Belantis is an interesting theme park in East Germany. Owned by Parques Reunidos,
Belantis is so close to being a very good park. It has some interesting headlining attractions,
but no depth. Then 3/4 of the park is well-themed, but the other 1/4 left me scratching my head.
But is Belantis ultimately worth visiting? Find out in this park review!
Belantis is a relative infant in the amusement industry. This theme park originally opened
in 2003 in a former industrial area. Most of Germany’s theme parks are in the western half
of the country, so it was a strategic location. The largest park in eastern Germany along with
Belantis is Freizeitpark Plohn, and the two parks are just over an hour apart.
From day one, the park placed a strong emphasis on theming. The park knew how to make a strong
first impression with a grand castle entrance. Then the park had several themed lands built
around a gorgeous central lagoon. You had the Egyptian themed area with the Fluch des Pharao’s
stunning pyramid. You had Insel der Ritter or Knight’s Island with the Drachenritt and the
medieval castle. The park had a bright future. The park’s biggest flaw in its opening year
was the lack of attractions and Belantis slowly addressed this over the next decade
with arguably their flashiest addition being the infamous Gerstlauer Eurofighter known as Huracan.
Then in 2018, Belantis was purchased by Parques Reunidos, making it the 17th amusement park
worldwide in the Spanish company’s portfolio. But the park has not added any new attractions since.
The only investment was a partial retracking of Huracan before the 2019 season,
which is still considered by many to be one of the roughest steel coasters in the world.
As I mentioned earlier, most of Belantis looks grand. Most lands have an iconic ride
or thematic structure that catches your eye. But if you look closer, you’ll start to notice some
oddities in the theming. Not all the pathways are paved. This aesthetic works for some parks,
but it contrasted with the grandness of the rest of the park. And it felt random in some cases.
Take Drachenritt’s queue line where you have 4 different materials- asphalt at the start,
dirt during the switchbacks, wood during a bridge, and cobblestone leading up to the station.
Drachenritt’s queue line really feels like an adventure and its one of several odd queue lines
at this park. Huracan had multiple bird nests in the station positioned above the queue line,
so guests had to watch out for bird poop that would rain down every few minutes. Then Cobra
des Amun Ra and Fluch des Pharao both had detailed indoor queue lines, yet guests don’t actually wait
inside them. And this wasn’t just a covid-related policy. The park did this before 2020 as well.
Fluch des Pharao has a short outdoor queue that leads to a turnstile.
You then navigate what feels like a haunted labyrinth at the base of the pyramid.
You have a series of windy and convoluted pathways paired with creepy, droning music.
Then you have some detailed hieroglyphics to look at towards the end of it. But
you then emerge in the daylight and have a series of minimally-shaded switchbacks in a courtyard.
Cobra des Amun Ra has a similar situation. You have a series of minimally-shaded switchbacks
outdoors and then before every cycle, the exact number of people needed to fill a train
are admitted into this elaborately well-themed queue line with hieroglyphics and statues.
You don’t have time to admire any of this detail since the next train is waiting for you.
I really wish Belantis would have people queue on the interior of both these rides
so you can actually appreciate all that theming and also escape the heat.
Belantis also feels unfinished in areas. In between the themed lands,
you have these lengthy walks with no rides, attractions, shops, or food stands.
Worse, these areas often had overgrown grass and looked like construction sites without any
construction taking place if that makes sense. And then take some of the queue lines where you
only have snippets of shade structures that look like they were added as afterthoughts. Or worse,
Drachenritt’s queue line where you have temporary fencing in that unpaved section of the queue
line. I think all these things stand out more because the rest of Belantis really looks great.
The final missed opportunity is in the music department. Many themed lands are paired with
custom soundtracks. Or at the very least, music that fits the area. Other parks just
play random pop music. And I almost would have preferred that to what Belantis did.
They played a lot of Disney music in the park. But the song choices for each land was atrocious.
For the Egyptian themed area what would you expect to hear?
Aladdin would make sense. Nope, that was being played in the medieval section.
Instead, the Egyptian section was playing the Little Mermaid soundtrack. Just listen!
In the Mexico area, I heard Hercules. Again, that really irked me since they have a Greek
themed area on the opposite side of the park where it would have worked.
And then for the icing on the cake, the midway was playing It’s a Small World throughout the day.
Smarter music really would have elevated the feel of these themed lands. Instead, I was
laughing at the absurdity of the music choices. Operations at this park are spotty. Huracan was
only running two vehicles each seating 6 passengers. That alone would have been less
than ideal, but the issue was compounded by a tediously slow load procedure.
Guests needed to remove all items from their pockets and accessories like glasses, even
if you have a strap. This was a policy seen on Gotterflug, their Gerstlauer Sky Roller as well.
Oncoming guests to Huracan need to put these items on bins on the opposite side of the load platform,
but they can’t start the process until the prior trainload of guests exits the station.
This caused Huracan to stack repeatedly, giving the coaster a 45-60 minute wait on a weekday.
Fluch des Pharao had way more rafts than necessary, which caused a back-up of almost
4 minutes each ride. The ride had a continuous load platform, but it was stopped for each raft.
This removed the sense of urgency for boarding guests. Then after the operator performed the
restraint check, they would instruct guests that they needed to hold on during the splashdowns.
Other rides like Drachenritt and Cobra were dispatching vehicles more quickly.
Most rides were walk-ons. Huracan had the worst wait by far, so I would advise
heading there first. Drachenritt, Cobra, and the water rides were the only other
waits clocking in around 15-20 minutes. Moving onto the ride lineup, Belantis has
4 roller coasters. Huracan is the one that catches your eye when you arrive at the park.
This Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter is strongly rumored to have come from the cancelled F1 theme park in
Dubai and that may explain this ride’s shakiness. However, I got an enjoyable ride in the front row.
The vehicles definitely had a shimmy throughout the ride, but it didn’t cause any headbanging.
That allowed me to appreciate one of the stronger layouts on a Eurofighter. The first drop had
a good pop of airtime, the zero-G roll was quite whippy, the middle had some surprise airtime pops,
and the final two interlocking corkscrews had some hangtime. I heard from others who also rode
Huracan in 2021 in the back row that it was awful back there, so I’d advise waiting how
ever much longer necessary for the front so you can hopefully get an enjoyable experience like me.
I have a separate review going into more detail, but this was a pleasant surprise for me.
Drachenritt is a Gerstlauer bobsled, which is basically a souped up wild mouse.
The ride has a decently steep first drop, some fun hairpin turns above the castle with fine laterals,
some forceful helixes, and a series of bunny hills with some airtime. Drachenritt is a strong
family coaster with something for everyone and I go into more detail in a separate review.
Cobra des Amun Ra is a Gerstlauer family coaster. I touched on that amazing queue line which
really feels like a walkthrough attraction, but the coaster itself is a decent family coaster.
My back row ride had some mild whip on the first four drops
and some light positive Gs on the final helix. Then you have Huracanito, a Gerstlauer kiddy racer
that is off-limits to adults. On that note, I do like how Belantis scatters
attractions for all ages throughout the park. It means families can explore the park together.
The adult flat ride lineup isn’t super deep. You have a few pendulum rides and barely any
spinning rides, but there are two notable flats. First, is a Huss condor in Drachenflug that is
a relatively rare ride type now, which is a shame since they feel like scramblers with neat views.
Second, there’s Gotterflug, which is a fantastic Gerstlauer Sky Roller.
These rides can sometimes be difficult to flip if you don’t have the proper technique, but this
one was ridiculously easy to invert. That can be attributed to the ride’s placement atop a hill.
Semi-frequent wind guests would give riders the push they needed to invert and you’d perform
barrel rolls at ludicrous speeds. I absolutely loved it. I performed almost 60 flips on my ride.
Moving onto the water rides, you have a slow boat ride on the lagoon and a wet/dry water slide,
but the highlight is Fluch des Pharao. This is the best ride in the entire park. This one-of-a-kind
Hafema water ride takes the best elements of water slides, river rapids rides, and log flumes.
You ride in these dinghy rafts that bounce and bob like an actual white water rapids trip.
You also have a sizable main drop that gives those in the back a pop of airtime
before the raft seems to unnaturally hydroplane the rest of the way down.
Then you have a whirpool section, which is Hafema’s signature on their rapids rides.
And then you also have a section in that massive pyramid. There wasn’t as much theming as I
expected, but the ride system was so unique and entertaining that it masked these issues.
I have a separate review going into more detail, but this is the most attractive reason to visit
Belantis. You can’t get this ride anywhere else! Belantis doesn’t have any dark rides. The closest
you get is the dark ride section on Fluch des Pharao
and some of the detailed indoor queue lines. Due to limited time, I didn’t grab any meals. But
the park didn’t seem to have as many food stands as I would have expected for a park of this scale.
You have four in the Indian-themed land and then 1 or less food places in all other sections.
So is Belantis worth visiting? I think the west German parks run circles around Belantis,
but if you find yourself in East Germany, the park is worth visiting for a few hours.
For the most part, the theming looks great. This is a grand and visually stunning park in most
areas. There are the parts that made me scratch my head combined with some weird operations,
but I did enjoy myself. I don’t think there are enough attractions to fill a full day, but Fluch
des Pharao is an awesome attraction you need to experience and the coaster lineup was fun.
I’m hoping Parques Reunidos can unlock the full potential of this park in the future because
it has a lot going for it, but their lack of investment thus far has me a little worried.
So those are my thoughts on Belantis, the interesting theme park in East Germany. What are
your thoughts on this park? Have you been there? I would love to hear what you think about Belantis
down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like
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and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!