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Phantasialand | F. L. Y. | Vekoma Launched Flying Coaster | 2020

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Has it been confirmed that the portal/front facade is actually finished? I can imagine them continuing to tweak it and add little bits for a while yet.
You having a laugh? Phantasialand? Confirm something? ?

Nope, a lot of people online jumping to conclusions just because the name has been already stuck on. But I'd agree they are most likely not done adding decorations yet.
 

Crazycoaster

Giga Poster
With all the giant factory wall facades and then this big orange thing, I’m not entirely convinced by this new area yet. Like it looks immersive and everything, but whether it’s going to be ‘nice’ theming is still out at this point. I’m hoping it goes more steampunk and less industrial age sweat shop maze.
 

Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
Welp, here's the nominee for "Most What The F Project I've Ever Tracked".
2018, 2019, 2020........three years and it's STILL not open. Also what the F is that hotel and wall.
 

Dar

Hyper Poster
3o8lx6.jpg
 

Rupert

Mega Poster
Yeah, but then if you've seen the main park entrance you'll know that Phantasialand doesn't give two hoots about first impressions. ;)
I found this particularly jarring when staying at Matamba. They’ve got this amazing setting, and if they wanted you could walk from within the hotel, across that awesome bridge through Black Mamba’s loop, but instead you’re spat onto the main road and have to go through the weird 1980s main entrance. I hope for the new hotel you can go directly into Rookburgh (and then don’t have to see the questionable - though still unfinished - facade).
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I found this particularly jarring when staying at Matamba. They’ve got this amazing setting, and if they wanted you could walk from within the hotel, across that awesome bridge through Black Mamba’s loop, but instead you’re spat onto the main road and have to go through the weird 1980s main entrance. I hope for the new hotel you can go directly into Rookburgh (and then don’t have to see the questionable - though still unfinished - facade).
I’ve never used the main entrance on numerous visits... I’ve always stayed in Matamba, and I’ve always used the hotel entrance in Ling Bao. It’s a pretty entrance and never has a queue of any sort.

@Hixee See above... Although I have ‘seen’ the main entrance, and it does look miserable. The hotel entrances, both into the hotels, and into the park, are all decent. I expect the new hotel entrance to be better when finished too.
 

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
I found this particularly jarring when staying at Matamba. They’ve got this amazing setting, and if they wanted you could walk from within the hotel, across that awesome bridge through Black Mamba’s loop, but instead you’re spat onto the main road and have to go through the weird 1980s main entrance. I hope for the new hotel you can go directly into Rookburgh (and then don’t have to see the questionable - though still unfinished - facade).

iirc, the TÜV had some issues with the main entrance to the hotel through the loop. For some reason, it doesn't fulfill all the requirements to serve as a proper emergency exit, so in case of a fire, hotel guests would have to be evacuated through a different entrance than the one they came in through, which generally requires legitimate exit routes to have higher capacities than normal, require extra signage for guests and firefighters, and all around it would have been a hassle to do all of this within the limitations of an almost entirely done hotel.

Now once that decision is made, there is no turning back from that. It's sort of a reverse grandfathering. From my experience, TÜV is generally all over the place, and an ill-tempered inspector can make or break your design.

EDIT: actually, scratch that fire argument, of course the hotel has enough rescue pathways to evacuate guests in a fire. However, TÜV deemed that the bridge through the loop was not viable for any sort of evacuation, especially because it spills out into another "facility" with rough terrain (aka Deep in Africa) which is inaccessible for ambulances. Apparently that is such a big deal that the park scrapped that entrance entirely.
 
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Phantasiastisch

Mega Poster
I always asked myself then why they did not make an hotelentrance next to restaurant Bantu where that gate is...There you don't have a very rough terrain Imo, so I don't see the issue to not built one here...

In this YouTube video from Funfairblog you see Mrs. Löffelhardt, the wife of Mr. Löffelhardt, the owner of Phantasialand heading to the gate right next to the restaurant. Which I see as a possible hotelentrance.

But probably something is wrong with this as well, otherwise they would have done that already...

At 1:01:15

Which is approximately located here:
IMG_20200206_114210.jpg
 

Rupert

Mega Poster
iirc, the TÜV had some issues with the main entrance to the hotel through the loop. For some reason, it doesn't fulfill all the requirements to serve as a proper emergency exit, so in case of a fire, hotel guests would have to be evacuated through a different entrance than the one they came in through, which generally requires legitimate exit routes to have higher capacities than normal, require extra signage for guests and firefighters, and all around it would have been a hassle to do all of this within the limitations of an almost entirely done hotel.

Now once that decision is made, there is no turning back from that. It's sort of a reverse grandfathering. From my experience, TÜV is generally all over the place, and an ill-tempered inspector can make or break your design.

EDIT: actually, scratch that fire argument, of course the hotel has enough rescue pathways to evacuate guests in a fire. However, TÜV deemed that the bridge through the loop was not viable for any sort of evacuation, especially because it spills out into another "facility" with rough terrain (aka Deep in Africa) which is inaccessible for ambulances. Apparently that is such a big deal that the park scrapped that entrance entirely.
Great info, thanks Fluorineer! At least it sounds like the new hotel will have an entrance into the park in though (near the restaurant?).
 

PhantaDad2017

Roller Poster
I wouldn't worry too much about the ugly look of the hotel now. It reminds me a bit of the construction of a huge mosque in Cologne. During construction, the huge concrete dome looked like a nuclear power plant, but later, it looked much better.

This kind of rusty-looking corten steel in gardens must also be applied carefully. There's a common fashion of "anti-gardening" in Germany in the last ~10 years, of covering the front yard earth with weed fabric, dumping truckloads of gravel or crushed rocks all over the place, adding a few stone columns, boulders or such rusty statues or monuments. Mostly lifeless deserts with few or no plants. loosely reminiscent of railway embankments. This style is now widely referred to as "gardens of horror" (Gärten des Grauens), and there's an initiative on Facebook and Instagram, collecting images of such "gardens".
 

Phantasiastisch

Mega Poster
New discussion round: a second "onride" picture of a possible test on F.L.Y. Appeared on Twitter ... Or has it been edited again and is it actually on a PC screen? :p
Screenshot_20200207-213751.jpg

And Phantasialand reacted to someone (in Dutch) that they're busy with solving the capacity issues on Crazy Bats.
EPYpMRvXsAA80-V.jpeg



@Lars RnR Finally! For me personally the overall look is impressive, even if this is the final product. :D
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
I always asked myself then why they did not make an hotelentrance next to restaurant Bantu where that gate is...There you don't have a very rough terrain Imo, so I don't see the issue to not built one here...

In this YouTube video from Funfairblog you see Mrs. Löffelhardt, the wife of Mr. Löffelhardt, the owner of Phantasialand heading to the gate right next to the restaurant. Which I see as a possible hotelentrance.

But probably something is wrong with this as well, otherwise they would have done that already...

At 1:01:15

Which is approximately located here:
View attachment 7760
Given that gateway serves as the emergency services access route I assume any sort of guest barriers/turnstiles for an entrance wouldn't be allowed. If anything I'd sooner believe the TUV ruled that one out before the loop bridge.
Personally my belief is just why pay for a staff member there when there's another entrance so close by. Given they are constantly long term planning perhaps the intention was to utilise that entrance when the park expanded across the road and the Berlin entrance ceased to exist. Hotel Charles Lindbergh definitely will have park access - leaving poor Matamba as the only 1 of 3 without.

New discussion round: a second "onride" picture of a possible test on F.L.Y. Appeared on Twitter ... Or has it been edited again and is it actually on a PC screen? :p
View attachment 7768

And Phantasialand reacted to someone (in Dutch) that they're busy with solving the capacity issues on Crazy Bats.
View attachment 7769



@Lars RnR Finally! For me personally the overall look is impressive, even if this is the final product. :D
That second onride picture comes from here. Brian/Flying Pilot posted it edited into the corner of a screenshot of the Rookburgh trailer showing a similar view.

Weirdly sad about the death of the road side construction fence though. Years of memories of trying to get a look and taking pictures over it for updates here. Truly marks the end of an era. ?
 

Phantasiastisch

Mega Poster
Personally my belief is just why pay for a staff member there when there's another entrance so close by. Given they are constantly long term planning perhaps the intention was to utilise that entrance when the park expanded across the road and the Berlin entrance ceased to exist. Hotel Charles Lindbergh definitely will have park access - leaving poor Matamba as the only 1 of 3 without.
Sounds very likely. I still see the main entrance disappear somewhere in the future so there's still hope for a hotel-entrance at Matamba. :D

(Please, don't ruin my hope and don't give a counter argument. Thank you. ;) )

That second onride picture comes from here. Brian/Flying Pilot posted it edited into the corner of a screenshot of the Rookburgh trailer showing a similar view.

Weirdly sad about the death of the road side construction fence though. Years of memories of trying to get a look and taking pictures over it for updates here. Truly marks the end of an era. ?

Nice Friday night humor, thanks for make me laugh. :p
 
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