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Phantasialand: General Discussion

I mean for years its been no secret that Hollywood and Temple of the Crazy Bats is on life support. As soon they can move the dinner show out of that building (with whatever plan B they'll have to devise since the original plan for the expansion isn't happening any time soon); the bulldozers will roll in. They've also permission to build on the maze behind the building - together that's a plot of land for development similar in size to Klugheim.
 
Hollywood boat tour has a certain charm.

Part of me hopes they'd consider revamping the ride system and give the theme a change so its more fitting to the surrounding area.
 
John_P said:
Hollywood boat tour has a certain charm.

Part of me hopes they'd consider revamping the ride system and give the theme a change so its more fitting to the surrounding area.
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Yes I do feel that even if they bulldoze the area and build new rides it would be good to add a new boat ride of some form.

Phantasialand is a bit hit and miss I think though. The themed areas were great, but some of the rides (such as the chinese madhouse) were just a bit off. Also the indoor spinning coasters were good, but the whole building felt lifeless and empty despite having two coasters and several other rides in it!
 
There's a massive difference in the later Phantasialand additions to anything prior to Black Mamba (give or take).

Wouldn't be surprised if Wuze Town gets a revamp when the eventually get rid of the Nighthawk building. Currently that and the China/Colorado Adventure areas are the ones that need that plussing to fit into the modern quality.
 
They won't keep the HT system, it's an old system and it restricts what they can do. They'll do a Phantasia facelift on the lot.
 
Benzin said:
There's a massive difference in the later Phantasialand additions to anything prior to Black Mamba (give or take).

Wouldn't be surprised if Wuze Town gets a revamp when the eventually get rid of the Nighthawk building. Currently that and the China/Colorado Adventure areas are the ones that need that plussing to fit into the modern quality.
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From what I've heard, Colorado is a good family mine train and that Winjas has a certain coaster you should ride. Then it's just Taron, Taron, Taron. And Chiapas, Black Mamba and Talocan.
 
Pleasure Beach Valhalla said:
From what I've heard, Colorado is a good family mine train and that Winjas has a certain coaster you should ride. Then it's just Taron, Taron, Taron. And Chiapas, Black Mamba and Talocan.
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Colorado is great fun, it’s theming is non existent in the areas not recently freshened up due to its proximity to Chiapas and the station. It would be nice to see those bits of the layout given some Universal Rock treatment.
 
Richard Schmidt one of the founders of Phantasialand has died aged 93.
Together with Gottfried Löffelhardt (died 2011) they first opened the park in 1967. Schmidt did retire and step back in the 90s, and the park eventually passed into the ownership of Löffelhardt's son in 1998 who continues to run it with his wife today; but the management company is still called Schmidt Löffelhardt GmbH.
The two friends first met after the Second World War in Berlin - which is why they choose the city as the theme for the main street.
loeffelhardt-schmidt.jpg

Picture from the article of Löffelhardt & Schmidt together at the opening of Black Mamba in 2006.
Source
 
That’s very sad to hear. I always thought the story was an interesting one. The puppeteer and the showman coming together to create a theme park.

Their backgrounds were very much apparent in the park’s older shows and attractions like Silbermine, Geisterickshaw and the animatronic shows.
 
Double post alert, but while on my YouTube travels I came across this gem:



It has some really great footage of the park from yesteryear, and showcases some of the older attractions and animatronics that could be found on attractions such as the Jet, Wikinger Bootsfahrt and Gondelbahn.

It really is a shame that the park is generally only able progress by removing pieces of its history. Sure many of the attractions are nothing to write home about by today's standards, but even so, a park needs its heritage. It’s unfortunate that areas like Märchenwald and Hawaii no longer exist as they certainly seemed to have had a charm to them, and would probably complement the existing line up nicely (as the Fairytale Forest at Efteling and Enchanted Forest areas at Europa Park do).

Today the park is completely unrecognisable, save a handful of structures like the Arena de Fiesta (Now home to the ice show, but in this footage the dolphin show), China Bazar and Mandshu (surprising really how the Chinatown area has stood the test of time, save for the stage being added in the centre).
 
Ian said:
Double post alert, but while on my YouTube travels I came across this gem:



It has some really great footage of the park from yesteryear, and showcases some of the older attractions and animatronics that could be found on attractions such as the Jet, Wikinger Bootsfahrt and Gondelbahn.

It really is a shame that the park is generally only able progress by removing pieces of its history. Sure many of the attractions are nothing to write home about by today's standards, but even so, a park needs its heritage. Today it's completely unrecognisable, save a handful of structures like the Arena de Fiesta (Now home to the ice show, but in this footage the dolphin show), China Bazar and Mandshu (surprising really how the Chinatown area has stood the test of time, save for the stage being added in the centre).
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Talking of it's history, can someone brief me quickly on what they done over the previous decade please?
 
Since 2010 the notable points would be:
  • 2010: Opened 5 new kids attractions (4 of them rides) in Fantasy as part of the modernisation of the area (Die fröhliche Bienchenjagd, Der lustige Papagei, Wolke’s Luftpost, Baumberger Irrgarten, Würmling Express)
  • 2011: Opened Maus au Chocolat, Wellenflug and Tikal family drop towers. Scrapped Stonewash and Wildwash Creek Wildwasserbahns to make way for Chiapas
  • 2012: Opened Hotel Tartüff funhouse/walkthrough and House of The Six Dragons main merch shop along with the new conference centre (I think that was 2012... Might have actually opened in 2013 though...). Also demolished the Tula Temple (former Jet station, taking with it the 3 Freunde im geheimnisvollen Tempel show) at the end of the year to continue clearing space for Chiapas.
  • 2013: Should have been Chiapas, but Intamin happened.
  • 2014: Opened Chiapas, modernised Mexico area including opening the Cocorico tapas bar and introduced new entertainment acts and small shows in Kaiserplatz. Scrapped Silbermine and Western Town to make way for Taron, Raik and Klugheim
  • 2015: Musarteum replaces Sieben (RIP :() in the Wintergarten theatre and also closed Smokey Digger’s Camp accommodation. I think it was around this time the park threw some cash at patching up Geister Rikscha too, but don’t quote me on that
  • 2016: Opened Klugheim with Taron and Raik, and also added more theming to River Quest to fit in with the new area. Removed Race for Atlantis to make way for F.L.Y. Also ended the Drakar’ium end of day show.
  • 2017: Official announcement of F.L.Y.
  • 2018: Nothing much other than standard maintenance and refreshes
  • 2019: Added VR and rethemed Temple of the Nighthawk to Crazy Bat

During that time there have also been minor things such as the refurbishment and modernisation of Hotel Ling Bao (bar refreshes, repaints, etc.) and obviously the interim things that came along with other projects such as building the bridge from Berlin and Mexico with the ramps to what was then Western Town.
 
Ian said:
Since 2010 the notable points would be:
  • 2010: Opened 5 new kids attractions (4 of them rides) in Fantasy as part of the modernisation of the area (Die fröhliche Bienchenjagd, Der lustige Papagei, Wolke’s Luftpost, Baumberger Irrgarten, Würmling Express)
  • 2011: Opened Maus au Chocolat, Wellenflug and Tikal family drop towers. Scrapped Stonewash and Wildwash Creek Wildwasserbahns, and also demolished the Tula Temple (former Jet station, taking with it the 3 Freunde im geheimnisvollen Tempel show) to make way for Chiapas
  • 2012: Opened Hotel Tartüff funhouse/walkthrough and House of The Six Dragons main merch shop along with the new conference centre (I think that was 2012... Might have actually opened in 2013 though...)
  • 2013: Should have been Chiapas, but Intamin happened.
  • 2014: Opened Chiapas, modernised Mexico area including opening the Cocorico tapas bar and introduced new entertainment acts and small shows in Kaiserplatz. Scrapped Silbermine and Western Town to make way for Taron, Raik and Klugheim
  • 2015: Musarteum replaces Sieben (RIP :() in the Wintergarten theatre and close Smokey Digger’s Camp accommodation. I think it was around this time the park threw some cash at patching up Geiste Rikscha too, but don’t quote me on that
  • 2016: Opened Klugheim with Taron and Raik, and also added more theming to River Quest to fit in with the new area. Removed Race for Atlantis to make way for F.L.Y. Also ended the Drakar’ium end of day show.
  • 2017: Official announcement of F.L.Y.
  • 2018: Nothing much other than standard maintenance and refreshes
  • 2019: Added VR and rethemed Temple of the Nighthawk to Crazy Bat

During that time there have also been minor things such as the refurbishment and modernisation of Hotel Ling Bao (bar refreshes, repaints, etc.) and obviously they interim things that came along with other projects such as building the bridge from Berlin and Mexico with the ramps to what was then Western Town.
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Oh yh. I heard about silver wash and Wildwash creek. Were they any good?
 
Ian said:
Since 2010 the notable points would be:
  • 2010: Opened 5 new kids attractions (4 of them rides) in Fantasy as part of the modernisation of the area (Die fröhliche Bienchenjagd, Der lustige Papagei, Wolke’s Luftpost, Baumberger Irrgarten, Würmling Express)
  • 2011: Opened Maus au Chocolat, Wellenflug and Tikal family drop towers. Scrapped Stonewash and Wildwash Creek Wildwasserbahns to make way for Chiapas
  • 2012: Opened Hotel Tartüff funhouse/walkthrough and House of The Six Dragons main merch shop along with the new conference centre (I think that was 2012... Might have actually opened in 2013 though...). Also demolished the Tula Temple (former Jet station, taking with it the 3 Freunde im geheimnisvollen Tempel show) at the end of the year to continue clearing space for Chiapas.
  • 2013: Should have been Chiapas, but Intamin happened.
  • 2014: Opened Chiapas, modernised Mexico area including opening the Cocorico tapas bar and introduced new entertainment acts and small shows in Kaiserplatz. Scrapped Silbermine and Western Town to make way for Taron, Raik and Klugheim
  • 2015: Musarteum replaces Sieben (RIP :() in the Wintergarten theatre and close Smokey Digger’s Camp accommodation. I think it was around this time the park threw some cash at patching up Geiste Rikscha too, but don’t quote me on that
  • 2016: Opened Klugheim with Taron and Raik, and also added more theming to River Quest to fit in with the new area. Removed Race for Atlantis to make way for F.L.Y. Also ended the Drakar’ium end of day show.
  • 2017: Official announcement of F.L.Y.
  • 2018: Nothing much other than standard maintenance and refreshes
  • 2019: Added VR and rethemed Temple of the Nighthawk to Crazy Bat

During that time there have also been minor things such as the refurbishment and modernisation of Hotel Ling Bao (bar refreshes, repaints, etc.) and obviously they interim things that came along with other projects such as building the bridge from Berlin and Mexico with the ramps to what was then Western Town.
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What about the tragic closure and removal of Silbermine?! The journey from the station to the showbuilding, and back again, was incredible on that thing, and the quality of the animations (especially rug-dog and mouldy-pig) were amazing...

Edit - scrap that, was looking at the wrong year :p
 
Islander said:
What about the tragic closure and removal of Silbermine?! The journey from the station to the showbuilding, and back again, was incredible on that thing, and the quality of the animations (especially rug-dog and mouldy-pig) were amazing...

Edit - scrap that, was looking at the wrong year :p
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What has replaced it? I visited Phantasialand for the first time last October, so curious what has come and gone.
 
Yeah it’s quite hard to visualise at all now. Silbermine’s show building basically backed onto the China shops and Feng Ju Palace, and spanned from where the path by River Quest and Feng Ju that leads into Klugheim comes down all the way across to more or less where the first overbank on Taron is now and Colorado Adventure’s covered section.

It’s the large building at the bottom of the green box here:

upload_2020-6-2_16-16-33.png

The station is that little bit built on the back of Feng Ju Palace. The ride would then travel left into the main show building.

Part of the building was actually kept as I believe it acts as storage and utilities for some of the outlets in China (you’ll see if you compare it with a more recent Google Maps view. They essentially just squared it off.

5FEC4AB5-C34F-4ADC-8376-FFCFB58ED7E1.jpeg
 
Ian said:
Part of the building was actually kept as I believe it acts as storage and utilities for some of the outlets in China (you’ll see if you compare it with a more recent Google Maps view. They essentially just squared it off.

5FEC4AB5-C34F-4ADC-8376-FFCFB58ED7E1.jpeg
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Was initially used a wood workshop for the build of Klugheim. And now yeah is just storage especially for winter decorations. A few Silbermine animatronics and items are also still kicking around in a corner (at least last year were still). Some anchor baskets for F.L.Y. where also kept in there at one point too.

Long term though it's believed to quite likely be utlised for something new/incorporated in the upcoming China area "modernisation/refurbishment" (aka when they kill Geister Rikscha).
 
I always find it odd that the park is a family owned park, yet it doesn’t feel that way at all, and doesn’t seem to be promoted like other family owned Parks around, eg EP. Or even the likes of Drayton in the Uak. I’ve always felt it to be quite corporate in style and the way they do things.
 
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