hotel, we ended up arriving quite late with only an hour or so until our Rulantica ticket, which was the last slot until 10pm. It was clear there was a lot more to see than we did. Tre Krønen was lovely and the staff were wonderful, squeezing us in when they really didn't have to without a booking, about 2 minutes before last orders. Can't say I didn't feel a little out of place in my wrestling t-shirt, still slightly wet from the waterpark while the violinist and pianist were playing. The veal schnitzel I had was lovely, and my friend's steak looked delightful.
Waterparks have never really been my thing, but I did want to give Rulantica a go. The only other waterpark I'd done in the last 10 or so years was PortAventura's earlier this year. I wish we had more time in Rulantica, as we sort of had to speed round to get everything done to try and get out in time to get something to eat. The place is wonderfully themed, and I'd loved to have spent more time outdoors, especially around the swim-up bar even though I don't really drink.
I adored the lazy river dark ride thing. Slides were fun, was very very nervous about the trap door slides having never done one before, from watching videos I was expecting a countdown to the drop which never happened. The trapdoor just suddenly fell, and away I went. It was a lot of fun, but also quite painful. Favourite slide had to be Winter Rytt, with the massive half-pipe around the snake's head. Also a fan Isbrekker just chucking you into the water.
The Park
We had two days in the park this time, and it was my first look at a truly busy EP. Our last, and first visit, was in mid-September so the crowds were quite light. I expected the park to cope better than any I'd ever been in and it definitely did, it never felt like a drag. I will say, though, that one of the things that set EP apart last time for me was how relaxing the place is, with all the lovely little seating/viewing areas and nice walks. It's something we really lack in the UK. With only two days, and a time limit (Traumatica opening), we didn't have quite as much time to take advantage of this as I would've liked. We had to rush a little bit to get everything done. Would've liked an extra day maybe.
Voltron immediately shot up to my #1 coaster last year, and it definitely remained that way. Can't say I've ever really found it rough or uncomfortable, although I think I have a slightly higher tolerance for rough rides. It is absolutely unrelenting, you barely spend any time in your seat until you hit the brakes (twice). I think it'll take some beating. I also really enjoy Silver Star and had the best rides I can remember on Blue Fire and Wodan, although I prefer Troy to Wodan myself. I can't say I am a EuroMir enjoyer. Can't wait to see what they do with the refurbishment.
Was slightly disappointed to only fit one ride in on Pirates in Batavia, I love that ride and taking in all the details. Castello dei Medici is also great and I LOVE Snorri Touren. The new dark ride with the silly long name is strange, ride system is cool but it's literally just screen after screen after screen. It also felt like it went on forever and ever, at least 3 or 4 times I went "this must be it" and it wasn't, including the part where we went past the unload bay and I saw the host waiting there as we span around, but we just kept on going until the ending, when we were greeted by the slightly ominous silhouette of an Edda animatronic. The queue is nice though. At some point in the future, I would like to see EP try their hand at a proper, from-scratch, modern dark ride. Pirates and Geisterschloss are amazing, and I never did the original versions, but I'd love to see what they could do these days from brand new.
Did the log flume, didn't remember it being that wet last time, but oh my word. I have no idea what happened, but I got an entire river's worth of water directly to the face on the first drop. Came off absolutely drenched.
Halloween event inside the park was nice. Scare zone next to Wodan was a bit meh, but got one big scare. This made me very nervous for Traumatica, because if that got me that badly, then what will the actual mazes be like? Which brings me nicely onto...
Traumatica - Night 1
...as much as I love EP, and it probably became my favourite park on this trip, this was the main event of the trip. The reason we came. We had 2 nights, and I'm very glad, because it was very busy and we probably wouldn't have got everything done. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, because it's weirdly hard to find anything about Traumatica online. Even on this forum, there are very few mentions or reviews. We decided to start with the most reasonable looking queue, which was Studio 13, not to be confused, of course, with the Fright Nights maze, er... Studio 13 (which I never did). This also ended up being my favourite maze of the event and pretty close to my favourite maze ever. I had no idea what to expect going in and I'm not really sure how the movie casting theme fits with what's inside the maze, which is a trip through 13 terrifying floors on an elevator. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to hear an elevator 'ding' the same ever again. It was a dark onslaught of effective scares, from actors in great makeup with detailed theming & sets. My very scare-seasoned, former scare actor friend described it as "the most stressed I've ever been in a maze" and I have to agree. Just pure terror the whole way through.
Our next maze was Unknown: Exodus and after the first scene in here I was wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into.
From there, unfortunately the maze kind of petered out and I feel like it was a bit backwards. The maze could very easily have built towards the first room as a big finale, rather than getting all of the cool stuff out of the way first and ending it with essentially just a dark corridor. I was very impressed with the use of animatronics and puppets in every maze. In my Thorpe Fright Nights reviews I talked about a lack of actors, and although almost all of Traumatica's mazes were swarming with actors, this is a great way to provide scares without them.
After Unknown, we went through the scare zone, Rotters Road. I have no idea what happened here but I actually have this down as the worst proper scare attraction I've done this Halloween so far. It's set up like a linear scare zone similar to Mawkin Meadow or Vile Villagers at Chessie, but you can enter both ways meaning you just end up walking into other guests. We only encountered two actors who didn't have a lot to work with. I'm glad the mazes were good!
After this we stopped for food, which was unexpectedly brilliant. Had one of the best burgers I've had from one of the food vans. Let the food go down and took a slight break from the scares with a night ride on Pegasus, then wandered around the absolutely deserted Greece area. It really didn't feel like we were supposed to be here.
We then ventured back into the main area for Cinema Macabre. I think someone from Traumatica must have been to Fright Nights in the last couple of years because this is literally just a better version of Trailers, complete with you walking through a cinema screen into the maze, and then walking through distinct rooms separated by screens, with you passing by the screen number you're entering. As a first time visitor I'm not sure myself, but from what I understand the rooms are all references to past Traumatica attractions, so it is in every way, Trailers. It's much better though. Once again, the makeup and sets are fantastic, and the use of animatronics and puppets is excellent. This maze was a lot more "fun" than the last two, which had me basically running through.
We ended night 1 in The Hill, an outdoor maze. For me, this was the weakest maze of the event. Definitely still pretty well themed and it will really scare some people, it's just not really for me.
Once again, some really terrifying costumes and monsters in here.
Silver Lake City/Tipi Town
We spent the second night in the Tipi Town, staying in one of the Western House. It was the only available, reasonably priced accommodation where you get your own bathroom, which was a must for me. I knew these were new, but I didn't realise quite how new. They were really nice, very cosy and I got a good night's sleep. The area around is nicely themed, and I look forward to the new hotel.
Traumatica - Night 2
Back to the scares. Just the three mazes left to do, starting with Grim's Funhouse: Wakala's Wonderland. Gee, I wonder what inspired the maze themed to a kid's pizza restaurant with a murderous animatronic band. I should mention that I used to have a big fear of animatronics, so the first few rooms had me practically running through. Before you enter the maze, you're offered a glowstick necklace, and if you wear it, the actors can touch you. I opted not to have the necklace, which I now regret. I wanted one run through of the maze to get to grips with it beforehand, but unfortunately we didn't manage a second run through as we sacrificed an hour of event time for an excellent night ride on Voltron.
Tarot House: The Last Descent is probably the maze I remember the least about. It's probably the most generic of the lot. I remember it being good, and in some places, a better version of Edge of the Forest. It also reminded me quite a lot of The Village: Coven of 13 at Tulley's, especially the finale.
The last maze, and easily the most fun, was Murderdome: Death Race. One of the few things I did find out when researching this event was that this was a laser quest-esque shooting game, which certainly would've been unique. I then quickly worked out in the queue, from the line "no more guns to save you", that this probably wasn't the case anymore. This is also the only maze where the actors will touch you, and you don't get a choice. From that, I was wondering if we were in for a Survival Games-style maze. I was half-right.
At the end of the maze, you're met with a trophy, a red button and a blue button. From reading afterwards I have gathered you're meant to press the button corresponding to your team, but I don't remember being told what team I was on, so I pressed both. I think this means by default I won. Murderdome was just an absolute blur of chaos, one of my favourite ever scare attractions.
I would absolutely put Traumatica as my favourite scare event I've ever done. They're so good at scaring the whole group, rather than just the front or back, and utilising scares that don't require an actor. Every maze was at least pretty good, and the strong mazes were STRONG.
As for the park itself, Europa Park probably solidified itself as my favourite theme park this trip. Last year, I'd said that although I thought Europa was objectively the best theme park I'd been to, I thought Phantasialand was my favourite for mostly sentimental reasons. While those reasons remain, there is so much more variety at Europa and it's almost hard to imagine ever having a bad day there. As someone who only started doing European theme parks in the last few years (2020, and then 2022 after Covid), and still have a lot more big European parks to go to, we've tried to avoid repeating parks too much. I believe the only park I'd repeated before this trip was Phantasialand. Having said that, currently I'm planning on buying a ResortPass if/when they come back on sale, and making as many trips to Europa as I can. Even if just to go and relax somewhere on park for a few days. The only thing in my mind that might make me decide against it is wanting to preserve how special the park feels, and maybe not wanting to get too familiar with the park. Currently, a visit to Europa Park gives me the same sort of feeling I had when I used to go to Legoland or Chessington once a year as a very small child, or a once a year visit to Alton Towers before I had the ability to go on my own whenever I wanted. Although the quality of Europa will never dwindle the same as those parks might have, I don't want to lose that feeling.
The one other reason not to buy the ResortPass, is the amount of money I'd end up spending in the Lindt shop. Dangerous, that place is.
Rulantica & Krønasar
One of the available hotels was Krønasar, which was handy as we didn't do Rulantica on our last visit. The only previous EP hotel I'd stayed in was Colosseo, where we unknowingly booked a suite thinking it was just an expensive stay because we were there for a few nights and there wasn't much availability. I very much wish we had more time to explore the hotel, we ended up arriving quite late with only an hour or so until our Rulantica ticket, which was the last slot until 10pm. It was clear there was a lot more to see than we did. Tre Krønen was lovely and the staff were wonderful, squeezing us in when they really didn't have to without a booking, about 2 minutes before last orders. Can't say I didn't feel a little out of place in my wrestling t-shirt, still slightly wet from the waterpark while the violinist and pianist were playing. The veal schnitzel I had was lovely, and my friend's steak looked delightful.
Waterparks have never really been my thing, but I did want to give Rulantica a go. The only other waterpark I'd done in the last 10 or so years was PortAventura's earlier this year. I wish we had more time in Rulantica, as we sort of had to speed round to get everything done to try and get out in time to get something to eat. The place is wonderfully themed, and I'd loved to have spent more time outdoors, especially around the swim-up bar even though I don't really drink.
I adored the lazy river dark ride thing. Slides were fun, was very very nervous about the trap door slides having never done one before, from watching videos I was expecting a countdown to the drop which never happened. The trapdoor just suddenly fell, and away I went. It was a lot of fun, but also quite painful. Favourite slide had to be Winter Rytt, with the massive half-pipe around the snake's head. Also a fan Isbrekker just chucking you into the water.
The Park
We had two days in the park this time, and it was my first look at a truly busy EP. Our last, and first visit, was in mid-September so the crowds were quite light. I expected the park to cope better than any I'd ever been in and it definitely did, it never felt like a drag. I will say, though, that one of the things that set EP apart last time for me was how relaxing the place is, with all the lovely little seating/viewing areas and nice walks. It's something we really lack in the UK. With only two days, and a time limit (Traumatica opening), we didn't have quite as much time to take advantage of this as I would've liked. We had to rush a little bit to get everything done. Would've liked an extra day maybe.
Voltron immediately shot up to my #1 coaster last year, and it definitely remained that way. Can't say I've ever really found it rough or uncomfortable, although I think I have a slightly higher tolerance for rough rides. It is absolutely unrelenting, you barely spend any time in your seat until you hit the brakes (twice). I think it'll take some beating. I also really enjoy Silver Star and had the best rides I can remember on Blue Fire and Wodan, although I prefer Troy to Wodan myself. I can't say I am a EuroMir enjoyer. Can't wait to see what they do with the refurbishment.
Was slightly disappointed to only fit one ride in on Pirates in Batavia, I love that ride and taking in all the details. Castello dei Medici is also great and I LOVE Snorri Touren. The new dark ride with the silly long name is strange, ride system is cool but it's literally just screen after screen after screen. It also felt like it went on forever and ever, at least 3 or 4 times I went "this must be it" and it wasn't, including the part where we went past the unload bay and I saw the host waiting there as we span around, but we just kept on going until the ending, when we were greeted by the slightly ominous silhouette of an Edda animatronic. The queue is nice though. At some point in the future, I would like to see EP try their hand at a proper, from-scratch, modern dark ride. Pirates and Geisterschloss are amazing, and I never did the original versions, but I'd love to see what they could do these days from brand new.
Did the log flume, didn't remember it being that wet last time, but oh my word. I have no idea what happened, but I got an entire river's worth of water directly to the face on the first drop. Came off absolutely drenched.
Halloween event inside the park was nice. Scare zone next to Wodan was a bit meh, but got one big scare. This made me very nervous for Traumatica, because if that got me that badly, then what will the actual mazes be like? Which brings me nicely onto...
Traumatica - Night 1
...as much as I love EP, and it probably became my favourite park on this trip, this was the main event of the trip. The reason we came. We had 2 nights, and I'm very glad, because it was very busy and we probably wouldn't have got everything done. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, because it's weirdly hard to find anything about Traumatica online. Even on this forum, there are very few mentions or reviews. We decided to start with the most reasonable looking queue, which was Studio 13, not to be confused, of course, with the Fright Nights maze, er... Studio 13 (which I never did). This also ended up being my favourite maze of the event and pretty close to my favourite maze ever. I had no idea what to expect going in and I'm not really sure how the movie casting theme fits with what's inside the maze, which is a trip through 13 terrifying floors on an elevator. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to hear an elevator 'ding' the same ever again. It was a dark onslaught of effective scares, from actors in great makeup with detailed theming & sets. My very scare-seasoned, former scare actor friend described it as "the most stressed I've ever been in a maze" and I have to agree. Just pure terror the whole way through.
Our next maze was Unknown: Exodus and after the first scene in here I was wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into.
The first scene involved us watching through a window as a tentacle looking thing bit somebody's head, before an alien burst out of an actor's chest (which I didn't actually notice), a fantastic looking alien came at us from the side and then the headless body of the man from behind the window came at me from behind. What on earth. From there, we went into the next room, where we had to put our hands in some holes (I decided against this), before an alien burst out of the chest of a dummy in the middle of the room. We encountered some more aliens, both actors and animatronics before a very creepy scene with lots of people floating in the air above us.
After Unknown, we went through the scare zone, Rotters Road. I have no idea what happened here but I actually have this down as the worst proper scare attraction I've done this Halloween so far. It's set up like a linear scare zone similar to Mawkin Meadow or Vile Villagers at Chessie, but you can enter both ways meaning you just end up walking into other guests. We only encountered two actors who didn't have a lot to work with. I'm glad the mazes were good!
After this we stopped for food, which was unexpectedly brilliant. Had one of the best burgers I've had from one of the food vans. Let the food go down and took a slight break from the scares with a night ride on Pegasus, then wandered around the absolutely deserted Greece area. It really didn't feel like we were supposed to be here.
We then ventured back into the main area for Cinema Macabre. I think someone from Traumatica must have been to Fright Nights in the last couple of years because this is literally just a better version of Trailers, complete with you walking through a cinema screen into the maze, and then walking through distinct rooms separated by screens, with you passing by the screen number you're entering. As a first time visitor I'm not sure myself, but from what I understand the rooms are all references to past Traumatica attractions, so it is in every way, Trailers. It's much better though. Once again, the makeup and sets are fantastic, and the use of animatronics and puppets is excellent. This maze was a lot more "fun" than the last two, which had me basically running through.
We ended night 1 in The Hill, an outdoor maze. For me, this was the weakest maze of the event. Definitely still pretty well themed and it will really scare some people, it's just not really for me.
Before you go in you're introduced to a map of the maze, with each zone having a "rule". One is to stay in the light, one is to keep quiet, and one is if the lights go red, to run. I thought this would be a cool interactive element I've never really seen before, but it doesn't really end up like that at all, and it's just more of a normal maze with some spotlights and red lighting. Whether or not you follow them doesn't really make a difference.
Silver Lake City/Tipi Town
We spent the second night in the Tipi Town, staying in one of the Western House. It was the only available, reasonably priced accommodation where you get your own bathroom, which was a must for me. I knew these were new, but I didn't realise quite how new. They were really nice, very cosy and I got a good night's sleep. The area around is nicely themed, and I look forward to the new hotel.
Traumatica - Night 2
Back to the scares. Just the three mazes left to do, starting with Grim's Funhouse: Wakala's Wonderland. Gee, I wonder what inspired the maze themed to a kid's pizza restaurant with a murderous animatronic band. I should mention that I used to have a big fear of animatronics, so the first few rooms had me practically running through. Before you enter the maze, you're offered a glowstick necklace, and if you wear it, the actors can touch you. I opted not to have the necklace, which I now regret. I wanted one run through of the maze to get to grips with it beforehand, but unfortunately we didn't manage a second run through as we sacrificed an hour of event time for an excellent night ride on Voltron.
About halfway through the maze it goes outside, and you're met with a ringmaster on a stage and several curtains, each a different route, and you're split up from your group. From here, the maze was pure fun. Some of the routes were dead ends, some led back to the ringmaster, one led to the exit. It was here I really wished I took the glowstick, as those who did were consantly getting rerouted by the actors. Once you eventually find the way out, you're chased out with a chainsaw.
Tarot House: The Last Descent is probably the maze I remember the least about. It's probably the most generic of the lot. I remember it being good, and in some places, a better version of Edge of the Forest. It also reminded me quite a lot of The Village: Coven of 13 at Tulley's, especially the finale.
The last maze, and easily the most fun, was Murderdome: Death Race. One of the few things I did find out when researching this event was that this was a laser quest-esque shooting game, which certainly would've been unique. I then quickly worked out in the queue, from the line "no more guns to save you", that this probably wasn't the case anymore. This is also the only maze where the actors will touch you, and you don't get a choice. From that, I was wondering if we were in for a Survival Games-style maze. I was half-right.
When I saw a line of cages from the queue, I thought that's exactly what we were in for. Straight away, I was grabbed and shoved into a cage, except with my friend, and another group. Instead of being pulled out, the cage opened, and into the Murderdome we went. This maze was not quite as well themed as the others, but easily one of the most bonkers, fun scare attractions I've done. Maze sections split up by "checkpoints", where you are presented with different routes, each of which offer a different "task". For example, three doorways. I don't remember what was through the other two, or what they were marked as, but one raised platform marked as "Strong". On climbing up, we found one of those pits you'd find at a trampoline park filled with foam cubes, before a scare, then a "bonus round" if you so choose which takes you back round to the doorways again. At one point I was grabbed by an actor who then led me through a portion of the maze with his arm round be as if we were best mates (except he was also trying to eat me I think?). I remember another three doorways, one was pitch black, one was a lazer maze like the Queen's Diamonds in the main park, and one was a foggy laser a la Tarot House or Coven of 13 at Tulley's.
I would absolutely put Traumatica as my favourite scare event I've ever done. They're so good at scaring the whole group, rather than just the front or back, and utilising scares that don't require an actor. Every maze was at least pretty good, and the strong mazes were STRONG.
As for the park itself, Europa Park probably solidified itself as my favourite theme park this trip. Last year, I'd said that although I thought Europa was objectively the best theme park I'd been to, I thought Phantasialand was my favourite for mostly sentimental reasons. While those reasons remain, there is so much more variety at Europa and it's almost hard to imagine ever having a bad day there. As someone who only started doing European theme parks in the last few years (2020, and then 2022 after Covid), and still have a lot more big European parks to go to, we've tried to avoid repeating parks too much. I believe the only park I'd repeated before this trip was Phantasialand. Having said that, currently I'm planning on buying a ResortPass if/when they come back on sale, and making as many trips to Europa as I can. Even if just to go and relax somewhere on park for a few days. The only thing in my mind that might make me decide against it is wanting to preserve how special the park feels, and maybe not wanting to get too familiar with the park. Currently, a visit to Europa Park gives me the same sort of feeling I had when I used to go to Legoland or Chessington once a year as a very small child, or a once a year visit to Alton Towers before I had the ability to go on my own whenever I wanted. Although the quality of Europa will never dwindle the same as those parks might have, I don't want to lose that feeling.
The one other reason not to buy the ResortPass, is the amount of money I'd end up spending in the Lindt shop. Dangerous, that place is.