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Phantasialand | F. L. Y. | Vekoma Launched Flying Coaster | 2020

i'm sure there's been discussion here before, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the asian area renovated next. i mean the asian-phantom-manor ride is alright but the area is just sitting a bit unused IMO
 
cocoa said:
i'm sure there's been discussion here before, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the asian area renovated next. i mean the asian-phantom-manor ride is alright but the area is just sitting a bit unused IMO
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The Asian rides (Ghost House) and Madhouse seemed very unloved when I was there last year. Not necessarily bad rides, but absolutely nobody but myself and a few others were on them. Felt very surreal especially on a 1 1/2 hr Taron queue day. Maybe they both need better entrances or something.

The movie ride on the other side of the park was unloved too but I can see big problems with that ride and also its location to be fair.
Maybe after FLY they will address at least one of these 3.
An obvious route for expansion /replacement to me would indeed be that Hollywood tour / Crazy Bats building. I can't see that lasting another 5-10 years surely. Crazy Bats definitely seemed to get quite a bit of interest during my visit. But VR always seems to be a temporary gimmick everywhere where it has been tried so far. Whether that building needs complete replacing or refitting out to do something with I don't know but something big could be done there even though it gets very close to the houses in Bruhl.

Maybe an indoor or outdoor Intamin family quad bike or jetski launcher would be good to make the trio of launchers complete.
 
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The old dark rides at Phantasialand would definitely need more love and care. They are falling apart over the years and are not very rerideable. On the other hand they have an awesome capacity. So... it's not unlikely that a huge part of the 1 1/2 hour Taron queue did the dark rides at that day or at another point in their life and don't feel like doing them again.

Feng Ju Palace might be a bit more complicated. To me it seems like a lot of people just don't know it's a ride at all... At least some of the people that joined me on my last visit didn't know and they are to the park quite often... And anyway a mad house is a one trick pony to a lot of people, as well. There is just no stunning "I need to see that again" dark ride at Phantasialand besides the "I need a better score" Maus au Chocolat.

I think the Space Center / Temple of the Night Hawk / Crazy Bats building is the obvious route for one of the next extensions inside the borders of the park. If I recall correctly the coaster shares it's supports with the building itself. So most likely when the coaster is removed the building will be removed, as well. I mean... it's an eyesore. Period. I doubt they'd be allowed to build an outdoor attraction there. Maybe with a huge wall like Rookburgh. But I think there were some plans that were shared with the residents around the park regarding a terraces to make it look good to them. In the end there's only wait and see. Crazy Bats will last a few more years (whenever we'll be allowed to ride VR attractions again).

I entered the thread to see new photos of Rookburgh not to write about the dark rides and the future. So apologies to everyone else who gets here with some hope for new wall pictures. But as I already wrote a reply in this thread I can get rid of another itching desire...

oriolat2 said:
No doubt, they are the best at making the most out of tiny pieces of land, almost as much as Gröna Lund, but I just can't wrap my head around the logistical nightmare that their projects must be.
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Don't worry... They just don't make any plans...
 
If the Asian area gets renovated next, I hope they finally reroute Colorado Adventure’s queue entrance so it’s not tucked away in a back alley that’s empty and dead otherwise.
 
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AndrewRollercoaster said:
Ah, so after all this time the coaster actually works. Good news. :)
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They've been testing since January so you would bloody hope so. haha

As for the topic of future developments. The removal and replacement of Hollywood Tour and Temple … sorry Crazy Bats is undoubtedly a given. The rides and building just don't fit and the space they'd be left with is similar to that of Rookburgh - and we'll seen how much they can squeeze into there so by Phantasialand standards the potential is immense. However the big obstacle is the park's successful dinner show Fantissima which is in the same building. With the attempts to get more land having been unsuccessful in recent years they obviously now have to work out an alternative for relocating it. With that in mind and knowing it will still be a few years (and to have a new marketable attraction to drive extra footfall in the gap between Taron and F.L.Y.) is most likely why we saw Crazy Bats VR as a temporary improvement.

The next development then before that is likely the China Town area. The park have made no secret that their strategy is to "modernise" the park's areas and create "unique modern e-ticket attractions". The newsletter that announced of the removal of Silbermine to make way for an expansion of Mystery (Klugheim) in 2014 said this would now mean Mystery could join Africa, Mexico, Berlin and Fantasy in being modern areas. China's omission from that list seems a clear indication they still have plans for the area.
Rumours over the years some of which suggest similar things aside; I would envision it to be a transformation like Berlin saw 10 years ago. The core area and buildings are good and other than some infrastructure modernisation I can't see them changing much - especially with how many new Wintertraum decorations they've invested in recently.
I could see the project being centred around Geister Rikscha's removal with a repurposing of the underground hall, the remodelling of that street area with the outdated China Snack food stalls opposite GR's entrance and behind those food stalls is the last section of the old Silbermine show building (currently used for storage) which is a decent amount of space that could be reincorporated and better utilised in the park. How they rebuild, what ride or rides might they even add who knows. Dark ride seems the logical step as side from Maus their line up lacks modern ones. @cookie has mentioned rerouting Colorado Adventure's queue which personally I expect to happen, nevermind just improving Colorado, but for construction logistics that back pathway would be the only suitable access point to the Geister Rikscha site without majorly disturbing the park's operations. The current queue space could even be used to expand Geister's underground hall directly beside. Overall there's a decent bit of space there for them to redo and squeeze more out of.
And of course Feng Ju Palace needs some attention for sure.
Will be interesting to see what happens. Just hope the economic difficulties arising due to the current situation won't negatively impact their plans too much.

Back to F.L.Y. though! I am liking the sleek look of those trains and how open and exposed looking the seating/restraints are. Also seems to carry a decent speed and with such a long train I imagine the back row should be great through some of those tight elements. Ridiculous after all this time, its finally coming together and now a pandemic is likely to interfere with us getting to try it out. ?
 
Germany has just banned mass events until August 31th. This also includes the summer holidays. What is defined as such a big event is unclear and in the hand of the single states. Europa Park wants to announce what this means for their park, which is in another state than Phantasialand tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if parks can open under certain circumstances like strict hygiene measures.
 
^The large event ban does not apply to theme parks I believe as they are listed under leisure facilities. Their fate will most likely be decided at the next lockdown review meeting on 30th April along with all other leisure/freetime facilities. Until that decision is made the parks remain shut as per the lockdown extension until 4th May technically (but given the plans for a gradual return to normal it almost certainly be will later).

My guess would be around sometime between since parks can limit numbers and introduce safety measures compared to sporting events and concerts - maybe June/July time.

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How do you control the number of people in a park at a time, though? Limit ticket sales to online purchases and make it first come, first serve?
 
cookie said:
How do you control the number of people in a park at a time, though? Limit ticket sales to online purchases and make it first come, first serve?
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Yes. As posted in the Coronavirus thread Plopsa and Bellewaerde have outlined their measures and it includes limiting the park capacity. Undoubtedly thats how parks will have to go forward and to avoid masses gathering only to be turned away (especially somewhere like PHL with limited space at their entrances) online booking makes sense.
Such a system works (or rather worked) for Rulantica.
 
I think a reopening of those parks could be managed by online-only tickets. So you have to buy your tickets for your visiting day online and those tickets only valid for the day(s) you selected. So you can limit and control the amount of people arriving. Phantasialand could say there could be available tickets by visiting but this is not ensured or make marketing especially for the next days if there is a free capacity. And the system could be adjusted easily. If some restrictions get eased you can set the amount of available tickets to a higher amount.

A second action could be making queue step lines so each person is at least 2m after each other and checking this with more employees.

I wouldn't expect a "first come - first serve" solution... this is to risky if people are there and can not be let in.

@VonRolland: Wikipedia says amount of 2 million visitors.So there is a average amount of 8000 people a day. The park is really tiny so there would be a problem keep the social distancing on a normal day at Phantasialand.

So the online solution would be a better one.
 
Limiting the amount of guests is obvious, but they could also create virtual queue lines, that are already used at rise of the resistance for ever major ride.
But than again how effectiv is that in a coaster where you could posibly inhale whatever the persons in front of you literally scream out of their lungs?
 
dontbesuchamcbr said:
Limiting the amount of guests is obvious, but they could also create virtual queue lines, that are already used at rise of the resistance for ever major ride.
But than again how effectiv is that in a coaster where you could posibly inhale whatever the persons in front of you literally scream out of their lungs?
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Several possibilities if you want to overextend this. You can half the amount of people riding at once. So on a 2-seat coaster only 1 seat per row would be set. On a 4-seat coaster the 1. and 4. seat would be set per row. So there is a distancing also while riding. Would result in a half of the capacity of the amusements rides and then you need to half the amount of people otherwise it would be awful.

Facemasks in Queue and Ride would be another solution.
 
dontbesuchamcbr said:
Limiting the amount of guests is obvious, but they could also create virtual queue lines, that are already used at rise of the resistance for ever major ride.
But than again how effectiv is that in a coaster where you could posibly inhale whatever the persons in front of you literally scream out of their lungs?
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I don’t think there is enough path space in phantasialand to make virtual queues a viable option. There wouldn’t be enough room to fit people if they weren’t filling the queue lines.


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Coaster Fellow said:
I don’t think there is enough path space in phantasialand to make virtual queues a viable option. There wouldn’t be enough room to fit people if they weren’t filling the queue lines.


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Yeah. It would be far safer to have guests spaced out in queues by 2m markers just like in shops to reduce numbers of guests on the paths. Virtual queues may be of benefit in some parks for some rides but not in PHL. However with capping the capacity at a third like Plopsa parks are suggesting should ensure no big queues or congestion should build up anyway.
 
Well, cutting ride's capacity could be counter balanced by adding more trains, ensuring rides work at their maximum capacity even if the day is slow.

However, this poses another problem: with so many guests per hour grabbing onto bars, harnesses, how can you make sure that rides are as sanitised as you would expect? If you really want to do things right, I guess you could have a crew disinfecting every train upon arriving to the ride's station, which could as well hinder operations. Or you could just make it compulsory for everyone to wear a mask AND gloves prior to entering the ride's queue area and boarding the train.
 
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