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Phantasialand: General Discussion

Having visited on Monday and Tuesday this week with Rowe and reminded myself of how ingeniously different levels were used to provide incredible surroundings for Chiapas and Taron, I'm really excited to see how Rookburgh and the new coaster turn out. With Phantasialand's usual standard of work, I think it can be assumed that the end results will be pretty good. :) The other bonus of the area being finished of course will be that they should then be able to move onto sticking a wrecking ball through Nighthawk/Hollywood Bore or Geister-Rikscha if they want to, and quite frankly why wouldn't they? It'd be strange if they didn't on the other hand and decided to go without any major construction projects for a while. As Rowe pointed out, it wouldn't be Phantasialand if there wasn't a crane somewhere!

Taron impressed me much more this time than on my last swelteringly hot 2016 visit, where getting it to run reliably in the conditions seemed to be a big problem that was hampering its pace. Then I'd found it was exciting at certain points and wandered about rather aimlessly for the rest. This time the whole ride felt lively and entertaining almost from start to finish, with only the hills at the end dropping the ball before the last corner picked it back up and spat the train into the brake run. It was also running reliably and shifting guests through what was usually the longest queue in the park (only 30 minutes or so admittedly!) at a good, pleasingly regular pace. I still haven't decided how it compares to my favourite coasters, partly because I haven't been on much else that prioritises chucking you about in every possible direction over giving a very clear progression of track elements, and partly because I still consider not including a few inversions in the ways to throw riders around to be a missed opportunity. I do like it a lot now though and came off every time with a big smile on my face, which is after all what it's all about.

Something I've noticed the last couple of times I've been but don't remember from it opening is that Chiapas is an absolute foot soaker! Is my memory just failing me? Regardless, it's not that wet a ride, so I can't see how it manages to build up enough water to slop backwards and forwards along the bottom of the boat and deliver the worst kind of wetness possible (dress practically and virtually everything except shoes will dry in the course of a sunny day). I wish they'd sort this, as it'd put me off riding Chiapas as well as River Quest on a cool, overcast day. Even sandals aren't the answer; you need proper shoes to go into Hotel Tartuff.
 
Cheese said:
The other bonus of the area being finished of course will be that they should then be able to move onto sticking a wrecking ball through Nighthawk/Hollywood Bore or Geister-Rikscha if they want to, and quite frankly why wouldn't they? It'd be strange if they didn't on the other hand and decided to go without any major construction projects for a while. As Rowe pointed out, it wouldn't be Phantasialand if there wasn't a crane somewhere!
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain Geister Rikscha will be removed next. All evidence and rumours seem to point that way.
And presumably/hopefully/most likely that project will include a refurbishment of Feng Ju Palace and Colorado Adventure.
 
Some aerial pictures have surfaced on Instagram showing some completed brickwork theming.
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^You can see two tunnels forming at the bottom of that picture. The one on the left is where the launch will start (shooting up and out in the direction of the road). The right hand tunnel is where the break run will be (travelling in the opposite direction to the launch).

The Transfer switch track was installed yesterday.
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Wow, that is such a complex construction site! It is hard to imagine how there is going to be room for a large coaster, pathways and whatever else we are getting, Phantasialand do love working their magic.

:)
 
So they don't send lawyers to UK forums to take down the pictures...

Zero G (?) through the roof, that looks really exciting! Many expected the place of the tunnel to be a ramp / launch, so now it's something else.

I'm anticipating when the other Rookburgh attraction becomes visible. They have an airship on their posters and blinds, which, I think, doesn't fit for F.L.Y., so I suppose it stands for a second attraction.
 
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"Pay Once, Enjoy Twice" in Phantasialand has been extended until end of May, for the first visit. The second, free visit, after registration in the park, can occur anytime during the main season, except in July and August (months with school holidays).
 
Those pictures.. wow! Just wow. It's really great to see such a unique development happening, and it's great to see how both the theming and the coaster are being built around each other. It really does look so complex. I really need to visit this park at some point in the near future! :)
 
Phantasialand just started a legal war against German fan forum https://www.freizeitparkcheck.de, because they posted pictures from the construction site of Rookburgh. Current status is that the park demanded the forum to remove any pictures of the park, not only the construction site pictures in question. It is not yet clear if this legal threat and demand also affects pictures that are clearly legal by German law: pictures taken from public ground, taken from a walking person's perspective. The forum has for now closed their Phantasialand section.

While the secretive behaviour of Phantasialand has been kind of ridiculous over the years, they should really, seriously reconsider if it's a good idea to mess with all the park fan folks. They should finally learn that visitors and fans are not just dumb consumers, who have to shut up and just take everything as given.

They have some nice attractions and theming, but if they behave this way, they just spoil it.
 
I know Phantasialand have been stricter than most other parks for quite a while now, but they really are taking it way too far when it gets to the point where they are taking legal action against their own fans. As much as I love Phantasialand, this silly secretive behaviour has got to stop.
 
*sighs*

There is quite a bit of misinformation here.

The original poster actually fails to mention the reason why the park are asking for photos to be removed. The Phantasialand section of the forum has been disabled until the situation is resolved. The fact is the site runs adverts and is therefore a commerical site. So having pictures from the park on there is breaking copyright laws. And as with all places be it theme parks, museums or anything you need permission for commercial photography - which this technically falls under. I can understand that they are not best pleased that money is being made off their property - this is in general not just Rookburgh stuff. It does all fall under the strict copyright laws of Germany.

With regards to Rookburgh: as always with projects they ask people to not post pictures on line. And when pictures are posted they ask for their removal - same as many parks do. eg. Chessington have done for Tiger Rock + Alton with Wicker Man pictures and testing videos. However if the poster refuses the pictures do stay up. After all the Rookburgh pictures posted on Instagram by TimSmith are still on line, even after the park has asked, and there are plenty of videos of the site on YouTube - but they are not monetised therefore while it does not comply with their wishes the park cannot and does not force them to remove them. This forum, CoasterForce and many other forums which do not run ads still have images of the construction site. A simple Google search would lead PHL to this site but they have not demanded images to go as this is not a commercial site therefore not infringing on their copyright.

It's a tricky situation. I'm not quite sure what to think. Could they maybe have went about this differently? But then again I can perfectly understand that they don't want others making money off their property. Calling them idiots or sharing the story without the main facts is unhelpful.
 
Whatever the details of this are, it doesn’t really paint Phantasialand in the best light.

Pursuing their own fans, who they make money from, because the fans took some pictures and might make some money in return.
 
For information: as I know for yesterday, the forum has not yet been sued, but received a harsh legal threat, and was asked to take down any Phantasialand related pictures. Supposedly without prior notice to remove individual, possibly illegal pictures. But yes, there is still a good chance for a good outcome.

@CSLKenny As far as I know, buildings or copyrighted artworks may be photographed and the pictures published without permission, when taken from public ground, from a walking perspective. This panoramic freedom excludes tools like selfie sticks, ladders, or removing obstacles like hedges, fences and blinds. Any picture taken from the park area, including spaces bordering the public street, or other private ground, can be illegal to publish. These laws are rather complex.

The pictures here, also those in your posts, would put any German forum into serious trouble. As it seems, they were taken either from drones, or from the construction site itself. There is no fundamental difference in private and commercial pictures, but I think non-commercial posting is better protected from excessive costs, due to massive abuse of cease-and-desist letters in Germany (Abmahnung) in the past, which allowed lawyers to extort thousands of € from a single, inexperienced person, without prior notice and often with fabricated law "violations" (this kind of abuse does not apply to PHL, who have a real conflict).

This is a collection of personal knowledge, not legal advice (ask a lawyer for that), and applies to German law, don't know about this kind of laws in UK.

The difference with Instagram and Youtube is, that these have powerful legal departments and can't be intimidated that easy, with threats of some 10000€ costs for litigation. And maybe they can even fight back in a lawsuit and get a judgement in favor of some of the pictures in question.
 
If the forum refused to take down the images, then I think their decision was fair enough. It's their property at the end of the day. But in saying that I do accept it's a pretty bad situation for the forum members who did nothing wrong, and it sucks for them. The forum team should take responsibility for that too though.
 
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