It’s a little different experience than usual but still unlimited fun!
For quite a while, we all had to miss out on our usual social activities. Nevertheless, now things in many countries go back to a “relative “normal. That’s why last week my family and I visited the Europa-Park. The experience is a little bit different now. But to be honest, it has its good and bad sides to it.
As usual, we wanted to be the first at the park, so left in Stuttgart early at 6:30 a.m. The traffic was alright, and it took us only about 1,5h to get there. We took a little break on the way and reached the parking lot at the park at 8:30. The park was about to open at 9, so one would think we were the first. That was not the case, though. Even though we try every time, we never manage to be the first there. Well, maybe next time, haha.
So, we parked and made our way to the gates. On the way, there was a security already asking to put on the face mask. We bought the tickets upfront as this is required during COVID-19. It is not possible to purchase tickets at the park. At the gates, everything goes super quick. You scan your ticket at the desk and pass quickly. A little hint: pay your parking ticket in the morning after entering because there are plenty of people waiting at the ticket machines in the evenings. This way, you don’t have to worry about it anymore after. 🙂
The experience in the park
The entrance area was a bit crowded, not too much, though. In these areas, the staff asked us to put on masks. A mask is not needed when walking through the park with enough space between one and others. As usual, we first hop on the little train that takes you around the whole park. We got off at the train station in Spain. As many people start jumping on the attractions close to the entrance area first and then make their way through the park, there are only a few people in the park areas further away from the entrance. And then we entered an attraction super excited. In all attractions, wearing a facial mask is required. This accounts for standing in the line waiting as well as on the roller coaster. The lines on the floor within the waiting areas make it easy to keep the next person’s distance. Besides, there are often posters and audio announcements pointing to the importance of maintaining distance. Since the Europa-Park lets only 10.000 people enter the park, the waiting time was for us most often shorter than during non-COVID times. Although the queue might not look short, the waiting time is. The employees at the attractions disinfect the seats and handles of the roller coaster dare.
Besides, the park implemented an app for measuring distance between the visitors and enabling visitors to line up virtually. We tried the app, but at the end of the day didn’t use it. The virtual line up often didn’t work because the line was full already, as many others are using the app. You can now wait virtually at the following attractions: Arthus, blue fire, Euro-Mir, and WODAN (find the link to the Europa-Park website here for more info on the app).
As we didn’t want to be looking at our phone the whole time waiting for free spots but rather enjoy the park, we lined up the usual way, which often didn’t take long anyway. The waiting time at Silver Star was, for example, about 30 minutes short. For blue fire almost the same. The boards standing on several places in the park displaying all waiting times for attractions are helping us quickly decide which ride to go on next.
We rode one roller coaster after the other. I think we haven’t experienced that many in one day for the last time we visited. As there weren’t playing any shows, we couldn’t do much else. Though, we noticed, this time at the Europa-Park, we saw a lot of places and small little decoration details as there are just a lot fewer people. The whole vibe and atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than usual.
Experience the roller coasters
Shows
On the other hand, no shows are playing at the moment. These are not many but now and then you notice, that the capacity is not at its fullest and that the park also has to use budget wisely.
Grab something to eat
There are several restaurants in the park. In every country theme, you can find the food typical for that country. We didn’t have any food at a restaurant as the waiting queues were quite long in front of the restaurants. The lines at the snack places were shorther. Though, some kiosks were closed.
One little hint: I’d recommend to pack some more snacks than usual. Quite often, the snack shops located along the waiting lines were closed. We were happy to have enough drinks and food ourselves in our backpack then 😉
Summary
The Europa-Park is as much fun during COVID 19 as it is a great place to go at any other time. The shorter waiting lines are something enjoyable during the visit. Nevertheless, no shows are happening. I think the company is doing a fantastic job trying to give all visitors still the best experience possible while dropping some features now and then to work economically profitable. 😊
The Europa-Park has a great homepage with all info on opening times, ticket shop, etc. in lots
of different languages. So make sure to check it out for buying the tickets and opening times. Remember: you need to buy the ticket upfront; otherwise, you will not be able to enter the park!