We recently visited Holiday Park and were pleasantly surprised throughout the day as we encountered a more relaxed atmosphere than we expected. This park really challenged our primarily American based experience of theme parks. I’m even more excited now to visit more parks in Europe. Here are the 13 things that really stood out to us:
- You don’t pass through a special parking toll gate when you arrive. Instead, you just pay when you get your ticket and then give your receipt to an automated system when you leave. There’s no extra pricey preferred parking either; it was a flat fee of six euros (about half of what you can expect at most U.S. parks).
- Ticket prices varied based on your height. If you are tall (> 1.4 m) then your ticket costs €29.95 at the gate. Shorter people (1 – 1.4 meters) pay slightly less at €27.50, while I’m assuming mostly children (85 cm – 1 m) have a ticket price of €9.99. Anyone shorter than that, and kids celebrating birthdays through 11 years, can get in for free.
A handy dandy tool for the employees checking height.
- No one had to have their bags checked or pass through a metal detector. I noticed that several families brought a full lunch into the park with them, which would be a big no-no at a lot of places. Less concern about violence probably plays a role in this too, considering that very few people have guns in Germany.
- Dogs were everywhere in the park, and it was no big deal. Sometimes they even hung out unattended while a family was riding something.
- Safety wasn’t as strictly regulated. On Expedition GeForce you were able to get extremely close to the track and the cable for the lift hill.
I’m just saying… that could really hurt somebody.
- There are no ride attendants that tell you where to sit on the coaster. This has always been a pet peeve of mine; I paid good money to get into the park and I want to ride in the front row at least once. Why should you be allowed to tell me that I can’t?
- You have to meet height and age requirements to get on rides. I’ve never seen age requirements for roller coasters before. Even if you are tall enough, you must be 11 to ride Expedition GeForce and 14 to ride Sky Scream.
- There is no huge rush to board the ride. In fact, GeForce only had one train running when we visited. Holiday Park is not concerned about how many people they can get to ride per hour; they are focused on the quality of your experience instead. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time this year at my home park being nearly shoved onto Fury 325.
- The ride operators cross the track without special approval or even caution. I saw one guy do it several times on Expedition GeForce, even when the train was about to enter the station. No thank you.
Photo by Jeremy licensed under CC BY 2.0.
- Like much of Germany, it’s quieter than you’d expect. No blaring music, no ride operators with headsets, and no repetitive announcements on loudspeakers.
- You can leave your personal belongings wherever. Some rides have shelves with designated spots for glasses, cameras, or bags, but not all of them do. There are no rides that restrict riders from bringing their belongings into the line, although there are signs warning that items kept on your person must be secured while you are riding. There is a lot of frustration about the ‘empty pocket’ polices for rides at some parks. We usually take very little into the park and keep it in our pockets, but it’s also good to know that this park is bag friendly.
- There’s no free water. This was the first park I’ve been to that doesn’t keep free water cups at all the drink stations. There are also no water fountains available, but that seems to be the case no matter where you are in Germany. Meena has to take bottled water to his job.
- You can walk around while you drink beer or wine. Typically, you have to stay in a specific area of a theme park to consume alcohol, if they even offer it at all. Of course this is Europe, where you can walk down most city streets while drinking a beer and not think twice about it.
So what do you think? Are you dying to visit a park in Europe? What differences have you seen at different amusement parks? If you want to see more of Holiday Park, check out my photo gallery here.
