Europa Park is one of the world’s best theme parks. If you’ve never been there, imagine
Epcot’s world showcase fleshed out as an amusement park. You have the coasters of a Busch Gardens
park combined with the dark rides and theming of a Disney park. Does that sound amazing? It should. I
love Europa Park and in this video, I’ll explain why this truly is a bucket list destination.
Europa Park opened in 1975 and it’s owned by the Mack family.
Mack Rides wanted a theme park to serve as an exhibition site for their attractions.
Not only does Europa Park positively showcase this German company’s products,
but it also is one of the best and most well-themed amusement parks in the world.
The park has a series of themed lands, mostly themed to different European countries.
There are 15 different countries, each with its own distinct architecture and feel.
The transitions between lands are seamless and you really feel teleported to a different country as
you walk through the park. This park has some amazing attractions, but you could honestly
have a blast moving country-to-country just soaking up all the sights, sounds, and smells.
They all look amazing, but there are a few I want to highlight.
Switzerland is really cool with the alleyways between Swiss chalets.
There are some animatronic displays in the buildings and you also have a lot of kinetic
energy with Schweizer Bobbahn running overhead. Italy has a quaint feel. I love how the
buildings and attractions are set around this beautiful fountain.
Scandinavia was rebuilt after a devastating fire. The narrow midway feels like a European
village with all the shops and storefronts. Then the area opens up with the Vindjammer swinging
ship on the water and the Fjord-Rafting attraction running around the land.
Then there are three additional areas. They aren’t tied to any specific country and have a different
aesthetic, but they’re equally as detailed. Adventureland feels similar to the popular
land at the Disney park with the wooden architecture and landscaping.
Grimm’s Enchanted Forest features charming walkthroughs and displays of popular
children’s fairy tales. If you’re familiar with Efteling’s famous Fairy Tale Forest,
this area feels like that attraction on a smaller scale.
Then you have Minimoys Kingdom, which is a unique indoor area themed to Arthur and the Invisibles.
The area has a whimsical feel with the oversized and colorful theming
plus the powered coaster running overhead. Moving onto the ride lineup, Europa Park is
stacked in this department. The park currently has 13 different roller coasters. Number 14 is on
its way in 2023 and it will be a Mack Big Dipper in an entirely new themed section of the park.
The coaster lineup is unique, deep, and well-rounded.
There’s a good mix of thrill coasters and family coasters. And many of them are well-themed too.
They have detailed queue lines, some visuals along the course, plus custom soundtracks.
Every coaster here is a full package. The best two coasters at this park are
oddly not from Mack. Silver Star is one of the best Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coasters.
It opened in 2002 as Europe’s tallest and fastest roller coaster. I had always heard
this coaster was overtrimmed, but they have barely been in use during my visits. And my
latest ones were on hot summer days. The first half has tons of sustained floater airtime on
the massive first drop and parabolic camelbacks. Then the return run is one of the best of any B&M.
You have two drops with rare ejector airtime for a B&M, a solid helix, another great camelback, and
a snappy s-bend into the brakes. Add in a smooth and super comfortable ride experience and you have
a winner. I have a separate review going into more detail, but this is the park’s best ride.
Wodan is one of the largest coasters from Great Coasters International and it features
a frenetically paced layout. You have one of the best drops on a GCI. That first drop is tall and
offers great sustained floater airtime. The rest of the layout is a delightful mix of airtime.
You get sustained floater airtime on the straighter hills and quick pops into the turns.
This ride was running rough in 2017, but it ran like a dream in 2021. And even if you have to
wait a while for this ride, the queue line is neat with the theming in the tunnels and the statues,
but I talk about that more in its own review. Blue Fire is the best Mack coaster. This launch
coaster was one of the company’s most important attractions as it signaled their willingness and
ability to build major thrill coasters. This ride has a solid launch followed by 4 fun inversions.
The first 3 gracefully levitate you out of your seat and then the final inline twist
feels similar to the Mosasaurus roll with its violent laterals and airtime. Then the ride
also adds in some airtime pops, nice visuals along the layout, and a very smooth ride.
Check out my review if you want to hear more. Euro-Mir is a weird prototype spinning coaster
from Mack that I just reviewed yesterday. Unlike their later spinners that had free
spinning vehicles, the cars on Euro-Mir could only spin at pre-set points.
The main layout has the vehicles locked in place, but you have some strong positive Gs. You just
have to watch out for some shaky transitions. Then this coaster has a catchy soundtrack and one of
the weirdest starts ever with that 3 minute spiral lift that feels like a dance party and the slow,
extended elevated section around the towers. Eurosat is an indoor coaster in a geodesic dome
similar to Spaceship Earth. The ride was recently retracked and rethemed,
and now it’s better than ever. The ride has a similarly weird spiral lift like Euro-Mir
plus a great soundtrack, but the rest of the ride is far different. It’s basically a long downhill
course with some sudden and decent turns. Then you have an interesting finale going underneath
the legs of women performing the can-can. Schweizer Bobbahn was the prototype Mack bobsled.
The layout isn’t as strong as the other bobsleds out there, but the final helixes are decently fun.
Just make sure to lean forwards since the cars really vibrate down the slatted trough.
Matterhorn Blitz is a mostly standard Mack wild mouse.
The key difference is that this one has a bizarre elevator lift and a large drop at the start.
The park also has two water coasters. Poseidon is the better and longer of the two.
The slow sections have some light theming and then the coaster section has a large helix.
But the highlight is the funkily profiled final plunge into a subterrain tunnel.
Atlantica SuperSplash is a simpler attraction. It features a similarly great final plunge,
but there’s this gimmicky backwards dip leading up to it. Both these water coasters get riders
comfortably wet without soaking them to the bone. Fjord-Rafting can get you wetter. This
well-landscaped river rapids ride features a soaking wave at the start
followed by some milder ones and waterfalls that will mist you. This is a long ride and there’s a
little theming along the course as well. If you want to get drenched, your best
bet is oddly the Tiroler Wildwaserbahn log flume. Since the park loads each log completely,
you have a lot of weight into each splash. And the first one will soak you. The drops on
this one are ok. The highlight is this themed indoor section through a multi-colored cave.
Alpenexpress Enzian is a Mack powered coaster that shares the same cave. This is one of the
best options for younger guests since it features a tame layout that’s more about the visuals.
Pegasus is another solid junior coaster. It’s super smooth and if you’re in the back, there
are two drops that come close to giving airtime. The true kiddie coaster is Ba-a-a Express.
the beefier trains, retracting platform, and timed animatronics. This ride is the
best attraction in Ireland, which serves as the park’s children’s area.
I like how many of the rides in this area can comfortably accommodate kids and adults.
It’s really nice when young kids can share rides with their parents. Then you also have
this giant playground with these tall slides. I would have loved those when I was younger.
But this isn’t the only place you’ll find attractions suitable for kids. Most areas
have a dark ride or track guided rides that can accommodate riders of any age. Then you’ll also
find a few other kiddie rides and playgrounds peppered throughout the park. One of the best
other areas is the Minimoys Kingdom, especially since the Arthur IP is targeted towards kids.
That area also has one of the park’s most technologically advanced coasters in Arthur.
This powered suspended dark ride features a nice mix of screens and physical sets
with the highlight being the vibrant scene through the ripoff of the Las Vegas strip.
As a pure coaster, the ride isn’t too thrilling outside of a few mildly forceful turns on the
outdoor bit. This ride really is about the theming and the coaster excels in that department.
This park has almost a dozen different dark rides. Quite a few could be called Disney
knockoffs based on their names and theming, but they’re so well done they may be better
than their Disney counterparts. The star dark ride is Piraten in Batavia. Rebuilt after a fire, this
ride features stunning visuals. The large sets are busy and loaded with detailed animatronics.
And then the ride also has clever use of projection mapping to spice up select scenes.
Geisterschloss starts like the Haunted Mansion with some familiar scenes,
but the ride also incorporates more jump scares making it a great all-around dark
ride between the production quality and thrills. Piccolo Mundo literally translates to Small World,
but it rides nothing like the one at Disney. This one showcase’s Italy’s passion for love,
architecture, and food. The ride is short, but the visuals are fun and cartoony.
Snorri Touren is one of the newest dark rides. I love how its tied into Rulantica,
the nearby indoor water park also owned by Europa Park. The music and screen based visuals create a
pleasant atmosphere. The ride also features a unique simulator bit at the end for variety.
Madame Freudenreich Curiosties was refurbished recently.
The old form was a slow-paced, dated tour past dinosaur animatronics. Now it features the dinos
performing cartoony tasks along the way. Schlittenfahrt Schneeflockchen is a short
and dated dark ride. It’s another one with an infectious soundtrack,
but the visuals on this one are a lot more simplistic as the characters are dolls.
But the consistent style works as a contrast to the other rides in the park.
Abenteuer Atlantis is a interactive shooting dark ride with a ton of targets to take aim at. Make
sure to aim for the red targets that are worth way more than any other target. The figures range from
2D cutouts to smaller figures to giant dragons, so it’s a long but pretty average dark ride.
Fluch der Kassandra is a rare Mack madhouse. The ride has a convincing inverting effect
and there’s a chilling surprise at the end that’ll make most people jump.
Voletarium is one of the better flying theaters out there. I love the theming
in the queue line and the visuals during the ride section are as stunning as you’d expect.
Along with these dark rides, you can also find some walkthroughs.
Moving onto flat rides, this isn’t Europa Park’s strong suit. But that’s fine. Their
depth in the coaster, water, and dark ride department more than compensate.
You a variety of family-friendly spinning rides and three flat rides I recommend checking out.
First is Football Scooter. This is a weird bumper cars ride where you have two teams trying
to bump an exercise ball into a goal. It’s pure chaos, but it’s addictively fun and challenging.
You can either try to score or clobber others who are hellbent on scoring.
Second is Kolumbusjolle. This is an indoor Himalaya with some screen and lighting effects.
The laterals are decent and riders are given a wheel to steer whether you’re traveling forwards
or backwards, which is quite unique. Third is Euro-Tower,
which is a giant observation tower offering great aerial views of this beautiful park.
Rounding out the ride lineup are a series of track-guided attractions. Some like the EP
Express transport you across the park. Others just take riders on a scenic loop, sometimes in cars
and sometimes in boats. These aren’t my forte, but they’re a big hit with kids and families.
I’m not the biggest show person, but I’ve heard Europa Park does quite well in this area.
The only one I’ve seen is Historama, which provides a history of the park.
Unfortunately, it’s entirely in German so it was difficult for me to understand.
On that note, this park is very accommodating for English speaking guests.
While the rides are almost entirely in German, the signage is in multiple languages and many
employees are bilingual. I particularly love how the employee nametags show which languages
they are fluent in, which was super helpful. Europa Park has the second highest attendance
of any theme park in Europe, so expect to see a lot of people there. However, this park handles
crowds about as well as any park. Even on the busiest of days, the worst wait you’ll find for
the signature coasters is 40-60 minutes. And I find the wait times are usually overestimated.
Most rides are capacity machines and you rarely stop moving through the queue line.
Dispatches are lightning fast and every attraction runs a comically high amount of vehicles.
The worst waits in the park are typically for Eurosat, Wodan Timbur Coaster, Blue Fire Mega
Coaster, and Arthur. Prior to the pandemic, these four rides all had single rider lines.
Post covid, these lines were converted to virtual queue lines for the park’s free skip-the-line
system. I loved this system. It reminded me of Disneyland’s Max Pass. You could book a 10 minute
return window for the four prior coasters plus Euro-Mir and the Piraten in Batavia dark ride.
Return times are released up to 3 hours out. Times were plentiful for Euro-Mir and Piraten
in Batavia. I could almost always find a return time for those attractions no more than 30 minutes
out. However, those two rides tended to have a shorter standby wait than the other 4 coasters.
You can only book one ride at a time. And after you use the reservation,
you can either rebook the same ride or a new one. As with Max Pass, keep refreshing and the times
will change. I would keep cycling until I saw times for the 4 coasters.
Blue Fire and Wodan are the two I most recommend. Not only are they two of the park’s best rides,
but skipping those lines will save you a ton of time. It’s worth noting that you cannot
get the front row if you use the virtual queue- since those two rides have a dedicated front row
line in the standby queue- but the operators will typically honor row requests for any other seat.
My recommended touring plan depends if you’re a resort guest or not. Hotel guests enter in the
back of the park and get 30 minutes of ERT on a handful of rides, most notably Blue Fire. Once
the park officially opens, you’re able to get a few laps on Wodan before the crowds arrive.
You should then utilize the virtual queue on the three other included coasters.
And I would recommend staying onsite. The hotels do fill up in the summer seasons pretty early,
but the hotels are super nice, convenient, and fairly priced given their amenities.
If you’re not a hotel guest, know that the main entrance seems to open at least a half hour early
and a few dark rides in the Germany and Italy section will already be running.
I strongly recommend riding Voletarium right away if you’re one of the first
ones in the park. Otherwise, come back in the mid-afternoon when that ride dies down.
When the official park opening time hits, I recommend pulling virtual
queues for the major coasters and making your way towards the back of the park, hitting any
coaster along the way with a short wait. How much time you need depends on what
your interests are. If you only care about coasters, Europa Park can be done in a day.
But you’re doing yourself a disservice ignoring the other aspects of this park.
I think you want at least 2 or 3 days so you can also appreciate all the dark rides and theming.
This is not a park you want to rush through! And there’s plenty you’ll want to reride anyway.
The park hours are a bit weird. In peak summer season, Europa Park is open daily from 9 am
until at least 6 pm. Midway through the day, the park will announce if they extend their
closing time depending how crowded the park is. From my experience, the closing time has
typically been extended an extra hour. Speaking of hours, I really like how the
Rulantica water park tends to be open later than the amusement park and features a twilight ticket,
so you can easily do both parks in one day if you so choose. I have a separate video on Rulantica,
but it’s one of the prettiest water parks I’ve ever seen and the slide lineup is solid too.
One of the most lauded aspects about Europa Park is their food. I love the quantity of food options
in the park. Most of the items I’ve had here are decent, but few have wowed me. I know that’s a
hot take compared to most people though. Others seem to love the food way more. The standout item
for me are the poffertjes in the Netherlands section, which are delicious mini pancakes.
I think it goes without saying I strongly recommend Europa Park. This park excels in
so many areas. From the roller coasters to the dark rides to the theming to the customer service.
I always leave this park with a smile on my face and anxiously await my next visit.
This truly is one of the 5 best theme parks in the world and it’s right up there with Phantasialand
for the best park in Europe. This park has something for everyone and it’s a magical place.
So those are my thoughts on Europa Park, the incredible theme park in Germany.
What are your thoughts on the highly themed Mack showfloor? Do you agree it’s one of the best parks
in the world? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!