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Phantasialand: General Discussion

Rob said:
Now for some of the bad. I can't help but feel that the transformation of the right side of the park (when standing at the end of the main street) has left Wuze Town feeling somewhat tired. The indoor area especially just feels soulless and there is not a lot going on. I wonder whether this is something they may look at in the coming years? WuzeBall was also closed, but that's hardly a surprise.
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I wonder if the park might perhaps be looking at doing something with Crazy Bats at some point? I don’t know how things stand with the park in terms of their future plans for any new major attractions but Crazy Bats could possibly be seen as the most likely candidate if something had to go, seeing as they already have an outstanding family coaster the very iconic Colorado Adventure.
 
Crazy Bats is so out of place in the park (as is Pirates 4D, such an old film). You would imagine that is the next area for development, but with it being on the residential side of the park they are more limited in what they can do.

Another thing I meant to comment on was the new range of rip-off Europa-Park Camp David clothing that's on sale. The less said about it the better, as it looks pretty cheap, but I do find it rather amusing that they have done such a blatant copy.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I wonder if the park might perhaps be looking at doing something with Crazy Bats at some point? I don’t know how things stand with the park in terms of their future plans for any new major attractions but Crazy Bats could possibly be seen as the most likely candidate if something had to go, seeing as they already have an outstanding family coaster the very iconic Colorado Adventure.
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I would have thought that Feng Ju Palace and Geister Rikscha would be next in line for a revamp. They are so poor they feel really out of place at a park like Phantasialand.

Crazy Bats isn't great, but it serves a purpose - a family coaster with a bit of novelty value - and it could earn its keep for a couple more years yet I think.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
I would have thought that Feng Ju Palace and Geister Rikscha would be next in line for a revamp. They are so poor they feel really out of place at a park like Phantasialand.

Crazy Bats isn't great, but it serves a purpose - a family coaster with a bit of novelty value - and it could earn its keep for a couple more years yet I think.
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Agreed, those attractions in the Chinese themed part of the park do feel quite dated (especially so in the Geister Rikscha’s case), but however having hotel Ling Bao you feel that the park would have to keep some Chinese styled attractions so that might just be enough to keep them for a bit. I don’t think anyone would miss them though if they did go. Given the penchant German parks have for catching fire Geister Riksha does look pretty flammable though if you know what I mean.
 
I also visited for the first time a few months ago, and don't feel like doing a full trip report but still have some thoughts to share. Like Rob, I'll separate my experience into the good, the bad, and the weird. My visit was in early September when Black Mamba was down, so I wasn't able to ride that.

The Good

The theming at Phantasialand is world class, up there with the best Disney parks. Rookburgh, the Mexico area, and Klugheim are all about as good as it gets when it comes to immersive theming. Knowing the size of the park, what they've been able to do with the limited space they have is nothing short of incredible.

Taron is my new favorite roller coaster on the planet, and I can't imagine anything else taking that spot anytime soon. I much prefer theming to thrills, but why pick one or the other when Taron excels at both? The queue, the music, the impossible nature of figuring out where you're going next, and the second launch, seemingly directly up and into a waterfall, might be my favorite moment on any coaster on the planet. This was about a 10 minute average wait during our trip and we rode it probably 10 times over two days. Absolute masterclass, it reminded me of what The Matterhorn might have been like if it was built six decades later, and if Walt Disney thought it was a good idea for you to get a full liter of beer in a massive glass as soon as you exited the ride.

FLY was incredible, but something kind of felt off... it didn't blow me away like Taron did. I would recommend the front row for this one, you feel like you can actually fly rather than staring at the underside of someone else's Nikes. I don't love the flying ride position, so that might have been it. Still, the ride and the surrounding land are absolutely staggering to behold.

Chiapas, as many have said, is the best log flume on the planet. Splash Mountain is still one of my favorites, but beyond the theming it follows the same formula as every other log flume: a meandering first section with a small drop, potentially another smaller drop, and then the finale. Chiapas is nonstop action and beautiful theming from start to end. The music is great, the final plunge is jaw-dropping, and yes, you can get absolutely soaked. I got off this ride as if I'd taken a shower, much worse than River Quest, which left me reasonably dry.

Sleeper hits were:

Colorado Adventure. Big Thunder Mountain except way more intense, and with an average wait of "zero" you couldn't really go wrong. It was also very cool to be able to ride in the engine car up front.

The swing ride at the end of Berlin street. I normally find these rides relatively boring but with the synced fountains it became a different, more magical experience entirely.

Winja's FEAR certainly lived up to its name. Perhaps the best-timed on-ride photo I've ever seen, it truly captured the, well... fear in our eyes.

The new African Adventure Trail was great, but I bet it's a million times better when Black Mamba is running, which was a pity.

The Bad

It was incredible staying inside a theme park at Hotel Charles Lindburgh, but it was a hot day and the room was a bit stuffy which made it hard to sleep. We were on the ground floor and the bathroom window opened directly onto an external street, so I didn't feel comfortable having it open. The included dinner was also a shambles, it took us nearly 2 hours to finish the meal. The employees at the bar and restaurant were all great, there simply weren't enough of them to handle the crowd, so this seems like an instance of cost cutting by the park that was responsible for the bad experience. It was a less-than-ideal way to end our evening, that's for sure.

Crazy Bats: terrible! I can't imagine anyone above age 10 enjoying the movie, and the ride itself was boring and seemingly never-ending. I don't love VR rides but this one was particularly boring.

The Weird

What in heaven's good name is going on in the China area? Geister Rickshaw is terrible, just on the bad side of kitschy, and had I known that the mad house in that area had a 10 minute preshow with video straight out of a Sega Saturn game I might have skipped that as well. This whole area could use a complete razing and revamp in my opinion.

Mystery Castle, which has one of the coolest queue lines of any ride I can think of with the walkway directly head-on to the tall castle, was seemingly much ado about nothing. The ride system is great, but the ride itself seemed to be over in 20 seconds without any real thrills. Not sure if we got a strange cycle or something, but I feel like something was missing here.

Overall

I have to say, everyone here was right: Phantasialand is a world class park, but I'm not in a hurry to return the same way I try to visit Europa Park every year. The rides and theming are, at times, the best I've ever experienced, but there isn't enough extra to do beyond the big rides to warrant making a trip just for this park. Also, the lack of dark rides or places to sit and hang out makes it so you're on thrill rides basically all day, and at the end of the second day I had a bit of a headache from the sheer physicality of it all.
 
Hilarious that you knew exactly what I was talking about! We did end up riding a second time and got "Mystery" instead of "Misery" but I couldn't shake the strange experience on the first go. Why are there two, and why is one so much worse than the other??
 
I swear they change it up. I've been in the past where it has been Mystery in the morning, and then Misery in the afternoon. So we did it in the morning last week and it was very much Misery, before changing to Mystery in the afternoon.

No idea why they don't just always run Mystery!
 
I've done Mystery Castle once and I am reliably informed that I got 'Mystery' rather than 'Misery' - still I found the experience pretty underwhelming.

Feng Ju Palace and Geister Rikscha are laughably bad. I do like a good Vekoma Madhouse but Feng Ju Palace isn't one - an overly long, boring pre-show and a clichéd, uninteresting storyline that doesn't suit the ride system at all really. Geister Rikscha is outdated, culturally insensitive and falling apart. I also don't find the omnimover system at all immersive. I think Feng Ju Palace could be transformed into a better madhouse, but GR just needs to go.
 
Llama said:
Also, the lack of dark rides or places to sit and hang out makes it so you're on thrill rides basically all day, and at the end of the second day I had a bit of a headache from the sheer physicality of it all.
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I disagree, we found that Phantasialand offered a pretty reasonable selection of ride types and it was quite easy not to do repeated thrill rides. There are three dark rides plus a fun house and there was another dark ride when I went in Hollywood Boat tour. Main issue is except for Maus au Chocolat they aren't great. The chinese mad house is a confusing mess and the chinese ghost train was dated and weird. When I went we also watched two shows (BMX and skate stunt show and Chinese acrobatics), although that was four years ago so not sure what shows they offer now. Generally felt better in terms of variety of rides, shows and experiances than Alton Towers.
 
Sooner the China area gets revamped the better. Surprised its gone quiet on that front recently tbh.

I do like GeisterRichter though in a "so bad it's good" vibe. They could just modernise it and I'd be happy. Feng Ju can get in the bin though.
 
jon81uk said:
I disagree, we found that Phantasialand offered a pretty reasonable selection of ride types and it was quite easy not to do repeated thrill rides. There are three dark rides plus a fun house and there was another dark ride when I went in Hollywood Boat tour. Main issue is except for Maus au Chocolat they aren't great. The chinese mad house is a confusing mess and the chinese ghost train was dated and weird. When I went we also watched two shows (BMX and skate stunt show and Chinese acrobatics), although that was four years ago so not sure what shows they offer now. Generally felt better in terms of variety of rides, shows and experiances than Alton Towers.
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I'm mainly comparing it to the other big German park, Europa Park, which is perhaps a tad unfair due to the amount of land each respective park has to work with. The variety of rides, cafes, and places to drink at EP makes it really easy to take a break from the thrill rides and do something else. I didn't find the same at Phantasialand.

Maus au Chocolat is an ok ride, but playing the game is not exactly relaxing. The other two are just plain bad, but not in a so-bad-it's-enjoyable way like the bench ride at EP.
 
I am sad to have missed it, can you compare it to say Geister Richter? Was it a similar level?
 
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