FRONT ROW 5: Europa-Park technology, Piccolo Mondo, September

The first Euro-Mir train of the morning does not roll until the shop has already had its hands on the hardware. And a full train on Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac will sometimes simply stop. Episode 5 of FRONT ROW, Europa-Park's monthly magazine, runs 13 minutes and 28 seconds through that world: the technology behind Euro-Mir and Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac, the September calendar, the unfinished shell of the new employee cafeteria Coasteria, official building bricks and a conversation with Dr. Volker Klaiber, director of Operation & Service. MACK Media's UHD episode was released Aug. 27, 2026, on VEEJOY.

Annika and Lauren host. Audio tracks run in German, English and French, with subtitles in French and English. New episodes always arrive on the last Thursday of the month.

Before the first train rolls, the most important shift of the day is already underway behind the scenes. At Euro-Mir, that shift belongs to technician Loïc in the maintenance hall. Morning inspections cover trains and vehicles. The safety bars must have no play, and the running wheels have to spin freely and must not be damaged. A wheel is changed when the running surface is worn all the way through. A complete wheel change takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes.

The towers are fully mirrored from the outside, but there is no show equipment packed inside. They hold infrastructure and storage. One tower contains the lift. One contains the stairs to the brake area. The remaining three are empty and store Christmas decorations. Up at the brake, Loïc checks whether the brakes are in order, whether the brake gap is correct, whether the friction pads are holding and whether air is leaking. He never had a fear of heights. Nausea when Euro-Mir runs backward is another matter, and he has no tip for it. That cannot be adjusted or predicted, he says. Every lap is different. The short formula: close your eyes and get through it.

Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac turns riders upside down seven times and runs at 100 km/h. Operator Lucas says the tires get very hot doing that, so every one of them has to be checked in the morning. As many as seven trains run at once. In the morning they are still standing in the hall. At the control panel of the turntable switch, staff talk by phone directly with the control room at the station; trains continue only after clearance from there. Two trains at a time go onto the turntable. In the maintenance position, the switch can rotate fully. There are two tracks: four trains on one, three on the other. That is how the trains come out of the hall and continue at the station.

Klaiber is responsible for Operation & Service, meaning park operations: everything the guest experiences, feels and rides — paths, roads, lanes, buildings and the technology inside them, plus the daily maintenance. More than 2,000 roller coaster wheels are inspected every day. Trains, boats and vehicles go through an inspection written for that attraction. Safety sits at the top of the priority list.

Stops still go viral, and they go viral fast. Klaiber turns that reading around. A disruption, he says, is often the proof that the safety system is working. The rides are high-tech machines with a finely and carefully tuned safety system. At the slightest discrepancy, the attraction goes into its designated state, and that state is always a stop. Small things can be corrected immediately. If it is already clear that a repair or a parts replacement will take longer than about 25 to 30 minutes, what is known as an evacuation follows: guests are escorted calmly and in an orderly way back into the park. He calls it a sore point that those images hit the internet so fast. Everyone has a smartphone, he says, and the portrayal is often sensational. The process itself is boring. Even when a train is standing with guests on board, you sit nowhere safer than on the coaster. Basically nothing can happen there, he says.

Visitor flows and daily forecasts sit with Financial Administration, based on historical data: the same day of the previous season, the same conditions, different weather. For Operation & Service that is secondary, Klaiber says, because the rides have to run — for 10,000, 15,000 or 40,000 guests. The wait-time signs in front of the attractions are not fed by a fully automatic counter. There is new in-house attraction management software, tailored to the park. The operator enters the minutes by hand on a panel, from experience. In the line there are markings: 15 minutes to here, 30 minutes to here. For a busy day, Klaiber's tip is VirtualLine: book a time window in the app and reduce the wait at individual rides.

For the coming season he points to Italy. The ghost train there has already been overhauled. In the next offseason, Piccolo Mondo, the classic family attraction for younger guests, will get a facelift: new decoration, new scenery, nostalgia and modernity. The team is looking forward to it, he says. The contest question in the episode is aimed right at that work: At which children's attraction in the Italian themed area is something new being created for next season? The answer from the interview is Piccolo Mondo. On the contest page at europapark.de, the question includes the year: At which attraction in the Italian themed area is something new happening in 2027? The answer options are Volo da Vinci, Carnival in Venice, Piccolo Mondo and Mario's Pizza.

September is laid out in the same episode. On Sept. 13, Alsace Day will sit right on the doorstep, with groups in traditional costume, street artists and music bands and the atmosphere of an Alsatian street festival. On Sept. 19 and 20, the Fairytale Festival follows in the Fairytale Forest, interactive and for families. From Sept. 19 through Oct. 11 there will be Oktoberfest with Lederhosen, Dirndl, Schmankerl, "O'zapft is" and Prosit. Starting Sept. 23, Traumatica begins: 10 years of the event, 20 years of horror at Europa-Park, new horror worlds, a new corn maze and shows. Starting Sept. 26, Halloween comes to the park — pumpkin armies, fog and scares, nothing for the faint of heart.

The episode also shows the unfinished shell of Coasteria, the new employee cafeteria: an integrated central kitchen, 4,500 square meters, four floors. That matters for guests because the old cafeteria has to make way for a new themed area. Official Europa-Park building bricks are in the mix too, soon with their own shop in the park. Kiddicraft starts with Traumatica, Euro-Mir and Voltron. Stone Heap delivers the Panorama Train and the main entrance. Märklin brings a model railroad of the Alpenexpress. Three sets are being raffled: the main entrance, the Panorama Train and an XXL Voltron set. Enter through the link in the video description or at europapark.de for the FRONT ROW contest for Episode 5. The entry period is Aug. 27, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2026, 11:59 p.m. The drawing is Oct. 1, 2026. One winner is drawn from the valid entries and notified by email, with a deadline of two weeks; otherwise a new drawing is held. There is no legal recourse and no cash payout. A claim exists only subject to availability; a replacement with equivalent products is possible. Employees of Europa-Park and of participating companies, as well as relatives, are excluded, as are automated entries.

The episode itself breaks for two guest games. In the Greek themed area, Michi and Sven take on Olympia basketball. They can play "a little." Whoever scores first wins, and the prize is a Voltron cap. In the English themed area the derby follows: four players, everyone against everyone, yellow one point, blue two, red three, whoever reaches the finish first wins. Julia introduces herself; she comes from Strasbourg. Evelin is 7 and has already played the game. Olli pulls ahead for a stretch. The winner is number five. The tactic: just shoot.

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