Piccolo Mondo Future

[CSLKenny]

Rumours have started a couple months ago that EP plans to refurbish/modernise Piccolo Mondo; primarily for fire safety reasons the structure needs reworked - much like Geisterschloss recently.

Now this week Mack have registered two new trademark images of Enzo, the parrot mascot who rows each Gondola of Piccolo Mondo. While Enzo is also present in the Italian area with the "Pastaria di Enzo" - it might be preparation for the attraction's future? Given the quality of EP's new dark rides and refurbs it would be intriguing to see what they can do with it.

DPMAregister | Marken - Markendarstellung 3020252430713
DPMAregister | Marken - Markendarstellung 3020252430764

 

[Benzin]

Modernisation would be fine. Though if it means bringing characters in the style of modern Ed & Edda might be nightmare fuel inducing.

 

[Rob]

Ahhh, Pastaria di Enzo, the one food outlet at EP that in all of my many visits I don't think I've ever seen open!

Interesting though, I would not be against this as like you say, all of EP's recent new/refurbed dark rides have been to a very high standard. And as each one is done, Bench very much gets left even further behind!

 

[owenstreet7]

It's very well needed, that and Bench are quite behind with the times and definitely needs some attention.

They remind me of the 60s/70s era stop motion animations i.e Camberwick Green

 

[Rowe]

Ahhh, Pastaria di Enzo, the one food outlet at EP that in all of my many visits I don't think I've ever seen open!

It managed to open during our visit in August and it's... fine. Like, 'secondary school canteen pasta and sauce in a box' level of fine.

Anyway, Piccolo Mondo is one of my favourite EP rides and I was personally hoping they wouldn't be giving it a refurb treatment, but if 'FIRE HAZARD' is written all over Ornella's singing cat scene and that freaky human sized puppet then by all means they can crack on! Interesting how Enzo hasn't been given the CG treatment, despite the fact he IS in GPoE. I hope they go with the second design.

 

[djtruefitt]

It will be interesting what the do with it as the building isn’t really that big is it, as none of the scenes in the ride are particularly big or grand.

But like others have said it’s certainly outdated compared to their other dark rides.

 

[Tim]

Piccolo Mondo isn't actually that old. I remember when it replaced Ciao Bambini, which I rode on my first ever trip to Europa. That means it's newer than Blue Fire, and only slightly older than Wodan.
I wouldn't say it needs refurbishing ahead of other rides at the park. Although it's a mark of how much Europa have improved in the last 10 years that it is already perceived to have fallen below standard. Of course I can't see a refurbishment being a bad thing, and if it's for fire reasons then naturally it needs to happen.

 

[Matt N]

It would be good if Piccolo Mondo got refurbished. I remember it seeming on the more dated side in 2022 (despite its apparent relatively young age!), and if there’s any park I would trust to do a good job of refurbishing it, it’s Europa!

Piraten in Batavia was brilliantly done, as is CanCan Coaster (not a dark ride, I know, but it’s still a refurbishment where they did a gorgeous job of the theming!) and the Geisterschloss revamp seems to have garnered good reviews, so I think they would likely do a refurbishment really well!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Where has all this "It's old, it's gotta go" vibe come from? Surely we are people of culture, who can appreciate older rides for what they are?

Obviously, if any referb happens as a result of the aftermath of the recent fires, we can all understand why. But age alone does not make a ride "bad".
The words "charm" and "quaint" carry a lot of weight in the world of dark rides. They are pretty much synonymous with "historic".

And let's not forget, this is one of those classic examples where EP "squoze" a minor ride in to space between other attractions, that in any other park would have been wasted empty space.

If fire regs require a referb, that's fine. But I would trust EP to keep the spirit of the original attraction alive.

 

[Benzin]

There is a massive disparity in terms of the "quality" of both bench rides compared to Snorri Touren (a more apt comparison really).

However little one loved all 3 attractions on our visit earlier this year. Which is the target audience after all. Sometimes we need to see things through fresh eyes (be they young or non-enthusiast) to get a true scope of things.


I'd imagine Europa pushing everything to be within the same animation style helps this modernisation push. Whether it is a positive or not is up for debate, though clearly they need to bring the buildings up to code and are under the eye of TUV to boot.