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Crazy Bats VR Coaster - Phantasialand

CSLKennyNI

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
EDIT: Fake News! No rides are being removed before the 2019 season after all. Go to Page 6 for VR announcement.

Could it be the end for Geister Rikscha at Phantasialand?

The oldest ride in the park might be closing permanently at the end of the winter season this Sunday.
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Geister Rikscha is a dark ride that takes guests on a mostly underground journey through scenes depicting Chinese mythology. It uses a Schwarzkopf endless system (Omnimover) and opened in 1981 with the park's China Town area.
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Firstly its important to note that this has not been officially confirmed by the park yet.

However it has been rumoured for a while now that the next project would take place in the China Town area (as mentioned a few times in the Phantasialand 2018 Improvements thread).

Additionally back in July multiple sources reported to have heard that Phantasialand has contracted a firm for a demolition project for this off-season - the subject of which is unknown however Geister would be the most realistic possibility.

There is precedent for the park to already start preparing for their next project when their current one isn't even finished yet.
For example Race for Atlantis was removed January-March 2016 to make way for Rookburgh before Klugheim opened at the end of June 2016; with groundwork/digging for Rookburgh commencing soon after in October 2016.

Although it once again raises the question of when does Rookburgh open? Should it not be until 2020 it would be unusual to start something else so early.

Of course if Rookburgh has suffered delays and given the park's far in advance master planning the time scale may already be set for this project so they're going ahead with it anyway rather than postpone it for a year.

However with Rookburgh the rumour was that the groundwork/digging in 2017 took longer than anticipated. And if this demolition project was only tendered in July 2018 would they not have had the chance to postpone?
Perhaps this suggests the park might still have some hope that a late (Autumn/Winter) 2019 opening could be possible providing there's no further delays?
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Also by no means confirmed of course; but should Geister be removed it is believed that the underground hall will be retained and reused so the majority of the China themed area should be unaffected. Although I would expect to see the area modernised or improved in some places.

Anyone visiting the park this week might want to have a ride on Geister just in case its your last chance.
After Wintertraum ends on the 20th January, the park reopens for the 2019 Summer Season on 1st April - so the question is will Geister Rikscha reopen with it?

Are these rumours false, or perhaps a year or two premature?

Or has the time come after nearly 38 years for the rickshaw journey to finally come to an end?

 
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If Geister does close, which I believe is the case, and Rookburgh doesn't open until 2020, then it'll be a major hit on the park I think.

I imagine if they're going to start demolition, part of China will need to be closed off / rerouted. It would feel like a major disruption to the park, with part of it shut off and a large area still not yet open. In such a small park, it'll feel very noticeable. Of course, short term problem for long term gain, but still not ideal.
 
I don't think this will affect the park too much if it closes before Fly, I don't think I've ever seen or heard of it having a wait.

Is there a chance they can remove a decent amount of interior parts without closing off pathways etc?
 
yeah the longest ive ever queued for skeletons on acid ghost train is <5 minutes. I don't think it'll cause too much chaos for the park, besides access to colorado mine train the pathways around that area aren't exactly rammed aside from opening/closing time. Will be a shame to see such a quirky and charming ride to go, I truly thought they'd work on nighthawk & hollywood tour first as I for one believe they are in a much more dire state with space that holds a lot of potential. Ah well. Phanny always knows best, so im sure itll be worth the interruption/loss.
 
I was just there yesterday and Geister is simply not on par with the rest of newest additions. Of course it was built in 1981 and is a capacity monster, but you can tell Phantasialand is maintaining it but not really investing a lot of money because most of the scenes and animatronics were showing signs of wear and tear and the attraction in general needs a good dose of TLC.

Having seen what they have done with such ridiculous tight plots of land, I say good riddance and bring on the next project. They are sure going full steam with their current project line-up.

Lofty said:
I sincerely hope that Phanta work on another large dark ride, Maus au Chocolate is simply fantastic.
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I am on board with you @Lofty ! Maus au Chocolat is the ONE ride Disney should be jealous of; it makes TSM look *really* bad and cheap. In my opinion, since the last two
projects have involved coasters, the park could use another world-class dark ride, just to avoid becoming a coaster park (which is fine in my books if you have a huge plot of land to work with). I am sure Phantasialand is way ahead of most parks and has already ordered some kind of dark ride with special vehicles. Perhaps Europe's first robo arm?
 
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Glad it's going (if it really is) as it was dated, despite it being quite endearing because of it. I am a little worried about how it'll leave the area during construction/demolition. I'm taking some friends and family this year who haven't been before and I'm a little worried that half of the park will be a construction site.

I'm also curious as to what the theme may be if a new dark ride does come. Something to fit the Himalayan theme that could be coming to the China area? Mexico-oriented theme? Excited to see what's to come...
 
Good riddance. The China area is visually stunning but the 2 rides there are definitely not up to par with the theming. Hopefully Feng Ju Palace receives some love as well so it doesn't feel as dated.
 
Yeah agree with the general consensus. I didn't really get it when I rode last year. It had a pretty large footprint if I remember correctly so definitely frees the park up for future development.

Next for the chopping block is that Hollywood ride too hopefully.
 
"Another" construction site in the park doesn't matter much. Rookburgh is a very invisible construction site (covered by the beautiful theming that already stands), where visitors never came before, so no piece of park (walkways) was lost.

It will thus seem that China Town is the only construction site in the park. I will be happy when Geister Rikscha is replaced, it's time for a more e-ticket attraction.
 
vaugc002 said:
Yeah agree with the general consensus. I didn't really get it when I rode last year. It had a pretty large footprint if I remember correctly so definitely frees the park up for future development.
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The majority of the ride is underground, underneath the other parts of China, so I don’t think it would actually free up that much space.
 
Crazycoaster said:
The majority of the ride is underground, underneath the other parts of China, so I don’t think it would actually free up that much space.
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I'm sure they could make use of that space though? Obviously it's a limited area, but given that they're removing a 250m long ghost train, I think they have something to work with...
 
I hope it's an amazing trackless darkride like Symbolica but underground! Perhaps theme it to Chinese culture and mythology?
 
If it were, for instance, a trackless dark ride, are these capable of moving in a vertical lift, similar to Transformers or River Quest etc? Would be neat to have one which was loaded on ground level and then descended into the show building below.
 
Ethan said:
If it were, for instance, a trackless dark ride, are these capable of moving in a vertical lift, similar to Transformers or River Quest etc? Would be neat to have one which was loaded on ground level and then descended into the show building below.
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How about the queue has stairs going down underground and you board the ride on an underground station? Problem solved.
 
Kw6sTheater said:
How about the queue has stairs going down underground and you board the ride on an underground station? Problem solved.
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Thank you for enlightening me on the existence of stairs, you are truly a goldmine of knowledge.
I'm asking a question about whether a trackless dark ride can travel on a vertical plane during the ride as part of the ride's narrative. We have only seen the ride type traverse a flat surface with one level, and I'm wondering if by using an elevator, is it possible to connect two guided ride sections together.
 
As the only official news we have is that 'they will demolish something': It could also be the Silverado Theatre. It's old and it's position doesn't use the space and it's surroundings to the max.
 
Sterrenstof said:
As the only official news we have is that 'they will demolish something': It could also be the Silverado Theatre. It's old and it's position doesn't use the space and it's surroundings to the max.
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I'd honestly prefer if that were to go first and they rework that entire area. Always feeling quite claustrophobic in that corridor, the only saving grace it has is the bit of CA passing by it!
 
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