Europapark (Mini-Honeymoon)

Hello dear ones,

I am writing to you today after our short trip to Europapark, where my husband and I spent the last two days (and yes, I love being able to write 'my husband' now :D).

We haven't been to Europapark for three years and were curious about what had changed. Especially how I, being a vegan now, would manage in the park, because three years ago I used to eat everything.

We left Munich on Monday at 6:30 am. After some traffic, we arrived at Hotel Colosseo around 10:30 am. As always, we had a very nice reception and a nice standard room. We have always stayed at Hotel Colosseo, except for one time when we tried Bell Rock. However, we liked the appearance of Hotel Colosseo more, so we went back there.

Fortunately, our room was ready for check-in, so we brought our things upstairs, freshened up, and then headed to the park. Although I have been to Europapark at least 10 times, it is always wonderful. Every time I am enchanted by the park and the attention to detail (see photo: a huge sand landscape is currently being created here for the opening of the new water park at the end of 2019). I have been to several amusement parks before (including Phantasialand, Heide Park, Disney World), and only the Universal Studios in Florida can match this park.

Our constant companion in Europapark is, of course, the Europapark app, which allows you to always see where things are and, above all, how long the waiting times are for the individual attractions. Thanks to this, despite the park being crowded, we never waited longer than 40 minutes (usually only 20-30 minutes).

Something new for us this time was the Voletarium. It is not a roller coaster. You sit in a large room, similar to a cinema, in front of a curved screen. You then fly over the whole of Europe while the chairs move and there is even wind blowing and different smells are added. It is really well done and actually feels like flying. However, I must say that the technology itself is not new. I already know it from the Universal Studios in Florida, where I liked the implementation even better. Here, you fly on a broom through the world of Harry Potter and you are not just in one spot, but you move through the room in gondolas, which makes it even more exciting and thrilling. The Voletarium is something for our more senior guests ;)

What we could not miss again this time was our obligatory photo in the water ride Poseidon. Every time, we come up with something new to make the photo funnier. This time, we simply played Jenga ;)

A major advantage of staying at one of the Europapark hotels is that you are allowed to enter half an hour before the official opening of the park and enjoy some attractions. Such as the looping roller coaster Blue Fire. It is definitely worth taking advantage of this, especially because the main entrance is on the other side of the park, so the flow of visitors arrives at BlueFire even later. When the flow of visitors has arrived at the back, you can calmly walk towards the main entrance to ride the SilverStar, where you usually don't have to wait as long.

As for the food, I was pleasantly surprised by the park. There were even vegan hotdogs. The Schloss Balthasar always has a vegan dish on the menu, and usually the FoodLoop does as well. The selection of food in the hotel restaurants, however, was not very vegan-friendly. At the breakfast buffet, I basically had only jam with bread and some fruit and vegetables. It would have been nice to have soy yoghurt and vegan spread (e.g., hummus) available. At dinner, there was a little more variety at the buffet, but it would have been desirable to have signs indicating which dishes were vegetarian or vegan. At the á la carte restaurant, I think we were lucky that there happened to be spaghetti aglio olio. In the new Park-Hotel Kronassar, there doesn't even seem to be a vegetarian dish. I find that very disappointing.

After dinner at the hotel, a visit to the hotel bar of the Colosseo is definitely worth it. It is located on the top floor of the hotel and offers a great view of the courtyard of the hotel (see photo) on one side, and a superb view of the illuminated park on the other side. They have a wide selection of drinks (especially alcoholic ones) and you can unwind there in the evening.

We want to come back as soon as possible next year and also try out the new water world. Let's see if we can make it work in terms of time and budget. Yes, a visit to Europapark is not cheap (current entrance fee is 52 EUR), and some people may wonder if it is really worth it. Personally, I think so! The park offers so much that is simply amazing. You can ride the roller coasters as often as you want (as a child from Munich, I like to compare it to Oktoberfest, where just one ride on a roller coaster already costs 10 EUR). In addition, there are several shows, such as an ice show, a musical, a 4-D cinema, a horse show, etc. I consider the price quite fair.

This will probably be the last report for the next few weeks until my departure to the Seychelles on August 24th. I will improve my English and fitness in the next few weeks so that I am well prepared for nearly 4 months of voluntary work. I wish you sunny weeks until then.

Yours, Alex