mouse
Giga Poster
Bit of background first - Me and a friend had planned a trip to Cologne for this summer, so a Phantasialand trip was an absolute must what with the opening of Taron and Klugheim. Phantasialand seems to be very highly rated on this site, so I had high expectations. Needless to say I wasn't dissapointed! We went to the park on 26th July and it was fairly busy, although queues weren't too bad.
So we got the train from Cologne to Brühl, where we then took a shuttle bus to the park. The entrance was very unassuming, at first I thought it was just a bus stop - You can't see into the park at all. We already had tickets so didn't have to queue, although we did have to get our bags checked by a very jolly member of staff. He pointed at a bottle of water in my bag and asked if I had any glasses. I told him I had sunglasses, before realising thats not what he meant.
We then made it through to the small entrance plaza, which has a nice double decker carousel. German's seem to like double decker things, as the train we caught also had two decks. I went to a sweet shop in Cologne to see if they had any Double Decker chocolate bars, but couldn't find any.
As soon as you enter the park there is a great atmosphere, with music playing throughout. The street into the main Berlin area is nice enough, with some good theming and atmosphere. I've been to Berlin before though, and this isn't actually it - it's just an area themed to Berlin. When reading about the park it seemed geographically unlikely to actually be the German capital, so the fact that it isn't makes sense. It's an idealistic interpretation of Berlin, complete with fun houses, chair swings and themed bins.
We headed towards Klugheim, only to find the area hadn't opened yet (it was around 10:30), and there was a large queue at the entrance. Taron was testing and looked AMAZING (pictures later!). The toilets nearby were obviously very busy, due to people having to clean up after wetting themselves at the sight of the coaster.
Not wanting to join the queue, we headed into the Mexico area. I say Mexico 'area' because again it isn't really Mexico. Similar to the Berlin area, this is misleading marketing. It seems geographically impossible because it IS impossible. We decided to join the queue for Colorado Adventure, the first ride of the day.
Didn't get any good pictures of it.
The queue was around 20 minutes, with good theming and annoying country music being played. The ride is great fun and quite long for the limited amount of space its in. It has 3 lift hills, exciting turns and drops, great theming, and is even slightly forceful! The seats weren't very comfortable however it is a brilliant family ride.
After this we decided to just walk around and ride whatever. So naturally we ended up on 'Geister Rikscha' in the China town area. This is a dark ride in which you travel through various oriental/spooky scenes complete with good theming and animatronics. Its ok with some interesting scenes, and all the animatronics worked.
Next we walked past River Quest, a compact and well-themed rapids. The queue was around 40 minutes. The ride itself is good fun with a lift, exciting drops and whirlpool - probably the best rapids ride I've been on! Some people on the raft didn't get too wet, but I got absolutely soaked.
We then did Mystery Castle, an indoor drop tower(s). Queue was around 15 minutes, and had good theming and interactive elements. One of these was an Einstein animatronic who said some stuff in German. The only German word I know is 'currywurst', which I didn't hear in the speech, so I'm not sure what he was talking about - only that it wasn't anything to do with curried sausage.
The actual ride is fun, with great sound and lighting effects. The launch and drop however does not feel that powerful or forceful compared to other drop towers I've ridden.
Next was Feng Ju Palace, a Vekoma mad house.
The pre-show consisted of a fight between two ninja hologram dudes. I say fight, they just minced around a bit and occasionally patted each other on the shoulder. We then got onto the ride itself, which was fun and disorientating. Not sure how the pre-show was relevant to a room spinning around, but then again do any of these rides have a relevant pre-show? Can't they just do one about a witch who makes rooms spin around or something?
Not being able to wait any longer, we went into Klugheim. The area is brilliantly themed and fits in well with the rest of the park. It is dominated by the sights and sounds of Taron, which covers the whole area twisting around theming and ducking under paths. It really is an awesome sight and atmosphere, it is impossible to follow the layout of Taron by watching it off ride. What was in the Klugheim space before, just a big fence or something? Its a focal point of Phantasialand, I can't imagine what the park would've been like without it.
There was some criticism that the rockwork looked artificial and tacky, which I agreed with to an extent until I actually saw it. Photos don't do it justice, it genuinely looks incredible and very realistic. Here's a close up section of the detail in each rock:
We joined the queue for Taron, which was around an hour and a half long. It began very well themed until we reached a large cattle pen
. Overall it wasn't too bad though, and you get some good views of the coaster. There was a costumed staff member who's job was to stand on the wall above the cattle pen and make sure everything is ok. Every time I looked he was on a different side of the queue, but I didn't ever see him walking around. I like to think he flew, don't correct me.
So onto the ride...
It was ok I guess... and by that I mean it was AMAZING. Like really AMAZING. It is just relentless and fast paced, with snappy transitions and strong forces. There were also multiple moments of airtime, with ejector hills followed by forceful turns. There is no meandering whatsover, or even much of a decrease in speed - it just doesn't let up. The second launch is particularly powerful and caught me off guard, one of the highlights of the ride. It is also very smooth, although it is new so not sure whether this will last or not.
As you can see the trains are very open and exposed, and felt comfortable. There is lots of freedom to move, which makes you feel somewhat vulnerable - especially when you're being thrown around on the tighter transitions. What I mainly love about the ride is the interaction with paths and theming, it is by far the best interaction I've seen on a coaster. There are loads of headchoppers and footchoppers, which I didn't even think was possible on a floored coaster. The relentless pace, forces and exciting layout along with the impeccable interaction with high quality theming has made this my new No.1 coaster. Now look at some more pictures and start planning to go ride it yourself...
Next we moved on to Raik, which had a 30 minute queue. Raik is a good quality family coaster. Being in Phantasialand of course it has very good theming, and great interaction. The fowards section is exciting and fast, followed by a slightly less exciting backwards section. Overall it is quite short, but a solid family ride. I particularly liked its interaction with Taron.
So Klugheim done we then headed towards the fantasy area and Wuze Town at the other end of the park.
Wuze Town is a cool indoor area with nice fantasy theming. It is dominated by the Winjas, which we joined the half hour queue for. The queue has changed to one big queue, and you choose which one to ride towards the end. We chose Fear. I think the name was ironic as we weren't scared of it. The queue was funny due to a guy speaking German. This in itself isn't funny, as I don't understand it, although some of the words sound like English words. Not sure what he was actually saying, but to me it sounded like "hghfudbvuafbhjabfhubrajhabjfbguhbjabvhuaro SH*TBALLS iuonromgvjribjfoafjobgafjobjoab". Any german speakers know any words that sound like sh*tballs? I had to really try hard to suppress my laughter.
The ride was great fun, I particularly enjoyed the unusual sections like the elevator lift, seesaw track and bouncing track. I've ridden Alton's and Chessington's spinners, and this was obviously better. Didn't ride force because couldn't be bothered to queue again.
We left Wuze Town and rode a slow powered thing with nice views.
Could see how close houses were to the lake:
The ride also went past an apparent construction site that seemed like it was within the park, but not sure... managed to get a crap picture. Any ideas what it is?
So next we went to Chiapas. This is such a good looking log flume, I love the area. This photo is obligatory for a Phantasialand report:
As you can see in this next picture there was a man in the water... I assumed he was working there. Any ideas what he was doing? He was just sort of standing there as if he was having a wee. Maybe the toilets were full? Or perhaps he thought he was Moses and could part the water.
Chiapas was great fun with fantastic theming and exciting drops. There was lots of water already at the bottom of the boat, meaning I got wet feet, and as I was sat at the back, a wet arse on the lift hills.
We moved on to Talocan, which is by far the best themed flat ride I've seen.
The ride is forceful and fun, with lots of hangtime. It had great fire and water effects which all worked perfectly. I got nervous at one point because a pidgeon landed on the flame thrower thing. Luckily it flew away before the effect. The restraints aren't very comfortable as they have a sticky out bit designed especially to crush a man's wurst. I swear the ride operator winked at me as he pushed the restraint down.
We then went into the Deep Africa. Again, not really Africa - its geographically impossible. The area was hard to find but it looks great, and Black Mamba is very well hidden. It only had a 20 minute queue. This invert is absolutely brilliant, with a fast pace and forceful layout. It's interaction with the environment rivals Nemesis, and there are plenty of footchoppers. It does seem to meander a bit towards the end though, after the inversions finish. But overall a great invert with perfect theming.
We then started to make our way back to Berlin (the Berlin area of the park (which isn't really Berlin) and not the actual city). We stopped in China town (not really China) as there were some people doing circus tricks. There was a woman doing some hula hooping:
Next a guy did some juggling while standing on a platform balancing on a sparkly toilet roll tube.
Then he added some rolls of duct tape:
It started to get a bit silly.
We left before he could add any more rolls of duct tape. We made our way back to Berlin (not really Berlin) and stopped to do the hotel themed fun house CFers recommended.
So glad I heard about this, it was hilarious and great fun! A good way to end the day.
So we left feeling satisfied. Overall I absolutely love Phantasialand. The theming is of such a high quality and level of detail, and the interaction between rides and theming is second to none. Navigating through the park is like a journey of discovery, as everything appears hidden within the environment and theming. Some things are hard to find, although the park is not huge and not too difficult to navigate. There was a great atmosphere with music playing throughout, and I felt entirely immersed in the themes. The park is impeccably designed with brilliant use of space. Maintanance also seemed to be good! I didn't notice any breakdowns during the day, and all animatronics and effects were working. Queues were generally ok, the longest was Taron. Phantasialand is already viewed as one of the top parks in the world by some, and I think Klugheim will help secure this status for the future. Obviously its my new favourite park.
Thanks for reading!
Will add some photos and a stupid commentary of Cologne at some point (actually is Cologne, not just an area themed around it).
TL;DR I went to Phantasialand and it was good.
So we got the train from Cologne to Brühl, where we then took a shuttle bus to the park. The entrance was very unassuming, at first I thought it was just a bus stop - You can't see into the park at all. We already had tickets so didn't have to queue, although we did have to get our bags checked by a very jolly member of staff. He pointed at a bottle of water in my bag and asked if I had any glasses. I told him I had sunglasses, before realising thats not what he meant.
We then made it through to the small entrance plaza, which has a nice double decker carousel. German's seem to like double decker things, as the train we caught also had two decks. I went to a sweet shop in Cologne to see if they had any Double Decker chocolate bars, but couldn't find any.
As soon as you enter the park there is a great atmosphere, with music playing throughout. The street into the main Berlin area is nice enough, with some good theming and atmosphere. I've been to Berlin before though, and this isn't actually it - it's just an area themed to Berlin. When reading about the park it seemed geographically unlikely to actually be the German capital, so the fact that it isn't makes sense. It's an idealistic interpretation of Berlin, complete with fun houses, chair swings and themed bins.
We headed towards Klugheim, only to find the area hadn't opened yet (it was around 10:30), and there was a large queue at the entrance. Taron was testing and looked AMAZING (pictures later!). The toilets nearby were obviously very busy, due to people having to clean up after wetting themselves at the sight of the coaster.
Not wanting to join the queue, we headed into the Mexico area. I say Mexico 'area' because again it isn't really Mexico. Similar to the Berlin area, this is misleading marketing. It seems geographically impossible because it IS impossible. We decided to join the queue for Colorado Adventure, the first ride of the day.
Didn't get any good pictures of it.
The queue was around 20 minutes, with good theming and annoying country music being played. The ride is great fun and quite long for the limited amount of space its in. It has 3 lift hills, exciting turns and drops, great theming, and is even slightly forceful! The seats weren't very comfortable however it is a brilliant family ride.
After this we decided to just walk around and ride whatever. So naturally we ended up on 'Geister Rikscha' in the China town area. This is a dark ride in which you travel through various oriental/spooky scenes complete with good theming and animatronics. Its ok with some interesting scenes, and all the animatronics worked.
Next we walked past River Quest, a compact and well-themed rapids. The queue was around 40 minutes. The ride itself is good fun with a lift, exciting drops and whirlpool - probably the best rapids ride I've been on! Some people on the raft didn't get too wet, but I got absolutely soaked.
We then did Mystery Castle, an indoor drop tower(s). Queue was around 15 minutes, and had good theming and interactive elements. One of these was an Einstein animatronic who said some stuff in German. The only German word I know is 'currywurst', which I didn't hear in the speech, so I'm not sure what he was talking about - only that it wasn't anything to do with curried sausage.
The actual ride is fun, with great sound and lighting effects. The launch and drop however does not feel that powerful or forceful compared to other drop towers I've ridden.
Next was Feng Ju Palace, a Vekoma mad house.
The pre-show consisted of a fight between two ninja hologram dudes. I say fight, they just minced around a bit and occasionally patted each other on the shoulder. We then got onto the ride itself, which was fun and disorientating. Not sure how the pre-show was relevant to a room spinning around, but then again do any of these rides have a relevant pre-show? Can't they just do one about a witch who makes rooms spin around or something?
Not being able to wait any longer, we went into Klugheim. The area is brilliantly themed and fits in well with the rest of the park. It is dominated by the sights and sounds of Taron, which covers the whole area twisting around theming and ducking under paths. It really is an awesome sight and atmosphere, it is impossible to follow the layout of Taron by watching it off ride. What was in the Klugheim space before, just a big fence or something? Its a focal point of Phantasialand, I can't imagine what the park would've been like without it.
There was some criticism that the rockwork looked artificial and tacky, which I agreed with to an extent until I actually saw it. Photos don't do it justice, it genuinely looks incredible and very realistic. Here's a close up section of the detail in each rock:
We joined the queue for Taron, which was around an hour and a half long. It began very well themed until we reached a large cattle pen
. Overall it wasn't too bad though, and you get some good views of the coaster. There was a costumed staff member who's job was to stand on the wall above the cattle pen and make sure everything is ok. Every time I looked he was on a different side of the queue, but I didn't ever see him walking around. I like to think he flew, don't correct me. So onto the ride...
It was ok I guess... and by that I mean it was AMAZING. Like really AMAZING. It is just relentless and fast paced, with snappy transitions and strong forces. There were also multiple moments of airtime, with ejector hills followed by forceful turns. There is no meandering whatsover, or even much of a decrease in speed - it just doesn't let up. The second launch is particularly powerful and caught me off guard, one of the highlights of the ride. It is also very smooth, although it is new so not sure whether this will last or not.
As you can see the trains are very open and exposed, and felt comfortable. There is lots of freedom to move, which makes you feel somewhat vulnerable - especially when you're being thrown around on the tighter transitions. What I mainly love about the ride is the interaction with paths and theming, it is by far the best interaction I've seen on a coaster. There are loads of headchoppers and footchoppers, which I didn't even think was possible on a floored coaster. The relentless pace, forces and exciting layout along with the impeccable interaction with high quality theming has made this my new No.1 coaster. Now look at some more pictures and start planning to go ride it yourself...
Next we moved on to Raik, which had a 30 minute queue. Raik is a good quality family coaster. Being in Phantasialand of course it has very good theming, and great interaction. The fowards section is exciting and fast, followed by a slightly less exciting backwards section. Overall it is quite short, but a solid family ride. I particularly liked its interaction with Taron.
So Klugheim done we then headed towards the fantasy area and Wuze Town at the other end of the park.
Wuze Town is a cool indoor area with nice fantasy theming. It is dominated by the Winjas, which we joined the half hour queue for. The queue has changed to one big queue, and you choose which one to ride towards the end. We chose Fear. I think the name was ironic as we weren't scared of it. The queue was funny due to a guy speaking German. This in itself isn't funny, as I don't understand it, although some of the words sound like English words. Not sure what he was actually saying, but to me it sounded like "hghfudbvuafbhjabfhubrajhabjfbguhbjabvhuaro SH*TBALLS iuonromgvjribjfoafjobgafjobjoab". Any german speakers know any words that sound like sh*tballs? I had to really try hard to suppress my laughter.
The ride was great fun, I particularly enjoyed the unusual sections like the elevator lift, seesaw track and bouncing track. I've ridden Alton's and Chessington's spinners, and this was obviously better. Didn't ride force because couldn't be bothered to queue again.
We left Wuze Town and rode a slow powered thing with nice views.
Could see how close houses were to the lake:
The ride also went past an apparent construction site that seemed like it was within the park, but not sure... managed to get a crap picture. Any ideas what it is?
So next we went to Chiapas. This is such a good looking log flume, I love the area. This photo is obligatory for a Phantasialand report:
As you can see in this next picture there was a man in the water... I assumed he was working there. Any ideas what he was doing? He was just sort of standing there as if he was having a wee. Maybe the toilets were full? Or perhaps he thought he was Moses and could part the water.
Chiapas was great fun with fantastic theming and exciting drops. There was lots of water already at the bottom of the boat, meaning I got wet feet, and as I was sat at the back, a wet arse on the lift hills.
We moved on to Talocan, which is by far the best themed flat ride I've seen.
The ride is forceful and fun, with lots of hangtime. It had great fire and water effects which all worked perfectly. I got nervous at one point because a pidgeon landed on the flame thrower thing. Luckily it flew away before the effect. The restraints aren't very comfortable as they have a sticky out bit designed especially to crush a man's wurst. I swear the ride operator winked at me as he pushed the restraint down.
We then went into the Deep Africa. Again, not really Africa - its geographically impossible. The area was hard to find but it looks great, and Black Mamba is very well hidden. It only had a 20 minute queue. This invert is absolutely brilliant, with a fast pace and forceful layout. It's interaction with the environment rivals Nemesis, and there are plenty of footchoppers. It does seem to meander a bit towards the end though, after the inversions finish. But overall a great invert with perfect theming.
We then started to make our way back to Berlin (the Berlin area of the park (which isn't really Berlin) and not the actual city). We stopped in China town (not really China) as there were some people doing circus tricks. There was a woman doing some hula hooping:
Next a guy did some juggling while standing on a platform balancing on a sparkly toilet roll tube.
Then he added some rolls of duct tape:
It started to get a bit silly.
We left before he could add any more rolls of duct tape. We made our way back to Berlin (not really Berlin) and stopped to do the hotel themed fun house CFers recommended.
So glad I heard about this, it was hilarious and great fun! A good way to end the day.
So we left feeling satisfied. Overall I absolutely love Phantasialand. The theming is of such a high quality and level of detail, and the interaction between rides and theming is second to none. Navigating through the park is like a journey of discovery, as everything appears hidden within the environment and theming. Some things are hard to find, although the park is not huge and not too difficult to navigate. There was a great atmosphere with music playing throughout, and I felt entirely immersed in the themes. The park is impeccably designed with brilliant use of space. Maintanance also seemed to be good! I didn't notice any breakdowns during the day, and all animatronics and effects were working. Queues were generally ok, the longest was Taron. Phantasialand is already viewed as one of the top parks in the world by some, and I think Klugheim will help secure this status for the future. Obviously its my new favourite park.
Thanks for reading!
Will add some photos and a stupid commentary of Cologne at some point (actually is Cologne, not just an area themed around it).
TL;DR I went to Phantasialand and it was good.
.
.