Fantasiana is arguably the second most well-known theme park in Austria.
This amusement park originally opened in 1996 as Erlebnispark Strasswalchen, but it was
renamed Fantasiana in 2011.
And that is a very fitting name.
This is a surprisingly well-themed park with fantastical themes.
And the park has an interesting ride lineup highlighted by two of the most underrated
rides in the world in Wild Train and KnightsRide Tower.
So in this video, I will be reviewing Fantasiana, this little talked about park.
Fantasiana is located roughly 2 hours east of Munich, Germany and 3 hours west of Vienna,
Austria.
It’s not super close to any destination theme parks on a European road trip, but this
little park fit perfectly into my itinerary as I was driving between Germany and Poland.
When you approach Fantasiana, you can see very little of the park.
The park doesn’t have very many tall attractions and it’s also surrounded by trees.
I was glad this park coincided with one of the hottest days of my trip because there
was plenty of shade and indoor attractions here.
Once you make your way through the castle themed entrance, you can either go left or
right.
The overall park layout is one continuous winding pathway that unfortunately has dead
ends on both sides.
So be prepared to do some backtracking at Fantasiana, but at least the park isn’t
too large.
The right side has the more family friendly attractions while the left side has the park’s
most extreme rides.
For many years, all I knew about this park was Wild Train.
This Pax creation was Fantasiana’s first roller coaster in 2005 and while it looks
like a family coaster, it rides nothing like one.
Wild Train is a relentless little coaster with some of the most powerful and abrupt
ejector airtime on the planet.
I had bruises on my thighs the next day from this ride’s power.
Add in some bits of positive Gs, laterals, and terrifying headchoppers and you have an
excellent coaster.
This ride didn’t make my top 25, but I’d place it ahead of the lower tier RMCs, a large
chunk of B&M hypers, and rides 3-4 times larger than it.
I have a separate review going into more detail.
One operational note that’s worth mentioning is that this coaster cannot operate in the
rain, so just keep that in mind if precipitation is in the forecast.
As amazing as Wild Train is, it’s one of the few rides in this park that isn’t themed.
In fact, Wild Train’s area is really the only unthemed land in the park.
Almost every other area and attraction in this park has some sort of theming.
The park as a whole looks great, especially since the theming is paired with all those
aforementioned trees.
The theming isn’t on par with a major theme park like Phantasianaland or Europa Park,
but it’s a step above most parks.
I’d say the amount of theming is on par with a park like Story Land back in the US.
And Fantasiana has really stepped up their game with their newer additions.
Not only are the rides themselves getting superior theming, but the additions are accompanied
by themed lands.
The best example of this is their 2021 addition.
Fridolin’s Verruckter Zauberexpress is arguably the best themed junior coaster in the world
with its IMAScore soundtrack, theatrical launch sequence, and near-misses.
And that theming extended to the brand new Magisches Dorf, or Magical Village, area that
opened with the coaster.
This area has a charming medieval feel to it and the coaster winds its way around the
area.
Fridolin’s Verruckter Zauberexpress is a solid junior coaster.
While it isn’t intense, it is very smooth and comfortable for all guests.
And it has a unique layout for a coaster like this, packing in a whopping 5 launches.
Those are the park’s only two coasters, but this park is about way more than those
two attractions.
There are two notable flat rides at this park.
The best is easily KnightsRide Tower, an incredible indoor drop tower from ABC Rides.
I have a separate review on this attraction, but it blew me away.
Despite standing just 56 feet or 17 meters tall, this drop tower feels considerably taller
and the drop produced a shockingly great freefall sensation.
But what really elevated this drop tower was the theming.
The ride is enclosed in a castle.
You have some murals and a large dragon animatronic in the queue line.
And then you have 4 show scenes during the attraction as you ascend the tower, and two
of them are accompanied by surprising 4D effects that will make most riders jump.
This is my favorite drop tower after the Tower of Terror iterations at the Disney parks.
The other notable flat ride here is Flyosaurus.
This star flyer is the park’s tallest attraction, standing 115 feet or 35 meters tall, and it
gives a nice birds eye view of the park.
And it’s part of a dinosaur themed area that has Jurassic Park vibes between the music,
landscaping, and architecture.
The park doesn’t have too many other flat rides for either kids or adults.
The park instead has a collection of dark rides and track-guided attractions populating
the right side of the park.
To go between the left and right sides of the park, you travel down this super narrow
Western themed area.
There aren’t any rides in this section of the park, but you have a few shops and games.
Eventually you reach Schlosshof or the Castle Courtyard area.
I found it weird KnightsRide wasn’t in this section of the park, but you already had a
pre-existing castle- more specifically Schloss Dracula or Castle Dracula.
This is a surprisingly long haunted walkthrough that took roughly 20 minutes start to finish.
Just make sure you take note of when this ride is open.
This walkthrough had very limited hours, presumably due to its staffing requirements.
It would open for an hour and then close for two off-and-on all day.
And on that note, there were a few other attractions with rotating schedules on this side of the
park as well.
But back to Schloss Dracula, the attraction had several rooms where guests would be staged.
There was a mix of showscenes with animatronics and walkthrough sections with scare actors.
There weren’t too many scare actors, but those present were very loud and animated.
The show scenes were surprisingly dark, including a scene where Dracula comes out of the closet
and drains a woman of her blood.
And a few of these scenes are paired with 4D effects for added thrills.
This was better than most haunts at Halloween Horror Nights, so this walkthrough is not
to be missed.
Moving further through the park, you have a small Fairytale Forest area with some miniatures.
You can either observe them from the midway or from a few different transportation rides
running through the area.
The back section is called the African Orient and it has a similar feel to the Adventureland
areas at the Disney parks.
You have a ton of trees and a nice pond in the middle of this area.
Then you have two safari based rides- a safari raft ride and a safari jeep ride.
Both rides take you past static figures, but they were a major hit with kids.
The two best rides in this section are Mami Wata and Sinbad's Abenteuerreise.
Mami Wata is a relatively rare Hafema log flume.
While this flume doesn’t occupy much land, it features some theming both in the queue
line and ride itself, a backwards drop, an elevator lift, and a decent final plunge.
This ride wasn’t a soaker either.
It provided a moderate splash for all.
Sinbad's Abenteuerreise is a slow dark ride from IE Park.
I visited this park on a Friday in the peak of summer, yet almost everything was a walk-on
all-day.
And in all the trip reports I’ve seen from this park, large crowds have never been an
issue.
Between the crowd levels this park sees and the decently efficient employees.
However, Sinbad was the one ride that had a wait all-day.
This ride loaded trains at a glacial rate and it had a consistent 20 minute wait most
of the day.
This dark ride was decent.
It had a good ride system that spins riders at each scene to properly position them.
The animatronics on the ride were just ok.
They were larger than average, but they had very limited movement.
I didn’t get any food during my visit.
The park didn’t have too many food stands, so those that were open had lengthy lines.
So do I recommend Fantasiana?
Yes.
If you’re a thrill-seeker, this park should be on your radar because of this park’s
top two.
Both Wild Train and KnightsRide Tower are excellent despite their size.
And then the park as a whole had a much better atmosphere than I expected with all the abundance
of trees and theming.
I know Austria isn’t a country too many coaster enthusiasts frequent, but Fantasiana
is a charming little park with some unique rides you can’t find elsewhere.
So those are my thoughts on Fantasiana, arguably the best themed park in Austria.
Have you been to this park?
What are your thoughts about its theming or attractions?
I would love to hear what you think about this place down in the comments.
If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered
subscribing since there will be a lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here
at Canobie Coaster.
Thanks for watching!