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Lots of new water slides and a kids skyline attractions dueling single rail confirmed and shown at the event today. Adults can ride, no kid required for either. Missed the first part but I'm pretty sure new WW trains also announced.

apparently in Dutch, it only has 1 "N" and in French it has 2. so since they speak both Dutch, and French (as well as German) in Belgium? they get around it by doing it that way. found this handy pic online by googling "Mayonnaise spelling in Belgium":

Day 7, evening. . . so we loaded up the bus, in the rain, and waved goodbye to Hotel Charles Lindbergh (and Phantasialand), and headed out towards Wavre, Belgium. that would be where our hotel for the night would be - only 1 night, as we were loading up the bus in the morning to spend the whole day at Walibi Belgium. Scenery as we were driving, it's always comforting to see a Nuclear Power plant. . . James and I mostly sat in row 3, so we got a nice view of the road - and this little guy (who's name I can't recall) that Robb purchased at Europa Parc where he's part of the Pirates ride. lovely countryside, as we moved from Germany into Belgium. And the sky had completely cleared up too. as we exited off the main road, into Wavre, the bus made some tight turns down some narrow (and jungle covered) roads towards our hotel for the night. excellent driving by our bus driver another really tight turn - the entrance gate at our hotel seemed REALLY surprised at the size of the bus about to attempt this turn in. but we made it in, and started unloading. our hotel for the night was another Ibis (same brand as the 1st hotel at the airport) with very similar looking rooms. we put our bags up in the room, and made plans to meet some folks down in the lobby. We had left Phantasialand before dinner, but were getting to Wavre by 8pm or so, so many in the group planned on heading out to grab some food and do some exploring in the charming smallish town. while waiting for the group I was going to grab food with, I snapped some pics of the lobby area and the breakfast area of the hotel. the hotel was pretty full - a football (soccer) team, that was passing thru, if I recall - tho we didn't really see any of them tonight. in the morning at breakfast we interacted with them quite a bit tho. Nice guys. and then once we had everyone who wanted to go check out the local fast food place - the Belgium version of McDonalds. . we headed out for the short walk into town. and here it is. . . not sure if it's specific to Beligum, or a European chain. Tho I can't recall if I ever saw another one on the trip, so maybe it *is* Belgium specific? basically a McDonalds: "Quick" for what it's worth? the name LIES. there are no counter folks to take orders. . all orders are placed at the touchscreens by the entrance doors. then you stand and wait until they call your number to go pick up your food from the counter. yeah. .it's *exactly* as much of a clusterfuck as one would think it was. Especially when busy at dinner time (which I guess this time of night was dinner time). it was absolute chaos. . . and, if I'm being honest, I loved every moment of it . . . LOL. . . . Eventually we got our food, and headed upstairs to a "quieter" area to eat. I don't really recall what I got, tho it looks like cheese balls, a poutine of some kind, and a burger that looked like this. it was ok, I suppose. But really no lasting memory of it, so i guess it was just a standard burger from a fast food place? we had planned to walk over to the Supermarket in the parking lot there and get some bottled water, but by the time we finished eating, the market had just closed for the evening. (I think they closed at 9 perhaps?). . . but as we slowly made our way back towards the hotel, someone in the group that had gone towards the city center (in search of nightlife/bars I believe) had posted to the TPR trip group chat that they had stumbled across a random Breakdance in the downtown area. even tho we had just spent a full day at Phantasialand. . . c'mon, I'm on a trip with TPR folks. . of COURSE we immediately detoured towards the center of town to see if we could find said breakdance. I double-taked on this sign at least 3 times, before I decided I just had to take a picture. "Immotheker finotheker". . . .has made it into my cursing lexicon we had passed a parking lot full of what looked like "Carny" vehicles. . and we started to hear music, so we continued heading that way, and finally came across this. (insert angelic singing here) wasn't super busy - but again, it was a Monday night, but it appeared an entire funfair had been plopped down over two city blocks in the center of Wavre. we weren't gonna cross illegally - gotta follow traffic rules in other Countries - so we headed down to the crosswalk. only to be pleasantly surprised that they were Rainbow Crosswalks. yay! Belgian Pride! while most of the games and rides, seemed targeted towards the way younger crowd. . there were a few "big" rides mixed in. (the stuff on the next street over seemed to be mostly closed this night tho, including a small kiddie coaster. . so we stuck to this main intersection for our exploring) Kiddie Bumper Cars - and no, I still didn't ride them. I was mesmerized by the floating kid's heads on the sign for this one (but I believe everything is independently owned, so it must be the owner's kids?). certainly didn't attract me to the place to purchase anything - tho I was full as I had just eaten a lot of fast food. that spotted donut doesn't look too happy tho! a funfair street cart selling Escargot? how intriguing (and a big ol HELL NO from me). . . but Smisty wanted to try them, so she and Erik got some. and to be fair? they SMELLED amazing. . . but . . . nope for me. the guys at the funfair (James, Erik, Andrew and me), waiting for Smisty to finish her snails some pics of the games. . lots and lots of stuffed animals to (attempt) to win. tho some booths had lots of typical American carnival crap on offer (this Duck Game) seemed to offer prizes as one would find at a ticket redemption counter in a Dave & Busters, or Pinballz arcade oooo. . very tempted. A Frozen Mirror Maze! . . I'm sure 100% officially licensed Disneyland Belgium! If I didn't think my fat ass would break it? I would have ridden on Aladdin's carpet. (tho the Woody Woodpecker confused me. maybe Donald broke and they needed a quick replacement?) it really is a Small World after all. ohhh. . . a big Adult ride. I love the Mexican Hat Dance. should we ride? YES! Funfairs tend to run insane cycles. . but this one ran rather lame. but I'm kind of glad it did, because as we were starting to go, Smisty noticed that the "arms" weren't bolted shut. yup.. they were all held together by color - coordinated bungee cords, not bolts! Really. . .. so I was pretty glad it didn't run a good cycle, as I didn't wanna die at a Belgian Fun-fair. but it was pleasant, if not exactly extreme. (pic courtesy of Erik) so why did I want to ride? (and convince others to ride with me?). this was the ride operator. . .. who spent a LOT of time making eye contact with me before we bought tickets. yeah. . sex sells it was starting to get a little darker, and the Breakdance that had originally attracted us was right around the corner. . so we went to take a look at it. yeah. . THIS one was running a super EXTREME "carnival" program. So intense that Andrew begged off and only Smisty and I rode. SO intense (and such a long cycle) there were periods where we could NOT lean forward in the seats. it was awesome. . all the while, the operator was yelling things out to us in Dutch (I think that's what it was). Could not understand him at all, but I imagine it was something along the lines of "Do you want to go faster??? make some noise!!!" because when we screamed, he sped it up. (pics courtesy of either Andrew or Erik) eventually the ride stopped, and dizzy as hell, I was ready to head back to the hotel and crash. as was everyone else. . . so we made our way back - I think we came this way? grabbed some water from the bartender on the way up to the room, and crashed for the night. Think it was around 10:45 pm at this point. Tomorrow we were headed out at 8:15 sharp for Walibi Belgium for day 8 of the trip. but this had been a fantastic day 7, and it's always fun to spend so much time with great people.

New trains for all three rides.

Day 7. . 2nd full day at Phantasialand. my view of the room when waking up. . . was packing up the luggage. . we got up and went down to breakfast, before checking out of the hotel this morning. The hotel stored our luggage tho, as we weren't leaving - we had a 2nd full day at the park still - and weren't headed out until ~6pm. So down thru the deserted bar, to have breakfast. . 2nd day was just as good as the 1st! yum! I took advantage after breakfast (but before going back up to the room to get the luggage) to snap some pics around the empty bar/lounge, that again, is only for Hotel Guests use. they really did an impressive job here. . . fully immersive and very stylish. .even out on the patio. took advantage of it being empty, and even took some pics of the bathrooms (something of a theme today, I discovered while looking thru day 2 pics. . LOL). GORGEOUS. . . Luggage dropped off (and held) at front desk, and it was off to Rookbugh/Phantasialand. F.L.Y. was getting ready for the day. . and since we're right here? why not start the day off with a ride? (without having to use a skip the line pass) then it was into the park proper. hmm. it was a bit overcast, and I think there was some drizzle in the forecast. so it didnt' seem like it was going to be a very busy day. Looking at my calendar/itinerary. . it also was a Monday. so that's probably why things were so quiet this early (tho it never really got super busy today) me and the Carousel (of course). .and *one* person coming in from the front gates. with it pretty quiet, it was easy to enjoy the beauty of the park. .the main square area is lovely too. . with the "flying carousel" at the center of it. so we got in the 1 cycle line, and took a ride. we headed over to Talocan next. . . John didn't want to ride, so he stayed up on the viewing bridge to watch us/take pics, and we headed down. to find it wasn't open yet but after a short 10 minutes or so, they started cycling it, and opened it up so could get some pics of the test cycle (complete with water and flame effects) the 6 of us that rode, courtesy of John's picture taking. LtR: Ian, Chris, Andrew, Me, Jon, James whee! (and hang on for dear life) yeah. . our faces say it all. . . WTF just happened to us??? then it was up the viewing area to meet John, and we headed over to Black Mamba beautiful. again, really no wait. . but I think we used quick queue just to cut the long queue line. . . the park was clearly gonna be pretty dead today, which was fine with us as we had a lot to cram in before meeting to load the bus later. the station is really lovely as well. .even tho most of it is just colored light effects, it still works really well. we headed next over to the Asia area, to ride the Madhouse and that Funked up/kinda racist/what the hell dark ride a couple of times (I have no pics of that ride, not sure why). . and then into the pretty well done Madhouse = Feng Palace. (with Mystery Castle peeking out behind it) oh! I actually DID get a pic of Mystery Castle's sign. . buried in the trees. . but there such a great entrance queue. . this is before you get to the main castle steps that were in my pics the other day. a couple of cycles on Mystery Castle, and then we went back to ride "Michael Jackson Coaster". . which is apparently called "Colorado Adventure". . . yeah. .TODAY they had a sign out pointing to the entrance - after we figured out where to go yesterday. LOL. .this is the pathway one has to go down before coming across the entrance. . . which is why we had trouble finding it the prior day. sorta nicely themed queue tho. and then back to Taron to use more of the skip the line passes. . SUCH a great coaster. and of course, have to take another spin on Chiapas Heading back over to Taron again after getting wet. . . and today, I got the train actually shooting up the "waterfall wall". . my favorite part of the ride. couldn't get the camera out fast enough, so missed him from the front, but here's one of the Mad Monks from Mystery Castle ..showing off the operator outfits int he daylight. it was then that Jere (I think?) surprised me with a gift. . . Napkins! (yay!) featuring a Dragon, I found out later, was named "Wang". Loved it! we had a bit of munchies. . . no dinner tonight in the park, as we were checked out of hotel already, but many of us had plans to eat in the small town we were staying in later after we got checked into the next hotel. was checking out options tho. . this chocolate dipped fruit looked great - especially the pears. but a bit too sweet for me right now. we checked out the Wurst cart in the main plaza. . .but nothing looked really appetizing. until we remembered the sandwich place that was over in Rooksburgh, which hadn't been open (or even considered, since we had eaten at UHRWerk in the hotel last night) so we headed over past the F.L.Y. entrance, and it's hidden on the side against the wall. everything sounded really good, and they made things fresh! So we ordered, and then I went into the Rooksburgh bathroom right there to wash up. see? apparently a toilet pics theme today. (LOL) and yes, that black splotch in the mirror is me blacking out the reflection of someone peeing. . that I did NOT even notice until I looked at these pics today. (oopsie). Not that anything naughty was visible. . I was just trying to get a pic of the cool sinks. and general vibe of the "industrial" bathroom. (see? it was empty when I took the pics. . I dunno how that guy even got in!). hands washed, went back to the sandwich place and snapped a pic of the folks who made our fresh sandwiches. which were really good! I believe I had Pork and Mustard while others had the Ham & Egg. Juicy and drippy and everything was great. and we were able to stake out tables just under F.L.Y. to watch it zoom by while we ate. tho this guy. . kept coming by and just staring at me and giving me sly glances. seriously. I mean, eventually I just aimed my camera at him and took a picture, and as you can see, he's staring RIGHT into the camera. LOL. I guess I'm flattered? *but also was married, and on a trip with friends, so looking back was all that was gonna happen I took more pics of F.L.Y. while we ate. .and as yo can see. . . he hovered right around us . . . LOL after a satisfying meal (and I think a ride on F.L.Y. since we were right there?) we headed back to the Indoor section to take another round on the Winjas coasters. this time I had camera out to get a pic of the loading station. I believe that's "Fear" closest to us. .and the track behind on other side is "Force" as with other places in this park, the design work is lovely. . they don't skimp on atmosphere, really. I had mentioned to others my solo ride on the "tower" yesterday, and how it stops to hold near the top for some nice views. so we all piled into two cars to take a ride. NOTED! these are NOT animatronics.. just stuffed birds the park put at the top of the atrium dome. I thought it was hysterical that many of them had fallen over and were hanging upside-down. . but were so high up, it just wasn't worth the effort to fix them, I guess. So took a pic. and what's an indoor section without a cigarette machine? I honestly had not even noticed anyone in there smoking, so it shocked me to see this. Enough that I took a pic of it. I had to pee so yet ANOTHER bathroom pic. . but these urinals here weren't near as fancy as the ones in Rooksburgh. but I took a pic because of the flies in the urinals. painted on. so you have something to aim for, I guess? BWAAA-HAAAA-HAAAAA not sure what we did next, but at this point my camera shows that we went back to the Asia section. . so probably the Madhouse, the Dark Ride, or the Colorado Express again. (or maybe Black Mamba again). this appears to be another gate/entrance to the park. . but it was closed today (as were the big restaurants in the park. I guess they were only open weekends?). so we hung out on the patio of the closed Chinese restaurant while I went into the pagoda store and did some shopping. this guy is a bathtub toy. no idea what character he is tho - he's most certainly not a dragon (each "land" in Phantasialand is represented by a Dragon). . but the lady operating the store had no idea. Only that all the merch with him on it was super discounted. . so maybe an older mascot? but hey, for ~3 bucks? I bought a stuffed one of him. and a Dragon "Wang" fan. . . it's a bit nippy today. . so sure, dress your teen in a PornHub hoodie. (actually saw THREE such hoodies in the park. .LOL). cool little model of one of the hotels (I think) over by Black Mamba I believe at this point we may have all ridden Taron one more time, then split off as I wanted to do some shopping and it was getting within an hour of the time to meet at the bus. I bought a bunch of shirts (for both myself and some nice polo logo shirts for Nick) then had to go all the way back to Colorado Adventure gift shop (with Ian) - as the one shirt he wanted wasn't in his size at the main store, and I wanted a Park Logo magnet - which they no longer carried but *thought* they might still have at that gift shop. So we trekked back there, and Ian found his shirt, and I got, literally, the LAST "Phantasialand" logo magnet they had on the spinner. so it worked out. then I headed back to the Carousel for a final ride, and right next to it? oh yeah. . . of COURSE I had to buy some. Several others in the group had stopped in this area too, mainly to get the waffles (too heavy for me, since I had that sandwich earlier). . but I got a bunch of sweets - that didn't last too long anyways. Cute box tho we had JUST enough time to run and get one final ride on Taron . . . before heading back to the Hotel, grabbing our bags, and loading up the bus to head out. it was a few hour drive before we arrived at the next hotel, and we'd only be there one night. . but tomorrow? we were gonna be at Walibi Belgium! thanks for following along.

Day 6 - 1st full day at Phantasialand! Part 1 of 2: woke up fairly early to the "white noise" sound from the television. . as noted prior, we left it on this "channel" the entire time we were at Phantasialand. . so don't even know if the tv even picked up "regular" stations. (hey, on Vacation, don't need any "real world" news in my life right now). looking at the inside of the the door heading out of the room / sleeping pod. Love the attention to detail such as the cool little touches on the outside of the door in keeping with the retro/steampunk theme. . headed down to breakfast, of course snapping some pics of F.L.Y. as we pass it by. . . we had some ERT on it this morning (for an hour, if I recall). . and everyone was pretty stoked. the 2nd launch (if not mistaken) down the stairs to Uhrwerk. . for our breakfast reservation (timed breakfast, just as there is a timed dinner) waiting in the bar for our time to be seated, James and Chris model the retro/industrial/steampunk chairs in the bar. . . breakfast menu: YUM !!! after breakfast, I headed back up the rooms for a quick change to get ready for the day (zippered cargo shorts for anything that needed to be in a pocket - ie: phone). and while up there, F.L.Y. started testing, getting ready for us. . . so snapped a few pics of the train as it zoomed around the course. then down thru the lobby and over to the main entrance gate to Rooksburgh from the Hotel Charles Lindbergh again. LOVE this lobby and even got a pic of the desk clerks this morning as we passed by. . . why hello! not checking in, but checking you out as we walk by . . . . (tho really, was trying to get a pic of the themed "old timey" hotel wall cubbies behind him. . . ) and actually in Rooksburgh now, looking up. . it's time for us to ride. . . see? how cool is this? (answer: very cool) this was the park rep that met Robb & Elissa and our group. I can't recall his name (and his tag just says "Phantasialand"). . but he was a really nice guy, and I spent a good 10 minutes chatting with him after I rode F.L.Y. 6 times, and then needed a break - hey, I'm OLD. we talked about Theme Parks in the USA, and what other parks TPR had been to on the trip, and if we were going to Disneyland Paris (not officially part of the trip, but many of us did stay on for that). . he was a really nice guy. He and the other park employees running the ride were so happy that we were having such a blast riding - and applauding when coming back into the station. I asked him about the name and what F.L.Y. stands for, and he admitted that it doesn't really mean anything, that they just thought it looked really cool to put the periods in the name. cant really disagree with that (LOL). they were very impressed that some in the group rode every single time during our ERT in the morning. In fact, they were so pleased with how much we were enjoying F.L.Y. he reached out to Robb and told him that our wristbands (that gave us the ERT hour), would be good *all day* that we didn't need to use our hotel passes - and could save those for tomorrow - we could just show the wrist bands, and TPR could ride F.L.Y. as much as we wanted all day! apparently that's a super rare thing, that they NEVER do. . . F.L.Y. isn't even on the quick pass that Phantasialand sells. . the only way to get a skip the line is to stay at the hotel. So yeah, we ended up getting an amazing perk - yet another reason (in addition to the chocolate ) that TPR trips are so amazing. the little surprises like this that are so wonderful. what did I think of it? AMAZING. . and really comfortable. I like a lot that it starts out in an upright position, and you stay that way thru the beginning "dark ride" portion of the ride, and it's not until the launch/lift hill that the seats rotate up into the "flying" position and you launch up into the sky. it's a little disorienting I found, unless riding in the first row. and the back row pulls some pretty strong G's. . .. I rode it all over the train, and towards the back was my favorite (2nd row to the end). . but every row was great. here's a pic courtesy of Elissa - of James and I in front row TPR enjoying F.L.Y. - Hi Brad! at this point, the park had opened to the public. . although the line for F.L.Y. had started to grow longer as we were riding, so I think guests from other Phantasialand hotels get an early entry perhaps (tho not a skip the line). . so tho the main line wasn't open, there was a good crowd already lined up for it? So I hung around for a few moment s and got some pics from below of other parkgoers riding. and then the group I was hanging out with today made our way out thru the tunnel out of Rookburgh and into the rest of Phantasialand. not heading this way yet, but this is towards the main Entrance. . the carousel is right at the bottom of the entrance steps. Instead we headed towards the central hub. we had the quck queue passes (some for both days). . but we knew we wanted to try to "rope drop" Taron to save a pass. . so we headed that way, along with several others from the TPR trip. wow. . it's SO impressive. . it's like Maverick, but they built it much higher up, but then in a ditch. . so it's a tangled mess of high up track. . but mostly hidden from view until you come up on it. that's mystery castle in the background there. . the parks *incredible* indoor drop tower ride. as we walked around to the entrance to Taron. . . apparently looked the other direction to snap a pic of Chiapas (the incredible flume the park has) and Black Mamba (going thru that building there) we found the line for Taron. . . darn. . extending all the way out of the queue line down the path way. but it turned out that the queue line hadn't been opened yet - so it really wansn't too bad (maybe 20 minutes once they opened it and the line started to flood in). and they opened the queue while Taron started testing. . . queue about to open Just look at all that beautiful track. . . (and not all of it is Taron. . the family shuttle Raik, goes right thru the center of this track as well. OPEN! whee! the whole area around Taron/Raik is heavily themed (hell. . every area of this park - as you'll see - is heavily themed) but it's lovely we were over here, and the line was pretty short this early in the day, so we went around the corner to give Raik a spin. from the Raik queue line, you get a fantastic view of Taron roaring by as noted, Raik is a family shuttle coaster (boomerang). . so it really doesn't do much, and other than this one time, I didn't ride it again on our two days here. but it's absolutely worth a ride, just for the setting - i mean.. you're interacting with Taron's track the entire ride! River quest queue is right next door. not many pictures of it, as this infamous ride WILL *soak* you. . so my camera was all put away (wrapped in plastic) once we decided to get in line for it. they are not kidding around here either.. a rapids ride that has some extreme drops. . and it is just like getting dunked in a bathtub. it's what all the "cool kids" are wearing. and yes, it helped a little bit.. tho still got wet enough I didn't want to ride it again, even tho I liked it. drying off and wandering around more of the park. . oh. . but first Mystery Castle. i knew nothing about this, other than it's a drop ride. but again, it's a HEAVILY themed ride/queue about mad monks running experiments. It's not just a drop ride. . inside that tower? are 12 rows of seats. .that ring the outside of the tower - facing inwards - and they run different programs. so yes, you get to watch others riding facing you/around you. . as the different sides do different drop programs. While in the center, the mad monks sit in a control area running the torture. it's awesome, and I think I rode this at least 6 times during our visit, to try out the different sides. SO good. even if a bit of a trek to get up to the Castle. . and then the hidden queue inside is just as long. (something of note about Phantasialand. . most of the "big" rides, have really, really long queues. and the quick queue options DO cut off a LOT of the main queues. . so yet another reason to get those if you visit this park) after Mystery Castle (which I think we may have ridden twice, while there) the group headed further into the park, and towards Black Mamba. . . to get there tho, one walks thru the Asian section (no idea if that's what it's called). . but it has a really good MadHouse, and a super F-ed up dark ride (both of which I rode multiple times the next day. . but for now, we were in search of coasters). didn't stop me from snapping pics as walking by tho, as it's so beautiful. oooo. . . forgot about this coaster! we stumbled upon it as we were walking by. . yes, this is the infamous "Michael Jackson Roller Coaster" - apparently he tried to buy it from the park way back when to relocate to Neverland. LOL it looked like a pretty basic mine train. . but it's actually really long with much of it "hidden" from view. And two of the multiple lift hills are on either side of Chiapas Flume lifthill.. so while you're on the coaster you can wave to those on Chiapas, and vice versa. very neat. only problem? we couldn't find the entrance. . . LOL. . we walked ALL the way around this huge ride (again, much of it hidden inside) to find the queue. . tho once we found it, we knew where to go when we wanted to ride it more later. a small "drop tower" ride . . more for families. didnt' ride it, and only took a pic of the sign, LOL. . but I liked they had a ride just dropped in here next to the coaster. still walking. . back in the Asia area. . . where the heck is the queue for this? wheee!!!! it was fun, and glad we stopped to ride it. (it was actually one of the more intense Mine Trains I've ridden, thanks to those helixes). . but we wanted Black Mamba. A ride I'd heard about for years, and really wanted to ride. 10 minute wait? seriously, the line took us almost that long to walk it. . and it WOULD have been a walk on for front row, but someone had gotten sick and so we had to wait a little bit while the sterilized the trains and sent it out with only the front row empty (SO glad I wasn't in row two on that train. . . ugh . bleach and "other" stuff spraying on you as the train goes thru the course). the next day, I used the quick queue on this to bypass the long queue (after walking it twice more during the day). yes, it lived up to my expectations. . . an amazing ride in the front row - and you really need to ride it in the front row at least one time, to really appreciate how much theming they put into the course on this ride. but it was good everywhere. . probably my 2nd favorite Suspended Coaster (behind Montu) from Black Mamba's exit queue, you get a peek over the rocks at the parks also infamous Top Spin - Tolocan I've not ridden many Top Spins. . but this one is incredibly well themed (fire, water, and intense, intense spinning) that I really wanted to ride it. spoiler, I loved it so much, I bought a ride logo shirt for it. . one of only two I bought the whole trip Here's some pics from the Black Mamba exit queue. . we were headed here next tho. To be continued in part II of day 1 at Phantasialand.