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1. IntroductionIn the Imagineering course, we originated in the world of amusement parks and therefore the main part of the course is an assignment in concept development for one the most successful amusement park of Europa: Europa-Park in Rust.

Henk Groenen, who is responsible for Europa-Park in the Benelux, gave us the assignment. Near the Dutch area in Europa-Park, there is a dated ride. Known as the “Dschungel-Floßfahrt”. It is “an expedition to the legendary jungle king, with plenty of secrets along the way” says Europa-Park at their own website. But the ride is old, and makes no sense at all. It also doesn’t fit into the themed areas of Europa-Park. It has to be refurbished, because it is near the Dutch area, Euro-pa-Park want to fit the ride in that particular area. So the assignment includes: To create a whole new ride through setting and experience, but with the same ride track.

2. Table of Contents1. Intruduction 2. Table of contents 3. Analysis 4. Concept 5. The Ride 6. Thank

3. AnalysisEuropa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany, owned by the German family Mack. Mack has produced vehicles since 1780, cir-cus wagons since 1880 and roller-coasters since 1921. Franz Mack took over the family firm in 1958, together with his brothers. Together with his son Roland he visited the USA in 1972 and was inspired to open a theme park in Germany, as an exhibition site for his company’s products. At this moment, the the-me park is still an exhibition site for their company’s products, now cal-led Mack rides.

The park was first planned to be lo-cated in Breisach. Thereby it was na-med “Europa-Park” after Breisach’s nearby Europaweiher, a small arti-ficial lake. The Breisach area was unsuitable because of flooding ha-zard, and the project was moved 30 km further north. There the family Mack bought the park of the histori-cal Balthasar castle in Rust. Eventu-ally, the park opened in 1975 with an area of 16 hectares.

The first country-themed secti-on was “Italy”, opened 1982. The “Europe” theme was pursued fu-rther with the opening of “Hol-land” (1984), “England” (1988), “France” (1990), “Scandina-via” (1992) and “Spain” (1994).

Nowadays Europa-Park is the se-cond most popular theme park in Europe. It almost reaches the 5 million visitors a year. Europa-Park has now 17 themed sections. Almost every section is country-themed. Eu-ropa-Park also has 5 different ho-tels and a camp resort, near their theme park. Their first themed hotel opened in 1995, nowadays Euro-pa-Park is one of the biggest hotel resorts in Europe.

Theming categoryEuropapark is considered to be a park with micro theming, which me-ans that it is significant to pay a lot of attention to the details of every present attraction and create every new one with the understanding of these principles.

EuropaparkInternal analysis

So in order to reach the most of mi-cro theming, it is necessary to bear in mind the following activities:-Sound, music and extra noises;- Scent; Surrounding;- Costumes of stuff members.- The main goals of every park are to create a great experience and individual effects on people. Indi-vidual effects are connected with the theming category, so if it is mi-cro theming where secondary lay-er of meaning and storytelling are included, it is possible to reach the highest effects, including immersi-on, enchantment, transformation of lifestyle and identity (Cornelis, 2011).

Europapark Deutschlands größter Freizeitpark

To create a ride for Europa-Park, especially for the Dutch area, it is required to know what is typical Dutch. The Dutch national newspa-per “De Telegraaf” asked its rea-ders and foreigners what is “typical Dutch”. They compiled a list of the 100 top typical Dutch things. We made a short list of this, especially with a foreigner view.

The famous windmills network at Kinderdijk- this place is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO

Traditional shoes where farmers used to walk on. Nowadays one of the most original items to take back home from the Netherlands as a souvenir.

The tulip is a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright colored flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields.

What is typical dutch

A lot of Dutch people prefer to take the bike than their car. In the Netherlands there is more than 35.000 km of bicycle path.

The Netherlands is the country of the true cheese eaters. Holland cheese exists in many types and sizes, one even tastier than the last. Most fa-mous is the Gouda cheese, it is sold in all over the world. The cow was a symbol of prosperity to the Dutch, today the Frisian cow is a symbol of the Dutch landscape. Skating is a national sport, it is also an important part of the Dutch sports heritage. Speed-skating (ra-ther than figure-skating) is still very popular, though the Dutch have had few international champions.

“Gracht” is a waterway in the city with streets on both sides of the wa-ter. You can see it in many Dutch ci-ties including Delft, Groningen and most famous in Amsterdam. The Netherlands is a flat country. There are now mountains at all. Just a little hill in the south. Traditionally it is a type of hand-crafted earthenware. Hand painted in blue with typical patterns, and so-metimes combined with landscapes and typical Dutch scenery. A coffeeshop is a place where they sell cannabis. At this place, local authorities tolerate the sale of soft drugs for personal consumption. Coffeeshops are not allowed to sell alcohol. That is why it is called a coffeeshop.

Windmills

Wooden Shoes

Tullips

Biking

Cheese

Ice Skating

The City Canal

Cows

Flat Country

Delfts Blue

Coffeeshop

Moodboard of the concept

Table of Contents

4. ConceptEuromaus loves cheese, and heard that Holland is a country full of cheese. He even heard the inhabitants are called ‘Cheeseheads.’ He wants to discover Hol-land and takes his girlfriend Euromausie on a romantic trip to the ‘Cheesecoun-try’ of Europe: Holland. When they have arrived, they see a big block of cheese, Euromaus starts to eat. When he nibbles a big hole in the cheese, he sees a won-derful scenery with tulips, cows and mills. He literally sees trough the cheese hole that Holland is so much more than cheese. We want to show visitors of Europa Park and passengers of our ride the most beau-tiful parts of Holland, with Euromaus and Euromausie as leading characters. To ex-plain our country the best through the eyes of these two funny mice, it is a humoristic and educational way to show Holland in different scenes. We want the passenger to escape the issues of the day and give them to feel the real Dutch experience just for a moment, that they maybe persuaded to buy a stroopwafel at the end, or maybe visit Holland.

Holland is more than cheeseWhy Euromaus and his friend Euromau-si are the main characters of the ride?Euromaus and Euromousie were chosen to be the main characters of the new ride, because they are symbols of Europapark, still they are hardly ever(poorly) represen-ted in attractions and shows, that’s the re-ason they are not as well-known, as other theme park symbols like Mickey Mouse in Disney for example. In order to popula-rize Euromaus among Europapark visitors and create a story that is strongly connec-ted, not only with Holland part of the park, but also with the concept and existed main

Why Euromaus and Euromausi

characters of Europapark, we’ve chosen Eu-romaus and his friend Euromausie to be a part of the ride. The visitors of the ride have an opportunity to admire and enjoy all typi-cal Dutch things and at the same time follow the story of Euromaus visiting Holland. This would be interesting for the children, who are the main target group for the ride. Adults could enjoy themselves with pictures-que decorations of the ride, pleasant music, calm ride and smiley faces of their kids.

We’ve chosen for a family ride, due the vision of the concept. The concept includes the story of: “Holland is more than chee-se”. For children it is mainly educational in a fun way. For adults, there are also some ‘adult jokes’, which children will not under-stand. Because of this, there are different levels of meaning in the ride, it is appro-priate for all different ages.

Target group

Target group

Name of the ride: ‘Gatenkaas’

Euromaus loves traveling and makes a lot of trips together with his girlfriend Euromausie. Every country they visited they learned about the culture and made a lot of friends. Besides traveling, Euromaus and Euromausie had ano-ther great passion: cheese. The two mice are in love with cheese, and when they found a big block of these, they eat it all day. Euromaus heard from his friends about cheese country Holland. So Euromaus had a wonderful idea to take his girlfriend Euromausie on a romantic cheese trip to Holland, so they can eat together on that lovely, creamy, yellow Holland cheese. After a long journey, they arrive in Holland. They see a huge block of cheese between the beautiful tullips. The exhausted mice run with their last energy to the cheese, and jump on it. They begin to nibble, and in a few mi-nutes they eat a big hole in the cheese. At the other side of this cheese hole he sees a wonderful scenery, with tulips, windmills and dancing cows. He calls Euromausie and she is surprised by this beautiful landscape, with a funny windmill he never saw before anywhere else in Europa. They came for the cheese, but they see that Holland is so much more than cheese. They look each other in the eyes, with their mouths full of cheese and see the spar-kle in their eyes. he mice has to make a hard decision, stay on the cheese and eat every-thing, or discover this amazing country. In a split second Euromaus jumpes off the chee-se and runs through the field full of tulips, next to cows. Euromausie is laughing, takes a mouthful of cheese and runs to her boyfriend.

When they arrived at the windmill, Euromaus wants to impress his girlfriend and climbs on the windmill, but a blade grabbed him and now he is spinning on the windmill. Euromausie is laughing, what a yellow belly is her boyfriend. Euromausie sees a friendly miller, and asks him to stop the mill and help her boyfriend. Me-anwhile Euromausie becomes pretty sick after spinning a few rounds, and loses his appetite. The miller says they have to visit Amsterdam, a few miles away. He wants to pay attenti-on for the big block of cheese. So the mice start walking, in the direction of Amsterdam.

When they arrive in the scenic citycentre of Amsterdam, they are so surprised by the won-derful houses with no curtains; they can see the people in their homes. They see a painter who works on a big painting and a woman with not that much clothes on and a red light on her. It is cold en frosty that day, and the canals have changed in iceskating rinks. Euromausie knows how to ice skate, she did it before in Sweden and Austria, so she took skates on and starts skating with friends she made in Amsterdam. Meanwhile Euromaus saw a inhabitant of Am-sterdam moving his furniture with a string and a pulley to the 5th floor of a mason. He of-fers to help him, but his leg is stuck in the string and in a few seconds he is flying to the top of the house. The very cumberso-me Euromaus is going up and down, whi-le Euromausie is skating on the cannels.

When Euromaus finally hit the ground, he calls Euromausie and they meet each other on a bridge. They wae hungry and start to find some cheese. They discover a very nice smell, very sweet. Is it really cheese? They follow their noses and come at a factory where one ot the windows is open. They sneak in and see a lot of peo-ple working. Euromaus loses his balance by sneaking in and falls into a big pot of caramel. It is not a cheese factory but a stroopwafelfactory. Euromausie helps her friend to come out the kettle and tastes the caramel. She loves the sweetness of the caramel, this is even better than cheese. They see the people at the factory making cookies of it. They put the caramal bet-ween two cookies. At the end the mice eats a lot of cookies and ask if they could bring some for their friends at Europa Park. With a satisfied feeling they leave the facto-ry, while the sun is going down. And than they see the big block of cheese again. Euromaus jumpes on the cheese and starts to nibble at the same point he stopped. With his mouthful of cheese, he is looking around. Euromausie is gone. But when he lookes through a hole, he sees Euromausie nibbling on a giant stroopwafel. They are smiling to each other, both so happy with their cheese and stroopwafel. With a suit-case full of experiences they decide to go back to Europapark. With a piece of chee-se and some stroopwafels for their friends.

Story line

The first important goal in this kind of ride is to create primary experience (Snel, 2011): to make visitors able to hear, see, smell, taste and touch the surrounding. But also there is a significant part, which is connected with emotional experience: it would be amazing to make visitors laugh and fulfill them with positive feelings. There is a strong direct observatio-nal vicarios experience as well. Direct observational vicarious experience one can get while being in direct con-tact with another person who has a primary experience. In tnis particu-lar case parents would feel themsel-ves happy and would enjoy the ride, when they see their children smiling and having fun, being entertained by moving decorations, captivating story and cheerful music. So, we want to create a primary ex-perience, to smell, taste and touch. We want to do this with stroopwafel smell and nice Dutch decoration.

5. The RideEuromaus and Euromausie nibbling at a giant block of cheese. There mouths, and cheeks are full with chee-se. Euromaus ate a big hole in the cheese, and mo-ves trough the hole and see the scenery of Holland

First scene: ‘Holland is more than cheese’

And we also want to create an emo-tional experience to make people laugh about the funny Euromaus, and feel connected with sweet Eu-romausie. MeanderingBefore the ride passengers are wai-ting in the waiting line, and see on television screens a short 3D anima-ted movie. In this movie the visitors get a short introduction of the ro-mantic story between Euromaus and Euromausie. Euromaus surprises his girlfriend with a very special gift, a trip to cheese country Holland. The last scene of the movie is the trip of Euromaus and Euromausie to Holland. The movie ends and the ride starts as they crossed the Dutch border.

Experiences

Drafts

Third scene: ‘Skating and flying in Amsterdam’

Second scene: ‘Klutzy Euromaus and the windmill’Euromaus wants to impress his girlfriend, but is stock on the blade of the mill. He is spinning really fast on the windmill, while the passengers float further underneath the windmill while avoiding the blades of the mill.

The miller said that they have to discover Amsterdam. The cannels are frozen, so Euromausie is ice-skating. Bicycles are ringing their bells and people on it are waving to the passengers in the boats. Euromaus is hanging on a string at the top of a roof, he is going up and down. He tried to help moving, but be-came stuck in the string. The passengers can see different small scene’s behind the windows, because the curtains are open. There is painter, paining a big

picture, and maybe some cheeky woman, with a red light on her.

Third scene: ‘Skating and flying in Amsterdam’

Fourth scene: ‘Stroopwafel factory’Euromaus and Euromausie are hungry and sneaked in to a stroopwafelfac-tory. They thought is was a cheese factory, but they love the sweet smell of caramel. Euromaus falls in to a big kettle of caramel. Euromausie makes friends with the bakers and help them with putting the caramel between the cookies. In the factory, the boat is flowing between to parts of the fac-tory, and the caramel is shooting to other side and comes on the cookies. In the factory there is a lot of caramel in kettles, with the nice sweet smell of stroopwafels.

Fifth scene: ‘Cheese or Stroopwafel’At the last scene we see Euromaus eating the same big cheese cube from the start. Euromausie is now eating a giant stroopwa-fel. One loves cheese more, but Euromausie loves the stroopwafel even more. Sixth scene: Photo booth and Stroopwa-fel-standAt the end, by leaving the boat there is a small shop, wich sells dutch stroopwafels, big fresh ones and pre-packed, so people can eat them at home. There are also Euro-maus & Euromausie merchandise available. Next to the shop is a Volendam-photobooth, with the typical Dutch clothing, where peop-le can stuck their head in and make a pho-to. Euromaus & Euromausie are also on the picture

6. ThankA personal thank you to our lecturers San-ne Knitel & dr. Pieter Cornelis. For their endless support and input. But also Henk Groenen, who made this fantastic assign-ment possible. Creating a whole new ride, including experience. Justified with the sto-ry. Together as a group, we created the “Gatenkaas”. A complete Dutch experien-ce, in just 7 minutes and 30 seconds. We think that we’ve created a ride that fits into the Dutch area, and is realizable. We didn’t take a look at the financial part, but we think that our concept is affordable.

We hope that we’ve made you, after reading our concept book, just as enthusias-tic for our concept as we are.