Trip Reports
Phantasialand 01/04/2015
Way back in April I took a revision break to try out one of Europe's most beloved theme parks; Phantasialand, near Cologne, in Germany. It's one of those parks known not just for its rides, but also the quality of theming and overall atmosphere. Germany is certainly not lacking in top notch theme parks, and having not been to any before I had quite the range of choice. But, despite everyone incessantly telling me how great their trains are, it seems to be quite hard to get around, especially since it's a pretty big country and I like to do day trips. Being close to Düsseldorf airport, Phantasialand was a safe bet, and I rented a car so I'd have a chance to drive on the legendary Autobahn.
When I got to the rental desk they informed me that tragically the model I'd selected; the tiniest, cheapest, most fuel efficient thing I could find, was unavailable, and instead I'd have to be upgraded to a brand new, automatic, convertible Audi A3. I begrudgingly accepted before grabbing the keys and running, cackling, to the car park. It turns out that only some sections of the Autobahn have no speed limit, and the Düsseldorf/Cologne road network seems quite dense, but I still managed to take my steed up to a swift 210 km/h (131 mph) when I got the chance. (Ironically I got a speeding ticket on the way back, going 62 km/h (38 mph) in a 50 km/h (31 mph) zone off of the Autobahn, just 2 minutes before I dropped the car off, but the Germans are sensible so the fine is proportional to the amount you exceed the limit by, so mine was minimal).
When I got to the rental desk they informed me that tragically the model I'd selected; the tiniest, cheapest, most fuel efficient thing I could find, was unavailable, and instead I'd have to be upgraded to a brand new, automatic, convertible Audi A3. I begrudgingly accepted before grabbing the keys and running, cackling, to the car park. It turns out that only some sections of the Autobahn have no speed limit, and the Düsseldorf/Cologne road network seems quite dense, but I still managed to take my steed up to a swift 210 km/h (131 mph) when I got the chance. (Ironically I got a speeding ticket on the way back, going 62 km/h (38 mph) in a 50 km/h (31 mph) zone off of the Autobahn, just 2 minutes before I dropped the car off, but the Germans are sensible so the fine is proportional to the amount you exceed the limit by, so mine was minimal).
Sweeeeeeet.
Prizing myself from the car and into the dreary rainy weather, I ventured toward the park. Phantasialand is in a suburban residential area (I should know, I ended up on the pedestrianised high street due to sat nav miscalculations), which means they have a lot of restrictions: most rides are at least partially enclosed to minimise noise, most stay below the treeline, and there is very little room for expansion, meaning the attractions are crammed over each other and into every corner. Like with Alton Towers however they haven't let this hold them back, in fact the tessellation of rides and the number of completely different, fully enclosed worlds are quite incredible.
There are two entrances to the park: the main one, which takes you into the central Berlin area of the park (similar to Disney's Mainstreet USA), and a side one, which takes you into the China area. I panicked in the car so ended up driving all the way round to the side entrance, and it was a good idea; it's very quiet and requires minimal walking. Because of how small the park is, you end up in completely new areas within seconds, and having wandered past some pagodas I was in the Western area. This is probably the least creative area; most parks have an Old West style area, but that's not to say it's lacking in any way. The main attraction here is Colorado Adventure, a large Vekoma mine train, which bizarrely used to be vaguely themed to Michael Jackson (he was a huge theme park fan and I think they felt it would boost publicity if he endorsed it). It no longer carries any association to the deceased pop star, but it remains an excellent ride 16 years after opening. For me it doesn't quite top Disneyland Paris' Big Thunder Mountain, but it beats every other mine train I've been on, including Florida's Big Thunder Mountain, and the offerings of Six Flags Magic Mountain, Alton Towers, Gardaland, Hersheypark and many more. It's well themed, long and pretty extreme.
Colorado Adventure: It's a Thriller
Exiting the station I found myself in the Mystery section, which is currently home to two big attractions, the first of which is Mystery Castle. This is the only attraction you can see from outside the park, being a 200 ft drop tower. Uniquely however it is entirely enclosed, being themed unsurprisingly to a castle, so from a distance it just looks another factory chimney in the industrial landscape. Close up it looks pretty monolithic; it's complete with a moat and drawbridge. The theme isn't actually medieval; it's more of a gothic scientific experiment being held in the castle. There are a few actors in queue line who jump out at you, and even though they obviously weren't staffing the ride very highly, it was such a quiet day that the actors still outnumbered the queuers (effectively just me). Once you're into the ride chamber you're met with banks of seats fixed to all four walls, facing inwards. Since it's such a big room this means the capacity is far higher than a regular drop tower, and it makes a welcome change facing the other riders. There's a very clever lighting system which makes it to impossible to see any higher than about 20 ft above the floor, concealing just how huge the twenty story ride is. The ride is described as being a 'bungee drop' from a technical perspective, which I don't really understand. It feels like it's an pneumatically driven cable system, and at first it isn't even vaguely forceful. It's a fun, speedy trip to the top, but it's not like an actual launch. There's some exciting van den Graaf lightning before a very surprising 'real' drop. At this point it feels like a true freefall; it's a very meaty descent. You are then bounced up and down a few times before coming to rest. There are actually two different cycles, the other one being shorter; offering just the main drop without any bouncing, as I found out later in the day. Overall it's a very good ride, and considering a regular outdoor drop tower would be out of the question with the park’s restrictions they've done a fantastic job.
Phantasialand have cut no corners in disguising Mystery Castle's large drop
At this point the other ride in the Mystery area, a rapids ride called River Quest, had not yet opened for the day, so I headed round to Mexico. En route was what is possibly the most exciting development in European theme parks ever. Next year Phantasialand will be opening an entirely new area of the park, called Klugheim, which will envelope and expand the current Mystery theme. The centre piece will be a roller coaster from Intamin called Taron, which will feature multiple launches and a very large amount of track. All the park have released so far is that it will be the fastest multi-launch coaster in Europe (so at least 62 mph) and will have the most intense magnetic launch on any coaster, but that may be more marketing hype than a technical statistic. It will also be the longest multi-launch coaster 'of its type' in the world. Exactly what this means no one is sure; the longest multi-launch is California Screamin' at Disney's California adventure, but that mammoth ride is over 6000 ft long, and one of the launches is more of a speedy lift hill. It's more likely this will be in the 4500-5000 ft range, but even then that's twice as long as your average UK thrill coaster. Existing versions of this model, Cedar Point's Maverick and Mirabilandia's iSpeed, are some of the most highly regarded rides in the world, and I'm honestly surprised that so few of them have been built so far (the fifth has just opened in Turkey, eight years after the first). When you add Phantasialand's incredible attention to detail in terms of theming, music, story and atmosphere this could end up being one of the best attractions in the world. When I visited in April there were pieces of track dotted around in a huge pit, since then there is far more track but also far more rock work, so it is becoming progressively harder to see exactly what is going on.
Taron's track begins to take shape
Mexico isn't an area that many parks tackle, PortAventura being the only other European example I can think of, and it's a shame because of the diversity of the culture, food and history. And also since most Europeans, like me, don't know anything about Mexico, they could basically do anything with lots of colours and I'd lap it up. The area blends in from the Western area effectively, and the signature attraction, a log flume called Chiapas, is intertwined with Colorado Adventure (in fact, I have a feeling that with the construction of Klugheim, which required gutting a large part of the Western area, it may have now all been merged into Mexico). I began on Talocan; one of the park's most extreme rides. It's a Top Spin model, an enormously common ride found at many travelling fairs: it's like Rameses' Revenge at Chessington or Ripsaw at Alton Towers. However Talocan is taken to a whole new level. The actual model is a slight variant; it has no floor so riders' legs are left dangling. The back of the ride is entirely encased in a huge rock shell, making it invisible except when right at the entrance. On top of this there is a fantastic soundtrack, and some very hot pyrotechnics. These rides spend a lot of time uncomfortably dangling you upside down, so I'm not usually a big fan, and in addition to this it was beginning to hail quite aggressively. But the ride blew me away. It does dangle you a bit, but it also rocks very violently, generating a lot of fun g-force. The fire is very intense and the music makes you feel a little like Indiana Jones.
Despite the weather, Talocan's mix of fire and music was awesome
Next up was the aforementioned Chiapas, my most anticipated ride of the day. It's very unusual for me to be so excited about a water ride, but this ride has been met with universal acclaim. It's built by Intamin (the guys building Taron for next year), and after a delay of a year due to technical issues it opened last year. It's incredibly long, and features multiple drops and a backwards section. It has to be said, it is rather similar to most log flumes, but the level of theming, the blend of indoor and outdoor sections and (once again) the glorious soundtrack elevate the ride beyond its peers. The final drop is the steepest on any log flume in the world, and is followed by a brilliant bunny hop before the final splashdown. I've been on some of the best water rides around; Valhalla, Splash Mountain and Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls amongst others, and I'd rate this as the very best. You also don't get particularly wet, which for me is a plus.
Chiapas' glorious bunny hop finale, with the world's steepest log flume drop to the right
Phantasialand's true signature attraction, like Taron will next year, opened with its own entire area, and in fact also a themed hotel, back in 2006. Black Mamba, located in the Deep in Africa section, elevated the park from pretender to contender on the European stage. It's a B&M inverter; the same model as Nemesis at Alton Towers, and in fact follows a very similar design due to the planning restrictions: it's buried deep in the ground, running in ravines and dragging riders terrifyingly close to the rock face. Nemesis has been around for twenty one years now, and every time a new inverter opens the question posed (by us Brits anyway) is "Does it beat Nemesis?" I personally don't think Nemesis is one of the very best rides in the world, but it is certainly very good, and since a lot of people answered 'Yes' to the above question, my expectations were high. The queue is excellent; the winding path is very hard to follow (maybe not such a good thing when it's empty, I kept hitting dead ends) and there are a number of rope bridges and rock clusters which bring you right up to Mamba's Black serpentine track. The station is sunken and enclosed, and on each side of the station there are mammoth part-snake, part-tree trunk columns rising up from the floor which form a rib cage around the vehicle. Soon you're off to a thumping drum beat and up the lift hill. You pass through some kind of temple filled with treasure and hundreds of bones, before turning to the right and down the drop. I chose the back seat at first, because it magnifies the force of the drop, but the simple truth is that the ride is just too small to have a good drop in any seat. Even when accounting for its buried depth it stands at only 88 ft, and the drop felt like nothing more than a nice whoosh of speed. The standard loop followed by zero-g roll opening is fine, but also quite forceless, before an element which cuts back, turning the train around whilst almost sending riders upside down, but not quite. There are then two corkscrews before a long series of winding helices, before plunging into the darkness of the station. I have to say I wasn't too impressed. It was fine, it was smooth, but it didn't do much at all. I went for another ride however, and this time I chose the front. This was completely different. The drop is still irrelevant, but the first two inversions were very forceful. The proximity to the rocks is only noticeable when you have the visibility of the front seat, and it feels ridiculous how close you are. Each inversion is powerful, and the helices pick up more and more speed at the end, at one point shooting you through a huge cloud of mist. It's a considerably better experience, but overall I'd rank the ride as fairly average; it can't be judged on just one row of the train. Even just looking at the front seat, it still didn't match up to Nemesis, Oz'Iris (Parc Asterix) or Great Bear (Hersheypark).
The side of the park that I had covered up to this point (China, Mystery, Mexico, Western and Deep in Africa) is considered to be the more thrill-oriented section of the park, whilst the other side is more for the families. The family side is far smaller, comprised just of Berlin and Fantasy, but still has its fair share of excellent rides. I made my way past Berlin and to Fantasy, to hit up to the last couple of roller coasters. Fantasy seems to be a big splodge of themes that didn't quite warrant their own area; there's an Atlantis themed simulator which I was advised to skip, a big outdoor play area, a garden, a poorly regarded Hollywood Tour ride and two fairly significant coasters. The first is a standalone ride called Temple of the Night Hawk. It used to be themed to a space station, but since its temple retheme all they've done is drape the sci-fi walls with jungle netting. It's bizarre, but once you're inside the ride arena it's pitch black anyway. It's quite a mild experience as you'd expect; a lot of meandering curves across three lift hills. It's actually the longest indoor coaster in the world, and it does feel like it lasts about 10 minutes. It's in such a huge building that you feel the space could be used more wisely. It's the park's oldest coaster, and of the four it's the only one I'd consider subpar.
Next up was the centrepiece of Fantasy, located in its own mini-area, an Arabian themed indoor area called Wuze Town. The ride, called Winjas - Force and Fear, is a two-tracked spinning roller coaster, of the same ilk as Dragon's Fury (Chessington) or Sonic Spinball (Alton Towers). Those are both excellent rides, but once again Phantasialand takes it to another level. First of all, in having two tracks not only does it offer two different experiences, but it also doubles capacity, reducing queuing time. It also has a fantastically immersive theme – a mystical Sinbad type deal – accompanied by the epic soundtrack I had now come to expect. Most impressively though, each track has a few hidden 'trick' elements: both rides begin by raising you not with a traditional chain lift but with a vertical elevator, and at the top the track pivots round and drops you from a complete stand still. Ironically it is actually the ‘Fear’ track which is more forceful, but both tracks have a good mix of wild mouse style hairpin turns, sudden drops and bunny hops. The next trick section then occurs mid-ride; ‘Force’ comes to a stop in the track before tilting the track itself almost 90 degrees sideways and joining onto a new track, whilst ‘Fear’ has a see-saw element. At the end of each there is a small stretch of track which falls down a couple of feet when the train is on it, before rising back up and returning the car to the station. It's not a thrill ride, but it blew me away. They've taken a very solid ride type, and completely maximised its potential. It would be more than worthy of a place in a Universal or Disney park, and in fact Walt Disney Studios in Paris have one, Crush's Coaster, and Winjas is eons better. The thrill rides outnumber the family rides in Phantasialand (which I think is a good thing), but the calibre of Winjas is no less than any other ride in the park.
Next up was the centrepiece of Fantasy, located in its own mini-area, an Arabian themed indoor area called Wuze Town. The ride, called Winjas - Force and Fear, is a two-tracked spinning roller coaster, of the same ilk as Dragon's Fury (Chessington) or Sonic Spinball (Alton Towers). Those are both excellent rides, but once again Phantasialand takes it to another level. First of all, in having two tracks not only does it offer two different experiences, but it also doubles capacity, reducing queuing time. It also has a fantastically immersive theme – a mystical Sinbad type deal – accompanied by the epic soundtrack I had now come to expect. Most impressively though, each track has a few hidden 'trick' elements: both rides begin by raising you not with a traditional chain lift but with a vertical elevator, and at the top the track pivots round and drops you from a complete stand still. Ironically it is actually the ‘Fear’ track which is more forceful, but both tracks have a good mix of wild mouse style hairpin turns, sudden drops and bunny hops. The next trick section then occurs mid-ride; ‘Force’ comes to a stop in the track before tilting the track itself almost 90 degrees sideways and joining onto a new track, whilst ‘Fear’ has a see-saw element. At the end of each there is a small stretch of track which falls down a couple of feet when the train is on it, before rising back up and returning the car to the station. It's not a thrill ride, but it blew me away. They've taken a very solid ride type, and completely maximised its potential. It would be more than worthy of a place in a Universal or Disney park, and in fact Walt Disney Studios in Paris have one, Crush's Coaster, and Winjas is eons better. The thrill rides outnumber the family rides in Phantasialand (which I think is a good thing), but the calibre of Winjas is no less than any other ride in the park.
The visible portions of Winjas' track well conceal the ride's true nature
Finally I headed to the Berlin section. Being the entrance, it's predominantly made up of restaurants and merchandise shops, but there are a few rides hidden away in the side streets. The first I did was new this year, a fun house called Hotel Tartüff. These attractions are extremely popular on the travelling fair circuit, and are always great fun. They're basically a vast assortment of wacky mechanical systems designed to make your walk around the building near-impossible. There are spinning floors, reversing conveyed belts, optical illusions, mirror mazes and stairs which move simultaneously up and down. It's great fun, and It's quite unclear from outside that it actually is an attraction, so the queues were minimal.
The main ride in Berlin opened in 2011, and filled one of the few gaps in the park's line-up: a modern dark ride. The park has plenty of outdated, cheesy dark rides, but Universal have shown in recent years with Spiderman, Transformers and Harry Potter that a fantastic dark ride can become a main draw for families and thrill seekers alike. Phantasialand's attempt, Maus au Chocolat, is an original theme based on an infestation of mice in a chocolate factory. The ride system is built by ETF rides and based on Disney’s extremely popular Toy Story Midway Mania. The system involves trains of three carriages, each with four seats, split into two rows of two which are back-to-back (much like the carriages on Winjas). The train moves through real physical scenery, before reaching frequent banks of three 3D screens on each side of the train. Each of the three cars rotates 90 degrees, so each two-person row is facing their own screen. There is then about 60 seconds worth of interactive shooting game before the train moves onto the next section. I expected to do three or four of these shooting sections, but as it turned out there are about eight. They’re very good fun, and calculate your score just like a traditional shooting ride, so you can compete with your friends (or if you’re on your own like me, no one). Maus of Chocolat’s bizarre theme makes it all the more interesting; your ‘gun’ is actually a gigantic cake icer, and you targets are the swarms of pesky rodents. I wasn’t hugely impressed by the 3D technology, but aside from that it’s a wonderful ride. The queue line is even pumped full of a scent that makes it smell like a real chocolate factory. I do still feel they could do with a more intense dark ride, and perhaps this could fill the void that the removal of Temple of the Night Hawk would leave.
The main ride in Berlin opened in 2011, and filled one of the few gaps in the park's line-up: a modern dark ride. The park has plenty of outdated, cheesy dark rides, but Universal have shown in recent years with Spiderman, Transformers and Harry Potter that a fantastic dark ride can become a main draw for families and thrill seekers alike. Phantasialand's attempt, Maus au Chocolat, is an original theme based on an infestation of mice in a chocolate factory. The ride system is built by ETF rides and based on Disney’s extremely popular Toy Story Midway Mania. The system involves trains of three carriages, each with four seats, split into two rows of two which are back-to-back (much like the carriages on Winjas). The train moves through real physical scenery, before reaching frequent banks of three 3D screens on each side of the train. Each of the three cars rotates 90 degrees, so each two-person row is facing their own screen. There is then about 60 seconds worth of interactive shooting game before the train moves onto the next section. I expected to do three or four of these shooting sections, but as it turned out there are about eight. They’re very good fun, and calculate your score just like a traditional shooting ride, so you can compete with your friends (or if you’re on your own like me, no one). Maus of Chocolat’s bizarre theme makes it all the more interesting; your ‘gun’ is actually a gigantic cake icer, and you targets are the swarms of pesky rodents. I wasn’t hugely impressed by the 3D technology, but aside from that it’s a wonderful ride. The queue line is even pumped full of a scent that makes it smell like a real chocolate factory. I do still feel they could do with a more intense dark ride, and perhaps this could fill the void that the removal of Temple of the Night Hawk would leave.
Maus au Chocolat's trains - equipped with cake icers Image © Martin Lewison
The final major ride of the day was River Quest, the rapids ride in the Mystery area which had been closed earlier on. The ride was opened in a hurry in 2002 after a major fire which destroyed two of the park’s most beloved attractions the previous year. Because of this, the ride is squeezed into a very unsuitable space, so unusually for a water ride it is built on three different levels, accessed by elevator lifts. The majority of the track is concealed away in a castle facade, and the height differential allows for a series of quite steep drops. I got extremely wet, to the point that I was quite grumpy (since everyone else was in a group together and laughed at me in German), but from an impartial point of view it’s a very good ride.
It's impossible to tell that this castle facade holds three tiers of water ride trough Image © JZ85 (Wikipedia)
On the way out I grabbed myself a delicious Nutella crêpe and took a spin on Geister Rikscha (Ghost Rickshaw), which is virtually a clone of the Haunted Mansion at the Disney parks, albeit it with a Chinese theme. There's the dancing pepper's ghost effect, and even the ending with the ghosts appearing in the mirror behind you. It's perfectly fine, but very dated, having opened in 1981.
It does seem there's a big divide between the modern and the older attractions, and others may disagree but I hope the park isn't too sentimental and replaces the older ones when they reach their expiration. Of the ‘new’ attractions (virtually all those I have mentioned, aside from Temple of the Night Hawk), Black Mamba was honestly a bit of a letdown, but all the others more than made up for it. Mamba is not the jewel in the crown of Phantasialand's rides; it's just one very solid ride amongst a big group of peers. Roller coasters do not make a park alone, and there are plenty of world class attractions aside from the coasters, but I do feel that for them to start competing with the likes of Universal and Busch they need a new, world class coaster. Luckily I think next year may just deliver that.
Atmosphere, theme and detail: 10/10
Chiapas: 9/10
Black Mamba, Talocan, Winjas: 8/10
Mystery Castle, Maus au Chocolat, Colorado Adventure: 7/10
River Quest: 6/10
Temple of the Night Hawk: 4/10
Overall: 8.5/10
It does seem there's a big divide between the modern and the older attractions, and others may disagree but I hope the park isn't too sentimental and replaces the older ones when they reach their expiration. Of the ‘new’ attractions (virtually all those I have mentioned, aside from Temple of the Night Hawk), Black Mamba was honestly a bit of a letdown, but all the others more than made up for it. Mamba is not the jewel in the crown of Phantasialand's rides; it's just one very solid ride amongst a big group of peers. Roller coasters do not make a park alone, and there are plenty of world class attractions aside from the coasters, but I do feel that for them to start competing with the likes of Universal and Busch they need a new, world class coaster. Luckily I think next year may just deliver that.
Atmosphere, theme and detail: 10/10
Chiapas: 9/10
Black Mamba, Talocan, Winjas: 8/10
Mystery Castle, Maus au Chocolat, Colorado Adventure: 7/10
River Quest: 6/10
Temple of the Night Hawk: 4/10
Overall: 8.5/10
