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Old 20 Oct 19, 02:56 PM  
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HEMANCLOFTY
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Europa Park(s): Planes, Coaster-Trains & Autobahns (Aug 19) - Summary & Top 10s

Europa Park(s): Planes, Coaster-Trains & Autobahns (Aug 19)

Final Stats, Summary & Our New Top 10s


The Index is Here
Day 7 is Here


We had a really brilliant time on this trip – as much as we love Florida, we are really enjoying exploring the fantastic theme parks that Europe has to offer, and there really are some world-class parks and coasters out there.

The Final Stats:
• 68 total Attractions (plus 5 re-rides)
• 25 new Coaster Credits
• Walking: 144,635 steps (= 62.87 miles / 101.25 km)
• Driving: 1207 km (=752 miles)


For the Summary, I’ll start with the lows, because there really weren’t that many…

1) Losing my wedding ring at Europa Park
2) The dodgy tyre and never-ending air top-ups
3) The heat and queues at Phantasialand
4) Not getting to ride Taron

Instead of listing the highs (because there were so many) – instead I thought I’d do a quick summary of each element of the trip, starting with…

The hotels…

Holiday Inn Ringsheim – A great value hotel in a spot-on location for Europa Park. Close enough, but giving us the flexibility to use local shops and dining. The room was compact but lovely, breakfast was great and we’d definitely book to stay here again 😊







Venusberg Hotel, Bonn – Ok, but our least favourite hotel of the trip. Ideally we’d have either stayed in Bruhl (our first choice of the H10 was over £300 for our date) or a bit closer to Bonn city centre, but it was fine for one night and the breakfast was good. The room was small though and we would’ve struggled for more than 1 night.



NH Waalwijk – A nice hotel and a brilliant location for Efteling, lots of space and the best breakfast we’ve ever had in a hotel 😊.





Hotel Marktzicht Harderwijk – Another great hotel. No breakfast or parking, but that didn’t matter as there was plenty of choice in the lovely little town. You could definitely spend 3-4 days here, doing the beach and Dolphinarium as well as making the most of Walibi 😊.



The car / driving…

I’m really getting the hang of driving abroad now and felt much more confident this time (even if I did trundle along fairly slowly). I think we got just the right balance of driving, and the couple of times we chose to leave the parks before closing time definitely helped. Rich is a great navigator and a much better passenger in Europe than in the UK . We drove 1207 km, which cost us €110 in fuel, which we thought was pretty good value. I do think we'll probably go for a slightly bigger car next time though, as two cases in a Corsa boot was a bit tight...





The Parks…

Europa Park – Lives up to it’s Golden Ticket award for Best Theme Park in the world. For us it’s No 2 (Islands of Adventure remains unbeaten), but it’s better than all of the Disney Parks (yes, I said it). I wish we’d discovered it years ago, as I would’ve loved to have seen Tom as a toddler exploring the Grimms Fairytale area. It doesn’t have the best coasters, but it has 12 really excellent quality ones, amazing operations, fantastic theming, superb shows and it's such a pretty park to walk around and soak up the atmosphere. Give it a night-time fireworks show and it would be perfect. Bravo Mack Family - We can’t wait to go back next year 😊.







Phantasialand – We were blown away by this park (and Taron) when we visited last October, and I’m glad we got to see it in the sunshine. However, it was just too busy and too hot for us this time, although it was to be expected for the last Saturday in August, and Rich had actually planned our route knowing this (so we could make the most of the other parks that were new to us). It’s still an amazing park and it has Taron, so we’ll definitely be back, but it’s an October park for us and I stand by what I said then – the rain and gloom add to the Klugheim theming.





Efteling – Another fabulously whimsical park, with some of the best theming we’ve ever experienced. Some great coasters, but it’s all about the dark rides, especially Symbolica, which is Disney / Universal standard. You could spread it out over 2 days, but we didn’t feel that we missed out on anything by only doing 1. We’ll be back, but will probably wait until there are 1 or 2 new rides first.





Walibi Holland – The surprise gem of the trip for me. I knew I’d enjoy Goliath and Untamed, but I really loved the vibe of the park, and that it was completely different to the other 3 of the trip. It could’ve been another uncomfortably hot day, but the Walibi team pulled out all the stops (and hosepipes) to keep guests cool. And the Goliath and Untamed are WOW WOW WOW!







So what does this mean for our Top 10 Coasters?

Tom’s Top 10:

1) Shambhala (Port Aventura, B&M Hyper)
2) Goliath (Walibi Holland, Intamin Mega)
3) Untamed (Walibi Holland, RMC Hybrid)
4) Taron (Phantasialand, Intamin Blitz)
5) Stealth (Thorpe Park, Intamin)
6) Troy (Toverland, GCI Woody)
7) Blue Fire (Europa Park, Mack Mega)
8) Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Mack Mega)
9) Fenix (Toverland, B&M Wing)
10) Cheetah Hunt (Busch Gardens Tampa, Intamin Blitz)

Rich’s Top 10:

1) Shambhala (Port Aventura, B&M Hyper)
2) Untamed (Walibi Holland, RMC Hybrid)
3) Taron (Phantasialand, Intamin Blitz)
4) Goliath (Walibi Holland, Intamin Mega)
5) Troy (Toverland, GCI Woody)
6) Blue Fire (Europa Park, Mack Mega)
7) Red Force (Ferrari land, Intamin Launch)
8) Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Mack Mega)
9) Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure, xxx)
10) Fenix (Toverland, B&M Wing)

My Top 10 – In Countdown Format..

10) Red Force (Ferrari land, Intamin Launch)

9) Glactica (Alton Towers, B&M Flying)

8) Fenix (Toverland, B&M Wing)

7) Blue Fire (Europa Park, Mack Mega)

6) Troy (Toverland, GCI Woody)

5) Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Mack Mega)…



4) Untamed (Walibi Holland, RMC Hybrid)



3) Goliath (Walibi Holland, Intamin Mega)



2) Shambhala (Port Aventura, B&M Hyper)



1) Taron (Phantasialand, Intamin Blitz)



However, all that could be about to change, as next Monday we are flying out to Sweden for our final Huxwolds adventure of 2019 – 3 night’s in Gothenburg, where we’ll finally be visiting Liseberg and riding the Mack Mega beauty that is Helix….







Could it be our new No 1? Look out for my next trippie: “Liseberg(ers) & Chips” coming soon….

Edited at 06:08 PM.
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Old 21 Oct 19, 08:27 AM  
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Sallyingforth
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Really enjoyed reading this. Look forward to hearing about Liseberg!
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Old 23 Oct 19, 09:59 AM  
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El Duderino
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Great reports!
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Old 23 Oct 19, 10:08 PM  
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HEMANCLOFTY
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Originally Posted by Sallyingforth View Post
Really enjoyed reading this. Look forward to hearing about Liseberg!
Thank you
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Old 23 Oct 19, 10:09 PM  
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Originally Posted by El Duderino View Post
Great reports!
Thanks very much 😀

Edited at 10:11 PM.
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