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Back to Phantasialand after 16 years

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
My last visit to the park was in July 2006, just after Black Mamba first opened.

I didn’t get much done because the park was busy and we had arrived late and left early.

With all the developments since then, it was finally time for a return visit.

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Arriving late in the evening Wednesday 28th September, we checked into the Hotel Charles Lindbergh.

First problem we had was we couldn’t find our room. We were told it was in tower B on level 2, but it turns out the floor levels written in the lift don’t match the lift buttons. Not sure why this hasn’t been corrected.

Eventually we found our room after working out the error.

As we knew beforehand, it’s more of a cabin than a full hotel room, but it was spotlessly clean, well-themed, and the temperature was just right.

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We went for dinner in the Restaurant Uhrwerk, which was mostly empty because it was around 10pm by this point.

The lady at check-in had told us that the restaurant was open until 11pm and that you didn’t need to make a reservation, but the second we arrived at the restaurant we were asked “Do you have a reservation?”. We said “No” and the staff members looked a little irritated to have guests at this late hour. But they allowed us in anyway.

You get to choose 3 courses which are included in the hotel package and you pay for drinks. The food was good despite the staff’s initial resistance to let us in.

Here's one of the starters (steak tartare):

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After dinner we explored Rookburgh, which is open for hotel guests to walk around at night.

It is a truly spectacular area with an incredible level of detail.

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I’d seen plenty of pictures and videos beforehand, but the scale of the area doesn’t come across until you’re there in person. Everything looks bigger in real life.

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It’s probably the most detailed and atmospheric themed area I have seen outside of Disney. A remarkable piece of theme park design.

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By this point it was around midnight and we returned to the cabin for the night.

I didn’t sleep well because I found the room a little stuffy. It would’ve been nice to have a window you can crack open to get some fresh air. The window in the bathroom does open but it backs directly onto a walkway so we didn’t want to open that.

The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine, which was a huge relief because the weather forecast had been rain all week.

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We went to breakfast, again at the Restaurant Uhrwerk (also included), and we were not asked for a reservation this time. I like hot food for breakfast and this breakfast was mostly continental, but there was a very small hot section with sausage, bacon and scrambled egg.

The food was fine, but one thing I hate about this restaurant: they make you sit with other people.

I couldn’t believe it when the waitress led us to table with people sitting either side of us, on the same table. It’s super awkward and you can’t have a private conversation. It was the same when we went for dinner later that evening. Sitting right between other groups. Absolutely hated it.

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After breakfast it was for finally time for the park.

We entered the park through Rookburgh and headed straight for my number one reason for this trip:

Taron.

I’d been itching to get on Taron for years.

After watching a few test runs and hearing the comical sound of the second launch, the ride opened at 10am and we got on one of the first trains on the back row.

Onride, my first thought was “how do some people say this is the best coaster in Europe?”.

It’s a really good coaster, but I can think of several other coasters in Europe I prefer.

It was fast, but not that fast. It had airtime, but not that much airtime. It had intensity, but not that much intensity. The launches weren’t that powerful.

I did consider that it might need to warm up throughout the day, but when I rode it later in the day, although it was slightly better, it wasn’t enough to change my overall thoughts.

In summary - a GREAT coaster, but not world-class.

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After this, we had such an action packed day that I can’t remember the order we did everything, so I’m just go through everything ride by ride.

Let’s first cover all the rides I went on in 2006.


Colorado Adventure.

I remembered this as “the Michael Jackson thrill ride” but all references to MJ are removed now.

The entrance to the ride is in a super illogical place but we found it eventually. It’s a fantastic mine train and has got the be the most intense one in the world. Absolutely loved it.


Mystery Castle.

I had very little memory of what happens on this, other than being terrified because I used to hate drop tower rides.

I’d heard about the different drop sequences depending on whether you ride in the morning or afternoon. My first ride was in the morning when it had a very short cycle, which was a tad underwhelming. In the afternoon it was better, but I still felt the ride could do with more show scenes as part of the cycle. It’s all over so quickly and the only effect is strobe lighting and not much else.

Good ride, not too forceful, but could probably do with an update.

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Black Mamba.

I remember loving this in 2006 so I was interested to see whether I’d still like it now.

Yes. I still love it. It’s great coaster and the African theme around it wonderfully done. Weirdly I felt like I got some good airtime on the vertical loop, which I don’t recall ever experiencing on a coaster before. Not sure how that worked.

The only disappointment was that you can’t choose front row. I always find front row best on inverts but we never got lucky enough this trip.

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Winjas Fear & Force

I only rode Force back in 2006. I found it a bit underwhelming back then and still found it a tad underwhelming this time.

The Fear cred was new to me and I found it much better than Force. It has a great airtime hill after the first drop and an extra overbanked turn.

I do love the design of these two coasters. Very unique and memorable (a common theme with Phantasialand’s attractions).


That’s everything I did in 2006. Now on to the new-to-me rides.

Starting with:


River Quest.

Really wanted to do this back in 2006 but didn’t get time.

It’s an interesting rapids with multiple layers. A bit short but it doesn’t really need to be any longer given how wet it is. I enjoyed it but only did it once this trip as didn’t want to get soaked again.


F.L.Y.

F.L.Y. was down for several hours from the start of the first day which had me worried, but it opened mid afternoon.

I was super looking forward to this ride because I love the design of it.

Unfortunately it made me very nauseous. It’s a great coaster, but I think the flying position doesn’t sit right with me as every flying coaster I’ve ridden has made me nauseous to some extent. I thought this one might be different as it has no extreme elements like the B&Ms, but that wasn’t the case.

It is a wonderfully designed coaster and I wish I could ride it more. I did give it another go later in the day but it still made me ill.

It’s a beautiful ride to watch. As mentioned earlier, the Rookburgh area is spectacular.

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The way the sun's rays shine through the mist in the area creates a wonderful atmosphere:

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Chiapas

I love log flumes and I was looking forward to this one. Absolutely loved it. It was wet but not too wet. A great layout and theming and nice steep drop at the end. One of my favourite rides in the park and probably my second favourite flume behind Splash Mountain.

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I loved the Mexico area. It was my favourite part of the park:

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Maus au Chocolat

I generally hate screen-based rides but this one was among the better ones. It was charming and had some decent physical sets between the screens. I preferred it to Toy Story Mania.

As always with these rides, I was feeling chuffed with my 250,000 or so score but was immediately deflated to see someone else's high score of around 850,000.


Raik

I don’t like Vekoma boomerangs because going backwards is another thing that makes me nauseous. This one was no different. I liked the design of it though and was surprised by how tucked-away it is. You can barely see any of the track until you ride. A fantastic use of space.


Geister Rikscha

I was super curious about this ride as apparently it’s the oldest ride in the park, and I love dark rides in general.

Unfortunately it was nothing special at all and all the sets looked extremely tired. The ride was completely dead every time I passed so I think this is one Phantasialand should replace soon.


Deep In Africa Adventure Trail

This is the park’s newest attraction and it’s wonderful. It’s a super fun and well-designed walkthrough with a touch of genuine risk in the water sections. Absolutely loved it and went through it twice this trip.

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Das verrückte Hotel Tartüff.

This is an average fun house with a slightly intimidating slide at the end.

Some things were broken and I was surprised to learn that this only opened in 2012 as it looked pretty dated to me. I initially thought it was one of the older attractions.


Feng Ju Palace.

Mad houses are yet another ride type that make me ill and this one was no different. This one was nothing special and could probably do with being replaced or updated.


Wakobato.

This ride is in a completely dead area of the park and I felt sorry for the two staff members manning it as there was absolutely no one on it.

It used to be a splash battle by the looks of it, but as I understand it the noise was an issue for the park’s neighbours. So now it operates as an entirely uneventful boat ride around a lake with no audio or anything. I’m surprised the park keeps it running.


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We did all the above rides on our first day.

On our second day, Friday 30th, we mostly did re-rides and enjoyed the park's atmosphere in the sunshine.


Major rides that we didn’t do or were closed:

Talocan - this one would’ve been a vomit-fest for me, but it’s visually impressive and fun to watch.

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Crazy Bats - this was closed the entire visit, which I wasn’t too bothered about because I hate VR rides. I never got to ride Temple of the Nighthawk so was slightly disappointed to not get the cred at least.


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General thoughts on the park.


A few minor criticisms:


As mentioned earlier, there seemed to be miscommunication between the hotel staff regarding the restaurant opening times and reservations. Not a huge deal, but as guests it made us feel like we were being a nuisance.

There’s an ugly grassy wall between Taron and the Mexico area. I remember seeing this during Taron’s construction but didn’t realise it was still there to this day. It looks super out of place and is an eyesore. I was wondering if it is perhaps a placeholder for further development behind that area.

A few rides are simply not up to the standard of the rest of the park and could do with being replaced or updated. Namely, Geister Rikscha, Feng Ju and Wakobato.

We didn’t actually have much food in the park but we did try waffles from the place on the Berlin street and they were the blandest waffles I’ve ever had.


Onto the positives:

I love this park. I loved it on my brief previous visit and I loved it again this time.

It has one of the most consistently good-quality ride lineups of any park anywhere.

Nearly everything is at least “good”, and the major rides are all excellent and/or memorable.

I especially love the creatively compact design of the park. Since 2006 I have enjoyed watching the various construction projects. The park has many layers and is so well put together. Its compact nature combined with high-quality theming is right up my street.

I thought the audio around the park was very well done. I loved how there were sound effects to accompany elements of the rides, such as the second launch on Taron.

It was wonderful to finally see Klugheim, Chiapas, and Rookburgh in person.

Queue times were short. Most major rides had 5-10 minute waits.

Only F.L.Y. seemed to get consistently longer queues, usually around 30-45 mins. However, as we were Charles Lindbergh hotel guests, we were able to use the hotel guest entrance and walked straight on.

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I can see why many people consider Phantasialand their favourite park. It’s definitely up there for me. I especially look forward to seeing what they build in the future given the quality of their most recent additions.

Favourite ride of the trip: Taron. Despite being a tad overhyped, it's still super fun.
 
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