TrainTrip 2012

[Ian]

That's right, I'm back! After an amazing week in Europe I think it's time to post a report of the parks we visited


Phantasialand

Erm, wow! What a place! It's easily taken it's place as my favourite European park. I loved the place. The atmosphere walking down Berlin on my first day at the park was brilliant, with costumed staff walking around all over the place, all smiling and waving as you walked by them. It's those little touches which I feel really create the magic.

The design of Berlin is brilliant, with various little old style shops, serving a much greater range of food than I've seen at any UK park. One thing I also really loved was all the little throwbacks to the old days of Phantasialand. For example, it took me a moment to realise but a few of the tracks they play in Berlin are in fact rehashes of the old Phantasialand song. I just thought it was nice the way they acknowledge their history as a park.

So heading down past that awesome wave swinger (I can't help but think it's what would happen if Ripsaw and Toadstool mated ) we made our way to Maus Au Chocolat.

Now bare in mind this was my first taste of a none UK park the queueline just blew my mind. The detail and quality of the themeing is just superb. Even though the ride was walk on we spent a good few minutes just taking in all the queueline. It's just how a dark ride should be!

The station continued this themeing trend, being absolutely caked (If you'll pardon the pun!) in theming. I also liked the little touches such as surround sound being used, to give the illusion the mice a running in and across the pipes around the room.

Boarding the ride I already knew what to expect, having heard many reviews, and studied the ride endlessly </geek>. However, I also knew of some of the issues Phantasialand had been having with the ride at first, so was interested to see if they had solved any of these problems. I also got an excited Joel squeeing at the Wanzle airgates (For anyone curious, they make the little automatic gates you sometimes see at Tesco - They also make the trollies and baskets apparently... )

As far as the ride goes it's my favourite interactive dark ride. I have always felt that interactivity never seemed to work in shooting form on most dark rides, however Maus has somewhat disproved that. It's a good idea well executed. Everything works as it should. The ride not only uses excellent interactive scenes, and offers some good family friendly fun, but it combines this with lavish amounts of real themeing while traveling between the scenes. Everywhere you look there's something interesting and amusing going on.

I was impressed just how well the whole system ran and worked as one too, with things like the surrounding lights and audio dimming when the vehicles were parked and ready to play a scene. I also liked how in the event of a delay the system launches a free replay of the scene to pass the time while the delay is ongoing! A very nice way of disguising stacking - Which, of course, we all know is slacking

So my thoughts on Maus? Definitely my favourite interactive dark ride, but falls to Duel as my favouite dark ride (Purely for the epic geek values of Duel ). All in all a solid attraction and really fun. Needless to say I rode it at least 7 times over the two days we were at Phantasialand...

Moving on from Berlin to Fantasy and Wuze, the transition worked well. This is something I find so odd about Phantasialand. The park in itself isn't huge, and all the themed areas are very close to one and other. Yet somehow they all managed to feel individual and isolated to me. It shouldn't work, yet somehow it does!

Again, the high quality and levels of themeing were prominent, and that whole side of the park is in quite a nice setting, with the lake, greenery, and whatnot The characters continued too, with us having rather an amusing chat with two of them, which went a little like this:

Ian: *takes picture of two of the characters (The butterfly catcher, and the writter) walking around together*
*both march over and start talking in German*
Joel: "Auf English?"
Writer: "What are you doing? Who do you think you are with your big camera taking photos?"
Catcher: "Are you Paparazzi?"
Writer: *points at camera* "What is this? 450D? 550?"
Joel: "How do you know about cameras? You're meant to be Wuzies!"
Catcher: "What are you trying to say? All Wuzies are stupid?"
Joel: "No!"
Writer: "So you're trying to say just I'm stupid?"
Joel: "No no!!!"
Catcher: *puts butterfly net over Joel's head* "So anyway, where are you from?"
Joel: "Birmingham"
Catcher: "Ahh, Aston Villa, no?"
Joel: "Nah, I don't do football"
Writer: "What about you?" *Points with feather*
Me: "Derby"
Catcher: "Derby County? Eesh!"
Me: "I don't follow football either"
Catcher: "I thought you English love your football?!"
Joel: "Not me!"
Catcher: "Meh... So what brings you here?"
Joel: "Just a holiday to Germany!"
Catcher: "No, here here; Phantasialand!"
Joel: "Oh!.. Because Europa Park was too far!"
*both look at each other then slowly turn back, a disgusted look on their faces*
Writer: "Europa... Park..?"
*both glare*
Joel: Just kidding, I like Phantasialand more"
Catcher: "Uh-huh. I hope so!.. Anyway, it's looking like rain, so we'd better be off!"

Funnily enough, the following day we were on park the writer was stood in the entrance to Wuze Town, tickling passer by with his quill. When he saw us he he watched us, then muttered as we walked by "Pffft, Europa Park.."

But I digress

So Wuze, WINJAS!!! Wow, I love this pair of coasters! Two really fun and well themed rides, showing that when they want to Maurer can make a damn good ride! The vertical lifts are very odd, the way they bounce at the start, then tip forwards as they assen, but at the same time really fun. The coaster sections themselves are both unique for Maurer spinning coasters. Although they feature some sharp turns and twists on the "wild mouse" style section they also spend a lot of timing gliding around smoothly, with both tracks gracefully entwining the Tittle Tattle Tree at the centre of Wuze Town.

The trick tracks, well! Both are awesome, though if you ask me, they got them the wrong way around. I found Force's tip off to the side to be much more sudden and intense than Fear's see-saw action. But regardless, both are brilliant, and really fun experiences. I'd love to see someone (Not Maurer, as you shall learn when we come to Disneyland ) take on the concept and further it. There's a lot of potential in it.

I was also impressed by the throughput of the two rides. MS SCs have a bit of a reputation for low throughputs, yet both between and as individuals, the two Winjas coasters eat through crowds in no time. Phantasialand's team really know what they are doing with them, and manage the rides perfectly. It also amuses me how Rolling Loading is supposed to increase the throughput on these rides, and yet Winjas seems to do a better job than any ride with it installed The whole operation is just so efficient and smooth (For anyone interested too ask Joel about Oprah ).

So heading over to the other end of the park, Black Mamba and Deep In Afrika! Again, wow! Someone really went overboard in the themeing department, and it looks stunning! The whole area is so immersive and absorbing!

I love the ride's queueline. It really is akin to Nemesis in terms of landscape and ride interaction. I love all the little touches here and there, like the little paintings on the walls and such. Really adds to the experience.

The station is great, with it's themeing and amazing dispatch sequence. It's just a shame the ride is self batching. I can't help but feel the ride would be more efficient with proper batching on it when there is a queue, as oppose to everyone pushing and shoving to get into the nearest airgate.

The ride itself is brilliant in my opinion. I love the buildup to the main ride, starting from the second the host presses their dispatch button. The dimming lights, the intense audio, and the assent into the tower.

Now I'm not going to lie. The first drop really caught me off guard! It feels so much steeper than it looks when riding it, and some very colourful language was spoken The rest of the ride is equally as thrilling, and the complex layout and sculpting of the ride makes it really challenging to work out what comes next on your first ride, making it really quite intense.

I'm also not sure what people mean when they say it isn't forceful at the end. Sure, it's generic B&M twisting, but the speed it's taken at really makes it something if you ask me! It felt very forceful, and you could feel the ride pulling on your legs (As well as the accompanying grey-out )

Either way, I loved it, and it takes it's place as my second favourite Invert (And to give you a hint, Nemmy is 3rd for me. I'll leave you to speculate )

Now I'm really getting rather tired, so shall continue spewing my love of Phanny out everywhere tomorrow! I shall also be adding about our adventures at Disneyland and Parc Asterix over the coming days too

 

[Ben]

great review ian, looking forward to the rest.

 

[John]

I always like reading reviews of international parks I've visited, so thanks for posting.

I'm surprised you mentioned throughput on Winjas, as I found it pretty poor last year (they were getting 1000/hour combined). I think the new queue layout really helps though, as with the single queue for the 2 coasters you move twice as fast and you feel you're making progress at all times, even though you have further to go. Great coasters though, Fear is easily the better apart from the trick track where Force wins.

As for Mamba, sounds like it was running better than when I rode in April - back then the 2nd half was pretty bland, it felt even weaker than Inferior (though I still prefer it to Thorpe's due to the stunning theming/landscaping).

Looking forward to hearing your views on the rest of the park (you've not mentioned any of my top 3 rides at PL yet!) and not forgetting the other parks too.

 

[Ian]

I'm surprised you mentioned throughput on Winjas, as I found it pretty poor last year (they were getting 1000/hour combined). I think the new queue layout really helps though, as with the single queue for the 2 coasters you move twice as fast and you feel you're making progress at all times, even though you have further to go.

Well obviously I don't know an exact number (That's your department ) but from what I saw they were running very efficiently. The longest we had to queue at any time was through the whole cattlepen before the stairs to the stations, and that took no more than 10 minutes - And I think you'd agree that's quite a long cattlepen!

Vehicles seemed to be loaded and dispatched in under 30 seconds each though, which I'd say was rather respectable. They were also stacking the whole length to the lift on every occasion too, with only a couple of times where we stacked before the offload area.

To me it all seemed very well ran and efficient

 

[Ian]

Right so, part II of Phantasialand!

Right, so I've talked about Maus, my personal favourite dark ride at the park, so lets move on to some of the other one.

First up, Hollywood Tour. I actually really liked this. The drop at the start with the waterfall which cuts off just as you're about to hit it was brilliant! However, I don't really get that first section. Why are we traveling through a random cavern with nothing but some stalectites and mites? It didn't make much sense to me. However, after that it improved when you began traveling from film set to film set.

Now the sets and the films are both very dated, but even so they have a certain charm to them, and the films are ones which most people will know (Jaws, King Kong, Tarzan). The animatronics are very impressive for their age. If this is what PL could produce back them I'll bet they could give Disney a run for their money with today's new technologies and effects available.

I'd love to see the park go back to this ride and update it a bit. It's just a shame that in it's current form it no longer fits the themed area. If it wasn't for Wakobato being down that way I'd suggest making this and Nighthawk their own themed area, so there is no more conflict. But ho-hum!

So next up Silber Mine. Ahh, a ride so many seem to detest But not me! Once again, like Hollywood Tour I loved it, and for all the same reasons. It has some very busy scenes, where literally everything is animated in some form. I love that about the ride. In spite of it's age it's really fun, simply due to how much is going on around you.

My only complaint (Which many would no doubt share) is the length. It's just too long! If there was a way to speed up the ride system though I think it would be much more popular. So again, a charming ride, but an update wouldn't go amiss.

Geister Rikscha - Once again, a great ride, but an update wouldn't go amiss. That said a lot of the scenes are very lavish, and it certainly runs better in terms of effects than Silber. It's a really nice way to interact a haunted style attraction with the park, and it works very well in the China area.

So all in all on the "transit" style dark rides I rode? Well every single one is unique and fun in it's own rights, and no doubt were world class when they opened. Unfortunately, time has taken it's toll on some of them, and some new technologies being bought in wouldn't go amiss. With a bit of TLC they could all once again become world class attractions. Even so though I love each of them individually!

So other dark rides? Temple of the Nighthawk anyone? Erm... Hard to judge really. I loved the coaster. Even if it is long, and doesn't exactly do a lot, being set in the pitch black makes for a fun first few rides. It just needs something to go in the building with it though. Anything! I mean come on, the Fantasy theme is far from exhaustive! There's so much which could be done with it! It's a really missed chance by Phantasialand if you ask me. A good coaster, but seriously underutilised

Feng Ju Palace... I don't get it! A nice little Madhouse with it's cool projections in the ride, but not only does just the one preshow mean that it feels horribly dragged out, but it also lacks any obvious story line. I can only assume that this evil warrior guy has kidnapped the guy's missus and plans to marry her (Don't ask why, I have no idea) and that the hero of the story calls on the powers of four gods to help him get her back... And somewhere along the line he wanders into a spinning room...

Don't get me wrong, it's brilliantly themed, and the Madhouse itself is great, but it's just a bit of a "lulwut" attraction Never the less, it's a nice way to kill 10 minutes, and it's a nice addition to the China area.

Moving onto water rides, and starting out small there's Wakobato. I love the setting of the ride, it's very nice and out of the way, making it peaceful. As for the ride itself it's nice but nothing special. My main complaint, won't someone think of the leftys?! Having the handle on the right makes it impossible to use throughout the ride, and by the halfway point I just gave up and relaxed, watching the world go by

River Quest! Love it, love it, love it, love it! Hafema, you are geniuses! A bit mad, but geniuses none the less. The first strange thing you notice when boarding the ride (After a nicely themed queueline, I might add ) is that the boats aren't your traditional style rapids boat. The boat is broken into three seating areas, and each of these is it's own section of boat, which is connected to the others, but is hinged. This means they essentially bend and fold throuhout the ride, making it very odd in my opinion. This is no doubt done so the boats are capable of passing through the drops the ride has later on.

Leaving the dry station (Another odd thing in my opinion) the boats drift around at ground level, heading towards the tower, which daunting leans over you all the time. At this point the rafts make their way up a small incline which raises them out of the water, before leveling off. You are then in a small room, traveling inwards, and to one side of you (The right if you face in from the opening) there are two gaping holes, with huge metal boxes whizzing up and down them. The ride is very clever if you ask me in the way it transports the boats to the correct position. Needless to say I spent a good while geeking out at it

When one of the two lifts lowers (Usually while you're still traveling into the room) your boat continues moving until level with it. Then, from beneath, over conveyors, this time at 90 degrees to the longer ones raise up, and begin to move you into the rusty metal lift. When parked, the lift begins it's assent, tipping forward precariously, all the way.

After a few seconds you emerge at the top of the tower, leaning into the first drop. The lift holds you there for a few seconds before releasing the boat and letting in fly down the chute!

Following this very soggy introduction, the boats then make their way into a giant whirl pool, where they make a couple of spiraling inward turns before entering yet another drop, this time near the centre of the whirlpool, and following it's path down. Before you even have chance to recover from that second drop though you fast approach the final drop of the ride. While not the biggest, it's certainly the steepest, and it seems there is no way to avoid getting soaked!

All in all one of my favourite rapids rides, but my only criticism would be that so much happens in such a short space of time after the whirlpool. However, I guess that's the price you pay for limited space. It's still very impressive the way they managed to cram such a large attraction onto such a small footprint, so credit to both the park and Hafema there!

So last, but certainly by no means least we come to Colorado Adventure. It's rides like this which make me love Vekoma! It's everything a mine train should be! It's wild, it's fast, it's snappy, and it's everso slightly rickety to give it that real feeling... Oh, and I guess it should get some more browie points for themeing

For me it's the best example of a mine train, blowing Big Thunder Mountain clean out of the water. On the rear of the train there are some incredibly forceful moments, and thanks to a very loose lapbar (Glares at a certain someone) I can confirm it has some quite subtle, but forceful ejector moments

The ride begins with a reasonably small lift hill (Though starting at a height also gives it altitude. Even though the lift is small though the train really picks up some speed when it gets going, diving into the first tunnel. This is the only area where the ride falls flat on it's face. The building is nothing short of a tin shed inside. I really hope they do something about this in the Chiapas project. Overlooking that factor though, this building packs itself a whole load of tight and overlapping track, making it very thrilling.

After this the ride exits the building and hits the second lift. This takes is up I think slightly higher, before diving down into another much darker tunnel again. This is a very thrill section of the ride thanks to the darkness, and really caught me off guard on my first ride!

Some more short sharp corners and we come to the third and final lift. This one runs almost parallel to the second lift, but travels a few feet higher. The train then enters a swooping left turn drop, following the rockwork structure, before performing a complete turnaround and dipping into the last tunnel. The drop in the tunnel is surprisingly steep, and very floaty on the back row. Probably one of the most airtime packing sections of track on the ride. The final turns around the water towers are very tight, and the banking reaches near 90 degrees for a few seconds! Just when you think the train won't tilt any further, it manages it!

All in all, I absolutely adore it. Hopefully in my next visit it'll look even more stunning with it's new themeing!

So that's about it for all the key rides and attractions I rode. In the next update I'll move onto talking about the hotels, bars, restaurants, and the shows

 

[AstroDan]

Great to read. Did you not find that by the 15th scene, Maus became a bit tedious and repetitive?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Ian]

By the last scene it does start to get a bit tedious, I'll admit, but I think Phantasialand chose to end the ride at the right point. Any longer and it'd spoil it, but in it's current form it's just right in my opinion

 

[DiogoJ42]

Good TR so far matey. Did you not do Mystery Castle? It's the only drop ride I've ever enjoyed.

 

[Ian]

No, I skipped out on Mystery Castle, not only due to the ride itself, but also the concealed queueline. I really don't do darker indoor queueing like that for too long

 

[DiogoJ42]

Ah, you missed out mate. The queue is actually quite well lit (admittedly, I spend my life in dark places) and wonderfully themed. It's certainly not X:\ WTF!

As for the ride itself, I can totally understand not wanting to, you know my feelings on drop towers! But I'm glad I was talked into it, as it's seriously good fun. I found it more bouncy than dropy. I liked it so much that I can't wait to get back on it next month

 

[Ian]

Re: TrainTrip 2012 (Turning Picture Heavy!)

Oops! I think I may have forgotten about this

So back to where I left off! Hotels and Restaurants.

Well we stopped in hotel Matamba for two nights on our trip. Wow! Is it just me or is the hotel an absolute maze?! I think every time we got in a lift we ended up somewhere else we'd never been (On the ground floor )

The rooms are beautiful. Not only are they themed, but they feel very unique. What I mean is you go to somewhere like Splash and the rooms are just a generic hotel style room with the walls painted a bit. Whereas Matamba doesn't feel like that. It feels different, and it's nice.

I was also very impressed by the soundproofing. Our room had Mamba's lift on the left, and CA's turnaround literally right outside! Yet when you shut the windows you couldn't hear a sound. It was very nice

So restaurants. Well first of all we had breakfast each morning in Matamba. It was absolutely brilliant. The hotel staff really put a good spread on, and if you couldn't find something you liked there was something wrong with you It put any of the Alton hotels to shame!

The atmosphere in Hotel Matamba was brilliant. The place was immersive but not in your face. It didn't force itself upon you, but was instead more passive. This is what I want from a hotel after a busy day. Somewhere to relax and unwind. Not somewhere which is constantly shoving itself in front of you saying "ooooh look at this!". It was all very laid back and relaxing. The staff were all lovely. Very friendly and smiley, which added to the atmosphere. Everywhere you went felt very welcoming.

We tried the bar in Matamba too on our first night due to Dragon Bar being close due to "technical difficulties" *cough*notgotthestaff*cough* It was ok I suppose... Indoors was nice, but the outside patio area for this bar really wasn't anything special. It was a bit too dark, which rather spoilt the mood as you just couldn't take in all the surroundings during the day.

However, in the same night we also visited Li River bar in Hotel Ling Bao. Now that garden put Matamba's to shame! It's beautiful! The koi pond, the flame torches, the little walkways and bridges. It was stunning. I'd happily have sat there all night. Just... Wow!

The immersive theming is second to none that I've seen. I'd quite happily pay the extra to stay there again. But what was more amusing was the fact that as Joel booked the hotel in advance two nights B&B there was cheaper than one night in ATH or Splash can be sometimes! I know which I'd pick!

Something I also liked was the fact that as Ling Bao is virtually in the China Town themed area they open it up at night for guests to walk around. Obviously, nothing is operating, but it's nice just to look at it!

So Ling Bao on the inside. It looks great! Personally, I prefered Matamba, as I found the upbeat and welcoming atmosphere to be better. Don't get me wrong, Ling Bao has atmosphere. However, it's a very quiet and tranquil setting, where everyone seems to move through silently That said it is still a beautiful hotel and very nicely themed.

On our second night we visited Restaruant Bamboo in Ling Bao for the buffet dinner. We'd wanted to go to Zambeesi in Matamba, but it was fully booked. Oh well! Next time perhaps When we arrived at Bamboo they couldn't find our booking on the system, in spite of the fact the woman in Matamba had entered all the details and even showed us them on screen. However, whereas a lot of places would probably just turn you away, not here! The manageress came down and personally apologised for the problems, before taking us to Li River for some free drinks while she had a table sorted. Very good customer service if you ask me

The buffet was divine! Just like the breakfast one the hotel put on a brilliant spread. For how much was on offer I think the price was rather reasonable.

After dinner we were exploring the hotel and we noticed a sign which said that the Dragon Bar would be opening at 9. So we explored some more waiting until 9 before going up to the bar.

The inside of the bar is beautiful. Set right on the top of Ling Bao it has a rooftop patio which looks out over the whole park. In the evening when it all lights up it really is a sight to see!

It was all so pretty! Once again the staff were very friendly and helpful, and would have made anything you asked if they had the ingredients for it. (Though annoyingly they could only make a non alcoholic Banana Colada due to them not having the puree needed )

So all in all, two wonderful hotels which I would recommend to anyone visiting the parks. There's so much to them, and they are both a great place to just sit back and relax after a day of walking around the park

So that concluded Phantasialand. All in all it's rightly taken it's place as my favorite theme park. I loved everything about the place, and I can't wait to return! *starts saving the pennies*

Next up Disneyland Paris...

 

[DiogoJ42]

Matamba has to be the best hotel I have ever stayed in. My balcony was right in front of Mamba's loop I'm glad I'm not the only one who was totally blown away by it.

 

[Ian]

I think Matamba has the best interior, and the nicer atmosphere of the two, but Ling Bao trumps it for looks from the outside and surroundings. The gardens are just beautiful. I'd happily stay in either again though

 

[AstroDan]

In terms of the theme and general look, Matamba is probably my favourite resort hotel that I have yet stayed in. The rooms, certainly - are my favourite. I just love them.

It's just a shame that there is never anybody around. The bars are always empty, for one! I always wonder where the guests go after about 9pm?

Also - if you liked Phantasialand this year, with all of the disruption going on in the middle of the park, then you really, really would be beyond impressed if you visited when it's at full throttle. The general view from return visitors in 2012, is that the park isn't quite up there with the usual standards at the moment - but I am sure that will return when they get the new ride sorted etc.



And PS: Bote - saving he pennies, you need to next get to that *other* German theme park, you know the one... Belantis

 

[Ian]

See, the only bar I thought was quiet was Li River. When we went to Dragon Bar it was only us at opening, but when we left at around 11it was quite busy. About on par with Ma's on a reasonable night. I don't think the lack of people is really a big deal in Ling Bao. The hotel is very quiet and tranquil anyway, so in my opinion having a noisy, busy bar would not keep in with the theme. It'd be better suited to Matamba.

When we visited the bar there there were a few families in, and a couple of people sat at the bar, so that wasn't exactly dead either.

With regards to the building site I really didn't feel it was an issue. Like I said, the only time it was very noticeable was in front of Talocan, or on Colorado's second and third lifts. In the rest of the park they've done quite a good job of hiding it, with the themed fences and wha not (Better than what you get at Towers! A sheet of chipboard with a banner stuck to it )

I really would love to get back there next year for Chiapas, and to see the rest of the park again. Alas, I can see University sucking away most of my funds

 

[AstroDan]

Sounds like the bars at PL were busier than they have been in recent years then, which can only be a good thing.

In 4 visits to the place over the years, the bars have always been utterley devoid of any guests - generally less than 20 in Dragon Bar. In fact, we're always taking the proverbial about how empty the hotels always seen!