Phantasialand

Phantasialand is a theme park in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, that attracts approximately 2 million visitors annually. 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, it has also decided to attract business customers, calling spring the slogan "Business to Pleasure". 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. 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 the 30th of April, 1967. On the 1st of 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. The blaze cost about 38 million Deutsche Mark ($17 million in U.S. dollars.) in damage and 54 people were injured. 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, were built by Maurer Söhne 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. Construction of River Quest was made possible by a fire that devastated part of the park on the 1st of May 2001, 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. 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, 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 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. 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 been revealed during construction. Chiapas: DIE Wasserbahn (Chiapas: THE Log Flume) opened on the 1st of April 2014. 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. 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. 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 A dinner show called Fantissima is also offered on select evenings, for an additional fee. The show runtime is approximately four hours. References External links Phantasialand official website