Fluch des Pharao at Belantis is one of the most bizarre water rides in the world.
This Hafema-built attraction combines elements of dark rides, log flumes,
water slides, and river rapids rides into one package. And the results are confusing,
thrilling, and highly entertainment. This ride is the main reason I wanted to visit Belantis
and it did not disappoint. So in this video, I will be reviewing the unique Fluch des Pharao.
As the name suggests, Fluch des Pharao Egyptian themed. The ride’s show-building is a massive
102 foot or 31 meter tall pyramid. And the ride’s main drop emerges from the top and runs
down the side of the pyramid. The way the drop runs perfectly down the side of the structure
is one of the best visuals of any amusement ride. It also creates an air of mystery. When you see a
show-building this large, you have to think it was purposefully designed to hide something.
So I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What’s in the pyramid?”
Fluch des Pharao translates to Curse of the Pharaoh and the theme is evident from the start.
I believe guests are supposed to be treasure hunters and the queue line serves as a warning.
The first half of the queue line routes your through the lower level of the pyramid.
This queue line feels like a haunted labyrinth. It consists of a series of windy and convoluted
hallways that are dimly lit. And you hear this creepy, droning music in the background.
As you progress further through the queue, you start seeing more and more
detailed hieroglyphics on the walls. These cryptic paintings make it clear
there are repercussions for entering the pyramid. The second half of the queue line takes place in
this outdoor, minimally-shaded courtyard. You can see the nice-looking ship-themed station up-ahead,
but I really wish the set-up of the queue line was flipped. I’d much rather wait inside the
pyramid out of the sun, where I can spend more time appreciating all the theming and details.
You can obviously take your time through the indoor queue line, but people will pass you.
And this set-up wasn’t just due to covid, as it matched what had been done in prior years.
Fortunately, on the afternoon I visited, Fluch des Pharao had just a 15-20 minute wait.
Due to the large number of boats and continuously moving load platform, this ride had one of the
highest capacities in the park. The line moved far faster than the park’s roller coasters.
Each boat seats up to 8 riders total across 4 rows. And I think now is the perfect time
to describe the ride system in detail. Hafema is known for making some of the most
extreme river rapids rides out there. If you’ve been on either River Quest at Phantasialand
or Splash UFO at Yomiuriland, you know what I’m talking about. Their rapids rides feel completely
out-of-control with their frighteningly steep drops and wild whirlpool elements.
For Fluch des Pharao, Hafema decided to use these elements on a flume. They would be interesting
with your standard, rigid log vehicles, but Hafema went one step further. They replaced the logs with
dinghy boats. Giant, inflatable dinghy boats. These boats completely change the ride dynamics.
All the elements behave differently and even slow turns become interesting.
These boats flex with every wave, drop, and turn. And the boat doesn’t flex as one cohesive unit.
Each row is independent of each other and they articulate at different times. These boats do
a better job mimicking the experience of white water rafting than your traditional rapids ride.
You feel more vulnerable in these inflatable boats since they exaggerate
all of the ride’s motions. But Hafema didn’t go completely nuts.
There are restraints…just seatbelts and a lap bar ahead of you to hold onto.
For the best experience, I recommend riding in the back. Not only do you get that weird visual
of everyone bobbing up-and-down ahead of you, but the drop packs the biggest punch back there.
Fluch des Pharao begins with a short outdoor segment. Beyond the Cobra coaster next-door, there
really isn’t much to look at here. The journey takes place next to dirt and overgrown grass.
But the ride vehicles make this overwise mundane section enjoyable. It’s apparent
from the start this will be no ordinary flume as you rock side-to-side and bounce up-and-down.
The unstable motion feels comical. And then as you enter the pyramid, you hit a series of rapids.
They’re rather small, but they’ll send refreshing splashes into the boat,
particularly if you’re sitting up front. You then enter the pyramid and what’s inside?
Unfortunately, not a whole lot. The indoor section was much shorter than I anticipated.
You actually spend more time outside than you do indoors, which was surprising given
the sheer size of the pyramid. And there weren’t many visuals in there either.
The indoor section starts with these narrow hallways lined with lanterns.
There is no music or figures to look at. It just feels empty. You then hear some narration,
which was coming from the ride’s lone animatronic, an archaeologist hammering into the wall.
You then further into the pyramid down another empty hallway, but the ride system saves the day,
adding some intrigue. You head up this small conveyor belt lift and pause. A few seconds later,
your conveyor belt starts moving sideways, as you’re pushed into the elevator shaft.
You then slowly climb up to the ride’s highest point. The elevator has no
doors or windows. All you can see is the Pharaoh’s painted face in front of you.
Once at the top, another horizontal conveyor moves you out of the elevator shaft. You then
move forwards towards the drop. While this happens, you hear the intimidating pharaoh’s
voice and laughter, as he believes you’re about to fall to your doom.
And to be honest, it sure feels like you’ll meet your end on this drop.
It feels completely out-of-control. For one, it’s pretty tall and steep for a water ride. If you’re
in the back, you will get a quick pop of airtime. But that isn’t even the scary part. This drop
behaves more like a water slide than a log flume. Remember, your vehicle has no upstop or running
wheels. It’s just floating freely on the water. So as you head down the drop, you’re basically
hydroplaning. And if you’re ever done that in a car, you know how freaky that feeling is.
You don’t build up speed as quickly as you do on a conventional flume going down this drop.
Instead, you start to feel the raft subtly start to skid side-to-side.
All these elements combine to make for one of the most memorable drops out there.
The splashdown is equally as strange. When you depart the station, the operator instructs
you to hold onto the bar in front of you during the splashdown. And I can see why.
The stop is very abrupt. I would have expected the dinghy to skim across the water,
but nope. It slams into the water, sort of bounces up-and-down, and then sends a modest
wave into the boat. Those up front again will get the wettest, but the ride isn’t a real soaker.
Most flumes end after their large drop, but Fluch des Pharao has one more trick up its sleeve. The
drop dumps you into a famous Hafema whirlpool. This element spirals inwards, slowly increasing in
speed. And then you reach this curving drop that leads into a tunnel. The drop isn’t very fast,
but it’s weird. Would it seem weird getting laterals on a tube slide?
I think so, but that’s basically what happens on Fluch des Pharao.
This drop pushes both the raft and riders outwards, which generates some weak but freaky
laterals given the ride system. The resultant drop creates no splash, but those on the left may get
wet on the drop if the raft is pushed far enough into the waterfall that runs down the wall.
You then emerge from the tunnel and slowly float towards a lift leading back to the station. But
sit back and relax because you’ll be here for a while. Due to the large backup of rafts ahead
of you, it took an additional 4 minutes to actually get off the ride. On my first ride,
I thought the ride may have stacked due to a guest issue, but nope, this happened all-day.
So what would I rate Fluch des Pharao? I would give this unique water ride a 9 out of 10. Fluch
des Pharao does a lot of cool things. It starts with that ride system. It’s unlike any other I’ve
seen and it takes the best elements of water slides, river rapids rides, and log flumes,
blending them altogether. The marriage of all these ride systems creates some weird dynamics
that added a lot of thrills. I never quite knew how Fluch des Pharao would behave,
but the end result was great in many cases with the main drop being the obvious highlight.
Then you have the theming. And I think the ride slightly missed the mark here. I love
the build-up in the queue line, but I wish there was a little more to see in the pyramid
during the ride section. It didn’t need to have Splash Mountain levels of animatronics,
but even simple hieroglyphics like we saw in the queue line would have really helped. Fortunately,
the dinghy boat’s motion and the ride’s bizarre lift mechanism helped mask this issue,
but this ride was so close to being one of the best water rides in the world.
So those are my thoughts on Fluch des Pharao, the unique Hafema flume ride
at Belantis. Have you been on this attraction? What are your thoughts about this ride? Also,
if you’ve seen this ride system elsewhere, definitely let me know down in the comments
since this I’ve never see it anywhere else in my travels. 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!