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| By Sam Vlas |
Today on Disney
Avenue, we talk about a well-known European theme park. It isn’t Efteling, it
isn’t Disneyland Paris… Europa-Park is the subject of today’s article. Always
wanted to take a trip around Europe? In Europa-Park it’s possible in a day!
There are even some Disney connections to be found. Continue after the page
break and let’s go on a journey…
Europa-Park opened in
1975 in Rust, a small village near the city of Freiburg in south-west Germany.
Its main purpose, still to this day, is being a showroom of the attraction
manufacturer Mack. The Mack family still runs the park and is the
most successful family-owned amusement park in the world. The family still
lives right next door and they can always be found in or around
the park and its resorts.
Europa-Park’s theme
is, of course, Europe. The park is divided into thirteen (!) themed areas, each
representing a different European country, showcasing its history, culture and
blatant stereotypes. I have been to Europa-Park, so this will be my view on the
theme park as a whole. Starting with the overall quality…
The park is home to a
very impressive collection of roller coasters, about 11 in total. They vary
from kid’s coasters, to gigantic steel coasters, to water coasters and to one
heck of a wooden giant. It’s also home to a variety of dark rides, which, to
me, are the ultimate source of hilarity. It’s here where the Disney connections
are found and it’s here where you will fall off your chair laughing. Let’s run
through a few of them.
Geisterschloss:
Geisterschloss:
The first real
dark ride of Europa-Park was the “Geisterschloss” (which means Ghost Castle in
German), located in the Italian area of the park. As you can see in the video
above, you may spot some very
familiar scenes. Some scenes may come from a certain estate located in a
certain park in America… This will be something you’re going to see a lot in
Europa-Park’s dark rides (and other European park too): shameless
Disney rip-offs! This is a product of the time in which these attractions were
built. There wasn’t a Disney park in Europe yet, and almost no one made the
Atlantic “jump” to visit an American Disney park, so European parks could just
copy certain things without having to worry about accusations of plagiarism.
This was common practice in the early days of the industry. And
“Geisterschloss” (and “Piraten in Batavia”, which will be next) are prime
examples of that.
(Note: Though not very clear, Geisterschloss
has a backstory. It’s about the famous Medici family, who made a pact with the
devil to live in prosperity, but was ultimately cursed. Throughout the ride you
can spy some elements that refer to the demise of this family, if you can look
past the corny Halloween displays…)
Piraten in Batavia:
Piraten in Batavia:
“Piraten in Batavia”
is the next stop on our journey. I don’t think I have to explain where this idea
came from… It’s basically the same as
with Geisterschloss: basic idea of a Disney ride, drenched in corny displays.
Corny is the word that sums these dark rides up perfectly. Though not very
original, the dark ride's scope is enormous and everywhere you look there’s
something to see. I may sound quite harsh on these rides, but get this right:
they’re loaded with atmosphere.
Schlittenfahrt Schneeflökchen:
Schlittenfahrt Schneeflökchen:
I’m sure you will love
this one. This is the BEST dark ride I’ve ever been on, just the sheer quality,
the immense scope, the animatronics, the moving backstory, the tear jerking
soundtrack, all of it is fantastic! Are you ready? Let’s go then…
“Schlittenfahrt
Schneeflökchen”… If you haven’t already noticed, this is absolutely one of the
most hilarious rides I’ve ever been on. It’s so bad, it’s good. It’s the only
ride where I bought my on ride photo of (and yes, there is a photo taken of you
during this blasphemy). This is the basic idea of this ride: take out a park
bench, put it on a pallet, put that on a moving chain, stuff a room full with
left-over children’s toys, grab a 1995-midi sound file of your old keyboard and
let the magic happen… They couldn’t be serious with this. You absolutely have
to see this in person; it’s a life changing experience.
Europa-Park is home to
around six different dark rides, one cornier than the other, but let me get this
straight: Europa-Park is a wonderful park, with a stellar coaster collection, there’s at least one of every type of ride to be found
here, not to mention the beautiful hotels. All of this I will cover in a future article. I’ll just let these
colorful images sink into your brain and please tune in next time as we explore
more of Europa-Park.
The "It's a small Zombie World after all" (Satiric nickname) ride in China, however wins the title of BIGGEST LAUGHABLE HORROR of the world :-)
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