The Trip of a Lifetime (Europa)(7/26/02)
Associated parks:
None
“Simply put, it’s a party on rails!”………
With each morning, I could tell the tour was coming to an end by the look on people’s faces. Some were energetic and ready to continue on, while some folks had a worn out look about them that cried, “When will this end?” It was obvious who wanted to stay, and who wanted to leave. By this point in the tour, almost everyone on the Orange Coach had the “coughing bug” that I had during the first week. This morning, I started to feel the symptoms of that bug coming back. I just hoped I could finish the tour without getting sick. Our breakfast this morning consisted of bread and water. There was a nice spread of all kinds of food, but we were told not to touch it. This didn’t set well with a few people so they decided to pass up eating. While I probably should have eaten more than what I did just to help kick that bug, I passed.
We had to leave our hotel by 6:30am so we could make the hour-plus drive to Europa Park. I was looking forward to seeing what Europa was all about as I have heard it described in many ways. Justin Garvanovic told me while hanging out in London on the first week that the folks at Europa will look at things in an expensive way. Basically, if they see one way of doing something for $1, and find another way to do the same exact thing for $100, they will go for the $100. Sounds pretty amazing.
As we pulled off the main motorway and entered the countryside, we could clearly see a very tall lift hill sticking up above the horizon. This seemed to be a bit of a wake up call for a lot of people because I could clearly hear a lot of responses coming from people when the coaster came into view. When we arrived at the park, we were greeted by someone from marketing who seemed very excited to have us. He walked us into a large room where we could then walk into the park from view of guests waiting to get into the park in the front. The large coaster we were to have ERT on was towering over us. We walked over to it and started our half hour ERT.
===Silver Star===(#475)
Here it was, standing right in front of us. The largest B&M coaster! I am a huge fan of B&M designs and couldn’t wait to try out this new creation. The queue took us into a large room with race car theming and a great sound track. We walked upstairs into the loading station as the official Silver Star song blared from speakers above. The trains looked just like those found on other B&M speed coasters so I knew we were to have a comfortable ride.
For my first ride, I rode in the second row. The lift on this thing seemed steeper than most B&M’s I have ridden but I am not sure if actually was steeper. It just felt different. Once at the top, (no dip) we dove down to the ground with insane speed. Up into a curving rise, and then back down again while floating. Another large hill followed before we hit the nice over banked turnaround. Another hill followed and we were tossed into the mid-course brakes. While we were slowed, the drop out of the blocks made up for it as we were thrown back towards the ground and into an upward helix. The final section of the ride took us over another bunny hill, and through a very nice right-left snap turn before hitting the brakes. I notice the first sets of brakes are magnetic. It’s nice to see B&M finally using these as I think they would do good for their coasters.
I think the ride was great fun I then decided to go around again and try the back row. This made a HUGE difference as I was tossed into my lap restraint while going over every hill. What a difference a few rows can make. Wow! I was having a good time, but from the sound of a few people sitting in front of us, they weren’t, as I heard comments like, “I wish they would have given us an exciting coaster for ERT,” and “What a total bore. There is nothing good about it”. I have no problems with opinions but I just found that to be rude. I guess I just haven’t reached that level of being so spoiled that a coaster like Silver Star bores me. Hopefully I will never get that way, and if I do, I would honestly consider another hobby as it would be pointless to do something for fun if you are bored of it. True?
After ERT, I went and looked at the gift shop for something to buy. From the look of this one gift shop, Europa had the best selection of merchandise we have seen on the tour. I wanted a Silver Star jacket but they sold out and told me to come back later. I had no problem with that considering the park was now open and I wanted to check out the rest of the rides.
From here on, I pretty much stayed with one group for the rest of the day. I could tell within 2 minutes that I was going to be having a great time thanks to the group I was hanging with. Matthew Bacoulis, Steve Gzesh, Danielle Miller, Miles Ketchum, and my mother Phyllis all were to make this day truly something special. I hadn’t really hung out with my mother a lot on the trip due to what we like to do at parks. I want to ride as much as I can while she wanted to take things at a slower pace. She did ride almost everything on the tour though so she was going at a fast enough pace to keep up. Today, she wanted to hit everything she could. With that being established, we went for our next coaster.
===Matterhorn Blitz===(#476)
We could tell this was a Mack Mouse as we were walking up to it. It looked like it had a typical mouse layout, but we were about to find out in a big way that there wasn’t anything typical about this mouse. First off, the theming while in line was amazing. Only a few rides I have seen have had theming this elaborate. I mean, this was very, very well done. The whole theme of the ride had something to do with a farm or barns, but we really didn’t pay attention to the story as we were blown away by the visuals. All the life size characters moved like they would in real live including a life sized horse. Did I forget to mention all this theming was for a mouse?
Matt and Steve decided to join two other riders as we had a total of 6 people and the cars only held 4 people. We hopped into our car and watched as Matt and Steve were dispatched. I looked up and saw Matt pointing and waving his hands frantically. I didn’t know what he was doing but he caught the attention of all of us. I noticed something didn’t see right. Why did they dispatch two mouse cars at a time when they weren’t joined?
I soon found out why.
The two cars were dispatched into what looked like a dead end. Once the trains stop before hitting the wall, a door opened in front of them showing outside. The door then closes and the cars were lifted vertically by a strange elevator.
“WHAT? You have GOT to be kidding me!”
I could clearly see why Matt was so excited as this was a very unique lift system. I had never seen something like this before, to this degree. When it was our turn to go, we entered the lift housing, the doors opened and closed in front of us, and we were rapidly lifted with another car. Another very cool feature of this lift is the tilting the lift does while it is going up. It seems as if the entire lift is one giant wheel that lifts and tilts the platforms in a circle so one end is loading, while one end is dispatching cars at the top. It was very cool and the tilting caught us off guard.
Once at the top, the car in front of us was released. Once a short distance had been created between our cars, we were dispatched and allowed to enjoy the rest of the nice layout which included some nice drops and hairpin curves while entering and exiting buildings. This is easily one of the most impressive mouse coasters I have ridden. What a great ride!! Right then and there we knew we were in for a special day. We then decided to go ride the next nearest coaster.
We walked over to a strange looking coaster to give it a ride. As soon as we entered the line, I knew Justin wasn’t lying about the park spending because it was amazing. Right off the bat I made the comment that it looked like something from Islands of Adventure as the theming was excellent.
===Poseidon===(#477)
This water coaster is another Mack creation. Come to think of it, most everything in this park is manufactured by Mack. I have ridden one other Mack water coaster type attraction and that was Journey to Atlantis at Sea World Florida. Personally, I don’t count Atlantis as a coaster because it spends more time floating around during the flume portion than the actual small coasting section it has. I wasn’t sure if I was going to count Poseidon as a coaster until after I rode it first.
The ride begins with a nice flume section taking rider past some ancient ruins. All of this is done very well and looks very detailed. A lift took us up to the top of a nice twisted section that, in my opinion, was a coaster. The section ends with a drop back down into the water where the boat then floats around a bit before climbing another lift. At the top of this lift, we made a U-turn, and then made a big drop into a tunnel, followed by a nice float hill, before crashing down into the water again to end our ride. We didn’t get very wet but misted enough that it felt good. After my ride, I decide that I am going to count this as a coaster because we spent more time coasting around on track than floating. Time for another ride!
We walked around the park a bit, taking in all the amazing sights and sounds before finding a coaster that I had only seen pictures of, but knew it was going to be something pretty amazing.
==Euro Mir===(#478)
This is a very odd coaster to describe. Basically, it has three different sections which I will explain in just a moment. We enter the 20 minute long queue and are welcomed by a very dark, black lit hallway, as the thumping sounds of the Euro Mir soundtrack played over head. It was almost impossible to not dance as many people around were starting to move. I have never been to a rave, but I would think this would be something similar as it was very mysterious. Matt and I seemed to be the only ones in the group that was familiar with the ride, even though we didn’t know what it really did. Both of us were eager to ride.
Once we arrived in the cool, futuristic station, we got our first look at the trains. The trains consist of 4 cars, each round, with back to back seating. For our first ride, Steve and I sat in the back row, facing backwards. We leave the station and enter a holding area that has some space/robot type theming while more techno music played. A few laser beams shot out in different directions just as we started up the lift. This lift was the start of the first section of the ride. Instead of using drive tires or a chain lift, the trains are pushed up the long spiraling lift. A huuuuuge rotating cylinder with arms pushes the train. It really is something to see. The entire lift is dark though so it might be difficult for some to get a good look at the lift mechanism. Every once in a while a bit of a light show takes place so you can see where you are going.
While going up the lift, the cars start to spin. While the spinning is controlled by a separate electrical bus, the actual coaster isn’t powered. The music gets louder and louder as we make our long journey to the top. I didn’t time it but it would not surprise me if it took about 3 minutes to reach the top. As we got near the top, things started to get lighter as we were about to exit back outdoors.
Part two of the ride started as soon as we left the lift, and made our way outside, and over the concrete below. This section has hairpin turns taken slow as the cars continue to rotate while going around the tops of large mirrored structures. It was so funny spinning slowly and getting to look at you in a mirror while doing so. This section doesn’t have much speed, but it provides a nice view of the park as it is pretty high off the ground.
The cars stop spinning and are locked in place for the start of the third and final section. The trains fall down a very nice curving right hand drop, then back up to a straight section where the cars do a half spin. This means that if you just did that drop facing frontward, the rest of the ride will be backwards or you. Talk about being disoriented! Once we were rotated backwards, I didn’t know which was which. The rest of the ride contains some nice, tight curving drops while going in and out of a couple of tunnels. There are a couple of direction changes at the end that surprised the heck out of me. Once the train hit the final brakes, we burst into applause.
That is what I call originality!
Never have I been on a coaster that ran that way. We couldn’t believe how amazing this ride was. We quickly got back in line to try other seats so we could ride the other direction. Our second ride was even better than the first. The only way to describe the while experience was that it was a party on rails. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever had that much fun on a coaster before. I am being honest. Once we were done with our second ride, we got right back in line and rode it again. Euro Mir didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. From the looks of it, everyone thought the same way. As much as we wanted to ride again, we knew we still had a lot of other rides to ride before we decided to come back to this wonder machine.
===Euro Sat===(#479)
Yet another coaster with “Euro” in its name. This one shares a couple of common things with Euro Mir also. The line for this coaster moved rather quickly. As a matter of fact, which each line we have been in, we have been very impressed with the way the crews get people on and off. I would even go as far as saying Cedar Point now has some competition in the capacity category.
The outside of this building reminds me of the familiar looking globe that resides at Epcot. A cool feature about the line is the use of escalators to take you up into the loading station. Once in the station, we boarded our train. This is technically a Mack mine train design, but in the dark. The lift system was very similar to that of Euro Mir and took just about as long to reach the top. Once at the top, we were released into a very twisted layout while passing by different lighting effects. The ride ended with a pass through a tight tunnel and a big BOOM! It was very clear the park was aiming to try and get something like Disney’s Space Mountain as Euro Sat is very similar, yet more of a thrill ride IMO. There were a couple of places during the ride that threw us around a bit, but I found the overall experience to be great. Steve seemed to enjoy it more than anyone in our group as he was smiling for a good 20 minutes after his first ride.
We continued our journey around this amazing park and would ride the next coaster we came to.
===Schweizer Bobbahn===(#480)
I will be honest here. I don’t remember hardly anything about this ride other than I did ride it before lunch. I kind of remember a nice drop being somewhere on its course which is pretty rare for a Mack bobsled. I think the ride was pretty short also but I don’t’ remember a lot about it so I could be wrong.
We headed over to our meal place and waited until the doors opened. We quickly found a table at this nice establishment and waited for us to be served. As we were waiting, Nancy Carrigan, (who if you remember correctly, was on my flight to London at the very start of the tour) was sitting at the table behind us and I started talking about how cool this park was. Nancy had a friend from Paris who joined the second week of the tour and she joined into the conversation as well. Nancy told her I was a Coach Captain. When asked what coach, I told her Orange. The response I got from that table was rather humorous as it was kind of like an “Ouch! Were sorry!” type of response. It seems word had gotten out about the “party bus” and rumors were flying around about certain people on our coach. It was funny hearing some of the rumors.
Our meal wasn’t bad at all, but I didn’t eat much. I wanted to ride again so after hearing some presentations from park personnel, Tim Baldwin, Carole Sanderson, and a nice presentation from Brian Peters giving Tim a gift for all his hard work, it was time to go back into the park and continue riding.
We found a cool entrance to a ride and thought it was for a dark ride so we entered. As it turns out, it was a large walk-through into the center of the building that houses the powered coaster. At the end of this line was a strange gift shop that sold crystals. We all laughed as we thought we were walking towards a ride but ended up in this strange shop. We did get a good look at some of the effects that happen while riding the powered coaster. Why not ride that next?
I decided to pass on riding the powered coaster as my video camera was really messing up again and I wanted to see if I could fix it while the rest of the group was riding. From the sound of it, the ride was amazing and I should have ridden it, but I need to fix my camera.
We had ridden every coaster in the park by this time so we continued walking around looking for other things to ride. We found a very cool dark ride that had similar effects to that of a Disney creation. Just like in Disney’s Haunted mansion, there is a scene where the seats turn to face a mirror and a cartoon ghost appears to be riding in the same car as you. We all cracked up as the ghost in Miles car appeared to be sitting directly in front of him. Considering his experience with a ghost back in Wales, it couldn’t have happened to a better person.
The rest of the day was spent riding Euro Mir over and over as well as getting a few more rides on Euro Sat. These rides were just too much fun to end with just one ride so we rode as many times as we wanted to before moving on to something else. This park was so amazing. I didn’t want to leave it. While we still had a couple of hours before we were to leave, I was already missing the place. I went back to Silver Star and purchased a jacket before riding that a few more times. We rode in the back row each time and had a superb ride each and every time. We even purchased the on-ride photo and e-mailed it to ourselves.
We ended our day with another ride on Euro Mir before heading out to the front gate for a group photo of all coaches together. Once the photo was taken, we were to be handed a gift from the park but there was some miscommunication with the marketing folks and they told us to come back to get our gift at the time we were to be on the road. Things worked out and we were soon given a goodie bag with some cool things before heading to the coaches. While at the coach, I decided to get a group coach photo with everyone from the Orange Coach. While there were a few people that didn’t take part in this gathering, the photo seemed to capture the spirit of fun as everyone in it looked to be having a great time in the photo.
It was time to hit the road once more. As we drove underneath the first drop of Silver Star, a lot of folks looked back at the amazing Europa Park as we were pulling away. Europa is easily one of my favorite parks now. I am going to miss it and can’t wait to go back there someday. Euro Mir ended up being the most fun coaster I have ever ridden. I am sure the group I was with this day had something to do with that as everything seemed to be perfect. I had a total blast hanging out with them and because of this day, I have a new group of friends who I will always remember. Thanks guys! You truly are special.
The drive to our next hotel was one of the longest of the tour. It could take up to 5 hours to reach our destination. Despite the fact that many people on the coach, including myself, had the “cough bug”, this was the most active I had seen the coach on the entire tour. People were playing games and laughing. Very few people were sleeping. I could tell we really bonded with Nigel as I could tell he was starting to show signs that he didn’t want the tour to end. He even commented that we were the most fun group he has had the pleasure to drive around in the 14 years he has been with that tour company. That meant a lot to most of us. He handed me a bag of plastic spoons and told me to pass them out. We were then instructed to write our names on the spoons. No explanation was given on why to do this other than it was a joke one of the other drivers. We had no problem playing along and within a few minutes, I had the bag of signed spoons back.
The last hour of the drive was rather tough. I dozed off a bit but was quickly woken as we drive through a “moth storm”. Thousands of moths were crossing the motorway and hitting our windshield in the process. I thought we had entered a hail storm at first but realized what was going on by looking at the windshield. With each passing mile, another voice would go silent as people were starting to fall asleep. Luckily, a few of us took turns in talking with Nigel to help him stay awake as he looked just as tired as most of us.
We were to stay in Epernay, France this evening. This meant we would not be going to another country on the tour, and the tour was coming to an end. No one really wanted to talk about it ending but rather concentrated on the fact we still had one more park on the tour. We arrived in Epernay a bit later than expected. We had made a comfort stop on the way but didn’t take any extra time but we did run into a bit of construction before we reached or destination.
As we drove through the streets of Epernay, we were re-routed a few different ways because of construction taking place on some of the roundabouts. Basically, the map that we were using was useless as we couldn’t get to where we wanted to go. Nigel found some local people standing on a corner and asked them how to get to our hotel as the way the map told us to go was blocked. To make matters worse, the drive leading up the hotel was much too narrow for a coach to pass through so we had to park the coach and walk a bit to the hotel.
I didn’t have a problem with the walk as it only took a couple of minutes but when I reached the hotel entrance, it was locked. I had to bang on the door for a few minutes before someone would unlock it. I was the only one that had walked down the alley to the hotel and could not see the coach from where I was standing. All the sudden, I heard tires screeching and people shouting, coming from the direction of where I had just been. It was very eerie sounding and I didn’t know what was going on. This went on for a minute or so before someone came down and unlocked the front door. After talking with some people from the coach, a group of drunken locals decided to mess with us by driving crazy around our parked coach and screaming. It sounded much worse from where I was standing but at least no one was hurt.
Once inside the hotel, we had the choice of either walking up a spiral staircase to get to the front desk, or taking an elevator. The only problem with the elevator was it moved very slowly and could only hold two people or so. I decided to take the stairs. Once I got everyone squared away with their room keys, I went to my room. Jeff Johnson soon followed and we entered our room.
To put it mildly, our room was disgusting. Yes, there were two beds, a bathroom, and a TV, but the room smelled and looked nasty. There were mysterious yellow stains on the wall, and for some reason by bed was slightly damp and smelled like it was recently cleaned with some sort of chemical. I would have asked for another room but the man behind the counter made it very clear to me that there were no rooms left as I checked in. I was so tired at this point that I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get some sleep. Jeff turned on the TV and guess what shows up? Free hardcore porn. I can’t say that I have never been to a hotel where you are greeted by porn the second you turn on the tube. As funny as this was, it wasn’t enough to keep us awake so the TV was turned off and sleep took over.
Tomorrow was going to be one of the hardest days for a lot of people. While the schedule wasn’t all that difficult, it would be a day we were dreading for quite a while.
Up next………
Parc Asterix and the sad moments we would hope would never arrive.
Thanks for reading,
-Sean
*** This post was edited by Sean F. on 9/25/2002. ***
Sean,
Great trip reports. I have been reading each and every one and have been captivated by your adventures. I really want to take this tour sometime now! Anyways, on to my question. I was wondering if you have riden any of the other B&M speed coasters like Nitro, Raging Bull, or Apollo's Chariot and if so how you thought Silver Star compared. I really had high hopes for this coaster but from your review it seems a lot of enthusiasts didnt like it.
Thanks for all the great writing. I think I will miss the trip reports after this is all done. Its almost like I was on this trip with you with how well these are all written.
-----------------
Bob Hansen
A proud CoasterBuzz Member
Operation Wicked Twister - Goal: Lose 50 lbs by next season to ride it! (updates soon)
SEAN,
Your trip reports have been awesome. Europa park is my favorite park now. "Themed restrooms" how cool. Not to mention the amazing capacity on their rides. Euro-mir was amazing, I just wish that it was closer to home. Silver star was a great ride. I like the floating B&M hypers(cool merch too). It was great getting to hang out with you and meeting so many cool people like Matt, Danielle, Jim R., Alan, and many others that I had forgot to mention(I'M SORRY).
Jonathan
Mack seems to design its coasters to run many trains, giving the great capacities. The long spiral lifts really add to capacity and allowing many trains to run at the same time on the same course.
I have looked at their website and the US so called "theme" parks could take a great lesson from their attention to detail. From your report, it seems the great theming and originality is what made your experience. It was not the coaster size as all of Europa Parks coasters are medium except Silver Star.
Another thing US parks that are so caught up in sensationalism could learn a lesson from, bigger is not always better. Quality counts. Sounds like Europa Park has it.
So where do I start since this is my .........anyone...anyone.....My favorite park! Correct! For the people that did not get to go on this trip, Im sorry! This is THE park, it had everything! Unbelievable Themeing, great rides, amazing capacity, great rides, great food, and more great rides! OK- it was missing one thing-Wood! But it really didnt matter, we were having way too much fun to care!
On to the rides....Sean you mentioned everything about the events surrounding Silver Star, except this----- When we got off the ride and bought our photo of silverstar, we emailed them. (which you did mention) During the emailing process some lady didnt like the fact that we were taking so long on the computer. So we dragged out the whole process on purpose! While Phyllis was emailing, we were standing behind everyone egging her on to email more and more people! The lady behind her was fuming and didnt think it was funny one bit! But we sure as hell did! So there! Hee Hee!
Onto the Matterhorn Blitz, the most amazing mouse ever created! Like Sean was explaining, it really started off with a bang! Major thumbs up, even if it were a walkthrough thru the queue line!
The day kept on getting better and better as time passed! When we rode Poseidon, the weather wasnt the nicest, so some of us were skeptical on riding the water ride so early in the day! I almost forgot that at the end of the ride, we all thought we got off without getting soaked, until some punk kid squirted us with a dolphin! Damn him!!
Off to Euro-Mir! Look at this crew! Creepy! j/k Its just a bad photo! Sorry, had to put it up! While on the lift hill, we turned our trains into a PARTY! Look at Phyllis and Miles anticipation to reach the unknown! While Steve and Sean going crazy, shaking their groove thing! At the top, we got to wave to ourselves as we were spinning past the mirrors! This was seriously the most fun we had on a rollercoaster, mostly due in part to the wonderful people I was surrounded by! Sean wasnt lying!
Sean, I noticed that during our lunch photo that you posted, you were missing, so here is one with you in it! After lunch I had to find a bathr....I mean toilet. And did I find a toilet! This place was an experiance, I just wish that I took more photos of it.( I ran out of film) In the photo, there is another ECO member even more excited than I was!
And who could forget the queue line that took us to the Crystal shop! How funny was that? To answer Phyllis, THERE WAS a speed pass line in the rocket to Euro-Mir, you just didnt see it, nor did I! HeeHee OK- I was wrong! Im sorry! (Again)
One last photo to leave you off with. This is where we all started getting sad, not because the tour was ending soon. It is because we were leaving the most amazing park in the world, Europa Park!
Sean, I am anxiously waiting to see how you are going to make Parc Asterix seem fun and be positive thru your entire TR! Hee Hee j/k Im sure your going to do a fabulous job as with all your previous TR's! Love them! Can you just keep on making up TR's for us to read when this is all over, Im sure your readers wouldnt mind!
Take care and ....
off to Parc Asterix!
matt
*** This post was edited by baclueless on 9/26/2002. ***
Alpine Train(The Mine Train) - This is a superb little ride, with a nice helix at the start, and a hidden helix in the cave where it enters(The Cave you walked through) you also get upto 4 laps depending what the queue is like.
Torrent Slide(Log Ride) - Its not great, but it also goes trough the same cave with the Mine Train in
Fjord Rafting(Rapids) - Quite a Good Rapids ride, however you can get quite wet depending where you sit, there is also a cave and waterfall section
Pirates of Bactavia - You will be really disapointed that you missed this one, Its very similar to Pirates at Disney done in the same style, the themeing is amazing, and absolutly everything works too, You wont find one broken effect in the ride, AMAZING, Did anyone in your group ride this?????
Cassandra's Curse(Haunted Swing Ride) Yes there was another Haunted Swing Ride(Similar to Hex etc) Not the best one I've done, but it was still worth doing with a nice pre show and a good overall ride experience.
There is also a Dinosaur ride next to Eurosat, Its strange but a lot of people think its a show about Dinosaurs, but after a pre show, there is a ride afterwards too.
Glad you enjoyed the park though, I had a feeling you would. IMO I think the themeing matches IOA and even beats in too, I didnt think I would see a better themed park that IOA, but I was sure proved wrong. Also the Park was spotless and was clearly upto the standards kept at Cedar Point.
The Staff are also very friendly, helpful and let you stay on a ride for as long as you want if there isnt a queue(why cant more parks be like this). Also Capasity is very high on every ride(even the Wild Mouse) and again matches the standards kept at Cedar Point.
Also did you notice that ride ops rarely check your restraints on any coaster, whenever I went on a coaster, the ride op would just look at you to see if your restraint(s) was on and just give the thumbs up without even checking it himself, It was amazing. I remember getting on the train for the Bobsled,sat down, pushed down my bar, and he sent out the train instantly before I had time to get comfortable, INCREDIBLE :D
Eurosat and Euro-Mir both stand out to me because the music...which is continuously pumped on the ride via speakers placed along the course (more noticeable on Sat than Mir but present on both) For fans of Trance-ish music it really improves both of the coasters.
I was another one of the Eurosat converts on the trip...Mir is fun...Sat is just flat out insane. Great style and effects, great trancey music, great intensity. It's everything I like in a coaster. Personally, I rate this as my favourite steel based on it's "total package" factor. GeForce might have some insane twisting, and SROS might have air, but Sat has that out of control wood sensation combined with killer effects and theming...I just wish it wasn't in Germany :-/
I can understand your base issue when people were complaining about Silver Star, and while I didn't complain, I also think it was one of the weaker rides at the park. I know more than a few people commented that Mir would have been much more fun for an ERT session, and I'd tend to agree with that as well.
*** This post was edited by CortexBomb on 9/26/2002. ***
Kick The Sky said:
Sean,
Great trip reports. I have been reading each and every one and have been captivated by your adventures.
I know I have said this to many recently but, Thanks! It really is cool to hear feedback even though that isn't why I typed up these reports. I just like to write. =:^)
I really want to take this tour sometime now! Anyways, on to my question. I was wondering if you have riden any of the other B&M speed coasters like Nitro, Raging Bull, or Apollo's Chariot and if so how you thought Silver Star compared.
I have ridden them all now and I think that Silver Star is more comparable to Nitro than the others, at least, in layout terms. They all have a different feel to them. Silver Star felt gentle, but it was great fun.
I really had high hopes for this coaster but from your review it seems a lot of enthusiasts didnt like it.
This is true. There were quite a few that said negative things about it but I think a lot of that may be because we had just ridden Expedition the day before. Had it been the other way around, I think more people would have loved Silver Star.
To be honest, I don't like to compare so I didn't have any problem enjoying Silver Star and not comparing it to Expedition. They were two totally different rides and offer different experiences.
Thanks for all the great writing. I think I will miss the trip reports after this is all done. Its almost like I was on this trip with you with how well these are all written.
Thanks again Bob. My original idea for writing these was to try and preserve some of the feeling of the tour as accurately as I could. That was very difficult and I think it is impossible to capture the actual "mood" of the tour unless you were there, but I did try.
*** This post was edited by Sean F. on 9/26/2002. ***
RUEL said:
SEAN,
Your trip reports have been awesome. Europa park is my favorite park now. "Themed restrooms" how cool. Not to mention the amazing capacity on their rides. Euro-mir was amazing, I just wish that it was closer to home.
Hey Jonathan! Glad to see you posting on here! I also wish it was closer to home. I can't even try to descrive how much I miss Europa. That's my kind of park.
Silver star was a great ride. I like the floating B&M hypers(cool merch too). It was great getting to hang out with you and meeting so many cool people like Matt, Danielle, Jim R., Alan, and many others that I had forgot to mention(I'M SORRY).
Back at ya' dude. =:^)
We had a blast those last few day didn't we? Thanks Jonathan.
-Sean
Phyllis (a.k.a. Mom),
Too bad I didn't get to jump into the "jacket orgy" because of my duties, but it looked like fun.
Super,
I also wish some US parks would take a lot at what Europa can accomplish. Not until you mentioend it did I realize the size of those coasters minus Silver Star. You are right!
Matthew,
I was going to mention that whole incident while at the Silver Star photo area, but I decided not to include it. I thought someone else would mention it though.
I totally forgot about the dolphin on Posiedon. What a brat!
Nothing like a themed crapper!
Paul,
I didn't ride the Alpine Train but the rest of the group did. I was working on my camera at that time. =:^(
I am not sure if anyone in our group rode Pirates. It sounds amazing from your description though. I guess we were too busy riding Euro Mir. We saw the Dino entrance.......now that I think about it, we DID ride that one. Woops, forgot about that one.
I agree about capacity. I was talking with someone from CP's Marketing Team recently and mentioned that I thought CP might have some competition considering what we saw at Europa. As it turns out, Europa was mentioned for a Golden Ticket award this year but didn't win it.
I didn't notice the restraint checking but I did notice the crew on Silver Star were making sure people were secured well.
Cortex,
I agree. The music for Euro Mir and Euro Sat are incredible. I am not a large fan of techno music but those grooves had me going. My mother even bought the CD.
I did hear of a few people complaing about Mir being too rough though. Yes, there were some very rapid changes of direction, but I didn't find it to be bad.
Why does that park have to be so far away? =:^)
-Sean
Great TR Sean. Silver Star's layout seems similar to Nitro's in the beginning.
-Sean
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-Sean
SFgadvMAN said:
Great TR Sean. Silver Star's layout seems similar to Nitro's in the beginning.
-Sean
It is very similar although it doesn't have that "Oh my GOD!" turn at the top of the second hill. I am sure you know what I mean by that description.
-Sean
Anyway, sounds like an unbelievable park! :)
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TOGO!
Is AOL just trying to annoy me?
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