Myself, Dave & Dan (Danza91) took a trip over to Phantasialand for the Bank Holiday Weekend. Myself and Dave setting off on the Thursday afternoon and driving down to Welwyn Garden City, Stopping in the Premier Inn and enjoying a beverage or two at the delightful establishments the town has to offer.
On the Friday afternoon we were flying out to Cologne from Stansted Airport. Alas, with Dan travelling by train, all was not well with a raft of cancellations, so a trip over to Hatfield where I were to pick him up from after he endured a bus ride from St Albans.
With parking at Stansted Airport costing slightly more than 2 arms and 2 legs, I had chosen the option of paying to park in some ones driveway in Stansted Mountfitchet costing just £16 for 4 days. Outbound to Airport was via bus as we had just missed the train, hopefully will get over that.
Stansted was fine, no issues getting through security. Our flight was with the ever delightful Ryanair. Unusually, despite being split up and random seat allocation, we had decent seats, with Dave on Row 1, Dan an Aisle seat in row 8 and I had Window seat on Row 17, which I only realised was the emergency exit row just before I got on the plane. No issues with the flight, all on time, plenty of leg room
. Immigration in Cologne was also fine and through with in about 10 minutes, unlike the hour+ at Basel just before New Year. Also a quick chat about Phantasialand too.
Short train journey in to Cologne, and our 1st nights stay at the Steigenberger Hotel near Cologne South station. Very nice hotel, room was huge. Followed by an evening in Cologne, with evening meal a Pizza. Sadly The Bird Cologne is no more... Followed by a trip gravitating towards the drinking establishments where some beers were consumed.
After a delightful nights sleep, next morning it was time to head off for Phantasialand for the next two days, with our accommodation being Hotel Matamba for both nights. After a quick stop for coffee, took the train to Bruhl then the Phantasialand bus to the park, arriving shortly after 9:15. Hotel check in was pretty quick, and our room was also ready for us, even better we had a park view.
Once the bags were dumped, time to get on to park. Probably no major rush, after all, though the park opens at 9, most rides don't open until 10. Closing time on Saturday was 18:00. Arriving on park for around 9:45, Decided to queue and wait for the Rookburgh area to open, which it did, bang at 10AM. Queued for F.L.Y, waited around 20 minutes. Again, this area is fantastic, very well themed and feels very immersive. I do find F.L.Y a bit uncomfortable on the chest you tend to be pushed in to the restraints during the ride, but overall still think it is a very solid addition to the park.
Generally during the day operations on park were pretty good. Was a fairly busy day, and at times did feel a bit crowded, but no queues seem to go above 40 minutes. And for once these seemed accurate rather than the 'think of a number and stick it on the queue time board'. Some of the food and drink stalls seemed pretty busy too, but waits for them were not overly long for the ones we used during the day.
Was also great to see Single Rider back on Taron. Managed a few rides on this during the day thanks to this, with little to no waits, compared to a normal queue of around 40 minutes. Will say that Taron has gone up in my rankings since last year. It was really flying around the track, loads of ejector airtime no matter where you were sat. Colorado Adventure was on top form as always. Even Black Mamba impressed me this time round too (Though the ops were better than normal, still pretty slow for a B&M invert.
Lunch today was in Rutmor's Taverne. Service was quick, and food + 1L beer were great as always.
had a go of the Adventure Trail, which whilst quite good fun, took an age to get round as so many people were in there at once.
With the clock ticking, Had a final ride on F.L.Y, joining the queue at around 17:55, waiting around 20 minutes. After this, had a quick scout round for food, sadly most placing were closed but managed to grab the last Bratwurst from one outlet.
The evening was spent in Li River. Oddly, Dragon Bar was closed. Not seen this open since 2017/18. Can't remember the exact .year but its been a long time.. Again, like last year, they seem stupidly short staffed. We were sat by the bar so got served pretty quickly, but there were plenty of groups arriving, sitting down and then getting up and leaving 20 minutes later as they still hadn't even had their orders taken. Staff were pretty friendly in here, just stupidly short staffed.
Next morning after a decent stuffing of breakfast, back on park for day two. Park close at 19:00 today. From the off, seemed much busier than the Saturday. Was expecting bedlam, but it didn't turn out too bad in the end. Again, queues maxing out around 40-50 minutes tops. SRQ on Taron being a firm favourite of the day along with the beer of course. Operations again seemed pretty good, though gave Black Mamba a miss, as even though the queue was stated as being 10 minutes, was all the way back to the entrance.
Managed last train of the day on F.L.Y. Dave and Dan bagging front row.
Evening meal was the Buffet at Zambesi. Again like last August at the Ling Bao buffet, feel that the selection is much less than previous years. Still very nice though. Drinks following were in Matamba Bar. Here service was pretty below par. Only ended up having one drink as we were made to feel unwelcome and shouldn't be there as they would rather go home. Bare in mind this was not even 11pm and bar closing time was supposed to me Midnight.
Travelling home Monday morning. Quite a few cancellations with trains meant leaving slightly earlier than planned. Our flight home, again with Ryanair, but all middle seats this time, but we had a nice 737 MAX to enjoy at least, and we made it back in one piece.. Passport control was navigated within 5 minutes and were on the train for the 1 stop along the line to collect the car.
Overall. Very positive park wise. Think now that I prefer Klugheim as my favourite area of the park, over Rookburg. Just feels much more immersive and lively, not forgetting of course can sit outside and enjoy a beer or 2 or 3......
Good to see that queue lines were closing just before park close on the Saturday, though Sunday was around 10-15 minutes before.
SRQ back on Taron. Longest we waited was around 5 minutes tops. Can't complain at that.
Operations were pretty decent, and all the coasters on top form. Got full Mystery Castle experience too, rather than the shortened version. The suggestion of waiting until after 3pm seems to of paid off.
Only negative park wise would be opening park at 9 but rides don't open until 10, means when rides do open, they can easily rack up a 40 minute+ queue straight way.
Resort wise, whilst hotels themselves are fine, with staff generally friendly overall, the bars seem understaffed still. We all commented on how little there seemed to do in the evening, especially on the Saturday with 6pm ride close and no evening meal planned. The bars do seem to lack atmosphere somewhat. Also on Sunday it was seemed that the staff pretty much didn't want anyone in the bar late on, even the menus were collected up from the tables pretty early. Drinks were brought over and plonked on the table with little interaction. It was commented by Dan that the staffs interactions on Sunday night seemed rather passive aggressive. Given the money you need to pay out to stay on resort now, I expect a lot more than that.
No doubt will be back at some point in the not to distant future. Park wise, Fantatsic A+, good effort, keep it up: Resort wise, C-, needs big improvements.
On the Friday afternoon we were flying out to Cologne from Stansted Airport. Alas, with Dan travelling by train, all was not well with a raft of cancellations, so a trip over to Hatfield where I were to pick him up from after he endured a bus ride from St Albans.
With parking at Stansted Airport costing slightly more than 2 arms and 2 legs, I had chosen the option of paying to park in some ones driveway in Stansted Mountfitchet costing just £16 for 4 days. Outbound to Airport was via bus as we had just missed the train, hopefully will get over that.
Stansted was fine, no issues getting through security. Our flight was with the ever delightful Ryanair. Unusually, despite being split up and random seat allocation, we had decent seats, with Dave on Row 1, Dan an Aisle seat in row 8 and I had Window seat on Row 17, which I only realised was the emergency exit row just before I got on the plane. No issues with the flight, all on time, plenty of leg room
. Immigration in Cologne was also fine and through with in about 10 minutes, unlike the hour+ at Basel just before New Year. Also a quick chat about Phantasialand too.Short train journey in to Cologne, and our 1st nights stay at the Steigenberger Hotel near Cologne South station. Very nice hotel, room was huge. Followed by an evening in Cologne, with evening meal a Pizza. Sadly The Bird Cologne is no more..
. Followed by a trip gravitating towards the drinking establishments where some beers were consumed.After a delightful nights sleep, next morning it was time to head off for Phantasialand for the next two days, with our accommodation being Hotel Matamba for both nights. After a quick stop for coffee, took the train to Bruhl then the Phantasialand bus to the park, arriving shortly after 9:15. Hotel check in was pretty quick, and our room was also ready for us, even better we had a park view.
Once the bags were dumped, time to get on to park. Probably no major rush, after all, though the park opens at 9, most rides don't open until 10. Closing time on Saturday was 18:00. Arriving on park for around 9:45, Decided to queue and wait for the Rookburgh area to open, which it did, bang at 10AM. Queued for F.L.Y, waited around 20 minutes. Again, this area is fantastic, very well themed and feels very immersive. I do find F.L.Y a bit uncomfortable on the chest you tend to be pushed in to the restraints during the ride, but overall still think it is a very solid addition to the park.
Generally during the day operations on park were pretty good. Was a fairly busy day, and at times did feel a bit crowded, but no queues seem to go above 40 minutes. And for once these seemed accurate rather than the 'think of a number and stick it on the queue time board'
. Some of the food and drink stalls seemed pretty busy too, but waits for them were not overly long for the ones we used during the day.Was also great to see Single Rider back on Taron. Managed a few rides on this during the day thanks to this, with little to no waits, compared to a normal queue of around 40 minutes. Will say that Taron has gone up in my rankings since last year. It was really flying around the track, loads of ejector airtime no matter where you were sat. Colorado Adventure was on top form as always. Even Black Mamba impressed me this time round too (Though the ops were better than normal, still pretty slow for a B&M invert.
Lunch today was in Rutmor's Taverne. Service was quick, and food + 1L beer were great as always.
had a go of the Adventure Trail, which whilst quite good fun, took an age to get round as so many people were in there at once.
With the clock ticking, Had a final ride on F.L.Y, joining the queue at around 17:55, waiting around 20 minutes. After this, had a quick scout round for food, sadly most placing were closed but managed to grab the last Bratwurst from one outlet.
The evening was spent in Li River. Oddly, Dragon Bar was closed. Not seen this open since 2017/18. Can't remember the exact .year but its been a long time.
. Again, like last year, they seem stupidly short staffed. We were sat by the bar so got served pretty quickly, but there were plenty of groups arriving, sitting down and then getting up and leaving 20 minutes later as they still hadn't even had their orders taken. Staff were pretty friendly in here, just stupidly short staffed.Next morning after a decent stuffing of breakfast, back on park for day two. Park close at 19:00 today. From the off, seemed much busier than the Saturday. Was expecting bedlam, but it didn't turn out too bad in the end. Again, queues maxing out around 40-50 minutes tops. SRQ on Taron being a firm favourite of the day along with the beer of course. Operations again seemed pretty good, though gave Black Mamba a miss, as even though the queue was stated as being 10 minutes, was all the way back to the entrance.
Managed last train of the day on F.L.Y. Dave and Dan bagging front row.
Evening meal was the Buffet at Zambesi. Again like last August at the Ling Bao buffet, feel that the selection is much less than previous years. Still very nice though. Drinks following were in Matamba Bar. Here service was pretty below par. Only ended up having one drink as we were made to feel unwelcome and shouldn't be there as they would rather go home. Bare in mind this was not even 11pm and bar closing time was supposed to me Midnight.
Travelling home Monday morning. Quite a few cancellations with trains meant leaving slightly earlier than planned. Our flight home, again with Ryanair, but all middle seats this time, but we had a nice 737 MAX to enjoy at least, and we made it back in one piece.
. Passport control was navigated within 5 minutes and were on the train for the 1 stop along the line to collect the car.Overall. Very positive park wise. Think now that I prefer Klugheim as my favourite area of the park, over Rookburg. Just feels much more immersive and lively, not forgetting of course can sit outside and enjoy a beer or 2 or 3......
Good to see that queue lines were closing just before park close on the Saturday, though Sunday was around 10-15 minutes before.
SRQ back on Taron. Longest we waited was around 5 minutes tops. Can't complain at that.
Operations were pretty decent, and all the coasters on top form. Got full Mystery Castle experience too, rather than the shortened version. The suggestion of waiting until after 3pm seems to of paid off.
Only negative park wise would be opening park at 9 but rides don't open until 10, means when rides do open, they can easily rack up a 40 minute+ queue straight way.
Resort wise, whilst hotels themselves are fine, with staff generally friendly overall, the bars seem understaffed still. We all commented on how little there seemed to do in the evening, especially on the Saturday with 6pm ride close and no evening meal planned. The bars do seem to lack atmosphere somewhat. Also on Sunday it was seemed that the staff pretty much didn't want anyone in the bar late on, even the menus were collected up from the tables pretty early. Drinks were brought over and plonked on the table with little interaction. It was commented by Dan that the staffs interactions on Sunday night seemed rather passive aggressive. Given the money you need to pay out to stay on resort now, I expect a lot more than that.
No doubt will be back at some point in the not to distant future. Park wise, Fantatsic A+, good effort, keep it up: Resort wise, C-, needs big improvements.
