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Phantasialand


Cringle

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Stop saying you want to go and just do it... Book flights, hotels, etc and just visit these places...

Whilst I have strong intentions of going here(amongst others (you've probably seen)) and can do plane & trains and book stuff, It's not quite as easy for me currently due to home folks not condoning travelling on my own most of the time.

I am gradually getting these parks done one by one. This year saw a major milestone reached (you know the one) and should things go my way next year, it will be an exciting year (and I don't mean Thorpe's new ride).

Not everyone is earning 21KAAAAAAAY or has your independence Benin

If I had the powers to simply just book a weekend trip like that ( without personal constraints) I would've definitely done a good chunk of Europe parks in the last couple years.
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Phantasialand is one of the easiest to get to by public transport too. Flight into cologne (there's approximately 4 million flights to cologne from across the UK every day), then a simple 2 trains and a bus (taking a whole 45 minutes in total from plane to park) and you're there. Proper cheap too.

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  • 1 month later...

Cologne is cheap to buy things too!

Now I'm not one who usually briefly talks about their experience at theme parks on here. Generally my opinions come out at meets.

However

After going to Phantasiakand today, I can only say how blown away I am by the operations, the attention to detail, the shows, rides and feel of Phantasiakand. In an attempt to give it justice when trying to compare what it's like I can only think of places like universal or Disney in terms of what it's like and I can now easily say it's my favourite theme park outside those two brands I've just mentioned.

I even got that magical awe feeling that I personally rarely get when all life is just forgotten and your just lost in the attraction after riding mousse au chocolat!!!

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We need more abroad meets!

How was Taron's construction by the way?

Let's wait and see if the Disney meet is a success first ey? ;)

Taron is progressing well; the site is a hive of activity and the track looks like a twisted mess. I've got a few pictures but can't upload them till next week (and I'll save my views about the park, which I also visited today with Peaj, till then too).

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Aaah, I wish I'd appreciated the theming etc more when I went (year 8 France/Germany school trip in 2003)! Back then I was more bothered about how fun and thrilling rides were :P

I do remember how awesome Colorado Adventure was, Mystery Castle, oh and River Quest of course! :o Didn't do Winjas as we had no idea it was there :blush: Well, not until on the coach back when our other friends showed us their ORP and told us how great it was...we were like, "WHAAAAT?!" I can't believe it didn't even occur to me to read about the park online or anything (though this was back in the days of dial up and no smartphones)! And even though I knew a bit of German, we kept getting lost and the map wasn't much help :lol: We ended up on the wrong ride (Silbermine, which is gone now?) after queueing for what we thought was Colorado Adventure (which I seem to remember was also called the Michael Jackson Thrill Ride or something :blink: )!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just had my first day at the park, going again tomorrow. I have a few little things to say! :)

Overall park atmosphere, fantastic. Very Disney, very immersive and family orientated. It has the magic most theme parks don't just by being there and walking around.

Black Mamba was meh. Theming and station were fab but the ride experience to me just felt like a forceless Nemesis Inferno. I'll do it again tomorrow and see but I'm not sure.

Chiapas was fab. Smells fantastic (like the swimming pools at Center Parcs) and very fun theme and ride experience.

Colorado Adventure was great, and Maus au Chocolat was too. River Quest was good but theming was basically concrete and the drops were rough.

Mystery Castle though... Oh my god. The queue line builds up this weird atmosphere/tension that I've never experienced before. Then you go down the staircase which seemed to fit perfectly with all the pipes and machinery above and around you. The ride itself was incredible. The music worked with the ride so well, and the second half of the ride is stripped to just the basic forces and darkness. The drops are strong enough to be thrilling but not painful like most drop towers. Definitely worth the visit.

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I personally didn't think Mamba was forceless, it had some real kick in places! It for me was just too dragged out with not a lot going on at the end, definitely had a punchy start in my eyes.

 

River Quest's drops are the same on all rapids with those elements, all a bit bumpy due to what they're doing :P Really surprised me that ride as I didn't expect the upper section, only the bit around the queue.

 

Urgh Mystery Castle. Really didn't get the hype. Even the queue line made so much hype it was unbelievable! And all of that just for a drop tower with not a lot going on. It wasn't overly forceful, it wasn't sure if it was a shooty one or droppy one. It ended far too soon and was just urgh. The Intamin gen tower at Walibi Belgium was much better, first drop tower I've properly felt the speed hitting my legs heavily!

 

Winjas, that ride! So clever!!! One of the best surprises, so glad I knew nothing about that! And Maus, so much fun!

 

How have the queue times been? 

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Glad you're having a good time!  I agree with you about Mamba being a bit meh (even though I don't think it was forceless), but disagree about Mystery Castle - I think we just had a bad setting or something. :/
 
I'll share full views in my TR, but here's some photos of Taron's construction from just over a week ago...
 
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The sheer size and scale of this coaster is ridiculous.  And the fact that they're meant to be fitting in a smaller coaster into that area too is just insane.  Really looking forward to seeing it develop further!

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Rode Black Mamba again today as it was walk on... Still meh. It has a rattle the entire way round, and because it spends all of the time close to the ground, the effect is lost.

Winjas is fun but not polished. Has some areas of great theming, however some parts felt a bit dead. The pacing on both is good however and I like the layouts.

River Quest was fun but very rough. Only rode it once yesterday and that was it for us!

Mystery Castle was fab yesterday but today they only ran it on the short cycle which meant it was so disappointing it actually had me slightly angry. All the build up was lost and it lasted about 25 seconds. I can see above some of you didn't like Mystery Castle. I can see why but drop towers to me are just too intense to be enjoyable sometimes and are more of a trophy ride than a good experience. Mystery Castle, for me, was thrilling enough to make me scream like a little girl but fun and enjoyable enough to make me want to run back and do it again right away.

As a whole though, the park is bloody fantastic. In a different league to UK parks and Heide Park we visited a few days ago.

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Yeah the short version of Mystery Castle is just disappointing... A real shame it even exists to be frank...

 

I also find Mamba, a bit dull... It's a real ride of two halves, as the inversions are all pretty fab, yet the constant turns after are just dull and repetitive... A shame cos it has all the right ingredients...

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