To celebrate and end 2018, we decided to take a trip to Phantasialand right at end of December. This allowed us to visit the parks Wintertraum (winter) event and to celebrate New Years with the park with their New Years Eve event!
Phantasialand Wintertraum is the parks winter event that runs out of the normal park season from the end of November to the middle of January on selected dates. The exclusive draw to the park is the late opening hours which allows for night rides in the park where you may not be able to on a normal day during the main season. Tickets range from 19 euros up to 44.50 euros depending on the day of visit and free entry to guests with a Phantasialand annual pass!
Travelling to the park
Travelling to the park or any location can seem quite stressful however, with a bit of research it can be made a lot easier. The way we visited during the winter event may be different to how you may wish to do it and may not be the best but, feel free to take a look at our route.
We started our Journey on December 30th where we made our way to the airport (London Southend) for a flight with Stobart air. The timings allowed us to arrive at the airport around the time of midday. From here, we took the train from Cologne airport for the cost of a couple of euros. The machines translate to English and the journey was easy to work out using boards or your phone. The journey lasting around 45 minutes on the train, we arrived in the town of Bruhl. After exiting the train, a shuttlebus to the park is parked right outside and easy to find. Tickets costing 3 euros for a return journey, we took the ride which lasts around 20 minutes to the front of the park.
We stayed in a hotel room in Bruhl town centre, which was closed to the park and train station. We booked this through booking.com where you could easily reserve the hotel and pay when we arrived. We stayed at SIX! Hotel which were super friendly, easy to find and came with a nice spacious room.
Our return journey was pretty much the opposite of this. We left on January 1st 2019 due to the park not being open after the New Years Event. All services run as normal and can easily be found through searching online for train times and journeys like you would here in the UK or anywhere else.
Wintertraum Event
We managed to experience Wintertraum Event for 2 days during our visit however, on the second day, the park closed early due to the New Years Eve event. We will discuss this further below.
The park for the Wintertraum event is open from 11am to 8pm, which gives you a long 9 hours day in the park to experience their winter beauty. Limited ride closures are in place with the rapids (River Quest) only be closed. The park hosts extra shows during the winter event with daily fireworks ended with the show "The Magic Rose - Spirit of Light". Other shows are available such as the fire show "Tempo de Fuego" with more shown in the theatre show room.
The park lights up spectacularly at night with the Asia land looking one of the best. Using a mixture of lights on several buildings and models they have in the area, it looks completely different than in the day and really is worth looking at during the evening. The other areas that really stand out at night is Klugheim with rides Taron & Raik. Taron at night comes a completely new experience with the dark skies, heavy smoke being pumped around along with lights underneath and around the track layout.
The Magic Rose - Spirit of Light is a show that is held on the ice rink they have in the park. During the day, you can hire skates and take part in ice skating around the park whilst at night, it closes for the show. It uses a large cast of dancers and various acts to tell a story. It uses very little words and is more shown through music, dance, lights and other acts. This allows the show to be viewed by all languages. At the end of the show, a short firework display is shown over in the distance which ends out the day at the park.
The only difference we have seen is on December 31st, the day the park closes at 6pm instead of 8pm due to the New Years Eve event. The park does not include multiple shows such as Tempo de Fuego or neither The Magic Rose. Therefore, the park does not end with the daily fireworks on this day. They offer a slightly reduced ticket on this day however, we wouldn't recommend visiting on this day unless you are planning on visiting for the event later on that evening, as we feel you lose out on so many shows and quiet hours at the park which you would get on other days.
New Years Eve Event
Phantasialand offer a unique party atmosphere for New Years Eve within the park. A party in Wuze-Town, which is the area where Winjas Fear & Force are located, the event includes live DJ's, free drinks, Germany's largest firework display whilst unlimited rides on Winjas Fear & Force until midnight! If that wasn't enough, the party continues through to 4am!
The ticket for the event was offered for 99 euros at an early bird price, with the full price launched at 109 euros. This seems like a higher end price to pay for a party at a theme park however, it does come with a lot of benefits as stated above. The event starts at 8pm with a shuttlebus service running on it's normal stops to get to and from the park during the event, which was free.
Upon entry to the park, you are given some information on the event which includes all the details you need for the evening such as, time of the firework display, where to be and when, cloak room service options and more. Walking through the part to get to Wuze-Town, you can hear electronic style music being played through the park speakers. When you get closer to Wuze-Town, you can see they have opened a food stand for the evening, which was open until 1am to get paid for snacks if you so wished.
When entering the building in Wuze-Town itself, the music is split into two sections leaving the middle part where the ride goes around slightly quiet. They had two different rooms with different DJ's playing different kind of music. In the main area next to the ride entrance, they had a dance floor set up between the bars playing chart & party music which most people would know. The other room was on the opposite side in a room we normally don't see open by the park. Slightly smaller in scale, this room played more German styled music.
The drink options for the evening were impressive with more than expected being offered on a specially designed menu. Vodka, Beers, Cocktails and Wines were all available to order at the bar free of charge until midnight. No lines really developed all night due to the size of the bars and the amount of people behind them and they understood English fine all night, even over the loud music!
Winjas Fear & Force started off with about a 20-25 minute queue at the start of the night which heavily reduced as the night progressed. Towards the last hour, it was near enough walk on. This allowed for multiple rides late at night where you could just hear the music on the dance floor as you span around the track. Our only request to make this better was if they played the music through the speakers on the ride, as it was a little quiet and eerie without no music or audio playing.
The firework show was launched just after midnight where people gathered at the middle of the park. They asked people to gather around the chair swinging ride and to face the building where they had a lighting & audio set up. Shortly after, Germany's longest firework display started and lasted around 15-20 minutes. Including in the display was many well known songs.
Overall, the event was very well put on and didn't seem too busy compared to many New Years Eve events. For the ticket, you do get some value with the free drinks, exclusive ride time along with music & fireworks. The event lasts 8 hours with 4 of them 8 hours being free. We recommend this event for 2019/2020 and we cannot wait to party in Wuze-Town again soon!
