Can you look at this train schedule please?

You are concerned about transfers, which is understandable. In your shoes, (and with the understanding that fewer transfers with bags is better than more transfers!) I'd break up the trip looking for journeys as follows at the sites you are using. Only the Paris > Strasbourg leg will need to be pre-purchased.

Aug 3:
1) Paris > Strasbourg (direct, pre-purchase tickets)
2) 1 Transfer to local train for Strasbourg > Offenburg (Special day ticket, "Europass 24h Family"... 16.60 for all of you, no pre-purchase... just buy at Strasbourg station.)

https://www.ortenaulinie.de/,Lde/startseite/fahrkarten/europass.html (choose "en" for English.)

Spend the night in Offenburg.

Aug 4:

With your bags in Offenburg, you can now travel to Europapark without them.

Train to Ringsheim + bus to the park as previously planned This trip takes 30-35 minutes (8:36 - 9:07 for example.) You can travel round trip from and back to Offenburg on a day pass called the "Baden-Württemberg ticket" if traveling after 9 am, OR at any hour on two one-way tickets (BW-Einfach fare.) Buy these using the DB app or buy at the station; both train and bus are covered with either option. Either way, your round trip fare will be somewhere around €40, depending on the ages of kids (under 15 travel free with parents.)

Spend the night in Offenburg again.

Offenburg is a rail hub town with the basic services travelers need and and a nice enough place for overnight.

Thanks for the reply Russ. We do have accommodations and park tickets booked already on site at Europa Park so stopping over in Offenburg won't be an option. For the family day ticket you linked, is that valid for our travel from Strasbourg all the way to Europa Park, including regional trains and local bus we'll need? I saw a pass on the dbregiobus website but I didn't realize it is valid for the trains as well? That would be a great deal if that is the case.

ETA: I'm not seeing the option for the 24 hour Europass anywhere in the DB Navigator app. I'm looking at routes from Strasbourg to Ringsheim/Europa Park and have also checked Strasbourg to Rust and I don't see it in any of the offers. I've checked for tomorrow (since it has to be purchased 24 hours in advance) as well as a few other dates. What am I missing?

Trainline should show the same trains as Bahn, and the train you assume to be "Grand Vitesse" is the TGV. That is what the G and V in TGV stand for :-)

But if Trainline is cheaper (maybe because they dip in the SNCF fare buckets and not the Bahn fare buckets) by all means buy it there. Transferring in 4 minutes is perfectly feasible. But if you miss your connection you just get on the next one...

"I'm not seeing the option for the 24 hour Europass anywhere in the DB Navigator app."

No worries.

This pass is offered by TGO, the local transport authority in Germany, and by CTS, the local authority in Strasbourg that cooperates with TGO on this special ticket.... and sometimes these local options do not show up on the DB app. This ticket does NOT need to be purchased 24 hours in advance; it is valid for 24 hours beginning at the time of purchase and can be bought at the last minute in Strasbourg (or in one of the TGO towns in Germany, like Offenburg, for anyone going the other direction.)

Here is the CTS site which offers the Europass on the Strasbourg end of this cross-border journey...
https://www.cts-strasbourg.eu/en/buy/our-tickets/occasional-tickets/europass-mini-24h/

TGO/CTS tickets will not cover you all the way to Ringsheim, which lies outside the TGO zone. So, with a pre-purchased ticket for Paris > Strasbourg, you would add on as follows:

• TGO 24 h Europass Family "MINI" (€12.80) - covers Strasbourg > Kehl (border town in Germany) on any regional train.

• Then either the a) BW Einfach ticket (one way to Ringsheim) or the b) Baden-Württemberg ticket for the Kehl > Ringsheim > Europapark segment by train + bus.

With a) you must buy the ticket from Kehl all the way to Europapark in order to include the final bus trip from Ringsheim.
With b) every inch of your travel from Kehl onward is covered.

When you travel Strasbourg > Ringsheim on the first ticket, the train will travel to Kehl and continue after a stop there to Offenburg (where you change.) Your Europass ticket ends in Kehl, but you stay on the train in Kehl - which means that in order to have a valid ticket for the Kehl > Offenburg segment, you will need to have purchased the 2nd add-on ticket from DB on your phone and have it available for viewing prior to the train's departure from Kehl.

I am not checking all the possible fares from Paris to Europapark at all the different sites for you, which I think you have already done... I'm just informing you of these relatively cheap add-on tickets that can be used for the regional trains and buses you will need from Strasbourg onward.

Hope I hit all your concerns here. If not, re-post!

just a little more about the name of the train from Paris.

It is the high speed train in France - the name describes what it does. TGV is "Train à Grande Vitesse" in French, it literally means Train of High Speed. The speed is indeed high - up to 320 km/h.

Thanks for the clarification on the TGV. Seat61 describes it as a 'budget airline' for trains. I know we pay extra for larger luggage and seats, but even adding those in, it's still less than half the cost of the other high speed trains. How come the budget trains aren't more popular? Or, maybe they are, what do I know.

Russ - Well I am quite thoroughly confused on the Europass for families so I may just save myself and pay the 30 extra euros to buy the tickets on DB. The journey from Strasbourg to Europa Park is only about 57 euros for the 5 of us so although the Europass is cheaper, my head is already swimming on all these trains and connections. I considered renting a car, but this is only one stop for us amongst many this summer and crossing borders with a rental car seems quite complicated and pricy from what I've read. Thanks for the help!

The journey from Strasbourg to Europa Park is only about 57 euros for
the 5 of us so although the Europass is cheaper, my head is already
swimming on all these trains and connections.

The trains/connections are the same, whichever way you do the ticketing. It's unfortunate that your accommodations are forcing that many changes, but it is what it is.

I haven't checked prices for Paris > Strasbourg vs. Paris > Ringsheim or Rust, so if there's only a minor difference in total price, then by all means, go with the simpler ticketing option.

TGV. Seat61 describes it as a 'budget airline' for trains

Oh. That is “Ouigo Grand Vitesse” whichis indeed just SNCF’s way of reminding us how much they hate humanity.

It’s all the disadvantages of airline travel combined with the disadvantages of rail travel…

now we deal with the two similarly named but quite different high speed products - OuiGo and InOui.

OuiGo is Ryan Air of French TGVs. Sort of bargain basement and charge for everything. They use older stock, with uncomfortable seating - although on such a short trip as Paris to Strasbourg you should survive well - and rules like check in with a person 30 minutes before the train, minimal free luggage, pay more for more luggage, dodgy food, and are generally trying hard to make you feel like you're earning that cheap fare.

InOui is the traditional sleek TGV service - reasonably comfortable, quiet, great windows upstairs, easy luggage stash areas, bar cars - all in all a pleasant journey. I am very happy to spend much of a bay on these going from Paris gare de Lyon to Nice. One of my fav trips. Gotta be up early though, leaves Paris just after 7. the way I do it...

A follow up question on the family europass - it says it covers 2 adults and 2 children, what happens to my 3rd child? Kids ages are 11, 8 and 6.

ETA thanks for the feedback on the trains. We've booked the TGV Inouigo for another leg of our trip and even if it's bare bones, as long as it gets us from one place to another, we don't mind. Even buying the higher cost fare that includes extra luggage and let me pick our seats, it was a fraction of the cost of the fancier TGV and it's only a 1 hour train ride. I can see the distaste if it was a longer ride or if we were locals using trains often, but we're on a family budget traveling 6 weeks all over Europe so we're cutting costs when we can :) It's likely still fancier than my minivan and I drive that every day, ha.

"...it says it covers 2 adults and 2 children, what happens to my 3rd child? Kids ages are 11, 8 and 6.

The FAQ at the page I provided says this:
"...two children (or all of their own) under the age of 15..."

The German version says the same thing.

So if they are your own, and your kids are all under 15, I don't see a problem.

But last I heard, you were going with one ticket all the way to the Europapark area, in which case you don't need the Europass.

Thanks Russ. I looked into it deeper and I do understand it now. I see the fare zones on the TGO and CTS and the Europass mini won't cover our full trip, but the Europass Full family does. It starts in Strasbourg then connects to Offenburg, then Ringsheim and, finally, the little line for the bus to Rust is also there. I wanted to be sure I could buy the 24-hour family pass in strasburg and it is listed on that website for two adults, two kids for 16.50 euros. On the Zone map on CTS, all zones are checked off as included in the 24hr family pass. Am I reading this right?

https://www.cts-strasbourg.eu/en/buy/our-tickets/occasional-tickets/europass-24h/
This link, the family pass

"I see the fare zones on the TGO and CTS and the Europass mini won't cover our full trip"

Correct. The Mini covers only Strasbourg > Kehl (border.)

", but the Europass Full family does."

I double-checked this just now using the TGO transport line map - and YOU ARE CORRECT. The TGO site refers to this pass as the EUROPASS-Family 24h (the word "full" does not appear) priced at €16.60.

That's a very generous ticket indeed. I was previously under the mistaken impression that Rust was outside the TGO.

I assume, since you are looking at this pass, that you've identified a Paris > Strasbourg journey for a very good price.

The CTS page also clarifies that the pass is available in Strasbourg at SNCF and at CTS ticket machines.

The TGO page says the pass is available using the DB Navigator app as well.

Be sure to board only a regional train from Offenburg. ICE, IC, EC are taboo.

Yes that's what I'm seeing as well. Thanks for tipping me off to the pass, I don't think I'd have come across it otherwise!

Yes I found a route from Paris Est to Strasbourg in 1hr:45m for €120 that includes luggage and assigned seats, plus the €16.60 for the 24hr Family Europass, so all in: €136.60 to get from Paris to Europa Park for 2 adults and 3 kids, in about 4 hours - not too shabby! Thanks to everyone for helping guide me through this leg of our journey.

OK, best wishes for a fun time.