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Phantasialand


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9 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

Phantasialand opens for Wintertraum today, and the park are stepping up Fly advertising with the 'Rookburgh Gazette':

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(Picture from one of the park's marketing team)

 

Included in the paper is reference to FLY, Hotel Charles Lindbergh, the restaurant Uhrwerk (Clockwork), as well as newly revealed things Bar 1919 and Emilie Chocoladen & Candy Werkstatt (Emilie's Chocolate and Candy Workshop, which will presumably be a sweet shop)

Will this be available in English?, As an entitled enthusiast I demand this be available in English

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3 hours ago, Wicker Matt said:

Liking the sound of the sweetshop style place. Could we be seeing Phantasialand’s take on Toothsome Emporium?

 

The whole marketing there looks wonderful.

 

2 hours ago, CharlieN said:

^ It looks like a wonderful sweatshop. Long hours, little pay, poor workers rights...

 

But I do agree, the marketing is so charming.

And this is why we quote hilarious typos Charlie 😢

 

 

I wouldn't expect anything crazy though Matt. I fully expect that it's just a grab and go sweet treat place with a name to match the theme of the area. 

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Some higher quality pictures of the Rookburgh Gazette:

 

IMG_20191122_220103.thumb.jpg.75f4543aed

IMG_20191122_220154.thumb.jpg.b291ee8eec

IMG_20191122_220229.thumb.jpg.6471a1ab81

IMG_20191122_220242.thumb.jpg.5efb0a6596

source 

 

Some further highlights from the paper:

 

-The Charles Lindbergh hotel will have 114 rooms: 106 of them will be individual cabins for 2 people, and 8 of them will be the equivalent of two cabins and be for 4 people.

-Uhrwerk will be the restaurant for the hotel for breakfast and dinner, but will be accessible from the park for guests during the day for lunch

-Bar 1919 is a bar area on the lower levels of the hotel, and is exclusively for hotel guests

 

Roughly, the story of Rookburgh is a 1920s Berlin-themed area with a focus on transportation and, naturally, flight, with a steampunk twist. So Rookburgh will be a 'sub-area' of the current Berlin area, much like how Klugheim is a sub-area of the Mystery area.

 

And, in an amazing piece of detail, the newspaper is written with 1920s German spellings, colloquialisms and grammar. It's a subtle difference, but something which is truly fantastic imo.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Went to Phantasialand this weekend and just, damn, I always forget how incredible this place is.

 

Firstly, Rookburgh: no photos from me. However from the outside there's little to be seen since the last update. The glimpses are saw though are exciting.

 

Next, Crazy Bats - the VR experience that at one point Phantasialand said they'd never get. It's a weird one: the VR headsets are good, and comfy - the first VR coaster I've ridden where I haven't needed to hold onto the headset. And the film itself is good. It's humour-filled, well done, has some nice tricks and fun to watch. But I did come off feeling a bit queasy (something VR hasn't done to me before), as did everyone else in my group. I think that's at least in part down to the sheet length of the film.

 

The other issue, unsurprisingly, is the throughput. It's completely destroyed. A ride that could easily churn out 3-4 trains without stacking now just manages to send 2 with no stacking (which for a 4 minute + ride isn't good). And the first and last car were out of use throughout the duration of the visit (I don't know if that's a permanent thing or not, but that takes out 8 people a ride). And the clever conveyor belt cleaning system they had seems to no longer be used either, which is sad.

 

The really surprising thing, though, is the popularity of Crazy Bats. The public were lapping it up. It regularly had the longest or second longest queue on park. People were willing to wait over 2 hours to ride this. Now 2 hour waiting times aren't uncommon for UK rides, sure, but in Germany you rarely see those sort of waits, except on exceptionally busy days. It's crazy. So clearly this has worked for the park.

 

 

And that brings me onto the next point: the park was hugely busy this weekend. I've visited this weekend in January for the past couple of years, and whilst it's been busy, it's never felt mad. This year, however, it was heaving. The park coped very well and queues were all manageable. But it was a massive shock to the system to see how busy this tiny park gets, whilst still managing to deliver incredible experiences. People were queueing to get into the viewing area of the park's finale show (which, tbh, is a bit naff) an hour before it started! 

 

But yeah, despite the busy-ness, the park was brilliant. I can't recommend their winter event enough.

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57 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

But yeah, despite the busy-ness, the park was brilliant. I can't recommend their winter event enough.

 

I was quite lucky when I went in that everything was near enough walk on although that's largely down (if not entirely down) to visiting during midweek. Felt very odd to actually have walk ons with Taron!!

 

Will second your recommendation to visit during winter!! The park looks gorgeous, the fire show is great and to top it off, Taron in the dark is absolutely sensational..... Well even more so than it already is!!

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38 minutes ago, Martin Doyle said:

 

I was quite lucky when I went in that everything was near enough walk on although that's largely down (if not entirely down) to visiting during midweek. Felt very odd to actually have walk ons with Taron!!

Definitely due to visiting midweek. I was there Friday and the park was significantly quieter (queues no longer than 30mins) compared to the weekend.

 

The park is of course extremely busy during the 12 days of Christmas, then dies down again for their open weekdays afterwards, but the weekends hugely pick up again.

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Going to Phantasialand for the first time on Wednesday and I am so excited! First proper trip to a European park.

 

Reading posts on here and my common sense tells me it should be quite quiet, but this says it's looking quite busy for the two days we're there. Is there anything special about this day that we should know about or is this website just wrong? Not sure exactly how trustworthy this website is.

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1 hour ago, ChessingtonSam said:

Going to Phantasialand for the first time on Wednesday and I am so excited! First proper trip to a European park.

 

Reading posts on here and my common sense tells me it should be quite quiet, but this says it's looking quite busy for the two days we're there. Is there anything special about this day that we should know about or is this website just wrong? Not sure exactly how trustworthy this website is.

The crowd calendar on that website is based on previous dates, however it doesn’t have any data from last January so the predictions are likely to be very inaccurate.

 

I’ll also be there Wednesday-Friday and we booked those dates as was expecting it to be quiet, but the park has been getting progressively busier towards the end of wintertraum so may be busier than normally a midweek school day would be. 

 

If last thursday and friday are anything to go by though, it shouldn’t be too bad.

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Ah Ling Bao, marvellous hotel and probably one of my favourite places I have ever stayed, let alone in a theme park!

 

The theming, the ambience, surroundings, food, drink. Even the smells and music. It’s just a whole new experience to visit. Sure it isn’t cheap but the escapism is surreal. Heck even, walking out to the Chinese square in the middle of the night seeing Taron loom in the distance. You are literally staying in the park overnight!

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8 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

I've been here around 15-20 minutes and not even been in the park yet and I love this place. Ling Bao is excellent, and the whole place makes you feel so welcome. Is this what Europe is like?

20200114_150308.jpg

Technically no.

 

Because that's a Chinese themed area...

 

But yes, a lot of European parks go all in on theming and immersion. Phantasialand is one of the best.

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Of course, don't expect similar levels from EVERY European park. Phantasialand set the bar high and are able to invest ridiculous amounts of money.

 

But as Mark says, a lot of European parks are big on theming and immersion (especially compared to the UK), and it truly is a step up compared to most of our attractions.

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1 minute ago, Ivsetti said:

out of interest why are Phantasialand able to invest ridiculous amounts of money but Merlin, "2nd only to Disney" not?

Merlin Parks aren't just able to invest money at will, without a business case, which is what they did in the early 2000's era.

Currently Merlin's interests are in Asia as that's where the emerging markets are.

If the British consumer, spent more money in the parks, and stopped complaining about the excellent value of the MAP looking for the cheapest options to the point of Merlin practically giving tickets away, share the fun, trade, promos etc, then perhaps they would invest more into the UK markets but currently Lego is the asset with the greatest return, hence why it will be getting a new land next year.

 

On the second to Disney comment, it's the truth however you have to look at the business as a whole for example the Midway clusters and Legoland parks generating millions in weekly revenue.

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I'm really excited to visit Phantasialand this year. I adore Europa Park for it beauty and its charm and Phantasialand doesn't seem any different.

40 minutes ago, Glitch said:

If the British consumer, spent more money in the parks, and stopped complaining about the excellent value of the MAP looking for the cheapest options to the point of Merlin practically giving tickets away, share the fun, trade, promos etc, then perhaps they would invest more into the UK markets but currently Lego is the asset with the greatest return, hence why it will be getting a new land next year.

I disagree for the most part. Look at Alton Towers, this park gets tons of investment and is very likely to receive the next coaster within the UK parks.

Why is this the case? Competition.. Blackpool, Drayton, Flamingoland, LV, any trace of competition in UK market is in the North, hence why Alton still receives the biggest investments.

Merlin know they have to invest in Alton to keep the park at the top of the market, the other parks promote Alton to be the best it can be.

 

Chessington and Thorpe don't receive investment because what is their competition? Paulton? Dreamland? Lol. They rule the roost in the south, they could add nothing in the next 20 years and still be the best parks in the south.. Merlin just don't care, why should they invest in two parks that will still turn tons of profit without any investment whatsoever. Legoland is the one exception to this, but that park is a absolute cash cow and every new ride is a new shop full of profit to be made waiting to happen..

 

I think people spending more cash at Merlin Parks isn't the solution, its having more competition in the south to actually make Merlin care about their non Legoland-southern parks..

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