|
EUROPA-PARK
Germany
(Note: The park is owned by Mack GmbH
and used as a Showcase for their products.)
Click here to read Screamscape’s official extensive review of VOLETARIUM (NEW FOR 2017)
Click Here for Videos From Screamscape’s Trip To Europa Park
---- THE LATEST NEWS ----
(11/8/2024) Europa-Park Adding New 3D Dark Ride for 2025
(10/5/2024) Europa Park Previewing New Mack Rides Trackless "Eden Manor" Ride Experience
(7/27/2024) Europa Park Reopens New Geisterschloss Dark Ride as Castello dei Medici
(7/13/2024) Europa-Park Mascots Getting Feature Film in 2025 and Geisterschloss Dark Ride Renovations!
(7/11/2024) Is A New Dark Ride Coming to Europa Park in 2025?
(5/20/2024) A Video Tour of the New Austria Area
 Park News - (10/5/2024) Mack Rides is offering a preview of their new trackless ride vehicle system at Europa Park daily “from 17:30 to the end of Halloween Time”. Riders put on a VR set and climb aboard for a sneak peek of Eden Manor with the “Journey to Eden VR Ride” experience.
(7/13/2024) Europa Park held a live stream to announce details about “Projekt 2025: The Magic of Tomorrow”. It’s a fun video that showcased quite literally the entire company’s project visions, moving from just the Mack Rides company brand to the creation of so many other creative and multi-media divisions like Mack Media, Mack One and Mack Magic who work not only to create new attractions, but to develop and create the company’s own IPs.
This leads up to an announcement about a full feature-length film coming to theaters world-wide in 2025 featuring Europa-Park’s own Ed and Edda mascot characters called “Ed & Edda: Grand Prix of Europe”. You can follow the link to watch the whole live-stream, or catch the teaser for the new animated film below.
(4/20/2024) Europa-Park has been posting some amazing park pictures lately to their social media pages.
This includes some incredible visuals of the new Voltron Nevera roller coaster installation and a peek at the new landscaping around the Alpine Coaster “Enzian” passing through the Magical Valley of Diamonds.
(3/15/2024) Europa-Park just announced the new VR Coastiality attraction coming to EuroSat to replace the removed Valerian virtual makeover. In a move that I’m going to say is inspired, the new VR experience will actually be an official Phantom of the Opera experience.
An awesome trailer can be seen below showing off the Phantom skulking through the French landscape around the EuroSat attraction, and setting the trap to lure a pair of riders into the new VR experience. Now as long as they include that iconic Phantom song into the on-ride soundtrack experience, I’m sold! This looks like a lot of fun!
Look for Eurosat Coastiality - The Phantom of the Opera to open sometime this Spring!
(1/14/2024) Europa-Park has confirmed that the Valerian themed Coastiality experience offered on the EuroSat coaster has closed. The VR-headgear enhanced experience was added to the attraction during the rebuild of EuroSat between 2017 to 2018 when a special spur-track was added to allow for an entirely separate loading station option for the Coastiality experience train.
With such an extensive add-on build for the EuroSat attraction, the use of the Coastiality VR enhancement isn’t likely to end, but to date the park has not announced what kind of experience might replace it next in 2024. You can see an example of some of the visual experience in the Valerian version below, meant to tie into the film “Valerian - The City of a Thousand Planets”.
(8/17/2023) A really crazy incident took place at Europa Park this past week, but thankfully did not involve any kind of fire or ride failure. Instead the temporary dive show pool that has been set up in the final turn-around of the Atlantica Super-Splash lagoon suffered a dramatic structure failure and ruptured in the middle of a performance. Various videos from guests in attendance have made their way online showing the exact moment that the pool ruptured, sending most of the divers crashing into the water.
There is also another video clip from riders on the attraction itself, Estopped near the top of the final drop to avoid going down the flume and into the floating debris field. Oh, and in the final video clip, it does appear that one of the boats may have indeed done just that, as it shows a boat with riders stopped in the turn amongst the floating debris.
We hope that no one was seriously injured from this sad event.
2024 - Voltron Nevera and Croatia - (5/2/2024) ThemeParks.EU has posted a great written review along with a ton of photos of the new Voltron Nevera coaster at Europa-Park, along with a detailed look at the queue and the rest of the new Croatia themed land and shops, plus a quick look at Voltron 4D and a new 360º film called “Nikola Tesla's Beautiful Croatia”.
(4/24/2024) Voltron at Europa-Park is now open, and it has a few little surprised in store as well based on the POV videos I’ve seen.
The first one below shows off a ride in the daytime with what looks like the full pre-show experience, which includes a rather interesting bounce-effect for the train just before the first launch. The second video is the official POV from Europa park that shows off the entire layout with a cam mounted to the train, but you miss the pre-show “bounce” effect and the launch doors are already left open. Then look to the third video that shows off a bit of the opening ceremony and queue experience, as well as more footage of the ride in action (on and off).
The ride looks simply spectacular, and places Voltron in an early lead for possibly being the best new roller coaster of the year!
(3/21/2024) Europa Park has posted a new promotional video ad for the new Voltron Nevera roller coaster, that ends with an opening date of April 26, 2024.
(3/7/2024) Europa Park has added a series of new photos showing off their new Voltron Nevera coaster making test runs, and it looks incredible and unlike anything else we’ve seen before. If you read my post over at Blooloop at the start of January, I placed Voltron in the #1 spot as the “Best New Roller Coaster for 2024”, and I’m sticking with that prediction right now.
(3/2/2024) A brief clip of aerial footage shows off the backend / turntable portion of Voltron’s layout. It’s also interesting to see how they have integrated the turntable as a switch track that can sent the trains off on two separate tracks into the maintenance building, which is also located on the far end of the ride’s layout.
(2/24/2024) A great video clip from Europa-Park shows off the Mack family members taking Voltron for an incredible test ride.
(2/18/2024) A fantastic video showing off the progress on Europa-Park’s new Voltron coaster area can be found below.
(1/27/2024) Big news from Europa-Park, as the first 16-passenger coaster car for the new Voltron Nevera made the trip from the Mack Rides plant down to the theme park to be installed onto the storage track. The trains are pretty stylish, with cool steam-punk looking stylings and you’ve got to love the faux leather-recliner looking seats!
In fact, a new construction diary update going over the details of the new coaster’s station and how it will achieve a capacity of 1,600 riders per hour (one train ever 36 seconds!) can be found at the Mack Media VeeJoy website. If you’re wondering, this will happen through the use of moving walkways on each side of the train, much like Mack did when they built the station for the park’s Arthur attraction. In the case of Voltron, they also confirm that the coaster will have a single-rider line to help them maximize capacity on the coaster, as riders are assigned to the rows by a grouper who will pull in single riders to fill up every seat as needed.
They also confirm that all loose objects must be placed in a series of lockers that will be located on the level below the station, so that all riders are able to quickly board the train without delay as it passes through the station.
(12/22/2023) Some of the major themed structure elements have now been added to Voltron at Europa Park.
(12/15/2023) New video footage posted by Europa Park show off the start of testing on the park’s new for 2024 VOLTRON roller coaster. Check it out below!
(8/14/2023) Europa Park has announced that the full name for their new for 2024 roller coaster will be named “Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac”. For those not in the know, this appears to be a sponsorship style agreement with Rimac Automobili, the Croatian auto maker behind the Rimac Nevera electric sports car.
Once it opens, Voltron Nevera will be the longest multi-launch coaster in Europe with 1,385 meters of track, and featuring a 105º launch, which will be the steepest in the world. All said and done Voltron Nevera will feature a total of four launches (three forwards, one backwards) and seven inversions.
As a sort of preview for the new attraction and Croation themed land Europa Park will also open a new 4D film later this fall that will tell the story of Nikola Tesla.
(5/17/2023) A new video posted by Europa-Park shows off a ceremony that took place as the last piece of the new roller coaster opening in 2024 in the new Croatia land was set in place.
(4/30/2023) A new episode about the development of Europa-Park’s 2024 roller coaster and the design of the new Croatia themed land is now available on their Veejoy streaming platform.
(4/8/23) An awesome model scale model of Europa Park’s 2024 new roller coaster can now be found in the new Croatia Dome of Dreams area. A video below showing off the model gives us a great new look at how the new themed roller coaster experience will look when finished. The EuropaStreet twitter account also shows off a great view of the construction on the new coaster and new enhancements made to the park’s Josefina’s Magical Imperial Journey attraction, which now offers new themed boats and enhances scenes along the way. Joefina first opened last season with the original Jungle Rafts vehicles, featuring only some very minor thematic alterations so the brand new fleet of boats is a huge improvement.
(3/27/2023) Europa Park has finally released an animated POV video showing off their new roller coaster currently under construction. The video now confirms that the ride, rumored to be named Voltron, will not be ready to open until the 2024 season.To watch you’ll have to follow the link to Europa Park’s VeeJoy video website, but the experience is worth it. What you will see is Mack Rides first Stryker Coaster, designed to use 16-passenger vehicles (4 rows of 4) and featuring a very long multi-launch layout experience.
While they dont’ show off the queue,or any early scenes the coaster may travel through leading up to the first launch point, the high speed portion of the ride experience starts off with a magnetic launch forward, and then into more launch motors mounted to a vertically climbing track that shoots straight up through the roof of the building and into the ride’s first inversion. Shooting out of this inversion the train will turn slightly and enter into a sort of barrel roll inversion dropping off the roof of the building, into a bunny hop and up into a pair of back-to-back Immelman style inversions. From here the ride hits a section of booster launch track that shoots it up into a large hanging/stall inversion track before diving back at the ground, into an airtime hill, followed by a series of swooping turns and possibly another half inversion before the trains comes to a stop unexpectedly at the far side of the ride. This stopping point is actually a giant turn-table that will rotate the train 180º and line up with a second piece of track where the train will then suddenly be launched backwards up a spike for a moment of weightlessness before falling back down onto the turntable’s launch track that fires it forward at full speed once again. From the look of things, this turntable will likely be enclosed inside some kind of structure, where perhaps a scene of sorts will play out in conjunction with the story about the two large Tesla coil towers built… one atop of the main building and the second one built on top of the turntable building. From here the train will fly into what looks like a twisted Top-Hat sort of element, but with a swooping drop from the peak rather than a vertical dive to the ground. From here the train will go through a massive air-time hill followed by a second hill where the train will be banked sideways at the peak and then a double-up into a mid-course brake run. The final portion of the ride is a series of high speed twists, turns and a pair of corkscrew style elements before the train hits the final brake run.
As a parting message, Mack only says, “Welcome to the Electric Age”, and in 2024 this is sure to be the park’s most thrilling coaster experience to date.
(3/16/2023) Michael Mack has posted a fantastic aerial video showing off the construction site for the park’s newest roller coaster. As you can see there is still a lot of work to do, and while the rumored “Voltron” coaster was intended to open sometime in 2023, I wouldn’t be surprised if this slipped back to 2024 to give them more time to finish it. Of course, as Europa Park is open for most of the year, it also wouldn’t surprise me to see the coaster or maybe some of the new land open for “technical rehearsal” closer to the Christmas season either.
(2/15/2023) A fan has created an animated simulation of how they believe the new ‘Voltron’ roller coaster under construction at Europa Park will look like, themed to the experiments of Nikola Tesla. The animation features a few unique elements I had not considered as being part of the project myself, but it is entertaining never-the-less while we await the finale official announcement from Europa Park themselves. Check it out below.
(2/4/2023) Europa Park has confirmed that the first piece of track for their newest roller coaster has now been installed. Follow the link for a picture and more details.
(1/27/2023) A new video about the creation of Europa-Park’s new roller coaster can be found by following the link. The video is in German, but remember you can turn on subtitles in English and French to follow along. Things start off with some humor, but there is a great time-lapse video shortly after that shows off the amazing progress they’ve made so far putting up the massive buildings for the new attraction. The video ends with coaster track finally arriving on site.
(10/3/22) The final chapter of Europa-Park’s video series about the construction of the park’s next roller coaster can be found if you follow the link in the Tweet from Michael Mack. It also ends with an interesting surprise of sorts. Also, remember you can turn on English subtitles to understand what’s going on.
(8/28/22) Things are starting to move quickly at Europa Park as crews are setting up for the park’s next coasters. A construction picture from the site was posted by Europa-Park to Facebook on Friday along with a tweet from Michael Mack showing off concept art for the ride’s crazy new station building that will be themed as a former hydroelectric plant structure where new “electrical experiments were taking place” under Tesla.
More details about this themed structure has also been posted to the Veejoy website by Mack Media in a 24 minute long presentation. It’s in German but go to the settings on the video and you can turn on full English or French subtitles.
They do confirm that the storyline being told here would also tie to their Adventures Club of Europe (ACE) storyline that started with the creation of Voletarium. According to the story the ACE group presented Telsa with the old power plant building in which to conduct his new experiments with electricity, so you end up with a very unique looking structure that has many old building features, but has then been modified and adapted by Tesla’s new equipment, such as the giant Tesla coil tower on the roof.
The story of the attraction will involve Telsa’s efforts to transmit cosmic energy wirelessly through the air, and coming up with a way to even transport people with this same cosmic energy. With a launch planned for the new roller coaster, we can only guess that all this energy is going to end up powering your high-speed journey. Other parts of the video mention animatronics planned for the experience as well. One more interesting point... during a Q&A session taken while riding the park’s rapids ride, the subject open an opening date came up. While the ride is intended to open for 2023, they were open about the fact that certain electrical and control components have a 50-60 months lead time and while they hope everything will arrive in time for the ride to open in 2023, there are elements like this that are beyond their control that could delay things.
(7/2/22) Another humorous episode about the construction of Europa-Park’s new for 2023 roller coaster has been posted to the VeeJoy website. While the duo are talking in German, you can turn on English subtitles however. This includes talk about how there will be a ‘large water basin” built in front of the roller coaster followed by talk about how the station building structure will be built. The construction of the building will take some time, as it has to go up in phases to get the initial “shell” structure, allowing them to install the roller coaster track next, before they can put on the roof and finish the building and install all the various utilities (water, electricity, AC, etc…).
Then it is road-trip time and they take us to the Mack Rides facility Waldkirch, located about a half-hour drive from Europa-Park. Here we get a first look at some of the ride’s actual layout in the design department as well. (or is it? Design changes are teased…)
The coaster itself will use short Big Dipper style trains, seating 16 guests at a time, seated 4-across in 4 rows per train. The coaster will be able to handle 7 trains at a time, having 3 or 4 on the course at any one time and the rest moving through the various blocks in the station building.
Watch the end and they even show off a prototype track in action for an older Mack Rides concept that has yet to be built anywhere, the Rocking Boat ride.
(5/7/22) According to a tweet from Michael Mack they will be starting a new series of videos about Europa-Parks newest roller coaster called “Ω - The Construction Documentary”. But they’ve posted a mini veejoy riddle that apparently has a riddle to solve about when the new video series will start. It’s all in German though, so I’ve no idea what they are saying, but the banner at the end says May 26, 2022.
(4/23/22) So far it has been confirmed that Europa-Park is building a new roller coaster for 2023, and it will be placed as part of a new mini-land themed as Croatia, and we even know that part of the the land will take the place of the former giant satellite dish behind EuroMIR. The park also confirmed that the coaster would be an updated version of Mack Ride’s “BigDipper” style roller coaster system.
Now we are getting our first look at the layout of the coaster as posted on Twitter by the EPF4ever account who has gotten ahold of the building permit application drawings from the city of Rust. The drawings clearly show off the overhead layout of the new coaster, and also explain why earlier this year the park closed the nearby Traumzeit Dome (a small multi-media dome theater) and the Flight of Icarus (Balloon Flyer) ride for removal, as both will fall into the construction zone.
Based on the plans a new structure will ride on the site of these former attractions, which should offer a new themed structure along the park pathway where Flight of Icarus used to reside. From the initial look of things however, it appears that the entrance to the new coaster however may be on the other side of this structure, using the small bridge that formerly was used to send guests from the EuroMIR entrance plaza area over to the Traumzit Dome, which where it looks like a small open plaza and queue will be placed for the new coaster, along with what look like pathways leading off to areas beyond, not included in the plans that could lead to other elements for the Croatia land.
With the Trademarking of the name Voltron Coaster for the new attraction, this has also offered the thought that the ride could be themed around the scientific work of Nikola Tesla who was born in the Austrian Empire in the area now known as Croatia. This could add some really fun visual elements to the queue and to the enclosed portions of the coaster itself. The large structure appears to have room not only for the loading station for the coaster, but also room for some kind of themed start to the ride experience, which could include a mini-launch to start off the coaster experience. While it is difficult to tell for sure, the layout itself appears as if it could contain up to three launch points (the initial launch and possibly two boosters) as it includes a pair of very long parallel tracks that will separate the coasters into two sections as it passes by an existing warehouse structure. The back-half of the coaster appears to be located over what is currently a small employee parking lot off a service road entrance. Based on the twisted nature of the track here this appears to be a set of 2 or 3 inversions, though the plans also indicate a pair of small new building structures will rise here as well. I’m unsure if the coaster is intended to pass through the larger of these structures, or intended to simply pass over it. On the plans this structure is simply labeled as a Wartungshalle, which translates to “service area”.
(3/19/22) Europa-Park has confirmed on their French FB social media page that the park will be building a new land themed to Croatia that will feature a brand new roller coaster from Mack Rides. According to the update, this will be an updated “BigDipper” style coaster from Mack Rides (the last was Lost Gravity at Wailbi Holland in 2016) and will be built in the backstage area where the giant satellite dish near EuroMIR used to sit until it was removed earlier this year.
According to the RCDB post, they claim the park has also registered the name “Voltron Coaster” for possible use here.
(10/14/20) The future of Europa Park looks bright it seems. While speaking at the BlooLoop V-Expo this week Michael Mack, CEO of Europa Park, revealed that they plan to add at least two new themed areas and five new attractions to the park over the next few years. While he didn’t get more specific about the new rides in the works, he did confirm that a new roller coaster of some kind was planned to debut in 2023.
This will be the first new coaster to be added to the park since the kiddie coaster, Ba-a-a-Express was added in 2016. The last high thrill coaster was added was Wodan way back in 2012, so I would think it is well past time for the park to add a new high thrill coaster.
2024 - Rebuild Austria - Alpenexpress & Tiroler Wildwasserbahn - (5/20/2024) An extensive video showcase of the entire re-modeled Austria area at Europa Park has been posted by Theme Park Worldwide, finally giving us a view of the rebuilt attractions within the all new themed landscape. While there is an area still under construction between the flume’s lift hill and nearby park pathway, the new theming is very extensive and merges the environments of the Tirol log flume and Alpen Express coaster very well, creating a new place where the different attractions can interact with each other. The video, while long, also includes some POV footage of both attractions as well as they pass through the new themed landscape.
(5/15/2024) Good news from Europa-Park, as they have officially opened the rebuilt Austria themed area of the park now that was devastated by a fire last year. The rebuilt Alpenexpress Enzian runs through the area, interwoven with the repaired Tirol Log Flume, with both attractions now surrounded by a new Austian mountain-like landscape, topped off with a climbing trail and several rope bridges that pass overhead.
(3/7/2024) A fantastic construction short about the progress on rebuilding the Austrian themed area has been posted by the park. The speed in which this highly themed landscape is coming together is astounding, and it looks fantastic. The report confirms that all the track for the new Alpine Coaster Enzian has been installed. All the new flume sections for the Tiroler Log Flume have also been installed, leaving just the new lift hill to be added.
(2/18/2024) An impressive look at the rebuild of the Austrian themed area at Europa Park that caught fire last year can be seen below. This includes the repair to the park’s log-flume that previously ran through the area affected by the fire, as well as a complete rebuild of the Alpine Coaster Enzian attraction.
(1/31/2024) A fantastic look at the progress being made to rebuild the Austrian area of Europa Park, including new track for Alpine Coaster ‘Enzian’ going into place and the arrival of new Tirol Log Flume sections.
(1/25/2024) Europa Park has posted a look inside the construction site of the Austria themed area, repairing the damage from the fire to the Alpen Express, Log Ride and more. According to the video they also mention something coming called the Yomi Adventure Trail, which sounds like an outdoor replacement walk-through attraction space that will take the place of the former Diamond Mine that was destroyed by the fire. In fact, it looks like the Adventure Trail will conclude in the Gemstone Grotto, which looks like a slightly rethemed version of the space where the Magical Valley of Diamonds trail used to end.
(10/22/2023) I had not seen this before, but in the latest Chall Chats video on YouTube, he talks about the planned renovations and rebuilding of the Alpenexpress powered coaster and Tiroler Wildwasserbahn log flume coming to Europa Park for the 2024 season. As you probably already know, this project was unplanned, but necessary to repair the damage done by a fire at the park earlier this year. While the two major rides that traveled through this area will be rebuild, the themed environment in this area will be changing to something new, as the former underground diamond mine walk-through attraction will not be returning. The video posted on Chall Chats however has posted a piece of concept art I’ve not seen before showing off how this new shared environment the two rides will share will look when it is finished.
The video also reports that when Alpenexpress returns it will feature all new track and a brand new train design featuring individual lap bars. The log flume will be rebuilt, but keep the existing logs boats, however about 13 new figures (some animated) will be added along the rebuilt course, including a surviving animatronic miner from the lost Magic world of Diamonds walk-through.
(9/17/2023) According to posts on Twitter, Europa Park has filed plans to repair and reopen the Alpenexpress powered coaster and the Tiroler Wildwasserbahn (log flume) that were damaged in a fire earlier this year. However, the plans also show that the former walk-through attraction housed that also served as an enclosed section for both of the other attractions will not be rebuilt. Instead the area will be replaced by a series of pathways through a rockwork landscape, along with what looks like a new structure that seems to have stairs going up to a second story level that may overlook this new area.
Based on the plans, it looks like Alpenexpress will keep the same layout as before, while the log flume will mostly keep the same layout, with the only noticeable change being a straight section of flume replacing a second that used to have a small bend just before the turn into the final lift hill.
(7/15/2023) I went back through my footage from Europa Park from my visit in 2017 and pulled out whatever footage and photos I could find of the three attractions affected by the fire last month.
(6/22/2023) A few stunning pictures showing off the aftermath of the fire at Europa Park have now emerged on social media. Michael Mack has posted a view from the park pathways where you can see the burn marks at the tops of the buildings and edge of the roof, but the true extend of the damage is still hidden from view.
Below that we find a trio of images showing off the extent of the damage to the building’s roof, along with two pictures taken inside the building itself. The interior photo paint a clear picture of the sheer destruction caused in the blaze that raged inside the building. All that remains of the catwalk/bridge structure that guests would walk-upon while touring the Diamond mine themed walk-through are the steel supports and railings twisted from the heat. Behind that the framework of the log flume structure can be seen, where the flume sections have all but melted away from the heat. I can only see the track for the Alpenexpress coaster in the background of the pictures, which is too far away to determine if it was also damaged.
The cause of the fire has still to be determined, but based on the pictures, the destruction to everything inside the structure is fairly complete, so I wouldn’t look for any of these to reopen anytime soon, if ever. The walk-through appears to be a complete loss, and too much of the log flume has been destroyed to think it could reopen without a major rebuild. The Alpenexpress powered coaster may be salvageable, but only after Europa Park are able to remove remains of structure to determine if it is worth saving, or if they would be better off building something new here.
(6/20/2023) Bad news for Europa Park, as a fire was reported to have broken out on Monday. According to the news reports the fire took place in the park’s Magic World of Diamonds walk-through attraction. This walk-through attraction is actually interwoven with two of the park’s other major attractions: The Alpenexpress powered coaster and the Tirol Log Flume, both of which travel through the themed diamond mine area.
According to various news reports, fire crews were quickly on scene and managed to put the blaze out before it got out of control. One report mentioned two firefighters were injured fighting the blaze and the park guests were all evacuated. Europa Park has already stated that the park would open again in the morning, but I would imagine that the trio of attractions will all be closed for the foreseeable future, until the extent of the damage can be assessed.
2024 - Geisterschloss Upgrade / Castello dei Medici - (7/27/2024) Great news from Europa Park has it was announced that the park’s former Geisterschloss (Ghost Castle) dark ride has now reopened following a full refurbishment and redesign. The attraction has now been given a new name as well: Castello dei Medici.
The four-minute long dark ride still features a few familiar scenes mixed in with many all new scenes and characters, based on Lorenzo de Medici, a 15th-century noble who discovered an old stone tablet, inscribed an ancient text that “promises eternal life to anyone who follows its instructions”. Lorenzo then dedicated his entire life to pursuing this quest.
Enjoy a new video showing off the attraction, along with a POV of the queue and new ride experience below. Disney fans should enjoy this as well, as the original attraction and ride system were designed as an homage to Disney’s Haunted Mansion concept, featuring a very similar ride system to Disney’s Doom Buggies, a stretching elevator room and quite a few effects that are a hat tip to Disney’s own famous attraction.
(7/13/2024) It’s come to my attention that Europa-Park’s Geisterschloss (Ghost Castle) dark ride has been closed this season and is said to be undergoing a complete renovation inside. According to previous interviews, the park has long wanted to update this haunted dark ride experience, but in the wake of the fires the park has experienced in the past few years, there has also been a huge push to increase and update the fire safety systems throughout the park as well. As a 40+ year old dark ride, Geisterschloss was high on the list of attractions that was in need of safety upgrades, so the park has been taking this opportunity to completely renovate the dark ride on every level, with work starting in early January this year, as soon as the park was finished with the winter season festivities.
The full extent of what we will see changed when Geisterschloss reopens isn’t known, but it has been said that we can expect to see many of the older animatronics renovation or completely replaced with new figures, as well as updates to many of the rides scenes. The expectation earlier this year was that the ride would reopen sometime over the Summer season, but given that it is now mid-July, I’m thinking that the more realistic expectation would be to have it finished by the end of the Summer, just in time for the annual “Traumatica - Festival of Fear” event which will kick off on Sept. 25th this year and run on select nights through to Nov. 9th.
In the meantime, a video shot at the park on June 25th shows off a little of the progress seen from the outside on the attraction update can be seen below. Not only is the inside of the attraction undergoing renovations, but the outside of the building itself is getting some extensive remodeling. Peeking into the construction site, they even caught workers pulling a an animatronic figure through the construction site on a cart.
2025 - Grand Prix EDventure / Interactive Dark Ride - (11/8/2024) Europa-Park has confirmed that they will open a new interactive dark ride called featuring park mascots, Ed & Edda, which will also serve as a tie-in to Mack Magic’s new animated film hitting theaters that summer, Grand Prix of Europe. The new attraction will be named “Grand Prix EDventure” and according to the post at Blooloop, the new 3D Dark Ride will be located in the park’s Luxembourg area and use Mack Ride’s new Gameplay Theater attraction platform which merges the concept of a dark ride and interactive gaming into a small footprint experience.
The park map on the official website shows the new attraction appearing to take over the space of the Europa Park Museum & Historama revolving theater attraction, located just below the Food Loop restaurant space.
(7/11/2024) Is a new Dark Ride in the works for Europa Park in 2025? According to a new video update from Chall Chats, the park is planning something new to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary next year.
According to the video the new attraction is said to be a replacement to the park’s “Journey to Rulantica” multi-media theater attraction in the Luxembourg area, which served as a preview to the themed world of the Rulantica waterpark. The attraction closed on June 2nd, so work on whatever is planned for 2025 is already under way.
The interesting replacement described in the video would be for something called a Mack Rides Gameplay Theater concept. It’s a neat concept where ride vehicles seat riders in a back-to-back configuration and travel around a circular path, once facing outwards from the ring and then make another look facing the spaces on the inside of the ring before exiting. The “Gamerplay” concept comes through the use of some sort of interactive device, such as a blaster or pointer device to interact with targets in each room space. Based on the concept art, the rooms guests will see would likely be a mix of both three dimensional themed spaces as well as interactive screens. In the second video below you can see Mack Rides’ own presentation for the Gameplay Theater concept.
Fun Screamscape Videos Of Europa Park
A Stroll Around the Europa Park Hotels with Screamscape -
Tiroler Log Flume - POV
Schweizer Bobbahn POV
Fjord Rafting (2017)
Piraten in Batavia (2017)
Euro-MIR - POV
|
