Thursday 11th
The night before Plod and Richard stayed at mine and we left the house at some awful time in the morning (4am?). Richard then drove us to London Gatwick airport where we met up with Nic. We sorted our lives out, had some breakfast and boarded our Easyjet flight to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. The World's most ridiculous airport which lives on the border of three countries, France, Germany and Switzerland. We go straight to the hire car peeps to find we have an option of two cars, one is far two small for us and one isn't ready yet. Richard goes with the car lady to inspect said car which was a Fiat 500L, he wasn't very happy with the car but we didn't have choice. After some additional car faff we were all sorted and on the road to Europa park.
I say that as if Richard didn't have any issues with the car, but that would be a lie, turns out this car was not made for Richard size so not only was the clutch pedal too close to the side for Richard's foot to use it in an efficient manner but the gear stick was stiff and definitely not Richard-proof. Somehow we did manage to get on to the motorway and some time later arrive at the El Andaluz resort.
I checked us in while Richard went to park the car in the car park. Check in was simple and quick with the staff being able to speak really good English. We were given our park tickets and we made our way round to the park entrance for the hotels.
Reception area was amazing
These weird objects that moved were creepy
Inside the park we decided to head straight for creds and as the closest was Atlantica Supersplash we went for that first. In the area there was a dive show with added ramp for people on skis, it was something I hadn't seen in a dive show so I found it kinda fascinating. The show also went on for ages.
The entrance for the cred sorts of merges in with the massive boat (which I believed houses a bar!)...
The queueline theming was insane and well executed.
The queue was quite long but moved really quickly due to the crazy efficient staff. The ride was ok, didn't get too wet which was nice.
Next up was Wodan, something I was looking forward to since hearing lots of mixed reviews. The queueline was really long (yet the bit over the water with fire and smoke wasn't open?) and as I'd heard, was epically themed. I have a soft spot for Norse God theming too. Unfortunately some bits of the queue had the house lights on which ruined any atmosphere that was being created by the rest of it. I loved the room full of projection mapped images, was very cool. The station was also pretty awesome, the statue heads turning to face the train was a very nice touch. The fly through didn't create as much of an effect as I thought it would, especially considering some of the others I've seen.
Toilets in the queue! WHAT?
These were awesome
So what did I think of it? It was very fast with the occasional pops of airtime. However it gave me woodieache (headache created by riding a wooden rollercoaster), this is a common problem I have with wooden rollercoasters and it tends to give me a more jaded view of the ride, but I was willing to give it another go during our time at the Resort.
We then decided food was needed (it was probably about 2pm at this point, if not a little later). I grabbed a hot dog which was actually nice and then a nice slice of cake. It was in the beautiful Scandinavian cafe and it was tasty.
We were going to do Blue Fire next but as we had hotel ert the next morning and the park was busy we decided to utilise our time by moving on. Instead of utilising our time we joined a huge queue for the rapids. It did constantly move though, like barely a second was spent standing still. Yay for German efficiency. The ride was pretty good, my jacket did a good job of protecting me from the water and Richard got quite wet.
Walking onwards via the Scandinavian area a loo break was requested, I wandered in the Sunken village attraction with Richard. There was a troll, neither of us understood what was really going on.
Richard then found a shark...
We then wander over to Russia for Euromeh. I wasn't a fan of this on my last visit but it had to be done because Nic and Plod needed the cred. Once again it had a very quick moving queue. Then we were finally on the dreaded Euromeh, it began its 5 hour rotating oil drum lift hill and lead us on to an assault course of meh, pain and dullness.
Outside of the ride was this juggler on a unicycle, she must have liked us because she pretty much followed us for the next 5 minutes.
Next up was the Swiss bobsleigh run which has such a lovely themed area. The queue is once again quite well themed, and then it transpired that wasn't the actual queue and the actual queue is an odd cattlepen with some random questions and facts about things.
Peeta was getting good at pretending to be a tree
The ride is actually quite fun but it does build up a silly amount of speed and then hits a brake run. Still it's one of the better ones of this ride type. We then walked through the fab little Swiss village to the other cred, Matterhorn Blitz. It had a crazy long queue. Once again it moved quickly, especially for the ride type. It also had another indoor queue section with some interesting theming.
Creepy
A man humping a pole, as you do
The weather had turned a little cold and windy while we were in the queue but it wasn't until we were on the ride that the leaves decided to viciously attack us from above throughout the duration of the ride, added a whole new element to the ride though. Talking of which, the ride was fun and smooth even if the layout is unoriginal (apart from the lift which was amazing to watch Nic and Plod's expressions when it happened).
It felt like it was going to really chuck it down (rain, not leaves) so we headed straight fro Eurosat before the rest of the park gained the same idea. I loathe the cattlepen queue for this ride, although it moves quick it also only moves in batches. It's a boring queue but at the end of it is the amazing 80s robot at the top of the escalators.
Such a picturesque park at times
It was a good thing we joined the queue for this ride when we did as the heavens proper opened. Weirdly enough the golf ball which houses the cred was leaking in lots of areas providing a rather unusual wet ride on an indoor coaster. There are loads of cool lasers inside but I find the ride itself a bit unpleasant at best. Just doesn't do anything for me.
We then moseyed on over to Silver Star only to find Richard and Nic struggled to get the lap bar restraint on the test seat down so we bailed on that plan, instead we head for Pegasus. The Greek area of the park was dead, probably because it was rather damp out and both of these creds are out in the open. We pretty much walked on Pegasus. It has a smattering of decent theming around.
I think it's a fun family coaster and nothing more really. It could do with some more larger ruins to pass through to create some nice head choppers and that. We then went over to Poseidon, not caring for the wetness levels despite the damp weather. We had to pass under a trojan horse.
The theming for Poseidon is incredible, one of my favourite themed rides, a bit of a shame out in the coaster section but everything else is on such an epic level.
The ride is actually quite good fun, it snaps around the corners a bit and the addition of something rattling around in our boat as we were flying round the track added some amusement. The staff were a little perplexed when Richard handed them the random object. Still don't know what it was, probably the falanje.
We stayed in the Greece area as we walked straight in to the Curse of Kassandra. It feels so cramped inside. I like the soundtrack and I also like that it tries to do something different in the form of bum and back pokers but it is far from being my favourite madhouse attraction.
It was then straight on to Atlantis Adventure, a small indoor shooty ride. I still find it weird how hidden this attraction is, when there isn't a queue for it you could easily miss it. I love the design of the ride though, despite being awful at it.
We then ended up in the football place waiting to do the football dodgems where there is a giant football in there with you. The track was quite small and the cars didn't move too fast. The balls also kept just getting stuck on the side or corners with not a lot of movement going on. Nice idea but in reality it sucks.
We then walked through the Grimm fairytale area to get to Arthur. I love this area, it's like a smaller, more modern version of Efteling's Forest of Forever. There were lots of interactive things going on too, we explore it more on the second day.
Then we arrived at the Arthur area which was huge. A giant frog spat at us...
Inside was very well themed, felt like there was lots going on. There was a giant bug animatronic that after you purchased a special coin and cup dispensed a unique drink themed to one in the films. It was awesome and I wanted to see it in action so I purchased one, it was fairly pricey but also very tasty.
After my tasty beverage we joined the long queue (advertised 40 minute wait) for the rollercoaster. After a while of the queue moving we noticed one of the trains stop on one of the helices outside, then trains started to appear with no people on it. Yep, it had broken down. We waited ages before they reopened it (probably not as long as it felt). To speed loading up they have a huge locker system in place (which was actually being updated when we were there). You get given a card and locker number, you go to the locker and it opens up for you, stuff all your belongings in and then close the door. After riding you find yourself at the other side of the lockers where you can open the locker up from. You then hand the card back.
The queue moves fluently due to it's conveyor like station with a new row always unloading/loading. The station is also fab, I loved the fake animatronic ride op. The ride itself is smooth, fun and occasionally forceful. One of the scenes where it's like a metropolis scene from the films is superb with so much to look at. I actually noticed there was a box which said Mack rides and quite possibly a whole bunch of ride facts on it. I think there is a whole World of potential for this ride system and Mack have really thrown everything at this to show what you can do with it.
Amazingly Grimm toilets
We then decide to leave the park to get some food at the hotel and watch the show at the Colloseo hotel. We ended up doing a bit of a tour of the hotel and discovered that it's full of win.
One of the many courtyards
Religious themed hotel had lots of religious themed rooms...
For dinner we had a buffet meal, it was pricey but so worth every cent. Lots of different food options and it was delicious. It was then time for us to head over for the show. The colleseo is yet another very impressive hotel...
The show started shortly after we arrived, there was a decent sized crowd there to watch it. All the cast are from various shows within the park. There were fountains, fire, fountains on fire(!), acrobatics, dancing, poi, wire work and a woman splashing about in a small bowl of water. I loved it, it did kinda have everything.
BEST THING EVER!
Some nice projection mapping
After the show we went to collect everything from the Fiat of terror where Richard showed us he had done a bad. So, you know how I said the car wasn't built for a Richard? Well, turns out his eye level when sat in the car is so high he wasn't able to see the bottom of a metallic dangly sign. This resulted in, well, a massive dent in the roof....
What Richard sees when driving
Anyway it transpired that we had our room upgraded! So now we had a room which overlooked the park!! I couldn't be happier about this. Our room was huge and was such a nice luxury. I so very rarely stay on site at parks due to the cost but we managed to get a really decent rate and it was just so worth it.
Two shower heads are clearly necessary
And that was the end of our first day. It was exhausting and I'm glad we managed to get so much done on the first day. I like Europa park, it has a great selection of attractions and things to see and do. Thanks for reading and look out for part 2 soon.
The night before Plod and Richard stayed at mine and we left the house at some awful time in the morning (4am?). Richard then drove us to London Gatwick airport where we met up with Nic. We sorted our lives out, had some breakfast and boarded our Easyjet flight to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. The World's most ridiculous airport which lives on the border of three countries, France, Germany and Switzerland. We go straight to the hire car peeps to find we have an option of two cars, one is far two small for us and one isn't ready yet. Richard goes with the car lady to inspect said car which was a Fiat 500L, he wasn't very happy with the car but we didn't have choice. After some additional car faff we were all sorted and on the road to Europa park.
I say that as if Richard didn't have any issues with the car, but that would be a lie, turns out this car was not made for Richard size so not only was the clutch pedal too close to the side for Richard's foot to use it in an efficient manner but the gear stick was stiff and definitely not Richard-proof. Somehow we did manage to get on to the motorway and some time later arrive at the El Andaluz resort.
I checked us in while Richard went to park the car in the car park. Check in was simple and quick with the staff being able to speak really good English. We were given our park tickets and we made our way round to the park entrance for the hotels.
Reception area was amazing
These weird objects that moved were creepy
Inside the park we decided to head straight for creds and as the closest was Atlantica Supersplash we went for that first. In the area there was a dive show with added ramp for people on skis, it was something I hadn't seen in a dive show so I found it kinda fascinating. The show also went on for ages.
The entrance for the cred sorts of merges in with the massive boat (which I believed houses a bar!)...
The queueline theming was insane and well executed.
The queue was quite long but moved really quickly due to the crazy efficient staff. The ride was ok, didn't get too wet which was nice.
Next up was Wodan, something I was looking forward to since hearing lots of mixed reviews. The queueline was really long (yet the bit over the water with fire and smoke wasn't open?) and as I'd heard, was epically themed. I have a soft spot for Norse God theming too. Unfortunately some bits of the queue had the house lights on which ruined any atmosphere that was being created by the rest of it. I loved the room full of projection mapped images, was very cool. The station was also pretty awesome, the statue heads turning to face the train was a very nice touch. The fly through didn't create as much of an effect as I thought it would, especially considering some of the others I've seen.
Toilets in the queue! WHAT?
These were awesome
So what did I think of it? It was very fast with the occasional pops of airtime. However it gave me woodieache (headache created by riding a wooden rollercoaster), this is a common problem I have with wooden rollercoasters and it tends to give me a more jaded view of the ride, but I was willing to give it another go during our time at the Resort.
We then decided food was needed (it was probably about 2pm at this point, if not a little later). I grabbed a hot dog which was actually nice and then a nice slice of cake. It was in the beautiful Scandinavian cafe and it was tasty.
We were going to do Blue Fire next but as we had hotel ert the next morning and the park was busy we decided to utilise our time by moving on. Instead of utilising our time we joined a huge queue for the rapids. It did constantly move though, like barely a second was spent standing still. Yay for German efficiency. The ride was pretty good, my jacket did a good job of protecting me from the water and Richard got quite wet.
Walking onwards via the Scandinavian area a loo break was requested, I wandered in the Sunken village attraction with Richard. There was a troll, neither of us understood what was really going on.
Richard then found a shark...
We then wander over to Russia for Euromeh. I wasn't a fan of this on my last visit but it had to be done because Nic and Plod needed the cred. Once again it had a very quick moving queue. Then we were finally on the dreaded Euromeh, it began its 5 hour rotating oil drum lift hill and lead us on to an assault course of meh, pain and dullness.
Outside of the ride was this juggler on a unicycle, she must have liked us because she pretty much followed us for the next 5 minutes.
Next up was the Swiss bobsleigh run which has such a lovely themed area. The queue is once again quite well themed, and then it transpired that wasn't the actual queue and the actual queue is an odd cattlepen with some random questions and facts about things.
Peeta was getting good at pretending to be a tree
The ride is actually quite fun but it does build up a silly amount of speed and then hits a brake run. Still it's one of the better ones of this ride type. We then walked through the fab little Swiss village to the other cred, Matterhorn Blitz. It had a crazy long queue. Once again it moved quickly, especially for the ride type. It also had another indoor queue section with some interesting theming.
Creepy
A man humping a pole, as you do
The weather had turned a little cold and windy while we were in the queue but it wasn't until we were on the ride that the leaves decided to viciously attack us from above throughout the duration of the ride, added a whole new element to the ride though. Talking of which, the ride was fun and smooth even if the layout is unoriginal (apart from the lift which was amazing to watch Nic and Plod's expressions when it happened).
It felt like it was going to really chuck it down (rain, not leaves) so we headed straight fro Eurosat before the rest of the park gained the same idea. I loathe the cattlepen queue for this ride, although it moves quick it also only moves in batches. It's a boring queue but at the end of it is the amazing 80s robot at the top of the escalators.
Such a picturesque park at times
It was a good thing we joined the queue for this ride when we did as the heavens proper opened. Weirdly enough the golf ball which houses the cred was leaking in lots of areas providing a rather unusual wet ride on an indoor coaster. There are loads of cool lasers inside but I find the ride itself a bit unpleasant at best. Just doesn't do anything for me.
We then moseyed on over to Silver Star only to find Richard and Nic struggled to get the lap bar restraint on the test seat down so we bailed on that plan, instead we head for Pegasus. The Greek area of the park was dead, probably because it was rather damp out and both of these creds are out in the open. We pretty much walked on Pegasus. It has a smattering of decent theming around.
I think it's a fun family coaster and nothing more really. It could do with some more larger ruins to pass through to create some nice head choppers and that. We then went over to Poseidon, not caring for the wetness levels despite the damp weather. We had to pass under a trojan horse.
The theming for Poseidon is incredible, one of my favourite themed rides, a bit of a shame out in the coaster section but everything else is on such an epic level.
The ride is actually quite good fun, it snaps around the corners a bit and the addition of something rattling around in our boat as we were flying round the track added some amusement. The staff were a little perplexed when Richard handed them the random object. Still don't know what it was, probably the falanje.
We stayed in the Greece area as we walked straight in to the Curse of Kassandra. It feels so cramped inside. I like the soundtrack and I also like that it tries to do something different in the form of bum and back pokers but it is far from being my favourite madhouse attraction.
It was then straight on to Atlantis Adventure, a small indoor shooty ride. I still find it weird how hidden this attraction is, when there isn't a queue for it you could easily miss it. I love the design of the ride though, despite being awful at it.
We then ended up in the football place waiting to do the football dodgems where there is a giant football in there with you. The track was quite small and the cars didn't move too fast. The balls also kept just getting stuck on the side or corners with not a lot of movement going on. Nice idea but in reality it sucks.
We then walked through the Grimm fairytale area to get to Arthur. I love this area, it's like a smaller, more modern version of Efteling's Forest of Forever. There were lots of interactive things going on too, we explore it more on the second day.
Then we arrived at the Arthur area which was huge. A giant frog spat at us...
Inside was very well themed, felt like there was lots going on. There was a giant bug animatronic that after you purchased a special coin and cup dispensed a unique drink themed to one in the films. It was awesome and I wanted to see it in action so I purchased one, it was fairly pricey but also very tasty.
After my tasty beverage we joined the long queue (advertised 40 minute wait) for the rollercoaster. After a while of the queue moving we noticed one of the trains stop on one of the helices outside, then trains started to appear with no people on it. Yep, it had broken down. We waited ages before they reopened it (probably not as long as it felt). To speed loading up they have a huge locker system in place (which was actually being updated when we were there). You get given a card and locker number, you go to the locker and it opens up for you, stuff all your belongings in and then close the door. After riding you find yourself at the other side of the lockers where you can open the locker up from. You then hand the card back.
The queue moves fluently due to it's conveyor like station with a new row always unloading/loading. The station is also fab, I loved the fake animatronic ride op. The ride itself is smooth, fun and occasionally forceful. One of the scenes where it's like a metropolis scene from the films is superb with so much to look at. I actually noticed there was a box which said Mack rides and quite possibly a whole bunch of ride facts on it. I think there is a whole World of potential for this ride system and Mack have really thrown everything at this to show what you can do with it.
Amazingly Grimm toilets
We then decide to leave the park to get some food at the hotel and watch the show at the Colloseo hotel. We ended up doing a bit of a tour of the hotel and discovered that it's full of win.
One of the many courtyards
Religious themed hotel had lots of religious themed rooms...
For dinner we had a buffet meal, it was pricey but so worth every cent. Lots of different food options and it was delicious. It was then time for us to head over for the show. The colleseo is yet another very impressive hotel...
The show started shortly after we arrived, there was a decent sized crowd there to watch it. All the cast are from various shows within the park. There were fountains, fire, fountains on fire(!), acrobatics, dancing, poi, wire work and a woman splashing about in a small bowl of water. I loved it, it did kinda have everything.
BEST THING EVER!
Some nice projection mapping
After the show we went to collect everything from the Fiat of terror where Richard showed us he had done a bad. So, you know how I said the car wasn't built for a Richard? Well, turns out his eye level when sat in the car is so high he wasn't able to see the bottom of a metallic dangly sign. This resulted in, well, a massive dent in the roof....
What Richard sees when driving
Anyway it transpired that we had our room upgraded! So now we had a room which overlooked the park!! I couldn't be happier about this. Our room was huge and was such a nice luxury. I so very rarely stay on site at parks due to the cost but we managed to get a really decent rate and it was just so worth it.
Two shower heads are clearly necessary
And that was the end of our first day. It was exhausting and I'm glad we managed to get so much done on the first day. I like Europa park, it has a great selection of attractions and things to see and do. Thanks for reading and look out for part 2 soon.
