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Trip Planning: Information, advice and questions!

Bowser said:
Yes from everything i've heard on here doesn't sound like it would be enjoyable for my son or my aging spine!

Arthur looks like his almost perfect ride, a suspended coaster with dark ride elements... just needs a launch.
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Does your son not enjoy rough rides, then?

What sort of things does he like? Granted, I last visited in 2022, but I could try and steer you towards some things I’d recommend based on the things I did.
 
Bowser said:
Yes from everything i've heard on here doesn't sound like it would be enjoyable for my son or my aging spine!

Arthur looks like his almost perfect ride, a suspended coaster with dark ride elements... just needs a launch.
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He'll love Blue Fire then, butter smooth, ultra fun and has a launch! With Voltron I'd recommend making sure he has an inside seat as they're more enjoyable, although your spine might not appreciate the outside seats either. Plus, if your spine is that bad I would not recommend Euro Mir.

I echo what @Matt N says though, we're perfectly placed to offer tailored advice 😊
 
Matt N said:
Does your son not enjoy rough rides, then?

What sort of things does he like? Granted, I last visited in 2022, but I could try and steer you towards some things I’d recommend based on the things I did.
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Well tbh i like them a lot less and i'm usually his designated companion. Depends on the type of rough i suppose, we'd certainly give it a go.

His favourite rides so far are:

- Vampire and Gruffalo at Chessington
- Hyperia and Rush at Thorpe Park
- Lego 4D Cinema and Sky Lion at Legoland
- WickerMan and Thirteen at AT
- Ride To Happines, Anubis and Heidi at Plopsaland
- Baron 1898, Joris and Vogel Rok at Efteling
- Space Mountain, Avengers Assemble and Star Tours at DLP
- Taron, Mystery Castle and Winja at Phantasialand

Oh and to perhaps counter what i've just said he loves Rage at Southend Adventure Island.... though sometimes he gets upset, which i can only put down to head banging but can't be sure.

Skyscraper said:
He'll love Blue Fire then, butter smooth, ultra fun and has a launch! With Voltron I'd recommend making sure he has an inside seat as they're more enjoyable, although your spine might not appreciate the outside seats either. Plus, if your spine is that bad I would not recommend Euro Mir.

I echo what @Matt N says though, we're perfectly placed to offer tailored advice 😊
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Thanks! Yes Blue Fire looks right up his street and glad to hear it's smooth! Re Voltron i've already made a note of that from the various comments since it opened, fingers crossed we don't get the infamous "bad train".
 
Bowser said:
Well tbh i like them a lot less and i'm usually his designated companion. Depends on the type of rough i suppose, we'd certainly give it a go.

His favourite rides so far are:

- Vampire and Gruffalo at Chessington
- Hyperia and Rush at Thorpe Park
- Lego 4D Cinema and Sky Lion at Legoland
- WickerMan and Thirteen at AT
- Ride To Happines, Anubis and Heidi at Plopsaland
- Baron 1898, Joris and Vogel Rok at Efteling
- Space Mountain, Avengers Assemble and Star Tours at DLP
- Taron, Mystery Castle and Winja at Phantasialand

Oh and to perhaps counter what i've just said he loves Rage at Southend Adventure Island.... though sometimes he gets upset, which i can only put down to head banging but can't be sure.



Thanks! Yes Blue Fire looks right up his street and glad to hear it's smooth! Re Voltron i've already made a note of that from the various comments since it opened, fingers crossed we don't get the infamous "bad train".
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Is he particular about where he sits in coasters? Just bear in mind that it's impossible to choose your row on both Voltron on Arthur, although I don't know what the process is for guests loading from the exit.
 
Euro Mir isn’t so much head bashing as leg bashing. The ride only has lap bars, so it doesn’t bash your head in the way that, say, Rage might, but it will give your legs and knees quite a good bashing!

If he likes Hyperia and has reached 1.4m by the time you go (correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember you saying that your son’s height/slow growth was proving an issue for some parks?), I’d certainly recommend giving Silver Star a go. It’s big, fast, relatively smooth and has lots of lovely floater and ejector airtime; I loved it, and on my pre-Voltron visit, it was my favourite coaster in the park!

If he likes Wicker Man and Heidi, Wodan is also absolutely brilliant! It’s unbelievably fast like few other coasters I’ve been on, and has some really fun quick airtime pops, but is also very smooth by woodie standards!

If he likes dark coasters like Vogel Rok and the DLP rides, I’d give CanCan Coaster a firm recommendation. It’s great fun, very smooth, and the theming and music make it a real laugh!

If he likes dark rides, I’d definitely recommend Piraten in Batavia and Voletarium. Piraten in Batavia is a gorgeous boat ride (even though I haven’t ridden it, I’d imagine it’s much the same sort of thing as Pirates at DLP… if anything, I thought Batavia was better than the Florida version of POTC!), and Voletarium is much the same style of ride as Flight of the Sky Lion. I don’t favour Voletarium’s film quite as much as Sky Lion’s myself, but it’s still a great ride and I think that depends on personal preference as much as anything; Voletarium is more Soarin-style, if you’ve ever visited Epcot or California Adventure, whereas Sky Lion is more like Flight of Passage.
 
Poisson said:
Arthur is barely a coaster, then again he enjoys Baron so coasters that do nothing might be fine.
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They might not do anything for you, but for an autistic child they could be the most important rides in the park. We need to think about suggestions from his point of view, as he sees things differently to us.

Matt N said:
Euro Mir isn’t so much head bashing as leg bashing. The ride only has lap bars, so it doesn’t bash your head in the way that, say, Rage might, but it will give your legs and knees quite a good bashing!

If he likes Hyperia and has reached 1.4m by the time you go (correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember you saying that your son’s height/slow growth was proving an issue for some parks?), I’d certainly recommend giving Silver Star a go. It’s big, fast, relatively smooth and has lots of lovely floater and ejector airtime; I loved it, and on my pre-Voltron visit, it was my favourite coaster in the park!

If he likes Wicker Man and Heidi, Wodan is also absolutely brilliant! It’s unbelievably fast like few other coasters I’ve been on, and has some really fun quick airtime pops, but is also very smooth by woodie standards!

If he likes dark coasters like Vogel Rok and the DLP rides, I’d give CanCan Coaster a firm recommendation. It’s great fun, very smooth, and the theming and music make it a real laugh!

If he likes dark rides, I’d definitely recommend Piraten in Batavia and Voletarium. Piraten in Batavia is a gorgeous boat ride (even though I haven’t ridden it, I’d imagine it’s much the same sort of thing as Pirates at DLP… if anything, I thought Batavia was better than the Florida version of POTC!), and Voletarium is much the same style of ride as Flight of the Sky Lion. I don’t favour Voletarium’s film quite as much as Sky Lion’s myself, but it’s still a great ride and I think that depends on personal preference as much as anything; Voletarium is more Soarin-style, if you’ve ever visited Epcot or California Adventure, whereas Sky Lion is more like Flight of Passage.
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I second all those recommendations! I'd add Snorri Touren as well, it's a cute little dark ride with a fun theme.
 
Skyscraper said:
Is he particular about where he sits in coasters? Just bear in mind that it's impossible to choose your row on both Voltron on Arthur, although I don't know what the process is for guests loading from the exit.
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No he's fine to go where i tell him. He does prefer to sit in the row that we first go in if we do a re-ride but it's not a deal breaker. I think that's more of a Merlin habit where we usually get put in the same row for things. He was very confused by the dual loading station for Space Mountain!

Matt N said:
Euro Mir isn’t so much head bashing as leg bashing. The ride only has lap bars, so it doesn’t bash your head in the way that, say, Rage might, but it will give your legs and knees quite a good bashing!
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Ah ok perhaps that would be so bad then and i can cushion him like i do on most lap bar coasters.

Alas he definitely won't be 1.4m by the time we visit (i presume his favourites at AT and Thorpe will change when that day comes, please pray for my health when he discovers Saw and Colossus).

Good to hear Can Can is smooth too! I think that, Blue Fire, Wodan and Arthur will be the favourites but he does surprise me sometimes, wasn't expecting Winja at Phantasialand to be a favourite. Europa does look like a park where he will have a lot of favourites though which is great, it's nice not to have anxiety of his only rides being closed that we sometimes get elsewhere.

Agree on Voletarium versus Sky Lion, i think the fantasy visuals are a big part of his enjoyment compared to real life footage but we'll see.

Dark Rides are very hit and miss for him, it's difficult to tell what will resonate. He wasn't fussed with Pirates at Disneyland or any of the Fantasyland rides except Peter Pan which i assume is due to the flight aspect but he does generally love being in the dark. Sometimes we'll do 5 laps on Spooksville at Adventure Island and others we won't go on at all.
 
During the hotel/ticket booking process it lets you book tickets that are "valid for the duration of your travel period". So in my example where i'm there for 4 nights, if i buy 2 days worth of tickets are we free to be spontaneous with our use of them? I got to the point of payment without it wanting me to select the dates so i'm assuming that is the case (and the park guarantee entry for hotel guests) but just wanted to check how it will actually work. Do we get tickets dated for our period and once we've entered on 2 days of our choosing during that period they will no longer work?
 
Bowser said:
During the hotel/ticket booking process it lets you book tickets that are "valid for the duration of your travel period". So in my example where i'm there for 4 nights, if i buy 2 days worth of tickets are we free to be spontaneous with our use of them? I got to the point of payment without it wanting me to select the dates so i'm assuming that is the case (and the park guarantee entry for hotel guests) but just wanted to check how it will actually work. Do we get tickets dated for our period and once we've entered on 2 days of our choosing during that period they will no longer work?
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Sounds like you selected the "experience it all" package, which automatically gives you tickets for all days of your day plus Rulantica tickets for your departure day.

It should also give you the option to select your tickets manually for days you want, as well as the package. That's what I did.
 
Skyscraper said:
Sounds like you selected the "experience it all" package, which automatically gives you tickets for all days of your day plus Rulantica tickets for your departure day.

It should also give you the option to select your tickets manually for days you want, as well as the package. That's what I did.
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No i chose the option where you manually select tickets but when i picked tickets for 2 days of my 4 night stay, there was no option to date the tickets (whereas there was for Rulantica). The wording seems to suggest the tickets are open for use for any 2 of the 4 days of our stay. So i just wanted to check we can use them freely? The wording and fact the park guarantee entry for hotel guests suggests that is the case but wasn't 100% sure!
 
Bowser said:
No i chose the option where you manually select tickets but when i picked tickets for 2 days of my 4 night stay, there was no option to date the tickets (whereas there was for Rulantica). The wording seems to suggest the tickets are open for use for any 2 of the 4 days of our stay. So i just wanted to check we can use them freely? The wording and fact the park guarantee entry for hotel guests suggests that is the case but wasn't 100% sure!
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Ah yes sorry, basically if you buy, say a four day ticket, you can use it on any four days of your stay.

Does that make sense?
 
Skyscraper said:
Ah yes sorry, basically if you buy, say a four day ticket, you can use it on any four days of your stay.

Does that make sense?
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Yes. I guess my concern was checking they don’t need to be consecutive days. So if we activate day 1 on Tuesday, we can use day 2 on Thursday right?
 
Bowser said:
No i chose the option where you manually select tickets but when i picked tickets for 2 days of my 4 night stay, there was no option to date the tickets (whereas there was for Rulantica). The wording seems to suggest the tickets are open for use for any 2 of the 4 days of our stay. So i just wanted to check we can use them freely? The wording and fact the park guarantee entry for hotel guests suggests that is the case but wasn't 100% sure!
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Yes, you can use the park tickets on any day of your stay, and they do not need to be consecutive days. The Rulantica tickets, however, ARE dated. I believe they may let you change the date, but you will be at the mercy of the customer service agent really. If you are staying in one of the resort hotels you can also get a (free) last hour ticket, or you can pay for either a 2pm entry or 4pm entry ticket.

A question for the experts, has anyone done a winter season trip and can offer opinions? I'm thinking about it for next year, and might be able to make use of the early bird booking. It would be just the two of us, no kids, and my partner is a waterpark lover. I assume the outside pools of Rulantica are open year round? I know the big dragon thing and the kids areas close, but we don't really use those.
 
Right change of plan, my wife doesn’t think 4 nights in a hotel is viable so we are getting an Airbnb instead. Found one that’s basically right in the middle of the two parks, which raises new questions:

- Can you freely leave the park and Rulantica and return later? I’d guess yes for park but perhaps not Rulantica?

- I think I’ve read the answer already but you can enter the park via the hotels on the east side rather than have to walk around yes?

- Is the park to park shuttle free or only for hotel guests?

- Is the Lidl a full sized one? So we can buy bacon, fruit and vegetables etc or more convenience store style?
 
Bowser said:
- Can you freely leave the park and Rulantica and return later? I’d guess yes for park but perhaps not Rulantica?
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You can for the park, they take your photo and scan your ticket. Not sure about Rulantica as I've not been.

Bowser said:
- I think I’ve read the answer already but you can enter the park via the hotels on the east side rather than have to walk around yes?
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I think the hotels park entrance is exclusively for the resort hotels. Someone else may be able to confirm though. Anyone can exit via it, though.

Bowser said:
- Is the Lidl a full sized one? So we can buy bacon, fruit and vegetables etc or more convenience store style?
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Yes, it's a full-size one.
 
Only resort guests can enter the park via the hotel entrance but anyone can leave that way. I'm not sure how the systems are set up but I'd imagine it's linked so you could have your photo taken at the hotel exit and then re-enter at the main entrance - I've never attempted this though.

There is absolutely no re-entry at Rulantica. Everyone is issued with a wristband prior to entry which is used for making any purchases (food/drink/retail) as well as locker access. In order to exit you have to pay off anything you owe and place the wristband in the exit turnstile. Even if you didn't buy anything you'd still have to return the wristband to get out.

Edit - all of the above is wrong, see venny's post below

Anyone can use the EP shuttle, there are no checks as to whether or not you're staying on resort. There is also the free Rust bus which provides an additional option, depending on where you stay it may be useful to you - check the route in advance as you might find it goes the long way round - I think the info is on the EP hotel resort app, which for some reason is an entirely separate thing to the EP/Rulantica app.
 
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If you have already been in the park that day, you can re-enter via the hotel entrance. You cannot use the hotel entrance for your first entry that day.

You can leave Rulantica and return, subject to speaking to and permission of the staff. That process is generally intended more to allow you to nip to the car or your room, than to leave for a few hours and return.

The Rust Bus route and timetable can be found here: https://www.rust.de/site/Rust/get/d...ität/Rust_Shuttle_Fahrplaene_A3_quer_Juni.pdf

The hotel/Rulantica shuttle can be boarded from any of the hotels and will take you to Rulantica. The closest stop to the hotel exit is on the road between Colosseo and El Andaluz, outside of and on the El Andaluz side.
 
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