Ferrari World - Dec 3rd 2010

[peely]

Only a quick report really. I'm currently working over in Abu Dhabi, so I've been planning to get out to Ferrari world for a week or so now.. Anyway, decided to visit Friday 3rd Dec, arrived at opening time 12 mid day. Looking forward to riding Formula Rossa at this point...

Anyway, starts walking to ticket office and low and behold.. All rides open today APART from Formula Rossa... To say I was annoyed was a understatement..

Photos are here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3 ... =638696553

Went to find out the reason for its closure.. Apparently on the official opening of the Park (End of Nov) something broke on ride. So since then they are 'carrying out maintenance' on it with no definite date of reopening. My guess is that they are waiting for parts from Intamin to arrive.

At this point i was wondering whether to go into the park or not, or just come back when I know its open. Anyway decided to go in and sample its other rides..

So, here's a review of all the rides..


Fiorano GT Challenge.. - The Dueling coaster

This was actually quite fun. 4 acceleration sections from start to finish. Not really meant to be a coaster experience as in air time etc.. Meant to be more a drive in a fast car around some twisty corners. Even to the point of the track in places didn't have hardly any banking.. All in all a fun family coaster. 6.5/10

G-Force - Shot Tower

Quite possibly the worst drop tower I have even been on.. Its running cycle barely got half way up the tower with no air time whatsoever! How is this actually achievable? Anyway after the disappointment it comes back down to the bottom and does it all over again before you get off. If it reached the top of the tower you would be able to see the massive Ferrari Logo of the building as its smack bang in the middle of it.. Sadly no.. I don't even want to give this a mark out of ten.. So ill give it 1/10

V12 - Flume Ride

Interesting technology flume wise. Shame it was completely dull as a experience. The flume itself was pretty good, but again all the theming inside the ride was pathetic. The start of the ride had the flume enter a vertical lift section, then after that all the drops were very shallow. Even the last one wasn't that good either. They even insisted that you wore a yellow mac to keep you dry! :roll:


So that's the actual rides over, now onto the show type rides:


Speed of Magic - Spidermanesque 3D Ride

Half arsed, measly attempt at being a spider-man clone.. Probably the best of all the show type rides though.. That's a very sad fact. 4/10

Made in Marenello

This was another sit in a transport and go through a show along a track type of ride. Again, all the theming was poorly thought out, and quite frankly a waste of time.. I'm struggling to type anything good about this one.. 0.5/10

Driving with the Champion - 4D type ride without the 3D Film!

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but this was basically a film in a cinema with moving chairs, and water squirters that shot you in the face when cars in film went through puddles.. not much else to say really.. 2/10

The Pit Wall

This was actually fun. Yay, finally something that was fun! It puts you in a pit lane and lets you go through changing wheels on F1 car etc. Again, this was only fun as I follow F1 and its amazing how light those wheels actually are. 6/10

At this stage I'm not going to go through the rest of the 'attractions' and Ill just summerise them by saying that they were all poorly thought out and the theming within them was terrible.

It was by far the worst park I have ever visited. Don't get me wrong it was clean and a really cool building all themed towards Ferrari, but thats all I can say thats good about it.

Also everything is extortionately priced within the park. A couple of examples:

Entry fee: £35
Chicken Burger: £10 (Didn't even come with fries)
Bottle of water (500ml) - £3
Packet of Crisps - £2
A proper meal on one of the restaurants - £30-60
A Ferrari Mug - £15

So (for my sins) I am going to keep an eye on this park whilst I'm out here in Abu Dhabi to see if Formula Rossa reopens before I return to the UK. If it does ill revisit to have a go on it. That will be an expensive few rides on it though! Taxis+Entry fee=£60..

:roll:

 

[furie]

Gutting

Still, it's a chance a lot of people will be very envious of

It oddly looks really "meh" though. Fo rall the excitement of Formula Rossa, and how "professional" it looks in pictures, the reality looks very disappointing. So maybe not quite so jealous :lol:

Erm, we'd love to steal pictures for Cf though, and if you get any more and POVs, that would be groovy too

 

[Casio]

Oh dear.

I guess this just shows having lots of money doesn't neccessarily make an amazing theme park. I also didn't realise there were so few rides; I expected more flats. Isn't it supposed to be the largest indoor park in the world? Surely Toverland has more inside it than this?

I still think Rossa looks pretty good, so we can't judge without including it as well, but this sounds really disappointing. Thanks for the report though, I didn't expect any members to get out there for ages!

 

[peely]

Gutting

Still, it's a chance a lot of people will be very envious of

It oddly looks really "meh" though. Fo rall the excitement of Formula Rossa, and how "professional" it looks in pictures, the reality looks very disappointing. So maybe not quite so jealous :lol:

Erm, we'd love to steal pictures for Cf though, and if you get any more and POVs, that would be groovy too

There really is no need to be jealous at all. It really is that bad. To the extent of I feel like I've been robbed of around £70 in totally for literally a visit of about 3 hours in total.

CF is welcome to use all the photos i took. I can provide you with the higher resolutions ones as well if required. I did take a POV of the dueling coaster, but as its rough as hell, it didn't come out too well to say the least. Haven't posted that anywhere at the moment though.

There are a few other flats as such, but mainly aimed at kids. The carousel and a go kart type track with F1 cars for the kids. Both of these rides looked really dull as well! :roll:

 

[Gazza]

Speed of Magic - Spidermanesque 3D Ride

Out of interest, can you give a bit of a rundown/"walkthrough" of what actually goes on this and what the story is. Just interested because the Spiderman style rides are so rare. Have they actually made the effort to do the thing of weaving real life sets with the 3D screens in a seamless manner, or is it more along the lines of just trundling about in the dark with the odd 3D screen?

TBH, I was kind of expecting the rest of the attractions to be crap....Sort of knew that from when I heard one of the rides would be a boat ride through a car engine...You know when that's the level of thinking then they're clearly scratching for ideas. Only so much you can do when your base theme is a single brand.
I mean, Rossa and GT Challenge give the place a reason to exist, but from pics I've seen to date, the rest of it seems to be a format of the following:
A) Choose the ride system.
B) Give the ride a wаnky/pretentious sounding name.
C) Put the ride system in a dark environment, and scatter projector screens, large format printed backdrops and random bits of Ferrari paraphernalia.
D) Ensure the theming is arranged to feel like you are in a trade show exhibit rather than an actual theme park attraction.

 

[Martyn B]

For all the excitement of Formula Rossa, and how "professional" it looks in pictures, the reality looks very disappointing.

My thoughts exactly. This place *looked* absolutely amazing (and I suppose it still does, from the sky )

 

[Snoo]

Shame no Formula Rossa.. but nice review anyway. Shows how a car designer can't really create a park.

 

[peely]

Speed of Magic - Spidermanesque 3D Ride

Out of interest, can you give a bit of a rundown/"walkthrough" of what actually goes on this and what the story is. Just interested because the Spiderman style rides are so rare. Have they actually made the effort to do the thing of weaving real life sets with the 3D screens in a seamless manner, or is it more along the lines of just trundling about in the dark with the odd 3D screen?

Well, not much to say, but you basically described it exactly.. 'just trundling about in the dark with the odd 3d screen' comment.. Spiderman ride is how this sort of ride should be done.. Sadly this one isnt..

Also, Gazza your description of how they put things together couldnt be more accurate. A,B,C,D etc.. lmao at that!

If Formula Rossa reopens before i got back to UK, ill update this thread with extra photos, possibly a POV and my review of the ride. Ill be calling the park on Thursday this week coming to see if FR will be open at the weekend. Ive got 2 more weekends before I come back to UK, so my fingers are crossed.

Thanks for the comments guy anyway.. Just wish I could have reported that this place was the best indoor park in the world.. :roll:

 

[yinyang]

Amazing photos, looks like a really professional place. Thanks for posting

 

[Anonymous]

What sort of queues do you get in a place like this?

 

[peep]

Shame to hear you don't like it.

My only interest in the place would be the Rossa coaster and the general architecture of the place. Didn't even know they had a similar ride to Spiderman Oh wells.