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Europa Park: The Imperfections

Dave said:
Disagreement is not aggression, if you post your opinion publicly expect a public response šŸ‘

Stating theme parks donā€™t conform to foreign nationalistic divisions is not aggressive nor is it off topic (based on the direction you angled the topic) šŸ˜Š
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Honestly they way you responded back then certainly felt aggressive even if you didn't intend it as if I didn't feel like I was aiming it. Had I know this whole thing would descend into this sorry state of affairs, I would have kept silent about saying something negative about EP in which I feel like I'm not allowed to have just one gripe I have which is that. God knows if I had, or don't know, five things to bring up.

Please, someone talk about something else, I feel like I'm not welcomed among EP followers here so I'll go if that makes you happy.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Honestly they way you responded back then certainly felt aggressive even if you didn't intend it as if I didn't feel like I was aiming it. Had I know this whole thing would descend into this sorry state of affairs, I would have kept silent about saying something negative about EP in which I feel like I'm not allowed to have just one gripe I have which is that. God knows if I had, or don't know, five things to bring up.

Please, someone talk about something else, I feel like I'm not welcomed among EP followers here so I'll go if that makes you happy.
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Seriously thatā€™s not how debates work.

You make a point, someone makes a counterpoint, then there is a dialogue and we try and persuade each other. Itā€™s how democracy and free speech should work.

This idea that disagreement is aggressive is going to stifle the word of debate, come back at me with your opinion or consider my point and decide you have changed your mind. Both outcomes are valid!
 
Dave said:
Seriously thatā€™s not how debates work.

You make a point, someone makes a counterpoint, then there is a dialogue and we try and persuade each other. Itā€™s how democracy and free speech should work.

This idea that disagreement is aggressive is going to stifle the word of debate, come back at me with your opinion or consider my point and decide you have changed your mind. Both outcomes are valid!
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How about this not being written but at least spoken to face to face via some online video system. Writing things down can lead to the words being taken out of context.

I don't want to take this further on here as we'll go off topic, PM me if you want to go along with this further. I feel exhausted over this damn thing.
 
Funcone said:
Trip Advisor heard you. Somehow, Europa Park's fallen out of Trip Advisor's top 25 European theme parks:
www.tripadvisor.com

Best Amusement & Water Parks in - Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Awards

Tripadvisor - Travelers' Choice Awards. Find out what the best travel experiences in are as awarded by millions of real travelers.
www.tripadvisor.com www.tripadvisor.com

That's democracy for you.
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So:
Blackpool
Gardaland
Alton Towers
Drayton Manor
And
Portaventura

All made the top 25

But Europa park didn't but has a higher rating score than:
Portaventura
Drayton manor
Blackpool pleasure beach
Alton towers
Gardaland

Somehow i think someone forgot Europa exists
 
Sundown is apparently better than Phantasialand and Europa Park. My head hurts.
 
I think it's done using algorithms, but there is more weighting on more recent reviews. It displays the English reviews first, unless you specifically switch to another language. For example, if you switch to German there have been a lot of one star reviews in the last year.
 
Gosh.

Europa-Park, Phantasialand, Efteling. Nope.

Maybe it's just these places don't ram feedback requests down your throat.



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The number of reviews is a factor. As you say, some parks are 'better' at encouraging people to leave a review. Some countries also have a higher prevalance of Trip Advisor usage. However, Europa Park does have a lot more reviews than somewhere like Drayton Manor or the Milky Way. Efteling, Europa Park and Phantasialand do normally make the list. It does seem that they've had a significant spike in complaints since Covid started.
 
My mum and dad weren't keen on Taverna Mykonos. They have been to Greece and loved Greek food but were disappointed to find it basically only served pork. My mum and dad don't like pork. There was no lamb, which would be what you'd generally find in Greece. They didn't even have chicken; it's pork or vegetarian only. Also the layout of this outlet means you can't see the menu until you're at the counter and it's too late to back out.
 
This isn't really an imperfection, but it's certainly something that Europa-Park and its more local visitors have struggled with in the last 20 years.

Europa-Park was very much a local and regional park right the way through the 1980s and 1990s. Very much along the lines of the market you'd expect from Hansa-Park or Tripsdrill today. The evolution of Europa-Park into a world-rate theme park resort really took off at the end of the 1990s and by the time Colosseo opened, it was really making its mark. A few years later, and you have a park with many hotels - all of which excellent - and a solid arsenal of rides large and small.

With this development came prestige and awards and, of course, the steady uptick in ticket prices to the cā‚¬60/day (Ā£51) we see today.

It has become difficult for Europa-Park to sit comfortably as a major international player whilst simultaneously not alienating the local punters who got it to where it is today. It's now too expensive to just 'nip to' and the annual ticket is a fairly hefty investment too. Tripsdrill & Co. are all still there offering that small town experience, but Europa-Park still likes to be that old quirky German place too. I think Europa-Park gets the balance right pretty well - but I can well imagine some of those that grew up with the park suddenly finding that they are a bit priced out.
 
AstroDan said:
This isn't really an imperfection, but it's certainly something that Europa-Park and its more local visitors have struggled with in the last 20 years.

Europa-Park was very much a local and regional park right the way through the 1980s and 1990s. Very much along the lines of the market you'd expect from Hansa-Park or Tripsdrill today. The evolution of Europa-Park into a world-rate theme park resort really took off at the end of the 1990s and by the time Colosseo opened, it was really making its mark. A few years later, and you have a park with many hotels - all of which excellent - and a solid arsenal of rides large and small.

With this development came prestige and awards and, of course, the steady uptick in ticket prices to the cā‚¬60/day (Ā£51) we see today.

It has become difficult for Europa-Park to sit comfortably as a major international player whilst simultaneously not alienating the local punters who got it to where it is today. It's now too expensive to just 'nip to' and the annual ticket is a fairly hefty investment too. Tripsdrill & Co. are all still there offering that small town experience, but Europa-Park still likes to be that old quirky German place too. I think Europa-Park gets the balance right pretty well - but I can well imagine some of those that grew up with the park suddenly finding that they are a bit priced out.
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A very interesting point - one I'd not considered at all. When you have annual passes that cost between ā‚¬225 and ā‚¬395, your average local is probably more likely to opt for another park unless they were a hardcore EP fan. When you look at it objectively, a top tier Merlin Annual Pass during a sale is about the same price as the Silver EP pass nowadays, and you arguably get far more value for money with being able to visit a multitude of parks and attractions.

From an international visitor point of view, I completely agree with the "too expensive to nip to" bit. I remember going on the camping trip in 2017, coined by yourself as "Europa-Park on a Shoestring", and aside from buying a Clubcard at the time, it was pretty cheap on the whole. Yes, these days it still can be done on the cheap if you do it in a certain way and book accommodation and transfers at the right time, but with it being a 4-day/5-night trip as standard now, with the addition of Rulantica, it soon starts to add up.
 
I'm not sure EP is mega expensive. They are pretty much on par with Phantasialand price wise, except peak but even then it's only 5 Euro more expensive for EP. The difference to UK parks is no discount for early booking. Both are the superior product though.
 
I've heard locals to Disneyland make the same complaint. Although we see Disney as the big global name today when the original park opened they never expected people to fly across the world for it, or even across America. The Florida park almost had to be built to takeover the role of an internal destination.
At least in Europa's case they have enough room to expand so capacity is less of an issue. They could offer a discounted ticket price for anyone living within a set distance of the park if it became a real issue.
 
I'm going to bring up smoking. This is possibly a cultural thing but on my recent visit there seemed to be lots of people around us lighting up.

In the week I was there we also had three people smoking cigars on adjacent tables. On one occasion it was so bad we had to move tables. I haven't seen anybody in the UK smoke a cigar for over two decades.

I appreciate it's a tricky one but I think they should stop smoking indoors at all locations first (Buena Vista Club in particular can be a real problem), and then find a way to restrict it outdoors to designated areas like they do at many resorts these days.
 
I suspect it is more of a cultural thing. The bars even have rather long cigar lists are part of the menus!
 
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