Ahhh Phantasialand, where to begin. I was fortunate enough to visit this wonderful theme park again on Friday and Saturday just gone, staying at Hotel Ling Bao. It is always good to return to the park where only serious fun is allowed.
Let's start with the good. Thematically the park just keeps getting better and better. The new path in Africa is detailed to the extreme; it really is Disney level of theming at the whole of Africa would not look out of place in Animal Kingdom from a thematics point of view. I love things like the telephones that ring, the radio, some of the older authentic food packaging they have included. And to top all of this off, Black Mamba was running phenomenally well, the best I have known it for many a year. Last year Black Mamba was more Bland Mamba, but it just felt so much more forceful this year.
The updated toilets in Mexico are a delight. Those sinks, wow! The new toilets in Berlin are also very nice. Just a shame all of the hand dryers are a bit rubbish.
F&B remains superb, we once again ate at Rutmor's and the tapas restaurant by Chiapas. But there are so many premium looking food options around the park, whether that be at table service restaurants or takeaway outlets.
Now for some of the bad. I can't help but feel that the transformation of the right side of the park (when standing at the end of the main street) has left Wuze Town feeling somewhat tired. The indoor area especially just feels soulless and there is not a lot going on. I wonder whether this is something they may look at in the coming years? WuzeBall was also closed, but that's hardly a surprise.
Service at the hotel bar in Matamba wasn't great; slow, not enough menus and not enough seating capacity. We also had a meal booked at Bantu, which is the top level restaurant at Phantasialand. The food was delicious but the service very under par. Knives and forks/glasses that weren't needed not taken away from the table, only two menus for three of us when we first sat down, 45 minutes between our starters and our mains, not being asked if we wanted dessert/coffee etc. We ended up speaking to the manager responsible for all of the restaurants and bars in Matamba who was lovely and rolled off various excuses, and she did give us a free drink each at the bar. But overall it was disappointing for what is such a lovely restaurant.
Breakfast at Hotel Ling Bao was also complete and utter chaos!
And finally, time for some concerns. Phantasialand was quiet, very quiet. We knew that the Friday was going to be quiet as it had been all week, queues between walk on and 5 minutes. We then expected the Saturday to pick up a little, maybe queues between 20-30 minutes. However once everything had settled down by around lunch times, queues once again varied between walk on and 5 minutes. Meanwhile almost every other theme park in Europe appeared to be either busy or utterly rammed.
The question is, why is Phantasialand so quiet? Is it because of no passes and high ticket prices, is it a lack of a Halloween event, is FLY not being as popular as anticipated? It's very strange. And probably explains why there does not appear to be another new major development on the immediate horizon.