Coaster Hipster
Giga Poster
A couple of days ago I finally met two internet friends I've been talking to for several years on a french forum. We decided to visit Phantasialand together for two days and this is my summary of this trip!
Although the Berlin entrance itself is fairly mundane and the entrance layout feels awkward, the beaufitul Main Street more than makes up for it. Vibrant colours and detailed, elegant architecture are a nice second sight at the park.
At the center of the main plaza shines this original chairswing that synchronises with watersprays. A nice twist of this classic ride!
We started our ride count with Black Mamba. It is fantastically immersive with a mix of rocks, greenery and African buildings which really compensates with the short and (dare I say) generic layout of this beastie. At first the coaster rode as expected : a moderately forceful B&M with a Zero G and flat spins not as snappy as the old-school inverts. But the ride later felt more intense at some parts, notably the bottom of the first drop and the final - and very tight - helix. To my pleasant suprise, the two corkscrews also felt snappier than I expected on my final rides. Overall I would but it slightly above OzIris. The latter being rather disappointing in its second half while Black Mamba is more consistent with its intensity throughout.
Colorado Adventure was our next ride and it was really fun
It is really long, exciting and blends well twisty parts with some fairly steep drops for this sort of coaster. The three lifts aren't too slow and therefore do not ruin the good pace of the ride. And I really like the helix at the end of the ride! Not too forceful of course but photogenic and fun.
Mystery Castle is an enclosed launched drop tower. The setting is really original, you sit on the edge of the walls instead of of the sides of a tower. The ride itself was rather disappointing, the launches aren't very intense and the darkness makes you confused about whether you are going up or down.
Being fairly aquaphobic I let my friends ride River Quest. I did not regret that decision as they came out really wet! According to them the ride was short but fun. The steep and sudden drops are an original feature for a rapid boat and building such a ride in that limited space is quite an achievement.
We went outside to eat and dry ourselves and came across this sight :
Heartbreaking!
After lunch we tried Maus au Chocolat, a truly enjoyable shooter dark ride with an original theme for this kind of ride. The balance of 3D effects and real theming is well handled. Though very fun, it is quite tiring to use the shooting mechanism. Well, that's my excuse for sucking at this thing!
It was time to explore the other side of the park. We first went through that gallery...
...and walked a bit to find Wuze Town, the fantasy themed area.
The main draw of this zone is of course the dueling spinner, Winjas. On my first rides 9 years ago I was underwhelmed, perhaps expecting too much from these coasters I heard a lot of praise of. But not this time, I really enjoyed my rides on each of the Winjas. The whole experience is sophisticated with some nice tricks along the way like the tilted elevator. It was hard to choose but I ended up preferring Force, its spinning s-turns being in my opinion the best part about it.
Temple of the Night Hawk (not pictures) might be sitting in a huge dome but it does not much really. Countless banked turns in complete darkness makes for a pretty bland and forgettable experience, let alone the theming which is the worst in the park.
After a while spent indoors, we took a stroll in the uppermost land of the park. The rides are sparse and the foliage provides a nice relief from the compact and dense theming of the rest of the park.
I braved my aversion to water by riding Chiapas. It is perhaps the most gorgeous attraction in the whole of Phantasialand. The soundtrack is also wonderful and I especially liked the disco part which adds a fun break from the otherwise "serious" orchestral theme of the ride. The ride itself is very entertaning with little time to respite. The drop is really steep for a flume and delivers some great speed.
From the most beautiful to the most extreme. Talocan was a very agressive Top Spin featuring some forceful back to back to back flips. The queue cleverly goes in front of the ride for some interaction and the water and fire effects really add to the experience. Not for everyone but I really enjoyed this one!
We spent the rest of the day doing rerides on BM, Talocan and Chiapas. As said before, Black Mamba became more forceful as the day went by to the point where I reconsidered its place in my Top 10.
After a very busy day it was time to join our hotel room at the Matamba. It is a really well themed hotel, even the elevator doors have some African-ish motifs painted on them! A picture of our room:
We booked a room with a view on the park and it didn't disappoint. It was fabulous to wake up and have that sight on Black Mamba!
Before dinner we went around the Ling Bao hotel which contains this marvellous and relaxing garden:
The Matamba restaurant being closed we ended up eating at the snack stand just outside the park.
Day 2 was a public holiday so the park was more crowded than our first day. Thankfully we went early into the park to enjoy some moderate wait on Winjas and then used our fast passes to skip a 45-min wait on Black Mamba.
Geister Richska was the only new ride of the day. The scenery was well executed but the theming was a bit too gloomy to my liking and there wasn't something really exciting or specacular.
I did not take many pictures on the second day having taken a lot during the first, but we went back on most of the main rides and found them as enjoyable as before.
So the quality of the rides and theming made us forget that we missed both Taron and Raik. That speaks for how brilliant Phantasialand is. Apart from a few neglected areas (Temple of the Night Hawk *koff* koff*) it is gorgeous everywhere and the narrower paths make it for a livelier atmosphere in my opinion. The strength of the park is to use classic rides (a spinner, an inverted, a top spin) with original twists and exceptional theming. And with the upcoming addition on Taron it will truly be a must-go destination for thrill-seekers and families alike!
Although the Berlin entrance itself is fairly mundane and the entrance layout feels awkward, the beaufitul Main Street more than makes up for it. Vibrant colours and detailed, elegant architecture are a nice second sight at the park.
At the center of the main plaza shines this original chairswing that synchronises with watersprays. A nice twist of this classic ride!
We started our ride count with Black Mamba. It is fantastically immersive with a mix of rocks, greenery and African buildings which really compensates with the short and (dare I say) generic layout of this beastie. At first the coaster rode as expected : a moderately forceful B&M with a Zero G and flat spins not as snappy as the old-school inverts. But the ride later felt more intense at some parts, notably the bottom of the first drop and the final - and very tight - helix. To my pleasant suprise, the two corkscrews also felt snappier than I expected on my final rides. Overall I would but it slightly above OzIris. The latter being rather disappointing in its second half while Black Mamba is more consistent with its intensity throughout.
Colorado Adventure was our next ride and it was really fun
It is really long, exciting and blends well twisty parts with some fairly steep drops for this sort of coaster. The three lifts aren't too slow and therefore do not ruin the good pace of the ride. And I really like the helix at the end of the ride! Not too forceful of course but photogenic and fun.
Mystery Castle is an enclosed launched drop tower. The setting is really original, you sit on the edge of the walls instead of of the sides of a tower. The ride itself was rather disappointing, the launches aren't very intense and the darkness makes you confused about whether you are going up or down.
Being fairly aquaphobic I let my friends ride River Quest. I did not regret that decision as they came out really wet! According to them the ride was short but fun. The steep and sudden drops are an original feature for a rapid boat and building such a ride in that limited space is quite an achievement.
We went outside to eat and dry ourselves and came across this sight :
Heartbreaking!
After lunch we tried Maus au Chocolat, a truly enjoyable shooter dark ride with an original theme for this kind of ride. The balance of 3D effects and real theming is well handled. Though very fun, it is quite tiring to use the shooting mechanism. Well, that's my excuse for sucking at this thing!
It was time to explore the other side of the park. We first went through that gallery...
...and walked a bit to find Wuze Town, the fantasy themed area.
The main draw of this zone is of course the dueling spinner, Winjas. On my first rides 9 years ago I was underwhelmed, perhaps expecting too much from these coasters I heard a lot of praise of. But not this time, I really enjoyed my rides on each of the Winjas. The whole experience is sophisticated with some nice tricks along the way like the tilted elevator. It was hard to choose but I ended up preferring Force, its spinning s-turns being in my opinion the best part about it.
Temple of the Night Hawk (not pictures) might be sitting in a huge dome but it does not much really. Countless banked turns in complete darkness makes for a pretty bland and forgettable experience, let alone the theming which is the worst in the park.
After a while spent indoors, we took a stroll in the uppermost land of the park. The rides are sparse and the foliage provides a nice relief from the compact and dense theming of the rest of the park.
I braved my aversion to water by riding Chiapas. It is perhaps the most gorgeous attraction in the whole of Phantasialand. The soundtrack is also wonderful and I especially liked the disco part which adds a fun break from the otherwise "serious" orchestral theme of the ride. The ride itself is very entertaning with little time to respite. The drop is really steep for a flume and delivers some great speed.
From the most beautiful to the most extreme. Talocan was a very agressive Top Spin featuring some forceful back to back to back flips. The queue cleverly goes in front of the ride for some interaction and the water and fire effects really add to the experience. Not for everyone but I really enjoyed this one!
We spent the rest of the day doing rerides on BM, Talocan and Chiapas. As said before, Black Mamba became more forceful as the day went by to the point where I reconsidered its place in my Top 10.
After a very busy day it was time to join our hotel room at the Matamba. It is a really well themed hotel, even the elevator doors have some African-ish motifs painted on them! A picture of our room:
We booked a room with a view on the park and it didn't disappoint. It was fabulous to wake up and have that sight on Black Mamba!
Before dinner we went around the Ling Bao hotel which contains this marvellous and relaxing garden:
The Matamba restaurant being closed we ended up eating at the snack stand just outside the park.
Day 2 was a public holiday so the park was more crowded than our first day. Thankfully we went early into the park to enjoy some moderate wait on Winjas and then used our fast passes to skip a 45-min wait on Black Mamba.
Geister Richska was the only new ride of the day. The scenery was well executed but the theming was a bit too gloomy to my liking and there wasn't something really exciting or specacular.
I did not take many pictures on the second day having taken a lot during the first, but we went back on most of the main rides and found them as enjoyable as before.
So the quality of the rides and theming made us forget that we missed both Taron and Raik. That speaks for how brilliant Phantasialand is. Apart from a few neglected areas (Temple of the Night Hawk *koff* koff*) it is gorgeous everywhere and the narrower paths make it for a livelier atmosphere in my opinion. The strength of the park is to use classic rides (a spinner, an inverted, a top spin) with original twists and exceptional theming. And with the upcoming addition on Taron it will truly be a must-go destination for thrill-seekers and families alike!
