CSLKennyNI
Giga Poster
Wrote this back in July, forgot to post it ... pft.
Phantasialand's fabulous Celebration Days.
My full reviews of the rides and the park can be found in my trip report from April. (http://coasterforce.com/forums/thre...ialand-trip-report-april-2017-part-two.41050/) I'm not going to repeat my thoughts on rides too much and focus on the event itself. As I wrote in the previous report I grew up with Phantasialand, it's a place that means a lot to me so I was rather keen on attending one of their Celebration Days in the summer. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the park they held four Celebration Days, where the park was open until midnight with a fireworks show at the end of the day. Plus there was the extra draw of experiencing Taron in the dark again!
They had special exclusive park maps for the event days.
We arrived at the park for opening at 9am and made our way to the Berlin area. The moment we came around the corner and entered Kaiserplatz I suddenly was hit by an instant feeling of nostalgia as the old Phantasialand Song was playing. It was strange to hear it again in the park after so long...
The park played in the Berlin area for the first half of the day this audio documentary they released on YouTube charting the musical history of Phantasialand from the old Marchenwald to 'Das Phantasialand Lied' to the song some pop group made for Black Mamba when it opened.
We sat down in the new deckchairs in Kaiserplatz for a while and listened. Eventually as it came closer to 9.30 we went and stood outside Maus au Chocolat as it opened half an hour early. While waiting outside the soundtrack to the old dark ride 1001 Nacht, which used to be where Maus is now, started playing, which was particularly stirring as I always loved that ride as a child. Depsite now so many years later how different the area looks to hear that music again on the exact same spot was odd yet kind of great.
Nevertheless before I get too caught up in a nostalgia fest let's move on! We rode Maus which was fun, and then stood at the entrance of the Fantasy area waiting for it to open at 10am. Once it opened we headed straight for Winjas Fear and Force.
Since Maus and Winjas can get some large queues during the day my advice typically is to always do them first. Especially as in the morning most people head to Taron, and it is better to queue for it later in the day cause: a. the line will be shorter and, b. it's better later on after its warmed up!
I haven't mentioned yet that I was visiting with my Mum and siblings. My Mum, like me, also grew up with the park as her 'Oma und Mutter' took her there a lot when she was young and then as teen, her friends and her often visited Phantasialand. And thankfully she took me to Phantasialand annually since I was 3 years old. So visiting the park is somewhat of a family tradition, so it was nice to spend a day there with my family again.
Following Winjas and the Tittle Tattle Tree (which I always forget is surprisingly more forceful than you'd think looking at it) we rode Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Night Hawk. My Mum isn't a fan of coasters in the dark, they make her feel quite sick, so she hasn't ridden Temple for almost 10 years. But she decided to go on it again given that it was possibly going to be her last chance to. She remembers being fond of it when it was Space Centre, unfortunately I never got to experience it in that form. After the ride she simply looked at me and said "well that was utterly boring, good riddance!"
Hollywood Tour on the other hand she really likes and isn't too pleased at the rumours that it will soon be removed unless it is replaced by a new modern but similar dark ride.
To be fair I agree with her there. After F.L.Y. the park really need to invest in a new family dark ride. Something fun and interesting for the whole family to do. In recent years the park have removed two of their old dark rides and only built Maus as a replacement. And with Hollywood on the chopping block as well, I feel a new modern family dark ride is the only major gap in the park's current line up. Something like Symbolica at Efteling, Arthur at Europa or Pirates at Disney Shanghai.
It's not been confirmed that it's leaving, but given the strong rumours, we treated this as our farewell to HT. After many years of riding it together we stayed in our seats and re-rode it, to take it all in, one last time.
We walked to Wakobato which after I'd been a bit more positive about in April I was willing to spend time riding it again. However we were met by a sign at the entrance informing us that the ride was being run as a quiet boat ride today so all water effects had been turned off. Well **** that.
While we had ridden Hollywood Tour and walked around the lake my sister actually stayed on Temple of the Night Hawk and re-rode it 7 times in a row. She likes Temple for some reason. I'm really considering disowning her....
We then worked our way through all the park's attractions and even had the time to watch two shows (Musarteum + Ice College).
Eventually as it slowly started to get darker we went back to River Quest. I love this crazy water ride. And it's a favourite of with rest of my family as well. Thankfully it was walk on so rode 3 times in a row. And this was a really unexpected highlight of the day. River Quest in the dark was great! With the lanterns in the station and around the new whirlpool theming it was really atmospheric. And the night time view over a lit up Klugheim from up there was great!
After River Quest we quickly made our way to Taron before the queue shut at 10pm (closed early for the fireworks).
I probably don't need to go on about it too much as I'm most people here already know the wonderous thing that is Taron at night. It is so fast and forceful, and the theming and lights in the dark make it a specular ride experience. Taron was made for night rides.
And if you haven't experienced it go to the park during their winter season (which is fantastic overall).
After Taron ❤ we headed to Kaiserplatz to wait for the Celebration Days Fireworks. They had set up a stage next to Wellenflug where there was live music from 2pm to 11.30. The performers were good and it created such a buzz on Kaiserplatz amongst the people (the temporary beer stalls set up on the square for the party probably helped as well).
I went for a walk down the lit up Berlin street, the lights, the sound of various ABBA songs from the stage, people singing along, dancing in the square - the atmosphere was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It was just great.
Then the main event - the fireworks!
The display itself was really good - the park really went all out for it and the synchronised colourful lighting around Kaiserplatz was great but the real highlight was the soundtrack IMA Score put together. It comprised of really fab remixes of various soundtracks from the park's rides.
First up was Klugheim, then Talocan, Temple of the Night Hawk's soundtrack was even included which was a nice nod to the oldest coaster in the park and then a great remix of the Wuze Town soundtrack. Unfortunately after it having been lovely and sunny all day it had started to heavily rain during the show. However hardly anyone left or ran for shelter. People stayed out in the square and enjoyed the show.
Many even started dancing/jumping up and down to the Wuze Town remix.
(None of the videos online really to it justice so here's one I picked at random)
The next bit caught me by surprise - they included the song from the park's Festival of Lights parade which was ran in at the end of the 1998 - 2006 seasons. It really fit to the soundtrack and was a great bit of nostalgia. After the Black Mamba song came a remix of the Maus au Chocolat soundtrack which even included the mice squeakly wishing Phantasialand a happy birthday (a great touch) and then Hotel Tartuff.
The fun atmosphere of this event was amazing. At that moment I looked around the fireworks and lights going, people were almost having a rave to Maus au Chocolat music in the lashing rain. It was rather strange yet so fab. Which to be fair sort of sums up the park itself in my eyes.
Then the grand finale was rightfully the amazing Chiapas soundtrack.
And with that (after buying the fireworks soundtrack), completely soaked to the skin and dying of hypothermia yet some how still full of joy (except my miserable Temple of the Night Hawk loving sister...), we walked back to the car through the lit up park. It was great day hopefully after the success of the Celebration Days Phantasia might do some more late night summer openings in the future.
Happy Birthday Phantasialand! Auf Wiedersehen, bis zum nächsten Mal.
Phantasialand's fabulous Celebration Days.
My full reviews of the rides and the park can be found in my trip report from April. (http://coasterforce.com/forums/thre...ialand-trip-report-april-2017-part-two.41050/) I'm not going to repeat my thoughts on rides too much and focus on the event itself. As I wrote in the previous report I grew up with Phantasialand, it's a place that means a lot to me so I was rather keen on attending one of their Celebration Days in the summer. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the park they held four Celebration Days, where the park was open until midnight with a fireworks show at the end of the day. Plus there was the extra draw of experiencing Taron in the dark again!
They had special exclusive park maps for the event days.
We arrived at the park for opening at 9am and made our way to the Berlin area. The moment we came around the corner and entered Kaiserplatz I suddenly was hit by an instant feeling of nostalgia as the old Phantasialand Song was playing. It was strange to hear it again in the park after so long...
The park played in the Berlin area for the first half of the day this audio documentary they released on YouTube charting the musical history of Phantasialand from the old Marchenwald to 'Das Phantasialand Lied' to the song some pop group made for Black Mamba when it opened.
We sat down in the new deckchairs in Kaiserplatz for a while and listened. Eventually as it came closer to 9.30 we went and stood outside Maus au Chocolat as it opened half an hour early. While waiting outside the soundtrack to the old dark ride 1001 Nacht, which used to be where Maus is now, started playing, which was particularly stirring as I always loved that ride as a child. Depsite now so many years later how different the area looks to hear that music again on the exact same spot was odd yet kind of great.
Nevertheless before I get too caught up in a nostalgia fest let's move on! We rode Maus which was fun, and then stood at the entrance of the Fantasy area waiting for it to open at 10am. Once it opened we headed straight for Winjas Fear and Force.
Since Maus and Winjas can get some large queues during the day my advice typically is to always do them first. Especially as in the morning most people head to Taron, and it is better to queue for it later in the day cause: a. the line will be shorter and, b. it's better later on after its warmed up!
I haven't mentioned yet that I was visiting with my Mum and siblings. My Mum, like me, also grew up with the park as her 'Oma und Mutter' took her there a lot when she was young and then as teen, her friends and her often visited Phantasialand. And thankfully she took me to Phantasialand annually since I was 3 years old. So visiting the park is somewhat of a family tradition, so it was nice to spend a day there with my family again.
Following Winjas and the Tittle Tattle Tree (which I always forget is surprisingly more forceful than you'd think looking at it) we rode Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Night Hawk. My Mum isn't a fan of coasters in the dark, they make her feel quite sick, so she hasn't ridden Temple for almost 10 years. But she decided to go on it again given that it was possibly going to be her last chance to. She remembers being fond of it when it was Space Centre, unfortunately I never got to experience it in that form. After the ride she simply looked at me and said "well that was utterly boring, good riddance!"
Hollywood Tour on the other hand she really likes and isn't too pleased at the rumours that it will soon be removed unless it is replaced by a new modern but similar dark ride.
To be fair I agree with her there. After F.L.Y. the park really need to invest in a new family dark ride. Something fun and interesting for the whole family to do. In recent years the park have removed two of their old dark rides and only built Maus as a replacement. And with Hollywood on the chopping block as well, I feel a new modern family dark ride is the only major gap in the park's current line up. Something like Symbolica at Efteling, Arthur at Europa or Pirates at Disney Shanghai.
It's not been confirmed that it's leaving, but given the strong rumours, we treated this as our farewell to HT. After many years of riding it together we stayed in our seats and re-rode it, to take it all in, one last time.
We walked to Wakobato which after I'd been a bit more positive about in April I was willing to spend time riding it again. However we were met by a sign at the entrance informing us that the ride was being run as a quiet boat ride today so all water effects had been turned off. Well **** that.
While we had ridden Hollywood Tour and walked around the lake my sister actually stayed on Temple of the Night Hawk and re-rode it 7 times in a row. She likes Temple for some reason. I'm really considering disowning her....
We then worked our way through all the park's attractions and even had the time to watch two shows (Musarteum + Ice College).
Eventually as it slowly started to get darker we went back to River Quest. I love this crazy water ride. And it's a favourite of with rest of my family as well. Thankfully it was walk on so rode 3 times in a row. And this was a really unexpected highlight of the day. River Quest in the dark was great! With the lanterns in the station and around the new whirlpool theming it was really atmospheric. And the night time view over a lit up Klugheim from up there was great!
After River Quest we quickly made our way to Taron before the queue shut at 10pm (closed early for the fireworks).
I probably don't need to go on about it too much as I'm most people here already know the wonderous thing that is Taron at night. It is so fast and forceful, and the theming and lights in the dark make it a specular ride experience. Taron was made for night rides.
And if you haven't experienced it go to the park during their winter season (which is fantastic overall).
After Taron ❤ we headed to Kaiserplatz to wait for the Celebration Days Fireworks. They had set up a stage next to Wellenflug where there was live music from 2pm to 11.30. The performers were good and it created such a buzz on Kaiserplatz amongst the people (the temporary beer stalls set up on the square for the party probably helped as well).
I went for a walk down the lit up Berlin street, the lights, the sound of various ABBA songs from the stage, people singing along, dancing in the square - the atmosphere was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It was just great.
Then the main event - the fireworks!
The display itself was really good - the park really went all out for it and the synchronised colourful lighting around Kaiserplatz was great but the real highlight was the soundtrack IMA Score put together. It comprised of really fab remixes of various soundtracks from the park's rides.
First up was Klugheim, then Talocan, Temple of the Night Hawk's soundtrack was even included which was a nice nod to the oldest coaster in the park and then a great remix of the Wuze Town soundtrack. Unfortunately after it having been lovely and sunny all day it had started to heavily rain during the show. However hardly anyone left or ran for shelter. People stayed out in the square and enjoyed the show.
Many even started dancing/jumping up and down to the Wuze Town remix.
The next bit caught me by surprise - they included the song from the park's Festival of Lights parade which was ran in at the end of the 1998 - 2006 seasons. It really fit to the soundtrack and was a great bit of nostalgia. After the Black Mamba song came a remix of the Maus au Chocolat soundtrack which even included the mice squeakly wishing Phantasialand a happy birthday (a great touch) and then Hotel Tartuff.
The fun atmosphere of this event was amazing. At that moment I looked around the fireworks and lights going, people were almost having a rave to Maus au Chocolat music in the lashing rain. It was rather strange yet so fab. Which to be fair sort of sums up the park itself in my eyes.
Then the grand finale was rightfully the amazing Chiapas soundtrack.
And with that (after buying the fireworks soundtrack), completely soaked to the skin and dying of hypothermia yet some how still full of joy (except my miserable Temple of the Night Hawk loving sister...), we walked back to the car through the lit up park. It was great day hopefully after the success of the Celebration Days Phantasia might do some more late night summer openings in the future.
Happy Birthday Phantasialand! Auf Wiedersehen, bis zum nächsten Mal.
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