Phantasialand 2016: Taron and Raik

Woooohooowww! The progress with theming boosted up! The houses are taking nice shape.
Thank you for sharing those pictures with us Dirk! Did you have a lovely day? Proably, it`s Phantasialand :p

[Paradox]

All other parks should bow down to Phantasialand. Seriously how is it even possible for a park to be this good.

Yeah Phantasialand is amazing, I really want to shove that giant castle tower up my ass.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Oblivion wrote:

Thank you for sharing those pictures with us Dirk! Did you have a lovely day? Proably, it`s Phantasialand :p

No Problem. I did the same at the start of the winter season
And it was a good day for a visit. Not too busy on queues but plenty of people around to not be in a fully dead park.

[mkingy]

Thanks for the pictures Dirk!

I love how in some places they've built the footers up and themed them instead of just having longer steel sections.

GerstlCrazy wrote:

Yeah Phantasialand is amazing, I really want to shove that giant castle tower up my ass.

I feel the same way.

@ Paradox: Yes it`s insane what this little park is able to do. Normally a park of this size and capacity would invest in small rides you can find at a fair.
Phantasialand takes it the absolute other way. Massive themed attraction after massive themed attraction. It allready is an insane landscape. Can`t imagine how it will be after 20 more years.
It`s like you`re in Disneyland watching Expedition Everest with Splash mountain standing against it. That`s how they build every ride . Eventhough they have restrictions (because of neighbours) and can`t go high because of noise level, they do a tremendous job.

I`m so looking forward untill the day that the Taron and Raik area will be receiving their first visitors with screaming happy riders across the entire area in multiple trains from both coasters. Kinda sounds like paradise to me. This will give the park another boost in visitor numbers. Even from the US probably (Am I right Paradox )

[Paradox]

Oblivion wrote:

Even from the US probably (Am I right Paradox )

haha I'm trying to get to Germany sometime soon for this park, but Germany has so many great parks it would be very hard to experience them all in one visit.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Incredible pictures Dirk! Thanks for sharing.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Paradox wrote:

Oblivion wrote:

Even from the US probably (Am I right Paradox )

haha I'm trying to get to Germany sometime soon for this park, but Germany has so many great parks it would be very hard to experience them all in one visit.

Well, In about 2 weeks you can do quite a majority of the big parks around Germany.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Dirk_Ermen wrote:

Paradox wrote:

Oblivion wrote:

Even from the US probably (Am I right Paradox )

haha I'm trying to get to Germany sometime soon for this park, but Germany has so many great parks it would be very hard to experience them all in one visit.

Well, In about 2 weeks you can do quite a majority of the big parks around Germany.

I wish I was as well traveled as you.

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

I wish I was as well traveled as you.

When you`re living in Europe there is a lot of choises between good themed parks. Not so much on thrill.

For Dirk driving to any park in Germany is like travelling to the next town.
If it would lay in USA then visiting parks in Germany/Belgium/Netherlands would almost be like staying in the same state. The center of Europe is kinda like one Orlando resort but with some longer roads instead of international drive .

Very true Oblivian! Disneyland Paris, Europapark, Phantasialand, Efteling,... are really close to eachother when you think about it.

straightbanana wrote:

Very true Oblivian! Disneyland Paris, Europapark, Phantasialand, Efteling,... are really close to eachother when you think about it.

Yes indeed. There is allready a big list of very good parks if you for example only at central Europe.
Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Phantasialand, Europapark, Heide Park, Efteling, Disneyland Paris, Parc Asterix,
If you go further: Parque Warner, Port Aventura, Gardaland, Mirabilandia, Tusenfryd, Liseberg. Offcourse also many others. I cannot mention them all my apologies .

When you travel to a town in Europe there are always a few good parks pretty nearby.
Stats say everyting. According to imdb there are 797 themeparks in Europe. North America has 1060 themeparks while it`s more then twice as big. (Europe: 10.400.000 km??, North America: 24,346,000 km??) So North America has about 30% more themeparks over a more then double big area.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Oblivion wrote:

When you travel to a town in Europe there are always a few good parks pretty nearby.
Stats say everyting. According to imdb there are 797 themeparks in Europe. North America has 1060 themeparks while it`s more then twice as big. (Europe: 10.400.000 km??, North America: 24,346,000 km??) So North America has about 30% more themeparks over a more then double big area.

Well, don't forget that we are living in a quite dense area of parks. Our area is probably the most dense on parks/themeparks in the world, nation wide.

The Netherlands has about 22 parks and pretty much 7 of them are bigger parks. From the center of the country. All of them are drivable in less than 1-1,5 hours. In Germany you have about 110 parks with coasters/alpines. But only 18 of them have 3 coasters/alpines or more. (In total there are 73 parks with just 1 coaster/alpine! Although roughly from the top of my head I think about 35 entries are just Alpine coasters, the rest are "parks" with a butterfly or a kiddy/junior coaster.) So statistic wise there are a bunch of parks. But in reality the biggest bunch of them aren't even worthy to visit. Unless you're a coaster creditwhore. Visiting a good/bigger park nearby could still take roughly 3-4 hours, depending on where you live.
Then again, The density balances out in other regions like Scandinavia. Norway for example: The entire country has only 6 entries with coasters/alpines. With only one entry being a major park. Finland same way: Only 7 parks in the entire country.

I guess we are just lucky by living near/in countries with a high density on themeparks. Not everyone around Europe has the same.

Dirk_Ermen wrote:

I guess we are just lucky by living near/in countries with a high density on themeparks. Not everyone around Europe has the same.

Yeah didn`t think at it that way. You are absolutely right. The more to the east the less parks that are worth probably. Refering to the alpina coasters, that would mean that there are much less real themeparks. But not according to central Europe , they have some fancy rides.

Oblivion wrote:

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

I wish I was as well traveled as you.

I have to say what a fantastic comparison!

[Turbo]

^sure but we can't forget that ck lives in the midwest. So nowhere. He lives in nowhere. a good 80% of that coverage is literally open space. Full of nothing.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Some cool park update stuff as well:












Source: http://magazin.phantasialand.de/zeit-der-entdeckung/

From what I can read on the website I can see the coaster is going to operate with temperatures as low as -10??C! (14??F). So pretty good news for the winter visitors!

[Paradox]

An article was released in German which states the following:

• They have specified their previously very vage statement about the launch: Taron will be the Multi-Launch-Coaster with the most intense LSM-Launch worldwide.
• Taron will be able to run at temperatures above -10??C (14??F).
• This is probably the most interesting bit: Taron will feature a completely new "Phantasialand"-train with new sitting position and new restrain system.

And the park has also started teasing about the release of the train! We will know all on Friday!

"Powerful and intense, convoluted steel and mighty cliffs."

"Now is the time to discover new things and delve into the world of Taron.
From today we reveal here to Friday every day a bit more."

Every day some of the basalt will chip away, revealing more of the train.

In others words the coaster will be running always :p. Can`t even remember when it was that cold at Bruhl during a wintertraum.
Maybe 1 day in 5 years that there is a chance it will be closed

The ride is build kinda like partly indoor. Laying in a box below ground level high rocks blocking the cold winds. Only the roof is missing .
That new bridge is looking cool! No doubt they are going to add themed supports to that.

I`m curious for the new train!

^^a bit like on Catchphrase (a TV game show)!

This ride looks amazing! Too bad I won't be able to ride it.

Wittloc wrote:

This ride looks amazing! Too bad I won't be able to ride it.

To tall? I feel for you.

^^how tall are you, Wittloc? (i'm about 6ft 2)

No, lol. Just too far away.