Having been back a week, I've had time to reflect on my recent trip to Phantasialand for their winter event "Wintertraum". I was at the park for the best part of 3 days and this trip report consists of the park itself, the rides, the winter shows, travelling and my hotel stay. I'll summarise how I found the trip with travelling and if I would recommend it this event (spoilers: its very positive).
The Park At Wintertraum:
So having arrived at the park around 12pm, we checked into the hotel which would be Hotel Matamba. Very nice and swift check in with the staff speaking English which helped a lot with questions we had about our stay. After this we entered the park, bearing in mind this was my first ever first to the park, I was blown away at the view from entering. The double tier carousel in the centre and the chair swing in the background was a perfect view when entering. The whole park area is just so vibrant and so well themed, for the space it has, it uses it well and to it's advantage. Every area had it's own theme and always felt so involved and sucked into the theme, you truly felt like you was in another world. I thoroughly believe this is what every parks theme standards should be, It's top notch. Being the winter event, snow was placed everywhere with various Santa hats and presents. A lot of time and effort went into adding this little touches into the park and it really showed, even going a few weeks after Christmas had finished, i still had the warm fuzzy feeling of Christmas all over again
The Rides:
I'll briefly review all the rides i was able to do on my visit, Some of these rides were just superb and make you wonder what British theme parks are doing wrong, some of these rides... They aren't that great...
Taron: Fantastic ride, brilliant launch, brilliant interactions and a fantastic centre piece for the park deep within Klugheim. Managed 49 rides and It now holds the crown of my top rollercoaster
Raik: Really fun Boomerang coaster, some real force behind the ride when being sent backwards. Awesome family ride
Black Mamba: Imagine Nemesis but that bit more intense, this ride doesn't stop and doesn't slow down for a minute. It's a pure adrenaline rush.
Talocan: What a top spin ride should be. Awesome ride cycle no matter the row you're on. The fire, the music, it has the lot and makes me miss Ripsaw even more.
Colorado Adventure: A Really fun mine train ride with some intense sections, great ride to go on for some great park views (Including F.L.Y. - The new under construction ride)
Winjas Fear & Force: To put simply, a spinning coaster on steroids. Both Force & Fear have some "unique features" along the ride, I won't spoil but you'll be surprised when you experience it. Fear in my opinion is the better ride.
Chiapas: Really enjoyed this ride, some awesome aspects to it and some fun sections (X- The water ride). Overall a fun experience and if you're ever lucky enough to ride this at night, take the opportunity. It's spectacular
Maus Au Chocolat: I don't normally like dark shooter rides but this was a nice change. Even though i didn't do this as much, i enjoyed sitting back and watching all the little details on screen whilst the ride is operating.
Das VerrÜckte Hotel TartÜff: This fun house is most certainty fun, plenty of fun for everyone and some extremely fun moments to be had inside!
Temple Of The Night Hawk: When i said there would be bad rides, this is one of them, a completely dark ride, there's nothing to be seen which is a disappointment, there's just nothing going on to make it a good ride in my opinion.
Hollywood Tour: Again, a bad ride. It's outdated now i feel and can tell it's aged badly. Some impressive scenes but with the lack of music at times, It's extremely boring and not worth the wait.
The Shows:
Admittedly, we didn't watch many shows, the only show we watched was the fireworks. We managed to watch the 5/10 minute display whilst watching/riding Taron. It's a great show but don't expect anything near Alton Tower's fireworks display level. Around the park there was staff dressed as characters from the shows which was a very nice touch i must add.
The Hotel:
I couldn't fault the hotel, Hotel Matamba was beautifully themed, a lot of atmosphere and all of the staff were friendly with anything we needed. The room itself was amazing! We had the basic room with 2 beds, they provided 2 double beds, a great bathroom, fully working TV and a lot of room for the money we paid. Buffet breakfast was included as well as Hotel ERT which included an hour's worth of ride time on Taron & Raik. These were both extremely quiet. We managed 14 & 15 rides on both of our ERT sessions on Taron which included multiple front rows. 10/10 for the hotel. Superb
Travelling:
My main concern would be the travelling but this was extremely easy. We flew from London Stansted which was only an hour flight. From there, it was 2 short train journeys to Bruhl station where you could catch a shuttle bus straight to the entrance of the park. No problems and all for a decent price. Was extremely pleased with this and was a relief to find a safe and affordable route to the park.
Summary:
Would i recommend this event? Definitely, The whole event was superb, it really left you with a fantastic feeling from visiting. The time we visited it was extremely quiet with queues for only Taron reaching 30 mins on day 1 and getting gradually more busy up until the last day. I love this park and would urge everyone if they can to go out and experience this already fantastic park but at it's finest, at Wintertraum.
