Europa Park | Rulantica Extensions | Waterpark | 2023

[Magic-Man]

Rulantica is finished and in pre-opening test phase ahead of the official opening on 28th November.

The test phase of @rulantica has just begun! It's an unbelievable feeling to see the first test swimmers having so much fun with something you have worked on for so many years. Less than 3 weeks to go until the official opening! #Rulantica pic.twitter.com/Qc3tNfePZz

— Thomas Mack (@ThomasMack_EP) November 8, 2019

RideOnBlog.com have an article with loads of pictures from inside. Source

Certainly by night it looks to be an impressive experience.
PDF of the park map. Source

A complete walkthrough of the indoor areas.

Holy shiz that's the best non-Disney/Universal water park I've ever seen.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Man, would you look at those beautiful glulam trusses!

 

[vaugc002]

Yeah this is stunning. What an achievement!

 

[EthanCoaster]

Oh my.

 

[Ethan]

Looks very good indeed. I love everything except for the huge mermaid screen behind the wave pool.

I really want to see more videos and images of the area surrounding the trap-door slides. I love the architectural style of those wooden houses that they weave in and out of.

 

[Magic-Man]

The thing that amazes me the most is they're already prepping a expansion for this thing.



This was filed back in January, and includes another hotel and an expanded outdoor section as well as an expansion to the current indoor section, and a monorail connecting it to Europa Park. Probably opening in 2021.

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

Looks very good indeed. I love everything except for the huge mermaid screen behind the wave pool.

I really want to see more videos and images of the area surrounding the trap-door slides. I love the architectural style of those wooden houses that they weave in and out of.

I'm guessing the screen will look better in person, they always tend to look rubbish in photos, especially when there's not much ambient light.

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[TheCoasterCruiser]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm actually a bit underwhelmed by this. It just looks a bit bare? Like budget cuts affected the final product?
I don't know, I can't really put my finger on it, but I was expecting more from EP.

 

[Robert.W]

^ I’m not all that impressed either. Marketing really pushed the whole story aspect, and the concept art made it look like a 360° immersive world. I don’t feel like that’s what has materialised to be honest

 

[Benenen]

I was feeling slightly underwhelmed until I saw the nighttime video then I realised how much atmosphere the place will have. My main concern is that majority of the attractions are off the shelf tube slides that will ride the same whether they're in a bare concrete waterpark or Rulantica. It seems that only the lazy river and outdoor rapids will feel like bespoke themed experiences. That said I think it will be an amazing few hours and I highly anticipate my visit next April, this isn't a place that can be fairly judged on photos and videos.

 

[Fluorineer]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm actually a bit underwhelmed by this. It just looks a bit bare? Like budget cuts affected the final product?
I don't know, I can't really put my finger on it, but I was expecting more from EP.

I've never been to a Disney or Universal Waterpark, but generally, they take pride in hiding the actual real-life engineering aspects of anything they do within the theming, while this is still clearly just some facades in a warehouse. Beautiful facades in a beautiful warehouse that is, but it still resembles more of a Waterpark that has been put effort into, rather than a fully immersive world.

I suppose EP is capitalizing on German Waterparks being pretty much garbage across the board, except for some decent ones in the south like Therme Erding or Schwarzwald Therme. This clearly beats everything in at least a 600km radius out of the park, and that's well enough for them. Nobody will be planning EP-trips for a Waterpark anyway, but now they have even more means to make people stay in their resort, which is the money-making machine.

 

[toofpikk]

The thing that amazes me the most is they're already prepping a expansion for this thing.
[pic]
This was filed back in January, and includes another hotel and an expanded outdoor section as well as an expansion to the current indoor section, and a monorail connecting it to Europa Park. Probably opening in 2021.

Fairly sure they had 3 phases planned from when they broke ground. They've definitely had forms of expansion in mind since we heard anything about it.
Quite cool to see just how large scale they want to take it though!

 

[Geeky Pastimes]

I was feeling slightly underwhelmed until I saw the nighttime video then I realised how much atmosphere the place will have. My main concern is that majority of the attractions are off the shelf tube slides that will ride the same whether they're in a bare concrete waterpark or Rulantica. It seems that only the lazy river and outdoor rapids will feel like bespoke themed experiences. That said I think it will be an amazing few hours and I highly anticipate my visit next April, this isn't a place that can be fairly judged on photos and videos.

I find most water parks are like this and I've never known why. Even in the big Florida water parks (the only ones I've done) the slides are very samey and have very little theming, but the lazy rivers look incredible. Are there some regulations that make all slides look so similar?

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[Pokemaniac]

One thing to remember is that swimming pools provide incredibly challenging conditions from a building physics perspective. The air is saturated with moisture at a very high temperature, condensation will form on any cold surface, and the chlorine doesn't make things any easier. So especially for exterior walls or ceilings, the surface needs to be accessible for inspection and maintenance. If they cover a whole wall with foam to resemble rockwork, all sorts of fungus could begin developing behind it without anyone noticing. Structural elements, ventilation systems, pipe systems, filters, pumps, and electrical systems would also need to be accessible. And with all that heat and moisture around, and the aforementioned chlorinated environment, plants aren't easy to keep alive.

Plus, as mentioned, there are regulations. With every surface wet and slippery, the theming should not invite climbing, ideally not running either. They can't have many nooks and crannies in case evacuation becomes necessary. Lifeguards need to have a good overview of the pools and slides. There must be handrails for all stairs.

There are tons of little challenges of building an indoor water park, but given the restrictions I think this has turned out amazingly well.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Siam Park’s slides are fairly well themed. May be rose tinted glasses though, I do love Siam Park ?

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Yeah Rulantica has two expansions planned along with another hotel (in fact the road signage already says "Rulantica Hotels"). A phase 2 of the waterpark with attractions and more slides, and a wellness spa facility are planned. They plan to wait for Rulantica to open and for which there's a higher demand before deciding on which to implement first.

Not sure if that concept image posted by Jackson is phase 2 or just the general masterplan - Rulantica is set to secure the resort for the next 3 decades:
"We saw that our existing strategy of increasing the number of attractions within Europa-Park would come to an end due to a limited area around the park,” says Kreft von Byern. “What you will see soon at Rulantica is the first step in a concept which will take us through the next 30 years.” Quote source

As for whether the park is underwhelming or not. Its a discussion that's happened in a number of fan circles. Maybe some expections were too high or the park promised too much with the theming. There's a few spots (mostly just the mermaid restaurant with the rockwork hanging from a plain unthemed black ceiling) that bug me. However on the whole I think its looks great for a waterpark, especially at night. But I still want to properly experience it first hand before judging it. (sadly missed out on the pre-opening due to a cycling accident a couple weeks ago which after years of following the project was rather annoying?)

I'm sure it will be popular and a success for EP; and given their track record it hopefully will only improve over time. It will be interesting to see how busy it gets (queues for slides etc.) since EP love their throughputs even with the limited park capacity.

The outdoor areas are still being worked on however half of the rapids were open unthemed for guests during the pre-opening days.

 

[Magic-Man]

It looks like they've already started on the outdoor expansion if you look in the background. What the hell?

 

[Ethan]

It looks like they've already started on the outdoor expansion. What the hell?

This is part of the original lineup. Unless you're looking at a different video to me?

 

[Magic-Man]

This is part of the original lineup. Unless you're looking at a different video to me?

Nah, I'm not talking about the river. If you look in the background in some of the shots you can see groundwork.

 

[Ethan]

Oh my bad. Perhaps they are? I can't actually see anything that resembles groundwork in the video tbh but I take your word for it. I did hear that they're pretty eager to get the new accommodation built so I guess it would make sense? Could also be major landscaping work too?