Phantasialand: General Discussion

[CSLKenny]

Anyone here remember the old Walzertraum boat ride? It was in the Berlin area, and the outdoor section of the 1001 Nacht dark ride ran over head. The Mack Rides boat ride opened 1993 and closed in 2009 to make way for Maus au Chocolat and Kaiserplatz.

One of the old boats was sitting in outside the backstage yard between Wuze Town and Rookburgh for a brief while this morning as stuff was being moved around.
Interestingly this boat was sold to an Imbiss in the town Einruhr, fitted with table in the middle and used for outdoor seating. It would seem the park have recently reacquired it.

 

[CSLKenny]

Was at the park last Thursday, and heard from a few different members of staff that Rookburgh will open in 2019.
They all seem to be under that impression, and considering how much work there still is to do, and how much theming will be going in (the park's creative team have said Rookburgh would surpass Klugheim in terms of detailed and immersive theming), I now think the same to be honest.
I'd say that one corner of the site where track and buildings have started to go up only covers about 30% of the area.
There was a lot of activity on the rest of the site and a lot of concrete foundations + walls work has been done since the last photo I saw of the site 2 weeks ago. No new track to be spotted on the actual construction site yet either.

Also Thursday morning when arriving at the park I saw surveyors working outside the Temple of the Night Hawk building. They were carrying out measurements of some kind.
Found that interesting given the rumours that Temple and Hollywood Tour are next to be removed. However if Rookburgh is opening in 2019 then TotNH and HT won't close until January 2019, rather than January 2018 as had been originally assumed. They live on for another year (at least we know it is almost certainly their last).

 

[Rob]

Thanks for the update. 2019 wouldn't be at all surprising really, we all know how much work goes in to Phantasialand's themed areas and it does seem a push to get it done for 2018. And of course the coaster is a prototype so they know all too well how that might go wrong.

At least if it is 2019 there should be no excuses for it not being ready for the start of the season and not June/July time.

 

[Poisson]

Got bored, overlaid some rides onto the site, seems small tbf

The Smiler

The Swarm

Err The Ultimate??

Phantasia within The Ultimate

 

[Rob]

Klugheim is smaller than The Swarm island area. Klugheim is significantly better than The Swarm island area.

 

[Matt N]

Got bored, overlaid some rides onto the site, seems small tbf

The Smiler

The Swarm

Err The Ultimate??

Phantasia within The Ultimate

How is the Ultimate bigger than the whole of Phantasialand? Or is that just a small part of Phantasialand and I'm being thick?
EDIT: Just me being thick as per usual. Ultimate is 44 acres and Phantasialand is 69 acres.

 

[Danny]

How is the Ultimate bigger than the whole of Phantasialand? Or is that just a small part of Phantasialand and I'm being thick?

The area that The Ultimate encompasses is relatively large due to the length of the ride, so it's not questionable that the majority of PL would be able to fit inside it.

 

[CSLKenny]

Installation of supports and track has begun again, this time for the station. Tobi on PhantaFriends.de reported on Saturday that 6 pieces of the black sideways track for loading the new generation Vekoma flying coaster trains (track as seen below at the Vekoma factory) had been installed.

The track runs parallel alongside Maus au Chocolat, albeit a few meters below as it is in the bottom of the pit (most likely it will be an underground station - like Black Mamba's).

More track has been delivered since including track segments for the break run.

 

[MarcF]

First section of the launch has arrived, will be interesting to see where it will be installed:

Source

 

[CSLKenny]

Update from PhantaFriends.de. New track has been marked on to a Google Maps image from last summer (after Atlantis was demolished but before they started digging on site).

Black = this shows all the black sideways (sitting position) track which has been installed. This track has now been wrapped up/covered up.
Given the length of the station it is speculated that the coaster will have an unload and load section like Taron's station does.

Red = Tobi reports that this red track curve is the final curve from the prototype test set up where the seats return to the sitting position. It seems they are reusing parts of the test set up.


One forum user added drew on a suggested layout for where the train comes down into the turn changes to the sitting position goes along a bit of track, around a corner and into the already installed track (given how it sits separately from the rest it is assumed that this is the break run we have seen being delivered).

Blue = the launch track segments are being stored here at the moment.
Green = more track pieces being stored.

 

[CSLKenny]

Some aerial photographs have surfaced on Instagram of the construction site.

 

[Rob]

Interesting! I can't help but feel that the site for this coaster does look rather small but then you just have to see what they've done with Taron to realise that may not be a problem. However one would assume it is easier to make a launch coaster like Taron compact than it is a flying coaster.

 

[Benzin]

The site looks bigger than Wuze Town!

Plenty of space to play around with the way Phantasialand do it...

 

[CSLKenny]

The site does look small in the pictures but then when you look this map. It is around the same size as Klugheim!

EDIT:
It also shows how much space the demolition of Temple of the Nighthawk and Hollywood Tour would give them. (Hopefully they'll be next!)

The park reopens tomorrow for the Christmas Season. While closed they actually had Universal Rocks come in and renew the rockwork around Black Mamba's Jr Immelmann. Odd that they didn't wait until the main longer off season. Perhaps a sign UR will be busy elsewhere in the park then? Rookburgh? River Quest? Or maybe even Colorado? (which needs new theming more than Mamba in my opinion...)

 

[CSLKenny]

Double post for some speculation!

One user on German forum Freizeitparkcheck.de has pointed out this foundation which apparently is similar to the base of a flying theatre. Could it be a coincidence or is this going to be the second attraction in Rookburgh?

He suggested Vekoma's Panoramic Flight Simulator (However I imagine most Flying Theatre's have a similar base so it could be any manufacture).

https://www.vekoma.com/index.php/specialities-and-attractions/panoramic-flight-simulator

A Flying Theatre would suit the steampunk/flying theme of the area, and it would be a family attraction with a decent throughput (Vekoma's model has a minimum height requirement of 1m and a throughput of 900phh - which is higher than Raik's). Also when Maus au Chocolat opened the park creative team said in an interview they liked the how the technology meant they could refresh the attraction by changing/updating the film every so often - a Flying Theatre would also give them this freedom.

An argument against it would be that the park tends to go for more unique attractions however, like most PHL projects, they have probably been planning for many years by now and the decision may have been made before they knew Europa Park was building one.
Also I question what would the film be? Flying over real world landmarks doesn't really seem very Phantasialand to me - the park strives for immersion in other worlds.

This did remind me of the fact back in July the park had 2 helicopters flying/hovering overhead for a whole day seemingly filming the park. And then a couple of months later Chris Theis, executive assistant at the park, posted this picture taken from a helicopter over the park.
Maybe a flying theatre is coming?

Personally I'm not keen on the idea...

 

[Dar]

I agree, "real life" is the total opposite to what Phantasia is about, especially given that Rookburgh seems to be aimed at steampunk and victoriana. Unless Rookburgh is an alternate universe and they've developed the flying theatre as a way to view other universes, and it just so happens that ours is the one they use?

 

[DiogoJ42]

Or.... It also looks about the right size and shape to be a landing pad for the Millenium Falcon....

 

[Lordy]

To me that pad looks far too small for an entire flying theatre.

 

[Tim]

I agree with Lordy. I don't know what the scale of the site is but it looks about half the size I'd expect a flying theatre to be.

Also don't they normally get built in pairs? I don't think I've ever seen just one being built, presumably because such rides have such a broad appeal they normally become headline attractions.

 

[Rob]

I can't see a flying theatre in this area as well, there surely is not space. They require large box shaped buildings and that is just for the theatre itself. Phantasialand are building what is set to be the worlds longest flying coaster in what is a relativelt compact space, so I just don't see it happening.

However if they do fit in a flying theatre to this area as well as the worlds longest flying coaster I will be mighty impressed!