In age old tradition it was time for myself and Dave to take another Summer vacation, or at least I think it was Summer 
Looked in to many options, but was keen to get some use out of our Europa Park passes before they expired at start of August. After eventually settling on Europa Park and then realising that flights were stupidly expensive, it then became a road trip as the Ferry crossing from Dover was reasonably priced. Thus, as well as EP ,added on Parc Asterix to sample Toutatis and also Plopsa for a bit more Ride to Happiness. Ideally would of liked to of gone to these parks before EP but, expiring passes and all that rendered that out of the question due to how my holidays fell.
Finally set off from the sunny delights of North West of England around 20:00 on 27/7, arrived at Daves former/current (delete as appropriate, as it hasn't been sold yet) conveniently placed apartment in Purfleet around midnight for a couple of hours rest before continuing on to Dover around 3AM for a ferry over to Calais at 6AM.
Passport control and check in was swift, so much so they we were booked on to the earlier crossing of 04:40 which was running 50 minutes late (as was the 6AM). Today we were travelling with Irish Ferries, which we jokingly gave to name of Ryanair of the high seas.
Crossing was pretty decent, but costs on board were extortionate. Almost £10 for a sandwich and a coffee
Arriving in Calais for around 8:30AM, set off on the 6 1/2 hour trek towards Europa Park, which was a combo of toll & non toll roads. After a couple of false starts, with the Sat Nav seemingly directing us to the 100% non toll route with a suggested journey time of over 8 hours (err no thanks!!), finally on to the correct route. Thankfully Dave managed to do the bulk of the driving as I was, well, pretty tired, with myself doing the last 2 1/2 hours.
Arrived in Rust for just after 4pm after a reasonably pleasant, but rather tiring drive. The accommodation of choice this time was Moxy Rust. Fantastic accommodation, across the road from Bell Rock and around 15 minute walk to main entrance. Quick stop at Edeka for some supplies and the off to park for a couple of hours, with ride close 7pm, taking some time out for a bite to eat at the Biergarten in Germany, where there was a torrential downpour. Despite being undercover, had to eat pretty quick as rain was pouring in from all directions. Thankfully that cleared up quickly and then back to some pleasant sunny spells.
After a evening in the hotel bars, initially outdoors at Colosseo before another torrential downpour forced us indoors, then later El Circo in El Andaluz. Though Colosseo is not my favourite hotel, really love this plaza. great atmosphere. After this was some much needed sleep. Now in to early hours of Saturday morning, very little sleep had been had since Thursday morning.
Following our quick visit on Friday evening, we then spent Saturday & Sunday on park all day, from around 10am until close, which was 7pm both days. Weather was a mixed bag both days, with some pretty heavy rain in morning briefly, before clearing up in to a pleasant day.
Saturday was surprisingly quiet. With no queues going above 30 minutes all day. Everything was on full capacity, and as always, operations were fantastic. Having single rider back is great, pretty much walk on for Arthur & Can Can, and very short waits for Blue Fire & Wodan. With queue times so short, decided to take a ride on Poseidon; Probably the biggest regret of my visit
. This thing is horribly rough, terrible transitions, batters you about, and just over all generally uncomfortable. Can't recall it being this bad before, but it isn't something I generally ride as it can attract a long queue during Summer. Mir was absolute sublime as always (Ye I know its rougher than a bears backside in places, but its also damn good fun at the same time!)
Saturday eve was in Bar St Louis for a Club Sandwich and a beer or 2. Of course, being sat out side did get rained off after a couple of hours. Indoors was full, so headed over to Buena Vista Bar, which was pretty quiet.
Sunday eve walked over to Kronasar for a Buffet in Bubba Svens. Decent selection, but at €41.50 plus drink is a bit pricey. Odd that neither of us ate a great deal as felt very bloated after a couple of plates (which is surprising for Dave as he eats like a Horse). Caught a glimpse of the robot waiters whizzing past, but more often than not they were parked up plotting their World Domination.
Monday was Rulantica day (10-10). Having already used both my free annual pass visits, I needed to purchase a day ticket for this, which is now €44. Still fantastic value, especially when you consider that Blackpool Sandcastle charge £28 for what is supposed to be a 3 hour slot.
The new slides are great, with short waiting time and quick moving queue line thanks to 8 slides. Also went on the Splash Battle too, which was great fun. Didn't spend too much time outdoors, as it was rather chilly. Did go to the outdoor swim up bar, but service here was shocking. Took best part of 20 minutes to get served, being completely ignored, serving people behind me, to all staff vanishing at one point, creating a massive scrum waiting to be served when one person came back eventually. In contrast the indoor bar was much easier to get served at.
In contrast to the quiet theme park, Rulantica was very busy with Vinter Rytt and Svalgur Rytt reaching 55 minute waits. Vildstrom now has a 7 second countdown timer to regulate the number of people going on at the same time. guessing there has been a few bumps and scrapes as previously it has been a free for all.
Overall fantastic day. Top quality attractions, plenty to do, whether it be slides or just relaxing. Down sides was poor service at the outdoor swim up bar, and also quite a bit of duck tape around the place covering broken tiles. Even seem some floating in the pool too. The queue lines for the slides are still grotty and depressingly dark, though the new slides appear much better. Also, place looks fantastic at night.
Evening spent in Bar Erikson. Still think this bar lacks a bit of atmosphere. To me it feels a bit too bright, be nice if the lighting was a bit softer. Still it serves alcoholic beverages so shouldn't complain I guess.
.
Tuesday was final day at Europa Park. Another 7pm close. Again pretty quiet with short queues, except Can Can at start of day (50 minutes), as it was chucking it down until around 11am, and Wodan (40 mins), due to going down to 2 train operation for a short period.
Final evening had a meal at Silver Lake Saloon, being sat outside, which was pretty nice, having never sat out there before whilst at Silver lake. Of course, a visit to Silver Lake is not complete without a 3L beer tower, which always seems to turn heads when it comes to the table.
After Silver Lake, had our own Monorail train to take us back to the resort hotels, with a final few beers and cocktails at bar St Louis.
Overall, a fantastic trip again to Europa. In general everything was on top form. Great to see that it pretty much seems business as usual now with most places that were seemingly closed or closed early last summer are now open, and open all day. The park wasn't too busy at all, probably due to the rather dire forecasts and what did turn out to be some ropey weather. Each day was 7pm ride close which was perfectly fine for the crowd levels. Some heavy late afternoon rain showers seem to send sensible people flocking to the exit. Us silly ones stayed.
Anyway next up will be Parc Asterix & Plopsa Land, but first, Coffee...
Looked in to many options, but was keen to get some use out of our Europa Park passes before they expired at start of August. After eventually settling on Europa Park and then realising that flights were stupidly expensive, it then became a road trip as the Ferry crossing from Dover was reasonably priced. Thus, as well as EP ,added on Parc Asterix to sample Toutatis and also Plopsa for a bit more Ride to Happiness. Ideally would of liked to of gone to these parks before EP but, expiring passes and all that rendered that out of the question due to how my holidays fell.
Finally set off from the sunny delights of North West of England around 20:00 on 27/7, arrived at Daves former/current (delete as appropriate, as it hasn't been sold yet) conveniently placed apartment in Purfleet around midnight for a couple of hours rest before continuing on to Dover around 3AM for a ferry over to Calais at 6AM.
Passport control and check in was swift, so much so they we were booked on to the earlier crossing of 04:40 which was running 50 minutes late (as was the 6AM). Today we were travelling with Irish Ferries, which we jokingly gave to name of Ryanair of the high seas.
Crossing was pretty decent, but costs on board were extortionate. Almost £10 for a sandwich and a coffee
Arriving in Calais for around 8:30AM, set off on the 6 1/2 hour trek towards Europa Park, which was a combo of toll & non toll roads. After a couple of false starts, with the Sat Nav seemingly directing us to the 100% non toll route with a suggested journey time of over 8 hours (err no thanks!!), finally on to the correct route. Thankfully Dave managed to do the bulk of the driving as I was, well, pretty tired, with myself doing the last 2 1/2 hours.
Arrived in Rust for just after 4pm after a reasonably pleasant, but rather tiring drive. The accommodation of choice this time was Moxy Rust. Fantastic accommodation, across the road from Bell Rock and around 15 minute walk to main entrance. Quick stop at Edeka for some supplies and the off to park for a couple of hours, with ride close 7pm, taking some time out for a bite to eat at the Biergarten in Germany, where there was a torrential downpour. Despite being undercover, had to eat pretty quick as rain was pouring in from all directions. Thankfully that cleared up quickly and then back to some pleasant sunny spells.
After a evening in the hotel bars, initially outdoors at Colosseo before another torrential downpour forced us indoors, then later El Circo in El Andaluz. Though Colosseo is not my favourite hotel, really love this plaza. great atmosphere. After this was some much needed sleep. Now in to early hours of Saturday morning, very little sleep had been had since Thursday morning.
Following our quick visit on Friday evening, we then spent Saturday & Sunday on park all day, from around 10am until close, which was 7pm both days. Weather was a mixed bag both days, with some pretty heavy rain in morning briefly, before clearing up in to a pleasant day.
Saturday was surprisingly quiet. With no queues going above 30 minutes all day. Everything was on full capacity, and as always, operations were fantastic. Having single rider back is great, pretty much walk on for Arthur & Can Can, and very short waits for Blue Fire & Wodan. With queue times so short, decided to take a ride on Poseidon; Probably the biggest regret of my visit
. This thing is horribly rough, terrible transitions, batters you about, and just over all generally uncomfortable. Can't recall it being this bad before, but it isn't something I generally ride as it can attract a long queue during Summer. Mir was absolute sublime as always (Ye I know its rougher than a bears backside in places, but its also damn good fun at the same time!)Saturday eve was in Bar St Louis for a Club Sandwich and a beer or 2. Of course, being sat out side did get rained off after a couple of hours. Indoors was full, so headed over to Buena Vista Bar, which was pretty quiet.
Sunday eve walked over to Kronasar for a Buffet in Bubba Svens. Decent selection, but at €41.50 plus drink is a bit pricey. Odd that neither of us ate a great deal as felt very bloated after a couple of plates (which is surprising for Dave as he eats like a Horse
). Caught a glimpse of the robot waiters whizzing past, but more often than not they were parked up plotting their World Domination.Monday was Rulantica day (10-10). Having already used both my free annual pass visits, I needed to purchase a day ticket for this, which is now €44. Still fantastic value, especially when you consider that Blackpool Sandcastle charge £28 for what is supposed to be a 3 hour slot.
The new slides are great, with short waiting time and quick moving queue line thanks to 8 slides. Also went on the Splash Battle too, which was great fun. Didn't spend too much time outdoors, as it was rather chilly. Did go to the outdoor swim up bar, but service here was shocking. Took best part of 20 minutes to get served, being completely ignored, serving people behind me, to all staff vanishing at one point, creating a massive scrum waiting to be served when one person came back eventually. In contrast the indoor bar was much easier to get served at.
In contrast to the quiet theme park, Rulantica was very busy with Vinter Rytt and Svalgur Rytt reaching 55 minute waits. Vildstrom now has a 7 second countdown timer to regulate the number of people going on at the same time. guessing there has been a few bumps and scrapes as previously it has been a free for all.
Overall fantastic day. Top quality attractions, plenty to do, whether it be slides or just relaxing. Down sides was poor service at the outdoor swim up bar, and also quite a bit of duck tape around the place covering broken tiles. Even seem some floating in the pool too. The queue lines for the slides are still grotty and depressingly dark, though the new slides appear much better. Also, place looks fantastic at night.
Evening spent in Bar Erikson. Still think this bar lacks a bit of atmosphere. To me it feels a bit too bright, be nice if the lighting was a bit softer. Still it serves alcoholic beverages so shouldn't complain I guess.
.Tuesday was final day at Europa Park. Another 7pm close. Again pretty quiet with short queues, except Can Can at start of day (50 minutes), as it was chucking it down until around 11am, and Wodan (40 mins), due to going down to 2 train operation for a short period.
Final evening had a meal at Silver Lake Saloon, being sat outside, which was pretty nice, having never sat out there before whilst at Silver lake. Of course, a visit to Silver Lake is not complete without a 3L beer tower, which always seems to turn heads when it comes to the table.
After Silver Lake, had our own Monorail train to take us back to the resort hotels, with a final few beers and cocktails at bar St Louis.
Overall, a fantastic trip again to Europa. In general everything was on top form. Great to see that it pretty much seems business as usual now with most places that were seemingly closed or closed early last summer are now open, and open all day. The park wasn't too busy at all, probably due to the rather dire forecasts and what did turn out to be some ropey weather. Each day was 7pm ride close which was perfectly fine for the crowd levels. Some heavy late afternoon rain showers seem to send sensible people flocking to the exit. Us silly ones stayed.
Anyway next up will be Parc Asterix & Plopsa Land, but first, Coffee...
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