Phantasialand: General Discussion

[Ian]

High prices, less frequent major new investments, and presumably lower overheads I think can easily be attributed to their cash reserves.

Remember, the park is very small by comparison to other parks in the same sort of quality bracket. EP has a very healthy turnover, but it will also probably have double to payroll of Phantasialand, accompanied with I would expect less to spend on running costs.

 

[TPJames]

I must ask; how does Phantasialand afford to invest in huge areas of this sheer quality every 4-5 years when they get only about 2 million visitors? Does the park’s owner have some form of other, very lucrative financial resource elsewhere that generates a seemingly unlimited supply of money?

Then again, there are quite a number of theme parks in Europe that have me asking the same question! Is stuff simply cheaper/easier to build over on the mainland or something?

I can't remember and this may be wildly incorrect, but I *think* Löffelhardt used to have some involvement/ownership of miribilandia. I believe a lot of the profits from miribilandia were then used to get Phantasialand up and running and to improve investments throughout the park so that they are able to invest as regularly as they can today. Might not have been mirbilandia though, but something along those lines...

Im looking forward to see what they do with Hollywood tour (which seems to have been closed all season) and that area, as it’s a massive site and it would be a shame to just have another big coaster or something in there. But guess that’s a few years away now.

I absolutely adore Hollywood tour, it's my favourite of the three dark rides in the park. It's only closed right now due to technical difficulties with the water trough, not because it's being axed. Hollywood tour still has a few years left in it, as the "upgrade" from temple to crazy bats has given the complex a good 4-5 years or so more life really. The rumoured next project for the park is to scrap geister ricksha, build a brand new modern underground dark ride and retheme fenj ju palace and transform the china area into a more Asian/tibet theme. Just circulating rumours anyway, but Hollywood appears to have a few more years in it due to crazy bats, which I'm glad about, but disappointed its broken at the moment..

(In fact there's a few reliability issues in the park right now. Notably the usual suspects, talocan and river quest, coupled with Hollywood tour).

 

[TPJames]

The main issue with making temple of the nighthawk into crazy bats VR is that it killed the throughput of the attraction. Temple used to never get more than a 25 min wait but when changed into crazy bats it was seeing 90 mins + due to the conveyor belt breaking and headsets breaking meaning that it could only run two half trains...

I believe crazy bats was only created due to the delay in rookburgh, so it was more of a filler attraction, obviously covid has got in the way of it operating, but it's still probably got another 3-5 years in it now they've invested in the technology.

 

[Pleasure Beach Valhalla]

Crazy bats is only temporary for now and as soon as they get Rookburgh open, they will focus on the China area and Hollywood Tour/ crazy bats. Probably will happen over the next five years but I personally would think geister will go first because it’s outdated from what I’ve seen and it’s using old animatronics!

 

[Ian]

geister will go first because it’s outdated from what I’ve seen and it’s using old animatronics

I mean, Hollywood Tour isn’t exactly Mystic Manor...

 

[djtruefitt]

Both of those rides are fairly dull and none eventful, I like the grandness of Hollywood tour with the large scenes, compared to Geister which has lots of smaller scenes again with not a lot happening. It’s just such a dull boring ride now and does feel outdated. It would be interesting to see what approach Phantasialand would do for a new dark ride as they’ve never really put one in for a long time now. Would it be Symbolica trackless style? Or would they keep the ride system and just update the scenes? Or something totally different.

 

[Pleasure Beach Valhalla]

Then again, I prefer Geister to Duel just because of it’s uniqueness. Duels just a bunch of broken effects to me but of course, it’s not the Haunted Mansion!

 

[Sam]

I’d rather have quality over quantity.

They simply don’t have the space for high volumes of investment, so every investment needs to be perfect to get the crowds in.

See what you've done there is confuse quality with scale.

Nobody is disagreeing that every addition since Mystery Castle has been extremely high quality - that is what makes the park unique and, in my view, the second best park in Europe.

But EP (and Disney, for that matter) know that you need a mix of different scales to keep new additions regular, park capacity high and queues manageable. Dancing Dingie is as high quality as Voletarium - they're just on a different scale. There's no reason why smaller scale rides at Phantasialand would be any lower quality.

This is something that both Efteling and Phantasia struggle with (though at Efteling this is mitigated by the actual park itself being enormous, which isn't the case at Phantasia).

Given the extremely small size of the park, it has to be said that Phantasia don't always maximise the space. If Wuze Town had been built at EP, they would have left space for a dark ride in the basement (like with Eurosat, Snorri and Atlantis). And the above-ground space itself would have been better used I reckon, with a couple more flats in the main hall to increase capacity and animate the area.

 

[John]

Thing is, Phantasialand used to add excellent small-scale attractions - just look at Tikal or Hotel Tartuff. For some reason they just don't seem to do them any more.

 

[AstroDan]

It's difficult to try and be constructive over the park's few floors without others then leaping to some sort of virtuous defence of it. To a point, it's 'understandable - Phantasialand is a wonderful chocolate box of high quality theming, rides and attractions. Its my second or third favourite theme park in Europe, for example. Absolutely wonderful. I have crowed about it many times.

But criticisms one can wager - and the issue of capacity is significant. It may not be their fault, per se, but then - it's certainly nobody elses and Phantasialand is positioned at the top of the pile - it's admission price and operational structure is almost idential to EP and Efteling - so it's one of the big boys. Even if, we perhaps should not forget, they receive less than 50% of the guests.

Any park creaks on their top 10 busiest days of the year. It's normal. Yet, there are few parks in Europe that begin to feel so overheated on just any old medium to busy day than Phantasialand. The lack of pathways and space make for a pretty chastening experience on thoroughfares. Unlike Alton Towers or Efteling, say, Phantasialand can feel full-brim with even 10,000 guests on site. Of course, like Phantasialand, Alton Towers and Efteling also lack "filler" and both these parks could do with about 4 or 5 more rides to bulk it all out. But what they do have is space. Pathways. Gardens.

I recently completed a road trip of 12 parks in France, Germany and the Netherlands - and Phantasialand was certainly the one that we struggled with the most. Queue times were, for the most in terms of social distancing. part, no worse than usual (although River Quest and Chiapas both became insanely long - with RiverQuest at one stage advertised at a stormy 110 minutes) - but the pathways themselves made social distancing more difficult in the park than any of the others I have done.

Capacity is an issue at the park whether folks like it or not. They don't have the luxury of parks with space. And yes - they install these wonderful areas like Klugheim, Deep in Africa and no doubt Rookburgh. Within these areas, though, is simply large coaster attractions. There aren't any support rides. Support rides which should be intertwined into the area and used to soak up capacity. The same issue that I would throw at Dark Forest. One day some years back, I chose to leave the park for lunch because the waits for the food outlets were so long. Rutmors and Cocorico might be wonderful places to eat, but 50 seats doesn't cut it on a busy day. 30 seats at present due to Covid. Look at how Europa-Park included Snorri Touren in the basement of Scandinavia. That's the kind of space saving magic that Phantasialand need to employ consistently in their new areas. Who knows? Perhaps Rookburgh will surprise us!

If Hollywood Tour, Crazy Bats and Geister Rickshaw are to depart in the coming years, I hope this problem isn't exacerbated.

 

[jon81uk]

Given the extremely small size of the park, it has to be said that Phantasia don't always maximise the space. If Wuze Town had been built at EP, they would have left space for a dark ride in the basement (like with Eurosat, Snorri and Atlantis). And the above-ground space itself would have been better used I reckon, with a couple more flats in the main hall to increase capacity and animate the area.

Wuze Town in particular felt odd to me, why is the entrance to Winjas all the way in the corner, but then there is nothing at all in the central area in front of it? I thought the whole building was full of rides, but I only saw Tittle Tattle Tree and Winjas, where was everything else, where was all the energy?

 

[RicketyCricket]

Wuze Town in particular felt odd to me, why is the entrance to Winjas all the way in the corner, but then there is nothing at all in the central area in front of it? I thought the whole building was full of rides, but I only saw Tittle Tattle Tree and Winjas, where was everything else, where was all the energy?

There's a really weirdly positioned area round the back up some stairs which is accessed near Hollywood Tour. Stumbled across it by accident on my most recent visit and had no idea it was there. Couple of little kids rides and some seating.

 

[Plastic Person]

I seem to remember Wuze Town felt very lively when it opened, whereas now it has the atmosphere of a shopping centre during Sunday hours. Those kids rides are largely utilised during corporate events and parties, whereas they're completely wasted on day guests.

P.S. Some incredible defences of Hollywood Tour in this thread, one of the only rides that's so eerie and stilted, I genuinely feel awkward riding it.

 

[jon81uk]

There's a really weirdly positioned area round the back up some stairs which is accessed near Hollywood Tour. Stumbled across it by accident on my most recent visit and had no idea it was there. Couple of little kids rides and some seating.

It does seem odd those other rides aren't better integrated into the rest of the space as well as a decent food service option.

 

[djtruefitt]

I do think the whole winjas building is badly designed and under utilised, it has so much dead space, empty corners, etc and I’m sure you could get so much more in there if you designed it differently.

 

[Pleasure Beach Valhalla]

Winja's is a clever ride designed but people overlook it or miss it from what I've seen because it's so hidden away but maybe, the entrance of Rookburgh from Fantasy might possibly help boost it's popularity?!

 

[CSLKenny]

Yeah Wuze Town is certainly brutally underused in day to day operations (but does function well as a popular event space). Had in been built more recently I imagine it would be very different.

Who knows? Perhaps Rookburgh will surprise us!

It won't. Every bit of underground and aboveground space is utilised already.

I do think with the China refurb incorporating the unused remnant of the Silbermine hall behind the China F&B outlets would give space for another small attraction so hopefully more than just a new dark ride to replace Geister will come with that. Suppose just have to wait and see.

As for Rookburgh in the last week the park have started hiring for new ride operators and staff for Sweets and Snacks outlets.
(F.L.Y. and Rookburgh's Sweets Shop and F&B outlet?)
They are also hiring for all types of hotel jobs with the descriptions including Hotel Charles Lindbergh - Three Hotels - Three Experiences.

As work comes to its end it seems the wait might soon be over...

 

[Pleasure Beach Valhalla]

Yeah Wuze Town is certainly brutally underused in day to day operations (but does function well as a popular event space). Had in been built more recently I imagine it would be very different.


It won't. Every bit of underground and aboveground space is utilised already.

I do think with the China refurb incorporating the unused remnant of the Silbermine hall behind the China F&B outlets would give space for another small attraction so hopefully more than just a new dark ride to replace Geister will come with that. Suppose just have to wait and see.

As for Rookburgh in the last week the park have started hiring for new ride operators and staff for Sweets and Snacks outlets.
(F.L.Y. and Rookburgh's Sweets Shop and F&B outlet?)
They are also hiring for all types of hotel jobs with the descriptions including Hotel Charles Lindbergh - Three Hotels - Three Experiences.

As work comes to its end it seems the wait might soon be over...

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr, i don't now German I'm sorry

 

[Dave]

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr, i don't now German I'm sorry

It’s basically just an advert for staff but it references the new hotel as well as some mention of staff for the park. It doesn’t explicitly state FLY is opening but the recruitment for the new hotel is maybe suggestive they plan to open this year.

 

[CSLKenny]

As well as hiring for ride ops, F&B and all hotel positions - marketing agencies having been distributing a call from the park looking for people for filming work. A graphic designer yesterday posted on Instagram he was working on something for Rookburgh too.

Meanwhile on site work appears to be in the final stages. A tower crane has been brought in likely for the final prefab theming elements to be installed in the middle of the area around the 1st launch. A local signage firm has been onsite recently for a while too.
And everyone's favourite hotel entry portal has at last received its theming elements. Although markings added around the curved dome bit under the writing at the top suggests more has still to be added.