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4pm for the wristband. Jingle Cruise is an all day overlay, Space Mountain is MVMCP only

Wonder Mountain's Guardian 2 - We added a helix.

Wow, that's some immersive theming. Just wow. I had no clue there was a hotel in the FLY area until TPR went on this trip.

We had an amazing time at the hotel as well, totally worth it. I was skeptical at first, but it was awesome. The food was great, it really wasn't that expensive to be on site given the meals, fast passes, etc and you literally just have to walk down a set of stairs from your room and be in the park. Having a coaster wrap around your room is the equivalent of having a beach house on the ocean... but for coaster enthusiasts Though... *we* didn't get free chocolate!?!?! lol what's up with that!

^^ I am totally overwhelmed, by the uniqueness of it all! I miss Phantasialand. Great TR of your room Bert, and the surrounding ..... everything!

New in 2023: Floating stage on the lake.

Day 5, part IV - the conclusion of the day: arriving at Phantasialand ! it had already been a packed (and thrilling) day, but we weren't done yet! Soon, we pulled up outside of Phantasialand (which is really well hidden from the surrounding area, as you couldn't really see any rides at all), stopped in front of our home for the next two nights: Hotel Charles Lindbergh - a fully immersive ON SITE boutique hotel that is heavily themed from the moment you walk inside. unloading bags from the bus and waiting outside for our room keys/directions. so I wandered and took some pics of the outside of the hotel facade as noted, it's heavily themed. you are an "Aeronaut". . . traveling thru time and space, and you've checked into this steampunk/time lost hotel to rest between time jumps. here's the lobby check in: these long hallways connect the lobby to the main "Pod A" (tower) of the hotel - which has, I believe, 4 "pods" of rooms. Although Pod A also has the access into Rookburgh. what is Rookburgh? well, Rookburgh is the themed area of Phantasialand where the new F.L.Y. coaster is. It's also where the Hotel is located, and guests at the hotel have access to the area after the park has been closed to guests. (no the coaster is not operating after hours. . . but holy crap is it cool to wander around that area, JUST with hotel guests - as you will see coming up). anyways - the walkway that would lead to Rookburgh/Pod A: and the way we went to get to our Pod C rooms OMG. . yeah, the coaster is RIGHT there. interacting very closely with the hotel. this is going to be so cool during the daytime operating hours! the coaster is literally outside the walkways to the rooms! love the old-timey / lost in timey tin ceiling tiles in the stairwells between floors. looking across at Pod B tower. . those are the back-side of rooms (ie: the bathroom windows) here's me looking out our bathroom window in Pod C and the view from said bathroom window: (went a little out of order). . . here's the door to our room and what the inside of the room looks like. Very small - in keeping with the theme. and a LITTLE cramped with two people plus luggage. But OMG, so cool, it doesn't matter. again, heavily themed (we didnt' turn the tv to anything other than the "old time static" broadcast it was on when we came in the whole time). James and I standing in doorway to get a pic of the walkway across to Pod B (and the access to the rooftop viewing platform that only guests of the hotel have access to) Bathroom. Small, but decent. again, the theming is that you're an Aeronaut only resting briefly before your next jaunt. ok. . settled into the room. . it's time to stretch our legs before dinner (which is included in the Restaurant attached to the hotel. (the only area of the hotel that during the day, non hotel guests have access to). from the end of our pod walkway, you get an EXCELLENT overview of Rookburgh area, and the F.L.Y. coaster and how much it weaves in and out of the theming in the area. SO well themed. . other than Mystery Castle - the tower off to the right in the distance - you can't see anything else of the park other than Rookburgh. They really put some thought & design into this theming! the steps under the rounded turret on the right are the ones that lead down to the Hotel Entrance into Rookburgh snapping pics, as we walk over to Pod A and head up the steps to the Hotel Exclusive viewing area. . . up on the viewing area, we bumped into Andy (the Great Zo), who had the same thought to come up and see the view/take pics. so we took a pic of all of us. the view from up here is SPECTACULAR. and even up here, other than Mystery Castle, you can't really see any other parts of this park! Pics taken. . let's head down into Rookburgh popper, since we still have about 30 minutes until dinner seating. such an amazing job with the Steampunk/time lost theming. . the private gate out of the hotel into the park. and looking back into the hotel entrance - during the day, there is a staff member stationed here that only will allow Hotel guests in and out of this gate. down the steps and into the deserted Rookburgh. the park had closed a couple of hours earlier, so we were the only ones there. . one of THE best reasons to splurge and stay onsite here. the theming is incredible, and it's so cool that you can see it / touch it/ take pics of it - without hundreds of people around! fully immersive. . . one of the "exit gates" into the other sections of the park. . .tho as noted, the park closes off this area at park close, to keep Hotel Guests inside Rookburgh and maintain the "Aeromaut" role-playing. . . the special gate for F.L.Y. that we would use our hotel passes at tomorrow or the next day. the main / standby line entrance for the ride. (which by the way is an AMAZE-BALLS flying coaster. . that some in the group didn't realize was a "flying" coaster until the seats tilted face down on the main lift/launch. . LOL). security stands here during the day. but off hours? yup, photo op! and I absolutely adore how they keep all the theming on even after park close in this area. steam and lights stay on until well after 11pm for hotel guests to enjoy the area/atmosphere. another "gate" that would lead to the indoor section where Winjas is located (tho oddly, these doors never opened while we were there. . so maybe they just don't use these any longer, as the other entrance - thru the tunnel - is way more immersive into the Rookburgh area) peeking across/thru the coaster track & theming, you can see folks sitting in the private Bar patio in our hotel. . only hotel guests have access to this bar/patio. (based on that blue shirt? I *think* that's Daniel sitting there?) tho it would be cool if they operated this coaster after hours for hotel guests? I can totally understand why they do NOT. can you imagine the noise in the rooms? I mean look how close it gets to the pods. Instead they give hotel guests "skip the line" / "special Hotel entrance" passes to use during the day. (so cool! and because we had ERT one day, and some folks gifted us extra passes, I didn't have to use all my passes and had some to take home as souvenirs) it was just about time for dinner. . so we headed to the restaurant parkside entrance (again, the only area that is open to park guests during the day). the downstairs level of the hotel houses the private bar, and the restaurant, UHRwerk: a peek at the menu. almost everything we had was excellent by the way, tho I thought the pastas were way stronger than the burgers. But all were decent. James showing off his Tartar appetizer (and that "newspaper" on the table? thats the full menu, and also filled with themed "stories" - none in English, but I still took one as a Souvenier, as they are also avail. in the lobby) I had the triangle fried ravioli like things. . . eye candy in our waiter (he was so nice too) TPR took over about 1/2 of the dining room, since it has limited seating (hence an assigned dining time, like on a cruise ship) John showing off his massage skills to Daniel. our table. . clockwise from Noon: Smisty, Erick, AJ, me, James, Ryan my Main - one of the Pasta bowls, but can't remember which one. Only that it was really good! one of the slider options (I think it had various meats depending on which one) one of the Burgers, another tablemate got. look how juicy! and of course, a stacked desert - I think the Nougat Surprise (which was dryer than it looked like it would be, but still was very good) by the time we finished eating, the sun had set, and the lighting in Rookburgh had come on. holy crap, as amazing as this looks during the day? INCREDIBLE at night. (and really the only way to see it at night is to stay onsite at the Hotel Charles Lindbergh) so I wandered around a bit in the area taking more pics: heading into the tunnel (which, as noted, was closed off at the end that would put you into the main street of the park). . but even inside the tunnel the theming is impressive. and with no people around, can get good pics of the design work on the walls. exit side of tunnel: entrance side of tunnel: peeking thru the closed gate into the main street of the park: it had been a really long day, but not heading up to the room to sleep without checking out the bar 1st! so went back into the hotel, and down to the private 1919 Bar it has indoor seating as well as the outdoor patio that is under the coaster, and between Pods in the hotel. looking up from the outdoor patio. . some of the rooms (bathroom windows of Pod A) after a cocktail, taking the steps back up to our room, so I could enjoy the tin ceilings (rather than wait for the elevator) one last peek down into the outdoor bar patio from the walkway outside our room, before I headed inside for shower and sleep. and then I passed out. . and probably kept James up with my snoring in the tiny sleep pod room. . LOL. . . but yeah. . stay here. COMPLETELY worth it. and with that, day 5 concludes. Day 6 (and 7) are full days at Phantasialand. . and I could not wait for these, as I knew very little about this park, other than I'd heard some rumors about the river raft ride, and of course knew about Taron and Black Mamba. So I was excited. and starting the day off with F.L.Y. ? yeah. . good thing I was exhausted (and slightly buzzed) otherwise would have been up all night with excitement. thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed. Day 6 coming up in the near future!

it's basically an updated Swing-around (as BOH said above). it's not the updated Enterprises - it doesn't lift, or tilt. . . but they can set it to swing in a wave or alternating rocking motion. here it is in action from the Zamperla website:

We were at the ACE Coaster Christmas event last weekend. Unfortunately, a cold snap AND a surprise little snow storm late Friday night meant that it never got above 35 on Saturday so only Thunderation and Fire in the Hole were open. They did have flooded mine going and a handful of the kids rides. Also, no giant swing. Of course the train is still closed and obviously no water rides, so.......it was not the best day for an event which was exactly no one's fault. Since there are only so many hours you can fill up with shows, food and Grandfather's mansion we left a little earlier than we normally would have on Saturday. With all those rides down the midway on the big hill that leads to the Opera House and therefore the lines backs up there was so crowded you almost couldn't get through. But huge Kudos to the park. We had presentations with coffee, hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls in the morning and since I am sure they could see it was not going to be a good day for rides every attendee (and I think it was around 200) got a free ticket for next year, some Christmas ornaments and a freebie raffle with various tchotchke's. We also had the Trailblazer pass that gives you 8 skip the lines. That we were always going to have since ert is usually impossible at this event due to, too cold before park open and too late/cold after park close. For the event tickets and trailblazer's were good for Sat and Sun. The presentations included Worlds of Fun and they gave us a nice preview of Zambezi Zinger and some of the 50th anniversary plans for next year. Brad Thomas gave a small presentation for SDC. Taking a book out of Universal's "it's just a churro stand" playbook he insisted the new building going up is a Dollar General, but he did indicate that it would not be open for customers until 2024. He also talked a bit about the big land purchase and that there would be work done on parking and road into the park. Not sure if he was connecting those two or not. He did mention that maintenance had made a path between the park and new territory that and ATV could navigate. Announcements about what would happen there to come at a future date. Our group speculated that the new land might be hotel and/or water park and/or new parking lot and entrance. Or the other option which is we have no idea whatsoever. Shockingly, no one from SFSTL showed up to present anything about future plans. Went back on Sunday armed with extra Trailblazers thanks to several people that had to leave for home first thing on Sun morning. We had a very narrow window of opportunity, approx 2-4 to get rides in while the temps were cooperating. Hit Outlaw Run (one train ops), Powder Keg (two trains), Time Traveler (also two trains) as many times as we could. Wildfire never opened, although it did test. Not sure if it was temps or mechanical. We had to leave about 4 to drive back to STL anyway and just about that time the coasters started to shut down again as the temps dropped. Gifted all the leftover Trailblazers to families with kids in the hopes they could use them that evening on kids stuff. Plan to use the tickets on a nice warm summer day next year and if I do anymore ACE Christmas events I think I'm heading down to Texas to chase the warm weather

Sorry for double post but I did see that Superman wound up opening this weekend. However, Adventure Park USA was able to open their coasters for a couple hours on Sunday and we made the trip there instead since we've never been there. I grew up riding Wildcat at Cedar Point and although this isn't the exact same ride, it was nice to get back on basically the same coaster again. Wild West Coaster is an interesting little ride too! We also chatted with who I believe was the owner for a little bit. You can tell the pride he has in his little park. I highly recommend a quick stop on your way to or from Six Flags America if you come from Northwest of DC. The park is located right off I70. Some pictures: