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Phantasialand 2014: Chiapas

Re: Phantasialand

A worthy repost from me to start us off and set the scene:

I was absolutely devastated when I visited the park in April this year, and I mean gutted :(.

The atmosphere has all but disipated in the heart of the park.

The Arena is (from memory) the building opposite Talocan which houses the Ice Show, as far as I believe?? I managed to see a show in there last year and it was pretty grotty .
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The blue & white building to the left.

The 'windows' you see boarded up on the above photos are actually architectured holes in that very wall - it is the newly constructed walkway from the entrance plaza through to Colorado Adventure - and yes I mean literally THROUGH Colorado Adventure!

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The walkway above also now leads down through the Wild West area (what remains) through to Mystery Castle & River Quest, via a dirt bank and staircase/ramp. Looks very temporary!

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As you can see from the photos in the above post, and this... its a sorry sight I won't be returning until the park has finished whatever grand redevelopment plan they have.

In 2008...
The photos above are in stark contrast to the park I fell in love with during my 2007 & 2008 trips:

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From the same platform as the above pics - with the Phantasialand Bullet still open

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The Arena on the left, where the ice show is held, and in the background all the now demolished themeing.

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Everything in the foreground save for the building on the left has been demolished.

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Pretty unrecognisable!

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This entire area was either closed off or demolished when we went? It definitely wasn't accessible.

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Bottom of the old Main Street, with the Brandenburg gate. Looks absolutely nothing like this now!

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Absolutely nothing remains of this area - it was flattened for the plaza that is at the bottom of the Main Street. An absolute waste of space if you ask me! The double decker carousel now stands at the VERY top of the Main Street, completely blocking your view as you enter the park.

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Some of the lost theming by Wild Wasserbahn.

As you can see - I visited a very different park in April!!
 
Re: Phantasialand

*hopes Joel isn't reading this, as he's about to visit*.

I remember my trip last year to Phantasialand! I had never heard of it before - infact I didn't even know it had Black Mamba! (Damn me not being a proper geek!) - Anyway I remember looking at a few images on the interwebs and thinking 'meh'. How wrong could I have been.

When we arrive it was a beautiful day, clear blue skys - and it was a nice warm day. The park just looked so magical and it stole my heart. Its small footprint just seemed to add to it's charm!

I was so looking forward to going back, then when I returned this year I was devastated. The heart of this park is gone, and it had no magic about it. Even other parts of the park felt slightly unloved too! I just hope they have some major planes for the huge space which is now there. It deserves it.
 
Re: Phantasialand

Wow, it's saddened me to see those pictures Saz.

I first visited Phantasialand in 2008 and again in 2011. Upon my third visit, earlier this year, I was left with such a feeling of emptiness. Currently the main area of the park seems ruined, I hope they get a move on with construction.

I'm sure that I'll love whatever they come up with, but at the moment I'm longing for the past structures/theming/rides to return.
 
Re: Phantasialand

I actually felt like I was being stupid at first, I said to myself 'it's only one bit of the park that's missing'. But when you have a park so small with such an intimate layout where areas overlap each other and merge into each other so much, it has a major knock on effect.

On the flip side, the work around the main entrance area of the park is amazing, and I love the new ship, is a much bigger brighter addition!
 
Re: Phantasialand

Is that the new attraction which is going where the former goft shop etc was?
 
Re: Phantasialand

Interesting seeing those pictures, I had only visited after that area was removed! Still loved the place though :p

Speaking of which, I thought I'd post my TR from earlier in the year to save it from "The other place" :), seems I had a better impression!

I'd heard all the reviews, seen all the pictures and eventually saw it for myself yesterday. I also want to point out there will be spoiler throughout.

With sky-high expectations I was amazed to find that they still blown out of the water, the place is quite frankly unbelievable. The only problem is that it highlighted just how lacking in quality Alton/Thorpe/Chessington and other UK attractions really are.

We arrived about quarter to 10, with the park having opened at 9 and headed to where else but Black Mamba. "Best Coaster in Europe" and other similar claims surround this ride, and I was glad to hear I wouldn't be disappointed. Unbelievably, for me, it topped Nemesis, something I never thought would happen. (This may be down to my last ride on Nemesis being poor by it's standards, but we'll see) The theming, the layout, the forcefulness, everything was perfection and I loved it. The station was also immense, with it blacking out apart from a few green lights upon dispatch, combined with a brilliant dispatch theme.
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From here I struggle to remember where we went, our longest queue was for Black Mamba at first of 10 minutes, other than that, everything was a walk on all day.

Feng Ju Palace

Some rides seemed to suffer from being in a different language, this was one of them. Whilst the ride building was awe-inspiring, the ride and pre-show itself seemed poor. Not a patch on Hex (when everything is working)
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Winjas Fear and Force

As someone who loves Fury and Spinball I was extremely excited about these two, like most rides at Phantasialand they had great reviews.
Firstly I'd like to point out that even without the cars automatically moving through the station, dispatches were much MUCH faster than both of our UK examples.

Anyway on to the ride, whilst I knew there were track effects I'd managed to prevent finding out what they were. Therefore my first ride the lift, and tilt took me by huge surprise. From there cars span, twisted like you wouldn't believe. Absolutely no braking through any of the block sections (unlike S/F) and was glass smooth (unlike S/F)

Then came the track effects. Fear was my definite favourite of the two, and had a "see-saw" effect taking me by surprise. And Force had a strange track effect where the whole thing fell to one side!

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Maus Au Chocolat

As someone who didn't care for Toy Story Midway Mania, I wasn't particularly excited about this ride, and sadly, whilst it was "good" I just don't like the idea behind these rides. I think they are such cop outs when it comes to shooting rides and was actually bored by the end of it. It was better than TSMM, and the queue theming was beyond belief.

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Wellenflug
This wave swinger at the centre of the park was an incredible centrepiece, with the genius idea of adding fountains which followed the oscillation of the seats. Also showed how poorly run Twirling Toadstool is.

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Temple of the Nighthawk
This ride disappointed me as I thought of the potential of what Phantasialand could do with a ride of this magnitude. Apparently the longest roller coaster in the dark in the world, nothing ever really happens due to the fact it's pitch black the whole way. A shame as there were a couple of forceful sections. Even if it was outside it would be improved.

River Quest
Surprise Surprise, had heard incredible things and it lived up. Luckily we didn't get too wet which was good as despite the sun, it was freezing. Wasn't going to miss out on it though! Brilliant theming topped up with an outstanding ride system. The drops were huge!

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Talocan
I love Ripsaw, and was therefore itching to give this a go. Whilst the newer Huss restraints are an improvement, they are not exactly the most comfortable. Anyway the ride itself was very long, forceful and again themed within an inch of it's life with an explosion of fire after every inversion. One negative, if your facing away from the front, the ride experience is slightly reduced. Much like the ones in our parks, an awesome spectator attraction.
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Sieber Mine/Hollywood Tour/ Geister Ricke (Haunted Mansion)
Nice dark ride filler attractions, A nice break of chilling with various scenes directly taken from Disney rides. The sheer quantity of animatronics was truly staggering, the same with all of the older dark rides.

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Mystery Castle

Mindblowing.

I was expecting a bit of a "bounce"

What resulted was actually a vertical launch that felt a similar force to Rita, before various drops and other launches. Unbelievably good and the queue was astonishing.

One of my all time favourite rides

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And saving the best till last...

COLORADO ADVENTURE
Those who I talk to know my love for BTM at DLP, for many reasons. It therefore goes to say that Colorado Adventure blew even that out of the water.

I love mine trains, it's a family thing and this was seriously top notch. Seemed the last an age and was actually extremely thrilling with huge drops, in the back there were various pops of airtime! (I managed to complete the hands up challenge in the back :p ) Words don't describe or convey how good the ride is, never laughed or enjoyed a ride so much. It's just a shame some of the theming had been taken out because of the destruction of the log flumes.

What. A. Ride.

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That about wraps up the park ride wise, although I've probably forgotten a few.


On to other aspects, the place was just amazing. No fake "fronts" to buildings or cheap replacements or rusting coasters or failing effects or litter or breakdowns, I could go on and on. The park is impeccable in every way.

How places such as Alton can't keep standards to even half the level of Phantasialand is beyond me.

There were at least half a dozen shows on throughout the day, we only saw one in the end but would have loved to see more. "Jump" was a new stunt spectacular, and really was awesome and beyond anything I'm used to or expected at a theme park! Makes me even more excited for Europa Park in the summer!
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I don't really know what else to say as nothing I say explains just how great a day we had. Would put it up there with my favourite days at a park.

Other notes
- World class theming
- Group of Chinese walking round China etc, lots of incredible little touches
- People in costume everywhere
- Awesome theming
- Park seemed packed with people but walk on queue's!
- Incredible staff all more than happy to talk in English and find out what we thought, one specifically came over to me after my first ride on Mamba to ask my thoughts
- Some of the best theming I've seen
- One breakdown on Winjas Force which lasted about, 5 minutes?
- A perfectly sized park with a huge number of rides, but small enough where rides are near each other
- Unbelievable theming :p
- Most rides being on full capacity, and even those not still were walk on.
- Annoyingly, the only people to cause any annoyance all day, was a group of Irish people, shouting out very rude remarks throughout very dark rides. They made it quite embarrassing to be British to be honest as apart from that everyone was just happy and enjoyed there day.
- Also I found it very nice that by paying for one day of entry, you got a second day later in the season for free, a nice gesture.

Overall, Colorado Adventure and Black Mamba are now two of my favourite coasters, Mystery Castle is my favourite dark ride.

(Just a note, Mystery Castle is essentially what I was expecting Sub Terra to be, albeit a LOT smaller. Quite scary with a build up and then a small shooting/dropping dark ride, why it couldn't have been along those lines I don't know :( )

Total ride count (approximately)

1x Talocan
3 x Mystery Castle
3x Black Mamba
8/9 x Colorado Adventure
1 x River Quest
1x Feng Ju Palace
1 x Sieber Mine
1 x Haunted Mansion
1 x Hollywood Tour
1x Temple of the Nighthawk
1x Wellenflug
1x Maus Au Chocolat
1x Wurmlimg Express
3 x Winjas Fear
2 x Winjas Force
1x Tower ride in the middle of Winjas


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WORLD CLASS
 
Re: Phantasialand

Excellent report James6 - it really captures the magic that the place has! Some great pictures too. I also noticed the cranes which reminds me - do we know what they are actually doing / building?
 
Re: Phantasialand

After this ridiculously massive refurb of that middle section the park might aim to make Night Hawk and Hollywood Tour (which I didn't even know existed when I visited 4 years ago) actually fit into the park?

Apparently they have been trying to expand the amount of space available but having issue with the local council (sounds familiar)... Would be good if they got more room, because the layout is a bit strange at times (or was, maybe they are aiming to simplify it a bit with these area renovations?)...

Also, they still have that Atlantis 3D cinema don't they? There's a lot that park needs to refurb really isn't there? Shame they didn't do that (and Hollywood Tour to make it fit into the Winja's area) rather than removing half the theming off Colorado Adventure and two decent Flumes...

Still, Maus and Hotel look very nice additions, hopefully the next one will be excessively major and just as awesome looking...
 
Re: Phantasialand

Phantasialand woul n't do this massive refurb of the middle section when they wouldn't have a plan. I'm sure it will make the layout of the park easier.

Until now Phantasialand had no success with the expansion of the park :(

There exist plans for the renovation/replacement of the Hollywood Tour and the Silvermine but these have to wait until the replacement of the flume.

When you look at the last additions Phantasialand has added to the park, do you really think the replacement for the flume ride will not look awesome?
 
Re: Phantasialand

What type of ride are we talking about here? Epic as that model is, it's hard to make out details.
 
Re: Phantasialand

I'm confused. I'm very confused. And excited. But confused. Isn't the ride in the model that Diogo is referring to actually Colorado Adventure? I see no new rides on this model...
 
Re: Phantasialand

It appears to be some form of water ride... The second picture shows the final drop and bunny hop the best under the bridge...

Not the best pictures in the world of a ride model though...
 
Re: Phantasialand

OMG INTAMIN AQUATRAX. Ever since 2002 when I started browsing enthusiast websites, I've been waiting with baited breath for the second bloody Intamin Aquatrax! :D

Or it could be Mack, don't mind either way! At least it's clearly not the rumoured Intamin drop coaster à la Th13teen!
 
Re: Phantasialand

Clearly a much needed major water ride of some kind - River Quest cannot cope as the only major 'wet' ride, so this should help with the queues. As expected for PL, the level of theming looks to be absolutely stunning, hopefully they're going with a quality ride system to go with it!

More pics at http://airtimers.com/phantasialand-neuh ... t/0014636/

In other PL news (and thanks to Aveko over on TTF), it seems the park have been given permission for significant expansion, to take place in stages: http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/lok ... .html?&i=1
 
Re: Phantasialand

Wow, all round good news for Phantasialand! It looks like they've finally solved their space problem in a spectacular way - this will clearly more than double the size of the park eventually! :D

The map from the article:

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Current park in orange, new land in pink and green. :)
 
Re: Phantasialand

Just to clarify it's definitely a Water Coaster although the make and manufacture is unsure. We know this because the turn around after the drop is a traditional troth area rather than tracks. I'm hoping that it'll be an Intamin AquaTrax/Divertical hybrid. In other words an AquaTrax style coaster followed by the proper water splash of Divertical. It could though also be a Mack which would also be good.

Also the station appears to be under that recently built raised walkway. In which case this suggests an extensive dark ride (Silbermine replacement?) between the station and the raised ride area.

Great scenery. Also great use of landscaping as that area's on a natural slant anyway. I see it's meant to merge with Black Mamba so It'll be very interesting to see them both together.

Edit: Good find Sam
 
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