Theme Park Discussion / European Tour 2012!

Hi Guys,

Just thought i'd post something here about my upcoming trip to europe in April for my 21st birthday. We will be driving from UK to Germany and back, through France and Belgium picking up a few parks on the way, not many at all really as funds are low, but still.

We will be leaving the UK on April 2nd and then driving to Europa Park where we will stay from 2nd to 4th April. Then the long journey back up to crash in a hotel in Dunkirk before hitting Plopsaland on the 5th before we go back to the UK in the evening.

Anyone got any suggestions or helpful advice on driving through europe? I've heard that the toll roads in France are going to set us back €60, was just wondering about the location of service stations etc.

And any park advice would be good, I've been to Europa before but was wondering if there were any of the smaller attractions or shows that are a must see, where to eat etc.

We will be posting photos of the trip too particularly of Europa's new GCI

If you need to refuel in Germany, don't use the stations alongside the Autobahn, if possible. They're EVEN more expensive than the "normal" ones.

Driving through France seems pretty necessary to me, but you can avoid a lot of toll by driving as much as possible through Belgium and Germany (Dunkirk-Bruges-Ghent-Brussels-Liège-Trier-Strasbourg). Beware of the service stations in Belgium though, there aren't many of them, they're often crowded and serve very little food, as far as I know. Fuelling is never a problem and the gas prices are normal, even along the highways. Traffic jams around Brussels between 7am-9am and 4pm-8pm are unavoidable. You can always ask me for advice on Belgian stuff.

It has been years since I went to Plopsaland, I've always considered it a park for younger children, but Fred works or worked there so he could give you some useful tips.

As far as I've always heard, I don't drive myself, gas is really cheap in Luxembourg.

Early Happy bday

Yeah, you have to pay toll on the French roads, but the roads in France are from a high quality and are really comfortable to ride on (you'll notice when you cross the border into Belgium ). The service stations are also very good in France, big and almost always with some shops. In Belgium, service stations are not always so big and some of them don't have shops. I don't know if it is possible with the route you have planned, but fuel in Luxembourg is much cheaper then elsewhere in Europe (only in Hungary & Switzerland it's cheaper, so it is really a good option to ride via Luxembourg).

Like Dimi said, I work in Plopsaland. So come and say hi I'd suggest. I've never meet someone from NE IRL Search for the operator with black glasses and a name badge that says "Frederik" (I'm the only Frederik with glasses that works there so you can't miss ), I'm also 21 years. I'm gonna give you some tips for your park visit:

- the 5th of April the park is open until 6PM, but if it's busy the park decides to close the park later. Mostly 30 or 60 minutes, depends from the number of visitors in the park. They communicate this via loudspeakers in Dutch and French, mostly between 2 and 5PM. After 5PM they won't extend closing time anymore.

- at closing time, it are the queues that will be closed. So if you can get in a queue at 5:59PM you can still do an attraction.

- Officially, the park opens at 10AM, but people are allowed on the main square since 9:30AM. My advice, don't wait 'till 10PM or later to enter the park because like I said, there's a good chance it'll be busy in the park and then you'll lose too much time. And especially because you want to ride back to the UK at evening. I'd say, make sure you've entered the park at 9AM45.

- from 9:30AM to 10AM you're only allowed on the main square, the rest of the park is still closed. If you're on the fontains, an look straight at the station of the park's train, then go left. Wait there until it's 10AM.

- run to the "Vleermuis", it'll be the second attraction you cross. It's a unique coaster, it's a Batflyer coastertype from Caripro, but they went bankrupt and so there are only 4 operating coasters of this type around the world (2 in Japan and one in the UK). Don't have a too high expectation of this coaster, the ride experience is kinda boring and it has a shit capacity. So it's best to run immediately to this attraction if you don't want to stand too long in the queue (and this attraction isn't worth that).

- after that, just go to the "Rollerskater" coaster. It also has a shit capacity and close to openings time, there won't be much people in this part of the park.

- our log flume (my avatar) opens at 11AM, most of the times people are allready waiting for it so i think it's better to ride the "Draak" coaster first (which lies just opposite of the log flume) and than go to the log flume. If the queue there is still too long, then come back from 11:30AM to around 2PM. Normally, the queue there isn't that long anymore. But in the afternoon, between 2 and 3PM the queue will get longer because most of the people wait until the afternoon to ride this (because it's warmer than). You can also try to come back the last hour/half hour, because the queue won't also be long at that time. But take it from me, this is a must-do! I think it's one of the best log flumes I've done and the big drop really has nice airtime!

- there is a big Plop Eastershow, I don't know on what hour exactly, but take advantage of this show to do the attractions in the pirate zone and our top roller coaster Anubis. Most of the visitors are in the theater watching the shows and you'll notice that in the queues over here. Show is aimed for little children so don't go watch it. Show takes around 30 minutes, so that gives you 45 minutes to do attraction with less longer queues (people will already wait at the theater some minutes in advance).

- if you want to eat, I'll suggest the Mayarestaurant at Mayaland (the big indoor zone at the main square) or the "Meneer Spaghetti" restaurant, which is also in the same building as Mayaland, but this you have to enter from the outside of the building. Food there is the best you can get in the park. I warn you, don't go the "Plopburger" restaurant because food is shit there. And the prices are pretty high, like in every other attraction park.

- buy your tickets in advance online. You won't have to queue at the point of sales (and that can take a while) and it's cheaper.


Plopsaland is a park mostly aimed at children, but we have some good attractions that makes the visit worthy. Anubis is considered to be the best roller coaster in Belgium, we have a great log flume, a unique Flying Fish mill from Zierer, a Batflyer coaster (one of the 4 operating coasters of this type on earth), a star flyer of 80 meters high, a Mack Supersplash with a vertical lift.

And most important, it's just the most beautiful Belgian attraction parke were you can really enjoy the nice environment they've created. So, hope to see ya the 5th of april. I'll post here if I know on which attraction I'll have to work that day.

If you already have visited Europa Park before, just don't go back there and go to Holiday Park instead. Plus, you will drive near Walygator and you definitely should make a stop to ride The Monster, which is an awesome intense B&M. Other than that, Parc Astérix is opening a brand new Inverted B&M early April, though this park is situated near Paris.

Well, I spoke as a coaster enthusiast and not as a tourist, but I find strange the fact to be so close to those parks and not visit them.

Oh yeah, the French roads are very expensive and the gas' price just grow higher day after day. Other than that, welcome to France!

About the prices of fuel im not sure about the difference between the uk & france but just get a full tank before you leave and get a gerry can and get a full one of them that will be enough to get from is it brighton your from louis to at least threw france and then just use the advice above to get petrol from where ever else

If you already have visited Europa Park before, just don't go back there and go to Holiday Park instead.

I must admit I've never been to Holiday Park and that I want to visit it sometime, but for me if I would go there I would be doing HP & EP together on one trip and if I'd have to choose between the 2 it would be EP easily. I'm personally wondering what HP actually has to offer besides Expedition G-force which is undoubtily awesome). If I look at the attraction overview they hardly have anything else.

Been 4 times to Europa Park since I tricked my parent into detouring when we rode home from the holidays from Austria. When we went to Austria the year after with the whole family this time I got the others hooked to the park too. Most themepark trips I usually do with my older sister + husband. We try to do a themepark every year and we usually alternate between Disney and EP.
I can easily spend 2 days in that park and still have rides left to ride. The park is high quality, but also very good value for your money and that you can actually get decent quality food that isn't necessarily fast-food which is affordable. This is something I can't really say for Disney tbh. While an awesome park too, it is the themepark equivalent of bankruptcy (especially if you are a student with no income which currently gets screwed over by the dutch goverment... seriously I hate them a lot atm). Ah well I still have to cash in that all expenses paid trip I got for passing my bachelor .
Too bad I'm not visisting EP this year myself probably because I really want to ride Wodan. It looks so awesome xD
Also a tip regarding the Blue Fire; imo the only way to ride this properly is front seat. That said once you enter the station building the line splits into front seat & the rest. What people don't know is that if the front seat line doesn't pass half the building length (just before the 'doorway') it is actually a FASTER queue then the normal line (assuming that queue is full which is pretty probable. Also getting directed to the middle car 4 times in a row isn't very fun either xD). That said you are going very early in the season so you might not even have much queue lines anyway )

I had the BEST raclette outside of Switzerland at EP. And the only impressive food I got at Disneyland (5 visits so far) was at the Blue Lagoon. Which is also ridiculously expensive.

Theres about 10 chippys in glasgow called the blue lagoon So nothing special then.

*Offtopic*
Scotland:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=5Vj8qHpa7y8

By chippys i mean small shops that sell fish & chips nothing quite as good as that Its a bit dark in there, It was a bit like horror film i was expecting blackbeard to jump out of nowhere and start cutting people up lol

Hi, long time since i posted something here on NE but here goes!

Where will you be entering the mainland of Europe? Calais(by Eurostar)?

The main tip i can give you refuel in Luxembourg!But don't take a detour for it when driving towards Europa Park. As said above roads in Belgium are just shitty to drive on. And when driving towards Europa Park, and iff it's in your budget try to visit Holiday Park, Expedition GeForce has to be the best coaster in Europa. And only one worldwide ranks higher on my list ;)And Holiday is also a Plopsa-park, so maybe there's a discount somewhere. Perhaps a seasonpass will do?

For everything else i can say, have fun! And don't forget to drink a cocktail in the Europa Park Colosseo Bar!

Thanks for all the comments guys!

About Luxemberg, whilst it is a good idea to fill up, we're not too keen on that idea due to Luxemberg's supposed weird Laws. Eg, all tires on cars have to be the same brand etc.

The original plan was for a larger roadtrip going to more parks and getting more credits but we havn't got the budget so we had to downsize dramatically. I'd love to hit up Asterix's new invert and the rest but Europa just looks better right now.

Tyandor, thanks for the Blue Fire front row queue tip, will have to try and remember that. Hopefully it'll be quiet anyway

Fred thanks for the great tips! We'll look out for you around Plopsa. We've been getting good at spotting fellow NE-ers and enthusiasts as of late with Lewis bumping into Roomie at Thorpe. We will have to try and make sure we do the Log Flume, normally we miss stuff like that because it's a challenge to convince Lewis to go on anything that has the chance to get you wet. Thanks for the tip on the food although we normally go for light meals, makes riding coasters more comfortable

Werner! Nice to see you around NE again! We're traveling by ferry from Dover to Calais. And if I get served at the Colosseo Bar I'll be sure to drink a cocktail


So what does everyone recommend with trying food in Europa? Casimir, what's raclette?

Food in Europe is better than in the UK anyway (sorry, this was too easy). Put Lewis in the back of the log flume boat, there you don't get really wet

I assume that means that I will get the wettest if I sit in the back, due to the wink face

Hahaha, no Louis, for real. That's the driest spot there

Seriously can't wait for this, as much as I am shitting it about driving on the other side of the road, it's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun, and I can't wait to ride Wodan.

The trip is all about Europa, Plopsaland is just a lovely added bonus.

Of course, can't wait to go to Europa Park as well. But it is kinda hard to get there without a car

Just don't do what my dad did when we were in germany, he drove the wrong way up the autobahn, almost got us killed lol.