French lobby work at Europa Park

Preface

It’s interesting to see that in a year when every major theme park in Germany has a new attraction, Europa Park is at the back of the media hype. Fortunately, things looked different for the park in France, so that at least here, interest in Arthur has been awakened. Something else would hardly be conceivable over there, as Luc Besson’s animated film series has always been very successful in France, while Arthur and the Minimoys’ kingdom in Germany was only successful in the media thanks to the voice acting role of the Tokyo Hotel singer Bill Kaulitz.

Since nobody in Germany actually knows the films, it’s very incomprehensible why they decided to apply for these licenses, because even without the film reference and without the rather modest name of the actual ride, the ride could work. On the other hand a lot of French people visit the park and as it has been shown all too often in English amusement parks you need theme areas on license of well-known children’s series to successfully attract the masses nowadays.

The new ride at Europa Park

Arthur

French lobbying – the Ride is located in the Kingdom of the Minimoys themed area, a very compact hall similar to the Wuze Town themed area in Phantasialand, with some slides, a beautifully designed Zamperla Jump Around and a Zierer Family Freefall Tower. The course of the roller coaster along the ceiling of the hall is the highlight of the publicly visible area.

As the ride is still marked ‘new’ this year, you should hit the ground at the beginning of the day, even if technical teething troubles can push an opening back a few minutes. You don’t have to stand for that long during the day and you can queue up for Arthur right away. As the single rider line is not visible until one passes the entrance portal to the ride, it can be worthwhile to at least stop by there and not be distracted by the regular queue.

The Ride

After you have passed the waiting area, which is nicely arranged, you take a seat in the suitably designed vehicle, which is handled on a conveyor belt. One turn and a simultaneous film sequence later you find yourself shrunken in the realm of the Minimoys and at the same time you are confronted with a novelty in Europa Park, but more about that later.

Surprisingly fast, the route climbs up the hill before you pass some dark ride scenes at the right speed. Shortly afterwards the first true roller coaster part follows, where you briefly leave the hall. One turn later and back inside the hall, where the ‘Paradise Alley’ shows itself from its best side – an admittedly very originally designed scenery. A few meters of track later you flee from a rat and find yourself under the roof of the hall, whereupon the next scene is about a boss fight. Here, the company Mack demonstrates all kinds of features on their car, and so the button on the bar, which at the beginning still seemed nonsensical, is used. The second roller coaster part of the ride follows, where on a short downwards leading curve combination some speed is offered, but in the following upwards helix the ride is massively slowed down again, whereupon the ride also comes to its end.

The farewell of the protagonists, known or unknown from the film, shows a certain consistency that has been missed on many other themed rides in Europa Park, and Arthur also misses the typical overloaded scenes. So it’s no wonder that Arthur – the Ride, which I had previously, more than jokingly, labeled as French lobby work, is a very convincing dark ride. The ride is well made and has a certain symbiosis of well-designed scenes and almost old-fashioned animatronics, while modern design and a certain, but fortunately subtle, interaction is not missing.

Conclusion Arthur

But as a roller coaster Arthur is only a prototype and there is still much to be improved, as for example the general smoothness of the ride is not really exhilarating and you can also play more with the turns of the gondolas. Nevertheless there is a lot of potential in this system, so that there will probably be more units in the next years.

But what is much more important than the actual attraction itself is its location. The fairy tale forest, previously rather less visited, profits from it massively.


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A positive surprise at Europa Park

Europa Park

As expected, Europa Park was a bit fuller on this holiday. Stupidly enough, this already turned out at the cash desks, so that I could not enter the park before 10 o’clock. After I had overcome the first hurdle in the middle of the path of standing French people the way to the big roller coaster novelty of the year Wodan – Timbur Coaster could be taken.

Past the topic areas Switzerland and England I went immediately to Russia and Luxembourg, where besides the advantageous monorail, at least this one has a station in the theme area Iceland, the revolving theatre show Historama, the small dark ride Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen, as well as the revolving gondola roller coaster Euromir are located.

Historama

The Historama is actually a great attraction, after all, you can learn a lot about the founding family Mack and their history. But the first room is simply – like many things at Europa Park – much too cluttered. The last room, however, is very naked and shows the self-congratulation of the family. Of course, you can be proud of your own lobbying, but it leaves a very bland aftertaste, which is why you should avoid this attraction at all costs.

Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen

The Schlittenfahrt Schneeflöckchen, on the other hand, is an absolute must. Although Bench – The Ride is actually very well visible, it is unfortunately a bit lost in the Russian themed area. The ride itself is one of the best dark rides in the park, despite its inconspicuous appearance, and should therefore be tested by every visitor. The soundtrack is suitable for the ear and effectively underlines the cheerful atmosphere of the ride.

Euro-Mir

A similar catchy tune can be found on the prototype of Mack’s spinning coaster, the Euro-Mir roller coaster. This roller coaster is a remarkable ride, because thanks to a drum lift and some blocks the capacity is high enough to keep the queue constantly moving, at least it does, if there aren’t any problems in the meantime. The ride is powerful and if you are lucky enough to ride the second part backwards, it’s really awesome. The curves tapering steadily towards the end form a racy finale, which you can unfortunately only find very rarely.

Whale Adventures

With the monorail arrived in Iceland you can see one of the biggest misdeeds of the park. How one can get the idea to remove the outer cannons of the interactive water ride Whale Adventures remains one of the biggest mysteries of all; after all, as a passenger one wants to get wet. The popularity of the attraction has at least suffered a big slump, after all, the ride is now only interesting for the smallest park guests.

Wodan – Timbur Coaster

In the background you can see a coaster that unfortunately hasn’t been awarded the title again until this year, because actually there should have been a wooden coaster at Europa Park long ago. Wodan – Timbur Coaster is the name of this gem from GCI, whereby the subtitle Timbur Coaster is of course absolute nonsense. Despite the fact that I didn’t really have any expectations of Wodan, I was positively surprised by the ride.

Wodan is, in contrast to most other GCI tracks, not a real Twister, but a mixture of Out & Back Coaster (straight course with several hills) and Twister (curves, baby!) and thus a mixture that doesn’t appeal to everyone and will disappoint especially the Twister fan fraction. Fans of the neat Out & Back layout will definitely find their fun on Wodan, though.

Walking through the queue of the wooden roller coaster Wodan you will be surprised at first how professionally everything has been laid out, after all you are not standing on uneven terrain somewhere between the wooden roller coasters like at Eftelings Joris en de Draak, but on a well constructed wooden path, pass some beautiful caves dedicated to various themes of Nordic mythology and march below the big helix at the beginning of the ride. Quite strange is the circumstance that nothing has been scribbled yet.

After finally being divided into the rows, the trip on Wodan can already start, but the trip to the lift alone is a real highlight. After climbing it, after an unexpectedly high drop, the ride continues with full force into the first curve only to be released quite steeply into the actual first drop. The following curves, tunnels, hills and valleys on Wodan are a dream, but the driving fun is interrupted by a rather unsuccessful part of the layout, only to be released into the last curve combinations. The whole thing is laid down on Wodan with a brute force I didn’t expect in Europa Park anymore, the constant high speed does its best.

Wodan is not a perfect wooden roller coaster, but it is one of the better ones I have come across from time to time. It beats the often highly praised twister Troy in his sleep, but can’t hold a candle to Joris en de Draak Water. Also in national comparison Wodan lags behind the colossus of the Lüneburger Heide, but in southern Germany it is the first choice, which is also a rather easy game with its one competitor.

Blue Fire Megacoaster

Since I criticized the neighboring Blue Fire Megacoaster three years ago too deeply, another ride had to be dared to update this criticism if necessary. As always, pure chance wanted me to take a seat in the second row and thus find an optimal basis for comparison, and to my surprise a lot has happened.

The dark ride part is still absolutely nonsense, after all there is now an animatronics that tells you that something is going wrong. The launch has increased in intensity and is now similar to the launch of a Vekoma Launched Coaster and not the Dutch company’s Motocoaster. Therefore the following part is not driven through so slowly anymore and you can finally guess that the looping is a looping. The part after the block brake is still not very exhilarating. The corkscrews are still going too fast, at least hangtime would be an advantage here, the curves that lead into the still failed roll are somehow stupid and so one is happy to be back at the station again.

Blue Fire is a nice roller coaster for in between, but that’s it, I still can’t understand the hype about the ride and probably never will. The real attraction next to Wodan in this area is and will be the coffee house in close proximity to Blue Fire.

Tiroler Wildwasserbahn

Passing Portugal with his wannabe Spillwater imitation Atlantika Supersplash, where I had to give up a ride due to time reasons and listlessness, I went to Austria to finally get wet. The Tiroler Wildwasserbahn is one of the best in Europe and due to its first shot it is definitely a very wet log flume. You won’t notice the age of the ride at all, so you can literally race through the canal, just like on the Wildwasser 1 in Heide-Park. It is nice to see parks taking care of their rides and renewing them if necessary.

Alpenexpress Enzian

The Powered Coaster Alpenexpress Enzian shares a grotto with the log flume and a walk through the magical world of diamonds. The ride itself has quite a bit of speed and, like the other attractions that share the grotto, is worth a ride just for the scent in it. The wave swinger next door shows that the park also knows a thing or two about rides and runs it, untypically, not on a low flame.

Jungfrau Gletscherflieger

Speaking of rides, the best flat ride Europa Park is in the Swiss themed area and is called the Jungfrau Gletscherflieger. This unique ride is not dissimilar to a Zierer hang-glider, but it offers much better comfort and more fun and can show a high degree of swing, especially when riding at ground level. Since the waiting time at most roundabout rides is close to zero, you should definitely try a ride or two on this ride.

Schweizer Bobbahn

The Schweizer Bobbahn in the same theme area is not really a good roller coaster despite its idiosyncratic layout, which you can somehow understand on a prototype. However, for the family audience of Europa Park, which certainly didn’t come in contact with any other bobsleigh coaster, this is certainly sufficient. But the beautifully designed inner courtyard and the general design of the coaster can convince.

Matterhorn Blitz

Three years ago, the extended Wild Mouse with vertical lift Matterhorn Blitz was my 100th roller coaster, a fact I was not very satisfied with. However, as my reputation against Wild Mice grew from year to year and I got to know the dead-braked X-treme racer from Legoland Billund, I have to admit that the ride is definitely worth a ride. Unfortunately the layout does not correspond to the standard layout and a certain madness as you can find on a Wild Mouse by Gerstlauer or Maurer Söhne is missing, but you can take a ride without hesitation, even if you should reconsider this at a certain queue length.

Eurosat

In the French themed area you can find by far the best roller coaster of Europa Park, the dark roller coaster Eurosat. Due to the immense capacity, one never really queues for a long time, even if the queue is full. The ride itself is very powerful, although slightly jerky and equipped with some strong jolts. The curve combinations are sometimes so bumpy that it can only be good. The biggest innovation are the magnetic brakes which bring the train to a halt with such a force and without any acoustic warning that it borders on sheer madness and underlines the characteristics of the track.

Universum der Energien

The ride Universum der Energien hidden under the roller coaster is the best dark ride in Europa Park. Some would say it’s the sleepy, boring boat ride Pirates in Batavia, but such a ride has to be consistent and not overloaded and that’s the ride through the land of the dinosaurs.

Silver Star

One of the novelties for this year can be found in the Mercedes Benz exhibition, where they have fortunately decided to decorate the walls with new motifs. To make the whole theme more French, the racing driver Michel Vaillant is now decorating the hall. Unfortunately, the cult intro song for the cartoon series was not included, which would have been good for Silver Star.

The ride, built by Bollinger & Mabillard, looks quite good from the outside, scores with its height and its speed, but apart from that the ride can’t do much. Unfortunately the ride comfort is not equal to any ride built by Intamin of this height and so there are annoying vibrations in the valleys. The floating airtime is unfortunately on a very low level, at least I remember it a bit more pronounced and the last curves don’t make the ride any better, so that the ride is the worst coaster of this manufacturer in Germany, even if the Black Mamba from Brühl is only a touch better.

Magic Cinema

At Magic Cinema you can watch a new film this year, which is a daring self-production. The story is suitable for children and seems to have been made perfect for the French audience by the well-rehearsed effects, after all I have never seen so many people being scared by such predictable things.

The animation of the film surprised me in a positive way, I only expect such a detail accuracy from a few companies, only at one point I would have wished for something more, because at least I could hardly make out a difference between before and after immersion in the water, and at the same time animals in particular should just drip with water. The 3D effects are offered in a purity that I have never seen before in a theme park. The child-friendly humor is very similar to the humour you are confronted with, especially in Denmark, which is a pity. There was a part with a flat joke that only I could laugh about, which, like in the new Muppet movies, speaks rather against the audience and not against the kind of humour. Here I would have wished for more in this respect. One part that could have been better avoided is the part with the Euromausi and the commentary about the men, in general you could have avoided the Euromausi in the film, because apart from the fact that she is there she makes no difference. Apart from the dubbing voice of Euromaus, it has to be pointed out that Böckli is one of the leading roles in the film, after all the best mascot of Europa Park, as well as the commentary with the wooden roller coaster Wodan.

Piccolo Mondo and Geisterschloss

In the Italian themed area you will find last year’s novelty, but also two dark rides. The short ride in Piccolo Mondo through Italy is well done, due to the high kitsch content again a bit too kitschy, for in between the ride is at least quite nice. The big dark ride Geisterschloss right next door offered a live assassin in the queue but otherwise the creepiness was gone. The ride is neither convincing as a dark ride nor as a ghost train, everything is mercilessly overloaded and simply not nice to look at. The fact that you leave the ride through the little horror shop doesn’t make the ride any better, but it gives you an idea for the redesign of the ride, because Audrey II would surely be happy about food on the assembly line.

Pegasus, Poseidon and Fluch der Kassandra

One area that is best visited late in the afternoon is the area of the EU’s problem child: Greece. Here you can find the witches swing Curse of Cassandra, the darkride expedition Atlantis, as well as the two roller coasters Pegasus and Poseidon.

Pegasus itself used to be the most airtime-rich roller coaster at Europa-Park, three years later I was surprised not to feel it anymore. In general, the ride did not stay in the same condition as before, so in contrast to the newer Carrecaminos Bip Bip from the Spanish Parque Warner, the ride was even slightly jerky.

Poseidon is still the epitome of a water coaster. A great, although at some points borderline, track and shot rides where you can also get wet with a little luck complete the experience. The setting of the ride and the possibility, like on Atlantika Supersplash, to get into a soak zone is still exemplary.

The fact that Spaniards babbling from all sides can spoil a ride in a witches’ swing was shown in Parque Warner, but that three prepubescent girls are enough is a pity and shows once again that the youth is absolutely spoiled. Such a type of attraction is only visited for one thing: the story and the music. Since the story is unfortunately lost in the Fluch der Kassandra anyway, you should at least be able to let the music take effect on you.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Worlds

The Europa Park is and remains one of the best European theme parks, the fact that I didn’t watch any show this year was only because the only show I was interested in premiered at the end of the month with Ornella de Santi. Especially worth mentioning is the way the park’s opening hours are handled, so far no visitor has to leave the park before one hour after the original closing time, which is neither possible nor common practice at most other amusement parks.


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A great weekend at Europa-Park

My first visit to Europa Park

Blue Fire Megacoaster

Since the roller coaster Blue Fire was new this year and first launched coaster in the south of Germany, the ride was targeted right at the beginning. This approach was absolutely justified, because where the queue at Blue Fire in the morning was only about 20 minutes, it was much longer in the afternoon. Somehow everybody wanted to drive Blue Fire.

After you have taken a seat in the very comfortable trains of the roller coaster Blue Fire you pass through a small nonsensical dark ride part to be fired with all kinds of effects at a snail’s pace. This is followed by a very modest turnaround, which, like the following element of a looping, is driven through much too slowly. The steep turn before the ascent to the block brake can be seen as the highlight of the track, as long as you don’t come to a stop in the block brake. At the right speed, the following corkscrews are a lot of fun, but unfortunately, you don’t get to enjoy it very often. The absolute outrage, which is unfortunately called the highlight of a roller coaster par excellence by the fans, is the alleged and completely miscalculated Heartlineroll towards the end of the ride on Blue Fire.

Blue Fire is by far one of the most boring roller coasters par excellence, absolutely nothing is right here and one can only hope that the company Mack Rides will recognize and use the potential of the following rides. Where the first part of the ride is much too slow, the second part on Blue Fire is unfortunately much too fast, so that at the end a powerless, boring and bad roller coaster is waiting for its guests, who, due to a lack of experience with inversions and launches, think that the ride is superior.

To wake up from the deep sleep the coffee house in the immediate vicinity of the track was tested. The coffee served there is pretty damn good and therefore the real highlight of the Icelandic themed area.

Atlantika Supersplash

After leaving Iceland in the direction of Portugal, you will find yourself in front of the impressive structure of the Atlantika Supersplash. Unfortunately the ride, as well as other rides of this type, can’t do anything, but there is a soak zone to get at least a little bit wet. The nonsensical backwards part during the ride can be supplemented by an even more nonsensical 540° turn on the first turntable, as long as the capacity is not fully utilized.

Tiroler Wildwasserbahn

To get really wet you have to make a pilgrimage to the Tiroler Wildwasserbahn, which does its age credit. Specially at this ride you can see how much Europa Park is trying to take care of its rides, as this log flume looks like new and rides like new, a thing that is unfortunately not the case in other parks. The degree of wetness is outstanding and the cave you ride through is just great.

Alpenexpress Enzian

The Alpenexpress Enzian also makes its rounds through the same cave and, like its slightly longer brother from the Soltau Heide Park, is quite convincing. But not only the Powered Coaster shows clear parallels to Soltau, you can also find a larger version of the Seerestaurant in the Heide, as well as some smaller attractions that are more or less the same.

Fjord Rafting

The Fjord Rafting also looks like a small version of the Mountain Rafting, but unfortunately the ride itself is not really exciting or even wet. The rapids, the waterfalls and the wave pool are particularly mild here. The design is nice, but you can tell the age of the Intamin ride.

Besides the HUSS Pirate in the immediate vicinity, there are not many rides from other manufacturers in the park. Besides the Zierer Wellenflug in Austria and the Zamperla attractions in the English themed area, the Chance C.P. Huntigton train there is only the Intamin Gyro Tower in the French themed area, and the biggest European roller coaster by the manufacturer B&M so far.

Silver Star

The Silver Star is the epitome of a parking lot roller coaster and makes perfect use of this fact with a suitable theming. The out & back design of the layout looks breathtaking due to the height, but rides relatively harmless. While in the first row you only get an unpleasant breeze during the ride, in the back row you experience some nice floating airtime at its best. Unfortunately, the ride has the worst queue since the invention of the queue, which is why queuing in the summer time with a waiting time of more than 20 minutes is definitely not worthwhile.

Eurosat

Not far from the steel giant is the dark roller coaster Eurosat, one of the best roller coasters of the park. Although the curves are sometimes quite borderline in complete darkness and the brakes are adjusted very strongly, but you wait no matter how long the queue is, at most 30 minutes, because it moves steadily forward.

Universum der Energien

Beneath the ride is one of the better attempts to copy the universe of energies at Disney. Even if the ride is only noticed by very few park guests or even found, this dark ride is definitely the most coherent one in the whole park. The theme of the dinosaurs is a bit out of fashion, but should be back on everyone’s lips by the time the fourth Jurassic Park part is released.

Schweizer Bobbahn

The Swiss themed area features the prototype of Mack’s bobsleigh run, which has nothing to offer except an attractive design. The Schweizer Bobbahn is one of the most harmless and unfortunately also boring rides of this kind. Unfortunately, one usually meets the fullest queue here, as the capacity is not very exhilarating.

Matterhorn Blitz

Similarly boring is the second roller coaster of this area, the Wild Mouse with an extended layout and an elevator instead of a lift. The Matterhorn Blitz became my 100th roller coaster and unfortunately the ride and the longest queue in the whole park was not worth it. The extended mice basically lack everything that makes the more compact and better standard mice.

Jungfrau Gletscherflieger

Probably the best attraction in this area is the Jungfrau Gletscherflieger, a ride that is very reminiscent of a Zierer hang-glider flight, but with the ground under your feet. Unfortunately, this very fast ride never managed to be widely distributed.

Fluch der Kasandra

In the Greek themed area there is a witches’ swing, which for once was not built by the Vekoma company. Unfortunately, the Fluch der Kasandra doesn’t offer a storyline and apart from the main room nothing else but a nice atmospheric music. The additional effect of the pop massage is something new at first, but absolutely unnecessary.

Poseidon

The nearby water roller coaster Poseidon shows how to ride a water roller coaster, because here you can even get wet with a little luck, if you are unlucky this happens even before the ride while waiting underneath the Trojan horse. Although the curvy roller coaster part offers some funny strokes, this does not make the ride worse.

Pegasus

Below the water roller coaster is the most airtime-rich and at the same time most family-friendly roller coaster of the whole park. Named after the winged horse, the Pegasus roller coaster offers a curvy track, which is completed at a decent speed and is perfectly tailored to the young audience.

Euro-Mir

In the Russian themed area you can visit the Russian space station Mir. Much faster, if not less exciting, is the neighbouring Euro-Mir. While you climb up the harmonious lift, you will hear one of the best soundtracks ever. Once arrived at the top, one turns a few curves around the mirror towers while the gondola is continuously turning. Before the first descent, the gondolas lock themselves so that one rides the following part either forward or backwards until one turns the gondolas by 180° on the hill. The following curvy part of the roller coaster is very intensive and remains so with the continuously decreasing radii. As it is also the case of the roller coaster Eurosat, the braking is very strong, but if one is lucky to drive backwards into the brakes, it is not that bad.

Schneeflöckchen Schlittenfahrt

Somewhat hidden is the Schneeflöckchen Schlittenfahrt, a beautiful and harmonious dark ride with dolls and probably the most cult car in the form of sledges with benches, which is why the nickname of the attraction is Bench the Ride.

Piraten in Batavia

In the Netherlands you can visit the Piraten in Batavia. Like so many others, this dark ride tries to orientate itself on Disney’s Pirates of the Caraibbean. Unfortunately, the ride does not manage to do this at all and is one of the worst and most boring dark rides for me. The much too long ride is not only a waste of time without equal, but also an ideal attraction to make someone fall asleep.

Magia

The Variety Show in the Italian themed area was similarly successful at the time of the visit. I did not notice much of the show called Magia, but the clown at the beginning of the show was quite original.

Geisterschloss

In the immediate vicinity are the dark rides Ciao Bambini and the Geisterschloss, both attractions are more or less copies of well-known Disney attractions. While Ciao Bambini was not tested by me, the completely trivial ghost train enjoyed a visit from time to time, because the Geisterschloss is not so bad after all.

In the Spanish themed area, there are two other smaller attractions, among them a sea storm ride with a decent program that most of the times, one can simply get on without waiting time. Moreover, there are some show arenas spread all over the park. Among others, the ice skating show is recommendable, whereby the actual highlight is basically each time the clown before the respective show.

Pictures Europa Park

Closing Words Europa Park

In contrast to Heide-Park, the Edeka Day at Europa Park is a particularly recommendable day. Apart from free samples at every corner, you can also enjoy numerous other activities. Strangely enough, that day was also much emptier than the day before and also open longer. If you still have enough time in the evening, you can watch the latest movies in the in-house 4D cinema, mostly in 2D, but with suitable effects.


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