A couple of weeks ago, some of us went to Europa Park. We experienced the most amazing hospitality from the park - getting walked onto Blue Fire and Wodan, hearing lots of interesting facts, seeing the Blue Fire backstage shed and having a go on their brand new VR coaster. It was fab.
I'm not going to launch into a trip report on Europa itself, because we all know Silver Star is the best. Shout out to their newest coaster Arthur though, it is fantastic - a really outstanding family ride with brilliant themeing. And it's just left over track from Blue Fire turned upside down! #funfact
The park was looking pumkincredible all decked out for Halloween.
Every single path looked like this! So many pumpkins <3
Unlike most scare events in a theme park, Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event. You exit the park after a day of cred whoring, and re-enter through a different entrance. The park utilizes a separate area for the bulk of the scare attractions, but some are spread out towards Poseidon.
As we queued to enter, we sang Summer Lovin from Grease; changing the words to "Horror, horror, horror nights, scare me more, scare me more!" Hahaha <3
Here I am, ready for a horror-ble evening
The entrance was one of my fave parts of Horror Nights. It's one of the few areas that has effective spooky music, and you have to enter via a barrage of roaming actors - which instantly ramps up the tension in the crowds. The main Horror Nights area has a bit of a festival vibe. There's a stage with fire breathers, beer tents and merch stalls.
I didn't take any photos, but I've scanned in the map for your viewing pleasure
We did the Big Shoe Casino first. What a funny name for a scare attraction! What's scary about a shoe?! The roaming actors did a stellar job of keeping us jumping / entertained in the 40 minute queue. Then it was time for us to enter...
The first room made me exclaim "Wow!" out loud. It was full of real slot machines! And clowns playing them! It was a large, open space that was fairly well lit; but the clowns still managed to create some jump scares by leaping out from behind slot machines or making loud noises. Straight away, I loved the originality of this one. Clowns are a fairly common character in scare attractions, but this seedy, gambling take on them was refreshing.
The rooms got darker as the attraction went on, and even required some audience participation. (Don't you just LOVE audience participation when it doesn't involve you yourself
) Some scenes were similar to Carnival Of Screams at Alton Towers (The Dot Room, and the hordes of clown mannequins with one being real. That was by far the eeriest part.) I enjoyed the maze because the sets were so quirky, but at the same time, I felt it was lacking in scares.
Next, we headed to Labor. With dark grey walls lit with dingy blue lighting, it certainly looked imposing from the outside. Was it going to be themed to Jeremy Corben? Or the terrifying task of giving birth? No. It was based upon factory work - another unique theme! Again, the sets were stunning. Entering the attraction via a tiny trailer filled with dead bodies in the bunks was brilliant. There were bits of the set that genuinely made me wince, they looked so brutal. My favourite scare came from a vending machine that had a zombie trapped inside!
Labor had the potential to be terrifying, but the majority of actors inside it were a let down. They all seemed a bit...aimless. There was also quite a few sections were nothing really happened. Still, I really appreciated the imagination that had gone into the design.
Next up: Nightmare. Oh my God, it was like an acid trip. Imagine if Salvador Dali created a horror maze. This would be it. The costumes were INSANE. Alien-esque creatures with teeth for a face, you literally couldn't tell what was an actor or a prop. It was so, so creepy. There's a bit where you stoop through a tunnel that's like a large intestine! I've never seen a scare attraction like this one. It was mental.
There was an amazingly timed dentist scene, with effective strobe suddenly illuminating blood all over the walls. Apparently the big finale was a wall rising to reveal some horrifically beastly creatures behind it, but I was at the back and missed the effect. So I just sauntered passed someone who somewhat resembled Jabba The Hut. Visually, Nightmare was incredible - but it still lacked intensity on the scare front. The actors just aren't very in-your-face.
The queues were rather long and I was starting to worry that we weren't going to get to do all of the attractions. We headed over to The Curse of The Mummy, stumbling across both the K-Cam Street and Excavation Scare Zones on the way. K-Cam and Excavation were both f***ing s***. Hardly anything or any actors in them. All filler, no killer.
The Curse of The Mummy had one amazing bit where an actor came out of a sarcophagus. But overall, this was the worst attraction by far. It had a pointless outdoor bit. It felt really staggered, like it took ages only to never get going. The actors had terrible costumes - literally just stripey white tops and leggings. Even my mummy costume for Ghosterforce was better than that!
It started to rain and the queues died down, so we managed to squeeze in The Cave before closing. It was themed to an underwater cave, and featured more mad alien costumes. It was another quirky, visual treat that failed to rouse any genuine terror in me. Enjoyable, but not thrilling.
The Mansion maze was an up charge attraction that cost 20 Euros, so we didn't bother with that. I do wonder how much scares that extra 20 euro will buy you though?
Horror Nights wasn't what I anticipated it to be. I expected something a little more extreme. It's very fun, and very imaginative; but it won't get your blood pumping in fear. Music in the queue lines would really help create more atmosphere; and the layout is a tad confusing. I'm in no hurry to rush back next year, but overall I liked Horror Nights for how different it was to other scare events.
I'm not going to launch into a trip report on Europa itself, because we all know Silver Star is the best. Shout out to their newest coaster Arthur though, it is fantastic - a really outstanding family ride with brilliant themeing. And it's just left over track from Blue Fire turned upside down! #funfact
The park was looking pumkincredible all decked out for Halloween.
Every single path looked like this! So many pumpkins <3
Unlike most scare events in a theme park, Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event. You exit the park after a day of cred whoring, and re-enter through a different entrance. The park utilizes a separate area for the bulk of the scare attractions, but some are spread out towards Poseidon.
As we queued to enter, we sang Summer Lovin from Grease; changing the words to "Horror, horror, horror nights, scare me more, scare me more!" Hahaha <3
Here I am, ready for a horror-ble evening
The entrance was one of my fave parts of Horror Nights. It's one of the few areas that has effective spooky music, and you have to enter via a barrage of roaming actors - which instantly ramps up the tension in the crowds. The main Horror Nights area has a bit of a festival vibe. There's a stage with fire breathers, beer tents and merch stalls.
I didn't take any photos, but I've scanned in the map for your viewing pleasure
We did the Big Shoe Casino first. What a funny name for a scare attraction! What's scary about a shoe?! The roaming actors did a stellar job of keeping us jumping / entertained in the 40 minute queue. Then it was time for us to enter...
The first room made me exclaim "Wow!" out loud. It was full of real slot machines! And clowns playing them! It was a large, open space that was fairly well lit; but the clowns still managed to create some jump scares by leaping out from behind slot machines or making loud noises. Straight away, I loved the originality of this one. Clowns are a fairly common character in scare attractions, but this seedy, gambling take on them was refreshing.
The rooms got darker as the attraction went on, and even required some audience participation. (Don't you just LOVE audience participation when it doesn't involve you yourself
) Some scenes were similar to Carnival Of Screams at Alton Towers (The Dot Room, and the hordes of clown mannequins with one being real. That was by far the eeriest part.) I enjoyed the maze because the sets were so quirky, but at the same time, I felt it was lacking in scares.Next, we headed to Labor. With dark grey walls lit with dingy blue lighting, it certainly looked imposing from the outside. Was it going to be themed to Jeremy Corben? Or the terrifying task of giving birth? No. It was based upon factory work - another unique theme! Again, the sets were stunning. Entering the attraction via a tiny trailer filled with dead bodies in the bunks was brilliant. There were bits of the set that genuinely made me wince, they looked so brutal. My favourite scare came from a vending machine that had a zombie trapped inside!
Labor had the potential to be terrifying, but the majority of actors inside it were a let down. They all seemed a bit...aimless. There was also quite a few sections were nothing really happened. Still, I really appreciated the imagination that had gone into the design.
Next up: Nightmare. Oh my God, it was like an acid trip. Imagine if Salvador Dali created a horror maze. This would be it. The costumes were INSANE. Alien-esque creatures with teeth for a face, you literally couldn't tell what was an actor or a prop. It was so, so creepy. There's a bit where you stoop through a tunnel that's like a large intestine! I've never seen a scare attraction like this one. It was mental.
There was an amazingly timed dentist scene, with effective strobe suddenly illuminating blood all over the walls. Apparently the big finale was a wall rising to reveal some horrifically beastly creatures behind it, but I was at the back and missed the effect. So I just sauntered passed someone who somewhat resembled Jabba The Hut. Visually, Nightmare was incredible - but it still lacked intensity on the scare front. The actors just aren't very in-your-face.
The queues were rather long and I was starting to worry that we weren't going to get to do all of the attractions. We headed over to The Curse of The Mummy, stumbling across both the K-Cam Street and Excavation Scare Zones on the way. K-Cam and Excavation were both f***ing s***. Hardly anything or any actors in them. All filler, no killer.
The Curse of The Mummy had one amazing bit where an actor came out of a sarcophagus. But overall, this was the worst attraction by far. It had a pointless outdoor bit. It felt really staggered, like it took ages only to never get going. The actors had terrible costumes - literally just stripey white tops and leggings. Even my mummy costume for Ghosterforce was better than that!
It started to rain and the queues died down, so we managed to squeeze in The Cave before closing. It was themed to an underwater cave, and featured more mad alien costumes. It was another quirky, visual treat that failed to rouse any genuine terror in me. Enjoyable, but not thrilling.
The Mansion maze was an up charge attraction that cost 20 Euros, so we didn't bother with that. I do wonder how much scares that extra 20 euro will buy you though?
Horror Nights wasn't what I anticipated it to be. I expected something a little more extreme. It's very fun, and very imaginative; but it won't get your blood pumping in fear. Music in the queue lines would really help create more atmosphere; and the layout is a tad confusing. I'm in no hurry to rush back next year, but overall I liked Horror Nights for how different it was to other scare events.
