Fred

Day 7 – Phantastic Part 1
My last visit to Phantasialand was 6 years ago, which in some cases doesn’t tend to mean a whole lot has changed. However, here, pretty much every single area had something different about it, be it from an addition of some flat rides in Wuze Town, to replacing some tatty old Flumes, or in several cases, the rides simply don’t exist anymore. Lots of change, but would I still like the park?
We parked in the China car park (due to limited space, there are several car parks, one for each area), purchased our two day ticket for the awful price of €75 (a day ticket is €45) and entered the park.


Phantasialand have one of those weird staggered ride openings, with the park opening at 9, some rides opening at 9:30, then more at 10 before the remainder (water rides) open at 11. So the first ride of the day was some B&M goodness in Black Mamba.
Totally forgotten one of the best things in Phantasialand are the queues (unless it’s Winjas’). Mamba’s goes on such an adventure with some decent ride based interaction, and the station is so well themed and beautiful. The ride itself starts fantastically but ends poorly, always has done to me, because I just don’t think the helixes are powerful enough to finish up the ride in a constant fashion. I partly think that they could’ve chucked in the final inversion at the end (a la Nemesis, the clear inspiration for the ride), rather than just turn after turn. Prevents it from being a real top tier B&M, but it’s still a fantastic ride.




We headed over towards Wuze Town to wait until it opened, whilst I marvelled at the (new to me) entrance area. We were greeted by a dragon which proceeded to do silly things and even drop the rope to open the area. Great piece of interaction.



So off we went to the Winjas coasters. Starting with Force and then Fear, I do enjoy these two a lot, with Fear clearly being the better of the two coasters. The interaction when both are running properly (which they weren’t unfortunately) is brilliant, and the trick track sections can be very surprising for first time riders. The queue has changed nowadays so not only can you take your bag with you, but also the queue splits on the stairs down into the station. Of course this does mean a massive waste of queue space nowadays, but oh well.




After both were done, we quickly did the Tittle Tattle Tree, because it’s secretly fab.





Next door is Temple of the Night Hawk, a Vekoma MK-200 which has had its entrance moved since my last visit, and it involves a steep hill. The ride itself is long, arduous and boring when there are no effects working on it, coupled with 3 slow lift hills. Give me Vogel Rok anyday.

We then headed back towards the entrance and Maus au Chocolat, the immensely themed and fantastic Midway Mania rip-off. The theming right from the door is top standard, like most of Phantasialand’s stuff, but it just keeps getting better and better. I’ve never known a ride queue to make me so damn hungry just by queuing for it, probably helped by the wafts of chocolate scented through.
Hadn’t done a Midway Mania ride till now, and I do like the concept quite well, especially when it’s as heavily detailed as this. A big bonus is the theming between scenes, which from POVs appears to be the biggest flaw of MM. Overall it’s a really good dark ride, and probably the best dark ride we did over the course of the holiday.






A giant waffle happened.

Now it was time for Chiapas, to which I was quite hyped up for. Chiapas looks to be the perfect modern variant on the Log Flume situation, and whilst the issues with the ride system were plentiful (year long delay for opening, because Intamin), would it provide an excellent experience?
The answer is yes.
Although the boats are pretty claustrophobic and small (combined with the lapbar), the ride system itself is intelligent and insanely fast at sorting things out. The drops are all good fun and provide a suitable level of wetness and of course the best part of the entire ride is the Backwards Disco scene. IMAScore’s music perfectly fits the adventure vibe the park were going for as well, especially as the music constantly changes note and style throughout the ride, and the catchy tune gets into EVERYONE’S head. Would love to see Towers look into this as a viable replacement for their Flume, it’s that good.









It was then time for Talocan, which is still one of the more intense Top Spins around. Still fortunate to always get the front side of it as well, so no rubbish wall for me, always go for the water and the fire effects of awesome. It’s a shame really that the modern ones don’t seem to have taken off for Huss, perhaps because every park in the world already owned one of the originals? There might be a park in the UK that could do with one of these mind.



It was show time, and we started with Seiben, which was a pretty awesome magic show with weird gothic plot and stuff. Magic is always in the showmanship I feel, and the guy was very showy with the work, and some of the tricks were pretty much “HOW?!” aside from the time when he knocked on the fake mirror in two places and they made two distinct sounds. Still fab.


We then had lunch whilst watching the Chinese Acrobats, to which we’d kinda had our fill of already in the trip. Ah well, we learnt that Currywurst is actually fab, a far more interesting thing indeed.
As the weather was reasonably rubbish, it made perfect sense to go on River Quest. Probably the most unique Rapids ride in that it just features special sections rather than anything resembling actual Rapids. It’s quite similar to Bagatelle’s rapids in a way, in that on an overall scale they are brilliant rapids rides, but on a water ride scale they’re both very good. Terrifyingly wet to boot as well, mainly due to the old cheese wedge boat design, allowing water to appear from pretty much wherever the hell it wants to.



Drying out times required, a task which fell to Mystery Castle, one of the best drop towers around as well as one of the best themed queuelines. The bonus addition of random actors is also quite a cool thing, especially when they’re making full use of the fact that the ride was a walk-on. The ride is still great fun too, with the long climb and descent mid-way through the cycle being the real highlight of it all. Shame that there’s not too many of these ride types around as a result to be quite honest.



The final dark ride was Feng Ju Palace, a Vekoma Madhouse that’s not very good. Whilst it removes the whole language barrier issue, the plot is very boring, the pre-show takes forever and the effects in the ride section aren’t very good. Big old meh.


The final cred of the day was Colorado Adventure, a Vekoma Mine Train of many lifts and many sheds. It’s still good fun mind, though it’s weird that the first shed is very much in pieces due to the Silver Mine removal, so half of it is now in the light. The mountain drop by Black Mamba is excellent as well, probably only beaten by Paris’ BTM in the Mine Train stakes.





Within Colorado’s final helix these days lies Tikal, a double bill of kiddie spinny drop towers which are always a good laugh. These ones also had an epic detail in their theming, as they are themed to water pumps and every time the ride drops, a water pipe is activated. Love details like that.


We headed back to the Entrance Plaza, catching one of their mini street shows along the way, before it was time for Hotel Tartuff, a Fun House. It was amazing, the theming was generally fantastic throughout, lots of random stuff going on, random live actor and topped off with a giant slide (though it lost points for needing to take shoes off). So, so fab.









Wellenflug, the Chairswings were next with their epic fountain related times before we watched another street show which was brilliant. Some random dog kept barking at one of the actors and they kept losing it as a result, I like shows that allow for a bit of added actions as opposed to always being the same.






Some re-rides were called for, so we Chiapas as we’d just finally dried off from River Quest before heading back to Black Mamba. Whilst we were in the station boarding the ride however, someone decided that it was time for rain of the heaviest variety. Resulting in a very painful ride and a very busy exit pathway as a result. We eventually broke out to make it back to the Berlin earlier, watched the storm develop for a bit, before joining lots of people in Maus au Chocolat. By the time we’d exited the rain had fortunately let up.







The day ended with Drakkarium, their major end of day show by the main entrance. It’s very weird it must be said, with several of the dragon characters turning up in massively epic designed floats/chariots with supporting costumed characters. Then it has random stunt people doing generic stuff. I cannot help but feel this is a really big missed opportunity overall, though I doubt it was helped by the rains descending upon us once more and forcing the show to finish early, so we took our leave and made a break for it ourselves.










Phantasialand is fantastic. It has the theming; it has a solid ride line-up and it’s generally just fab. I’d really forgotten how good the park was originally, and the changes they’ve made over the past few years have been completely for the better. Hopefully they’ll keep pushing forwards with redevelopments (so excited for the Mystery area one) and replacing the older rides in addition to that expansion they’re aiming for.
A top tier European park.

Yesterday we decided to take an important English man to a place of Lego. Mr Lego William Shakespeare. I'll hand him over to you for this report

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. And this hand is suspicious, but I'm not guilty.

Welcome to the very merry land of Lego. Let's not read that rubbish book though, lets read a few of my plays.

This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking shadow.

Certainly a big walking shadow!

Look mum it's Darth Vader!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? He's right next to you! It's like they've never seen the play.

OMG it's a train! Like a real train!

Though shall not ask.

Or pass.

My hair's bad in this one

How'd I get up here?

I'm full of words. You don't want to eat me.

If food be the food of food, eat on!

Oh hi there

I'm safe here... right? Don't want me dying for a second time!

His colour choice is amazing.

Do you think he's seen me? Hope not

RUN! (Look at that blur... so much speed!)

They'll never find me here.

Or here.

Definitely won't expect me here!

I settled in to my hotel room and got it ready for my new girl.

The course of true love never did run smooth. Especially not in Legoland.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Alarm set for 4am. Check

Pin badges and Oswald hat ready. Check

Coffee. Check

It was time to take on the ultimate theme park challenge, 24 hours in two of the busiest theme parks in the world. Even on paper it doesn’t sound easy. Luckily there was things on our side. We knew Pirates of the Caribbean and ‘it’s a small world’ would have reopened so extra capacity at Disneyland. We knew kids wouldn't be able to take on this challenge and we knew many wouldn’t attempt such a feat so the first few hours were cruical. So with that in mind, we arrived via driving through the middle of Los Angeles at Disneyland at around 5:45. A giant Olaf snowman had been sculpted on the entrance way and to open the parks was none other then Josh Gadd, of Frozen fame. He spoke about living near Disney World (BOO!) and how he takes his kids to the Disney parks like a right of passage. With that the parks were opened.



Oh hey Olaf!


Fireworks get the parks opened! Here we go!


We had decided early on to get into California Adventure first and grab a Radiator Springs fastpass. Our thinking was to get the busiest rides out the way first so we could relax on the longer rides later in the day. We grabbed ourself an information leaflet for the day and bad news. Radiator Springs, Tower and California Screamin’ wouldn’t be opening till eight. That left us two hours to find something to do. We tried Toy Story Midway Mania but that wasn’t ready yet, so Little Mermaid was chosen. We then had a go on Soarin’ which opened at 6:30, and then onto Mickey’s Fun Wheel. Wow. This is a ferris wheel which offers stationary pods and ones that swing violently. We naturally chose swinging and what a ride. Seriously more intense then it looks and only the second ride I’ve done that offers sick bags in the pods. It was now around 7:30 and we decided to head towards Flo’s via Radiator Springs to see if fast pass was available. SUCCESS! It was. Whilst Chris went to get the coffees, I grabbed our fastpasses which was for 9:30am. We relaxed for a bit, after all, there was plenty of time left. 8 o clock was finally upon us and we went for a ride on the Tower (grabbing a fast pass too) which was as spell bounding as ever, a ride on Heimlichs chew chew train, Tower then took a gamble. We decided to queue for RC Racers, after all fast pass hadn’t started and this was the only reasonable time to try it. If you know the queueline, we were just under the bridge near the entrance. From there it took us exactly 18 minutes to get onto the ride. Faster then using fast pass the week before. So there you go people, the detrimental effects of any fast pass system right in front of your eyes. We decided therefore to do it again. And it took us 15 minutes this time. People have queued six hours for this thing and here we were essentially casually strolling on without a care in the world.

Astounded by this turn of luck, our fast pass turn was quickly upon us. And then it broke down. We had to wait an hour for it to come back to life, so I decided to have a lie down instead of getting depressed about things.





Finally free we descended on California Screamin’, grabbing a fast pass and queuing for Toy Story Mania. It took about 25 minutes to get on and we got exactly the same score somehow. With five minutes remaining till our fastpass, we rode King Tritons Carousel and then rode Screamin’, good as ever. It was now around 11:30 and basically time to jump ships and visit Disneyland. It only seemed natural that our first stop should be Pirates of the Caribbean but naturally we grabbed an Indianna Jones fast pass. Now Pirates. This is a classic ride and no mistake. It makes the Florida and Paris versions look like mere imitations in my opinion.This version evokes such an incredible atmosphere, there is just something about being transported away to that period of time, to not be able to see the roof of the shed sticking out in the pirate boat attack scene or for the journey to be more leisurely paced then its brothers. Captain Jack isn’t necessary but he doesn't detract from this enriching, engaging experience. It’s popularity here is incredible. Hundreds of people joining the queue every minute, each one eagerly anticipating Walt’s last ride he was involved in before he died. I loved it. It’s my favourite ride at Disneyland.


Alas, it was time to move on, we ended up in Fantasyworld for a little ride on its a small world. This one takes on the Paris look of having an outside loading area but unlike Paris, this one is a series of show rooms and not just one big warehouse. And here the props are far much larger and interesting then I’ve seen previously. My favourite hula girls also appeared here with speedy hips so that made me happy. Time for a ride on the other side of Matterhorn, the Tomorrowland side. Felt quite similar to the other one although Chris found this side rougher. We still had a while until Indianna Jones so we entered Tomorrowland and rode on Buzz Lightyear’s Spin thing. I officially hate all three versions of this ride so far. Dull, Dull, Dull. At least this one didn’t have fastpass. Before heading to Indianna we grabbed a fast pass for Star Tours, went and had some chicken on Main Street then rode Indianna Jones Temple where some more effects seemed to be working this time. That was good. With luck our Star Tours fast pass time was upon us but before we headed over that way we grabbed a Thunder Mountain night time ride fast pass and knowing the parade was on, waited near the Storybook Canal Boats. Somehow this had alluded us on our trips, it business and random closing times meaning we never got a look in. This time we somehow started the queue for it, meaning we’d be the first on when it reopened. Totally different world to Paris where there it’s walk on all the time. I like the cast members talking to us though, nice feature. Rode Star Tours then headed down to potentially queue for Splash. I wasn’t keen, 65 minutes for a ride that I don’t really like wasn’t worth it so we queued five minutes for Winnie the Pooh instead. By now it was around six o clock and to slow the pace down a bit we headed to Fantasyland to get rides on Pinocchio and Snow White. With twelve hours left of the day we still felt okay to carry on but it is hard going to keep the energy levels high.

Fastpass Top trumps. I think I win.

We decided not to bother with Space Mountain either and decided to get some snacks to give us an energy boost. It was soon time for Fantasmic and the fireworks. We didn’t move once Fantasmic ended, instead choosing to watch the fireworks from a distance. Works just as well. Our plan was to try and get on Pirates before the second Fantasmic started but unfortunately got caught in the one way system. So instead we had a go on Jungle Cruise which was walk on. The cast member this time was a bit of a mumbler so didn’t catch much of her jokes. We got off and Fantasmic was about to start. We darted into Pirates queue and luckily wouldn't be exciting as Fantasmic finishes (would be disaster). Pirates <3

After our ride we went and saw the Tiki room show which I am a big fan off. This was a chance to rest our feet, necessary after nearly 18 hours of Disney parks. After Tiki, it was Thunder Mountain time where the fast pass queue and stand by queue had become one big sprawl of people; it wasn’t pretty but we made it. And what a ride in the dark it is. So much fun especially as its barely lit up at all. Wonderful stuff. We had no more fast pass energy left and somehow we ended up in Tomorrowland. Space Mountain seemed to be dead so we decided to ride Autopia. I hate this ride too, it seems like such an unnecessary waste of space especially in a park as small and compact as this. Unfortunately we also had to sit in the car for ages as one had stopped somewhere around the circuit. BROKEN! We were evacuated from the ride and decided to call it a day at Disneyland. California Adventure was calling with a 3am showing of World of Colour. There’s nothing like standing in the cold at 3am in the morning and being sprayed with water for thirty minutes. With Screamin’ and Radiator Springs Racers closing at 4 we raced (pun not intended) over to get a go but both had closed already and with Tower the only major ride still running after 4 (but with a tasty 120 minute queue) we decided to call it a day. We’d made it to 22 hours and I especially knew I had driving to do in the morning.



TOWER! I love you but 120 minutes is just to long at 4 in the morning.

So what can I say about the day. It is a hard hard day of theme parking and takes the patience of a saint. It says something that the night-time shows finish and you still have essentially a day at Alton Towers left before the parks close. I whole-heartedly recommend it though as the parks have a special atmosphere like no other. Getting on Pirates was the icing on the cake.

And with that, thats the theme park side of the holiday done and dusted. Whilst I would love to have done some of the other parks in the area, that can be done another time around. For now though, we had done some of the most famous theme parks in America and I have to say I was so impressed with the rides on the west coast. The B&M's and Intamins in Florida are kind of hit and miss but over in California, each one was ridable and enjoyable. Special mention goes to the two floor less coasters of Medusa and Scream. They were great.
I'd like to thank anyone thats read all my trip reports. You guys rule

Regularly with new projects in the UK, and even some internationally, are compared to Nemesis; Alton Towers' map-defining roller coaster. It's natural really when you consider that Nemesis is pretty much in every enthusiasts' top 10 coasters / rides, and usually near the top as well, and that it's been ranked even as a top 10 roller coaster in the world at one point/ So, with new projects, there's always talk of 'Will it be better than Nemesis?', 'Will it do a Nemesis?' and so forth. But what exactly is 'doing a Nemesis', and we will ever see 'The Next Nemesis'?
Now, for one reason or another, SW7 has avoided the 'Next Nemesis' hype. Maybe because of it being a Gerstlauer, some are being 'snobbish' towards it, in that they feel a Gerstlauer could never be as good as the mighty B&M that is Nemesis. Maybe it's because people have been more focused on the elements, specifically any world first / world beating elements it may or may not contain. Maybe it's because people are more concerned if the ride will open on time before they start thinking what it'll be like. Or whatever. I'll talk about this a bit a later.
So, to try and explain a bit better what on earth I'm on about, let's look at Swarm. Big, shiny new B&M hits the UK for the first time in nine years. We get the slightly unoriginal end-of-the-world, alien theme. Already, when we compare Swarm to Nemesis, their stories are of a similar style. Unknown alien, fear for our lives, we must ride it; to but it simplistically. Both are well styled to show this. Nemesis has its pit, and whilst this isn't particularly theming, it is well landscaped and well styled. Couple it along with the theming, and we have a brilliant style and tone created. The same with Swarm - the amount of theming makes you feel like you are in a disaster area, a crash scene, and that you're under attack.
During construction, and possibly even after the ride opened, I am pretty certain that members on this forum have said that The Swarm is 'Thorpe's Nemesis'. However, very few have gone as far to say they prefer Swarm to Nemesis (me being one of those few), and next no one, after Swarm opened, has said that it is the 'Next Nemesis'.
Now seems like a good time to say what exactly 'doing a Nemesis' is:
- The first thing which 'the Nemesis' is is unexpected. With most major rides, they scream themselves at you saying 'LOOK AT ME I'M SCARY!!'. Nemesis does not do this. It hides away in its pit, and it's not until you are right up close that you appreciate what exactly goes on during the ride. Even then, you have to do some exploration, usually in the queue line, just to get the full picture. Something which I think Nemesis does perfectly is be unassuming. So, for a ride to 'do a Nemesis', it must be unassuming in some way. Now, what that way is something up for question. As said, Nemesis is unassuming due to how well it is hidden and the way in which it conceals itself from the public. It's been clear with some other rides that they've tried to be unassuming as well to some way as well. Saw's layout is done in such a way that it's hidden from the plaza, and it's only when you're in the queue line that you realise what the outside section consists of. Then it's got the inside section as well. Th13teen is done in a similar respect, except the outdoor section is MUCH more concealed, and then of course there's the secret indoor section. We again can assume that SW7 has a concealed indoor section, which will in some way be unassuming. So there are indeed many ways in which UK coasters have tried to copy from Nemesis, in that it is unassuming, but they have all failed to one degree or another.
Coasters with indoor sections, though unassuming to a degree, more have the thought of trying to shock / surprise you. Th13teen was designed in a way to 'shock' riders; so that anyone expecting a coaster where you leave a station, go round a track and return would be in for a surprise. Saw's indoor section was designed to frighten you, but really, with a coaster that is themed to a horror film, you don't expect any less than to be frightened, so it isn't exactly unassuming when you put it like that, is it? Without knowing the full details of SW7's indoor section (if there is one, we don't have a clue what will happen etc.), there's no way to comment. With Saw's outdoor section, it is a little unassuming, yes, but once you're in the queue, you almost begin to know the gist of what happens so much that it loses in unassuming appeal. Whilst the same could possibly be said about Nemesis, I think Saw is affected by this more. Most other UK coasters are a 'what you see is what you get job' in a way, so even if they have little surprises (Colossus' final inline for example), they're not 'unassuming'.
Of course, being unassuming isn't the only thing which makes Nemesis. Another thing that Nemesis has is a brilliant layout which is paced in such a way that it never gives up. Now then, really layout and pacing is a personal taste. What one person may find as a boring layout or a poorly paced ride, another may think as inspiring. Then, of course, some may prefer certain layouts, certain ride pacing and so forth. However, Nemesis is something that everyone seems to be able to 'agree on'. The ride doesn't lose pace at all; if anything, it just picks the pace up. The layout isn't repetitive, is interest and all the elements gel well together. There really is nothing that goes wrong with it. Even if what Nemesis does isn't your view of a 'great coaster', you still enjoy it. This is something which is very difficult to achieve. So difficult, in fact, that I'd argue no other coaster in the UK has done this. Some people find that coasters are poorly paced in such a way that some of their elements are boring, lacklustre or uncomfortable. There is no coaster that springs to mind where, in the case of enthusiasts I must point out, the general consensus is that there's nothing 'wrong' with the layout, or how the layout is experienced.
I could carry on with other brilliant features of Nemesis, but I won't. Rather, I'll begin to bring this to a close as to why I think we'll never see the 'Next Nemesis'. Nemesis is something that is truly special. Not many rides have a HUGE pit dug out for them specially and are constructed in the same way that Nemesis was. You can quite easily say that Nemesis in pretty unique. In this way, it pretty much helps it to be unassuming in its appearance. The fact that this is the case, and that it provides an excellent appearance really helps. After all, if you expect excellence and get excellence, you're happy - if you don't know what to expect, and get excellence, you're blown away. A universally accepted 'great layout' is something which is very difficult to achieve as well.
I'm rather abruptly bringing this to an end now if I'm being honest. This has been a lot more difficult than I thought - really and truly, I don't think there is a way of describing the excellence of what Nemesis is. It just is, and this is the beauty of it. You cannot explain it, which means it will be near-on impossible to recreate it. This is such a shame when you consider Nemesis Inferno, as the 'Next Nemesis' hype must have been so heavily pressed on it, which in hindsight is unfair pressure. So, I don't think that any other ride in the UK, perhaps even the world, will be able to 'do a Nemesis'. For a ride to even be compared to Nemesis positively, or to be labelled as 'That park's Nemesis' should be seen as an achievement in itself. To be near Nemesis is a prize almost, seeinghow nothing can be the 'Next Nemesis'. So, no other rides can ever be a Nemesis or the Next Nemesis - there is only the Nemesis.