Back in April at the Euro-CF Live some of us got a free return ticket to Phantasialand. I decided to return once I knew Maus-au-Chocolat (their new interactive dark ride) was open. So about a month ago I noticed on some German forums that the ride was now in a soft opening phase so I decided to book a very quick trip and due to the cheapest flight options it turned out to be a very quick trip indeed.
So after getting hardly any sleep in a hotel at Gatwick (I’m putting it down to a mix of a fear of using German public transport alone for the first time, excitement of going back to Phantasialand and loud interruptions from random groups of people turning up every 30 or so minutes (the walls were paper thin I swear)) I caught the uber early transfer bus to Gatwick airport. I then navigated my way into the main waiting area via security, I then sat around, grabbed some breakfast, did a bit of reading and listened to music. My flight’s gate number was then announced, gah, it just had to be the gate furthest away from where I was waiting didn’t it? lol. Oh well, got on the plane and after a bit of a delay (really heavy fog) the plane was off and an hour later I landed in Germany.
I headed down to the train station where I had to use a ticket machine (I noticed there was no staff offices for the train station, I found that weird but it seems to be the norm). It didn’t accept notes higher than a 10 but I didn’t have enough change to get my ticket so I had to faff about getting some change from a shop upstairs before going back down to get the ticket. I have to say the machines were very easy to use as you could select from about 6 languages and after you’ve entered your destination it comes up with the next few options for your journey (how long it’ll take, how many changes etc) which I thought was a really awesome feature. Due to the faff with the change I thought I’d missed my train but luck was on my side and it was delayed enough that it arrived just as I got down to the platform, win.
So I was on my first German train and about 10 minutes later I was off at my first stop, Koln hbf. I then got my next train a few minutes later which took me to Bruhl. It was a very easy journey but I feel there needs to be more info on where each train is stopping, maybe I’m just too used to how the British trains are run? Opposite the train station was what Google maps listed as a castle but was more of a mansion, turns out it’s a palace built on top of ruins of a castle, cool.
Anyway I exited the station and in front of me was a sign pointing out that the Phantasialand bus stops around the corner. Around this corner stood this bright, very Phantasialand-looking, bus stop sign. There was a guy walking around selling the tickets for the bus which was 1.50€ RETURN, Thorpe, pay attention, charging silly amounts for the evil chav bus is a joke in comparison. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the park and stops half-way in the town centre for more passengers.
So I was now at Phantasialand, hurrah and it was about 11:30 which was earlier than I anticipated. I walked straight into the park due to the aforementioned ticket. Obviously the first ride I wanted to check out was Maus-au-Chocolat. I went straight over to it to find rope blocking the entrance and a staff member talking to lots of guests. It didn’t look good, it wasn’t. It was closed due to technical difficulties, I asked if they knew if it would open during the day and she replied with a generic “we’re not sure” but the way she said it was if to say, “It won’t open today”. Disappointed I decided to cheer myself up and ride their new waveswinger attraction which is in the centre of the (still being re-themed) courtyard.
Obviously being Phantasialand it can’t just be an ordinary waveswinger oh no, it has to have synchronised water fountains with the ride, it looks fantastic and I couldn’t wait to see what it was like on the actual ride. I only had to wait 5-10 minutes which in the already very hot sun felt like a lot longer. I loved how you access the ride, it reminded me randomly of the finale section of The Crystal Maze TV show, the way you enter the centre section by walking over a metallic grid thing over water, just me then? Oh well. The ride is very entertaining; throughout the entirety of the ride you feel like any moment the fountain is going to raise just that bit more and soak you, it’s a very unusual but a thrilling feeling.
As I was coming off the ride I noticed that magical of all things happen, Maus-au-Chocolat OPENED! Yay, so I went straight over and entered one of the most themed and impressive queuelines ever. Each room has a completely different feel to it and it was so nice and cool inside which compared to the heat outside was a lovely environment to be in. As it had just opened there weren’t many peeps in front so I was on very quickly (after the maze of the queueline anyway). The vehicles are all slightly different with little mice characters in various poses etc, it was a really nice touch.
The ‘guns’ were like icing bag things (no idea what they’re called) which was different and the way you ‘shoot’ was by pulling on this bit of rope, I found that really odd and hard to get used to.
The ride itself is excellent; the level of detail in the theming is just amazing and it’s just a fun experience, inbetween scenes I had a huge grin on my face from all the fun I was having (obviously a face of concentration during the games). I really loved the music and all the random bits and bobs everywhere and the 3D was really good too. I did think there was meant to be another element to it, like wind and water effects, maybe they just aren’t ready yet? I dunno, I suppose time will tell.
Randomly, now this really puzzles me, it takes your photo half-way around and in the final room you’re shown the pic of you with your score and then you’re shown the highest score of all time but after the ride there is no where to purchase said photo. Why on earth have an ORP but then not have the opportunity to purchase it? Really odd, maybe they ran out of time but by the looks of it I can’t see where it would go, random.
I decided to head over to Mystery Castle where it apparently had a 20 minute wait. That was about right but it was really hot inside the queue and it would appear that lots of people didn’t understand what personal space was. The ride, as usual, was amazing and was nice and cool, awesome sauces.
I then made my way towards Colarado Adventure and ended up riding the third new addition for 2011, Tikal. Two smaller junior bouncy drop towers which are heavily themed to the surrounding area, kinda wedged into a corner of Colarado Adventure which means while on the ride you get some unique views on part of the ride. It’s actually a very enjoyable ride with plenty of pops of airtime, the kids that rode it seem to love it too.
After riding Tikal I noticed people going up to the theatre in the area, never been in there before so I decided to check it out. It’s a stunt show with some cool music and random pop references (one or two I didn’t get), the highlight for me was when the bad guy said how much he hates Justin Bieber and there was a round of applause from the audience (myself included), haters gonna hate.
I continued into the Africa area for Black Mamba I only had to queue about 10 minutes, if that. I forget how much of a trek it is through the queueline, it’s like a complete adventure in itself, very epic. I managed to sit in the back row on the edge of the right hand side which has to be my fav seat on the entire train. It’s just awesome, some don’t like the tight corners towards the end but I think it’s great, I think it’s really forceful and the close encounters with all the rockwork are epic.
As the queue hadn’t got any longer I went back into the queue and was back on in about 5 minutes, win. Afterwards I decided to grab some food from the place outside Mamba, got some chicken nuggets and chips which was surprisingly nice. I also sat a table next to where the African dancers were performing which was cool.
To relax a bit after eating decided to ride Silbermine which is a really long, quite dated, dark ride themed to, yep you guessed it, a mine. The amount of animatronics is quite impressive and the random tunnel near the start where you sway is a very odd experience. It’s also a fun game to try and spot as many Pirates of the Caribbean references as possible. On a side note, is it just me that finds it amusing that just before/after Disneyland Paris opened all these European parks opened big dark rides with lots of very similar scenes to both Pirates and Phantom Manor? I suppose that’s a topic for another day so I’ll stop faffing and continue onwards. Umm, so yeah, my camera decided to heavily spite me and take terrible photos all day, especially in Maus-au-Chocolat and in Silbermine. On Silbermine there was a notice that amused me so I took a pic of it, ironically it was one of the only pics that came out really well.
Some sort of sign?
I then opted to ride Colorado Adventure, I didn’t wait very long and I sat towards the back. It’s so much better than at the front, just a much more enjoyable experience.
I then had another go on Tikal, well, there was no queue so I thought why not. Still fun.
I wandered round to Talocan which had a 10 minute wait. It is so intense that at times it was a bit too much, especially with the way the restraint pushes down, it hurts in areas you don’t want it to hurt lol. However it is still the best Top Spin I’ve been on and the music and effects are very impressive.
I then decided to go over to Temple of the Nighthawk. Argh, so many stairs, was glad to finally reach the station. It was quite warm which was annoying but once on the ride and flying around in the dark (I swear there used to be effects in there) there was a lovely cool breeze, shame I then had to exit into the heat again.
As it was next door I decided to do both Winjas fear and force. So I found a locker, put my bag in and headed for the queue. I managed to get on both rides in about 20 minutes which I think is quite a short amount of time so was happy with that. Both rides are still excellent examples of what a spinning coaster can do and I managed to get some awesome spinnage on the second one I did (I can never remember what ones what).
I decided to relax a bit and walk up towards the splash battle as I’ve never been up that way before. The ride looked like it had a bit of a horrible queue but I found a cool play area for kids I didn’t know about. Oh and they were filming an advert or something with some weird character which I thought was funny. I then headed back to the main hub of the park. I got some of that amazing ice cream outside the exit of chocolat, I tried strawberry which was amazing.
I then turned up at Maus-au-chocolat which had a 0 minute queue so I’m assuming it broke down again and they’d just re-opened it. Timing; I was doing an excellent job of it. I tried to take some photos of the queue but most have come out as just a blur, here are some of the less-offending pics…
They did an awesome job of making these photos look old
The cake is a LIE
Lots of recipes and cake moulds in this room
Millions of millions!
The ride is still amazing, my arms really ached afterwards lol, was going a bit mad trying to get a good score. I took photos of my score etc this time…
I decided to ride Black Mamba again and it had a really short queue still! Win. So I had another two goes, once was in my fav seat at the back
It was coming towards the end of the day and I randomly decided to ride Feng Ju Palace, the Vekoma madhouse. It’s ok but the pre-show goes on a bit. I do like what they’ve tried to do but it seems a bit meh, the music is great though.
It says 10 mins wait but was actually 0
I then went and did Black Mamba one last time Oh, I didn’t mention before but they were doing some work next to the station, nothing too exciting, either a new/updated water feature or some plumbing for the current water feature.
And that was that, it was an awesome day at the park and I’m glad I didn’t have to queue for very long and I got to do all the rides I wanted to get on, especially Maus-au-Chocolat which was epic and totally worth the trip. So back on the bus to get back to Bruhl.
I used my little map and navigated myself from the train station to the hotel reception via the main shopping street. It was weird as it was like an expensive restaurant trying to fit into a really small space and then a random reception desk for the hotel guests. The lady behind the counter instantly recognised where I was from and decided to speak fluent English. She was actually amazing, sorted out my room and then, now here’s the fun part, escorted me to my room which was in a different building a few minutes away. We had a little discussion going about Phantasialand and she told me that as a thank you to all the residents of Bruhl they hold a special day every year and all residents (or was it just kids, I got a little confused) get in for free and apparently the schools finish early to celebrate it etc and it’s a really popular event.
I never knew of that before and I think it’s awesome, I love how the schools get into the spirit of it all too. To be honest everyone I encountered in Bruhl were really friendly and just came across as really nice people and I can see why, the place is lovely and I wish I had more time to explore.
Anyway I’m rambling, my room was more like a tiny flat which was cool and the bedding and pillow were AMAZING, like the most comfortable I’ve ever come across. The TV was weird, made my Polaroid (wtf?) and was up really high on the wall so when on the bed it wasn’t a very clear picture. Meh it was all dubbed or filmed in German anyway so I just had it on as background noise more than anything.
After sorting my stuff out and having a big of relaxing time I went out in search of food. As I came across a Netto I decided to grab some food for the morning how…
I then decided to take a stroll, check out the palace and the gardens. It was really relaxing but the air was still really humid and icky. But yeah, the palace and it’s gardens are really nice, there doesn’t seem to be much info on Wikipedia but it has an official website which I might translate when I’m bored. Here are some lovely pics I took…
So after that nice stroll I wandered around the shopping area in search of some evening foods. I came across a Subway, sorted. Went back to my room and slept uber well.
The next morning I got the train to the airport and then flew back to Gatwick. I’d like to actually go back to Bruhl and also check out Cologne (or Koln) as it seems like a really nice place.
I hope you enjoyed reading of my random little trip, comments much appreciated
So after getting hardly any sleep in a hotel at Gatwick (I’m putting it down to a mix of a fear of using German public transport alone for the first time, excitement of going back to Phantasialand and loud interruptions from random groups of people turning up every 30 or so minutes (the walls were paper thin I swear)) I caught the uber early transfer bus to Gatwick airport. I then navigated my way into the main waiting area via security, I then sat around, grabbed some breakfast, did a bit of reading and listened to music. My flight’s gate number was then announced, gah, it just had to be the gate furthest away from where I was waiting didn’t it? lol. Oh well, got on the plane and after a bit of a delay (really heavy fog) the plane was off and an hour later I landed in Germany.
I headed down to the train station where I had to use a ticket machine (I noticed there was no staff offices for the train station, I found that weird but it seems to be the norm). It didn’t accept notes higher than a 10 but I didn’t have enough change to get my ticket so I had to faff about getting some change from a shop upstairs before going back down to get the ticket. I have to say the machines were very easy to use as you could select from about 6 languages and after you’ve entered your destination it comes up with the next few options for your journey (how long it’ll take, how many changes etc) which I thought was a really awesome feature. Due to the faff with the change I thought I’d missed my train but luck was on my side and it was delayed enough that it arrived just as I got down to the platform, win.
So I was on my first German train and about 10 minutes later I was off at my first stop, Koln hbf. I then got my next train a few minutes later which took me to Bruhl. It was a very easy journey but I feel there needs to be more info on where each train is stopping, maybe I’m just too used to how the British trains are run? Opposite the train station was what Google maps listed as a castle but was more of a mansion, turns out it’s a palace built on top of ruins of a castle, cool.
Anyway I exited the station and in front of me was a sign pointing out that the Phantasialand bus stops around the corner. Around this corner stood this bright, very Phantasialand-looking, bus stop sign. There was a guy walking around selling the tickets for the bus which was 1.50€ RETURN, Thorpe, pay attention, charging silly amounts for the evil chav bus is a joke in comparison. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the park and stops half-way in the town centre for more passengers.
So I was now at Phantasialand, hurrah and it was about 11:30 which was earlier than I anticipated. I walked straight into the park due to the aforementioned ticket. Obviously the first ride I wanted to check out was Maus-au-Chocolat. I went straight over to it to find rope blocking the entrance and a staff member talking to lots of guests. It didn’t look good, it wasn’t. It was closed due to technical difficulties, I asked if they knew if it would open during the day and she replied with a generic “we’re not sure” but the way she said it was if to say, “It won’t open today”. Disappointed I decided to cheer myself up and ride their new waveswinger attraction which is in the centre of the (still being re-themed) courtyard.
Obviously being Phantasialand it can’t just be an ordinary waveswinger oh no, it has to have synchronised water fountains with the ride, it looks fantastic and I couldn’t wait to see what it was like on the actual ride. I only had to wait 5-10 minutes which in the already very hot sun felt like a lot longer. I loved how you access the ride, it reminded me randomly of the finale section of The Crystal Maze TV show, the way you enter the centre section by walking over a metallic grid thing over water, just me then? Oh well. The ride is very entertaining; throughout the entirety of the ride you feel like any moment the fountain is going to raise just that bit more and soak you, it’s a very unusual but a thrilling feeling.
As I was coming off the ride I noticed that magical of all things happen, Maus-au-Chocolat OPENED! Yay, so I went straight over and entered one of the most themed and impressive queuelines ever. Each room has a completely different feel to it and it was so nice and cool inside which compared to the heat outside was a lovely environment to be in. As it had just opened there weren’t many peeps in front so I was on very quickly (after the maze of the queueline anyway). The vehicles are all slightly different with little mice characters in various poses etc, it was a really nice touch.
The ‘guns’ were like icing bag things (no idea what they’re called) which was different and the way you ‘shoot’ was by pulling on this bit of rope, I found that really odd and hard to get used to.
The ride itself is excellent; the level of detail in the theming is just amazing and it’s just a fun experience, inbetween scenes I had a huge grin on my face from all the fun I was having (obviously a face of concentration during the games). I really loved the music and all the random bits and bobs everywhere and the 3D was really good too. I did think there was meant to be another element to it, like wind and water effects, maybe they just aren’t ready yet? I dunno, I suppose time will tell.
Randomly, now this really puzzles me, it takes your photo half-way around and in the final room you’re shown the pic of you with your score and then you’re shown the highest score of all time but after the ride there is no where to purchase said photo. Why on earth have an ORP but then not have the opportunity to purchase it? Really odd, maybe they ran out of time but by the looks of it I can’t see where it would go, random.
I decided to head over to Mystery Castle where it apparently had a 20 minute wait. That was about right but it was really hot inside the queue and it would appear that lots of people didn’t understand what personal space was. The ride, as usual, was amazing and was nice and cool, awesome sauces.
I then made my way towards Colarado Adventure and ended up riding the third new addition for 2011, Tikal. Two smaller junior bouncy drop towers which are heavily themed to the surrounding area, kinda wedged into a corner of Colarado Adventure which means while on the ride you get some unique views on part of the ride. It’s actually a very enjoyable ride with plenty of pops of airtime, the kids that rode it seem to love it too.
After riding Tikal I noticed people going up to the theatre in the area, never been in there before so I decided to check it out. It’s a stunt show with some cool music and random pop references (one or two I didn’t get), the highlight for me was when the bad guy said how much he hates Justin Bieber and there was a round of applause from the audience (myself included), haters gonna hate.
I continued into the Africa area for Black Mamba
I only had to queue about 10 minutes, if that. I forget how much of a trek it is through the queueline, it’s like a complete adventure in itself, very epic. I managed to sit in the back row on the edge of the right hand side which has to be my fav seat on the entire train. It’s just awesome, some don’t like the tight corners towards the end but I think it’s great, I think it’s really forceful and the close encounters with all the rockwork are epic.
As the queue hadn’t got any longer I went back into the queue and was back on in about 5 minutes, win. Afterwards I decided to grab some food from the place outside Mamba, got some chicken nuggets and chips which was surprisingly nice. I also sat a table next to where the African dancers were performing which was cool.
To relax a bit after eating decided to ride Silbermine which is a really long, quite dated, dark ride themed to, yep you guessed it, a mine. The amount of animatronics is quite impressive and the random tunnel near the start where you sway is a very odd experience. It’s also a fun game to try and spot as many Pirates of the Caribbean references as possible. On a side note, is it just me that finds it amusing that just before/after Disneyland Paris opened all these European parks opened big dark rides with lots of very similar scenes to both Pirates and Phantom Manor? I suppose that’s a topic for another day so I’ll stop faffing and continue onwards. Umm, so yeah, my camera decided to heavily spite me and take terrible photos all day, especially in Maus-au-Chocolat and in Silbermine. On Silbermine there was a notice that amused me so I took a pic of it, ironically it was one of the only pics that came out really well.
Some sort of sign?
I then opted to ride Colorado Adventure, I didn’t wait very long and I sat towards the back. It’s so much better than at the front, just a much more enjoyable experience.
I then had another go on Tikal, well, there was no queue so I thought why not. Still fun.
I wandered round to Talocan which had a 10 minute wait. It is so intense that at times it was a bit too much, especially with the way the restraint pushes down, it hurts in areas you don’t want it to hurt lol. However it is still the best Top Spin I’ve been on and the music and effects are very impressive.
I then decided to go over to Temple of the Nighthawk. Argh, so many stairs, was glad to finally reach the station. It was quite warm which was annoying but once on the ride and flying around in the dark (I swear there used to be effects in there) there was a lovely cool breeze, shame I then had to exit into the heat again.
As it was next door I decided to do both Winjas fear and force. So I found a locker, put my bag in and headed for the queue. I managed to get on both rides in about 20 minutes which I think is quite a short amount of time so was happy with that. Both rides are still excellent examples of what a spinning coaster can do and I managed to get some awesome spinnage on the second one I did (I can never remember what ones what).
I decided to relax a bit and walk up towards the splash battle as I’ve never been up that way before. The ride looked like it had a bit of a horrible queue but I found a cool play area for kids I didn’t know about. Oh and they were filming an advert or something with some weird character which I thought was funny. I then headed back to the main hub of the park. I got some of that amazing ice cream outside the exit of chocolat, I tried strawberry which was amazing.
I then turned up at Maus-au-chocolat which had a 0 minute queue so I’m assuming it broke down again and they’d just re-opened it. Timing; I was doing an excellent job of it. I tried to take some photos of the queue but most have come out as just a blur, here are some of the less-offending pics…
They did an awesome job of making these photos look old
The cake is a LIE
Lots of recipes and cake moulds in this room
Millions of millions!
The ride is still amazing, my arms really ached afterwards lol, was going a bit mad trying to get a good score. I took photos of my score etc this time…
I decided to ride Black Mamba again and it had a really short queue still! Win. So I had another two goes, once was in my fav seat at the back
It was coming towards the end of the day and I randomly decided to ride Feng Ju Palace, the Vekoma madhouse. It’s ok but the pre-show goes on a bit. I do like what they’ve tried to do but it seems a bit meh, the music is great though.
It says 10 mins wait but was actually 0
I then went and did Black Mamba one last time
Oh, I didn’t mention before but they were doing some work next to the station, nothing too exciting, either a new/updated water feature or some plumbing for the current water feature.
And that was that, it was an awesome day at the park and I’m glad I didn’t have to queue for very long and I got to do all the rides I wanted to get on, especially Maus-au-Chocolat which was epic and totally worth the trip. So back on the bus to get back to Bruhl.
I used my little map and navigated myself from the train station to the hotel reception via the main shopping street. It was weird as it was like an expensive restaurant trying to fit into a really small space and then a random reception desk for the hotel guests. The lady behind the counter instantly recognised where I was from and decided to speak fluent English. She was actually amazing, sorted out my room and then, now here’s the fun part, escorted me to my room which was in a different building a few minutes away. We had a little discussion going about Phantasialand and she told me that as a thank you to all the residents of Bruhl they hold a special day every year and all residents (or was it just kids, I got a little confused) get in for free and apparently the schools finish early to celebrate it etc and it’s a really popular event.
I never knew of that before and I think it’s awesome, I love how the schools get into the spirit of it all too. To be honest everyone I encountered in Bruhl were really friendly and just came across as really nice people and I can see why, the place is lovely and I wish I had more time to explore.
Anyway I’m rambling, my room was more like a tiny flat which was cool and the bedding and pillow were AMAZING, like the most comfortable I’ve ever come across. The TV was weird, made my Polaroid (wtf?) and was up really high on the wall so when on the bed it wasn’t a very clear picture. Meh it was all dubbed or filmed in German anyway so I just had it on as background noise more than anything.
After sorting my stuff out and having a big of relaxing time I went out in search of food. As I came across a Netto I decided to grab some food for the morning how…
I then decided to take a stroll, check out the palace and the gardens. It was really relaxing but the air was still really humid and icky. But yeah, the palace and it’s gardens are really nice, there doesn’t seem to be much info on Wikipedia but it has an official website which I might translate when I’m bored. Here are some lovely pics I took…
So after that nice stroll I wandered around the shopping area in search of some evening foods. I came across a Subway, sorted. Went back to my room and slept uber well.
The next morning I got the train to the airport and then flew back to Gatwick. I’d like to actually go back to Bruhl and also check out Cologne (or Koln) as it seems like a really nice place.
I hope you enjoyed reading of my random little trip, comments much appreciated
