davidm
Strata Poster
Hello. It's been a while since I've done one of these, bit out of practice. Lets see how it goes...
So back in the pre-covid days of early 2020 I had booked a trip over the August 2020 bank holiday to go see that, then anticipated,
new addition to Phantasialand; FLY. Covid happened and one leg of my flights was cancelled (so I booked a replacement), then covid
happened a bit more and everything was cancelled. For a brief moment in Autumn 2020 everyone was a bit happier and FLY actually
opened, causing a major goon-rush towards Germany - I rebooked my cancelled flights for November rather than join in that initial
goon-rush, but then as November approached, Germany shut down and plan #2 was scuppered. Flights were rebooked for August 2021 in the
optimistic feeling that it might all be over by then. It wasn't, so as August approached I moved the flights to next year and sulked.
Meanwhile I had also got two weeks booked off from work in November, with flights (also moved from 2020) to Orlando. As we got towards
then, the USA was still not letting us Brits in, and Virgin Atlantic kindly cancelled those flights for me. So now I had 2 weeks off
work with nowhere to go, and rather than converting those days into "every Friday off work for the rest of the year" like I had done
in 2020 I figured I could do Ghosterforce and revive my Germany plan instead and move those flight (back from next year) to November!
So, if you are keeping track, that's Germany plan #4 we are on now.
Only to find that a flight I'd just booked was cancelled by the airline literally the next morning. So more flight rescheduled
happened, I went to Ghosterforce and told everyone not to give me the pox and that seemed to all work...
Plan #5 to go see FLY was still on... And it happened! Phew!!
--
Was a bit confused by the online check-in for my budget (Eurowings) flight, so headed to the airport stupid early to give me time to
sort any faff out. As it turned out the faff was minimal - just had to pickup boarding card at the check-in desk (having checked in
online already) where they just (quickly) checked your vaccine-pass-thing and German entry registration thing before they would give
you the boarding card.
Not very impressed by the "new" extensions to Manchester Airport to be honest - the check-in area was much bigger and quite posh (but
not finished yet either), security was better than the old T2 and I guess the departures area was a bit more spacious than the old
T2 (I remember when T2 was brand new!) but they still funnel you through the duty-free shop to get there. Given I was on a budget
flight the actual gate was back in the old T2 area, where all the old shops and eateries were all boarded up, but seeing them like that
was perhaps my highlight of the airport experience.
Germany airport-faff was new ; pre-immigration check (by the police) that you had completed the pre-enrty registration thing
(the Einreiseanmeldung) and then a longer than pre-Brexit line at immigration as we can't waltz thru the EU-citizens lane anymore
Getting from the airport (Düsseldorf) to Phantasialand was not hard, depending on what time I made it through the faff it would either
be a direct train to Brühl or 3 trains. It was 3 trains, bit still no great problem (apart from the middle train (the intercity from
Düsseldorf to Köln I apparently did not have the right ticket for, but the inspector let the stupid English tourist off).
My timing was still off when I got to Brühl as the shuttle bus had just left (literally saw it leave when I was getting off the train)
so I took the opportunity to have a looksee at the Schloss (right by the train station) and the town itself which I wanted to do at
some point anyway. The town is pretty nice actually, glad I had a wander through it anyway.
(Walking to Phantasialand rather than waiting for the next bus took about 45mins - theres a few uphill bits so not recommended if you
have heavy bags! )
Was just before 2pm when I got there, the check-in to Charles Lindbergh was easy and had some theatre about it all (clerk runs thru
some themed speil around the whole experience) - bit odd that you have to book specific times for meals and breakfast tho' ; whether
that's a covid thing or a capacity-thing I don't know?
Anyway, dumped my stuff in my room (aka aeronaut cabin) and goon-rushed into the park.
Initial impressions of the place - the hotel, Rookburgh, FLY - were that it was all rather FABULOUS. Coaster whizzing around your
room, all the themeing on-point, wandering into Rookburgh totally hidden from the rest of the park - great stuff.
Headed straight into FLY; 5 min queue it said - happy days!
The queue-line is immense - after a pretty unimpressive start where you just go up some stairs into the body of the FLY-structure it
then winds and wends its way around the structure giving you several great views of the ride as you go. Eventually (its a long walk,
not quite Zadra-long but still pretty long) you end up at a split point for front-row or anywhere - I head for front-row as there
is literally no line and get given a red wristband (blue wristbands are the norm) and head to the lockers.
Now this is where my goon-haste has failed me, as you have to dump everything in a locker, including my glasses even with a goonstrap
attached. So between the lockers and the station I am pretty much unable to see much. Waiting then in the front row queue - theres
a fair few people ahead of me and they are running mostly empty trains (apart from the front). By then I've decided I should have
put some contact lenses in before my goonrush into the park, so I switch to the normal queue for my first ride (since the view from
the front would be somewhat lost on me).
Even half-blind, the loading is really easy - MUCH better than the old-style Flying Dutchman loading or the B&M version. Given my
vision I could not make much of the pre-launch stuff, only enough to determine that there was stuff, but as the train rolled around
into the flight position and dropped into that first launch I could already tell that this was going to be a good experience.
First ride is all a blur (literally) but it was still AWESOME. LOVED IT. Such a clever way of dropping you into flight-position then
straight into the first launch - such drama. Then whizzing around the hotel and all the near-misses. LOVELY. Then diving into the
second launch and flying airtime - WOW. The ride is much longer than expected too - a real trip. The return to seated position at the
end was a bit clunky I think and then trying to find my way back half-blind to the lockers was a pain though.
Anyway, I went straight back to the hotel, inserted contact lenses and straight back into the non-existent queue for a few more
rides. Rode it at the front and the back - the front is by far the better "view" experience, but the flying sensation and the ride
itself is still great in the middle of the train. The further back you get in the train the more nauseous I think though, I rode it on
the back and felt a bit queasy (but this was ride #5 in a short space of time) and some guy a couple of rows ahead of me was throwing
up on the exit platform - poor show fella.
Anyway, since it would be down for a while for the biological issues, I headed out of Rookburgh into the park proper and rode Taron
half a dozen walk-on times (like a 3 train wait for the front, walk-on elsewhere). Deep joy.
It was heading towards park-closing time by then and pretty dark, so I headed towards the other "big" ride (Mamba), pausing only to
get a quick ride on Colorado Adventure as I was passing (the inside bits in the dark were excellent as it was pitch black in there
unlike daytime rides where you can see in the inside bits).
Walked into the Black Mamba queue bang on 5:30 (which is when they shut the line) - walk-on and an almost empty train meant I got
row 2 on the last train of the day.
FLY had also closed the queue by then so that was that so I tried to take some photos and headed back to see Rookburgh at night.
It's very pretty at night. You can wander all around the hotel structure for views, but there is a dedicated "observation area" on
the middle block of rooms that they do direct you to.
Would have liked a better camera, a tripod and the train running to get some good shots from the hotel of FLY, but I tried a bit with
the compact camera I had with me. Not too happy with these, looks a lot nicer for real.
Included in the (non trival) Charles Lindbergh Hotel experience is your evening meal at Uhrwerk restaurant - day-punters can use the
restaurant during park-hours but it and the Bar1919 behind it are limited to Lindbergh guests during the evening. As mentioned
earlier you currently have to book specific times for meals and, despite the hotel being quite quiet, I ended up with a later slot
that I would have chosen, but that just meant I had to go wait in the "craft beer" Bar1919 for an hour before food.
Now I'm not as much of a beer-geek as a I am a coaster-geek, but I do spend more of my leisure time drinking beer than riding
coasters so I do know my way around that "craft beer" scene. And despite the adverts and several nice beers, any bar that is describing
itself as a "craft-beer-bar" yet serving Guinness and macro-lager as part of that craft-beer range is just lying to you.
It started out well, as I could get a flight (4 smaller servings) of some of the beers and the first lot were all OK, if not "craft".
That got me to food-time so I went next-door to Uhrwerk. This was OK too, but I wasn't too impressed with the seating arrangements
(quite cramped next to other diners) and their beer selection (not included in your overnight rate) was all generic bottled lagers.
The food was good enough though - had a salad starter and the steak-burger - had I no already paid for the meal as part of the stay
I would only have had the burger though. The menu is not extensive either, but nicely presented on a (German language only) newspaper
type menu (as was the beer-list in the Bar1919).
Back in Bar1919 is where it started to go wrong for the "craft-beer" bar ; I went for another flight and 3 of the 4 beers I wanted
they did not have (despite being advertised in the newspaper-menu). So that flight had exhausted the interesting beer options they
had and I was down to repeat orders after that ; something that I had not expected with a specialist "craft-beer" bar.
Oh, and the bar was empty ; there were a couple of other punters on and off but few people seemed to want to stop there after their
meal - the restaurant was mostly busy, but only a handful of people stopped in Bar1919 on their way back to their rooms.
So back in the pre-covid days of early 2020 I had booked a trip over the August 2020 bank holiday to go see that, then anticipated,
new addition to Phantasialand; FLY. Covid happened and one leg of my flights was cancelled (so I booked a replacement), then covid
happened a bit more and everything was cancelled. For a brief moment in Autumn 2020 everyone was a bit happier and FLY actually
opened, causing a major goon-rush towards Germany - I rebooked my cancelled flights for November rather than join in that initial
goon-rush, but then as November approached, Germany shut down and plan #2 was scuppered. Flights were rebooked for August 2021 in the
optimistic feeling that it might all be over by then. It wasn't, so as August approached I moved the flights to next year and sulked.
Meanwhile I had also got two weeks booked off from work in November, with flights (also moved from 2020) to Orlando. As we got towards
then, the USA was still not letting us Brits in, and Virgin Atlantic kindly cancelled those flights for me. So now I had 2 weeks off
work with nowhere to go, and rather than converting those days into "every Friday off work for the rest of the year" like I had done
in 2020 I figured I could do Ghosterforce and revive my Germany plan instead and move those flight (back from next year) to November!
So, if you are keeping track, that's Germany plan #4 we are on now.
Only to find that a flight I'd just booked was cancelled by the airline literally the next morning. So more flight rescheduled
happened, I went to Ghosterforce and told everyone not to give me the pox and that seemed to all work...
Plan #5 to go see FLY was still on... And it happened! Phew!!
--
Was a bit confused by the online check-in for my budget (Eurowings) flight, so headed to the airport stupid early to give me time to
sort any faff out. As it turned out the faff was minimal - just had to pickup boarding card at the check-in desk (having checked in
online already) where they just (quickly) checked your vaccine-pass-thing and German entry registration thing before they would give
you the boarding card.
Not very impressed by the "new" extensions to Manchester Airport to be honest - the check-in area was much bigger and quite posh (but
not finished yet either), security was better than the old T2 and I guess the departures area was a bit more spacious than the old
T2 (I remember when T2 was brand new!) but they still funnel you through the duty-free shop to get there. Given I was on a budget
flight the actual gate was back in the old T2 area, where all the old shops and eateries were all boarded up, but seeing them like that
was perhaps my highlight of the airport experience.
Germany airport-faff was new ; pre-immigration check (by the police) that you had completed the pre-enrty registration thing
(the Einreiseanmeldung) and then a longer than pre-Brexit line at immigration as we can't waltz thru the EU-citizens lane anymore
Getting from the airport (Düsseldorf) to Phantasialand was not hard, depending on what time I made it through the faff it would either
be a direct train to Brühl or 3 trains. It was 3 trains, bit still no great problem (apart from the middle train (the intercity from
Düsseldorf to Köln I apparently did not have the right ticket for, but the inspector let the stupid English tourist off).
My timing was still off when I got to Brühl as the shuttle bus had just left (literally saw it leave when I was getting off the train)
so I took the opportunity to have a looksee at the Schloss (right by the train station) and the town itself which I wanted to do at
some point anyway. The town is pretty nice actually, glad I had a wander through it anyway.
(Walking to Phantasialand rather than waiting for the next bus took about 45mins - theres a few uphill bits so not recommended if you
have heavy bags!
)Was just before 2pm when I got there, the check-in to Charles Lindbergh was easy and had some theatre about it all (clerk runs thru
some themed speil around the whole experience) - bit odd that you have to book specific times for meals and breakfast tho' ; whether
that's a covid thing or a capacity-thing I don't know?
Anyway, dumped my stuff in my room (aka aeronaut cabin) and goon-rushed into the park.
Initial impressions of the place - the hotel, Rookburgh, FLY - were that it was all rather FABULOUS. Coaster whizzing around your
room, all the themeing on-point, wandering into Rookburgh totally hidden from the rest of the park - great stuff.
Headed straight into FLY; 5 min queue it said - happy days!
The queue-line is immense - after a pretty unimpressive start where you just go up some stairs into the body of the FLY-structure it
then winds and wends its way around the structure giving you several great views of the ride as you go. Eventually (its a long walk,
not quite Zadra-long but still pretty long) you end up at a split point for front-row or anywhere - I head for front-row as there
is literally no line and get given a red wristband (blue wristbands are the norm) and head to the lockers.
Now this is where my goon-haste has failed me, as you have to dump everything in a locker, including my glasses even with a goonstrap
attached. So between the lockers and the station I am pretty much unable to see much. Waiting then in the front row queue - theres
a fair few people ahead of me and they are running mostly empty trains (apart from the front). By then I've decided I should have
put some contact lenses in before my goonrush into the park, so I switch to the normal queue for my first ride (since the view from
the front would be somewhat lost on me).
Even half-blind, the loading is really easy - MUCH better than the old-style Flying Dutchman loading or the B&M version. Given my
vision I could not make much of the pre-launch stuff, only enough to determine that there was stuff, but as the train rolled around
into the flight position and dropped into that first launch I could already tell that this was going to be a good experience.
First ride is all a blur (literally) but it was still AWESOME. LOVED IT. Such a clever way of dropping you into flight-position then
straight into the first launch - such drama. Then whizzing around the hotel and all the near-misses. LOVELY. Then diving into the
second launch and flying airtime - WOW. The ride is much longer than expected too - a real trip. The return to seated position at the
end was a bit clunky I think and then trying to find my way back half-blind to the lockers was a pain though.
Anyway, I went straight back to the hotel, inserted contact lenses and straight back into the non-existent queue for a few more
rides. Rode it at the front and the back - the front is by far the better "view" experience, but the flying sensation and the ride
itself is still great in the middle of the train. The further back you get in the train the more nauseous I think though, I rode it on
the back and felt a bit queasy (but this was ride #5 in a short space of time) and some guy a couple of rows ahead of me was throwing
up on the exit platform - poor show fella.
Anyway, since it would be down for a while for the biological issues, I headed out of Rookburgh into the park proper and rode Taron
half a dozen walk-on times (like a 3 train wait for the front, walk-on elsewhere). Deep joy.
It was heading towards park-closing time by then and pretty dark, so I headed towards the other "big" ride (Mamba), pausing only to
get a quick ride on Colorado Adventure as I was passing (the inside bits in the dark were excellent as it was pitch black in there
unlike daytime rides where you can see in the inside bits).
Walked into the Black Mamba queue bang on 5:30 (which is when they shut the line) - walk-on and an almost empty train meant I got
row 2 on the last train of the day.
FLY had also closed the queue by then so that was that so I tried to take some photos and headed back to see Rookburgh at night.
It's very pretty at night. You can wander all around the hotel structure for views, but there is a dedicated "observation area" on
the middle block of rooms that they do direct you to.
Would have liked a better camera, a tripod and the train running to get some good shots from the hotel of FLY, but I tried a bit with
the compact camera I had with me. Not too happy with these, looks a lot nicer for real.
Included in the (non trival) Charles Lindbergh Hotel experience is your evening meal at Uhrwerk restaurant - day-punters can use the
restaurant during park-hours but it and the Bar1919 behind it are limited to Lindbergh guests during the evening. As mentioned
earlier you currently have to book specific times for meals and, despite the hotel being quite quiet, I ended up with a later slot
that I would have chosen, but that just meant I had to go wait in the "craft beer" Bar1919 for an hour before food.
Now I'm not as much of a beer-geek as a I am a coaster-geek, but I do spend more of my leisure time drinking beer than riding
coasters so I do know my way around that "craft beer" scene. And despite the adverts and several nice beers, any bar that is describing
itself as a "craft-beer-bar" yet serving Guinness and macro-lager as part of that craft-beer range is just lying to you.
It started out well, as I could get a flight (4 smaller servings) of some of the beers and the first lot were all OK, if not "craft".
That got me to food-time so I went next-door to Uhrwerk. This was OK too, but I wasn't too impressed with the seating arrangements
(quite cramped next to other diners) and their beer selection (not included in your overnight rate) was all generic bottled lagers.
The food was good enough though - had a salad starter and the steak-burger - had I no already paid for the meal as part of the stay
I would only have had the burger though. The menu is not extensive either, but nicely presented on a (German language only) newspaper
type menu (as was the beer-list in the Bar1919).
Back in Bar1919 is where it started to go wrong for the "craft-beer" bar ; I went for another flight and 3 of the 4 beers I wanted
they did not have (despite being advertised in the newspaper-menu). So that flight had exhausted the interesting beer options they
had and I was down to repeat orders after that ; something that I had not expected with a specialist "craft-beer" bar.
Oh, and the bar was empty ; there were a couple of other punters on and off but few people seemed to want to stop there after their
meal - the restaurant was mostly busy, but only a handful of people stopped in Bar1919 on their way back to their rooms.
