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 set out to attract business customers under 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.
Phantasialand was opened by Gottlieb Löffelhardt and Richard Schmidt on 30 April 1967.
Theme area "Deep in Africa"
On 1 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 caused about 38 million Deutschmarks in damage and injured 54 people. Phantasialand reopened about two weeks later after making improvements in service of fire safety, equipping every building with sprinkler systems.
Phantasialand contains Mystery Castle, an indoor Intamin ride featuring a walk through a haunted castle. Next to the castle is River Quest, a rapid river ride featuring two elevators; the ride was built by Hafema in 2002, replacing the rides Grand-Canyon-Bahn[de] and Gebirgsbahn, which were destroyed in the 2001 cable fire. Until the construction of Infinity Falls at SeaWorld Orlando, River Quest held the record for the largest drop on a rafting ride.[1] The space available was relatively small for a river rapids ride. To save space, two elevators lift boats at the start of the ride, rather than the more traditional singular lift hill.
Mystery Castle and River Quest were the only rides in the Mystery area of the park until the Klugheim area opened with the Taron and Raik roller coasters in 2016. River Quest was slightly re-themed in 2017 to fit the Klugheim theme.
A four-star on-site hotel named Hotel Ling Bao opened in 2004. The hotel's roof tiles were imported from China, and every room door was hand-engraved. The hotel has two restaurants, a bar, a pool and sauna, a garden area, a spa, and an exclusive entrance to the park. A three-star hotel named Matamba opened in August 2008 in the Deep in Africa section.
Phantasialand opened another ride in 2007, named 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.
In 2010, Phantasialand opened five new attractions for children in Wuze Town: Baumberger Irrgarten, Die fröhliche Bienchenjagd, Wolke's Luftpost, Der lustige Papagei, and Würmling Express. The Berlin part of the park was also reworked, adding many Berlin-themed houses and fountains and a tribune for shows. Also new in 2010 was the show Sieben by Jan Rouven.
In 2011, Phantasialand opened two new attractions: Maus au Chocolat, an ETFdark ride in Alt Berlin, and a chair-swing on the Kaisersplatz. The old shop in the Berlin section was replaced by a funhouse-style attraction called Verrücktes Hotel Tartüff, which opened in 2012.
For the 2013 season, Phantasialand built a new log flume-style attraction to replace their two previous water attractions. The attraction is embedded in a large area of canyons and mountains. A miniature model was displayed in the park during construction. Chiapas: DIE Wasserbahn (Chiapas: THE Log Flume) opened on the 1st of April 2014.
After the winter season 2013–14, the Western-themed town area Silver City and the dark ride Silbermine were removed to make room for construction on the park's 2016 launched roller coaster, Taron, and the new themed area Klugheim, which became a part of the Mystery area. Another roller coaster, Raik, is located in the Klugheim area, and is more family-oriented than 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
Name
Theme
Dragon
Opening date
Berlin (with Rookburgh)
Historic Berlin with the nostalgic flair of the early 20th century; Boulevard with the Kaiserplatz; Industrial quarter "Rookburgh" in steampunk design
Drago
1970
Mexico
Plaza Mariachi with Mexican buildings; Rockwork of Chiapas; Aztec and Maya cultures
Quetzal
1973
China Town
Traditional Chinese buildings and gardens
Wang
1981
Mystery (with Klugheim)
Medieval village "Klugheim" with Nordic symbolism in a mystical dark atmosphere; Basalt Mountains; gloomy castle complexes
Schneck
1998
Fantasy
(with Wuze Town)
Playful, child-friendly fantasy world around the Wuze people in Wuze Town and Baumbergen at the "Mondsee" (moon lake)
Phenie
2002
Deep in Africa
Savannah and rainforest landscape with West African adobe buildings
Due to its particularly small area Phantasialand is known to remove attractions more frequently than other theme parks to gain space for new attractions.
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