AT86
TS Member
We are not long back from first trip to EP during Winter season, along with the first visit to Rulantica. Thought I would do a trip report/summary of our time with some photos. Which was of course, fantastic.
Travel
We travelled via car and the ferry to Calais. It was the cheapest option for us, and came with the bonus of being able to stock up on Christmas booze in France on the way back.
It is a long old drive though, we did the Belgium/Luxembourg route on the way there, and the French one on the way back. Much much easier journey via France even if it does come with €50 of tolls.
Accommodation
To break up the journey on the way there we booked a hotel just off the motorway near Strasbourg. It was fine, and only cost £37 so we were hardly expecting the Ritz, but boy the room was small! Opening either the main or bathroom door meant smacking right into the bed since it was so small. Think we would splash some extra cash for a nicer hotel next time.
However we significantly upgraded ourselves for the main stay at EP with 3 nights at Bell Rock. First time staying here and boy did we love it. What a beautiful place, so calming and everything had such a quality feel to it. Our room was an ‘economy room’ so no view, but since it was dark so early we didn’t really feel we missed out, and it saved a fair bit over the regular rooms.
Rulantica
Day 1 we went to Rulantica, got the bus from Bell Rock, they were running about every 15mins, arrived about 11.30am.
We had a brilliant day, however to start off with a negative, the first view from the car parks/bus stop is a little bit of a let down. You have the beautiful Kronosar coming into view on the right, and effectively the warehouse/unthemed exterior of Rulantica on your left. Seems a bit of an oversight and a rare misstep from EP, hopefully they have plans to improve this in time.
Anyway once at the front of the building it looks great, lovely reception area and quick check in/issue of rula-bands. In all we spent about 7 hours in the waterpark, it was a Sunday so quite busy, with the longest queue for the slides at 35mins, but most at 10 so nothing unmanageable. We ate at the main restaurant and partook of a few beverages in the indoor and outdoor swim up bar. The outdoor bar had a ‘Party’ from 1pm. Having an EP strength Mojito in an outdoor pool named the ‘Frigg Tempel’ in December with German Schlager blasting out will be one of my longer term memories from the trip
Slides wise we did most of them. We found it pretty difficult to suss out which slide we were actually waiting for some of the time. This meant it was a nice surprise when seeing the loading area as to what we were to experience. Slightly frustrating however if you wanted to work this out before queueing. The Scandi-esque names and non-descriptive English explanations could be tweaked to help improve things - even just a small pic/diagram on the info boards so language doesn’t need to come into it.
Lazy river was good, we had plenty of goes round with no need to get off until ready. Best part for me was definitely the indoor pool bar, could happily spend hours here.
Overall we loved our day, EP have produced a well themed, fun, high quality water park that was unstressful even on a busy-ish weekend. Looking forward to future trips!
Onto the theme park - we had two day tickets, the park closed at 7pm both days and we had one hour early ride time from 10am. Longest queue was 15mins over the two days, most were walk on or 5min queues - brilliant!
Surprisingly Wodan and Silver Star were running one train, it was quiet but still meant for long waits between trains due to the length of the rides.
Rides
Since our last visit CanCan Coaster, Madame Thingymajiggy and Snorri Touren were all new to us.
Enjoyed all three, for different reasons of course but the overriding element is the quality. You can tell they aren’t just knocked up as cheaply as possible and some real thought had gone into the designs. Snorri was nothing ground breaking, but really charming and a great way to link the park and waterpark together.
Very much looking forward to Pirates next year as I imagine the same level of quality will be put into this ride too.
Of course there was plenty of time for rides (and re-rides) on some of our favourites including Silver Star, Blue Fire, Wodan, Arthur and Voletarium. We managed over 30 rides across the 2 days without really trying, we certainly weren’t rushing about.
Euro-Mir I’m still not overly keen on. Come for the sound track and the disco lift. Not fussed about the rest.
Managed a go on Poseidon which I wasn’t expecting to be open, but it was a nice surprise, if not a little chilly! The only rides closed during our visit were the Log Flume, Supersplash and the Rapids.
Shows
We managed a few shows across the two days. Was pleasantly surprised by the Ice Show which had some good moments and very impressive skating. It also had classic random EP moments that seemingly had nothing to do with anything. Why skaters dressed as ducks, monkeys and penguins popped up at one point I’ll never know.
We watched the 4D show in French, since I understand more French than German, however it was easy to follow anyway, really nice animation and quite a cute storyline with Ed and his grandad.
We also saw the Snow: Christmas Illusion Show which had some really good singers and an average magician. Plus those all important random EP moments such as dancers prancing about with giant cutlery for no reason.
Christmas parade, tree lighting and the evening show on the lake also nice surprises, being better than expected.
The whole Christmas atmosphere was fantastic, the effort they go to with the lights, trees, Christmas markets, fire pits, decorations, food and drink stalls is just fabulous. The projection show on the CanCan globe was also a highlight.
Food
There is no denying food is pricey at the hotels - but it’s a theme park so it’s hardly surprising. Breakfast at the hotel was brilliant, so much choice and a great start to the day.
We had an evening meal at Don Quichotte, went for the skewers and salad bar, the skewers themselves were smaller than expected, but lots of options on the salad bar to fill up on.
The bar in Bell Rock was a good choice for food (and more strong cocktails) with good service and a pianist playing too.
In the park we ate at Food Loop, the French Bakery and various snacks including Crepes and Gluhwein at the Christmas market.
All in all it was a fantastic trip, perhaps it has become our favourite time of year. Definitely will be returning during winter season in the not too distant future.
Travel
We travelled via car and the ferry to Calais. It was the cheapest option for us, and came with the bonus of being able to stock up on Christmas booze in France on the way back.
It is a long old drive though, we did the Belgium/Luxembourg route on the way there, and the French one on the way back. Much much easier journey via France even if it does come with €50 of tolls.
Accommodation
To break up the journey on the way there we booked a hotel just off the motorway near Strasbourg. It was fine, and only cost £37 so we were hardly expecting the Ritz, but boy the room was small! Opening either the main or bathroom door meant smacking right into the bed since it was so small. Think we would splash some extra cash for a nicer hotel next time.
However we significantly upgraded ourselves for the main stay at EP with 3 nights at Bell Rock. First time staying here and boy did we love it. What a beautiful place, so calming and everything had such a quality feel to it. Our room was an ‘economy room’ so no view, but since it was dark so early we didn’t really feel we missed out, and it saved a fair bit over the regular rooms.
Rulantica
Day 1 we went to Rulantica, got the bus from Bell Rock, they were running about every 15mins, arrived about 11.30am.
We had a brilliant day, however to start off with a negative, the first view from the car parks/bus stop is a little bit of a let down. You have the beautiful Kronosar coming into view on the right, and effectively the warehouse/unthemed exterior of Rulantica on your left. Seems a bit of an oversight and a rare misstep from EP, hopefully they have plans to improve this in time.
Anyway once at the front of the building it looks great, lovely reception area and quick check in/issue of rula-bands. In all we spent about 7 hours in the waterpark, it was a Sunday so quite busy, with the longest queue for the slides at 35mins, but most at 10 so nothing unmanageable. We ate at the main restaurant and partook of a few beverages in the indoor and outdoor swim up bar. The outdoor bar had a ‘Party’ from 1pm. Having an EP strength Mojito in an outdoor pool named the ‘Frigg Tempel’ in December with German Schlager blasting out will be one of my longer term memories from the trip
Slides wise we did most of them. We found it pretty difficult to suss out which slide we were actually waiting for some of the time. This meant it was a nice surprise when seeing the loading area as to what we were to experience. Slightly frustrating however if you wanted to work this out before queueing. The Scandi-esque names and non-descriptive English explanations could be tweaked to help improve things - even just a small pic/diagram on the info boards so language doesn’t need to come into it.
Lazy river was good, we had plenty of goes round with no need to get off until ready. Best part for me was definitely the indoor pool bar, could happily spend hours here.
Overall we loved our day, EP have produced a well themed, fun, high quality water park that was unstressful even on a busy-ish weekend. Looking forward to future trips!
Onto the theme park - we had two day tickets, the park closed at 7pm both days and we had one hour early ride time from 10am. Longest queue was 15mins over the two days, most were walk on or 5min queues - brilliant!
Surprisingly Wodan and Silver Star were running one train, it was quiet but still meant for long waits between trains due to the length of the rides.
Rides
Since our last visit CanCan Coaster, Madame Thingymajiggy and Snorri Touren were all new to us.
Enjoyed all three, for different reasons of course but the overriding element is the quality. You can tell they aren’t just knocked up as cheaply as possible and some real thought had gone into the designs. Snorri was nothing ground breaking, but really charming and a great way to link the park and waterpark together.
Very much looking forward to Pirates next year as I imagine the same level of quality will be put into this ride too.
Of course there was plenty of time for rides (and re-rides) on some of our favourites including Silver Star, Blue Fire, Wodan, Arthur and Voletarium. We managed over 30 rides across the 2 days without really trying, we certainly weren’t rushing about.
Euro-Mir I’m still not overly keen on. Come for the sound track and the disco lift. Not fussed about the rest.
Managed a go on Poseidon which I wasn’t expecting to be open, but it was a nice surprise, if not a little chilly! The only rides closed during our visit were the Log Flume, Supersplash and the Rapids.
Shows
We managed a few shows across the two days. Was pleasantly surprised by the Ice Show which had some good moments and very impressive skating. It also had classic random EP moments that seemingly had nothing to do with anything. Why skaters dressed as ducks, monkeys and penguins popped up at one point I’ll never know.
We watched the 4D show in French, since I understand more French than German, however it was easy to follow anyway, really nice animation and quite a cute storyline with Ed and his grandad.
We also saw the Snow: Christmas Illusion Show which had some really good singers and an average magician. Plus those all important random EP moments such as dancers prancing about with giant cutlery for no reason.
Christmas parade, tree lighting and the evening show on the lake also nice surprises, being better than expected.
The whole Christmas atmosphere was fantastic, the effort they go to with the lights, trees, Christmas markets, fire pits, decorations, food and drink stalls is just fabulous. The projection show on the CanCan globe was also a highlight.
Food
There is no denying food is pricey at the hotels - but it’s a theme park so it’s hardly surprising. Breakfast at the hotel was brilliant, so much choice and a great start to the day.
We had an evening meal at Don Quichotte, went for the skewers and salad bar, the skewers themselves were smaller than expected, but lots of options on the salad bar to fill up on.
The bar in Bell Rock was a good choice for food (and more strong cocktails) with good service and a pianist playing too.
In the park we ate at Food Loop, the French Bakery and various snacks including Crepes and Gluhwein at the Christmas market.
All in all it was a fantastic trip, perhaps it has become our favourite time of year. Definitely will be returning during winter season in the not too distant future.
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