While Voltron may be a singular reason for guests to plan a trip to Europa Park, there are plenty of other excellent headlining attractions that make it one of the best parks in the world. For those that don't know, Europa Park is owned by the Mack family, and if that name sounds familiar, it should be, because it's the same family that owns the world-renowned amusement ride manufacturer. As such, Europa Park is full of creations from Mack, and to a certain extent, the park feels like a bit of a testing ground for new ideas and concepts in attraction technology. To put it in different terms, Mack gives its "home" park the best versions of its creations, hoping that other park operators will take notice and want to buy them. That means a lot of the attractions at Europa Park appear similar to other rides around the world, but probably have some unique or prototype aspect to them.
However, not everything at Europa Park is a Mack ride, as evidenced by the towering supports and tracks guest drive and walk past in the main parking lot. Silver Star is a B&M hyper coaster, which was the tallest of its kind when it opened in 2002.
Standing at 240 feet tall and with a 220-foot first drop, its closest comparable coaster probably is Nitro at SFGAdv (230 feet and 215 feet, respectively), with a very similar layout to its American sibling. As with most B&M hypers, the layout of the coaster is designed to accentuate airtime, which like Nitro is somewhat countered by the 90-degree left turn before the second airtime hill. Silver Star executes a third airtime hill before a "hammerhead" turn forces a 180, very similar in size and profile to Nitro's. Then it's another pair of airtime and an upward, decreasing radius helix which precedes the MCBR. The rest of Silver Star's course is another series of smaller airtime hills with a low twisting flyby of the main park entrance. Silver Star is sponsored by Mercedes' F1 division, so there are a lot of elements in the queue and exit area to reinforce the theming. The exit area reminded me a lot of Test Track with a couple of video racing simulators and cars on display.
However, there's not much on the ride itself to make you believe you're racing aside from a lightboard on the way out of the station and a small scene with a helmeted pit crew member standing next to a stack of tires and computer displays just before the train goes up the lift. There's nothing generally wrong with Silver Star but having ridden almost every B&M hyper (and giga) in North America, there's really nothing spectacular about this coaster that differentiates it from what you can experience in the States and Canada. As with most coasters of this type, it's a people-eater, so lines move relatively quickly with waits averaging between 30-40 minutes during our two days we were in the park. They could probably use a single rider line for this coaster, which would likely increase the throughput even more.
Another coaster that bucks the trend of utilizing Mack rides is Wodan Timbur Coaster. This wooden roller coaster from GCI debuted back in 2012, and for my money is the best GCI I've ever ridden, topping Mystic Timbers. Wodan is located in the Iceland section of the park and has been given a robust Viking theme that starts with numerous wood-carvings in the entrance courtyard, an ornate sign, and animatronic figures in the ceiling of the station that watch over trains as they arrive and depart.
We were a bit unlucky on our first attempt riding Wodan, as an afternoon thunderstorm paused operations for about an hour just as we were readying to board, and were subsequently subjected to moderate rain when the coaster reopened after the heart of the storm had passed. However, we did make our way back to Wodan on our second day to get another ride in better weather conditions. On both rides, I was impressed with how the train maintained its speed throughout the course. So many GCIs can feel like they run out of steam over the last few elements, but Wodan keeps the pedal down until you reach the final brake section. The track goes through a couple of head-chopping tunnels and features a fly-through station (like Thunderhead at Dollywood), which really accentuate the out-of-control experience fans want in a great wooden roller coaster. The second half of the course is more like a terrain coaster where you're flung through rapid high-speed turns and quick shots of airtime while never getting more than 40-50 feet off the ground. The biggest drawback of Wodan is it's in the very back corner of the park and furthest big ride from the park's main entrance. Wodan was easily the best wooden coaster we rode during our trip and is amongst the top five best wooden coasters I've ever ridden.
While Voltron is by far the top attraction in the park from Mack, Blue Fire Megacoaster is another LSM launching coaster that is more about pure speed than crazy maneuvers. Like Voltron, Blue Fire has a short dark ride section before the launch that is like riding through a power plant control room. The animatronics in this area aren't the best, but at least they tried to do something here instead of having the train go through a dark tunnel. After finishing the 180-degree turn, the train then pauses for a moment, and that trademark LSM whirl propels you up to 62 mph and into a stall turn, which creates a bit of hang time, but is awkward since the train is pitched to the left when it reaches the apex. You then pick up speed and go through a quick rocky tunnel before a large vertical loop. The tunnel is a great feature to accentuate the speed, but the loop was pretty forceless, even in the back of the train. The track then turns to the right and into an MCBR, which seemed like an unnecessary block given the overall ride length and the rapidity with which trains could be reasonably dispatched. The second half of the course includes some dives into rocky trenches and tunnels, a few airtime hills, what is billed as a "horseshoe roll" (double inversion), and slow in-line twist before returning to the station. There's nothing wrong with Blue Fire, but it's far down my list of launching coasters. I did appreciate the attempt to theme the coaster and provide a dark ride section along with all the rocky terrain, but Taron at Phantasialand is the gold standard, and I would easily rate Helix at Liseberg (also from Mack) ahead of this coaster.
Once of the more unique coasters at Europa Park is Arthur, which is an inverted powered coaster themed around the movie Arthur and the Invisibles from writer/director Luc Besson (of Fifth Element and Taken fame). The trains have four seats in each row that can spin around to face guests in different directions as they go through the course, through dark ride scenes, and even outside.
Like Voltron, Arthur uses a conveyor belt loading platform where trains move slowly while guests board. Arthur has a single rider line, which allowed us to more or less walk onto the train despite a 30-minute standby line, so if you don't need to ride with other members of your party (or are in the park alone), the single rider line here is probably the most reliable in the park to save time. I wasn't really familiar with the IP on this coaster, but it seemed like a cross between The Littles (Saturday morning cartoon for those GenXers our there) and The Dark Crystal, with a bunch of sprites roaming around in various scenes that I'm sure would make more sense if I knew more about the IP. The ride itself is a lot of fun with on-board soundtrack, lots of special effects and animatronics, and even an appearance from Snoop Dogg. Arthur reminded me a lot of a dark ride we rode earlier in our trip, Droomvlucht, only turbocharged. It's certainly not going to satisfy thrill seekers, but those looking for a well themed dark ride/coaster hybrid attraction that will take you to a fantastic world, Arthur will fit the bill.
Speaking of dark rides, Europa Park has another headlining dark ride that will remind guests of a Disney classic just by hearing its name. Pirates in Batavia will seem very familiar to those that have been to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, but Europa Park's take on the classic dark ride was rebuilt in 2020 after a fire burned the original attraction and has all the bells and whistles of a modern dark ride.
The difference with this ride is that it is set in Indonesia (called Batavia during Dutch Colonization), and so there are a number of jungle scenes and animatronic characters that reflect the Southeast Asian culture. I was extremely impressed with this attraction, and even more so the queue that had projections, animatronics, and other special effects to occupy guests waiting in line.
To solidify the inspiration of Pirates in Batavia to Disney's original ride, there's even a restaurant inside the attraction where guests can dine while boats float by.
Along with Voltron, these headliners at Europa Park could easily occupy a good portion of your day at the park. They also satisfy guests of various tastes with a good collection of high end thrill rides along with two world-class dark rides for families and guests who might not want to ride a high speed roller coaster. These headliners single-handedly make Europa Park worth visiting, but there's plenty more that it has to offer with an extensive collection of water rides, smaller coasters and dark rides, and flat rides that mandate you try to carve out multiple days to visit this park.
Next up – Europa Park: Supporting Attractions and Final Thoughts
Previously – Liseberg, Legoland Billund, Efteling's thrill rides, and Efteling's family attractions, Hotel Charles Lindbergh, Phantasialand, Voltron Nevera Powered by Rimac
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I personally thought all three of the big coasters at Europa Park were fantastic attractions. My visit was pre-Voltron, so Wodan was my favorite of the park's thrill rides. While it ranks a bit lower for me than it does for you (#9 on my wood list and second favorite GCI after Mystic Timbers), it's still a fantastic coaster and I'm really glad I managed to get four rides on it over my two days at the park (it and Arthur were the longest waits in the park, but still only 30-45 minutes). Blue Fire was probably runner up, and while there are better launch coasters out there, I think every one that I rank higher either utilizes multiple launches or has a much more intense launch (i.e. hydraulic). This ride was not only Mack's first launch coaster but also their first big thrill coaster of any sort, so it's pretty impressive that their prototype is still something I'd name in the top three Macks I've ridden (for reference, Copperhead Strike and Time Traveler are the two I put above it). It's also impressive to watch this thing run at full speed...they were running four trains and kept the line under 30 minutes the entirety of my visit. Silver Star is definitely the most pedestrian of the big rides at the park and does rank near the bottom of my B&M hyper list (I think Raging Bull is probably the only one I place below it). Fun fact: There is a huge rivalry between Silver Star and Expedition GeForce (an Intamin Mega that opened one year earlier at Holiday Park two hours away), and while most enthusiasts consider the latter to be significantly superior (me included), the support for Silver Star among locals is super strong (my friend wore an Expedition GeForce shirt one of our Europa Park days and got called out several times in German).
For dark rides, Europa Park might have the most of any park I've visited except possibly the original Disneyland, and I'd agree Arthur and Pirates in Batavia are probably the top two. I found both of these attractions absolutely fantastic and on par with or better than most of the dark rides at the major American destination parks. Geisterschloss was third place in the dark ride category for me, but I'll wait to see if you bring that one up in the next part before saying more.
One I'm a bit surprised you don't consider a headliner is Voletarium. While yet another version of the flying theater, I personally thought this one might be the best of the type I've experienced and consider it superior to even the original Soarin' Over California.