Fourty years of Phantasialand requires a celebration and when it is at one of our favorite theme parks we have to be there! So after taking the Friday off from work me and my brother set out for Phantasialand once again. We left home around ten which very late for us (usually when we go to PHL we leave at seven) and also because of a few kilometers of stau near Bedburg we arrived there finally at noon.
Due to us being so late I was wondering how busy the park would be but surprisingly it wasn’t and you could hardly tell that there would be a party that night. It was very relaxing though to spend a quiet day in the park while having a pick at the rides. We spent a good deal of the day playing with the cameras on our new mobile phones and we revisited several rides while my brother tried to get the best on-ride possible with his one. I left the big cam in the bag for most of the day and (as promised) I took quite a lot of pictures with my phone cam instead but unfortunately a lot of them were screwed up. Some turned out pretty nice though and I especially like the one below were one can finally get some kind of feel of Black Mamba’s track layout. The thing is so well hidden that it is really hard to grasp it. On this picture you can get a feeling of the scope of this coaster.
Unfortunately our favorite Corona drinking spot announced a Ruhetag but luckily we were able to score a couple of Coronas at the Hacienda.
Usually we don’t go to the Hacienda because it always seems so crowded but now that we know for sure that they have Corona we might visit them more often when it’s not too busy in the park.
After taking some more pictures around deep Africa we made our way via the back to Alt Berlin where we spend some more time lingering around, taking pictures and filming some of the entertainers doing their thing. Although it was pretty busy in that area (especially when compared to the rest of the park) there was also a heavy sense of peace and quietness and it was almost like everyone was heavily anticipating the party that was to start a few hours later.
During one of final rounds in the park we stumbled upon these Chinese acrobats and had to take the camera out to film them.
A few minutes before six o’clock a few girls came up to us asking if we were wanted to buy some tickets for the night… Blissfully unaware that we needed tickets we politely declined and went for another round in the park. The encounter made us think however and we inspected some of the celebration signs a little more carefully this time. Then it started to dawn on us and after seeing most of the attractions and stands closing we went straight to the Kundencenter im Westernstadt. There we confirmed that we indeed would be needing tickets to spend the evening in PHL but fortunately we were able to purchase them right at the spot and very cheap thanks to our PHL Funcards. The guy attending office was also pretty fluent in English which made matters considerably easier.
At the Kundencenter we also found out that the park would be closing at six only to re-open at seven. In reality the park opened around six thirty but it was very strange having to leave the park, wait outside for half an hour in order to re-enter. Strange as it was though, we were inside quick enough and pleasantly surprised to find that our favorite spot was once again open for business. We were happy to find Sabrina there too with a fresh bowl of Coronas.
Before we could even finish our beers properly I had to rush down in order to shoot some of the show that was already starting. I bluntly grabbed some of the free space in front of the stage despite the audience that had already gathered there and got ready for some serious filming… Unfortunately the stage was not high enough and some obnoxious staff members’ and photographers’ heads are appearing in my footage… I tried waving, yelling and finally cursing but in the end I had to make the best of what I got. I didn’t want to wait too long before uploading something so here is the first song of a three song Code Red session. It turned out alright but I have a lot of Code Red footage and didn’t really take the proper time to edit it the best way possible.
After hanging around the main stage for a while and shooting the most interesting stuff we made our way back into the park via the Westernstadt where for some kind of strange reason we were drawn into the bar. The lasso guy was just doing his amazing thing and we lingered there afterwards waiting for the band Crossfire to appear.
TODO: Insert lasso guy and Crossfire movies
We had a great time listening to the sweet country of Crossfire and watching the line dancers while waiting for it to get dark outside. Well it is not really that we intended to wait for it to get dark but it was just so gezellig that it ended up that way. By the way, it was a very pleasant surprise to be served drinks so punctually in a theme park. Usually you will have to put in a lot of effort yourself.
A few moments of awe courtesy of the lights in Phantasialand later, we slowly made our way to China were we again stumbled into a pretty hot entertainment act. I was hesitating to upload this footage at first but then again… I didn’t tell here to wear that… Damn, Phantasialand entertainment is sweet.
After that we made our way round the Colorado Express but soon found out the park had gotten so busy that doing any rides would be too much of an investment of our time so we walked on and spent some time taking pictures deep in Africa. Most of the pictures taken in Africa suck because there was not enough light so they turned out very grainy… Fortunately, at least some pictures from Alt Berlin turned out decent enough to post them.
Then to our surprise it turned out to be a little past eleven already so made our way back to Sabrina. When we were having our drink the last show started but as we had seen Code Red and Hot Banditos already two times we didn’t bother to go down to have another look. Later on though James Smith appeared and even though I completely do not know him I went down to get some movies.
When he was done he went on to announce the fireworks so we made our way to a good spot in order to see and film it. My batteries were running very low at that time and was prepared to stop filming during the fireworks for multiple times if it were not for the Phantasialand staff members who were next to us and enthusiastically urging me to film on. I was even offered an power outlet to charge my batteries but I was stupid enough to think that two full batteries were enough and left the adapter at home. In the end my camera sucked the very last energy out of my batteries and I kept on filming till the display went black.
After the fireworks we waited in the park while most of the people fought their way to the exits. From our position at the restaurant we could nicely oversee the traffic leaving our parking lot at the Mexico side of the park and when it cleared up a little bit we too made our way back to the car. After we eventually found it (it wasn’t even parked far away from the entrance) and a brief scare because it seemed to be missing for a few minutes the wheels of the Calibra were once again grinding the pebbles in of the parking lot in Phantasialand, the rap was pumping out of the speakers and we were heading back home.