It was also, awfully far away for a day trip (at two and a half hours each way) and not quite "big" enough (given the ages of our kids, anyway) to justify the cost of making a weekend out of it. So, we never managed to return.
So, when we realized that the summer camp where we are dropping Marika off at is nearby, we jumped on the chance to go back for a return visit. This is a park that is very much aimed at the 10 and under crowd. However, it is perhaps not surprising that with parents who honeymooned and Disney World and had Lego sets and board games on their wedding registry, Marika and Rio can still very much enjoy being a kid again for a day. Add to that, that the vast majority of German's are not phased by teens or adults getting into the fun (with or without little ones of their own in two--there are always groups of teens at the indoor play;ands here when we go), and teens do not tend to be looked upon as "troublemakers" here in the same way that they often are in other places--and we were good to go (and even take along a twenty something friend who wanted to join us).
The park is open from 9:00 to 7:00 this time of year. We needed to leave by 4:00 to get Marika to camp on time, and figured we could see everything we wanted to see and take our time, even if we slept in a bit and did not get on the road until 8:00--which is exactly what we did.
Traffic was really good and we atually arrived at about 10:15. There was still some free street parking to be had, so we happily bypassed the 4 Euro for the day parking garage, parked and headed up to the entry to pay our 9 Euro per person (prices are also seasonal. There are no discounts for children of any age, BTW).
After a brief stop at one of the water play areas,
We headed over to storm the castle. As you will see, Playmobil Funpark is not an "amusement" park in the traditional sense. It is essentially a whole lot of really awesome playgrounds--themed after Playmobile toys. There are only a very few things that have lines (off hand I can think of the hand pedaled boats and pedal tractors for little ones and the two raft style "rides" and the buffet, or course) or any particular way to be used. I took lots of photos in the castle area to give you a better idea of how large and complex it is--nearly every area is equally themed though.
Arriving at the castle, you CAN be boring and enter through the one of two main entries (open draw bridge, etc).
But, if you are planning a surprised attack, you are best to scale the walls on a series of nets:
Or simply climb up and over from the side:
Once inside there are tons of things for kids of all ages to explore. There is a well with a bucket that you can use to actually bring up full loads of water, a hall of mirrors, a throne room where kids can take a turn sitting and ruling, a banquet hall with a picnic table you can really eat at if you are lucky enough to snag it when you want it, towers to climb, etc:
There are trap doors too! They lead into an underground labyrinth.
From which, you might eventually find yourself let out into this little garden area:
Where you can get lost in yet another labyrinth, which eventually leads to several fun hanging bridges and 3-4 fast slides.
Or, you could head around back, where the stocks are kept, and more attacks (in the form of foam cannon balls) are found.
This place is seriously a 7 year old's dream come true and could keep kids busy with imaginative and active play for hours. Most of the kids from school age on up run free in one area at at time (like--the castle area--not small, but easy for them to know not to leave) while parents either sit and chat, or play themselves (common). You;d really need to stay right with a toddler and preschooler in here, but there are several tamer and more enclosed places for them to have more freedom as well. One is the fenced in water play area behind the castle area. here, there are lots and lots of water tables and probably 10 or more of every kind of Playmobil boat made, for the little ones to happily float in the streams
I did go around an take photos of the other "younger" areas late in teh day--but by then i had exhausted my battery and they are on Dave's phone. I will ad a post of those photos tomorrow, so check the next blog post (once it is up) if you are reading this in researching a trip to Playmobil Funpark with a little one.
Anyway, back to US (we are all that really matter anyway, right? lol!). After storming the castle and running every which way, we were famished, so we headed over to the "Hob" for lunch.
This is the main interior space in the park--near the front entrance. The main restaurant is there, as well as large (and actually really pretty bathrooms--here look).
The buffet had just opened and offered a large variety of freshly made foods (very fresh, even later in the day). There was a made to order pizza station:
A large station with regional foods:
and a fresh pasts station:
They also had rotisserie chicken and a large salad bar, fountain sodas, juices, beer and wine. Portions were good sized and prices were reasonable. I had the half chicken with fries for under 6 Euro and Dave and the kids had good sized and really good pizzas for about 5-6 Euro each. If you have younger kids, the kids meals were 4.90 and included a small drink, yogurt, choice of entree (a smaller pizza, smaller serving of local sausages, chicken nuggets, etc--I think there were 5 choices) and a Playmobil figure.
There is plenty of indoor seating (with a view of the stage for when shows are happening, but also lsot of lovely outdoor seating. Smoking is restricted to one rooftop terrace, far from everything else, so it was very pleasant to sit out of doors.
You'll notice that none of the plates, etc are disposable. This is common at theme parks and even outdoor festivals in Germany. If you are not familiar with the system, it can be confusing--so I am going to explain now. There is generally a deposit ("pfand") for these items, which you pay for when you check out--you will be given a receipt, or poker chip, or painted rock ,or something that you need to KEEP and you return that along with your dishes to get a refund when finished. At Playmobil you get little receipts, one per item. Plates and beer steins are a 2 Euro pfand and ups are 1 Euro. That means that for our group of five, we paid 17 Euros in deposits with our lunch--all of which we got back once we finished up and turned everything in (but if you have pitched that receipt, you are out of luck on getting your money back!).
I stopped to take some photos of the indoor spaces, before heading out. There are large areas with various themes in which there were will be many copies of the same full Playmobil sets for the kids to play with
as well as a particularly nice indoor play area (this is open all winter as well).
Having had a nice lunch, and a split an ice cream (candy bards and ice creams are brilliantly located right at the dish return station!), we headed over to the pirate ship play area:
The rafts area HUGE hit and can have lines, but they never seem to be overly long. Note--they are well weighted and do not tip fully over, but will tip enough to get feet wet or even lose a passenger overboard now and again (the water is about a meter deep--we saw one kid fall this trip and one or two the last time, it is never a big deal). They are not on a track and you can go wherever you push them and stay on as long as you like.
The other line that sometimes forms is for these little rafts that ARE on a line and you just pull yourself across, get off and let the next group pull back the other way. That line moves very quickly--when there is one at all.
There are about 5 or 6 little islands around, all with half a dozen ways to get on and off of them (and the same is true of the ship), including rock paths, swinging bridges, nets, etc). Of course, playing on the ship itself is a big draw
You can even climb into the crow's nest:
There is also a dinosaur land with volcano trampolines, dino areas, jungle paths and an ancient temple:
And a treehouse section, with a "river" running through it and many higher up, but similar adventures:
Having worn everyone out climbing and playing, we took a "break" in the back, upper part of the park and played a giant game of Sorry:
While were were back on that side, we checked out the slightly younger (but still nicely themed play areas--photos and small descriptions to post tomorrow), played at the not so very themed, but still fun playground,
and also on the "balance course" which was a playground with a lot of balance elements (some quite high up)--sort of like a low ropes course, with no harnesses or the like (sorry, I was out of battery so there is no photo).
Then we had a small snack, before exiting (yes, through a HUGE Playmobil shop--be careful, this park may be inexpensive to enter, but it could cost you a fortune to leave!).
All in all we had a really nice and fun day. I am so glad we decided to all be "kids" again and go have fun and play. I also highly recommend planning a day at this park if you are ever in Southern Germany with little ones. It really is a blast, and very unique.
--Hadley
#playmobilfunpark
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