A bit of a disclaimer in case this whole thing f**ks up. Since Photobucket are on the verge of going all-out c**t, I’m switching to Imgur for the images. I tried using it before and it was f**king up the pages, at least on my computer, but I’m going to give it another go anyway. I think it could've been something to do with picture size, so I've reduced them this time.
A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Xiamen for the weekend. I’d been before and done it properly, but needed a plane ticket to get a new Chinese tourist visa, so bought the cheapest one thinking I might just ditch it anyway. There’s a new Oriental Heritage there since my last visit though, so I decided to use the ticket and just go.
I arrived on a Friday night, just went straight to the hotel, then got a taxi the next morning to the Fantawild Resort. This looked very familiar:
But this view had changed since the new park opened:
There was still a coaster I needed from the older park, so I got a 2-park ticket (only a couple of quid more than a single park), thinking I’d pop in later if I still had time. First, I went to the newer park.
Unsurprisingly, what with it being Fantawild, it all looked quite familiar. I bypassed a lot of stuff at first to head to the coasters right at the back of the park.
Behold:
The park was dead, especially right after opening, so I walked straight up to the station, only to be met by a handful of other guests coming back down the steps as some engineers arrived. Bollocks.
Instead, I continued around to the second coaster, Galaxy Express, a Vekoma SFC (Orkanen clone) with a name that doesn’t match it at all.
It looked closed, but that’s just because the park was dead. I was the only person there, waiting in the station for about 10-minutes until a couple of other people showed up and they ran it.
I quite like these though. It’s the second one I’ve done of this model, and they’re way better than the crappy standard version.
There were a couple of copy/paste dark rides between Galaxy Express and Jungle Trailblazer, so I knocked those off. Tune Tour is Fantawild’s version of It’s a Small World, only based mostly in China.
It’s f**king awful. Fantawild do amazing screen work, but they can’t do animatronics for s**t.
Pear Tour is kind of fab, but kind of s**t as well. I was impressed by the scale of it before, but I’m sick of it now. I think this was the fourth one I’ve done.
It uses four huge ride vehicles, basically like those things at Epcot’s Energy Adventure, which travel through an old Chinese “town”. In the windows (screens) of the houses, there’s a bunch of different styles of Chinese music being performed.
It all sounds the same to me to be honest. One thing that Fanatwild doesn’t do very well is to sync sound with image, at least with live images. It’s fine with the animated stuff, but whenever they film live actors, it’s clear that the sound is recorded separately and it’s all a bit off.
It might just be because I’m sick of these f**king places now, so I’m starting to get a bit more critical and pick more faults with the place. It ends with all four vehicles meeting up on a revolving platform – horrible pacing while you wait for them all to catch up – with a 360 degree 3D film.
This just houses a huge 3D cinema, with a film on the history of China. As you can imagine, squeezing 5,000 years of history into a ten-minute film is hardly a comprehensive representation, but since it’s all in Chinese, the shorter the better really.
The best part of the film is the animal cruelty, elephants and horses getting killed with arrows.
Back to Jungle Trailblazer then.
It had been about an hour since I’d first been to it, and it still wasn’t looking good. It was, however, open. Yay!
This is the first time I’ve been at a newer Fantawild park that’s been so dead. In the past, the woodies at the others have had queues of at least half an hour (really what should be a 10-minute line, but Fantawild are c**ts), so walking on was quite novel.
I did back row first, then an immediate reride at the front. I didn’t love it to be honest. The first half was great, but then it just died in the second half. It wasn’t the smoothest either. Out of the four Jungle Trailblazers I’ve done, I’d probably stick it in joint 3rd/4th with the one in Zhuzhou.
I think part of the problem is that it was definitely running “cold”. The park was dead, so they were only sending the train out at 10-15 minute intervals, often even longer since there were times with literally nobody waiting. Although operations on the coasters are crap at all of their parks, the trains are still getting sent out fairly consistently, so by the end of the day, they’ve definitely warmed up a bit.
I went back over for a reride on the SFC, having to wait ten minutes again since I’d just missed a few other riders.
I wasn’t sure if I’d done this before:
Yep, I had, in about 3 different iterations now. The preshow involved looking at stars/constellations.
The main show is a revolving platform, with various screens/animatronics around the outside.
The seat all tilt back, and the whole thing moves up into a huge dome/projection thing. Kind of impressive, but overly long really.
Legend of Nuwa is one of my favourite Fantawild rides. It’s the third version of their 4D dark ride.
I’ve skipped the last couple of tower rides thanks to the s**ty throughput, but since it was dead, I roe it this time.
It was “walk-on”, but incredibly annoying as they kept releasing the restraints to let more people on, ather than just make them wait. This happened 5 f**king times, so the walk-on ride took about 20 minutes to get done.
It not bad really. It’s well-themed inside and runs a dual shot/drop mode. The shot is weak, but the drop is decent. The shutters at the top of the pagoda open as you reach the top, then slam shut as you drop.
I the dark rides near the entrance – Devil’s Peak (the “Forbidden Journey” style ride) and Rumble Under the Sea (another 4D dark ride but with large vehicles that don’t move as much) on the way out, and headed next door to the older park. I’ve reported on this place before, but going to shove a bit more in here.
This tower is the entrance to the water park that sits between Oriental Heritage and Dreamland and can also be accessed via both.
Dreamland was even quieter than Oriental Heritage.
I’d done this park before, about three years ago when it was only a year old, and loved it, but this time it all felt really off.
I didn’t bother with this combo again – a flying theatre and a simulator – since I’m sick of the f**king sight of them.
I think part of the reason I loved this place last time is because it was the first time I’d seen two of their massive dark rides, the first one being Wizards Academy, the 2nd iteration of their huge 4D dark ride system.
I’ve done it in a number of parks now, but still love it.
I would’ve happily skipped the mine train, but like everything else on that day, it was walk-on.
Escape from Dino Island, despite appearances, was running. These things are ridiculous, but get you soaked and I wasn’t in the mood.
The other huge, new-on-my-first-visit dark ride was Qin Dynasty Adventure, Fantawild’s take on the “Indiana Jones” ride system.
People are riding something!
I had the boomerang already, but the sky loop had been closed last time. At the time, all of them had been closed down by the government because one of them (Happy Valley Wuhan?) was found to have a fault.
Bastard thing was closed on that day as well. Apparently, it’s “operating”, but it really didn’t look like it to me.
Didn’t do this this time. Seen it too many times before. It’s one of those with live actors behind an invisible screen that gets projected onto. Definitely worth a watch usually.
Skipped this. Hate it.
Did this – Jinshan Temple Showdown – a massive boat ride followed by live/projection/water show, but it felt really weird being one of only 5 people on it when it normally runs with around 100.
I called it a day then. It was all a bit of a weird day really. Obviously, having everything as walk-on is great, especially at a place like Fantawild where operations are shocking. Well, on their coasters and flats anyway – the large capacity stuff is fine. There was just no atmosphere at all across either park, but especially Dreamland.
I would say it’s worrying to see it so dead on a Saturday, but it was the first weekend in September (September 2nd), so it’s not that surprising really.
Getting back into the city was a piss take. Police were pulling all taxis over and checking IDs of all passengers. I only had my Hong Kong ID on me (who carries around a passport?) which seemed to really f**king confuse them despite it being in Chinese and having all my details, including a picture, on it, so the whole thing took around 45 minutes while the teenage police officers s*t themselves over what they were supposed to do.
They ended up calling the hotel to verify the passport number I gave them since hotels have to keep passport copies of everyone who checks in. Urgh. The taxi driver didn’t even turn the meter off either, the f**ker. Anyway, it was all fine. I’d left the parks early anyway, so it’s not like I got back too late.
Some crappy +1s in the next bit.
A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Xiamen for the weekend. I’d been before and done it properly, but needed a plane ticket to get a new Chinese tourist visa, so bought the cheapest one thinking I might just ditch it anyway. There’s a new Oriental Heritage there since my last visit though, so I decided to use the ticket and just go.
I arrived on a Friday night, just went straight to the hotel, then got a taxi the next morning to the Fantawild Resort. This looked very familiar:
But this view had changed since the new park opened:
There was still a coaster I needed from the older park, so I got a 2-park ticket (only a couple of quid more than a single park), thinking I’d pop in later if I still had time. First, I went to the newer park.
Unsurprisingly, what with it being Fantawild, it all looked quite familiar. I bypassed a lot of stuff at first to head to the coasters right at the back of the park.
Behold:
The park was dead, especially right after opening, so I walked straight up to the station, only to be met by a handful of other guests coming back down the steps as some engineers arrived. Bollocks.
Instead, I continued around to the second coaster, Galaxy Express, a Vekoma SFC (Orkanen clone) with a name that doesn’t match it at all.
It looked closed, but that’s just because the park was dead. I was the only person there, waiting in the station for about 10-minutes until a couple of other people showed up and they ran it.
I quite like these though. It’s the second one I’ve done of this model, and they’re way better than the crappy standard version.
There were a couple of copy/paste dark rides between Galaxy Express and Jungle Trailblazer, so I knocked those off. Tune Tour is Fantawild’s version of It’s a Small World, only based mostly in China.
It’s f**king awful. Fantawild do amazing screen work, but they can’t do animatronics for s**t.
Pear Tour is kind of fab, but kind of s**t as well. I was impressed by the scale of it before, but I’m sick of it now. I think this was the fourth one I’ve done.
It uses four huge ride vehicles, basically like those things at Epcot’s Energy Adventure, which travel through an old Chinese “town”. In the windows (screens) of the houses, there’s a bunch of different styles of Chinese music being performed.
It all sounds the same to me to be honest. One thing that Fanatwild doesn’t do very well is to sync sound with image, at least with live images. It’s fine with the animated stuff, but whenever they film live actors, it’s clear that the sound is recorded separately and it’s all a bit off.
It might just be because I’m sick of these f**king places now, so I’m starting to get a bit more critical and pick more faults with the place. It ends with all four vehicles meeting up on a revolving platform – horrible pacing while you wait for them all to catch up – with a 360 degree 3D film.
This just houses a huge 3D cinema, with a film on the history of China. As you can imagine, squeezing 5,000 years of history into a ten-minute film is hardly a comprehensive representation, but since it’s all in Chinese, the shorter the better really.
The best part of the film is the animal cruelty, elephants and horses getting killed with arrows.
Back to Jungle Trailblazer then.
It had been about an hour since I’d first been to it, and it still wasn’t looking good. It was, however, open. Yay!
This is the first time I’ve been at a newer Fantawild park that’s been so dead. In the past, the woodies at the others have had queues of at least half an hour (really what should be a 10-minute line, but Fantawild are c**ts), so walking on was quite novel.
I did back row first, then an immediate reride at the front. I didn’t love it to be honest. The first half was great, but then it just died in the second half. It wasn’t the smoothest either. Out of the four Jungle Trailblazers I’ve done, I’d probably stick it in joint 3rd/4th with the one in Zhuzhou.
I think part of the problem is that it was definitely running “cold”. The park was dead, so they were only sending the train out at 10-15 minute intervals, often even longer since there were times with literally nobody waiting. Although operations on the coasters are crap at all of their parks, the trains are still getting sent out fairly consistently, so by the end of the day, they’ve definitely warmed up a bit.
I went back over for a reride on the SFC, having to wait ten minutes again since I’d just missed a few other riders.
I wasn’t sure if I’d done this before:
Yep, I had, in about 3 different iterations now. The preshow involved looking at stars/constellations.
The main show is a revolving platform, with various screens/animatronics around the outside.
The seat all tilt back, and the whole thing moves up into a huge dome/projection thing. Kind of impressive, but overly long really.
Legend of Nuwa is one of my favourite Fantawild rides. It’s the third version of their 4D dark ride.
I’ve skipped the last couple of tower rides thanks to the s**ty throughput, but since it was dead, I roe it this time.
It was “walk-on”, but incredibly annoying as they kept releasing the restraints to let more people on, ather than just make them wait. This happened 5 f**king times, so the walk-on ride took about 20 minutes to get done.
It not bad really. It’s well-themed inside and runs a dual shot/drop mode. The shot is weak, but the drop is decent. The shutters at the top of the pagoda open as you reach the top, then slam shut as you drop.
I the dark rides near the entrance – Devil’s Peak (the “Forbidden Journey” style ride) and Rumble Under the Sea (another 4D dark ride but with large vehicles that don’t move as much) on the way out, and headed next door to the older park. I’ve reported on this place before, but going to shove a bit more in here.
This tower is the entrance to the water park that sits between Oriental Heritage and Dreamland and can also be accessed via both.
Dreamland was even quieter than Oriental Heritage.
I’d done this park before, about three years ago when it was only a year old, and loved it, but this time it all felt really off.
I didn’t bother with this combo again – a flying theatre and a simulator – since I’m sick of the f**king sight of them.
I think part of the reason I loved this place last time is because it was the first time I’d seen two of their massive dark rides, the first one being Wizards Academy, the 2nd iteration of their huge 4D dark ride system.
I’ve done it in a number of parks now, but still love it.
I would’ve happily skipped the mine train, but like everything else on that day, it was walk-on.
Escape from Dino Island, despite appearances, was running. These things are ridiculous, but get you soaked and I wasn’t in the mood.
The other huge, new-on-my-first-visit dark ride was Qin Dynasty Adventure, Fantawild’s take on the “Indiana Jones” ride system.
People are riding something!
I had the boomerang already, but the sky loop had been closed last time. At the time, all of them had been closed down by the government because one of them (Happy Valley Wuhan?) was found to have a fault.
Bastard thing was closed on that day as well. Apparently, it’s “operating”, but it really didn’t look like it to me.
Didn’t do this this time. Seen it too many times before. It’s one of those with live actors behind an invisible screen that gets projected onto. Definitely worth a watch usually.
Skipped this. Hate it.
Did this – Jinshan Temple Showdown – a massive boat ride followed by live/projection/water show, but it felt really weird being one of only 5 people on it when it normally runs with around 100.
I called it a day then. It was all a bit of a weird day really. Obviously, having everything as walk-on is great, especially at a place like Fantawild where operations are shocking. Well, on their coasters and flats anyway – the large capacity stuff is fine. There was just no atmosphere at all across either park, but especially Dreamland.
I would say it’s worrying to see it so dead on a Saturday, but it was the first weekend in September (September 2nd), so it’s not that surprising really.
Getting back into the city was a piss take. Police were pulling all taxis over and checking IDs of all passengers. I only had my Hong Kong ID on me (who carries around a passport?) which seemed to really f**king confuse them despite it being in Chinese and having all my details, including a picture, on it, so the whole thing took around 45 minutes while the teenage police officers s*t themselves over what they were supposed to do.
They ended up calling the hotel to verify the passport number I gave them since hotels have to keep passport copies of everyone who checks in. Urgh. The taxi driver didn’t even turn the meter off either, the f**ker. Anyway, it was all fine. I’d left the parks early anyway, so it’s not like I got back too late.
Some crappy +1s in the next bit.
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The emply atmosphere feels kinda weird though
