(I'll get to my reviews of the rest of WH's coasters and the coasters at Toverland and Efteling at some point, but since I had already typed out a massive review/rant for this, I thought I'd share it)
(re-review) F.L.Y (Phantasialand)
Back when I visited Phantasialand in 2021 and had my one and only ride on F.L.Y., I said that I was unable to form a complete opinion on it because said ride was impacted by multiple factors, including a sense of nausea I felt that may not have been the ride's fault. During my 2022 trip, I made a
very last-minute decision to return to Phantasialand, traveling
all the way from Kaatsheuvel down to Brühl and back in one day. This wasn't the smartest decision, especially since I had stayed in Venlo the weekend prior (and used that to go to Movie Park Germany) that would've been a much better spot to travel to Cologne from, but I hadn't realized until after I left Venlo that traveling to Phantasialand and back in one day was possible.
Due to a few complications, I wasn't able to arrive at Phantasialand in time for its 10 A.M opening, but an 11 A.M arrival was at least better than I feared. Since it was the last Monday in August, I was hoping the park would be less crowded than it turned out to be (Movie Park was relatively sparse the Friday prior, although garbage operations on Star Trek still made that line absurdly long), but it was still the least crowded I've been able to experience the park. It was a big shame that the single rider lines had all been replaced by the Quick Pass, which itself had become more restrictive than before—River Quest wasn't even on it, but Talocan was! RQ always gets atrocious lines unless the weather is piss poor, and I've
never seen Talocan with more than a ten-minute wait, so why does the latter get priority over the former?! Really bizarre decision on the park's end. At least Taron being on the Quick Pass now meant I could skip waiting for re-rides on it later in the day, even if it was exclusive to the more expensive option.
Before I talk about F.L.Y, I also want to mention the messy way Phantasialand seems to deal with its waiting times, at least for the day I was there. Several rides advertised far higher waits than they actually had. Taron's hour-long wait at noon turned out to be fairly accurate (I waited 55 minutes), but for some reason, Raik was advertising a 45-minute wait when that didn't seem plausible at all looking at the empty queue line. I decided to investigate this, and I found out it was a damn near walk-on! The same was true of Black Mamba a bit later on, as it advertised a 35-minute wait when, in reality (and I timed this), I waited
three minutes for it!
My theory as to why it was like this is that the queue boards for both rides probably broke at some point, and so the staff decided to put a physical sign at the ride's entrance with what I guess was an assumption as to how long the queue was expected to get. The problem is that the park's app then stated a 45/35-minute wait for both coasters all day, even though this was never the case. I assume both stated wait times scared people away from riding them, meaning they were instead running close to empty for most of the day.
Anyway, back to F.L.Y. When I arrived at the park, neither it nor Chiapas had opened yet due to technical issues. Instead of heading straight to Taron, I decided to go into Rookburgh and ask the staff stationed at the entrance if F.L.Y. was expected to open at all today. The staff told me they were trying to get it open, but they had yet to figure out what the issue was. At that point, I discovered on the app that Chiapas was up and running (to my relief, since that's my favorite ride of all time and I didn't want to miss out on it either), so I went over there and had my first ride of the day on it. After then riding Taron, Raik, and Colorado Adventure in that order, I looked at the app at about 12:45 P.M and discovered that F.L.Y was finally up and running. I can't remember the last time I made such a mad dash to get to a ride's queue line, as I sprinted straight from Colorado Adventure all the way over the Rookburgh in maybe three minutes. I knew instinctively that F.L.Y was going to get a horrendous line (the app was already advertising a 40-minute wait), and if I wasn't fast enough, I might've gotten stuck in a line that could take up a lot of the limited time I had at the park. In the end, I only had to wait 25 minutes in total, which was at least a bit of a relief.
While in the queue, I realized that F.L.Y is a very difficult coaster to even attempt to marathon. I don't mean in the sense that the ride isn't re-ridable, but that the whole process is such a hassle that you would tap out just because you wouldn't want to do it again constantly.
For one, the queue is crazy long in terms of physical length. Taron at least lets you skip what I call the "Cattle Pen of Death" if the line's short enough, but since no such skip exists on F.L.Y. it's an exercise in and of itself just to get through it. The mandatory lockers are themselves a hassle to work with, and getting the wristband around my wrist was more difficult than it may appear at first glance. The security checkpoint where only riders with a certain colored wristband were allowed to go through at a time (I had a blue wristband, while others appeared to have a green(?) one) also slowed things down a bit. It's a lot of extra effort just to get on a coaster—I understand why it's done like this, but I feel like there are areas where it could be improved—and even if the park was dead like Hansa-Park was back when I visited in late June, I'd still be discouraged from doing multiple rides in a row. I could stomach the hassle for Kärnan, despite its multiple pre-shows and low capacity, but F.L.Y. would've pushed me to my limit.
Speaking of capacity, F.L.Y. seemed to be running at a less than ideal number of trains, as there was always a large gap between one train leaving the boarding platform and the next one arriving. I assume the technical issues earlier were the cause of this, and it led to the coaster having atrocious waits for the rest of the day (at one point exceeding
105 minutes on the app, though I never checked to confirm that). I knew already then and there that this was going to be the only ride I was going to get on it, so I needed to make the most of it.
The restraints themselves did tighten a bit around my chest, but other than that they were relatively simple to get in and out of for a flying coaster. I need to re-iterate the praise I made last year of how boarding the train while the track is on its side and the train then shifting to a flying position while the ride is already in motion was a brilliant design move on Vekoma's part, for it allowed the train to enter and leave the boarding platform just as fast as a regular coaster train would. None of that extra faff you'd find on a B&M flyer is to be found here.
Since my memory of the dark ride section was foggy at best and no POVs of it exist online (still don't know what stops the park from just releasing a POV of their own and thus making people's attempts to sneak a camera onboard redundant), seeing it again felt like a brand new experience to me. It is a bit sparse and doesn't really offer any additional story to the ride, but the effects that were on display were fairly neat, and hearing the dispatch theme really got me pumped up for the ride ahead.
Going into the first launch, I was for some reason dreading that it was going to be really forceful (an Intamin/Gerstlauer-style launch while in a flying position would've been really uncomfortable), but it was fairly gentle. Swooping into the first turnaround, however, I realized perhaps why I got so nauseous last time—the ride is really disorienting. Most of the time, you're either staring straight down at the ground or up in the sky, and any attempts to tilt your head up and look straight ahead are blocked either by the car right ahead or the theming surrounding the coaster. It's thus nearly impossible to tell where you're going, or what forces you're about to experience. Most coasters allow you to see ahead and anticipate whatever comes next, but F.L.Y. gives you no such opportunity, and so you get thrown around a lot with no way to prepare for it.
Luckily, I avoided getting sick this time around, probably because it wasn't my first coaster of the trip unlike last time and so my body was a lot more accustomed to forces I don't normally experience. That allowed me to enjoy the ride a lot more. It's also a really long ride, and you feel its length before you even hit the second launch. The second launch was so gradual I barely noticed it, unlike Taron's which is really aggressive, even as you enter it with a lot of speed already accumulated. The two corkscrews do have a surprising amount of whip to them, but other than that it was fairly smooth from beginning to end.
That said, I'm still not sure if I can form a complete opinion on F.L.Y., because I again only got one ride on it. There's so much to it, both as a coaster and as an experience, that even two rides a year apart from one another don't really do it justice. It made me want to visit Phantasialand at a time of year quiet enough where I could have multiple rides on it without much stress. After experiencing both Hansa and Heide on quiet days earlier this summer, I really want to experience Phantasialand the same way, especially since it's a park I've had its share of frustrations with in the past and the present, even as I do think it's still one of the best parks in Europe. Walk-ons on the likes of Taron, Winjas, and River Quest would be sublime to experience as well, and it's something I'm definitely looking into for a future trip.
What I can say right now though is that I think it's a good ride. With more rides on it, I could potentially call it great, but I'm sticking with "good" for now. There are still things to it I appreciate more than I actually enjoy, and with the lack of POVs available, my memory of the experience is bound to fade once more. I do think it's one of the most ambitious rollercoasters built in recent decades, though, and much like Kärnan, I can adore it on that level. Unlike Kärnan, though (which remains firmly in my top three of all time), the experience on F.L.Y. itself still keeps it out of being top-tier for me. Maybe in a few years, that could change—or the ride could become rattly, for all I know. Here's hoping Phantasialand works past the various issues it seems to constantly have and takes good care of it. Knowing that Taron still runs fairly well (albeit not as smooth as when it first opened), I have high hopes.
Sitting at the rear there were some great pops of airtime. We had been aware of Time Traveller @ SDC for a while but never thought for one minute that it would be this good. We did Kondaa during the same trip and Ride To Happiness was still our favourite!
