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Phantasialand: General Discussion

My last visit paid the hotel on departure.. just had to keep track and make sure I didn’t spend the hotel money before I left :sweatsmile:

If you are paying day entry to park. Depending on how long you staying. A 3 day ticket can be exchanged at the hotel when you leave for a free 4th day on park.


If you see Tolocan open ... get a ride before it breaks
 
Depending on how knackered and rushed you are, and how much luggage you're carrying, the walk from the train station to the park isn't bad and it's quite a nice town to walk through, especially the big house and grounds next to the station
 
Don't forget the park opens from 9am, but most rides open at 10am. However check when entering the park, when I last visited Black Mamba opened at 9.30am so I queued for that from park opening then headed over to the Taron queue for before that opened at 10am.

If you see food you like the look of it and there isn't a queue I'd suggest getting it as at peak times the food queues can become pretty bad.

Try and get on the older rides like Hollywood Tour and Geister Ricksha. Shouldn't be much of a queue for either but there both odd rides and probably won't be around much longer.
 
Yes, the rides open later than the park and close earlier than the park. As do a lot of the food and beverage locations.

In summary, pay no attention to the park opening times, as they mean nothing. PL close stuff whenever they feel like it, regardless of their advertised park closing time.
 
Plastic Person said:
On the contrary, across multiple visits, I have never experienced the above described phenomenon at Phantasialand.
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Seconded. In all my years visiting I’ve only ever seen a ride close earlier than stated in two situations:

  • A late in the day breakdown (though I have also seen them fix rides to keep them running after close too. I’ve been in the queue for Taron at 9pm on a 6pm close where they kept having to revive it, just to make sure the whole queue got a ride, even though it meant going down to 1 train!)
  • During their 50th Anniversary where they were preparing to launch fireworks

You can take the closing time with a pinch of salt though, as traditionally they’d just put 9am - 6pm on the park literature across the board as the minimum hours. I’ve been on days advertised at 6pm where the park has closed at 7/8pm. I do note that they now say 9am - 8pm throughout summer though, so extending in peak season may be much less prominent now.

In terms of opening there is some degree of staggering. While officially everything is open at 10am, some bits open at 9am (usually around focused the entrances such as the Dampft Carousel), so aim to hit them first. Maus au Chocolat can attract bigish queues in the day, but if you hit it first thing as soon as it opens you should be fine, as I’ve seen this opening around 9:30 before.

The biggest late opener is Fantasy and Wuze Town. That whole area opens at 10am, with a rope stretched across the entrance. Aim to get to the rope for about 9:45. This means as soon as it drops you can make a b-line for Winjas, another set of rides which attracts big queues (and have a rather unpleasant queueline on a busy, hot day). If your time things right you can get on Maus around 9:30, then it’s exit puts you right by the entrance to the Fantasy area where you can wait for it to open

Queue-wise as well, Colorado Adventure is a bit of an odd one. Don’t be surprised to see the queue out of the entrance. This is mainly due to the fact the whole queueline can only hold around 15 minutes worth of guests. It often looks worse than it really is. I also thoroughly recommend trying to get on the back row. There’s no dedicated front or back row queues per-say, but people will tend to form lines for those bays. It’s well worth it at the back.

If you’re planning on riding Mystery Castle save this for later in the day. As experienced several times myself, and explained by staff, the ride tends to operate on “Misery Castle” mode in the morning, which removes the whole first half of the ride sequence and much of the theatre from it. After around 2pm the ride changes to Mystery mode, and will normally stay like that for the rest of the day.

As you’ll be getting Hotel Quick Pass you’ll be able to jump a few queues. There’s no hard and fast rule of what to use it on if you ask me, and things vary a lot there. One minute Black Mamba can be walk on, the next it has a 45/50 minute queue (though the operations on it can often be quite lax, and I’ve had it on one train more times than I care to count). Maus can be a safe bet, but like I say, if you hit it when it opens you shouldn’t need it, unless you really want to re-ride... The same goes for Winjas really, except I can actually understand wanting to re-ride those! Talocan can be worth using QP on though, as that queue always seems unpredictable.

If you’re going to do water rides I’d also suggest not leaving these too late in the day, especially if you’re travelling after park close. River Quest can absolutely drown you, and there’s nothing worse than sitting in damp clothes!

Oh, and speaking of water rides, one final thing. Don’t make the n00bs mistake of riding Wakobato hoping to get wet and cool down. That ride isn’t even worth the boggy land it’s built on.

If you have time (and you’re into that sort of thing) it’s worth checking out a couple of the shows too. The Ice Show always tends to be a good one to watch, and Musartem is rather good too (though personally I much preferred Sieben which it replaced). Jump isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (I can take or leave it) but a lot of people do seem to enjoy it. Personally I see little appeal in grown men behaving like unruly youths (good god I’m sounding old)!

Those would be my key tips based on years of visiting and being an annual passholder, but ultimately, you do you! You know your own tastes best, so focus on having a good time and getting on the rides that appeal to you the most :)

Phew, long post! I’ll retreat back under my Phantasialand themed rock now
 
There seems to be some incredulity about what I’m saying, so I’m going to provide a few examples from literally earlier this week. Whether we were unlucky is up for debate, but it did happen:

- the park opens most major rides an hour after the park itself. I don’t believe this is advertised on their opening times. As above a select few open at 9.30am - check the app. Most formed sizeable pre-opening queues from 9am.

- all ride queues closed at least a quarter of an hour before the park advertised that it closes - again, check the app. However, also note that the time the queue is scheduled to close can and did change.

- you would think that the reason for ride queues closing early would be to run off massive queues so that they don’t run for hours after park close. Not ideal, but perhaps understandable. Unfortunately that is not what we experienced.

Using the park’s most popular ride, Taron, as an example. People will have booked to visit during the summer to take advantage of the longer closing times. PL’s website makes a reasonably big deal about their extended opening times in the summer. Your assumption is therefore that you’ll be able to enjoy what the park has to offer in this time. So when Taron’s queue closes an hour earlier than you might expect it to, you assume it’s because they have a huge queue to run off well after park closing. It might therefore surprise you to see Taron having emptied its queue by 7.45pm and closed, with the staff going home before the park even closes.

Staggering for the park’s headline attraction.

- since you can’t get on Taron you decide you’ll have dinner in one of the park’s restaurants. Unfortunately, it turns out that lightning can strike twice at PL because all but two of the restaurants close 2 hours earlier than the park. So you decide to visit one of the two which are open.

By this point it might not shock you to learn that despite clearly advertising their opening times at the front of the restaurant earlier in the day, this has now changed. The kitchen has closed without explanation.

So you have a beer whilst considering your options. Paying a deposit for a glass you discuss the now scant dining options and concur that the resort hotel is now the only real option unless a crepe will sustain you through to morning. Upon going to return your glass, the outlet has closed and your deposit seemingly gone. Again we’re still well before the alleged park closing time and the staff can see you still have the glass you’ve paid your deposit for. Regardless the outlet is shut and it’s up to you to find some way to return your glass.

- After solving that issue, you wander back to the hotel to eat. By this point it probably won’t surprise you to learn that despite the only reason for you being stood at the hotel restaurant asking for a table is that the park can’t keep its restaurants open for the time they advertise, the hotel also can not accommodate your need to eat. They are fully booked. Likely because their other guests know there’s little chance of being able to get dinner in the park.

- You then have two options. Pay £10 for some spring rolls in the bar or dine in the only overpriced restaurant with availability. We chose the latter and paid £150 for the privilege of sat in a supposedly premium restaurant which was far too hot, had only just been refurbished but still had no air conditioning. We then proceeded to eat an array of confused and mediocre food, which was some of the worst value meals I have ever had.

Good thing we chose to pay £200 to stay in the hotel

PL is a park with great themeing, vistas and ride hardware. It’s just a shame they misadvertise and treat their guests with a disappointing contempt.
 
On my visits, rides typically close 15 minutes before the park does (e.g. if the park closes at 6pm, ride queues will close at 5.45pm) and Taron has always closed 30 minutes prior (e.g. 5.30pm). Also, rides tend to open at different times depending.

I have never known the park close rides at the same time as the park, to be honest with you. I always check the display boards for the latest times.

:)
 
It's been a while since we've had a F.L.Y. and Rookburgh update but this project is still going ahead at a rate that makes Disney look like speedsters. Here are some photos from coasterfriends.de:

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9583507d1570347813-201x-neuheit-fly-launched-flying-coaster-themenbereich-rookburgh-phantasialand-4d3684b4-1885-46f6-9528-25ca788a512f.jpg


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You can clearly see the hotel now.

It will be interesting to see what opens first; this, Rise of the Resistance or West Coast Racers! :p
 
Flying coasters are boring.....pass it on.

Can't believe they've invested this much into a concept that isn't particularly popular anymore. Flying coasters don't deliver much in terms of speed and airtime. In fact the only thing they offer is the unique riding position which isn't new anymore.
 
Benjsh said:
Flying coasters are boring.....pass it on.

Can't believe they've invested this much into a concept that isn't particularly popular anymore. Flying coasters don't deliver much in terms of speed and airtime. In fact the only thing they offer is the unique riding position which isn't new anymore.
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It'll be new to the majority of domestic visitors. The only other flying coaster in Germany is that dreadful tube thing.

It'll be a nice addition to the park's line up, they love doing stuff that's a bit off the wall.

Plus it's a launched flyer, who doesn't love the sound of that.
 
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What is Phantasialand's record like for building new attractions? Did they take this long for Taron? I'm trying to understand why F.L.Y. is progressing so slowly.
 
I'm probably one of the biggest cynical gits round these parts, and even i can see that this is not going to be the same kind of ride as the slow and lumbering B&M flyers.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I'm probably one of the biggest cynical gits round these parts, and even i can see that this is not going to be the same kind of ride as the slow and lumbering B&M flyers.
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The good B&M ones would be harshly described like that. The likes of Galactica, yes. Flying coasters in general for me have so much potential and are the least utilised type of coaster design-wise. Very interested to see how this turns out.
 
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