SAVI - Stanza V: Team S.E.A. - Phantasialand

[NateD1226]

Phantasialand brainstorming/project

 

[D Hulk]

A Phantastic Guide to Phantasialand!

Official website

Phantasialand is a small theme park in Bruhl, Germany. They opened in 1967 as a family-focused park, though the past two decades have largely seen a shift towards thrill rides, which they do very well. Phantasialand is very tiny, hemmed into a strangely-shaped 69 acres. This has forced them to get creative with their ride layouts and detailed with their theming. It's in these categories where Phantasialand stands out; with their charm & size, I'd call them the European Knott's Berry Farm. (@TheOriginalTiki!) Much like Germany's Europa Park, Phantasialand gooses their revenues (and their 2 million annual visitors) with a "Business for Pleasure" promotion for cranky, humorless German businessmen. Despite their size, Phantasialand has resort grandeurs - namely, they have a 4-star on-site hotel, the Chinese-themed Hotel Ling Bao. Notably for a European park, Phantasialand seems to have robust offerings in wintertime even though they close down many of the big outdoor rides, with their ice skating spectaculars both indoors and out being somewhat renowned for their majesty. Phantasialand's older themed areas like "Mexico" or "Deep in Africa" follow the standard "world tour" theme of many European parks, while newer lands like "Kleugheim" (dark medieval fantasy) feature more original storytelling. The in-development "Rookburgh" area (steampunk) suggests that their new land trend is smaller and more fantastical settings.

Berlin

The entry land is themed to 1920s era Berlin. It's a traditional Main Street, with a corridor of shops & theaters leading to the hub.

--Maus au Chocolate, a shooter dark ride in the style of Toy Story Mania involving rats in a kitchen (which is a premise Pixar has never done)

--Hotel Tartuffe, a highly-themed funhouse walkthrough

--Neptunwellenflieger, a swing spinner in the hub's center

--Wintergarten activity area

--Smaller flat rides for children, located in tight corners and themed to fit

Mexico

--Chiapas, a recent Intamin log flume with the world's steepest log flume drop. Arguably purely as a ride (ignoring theming like on Splash Mountain) it's the best flume there is!

--Talocan, a HUSS Top Spin with an Aztec theme and a ludicrous thrill level.

--Colorado Adventure, a classic Vekoma mine train coaster that was famously dedicated by Michael Jackson when it opened in 1996.

Chinatown

This land is more atmospheric and scenic, serving primarily as a backdrop for the in-park hotel.

--Feng Ju Palace, a Vekoma Madhouse (a themed flat ride/dark ride hybrid) in a magical Oriental temple.

--Geister Rikscha, an old school dark ride that's best described as a Chinese Haunted Mansion.

Deep in Africa

Another area which backs up against the hotel, with heavy West African Timbuktu canyons and architecture. Beyond the land's sole attraction, Black Mamba, a strong focus on cultural streetmosphere helps give the area life.

--Black Mamba, a B&M invert coaster which (thanks to height limitations) rushes through canyons and under land walkways.

Mystery / Klugheim

It's not entirely clear if this is one larger land or two sub-lands. Both have a dark medieval fantasy vibe. The newer Klugheim area opened in 2016 to support Phantasialand's headliner attraction Taron. Their basalt column rockwork is, I would argue, comparable to Disney's best work in that arena!

--Raik, a custom boomerang coaster which opened alongside Taron as a family alternative.

--Taron, a double-launch Intamin Blitz coaster which quickly rocketed to many coaster enthusiasts' Top Ten lists. I cannot stop watching the incredible on-ride POV!



--Mystery Castle, an enclosed drop tower in the Mystery area themed to an old haunted castle.

--River Quest, a river raft ride considered by some the world's best. Featured a vertical lift hill and a stone fortress setting.

Wuze Town

A largely enclosed sub-land located within the larger land known as Fantasy (which we'll get to). Wuze Town features a tribe of original character creations, the Wuze, some sort of cutesy fantasy elf race or something, I'm not 100% sure. This is the park's most family-friendly area, located left of the hub while most of the bigger rides are to the right.

--Winjas Fear and Winjas Force, a pair of dueling Maurer Sohne spinning family coasters, with a few onboard surprises I won't spoil here!

--Many, many, many attractions for children, like flat ridesand an elevated slow monorail.

Fantasy

This is sort of the forgotten area of Phantasialand, which eats up a lot of space left of Wuze Town and has little to draw guests over here. It's the huge show building and lagoon seen in the map at the top of this post. It is my opinion that this area should be our main expansion focus! (One minor concern is Fantasy's location closer to Bruhl's suburbs, which might require noise reduction.)

--Hollywood Tour, a slow and unpopular dark ride which combines the content of Universal's Tram Tour and the ride system of Pirates of the Caribbean. It is very outdated and is very likely on the chopping block.

--Wakobato, a splash battle boat ride around that lagoon. While there is some admittedly neat-looking scenery (which we could perhaps recycle?) there is nothingg to this and it uses more space than some entire lands.

--Temple of the Nighthawk, an enclosed roller coaster with crumbling theming (was once a Space Mountain knockoff, is now tropical for some reason) and low popularity. Another chopping block contender!

Rookburgh

This steampunk land is currently under construction, and will open later in 2020. It is replacing another unpopular old dark ride (the Race for Atlantis shooter), proving that Phantasialand is willing to axe outdated old rides. (It's the green expansion pad left of the entrance in the map above.) Little is known so far, because Phantasialand is very secretive. The main (only?) upcoming attraction will be Fly, the world's first launched flying coaster!

I have high expectations for Fly and for Rookburgh, if Taron and Klugheim are any indications of quality.

Lastly, here's an interesting map from a Spanish website (Google couldn't translate it; can you?) showing the existing park acreage, the parking lot, and what is presumably developable land nearby. As you can see, the shapes are strange. But that's partly what makes working with Phantasialand so interesting to me!​

 

[orlando678-]

I think Phantasialand is already going in the right direction. They are eliminating the older outdated attractions and bringing back much more developed and story based experiences instead. Right now, there are a few of those outdated attractions left, Geister Rickscha(a haunted house omnimover past Asian ghost story dioramas) and the Movie Tour which is like the boat version of the great movie ride basically. Especially the movie tour really doesnt fit the rest of the area, so that one really has to go. As for Geister Rickscha, we could either update it or totally replace it, but the theme actually fits the rest of the area. Smaller things are the movie theater in alt berlin, the crazy bats coaster(which seems more temporary than permanent even though its a newer version of the ride), Feng Ju Palace and the lack of rides in Africa and Chinatown.

 

[D Hulk]

@orlando678-, thanks for the assessment

Do you have any firsthand experience with Phantasialand? Is there even room for non-replacement additions in Chinatown or Africa?

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

Hey @D Hindley I think I'm going to jump in with you here on Phantasialand. Haven't been to Germany in a few years and this will satisfy my itch. Plus I like what bit of the park I saw from your summary

 

[orlando678-]

@orlando678-, thanks for the assessment

Do you have any firsthand experience with Phantasialand? Is there even room for non-replacement additions in Chinatown or Africa?

Yea I've been there many times. For non-replacement additions in Chinatown or Africa, thats actually a tough one. For both Chinatown and Africa, we could partly expand into the current Wild West area that still belongs to Mexico but really has no real reason to be there. Theres also a very large theater there in the rockwork that could easily be changed into a ride. Also we could expand near the Ling Bao hotel, onto the parking lot for Chinatown but really depends on what we want to do for that area.

 

[D Hulk]

Hooray @Disney Dad 3000! I look forward to taking Germany by storm alongside you, Daaaaaad.

So how shall we approach Phantasialand? With their small acreage, preexisting onsite hotels, and clear outdated sections of the park, I’d say our best approach is simply adding more attractions. Let’s bring everything up to the level of Taron, Chiapas and Black Mamba, and make Phantasialand at least a full-day park (if it isn’t already).

The park’s west side can be almost entirely replaced. Left of the hub, we only need to keep Wuze Town and Rookburgh. (Map to come later today.) That means we have the Temple of the Nighthawk building, the massive Hollywood Tour building (which I’m totally willing to demolish!), and the large lagoon area.

The far west end should be anchored by a thrill coaster on par with Taron or Fly. Additional attractions can include family-friendly thrills and flats, and perhaps a centerpiece dark ride (which is Phantasialand’s weak spot, despite strong past efforts). The big challenge will be the neighborhood across the street from the lagoon, which creates noise restrictions. Whatever goes here should be enclosed - dark ride? And the anchor coaster can go roughly where Hollywood Tour is on the lagoon’s further end.

The east side is pretty strong, so let’s simply follow @orlando678- ‘s advice. Replace Geister Riksha, perhaps with a newer dark ride model. Modify Feng Ju Palace. Use the amphitheater and underutilized Old West part of Mexico to give both Africa and Chinatown some new filler rides...maybe a centerpiece coaster for Chinatown.

And that’s all she wrote!

 

[D Hulk]

@orlando678-, how is Phantasialand’s food game? Quality of merch? Quality of cast members? Are these areas which need work or are they solid?

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

Hooray @Disney Dad 3000! I look forward to taking Germany by storm alongside you, Daaaaaad.

So how shall we approach Phantasialand? With their small acreage, preexisting onsite hotels, and clear outdated sections of the park, I’d say our best approach is simply adding more attractions. Let’s bring everything up to the level of Taron, Chiapas and Black Mamba, and make Phantasialand at least a full-day park (if it isn’t already).

The park’s west side can be almost entirely replaced. Left of the hub, we only need to keep Wuze Town and Rookburgh. (Map to come later today.) That means we have the Temple of the Nighthawk building, the massive Hollywood Tour building (which I’m totally willing to demolish!), and the large lagoon area.

The far west end should be anchored by a thrill coaster on par with Taron or Fly. Additional attractions can include family-friendly thrills and flats, and perhaps a centerpiece dark ride (which is Phantasialand’s weak spot, despite strong past efforts). The big challenge will be the neighborhood across the street from the lagoon, which creates noise restrictions. Whatever goes here should be enclosed - dark ride? And the anchor coaster can go roughly where Hollywood Tour is on the lagoon’s further end.

The east side is pretty strong, so let’s simply follow @orlando678- ‘s advice. Replace Geister Riksha, perhaps with a newer dark ride model. Modify Feng Ju Palace. Use the amphitheater and underutilized Old West part of Mexico to give both Africa and Chinatown some new filler rides...maybe a centerpiece coaster for Chinatown.

And that’s all she wrote!

Doing my YouTube research to make an informed opinion , but looking at that west side that makes sense, and more indoor space/attractions would be a benefit with this location.

Amazing what they've got here with some of the spaces. Was watching Raik I think and it was so intertwined.

One little thing I love that they've done with some attractions is the usage of water. The flume ride speaks for itself, but the small fountains on the swings are a great touch and then the larger ones on Talocran, are just great visually for each.

 

[orlando678-]

@orlando678-, how is Phantasialand’s food game? Quality of merch? Quality of cast members? Are these areas which need work or are they solid?

Merch and cast members are fine. Just a bit more variety in shops around the park would be nice. When it comes to food, the park shows a clear contrast between the older and the newer dining options in the park. The older ones are simple options with fast food(fries, burgers, sausages etc) while the newer ones have full course meals. Africa has fun options, Fantasy could improve, Mystery and Mexico have some of the best food in the park, Chinatown is okay-ish(the quick service option facing Geister Ricksha isnt great) and Berlin is fine too.

 

[D Hulk]

Found this interesting forum discussion on Phantasialand's upcoming F.L.Y., which addresses expansion possibilities...

Apparently, around 8 years ago Phantasialand actually did make an effort to expand into neighboring woodlands. The local government blocked development. This puts it to rest for me, we're confined to the existing park acreage and parking lots.

 

[D Hulk]

This is the best map I've found so far!

And here goes a discussion about our expansion pads...

From left to right: The upper left green is Fantasy, which is entirely available to redevelop! Note the orange building, which contains Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Nighthawk/Crazy Bats. I support bulldozing this building and starting from scratch!

The big concern is the purple boundary - this is a fence which directly separates Phantasialand from people's backyards! Hence, noise issues. Anything we place along this frontage should be set indoors.

Dark blue near the center is the Wintergarten, a live theater space. It's not a bad thing, but could make a good dark ride venue if wanted.

Yellow is the Silverado Theater, which offers the best location for a new Africa family ride. (This would see Africa extend a little into what is now part of Mexico.)

Light blue is Chinatown (extended a little into Mexico), with the red building nearby being the crappy Geister Rikscha dark ride. Redevelop the latter into a new dark ride in the same building. And if we can't fit a major new ride into the light blue Chinatown plaza, perhaps we can expand into the parking lot (green blob).

And the purple shape is more parking lot, which could be expansion for Klugheim/Mystery. Not sure what would go in here, perhaps family attractions since this area is very thrill-heavy.

*********************************************************************************************************

Fantasy offers enough space for at least 2 compact roller coasters, 1 major family dark ride, and assorted additional attractions. For the coasters, a good balance would be 1 family (to serve Crazy Bats' purpose) and 1 thrill (to anchor this side). Likewise, I think the east side can do with additional family attractions to balance the park's family/thrill division.

I have ideas for precisely what many of our rides could be (GCI wooden coaster; enclosed RMC dueling T-Rex Trax coasters; boat dark ride with drop; trackless dark ride; suspended dark ride; Intamin balloon flight simulator) including themes, but let's hear what @Disney Dad 3000 & @orlando678- have to say.​

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

This is the best map I've found so far!

And here goes a discussion about our expansion pads...

From left to right: The upper left green is Fantasy, which is entirely available to redevelop! Note the orange building, which contains Hollywood Tour and Temple of the Nighthawk/Crazy Bats. I support bulldozing this building and starting from scratch!

The big concern is the purple boundary - this is a fence which directly separates Phantasialand from people's backyards! Hence, noise issues. Anything we place along this frontage should be set indoors.

Dark blue near the center is the Wintergarten, a live theater space. It's not a bad thing, but could make a good dark ride venue if wanted.

Yellow is the Silverado Theater, which offers the best location for a new Africa family ride. (This would see Africa extend a little into what is now part of Mexico.)

Light blue is Chinatown (extended a little into Mexico), with the red building nearby being the crappy Geister Rikscha dark ride. Redevelop the latter into a new dark ride in the same building. And if we can't fit a major new ride into the light blue Chinatown plaza, perhaps we can expand into the parking lot (green blob).

And the purple shape is more parking lot, which could be expansion for Klugheim/Mystery. Not sure what would go in here, perhaps family attractions since this area is very thrill-heavy.

*********************************************************************************************************

Fantasy offers enough space for at least 2 compact roller coasters, 1 major family dark ride, and assorted additional attractions. For the coasters, a good balance would be 1 family (to serve Crazy Bats' purpose) and 1 thrill (to anchor this side). Likewise, I think the east side can do with additional family attractions to balance the park's family/thrill division.

I have ideas for precisely what many of our rides could be (GCI wooden coaster; enclosed RMC dueling T-Rex Trax coasters; boat dark ride with drop; trackless dark ride; suspended dark ride; Intamin balloon flight simulator) including themes, but let's hear what @Disney Dad 3000 & @orlando678- have to say.​

Support bulldozing that green/orange shaded area and starting from scratch. Another season of SAU and another movie ride getting the ax!
Lots of kids stuff in those areas, but we can do some nice replacements. Looks like about a shade over 7 acres and that's giving a few extra feet of buffer for the neighborhood. Maybe we flip the script on how it's developed now and do the indoor/covered attractions in lagoon area as you said and the buildings that are there now become some open space. Whatever goes in the lagoon area should probably be built down like portions of the rest of the park, so draining that thing we are already on our way. Plus we don't want a 40 ft building from ground level behind those houses. Maybe a gradually sloped roof of some sort.

I like keeping the Wintergarten theater instead of bulldozing, if nothing for that facade entry into the park and what it looks like all lit up.

Silverado seems like a good choice for a ride replacement.

I was going to suggest a new hotel in that purple area if the park could support it as it's plenty big, then saw they were adding the charles lindbergh with Rookburgh. Though that looks to be a specialty/pod style hotel and not sure how big it is?

From what Orlando has said, looks like by demoing Fantasyland we can really up the game on the food options there as it was probably the most lacking of the lands food wise. Do we have any cost estimates on their construction there, for instance Rookburgh? Seems Fantasyland is going to be a good size chunk, though we've got 250m.

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

Support bulldozing that green/orange shaded area and starting from scratch. Another season of SAU and another movie ride getting the ax!
Lots of kids stuff in those areas, but we can do some nice replacements. Looks like about a shade over 7 acres and that's giving a few extra feet of buffer for the neighborhood. Maybe we flip the script on how it's developed now and do the indoor/covered attractions in lagoon area as you said and the buildings that are there now become some open space. Whatever goes in the lagoon area should probably be built down like portions of the rest of the park, so draining that thing we are already on our way. Plus we don't want a 40 ft building from ground level behind those houses. Maybe a gradually sloped roof of some sort.

I like keeping the Wintergarten theater instead of bulldozing, if nothing for that facade entry into the park and what it looks like all lit up.

Silverado seems like a good choice for a ride replacement.

I was going to suggest a new hotel in that purple area if the park could support it as it's plenty big, then saw they were adding the charles lindbergh with Rookburgh. Though that looks to be a specialty/pod style hotel and not sure how big it is?

From what Orlando has said, looks like by demoing Fantasyland we can really up the game on the food options there as it was probably the most lacking of the lands food wise. Do we have any cost estimates on their construction there, for instance Rookburgh? Seems Fantasyland is going to be a good size chunk, though we've got 250m.

one thing I forgot, and I know it's a tight area, but is there anything we can do, or thoughts about the entrance itself?

 

[D Hulk]

The green area I highlighted is only part of Fantasy. The Wuze Town area where 95% of the children’s rides are located would NOT be hurt at all with the plan I put forward. And that’s a good thing, since that’s a big chunk of rides which keeps the kiddos occupied and lets us focus on family & thrill attractions instead.

We can improve the food in Wuze Town without any infrastructural changes, and at a low cost. Same with anything like improved merch. A quick blurb in the presentation explaining operational improvements such as things should suffice.

The main entrance should be redone. YouTube reviews have compared it to a backstage entrance. If we can create a cooler facade without changing the small footprint, we’ll be good. There are many other park entrances, so this wouldn’t even be that disruptive.

If we put a dark ride where Wintergarten is located, that wouldn’t impact the building exterior or its facade. But that’s a very low priority. Better to transfer the ride idea I have for here to Fantasy why not!

Charles Lindbergh would be their third hotel! I’d say they’re good on that front.

Also agreed on building down, hence draining (part of) the lagoon. Phantasialand already builds down a lot, so this is very realistic! For the interior section in Fantasy, let’s give it a green roof etc - that should be agreeable to the neighbors. Something like this:

Regarding budget, all I’m finding offhand is Black Mamba (and all of Africa?) cost $22 million in 2006. Bump that up to $40 mil today for a major coaster addition.

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

The green area I highlighted is only part of Fantasy. The Wuze Town area where 95% of the children’s rides are located would NOT be hurt at all with the plan I put forward. And that’s a good thing, since that’s a big chunk of rides which keeps the kiddos occupied and lets us focus on family & thrill attractions instead.

We can improve the food in Wuze Town without any infrastructural changes, and at a low cost. Same with anything like improved merch. A quick blurb in the presentation explaining operational improvements such as things should suffice.

The main entrance should be redone. YouTube reviews have compared it to a backstage entrance. If we can create a cooler facade without changing the small footprint, we’ll be good. There are many other park entrances, so this wouldn’t even be that disruptive.

If we put a dark ride where Wintergarten is located, that wouldn’t impact the building exterior or its facade. But that’s a very low priority. Better to transfer the ride idea I have for here to Fantasy why not!

Charles Lindbergh would be their third hotel! I’d say they’re good on that front.

Also agreed on building down, hence draining (part of) the lagoon. Phantasialand already builds down a lot, so this is very realistic! For the interior section in Fantasy, let’s give it a green roof etc - that should be agreeable to the neighbors. Something like this:

Regarding budget, all I’m finding offhand is Black Mamba (and all of Africa?) cost $22 million in 2006. Bump that up to $40 mil today for a major coaster addition.

Just noticed that about Wuze town on your map. My bad. Still plenty of area to work with. Love that green roof idea.

 

[D Hulk]

Think we have a good grasp on what we're doing, as far as infrastructure and park program. Let's talk specifics! Let's talk theming!

Replacing Silverado Theater in Africa. Two ride ideas I have for this. The simpler idea is just to do a boat dark ride, especially since we're losing one by axing Hollywood Tour. Perhaps it could concern West African legends or animals? My preferred idea is to do a first-of-its-kind Intamin hot air balloon simulator! They call this model the 360 Fly Adventure. I can easily picture a screen-based flight over the African savanna viewing wildlife, full of extra-sensory effects. This ride has decent hourly capacity (1,250), plus Phantasialand already has a strong relationship with Intamin.

Also, there seems to be a little room left in Africa (the orange blob) for some sort of TBD flat ride:

As for replacing Geister Rikcha? Let's keep the building and the general Chinese folklore theming, and replace the haunted omnimover with a gentle suspended dark ride. (Yes, Intamin has a model for this too! No, I'm not obsessed with Intamin...) So we'd trade out an outdated Chinese Haunted Mansion for a state-of-the-art Chinese Peter Pan!

 

[D Hulk]

Now, as for what's happening in Fantasy...

The enclosed area I think should become a new land, another fantastical German town in line with Klugheim and Rookburgh. No idea on name yet. As for theme, was thinking strongly German Expressionist, like a darker flipside of the Berlin entry land. Think Metropolis or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Having it all indoors lets us control lighting in some fun ways.

This section would host an extreme indoors thrill coaster. A pair of dueling RMC T-Rex Trax coasters! This would be a world's first, high-capacity (since it's two coasters), and it can theme to a stylized street race. But that's just my suggestion, I'm open to other coaster ideas. (E.g. I considered a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster, which are nicely compact, except Europe already has a lot of these.)

The indoors land should be balanced with a new dark ride. My proposal: A trackless dark ride in a magical art museum. Use the cheaper wire-embedded system (like on Efteling's Symbolica) over Disney's pricier LPS approach. Riders would enter the world of the paintings! So one room is done in an impressionist style. Another is cubist, or pointilist, etc., letting us create a whole bunch of fun scenery from a simple premise.

There is still room outside closer to Wuze Town, which should retain the Fantasy theming. Where Hollywood Tour is now, I propose a family-friendly roller coaster, a GCI wooden coaster. These are compact, low-height, and very fun - all good for Phantasialand. And it's a coaster type they don't have yet!

Keep Fantasy's rolling green hills and wooden fairy cottages, and thematically work the wooden coaster into that aesthetic. This lets us recycle some existing Wakobato scenery.

Have walkways at mid-level meander around the coaster course, as seen elsewhere in Phantasialand. Maybe add filler rides like an Antique Cars (they don't have one!) or a flat ride inside a coaster helix.

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

Now, as for what's happening in Fantasy...

The enclosed area I think should become a new land, another fantastical German town in line with Klugheim and Rookburgh. No idea on name yet. As for theme, was thinking strongly German Expressionist, like a darker flipside of the Berlin entry land. Think Metropolis or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Having it all indoors lets us control lighting in some fun ways.

This section would host an extreme indoors thrill coaster. A pair of dueling RMC T-Rex Trax coasters! This would be a world's first, high-capacity (since it's two coasters), and it can theme to a stylized street race. But that's just my suggestion, I'm open to other coaster ideas. (E.g. I considered a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster, which are nicely compact, except Europe already has a lot of these.)

The indoors land should be balanced with a new dark ride. My proposal: A trackless dark ride in a magical art museum. Use the cheaper wire-embedded system (like on Efteling's Symbolica) over Disney's pricier LPS approach. Riders would enter the world of the paintings! So one room is done in an impressionist style. Another is cubist, or pointilist, etc., letting us create a whole bunch of fun scenery from a simple premise.

There is still room outside closer to Wuze Town, which should retain the Fantasy theming. Where Hollywood Tour is now, I propose a family-friendly roller coaster, a GCI wooden coaster. These are compact, low-height, and very fun - all good for Phantasialand. And it's a coaster type they don't have yet!

Keep Fantasy's rolling green hills and wooden fairy cottages, and thematically work the wooden coaster into that aesthetic. This lets us recycle some existing Wakobato scenery.

Have walkways at mid-level meander around the coaster course, as seen elsewhere in Phantasialand. Maybe add filler rides like an Antique Cars (they don't have one!) or a flat ride inside a coaster helix.

Just thinking out loud....
Not sure why it got me thinking this, probably the dark ride/art museum, but what if this area is tied into a more modern day version of king ludwig with that fantastic cityscape you posted and the art ride really delving into a new reality and escaping the world outside, etc? Not straying too far into making this "crazy person land" but some sort of fantastical escape?

Like the fantasy idea of a coaster and merging that with a small flat ride of some sort

 

[D Hulk]

Things were quiet yesterday. Let’s get loud! Let’s do some Armchair Accountaineering!

BUDGET DRAFT

New RMC coaster with theming - $40 million (estimate based on inflated cost of Black Mamba)

New GCI coaster - $40 million

Trackless museum dark ride - $40 million (same price as Efteling’s Symbolica)

Fantasy site improvements (draining lake, building new building, demolishing Hollywood Tour building) - $40 million

Additional filler attractions etc in Fantasy - $20 million

Geister Rikscha suspended dark ride replacement - $25 million (inflated cost of Droomvlucht)

Simulator attraction for Africa - $25 million

Flat ride for Africa - $5 million

New entrance gate - $10 million

Improving food & merch as needed parkwide - $10 million

Spending time in a theme park with family - Priceless

If my math adds up hilarious that’s the allotted $250 million.

Well, what shall we work on today? I think devising s layout fits the Fantasy changes would be a good project. And when we get going with proper attraction development, we can split off with a coaster guy and a dark ride guy. @Disney Dad 3000, with your interest in Germany, what would you like to do moving forward?