Rowe
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Matterhorn Blitz (with an Aperol Spritz!)
Ooh, hello there, friends. It's been a while since I've posted here on the forum. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned theme parks, the forum or meets! I've just been busy/poor/not wanting to visit the Merlin parks/all of the above.
I've been craving a theme park visit (ideally not a British one) for a few months now, thus I'm very happy and grateful to have made Phantasialand my first park visit of this year with Cheese (who already posted a way smaller summary than I did of our trip in the main park topic). The whole trip just rejuvenated little me and my theme park interest so hopefully I'll actually visit more this year. I hadn't been to the park since 2015 so I guess I'm going to ramble out some kind of trip report here.
Phantasialand, much like on previous trips, is absolutely wonderful and a joy to visit. Especially since we made it a midweek trip! Most attractions clocked in under a 10 minute wait, and the longest we queued was 20-30 minutes for Taron, Winjas Force and Chiapas. Wuzeball sadly wasn't operating at all. And since we've never gone to one of the 'Phantastische shows' (no really, they use that on the website) on previous trips, we made time to see Musarteum. Though we never got round to seeing the changes made at Hotel Matamba and Hotel Ling Bao, oh well.
And, as ever, Phantasialand wouldn't be Phantasialand if it didn't have a crane looming along the skyline somewhere constructing the next big thing. It got featured in most of my photos regardless of how much I tried to avoid it in my shots. They may as well list the crane as a seasonal attraction on the maps and website. But anyway, seeing the newly constructed entrance for Rookburgh, the giant poster by Wuze Town and part of the track was exciting to see. It's nice that they've gone for purple rather than grey or black, we need more tastefully coloured coasters in the world.
Moving on, I want to congratulate the crews who worked on Taron, Raik and Klugheim for doing such an excellent job in continuing the high level of theming and immersion. I never visited when the area was formerly Silver City (still gutted I never did Silbermine even if it was boring) so all I ever saw on previous trips was a construction pit and high fencing. Klugheim is overall very impressive and well designed. It felt very 'lived in' what with all the little details and nooks hidden away. Taron was great fun to ride with a fast moving queue and a very photogenic appearance, all very good signs to be honest. I'm not huge on coasters myself but I would consider this one of the better ones I've ridden. Ben 10 Ultimate Mission- I mean, Reik was also fun except I don't remember much about it. We never ate at any food places in Klugheim but I did briefly poke my head into Rutmor's Tavern and thought "oh, that's nice" before leaving.
Continuing with the already established Mystery area, Mystery Castle was running as 'Misery' 2 out of the 3 times we went to ride it. River Quest was more like 'River Regret' when we rode it on Monday, we got very unlucky playing water roulette and laughed at by our fellow riders. Tuesday's weather would've been more suited to it and it did rack up some long queues that day, especially since Chiapas was down for a few hours.
Speaking of, Mexico aka my favourite area was looking beautiful and photogenic as always. Chiapas being a delight that ruthlessly soaked my trainers and Talocan being its usual mad self doing about 5 and a half flips. Colorado Adventure is still truly the wildest ride in the wilderness (it's true, Big Thunder, honestly) with the most uncomfortable 'upholstery' seating. Also, the mango and maracuja ice cream at Las Rocas? Heavenly.
I never have too much to say about the China Town and Africa areas other than they're still looking great and I like the touch ups made in the last few years. I don't recall seeing the colourful flags along the China Town rooftops before, unless I'm being ignorant. Feng Ju Palace was a silly bit of fun per usual and Geister Rikscha was, well, eh per usual. The new rockwork in Africa looks wonderful and I tried to get a few photos of it with the Black Mamba aka Blamba train speeding through. We had lunch at Baobab Snack on Monday, I decided to try the falafel with tzakziki and I definitely recommend it as an alternative to the jambalaya (which is also recommendable).
Meanwhile, the Fantasy area is looking worse for wear. Particularly the grim and dusty interior of Wuze Town. We did see some gardeners replanting by the lake and we're aware Night Hawk did get some TLC but still, the area needs a regeneration project (that'll ideally knock out Hollywood Bore too). We had a nice stroll around the lake past Wakoboto and I tried to get some nice photos along the way.
And finally, we have the main Berlin street which will always be a lovely area to relax in and walk down. We did Maus au Chocolat first on Monday so it was out of the way and yep, my hands? BORED BARNES. We also did Hotel Tartuff later in the day, wherein the maid by the slide passive aggressively called me out on wearing a Europa Park t-shirt and half screamed "Thanks for coming!". For lunch on Tuesday, we went to Unter den Linden which featured a few vegan dishes that intrigued me but I ended up having a small buffet salad. It was overall nice in there with a decent food choice but very quiet around lunch time. I wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't know it was there as the entrance is tucked away on the bridge near Africa and Talocan.
Overall, it was a lovely trip (perhaps one of my favourites) and Phantasialand is still one of my favourite theme parks. I rather wish I spent a bit more time exploring the park and visited the hotels, but ah well. I don't know when I'll next be back but perhaps once Rookburgh has opened and settled in nicely in the near future.
I've been craving a theme park visit (ideally not a British one) for a few months now, thus I'm very happy and grateful to have made Phantasialand my first park visit of this year with Cheese (who already posted a way smaller summary than I did of our trip in the main park topic). The whole trip just rejuvenated little me and my theme park interest so hopefully I'll actually visit more this year. I hadn't been to the park since 2015 so I guess I'm going to ramble out some kind of trip report here.
Phantasialand, much like on previous trips, is absolutely wonderful and a joy to visit. Especially since we made it a midweek trip! Most attractions clocked in under a 10 minute wait, and the longest we queued was 20-30 minutes for Taron, Winjas Force and Chiapas. Wuzeball sadly wasn't operating at all. And since we've never gone to one of the 'Phantastische shows' (no really, they use that on the website) on previous trips, we made time to see Musarteum. Though we never got round to seeing the changes made at Hotel Matamba and Hotel Ling Bao, oh well.
And, as ever, Phantasialand wouldn't be Phantasialand if it didn't have a crane looming along the skyline somewhere constructing the next big thing. It got featured in most of my photos regardless of how much I tried to avoid it in my shots. They may as well list the crane as a seasonal attraction on the maps and website. But anyway, seeing the newly constructed entrance for Rookburgh, the giant poster by Wuze Town and part of the track was exciting to see. It's nice that they've gone for purple rather than grey or black, we need more tastefully coloured coasters in the world.
Moving on, I want to congratulate the crews who worked on Taron, Raik and Klugheim for doing such an excellent job in continuing the high level of theming and immersion. I never visited when the area was formerly Silver City (still gutted I never did Silbermine even if it was boring) so all I ever saw on previous trips was a construction pit and high fencing. Klugheim is overall very impressive and well designed. It felt very 'lived in' what with all the little details and nooks hidden away. Taron was great fun to ride with a fast moving queue and a very photogenic appearance, all very good signs to be honest. I'm not huge on coasters myself but I would consider this one of the better ones I've ridden. Ben 10 Ultimate Mission- I mean, Reik was also fun except I don't remember much about it. We never ate at any food places in Klugheim but I did briefly poke my head into Rutmor's Tavern and thought "oh, that's nice" before leaving.
Continuing with the already established Mystery area, Mystery Castle was running as 'Misery' 2 out of the 3 times we went to ride it. River Quest was more like 'River Regret' when we rode it on Monday, we got very unlucky playing water roulette and laughed at by our fellow riders. Tuesday's weather would've been more suited to it and it did rack up some long queues that day, especially since Chiapas was down for a few hours.
Speaking of, Mexico aka my favourite area was looking beautiful and photogenic as always. Chiapas being a delight that ruthlessly soaked my trainers and Talocan being its usual mad self doing about 5 and a half flips. Colorado Adventure is still truly the wildest ride in the wilderness (it's true, Big Thunder, honestly) with the most uncomfortable 'upholstery' seating. Also, the mango and maracuja ice cream at Las Rocas? Heavenly.
I never have too much to say about the China Town and Africa areas other than they're still looking great and I like the touch ups made in the last few years. I don't recall seeing the colourful flags along the China Town rooftops before, unless I'm being ignorant. Feng Ju Palace was a silly bit of fun per usual and Geister Rikscha was, well, eh per usual. The new rockwork in Africa looks wonderful and I tried to get a few photos of it with the Black Mamba aka Blamba train speeding through. We had lunch at Baobab Snack on Monday, I decided to try the falafel with tzakziki and I definitely recommend it as an alternative to the jambalaya (which is also recommendable).
Meanwhile, the Fantasy area is looking worse for wear. Particularly the grim and dusty interior of Wuze Town. We did see some gardeners replanting by the lake and we're aware Night Hawk did get some TLC but still, the area needs a regeneration project (that'll ideally knock out Hollywood Bore too). We had a nice stroll around the lake past Wakoboto and I tried to get some nice photos along the way.
And finally, we have the main Berlin street which will always be a lovely area to relax in and walk down. We did Maus au Chocolat first on Monday so it was out of the way and yep, my hands? BORED BARNES. We also did Hotel Tartuff later in the day, wherein the maid by the slide passive aggressively called me out on wearing a Europa Park t-shirt and half screamed "Thanks for coming!". For lunch on Tuesday, we went to Unter den Linden which featured a few vegan dishes that intrigued me but I ended up having a small buffet salad. It was overall nice in there with a decent food choice but very quiet around lunch time. I wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't know it was there as the entrance is tucked away on the bridge near Africa and Talocan.
Overall, it was a lovely trip (perhaps one of my favourites) and Phantasialand is still one of my favourite theme parks. I rather wish I spent a bit more time exploring the park and visited the hotels, but ah well. I don't know when I'll next be back but perhaps once Rookburgh has opened and settled in nicely in the near future.
