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Phantasialand - July 2016

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As soon as an opening date for Taron was announced I was on le Facebook with Nic planning a trip. Due to Copenhagen already booked up we ended up travelling out on Saturday 9th July. We were rather exhausted as the night before we were in London to see Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (J-Pop star) perform and we had to get up at a silly time in the morning for the drive to London Stansted. A short flight later and we picked up our sporty little hire car. It felt weird getting a hire car for just an hours worth of driving. Oh well, it was quicker than public transport and we wanted as much Taron time as poss.

We had booked a night's stay in the park's Matamba hotel so had to go and check in first. Our room was already available so we dumped our stuff off. Our room was really nice, lots of room and very clean.









We then headed into the park where we rushed over to Klugheim. I had a slight goon meltdown and we proceeded to enter the queue - which was long.























So after cooking in the sun as the queue is all out in the open (sad face) we finally got on. We made sure our first ride was in the front. I was a very happy man by the time we got off the ride. IT'S SOOOOOOO GOOOD! There is some absolutely amazing ejector air throughout, the second launch is just insane and it's just really fun. It reminded me of Skyrush in the way it throws you around which took me by surprise a little bit. There was one bit that always amused me by the way it just throws you about. The interaction with the entire area is also spectacular. The waterfall after the second launch is fab (and slightly refreshing if you sit on the left). We instantly ran around and joined the single rider queue.


This is the nice themed part of the queue. There's a whole empty cattlepen out the back






















The new themed exterior for the River Quest lifts is amazing...



The village is really cool, I love how atmospheric it all is. Helped a lot by a great score and sound effects.









So the train I was on second time around managed to clearly break something on the first launch so we had to be evacuated off the end break run which was interesting. I then got to see loads of management peeps freaking out while engineers chucked a wheel off and stared intently at the one remaining wheel (sort of kicker wheels to get the launch in motion). Nic was waiting for the next train and to be fair to the engineers they managed to give the ok after about 15-20 mins of downtime.






Best air con unit ever


See, one wheel is missing













We decided to grab some food (just something small on Berlin street). We then joined a 20 minute queue for Maus-au-chocolat. I love this ride's theme, still so much better than the Toy Story Mania one. It's also exhausting.





We then decided to take a ride on Colorado Adventure because it's awesome. We sat near the back and it was ridiculous, just threw us all over the place. We then randomly took a little break on Geister Rikscha. So weird. I look forward to when Phantasialand turn it into something insane.

It was then back into Klugheim for some Raik action.








I love the insane amount of theming they added to the exterior of River Quest.

























So, this was only my second Vekoma Junior Boomerang (the other being the one at Paultons). I was dreading going backwards but it was fine, just really enjoyable. The station theming is really cool too. It's clearly meant to be a time machine so it goes one colour when you fly through forwards and then changes for when you're backwards. I loved that, what a neat little thing. The smoke billowing from the front of the train before you go up the lift hill is also really cool.













We spent more time admiring the area before joining the queue again for Taron.

















There were still so many breakdowns during our wait. Totally worth it though. So glad we have something this awesome that's easy to get to.

We were going to ride Chiapas but it was feeling spiteful. Still adore the area design though.



Instead we ended up in Wuze town where we went on the little kids monorail thing. I'd never been on it so I was intrigued to see what you could see from a bit higher up. I forgot how close the locals are to this park. Next to the lake is literally a row of houses. Oh and the big simulator building has been knocked down. LOTS of mud currently. Excited to see what they have planned. They could be doing absolutely anything, it's such a large plot of land.






Houses are behind that wall




Dirt!

We then walked up this path and it led to a part of the indoor Wuzel town area I hadn't seen before. Lots of things for the little kids to do. Was cute. Also gave some good views of Winjas.













We then ended up on Hollywood Tour. Their very dated boat ride through film scenes.



Naturally we walked on to Temple of the Nighthawk (nice breeze on such a hot day) and then Winjas Fear and Force. Barely a queue which was awesome! Even got to see the staff taking cars off the track (of course the track piece to take them off is ridiculous - basically a seesaw). Both were awesome as always.

We ended the day with a walk on to the back row of Black Mamba. It felt a little shaky/rough but woah those forces were intense. End of a hot day at the back is probably a little too much for most but I loved it.

The park was now closed so we headed back to the hotel for some dinner. We ate at the buffet restaurant which was nice, I didn't know what a lot of things were (the sort of food where even an English translation won't help me) but it was nice. I was also convinced that a guy sitting at another table was another European park manager (maybe Plopsa related) but it probably wasn't.

















I love this hotel.








Thanks for reading! Will try and get day two up soon.
 
Grumble grumble...stupid Taron...grumble....stupid spite.....grumble....looks like a glorified mine train anyway....grumble. :(

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Looks very nice really, lots of great pics too. Good effort! :)
 
Argh I'm so gutted I can't get to the park this year!
Glad to hear that Taron is as good as it looks, great report so far and some fantastic pics.
Also the hotel looks amazing! <3
 
Cannot wait to do Taron end of September - hopefully with less queues :wink:

Phantasia is great on fixing broken rides. Remembering that Talocan was down and they fixed it half an hour before park closing - many parks engineers call it quits way earlier.
 
^Agreed. Their team is really on the ball. Apart from on Chiapas because Intamin built something that doesn't work properly. Silly Intamin. It was just great to see management present at all times too, just making sure it was all going ok (which, a lot of the time, it wasn't).

Thanks for the comments!


Anywho...

Sunday 10th

We got up at a fairly sensible hour and headed down to check out of the amazing hotel (bed was very comfy) and enjoy the breakfast buffet. I met this thing...



We then entered the park about 10 minutes before official opening and headed straight for the Klugheim queue. Good thing too because the queue grew quickly. The park totally have this all sussed and controlled really well. The ride was clearly struggling to get ready so we didn't get taken down to the Taron entrance until about 10-15 minutes until after the ride was due to open.



We were all then held on the bridge where the queue entrance is, they waited a bit for those at the back of the queue to enter the area and then they played like a 5 minute long spiel for the opening of the area. It was really epic and generated a great buzz amongst the eager crowd.



We managed to get a front row seat and it was totally amazing. I love everything about this ride, it's such a great layout. We then ran around for another go via the single rider queue. Some older dude in a blue t-shirt was already waiting for his third go by the time we joined the single rider queue, he was loving life. We kept seeing him throughout the day literally running from the exit and straight back into the single rider queue. No idea how many rides he notched up but I loved his style.

It was already boiling hot so we went to check out River Quest. It was down! Boo. Loving all the new theming though to help tie it in with Klugheim. Looks so much better than it did on my last visit.






Raik and River Quest lifts


Those new water features can spite

Turned my attention to more Klugheim love...







I ended up in the Africa section of the park for a walk straight on to back row of Black Mamba. Still insane.






Love that the queueline is like it's own adventure

We then headed down to Mystery Castle. There was a bit of a wait, which made it more frustrating when it was on the short cycle. It was then back into Klugheim for some Raik action via single rider. It was a total walk on which was nice. I got to sit next to this lady in the front row who was totally loving it. It really is just a fun ride.






The chimneys in the area actually have smoke effects



River Quest had opened up so we managed to get a ride on that. We were in a full boat of adults. The first drop was, as usual, terrifying. Nic and I ended up at the bottom of the drop so we got drenched but something happened that I've never seen before... The entire boat got absolutely drowned. We never quite recovered after that, it was hilarious. One guy then managed to get the full brunt of both of the other drops much to everyone else's amusement. It was one of those "why wasn't I filming?" moments.

I then spent some time filming Taron (video may be online sometime this year) before getting another ride on Taron and Raik. So, here's an interesting problem we found with Taron. Some of the wheels are already wearing themselves out and causing a rather rough/uncomfortable experience. At the end of one ride Nic looked in pain after sitting above a notably broken wheel, even the peeps behind us were discussing it and pointing at it as we pulled into the exit platform (note: they were not goons). This does concern me a little bit, I just their engineers manage to keep on top of it.





We then had a slightly more tame experience on Colorado Adventure and then took a nap on Geister Rikscha. I then got some fun air time on the little bouncy tower ride, Tidal. Some woman on the other tower broke down into tears as soon as it started to drop. It was kinda hilarious, especially as she came off the ride covered in mascara.

We then chilled out with a show called Jump! It was ok. It's a slightly revised version of what I saw a few years ago in the same venue. The breakdancers were slightly awkward and it was all a bit random but some of the 'stunts' were really good.



We then went for a cheeky quick ride on Maus au chocolat. Then it was back to Taron for two last rides before we had to leave. There were so many breakdowns, but we did get to see them take off a train!




















We then had to leave Phantasialand behind. As we were dropping off the hire car at the airport we noticed a reserved space for a certain company...



It was then on to our flight back home.


If you haven't guessed it I love everything about Klugheim. I didn't even mention the amazing pancakes we had to eat in Klugheim! The park was awesome as always, just a shame that Chiapas was so broken and that Taron had so many issues. Oh and I totally forgot to mention how the park was overrun by goons on the Saturday. I don't think I've seen so many in one park before. Best goon shirt of the day went to the dude wearing a tee with just a list of cred designer surnames on it (e.g. Shilke), subtle goonery at its finest.

Just a great weekend away at one of my favourite theme parks. Thanks for reading!


If you'd like to see even more photos, you can find my whole photo album by clicking here
 
Awesome! It's been amazing to see more thematic subtleties in Klugheim and on the two new rides! They've done I better job than anyone could have hoped for, but there's too much to take in :p Taron looks truly incredible <3
 
That's great to hear that Taron is as good as it looks. It's also nice hear that it has some good airtime as well, I always figured it would just be Maverick-style transitions and laterals.
 
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