Phantasialand

Phantasialand is a theme park in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany that attracts approximately 2 million visitors annually.^[1] It was opened in 1967 by Gottlieb Löffelhardt and Richard Schmidt. Although starting as a family-oriented park, it has added thrill rides, especially in recent years. Following the example of Europa-Park,^[2] it has also decided to attract business customers, calling spring the slogan "Business to Pleasure".^[3]

Phantasialand is known for its high theming detail. It introduces new attractions more often compared to other German theme parks to compensate for its small area, and is regularly voted one of the world's best theme parks.^[4][5][6]

Among its thrill rides is Taron, the world's third fastest multi-launch coaster; Black Mamba, a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster; and a themed Mine Train roller coaster called Colorado Adventure, which runs between some of the mountains in the park's Mexico section, and was opened by Michael Jackson. The most recent addition was F.L.Y., a Vekoma launched flying coaster.

History

Phantasialand was opened by Gottlieb Löffelhardt and Richard Schmidt on 30 April, 1967.

On 1 May 2001, a cable fire, caused by faulty wiring in the "Grand-Canyon-Bahn", destroyed two roller coasters, a theatre, and parts of the Westernstadt.^[7] The blaze cost about 38 million Deutsche Mark (US$17 million) in damage^[8] and 54 people were injured.^[9] Phantasialand reopened about two weeks later and invested about €2 million in fire safety, equipping every building with sprinkler systems.

Phantasialand is also home to "Mystery Castle", an indoor Intamin Ride Trade Bungee Drop featuring a walk through a haunted castle. Next to the castle is "River Quest", a rapid river ride which features a lift, built by Hafema in 2002. It replaced "Grand-Canyon-Bahn" and Gebirgsbahn which were destroyed in the 2001 cable fire.

“River Quest” has two lifts near the start of the ride to take boats to its highest point. It previously held the record for the largest drop on a rafting ride.^[1] This record was broken by Infinity Falls at SeaWorld Orlando.

In 2002, Winja's Fear and Force, two indoor spinning coasters built by Maurer Söhne, were built along with a new area called Wuze Town.

It was built next to Mystery Castle. The two rides were the only ones in Mystery until Klugheim opened with Taron and Raik in 2016. This led to River Quest being slightly re-themed in 2017 to fit in with the Klugheim theme.^[10]

Construction of River Quest was made possible by a fire that devastated part of the park on 1 May 2001,^[11] which destroyed two rides (Grand Canyon Bahn and Gebirgsbahn) and left space requiring redevelopment. Even so, the space available was relatively small for a river rapids ride so, to save space, two elevators are used to take boats to their highest point rather than the more traditional lift hill.

New for 2006 was an African-themed B&M inverted roller coaster called Black Mamba.

A four-star on-site hotel called Hotel Ling Bao, which is Chinese-themed, opened in 2004. The hotel's roof tiles were imported from China, and every room door was hand-engraved. The hotel has two restaurants; one of them - the LU CHI - is renowned for its Euro-Asiatic cuisine,^[12] a bar, a pool with sauna, garden area, spa and its own entrance to the park. A second (three-star) hotel called "Matamba" opened in August 2008 in the Deep in Africa section.

Phantasialand opened another ride for 2007 called Talocan, a Suspended Top Spin by Huss Maschinenfabrik. It is located in the Mexican section of the park. In 2008 a splash battle ride, Wakobato, opened in the lake in the old fairytale forest. The attraction is highly debated amongst residents living next to the park, who complain about noise pollution.

In 2010, Phantasialand opened five new attractions for children in Wuze Town: Baumberger Irrgarten (Maze), Die fröhliche Bienchenjagd (Jump Around by Zamperla), Wolke's Luftpost (Magic Bikes by Zamperla), Der lustige Papagei (Crazy Bus by Zamperla), and Würmling Express (Monorail). The Berlin part of the park has also been reworked, with many Berlin-themed houses, fountains and a tribune for shows. Also new in 2010 was the show 'Sieben' (seven) by Jan Rouven.

In 2011, Phantasialand opened two new attractions: Maus au Chocolat, an ETF dark ride^[13] in Alt Berlin and a chair-swing on the Kaisersplatz. The old shop in Berlin was replaced with a funhouse-style attraction called "Verrücktes Hotel Tartüff", built by the park's engineers and opened in 2012.^[14]

For the 2013 season, Phantasialand built a new log flume-style attraction to replace their two previous water attractions. It is embedded in a large area of canyons and mountains, as a miniature model on display in the park had already revealed during construction. Chiapas: DIE Wasserbahn opened on 1 April 2014.^[15]

After the winter season 2013–14, Silver City (a western theme town) and the dark ride Silbermine were removed to allow construction on the park's 2016 launched roller coaster, Taron, and the new themed area Klugheim, which was to become a part of the Mystery area. Another roller coaster, Raik, is located in the Klugheim area, and is more family-oriented than the likes of Taron. The coaster is a Vekoma family boomerang model attraction.^[16]

Also in 2016, Race for Atlantis was removed to make way for a new themed area called Rookburgh with a rollercoaster named F.L.Y., the world's first launched flying roller coaster and the longest flying roller coaster in the world.^[17] Rookburgh and F.L.Y. opened to the public on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Theme areas

Roller coasters

Water rides

Thrill rides

Dark rides

Other attractions

Removed attractions

Due to its particularly small area Phantasialand is known to remove attractions more frequently than other theme parks to gain space for new attractions.

Performance shows

• Silverado Theatre: Battle of the Best – a show featuring basketball and trampoline stunts as well as dance-offs
• Arena de Fiesta: Rock on Ice – Ice skating show with rock music
• Wintergarten: Nobis Vol. 2 – Variety show
• Deep in Africa: Miji African Dancers

Also there is as a chance to meet up with the park's six dragon characters.

A dinner show called Fantissima is also offered on select evenings, for an additional fee. The show run-time is approximately four hours.^[18]

References

1. ^ "TEA/AECOM 2019 Theme Index and Museum Index: The Global Attractions Attendance Report". Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
2. ^ Silver Lake Saloon. "Europa-Park – Erlebnis-Resort – Deutschlands größter Freizeitpark". Confertainment.europapark.de. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
3. ^ "Phantasialand - Theme park and hotel resort (Cologne, Germany) - Phantasialand". Phantasialand Resort
4. ^ "Attraction Review: Is Phantasialand The Best Theme Park In The World?". Retrieved 2021-08-27.
5. ^ Bonn, General-Anzeiger (2016-09-16). "Amusement Parks: Phantasialand ranks in world's top ten" (in German). General-Anzeiger Bonn. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
6. ^ "Phantasialand – Best theme park in Europe?". Coaster Chat. 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
7. ^ "RZ-Online: Feuer im Phantasialand". Archiv.rhein-zeitung.de. 2001-05-02. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
8. ^ "Germany / U.S. Foreign Exchange Rate - St. Louis Fed". research.stlouisfed.org. 2006-03-08. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
9. ^ "CNN.com - Rollercoaster fire injures 54 - May 1, 2001". 2001-05-01. Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
10. ^ "River Quest retheme". Phantasialand. April 1, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2018. – via YouTube
11. ^ Libre.be, La. "On a évité le pire à Phantasialand" (in French). Retrieved 2018-06-29.
12. ^ Busche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. "Fehler - Schlemmer Atlas - Restaurantführer: Restaurants in Deutschland, Frankreich, Österreich, Schweiz, Niederlande, Luxemburg und Italien". Schlemmer-atlas.de. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
13. ^ "Maus au Chocolat". Park World Magazine. 12 August 2011. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
14. ^ "Phantasialand – Unsere Neuheiten". Phantasialand.de. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
15. ^ "Neu 2013 CHIAPAS - DIE Wasserbahn - Seite 10 - Phantasialand". Phantastische Fans. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
16. ^ "Fakten und Hintergrundgeschichten Klugheims". Phantasialand.de. 4 July 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
17. ^ "F.L.Y. announced". Looopings. June 20, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
18. ^ "Dinner show Fantissima - Phantasialand". Phantasialand Resort

External links

• Phantasialand official website