Day 3: Europa Park and Rulantica
Part 1: Europa Park
I've heard excellent things about Voltron, let's figure out what we're doing then.
Obviously it was the first ride we went to. Located in the new Croatia themed area,
#305 Voltron Nevera is about Nikola Tesla, Mr. John Electricity himself, and a fictional device built to teleport people I think. Presented incredibly well, and perhaps the most impressive area presentation of a new for 2024 roller coaster (clearing a very low bar), I was supremely excited to ride. I will say that it does suffer a little from not having a terrible amount of good angles as most of the ride travels outside of the park, the angles you can get are still pretty awesome. Couple that with being one of the most addictive rides to watch that I've seen in a good while, and we're instantly onto a winner.
The queue line features some neat water features and our introduction to electricity in the outdoor section, with the unique beyond vertical launch dominating your sightlines. Here I get my introduction to the iconic capacity monsters that are these rides, with a full train of 16 riders being loaded and sent almost every 35 seconds, which is simply incredible work. And as a result the queue absolutely moves so quickly, and before long we're in the indoor section which is perhaps one of the most impressive queue lines I've ever been in (if not ever).
On one side you see Mr. Electricity giving a speech, with a train entering the preshow in the background. Some shutters close before you see the room absolutely dominate with fluttering purple currents going manic, the shutters reopen, the train is gone. Turn 180, a second set of closed shutters opens before the train reveals itself - you've teleported, nice. Above is a group of tesla coils that sing the ride's theme which is... wow. The first time I saw it happen, I was blown away in every sense of the word. You put your stuff in a locker, then board the front(!) row.
I haven't been this excited to be on a roller coaster in a very, very, very long time. Hype levels were absolutely off the charts when we sped up into the preshow, vibrated to intense moving, jumped, then launched into the heavens. An extremely intense layout follows with inversion after insane ejector after incredible inversion - there are absolutely no misses in the entire layout. The sequential immelmann loops are an... interesting layout decision, but I liked it. I experienced my first ever "real" stall inversion which was fantastic hangtime, twisty, dive loop into a pop of ejector into the brakes.
Unfortunately the turntable that sends you into the second half is unfinished, with quite a bit of work still left to do, but hopefully it gets completed for next year - I hold high hope that it'll look brilliant once done. A punchy backwards launch into an admittedly kind of lackluster spike before sending you hurtling towards an awesome top hat similar to Karacho, before sprinting towards an ascension-worthy outerbank followed by a ridiculous double-up into the midcourse brakes. But there's no breaks here, you're sent immediately into a glorious roll before a low turn which is by far the most positive-heavy moment in the ride before an overbank into a final inversion before the end.
Overall Voltron Nevera is a masterpiece of a roller coaster, obviously. It's a perfect mix of airtime, hangtime & inversions, with a sprinkle of positives in it too. But it's time to move, there's a f**kload of s**t that needs doing.
Such as
Piraten in Batavia. I tried so, so hard to like you. I tried so hard to love this ride, I wanted to so badly, but I left feeling unsatisfied. It felt like it ended too soon, and failed to immerse myself into the worlds. However I think I've finally realised why most dark rides aren't doing it for me anymore, especially international ones - it's because I don't understand the storyline, and as a result of not knowing what the storyline is, it just becomes "look at these physical sets we made and we hope you get feelings for them". Although that doesn't explain my love for Phantom Manor, I guess it clears at least some things up. Droomvlucht didn't even really have a story, I guess that makes sense.
With this knowledge I think you can gain some intel on what my opinions will be for every other dark ride on this trip, unfortunately, it pains me to say it.
Koffiekopjes was next, a fun tea cups ride.
Then we found
#306 blue fire Megacoaster, which we had a virtual line slot for and so boarded immediately. The audio was on for this lap, but unfortunately was completely unsynced horribly which this ride is infamous for. A surprisingly decent launch sends you into a weird overbank thing before a loop and a nice pop into the midcourse (already?), before two sequential and punchy zero G rolls. Apparently two zero G rolls warrants a completely new name, the "twisted horseshoe roll", and I have no idea why coaster enthusiasts are so... okay with these stupid and unreasonable element names. It's not a twisted horseshoe roll, it's a Zero G Roll followed by another Zero G Roll. Please.
A slow twisted hill threading through the loop leads into by far the most intense moment of the ride, a comically tight roll into the brakes. I thought Blue Fire was a fantastic ride personally, found it to be very underrated as a lot of people don't really discuss or rate this ride as highly as I do.
#307 Wodan Timbur Coaster gained the crown of becoming my new favourite wooden coaster, barely beating out Balder. While it ends a bit soon, its insanely fast paced layouts has not a single dead moment in it and is GO GO GO from start to finish without a second to breathe which is a little rare for me especially with wooden coasters. The ride suffers a little from having very few decent photo angles though.
Snorri Touren was next, their advertisement for Rulantica which we'd be heading to later today. I also didn't get it, but liked the good vibes that the attraction had. There was a nice surprise with the section where the car tilted a little, but the ride left little impression on me although it's pretty clear that I wasn't the target audience. Maybe I didn't get the storyline.
Tiroler Wildwasserbahn was the most recent ride at the park to get decimated by fire, and the whole area really feels like it used to be something much bigger and better. It badly lacks... buildings, and is just some rocks everywhere. It's a fun log flume though, but nothing standout.
#308 EuroSat - CanCan Coaster had a pretty miserable queue, but I survived through it with the
amusing background music and the fact that this might, MIGHT just be an indoor coaster with things that happen inside the building. Well we'll get to that, but first I loved the lift hill of this thing, the suspenseful music as you spiral upwards and view the iconic French landmarks was so memorable. And when the coaster got going, the way the music built up from the lift of suspense to breaking into the CanCan was great, and the satisfaction I felt experiencing an indoor coaster that isn't just pitch black the whole way through was simply put
immense. The coaster section itself was a load of fun too, and got off satisfied.
Our next ride was a virtual queue slot for
Voletarium which we got straight onto. Out of the three flying theatres I've done this fits snugly in second place although I did want to like it more than Sky Lion. Sitting nearer the edge I tried pretty hard to block out the edges to immerse myself into the world, but the awkward and abrupt Movie Maker fades between the blurry scenes kept taking me right out of it. I didn't really feel anything, and left Voletarium slightly disappointed. Oh well... ugh. Why can't I enjoy dark rides more?
Speaking of dark rides, let's try again, hello
#309 Arthur. And instead of leaving straight faced, again, this was possibly the biggest emotional reaction I've had to an amusement park ride in a long time. While yes I've also had utterly zero context on what the ride was about, I once again wasn't really getting it when the ride started but when it sped up... I was in hysterics until the brakes.
The janky shunty way those trains funny around the track is unforgettably funny, and the Snoop Dogg scene is possibly one of the most surprising moments I've ever experienced on a coaster. My face coming off the ride was something not to be forgotten, and simply lost it when I met back up with my group (we all went for single rider). After a few minutes of being unable to control my laughter on what the hell Arthur is, I accepted that I still like dark rides even when I can't quite follow the story. All you need is a little jankiness and shock factor, and you're cool.
But there is still an overwhelming amount of things on the to-do list, we've barely broken a dent into it and very soon we have to consider leaving for our evening slot at Rulantica.
You know, sometimes I wonder if I have my priorities straight in this whole coaster thing, because how did it take me 310 credits before ever stepping foot on a B&M hyper? Is there genuinely, unironically, anyone else who took a longer time to get on one? Because I'm not sure. Well, it's finally time though, for
#310 Silver Star. Some would say it would feel incredible to finally be on one after all this time, some would say it would feel nice but wonder why they took so long. Well I'm in the latter - going up the lift was a euphoric milestone, and going down the drop was that only tenfold. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I haven't been on a B&M hyper after all this time as I, you know, haven't booked trips to places that have them despite having every opportunity to do so. Whatever.
Past the first hill however I instantly noticed a bit of an issue - while being yanked over the tops of the hills and being out of your seat for the rest of it was amazing,
going up the hills felt like a big dud; it's the epitome of
waiting, for the top of the hill to come, before that magnificent float downwards and the trouble is is that happens for every big straight hill on the ride. I wish I could do something about that. Also, on the first and second valleys I lost pretty much all of the gap between myself and the lap bar which also hindered some airtime I would've gotten. And speaking of the valleys, the rattle at the bottom of the first drop was definitely a thing that happened but was absolutely nowhere near the car crash that people described it as being.
The second half is where things start getting really good though, even if the ride has lost a lot of its height by now, as the drops off the midcourse and the following turnaround provide some
shocking ejector airtime that the ride was definitely not designed to handle, and they're hilarious moments of the ride that really wowed me. A quick S-bend into the brakes finishes off a simply splendid ride. While my criticisms of the "going up the hill" sensation are still there, I'm able to see that at the end of the day it's a) 11:59pm and b) still an awesome roller coaster that thoroughly deserves its very high placement in my rankings. However, I hope that this experience isn't shared across all of the B&M hypers although I've heard Silver Star is one of the best ones so... yeah.
#311 Poseidon was next, a water coaster that essentially combines Skatteøen and SuperSplash Tusenfryd. While there was a big jolt at the bottom of the first drop, the roughness of this ride was pretty overstated and overall wasn't too bad. I think this is my new favourite non-launched water coaster actually, but just barely, as Skatteøen sits just one spot below.
So when the fire happened that destroyed Alpenexpress & Tiroler Wildwasserbahn, Europa Park's insurance company got very pissed off at the state of their Geisterschloss dark ride and said "these fire codes are not up to scratch, this will be the next ride to go, and if it goes, this entire area will be razed to the ground." Europa got SO scared of a fire at Geisterschloss that they stationed firefighters inside the building to watch the ride as it went...
So soon the ride closed for a major refurbishment, and as a result we got
Castello dei Medici. Once again it's a dark ride that I don't understand the story of and so it becomes "look at these set pieces that are somehow connected" and as a result, again, I didn't leave thoroughly impressed. I understood that it was basically mini Phantom Manor though, but one thing I wish I never found out was how they did the spinning ghost effects. Not only do I not get storylines, I also look at the things happening and my only thought in my head becomes "I wonder how they did that?" and so the whole thing becomes me thinking about how an effect was done instead of being, you know, immersed into the worldbuilding. But the thing is, if I went into a dark ride knowing the storyline, then that's a major spoiler that ruins any surprises the ride might have. So it's a lose-lose-lose-lose situation that benefits nobody. But I did really like the preshow. It obviously took multiple chapters from Phantom Manor, it's still an excellently fun concept that I enjoy no matter what.
We had time for one more ride,
Piccolo Mondo, I didn't even know what that name meant at the time. It was short and sweet, and that's about all I got from it. One thing I do enjoy in this park is how you can walk straight onto a tiny ride that lasts two minutes, not everything has to be massive and big.
And with that we had to leave for our evening slot at Rulantica, with multiple unchecked boxes. The park is teetering on the side of
too big, with a f**kload of s**t to do. Our day involved strategising rides to pick up when the queues were at their shortest, and strategically picking which rides to use our virtual queue slots on. I was thankful that we had two days here, one absolutely was not enough. Although I do see the light, I loved the park, but I will admit it has been a little stressful with honest doubts that we'd be leaving with everything done even after two days. I can see the park being a whale of a time and one of the best theme parks in the world once you've done everything though and can just focus on rerides of the good stuff and taking in the atmosphere. But not yet.
Later today - some roks
" and then suddenly out of nowhere "haha f**k you, die" in their rides - here, it's represented by a pleasant helix after the midcourse brake run followed by an abrupt & intense dive loop into a tunnel followed by a hangtime-fuelled corkscrew into the brakes. These moments are a staple of Gerstlauer, and I like them.
