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Crazy Bats VR Coaster - Phantasialand

Going mid-April this year, cannot wait to see this in person again now it's been tarted up. And then I can finally ride Taron <3
Me too, on both counts! Deliberately not watching any POVs of Taron before I go. I'm excited to see the new theming on River Quest too, has moving the entrance been confirmed?
 
Me too, on both counts! Deliberately not watching any POVs of Taron before I go. I'm excited to see the new theming on River Quest too, has moving the entrance been confirmed?
Wait... You've never been a POV of Taron??
 
Me too, on both counts! Deliberately not watching any POVs of Taron before I go. I'm excited to see the new theming on River Quest too, has moving the entrance been confirmed?
Not heard or seen any reports or mentions of work on the River Quest entrance. However I guess given the location it would be difficult to see from outside the park. So we probably won't know until the park reopens or they post about it online for #MissionOffSeason.
There had been major work on River Quest in the closed season before Wintertraum but this was to fix the one lift which had been down with major faults for a lot of 2018 (greatly affecting the capacity and increasing queuetimes resulting in the removal of River Quest from the QuickPass). They were then testing RQ with the boats mere days before Wintertraum started. So hopefully the issues have been sorted now.
 
^ Pictures from the Javaland Conference currently taking place in the park show that the old/current entrance still has the all the River Quest signage in place. So presumably the entrance will not be moved this year. Perhaps the necessary engineering work used up that budget this year or there are just other priorities. Unless they work quickly within the next 12 days! :p (probably not) Nevertheless River Quest's boats have placed back into the water today following off season maintenance.
Bottom right of this image.

Also reported on PhantaFriends today is that 2 scissor lifts have started work to clean the exterior of the Temple of the Night Hawk building.

Work is also taking place on the Chiapas bell tower as seen yesterday from Javaland. The roof of the tower had been starting to look rather shabby last year, and they seem to have actually replaced the roof entirely. Seemingly it needed more than just a repaint as had been anticipated. The new roof appears to be slightly differently shaped too but perhaps that's just the picture or because its not finished yet. Be interesting to see how it looks when the park reopens.
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What strikes me is that the new flags that were hung in the Chinese street last year are gone again. Hopefully they will come back soon.

So I was just scrolling through Instagram and saw this image posted by the park...
FtMeUoo.jpg

(Sorry for the size of the screenshot)
Are these the flags from the China/Mexico walkway, or were these here all along?

(Edit- Actually never mind, I think they've been there for a while, just never noticed them!)
 
The picture they've used on Instagram is quite an old one from about mid 2000s I think. They did have some flags hanging up around the area from for a short time then. The key indicator there is the old Hotel Ling Bao colour scheme. The Hotel received it's current Tibetan inspired colour scheme in 2015 when its renovation began.

As for the flags over the China street I imagine they will be hung up again they were a popular photo point last year.
Its simple enough to do and they still have 10 days until opening.
 
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The picture they've used on Instagram is quite an old one from about mid 2000s I think. They did have some flags hanging up around the area from for a short time then. The key indicator there is the old Hotel Ling Bao colour scheme. The Hotel received it's current Tibetan inspired colour scheme in 2015 when its renovation began.

As for the flags over the China street I imagine they will be hung up again they were a popular photo point last year.
Its simple enough to do and they still have 10 days until opening.
Woops, I did not pay attention to the hotel, thanks for the information though!
 
Something happening at the often rumored demolition-candidate "Temple of the Night Hawk":

- The exterior Building is being cleaned.
- The ride did NOT open during todays special sold out date for german "Netto" Supermarket employees.
- The rides entry has been removed from the Parks official app. It can still be seen on the map, but no entrance marker or anything.
 
Yeah, I noticed that too but:
- The exterior was also cleaned last year.
- I would also keep my ugliest, most outdated attraction closed at an event. ;)

But the last comment is interesting. The entrance is indeed no longer indicated.

I had hoped that the indication of the Hollywood Tour entrance had also disappeared. I preferred to see these no longer fitting attractions (regardless of whether they are classics) just stay there closed until they are broken down.

But because Hollywood Tour is still indicated, I would not draw too many conclusions.
 
Not the first time I heard that. I hope Phantasialand doesn't join that dying fake film fad and rather invests in real decorations.

Unless it's "4K 1988 Space Center Onride VR" then sure, go ahead, lol.
 
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Heard many times they'll never go the VR road, so hopefully.

What bout a full retheme with some good decors?
 
The app was actualised for the Netto Corporate buy out event today for which Temple of the Night Hawk (for unknown reasons), Wakobato (because its a Sunday per the agreement with the neighbours), Talocan (unknown) and Black Mamba (the new rockwork) were closed. So those rides did not appear on the map today.

As for anything else all just speculation best to wait and see - well except VR that's never happening as stated multiple times by the park. Their concept is immersion with real theming.
 
Work is also taking place on the Chiapas bell tower as seen yesterday from Javaland. The roof of the tower had been starting to look rather shabby last year, and they seem to have actually replaced the roof entirely. Seemingly it needed more than just a repaint as had been anticipated. The new roof appears to be slightly differently shaped too but perhaps that's just the picture or because its not finished yet. Be interesting to see how it looks when the park reopens.
Screenshot_20190320-172708_Instagram.jpg

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So yes the tower's new roof does look a bit different now...
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For comparison to the old one.
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Not really a fan of the new look from that image hopefully it will be better in person. Nevertheless though its not really the end of the world, and I guess there was some kind of necessary structural/maintenance reason behind the switch.

The metallic with lines on it aesthetic of the roof though does actually remind me of the old Mexican bell tower that was demolished during the construction of Talocan.
20190325_092759.jpg

EhMexico021.jpg
 
It's called a standing seam roof, and is popular in many places due to it's easy, versatile and robust construction. Probably much harder wearing than whatever that roof was made of before - some sort of sheeting material laid over a domed frame. :)

I think it looks pretty good, and frankly I'd never have noticed the change if you hadn't highlighted it. :p
 
I noticed how the roof on the tower was rather shabby on my last couple of visits (in particular over Winteraum, where that area is of course such a focal point for the show).

Personally, I prefer the curved dome shape since it complimented / juxtaposed the rough nature of the rock work much more nicely. On the other hand, it's not exactly any worse, and given 95% of other parks wouldn't have bothered with replacing it, I'm not going to complain.
 
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