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Silver Star

Rob F said:
Disabled access at Europa is all via exits
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Mostly yes. Notable exceptions are Batavia which has a lift at the entrance, and CanCanCoaster is via the Baby Switch/VIP entry at the side - and wheelchair users can from this season now ride via the lift in the Valerian building.
 
We queued from the entrance, through all the pens, around the inside and outside queues in the building and the ride was half broken and had to remove a train and it took 45 mins.
 
AstroDan said:
Shambhala meanwhile...

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"Shambles" indeed. Having experienced PortAventura with a fast track wristband, I could never do it any other way! Operations are appalling.

My only gripe with Silver Star is the loading platform - it can be six or seven deep at some gates (Row 2 & back) and quite honestly it's confusing when larger groups are trying to orchestrate themselves to the same train and continually shuffle around!

Also. The bottom of the first drop. PLEASE.
 
Sazzle said:
"Shambles" indeed. Having experienced PortAventura with a fast track wristband, I could never do it any other way! Operations are appalling.

My only gripe with Silver Star is the loading platform - it can be six or seven deep at some gates (Row 2 & back) and quite honestly it's confusing when larger groups are trying to orchestrate themselves to the same train and continually shuffle around!

Also. The bottom of the first drop. PLEASE.
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SEND. IN. THE. BULLDOZERS.

Or bison?

On a more serious note, they have dabbled with a batcher before but the operations are so fast they cannot keep up.

Bottom of the first drop... yeah. Been like it for years. Don't know the solution.

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Has the first drop always been slightly rattly, then? I thought that Silver Star was for the most part very smooth, but the first drop was not quite as smooth as the rest of it. Not overly rough by any means, but dependant on seat, a rattle could definitely be felt. It seemed more pronounced on the outer seats and further back in the train. In a middle seat closer to the front, I didn’t really notice it at all, but on a back outer, I could definitely feel it.

Could this be down to the profiling of the drop as opposed to the ride’s age? I notice that Silver Star is the only B&M Hyper Coaster with a drop that curves upwards into the first hill; all the other l-shaped hyper coasters rise up into a straight airtime hill and curve down. Or do some sort of big overbanked turn (like Mako), where the turn happens high up.

Why is it that SS curves up into the airtime hill rather than down out of it like every other B&M Hyper with that style of layout? Could it be the forces of that low turn, or a slightly dodgy transition, that causes the rattle in that section rather than the age of the ride?
 
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I'm not sure I felt it was anything to do with the rise out of the drop, it felt like the very bottom of the drop itself. I rode the first week of May and it was just on my tolerance threshold for roughness. I find myself "riding the drop" rather than relaxing into my seat (hopefully as fellow enthusiasts, you'll know what I mean!).

Perhaps a few new bits of track to spruce up the old bird? Please Mr Mack? 😇
 
Watch this video at the linked time point to see Silver Star with all of it's extended queues out the front open. The queue time on this video was 45 minutes, and was during a busy 8.00pm ride close day last week.

 
One of the things I love about Silver Star is that even on the busiest of busy days when the queue is full (and spilling out of the entrance) you will still only wait a maximum of 50 minutes to ride. And I never mind standing in a fast moving queue!
 
There is a wide consensus that Silver Star is these days running more quickly in winter than it does in main season. Since the ride now seems able to operate down to -1/0c ish (as long as there's no ice formed on the rails), they must have altered the wheel compounds. Superb to see one of the biggest rollercoasters in Europe now able to operate even colder than it was before.

Here's a delightful snow ride on Silver Star taken last week:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aelz2dqaoY8
 
It was running really fast last week in -4C. They struggled a little to get it open first thing, but by around 2pm it was open and really shifting to the point the trims were really noticeable.

Interestingly the biggest factor in whether they could get it open was the wet rather than the temperature. Later in the week they couldn’t get it open despite temperatures hovering around 1C. There was a lot more rain about compared to much drier conditions when it was -4C. The same applied to Blue Fire and Wodan.

Truly amazing that the park manage to get these rides open in such extreme temperatures.
 
Silver Star ran in -4C? Wow… the Germans have a very different cold tolerance for running rides to what we have in the UK! Isn’t Thirteen’s minimum temperature threshold up to 5C now, or did I imagine that?

In fairness, though, I guess Germany is a bit colder than the UK on average, so their rides probably have to be built for colder temperatures than our rides in Britain do.

On a side note, I have to say that Silver Star was a very positive surprise for me. I’d heard a lot of negativity surrounding it, so even though Mako (a fellow B&M Hyper) is my top coaster, I went in with pretty low expectations. However, it was absolutely phenomenal; packed with airtime, very smooth for the most part and simply an overall fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that I absolutely adored!

It (perhaps unexpectedly) sits as my favourite Europa Park coaster following numerous rides on my trip in April, and it’s right up there in my #2 spot out of 91 coasters ridden; it’s only a hair behind Mako for me! Mako still edges it slightly because it had a certain “100% glass smoothness” that Silver Star lacks and I also feel that its strongest airtime moments had a bit more impact than any individual moment on Silver Star, from memory, but Silver Star is definitely my #2, and massively exceeded expectations!
 
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Matt N said:
In fairness, though, I guess Germany is a bit colder than the UK on average, so their rides probably have to be built for colder temperatures than our rides in Britain do.
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Baden-Württemberg is for sure warmer in summer on average than the UK, winters however are colder. Winter operations are only a thing in recent years as the park have taken the effort & put the investment in to ensure they can run. Was not being thought of back when Silver Star was first built.

Matt N said:
but SS is definitely my #2, and massively exceeded expectations!
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Generally Silver Star is not abbreviated to SS. That has other meanings in Germany...
 
CSLKenny said:
Baden-Württemberg is for sure warmer in summer on average than the UK, winters however are colder. Winter operations are only a thing in recent years as the park have taken the effort & put the investment in to ensure they can run. Was not being thought of back when Silver Star was first built.


Generally Silver Star is not abbreviated to SS. That has other meanings in Germany...
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Ah, that’s interesting… so temperatures are simply more volatile in Baden-Württemberg rather than colder overall?

My apologies, I did not think of that… I’ll edit my post.
 
I hope this doesn't sound pedantic, but Europa Park actually did their first Christmas event in 2001, shortly before Silver Star opened. Whether it was on their radar when they planned Silver Star, I'm not sure, but as a family business they can think far ahead if they want to.
 
Potentially but it was only first was attempted in 2017. Really only has been the last few years German parks have placed a lot of effort into running a full as possible line up.
 
I believe this year is the first year that the ride is “officially” listed as open for the winter season, rather than being greyed out on the park map but open when weather allows. Again, Wodan and Blue Fire are as also now “officially” open for the winter.
 
EP have done modifications to allow rides to run. Wodan operated from the get-go, I recall. Blue Fire was a little later, and Sylvia a little later again.

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So it's just Fjord Rafting and Atlantica Supersplash that close through winter with Poseidon and Tirol Log Flume opening unadvertised as I understand it.
 
Poseidon generally more often than the log flume. It’s actually another ride slated to officially open this winter.

There are a few other minor rides closed and changes to the show lineup, but no other major rides advertised as closed.
 
As far as I understand it, Tirol Log Flume will open weekends and holiday periods if it's of a certain temperature - but won't open off-peak in winter regardless. Poseidon they will do their best on all open days.

Atlantica is indeed closed - but arguably replaced directly by the Belle Vue observation wheel. Fjord Rafting is also closed - but replaced by the ice rink, winter village, snowmobiles etc.

If everything opens that they have available, there is actually almost more to ride/experience in winter than summer!
 
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