Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
I didn't take many photos as I was too busy running around but I thought I'd write something here (contains spoilers). I was there a few days ago during the Winterraum event. This was the park's Christmas event and meant the park was open 11-8 which would allow several hours of darkness for night rides. The park is very accessible from Cologne. Just get the underground tram from the main station to Bruhl Mitte followed by the Park's shuttle bus to the gates. It got me there 10 mins before the park opened however the "plaza" between the gates and road is V E R Y small and I soon found myself in the middle of a school trip mosh pit 
Berlin (the park's Mainstreet) had what looked (and felt) like real snow and was more remarkable than I had imagined with a tasteful 1920s feel to it.
Instead of going to Taron first I went to Chiapas because I didn't want to sit in a boat with the Gee Pee. I went to Phantasialand in 2006 so this was new for me.
I thought the technology was impressive and I liked how the lift hill was fast quick. My favourite part was when you entered this temple and before you knew it smoke was blasted in your face and you were moving backwards down a different direction. Usually stuff like this would have a few seconds delay between each “effect” and that usually ruins it for me. It makes obvious that something is going to happen and it’s never particularly thrilling, but with this, the transitions were so snappy that I was taken by surprise by everything.
My Blackpool Pleasure Beach plastic poncho wasn’t covering my legs which made me worried about having soggy legs all day at 6°c but I didn’t get that wet at all.
I decided to have my first ride on Taron at the front. As expected it was really great (probably top 3 coaster) dipping and diving underneath rocky crags, snaking its way through and around buildings, it was exhilarating as you can imagine. Was expecting more after dark, which was when I was getting most of my rides in.
Did Raik next. I think it’s themed to a time machine or something and was surprisingly thrilling. The zero car is brilliant and it even had smoke effects!
Last time I wasn’t allowed on Winjas because “keine tashe” or w/e but I was prepared this time by using the lockers - Das ist gut. However, after paying for a locker everyone was taking their bags on the ride… das ist nicht so gut. I did 'Fear' first and whew, what a cred! I LOVE the Maurer spinners that I’ve been on and I knew about all the effects so I was pumped! First of all the lift is an elevator which tilts at the top and then all of a sudden I was dropping out backwards then spinning around Wuze Town <3 When then entered the dark area and it did the special trick track effect. Wasn’t impressed by this as it just ruined the flow and felt a bit forced. Did some more coaster stuff and then a surprise bounce in the track on the brake run. I liked this effect because the car wasn’t slowed down/stopped and it felt more natural and flowy. 'Force' was definitely worse than 'Fear'. Wuze Town is great. To walk in, look up and see the spinning cars fly around above your head was cool and the stairs allowed lots of different aspects for off-ride viewing.
Maus au Chocolat was next. I loved the intense aroma of chocolate as I entered the building. The queue line was lovely too (and empty). I haven’t done Midway Mayhem yet so I was excited to try this out. I found it really **** tbh. I was also ****, with inevitable poor aim. Also there is a horrible angry man shouting german in your ear for the entire ride I got very little enjoyment from it apart from the sporadic physical set. Oh well.
Would never usually do a fun house but I’ve heard lots about this one and it didn’t disappoint.
Hotel Tariff had the most fabulous décor and had the best vortex tunnel ever!
After rides on Black Mamba, Talocan and Taron I entered the Chinese area which I hadn’t done before.
It was very nice, but there wasn’t much to do. I did the crap ghost train and headed for another nü to me ride, Mystery castle.
I think having to cross the drawbridge going in to the “castle” is a wonderful idea and makes the arrival into the building a lot more suspenseful. The queue line was really cool to and I loved the gothic mad scientist theme. The ride was alright.
River Quest is the only ride that is closed during Winterraum. I knew before I came and I’ve already done it before so I wasn’t that upset.
I did Colorado Adventure too. It’s a long ride with 3 lift hills, has a lot of interaction with other rides and has uncomfortable seats. The last part is my favourite as you get really close to the foliage/water.
I went back to collect my bag from the opposite end of the park and decided to give the world’s longest indoor coaster aka Desk Fan: The Ride a go. It’s still ****.
I feel like I’d done everything by this point so I was just going to whore out the 2 headliners.
Black Mamba had no q all day (and that was on one train operations) so I manged to get over 10 rides on it. I’d done it before once, but it was such a long time ago that I don’t really remember. Deep in Africa is a nice area and being surrounded by the hotel really helps with the immersion, but the park clearly just confined all the black employees into this area because “Africa”.
The queue line is quite long and offers great views of the ride, though I found the station was annoying because people just clogged up the entry into the station. Either they didn’t know what to do and either loitered around for a while before making a decision or just filed into the nearest row, increasing congestion. It wasn’t that bad though as this only happened a few times, but it’s not great when stuff like this is noticeable on a really quiet day. The station was very dark, gloomy and very atmospheric with cool lighting and impaling spikes at all angles. The lift hill then goes through the iconic Djenné mosque look-a-like building with bones hanging everywhere inside. The roller coaster hugs the terrain throughout the entire ride. The first half is very intense and inversion orientated. The Jr. Immelmann is brilliant and it definitely doesn’t feel like an Immelmann and the track twists itself in and around foliage, rockwork, buildings and bridges – it’s a very picturesque cred! During the second half you dive down even further into the undergrowth, winding your way through rockwork and tunnels. You then plunge into the blackness of a cave and hit the brakes. Here the roar of the B&M transforms into a dense soundscape of drumming, chanting and general loud jungle noises and although we’d hit the brakes it felt like we hadn’t stopped. It was all very ~ d r a m a t i c ~. It was so much better than I remembered to the point that It's now my second favourite B&M behind Nemesis.
By this point it was dark and I headed over to Taron. The entire area really transforms after dark. Thanks to the fog machine, fog hangs over the entire ride area, with red and blue lighting illuminating the jutting rockwork. It was quite the sight! The ride was a bit temperamental but wasn’t down for more than 20 mins at a time. I whored the single rider qü for most of the night but did the front row ride. As you enter the launch track you can see where the fog machine is located, spewing out fog all over the launch track, in second launch is adjacent to this, but is sunken below the ground, bursting with fiery red light. Then all of a sudden you’re launched straight into dense fog. You then enter an overbank with the dragons head as an amazing headchopper, followed by an airtime hill which plummets you into darkness under a building. Snappy transitions follow as the train dances around Klugheim’s buildings – you even go through one! More disorientating trackwork follows before a cute little ground hugging s-bend, then you dive into the second-launch-trench. Everything here is glowing in blazing red and the fog was much thicker hear. Unfortunately this is where my pet peeve kicks in. omfg can that launch just shut up! That was far too loud and made me not enjoy that bit. In hindsight I could just put my fingers in my ears but that would have looked weird… sat there like
Once you’re propelled through the red fog you’re catapulted around a waterfall which stings you face and you find yourself at the highest point of the ride. This bit is quite slow but the views (daytime & nightime) are incredible. At night you look over the lucent China town all decorated in Christmas lights. Absolutely beautiful. You then dive through lots of holes in the rockwork before getting HURLED underneath a building. The trains then meander through a bit of Klugheim and then it’s the airtime hills, then brakes. Whew! Oh wow what a cred! Can’t actually believe it’s a real thing. Nü #1 of course.
My camera is really bad at taking night time pics so I didn’t really take anything. Sorry.
This POV (not mine) might be a good substitute for having only 1 pic
There was a Christmas show and fireworks in Berlin square but didn't I give a ****. Pretty lights tho
Overall I loved Phantasialand. But I don’t think people with wheelchairs do. All those steps! The park layout is really odd (split into two) and I think that’s kind of a good thing as it separates the more adult area form the children’s area. What I love about this park that doesn’t really apply to Disney and Universal is the use of height and levels. A lot of parks feel all very RCT-ish and on one plane. Having to move up and down stairs, across/under bridges, through tunnels really creates an interesting sense of journey and adventure. Also having lots of different levels means lots of different possible viewpoints, experiences and perspectives. You can see a lot of different stuff from the raised walkways outside Berlin/klugheim by looking down into the world of “Mexico” and by travelling down the stairs you see and experience a lot of different stuff at ground level. You then have the option of walking over the viewing bridge into a tunnel or walking through the caves near Chiapas etc. Even Talocan has like four different places where you could view the attraction. The sunken queueline, the raised viewing area in front of the attraction, the peep holes behind the attraction and the area to the left of the ride. Having theme parks with different levels really builds up the world they are trying to create and heightens the immersion imo.
All-in-all a very successful day and probably got well over 30 “rides” in which is astonishing when you compare what you can do at the Merlin parks in one day. Most of the wait times were walk on. I would recommend going when you can ride Taron at night because that really is a game changer.
Thanks for reading (or just scrolling through the pics). I might do another report on cologne the next day but I didn’t do much.
Berlin (the park's Mainstreet) had what looked (and felt) like real snow and was more remarkable than I had imagined with a tasteful 1920s feel to it.
Instead of going to Taron first I went to Chiapas because I didn't want to sit in a boat with the Gee Pee. I went to Phantasialand in 2006 so this was new for me.
I thought the technology was impressive and I liked how the lift hill was fast quick. My favourite part was when you entered this temple and before you knew it smoke was blasted in your face and you were moving backwards down a different direction. Usually stuff like this would have a few seconds delay between each “effect” and that usually ruins it for me. It makes obvious that something is going to happen and it’s never particularly thrilling, but with this, the transitions were so snappy that I was taken by surprise by everything.
My Blackpool Pleasure Beach plastic poncho wasn’t covering my legs which made me worried about having soggy legs all day at 6°c but I didn’t get that wet at all.
I decided to have my first ride on Taron at the front. As expected it was really great (probably top 3 coaster) dipping and diving underneath rocky crags, snaking its way through and around buildings, it was exhilarating as you can imagine. Was expecting more after dark, which was when I was getting most of my rides in.
Did Raik next. I think it’s themed to a time machine or something and was surprisingly thrilling. The zero car is brilliant and it even had smoke effects!
Last time I wasn’t allowed on Winjas because “keine tashe” or w/e but I was prepared this time by using the lockers - Das ist gut. However, after paying for a locker everyone was taking their bags on the ride… das ist nicht so gut. I did 'Fear' first and whew, what a cred! I LOVE the Maurer spinners that I’ve been on and I knew about all the effects so I was pumped! First of all the lift is an elevator which tilts at the top and then all of a sudden I was dropping out backwards then spinning around Wuze Town <3 When then entered the dark area and it did the special trick track effect. Wasn’t impressed by this as it just ruined the flow and felt a bit forced. Did some more coaster stuff and then a surprise bounce in the track on the brake run. I liked this effect because the car wasn’t slowed down/stopped and it felt more natural and flowy. 'Force' was definitely worse than 'Fear'. Wuze Town is great. To walk in, look up and see the spinning cars fly around above your head was cool and the stairs allowed lots of different aspects for off-ride viewing.
Maus au Chocolat was next. I loved the intense aroma of chocolate as I entered the building. The queue line was lovely too (and empty). I haven’t done Midway Mayhem yet so I was excited to try this out. I found it really **** tbh. I was also ****, with inevitable poor aim. Also there is a horrible angry man shouting german in your ear for the entire ride
I got very little enjoyment from it apart from the sporadic physical set. Oh well.
Would never usually do a fun house but I’ve heard lots about this one and it didn’t disappoint.
Hotel Tariff had the most fabulous décor and had the best vortex tunnel ever!
After rides on Black Mamba, Talocan and Taron I entered the Chinese area which I hadn’t done before.
It was very nice, but there wasn’t much to do. I did the crap ghost train and headed for another nü to me ride, Mystery castle.
I think having to cross the drawbridge going in to the “castle” is a wonderful idea and makes the arrival into the building a lot more suspenseful. The queue line was really cool to and I loved the gothic mad scientist theme. The ride was alright.
River Quest is the only ride that is closed during Winterraum. I knew before I came and I’ve already done it before so I wasn’t that upset.
I did Colorado Adventure too. It’s a long ride with 3 lift hills, has a lot of interaction with other rides and has uncomfortable seats. The last part is my favourite as you get really close to the foliage/water.
I went back to collect my bag from the opposite end of the park and decided to give the world’s longest indoor coaster aka Desk Fan: The Ride a go. It’s still ****.
I feel like I’d done everything by this point so I was just going to whore out the 2 headliners.
Black Mamba had no q all day (and that was on one train operations) so I manged to get over 10 rides on it. I’d done it before once, but it was such a long time ago that I don’t really remember. Deep in Africa is a nice area and being surrounded by the hotel really helps with the immersion, but the park clearly just confined all the black employees into this area because “Africa”.
The queue line is quite long and offers great views of the ride, though I found the station was annoying because people just clogged up the entry into the station. Either they didn’t know what to do and either loitered around for a while before making a decision or just filed into the nearest row, increasing congestion. It wasn’t that bad though as this only happened a few times, but it’s not great when stuff like this is noticeable on a really quiet day. The station was very dark, gloomy and very atmospheric with cool lighting and impaling spikes at all angles. The lift hill then goes through the iconic Djenné mosque look-a-like building with bones hanging everywhere inside. The roller coaster hugs the terrain throughout the entire ride. The first half is very intense and inversion orientated. The Jr. Immelmann is brilliant and it definitely doesn’t feel like an Immelmann and the track twists itself in and around foliage, rockwork, buildings and bridges – it’s a very picturesque cred! During the second half you dive down even further into the undergrowth, winding your way through rockwork and tunnels. You then plunge into the blackness of a cave and hit the brakes. Here the roar of the B&M transforms into a dense soundscape of drumming, chanting and general loud jungle noises and although we’d hit the brakes it felt like we hadn’t stopped. It was all very ~ d r a m a t i c ~. It was so much better than I remembered to the point that It's now my second favourite B&M behind Nemesis.
By this point it was dark and I headed over to Taron. The entire area really transforms after dark. Thanks to the fog machine, fog hangs over the entire ride area, with red and blue lighting illuminating the jutting rockwork. It was quite the sight! The ride was a bit temperamental but wasn’t down for more than 20 mins at a time. I whored the single rider qü for most of the night but did the front row ride. As you enter the launch track you can see where the fog machine is located, spewing out fog all over the launch track, in second launch is adjacent to this, but is sunken below the ground, bursting with fiery red light. Then all of a sudden you’re launched straight into dense fog. You then enter an overbank with the dragons head as an amazing headchopper, followed by an airtime hill which plummets you into darkness under a building. Snappy transitions follow as the train dances around Klugheim’s buildings – you even go through one! More disorientating trackwork follows before a cute little ground hugging s-bend, then you dive into the second-launch-trench. Everything here is glowing in blazing red and the fog was much thicker hear. Unfortunately this is where my pet peeve kicks in. omfg can that launch just shut up! That was far too loud and made me not enjoy that bit. In hindsight I could just put my fingers in my ears but that would have looked weird… sat there like
Once you’re propelled through the red fog you’re catapulted around a waterfall which stings you face and you find yourself at the highest point of the ride. This bit is quite slow but the views (daytime & nightime) are incredible. At night you look over the lucent China town all decorated in Christmas lights. Absolutely beautiful. You then dive through lots of holes in the rockwork before getting HURLED underneath a building. The trains then meander through a bit of Klugheim and then it’s the airtime hills, then brakes. Whew! Oh wow what a cred! Can’t actually believe it’s a real thing. Nü #1 of course.
My camera is really bad at taking night time pics so I didn’t really take anything. Sorry.
This POV (not mine) might be a good substitute for having only 1 pic
There was a Christmas show and fireworks in Berlin square but didn't I give a ****. Pretty lights tho
Overall I loved Phantasialand. But I don’t think people with wheelchairs do. All those steps! The park layout is really odd (split into two) and I think that’s kind of a good thing as it separates the more adult area form the children’s area. What I love about this park that doesn’t really apply to Disney and Universal is the use of height and levels. A lot of parks feel all very RCT-ish and on one plane. Having to move up and down stairs, across/under bridges, through tunnels really creates an interesting sense of journey and adventure. Also having lots of different levels means lots of different possible viewpoints, experiences and perspectives. You can see a lot of different stuff from the raised walkways outside Berlin/klugheim by looking down into the world of “Mexico” and by travelling down the stairs you see and experience a lot of different stuff at ground level. You then have the option of walking over the viewing bridge into a tunnel or walking through the caves near Chiapas etc. Even Talocan has like four different places where you could view the attraction. The sunken queueline, the raised viewing area in front of the attraction, the peep holes behind the attraction and the area to the left of the ride. Having theme parks with different levels really builds up the world they are trying to create and heightens the immersion imo.
All-in-all a very successful day and probably got well over 30 “rides” in which is astonishing when you compare what you can do at the Merlin parks in one day. Most of the wait times were walk on. I would recommend going when you can ride Taron at night because that really is a game changer.
Thanks for reading (or just scrolling through the pics). I might do another report on cologne the next day but I didn’t do much.
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Looking forward to reading your thoughts.
