Europapark, Part 1

 Last week, we spent two days at Europapark.  For those who don't know, it's here in south-western Germany, in a town called Rust (!) and is about 3-4x larger than Disneyland.  (2x larger than Knotts Berry Farm, and a little larger than Magic Mountain.)   Many of my notes below will compare it to DL, as that's perhaps the park I'm most familiar with.

Prices

The first thing we noticed is that the price of entry is 1/2 of the price of Disneyland. The second is that the on-site hotels were remarkably cheap (by comparison.)  The last time we went to Disney/California adventure, we had 4 people, and 1 day passes for us all that included both parks cost $600.  

At Europapark, we bought them with the hotel and paid $88/person for 2 day tickets for a total of about $270.

To compare, a 2 day park hopper ticket at Disneyland/CA costs $232/person.  So we'd have paid $700 for the same tickets at Disnley.

In the park, prices were higher than normal, but not quite as bad as I expected.   Prices at food stands were perhaps 30% more than prices for such things outside the park. 

The hotel was more reasonable as well. We paid about  250 euros per night for 3 people and  an upgraded (+100euros/night) room.  The Disneyland Hotel at the DL park is 510 Euros per night.

Hotel

When we got there, we were able to enter the park right away, and they texted us when the room was ready. Which was super nice.

The  hotel was fantastic. We booked the "American" hotel in the hopes that we could get some more American fare, however the dinner buffet was International themed, and the only "Americanisch" food was hamburgers from the kids section.

The breakfast buffet, however, was to die for.  At least 10 kinds of breakfast meats, mounds and mounds of bacon, sausage and eggs.  Truly fantastic.

The second night, we did the expensive Ala-Carte dinner, and I had a Delmonico Ribeye that was the best ribeye I've ever had. And it was only about 30 Euros, if I recall correctly.  18 Oz Argentinian beef that cut like butter.  

Layout

The park is laid out into "lands"  that cover the various countries/regions of Europe.  So there's an Ireland-land, Scandanavian land, etc. 

Getting around the park could be done by either taking little trains or the monorail.

The nice thing about the layout is you could always find one or two food "specialties" from each country.  Yes, they were somewhat limited, but still quite good. 

Priates of Batavia - Oddly similar to the Pirates of the Carribean ride at DL

The first day we saw about 60% of the park, and the second day, we saw the rest.  We came on the day after school was out for summer, and that day was actually not very crowded (a thursday.)  The next day was MUCH more crowded.  On thursday the average wait was 5 minutes. On friday, 30-40 minutes.

The Europa Park version of the Haunted Mansion.

On a busy day at Disneyland, waits were often well over an hour.

All-in-all, we had a great time, and work didn't intrude (much), so I got some rest. 

I'll post next time about the rides and eerie similarities to rides at Disneyland....

Cheers