Tour Europe in 50 Rides (Leg 2) Quiz

Answer: Tightly clutch the lap bar with both hands

Relax and enjoy! In spite of only being about 10 meters (30') high, child-friendly drop towers can be quite fun even for a thrill-seeker, especially if you follow the operators' advice and spice up your ride. By raising your hands, you ensure you'll get the maximum air time during the fall; closing your eyes does increase the surprise factor of the drops and looking down serves to emphasize the optical impact of the fall, making it seem faster. Clutching the lap bar with white knuckles only serves to give you cramps.

The photo, like all in this quiz set, is an on-ride view. You don't see the actual ride here because it's behind me.

Answer: A bump on an internal track

The ride system for this carousel type is really simple: The arms holding the ride gondolas are mounted on springs with a dampener so they can oscillate up and down a few times before coming to rest at a constant height again. The kick for this is provided near the center of the ride - each arm has a wheel running on a metal track and at one point on the track, there is simply a nice, sharp bump sending you up in the air.

Answer: Ewok Village

The Ewok village would belong to "Star Wars" and certainly has no place in Arthur's world. The ride (based on Luc Besson's movie trilogy) begins with a shrinking scene in Arthur's garden (which cleverly hides the switch track). Some scenes of Minimoy life are followed by a cockroach encounter and a brief outdoor coaster sequence before we reach the sinful Paradise Alley. An encounter with a huge rat follows before a double helix coaster segment just below the building's ceiling. We then reach the pictured encounter with the movie's villain. Once this ends, the ride goes outdoors again for a longer coaster sequence. After the on-ride photo, the car passes the recovered treasure scene and happy end before returning to the station.

Each row of seats can rotate separately and you get a different experience in each of the rows except for the final outdoor sequence. Your seat's orientation for that segment is determined by the number of riders (in a row of 4) pressing the button on their lap bar during the boss encounter - try out several options with your group.

Tip: If you are traveling solo or with just one other person and don't mind sitting next to strangers, the single rider option can often shorten your waits by half or more. This also works quite well for all other rides offering this extra line (Blue Fire, Wodan and Voletarium). In either case, don't go for Arthur at the last minute - the ride relatively often breaks down for a brief time (usually less than 10 minutes) and if this happens just before closing, even the top notch technicians at Europa-Park might not manage it to start again in the time remaining.

Answer: World of Diamonds

Europa-Park does not hold any J.R.R. Tolkien licenses, so World of Diamonds it is. Originally, the log flume was an all outdoor ride, but with the construction of the Alpenexpress, the tunnel section was added. If everything goes by too fast for you on both rides, you can also experience the World of Diamonds as a walk-through attraction.

It's worth checking out if you have the time (or lines are just too long everywhere), the builders paid a lot of attention to details (including a huge mechanical dragon) and the cave includes a lot of beautifully colored light effects.

Answer: Coastiality

Coastiality is available in three different flavors on the Enzian - one each for the Ed Euromaus mascot, the Voletarium and the Schellen-Ursli character - as well as one version on the Pegasus coaster, based on the "Happy Family". Beginning in 2018, there will also be a new VR experience on the rebuilt Eurosat.

In spite of providing a very convincing ride experience for a modest surcharge (2 Euros), Coastiality is not very popular among the majority visitors, mostly because the fitting of the VR glasses has greatly reduced the capacity of the two affected rides. The new version of Eurosat will avoid this issue by having a separate loading station for VR riders; thus the normal queue time is largely unaffected.

Tip: If you want to try out Coastiality, I recommend the Voletarium one. The Pegasus ride time is very short compared to the one of Enzian and the Euromaus movie feels less polished than Voletarium. I haven't been able to try the new Schellne-Ursli one yet, waits for a VR ride this October were above 40 minutes all day.

Answer: False

No way! In spite of its relatively recent date, this ride is a standard Zierer-manufactured "Wellenflug" found in many European theme parks and as a traveling ride on major fairs. It provides the traditional experience including the water fountains synchronized with the ride so that your feet will always be just a bit above the water. Europa-Park runs the ride at a pretty high speed so that you can have some real fun accompanied by classical Austrian waltz music.

Tip: If you need a romantic place to kiss your significant other during your visit, get into one of the double seats - they're not only for parents with small children.

Answer: Riders can turn their boats forwards or backwards as desired

While all four of these options would probably make for an interesting experience (are you listening, Mack Rides), the simplest option is the correct one: Each boat has a steering wheel that allows the rider to turn the bow forward, backward or inward (the outward direction is not possible, the fast spin would painfully push riders into the restraint). In addition, during the entire ride sequence, the building goes dark and a sea battle is projected onto the walls.

Tip: For the most intense experience, quickly change back and forth between the inwards and backwards positions. You don't need to turn the wheel too quickly, as long as you maintain a steady rotation, your boat will quickly obey your commands.

Answer: Flight of the Vampire

With a spooky soundtrack, additional light and smoke effects and the backwards rotation, this otherwise unspectacular ride is one of my Halloween favorites. Europa-Park actually transforms two more rides at that time: the teacup ride in Holland becomes Grizelkopjes (also with smoke and strobe effects) and Eurosat becomes the Pumpkin Coaster, its normally silver geodesic done completely covered in an oversized orange and black jack-o-lantern face. Traumatica is the park's additional Halloween night-time event with several haunted houses and a special ice show.

Tip: Spain offers two shows, an arena stunt show with horses and a Flamenco dance show. The first should appeal to almost all, the second is "love it or leave it".

Answer: Multiple narrow banked turns

If you are looking for some lateral g-forces, you certainly won't find them at Atlantica. Your boat ascends a steep lift hill, is rotated 90 degrees on a platform, rolls backwards through a dip, gets rotated again, then drops and passes a bunny hill before drenching you at the splashdown. The rest of the ride is just a short lazy float back to the station.

The park can adjust the amount of splash the boats generate, so on a chilly fall day, you won't get quite as wet (unless you're in a front row outside seat). However, this adjustment is made for the entire day, so if you come on a chilly spring morning with a beautiful day to come, you should count on catching some shivers.

Tip: If it's really hot and you don't care for the ride, you don't have to get in line to get drenched. Just stand on the observation platform next to the splashdown until a boat arrives - free showers for all!

Answer: It exists only during the winter season

In 2001, Europa-Park introduced a special "Winter Dreams" opening season in December and the first week of January. During this time, the water rides as well as the Silver Star are closed, but the park compensates for it with temporary attractions. The Ferris wheel is set up in the Portugal area, over the lower basin of Atlantica - otherwise this small area would not have any attractions during the winter.

Tip: If you're hotel guest, ride this in the extra hour you get in the morning. You'll probably get four laps while later in the day, you will usually get only two or three. Of course you'll want to ride again at night to gaze at the millions of lights below.