Murfie

Yes they are kind of fluffy miniature pancakes, cooked on a special cast iron pan, and traditionally served with butter and powdered sugar.

Holy crap! I was there a few weeks ago and my friends/family weren't too excited to ride Batavia and Fjord Rafting. Now I'm really glad I convinced them at the time. Such a shame this happened, but I'm sure they will recover and come up with a great replacement ride.

Yeah I went in the first week of Wintertraum last year and decided I should make it a yearly ritual because it was amazingly quiet. All the rides were walk-ons, save for Taron. But even that ride had about a 5-10 minute wait, so I managed to ride it 17 times. Have to say, I was completely spaced out after that ... You should definitely try to get in some last rides on Taron way at the end of the day just before it closes, because it looks amazing at night, especially in front (its hard to get a front seat though, because everybody wants in on it and with an empty park, the ride ops get annoyed when literally everybody begs for front seat). Also personally, last year I thought the closing ceremony wasn't really worth it, but the special show at the Chiapas ride is totally worth seeing. Do take note though, they close Chiapas for the show because of all the fire effects, so don't forget to ride Chiapas before then (the show is at 5-ish if I remember correctly).

^ They do close it early each winter day, at about 5pm. But only because a few minutes later there is a winter show with projection mapping on Chiapas and what could best be described as a Stomp show performed by a fountain of flamethrowers that are mounted near the track of the ride. For real. @ OP, can confirm everything was a walk on because I was there the same day ^_^ If only we could have hung out Thanks for taking some nice pictures, since I was too awestruck by the Klugheim area at nighttime to take any myself! ...actually I can add one more picture from the launch section that turns hellish red when its dark My friends agreed that Taron is surprisingly awesome with ridiculous ejector air, gnarly launches and a crazy lineup of proper speed coaster elements. The line was so empty I managed to beat my record of most rides on a coaster in one day (17) and while lately I've been feeling coasters don't get to me anymore, Taron totally wrecked me after a couple of rides. At the end of the day I was still getting them feels each and everytime when the train hits the brakes at the end and you're kinda sitting there taking it all in. Phantasialand really is a great visit during wintertime, just like everyone in this thread is saying. U can ride Winjas, Black Mamba, Chiapas and all the other cool stuff with barely any lines, or no lines whatsoever! And the pizza, icecream, pulled turkey, waffles and pretty much any of the fresh food they make is amazeballs. Definitely one of my favorite parks to visit all year round.

Oooooooh yeaaaaaaaah Not sure yet whether I'll go in july or if i'll take a detour after Gamescom, but I'm definitely not going to wait on this one

Yeah I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Phantasialand actually wants to expand in areas other than the Themepark itself. Which is totally fine by me, I think the fact that they have so many limitations spacewise, just forces them to be much more creative than any other park. I wouldn't mind if they sacrifice a few of the old rides to create a really dense and amazingly detailed park.

Monday-friday? Are you saying you're planning more than 3 days there?

I'd call Vliegende Hollander a family thrill ride, it is more of a dark ride/splash combo than a thrillcoaster or anything. Pretty much all the coasters are doable for the not so thrilly riders (other than Python & Baron). Vogel Rok is pretty tame, the GP usually thinks its really fast and has inversions, but it has a really simple layout and doesn't do anything crazy other than go fairly fast in the dark. Joris en de Draak is probably the third most thrilling coaster, but a really fun one! And lol yeah, Baron might have a gnarly first drop, but its silky smooth and thus in a way less intense than Python....kinda Long story short: when I go to the Efteling with family, the kids do ride: Vogel Rok, Vliegende Hollander, Bob, Joris en de Draak. They usually skip Python and Baron.

I went from London to Alton Towers and back to Heathrow in a day once Its possible but it does require you to get up really early and you have to plan out every single detail to make it work. It's a hassle but it's also possible. I woke up in a B&B extra early and took the bus to Euston train station, from there I took a train (with tickets I bought early for a good discount, not that expensive at all) and went to Stoke on Trent. From there it's an hour with the bus. In the evening I did the whole thing over because it was the day before a TPR trip and everybody was meeting up at Heathrow.. Personally I thought it was totally doable, the trains were cheaper and more reliable timewise than what I'm used to at home. But you will be traveling for many hours so for some people it's probably too much of a hassle. In my case I really really needed to go Alton Towers and I had no options to wait till morning to return or anything like that. If you do, than staying overnight is certainly the more relaxed route as I was up and about from 6 till 23 o Clock I think... Worth it though IMHO ^_^

With a month or 3 to go, I'm guessing they want to open it at the start of the peak season in july? I hope they can manage to do so, but with those two coasters, river quest and all that theming, I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of delays creep up.... In any case, as soon as we hear an opening date, I'm hauling ass to Brühl

^Same goes for the general theming of the park. With Platform 13 and Lost Gravity they are going for pretty much random theming compared to old stuff like Robin Hood that's still around from earlier.. Thanks for the cool report! The new coaster actually looks better in these pics than the ones I saw before, I'm definitely gonna check it out myself in the next few months. I wonder how the GP is gonna respond to it and where it's gonna rank in terms of popularity.

Just when you think Phantasialand can't be more amazeballs, they just keep surprising you with more stuff. The way they rethemed River Quest and just shoved a new coaster through it, genius. I've been this year already but I really hope they open the new area this year. Cant. Handle. The. Anticipation.

I went to the park a few weeks ago and man, Taron really looks amazing in person. It looks huge and imposing, somehow slapped into this tiny area. It also shows a lot more of the track and stuff compared to other rides at the park. Unless they are still going to add more theming to hide stuff... Btw Raik going under the lift of the updated River Quest is looking great to me, in general Klugheim is amazeballs in person, can't wait to go back once it opens