Bigger thrills: These parks are primarily meant to attract Europens, but there’s no reason you can’t grab your T shirt and Ray-Bans and go. And, since you may find yourself upside down, don’t forget the antacids. Last year’s sensation, Britain’s 235-foot-tall Pepsi Big Max One at the Pleasure Beach park in Blackpool, won the crown as the world’s highest roller coaster, but it’s beginning to look a bit tame. The big news this summer is the $7.5 million Dragon Khan coaster in Spain’s new Port Aventura park outside Barcelona. At the $400 million park, which formally opened in early May, the Dragon will hurl visitors through no fewer than eight loop-the-loops at speeds of nearly 70 miles per hour. This, of course, is great fun. “You’ve got to feel it in your stomach,” explains Patrick Polak, a 19-year-old Dutchman, as he awaits his chance to board the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland Paris (as Euro Disney is now known).
With more sites being developed, “the theme-park business in Europe is where the business was in the States in the ’70s,” says Steve Burke, president of Disneyland Paris. Surprisingly, Disney itself is widely credited with whetting the public’s appetite. The financially troubled project–which recently announced that it had lost $50 million last winter–is now seen as the industry standard-setter. “Thanks to Disney, people expect better service, better-quality attractions, bigger sensations and bigger thrills,” says Guibert delMarmol, manager of a park in Wavre, Belgium. He has launched a course to teach the courteous service and relentless cheerfulness of Disney to his employees.
While the models may be American, most of these megaparks remain distinctly European in flavor. Parc Asterix, Disneyland Paris’s nearest competitor, will never be confused with Orlando; in fact, it could hardly be more Gallic. Taking France’s favorite comic-book character, Asterix the Gaul, as its mascot, it is probably the only amusement park in the world with live stone-cutting demonstrations, Musqueteers rather than Mouseketeers and a film of Yves Montand crooning “Paris, je Paime.” The Wavre park offers distinctly Belgian attractions based on Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter created by native cartoonist Herge. Even Disneyland Paris, now under mostly homegrown management, affects a French ambience. The new Space Mountain ride evokes Jules Verne rather than “Star Wars.” That way, “it doesn’t age,” explained a Disney employee. “In the States, you know, Tomorrow Land wound up looking like Yesterday Land.”
Many of Europe’s smaller parks, meanwhile, are entering Debt Land. Adrenaline-addicted customers quickly become jaded by yesterday’s thrills (“What! Only one loop?”) and operators must continually invest in bigger, better, scarier attractions to stay compet- itive. Amid predictions that industry growth will start to cool later in the decade, a number of British parks are now up for sale. But thrill addicts shouldn’t worry; European megaparks are bound to get bigger and flashier. The Danish manufacturer of kids’ blocks plans to open its $128 million Legoland outside London next year. And Sega, the Japanese videogame giant, plans to build SegaWorld in London’s West End at an estimated cost of $72 million in time for the 1996 season. With that sort of cash invested, there should be a whole lotta looping going on.
