2004
Coaster Trips: 2004: Holiday Park, Europa Park
Thursday July 29th
Holiday Park
Last night was a rough one, due to a piercing alarm siren which went off twice during the night. Initially I was sure it was the fire alarm, but after a little thought I realised it was coming from outside. I have no idea what it actually was, being too lazy to get out of bed. I wasn't the only one woken though, as quite a few people were complaining about the siren over breakfast.
We arrived at Holiday Park at 8:15am, and headed straight for an ERS on Expedition GeForce (#321). Widely considered to be one of the best Roller Coasters out there, I was not disappointed by the ride experience at all. However, the lack of interest by staff was very much in evidence, as they were dispatching the single operational train around once every eight minutes. Bearing in mind that as a club we are well used to harnessing ourselves in coasters, there is no reason why loading a train and checking restraints should take more than a minute. During our ERS I managed a total of five rides, probably because I didn't bother waiting for either front or back; instead, I settled for the second row from front and the second row from back. Wiith operation like this it wouldn't surprise me if the coaster developed a three or four hour wait. Six Flags would be proud.
For our next ride, we tried out the Teufelsfässer log flume. This is a rather good log flume with two turntables, a backwards drop, and a large double-down drop to finish. The total ride length was at least five minutes, not bad for a log flume.
The park's other coaster has the honour of being the first coaster this week that Andrew really didn't like. The Super Wirbel (#322) features the trademark smooth and enjoyable ride that Vekoma are known for. Once was most definitely enough; both Andrew and I came off bruised. It says a lot about a coaster when the smoothest section of the ride is the double corkscrew!
The dark ride in the park is the Burg Falkenstein, an unusual ghost train style ride. This being Germany, it features a scene or two that would never pass the censors in other countries. Regardless, we spent more time on the ride messing around with cameras than actually admiring the scenery, so other than the odd scene I couldn't possibly tell you the details.
After the really unusual rapids in Phantasialand yesterday, the Donnerfluss rapids ride was a bit anticlimactic. That is not to say it was a bad ride at all; it is just that all rapids rides pale in comparison to Phantasialand's one!
We finished up the morning with two back to back rides on the Free Fall Tower, the first "normal" Intamin free fall we've come across this trip. The normal design, for those unaware, features a few four seater cars on the side of a tower rather than a large ring of people. This one featured an on ride photo, which we practiced on the first ride and purchased on the second.
Lunch was provided by the park, and was a reasonably good Burger and Chips.
We were scheduled to leave the park at 2:00pm, so we finished our time in the park with additional rides on the Free Fall Tower and the Donnerfluss. George was waiting for us as we went round the ride and threw a number of cups of water at the boat. Rather than hitting us though, he managed to hit some random germans in the same boat, who were not amused in the slightest!
Europa Park Hotel
The Hotel Colosseo at Europa Park is bordering upon the surreal when you see it for the first time. It is themed very heavily on the Roman colosseum, and the attention to detail is staggering. There are a few modern touches though; the courtyard area features a synchronised set of jumping fountains with a musical score which would not be out of place in Las Vegas. Mark proposed to his girlfriend Jenny in front of the fountain and the entire club, and they became the first couple to get engaged this week (and I suspect they will not be the last!).
Andrew, having spent the better part of the week winding up certain members, finally got his pay back in grand style by being thrown, fully clothed, into the swimming pool. This was for some people the highight of the day - I've never seen eighty people with cameras charge in the direction of a swimming pool before. I gather there will be a special section of the trip DVD devoted to this moment. Andrew was, of course, absolutely delighted with all the attention (and I've got the job of getting his clothes dry again).
At any rate, at a little before 6:00pm we entered Europa Park for the two hours before park closing.
Europa Park
Poseidon (#323) was my first encounter with a water coaster, and what an interesting ride it is. The design is a hybrid of a log flume and a roller coaster, with some traditional Roller Coaster drops and hills, and a few splash sections, which have been designed not to get the rider too wet. The wait was the longest we've experienced all week, of just over an hour, despite the fact that there are a huge number of boats on the ride, being dispatched every fifteen seconds or so. While i didn't count the actual number, I was watching the spaces between the individual blocks, and I'm absolutely sure that the ride is being run with the maximum possible throughput.
Capacity, in fact, seems to be very much a hallmark of this park. Later on in the evening, the park manager revealed that the park capacity is around 50,000 people at any given time, though they have never had that many in a day. He pointed out that Silver Star has an actual capacity of 1750 people per hour, which is very impressive indeed for a full size hyper coaster, which compares very favourably indeed with another coaster we rode a few days ago.
Matterhorn Blitz (#324) is a custom designed Wild Mouse ride with a very odd vertical lift which tilts the cars from side to side. The queue area takes you through some an area themed after a farm house, with a number of different scenes culminating in a barn. In the station, two cars are loaded (and lifted) simultaneously, with dispatches almost as quick as people can be loaded in.
Finally for the evening, we took three circuits on Eurosat (#325), the latter two with the lights on. The park does not run the ride with the lights on normally, but was willing to do so for club members. With the lights on, a fun enclosed coaster becomes frightening, as you can see how close some of the track transitions are! There is plenty of clearance, but it doesn't look like it, especially when the train is moving at speed. It was also very interesting to see the unique rotating lift system, which consists of a large rotating drum towing up several trains at a time, stacked one above another. I could see at least two trains being lifted at the same time as ours, one above and one below (and I suspect there may have been more). Without the lights on I would have had no idea.
On park closure, we headed back to the hotel where we received a brief presentation from the park manager. He showed us some footage of the park and some stunts run as a marketing campaign, for example the Silver Star Quiz, where a contestant answers quiz questions while a front seat passenger on Silver Star; very entertaining, to say the least. He also touched briefly on an accident that had occurred on Euro Mir during the day. He explained that two trains had collided due to operator error following a power failure; a highly unusual situation. He expressed hope that it would be running again for us tomorrow after the TUV had had a chance to rerun their safety tests.
We have a full day in Europa Park tomorrow and I can see already that the park is big enough that it will all probably be necessary.