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Trip Planning: Information, advice and questions!

From EuropaStreet Facebook:
Ouibus, the bus company run by the French state-owned railways 'SNCF', will soon be operating daily buses between Strasbourg railway station and Basel airport via Europa-Park.
No times for now, we only know that it will start this spring. It will be a regular line (understand not only weekend and holidays) and we can expect one bus each way every day.
Basel airport offers lots of flights from/to the UK, and this will hopefully make it easier to visit the park from that airport.
:)
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Just want to say a big thanks to you AstroDan for the info you've put in this thread. It's just helped me plan and book my first trip for mid September! I couldn't (and probably wouldn't) have done it without your post. We've gone for a 3-day park ticket with 2 nights at Castillo Alcazar.

Always been very envious reading trip reports over the years so it will be exciting to experience it all for myself. September seems ages away now...

:D
 
Just want to say a big thanks to you AstroDan for the info you've put in this thread. It's just helped me plan and book my first trip for mid September! I couldn't (and probably wouldn't) have done it without your post. We've gone for a 3-day park ticket with 2 nights at Castillo Alcazar.

Always been very envious reading trip reports over the years so it will be exciting to experience it all for myself. September seems ages away now...

:D

I was just about to type an almost verbatim post to yours. Even the same time frame and hotel :) I echo the thanks to AstroDan and others its been more than useful.

I do have a question that I can't find a simple answer to. If you hire a car from Basel airport is it as simple as informing the company you will be driving to Germany? I'm returning the car to Basel but I intend to drive to Triburg, Freiburg, Holiday Park and possibly Tripsdrill in the same week. I've read conflicting reports that you need leave via the French side of Mulhouse, others say you need to pay a vignette and drive via the Swiss side. So if anyone has driven what's the actual advice? thanks :)
 
I was just about to type an almost verbatim post to yours. Even the same time frame and hotel :) I echo the thanks to AstroDan and others its been more than useful.

I do have a question that I can't find a simple answer to. If you hire a car from Basel airport is it as simple as informing the company you will be driving to Germany? I'm returning the car to Basel but I intend to drive to Triburg, Freiburg, Holiday Park and possibly Tripsdrill in the same week. I've read conflicting reports that you need leave via the French side of Mulhouse, others say you need to pay a vignette and drive via the Swiss side. So if anyone has driven what's the actual advice? thanks :)

The reason you're getting the conflicting reports is because there's two ways of doing it thanks to the two sides to the airport- the Swiss side and the French side. To avoid paying tolls in Switzerland, then go to the French side kiosks at the airport (most car hire sites will specify) and pick your car up there. I believe it's still the case that you can't drive a Swiss hired car into the EU unless you're Swiss yourself now too - that's thanks to a new law a year or two back, so the Swiss side wouldn't be of any use to you. If you're hiring on the French side though, you're usually covered to drive your car into Germany without an issue, but of course check with the individual company in their terms :).
 
Thanks for the sound advice Craig. Saves me scouring the family tree for a Swiss relative :D

I read about that crazy law earlier in the thread, hopefully nothing changes in the next few months.
 
The reason you're getting the conflicting reports is because there's two ways of doing it thanks to the two sides to the airport- the Swiss side and the French side. To avoid paying tolls in Switzerland, then go to the French side kiosks at the airport (most car hire sites will specify) and pick your car up there. I believe it's still the case that you can't drive a Swiss hired car into the EU unless you're Swiss yourself now too - that's thanks to a new law a year or two back, so the Swiss side wouldn't be of any use to you. If you're hiring on the French side though, you're usually covered to drive your car into Germany without an issue, but of course check with the individual company in their terms :).

This might have completely screwed me! Thanks for the info I had no idea.

Flight gets in at 9:30pm, only the Swiss side of car hire places are open at that time. Plan was to drive to the hotel that night but won't be able to do that now... think I'll have to re-book flights for Strasbourg instead.
 
This might have completely screwed me! Thanks for the info I had no idea.

Flight gets in at 9:30pm, only the Swiss side of car hire places are open at that time. Plan was to drive to the hotel that night but won't be able to do that now... think I'll have to re-book flights for Strasbourg instead.

Why don't you just stay at an airport hotel? There's an Ibis nearby at St Louis.

Then go back to the airport first thing in the morning and head to EP.
 
Why don't you just stay at an airport hotel? There's an Ibis nearby at St Louis.

Then go back to the airport first thing in the morning and head to EP.

Aye that's what I've pretty much decided on. Just waiting for the rental car company to get back to me about whether they can provide an EU registered car. I just didn't want to drive to Europa from Basel the same day we be in the park. The original plan was to stay in a hotel 20 mins away.
 
Has anyone spotted how much the 3 day tickets are for both adults and kids this year ? Going between 6-8 June as a group of 10 and fear the school holidays will make it too busy to pack everything in in only 2 days! How busy can we expect it to be mid-week during the whit-week BW and Bayern school hols with a 7pm closure?
Went last year at a similar time but there was no school holidays and was quite quiet (15-20min queues max)
 
Has anyone spotted how much the 3 day tickets are for both adults and kids this year ? Going between 6-8 June as a group of 10 and fear the school holidays will make it too busy to pack everything in in only 2 days! How busy can we expect it to be mid-week during the whit-week BW and Bayern school hols with a 7pm closure?
Went last year at a similar time but there was no school holidays and was quite quiet (15-20min queues max)
I think a 3-day ticket will be around €120, though I'm not sure of an accurate figure.
 
7pm is only a medium forecast.

You'll be ok - possibly more than 20 minute queues, but certainly not horrendous.
 
Few queries having booked a trip for July, first time on park in a few years.

What's the line up for Early Ride Time typically? I know this is variable. And secondly, which of the hotel buffet restaurants is the best?
 
As far as I'm aware it's typically Spain and Iceland for early rides. As for buffets, Santa Isabel is probably the best as they will cook the meat you select exactly how you want it, although it is the most expensive. Don Quixote also does a small buffet option on the menu with a choice of meats again cooked in front of you but it's only one trip to the buffet bar (veg dishes only)

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Any advice specific to Traumatica? Looking at being on park 4th - 6th October and doing the Traumatica event on the evening of Friday 6th.

Would love to know what queue times are usually like, what the organisation is like for the event, usual opening hours, which rides remain open etc. Have done Europa twice before but never for their Halloween event and the details on the official website are currently very patchy, not even a ticket price!

Any tips greatly appreciated, apologies if somebody has asked similar in a previous year.
 
The start of the event is usually quieter than nearer to Halloween, so you've picked a good time to go! The issue with this year is along with the name change, the gut feeling is there's going to be massive changes afoot to how the event is going to be run. So our advice we previously dished out for Horror Nights might not be a good fit for Traumatica.

So yeah all I'd say for now is decent time to go, and hang fire for the information to come out over the next few months!
 
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Traumatica tickets have now gone on sale but the price options have confused me.

€ 31,00 - Event
€ 35,00 - ShoxterPass
€ 78,00 - Kombi

There appear to be these three options in terms of tickets but there's no explanation as to what each ticket consists of nor translation.

Is anybody able to elaborate as to what each of these is, and which one I want?
 
Not sure at the moment since the event information hasn't been updated and we've not had any press information. Kombi will be park entry for during the day and an event ticket, Event and ShoxterPass I'm not sure about though, guess it'll be a case of waiting until the event information is released. My guess is you've caught them updating the ticketing site prior to the site being updated in the coming days.
 
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Event info has now been updated:

€ 31,00 - Event - Access to the event and standard access to the mazes
€ 35,00 - ShoxterPass - Access to the event and 1 fastrack to each maze (there's 5 in total)
€ 78,00 - Kombi - Park entrance through the day and event ticket (no fastrack) in one.

The Club (formerly Vampire's Club) is €5 - separate entrance fee to the tickets as usual, no prics for VIP tickets online, they can only be bought over the phone. The VIP tickets either give standing space or a seated table in the VIP area for up to 4 people and a 1L bottle of spirits and a litre of mixer (hope you don't like your booze diluted too much!). Event entry is from 6:45pm and mazes open 7:30pm.

So no major info confirmed so far aside from the number of mazes confirmation and the name change for the event and club.
 
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Thanks!

Am assuming the fastpass has to be purchased 'as well as' the entrance ticket (so effectively 66euro)? Only four euros extra for a ticket including fastpass would cause chaos.
 
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