March 31, 20196 yr comment_263866 Meh, it'll be short term until the thing gets spited with Hollywood Tour...
April 1, 20196 yr comment_263890 Phantasialand opened for it's main season today. There's plenty of stuff to take note of: Rookburgh Rookburgh is now vaguely advertised on the park map. No opening date is mentioned. The wall at the Fantasy area is complete: This empty raised space is new, making some speculate a new small attraction could be placed there in the future Taron Work has been done on some of the rock work (where the waterfall is after the second launch) to improve the look of it. The ugly extension area is receiving new theming and covering, which should be finished soon: Black Mamba Black Mamba is continuing to receive new rock work, from Universal Rocks: Chiapas The bell tower, which is a focal point near Chiapas' main drop, has seen the roof replaced. Last season, the roof was looking very shabby with chipped paint and was very faded. The new roof is a different shape (and imo looks a bit worse, but ah well): Comparison can be found below: [spoilers] [/spoilers] Temple of the Nighthawk / Crazy Bats Some are still living in hope that this has been some elaborate April Fools prank. The park map still lists Temple of the Nighthawk as an attraction. The ride, however, is closed, with most signage removed, except for what is below: This is what the park's queue boards say: Other -Most food places now take card (they used to be cash only in most places) -The Phantasialand annual pass has been rebranded as the 'Phantasialand club' -Aside from Temple, no rides have been closed. There had been plenty of rumours of either Temple/Hollywood Tour or the China area being demolished for the next big thing after Rookburgh All images from Christopher Kenny's Twitter.
April 1, 20196 yr comment_263892 I know it's only small in the grand scheme of things, but the new Chiapas tower looks hideous IMO. The previous one fit perfectly into the style of the area, if you look at the overall area-shot with the new roof in it stands out like a sore thumb because it's essentially a warehouse-style material used where everything else blends so perfectly. A shame. As for turning Nighthawk into a VR attraction, why?! It had a decent throughput before and just needed some effects.
April 1, 20196 yr comment_263893 Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the tower roof, but there have definitely been worser cosmetic atrocities in the theme park world recently. Least the Wuze, Klugheim and Mamba updates look much better. The “strongly rumoured” demolition project looks like it has been delayed by a year, which makes sense with Rookburgh’s delays. Maybe Temple will be the next to go after all? But I get the impression Geister is next, as the park may build a major dark ride/indoor attraction when they flatten that whole complex eventually.
April 4, 20196 yr comment_263968 Been a while since we've seen some track in place: We can also see some new theming points (the white wall on the left for example). It's expected once all track is in place (which make not be too long now!) that this view point will start to receive it's own wall, meaning views of inside Rookburgh will soon become non-existent!
April 15, 20196 yr comment_264111 Some views of one of the launches from bumblebrick on Instagram... It's now expected that the track for Fly will cross over itself 46 times (Taron has 58).
April 17, 20196 yr comment_264142 Some more marketing has come about... Source - https://www.facebook.com/rideoutde/ The middle piece has something that you can look into too. However, the platform hasn't been opened up just yet, so what's inside is a mystery for now..
April 18, 20196 yr comment_264143 From PhantaFriends.de... Track is almost complete - that is the final piece to be installed! This view is from main street outside the park, and it's expected that a wall will be erected soon enough. Some more work on the new marketing feature, which I expect to be ready this weekend:
April 19, 20196 yr comment_264149 The question everyone I've been asking, "WHAT'S IN THE BOX?", for the past couple of days has been answered thanks to PhantaFriends... A model of how we can expect a small part of Rookburgh to look. This is a section of the first launch (I believe train will travel right to left), and it shows a bridge/walkway will go under the covered section. Steampunk + Phantasialand was only ever going to be this good tbh
April 25, 20196 yr comment_264222 Septuple posting? Must be a record, but it's worth it because FLY'S TRACK IS FINALLY COMPLETE: Saucey
April 25, 20196 yr comment_264224 Finally! Looks blooming amazing if I can say so myself. Can’t wait to see what theming and detail they can nestle in the next 11 months and counting when the area is finally ready to open! I can safely say Crazy Bats is purely just a ‘quick fix’ until this area opens, or more-so when the Temple complex is demolished.
April 25, 20196 yr comment_264227 Does anyone else think it's silly to put a VR overlay on Temple if this is its last year of operation? Like, why reduce the throughput and force it to be closed for a significant amount of the season if it's going the year after rather than just letting it run as is before closing it?
June 24, 20196 yr comment_265043 On 4/25/2019 at 10:08 PM, Coaster said: Does anyone else think it's silly to put a VR overlay on Temple if this is its last year of operation? I'm guessing it and Hollywood Tours will be staying for a while. The next big project is still likely to be the China area, so I guess there's that. As for Crazy Bats, there is a preview for Annual Passholders tomorrow, and the ride is expected to open to all later this week. A bit of marketing spiel.. With Crazy Bats , another unique experience awaits you in Phantasialand: VR technology of the latest generation combined with a specially developed 3D movie experience in best cinema quality provide for over four minutes of unique driving pleasure in the longest indoor roller coaster in the world! This is a quantum leap in the quality of VR coasters - making Crazy Bats a great VR experience
June 24, 20196 yr comment_265047 Meh, double post, but more details from the park via their blog... https://phantasialandblog.de/crazy-bats-facts/ The park have confirmed the VR headset will not use smartphones, but rather be 'proper' headsets. It also talks a bit about the quality of the images. So hopefully we should see something a bit better than previous VR coasters. And an advert:
June 24, 20196 yr comment_265050 Might have to give this a go in August. It’ll either be surprisingly good or mediocre I reckon. 10 minutes of headset is a bit long I won’t lie. Europa’s VR coasters are actually surprisingly good. I think China will be the next area for redevelopment. I can see Jenja being returned/upgraded whilst the food shacks with Geister and what’s left of Silbermine are likely to be demolished.
June 26, 20196 yr comment_265070 Few more details about Crazy Bats from an interview with the park's project manager.. Quote Today is the big dress rehearsal. What is your conclusion so far? Sebastian Jonas: I was very excited and eagerly awaited this. There is a certain relief now. What we have in mind works well in practice. How did you come up with the idea of turning the dark roller coaster into a virtual reality experience? We have long considered how we can upgrade the old train again. Ultimately, we decided to VR, after all, we wanted to create a modern attraction. What is so special about that? In the virtual world, visitors have the opportunity to experience the old route in a completely new way. Guests are in a whole new world, where an animated film is connected with virtual reality and a roller coaster ride. How long did it take to implement the idea? Actually, it has been clear for two years that we want to offer a VR experience here, but unfortunately the technology at that time was not as far as we originally thought. Over the past six months, VR camera and camera technology has evolved as we imagined it to be for the web, and the system has become mass-marketable. tl;dr - the park decided 2 years ago that they wanted to offer a VR experience, and a Temple upgrade had been considered for a while. However, due to the low quality of VR, they ultimately decided against. At the start of the year they were in a position to put together a good-enough quality VR experience, so jumped on it (hence the out-of-the-blue announcement). Early reviews are, perhaps unsurprisingly, mixed. The VR is very 'busy', in that a lot happens throughout the video. A first viewing would feel like a generic ride through lots of VR scenery and stuff, but multiple viewings can lead to you seeing a story with the Crazy Bats develop. There's been early issues with headsets not being in focus, etc, though whether that'll be a long-term problem remains to be seen. If you choose to ride without VR, the ride is in total darkness and no longer has audio. So yeah, it's a thing, it's not awful. Woo. What this means for the lifespan of Crazy Bats and Hollywood Tours is anyone's guess at this stage though...
July 24, 20196 yr comment_265503 A brief Rookburgh update. Construction of the hotel is very much underway and it's now clearer how this will be integrated into the area. It will be formed of 3 (or potentially 4 / 3 with a 4th to come in later years) 'towers', formed of multiple floors. It's expected that there will be 5-6 floors in each tower, with 5 rooms per floor. These towers will be woven into the top end of the Rookburgh site, near the end of the launch tracks. See below for a rough plan: (image from cslkenny) Though it was previously speculated the hotel may be Shark Hotel-esque and formed from themed containers, they are being made 'properly'. See a construction update here: Work is continuing onsite with some theming going on around the outskirts and more buildings being built on the made site. Views onto the site are extremely limited so hard to tell exactly how much progress has been made. It'll be interesting to see how the hotel is priced. The rooms are quite small, certainly not much bigger than the Shark Hotel ones. But they do offer a really unique experience in literally being surrounded by a coaster, and will likely be highly themed. One would hope they're soundproofed though; wouldn't be a fan of be woken up by a coaster being tested at 6am..
October 18, 20195 yr comment_267138 Been a while since an update. I guess because not much has reallllly happened. The final major wall of the area is being built. This is basically adjacent to the main road and is near the end of both launch tracks Hotel construction is going well: (Source for above 2 photos - Phantafriends member PHL-Marcus) And a couple of renderings from Phanta-famous man Tobi... It's getting there. Slowly. Very slowly. But it's getting there (I've been saying this for the past 3 years now, but oh well.....)
October 18, 20195 yr comment_267142 As great as it is looking, they really need to speed up the process it is taking to build this. It has been a construction site for four years now and there is definitely some work they still need to do before the hopeful 2020 opening.
October 18, 20195 yr comment_267143 It'll open when its open... Phantasialand have been done in before with dodgy delays and doubt they'll ever risk it again...
October 18, 20195 yr comment_267144 Ah yes the life of an enthusiast, complains when a ride gets delayed and complains when the ride is not 100% finished.
October 29, 20195 yr comment_267291 Another minor update, courtesy of @RuudSchutten_ on Twitter... Mess of track Hotel aesthetic coming along
November 22, 20195 yr comment_267622 Phantasialand opens for Wintertraum today, and the park are stepping up Fly advertising with the 'Rookburgh Gazette': (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)
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