Phantasialand: General Discussion

[Coaster]

That's a little bit too expensive for one day IMO, even for Phantasialand. It's reasonable with the second day free though.

 

[Rob]

So, Thrill Nation have managed to get an aerial photo of F.L.Y.:

Cue Phantasialand management and lawyers wondering how they can best make a successful prosecution!

Looks impressive but my god they are taking their time. Not even close to being finished and no obvious signs of a hotel.

 

[venny]

The ride certainly looks a decent length. The area itself looks a little claustrophobic; I can’t even see where they might start building the hotel though.

 

[CSLKenny]

no obvious signs of a hotel.

(Gonna be pedantic again)
Except for the hotel buildings they've been working on for past few months which are about 3 or 4 stories tall now, the lobby foundations street side and the L shaped foundations at the bottom for presumably another wing of the hotel.

Going to very tightly interwined with the coaster - with views directly on the ends of the launches and the coaster even flies through the small middle tower building.

But by far the more interesting development in Phantasialand is of course is the death of Temple of the Night Hawk and its VR retheme to Crazy Bats which opened to the public today.



The rethemed station and repainted trains.

They are using some new generation headsets which have two monitors inside rather than using a phone. Many have positively commented on the high quality of the visuals.

The rethemed queueline.

So yeah... that's a thing.
Certainly an improvement over Temple but still obviously a low budget overlay from the use of stock Mack characters to the vinyl theming finish. Undoubtedly a sign this is simply so they have something "new" to market for 2019 and to fill the gap before the coaster meets its end in a few years; once Rookburgh and rumoured upcoming replacement of Geister Rikscha are done.

 

[Rob]

(Gonna be pedantic again)
Except for the hotel buildings they've been working on for past few months which are about 3 or 4 stories tall now, the lobby foundations street side and the L shaped foundations at the bottom for presumably another wing of the hotel.

Going to very tightly interwined with the coaster - with views directly on the ends of the launches and the coaster even flies through the small middle tower building.

Ahhh, thanks for that! I do see it now that you've pointed it out, and it is hard to tell in an aerial photo just how tall some of the structures are. It's certainly going to be very impressive once completed!

 

[siralgenon]

What the bloody hell have they been doing with that new ride, it feels like they've been building it for years and the area looks no different to how it did 6 months ago?

 

[Sam]

Crazy Bats looks like the first VR overlay that's actually an improvement on what was there before. Airgates are cool. Is the VR mandatory?

Glad that the image quality is apparently better, as I always find it bizarre how poor the graphics are on other VR rides. It's like being immersed in a Playstation 1.

 

[CSLKenny]

What the bloody hell have they been doing with that new ride, it feels like they've been building it for years and the area looks no different to how it did 6 months ago?

Yeah, it looks no different ... except the 150-odd metres of track that have been added to now complete the coaster, the hotel buildings, interwined with said track, that have filled up the last quarter of the area - following the completion of the underground level there, the sound barrier wall along the back of Maus au Chocolat and its theming, the completion of the Wuze facade and all the other theming work within the area, particularly to the underground levels and trenches (granted difficult to see in most images though), that's been done within the last 6 months.

Is the VR mandatory?.

Nope its optional. You can still ride the normal pitch black dark coaster as before; minus the Temple soundtrack. Although a few have said because these new headsets have a flashing light on the front of them riding without gives a strange small light show on each train.

EDIT:
There was also an interview with Sebastian Jonas, the project manager, in the German newspaper Express. Link

In it he said the park has been trying to decide what to do with Temple for a long time now.
It was actually 2 years ago they decided on adding VR. However they didn't think the technology was advanced enough yet for their liking; so waited for it to develop further and become more sophisticated. Then when they were content with the newthey started developing this attraction just over 6 months ago.

 

[venny]

Has someone from Merlin been seconded to PL to develop this Crazy Bats overlay? It looks nothing like what PL normally do, but suspiciously Merlin-y.

 

[Rojo]

Ha, good point Venny but even Disney have been slightly guilty of this with Hyperspace mountain and Europa with Can Can Coaster. The great thing about PL as CSLKenny said is it is to fill a gap until F.L.Y. is completed. If this was Merlin it would likely be a permanent attraction, at least with PL you can trust they'll have to knock Crazy Bats down in a few years to build something new.

 

[venny]

Ha, good point Venny but even Disney have been slightly guilty of this with Hyperspace mountain and Europa with Can Can Coaster. The great thing about PL as CSLKenny said is it is to fill a gap until F.L.Y. is completed. If this was Merlin it would likely be a permanent attraction, at least with PL you can trust they'll have to knock Crazy Bats down in a few years to build something new.

A temporary addition to paper over the cracks, you say? Smelling more and more like Merlin all the time.

 

[Yannickvdb]

So, Thrill Nation have managed to get an aerial photo of F.L.Y.:

Cue Phantasialand management and lawyers wondering how they can best make a successful prosecution!

Looks impressive but my god they are taking their time. Not even close to being finished and no obvious signs of a hotel.

I

So, Thrill Nation have managed to get an aerial photo of F.L.Y.:

Cue Phantasialand management and lawyers wondering how they can best make a successful prosecution!

Looks impressive but my god they are taking their time. Not even close to being finished and no obvious signs of a hotel.

Im wondering what's gonna come in the middle of the helix bottomright, if you look clossely you can see stairs circeling around it

 

[Benjsh]

Just a shame it's a flying coaster after all this. I know some people like them but I find them pretty tame and dull mostly and the restraints don't give you much wiggle room.

 

[Danny]

Given that this is an entirely different type of flying coaster over the B&M's that most people are used to, and also the fact Vekoma's newer coasters are simply superb, I'm willing to bet this will easily trump the vast majority of current flying coasters.

 

[CSLKenny]

New Google Earth imagery shows Rookburgh from above dated April 2019 - just after F.L.Y.'s was completed.

The same image from April 2018 for comparison.

Work continues for theming and constructing the hotel. The compact hotel rooms are being assembled out of prefab concrete segments. So far Tower 1 and 2 have about 2 floors of 5 rooms each.

 

[deathproof69]

Hey guys,

I have just booked my hotel stay in Hotel Ling Boa, however it is just a reservation. Does anyone know if you pay on arrival?

Does anyone know of cheap transport to the park from the airport? And any other top tips for a first timer? Thank you x

 

[KolonelKlink]

Does anyone know of cheap transport to the park from the airport? And any other top tips for a first timer?

Cheapest way will be to get a train from the airport to Köln Hauptbahnhof then change onto a second train to Brühl. Will take you about an hour in total - then, depending on the time of day you arrive, you can either get the Phantasialand shuttle bus to the park (only costs a few Euros) or - in off-peak hours - a taxi.

In terms of tips, on the two occasions I’ve been Taron has had a shorter queue later on in the day, so might be worth heading elsewhere in the park first.

 

[RicketyCricket]

Hey guys,

I have just booked my hotel stay in Hotel Ling Boa, however it is just a reservation. Does anyone know if you pay on arrival?

Does anyone know of cheap transport to the park from the airport? And any other top tips for a first timer? Thank you x

Yep you pay on arrival.

Head to Winjas first as the queue gets quite big.

Use your hotel guest queue jump pass on Chocolate Mouse Party or whatever it's called.

Black Mamba will never have a huge wait so don't rush to get on it.

Watch Pirates 4D for a reminder of happy times when Thorpe wasn't a dump.

Use and abuse Taron single rider.

Eat lots of Currywurst.

Hotel Ling Bao does an excellent breakfast, so don't miss out on that.

 

[John_P]

Hey guys,

I have just booked my hotel stay in Hotel Ling Boa, however it is just a reservation. Does anyone know if you pay on arrival?

Does anyone know of cheap transport to the park from the airport? And any other top tips for a first timer? Thank you x

It's really easy on public transport, train from the airport to Cologne Central and then I got a tram to Bruhl motte. Phantasialand run a shuttle bus service. The total cost was just €10.

I'd check your booking with the hotel, when I booked for August back in April after making the reservation I had to ring them up to pay.

 

[AstroDan]

Bruhl is found in zone 2b - this is the ticket you will need when purchasing at the airport.