This looks amazing! It is so nice seeing other parks and this has now gone on my bucket list, thanks for the great report and all the pictures!
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It is bittersweet for me, the contrast between Germany and Brazil is hard to swallow.
Around here there are basically 4 major rules:
- Work from home if possible
- Wear a mask when you are inside
- (recommended) Get a test if you have any symptoms, or if you were around someone who might have coronavirus
- Quarantine if you have it, or if you are waiting for a test result (24 hours)
Indoor dining and bars are technically allowed, but the culture here is to eat outside as long as you are not freezing, biergartens are our pubs.
It seems to be enough to keep R bellow 1 (well, schools are not running). We had a couple of outbreaks associated with living conditions for migrant workers (agriculture and meatpacking), some indoor family parties and some religious services.
Back in Brazil there are way more restrictions AND way more corona, worse of both worlds. So I am always simultaneously happy to see things being bright, fun, normal and sad that this isn’t the whole world.
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I checked the park’s history 10 new lands opened since 1995 
(and all onsite hotels and a full water park).
https://corporate.europapark.com/en/company/historie/
I went to Disney California Adventure 9 years ago (my first Disney park) and all I can remember was The Animation Experience 
And I was over 20, I can’t even claim I forgot because I was too young.
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On some lands I just walked around without doing any attractions
Spain
Absolutely gorgeous, this is where onsite hotels are located.
There is a playground, a couple of carnival rides and 2 major shows on this land - one stunt show and a Flamenco presentation. Although they both looked amazing from pictures and physical distancing and masks are in place, I didn’t feel comfortable with show crowds, so next trip it is.
Portugal
A very tiny region, home to Atlantica SuperSplash (a lightly themed water ride).
England
Almost every ride here is a vehicle-themed carnival ride! There is a replica of the Globe Theatre that houses an acrobatics show (again, looks pretty cool, I didn’t see it). I planned on going on the laser maze, but it was closed - not sure if due to corona or just for the day.
Scandinavia
The architectural style here is very similar to Iceland’s, a fishing village vibe - it reminded me of real life Alaska (I have never been to any Scandinavian country).
There are a lot of cool looking buildings with cultural exhibits, but I didn’t enter any because I was avoiding being indoors.
Luxembourg
The smallest region, and the only one without a real ride. It is home to Food Loop - a restaurant with food rollercoasters, inside the blue tent.
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Adventure Land
Clearly the park administration needed an excuse to have spice food and animal animatronics. This land is basically a lake with a couple of restaurants. There are 2 attractions that consist of circling the lake in a boat - a small boat and a large one with a tour guide. Since I wanted to avoid people, I went on the small bamboo boat - it was a walk on and operations were putting just one party per boat.
Apparently I took no pictures of the animal animatronics
It was pleasant 
Grimm’s Enchanted Forest
This is probably the most special region at Europa Park. The park is located in the Black Forest, which was the setting for Grimm’s fairytales. This land recreates several stories using animatronics.
There are 14 fairy tale houses, each with some different interactive element.
On a lot of them you press a button in a pretty book to start the story in English, French or German
Rapunzel might lower her braid if you play the right bells
Or Mother Hulda can make it snow while making her bed
(When I was there a small boy kept pressing the button and running to get under the snow)
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Last by not least
Netherlands
When I arrived at the park I noticed several groups wearing T-shirts from popular German theme park blogs. Soon the reason was discovered, they were there for the opening party of Piraten in Batavia. The ride was reopening on that day, 2 years after being destroyed by a fire.
The land remained closed until 1pm, to allow for the press party.
The original was widely considered to be a bad copy of Pirates of the Caribbean. After the fire they decided to do their own thing, keeping the general theme (a boat going through Pirates scenes).
I don’t really like the original pirates, or dark rides in general. And this had a 45 minutes wait. But, it was my chance of going on a major attraction on opening day, and I had already done everything else I wanted at the park. The line ended up being 30 minutes, and it was modified to be mostly outside
It was fun and pretty! I have no idea about the story - I can’t even say what language the animatronics were speaking. But everything was super well done.
I would still not enter a 45 minutes queue for it on a normal day.
After leaving Piraten, I had my only themed snack of the visit, Poffertjes - Dutch mini pancakes. Since I forgot to take a picture, here is one I found online:
I got a portion with caramel sauce, and it was delicious.
My lack of German knowledge, combined with my dietary restrictions and the fact that I’m super shy in real life, meant I ended eating a cheeseburger and spaghetti Bolognese for lunch (different days) instead of the more fun themed options. The one thing I wish I had done differently this trip is study menus and restaurants beforehand. I bet there were a bunch of great options I could eat.
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They look delicious!
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What I didn’t do
The park is massive, it has:
- 10 coasters
- 16 carnival rides (like tea cups, Dumbo, carousel)
- 4 water rides (Poseidon is classified as a water rollercoaster, but I consider it to be a water ride)
19 dark rides (slowly moving vehicles going through scenes) - 10 playgrounds
- 3 transportation systems
- ~8 big shows, plus a bunch of experiences akin to Impressions of France
- I don’t know how many cultural exhibits
I didn’t do any carnival style ride, megacoaster or show. I also skipped 3 water rides and most dark rides. Almost every non-coaster ride was a walk on.
The one coaster I didn’t mention anywhere yet is Silver Star.
A Mercedes themed megacoaster mostly over the parking lot, starting at the very back of the French area. Another obvious no for me, but fans of drop coasters might appreciate it.
There is a whole other park in the resort - Rulantica, the indoor water park, not part of this trip, but someday I will visit.
Crowds
This is super hard to measure! I think the park was crowded? Average wait times were pretty much the same as in July 2019 (highest attendance ever for EP). There is probably some effect of Virtual Lines and new operating procedures (cleaning and distancing) making waits longer than they would normally be with the same amount of people in 2019, but probably not that big (Silver Star doesn’t offer VL and had pretty much the same average waiting time).
This park absorbs crowds pretty well by having a lot of rides and, according to bloggers, by being amazing at operations. There are 6 major headliners Blue Fire, Wodan, CanCan, Arthur, Voletarium and Sliver Star - they all have waits of 20 - 45 minutes pretty much all day. I mostly avoided standing in line for those by using Virtual Lines/Timed Tickets. The 4 big water rides are also very popular on hot days, getting waits between 30 - 60 minutes when temperatures go up. Rope dropping works for around 30 minutes, but by 10am the park is already as full as it gets.
Second tier rides like Alpenexpress, Bobsleds, Pegasus and the more popular dark rides stayed between 5 and 20 minutes. Everything else was a walk on.
Crowds were only really noticeable when getting food. I don’t know if that’s due to corona, since some indoor dining spots are closed and others have reduced hours. There were a lot of people in some areas, but empty nooks were right around the corner
How does it compare to WDW?
Of course, this is deeply personal. There is no comparison of travel destination - WDW + UOR have 6 great parks, Europa Park is just one.
But I did enjoy it more than any individual park in Orlando - it was a hard call with AK. It doesn’t have any ride as good for me as Hagrid’s or FOP. But Arthur, CanCan and Voletarium are all great rides, and Wodan is so good that I enjoyed it even after an awful drop. It is incredibly pretty. And there is so much to do! Having so many rides with short waits also helped. It felt fun and easy.
Hours are way shorter (currently 9am to 6pm on weekdays, it gets to 8pm sometimes) - they do extend ride operating to compensate for rain, which is nice. Paying less for less hours works better for me psychologically, I tend to go open to close to not feel like I am wasting money
No fireworks, no real IP, all characters there where created for the park, but I don’t really care about either.
Also, no Wow buildings - the architecture is beautiful, but there is no Cinderella’s Castle (the real 1442 castle is nowhere as pretty as MK’s version). It is like a world showcase without the dome. Again, not something I personally care a lot about.
Park layout is worse. There are a lot of trees (which is great!) which combined with no hub and no grand constructions means that you can never see past the land you are in. Very nice for ambiance, but it means I got lost too many times to count.
Looking at just the costs onsite, it is way less expensive than WDW. And for me getting there is 10 times cheaper. I would never cross the Atlantic just to visit this one park, but its location makes it super easy to fit into central European touring plans - it is 2 hours from Zurich and Frankfurt, 3 and a half from Paris.
It is not exactly a local park for me - I live 5 hours away. But it is easy enough that I definitely intend to go back. I can see it being a yearly trip while I live around here.
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Thanks for this great report!
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It was my pleasure 
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Thank you for this report. I don’t know why but I am really captivated by this park
If someone was coming from the US as part of a longer vacation, would you recommend staying at the on-site hotel?
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I chose to stay offsite due to cost, but would probably stay onsite next time. I loved the Spanish area, and hotel theming looked really cool. Also, dining at the resort restaurants after the park closed sounds like a great way to finish the day.
Staying offsite at a hotel right by the entrance was 70 Euros/night, onsite started at 160. Since this was for a low budget vacation week, I chose to save money. It was very convenient, but there is nothing except the park around. For a bigger trip on-site would be worth it. There are not so many onsite perks, but if you are into coaster getting early access to Iceland might be nice.
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Thank you for the wonderful trip report. You inspired me to finally visit the park this weekend. Much of France are now risk areas, so they won’t be in the park. I wonder how the crowds will be.
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Yay! I would love to hear how it goes 
Sorry this is so late, but I finally finished your amazing trip report! This park looks like so much fun with the theming. Thanks for taking us along and for all of the information and photos. I really hope we get to visit one day!
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