Here we go! Last day!
18th July – Europa Park
And so the last day of the trip was upon us – Europa Park!
We left early for about a 1.5 hour drive (I think), and had to stop for petrol (and croissants
) on the way, meaning that Slayeds car was the last to turn up at the park. Everyone else was there ready and waiting for us.
There was little faff getting tickets and we were soon through the gates, heading straight to Silver Star, which had a 20-30 minute queue or so. I enjoyed the queue line, looking at all the McLaren Formula 1 stuff (I’m a bit of a F1 fan, and McLaren are my favourite team) and it seemed to go quite quick.
I think I got a 2nd row ride? Either way the view was nice, but that was about all. The ride didn’t strike me as much as any other B&M has done. I found it very smooth and comfortable ride, but that was about as all it was good for. It gave bits of floater airtime over some of the hills, but nothing extreme. I think its funny how a B&M Sitdown like Dragon Khan has a better first drop than Silver Star.
Next up was Eurostat, the indoor dark ride credit. It had a 15 minutes queue or so, which looked very long but moved quite quick. The best bit about this ride was the lift hill, with the funky music. The ride itself was terrible, with huge lateral G spikes around almost every corner.
Next up came Schweizer Bobbahn, the bobsled coaster. Nothing special about this ride. The themeing was quite good, and eh…it’s a bobsled, speaks for itself doesn’t it?
We had a small break next with people running off to get snacks for 5 minutes, but there were plenty more credits to get, so it was onto Matterhorn Blitz. Standard Mack Wild Mouse coaster and layout, but the lifts were rather funky. I loved the way they rocked from side to side on the way up. The queue line themeing was random but decent as you got into the station building, you could tell that Europa had at least put some effort in.
The members of the group that had been to Europa Before didn’t have the Pegasus credit, so we headed over there next, for a decent family ride. Then it was onto Poseidon.
I was looking forward to this ride, being quite unique and my first water coaster. They played Hans Zimmer music in the queueline, which really suited the ride, and I love his stuff. The rollercoaster section of the ride was quite rough, but fast paced and still enjoyable. The splash was rather poor, with only the spray getting you damp. It was an average coaster, but the atmosphere and area around the coaster probably make it my favourite ride in the park.
Next up we broke for lunch, but I think everyone went to the same burger bar outside Euro-Mir anyway.
Straight after lunch it was onto Euro-Mir, one of the more random coasters. Like Eurostat, the best bit about this ride was the lift hill, which went on for ages and has kick ass music. I don’t actually remember much more of the ride, since me, Stone Cold, Harvey and I think William? were having a sweet war between the cars, using the sweets nicked from the Ibis hotels.
The only thing that I do recall was that it was a bloody painful ride!
Onto more credits, for Atlantica Supersplash. It was getting quite hot now, the sun was shining and the queue boiling, so I was looking forward to a good drenching, but got nothing more than a bit of spray. The backwards section is pointless, and its clear that the ride was only built to test Mack’s turntable.
We were near to the rapids, and rather warm now, so headed over there. On the way we passed the most crappest walkthrough ever, which isn’t even worth describing. I can’t even remember its name.
I was feeling a bit tired after 4 days of Themeparks, and not too great after spending a week of eating nothing but junk food, so I apologise if I came over a bit quiet and anti-social for the next hour or so.
The rapids queue was quite long, but fortunately was always moving at walking pace or faster, which made it seem quite short time. Most of the group got in 2 boats, and I got in a boat with William and some randomers. I didn’t think that the rapids were as good as they were hyped up to be – no better than the likes of those at Thorpe or Alton.
Next up came the last credit, Alpenexpress, the powered mine train. I don’t think anyone expected that huge indoor dark section, which was stunning. It was also worth noting that the train only took about 15-20 seconds to dispatch, and that’s no exaduration. The train arrived, gates opened instantly, it took people about 15 seconds to get seated, and the train was dispatched almost instantly, with people still on the exit platform and no restraints being checked. It wasn’t the best health and safety I’ve seen, but didn’t half make the queue move quick!
Having just been through that dark indoor section on the mine train, it was worth doing the log flume just to experience it again (they both went through the same building)
Having got all the credits, we took a slow walk through the park, back towards Silver Star, for a back row ride this time. It was mildly better, but still nothing special. The best part was holding out sweets on the ride, and watching them float out of your hand over the airtime hills!
We got the group photo on top of a McLaren F1 car, and mooched around the SilverStar shop and brought some cheap tack (well actually, the SilverStar merchandise was quite cool
) With only 30 minutes until we needed to head back to the airport, we got another quick ride on Silver Star.
This is when the fun started.
We drove back north to Baden Airport (via services for fuel) and found the car return area, which was completely full! It ended up with us abandoning the cars in the middle of the car park, unpacking and then grabbing any available slots as they turned up.
We probably had an hour an a bit until our flight was due to leave, and we didn’t need to check in, so there shouldn’t have been a problem. As we entered security, they started to weigh all our hand luggage, of which a lot of people, including me, were over the limit. I was at 11.8kg, 1.8kg over the limit, but Stone Cold was behind me in the queue, showed the woman that he was 4kg under the limit, shouted something at her, and we both ran through!
Thanks for the help there Rich!
Then came the problem of getting the GeForce cables through security. Most of us who had the cables went through security first, and as expected, they picked up on them. Mark and Marc were trying to show the staff what they were, and where they came from, and 2 of the security said they are ok to take on the plane. A 3rd security staff was more strict, and in the end the only solution was to check them in to the hold.
Mark (Slayed) and Mark (Mushy) stayed back to check in, whilst the rest of us got through security. The problem for us on the other side of security was that we didn’t know what was going on. The time was creeping up to our departure time and there were no sign of Mark and Mark. With about 10 minutes till departure, I gave Mushy a call and they were just checking in the bag. We all moved to the departure gate, but those of us with cables agreed that we wouldn’t fly until we were all through security.
With about 5 minutes to go, there was an announcement to say our flight was delayed 20 minutes, and our group let up a small cheer! I’ve never been happy to hear that our flight was delayed!
5 minutes after Mark and Mark got to the gate, we were boarding, and Mushy was then having problems getting priority boarding since he had to re-check in or something. We all went through, got on the plane, and saving a seat for Mark.
The flight home went smoothly, grabbed our bag of GeForce cables from baggage reclaim, said our goodbyes, and all went on our way!
It was a excellent trip, and can’t wait for CF Euro Live 2, next year, wherever that might be! My Coaster Count has now jumped up to 96, after the addition of 28 new coasters (I count the fair coasters)
It was great to get to know those of you who I haven’t met or talked to properly before. I think all the drivers deserve a big pat on the back for everything they have done to get us all around, as it can’t be easy driving in a strange country. And finally, big thank you to Slayed for organising everything – I’ll have to get you a beer sometime.
Ride Count
Silver Star
Eurostat
Schweizer Bobbahn
Matterhorn Blitz
Pegasus
Poseidon
Euro-Mir
Atlantica SuperSplash
Rapids
Alpenexpress
Tiroler Wildwasserbahn
Silver Star
Silver Star
