General info
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Park
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Category
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Type
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Opened
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Closed
Description
This was the original Piraten in Batavia, located at the Netherlands section of the park. It took riders to the Dutch East Indies and its capital Batavia (the current Jakarta), where Dutch pirates would attack and plunder, causing the inhabitants to flee and start their loves again peacefully in the jungle. Inside the ride, around the final scene, the restaurant Bamboe Baai was located.
"Piraten in Batavia" is Dutch for ''Pirates in Batavia''.
History
When Piraten in Batavia opened it was the largest dark ride of Europa-Park. It was the brainchild of film-architect Ulrich Damrau and loosely based on Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean rides, but with an Indonesian theme.
While the ride was primarily designed by Damrau, the Heimotion company (at the time Heimo) provided some additional design work and manufactured some of the props and animatronics. Hofmann Figuren manufactured additional animatronics.
Piraten in Batavia was subject to frequent changes. Some examples include during 1989, when the audio equipment was upgraded from analogue to digital. In 2001, the soundtrack was replaced and in 2004 a water projection of a dragon was added to the battle scene. 2005 saw the addition of an upgraded audio system that made it possible for the characters to switch between multiple conversations. An animatronic with a projected face, a creation by Calren, was added before the drop in 2006. Additional projections by Calren were added that same year.
For the 2008 season, the final scene of the jungle was replaced with the Bamboe Baai restaurant. The original boats were also re-decorated. 2011 saw the addition of animatronic Keith in the station, who warned guests not to sail to Batavia. He was created by Calren and Günter Engelhardt. In 2017, minor edits were made to the decor, like the addition of the magical dagger the Fire Tiger, to incorporate the ride into the Adventure Club of Europe backstory introduced with Voletarium.
Piraten in Batavia burned down in a fire on 26 May 2018 along with a large portion of the Scandinavian area. It was quickly decided to build a new Piraten in Batavia, which ended up paying tribute to the original in many ways. In addition, an artwork at the Norwegische Stabkirche (Norwegian Stave Church) in the park is dedicated to the original ride.
Statistics
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Building costDM15,000,000
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Ride duration7 minutes
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Capacity2000 p/h
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Number of vehicles22 vehicles
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Seats (per vehicle/theatre)16 seats
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Ride length400 m
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Maximum height5 m